In photos: How the West was won, Battle of the Bulge & the frozen Ardennes

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wfgodot

wfgodot

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Some of these are spectacular; all tell a piece of a now 67-year-old story:

Vivid new Battle of the Bulge photos offer never-before-seen look at the war-weary soldiers
braving the frigid weather as they fight off Nazi Germany's last major offensive of World War II
Breathtaking new photographs, including several vivid full-color images, offer a never-before-seen look at the war-weary soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge who fought through the frozen Ardennes Forest in a mountainous region of Belgium in the dead of winter.

They show soldiers on both sides battling the frigid weather as they fought each other during Nazi Germany's last-ditch effort to drive back Allied forces between December 1944 and January 1945.

The pictures were released by Life Magazine on the 67th anniversary of the start of the grueling battle.
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Click to expand...
a brief history of the battle, and the pictures, at Sunday Mail link above
 
Those pics are absolutely amazing! Thank you for sharing.
I had 3 uncles there--all have passed now.
 
Thankyou my dad survived the Battle of the Bulge!
and was in the 609th TANK division.
Wish he was alive to view these.
 
Thank you so much Wfgodot. My grandfather was there. He never talked about it until a few years before the end of his life when I married a career soldier. He talked about it for the first time with my Husband.

He had only turned 20. He left the USA as a teenager to go to Europe to fight in the war. I look at my own kids now and I now understand the impact it had to have had on him.

I have his purple heart. Thanks again!
 
You're all very welcome. I thought that might find an audience here.
 
Heartbreaking in so many ways. Here we are going into 2012 and instead of learning the lessons history can teach us-many are consumed with nonsense about celebrities and un-reality shows and have no clue or desire to know about how we got here or where we're going!!
I truly worry for the next generation!!:twocents:
 
More of the pictures here:

Battle of the Bulge: RARE, UNSEEN (life.com)
While the Allied forces triumphed, victory came at a heavy price, with nearly 20,000 Americans killed and tens of thousands more wounded, missing, or captured. For American forces, the Bulge was the single bloodiest battle of World War II.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks so much for sharing. My dad was in Ardennes, part of the 66th Armored Division. Wish he was alive to see the photos. I recently obtained his entire military record - I can only imagine the stories he would share!

Again, many thanks. And, in the event anyone is wondering where to start regarding obtaining WWII (or other) military records, archives.gov is where I started...I received much more than I imagined and am glad I took the time to obtain my dad's information.
 
Wow. My grandfather, a very recent immigrant to the US at the time, ended up in the military, and was wounded at the battle of the bulge. He is 89 now, and only lately has age begun slowing him down. Still going though - now he just has to have his daughter drive him to his girlfriends house every night, lol. ;)

Thank you so much for posting these. He doesn't say much about the war, but from time to time we do get to see some of his pictures and other items he brought home.
 
My god, the photo of the 15 year old German soldier is heartbreaking. My oldest turns 15 this month... I can't imagine him in the middle of such a war. The things that boy must have seen. War is horrifying enough for adults...but to be a 15 year old soldier?? Tears coming just thinking about it and seeing that pic. :(
 
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