Travelling from Paris to Berlin, we stopped in three different towns: Bastogne, Remagen, and Bad Hersfeld. All three cities offered something new to offer which I had yet to experience while on the trip. While all three cities were enjoyable, my favorite city to visit was Bastogne.
Bastogne is an important city due to the Battle of the Bulge, fought in the winter of 1944-1945. During the siege of Bastogne, the 101st Airborne Division and elements of other American units held off German assaults until they were rescued by Patton’s Third Army. While we only spent one night in Bastogne, this small Belgian town had a much larger meaning in the history of WWII.
When I was younger, one of my favorite TV shows was the docuseries Band of Brothers. It follows E Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment from their landings on the Normandy beaches to the heart of Germany. In one of the episodes, it follows them in the woods outside of Bastogne and one of their medics working in the church turned into a field hospital. I loved that episode, and it was of the most important events that sparked my love for military history. It was a surreal experience walking through the museum and seeing names that I recognized from the show. It was surreal being on the actual ground where we explored their foxholes, and that I was in the foxholes they dug to defend the city against a vastly superior force. I looked over the town of Foy which is a focal point of the episode and imagined what the soldiers freezing in the foxholes fearing for their life must have felt. It was a moving experience as I examined the places about which I had read and watched.
The church was a different experience for me as well. During the siege, it was used as a hospital for soldiers. I remember walking around and through it and just feeling overwhelmed as I knew what went on both around and inside the church.
Finally, I have a small personal connection which made the city even more special. During World War II, my grandfather served as a medic in Patton’s third army. He did the job that went on inside the church. He would have been in Bastogne as part of the Third Army, and I imagine he may have treated some of the men who were in the church. Being in the area that I have a direct familial connection to was surreal as I walked around the town he was in roughly 80 years ago.
While this trip has been amazing, and a learning experience, the fact that Bastogne was one of the events that brought me into military history and that my grandfather was a member of the army that rescued the soldiers who fought there meant something special that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Easy company Foxhole just outside of Bastogne
From the foxholes of easy company overlooking the town of Foy
Church in Bastogne that was used as a field hospital during the siege