A long road back

Eighty years ago yesterday, the Germans launched their last-gasp attack on the Western Allies, sending Army Group B through the Ardennes Forest against American troops in Luxembourg and Belgium. The Allied advance across France since the D-Day landings had gone much faster than anticipated, and the mostly American soldiers were tired, had stretched their supply lines to the max and were in fact short supplied.

The Germans were aided in their plans by a massive Allied intelligence failure to pick up on the transfer and massing of infantry and armored divisions ahead of the attack. The surprise was complete, and in war, surprising the enemy is a good thing. Especially if they’re tired and poorly supplied in the middle of winter.

(Also—may I just point out that I’d have liked a word with those Allied commanders who did not think it possible that the Germans would attack through the dense Ardennes region because it had not happened for <checks notes> for all of less than five years. Dudes—they still had the discarded mess kits and petrol cans from May 1940.)

Well—we know the resulting campaign as the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans pushed a salient into the Allied front, all but surrounding the Belgian town of Bastogne; the Americans rushed troops to the area and—despite bad weather (preventing air support or supply)—held the line. Within a month, the Germans were in retreat, leaving tens of thousands of casualties, as well as hundreds of tanks, assault guns and aircraft behind, none of which they could afford to lose.

Today’s Advent piece honors that first day of engagement in the frozen forest. It should come as no surprise that “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was written in 1943 (first recorded by Bing Crosby). Its lyrics encapsulate the longing of every soldier on every side in every war for the past millennium to be with family and friends for the quintessential family-and-friends holiday. By December of 1944, with parts of Europe having been at war for more than five years and vast swathes of it reduced to rubble, I’m betting that any equivalent of “I’ll Be Home” would have people in floods.

Eighty years on, with kinetic wars in Ukraine (going on three years), Gaza (more than a year) and Syria (I think for most of this century), you don't even need the Christmas part. Just the home.

Here's Bette Middler singing it.

 

 

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