The Greatest Generation. Political correctness be damned.
Via The Desert Sun
On a bitter winter morning 70 years ago, in the snow-covered Ardennes forest along the western front, the Germans blasted away hope for a sooner-rather-than-later Allied victory during World War II.
At 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 1944, the German Army launched a massive artillery attack that pummeled the Allied troops along an 80-mile front across Belgium, France and Luxembourg.
Caught completely off-guard, the Allies struggled to hold off the advancing enemy troops, but the Germans were able to break through, causing a bulge in the front lines. The Allies were on the defense.
The Battle of the Bulge was on.
American taken POW during the Battle of the Bulge.
Via GF Trib
When the United Methodist congregation sings “Silent Night” by candlelight on Christmas Eve, perhaps it will mean the most to the former POW among them.
Though he loves that most famous of carols, Keith Ginther, 90, dreads Christmas.
He joked that it’s because he has to wear a dress shirt and tie, but it’s really the memories that come with Christmas.
In December 1944, Ginther became one of the 23,000 Americans captured or missing by the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s final and ultimately unsuccessful offensive on the Western Front.
He began a 150-mile march into Germany 67 years ago this month. He remembers feeling humbled in defeat, even more so as the POWs met German artillery pulled by horses or one truck pulling another on its way to the front.