We started the day driving up the N421 which in a smaller incarnation was the road known by the World War II Americans as they Skyline Drive, because like the road in Virginia it follows the ridge line with land sloping off to either side. It was the scene of intense fighting for the first 1-2 days of the Bulge battle. We went back to Baugnez, but the museum was again close, although we did locate the memorial to the massacre, including a rose garden with roses donated by the rose growers of Tyler TX. Nearby is the Hotel du Moulin where an American general was nearly caught by Peiper's group but left his lunch on the table and managed to escape. Eight of his soldiers were not so lucky, and were summarily executed behind the ... read more

Almost all generalizations are inaccurate to a greater or lesser degree, but I have always thought of the Normandy invasion in terms of large aggregates of men engaged in fights to take it to the enemy in weather that was tolerable. I have always thought of the Battle of the Bulge as smaller units, unorganized groups of men, and brave individuals performing heroically from defensive positions against a charging, well-armed enemy in weather that was beyond awful. Today's journey was our first day in the landscape of the Bulge. But it started at the sites of lesser well known but devastating battles at Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest. The connected battles to take Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest constitute the longest battle ever fought by the US Army, lasting from September 19, 1944 to February 10, ... read more

Following the chase across France, the Allies were faced with an increasingly difficult supply train. The famed Red Ball Express, consisting mostly of African-American drivers, operated nearly 6000 trucks and carried about 12,500 tons of supplies from the Normandy area to the front lines daily. Despite those heroic efforts, supply of ammunition and fuel was significantly constrained, and had to be apportioned here and there as circumstances dictated. 20,000 tons a day would have been needed to keep all the advancing divisions supplied. A significant contributor to this difficulty was the rapid advance itself. The Allies had thought that after the Operation Cobra breakout the Germans would retreat and form a defensive line along the Seine. When Hitler ordered the German VII Army to stand rather than retreat from Mortain, he essentially sealed their fate in ... read more

If you think that the Great Britain and France were not once geologically joined, you need only visit the cliffs at Etretat. These 100 meter chalk cliffs exactly mirror those at Dover in England. For artists, these dramatic escarpments have been the subject of paintings for centuries. I don't know what it is that draws people to landscapes such as these, but it certainly happens at Dover, the Coast Road in Australia, and here at Etretat. At the base of the cliffs in a small cover lies the lovely little resort town of Etretat. We amused ourself for a few minutes watching a golden retriever wait as patiently as a golden retriever can for the last bit of his mama's ice cream cone. Ieper is one of those quaint Belgian towns with an historic market square. ... read more

On June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious invasion of all time landed on the Normandy coast. The landings, codenamed Operation Neptune (as part of the larger operation to liberate France known as Operation Overlord), involved some 7000 ships, landed some 150,000 men (roughly half American and half from Commonwealth countries) with their immediate supplies, and included air cover by thousands of Allied fighters and bombers plus the transport aircraft that carried the paratroopers (the invasion was immediately preceded by the drop of the British 6th Airborne Division and the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions). By the end of the day, the Germans had suffered about 1000 casualties, while the Allies had suffered about 10,000 casualties, 4, 414 confirmed dead. The only woman to land on D-Day was Martha Gellhorn, a celebrated war journalist and at ... read more