|
|
|
Jerome Corsi's No Greater Valor reminds us that the study of World War II history evokes understanding and appreciation of the sacrifices made to save the world from fascist domination.
Few events are more awe inspiring than the Battle of the Bulge. A group of American warriors were the "donut hole," literally surrounded by Nazi forces who carried out an all-out offensive operation against them.
From December 17 through December 26 of 1944, the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and other Armored Divisions fought German troops near the town of Bastogne, Belgium. They purposely put themselves in a surrounded situation to hold off the Nazis who needed to pass through in a rush to get to the Meuse River to regroup. Americans of great courage held back the offensive and thereby changed the tide of the war, ending ground battles weeks sooner and saving lives that would have been lost had their mission failed.
Once Patton's Third Army arrived and some relief could finally be offered to the troops, the scene was grizzly. The first surgeons to arrive "found some 800 wounded soldiers lying on the floor with another 700 or so scattered in basements at the various other makeshift hospitals set up around Bastogne." The smell of gangrene was in the air and "most of the immediate surgical work involved amputations of arms and legs."
Corsi says, "The battle of Bastogne marked the final turning point of the war in Europe." He explains, "What distinguished [General] McAuliffe and the other brave Americans who fought at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge was that no greater valor could ever be expected than for soldiers to suffer extreme hardships and be willing to lay down their own lives in the field of battle, not because they were ordered to do so but because they believed in their hearts and souls that serving a higher purpose gave them no other choice."
(Thomas Nelson, 2014, 357 pp., $26.99) |
The men of the 101st Airborne didn't parachute into the area surrounding the town of Bastogne but were instead taken there by trucks. Bad weather prevented planes from dropping them in or resupplying them for days, while they ran low on food and ammunition. But they never lacked the courage to fight against Hitler's troops. Only a near-miraculous and greatly prayed-for break in the weather allowed support planes to finally drop desperately needed resupply items.
