These are in no particular order. I'll try to 'splain 'em as best I can. When your my age, your memory is the second thing to go.
Front of the American Memorial just outside Bastogne. It's in the shape of a star as are many American memorials.
The names of the units involved in the battle are on walls like this one.
View from the top of the memorial. The water tower in the distance is in Bastogne.
This is the entrance to a crypt that is below the American Memorial. It's normally locked because people kept stealing the tiles out of the mosaics. Henri has connections with the administrators and has a key.
These are the mosaics on the walls of the crypt. One non-denominational, one with the Christian cross, one with the Jewish Menorah.
This place was (IIRC) Peiper's HQ for awhile.
Don't remember who's HQ this was.
Wait for it. Next photo....
Are ya' getting the pattern here? These guys didn't stay in crummy 5 star hotels. It's good to be the boss.
Don't remember but I think this was going into Germany. Nothing special about it. Just thought it's pretty.
Entrance to the German cemetery.
Atop the mass grave at the German cemetery. The names of the men buried here are engraved in the surrounding ledge seen here. IIRC 5,000 of them.
German bunker. Henri says there were something like 300+ of these along the German border.
The view from atop the bunker. That's Luxembourg across the valley.
Another memorial to the 101st. The inscription reads:
"May this eagle always symbolize the sacrifices and heroism of the 101st Airborne Division and all its attached units. December 1944 - January 1945. The city and citizens of Bastogne"
These three are from one, small, park. They liked this guy. A lot! And there are Sherman's in almost every park. They had a lot left over.
Children from the local villages planted these trees for the 60th anniversary of the BoB. At the base of each tree is the name of a GI. At the time, all these guys were alive and many attended the ceremony, all expenses paid by the people of Belgium.
These are also memorials to the GIs who fought in the BoB. The grove of trees above is off to the right.
This is another area that's locked. Another place that Henri has a key to. It's quite secluded and was being used as a "lover's lane" by the locals. Henri said he brought a group of HS kids here once and there was a couple, buck naked, doin' the dirty, right there in the gazebo.
Here's another memorial. In the middle of a roundabout. It says:
Here, Major Arthur C. Parker took the initiative of the victory requiring courage with the GIs of the 106 Infantry Division "Golden Lion" and stopped the enemy between 20 and 24 December 1944.Maybe some of youse troops who are fluent in French can do a better interpreting job. French grammar ain't my strong point.
Just another idea of the size of the "Dragon's Teeth" compared to a US tank. Those flat connectors were actually part of the system. They were designed to keep the "teeth" in place and from being blown completely out of the ground so they would still be semi-effective.
You might call this redundant but....THEY'RE EVERYWHERE...THEY'RE EVERYWHERE.
TTFN
Mudge the bleary eyed...again
FYI...Just a bit of info about the Battle. The Germans were on a very tight schedule and every day the Americans could delay them, screwed up their schedule. The Germans were delayed by these small "skirmishes" to the point that they started running out of gas well before they reached their various objectives.
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