This map shows the swelling of ‘the Bulge’ as the German offensive progressed creating the nose-like salient during Dec. 16-25, 1944.
The last major German offensive in Europe erupted in the Ardennes Forest 80 years ago when Hitler’s army attacked the U.S. Army in what proved to be one of the bloodiest months during World War II.
Over time, the Battle of the Bulge led to the downfall of the Third Reich despite the gamble to go on the offensive in December 1944 with millions of soldiers and hundreds of tanks. The German plan called for splitting the British and American allies by driving through the Ardennes Forest and crossing the Meuse River into Belgium.
Buoyed by the last six months of advancing on the Germans, the American troops — in particular the soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division — refused to wave the white flag. Eventually, the Americans inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans and counterattacked the enemy at the bulge, so named by American war correspondent Larry Newman. The movement showed the Germans “had wedged westward in the Ardennes through the Allies’ front line” like a bulge.
The battle fought during a bitter, freezing winter resulted in the deaths of 19,000 U.S. Army soldiers and more than 47,000 wounded. The Germans also captured 23,000 American soldiers and kept them as prisoners of war.
On Germany’s side, between 80,000-100,000 soldiers died in fighting from Dec. 16, 1944 to Jan. 25, 1945.
Germany’s last stand
Crawford Wallace Barkley or "Bill" was a Fallon soldier who spent time in the Ardennes region of Belgium, Luxembourg and France during the winner of 1944. His unit’s movement had taken the soldiers from Bret and then east of Bastogne where they were stationed
“We were there a while, and, of course, that's where the Battle of the Bulge was,” Barkley said in a recorded interview in 1993 conducted by the Churchill County Museum. “That's where I was when the Battle of the Bulge started. I could understand why it was so devastating because we didn't have any troops.”
Barkley, who died in 2001 at age 82, said he remembered one infantry division in front of his unit, and the terrain was torn up. He said part of his outfit stayed in Bastogne and was defending it along with the airborne division.
“It took us quite a while to get back in there,” he said, noting how the Germans didn’t want to leave the area because that was a major hub with numerous roads coming into the city.
“That was the main hub to several, five — I think there was five — roads come into that city, and they didn't want to give that up which they succeeded in not having to give up,” he said. “And then, when that ended, everything from there on was all downhill because there wasn't anything left. We just kept moving back. The Corps couldn't set up anymore. The infantry and the armor were moving too fast.”
Fighting in Patton’s army
Ralph William (Bill) Lattin, who was born in Fallon in 1920 and died in 2020, spent the final year of World War II in a tank company traversing France, then through Belgium fighting at the Battle of the Bulge and finally to Germany when the surrender was signed May 8, 1945.
Lattin was with the 10th Armored, 11th Tank Battalion that came under the Third U.S. Army umbrella commanded by Gen. George Patton. Later, Lattin’s unit transferred near the end of the war to the Twelfth U.S. Army commanded by Gen. William Morris, Jr. Lattin, though, thought it was strange the Germans gave the 10th Armored a unique name, the “Ghost Division.” He said the unit possessed the uncanny ability of turning up at different places, probably at times when the Germans least expected it.
From August, the Siegfried Line campaign consisting of hundreds of thousands of allied troops from seven countries, began a final assault on the Germans by rumbling through the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), to the Alsace-Lorraine region of northwest France and finally crossing into Germany’s Rhine area during the early months of 1945.
“Yes, we fought in the Battle of the Bulge,” Lattin recounted. “I can't remember exactly, but it seemed like the outfit that I was with which was at that time, Combat Command A, I think we were in — can't remember for sure the name of that town — but, anyway, the call got out, and we had to get moving.”
A number of outfits moved over 100 miles in one night to get to where the action was which was down in the Bulge.
“Our Combat Command B wound up with one task force in Bastogne where it stayed until the end of that Battle of the Bulge, and the rest of the outfit was scattered around various places within miles of Bastogne,” Lattin said. “So, depending on which task force you were with was where you were. We moved better than a hundred miles to get into that thing, and we'd done that several times when they needed an armored division somewhere.”
Lattin, who received two Purple Heart medals and later two Bronze Stars, spent time in a field hospital on two occasions.
Conditions were harsh at the Ardennes with temperatures hovering above zero and snow reaching a foot or more. The Americans had, at its peak, more than 610,000 troops involved with the fighting. The Battle of the Bulge became the largest as well as the bloodiest battle fought by the Americans in World War II and the third deadliest campaign in the country’s history.
A brutal battle
The Allies began planning for an invasion of the Normandy coast, but William Jamerson’s battalion received orders on July 14, 1944, to sail first to England and then to France. Jamerson, who has lived in California, then Fallon and most recently in Dayton, was part of the military campaign to land at Normandy almost two months after the initial D-Day invasion on June 6. Jamerson’s battalion landed safely with no loss of life.
“No too long afterwards, the men were chosen to stop the Germans in the Battle of the Bugle under General George C. Patton (3rd U.S. Army),” said Carlene, Jamerson’s daughter-in-law. “Bill was selected as the medic to go. With snow on the ground, his outfit began to move forward. Early the next morning, Bill was riding in a Jeep when he encountered multiple dead American soldiers. The war was brutal and personal, and he was unsure who would come out alive.
“Bill’s family has never heard about the lives he saved or the healing he rendered. What we have heard about are the lives of his comrades he was unable to save and his deep regret for being unable to save them all.”
Because of his heroic actions, Jamerson, who celebrated his 100th birthday in February, regained his sergeant’s stripes, but he was awarded his first Bronze Star for military operations against the Germans in France and Luxembourg, and a second Bronze Star for “heroic achievement in connection with military operations against an enemy of the United States in Germany (Battle of the Bulge).”
The National WWII Museum
Christmas Day’s defensive posture
Army Sgt. Luther Gordon, who died in 2018, spent his final days at Homestead Senior Living in Fallon. Two years earlier, he recounted his time as a soldier during the Battle of the Bulge, and how his fellow infantrymen established a defensive posture on Christmas Day 1944 along the Outhe River to prevent the German troops from crossing a bridge.
Heavy U.S. bombers and fighter escorts exchanged fire with German fighters. As an Army soldier in the 290th Infantry, 75th Infantry fighting in Belgium, Gordon and the rest of a column moved out and headed toward a small town to wait for the chow trucks. The distant sound of shooting sounded closer for Gordon. After Gordon and his men had a cold snack — not a hot meal as promised — they moved out with the column reaching the top of a nearby hill.
“Word came back that there were dead Germans in the road ahead,” he remembered in a memoir written 24 years ago and provided by his family. “This put the realization into most of us that we were about to engage the enemy.”
Within the timber, soldiers established their positions with platoons aligning their mortars and machine guns.
Fighting had commenced between the American soldiers and Germans with casualties occurring on both sides.
The fighting became fierce.
“It was while along the edge of the woods that Tommy Mathis came and told me the other ammo bearer, Tom Womble, had been bayoneted and killed,” Gordon described. “Tommy was in a state of shock and worried about his twin brother who was in the other M.G. Squad somewhere down off the hill. I told him to take off. Shortly after Tommy left Eddie Winsjansen, our second gunner, came by and said, ‘I am going off the hill, Eddie had a hole in his helmet with blood coming down his face and a bloody rip in his pant leg.’”
During fighting a German sniper shot Gordon in the left arm, but he continued to return fire until he depleted his ammunition. Undaunted by his lack of ammo, Gordon raced to a captured German machine gun position, grasped the weapon and began to return fire until reinforcements arrived.
The second time Gordon suffered a bullet wound came in May 1945, ironically on the same day his brother was killed. His brother is buried in the 10th Mountain Division Cemetery in Italy. Luther Gordon received two Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.