{"id":10170,"date":"2015-12-24T15:17:25","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T21:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=10170"},"modified":"2015-12-24T15:17:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T21:17:25","slug":"world-war-two-history-nuts-the-story-of-general-mcauliffes-1944-christmas-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/24\/world-war-two-history-nuts-the-story-of-general-mcauliffes-1944-christmas-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"World War Two History: “NUTS!” The Story of General Mcauliffe’s 1944 Christmas Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Appropriate story for Military History buffs to read about on Christmas Eve; this happened 71 years ago \u00a0today. An Amazing Piece of History! -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Bastogne-NUTS\"<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: In honor of Christmas Eve, we proudly publish the text of Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe\u2019s 1944 Christmas letter to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne.\u00a0An image of the letter can be found here.<\/a>\u00a0Read\u00a0the story behind this famous letter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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MERRY CHRISTMAS<\/strong><\/p>\n

HEADQUARTERS 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION
\nOffice of the Division Commander<\/p>\n

24 December 1944<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Merry about all this, you ask? We\u2019re fighting \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s cold, we aren\u2019t home. All true but what has the proud Eagle Division accomplished with its worthy comrades the 10th Armored Division, the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion and all the rest? Just this: We have stopped cold everything that has been thrown at us from the North, East, South and West. We have identifications from four German Panzer Divisions, two German Infantry Divisions and one German Parachute Division. These units, spearheading the last desperate German lunge, were headed straight west for key points when the Eagle Division was hurriedly ordered to stem the advance. How effectively this was done will be written in history; not alone in our Division\u2019s glorious history but in World history. The Germans actually did surround us, their radios blared our doom. Their Commander demanded our surrender in the following imprudent arrogance:<\/p>\n

December 22nd 1944<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the U. S. A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.<\/p>\n

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U. S. A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche\u00a0and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompres-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.<\/p>\n

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U. S. A. Troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.<\/p>\n

If this proposal should be rejected the German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U. S. A. Troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hour\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

All the serious civilian losses caused by this Artillery fire would not correspond with the well known American humanity.<\/p>\n

The German Commander\u201d<\/p>\n

The German Commander received the following reply:<\/p>\n

22 December 1944<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the German Commander:<\/p>\n

N U T S !<\/p>\n

The American Commander\u201d<\/p>\n

Allied Troops are counterattacking in force. We continue to hold Bastogne. By holding Bastogne we assure the success of the Allied Armies. We know that our Division Commander, General Taylor, will say: \u201cWell Done!\u201d<\/p>\n

We are giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present and being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n

\/s\/ A. C. McAULIFFE
\n\/t\/ McAULIFFE
\nCommanding.<\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at War on the Rocks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Appropriate story for Military History buffs to read about on Christmas Eve; this happened 71 years ago \u00a0today. An Amazing Piece of History! -SF Editor\u2019s Note: In honor of Christmas Eve, we proudly publish the text of Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe\u2019s 1944 Christmas letter to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne.\u00a0An image of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[475,1286,1899],"tags":[3427,3428,3429,1567,3122],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}