22 December 1944 General Mc Auliffe's famous reply at Bastogne when the Germans demanded the surrender of his troops was one of the funniest pieces of WWII history. One lone word in the middle of a whole sheet of paper was delivered to two German officers who stood under a flag of truce waiting for McAuliffes reply to a surrender ultimatum. N U T S Was ist.....nuts? After a little back and forth talk, Col. Harper, who had delivered the message angrily said," if you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to your commanding officer and tell him to go to hell!" I thought this episode was hilarious! Are there any other anecdotes that might offer a little levity to a very serious war. If there are enough of them I might start a log.
When Colville asked the Old Guard commander Cambronne to surrender, he replied, 'The Guard dies, it does not surrender.' Many says that Cambrone replied, merde .... go to hell .. But I'm not sure, it may be different.
From my understanding, that is what Cambronne did say at Waterloo. What is interesting is that even though he said he didn't, Whittlesey is touted as saying the same thing for the same reason at the Argonne. I am extremely sure the language would have been stronger if today's lingo was used then. One can only imagine. Thanks "Dip" !
Yeah ... during the Argonne and Meuse offensive, Whittlesey not only replied ,'Go to hell,' against the German surrender letter, alongwith McMurty they pulled down all the white signal panels that erected for the Allied air support, for fear of the Germans would mistake those signal panels as the flag of truce. I salute Their courage! Thanks a lot ..
Also during the Battle of the Bulge: As a column of the 9th SS Panzer Div. and the 10th SS Panzer Div. probed for a route far behind the American lines, they encountered what seemed to be a lone American soldier. Striking the classic pose of a traffic cop he raised an outward faced palm and declared "HALT!" The lead German tank did. As German machineguns sputtered to life the soldier dove for cover. But other soldiers of the 291st Engineers (Combat) who were lieing in ambush fired a bazoka round effectively destroying this lead tank. With orders to avoid strongpoints and engagements at this point, the column reversed direction, seeking another route. This caused the Panzers to use precious fuel, irreplacable fuel. The lone soldier was later killed in combat.
