Regt., had overcome the surprise and had dug in near Marche. The unit was understrength, but the soldiers were determined to stop the crack German 116th Panzer Div. as it advanced toward Bourdon. The panzers had never been repulsed, until they confronted Co. K, according to Clyde Boden, who was a first lieutenant in the division's 557th Anti-aircraft Artillery Bn. His unit celebrated by decorating an evergreen tree with wads of cotton, dipping them in codeine for purple balls and in Mercurochrome for red. The holiday came and went, and the battle raged on for another month.
Nothing is more horrible than meeting one's fate, far from mother, wife and children.
Life was bequeathed us in order that we might love and be considerate to one another. From the ruins, out of blood and death shall come forth a brotherly world. The Allies had invaded France in June and were driving the Germans back to the borders of the fatherland. Although pressed on all sides, Hitler hadn't given up the dream of eventual victory. He believed a surprise attack through the Ardennes Forest region of Belgium and Luxembourg could rout the Allies, thereby gaining for Germany the precious time needed to stop Russia's onslaught in the east.