Bastogne

Historians have long argued that he was a military genius, but some new perspectives are emerging.

Was Patton really the military genius we've been led to believe? Were his victories in North Africa, Sicily, and at the relief of Bastogne overrated? Was it Patton's headline-grabbing cult of personality that really made him stand apart from his peers? For answers to these questions and more Army history insights, stay tuned.

Welcome to the U.S. Army History and Heritage Podcast, the official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History.

The Center of Military History writes and publishes the Army's official history, manages the U.S. Army Museum enterprise and provides historical support throughout the U.S. Army.

First Army takes Paris, they cross the Seine, and they're heading to the German frontier within just a few weeks.

So which gets us up to, and I'd like to go a little bit more into detail on that, but we're going to run out of time.

But I really wanted to address the Battle of the Bulge here because one of the most iconic actions attributed to Patton is his attack into the Bulge and relief of Bastogne during this battle.

So Patton completely pivoted his 3rd Army 90 degrees to attack northward into the Ardennes within 48 hours.

If anything, it becomes a continuous coping mechanism.

Yeah, we see that in Bastogne

actually when Carl Wood Lipton asks him to stop doing it.

Yeah.

And for the men seeing that, that must have given them that... you know courage to then follow him and again we've mentioned it before winter's very much leading from the front

yeah yeah

and so as they head into the town we see them fight against snipers and as lipton enters and we see a soldier taken out in front of him but soon dowell shifty powers who features heavily in later episodes shows his skills as a rifleman because he was a hunter back back at home as he takes out the german snipers But we're starting to also see the leadership of Carwood Lipton and so once again the series is showing us that these men, yes we've seen Winters but now we're seeing different men taking on the responsibility of leading men into combat and we'll see more of Lipton as the episodes progress and he's a key figure in Bastogne and Breaking Point and as they clear buildings one by one they're using grenades and small arms fire.

There's one real standout moment for me and it's It's when George Luz...

you have been four wars two days and four games what was

it uh same weekend two days four games two tribes go to war 2026 the world war three team yankees uk national doubles tournament at fast top games in cardiff run by the armageddon club by sean haha i remembered his name hi sean how you doing buddy 100 points World War 3 Team Yankee on 8x4 boards doubles theme with 50 points per player using dynamic points at the same weekend the 24th of October it's a busy weekend we have 1, 2, 3, 4 events the same weekend apparently there is also the Belgian Nationals in Bastogne in the Belgian Bastogne War Museum early war 100 points if that is in the actual Bastogne War Museum that is ahead of the venue We stopped in there on the way back from the ETC, and we only had an hour, and I didn't think an hour would be long enough to go around and look at it.

If this gives you a whole weekend, boys, that's...

Bastogne, you're a bust, man.

I mean, that's not far.

It's doable.

So we were in that big tent.

And we did our show live, which we're hoping to release to our audience so you can hear all about Bastogne.

About the

defense of Bastogne and then the relief of

Bastogne.

For me, it was really cool to do that show because I get to do Stump the Chumps with the people, which was cool.

Walking around, I met a couple people who had submitted questions and they came to me ahead of time like, hey, I submitted.

So Andy says, hi, Mark.

Go ahead.

So one of the things about the 101st Airborne and Easy Companies is that they were part of the soldiers who were surrounded in Bastogne, which is a little town in Belgium and part of the Battle of the Bulge.

Go ahead.

And this is the level of destruction.

And I think keeping those very present is incredibly wise.

And that's part of the reason that I wanted to share the story is that I think discussing it from time to time and keeping our eye on the ball here, I think is incredibly important.

Here's a stone from Bastogne.

So if we ever get to hang out, any of us, and you want to see these, I'd be happy to share them with you.

The troops march.

And they come to Bastogne and rescue the 101st Airborne.

And the Nazis run out of gas.

And they have to abandon their tanks.

They've broken through the Allied lines.

The 101st Airborne is completely surrounded at Bastogne, and all Allied planes are grounded.

The broadcast paints this claustrophobic picture of a thousand Allied bombers and fighters sitting on the tarmac, totally useless, smothered by an impenetrable freezing fog.

And the Germans specifically timed this massive offensive to utilize this bad weather, knowing the Allies couldn't leverage their massive air superiority.