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HOW GOD INTERVENED IN WAR AGAINST NAZI GERMANY
'This was beyond just good military planning or good fighting'
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C-47 transport planes carry supplies to the besieged American forces battling the Germans at Bastogne
Seventy years ago this month, American heroes successfully held the small crossroads town of Bastogne, repelling Nazi Germany’s last chance at a settled peace and making total victory in Europe all but guaranteed.
Acclaimed author and reporter Dr. Jerome Corsi lays out the incredible sacrifice of America’s men in uniform and carefully explores the question of whether divine intervention is responsible for the Allies prevailing against seemingly insurmountable odds and in horrific conditions. His new book is titled, “No Greater Valor: The Siege of Bastogne, and the Miracle that Sealed Allied Victory.”
Corsi said the question has lingered in his mind since he was a young boy listening to his father and others discuss the seemingly miraculous events at Bastogne.
“His friends, some of whom had fought at Bastogne, felt like there were a series of events that were almost like a miracle, that God’s intervention had permitted them to stay alive,” Corsi said. “Otherwise, the expectation was they would be overwhelmed by the Nazis. It was very unexpected that this small group held out long enough to delay Hitler’s advance and actually turn the tide in the Battle of the Bulge.”
By early December 1944, the Allies thought total victory in Europe could be achieved by Christmas. Since the Normandy invasion six months earlier, they had slogged their way out of northern France and then steamrolled across the country and were about to plow into the heart of Germany. Knowing he had to make one more push to have a chance for a settled peace, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive tank assault on allied positions in eastern France and in Belgium in the Ardennes.
The Allies hastily arranged defenses around the strategically important town of Bastogne.
“It had eight roads crossing through it. It was a critical town to hold because if you wanted to move west from the Ardennes toward the Meuse River, going through Bastogne was the only efficient way to do it,” said Corsi, who noted the Allies were completely taken by surprise.
“Winter was setting in, and we kind of stalled the offensive moving into Germany,” he said. “We felt that Hitler had been pretty well worn down. The idea that he had all these tank divisions and could put this together was a complete surprise to Allied intelligence.”
The German assault began on Dec. 16. The ferocity required the call up of new forces without any notice, most notably those in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, which was resting in France after participating in the brutal and unsuccessful mission to cross the Rhine River, known as Operation Market Garden.
“They went into action that night, driven all night long in these open trucks to Bastogne in the cold. They didn’t even have winter equipment. They weren’t adequately resupplied. They hardly had weapons or ammunition,” Corsi said.
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Jerome Corsi:
Needless to say, the original defense posture around Bastogne was thrown together quickly and left something to be desired. Many of the arriving troops got weapons and protection from the cold from stunned service members in retreat.
“They said, ‘If you’re not using that M-1, would you mind handing it to me’ or, ‘If you’re not using that overcoat, how about giving it to me’? They resupplied themselves bravely on the run. When they got to Bastogne, they were the last troops to arrive, put in the line at exactly the right place with the 10th Armored (Division) to just stall the German advance until the defense of Bastogne could be organized,” Corsi said.
Regardless of the strategy, the sheer numbers suggested the Germans would be virtually impossible to stop.
“It was about 15,000 Americans total that defended Bastogne, and the Nazis had up to 50,000-60,000 in Panzer divisions trying to take Bastogne,” he said.
If the disparity in men and weapons wasn’t daunting enough, the brutally cold conditions presented as much of a challenge for U.S. forces as the Nazis did.
“For eight days they held out, freezing, no food,” Corsi said. “They were down to taking their Life Savers and K rations and melting them with Sterno cans in order to make a little soup. That’s all they had to eat.”
It’s precisely because of overwhelmingly bad odds, little protection from the cold and lack of food that Corsi and others believe only God could have turned those circumstances into an Allied success. Corsi said it started with Gen. George Patton turning to God as he raced his Third Army north to the Bulge.
“Patton called the chaplain into his headquarters and said, ‘I need a prayer for good weather.’ The chaplain wrote a prayer. Patton printed it and handed it out to all of the troops in the Third Army and, remarkably, on the 23rd of December, the weather at Bastogne lifted enough that the C-47s could get in and do an air drop on Bastogne,” said Corsi, who believes without that air drop, the Allies could not have held Bastogne.
“They were down to one or two shells per artillery gun,” he said. “This is one of the parts that was considered a miracle. The weather changed. No one expected it. Meteorologists had not predicted it. They just woke up on the 23rd and the skies were clear, and they put the C-47s in the air.”
Corsi added, “If they had not resupplied Bastogne by air on December 23, I’m confident the Nazis would have overrun the American position at Bastogne. The 101st and the 10th Armored would have been killed or taken prisoner as POWs.”
The clearing of the skies over Bastogne at precisely the right moment is one aspect of the story that many chalk up to God’s intervention, but it’s hardly the only one. Corsi said other seeming coincidences worked perfectly for the Allied advantage as well.
“General (Anthony) McAuliffe, when he set out to Bastogne, originally thought he was going to Werbemont,” Corsi said. “That’s where the original orders were, a different town in Belgium. But he made a side tour because he thought, well, General Middleton, the corps commander’s in Bastogne. I’ll see him in person. When he arrived, about 5:30 that night, Middleton said, ‘General McAuliffe, I’m sure glad to see you because your orders were changed and your unit is coming here.’ Well, he didn’t know that. He just made the right decision.”
The remarkable events continued from there, as the general set up an ad hoc assembly area for troops who were lost in the way to support the defense of Bastogne.
“(McAuliffe) picked the perfect location from which to deploy the troops and the right order in which for them to arrive, even though he had no advanced knowledge,” Corsi said. “And on and on and on his decisions went, which units to put where. It turned out to always be the exact right unit to meet the German attack that day. For eight days they held out.”
In the end, the Allies held at Bastogne, and the Germans never punched through the bulge in the western front. By failing, Hitler lost his last chance at avoiding an unconditional surrender, and World War II was essentially over in Europe. The courage and endurance of American forces, particularly the 101st Airborne Division, is a portrait in heroism. But for Corsi, the evidence adds up to God truly saving the day for the Allies.
“All these acts of courage came together in a way that the men felt was exceptional,” he said. “This was beyond what they’d expect from just good military planning or good fighting.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/how-god-intervened-in-war-against-nazi-germany/#Uc7CfwZDyZoo5rzk.99
