Aidan is now a proud Cub Scout and for his first big activity, the cub scouts, boy scouts, and girl scouts in the Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg region got together for a campout (not really, we stayed indoors thank goodness) and hike through the battlefields in the town of Bastogne where a large part of the Battle of the Bulge took place. Every year not just the scouts, but thousands of people throughout Europe and the US come out in the second weekend of December to celebrate the beginning of one of the most important battles of WWII. It was officially called the Ardennes Counteroffensive, as it took place in the Ardennes region of Belgium, but because the Allies' front line bulged inward (westward) on maps it was termed the Battle of the Bulge by US media outlets.
Reenactment troops dressed in the same uniforms they wore during the battle.
Aidan and a buddy hanging with the troops
Troops in a typical encampment
The path we hiked. We could have done a 7, 14, or 21 kilometer hike. The cub scouts chose the 7 km hike, which given the elements, was fine by us.
Can you find the soldier down in the ravine?
30 caliber machine gun.
60 milimeter mortar
Great view of the battlefield. Apparently the land was heavily forested but the intense fighting and shelling took out much of the forestation and after the war, farmers moved in and began to farm the land.
US Memorial. The town erected this memorial which has the names of all the US states etched in to the top of it and the names of the different US regiments (i.e. 82nd, 101st Airborne) which participated in the battle and helped save the town of Bastogne.
Probabably the only time I'll ever see the name of Missouri while I'm over here.
View from the top of the monument.
Troop carrier. In this case, an ambulance.
Plaque thanking the United States for liberating the town of Bastogne.
Our quarters. Thanks to the Boy Scouts of Luxembourg for lodging which kept us out of the extreme cold, rain, and at times, snow.
The thing which struck me about this experience was how difficult it must have been to be out in the elements for such long stretches of time. We were hiking around in our North Face, Columbia, and Goretex gear and were all miserable. It was below freezing, windy, no sun, rainy and at times, snowing. These soldiers, however, were out there wearing nothing more than wool overcoats, leather boots, and leather gloves. They were wet and miserable from the second week of December to the last week of January. They slept in trenches, and for several weeks, their supplies of food and ammo ran out. This experience gave me an even greater appreciation for what it must have been like (minus the bullets and mortars) to be out there and illustrated why this generation of men and women were indeed the greatest of them all!
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