War Museums In Bastogne

We went to a smaller museum first where we saw Patton's coat. Bastogne has cement markers around town showing every spot that Patton gave a speech.

The town was bombed on December 25th, 1944. Here is a diorama showing what it was like to be in a bomb shelter on that Christmas night.

Being in a bomb shelter during a raid must have been so frightening.

After lunch we walked a couple of miles to the larger museum. This museum was full of artifacts (helmets, bullets, grenades, uniforms, boots, etc) . But it also had the stories of four people that followed us throughout our tour. The four people included a young German soldier, an American soldier from Arkansas, a 13 year old boy living is Bastogne, and a 25 year old female teacher from a farm outside Bastogne. These were real people and their stories made this museum a hit in my book.

 

Private Tour

Today we had a private WWII tour given by Bob. Bob picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and we didn't get back until 5 p.m. The tour was personalized regarding my uncle. We started at the railway station in Saint Vith. The American forces protected this railway for three days against the Germans which gave time for American forces to join them.

The railway has been removed so now it is a bike path.

Bob has been studying world war two for 19 years.

He gives a great tour. Part of our tour was spent in Germany.

This is the Our river. Getting troops across was important in world war two because it is too deep to ford without a bridge. We think my uncle may have detonated several bridges. He also might have been involved in fixing up some rubber boats and laying wooden boards on top so American forces could get across.

We stopped at another town to visit a church. There was a woman in there mopping floors. Bob and the woman started talking. She was a young girl when the town was bombed. She and her family hid in the church basement for protection. Her father was taken as a prisoner of war by the Americans. When Christmas came they celebrated together. Only her father knew how to play the organ so he played holiday music on the organ for Americans and prisoners of war.

A beautiful red and gold banner, important to the church, was stolen during world war two. Forty years later, the cloth was returned to the church by the son of the man who stole it. The church goers were happy to see it back.

These are knee high or higher sturdy cement structures called dragon's teeth. Germany installed 5K of dragon's teeth to prevent tanks from entering Germany. The teeth are connected under the grass in both directions. They can be removed with dynamite but that gets expensive. The eventual solution was to pour tons of sand on top of them and drive over the sand.

This is an American tank pointed at the medieval town near Bastogne.

We had a fine day with Bob.

Travel To Bastonge

 This morning we got up early to leave our houseboat in Amsterdam. As we hauled our luggage out of the house the coot was there sitting on a nest built on a floating tire. We said goodby to the coot and headed for the train. We took the Eurostar train into Brussels. This was a fast and smooth riding train. From Brussels we took a slower train into Belgium. From there we took a bus that wove through winding, curvy roads to our final destination of Bastonge, Belgium. We walked toward downtown not knowing exactly where to go. A woman on the sidewalk pointed us in the right direction. We found a tourist building where we got a map of the building and exact directions. Now here we are in Bastonge, ready to start learning about the battle of the bulge. We can tell some things are different already. Cash is preferred in Bastonge. Credit cards were preferred in the Netherlands. French is the predominant language in Bastonge. English was predominant in the Netherlands. We will get the hang of this eventually.