Mardasson Memorial Belgium

Legendary

The Battle of the Bulge was the largest, deadliest battle fought by the United States during WWII.

Photo by Dennis Jarvis

On July 4, 1946, Belgians dug up a box of earth from a hill outside Bastogne and sent it to President Harry Truman. It was a way of saying thank you for what had happened there eighteen months earlier.

Four years later, a giant star-shaped monument stood on that same hill. It's called the Mardasson Memorial, named for the hill itself.

The memorial honors the American soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. That battle began on December 16, 1944, when the German army launched a surprise attack through the Ardennes forest of Belgium and Luxembourg.

It was the middle of one of the coldest winters in years. Snow lay deep, and temperatures dropped far below freezing.

The German goal was to reach the port of Antwerp and split the Allied armies in two. On maps, their advance pushed a big dent into the Allied line, and that bulge gave the battle its name.

Bastogne sat at the crossroads of seven roads. The Germans needed it, and American troops refused to give it up.

The town was surrounded for about a week around Christmas. When the Germans demanded surrender, General Anthony McAuliffe sent back a one-word reply: "Nuts!"

The Allies pushed the Germans back by mid-January. Around 19,000 American soldiers were killed in the battle, the deadliest the U.S. Army fought in the entire war.

Counting the wounded and missing, the total comes to 76,890. That number is carved into the memorial.

The star has five points, each 31 meters long, and the names of the U.S. states run around the top. General McAuliffe himself attended the dedication on July 16, 1950.

Read the story of the battle carved in gold letters along the walls. Climb the spiral staircase to the walkway on top for a view over the fields where the fighting happened. Then walk next door to the Bastogne War Museum, which tells the whole story from the viewpoint of four real people who lived through it.