Nuts! Gen. McAuliffe and the Battle of the Bulge

A bust honoring Big. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe at Bastogne. ( GNU Free Documentation License)

In the months following D-Day, July 6, 1944, the surprise, very successful invasion of Normandy during World War II, Allied troops were able to liberate Western France and allied forces, mostly US troops, began to move east.

Advances toward Germany were moving more quickly than had been anticipated. The end of the War in Europe seemed in sight. However, somehow that news had not been conveyed to Mr. Hitler, for he still had one more trick to play.

The result was the final push for the German Army, the largest and bloodiest battle involving U.S. troops in World War II. 610,000 American troops were involved in the Battle of the Bulge -- mid December 1944-mid January 1945. There were more than 69,000 U.S. casualties, including 19,000 dead.

German forces in 1944 were divided between fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front and dealing with Allied Forces on the Western Front. The Allies' Normandy Bulge in the west, pointing toward Berlin, encompassed a line on either side of the Ardennes Forest, with the Americans holding the southern line around the city of Bastogne in France, and the American and British forces holding the northern line, around the city of St. Vith in Belgium. Each city served as a vital hub of several key roads in its area.

The Ardennes Forest was considered so thickly wooded that the Allies did not think that the Germans could launch an attack with their mechanized forces through the Ardennes, and it was largely undefended. In launching the Axis Forces against the Allies the German troops attempted to drive a wedge between the Americans in the south and the British and Americans on the north, through the Ardennes Forest to capture the key Belgium seaport of Antwerp.

Their thinking was that once the wedge had been completed they would be able to easily defeat American forces at Bastogne, on the south, then the British and Americans at St. Vith, in the north. The weather at this time was so bad that Allied Bombers were of little use in the Battle of the Bulge. As a result the American ground troops bore the major brunt of the battle. Here they incurred their greatest losses in World War II.

Bastogne was referred to as "the road octopus" by the Germans, referring to the network of Ardennes roads that converged there. It was considered as a vital hub by the Germans for their offensive. The Allies also recognized Bastogne's importance and overall commander, Gen. Eisenhower, ordered the 101st Airborne Division to the area, to hold that area at all costs.

The 101st came to the City of Bastogne on Dec. 18, just before the Germans completely surrounded the City. The troops were ill-equipped for frigid weather, as they had just arrived from duties in Holland. Their lack of warm clothing was partially offset by heartfelt outpourings of warm clothing, footwear, and blankets by the citizens of Bastogne. The unit hospital, which had been set up in what had been felt was a safe place, was quickly overrun by the German forces, so there was a woeful lack of medics for American forces during the Battle.

Thus the stage was set for Acting 101st Commander, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe to enact his place in the history of World War II.

Anthony McAuliffe was born in Washington D.C. in 1898. With the advent of American troops entering World War I, McAuliffe left the University of West Virginia to become a cadet at West Point, pursuing an accelerated 2 year program designed to make West Point graduates eligible to serve with the Army in France. McAuliffe graduated in November '18, after the Armistice.

McAuliffe chose to stay in the Army following the end of World War I and for the next 20 years served in various Army peacetime assignments in the US and in Europe. Along the way he graduated from a number of Army graduate schools, including the Army General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, gaining promotions at regular intervals.

Brig. Gen. McAuliffe was Commander of the 101st Airborne Division Artillery when he parachuted into Normandy on D-Day 1944, and by glider when he landed in the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden. When General Don Pratt was killed during the Normandy Campaign he became the Deputy Commander of the 101st.

In December 1944, when the Germans launched their offensive, which became the Battle of the Bulge, 101st Commander Maxwell Taylor (later one of the heroes of the Korean War) was away from his European Command, having been called back to the U S for a strategy meeting.

Later, Lt. Col. (later Lt. General) Harry Kinnard, G-3 of the 101st , recalled the events of that time in December 1944:

On the 22nd of December a contingent of German officers and enlisted men approached the headquarters of the 101st Division, carrying a white flag, with the ultimatum of surrender.

When that news was conveyed to the Commander of the 101st, General Tony McAuliffe, his immediate thought was that the Germans wanted to surrender to the Americans. He was quickly assured that the Germans, instead, were demanding that the Americans surrender. In their message the Germans pointed out that the 101st was entirely surrounded, their position was untenable, and responsibility for their utter destruction, by the vastly superior Axis Armored units, should they refuse to surrender, would rest entirely upon the Commander of the 101st.

His reply, typically Gen. McAuliffe, rather than the more earthy replies typical of most Generals in World War II, was "Oh Nuts!"

The officers who were assigned to draft the reply to the German Commander, mulled over their reply for a time, when someone suggested that Gen. McAuliffe's original reply said it all in the fewest possible words. So, with the blessing of the General McAuliffe, the reply read, in its entirety, "To the German Commander, 'NUTS!' The American Commander"

When the message was delivered to the German Surrender Contingent there was considerable bewilderment on behalf of the Germans. Col. Joseph Harper, the Commander of the U.S. Glider troops in the 101st, the aide who was dispatched to deliver the reply, explained, "In plain English it means 'Go to Hell,' but General Mac does not choose to use profane English."

The German threat of massive artillery attacks did not materialize, though strong assaults by infantry and armored units did ensue. The 101st forces were able to repulse these attacks until Dec. 26, when the 4th Armored Division came to their rescue, turning the tide of battle.

For his actions in the battle, which saved Bastogne, Gen. McAuliffe was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Gen. Patton, followed a bit later by the awarding of the Distinguished Service Medal. The entire Division was awarded the first ever full Division Army Distinguished Unit Citation.

Following the war, Gen. McAuliffe held a number of commands in the Army, including, "Chief Chemical Officer of the Army Chemical Corps," and "Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army in Europe."

In 1956 McAuliffe retired from the Army. In retirement he took a job as vice president (Personnel) with the American Cyanamid Corp., as well as assuming the post of chairman of the Civil Defense Commission for the State of New York, from 1960 to 1963.

McAuliffe retired for a second time in 1963 to his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland until his death in 1975.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery along with his wife, son and daughter. He was 77 years old. Gen. McAuliffe was honored many times for his service to the Army and his country -- but perhaps none of these honors is more important, nor surely not more well-known than his one word reply to the Germans in World War II when they demanded his surrender at The Battle of the Bulge.

Source: "Nuts! Revisited," An interview with Lt. Gen. Kinnard; Gen McAuliffe, Military.com