Heroes – including two little-known ones – were forged in the Ardennes forest 80 years ago, in Bastogne, the eye of WWII’s “Battle of the Bulge,” Hitler’s gamble, thousands of tanks headed for Antwerp. The Nazis aimed to split the Allies and sue for peace, crazy – but almost happened.
Bastogne, Belgium lies at the center of an undeclared universe and did so in 1944. The town is 80 miles southeast of Brussels, 100 northeast of Reims, France, 180 due east of Frankfurt, Germany, and – importantly – was an intersection of seven roads, 130 miles from Antwerp.
For the Nazis to get to Antwerp, plunging the world into indefinite darkness, they had to take Bastogne, the town at the heart of that heavily forested, rock-pocked, war-torn universe.
Standing in their way, as movies like the “Band of Brothers” and others so portray, were the Americans, a handful supported by locals. Ill-equipped, low on ammunition, and freezing, they were surrounded by German tanks, artillery, and SS. They were the 101st airborne, famously Easy Company, but also the 4th, 9th, and 10th armored divisions, hunkered down. They held their ground.
Shocking the German high command, which controlled the surrounding terrain, General Anthony McAuliffe famously responded to a surrender demand with “Nuts,” stunning the Germans.
If the Nazi war machine wanted Bastogne, the 101st and beleaguered others made clear: They would have to come get it, and kill them all, that was the deal, no surrender, no passage, no appeal.
That battle, unremitting courage, willingness to stand for liberty and to die if needed, facing down the vanguard of the Third Reich, shocked the Germans. Their second shock was Patton’s Third Army arriving with three divisions in 48 hours, covering an inconceivable distance.
But history’s footnotes are often revealing, beyond the headlines. Headlines told the story, the epic victory, but important to the soldiers’ survival and morale were the nurses of Bastogne.
Two in are worth stopping on, 80 years later. One – remembered poignantly in the series “Band of Brothers” – was real-life nurse Rennee Lemaire, who grew up in Bastogne, and had worked in Brussels.
Before Bastogne, she had seen the sadness, Jewish fiancé arrested in Brussels. She was back to visit her parents when the Germans attacked, a withering Luftwaffe assault. She began saving people.
As one historian recorded, she “cheerfully accepted the Herculean task and worked without adequate rest or food… changed dressings, fed patients unable to feed themselves, gave out medications, bathed and made the patients more comfortable…”
As important was her faith and attitude. “Her very presence among those wounded men seemed to be an inspiration to those whose morale had declined from prolonged suffering,” read one.
On Christmas Eve 1944, the Luftwaffe hammered Bastogne, destroying the first aid station, which was filled with American wounded. Resolved to save as many as she could, Lemaire went back over and over, got six to safety, and died trying to get the seventh. Her memory is eternal.
Beside her, untold in the “Band of Brothers,” was a second nurse, similar age and spirit, undeterred, selfless, and overcome by the need. Belgian too, she was Augusta Marie Chiwy. The two worked tirelessly with American doctor Jack Prior, who survived.
When the Germans bombed the hospital, Chiwy was outside, got blown through a wall, but then dusted herself off, and continued ministering to the Americans. She did that for days, then disappeared from history, and was presumed dead.
Only she was not dead. Credit to a British historian, Martin King, after 65 years of anonymity, she was located in Brussels, a mother of two, a lifetime nurse, and made an honorary member of the 101st airborne in 2011, along with other honors. She died in 2015.
She and Lemaire are buried right there, where they served, where one died and both arrived from God on loan, the two “Angels of Bastogne.” So, when life gets tough, and it does, recall things could be tougher. Weighed down, we strain to see, forgetting we are where meant to be. Those two played supporting roles, got called, and stayed – and in such ways is history made.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
