For those interested in WW2: Foy foxholes and a remora

Galeocerdoshark

Galeocerdoshark

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May 21, 2011
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Hi everyone,

I'm on a short three day trip to Luxemburg and West-Germany. Since I was passing through the Ardennes in East Belgium, my girlfriend and I decided to check on some stuff we hadn't seen yet. We've seen most of the musea in the area already, but there's still some interesting places to discover.
Those of you who remember Band of Brothers (both the book and series), or well just anyone with some sense of history will have some notion of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
A part of the battle at the end of 1944 and early 1945 situated around Bastogne and Foy.
Outnumbered 5 to 1, US troops (101st airborne, easy compagnie,...) dug in in the forests around Foy, in several feet of snow, frozen soil and temperatures close to -30°C.

After being battered with artillery (ep. 7 of Bob) and losing many men, they finally were able to take back Foy when the weather cleared up so they could get air support.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with these horrible circumstances and the story itself. The foxholes dug by the US troops are still visible here and there in the forest.

There's multiple sites here. Easy company was first deployed in the red circle here (Bois Jacques- Jack's forest), and afterwards to the blue circle. It's from this position they finally moved up on Foy to conquer it. In the bottom right you still see the suggestion of Google itself. Some foxholes there too and a monument but supposedly they're not original and often used in reenactments.


The real deal though from the red circle area:







The only Becker content ITT, for the sake of it. This is the view the troops had on Foy from the previous foxhole I pictured:


Blue circle area:




Enough pics of holes in the ground though. Here's a Sherman in the city centre of Bastogne:


And here's a Sherman in Wiltz, Luxemburg, as well as the engine that came out of it and is on display at the local museum:




It really sent the chills down my spine to be in that forest. I can't even grasp what those guys must have gone through. So far from home, miserable weather conditions, constant shelling...

Seems like all I do is post threads of castles or shark teeth, hah! Gotta mix it up with some ww2 here... Hope you guys enjoyed the pics, even though the topic isn't really cheerful or anything.

Cheers,
Jerry

Edit: I also took a short vid, if there's anyway to upload it? Pics of holes in the ground don't really give any idea of presence or size in my opinion. The video gives a better idea...
 
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Thanks fellas for the kind comments.
Maybe another small little anecdote on the Sherman tanks pictured. Notice anything different between the green one at Bastogne and the yellowish one from Wiltz?
The yellow one has extra plating welded to the side in order to give the driver a bit more protection from a direct hit to the side. It had similar plates on the front as well.
Some things you can't see from the picture: the one from Bastogne was knocked out during the battle if I recall correctly. In any case, there was a massive hole on the back of the tank's hull, through the armor. Quite impressive.
The one from Wiltz got steering problems, drove itself stuck in the mud and got bogged in. It was removed from the bog after the war.
 
Thanks for sharing!

So much history from ww1 & ww2 can still be found in Germany, France, Belgium and Luxemburg. Every now and then we visit some sites too.
 
As a teen I went for a week-long hike with a group in the Ardennes. You would be walking along and there would be a small plaque on side of the road or path, and it would identify the unit of men who fought and died at that spot to slow the German advance. History seems a lot more real when you are standing in it. Thank you for the pictures.
 
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