Another place I’ve always wanted to visit was Bastogne, which is a town located on the far eastern side of Belgium on the border with Luxembourg and the Ardennes forest. It’s also a town which saw some bitter fighting when the town and the US Soldiers of the 101st Airborne were encircled by the German Army in late December 1944. Most of us know it as the ‘Battle of the Bulge’, and it’s where the German Army made a final effort to break through the Allies lines and break out towards Antwerp.
The town was heavily damaged by German artillery during the battle so there is not much of its original town left. Bastogne today is a busy bustling town, full of small shops and vibrant shoppers, and in the center of the town is a Sherman Tank on a plinth, as a reminder of the towns past. Nearby are three museums, one which contains mostly vehicles and armaments from the battle, another larger museum which is based upon the battle as well as telling you more about WW2 and then a smaller museum that is dedicated to the US 101 Airborne Division – who protected the town and put up such a brave and stubborn resistance to the German onslaught.
I visited all three and enjoyed them all, but as much as I liked all the tanks and vehicles in the Barracks museum, and the detail and vastness of the displays in the main Bastogne museum, I think I preferred the 101 Airborne museum most of all as it gives you an insight into the lives of some of the men who fought.
I also went to the northern outskirts of the town to visit the memorial to the 101st, and to those men who lived and died in that area. I also visited the nearby forest where the 101st fought the German onslaught so bravely. Remember that forest scene in the ‘Band of Brothers’…? There are still holes on the ground, which were actual foxholes. It was eery looking out from one of the foxholes towards the nearby fields and hills where the Germans would have been attacking them time and time again. And there is a quietness in the forest, too. An eery quietness.
Tomorrow (Sunday) its going to rain all-day, so for me it’s a day in the tent. Doing nothing except reading, eating biscuits, drinking tea and wising my life away. On Monday its more sightseeing….
