[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E977-E979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

BATTLE OF THE BULGE

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HON. JOHN L. MICA

of florida

in the house of representatives

Monday, June 12, 2000

Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, not long ago I was privileged to take part in
a ceremony in Orlando, Florida to commemorate the Battle of the Bulge
and those who fought in that historic battle. The ceremony was
conducted to dedicate an impressive new memorial erected to honor the
600,000 Americans who fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World
War II.
The keynote speaker at the dedication was Brigadier General William
E. Carlson (USA/Ret.), a distinguished and exceptional gentleman who
resides in Winter Park, Florida. At the age of 12, General Carlson was
a Congressional Page serving in the House of Representatives on that
historic day when President Roosevelt asked a joint session of Congress
for a declaration of war.
To commemorate the Battle of the Bulge Monument, General Carlson gave
a moving and graphic description of the battle and the historic events
which preceded it. His speech should be read by others so that this
story will never be forgotten. In Washington we are working to build a
long overdue monument to World War II and honor the heroes who fought
in it. In Orlando, we are proud to honor our World War II soldiers with
our monument to the Battle of the Bulge. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to
submit General Carlson's Battle of the Bulge speech for inclusion in
the Record:

It was the 16th of September, 1944. Adolf Hitler had
summoned a group of his senior officers to his study in the
huge, underground bunker in the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's field
headquarters, located deep in a pine forest in East Prussia.
Those summoned were his closest and most trusted military
advisors. Among them was only one who wore the red stripes of
the German General Staff. He was the head of the Operations
Staff of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, General Alfred
Jodl.
The officers were waiting when Hitler entered. Taking a
seat, Hitler instructed Jodl to sum up the situation on the
Western Front.
During the briefing, Jodl noted that there was one area of
particular concern where the Americans were attacking and
where the Germans had almost no troops: That area was the
region of Belgium and Luxembourg called the Ardennes.

[[Page E978]]

At the word ``Ardennes '', Hitler suddenly ordered Jodl to
stop the briefing. There was a long pause. Then with firmness
in his voice Hitler said, ``I shall go on the offensive
here!'' and he slapped his hand down on the map--``Here, out
of the Ardennes! The objective is Antwerp!''
With those words Hitler set in motion preparations for a
battle that was to assume epic proportions: the greatest
German attack in the West since the campaign of 1940.
Hitler named this Operations Plan Wacht Am Rhein. He
personally selected this name to imply a defensive Operation,
rather than an offensive operation, in order to deceive the
Allies.
During the planning, the German General Staff made numerous
changes to Hitler's original concept for the operation. When
the battle began, the German code name for the operation was
Autumn Mist.
A split second after five-thirty a.m. on Saturday, December
the 16th an American soldier manning an observation post high
on top of a water tower in the village of Hosingen telephoned
his Company Commander. He reported that in the distance on
the German side he could see a strange phenomenon: countless
flickering pinpoints of light. Within a few seconds both he
and his Company Commander had an explanation. They were the
muzzle flashes of over 2,000 German artillery pieces.
The early morning stillness of the fog-shrouded forest was
suddenly shattered with the thunderclap of a massive
artillery barrage landing on the Americans.
Operation Autumn Mist was underway. The onslaught had
begun.
The Americans called it the Battle of the Bulge.
The Battle of the Bulge lasted from the 16th of December
1944 until the 25th of January 1945. It was the greatest
battle ever fought by the United States Army.
More than a million men participated in this battle
including 600,000 American soldiers, 500,000 Germans, and
55,000 British. The American military force consisted of a
total of three Armies with 33 Divisions. While the German
military force consisted of two Panzer Armies with 29
Divisions. More than 120,000 Germans were killed, wounded or
captured during the battle. Each side lost over 800 tanks.
Wars are planned by old men in council rooms far from the
battlefield. But at the end of the most grandiose plans of
the highest-ranking Generals is the soldier walking the point
or manning the outposts. The monument we dedicate today is a
monument to those soldiers.
The real story of the Battle of the Bulge is the story of
those soldiers and the intense combat action of the small
units--the squads, the platoons and the companies--and the
soldiers who filled their ranks.
These are the men that made up the fighting strength of the
divisions, engaged the Germans in combat and suffered the
casualties.
Battalion Commanders and Company Commanders--young, lean,
tough, battle-wise and toil worn. Fuzzy-cheeked lieutenants,
grizzly NCO's, and seasoned troopers; battle-hardened and
disciplined in automatic habits of combat never learned in
school. And green replacements, fresh off the ships from
home, marched off into battle for the first time and in their
hearts was fear of the unknown.
Around their necks hung their dog tags and rosaries. On
their heads was the steel pot and in their pocket was a
picture of the girl back home.
Surprised, stunned and not understanding what was happening
to him, the American soldier nevertheless held fast--he was
as tenacious as the old junkyard dog until he was overwhelmed
by the German onslaught, or until his commanders ordered him
to withdraw.
The Battle was a very personal fight for them. Concerned
with the fearful and consuming task of fighting and staying
alive, those men did not think of the battle in terms of the
big Picture represented on the situation maps at higher
headquarters. They knew only what they could see and hear in
the chaos of the battle around them.
They knew and understood the earth for which they fought,
the advantage of holding the high ground and the protection
of the trench or foxhole.
They could distinguish the sounds of the German weffers and
the screaming sound of incoming German 88s. And they knew the
fear of German artillery rounds falling around them without
pattern in the snow.
They knew the satisfying sound of friendly artillery shells
passing overhead. They were reassured by the sudden stabs of
flame in the night as friendly artillery belched bullets into
the air, spreading a glow of flickering light above the
blackened trees of the snow-covered forest.
They knew the overwhelming loneliness of the battlefield,
the feeling of despair, confusion and the uncertainty that
prevails in units in retreat.
They knew first hand the violent pounding of the heart, the
cold sweat, the trembling of the body and the stark terror
that mortal combat brings. Even Mother Nature was their enemy
with bitterly cold weather and over-cast skies. The days were
short--daylight at 8 and darkness by 4. The nights were long
and bitterly cold. Snow, knee-deep, covered the battleground.
Overcast skies and heavy fog shrouded the snow-covered limbs
of the fir trees in the dark forest.
GIs, their bodies numb, were blue-lipped and chilled to the
bone.
At night, the German ground assault was assisted by
artificial moonlight created by giant German searchlights
bouncing their light off the low-hanging clouds casting an
eerie, ghostly light in the fog, over the snow-covered field
of battle.
Other nights were ablaze with more flame and noise than one
thought possible for man to create.
For a brief moment in history, those men held our nation's
destiny in their hands. In the end they did not fail us. They
prevailed and the fires of hell were extinguished.
They blew the trumpets that tumbled the walls. Theirs was
the face of victory. Super heroes--super patriots. Their
legacy--victory in the greatest battle ever fought by the
United States Army.
But the cost of victory was high. Young Americans answered
the angel's trumpet call and were sacrificed on the altar of
the god of war--brave heroes whose valor in many cases died
unrecognized with them on the battlefield. Young warriors
whose names the grim reaper carved on marble tombstones
across our land.
It was a time of great sacrifice and in most cases the dead
were hardly more than boys.
19,000 new Gold Stars were hung in the windows back home:
Mothers who lost their songs; Wives who lost their husbands;
And Children who lost their fathers.
Over 23,000 American soldiers were captured during the heat
of battle. Prisoners of war who were forced to serve behind
barbed wire, in silence and with courage, each in his own
way, until the war ended.
Purple Hearts were awarded by the thousands. The snow
turned red with American blood. The wounds of 81,000 young
Americans in that battle left the `red badge of courage' on
the battlefield of the Ardennes.
We are reminded of what their journey through life has left
behind for us: a great nation, a great state and a City
Beautiful with freedom and prosperity unknown in the annals
of history.
Today, in the quiet of an autumn breeze blowing across Lake
Eola, we are gathered here to dedicate a monument and pay
tribute to the men this monument represents.
As you look at the monument placed in this beautiful park,
also look around you. Look at the old warriors gathered
here--they were the vibrant youth of that time--men who were
there on that battlefield 55 years ago today. Men like:
PFC Jim Hendrix who was awarded the Congressional Medal of
Honor for heroic action during the battle.
Young, Fuzzy-cheeked lieutenants such as John Newell, a
tank commander, and Bill Cain, platoon leader. They were in
the armored column of old ``blood and guts'' Patton as they
raced 150 miles under the severest of winter conditions in
their valiant effort to relieve Bastogne.
Bob Stevenson, ``one of those damned engineers'', an
accolade from the German SS Colonel Peiper, about our
engineers for blowing bridges and building obstacles at every
turn and bend in the road, obstacles that slowed the advance
of his SS Panzer column.
Bob has with him today his WWII helmet that he wore during
that battle, a helmet with a jagged shrapnel hole in the back
of it, a helmet that probably saved him for the scythe of the
grim reaper.
And Jim Mckearney, a Mortar Platoon Sgt. in the 101st
Airborne Division who just days before had received a
battlefield commission while fighting in Holland. As a new
lieutenant leading a platoon in the defense of Bastogne, he
and his platoon stood as firm as the solid granite pedestal
of the monument we dedicate today. To this day he bears the
scars of the wounds he received in that battle.
Young American men, hardly more than boys, men such as
Harry Meisel and Earl K. Wood, our Orange County Tax
Collector, men who wear an Ardennes Battle Star on their
European Campaign ribbon for their participation in the
battle.
And Angels of Mercy, such as Lieutenant Evelyn Gilberg, an
Army Nurse who went to sleep at night sobbing, thinking about
the mangled bodies of the young American Soldiers in the
field hospital that she had cared for that day.
Men like the lone soldier in Chet Morgan's outfit, digging
a foxhole atop a small knoll beside a road. A vehicle loaded
with fleeing American soldiers came speeding down the road
heading for the rear. The vehicle stopped and the soldiers
hollered to him, ``the Germans are coming! Come on we have
room for you!'' He looked up and in words his mother never
taught him, replied: ``You can stop now because the Germans
aren't going past this position while I'm alive! This is the
82nd Airborne Division area.''
These soldiers, and the thousands of others like them, are
the soldiers who stood their ground in the days when the
heavens were falling and the battlefield was in flames with
all the fire and noise humanly possible for over a million
warriors to create. These are the men who in the hours when
the earth's foundation shook like an earthquake, stood their
ground.
These are the men who followed duty's call and lived the
code of the soldier. They sacrificed and paid the price for
freedom. They stayed--and the earth became theirs again. They
defended and what was abandoned--they recaptured. They saved
the sum of all things we hold dear--and all this for love of
their country--and the meager pay of a soldier.
Ask yourselves now--with head bowed--From where, Oh God,
came such men as these?

[[Page E979]]

Our Country was truly blessed.
Today we gather here to dedicate a monument. A monument
that stands as a legacy to the Greatest Battle Ever fought By
The United States Army and to those veterans who fought and
won that battle with their blood and their courage.
But let also stand as a reminder to future generations of
the high cost of freedom.
God bless the United States of America.

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