At 5:30 AM on December 16, 1944, a thunderclap of German guns burst forth. Startled outposts of the 394th Infantry guessed that it was "outgoing mail" - fire from friendly guns. But soon the entire regimental area was aware that something else was at work as German infantrymen were sighted moving through the trees. The Germans had launched their greatest offensive of the war in the west.

During the coldest, snowiest weather in memory, three powerful German armies plunged into the mountainous, heavily forested Ardennes region of eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. Their goal was to reach the Meuse River and then the sea, trap four allied armies, and force a negotiated peace on the Western front. American commanders, believing the Ardennes to be the least likely spot for a German offensive, and had kept their lines thin in order to concentrate their manpower to the north and south.

 

The German offensive achieved total surprise, but nowhere did the American troops give ground without a fight. As they created a bulge in the American line, the Germans expended irreplaceable men, tanks and materiel. After four weeks of fighting and heavy losses on both sides, the bulge ceased to exist. In all, the Battle of the Bulge was the worst battle, in terms of losses, for the American forces in World War II.

 

Our September tour will focus on the key fighting with special emphasis on the valiant performance of the 99^th Infantry Division. We will follow each of the Division’s regiments – the 393^rd, 394^th and 395^th Infantry Regiments – through the eyes of Charles P. “Charlie” Roland and Samuel Lombardo.

During the War, Captain Charlie Roland served in the 394^th regiment of the 99^th Infantry. At the Losheimergraben Crossroads, in the tumult of the Battle of the Bulge, this regiment successfully defended a critical road intersection and then withdrew to Elsenborn Ridge. The valiant defense put forth by the 99th caused a delay from which the 6th SS Panzer Army, the principal arm of Hitler's counteroffensive, could not recover. By the time the 394^th withdrew, the Germans had shifted their focus farther south, to St. Vith and Bastogne, a move that sealed their eventual defeat. The battle for Losheimergraben and the occupation of the Elsenborn Ridge are regarded as the most significant actions that occurred in the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge. Stephen Ambrose has referred to the “Ridge” as the “Little Round Top of the Ardennes campaign”. John Eisenhower, in his insightful book, The Bitter Woods, writes that the occupation and defense of the Elsenborn Ridge may have been the most decisive action of the entire campaign.

 

On the last day of January, 1945, in the dead of winter, the 394^th left their maze of dugouts, foxholes and crawl trenches on the Elsenborn Ridge to take part in the great Allied advance to iron out what remained of the bulge in the line. In this action, the troops sustained many casualties from antipersonnel mines as well as from bullets and shells. As they withdrew, the Germans planted mines under the snow. In his memoir, My Odyssey Through History: Memoirs of War and Academe, Charlie writes of the ordeal presented by the mines:

 

“Here and there, as the troops advanced, a soldier exploded one of them and lay groaning in agony. Lt. Samuel Lombardo’s platoon of Company I, 394^th Infantry halted. He was unable to get them moving again when he ordered them forward. Facing his ‘moment of truth’ as an officer, he made his decision. He backed his platoon out and instructed the soldiers to move through the minefield in single file, each man stepping carefully in the footprints of the man in front of him. Lombardo went first. Providentially, he led them through the treacherous area without another casualty. Afterwards, his troops would have marched upon his order into the gates of hell, and sometimes did.”

 

Our program will begin in Monschau, Germany on the evening of September 4 with a Welcome Dinner and Overview of Hitler’s last gamble - the Ardennes Offensive. But on our first tour day, September 5, we will journey into the nearby Hurtgen Forest where, from September, 1944 through February, 1945, thirty thousand American GI’s were killed or wounded in the longest battle ever fought by the U. S. Army, the little know Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. Eight U. S. infantry and two U. S armored divisions were thrown into the “green hell” of fifty square miles of thick, rugged, hilly woods full of German soldiers in a deadly network of bunkers and fortified positions.  We’ll visit the key areas of the fighting including the villages of Hurtgen and Kleinhau and the town of Schmidt, which was to change hands several times during the intense battle. And we will walk along portions of the infamous Kall Trail, the simple cart track that was to become the main supply route to the American divisions. 

 

Then, for the balance of our tour we will focus on the Battle of the Bulge with particular emphasis on the Northern Shoulder. We will visit all of the key locations including:

·        Losheimergraben Crossroads and Elsenborn Ridge

·        Buchholz Station, where Company L of the 394^th fought off a dangerous attack during which it captured a copy of General von Rundstedt’s famous proclamation urging the German troops to strike for victory for the Fatherland.

·        Lanzerath where, as the fighting raged at Losheimergraben Crossroads, the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the 394^th - a mere eighteen men - defended a critically important hill and held off some 700 German paratroopers in a ferocious day-long fight. After killing hundreds of Germans, they ran out of ammunition and were forced to surrender. In his best-selling book, The Longest Winter, Alex Kershaw says of the platoon, “They were told to hold at all costs. Basically that meant ‘until you get killed or taken prisoner.’”

·        Le Gleize - On one of our tour days, we’ll follow in the tank tracks of Kampfgruppe Peiper, commanded by Obersturmbannfuhrer Joachin Peiper of the 1^st SS Panzer Division. We will follow the kampfgruppe as it crossed the border at the Losheim Gap, past Malmedy and Stavelot to La Gleize. Here, Peiper was halted and forced to abandon 135 vehicles, one of which – a 69-ton King Tiger tank – sits on the grounds of the December 1944 Museum which we will visit.

·        Malmedy, the site of the infamous massacre of American POW’s by men under Peiper’s command  

·        Bastogne – defended by the 101^st Airborne Division under the command of General A.C. McAuliffe. During a total of six days, Bastogne underwent a terrible siege. 

·        Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial where 7,992 American soldiers lie at rest.

 

Throughout our tour, we will be guided by Jean Philippe Speder (JP) and Jean Louis Seel (JL), two of the most knowledgeable tour guides of the Ardennes. As members of the Belgian group known as “the Diggers”, they have spent years looking for artifacts of the 99^th Infantry Division, and recently discovered the bodies of several soldiers of the Division still in the foxholes where they died. Their valiant efforts have been chronicled in the excellent book, The Dead of Winter by Bill Warnock. Tour participants will receive a 60-page guidebook written by JP containing a complete resume of events, tables of organization, maps and photographs.

 

Through the combined efforts of our four tour leaders, we will gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategies, tactics, battles, soldiers and commanders of the Battle of the Bulge.

 

Our base camp will be the luxurious 4-Star Carat Kur-und Sporthotel in the story-book village of Monschau, Germany, conveniently located near the sites we will visit. We’ll be able to stroll about Monschau in the evenings and enjoy its shops and cafes. On three evenings, we will dine together at the hotel, and hear stories of wartime experiences from Charlie and Sam.

 

Our luxury coach, driven by our “European Director of Transportation”, Frans Peiten, will meet participants at Brussels International Airport on the early afternoon of September 4 and drive our group directly to our hotel in Monschau. On the morning of September 12, our bus will return the group to Brussels Airport, arriving there at mid-day. From Brussels, participants can join our Waterloo Campaign tour (which runs from noon on September 12 through the evening of September 13 and includes lodging for the nights of September 12 and 13), or continue on vacation, or fly directly home. If the latter, participants are advised to spend the night of the 12^th at a Brussels airport hotel and fly out on September 13. We will be glad to help you arrange lodging near Brussels airport for the night of September 12.

 

During our tour we will travel through pastoral farms and forests in Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, enjoy the best in local cuisine, visit quaint villages, informative museums and quiet cemeteries that belie the ghastly combat that raged across Europe some 60 years ago. Most importantly, we will come to more fully appreciate the heroism and sacrifices of the thousands of men who choked off Hitler’s last gasp - men such as Charlie Roland and Sam Lombardo, back on the scenes of their most intense and terrifying experiences, eyewitnesses to history, honoring and remembering those who fought and died by their side.

 

This tour presents the rarest of opportunities - to visit World War II battlefields with American war heroes who fought on them and lived to tell of it. As the years pass the opportunity to visit these places with such men will pass too. This tour is limited to 35 registrants and it will fill up fast. We hope you’ll join us!

 

ABOUT OUR TOUR LEADERS

CHARLES P. ROLAND is a leading military historian and the author of many books including An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War; Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics, and most recently, My Odyssey Through History: Memoirs of War and Academe. During World War II, he served in the 394^th regiment of the 99^th U.S. Infantry Division and fought in the Battle of the Bulge and at Remagen where he was wounded.

SAMUEL LOMBARDO served as a rifle platoon leader and company executive officer during the Battle of the Bulge, Remagen Bridgehead, Ruhr Pocket and Central Europeans campaigns. He later served in Japan, Korea and Vietnam in Intelligence Operations. He retired as a lieutenant colonel and is the author of O’er the Land of the Free.

JEAN-PHILIPPE SPEDER and JEAN-LOUIS SEEL are expert tour guides of the Battle of the Bulge. Known as “The Diggers,” they have labored for many years to locate and identify the remains of American soldiers buried in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge, and return them to their surviving relatives. Their noble efforts have been well-chronicled in The Dead of Winter: How Battlefield Investigators, WWII Veterans, and Forensic Scientists Solved the Mystery of the Bulge's Lost Soldiers by Bill Warnock.

 

Here are some testimonials from our Battle of the Bulge tour of September, 2006:

 

“The Battle of the Bulge tour was extremely well-planned and executed. The tour leaders were exceptional, the bus, hotel and meals were excellent. The “home location” in Monschau was historic and charming. The overall program rated an A+.” - Jack and Joyce Keller, Hilton Head, South Carolina

 

“Anyone interested in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II could not do better than this tour.”

– Andrew Blake, Griffin, Georgia

 

“This most important part of WWII history was presented in a very understandable and exciting way by very knowledgeable guides.” – Will Ward, Louisville, Kentucky

 

“Good mix of time on and off the bus. Ample time at each location without feeling rushed to get to the next location. First-rate. Staff did a wonderful job.” – Marge Putnam, Bradenton, Florida

 

“With all the included perks, the entire experience was well worth the money. Charlie Roland’s narration was exceptional.” – Gene Akers, Knoxville, Tennessee

 

RECOMMENDED READING

 

·        My Odyssey Through: Memoirs of War and Academe, by Charles P. Roland

·        O’er The Land of the Free, by Samuel Lombardo

·        The Dead of Winter: How Battlefield Investigators, WWII Veterans, and Forensic Scientists Solved the Mystery of the Bulge’s Lost Soldiers, by Bill Warnock

·        The Longest Winter, by Alex Kershaw

• The Bitter Woods, by John S. D. Eisenhower and Stephen E. Ambrose

 

REGISTRATION FEES

 

q Double: $2,995 per person ($5,990 per Couple)

Send a deposit of $600 per couple and your balance of $5,390 will be due on July 1, 2008

 

q Single: $3,375  

Send a deposit of $300 and your balance of $3,075 will be due on July 1, 2008

 

Refund Policy for this Tour

If You Must Cancel we will refund 100% of your fees paid except that cancellations received after August 1 may necessitate a cancellation fee of $300 per person. However, if we can substitute someone in your place, or otherwise fully recover our pre-paid fees, we will waive such cancellation fee. In all cases, you must allow 30 days from the date of our receipt of your notice of cancellation for remittance of refund.

 

What is Included in Your Registration

·        the services of expert historians including two who fought in the Battle of the Bulge

·        the services of several professional tour managers

·        deluxe transportation to & from Brussels Airport and from site to site

·        8 nights’ lodging in the luxurious 4-Star Carat Kur-und Sporthotel in Monschau, Germany

·        all taxes, baggage handling and gratuities on included features

·        8 buffet breakfasts

·        several lunches 

·        3 dinners

·        a 60-page guidebook of events, tables of organization, maps and photographs

·           all admissions to included museums and other included sites