Batogne - day 2

So on Sunday the boys and I were heading back into Bastogne to do a few more things.  The boys are able to earn a badge for doing a historical march.  This didn't just include the march we did yesterday, but seeing some of the historical sights as well.  So we wanted to head back into town to finish that.

 

Eating some yummy breakfast!!!  The people who owns this house left us with fresh eggs from their chickens, homemade bread, homemade jam, fruit basket, truffles, milk, juice and even a beer for David.  They were such  wonderful hosts!!!!

 

This place even had a playground outside and there is a pool for summer months!  It was a beautiful morning so they wanted to play for a little bit.  So while we loaded up the van they were able to play.

 

Here were the chickens they had next door.  They were such good hosts that they sent us away with another beer and some more homemade jam.  They also took the boys over to their barn and let them feed all of their animals!  The boys thought it was awesome!!  Their whole family came out to say goodbye and they even waved an American flag for us as we were leaving!  Quite an experience!

 

On the road to Bastogne - so pretty with the snow on the sides and the blue sky!!!  Though it would have been nice to have the blue sky yesterday.

 

A shot of the country side all covered in snow!!!

 

As we were headed to the Bastogne War Museum, we saw many different static displays throughout the town,.  They truly love Americans here, even after 70 years they are so thankful and friendly.  We felt so welcome there.

 

Many of the people who have WWII vehicles decided they wanted to go to the museum today also.  Michael cracks me up!  Here he is in front of a few of them.

 

Another great saying on a WWII jeep, be good!  That is something to live by!

 

The boys with the tank outside the museum.  When we left the museum that afternoon and it was gone.  I wasn't sure where it went until we went into town.

 

 

This is a brand new museum and I love how the way it was set up!  You see these four people, they take us on a tour through out the whole museum.  The little boy lived in a village close to Bastogne, the lady was a school teacher in Bastogne, a 101st soldier and a German soldier.  Each one was actually there and it was interesting to hear about what happened to each one of them.  At the end of the museum it actually tells you what happens to the four of them after the war.  A really different perspective on telling the story of the battle of the bulge.

 

They had rolling pictures on this screen showing different scenes from the war.  They started off telling about the four people's past and the lead up to the war.  Each person had a different history heading into the battle of the bulge.  The boy's dad runs a bicycle shop, the teacher taught the boy, the German soldier fought in Russia and the American soldier fought in other places in Europe.

 

On September 29, 1938 the Munich Conference authorized Hitler to annex the German-Speaking regions of Czechoslovakia.  Winston Churchill said, "You were given the choice between war and dishonor.  You chose dishonor and you will have war."  On November 9, 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken  Glass) almost 200 synagogues are destroyed, 7,500 Jewish businessees ransacked, 30,000 Jews sent to concentration camps and 100 or so murdered.

 

One of the really cool things of this museum is they had three different movies to watch about the war.  The first one was set up like a press conference for operation overload 1944.

 

You can see all the allied flags over in the corner.

 

I like the extra touch of the uniforms.  It was a great movie in 3D showing up until the beginning of operation overload.  It leaves you  in suspense till the next movie.

 

Here the boys are working on their Morse  code.

 

I thought these were interesting, they were used in the cold winter by the Germans in the snow.

 

I think this was AJ's favorite tank!

 

So for part of the historic badge, they had to answer certain questions.  AJ was looking for an answer on the German jeep.

 

By this time, Michael was starting to get a little bored.  He can only handle so much museum time.  :-)

 

David checking out the different displays of the museum.

 

This was the setting of the 2nd movie.  You can see the screens between the trees.  They also had a fox hole with a machine gun come up.  They even put lights to make it look like gun fire in the woods.  We sat on logs during this one.  This told the next part of the battle, the battle in the woods.

 

This was a tank that was disabled in the war.  They boys were supposed to find which one disabled it.

 

 

AJ found this one and said it was the one.  I think he was right.

 

We went through a few more displays, but a lot more quickly this time because the boys were done.  I hadn't realized that we had been there for almost three hours.  This was the café where the four main characters took shelter when the Germans bombed the town again.  By this point the German soldier was captured, the boys parents were dead because the Nazis found a radio hidden in a church and they executed the people in the town and the American soldier was escorting the German soldier to headquarters.

 

The boys at the end of the museum.  You can tell Michael is past done.  It was also getting close to lunch time.

 

 

As we headed out to the Mardosson Memorial.  As we headed out there they told us what happened to the four people.  They all lived through the battle and the war.

 

The Mardasson Memorial honors the memory of the 76,890 American soldiers who were wounded  or killed during the Battle of the Bulge.  The inner walls are covered with ten paintings from the battle.

 

It was finished on July 16, 1950.  It was designed as a pentagram with a height 39 ft and a side length of 102 ft. centered by a circular artrium with a diameter of 66 ft.

 

The outer crown is engraved with the names of the 50 U.S. States and the insignia of most of the participating battalions are shown on the walls.

 

There is David representing our home state of Washington!!!!

 

This was a statue for the 101st on the outside of the museum.

 

This is a woman holding rosary beds, praying for all those on the next photo.

 

 

This is one for both WWI and WWII.  They have names of those fighting and those helping in  the resistance.

 

We went to town to have lunch in a little café.  We were lucky enough to find a table and we actually had a front row seat to another parade.  I didn't know there was a parade but they were showing off all the WWII vehicles.

 

It just made me think so much about the war, how they probably came through this town 70 years ago after they beat the Germans, sitting on the back of the truck, worn out from fighting for over 30 days, cold and hungry.

 

They not only had US vehicles in the parade, but Canadian, British and a few others as well.

 

The amount of vehicles amazed me.  I liked this one with all the soldiers in it.

 

An armored personal carrier coming down the road.

 

On this one they even had one of their kids all dressed up in uniform of the time.

 

These guys went all out and had a wounded soldier on their jeep.  At this point I was getting cold and I knew my food was probably ready, so I headed back into the restaurant.  The parade went on for quite awhile longer.

 

This was a fountain in the middle of town.  If you look closely, the little boy is pooping on top of the fountain.  I got a little chuckle out of it.

 

 

There are many of these markers throughout Belgium and France.   The Voie de la Liberte is a historic route which at the end of WWII represents the history of the liberation by the allied forces after D-day.  The length is 1446 km and marked by these.  The fog had come in again, but we were done with all of our touring for the day.  We really had a good time, even with all the complaining from the boys during the walk.  It was very moving to walk where our soldiers walked 70 years before and fought for the freedom of Europe.