Christmas Day, 1944

From Home Front to Battlefront

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In December 1944, the fate of the Western Front rested on the Battle of the Bulge. If Hitler could smash through to the Atlantic coast as he did in 1940, the entire Allied offensive would be halted. If the Allies could hold their ground, they knew that eventually their superiority in manpower and material would prevail.

The setting of the battle was the Ardennes, a geographical nightmare for the forces who faced off in Belgium. For combatants, it was an obstacle course of forests, ravines, winding paths, and small villages that became even more troublesome when cold weather was added to the mix. Summed up by John Eisenhower, “It was the biggest single battle ever fought by the United States Army. More than 600,000 GIs were directly involved, another 400,000 had supporting roles. That was more men than the entire U.S. Army of 1941. About 20,000 GIs were killed in the Ardennes, another 20,000 captured, and 40,000 wounded. This was more casualties than the total number of men in the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. The Americans lost nearly 800 tanks, more than there had been in the entire U.S. Army in 1941.”

Hitler had launched the German offensive on December 16. By December 25 it was nearing its peak, but Pfc Carl Lavin was in England. That morning his division, the 69th, threw a Christmas Party for kids near his Southampton barracks. He wrote his mother: “In honor of today, the camp had quite a few kids in from the neighborhood and is giving them a real treat. Most of them are permanent or temporary war orphans, and not used to or expecting very much. So they’re truly appreciative, but also very polite. And now they’re having the time of their life, running all over the place wearing our equipment. About all you can see of some of them is a helmet, a pair of shoes, and a field jacket.”

After the party for the kids, Carl’s company had a Christmas banquet. All the Jewish guys, including Carl, had traded their KP assignments to help serve. Halfway into the meal an announcement came over the loudspeaker system. The men were immediately ordered to report to their barracks where they would receive further instructions. At the barracks, the GIs were then told to pack up their duffle bags and be ready for departure in fifteen minutes. And in fifteen minutes, the men were on trucks barreling to Southampton port. The GIs were going to cross the channel. Their turn had come.

Wrote Lt John Higgins: “On Christmas Day, we received a rush call to furnish riflemen as replacements for the forces in the Ardennes. Eight hundred and thirty-one men were sent to the front, which was saddening to those who remained behind while all this was going on across the Channel.” That Christmas day over a quarter of the men from three of the 69th’s infantry regiments were reassigned to other fighting divisions in the European theater. According to historian Peter Mansoor, from May 1943 to the end of 1944, the 69th Division was stripped of 1,366 officers and 22,235 enlisted men, earning the 69th “the dubious distinction of being the most stripped unit in the Army of the United States.”

A few hundred miles away in the forests of Belgium, Company L of the 335th Infantry, 84th Division, encountered its most ferocious moment of combat: “completely surrounded by the enemy December 24 and 25. All its commissioned officers were killed or wounded.” A tech sergeant became temporary commanding officer of the company, which eventually fought its way back to safety. Company L needed replacements. That’s how Carl got his orders. The Channel crossing took about two hours.  By nightfall, he was on a troop train rolling across France to the front lines.

(for more, read about Pearl Harbor here)