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The Eagle Screams ‘Hooray /’Bastogne’s Bastards BatterWay Into Hall of FameBy Jules B. GradStars and Stripes Staff Writer101 st AIRBORNE DIV., Mar. 16— There's a hallowed place in the United Nations' Hall of Fame today for the Battered Bastards of Bastogne.They received their life-membership cards in the sacred shrine yesterday from the President of the United States.The Presidential citation, first in U.S. military history ever awarded to a division, was presented by Gen. Eisenhower to the lOisr Airborne for “extraordinary heroismand gallantry indefense .of the key communications :enter of Bastogne/'On a sun-drenched field which once rocked with the noise of battle from World War I artillery and mortar blasts, the heroes of the Belgian Bulge stood at stiff attention while tiny.McAL’LIFFEreconnaissance planes droned lazily overhead.“It is a great personal honor for me to be here today to take part in a ceremony that is unique in American history,” Gen. Eisenhower began.“Never before has a full division been cited by the War Department, in the name of the President, for gallantry in action. This day marks the beginning of a new tradition in the American Army.Name Always Associated“With that tradition, therefore,” Gen. Eisenhower said, “will always be associated the name of the 101st Airborne Division and of Bastogne.“Yet, you men-, because you are soldiers of proved valor and of experience, would be the last to claim that you are the bravest and the best.”The proved valor and'experience came on the starry night of June 6, 1944— D-Day—when the lOlst's parachutists dropped out of the skies onto Normandy and became the first Allied soldiers to land on Hitler’s “Festung Europa.”And then a battalion of the 502ndBREGERS * * * v • ** V* ^ r'iVv-'v •; x:* vb‘\ :Gen. Eisenhower and Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor, commander of the review the division from a jeep during the presentation ceremony.101st,Parachute Inf. Reg. carried out the first large-scale bayonet attack against the German troops defending the approaches of Carentan. Out of this action came the Division’s first Congressional Medal of Honor.“So far as I know, there may be many among you that would not rate Bastogne as your bitterest battle. Yet it is entirely fitting and appropriate that you should be cited for that particular battle,” Gen. Eisenhower said.These heroes of Belgium, perspiring by now from their long-fixed position at attention, needed no reminding that Bastogne may not have been their bitterest battle.Recalling their valient stand at Bastogne, Gen. Eisenhower pointed out that their position in the Belgian bastion was of “utmost importance to the Allied forces.“You in reserve were hurried forward and told to hold that position. You were cut off, surrounded.“Only valor, complete self-confidence in yourselves and in your leaders, a knowledge that yoii were well trained, and only the determination to win could sustain soldiers under those conditions.“You were^given a marvelous opportunity. and you met every test.”And then Gen, Eisenhower openedwide the gates of the sacred Hall of Fame for his Battered Bastards:“You have become a fighting symbol oa which the United Nations, all the citizetis of the United Nations, can say to their soldiers today: ‘We are proud of you.’cAwfully Proud of You9“It is my great privilege to say to you here today, to the 101st Division, andaH its attached units: ‘I am awfully proud of you.’ ”Absent from the review was Maj. Gen*Anthony C. McAuliffe, who commandedthe Division during the Bastogne epicand who has gone to a higher command.It was he who fashioned a typksjly terse American answer to German demands for surrender on the fourth, day of the siege when he replied “Nuts” to the enemy commander’s ultimatum: ,,But the lOlst’s men. who answered in their own way to von Jlundstedfs order, were there on that field of honor at the end of the parade and their sentiments were perhaps best expressed by Wilburn Moore, a gangling Fayetteville, Tenn., private.“Sure Fm proud,” he said. “Wp did what we were supposed to, but more to be done. So let’s get gom.
Newspaper Details
London Stars and Stripes
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Mar 17, 1945
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Dolores L.
USA 19 Jan 2023
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