Operation Repulse

The isolated 101st Airborne seemed to be surviving on courage alone. By Christmas, they were running low on food, medicine, fuel and heavy ammunition. A plan was devised to resupply them from the air. Fifty gliders towed by C47 cargo …

1944-12-27

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The isolated 101st Airborne seemed to be surviving on courage alone. By Christmas, they were running low on food, medicine, fuel and heavy ammunition. A plan was devised to resupply them from the air. Fifty gliders towed by C47 cargo planes took off from France and headed for Bastogne. Not knowing which side controlled the landing zones, the brave glider pilots cast off their tow lines, flew through intense anti-aircraft fire, and Ianded with their volatile cargo. German and American troops poured out of their foxholes to capture the gliders and their contents.

Bastogne, Belgium

The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the densely wooded Ardennes highlands converged on Bastogne, just a few miles away from the border with neighboring Luxembourg, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. The siege was from 20 to 27 December, until the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton's Third Army.

Wikipedia: Siege of Bastogne

German

Americans