December 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge started, the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II.

Salute to all U.S. Forces for holding the lines!

Cheers,
Slug

To date, the best depiction I've ever seen of that battle was in "Band of Brothers". Let's not talk about the movie though from 1965....

Good movie PM I read my first edition of the book around this time and start watching the movie Christmas eve with my pup..Hate all the feel good Christmas shows only one I always watch is Ralphie getting his Red Ryder BB gun and that beautiful lamp !!

Agreed

Yes, it was an unbelievable effort by the Americans to hold Bastogne

Here's something for perspective. The US had 89,500 (KIA, MIA, WIA) casualties during the battle which lasted about 5 weeks.

For me it's

Battleground (1949)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleground_(film)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041163/

Nominated for 6 Oscars, won 2.

MGM most profitable movie of 1949 at $2,388,000:

about $26 million in today's money.

Wow, just 5 years after the battle!! MGM wasted no time. lol

Not to hijack the thread, but how many others watched NoFlyBoy's trailer and, when it was doing the "all the guts, glory, and gags" thing were thinking:
"Attention in the camp. Tonight's movie has been M*A*S*H. Follow the zany antics of our combat surgeons as they cut and stitch their way along the front lines, operating as bombs and bullets burst around them; snatching laughs and love between amputations and penicillin."?

I'm not familiar with that film, NoFlyBoy. But as fine as it undoubtedly is and the emotional place it obviously holds in your heart (and should), given the censorship and the propagandist bent of Hollywood at the time it was filmed I don't think it would stand up to comparison with the two episodes of "Band of Brothers" that dealt specifically with the defense of Bastogne. I'm not criticizing the film, its writer, director, editor or actors or anyone else involved in the movie, by the way. They simply didn't have the leeway or technological ability to do certain things on the screen that they do today.

+1


Most of the classic war movies from the 40's through the 60's most definitely have a sanitized feel to them for exactly the reasons you pointed out. I can't even fathom something like the opening Omaha Beach landing from Saving Private Ryan having been included in some 1950's WWII movie.

A lot of the World War II film made during World War II and after were like that.

They were there to inspire the population to buy war bonds and support the war and do their part by working in the factories,

all with the same one goal:

to win the war.

Battleground is available for $2.99 on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Battleground-John-Hodiak/dp/B001WEOBJ4