The Battle for The Ardennes

The Battle Of The Bulge

It was a cold winter night in Belgium on December 26th of 1944 as the Third U.S Army under control of General Patton sat on a ridge south of the front line. It was late in the day as the troops sat in their foxholes talking about whatever came to mind. One of the big reasons for the soldiers' boredom was waiting for the next days advance into German occupied territory. Facing enemy lines, The hill they were positioned on dipped down then raised back into a hill with lots of tree and cover on both sides. The atmosphere was tense as most of the soldiers expected some type of german attack soon but they really didn't have a clue when the Germans would attack. The Germans were so low on fuel they had to take the American's fuel for their tanks, this put an importance on quickly attacking the Americans. This atmosphere was of course the same on the ridge with Sargent Anderson and his squadmates private Vega, private James, and private Williams there had been more of them but they all got killed or wounded in recent skirmishes.

"Hey Sargent, when do you think the Germans will attack"? Vega asked. "I'd say within a day or two". "What's with the hurry, why have they been trying to advance at such a very fast rate"? Williams questioned. "The Krauts know that we're goin to beat them so they wanna inflict as much damage as possible" Vega said. "Can't wait to get out of this position as Sargent hopefully I get a promotion soon" Anderson mumbled. "Really sarge you'd like to get out of your position as Sargent I thought it could be a fun job to have, you know sending people to their deaths. Like Liam and Mason" William interjected. Liam and Mason were several squadmates who had been killed a week earlier. "Cut it out Williams all you do is rag on sarge and complain about everything" Vega responded. "Both of you cut it out I want it silent" Sarge shouted. "I take it we aren't going to play poker now"? James inquired. "No, no we aren't James. Now to another matter, how's everyone doing on ammo?". Holding up his M1918 BAR Vega said "I'm doing good on ammo right now." Williams and James both answered "We're fine". "Got it, anything else that is important I'm going to the quartermaster to get some supplies from him." No one else said anything so Sargent Anderson went on his way. The temperature was cold enough to give soldiers frostbite so warm clothing was given out to all soldiers that needed it but of course since supply lines were spread thin the distribution was of poor quality. As he was walking Anderson looked around at his fellow troops most sitting in groups by their foxholes, dinner had been over for about an hour. Several pine trees were also spread around the camp about one fourth of a mile from Anderson's foxhole the quartermaster's tent was located. Every now and then jeeps drove in and out of the camp delivering soldiers, ammo, and new orders from the headquarters. At last after a few minutes Anderson arrived at the quartermasters tent, he walked into the tent.

Inside the tent was filled with lot of ammo boxes weapon crates and other unknown crates with probably some food in them. Over behind a desk sat the quartermaster, looking at his clipboard he looked up and noticed Sargent Anderson. The quartermaster had his name sewn into a patch on his chest the patch read Lieutenant Collin. "Sargent what do you want at this a hour, it's very late to be up running around camp"?. "I need some ammo". "Okay what type of ammo do you need sargent?" "I'll need some 30-06 for my 1903 Springfield". "Got it I'll get you a box". Collin went off to get a box from the pile of crates and ammo boxes. After a minute or two collin returned with a standard issue ammo box with the U.S. army symbol on the side with the engraving 30-06 ammunition. "How is the organization here Lieutenant"? "The organization, heh funny it's terrible at best with the advance we were on earlier in the year some supplies are drastically low while other supplies are widely available. Then we got resupplied but some of the previous supplies had barely been used so there was no room for new supplies." "Sound like a pretty big mess". "That's not the half of it Anderson". "Well I should probably get back to the squad." "I'll see you later sargent".