Virginian and Private First Class Ronald McNeil was one of seven brothers. "My uncle Ronald, a paratrooper with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was wounded during the Normandy invasion and was in Belgium, where my father was also serving,” Edie Jeter said in an interview. “They planned to meet during Christmas, but the Battle of [...]
During the Bastogne siege, two young Belgian nurses braved constant danger while feverishly caring for countless American casualties. One of them, Renée Lemaire, was killed during a German bombing raid. The other nurse, Augusta Chiwy, was lucky and survived. Augusta was the daughter of a Belgian veterinarian and an African mother from the Belgian colonies. [...]
This is a rare picture. We are familiar with images of soldiers posing in uniforms and with comrades during training or at the front. But it is not often we get to see glimpses of the wrenching moment when a civilian says farewell to his family before reporting to duty. This is Bob Burns on [...]
For Donald Strand, a lieutenant in the 119th Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, the inglorious end of Kampfgruppe Peiper’s Waffen SS at La Gleize came when his battalion commander on Christmas Eve angrily looked his German prisoners over and ordered them to take off footwear and clothing he thought had been looted from American stocks or, [...]
