By Christopher Miskimon
On the morning of December 19, 1944, artillery began to fall on the men of the 482nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion. The crew of one M16 halftrack, which carried an open turret with four .50-caliber machine guns, quickly suffered three men wounded. They were preparing to move out of the area when a German King Tiger tank appeared. The vehicle’s gunner, Technician Fifth Grade Davidson, wounded in the leg, asked to be lifted into the turret. The panzer opened fire with its machine guns and hit two men just as Davidson trained his four weapons on it. The deluge of .50-caliber rounds hitting the tank had no hope of penetrating its thick armor. Perhaps it was simply the cacophony of hundreds of heavy bullets hitting the tank or maybe they damaged the Tiger’s optics or sights, but it quickly retreated and the Americans went to the aid station.
Bastogne is the most famous of the towns fought over during the Battle of the Bulge. This new work recounts the stories of its defenders. The book effectively compiles accounts from the various units which defended the town.
The Eagles of Bastogne: The Untold Story of the Heroic Defense of a City Under Siege (Martin King, Casemate Books, Havertown PA, 2024, 224 pp., maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, $34.95, HC)
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