This summer I spent a week at the Belgian Ardennes and visited some of the museums and monuments related to the Battle of the Bulge. I tried visiting museums I hadn’t been to before. Over the years I got a lot of brochures, so I had a list to go by. In addition to that, I had re-read part of Four Stars of Valour about the 505th PIR. This unit of the 82nd Airborne fought right where we were staying. I visited the villages mentioned there and got a much better appreciation of the battlefield. Climbing the steep hills at Trois Ponts made it clear what a formidable battle must have taken place there, especially in the winter.

As usual, some museums turned out to no longer exist (Bataille de la Salm and Remember You 45), even though brochures of them can still be found and road signs have not all been removed. Always a good laugh for my wife when I drag the family to such unexisting places.

The museums at La-Roche-en-Ardenne and Baugnez were really worthwhile. A pleasant surprise were also the underground Headquarters of the 101st Airborne of General McAuliffe at Bastogne which were just last year saved from demolition (thank you Crembo).

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