Vets mark 60 years after Bulge

BostonHerald.com - Local/ Regional News:
" Battle by the numbers


More than 1 million men, 600,000 American, 500,000 German, and 55,000 British, fought in the six-week battle in Belgium and Luxembourg.


The Germans suffered 100,000 casualties and the Americans 81,000 killed, wounded or captured.


It was the coldest, snowiest weather anyone could remember in the Ardennes.


Called the Battle of the Bulge because the German advance formed a 60-mile bulge in the Allied lines but did not result in a breakthrough.


The German offensive failed because they could not capture the pivotal crossroads town of Bastogne from the surrounded 101st Airborne Division.


When urged to surrender by the Germans, 101st Airborne Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, in one of the most famous quotes of the war, replied, ``Nuts,'' on Dec. 22, 1944.


The German massacre of 86 American prisoners at Malmedy on Dec. 17, 1944, was the worst atrocity against American troops in Europe. Word of the massacre quickly spread and many U.S. soldiers decided to fight rather than surrender. "