WWII battleground - Bastogne

October 29^th, 2011

I drove two hours to Bastogne, Belgium to tour one of the strategic battlegrounds of WWII (I hate to admit this, but the only reason I know about this place is because of the HBO miniseries – Band of Brothers).  I accidentally stumbled upon what used to be the 101^st Airborne Division barrack.   

My guide, a former Belgium paratrooper, gave me a 2.5 hours tour of the facility.  I held an original M1 gun used during the war - 8 rounds of ammunition.  There were fully restored American tanks left behind after war was over. 

Tom Hanks actually visited this facility during his study of WWII in preparation for the filming of Band of Brothers.   

3 km east of Bastogne, there is a memorial dedicated to the American troops for liberating Belgium from the Nazis control.  The memorial is shaped in a star with the names of the military division that took part in the Battle of the Bulge inscribed on the wall.

 

Since I was in Belgium, I couldn’t pass up another opportunity to drink Belgium beer.