Very Nice History Lesson

[MTI]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/travel/in-france-vestiges-of-the-great-wars-bloody-end.html?_r=0

Hike around these woods, and you quickly come to understand that this was a war unlike any other when it came to murderous ingenuity, and that the Germans had a distinctive technological edge. They also had better weapons, better-trained soldiers, better generals, better spies, better maps, better barbed wire, better barbed wire cutters. They always seemed to hold the better ground; their strategy was better. You can’t help but wonder: How did they lose?

In September 1918, the Americans accomplished in a few days what the French had been attempting for four years in this area, known as the St.-Mihiel Salient*

[kerry]

We're planning a trip to Europe next summer and hope to visit some WWI sites. I was talking to an historian friend of mine who lived in Belgium last year. She told me of a new WWI museum but that the best thing was to go to some woods she knew off and just walk around the old battlefields in the trenches and craters. Maye this is the place.

[dynalow]

Originally Posted by kerry

We're planning a trip to Europe next summer and hope to visit some WWI sites. I was talking to an historian friend of mine who lived in Belgium last year. She told me of a new WWI museum but that the best thing was to go to some woods she knew off and just walk around the old battlefields in the trenches and craters. Maye this is the place.

Kerry,

If you will travel in Belgium, may I suggest a visit to Bastogne and the 101st Airborne Le Mess Museum.

Info

If you can make it to Bastogne, I will pay you handsomely for a bottle (full or empty) of Airborne Beer and a ceramic helmet cup.

The following story is about a man who served there as a PFC and unknowingly cemented himself a place in Bastogne lore by filling his helmet with beer and bringing it to his wounded buddy in a makeshift field hospital.
The soldier was a teacher in my high school in NYC and he told his story at my 50th class reunion is Sept 2013. Quite a character he is. He tells the story in a video under the picture tab in the link above and also below. Vincent Speranza is his name.
Former paratrooper recalls WWII incident that led to beer fame - News - Stripes

Visitor comments of Le Mess:
101 Airborne Museum Le Mess - Bastogne - Bastogne - Reviews of 101 Airborne Museum Le Mess - Bastogne - TripAdvisor

[Idle]

One way they lost was that they ran out of steel. When the British introduced the Tank the Germans knew they had to have this weapon but they only had enough steel stock to put together two machines.

There may have been more in the planning stages and more being tested, but all the records I can find list only two that were operational.

When the US showed up, with its' unlimited amount of production capacity, the Germans knew it was over for them. It was only a matter of when.

[Hatterasguy]

Their 1918 offensive with over 1 million troops from the Eastern Front would have probably succeeded if American troops didn't fill in the gaps. The French and British were just about bleed white.

[Idle]

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Their 1918 offensive with over 1 million troops from the Eastern Front would have probably succeeded if American troops didn't fill in the gaps. The French and British were just about bleed white.

Yup. There are a lot of stories about who overthrew the Czar but the real story is the Germans knew Lenin would lead the revolution if he had some backing. So they cut a deal with him to back him and his revolution if Lenin would just declare peace with Germany.

That's a very compact version of events, but it freed up all the German troops on the eastern front and many of them were shifted to France. If the US had not been there the German gambit might have worked for them.

[cmac2012]

That was a good read. It's a bit astonishing to look at the work and ingenuity the Germans put into their encampments.