On 20 Dec 2003 14:43:28 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

On this day in 1944 the Germans began shelling theWirtz-Bastogne crossroad in
an attempt to push the 101st Airborne out of the defense of Bastogne. They
failed. .Temperature went down to below freezing in the bitter cold of that
Belgian winter and the 101st was down to eating K rations. Those that had them.

Arthur Kramer

And, on this day in 1972, the Linebacker II operation experienced the
worst losses of the campaign with six B-52s downed over Hanoi. The
Eleven Days of Christmas, however, drove the recalcitrant North
Vietnamese back to the bargaining table and resulted in the release of
our POWs by March of '73.

And, arguably proved once and for all the Douhet principle that
strategic bombing can be decisive politically without ground invasion.
IMNSHO!



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8