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BATTLE OF THE BULGE, DAY 3: DECEMBER 18, 1944
77 years ago today, the stunning German counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest continued to plow through American defenses [although the Panzers still had a long way to go to get to port of Antwerp, the German objective]
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At ~2:15 AM, General Matthew Ridgway, commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps, unaware of the fighting in Ardennes and sleeping in his HQ in England, is awakened by a call from Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges, commander of First Army.
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Hodges, calling from the town of Spa in Belgium, tells Ridgway that the Germans are smashing through the Ardennes. The XVIII Airborne Corps has been released from theater reserve and assigned to First Army to help push back the offensive.
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Ridgway sends the 101st and 82nd into the teeth of the ferocious German attack.
The 82nd would push east to Werbomont, Belgium.
The 101st would move by these open cattle trucks in freezing weather directly into the wood chipper outside of Bastogne, Belgium.
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Ridgway's leadership in that moment - and his reliance on razor-sharp instincts in the weeks that followed - helped turn the tide of the war in Europe.
That is the subject of Episode 96 of the 18th Airborne Corps podcast [which comes in at a lean 17 minutes of audio].
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Ridgway displayed in the Battle of the Bulge a stubbornness that served the Allies well in that moment: unlike his peers, he absolutely refused to fall back on conventional military thinking, making decisions in the moment based on his anticipation of next German moves.
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Ridgway had to make some tough calls about his forces that would later come under criticism. Those decisions are analyzed in this episode as well.
Listen to Episode 96 here: apple.co/3p8gnxt
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