What happened to the civilians in the Battle of the Bulge and what were the mail procedures? Some please help!

Answer 1

Here is the war diary of a young man who was a sergeant in the US forces at that battle: http://ice.mm.com/user/jpk/wardiary.htm His accounts may answer some of your questions.

Answer 2

My Dad would get bulk drops of mail. I know this as I have many of the letters he wrote to his parents. He would make comments that letters sent on the first would show up after one sent a week later. Not sure about time frames on his getting here.

From what he told me about the Bulge most civilians had left for places unknown. The fighting was fierce with heavy loss's on both sides.

His letters from the Aleutians never made mention of things like delays. He was Coast Artillery from Apr 42 - May 44 before being sent to Europe as a replacement.

He was with HQ/2/317th IR 80th ID 3rd US Army. There is a book based on a journal kept by a Lt. in H/2/317 "You can't get closer than this" still in print. It will give you an "eye opening" view of the brutality those guy's went thru. They were the first at Buchenwald in Apr 45. It contained 15,000 Russian POW's as well as the concentration camp. The POW's had a unique and little reported "thank you" for the SS Troops and the civilians in the area.

Answer 3

The Ardennes the area where the Battle was fought was not heavy populated and a lot of Civilians would have left moved in wards away from the fighting, Mail procedures you mean post for the troops who fought in the battle ?? that would have been pretty random and best. Most likely more when they pulled back from front.

Answer 4

While Bastone might have had a significant portion of the population removed before the encirclement, there were hundreds of farms and small cantons throughout the area, many were destroyed in the fighting and many civilian killed.


"After the war, everybody thinks about reconstructing, about licking the wounds left by the fights, but also about paying homage to the civil and military victims.

The population of the Ardennes has paid a very heavy cost in human life and the combatants of both sides have left thousands of deaths on the field."

http://www.bastognehistoricalcenter.be/index.php?lg=fpdb/bastogne_en&page1=x-autrepg.htm&page2=Mardasson_Historique.htm&rep=x-autrepg