Belltower: The siege of Bastogne and the 1st Amendment’s rights – Mountain Democrat

Michael Raffety

When this column appears Dec. 20 it will be two days before German Gen. Heinrich Frieherr von Luttwitz sent a party under a truce flag asking the American 101st Airborne forces at Bastogne to surrender.

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander.

According to those present when McAuliffe received the German message, he read it, crumpled it into a ball, threw it in a wastepaper basket and muttered, Aw, nuts. The officers in McAuliffes command post were trying to find suitable language for an official reply when Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard suggested that McAuliffes first response summed up the situation pretty well and the others agreed. The official reply was typed and delivered by Col. Joseph Harper to the German delegation.

It was as follows:

To the German commander

NUTS!

From the American commander

Gen. George Pattons 4th Armored Division relieved the siege of Bastogne on Dec. 30.

Patton awarded McAuliffe the Distinguished Service Cross. He later received the Army Distinguished Service Medal twice, the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit. He was later promoted to major general. His 101st Airborne crossed the Rhine and elements of it later crossed the Brenner Pass, meeting up with American troops from the Italian campaign.

McAuliffe didnt swear. Nuts was his favorite expletive.

Dec. 15 the Mountain Democrat published the Bill of Rights on its 230th anniversary.

When I was editor there was a guy named Tom (cant remember his last name) who always called me up and reminded me to publish the Bill of Rights. That was his thing.

Without this document we wouldnt have any rights; the government would have all the rights.

There is a reason the most important rights are listed first. The First Amendment actually lists six rights:

Thats a lot of rights in just one amendment.

Overnight Dec. 14 it rained like crazy. Then it got quiet and the satellite TV signal became lost. Thats when I knew it had snowed. At 5:30 a.m. I turned on the floodlight, got a flashlight, broom and my flip flops and brushed the snow off the satellite dish.

We could wind up with a white Christmas. The last time there was a white Christmas here we missed it, having spent Christmas in Yosemite.

Michael Raffety is a retired editor of the Mountain Democrat and a resident of the Placerville area.

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Belltower: The siege of Bastogne and the 1st Amendment's rights - Mountain Democrat