What’s in a date?

History must be preserved.

We must pay attention important anniversaries such as the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and other decisive dates such as the end of World War II on 8^th May. But history writing should be careful in ”promoting” certain days in the midst of a burning war to “the end of the battle”. After all, it is not over until Valkyrie Brünnhilde sings…

On 16 December 1944, Hitler launched his famous Ardennes Offensive, tearing a wide gap in U.S. First Army’s lines and surrounding the town of Bastogne. If we are to believe most accounts on this epic battle, the Battle of the Bulge ended around 26 December 1944, when General Patton’s tanks broke through to relieve Bastogne. However others place the end of the Battle at the year’s end and another common date is 15 January 1945, when U.S. First and Third armies met in Houffalize.

Allied propaganda photo with cheerful troops – 16th January 1945

However, most of the men participating in that winter battle probably would not be inclined to agree with any of those dates. The notion that the Battle of the Bulge was over on 15 January 1945 is hardly shared by the surviving veterans of U.S. 75th Infantry Division’s 291st Infantry Regiment, who instead know the day as the ’Black Monday.’ Of the original six officers and 187 enlisted men in ’G’ Company, 2nd Battalion, only one officer and 35 enlisted men remained after the terrible bloodletting as the unit launched its attack against the Germans at the River Salm positions on that day.

US soldiers from ‘G’ Company – 16th January 1945

On 17 January – i.e. two days after the Battle of the Bulge is supposed to have ended – the Germans were attacking again. Willi Detering, then serving as an SS corporal, recalled:  “We began our assault on Oberwampach after dark, at around seven in the evening. Approximately one hundred yards in front Oberwampach we were subjected to infantry fire from the windows in the first houses in the community. We immediately returned the fire. After a Sturmgeschütz III had taken up positions and opened fire on the houses, these were quickly abandoned by the Americans. When we entered the village our Untersturmführer and a couple of soldiers were hit and wounded.”

US soldier next to a Sturmgeschütz III

Another of these “magical dates” in historiography is 31 October 1940. Due to some reason, this date has been chosen as the end of the Battle of Britain. But the Londoners, who would have to endure seven months of terrible German air attacks during the so-called “Blitz”, which cost 30,000 civilian lives, did not agree that it all was over. On the other hand, the real battle for Britain – for the control of the British Isles – actually ended on 17 September 1940, when Hitler cancelled the planned invasion of England; or, rather, on 15 September 1940 – the famous Battle of Britain Day – when the RAF broke the spine of the Luftwaffe, compelling Hitler to take that fateful decision two days later.

The use of a definitive within history, especially within military histories, is something that one should tread lightly with, for there may be more beneath the surface. A war doesn’t necessarily end when the last shot is fired and the papers have gone to print.

Christer Bergström, author of “The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitler’s Winter Offensive”.

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