LTE: Mastriano got it wrong

Editor, Gettysburg Times,

My father was in the column from Patton’s Third Army that liberated Bastogne and I wrote a book about his World War II experiences, “A Combat Engineer with Patton’s Army: The Fight Across Europe with the 80th ‘Blue Ridge’ Division in World War II.” When people write about the 1944 Bulge campaign, I pay attention. While I appreciate the message of hope Senator Doug Mastriano is writing in his op-ed, “A Christmas Miracle,” he gets in trouble when he mixes history into his Christmas story.

First, his summary of conditions during the first days of the Bulge campaign (weather, troops, ammunition) has some accurate information, but his comment that the Germans could “advance unmolested” is wrong and his comment that “all hope appeared to be lost” is totally unfounded. From the beginning of Hitler’s last gasp offensive, Hitler’s generals understood their offensive had no chance of success, and so did the Allies. Ike and the Allied high command saw the German Ardennes offensive as a stiff challenge, but a major opportunity to kill Germans out in the open that he had expected to deal with the next spring, behind the Siegfried Line. No “all hope appeared to be lost.” Just a calm discussion with Patton, asking how many troops he could attack with, and when. (“three divisions in 72 hours”).

And the Weather Prayer? Not only did it not magically part the clouds over Bastogne; it had nothing at all to do with Bastogne. While Patton did send it out along with a Christmas greeting to his soldiers, it was written several weeks earlier, and 130 miles away, during a completely different campaign. That’s why the prayer talks about “these immoderate rains,” which is the weather Patton had to contend with, in November, in the French Province of Lorraine. Doing research for the George C. Scott movie, Hollywood discovered the prayer and thought it was a cool story, so they stuck the prayer into the Bastogne campaign.

The “hand of God” didn’t break the German siege and liberate Bastogne. Sergeant Frank T. Lembo and a whole bunch of other soldiers from Patton’s Third Army did. Senator Mastriano’s assigning credit for the victory to a prayer is disrespectful to the Third Army soldiers who did superhuman deeds in the last two weeks of December 1944.

Lois Lembo,
Gettysburg