• General McAuliffe's response to the German offer of surrender -- "Nuts!" Col. Sink reads out the Generals response to Easy company. I do not own the rights to any of this please don't sue me!
@@robcostanza5500 Because, according the the great General Patton, that chaplain was on good terms with the Man Upstairs, so if he wrote a good prayer for weather, it would be heard and granted.
This reminds me of another historical response. In ancient greece, Macedon sent a messenger to sparta saying when they waged war on them if they won they would destroy sparta , women and children alike. The spartans sent a one word reply. "if"
Stephen Betcher I was told that an Athenian soldier asked a Spartan why his sword was so short. The Spartans reply, “It’s still long enough to reach your heart.”
The colonel in this scene is retired Army captain Dale Dye. He's a genuine hero and it's nice to see his casting here as a note of authenticity. Thanks for your service, Captain Dye--on and off the battlefield.
@ hookalakah Dale Dye is a Retired Marine Corps Captain. He is a Mustang Officer in the Marine Corps because he spent several years as an enlisted Marine promoted to Gunnery Sergeant BEFORE he was directly commissioned as an Officer in the Marine Corps.
0:35 Dick Winters gives the medic a quick glance and probably realises he is really struggling. IIRC Winters later recommends the medic have 24 hours leave to get a hot meal and some rest (then only to have Bastogne bombed...)
When winters went to check on doc in his foxhole ,while he was sleeping . I loved that scene because, Winters ,with all that was going on ,still had the presence of mind to note what was going on with the medic .
Best part of this entire scene is the look on the actor portraying Medic "Doc" Eugene Rowe whose facial expressions clearly express the exasperation, desperation and heartbreak of trying to care for these men in the worst of circumstances, without the equipment and only the barest of medical necessities to treat the soldier's wounds. Eugene Rowe definitely was one of the heroes and a part of The Greatest Generation.
Sink: "If they come by here, y'all remember to smile for for the camera. Gotta keep the morale up for them folks back home." Winters: "Why?" Sink: "Damned if I know."
General McAuliffe was known for never use curse words beside "Nuts!" the general staffs probably use "Nuts!" as response since there's a first time for everything
BlackForestVideos The response from the German Commanders was initial confusion, until a translator told them what 'nuts' meant. He told them it basically meant "Go to hell." Germans weren't too happy after that.
Luttwitz, the German corps commander who sent in the envoy, got chewed out properly by his boss, who would have been General Manteuffel. Told him he was an idiot for making threats he couldn't carry out. The German heavy artillery was backed up on crappy roads all the way to the German border. All Luttwitz could do was keep trying to punch through with what he had.
The Americans did a far better job. Eisenhower and every intelligence officer on the Allied side got snookered by the German planners. However, having gained strategic surprise, the Germans fell short on everything else. The supreme tactical skill of the Panzer divisions was still there, but they got bogged down by a week road network and stout ad hoc American defenses. The German infantry were badly led and under-trained. They failed to clear out the corridors of advance for the Panzers and that allowed American reinforcements to reach most of the vital crossroads before the Germans got there.
Eisenhower, for all that he is lambasted for getting surprised in the Ardennes, reacted coolly and efficiently to the massive attack and mostly got his reinforcements where they were needed. He was no Manstein or Rommel, but he kept his generals under control and his orders on the second and third day, although no one could know it for sure at the time, doomed the German offensive to failure.
Dale Dye delivering the "Nuts!" message is just how this should have been done. There's no better person to reenact this scene. A+ and I'm glad all these guys did this series with Dye to make us remember.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe Apparently General McAuliffe, unlike most Army officers, never used foul language so "Nuts" was what he said when his staff read the message to him. When they drafted a reply they decided that was good enough.
Obviously, people don't understand how to deal with stress anymore. You make jokes about your imminent demise, you joke about yourself, your buddies, the weather, the food, the uniforms, the divine intervention that brought you to this godawful place. By God, they Repeated the phrase, because it was just as off-the-wall and unpredictable as that entire battle had become by that point. NUTS!
I mean, we got a whole generation now what does nothin but joke about how there's naught but shit and hell all around the world. Just imagine how fuckin grim our humour'll get when shit finally does hit the fan, eh? Nothin makes any fuckin sense, so why bother gettin pissed about it. Laugh till you die, and giggle all the way down to hell, I say.
When I was a youngster the movie "Battleground" was my favorite war movie. I always thought the reply to the Germans was something other than "Nuts!". In 1963 as a young soldier I was assigned to the 11th Air Assault Division (test). General Kinnard was the division commander. After the air assault testing the division would be renamed the First Cavalry Division and ordered to Vietnam with Maj. General H.W.O. Kinnard as division commander. Gen. Kinnard was the technical advisor for the movie "Battleground". Many years after returning from Vietnam I attended a First Cavalry Div. reunion. At the banquet I asked Gen. Kinnard if Nuts was really the reply. He told me the story on how Nuts became the reply to the Germans. I really can say I heard it from the horses mouth.
@@emmettm00 When General McCauliffe first received the German ultimatum he muttered "Nuts". When he realized he had to send a formal reply back he was reminded of his first utterance by one of his staff and sent that as his reply.
@@emmettm00 "Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe was serving as acting division commander and was handed the German demand. Kinnard, then a lieutenant colonel serving as the division's operations officer, recounted later that McAuliffe had laughed and said "Us surrender? Aw, nuts." After considering the German demand, McAuliffe said he didn't know what to say in response, to which Kinnard replied, "That first remark of yours would be hard to beat.""
I love the writer's or directors attention to detail all through this series. note all while Colonel Sink is speaking to the guys in this scene, Winters is keeping an eye on Doc Roe, :36 one example, because he can sense Roe is losing it. always a leader. in the next episode, "the Breaking point" he sends Roe to the rear to try to clear his head.
When it was read out to the commanding officer he said,"They want to surrender?" "No sir they want us to surrender". "Nuts!" And that's what came out as they're official reply.
I notice the medic Eugene off by himself in this scene. There's obviously a part of him that wants to surrender, but some other, stronger, inner part of him has to say "Nuts" to that. Possibly my favorite episode of BOB.
Reminds of a story about Sparta. They had a huge rivalry with Athens. At one point, the Athenians sent them a message that basically said, "If we win the war, we won't spare your children. We'll destroy your civilization." Sparta replied with one word: "If."
No, that was to Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, who just finished uniting all of Greece and was deciding what to do with Sparta. Philip could've easily destroyed them if he wanted but decided to let them live.
Real story. Nuts meant the german commander must be crazy. The german commander can't figure out the metaphor that the words nuts meant crazy, and assume that the americans were asking for nuts, which the germans tried to obtain. By the time they got a can of nuts... It was a freaking laughing hell hole.
When I see soldiers shivering in the cold, I always wish I could take in some blankets, and hot Hungarian goulash with crusty bread. My mum was Hungarian, Dad was British, I was raised there. I got a unique perspective of the war from opposing sides! But, make no mistake, mum and the Hungarian people hated Hitler! RIP to all those poor souls who suffered so terribly during WW2.
If any of you ever make it to Bastogne (and its absolutely worth it), you can see the room the exchange took place in And they have nuts on display inside of it, lol
In the movie Patton, played by George C. Scott, when told of the reply, said "A man that eloquent has to be saved." Patton pulled the 101st's fat out of the fire. Good job all around.
The real rescue was the weather clearing so the 101st could be resupplied. Because to be honest the 101st was on point in running the Germans back across the Rhine. This is what Patton's army would have done as well.
A couple of comments here about Doc Rowe and Winters keeping an eye on him, but no-one commenting on why it's this specific scene in particular: the Bastards of Bastogne have all seen carnage and their bravery for holding the line should obviously be commended... but this small scene is about Rowe knowing, more than anyone in the company, about the horrors that warfare can do to a human body. Rowe has seen it all, been there first hand while people scream for their mothers as their guts hang out- and Winters, being as smart as he is, knows this and knows that the colonel's speech has a very different affect on him than the rest of the men. So on the one hand you have this cool scene of stubborn bravery we can get all gung-ho about in this comments section, but this subtly is countered by a message about the futility and savagery of war. Rowe knows more about that than anyone else in the scene. And that's why he's sat apart, that's why he's not cheering and that's why Winters is keeping an eye on him during the speech.
It was a bluff - a last ditch effort to try to take the town from US troops after they were told by high command to just bypass it and move west since Hitler's ridiculously stupid plan was way behind the already impossible schedule.
I'm irritated that I attempt to approach military history from the combat level (company to squad and team tactics) because they fascinate me almost as much as weapons design, only to be stifled by the intellectual "establishment" around the subject(s): endless chattering about massive divisions and the rear-area-dwelling politicians (flag officers) who are most focused on by historians/scholars.
Very true, he did not say "nuts". What he did say still can not be put in high school text books. According to a member of his staff, Herman Rooks, he suggested to the German officers what he could go do with himself. Totally confused the Germans
When they were getting attacked with mortar rounds, who was it that ran over to a foxhole and told the guys "get things organized over here, I'm going to call for help"? It was someone supposedly in charge but he had no fucking clue what he was doing lol.
wilson blauheuer Do you expect Generals to be wielding a rifle and commanding a platoon? Or actually relaying orders, reinforcements, logistics etc. Roles must be fulfilled or the war would be lost, get a grip.
I think, that response from the high command and also in that difficult situation was because they intuit that the historical destiny was on their side !
This is no longer considered historically accurate. Initially the only copy McAuliffe's message was damaged, and part of his response was actually obscured. Thanks to modern restoration and imaging techniques, however, historians now know McAuliffe's full reply: "To the German Commander: Deez Nuts!"
In reality the german commander was in a despreate situation. He had no reserves, his tropes were poorly trained and had fought for over a week. In the meantime Patton and his tanks were on it's way to Bastongne and he had no tropes to fight them.
The answer was nuts because the Wehrmacht was in a more desperate situation than the US tropes in Bastogne. The German commander didn't have enough forces to take the city in a direct assault and Patton's units were on its way to Bastonge . This is the reason why he demanded their surrender.
NUTS! Indeed. It was during 1944 near Christmas when Adolf Hitler began to realize the Western Allies were unstoppable. The German Youngbloods and Hitler Youth urinated their pants when the hardened American 101st Airborne unit were charging against the brutal 1st SS Waffen division and death around the corner. ☠️
Look how comfortable the General is, compared to the soldiers actually on the frontline. Soldiers shivering, trembling, underfed, low on supplies and wearing inadequate clothing in a dangerous place. General is cozy, warm, safe... Reminded of the old men and young men in war analogy... “War is young men dying and old men talking” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
@@Shaboomquisa Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: At the first gate, ask yourself “Is is true?” At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?” At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?” You were courteous, respectful, polite, informative. Keep being that guy, keep being you, my friend
"Nuts!" was a great response to a demand for surrender because it has at least three separate meanings and addresses both German and American soldiers in different ways. 1) You're nuts/crazy if you think we'll surrender. 2) WE are nuts/crazy and you can't handle us. 3) WE have big balls/nuts! 1 is for the Germans. 2 is for the US troops. 3 establishes dominance for both armies to see. Rarely can a single word mean so much.
