Battle of the Bulge Remembrance
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Today marks the 78th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, the German offensive campaign which resulted in over 80,000 total casualties. From a frozen foxhole in the depths of the worst winter, U.S. infantryman George Karambelas bore witness to one of the fiercest battles of WWII. In remembrance of the brave troops who served and sacrificed in this battle, we share this story from the 1997 concert, as told by actor and WWII veteran Charles Durning. #MemDayPBS #BattleOfTheBulge #WWII
We owe these men a debt of gratitude that can never fully be paid. Thank you to all who fought, all who died and all who contributed what they could. We will never be able to pay these heroic men back for all they sacrificed. Thank you Mr.Durning and all the thousands of other veterans who risked it all to save us. God bless you all.
_'Charles Edward Durning was born in Highland Falls, New York, in February 1923. He had nine siblings, five of whom died during childhood of either smallpox or scarlet fever. Durning came from a poor family. His mother was a laundress at West Point, washing the uniforms of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy. His father, a World War I Veteran who had lost a leg and was exposed to mustard gas, could not work and died when Durning was 12.'_
_'After a high school counselor told him that he had no artistic talent and should train to become an office worker, Durning dropped out and began working as an usher at a burlesque theater at age 16. One night, a stand-up comic was too drunk to perform. Durning, who had been studying the routines of comedians he saw on stage, took his place. From the moment he heard the audience laugh, Durning knew he wanted to become an actor.'_
_'However, World War II interrupted Durning’s aspirations. The Army drafted him at age 21. He was part of the first wave of soldiers to land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Durning was the only member of his unit to survive the assault.'_
_“I was the second man off my barge,”_ Durning said, _“and the first and third man got killed.”_
_'Days after arriving in France, a German land mine injured Durning. He spent the next six months recovering from shrapnel wounds in England, received his first Purple Heart, and returned to the front lines.'_
_'While fighting in Belgium, Durning came face-to-face with a teenage German soldier. He couldn’t bring himself to shoot the young man, but when the soldier stabbed him with a bayonet, Durning defended himself and killed his attacker with a rock. During the Battle of the Bulge, Germans captured Durning. He was one of only a few soldiers to survive the Malmedy massacre when German soldiers opened fire on nearly 90 prisoners of war. For his injuries, Durning received his second Purple Heart.'_
_'In March 1945, Durning was moving into Germany with the 398th Infantry Regiment when he took a bullet to the chest. That bullet effectively ended Durning’s service; he spent the rest of the war in the hospital recovering from his wounds. He received his third Purple Heart and discharged in 1946 with the rank of private first class.'_
_'After the war, Durning returned to acting. Throughout a career that spanned more than half a century, Durning appeared in over 200 films, television shows and plays-he reportedly never turned down a role-and was nominated for multiple Emmy and Academy Awards.'_
_Despite his professional success, Durning remained haunted by his wartime experiences. In addition to his Purple Hearts, he received a Silver Star for his actions during the war, but later in life, he refused to talk about the details of his service, describing the memories as too painful._
_“You know, everybody who was there_ [at Normandy] _is in some state of denial,” Durning said in 1994. “There are things I’ll take to my grave.”_
_'Durning passed away on Dec. 24, 2012, at the age of 89.'_
Source: Veterans Administration - Veterans of The Day segment - January 24, 2022
There are so many words for this man and his kind of life. This man was a hero, a survivor, and a talent, and I am glad we had the honor of watching him and now learning about him. He seemed humble regardless of his experiences, the bad ones, or the good. He is missed. I now watch him on Everybody Loves Raymond, he makes me laugh on that show. I have been watching him my whole life, I am in my 50s, and I watch him in old and new.
He is a treasure.
Thank you for sharing this Bio of his life, now people will see what kind of man he was and what he has been through.
❤️
This great actor really was a combat Vet also.
Absolutely. He went up on the beach at Normandy on D Day.
Thank you WW11 veterans you gave your yesterday so we could have our tomorrow 😢😢😢😢😢
How do you survive that? Attacked by a quarter of a million German soldiers and the D Day landing. Good God
My grandfather was one of the last taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge and after too long spent as a POW, escaped by killing a guard with a cast iron skillet when he and another prisoner were caught stealing horse meat in the camp “kitchen.” They were starving to death after living only on occasional sawdust bread. They got another friend from his unit who’d been taken prisoner with him and along with his buddy from the “kitchen,” they escaped before someone found the dead guard. His boots had been stolen so he and his buddies took turns wearing the two pairs of boots they had among the three of them and ran for what they hoped were Allied lines based on the direction of recent strafing runs they’d seen nearby. They were joined during their journey by an eagerly surrendering, unarmed, German soldier. They were quite the ragtag crew when they reached American lines with only one in any semblance of a uniform and it was German. They walked up singing American songs and were smart enough to walk up with their hands raised, surrendering. After reciting the roster of the last World Series winning team and pledging their allegiance to Betty Grable, they were brought in camp to be debriefed. My grandfather enlisted when he was 18 and weighed 190. He weighed 109 when they got him to the first real infirmary. He was issued an impossibly tiny uniform so small I couldn’t fit his service coat around me when I was a skinny 12 year old girl. He lost part of both feet to frostbite and had untreated arm fractures and a leg gunshot wound that caused him pain his whole life but the never treated PTSD caused him more trauma than all of that combined to his dying day. I still remember his night terrors as a child when I’d spend the night. My grandparents couldn’t sleep in the same room because of his night terrors. He would wake up screaming. They were the silent sufferers. The VA only recognized the trauma of POWs with 100% service connection in the late 1990s and it’s something most refused even then.
US logistics screwed the pooch boots & clothing wise at Bulge battle.
You fought for the wrong side.
Yeah sure we did 😂😂
I disagree. It was inevitable. You can see that Chuck didn't thrive on this... He's a gentle soul. War completely sucks, and if even your man wins...he doesn't.