It was not the best of Christmas seasons for Gen. George Patton in December of 1944.
Yes, the general’s Third Army was marching through Europe toward Berlin. Yes, the Nazis were less than a year away from defeat. So, too, were the Japanese. But as Patton’s tank division approached Bastogne, a southern Belgium stronghold occupied by 15,000 U.S. troops and besieged by 50,000 German troops encircling it, he had a problem.
Rain. Lots of it.
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“There is about four inches of liquid mud over everything,” Patton told his wife in a letter, “and it rains all the time, not hard but steadily.” What’s worse, he didn’t have the air cover to relieve the brave Americans holding off the Germans.
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