The Christmas of 2024 in Jewell County was one of mild and sunny weather. No snow, though some hoar frost on Christmas Day – pretty but no problems. We listened to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and Dean Martin sing “The Weather Outside is frightful” but we had none of the cold stuff. Then came the days after New Year’s and plummeting temperatures and snow – some places had 18 inches of it. But even then, we had no real idea of how “frightful” weather could be.
Throughout our country’s history, there have been some bitterly cold and snowy winter times. Snowy and cold times for those in homes with heat and food. But also, bitter cold, wet snow and hunger for those service men and women encamped and fighting in various places around the world.
Before we were the United States of America, when we were just 13 colonies striving for independence, there was Valley Forge. Valley Forge was a scant 20 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with its warmth, food and comfort. Valley Forge was cold and wet, with no place to get warm or dry. A snowy, frigid and hungry place with never enough to eat. More than miserable for General Washington’s 12,000 revolutionaries who bivouacked there during the winter of 1777-1778.
Yes, some deserted but those who marched out of Valley Forge in the spring of 1778 would, by 1781, defeat the storied British Army at Yorktown.
Peace between our fledgling country and The British Empire would come in Paris with the signing of a Peace Treaty on Sept. 4, 1783, and ratification by our Congress on Jan. 14, 1784. We were a country and some say it was forged in the cold.
The Civil War was not without its winter battles. Aficionados of the Civil War likely know of Pea Ridge, others may not. Pea Ridge was fought during the winter of 1861-1862 in southeastern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas. The battle was the largest Civil War Battle fought west of the Mississippi.
The events preceding the actual March 6 to 8, 1862, Battle of Pea Ridge, were a series of snow storms, scrimmages, forced marches, biting cold, attacks, counterattacks and nothing to eat. It was particularly hard on the Confederate forces. The series of events began around Christmas of 1861 and didn’t end until the March 8, 1862 defeat of the Confederate forces near Elkhorn Tavern in Benton County, Arkansas.
Basically, the Confederate forces left Missouri and then Arkansas to the Union. Those factors were significant in the Civil War’s “War in the West” and the Union’s eventual victory.
The United States was involved in WWI from April of 1917 to November of 1918. Troops did not arrive in Europe until the summer of 1918 so the impact of winter weather was not a concern for our troops.
In World War II, the cold was very much a factor. On the eastern front in Russia, a huge factor of great impact on the outcome of the war though not directly impacting United States forces. The cold that directly affected our forces? The fighting during the European winter of 1944-45 known as the Battle of the Bulge.
The Battle of the Bulge was fought in the Ardennes Forest region between Belgium and Luxemburg from Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 25, 1945. The winter was the coldest on record. The late Hooley Alcorn, Mankato, said, “It was a heck of a winter. A cold, old winter.”
For Alcorn’s Company B 256th Engineer Combat Battalion, the battle began on the hurried, cold crossing from England to Europe, then wading ashore in knee deep water. “Cold to the bone.” said Alcorn.
Their duffle bags were full of their summer issue clothing and summer issue shoes. “Winter clothes caught up in April.” The battalion became known as the “gunny sack brigade” as they wrapped their summer shoes in gunny sacks they found in bombed out buildings.
The hurry was because of the “bulge” in the Allied lines caused by a surprise German offensive. Hitler’s commanders asked for surrender at Bastogne on Dec. 22, 1944. The famous answer from Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe – “Nuts!” It took more than a month but Bastogne did not fall, the “bulge” in the Allied lines was pushed back and we live in an entirely different world because the cold and the German forces did not defeat our troops.
A scant six years later, there was Frozen Chosin – The Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. In November of 1950, when General Douglas MacArthur thought the Korean War was basically won, up to 120,000 Chinese troops attacked the United Nations Command forces, including United States forces near and around Chosin Reservoir. MacArthur’s forces were outmanned four to one.
The 17-day battle has been “the most harrowing and tragic in the history of the United States Army.” Survivors are called the “Chosin Frozen” and Marines who fought there the “Chosin Few.” All have been lauded for their bravery and grit in the retreat down the Korean Peninsula to the evacuation port of Hungnam, described as “the best escape in U. S. military history.”
The overwhelming Chinese forces, which simply annihilated some troops, were compounded by knee-deep snow, rough mountain terrain and 25-40 degree below zero weather. All troops suffered some injury from the cold, up to and including death. United Nations forces were never again in North Korea.
As we talk about and bemoan the cold temperatures, remember the troops, in these and other wars, these and other battles who fought while cold, hungry, frostbitten, dehydrated and wounded. To them all, we owe our thanks.
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