The Battle of the Bulge, the German surprise attack on the American lines in the Belgian Ardennes in December, 1944, is celebrated in American military history as the major battle fought by the US Army in Europe in the Second World War. Books on the subject, fiction and non-fiction, would fill a small library. It has been depicted in half a dozen films and a score of TV documentaries. Even as I write this, the Battle of the Bulge is again world news, due to President Reagan's controversial visit to Bitburg cemetery, Germany, where some of the SS who murdered US prisoners near Malmedy during the battle supposedly lie buried. Every high school kid can quote General MacAuliffe's scornful reply to the German offer to surrender when his division was surrounded by them at Bastogne, 'Nuts'. Actually he snorted something much cruder. Fortunately for the legend, his PR man censored the expletive in time. It could hardly have appeared in a school history book.
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