Inside the 101st Airborne Museum of Bastogne!!! | History Traveler Episode 331

[Music] all right well right now uh I am in the city of bestone and uh for the past few days we've been traveling in Germany and Belgium uh with Andrew viio who is the author of the rifle along with four Veterans of the second world war and uh we just rolled up to the 101st Airborne Museum uh right here in Bastone I've never been here before uh but I understand that it's like one of the best museums here in the area so we're going to go inside and uh check it out see what we can see and see what we can [Music] learn [Music] we're getting ready to go into the 101st Airborne Museum here in Bastone but first I wanted to show this spot now if you look at this building you notice it has some pretty um uh I I guess you would say um noticeable uh features you got like this brick work uh around the archway going into the door well there was a rather well-known individual who was here on the 17th of May 1940 and had his picture taken right in this very spot you might recognize him from the uh the the the funny mustache that he has on his face uh yeah oh uh Adolf Hitler was right here on the 17th of May 1940 I was here for propaganda purposes uh he was here uh visiting rad and uh the the headquarters that he had here but anyway yeah that photo was taken right here 17th of May [Music] 1940 okay uh we just got into the museum here and uh right off the bat super impressed all kinds of cool relics and and displays here that help you to kind of understand the the Battle of U Battle of the Bulge and general and the siege of Bastone in particular all right so we're going to take a look at at some of the things that they have here in the museum here in the museum they have this giant map that that really kind of lays out what the Bastone perimeter looked like and shows some of the the different things that happened during the siege of Bastone and I really like how how they've done this uh so for example here they show uh the 10th armor division uh who was also here in bone the1st gets a lot of the attention but the tenth armored was here as well so here you see team oara with their withdrawal uh into bstone on the 19th of December 1944 uh it also includes the German units who were in this area so there's the advance of Panzer Lair uh in this area they also talk about operation repulse which was the uh the resupply effort in the Bastone area where they did a drop on the 23rd of uh of December uh and well there were some other dates as well but uh anyway yeah here's another one showing Panzer Lair kind of bypassing bone on their way to St Huber uh you got the 26 vks Grenadier division uh yeah all kinds of interesting stuff here that that really helps you to understand the battle and there we have the uh arrival of the 101st Airborne there on the western side of Bastone on the night of the 18th and 19th uh or into the 19th of December 1944 yeah really well done F I remember that one when you were surrounded into the woods it was just there and we will go there on Tuesday we will wow take [Music] piure uh your division you were coming from the south you you were riding truck from France I we call and you DET truck in we were truck we were attack a road Junction over there yes general direction in on the left and so you here and so the your regim was the 347 here bud oh and they were surrounded for days into the woods yeah because they move quickly but the German have a very strong point here and the Germans surround you into the woods yeah we were surrounded and they send you some mortar shells I and for for many days I don't remember how many days they were isolated behind the German lines and we will go there on Tuesday is this all a Belgium no no it's just a close up you have B you have the B [Music] perimeter we're not going to be able to show everything in this Museum but I'm going to just point out a few things so here you can see see this uh 101st Airborne jump jacket uh that that looks like it has like a few little modifications to it uh they also have an M1 grand here to the right that was found in a river which that's really interesting to me uh down here here's a helmet liner for the 502 uh parachute Infantry Regiment uh so they had the heart shape uh that was for the head Head Quarters and then again you see a carbine there just all kinds of different things here uh here's one of the famous signs you can see it's been kind of uh riddled with bullet holes um they have some 105 mm artillery rounds I mean just all kinds of stuff here here's a diarama depicting uh General Patton and general muli uh so General MCC was the acting commander of the 101st during the siege of Bastone and when the Germans offered or made an offer uh to have theun first Airborne surrender well mcauliff is the one who uh replied with the very famous uh nuts and then here you can see Patton awarding him the distinguished service cross um now speaking of Patton they have some things here in the museum that actually belong to George Patton so here you can see this Overcoat uh they also have uh some boots here and then a few other items yeah so that's pretty cool they have some of his stuff here all right got another display of artifacts over here uh so you can see there there's a 506 parachute Infantry Regiment uh helmet uh along with a reserve shoot they got some other things over here some patches and some odds and ends uh also have this package of Lucky Strike cigarettes which was very popular and uh oh also have some brass knuckles here my I just caught that uh but here's what I really wanted to show right here uh this is something that is called the receipt to Bastone and you can see it says memorandum receipt uh eighth core and this was something uh after the um after the siege of Bast Stone was over they had a big ceremony in the middle of town and uh Troy Middleton the uh eighth core Commander was there and also the 101st Commander uh Maxwell Taylor and he had something worked up and had Middleton sign it that basically uh was showing that they were turning Bastone back over uh we're going to have a a episode of American artifact later on that's going to go a little bit more in depth into this [Music] here at this Museum uh you are going to see some of the most amazing diaramas that you will see anywhere and this one kind of goes back before the Battle of Bast Stone uh or for the siege of Bastone in the Battle of the Bulge uh all the way back to September 2nd of 1944 at the German headquarters here in Bastone uh you can see that you know they've got some maps out they are kind of assessing the situation as the Americans are moving closer to this road Junction where we're s seven different roads are coming together uh they also show back here like a member of the Belgian resistance who has brought been brought in and he's been roughed up just a little bit so so this is giving a little bit of context as to what was going on prior to the Battle of the Bulge oh something else you see this big banner here in the background uh that Banner was actually taken by Vincent spenza who was in the first Airborne pretty well-known uh veteran who you know was was very popular in his later years uh he actually took this in burches Goden and the story is he uh kicked down the uh the door to um to this home or or to this building uh where he saw this banner and the person inside you know said don't shoot don't shoot and he said I'm not going to shoot you I just want that Banner so this was a a war trophy that Vincent spranza brought back which is pretty dang cool so the city of Bastone was liberated on September the 10th of 1944 by the 28th Infantry Division and uh the Germans have been driven away and here you can see the scene in this little cafe in town and uh you can see you know soldiers kind of fraternizing with the locals and maybe having uh a few drinks um the 28th is going to go on and fight in the huren forest and then they'll end up back here right before the Battle of the Bulge right now we are looking at a helmet from somebody who was in the 28th Infantry Division uh nicknamed the the bloody bucket or the the Keystone division this was a National Guard division that was originally from Pennsylvania and they had just been chewed up in the Battle of hen forest and had been moved to this area for kind of like a rest and and refit and they were right here when the Battle of the Bulge broke out a lot of people kind of forget about these guys but they did a lot to hold off the Germans uh while the the 101st and the 10th armored got up here and they have another diarama back here in this spot that shows a couple of 28th Infantry Division soldiers uh on December 12th here in Bastone at the Belgian military Barracks which had been serving as the headquarters for uh the eighth Corp Commander Troy Middleton uh but anyway they're here and you can see you know they're with this uh clery here having a cup of coffee and uh yeah nobody is expecting any of the violence that is to come now during the siege of bstone of course these guys who were here were completely cut off and the only way that they could be supplied was by airdrop so uh this little diarama here is showing uh a guy that we've talked about before uh Jack agnu who was a member of the filthy 13 uh he had to go up to the highest point in bstone near a brick Factory which we're actually going to go to in a later episode and um he was basically tasked with setting up a beacon so that the uh the supply drop could hit in the right spot but anyway yeah they have a little diarama showing that here's kind of an interesting scene that they have set up uh what we are seeing is uh the depiction of a private by the name of Michael Lerner who was in the third tank Battalion of combat command B of the 10th armor Division and uh here he he seems to be taking a moment to smoke this uh exceptionally long pipe and talk with this Belgian policeman and uh you can see in the background you know they're in front of this hotel here in bone well this scene was inspired by this photo yeah so that's uh that's pretty [Music] cool [Applause] all right now as you can see uh getting a a little bit dark here uh that's because we're we're going down into a part of the museum that is being depicted as a seller here in one of the homes and Stone so if you ever been to the gettsburg Museum of History and scenar exhibit which is is the ghosts of the ardans um much of the material that's in that exhibit came from the owner of this Museum his name is Frank we've been doing business for about 10 years or more and um he he metal detected and dug and got items from locals in this area for decades and and if you look at this exhibit here with all the medical stuff and weapons and helmets and everything this was our inspiration for the ghost of the ardens exhibit at the gettsburg Museum history and if you like that I mean this is the same exhibit times 100 they just have such amazing artifacts here all from this area mostly recovered by Frank and um some of the other locals that were that have donated it but I mean just look at this stuff these helmets these these gun these weapons bullet struck battle damage just amazing um please come to this Museum if you ever come to bstone now as Eric was mentioning this room really is incredible and really is a part of the the history of the whole Arden's area uh so as you can imagine you know one of the the largest battles of the second world war at least on the the western front uh is going to potentially leave behind a lot of material so you can kind of think of this is almost like a modern-day archaeology type thing since it's all happened you know in the past 100 years so here uh you know we're seeing all kinds of things I'm I'm seeing um you know a Hitler Youth knife I'm seeing multiple German helmets uh here again as Eric was just pointing out we have this machine gun there are just so many items that were recovered from the battlefield uh here we see like remnants of uh a boot here we have a paratroopers helmet that obviously has some battle damage to it huh and all of these items you know regardless of the condition that they're in uh they they all tell a story so getting out into this part we we start seeing more uh like medical equipment here we see some religious items uh and some dice yeah this this room really is fascinating they got out of all the stuff they they recovered out of the fields and with holes in some of the helmets yeah look at this yeah I heard many cases where a bullet would go in and and spin around in the helmet and come back out oh that would not be [Music] fun this is all the stuff that um Jake used yeah F medic yeah he was a medic it's something else isn't it I brought home any number of those daggers on the blade of that dagger is the is the wording uh un BL on air which means blood one I brought home uh let see yeah there there's a P38 there I brought home I brought home a P38 and a Luger lot of this stuff must have been covered must have been uncovered out of the battlefield much later look at the condition of yeah yeah yeah these are all Battlefield relics that were recovered yeah look at that there's the old grease gun that we used very very cheap production item pretty fascinating isn't it is absolutely absolutely gosh I know that I keep saying this but I just love all of the artifacts and Relics they have here in this Museum like this old water cooled 30 caliber machine gun uh my friend Reed Stevens actually actually operated one of those uh in the seventh armored uh here we have a few more 52 parachute Infantry Regiment helmets um I haven't seen any 501st uh here's another one that's a I'm pretty sure that's a 506 right there uh and then they also have a few German items in here uh one of them that looks battle damaged and then also have one with a little bit of camo applied always like these painted helmets but yeah love this stuff as we move into this room here in the the basement or in the cellar uh they are showing a makeshift aid station and man it is gruesome as heck as as it would have been during the the siege of bass Stone uh so here there they're obviously showing uh you know some Medics working on a guy who has a severe leg wound uh they're in the back uh this is actually depicting like a a real place uh at a home in Long sham uh so this is with the 52nd parachute Infantry Regiment uh they also show this African-American Soldier back here from the 969th field artillery Battalion and he's helping somebody from the 10th armor division who has been wounded uh getting into this uh this aid station um so yeah man this is impressive I mean and look at the detail here we have this Soldier uh holding a a Bible and a a rosary while a chaplain attends to him yeah this is simply amazing and then here's another diarama here in just the Next Room showing uh paratroopers who are preparing themselves to defend this first aid station we have some artillery flashes there in the background and then you have this Captain down here who is uh calling in for artillery support wow here's another diarama that they have down here in the in the cellar and uh looks like we have some soldiers who have burst into this Cellar where some German soldiers have been holding out uh looks like one of them has has has been killed right here at this table my gosh just see like broken glass and you you can broken mirrors and all kinds of of chaos oh and these guys aren't from the 101st Airborne Division if you look at the shoulder patch uh these are guys from the 17th Airborne Division who would have been part of the the relief of uh the the siege of bass Stone uh the the 17th airborne doesn't get nearly the recognition or credit that they deserve uh but yeah their their story is definitely worth looking into and then here you see this Soldier uh running his bayonet into the abdomen of uh of this German Soldier man so impressive the the work and uh and detail that has gone in into [Music] this all right moving into another room here with a diarama where it's obviously pretty dark uh one thing I really like about each one of these diaramas is that it's not just like relics and uniforms on display they're telling a story so this is supposed to depict the 463rd field artillery Battalion on Christmas night of 1944 and uh yeah here you can see the snow falling in in the background and uh these guys are sitting here defending the perimeter uh in bass Stone all right uh I got to say that museum was awesome uh it I I I love these places that are just uh local and packed with relics and all kinds of things from from the battle that they kind of immerse you in the experience and man the diaramas in there are honestly some of the the best that I've seen so anyway if you ever come to bestn uh definitely come to this place because it's going to add to the overall experience and uh hope you learn a little bit more about the Battle of the Bulge and the siege of Bast [Music] Stone [Music]

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 352,489

Keywords: history traveler, history underground, erik dorr, eric door, erik door, band of brothers, easy company, babe hefron, babe heffron, bill guarnere, bois jacques, bastogne, bastone, belgium, wwii, ww2, wwii documentary, 101st airborne museum

Id: 621Iu_fX0oY

Length: 26min 16sec (1576 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2024