Bastogne WWII sites

Bastogne was our last stop in Belgium before returning to The Netherlands for the final days of our trip.

Mike has an interest in World War II history and is also a fan of the Band of Brothers miniseries which follows the members of Easy Company as they make their way through Europe during the war.  We have toured the beaches and bunkers in Normandy, and Mike wanted to see the WWII museum in Bastogne and the foxholes dug by Easy Company during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-45. Easy Company was engaged against German troops in the nearby village of Foy. The Americans survived freezing temperatures in foxholes dug in the icy ground, eventually storming the village by crossing open fields under fire to expel the German troops from the town and pushing them even further out of the area. 

The Bastogne War Museum was interesting and there were many exhibits to see. The exhibit includes an interactive visit with 4 different characters and they talk about their life during the war as you move through the exhibits. 

Nearby is the Mardasson Memorial which is a large monument that honors the almost 77,000 American troops that were killed, wounded or went missing in action during the Battle of the Bulge. Unfortunately the interior and stairs were closed off when we visited so we were unable to see the complete monument or the view from the top of the structure. 

We then drove to Bois Jacques to see the foxholes. There is an app that uses geolocation to show you a 3D video overlay of the battle on your phone so you can see the battlefield as it was then and how it looks now, all at the same time. It was well done and definitely helps you enjoy the experience more fully. 

Our last stop was the 101st Airborne Museum directly in the city of Bastogne. It's housed in a 3 story old house and features a lot of dioramas and posed vignettes of the paratroopers. Something that was very cool was the bomb shelter experience located in the basement. You're made to feel as though you are taking refuge from a bomb attack and the seats rumble and vibrate with the shelling. It was actually quite a good immersive experience and I'll admit the first explosion made me jump! First there was the distinctive whistling noise as the shell descended on us, then heavy silence, then BOOM! I can't imagine what it must have been like to endure days of shelling like that. (We have previously visited Verdun, France and the WWI battlefield and monuments there. If you want to learn about the phrase "shell shock", you should go there. Read a book about it or watch the documentary you can find on YouTube, it's unbelievable.)

So that's it for our last day in Belgium. We enjoyed everything that we saw and did in Belgium. But there are still many other places to explore. Perhaps a trip to the south of France next?