Birthday shoutout to the great Robert Leckie (1920-2001) who served as a machine gunner with the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, & Peleliu.

Leckie would write “Helmet for my Pillow” and have his story portrayed in the HBO miniseries, “The Pacific” 🪖

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82 years ago, a waist Gunner with the ‘Black Cat Squadron’ manning a .50 caliber machine gun aboard a Consolidated PBY 5 Catalina at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. ✈️

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In December of 1943, a Seabee heads off for duty in the South Pacific to build and fight. He is departing from the Naval Construction Battalion Base in Davisville, Rhode Island. ⚓️

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Brig. Gen. McAuliffe, 101st Airborne, is assigned to command all US forces in Bastogne, who soon would be completely encircled. 🪖

The airborne general felt no cause for concern. After all, paratroopers were trained to fight in a situation where they were surrounded.🪂

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81 years ago today, sailors are photographed aboard their ship with the 1060 pound Tiger Shark that they caught near the reef at Midway Island. ⚓️

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81 years ago today, Pvt Adam Davis & Tech 5 Milford Sellers of the 28th Infantry Division take a break just before the 8 day German siege in Bastogne, Belgium. 🇺🇸

Pvt. Davis was captured the next day by the Germans, becoming a POW for the remainder of his service. 🪖

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81 years ago today, large masses of defeated & demoralized American soldiers retreated westwards.

Pvt Burgett of the 101st Airborne recalls: "They shambled along in shock and fear, eyes staring straight ahead. I have never before, or since, seen such resolute terror in men."

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During the Battle of the Bulge, a soldier lays down his Browning Automatic Rifle and attempts to keep his feet warm in the extremely cold winter of 1944. 🪖

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81 years ago today, the Siege of Bastogne. All 7 roads leading to Bastogne are taken by German forces. 🪖

3,500 civilians, troops of the 101st Airborne Division & other attached units are completely surrounded, lacking winter gear, ammunition, food and medical supplies.🪂

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On this day in 1860, South Carolina becomes the first U.S. state to secede from the Union. The declaration of secession cites "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery." Within 113 days, North and South will be at war.

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The Battle of Ortona — Inside the Canadian Army’s Bloody Christmas at ‘Little Stalingrad’

“The contest being fought in Italy caught the attention of Adolf Hitler. Desperate for even a Pyrrhic victory, he ordered that the town be held at all costs.”

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On this day in 1944, the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne is encircled by the German army. The "Screaming Eagles" will hold out for seven days before Patton's Third Army can blast open a corridor to lift the siege.

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Today in 1777, Washington's troops establish a winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. "A skeleton of an army... naked, starving, out of health, out of spirits." Here are 10 things you might not know about the Revolutionary War's toughest winter.

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Battle of the Bulge

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81 years ago today, the crew of a 105mm artillery piece belonging to the 9th Armored Division load and fire on enemy positions during a concentrated barrage near the border of Luxembourg. 🪖

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During the Battle of the Bulge, Pvt. Charles Preston of the 5th Infantry Division brushes snow from a M1917 Browning machine gun mounted on his jeep as his unit moves in against the German offensive. 🪖

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In December of 1944, a US 1st Army soldier mans an 81mm mortar while listening for fire direction on a field phone during the German Ardennes offensive. 🪖

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