A Glance at the Past

We left our church family in the month of December, 1944 aware of a massive battle occurring in a heavily forested section of Belgium known as the Ardennes.  With the advantage of 75 years in the future, we know today that it was the last offensive carried out by the German Army, desperate to create a break in the Allied Lines that were rapidly approaching the German border.  The German Army would be attacking from a position of weakness {no air support – their air force had been eliminated for all practical purposes) and lack of fuel for their armored divisions due to the allies’ control of the port of Antwerp.  Therefore, the Germans relied on a surprise attack occurring during a period of stormy overcast weather at the most lightly defended part of the allied line.  The attack had come on December 16th, with the surprise part a complete success.  However, the size of the German attack , initially 410,000 men and 1,400 tanks, proved unwieldy to control and coordinate effectively.  Because the attackers {the Germans} were at a disadvantage numerically, they took no prisoners during the attack, executing entire companies of men who tried to surrender.  The allies reciprocated.  This along with the intensity of the fight caused this battle to be the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II.  The Girard News issue of Friday, January 12th reported that 3 Girard men were Missing In Action, two in Belgium and one in France and two were wounded, one in Belgium and one in France. More casualties would continue to come in one at a time by wire to the next of kin an average of three weeks after their deaths or injuries. The Battle of the Bulge would officially end January 25th.  The Germans lost somewhere in the range of 75,000 men either killed, missing, wounded in action or captured.  The Americans had roughly 610,000 men involved in the battle.  Of these, approximately 19,000 were killed with 70,000 injured.  As I noted earlier, the “take no prisoner” strategy, coupled with the bitter cold and stormy weather, made the battle a nightmare for all who were involved in it.  The deaths or wounding of Girard boys would continue to come in to Girard, one by one, at least through the month of March. 

When I wrote last month about the month of December, 1944, I had to choose between writing about the Battle of the Bulge or writing about a song.  Of course, I couldn’t skip over one of the costliest and most significant battles of the European theatre, so I devoted the December issue to the battle, and touched upon it again in this January issue.  Now, however, with December almost over, and that song still rambling throughout my mind due to lots of repetition, I want to tell you the story of that song.  It was written in 1943 by songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine for a movie to be released in 1944.  It was to be about a father in St Louis who is given a big promotion, but would have to sell the family home and move the whole family to New York City. They would spend one last Christmas there and then move.  The family’s youngest, a five-year-old named Tootie, played by Margaret O’Brien, took the planned move very hard.   On Christmas Eve, she fell apart emotionally, and her older sister (Judy Garland) consoled her and sang this song to her.  The song, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, instantly struck a chord with all of America.  After all, it had been four long years since they had said goodbye to their loved ones.  Everyone could sense how different things felt since that awful time right after Pearl Harbor.  The words of the song reflected the hope of all Americans that, somehow, after all the fighting and dying by our men over there, and all the rationing, the scrap drives, the bond drives, the blackouts and everything that went with being at war, somehow everything would be better  . . .   

“Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas                                                                                                 
  Let your heart be light.                                                                                                                         
  From now on Our troubles will be out of sight
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.                                                                                           
 Make the Yule Tide gay.                                                                                                                      
 From now on  Our troubles will be miles away.
Here we are as in olden days,                                                                                                             
Happy golden days of yore.                                                                                                                    
Faithful friends who are dear to us                                                                                                   
Gaither near to us once more.
Through the years we all will be together,                                                                                                
 If the fates allow,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              so hang a shining star upon the highest bough                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”
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The song is still being sung regularly, 75 years later.  It rates as the third most played Christmas song over the years.  Our Girard families were probably singing it in December of 1944.  The song swept the country before the movie could.  That movie, Meet Me In St Louis, would not make it to Girard’s little Wellman Theatre until sometime in the late spring of ‘45. 
 
Besides the Girard men fighting the war, and being wounded or dying, the rationing, the scrap and paper drives, our families also supported bond drives.  Back in the middle of November, the sixth bond drive had kicked off.  The goal was for the combined towns of Girard and McDonald to raise $535,000 in bond sales.  It had been completed in early January.  Girard and McDonald raised 125% of their goal of $535,000.  It is amazing how very much our families and our neighbors sacrificed for us back during the war Years of ’41 through ’45.  They were called the “greatest generation” for a reason.
Our church family, our town and our country – 75 years ago, January of 1945