A German mother sheltered three lost American soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge—and did the same for German soldiers hours later.
This year marks the 81st anniversary of the infamous “Battle of the Bulge” in the European Theater of World War II. The battle occurred months after the Americans, British, and Canadians all landed jointly in a dramatic fashion on the beaches of Normandy, France.
The “Battle of the Bulge”: Hitler’s Last-Ditch Attack in December 1944
By the end of 1944, it was clear to all that Nazi Germany was on its way to defeat in World War II. The Allies had successfully freed France and were moving toward Germany, capturing the city of Aachen by the end of October and preparing to move into the Ruhr. At the same time, Stalin’s Red Army was on the march in the East, driving back the Nazis in a seemingly unstoppable onslaught toward Berlin.
Desperate to punch back against the Allies in the West—and delusionally hoping that he could negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies that would allow him to fully confront the Soviets—Hitler devised an extraordinarily bold last-ditch offensive through the Ardennes to both push the Americans and Brits back to the sea and secure the massive Allied fuel depot at Antwerp. Hitler’s goals, on top of the fuel capture he sought from Antwerp, were to split the Allied armies, and force a negotiated peace with the West.
Exploding unexpectedly through American lines, the Nazi advance through the snow-covered, frigid, and overcast Ardennes Forest was both brutal and, from a tactical perspective, nearly beautiful—nearly.
The German Wehrmacht had spent weeks building up their forces in secret along the dense Ardennes. They did so under the cover of darkness—moving large forces at night—while practicing strict radio silence and using the natural coverage of that densely packed forest. Meanwhile, Wehrmacht units were disguised as purely defensive formations when they were concealing the last surge of Nazi offensive might in the West. The Allies had assessed that the Ardennes Forest was unsuitable for a major attack (notably in the dead of winter). The Germans used that against the Allies—ironically mirroring a similarly brilliant decision by the German High Command at the outset of the war, when Hitler’s forces invaded France. At that time, the French did not believe that the Germans could send a large force through the Ardennes. Germany proceeded to do so anyway, splitting the French lines and quickly knocking France out of the war in the spring of 1940. The Americans made the same mistake in 1944, and the Germans exploited it a second time.
Beginning in late December 1944 and lasting until early January 1945, American forces were made to endure a Christmas from Hell. For the Wehrmacht, this was their last shot at turning defeat into victory. The fighting was as intense as any throughout the war; close-quarters assaults, thick fog, and heavy snow added to the confusion at the front, and the German Panzerfausts (anti-tank teams, or “Tank Fists,” in German) pervaded the otherwise bucolic winter forests and towns.
On Christmas Eve, a German Family Took in Three Americans
And in the middle of this manmade maelstrom of clashing metal and men in the frozen wastes of Northern Europe comes an incredibly beautiful—moving, even—Christmas miracle.
In late 1944, Fritz Vincken, a 12-year-old German boy, had moved into a small cottage in the Hürtgen forest with his mother after their home was destroyed by Allied bombing in Aachen. Nine days before Christmas, their once-peaceful forest erupted in chaos when the Wehrmacht initiated its offensive.
Then came Christmas Eve that year—with a knock at the door.
No, it wasn’t Santa and his reindeer. It was three lost American GIs—one of whom was mortally wounded. The Vinckens did not speak English, and the American troops didn’t understand German. However, both parties could speak and understand a basic level of French, so they used French as the language to intermediate their interaction. Without hesitation, possessed of the Christian spirit of mercy, Fritz’s beleaguered mother invited the Yanks inside and made them comfortable.
The Fritz family and their wounded, tired, and cold American visitors got to know each other. The American trio had gotten lost and separated from their battalion in the insanity of the German offensive. They wandered the frozen forest for 72 hours until they came upon the Fritz family’s cottage in the woods. Mrs. Vincken cooked a hot meal of potatoes and rooster for the American “big boys” as she referred to them.
Fritz’s mother became a surrogate mother in the short time the American troops were in her home, despite the fact that they were from opposing sides of the war.
Then another knock came.
Then Four German Soldiers Arrived, Too
This time, Fritz unflinchingly opened the door, expecting to see more American troops looking for their lost comrades. Instead, it was the imposing gray winter uniforms of the German Wehrmacht.
There were four, weary young German soldiers standing before the 12-year-old Fritz. According to one recounting, Fritz was immediately frozen with fear. “I knew the harsh law,” recalled Fritz many years later. “Sheltering enemy soldiers constituted High Treason. We could all be shot!”
Leading the quad of Germans was a corporal. Like the Americans, they had gotten separated from their unit—and were also lost in the freezing forest.
Without hesitation, the matronly Mrs. Vincken came to the door and welcomed the four German soldiers to sit by the fire and enjoy the warm meal she had cooked for the Americans. Fritz’s mother explained the situation inside the home.
At first, the Corporal became aggressive, but the German woman spoke to the young and tired corporal as only a mother could.
“Listen. You could be my sons, so could they in there,” she said firmly. “A boy with a gunshot wound, fighting for his life, and his two friends, lost like you and just as hungry and exhausted as you are.”
Unfazed by the fact that these young German troops were trigger-happy and that German law demanded she and her family be killed for high treason, the mother continued sympathetically, “This one night, this Christmas night, let us forget about killing.”
After some consideration—and wanting to feel the warmth of the nearby fire and enjoy a homecooked meal after years of being in the hellish frontlines of the European Theater—the four Germans complied with Mrs. Vincken’s wishes. They laid their arms at the front of the door.
After an intense discussion in French, Mrs. Vincken got the three Americans to place their weapons at the front of the house alongside the German guns.
Soon, the group were seated together, and they began to relax. Fritz described the bizarre scene by stating that, “Relaxation was now beginning to replace suspicion.” One of the German soldiers revealed he had a small bottle of wine in his kit and presented it to the group as a Christmas offering.
Komm, Herr Jesus. Be Our Guest
Mrs. Vincken served the wine with the meal, saving half for the wounded American. In his recounting of the incredible moment, Fritz said his mother said a tear-filled prayer before eating that included the appeal to Christ, “Komm, Herr Jesus. Be our guest.”
There were tears, too, in the eyes of the two sets of soldiers who had thrown aside their arms for an evening of peace.
After dinner, Mrs. Vincken, appealing to their shared Christianity, sat with the two groups of warring soldiers and simply stared up at the Star of Bethlehem whose light shone brightly through the dark forest. “The war was a distant, almost-forgotten thing,” recalled Fritz.
The truce at Hürtgen Forest held through the next morning—Christmas Day—and the two groups of opposing soldiers shook hands and headed into the forest to seek out their respective armies.
It is a beautiful story—in the midst of what turned out to be one of the most pointless engagements of Germany’s war against the Anglo-American allies in Europe.
The Battle of the Bulge Was a Pointless Waste of Human Life
After all, Hitler’s grand plan for a Nazi counterattack was absurd. Antwerp was never within reach, even with the speed and maneuver the Germans displayed at the outset of the attack. There was no operational flexibility whatsoever—meaning zero margin for delay. And Hitler’s belief that the capture of Antwerp would somehow knock the Western Allies out of the war was nothing short of insane. To make matters worse for the Wehrmacht, the Führer, who was already in pronounced physical and mental decline, insisted on micromanaging the operation himself from Berlin—helping to ensure that it failed.
Germany’s battle plan was further stymied by the fact that the German Luftwaffe no longer held air superiority over Europe’s skies. To address this deficit, the Germans plotted the attack to occur when severe winter cloud cover prevented the American and British air forces from operating reliably over the battlefield. But the bad weather inevitably abated—and once it did, the Americans and British hit back with a vengeance, bearing down on exposed German columns with aerial might. Rather than a reinvigoration of the Wehrmacht in the West, the Battle of the Bulge amounted to the last gasp of a defeated army.
But for that brief period—Christmas Eve and Christmas morning—none of these geopolitical machinations mattered. What mattered was that mother wanted to spend a peaceful Christmas with a group of soldiers who were little more than overgrown boys in need of some matronly, Christian love and care.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is a senior national security editor at The National Interest. Recently, Weichert became the host of The National Security Hour on America Outloud News and iHeartRadio, where he discusses national security policy every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern. Weichert hosts a companion book talk series on Rumble entitled “National Security Talk.” He is also a contributor at Popular Mechanics and has consulted regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including The Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, and the Asia Times. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Zack Frank.
