“In the Ardennes we were patrolling the front line, 20 miles along the river.” From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61st Recce (pers comm).
Sandy Handley describes those early patrols in the Ardennes:
"One great feature of the Ardennes was the numerous trees. We knew by the time we got up to Namur we wasn’t going to any Christmas Party although we had plenty of Christmas trees! We had our Recce Patrols, the usual formation, our light car leading two heavy cars and one light car trailing. Our car was most times leading, which was pretty nerve racking, creeping around some of the smaller roads, some of which were no more than a narrow lane, and the endless trees – we thought at any moment the enemy would jump out and attack us.
One time, whilst on patrol, a great tree was lying across the road. The weather being dull and misty we couldn’t see more than a few yards in front anyway. We reported over the radio and reversed quickly out of the way, all the time expecting a burst of fire or a bazooka (a hand held tank buster) and it could have been a nasty situation. These things happened and there were casualties but we were again in luck (this time).
Going along the main road we met up with an American Recce unit. I thought their vehicles were more streamlined (modern) than ours. We had a conflab – I thought ‘a very friendly lot’ and they appeared to be so relaxed. That was more than I was."
(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
Clearer weather from the 23rd December meant that Allied Air Forces could at last take to the air and begin to attack the German offensive, which is sometimes known as ‘Operation Autumn Mist’. Until then their advance had certainly benefitted from the fog and poor visibility. (From the Centre for Research and Information on the Battle of the Bulge.)
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