“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133:1).
Psalm 133
On December 22, 1944, at approximately 11:30 A.M., four German soldiers waving two white peace flags approached General Anthony McAuliffe, senior commanding officer of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, who had just secured the town of Bastogne, Belgium, during the pivotal Battle of the Bulge in the closing days of World War II.
The following note was given to the American commander from German General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz as 54,000 soldiers from seven divisions of the German army surrounded the highly outnumbered 101st Airborne, with its 11,000 “nitty gritty” fighting soldiers, and only 11,000 other American fighters:
