Edit: Shogun - I just ordered Is What It Is by Mike Stern! More Stern added to the collection, lol! I wanna hear him groove it up with Chambers!

Edited Sun Mar 14 '04 4:04 pm

DEATH CUBE K: When is buckethead playing in MN? Would love to see him!

ha! ha! Griz be stylin' & profilin'!

Edited Sun Mar 14 '04 6:02 pm

LOL took me all day today and last night until 3am to get everything loaded back up the way I wanted it... ah well... live and learn... back using AVG freebee antivirus

Who's shorter? Marty Friedman or Sully Erna?

Can you name the largest land battle the U.S. participated in during World War II? Iwo Jima? Normandy? North Africa? While you think on that, I’ll tell you some more about this particular battle. By the end, you will know just which battle was the largest for U.S. forces and our allies. To prove my assertion covering the largest land battle, I’ll cover Hitler’s plan, the allied response, and then the conclusion of the battle. Shall we begin? We begin our story in Belgium on December 16, 1944, with the German forces facing a dilemma. Russian forces were closing in from the east; U.S. forces were bombing German cities, and the Allies, in general, were rapidly advancing from the south, and Hitler needed to slow the Allies down if Germany was to win the war. In September 1944, Hitler called a meeting and assigned Alfred Jodle the task of constructing a major plan of attack that would take place in the Western front. He preferred that this plan take place in a favorable location between the Aachan area and the southern Luxembourg-France boundary. This was a good area for attack because of the low concentration of Allied forces there. The 6th Panzer Army would leave a small town southeast of the Aachan, while the 5th Panzerprum would come from the Schee Eifel plateau. The 7th Army would come from the south near the Siegfried line, and while the 5th and 6th tried to take Antwerp, it would protect the flank. Hitler planned on launching his offensive somewhere between November 20th and 30th. He believed this plan would gain speed due to favorable terrain and cover provided by the woods. He was firm in his belief that the Allies would be incapable of reacting in time. He also wanted the attack to occur during weather that would handicap Allied air forces. Jodle returned with a plan detailing five possible avenues of attack and Hitler made it so that he used the two northernmost routes. The northernmost route by itself would take 31 divisions, one-third of these being armored infantry, and approximately 4 to 5 million gallons of gas and four trainloads of ammunition. The plan was codenamed “Wacht am Rhein” in hopes of confusing the Allies into thinking the plan was a defensive campaign. They were going to drive to and capture Antwerp, while encircling Allied forces west of the Meuse River. Hitler selected the Ardennes forest as the point of attack because it allowed enough room for a large buildup of troops. It was also the place where Hitler had launched a surprise attack on France in 1940. Hitler was intending to take Antwerp and was under the false belief that the Allied bond could be easily broken by this victory. If so, he would have, hopefully, enough time to gain troops and complete work on secret weapons for later in the war. Hitler dismissed advice to change his plans from a large number of military commanders; however he changed the name of his plan to “Autumn Mist”. All of his commanders in charge of the offensive did not believe the army could go through with Hitler’s plan. One of them, Field Marshal Model, was quoted, “This plan hasn’t got a d***ed leg to stand on.” Another plan designed to attack and weaken the Allied forces was presented, but Hitler would not change his plans, even when his Generals pleaded him to do so. Hitler would not accept to anyone’s advice because an assassination attempt was made and he was most likely mentally unstable. Hitler thought the Allied bond was weak and his forces possessed the necessary supplies for the operation; conversely, the Allied bond was much stronger than he thought and the German forces lacked many of the supplies needed. The goal of his plan simply could not be accomplished at the time.

Despite several warnings, on December 6th, an extremely large German attack force performed an all-out attack on Allied troops. The 5th and 6th Panzer Armies broke into the Ardennes through the Loshein Gap and attacked the Americans protecting that area. Once they entered the gap, the armies split up with the 6th to the north and the 5th to the south. The 6th attacked U.S. troops at Elsborn Ridge and encountered heavy resistance; while the 5th attacked more troops approximately 100 miles south. The 5th attacked one of the least experienced units and this was an advantage for the Germans. The Americans surrendered to the Germans in a very short period of time, and the Germans developed a false sense of victory. On December 17th, the 6th Army was attacked by U.S. troops at Saint Vith on a road that led to both the Meuse River and Antwerp. The 6th Army was held back and unexpectedly detoured, throwing the German army’s timing off and negatively affecting their supplies. On this day American soldiers were taken prisoner and executed by Colonel Peiper’s forces while they were headed for Malmeddy. 140 men were taken prisoner, 86 were killed, and only 43 survived to tell about it. Strangely enough, this occurrence boosted morale among U.S. troops and the battle was fought with more courage and determination. The German army miscalculated the Allied resolve and thought they would reach Bastogne in a short period of time because it was an important position for both sides but the Americans reached Bastogne first and occupied it. The Germans arrived not long after and laid siege to the city. On the 22nd, German officials came under the flag of truce and demanded the U.S. surrender immediately; Brigadier General McAuliffe replied,” Aw, nuts!” This message was delivered to the Germans, who were told it meant that they could all got to heck. After receiving the message, the Germans returned to their positions and continued the siege. Due to the siege, the U.S. had to receive supplies via airdrops; however, because of bad weather, U.S. planes were downed and they could not fly for an extended period of time. The U.S. forces lacked the adequate clothing and supplies and became more determined and used newspapers as added insulation in the harsh Belgian weather. And to the good fortune of the Americans, the VII Corps came in and enlarged the U.S. line. This allowed Patton’s 3rd Army to launch a counterattack against the Germans. Patton pushed the Germans away from Bastogne, but this did not mean Bastogne was safe, so on December 29th, the troops defending Bastogne left and took the fight to German forces. The weather cleared up enough for Allied air support to take to the skies again, while General Hodges’ 2nd Armored Division held the 2nd Panzer army back short of the Meuse River at Celles. Now the opportunity to secure victory was at hand.

Monstrous enough Jazzy?

juju