Bitburg

"Bierstadt" Bitburg also has a strong link with WWII. In addition to about 2000 soldiers of the Wehrmacht, 49, mainly young, soldiers of the Waffen-SS are also buried at the Bitburg military cemetery. This fact sparked international uproar in 1985 when US President Ronald Reagan visited the cemetery at the invitation of and accompanied by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to celebrate the 40th anniversary of peace between the two countries. There is also a large American base in Bitburg with 11,000 troops at that time. At the time of the German Battle of the Bulge, late 1944, early 1945, Bitburg was a junction of roads and railways, from which the Battle of the Bulge was prepared and supplied. In order to hit the German supplies and force the German troops in the Ardennes to surrender, Bitburg was so heavily bombed by Allied bombers on Christmas Eve 1944 that the city was almost completely destroyed. It was estimated from the German side that the city had been razed to the ground between 85 and 95%. From the evening of February 6, 1945, the unaffected buildings were severely hit by the offensive launched by American General Patton with his tank divisions to capture Bitburg. Beforehand, Prüm, the second logistics hub in the region, had already been captured by General Patton, which served as a fall-back target for the bombers during the Christmas Eve 1944 bombardment and was spared aerial destruction.

Dromos