Re: SF Quotes <off topic>

John Leary wrote:
>Jeremy Sadler wrote:
>...Snip...(JTL)
>> "Nuts!"
>> 
>> Response by American CO to German demand for surrender
>> Battle of the Bulge
>
>Having known a few paras, I have always suspected the actual
>line was a great deal more graphic and highly personal.
>The U.S. population would not have been able to accept the 
>actual verbage, coming from a general officer and a gentleman

>From what I've read here and there, the story goes something like this:

Around noon on 22 December, four Germans approached an 101 Abn outpost
under a white flag. With them was a demand for surrender of all US
troops
defending Bastogne. Upon receipt of the surrender demand, the 101's
acting
CO, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe said "Aw, nuts." Then he began to discuss
with
his staff what the appropriate response should be. Eventually,
McAuliffe's
operations chief, LtCol Harry Kinnard, said "That first remark of yours
would be hard to beat." Puzzled, McAuliffe asked "What did I say?"
Kinnard
replied "You said 'nuts'." Delighted, McAuliffe sat down and wrote:

To the German Commander:

			   Nuts!

					  A.C.McAuliffe
					  American Commander

The Germans were understandably confused when they were presented with
the
answer. When they asked whether this is an affirmative or negative
reply,
an American officer explained: "It's decidedly negative. It means goto
hell."

Edmund Hon						 
edmundh@ipoline.com
P-51 Mustang Page		     
http://www.ipoline.com/~edmundh/mustang
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