Battle of the Bulge Through a WWII Veteran's Eyes: George Ciampa

What was the Battle of the Bulge like for a 19-year-old who had to bring the dead in from the snow?

In the fall of 1944, George Ciampa's unit, the 607th Graves Registration Company, dug in on a farm at Hombourg, Belgium, next to the village of Henri-Chapelle. They stayed four months, through the rain, the mud and the coldest winter anyone there could remember. By the time they moved on into Germany, they had buried 17,300 Americans in that temporary cemetery. When the Battle of the Bulge broke out in December, George and his company went out onto the frozen battlefields to bring the fallen back.

In Episode 116, the second of five conversations, Jason Rugg fills in as host alongside Christian Taylor, and George Ciampa, then 95, picks up where Part 1 left off. He talks about life in a foxhole for two, a V-1 buzz bomb that dropped a chunk of shrapnel at his feet, a V-2 rocket climbing into the night sky, and the Belgian farm family whose 15-year-old son brought him a keg of warm milk. He describes the bodies his company recovered after the Malmedy massacre, the German soldiers caught wearing American uniforms, and the baseball and comic strip questions GIs used to tell friend from enemy.

George also tells the story of the Wereth 11, 11 Black American artillerymen who were taken in by a Belgian family and then murdered by the SS, and how he came to tell it in his first film, Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless, which he made at 81 with four young history teachers.

The episode opens with Christian's film news from May 2021: The Girl Who Wore Freedom's release in Canada, its deal with Delta, and her next project, The Brave Dutch, which begins with John Low, an American airman from Laurel, Mississippi, who was shot down over occupied Holland in April 1944, kept alive by the Dutch resistance for 11 months, and later wrote a short book in tribute to the people who saved him.

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How cold the winter of the Battle of the Bulge really was
• How a temporary American cemetery near Henri-Chapelle grew to 17,300 graves
• How two soldiers lived, slept and stood guard in a foxhole through a Belgian winter
• What it was like to live under V-1 buzz bombs and see a V-2 rocket launch
• How GIs used humor to get through the war
• What graves registration did after the Malmedy massacre
• How GIs caught Germans wearing American uniforms
• The story of the Wereth 11, and how George told it in his first film
• Why only about 40% of the Americans who died in Europe are buried there today

CHAPTERS

0:00 Film Update: Canada, Delta and The Brave Dutch

7:23 The Coldest Winter and 17,300 Graves

13:06 A Belgian Farm Family and a Keg of Warm Milk

18:49 Strafed on Christmas Day, and a Friend Named Tex

20:56 Life in a Foxhole Under the Buzz Bombs

27:03 Four Months on the Frozen Battlefields

30:53 Malmedy and Germans in American Uniforms

38:41 The Wereth 11

41:44 Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless

47:04 Eisenach and the 40% Who Stayed

51:41 Next Time: Margot and a Jeep

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What did graves registration units do during the Battle of the Bulge?

George Ciampa's 607th Graves Registration Company was based at a temporary cemetery at Hombourg, Belgium, next to Henri-Chapelle, from September 1944 into February 1945. During the Battle of the Bulge, they went out onto the battlefields to collect frozen bodies and bring them back for burial. By the time they left, 17,300 Americans were buried there.

What was the Wereth 11?

The Wereth 11 were 11 Black American artillerymen who escaped to the Belgian village of Wereth during the Battle of the Bulge. A family took them in and fed them, but someone reported them, and SS troops marched them out and killed them. George Ciampa's company buried them. Today seven rest at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery; four were returned home.

How did American soldiers catch German infiltrators in the Battle of the Bulge?

During the Bulge, some German soldiers wore American uniforms behind the lines. George Ciampa says GIs challenged anyone they didn't know with questions every American would know, about Babe Ruth, current ballplayers or the comic strip Blondie and her husband Dagwood. Three infiltrators were caught near his company's area and executed.

Why are only some of the American soldiers who died in Europe buried there?

After permanent cemeteries were built in 1947, families could bring their soldier home at no cost or leave him in Europe. George Ciampa says about 60% came home. So a cemetery like Henri-Chapelle or Normandy holds only about 40% of the Americans first buried in temporary cemeteries nearby.

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ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers, distributors, entertainment lawyers, actors and more, from Ken Burns and PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy to first-timers, across nearly 300 conversations. Each week brings one of two formats: a long-form conversation with the people behind films for HBO, Netflix, PBS and independent film, or The Deep Dive, where Christian takes one insight from a recent conversation and follows it wherever it leads. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide. New episodes every week.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 1, D-Day and burying the dead in Normandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBaBYOxWjg
• Part 3, the army of occupation and Margot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pg8DCBaIUI
• Part 4, Margot again and his life after the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG_KeqThEro
• Part 5, his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokgDr_iAGA
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/