Image: McAuliffeBastogneChristmasLetter101Airborne

Description: Scanned in image of copy of the letter sent to soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of Bastogne. The original letter imaged here is from the memorabilia of Private William (Bill) Wheeler, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division who participated in the action. He trained at Toccoa and was originally with Headquarters Company. Private Wheeler volunteered for pathfinder school, participated in the D-Day drop as a pathfinder during which his transport airplane made a controlled ditching in the English Channel after being hit by anti-aircraft fire, and ended up in Easy Company as a replacement. He participated in the Holland Jump (A Bridge Too Far), the defense of Bastogne, and other actions completing his tour with Easy Company in Austria at war's end. The letter from which this image was created is a text created by a U.S. Army commander as part of his duties during World War II and should be in the public domain as an official U.S. Government document. The image is a scan of the original document and is placed in the public domain by the person who did the scan, Richard Chambers.
Title: McAuliffeBastogneChristmasLetter101Airborne
Credit: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.
Author: Richardelainechambers at English Wikipedia
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No