Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, - rear center - acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division and his staff celebrate Christmas with a modest dinner in the barracks, while the town is surrounded with German forces and given an ultimatum to surrender; Bastogne, Belgium, December 25, 1944. 



Grim Christmas in Bastogne

A small group of Japanese soldiers, with the sign of a white flag, chose over suicide to surrender to American Forces...

White flag of surrender

General George Patton did not have the heroic battlefield death he wanted, but he was given a hero’s burial at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg; December 23, 1945.
The pallbearer on the left is M/Sgt. William Meeks, who served as Patton’s personal orderly for many years.   