The Battle of Bastogne was a small part of the larger battle also known as the Battle of the Bulge. General McAuliffe was on the front lines with his troops during a major attack against their headquarters. The Germans were attacking with everything they had and it seemed that General McAuliffe was losing the battle fast.
As the situation got worse a radio communication was sent to the American headquarters. It was from the Germans! They demanded for McAuliffe to surrender as the battle was not favoring the Americans. The issue with surrendering was that McAuliffe and his men had to defend a strategic position where they were so surrender was out of the question. The general was so offended by the demand it is reported that he was screaming after the message was received saying the Germans should perform anatomical impossibilities on themselves.
He knew that the rainy weather that they were fighting in was going to clear eventually to allow American air support to help out and they reportedly had a lot of reinforcements coming if they could hold out just a little longer. He just did not know how to respond back to the Germans in a way that was professional (as he was a professional soldier after all.)
He asked the men he was with at the time how he should respond to them. The overall consensus is that “Your original reaction is the best reaction.” He then returned a message that was one word only. The one word that makes me laugh a little bit every time i think about this event.
“Nuts”.
He replied back with “nuts”. Now this might seem lame to us today. However, in the 1940’s that is a straight up swear. He just straight up swore at the German army through an official message from the U.S. Army. The kicker here is that when the Germans received the message they didn’t understand it. They had to ask a translator what the word meant and the German translator said the closest thing it means in German is “Up yours”.
General McAliffe, you are a true American badass
https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/101st-screaming-eagles-siege-bastogne