75th Remembrance
“Be A Bridge, DEFEND A Gap”

Grow with AI & Deep Tech: Antwerp 6 March 2020
Dedicated to:

• 14th Mechanized Cavalry and Major Smith

• US 106th Infantry, Polish, British, Canadian, French & Nordic “Vikings” of the 99th

• Boufflette family of Villers-l'Evêque (near Liège)

addendum to program
arranged by Chris, Co-chair
Est reading time: 20 minutes
(time to take in one Belgian pintje)

PROLOGUE

Welcome to Antwerp for Grow with AI and Deep Tech.

Our video stream ensures we can connect Europe, the US and Canada and won’t “slow down” too much as COVID continues.

Our first event was at Fenwick & West in 2013 in Mountain View, California & hosted roughly 50 B2B tech founders including the Bruges-born co-founder of Shazam, Adyen before its first external funding, Soundcloud when it was < 100 employees, the City of Amsterdam, iMinds and six European Berkeley MBAs.

Here we are 7 years later. We live in a time in search of a future. And I guess it’s no less disorienting than was faced last century. Back then American statesman George Marshall was labeled a traitor by Senator McCarthy in the early 50s, and even Eisenhower had trouble navigating his path to President. These facts are disorienting.

Tech hero Elon Musk notes dictators die but AI dictators don’t. Some see AI and societies’ reliance on digital technology, the subject of our gathering, as a danger. Others see AI as a solution to challenges we face, or simply a competitive advantage for those with the ability to use it. These opinions are hard to untangle.

A single data scientist today will bring double digit revenue and a windfall of cash versus traditional vertical industry or the SME. But that windfall does not go to the human who built it, but rather organizations that can reinvest as the data scientist automates him or herself out of a job. This market dynamic is confusing.

With COVID making gains — Italy was the first European country to ban events this week — it seems a time to see if we can untangle these knots. Can we find lessons from past challenges our societies faced? We invited Carl Wouters, Battle of the Bulge historian, to say a few words about how to succeed in such circumstances, as we close on this the 75th Remembrance of WWII.

And we will hear from a range of Transformation Executives from TPV, Royal Haskoning and Autodesk, and from some of the leading tech entrepreneurs in Europe bringing AI and Deep Tech to market.

It is good to know on 16 December 2019 the Mayor of St. Vith inaugurated a new monument to the 106th to recognize their contributions and we look forward to participating in a future ceremony.

The remainder of this post is what I expect many people have done as COVID continues to impinge on our regular lives. I’ve taken advantage of this 75th Remembrance to share personal research I’ve made into a part of family history related to the Battle of the Bulge - people whose lives collide in times of change and where the will of humans go up against the brutality of mechanized warfare. And a family road trip to Belgium, Germany and then Paris to see what we learned from Carl about how to win a struggle against forces of malign intent.

With our hosts including this week one of Belgium’s top tech law firms, the City of Antwerp and a cohort of great tech entrepreneurs, I’ll take liberties to explore the defense of freedom and my own grandfather Larry’s role in the Ardennes during one of the coldest winters on record, and the Spring taking of a bridge.

In Good Faith

— Chris

******

PART 1: THE LOSHEIM GAP

4 August 1914 using a small Gap called Losheim in the Ardennes forest, Germany laid siege to Liège and in 11 days had taken the last Fort.

In the next year 1.5 million Belgians would flee their homes (20% of the population), 25,000 homes and buildings would be destroyed, 6,000 civilians killed, 3,000 additional electrocuted along the Belgian-Dutch border (called the Wire of Death).

120,000 people become forced labor. One was young Fernand Boufflette. Fernand Boufflette and his wife Thérèse PIER lived on a farm near Liège as had their forebearers for several hundred years.

The ancient city of Liège existed from before Roman times, was the birthplace of Charlemagne (Herstal) and site of the first battle of WWI.

Fernand had joined the military and later that year survived an explosion at Fort Loncin which killed 350 of 550 resident soldiers.

Fernand and a friend of his survived. They became prisoners and Fernand was transported across Germany to Camp Parchim in the east to work until returning home at the end of the war. He rebuilt the farm and his wife Thérèse gave birth to three children Joseph, Paul and Palmyre. 

In 1941 Liège was again occupied via the Losheim Gap, but this time the local German commander knew Fernand. Fernand had worked as a farm hand while held in Germany, where the Commander grew up. This made survival easier for the family during the occupation of Liège. 

When the Germans finally left and his family would host my grandfather Major Larry Smith, shellshocked from defending the Losheim Gap which had shown it’s utility as a barn door for incursions into Western Europe.

PART 2: ANTWERP & MIDDELBURG

In early September, the Witte Brigade (White Brigade) of the Belgian resistance managed to seize the port of Antwerp before it could be scuttled and 90% of the port remained in tact.

Antwerp port had been liberated September 4 1944 and four days later Liège including the nearby village Villers-l'Evêque where the Boufflette’s lived. Belgian Prime Minister Pierlot returned to Brussels from London, making Belgium the first in Europe with a restored constitutional government.

Fighting in Belgium persisted — along the West Scheldt the 1st Polish Armoured Division advanced northeast from Ghent (by September 20), as Canadian and British covered their flanks and moved northward in their respective battle zones.

On November 6, the Royal Scots made an amphibious landing on the beaches of Middelburg (capital of Dutch province Zeeland) in “Buffaloes”, forcing an end to all German resistance around Antwerp on November 8. 

And even as the Allies were sending exhausted units and new ones to the Ardennes which was considered the “Honeymoon sector”.

PART 3: THE ARDENNES

The Losheim Gap was used during the Blitzkrieg in 1940 allowing the German army to encircle and capture the more than a million French soldiers. The French was a mobile war goliath and even lent the US its first tanks when Eisenhower had been given command in 1919 at Camp Colt, the first tank school near the site of Pickett’s Charge in Gettysburg.

Bastogne is etched in the collective imagination of any American who knows his or her history. A US commander replied ‘nuts’ when told to surrender in Bastogne in an endearing American moment.

General Patton made his legendary sprint to Bastogne to save the day at Bastogne. And today, the place is riddled with icons and restaurants.

But an hour drive northeast of Bastogne is a lesser known corridor called the “Losheim Gap” (near Prum). In 1914 the Germans had used the 8 kilometer gap to attack Liège, one hour away through St. Vith.

Larry was supposed to write procedures to deal with what “might come up during combat” for the group and the 99th and 106th comprising around 12,000 men to which they were attached. With the 99th and 106th straddling two hills on either side of the Gap, many of them arrived to replace prior positions in frigid foxholes just a few days before the fighting began.

The 14th Cavalry Group with Larry Smith had sailed for Europe aboard the Queen Elizabeth on 28 August 1944. After brief training in the UK, they landed on Omaha Beach 30 September three months after the initial June landings of Normandy. Most of France had been liberated by September so the 14th Cavalry Group, comprised of the 18th and 32nd squadrons with roughly a thousand men and 150 vehicles each pressed East.

By the end of 1944 the war appeared to be coming to an inevitable conclusion. By early October the 14th Cavalry Group’s 18th Squadron arrived in Ettelbruck Luxembourg. By mid October they got to the Ardennes and began to familiarize themselves with a ten kilometer front which included the Losheim gap.

PART 4: THIRD TIME AT THE LOSHEIM GAP

General Joachim Peiper was a model son of the SS who had built his reputation in the battle of France, in Poland and the Soviet Union. He had joined the scouts in 1926 at 18 along with his older brother and by his mid to late 20s was the prodigy General leading the 1st SS Panzer Division.

The furor’s infatuation with woods, Norse legend and fog is well known. And fog was a decisive factor in the decisions of December since it made the air superiority of the Allies irrelevant and forecastors predicted 10 days.

Peiper was assigned over 21,000 SS and 124 Panther and Tiger tanks (plus dozens of armored cars and artillery), whose military objective was Antwerp through St. Vith area and Liège (though likely politically motivated).

By mid December Major Smith had been in the Ardennes for six weeks. He’d had time to get to know the land and any ‘high ground’. Supreme US commanders saw terrain to the south and north of St. Vith (up the way about an hour, closer to Cologne) more suitable to enter Germany. The Losheim area was considered less strategic and build ups were done elsewhere.

PART 5: SCHWAB GERMANS IN THE AMERICAN HEARTLAND

Every entrepreneur-at-heart loves to take lessons from history like the introduction of a new technology — the rail lines or a new communications platform — or building something fitting for the age in which they lived.

Johan Schmidt, grandfather of Major Smith, immigrated to Michigan in 1853 with two brothers and settled not far from Grand Rapids (where many Dutch settled during the 1840s and 50s) and arrived with little more than their work ethic and wit.

New rail lines let local entrepreneurs build upon that industrialized base. A year after they arrived, the brothers bough 44 acres at a price of about $4.50 per acre paying $380 in cash, which “emptied our money bags”.

“We plan to work together until the end of the harvest because it will be easier for us.” he wrote. “It would cost too much if we were to do it separately. And it would be silly fo us to do it individually because of the difficulty of working with the forest. It is always better to work with someone else.”

The Civil War ended in 1865 and there was a shortage of labor.

David, son of immigrant Johan, “asked his father to save a piece of ground along side the right-of-way (rail lines) and subsequently built an elevator at Woodbury.” David and his brother George joined him as they started out using a “horse powered sweep to drive the machinery.” Along the way they added cousin Coates, who worked at the local Farmers and Merchants Bank in town and could access capital.

For three generations Smith Brothers would manage the logistics of connecting the farmers of central Michigan and Chicago commodity markets.

Larry described his Father: “I could talk for long periods about him — his morality, Christian principals, liberal ideals, etc…that’s how the company got started. Smith Bros has a long history of dedicated, moral, community-involved service. It is our intension to continue such service.”

In February 1942 he received a letter to report to Fort Riley, Kansas. Larry would spend two years as Colonel George Beatty’s adjutant Captain at the Academic Regiment of Tank Destroyer Command School.

PART 6: AMERICAN INNOVATOR IN MOBILITY & LOGISTICS

In 1916, another descendent of immigrants Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated in 1915 from military university.

Dwight came from a family of Pennsylvania Dutch and German ancestry. His 3rd great-grandfather Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer and his 2nd great-grandfather Johann Peter immigrated to America in 1741 from Germany on the ship Europa.

Young captain Eisenhower had remained State-side he ended the first war in 1918 leading an Infantry Battalion that trained young tank crews.

In early 1918 Eisenhower got his first command at Camp Colt in Gettysburg National Military Park.

The things learned by Eisehower and his staff at Camp Colt would find their way into the manuals Larry read in Texas in 1944. But in September 1918, the "Spanish flu" epidemic arrived at Camp Colt, ultimately killing 175 and infecting many of the roughly 10,000 men under his command. 

In 1919 Eisenhower was an observer for a mobile convoy across the country with the Transcontinental Motor Convoy (TMC). The trip from the East coast to the Bay Area was meant to help raise awareness of the quality of roads, leadership and mobility.

The 5,000 kilometer TMC journey took four months consisting of 81 vehicles, including 31 heavy cargo trucks, 4 kitchen trailers, a wrecker, 4 motorcycles and 5 ambulances – and it did not go well. By the time the Transcontinental Motor Convoy reached Oakland, California, it was seven days behind schedule, ferrying the next morning on the last travel day.

In the 1920s and 30s, Eisenhower served under generals like Fox Conner, John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall. When the war started, Eisenhower was brought to Washington and was involved with developing plans to defeat Japan and Germany.

PART 7: CONVERGENCE

As Christmas approached there was 8” to 18” inches of loose snow and a dense Fog slithering through the Ardennes. Fox holes peppered the ground. The 106th Infantry Division had arrived on December 11th and the 99th not long before.

Major Smith and the 14th Cavalry command post was moved to Manderfeld a few kilometers from the Losheim Gap. He had been in Europe little more than three months and was missing his girls and wife back home in Michigan. Larry and Bennie’s birthdays (Bennie was three days older then him) both fell the week before Christmas and he planned to write her a letter.

Preparations were made but as rotations of new divisions came the advice from the vets to the new guys was how lucky they were to be in the sleepy Ardennes. Guys mostly in their 20s from an ocean away tried to stay warm. The Fog and low temperatures were expected to last another ten days.

At 5:30am on 16 December 1944 the battle was on. I still hold a letter Larry wrote to my Grandmother explains the initial reaction to cut communications lines that morning in Manderfeld, just a few kilometers from the German border and the Losheim Gap.

Excerpts from letter Larry wrote to his wife about that 16th December morning:

“The day before your birthday (i.e., December 16 1944) about 5:30am I was awakened by a terrific bunch of explosions. It was evident we were being shelled, and after 15 or 20 minutes, I couldn’t go back to sleep (also decided something was up), I got up and walked downstairs.

The damn shelling didn’t let up. In fact kept on going for about an hour and a half. Me…I’d never been through a heavy one before, so didn’t know whether it was tough or not. Our Ex had been here since D Day, though, and claims he had seen some heavy barrages: and that ours on the 16th was the heaviest he’d seen.

[…]

Our phone lines to the lower units were out soon after the thing started and we didn’t know what was going on at the front; so someone had to go down to the Sq. to find out….So we started out […]

Got closer to the front, and found that the front line positions were in tact, but receiving the same thing, so went back to the Command Post and got the wire men to lay wire again.

Day break found [Jerry] coming through our front lines with tanks and large numbers of men. Our particular part of the line consisted of occupying, holding and defending towns (they’re closer together over here). He paid extremely heavy though in coming through; but he was apparently ready and willing…sent more right into the spots where he lost the first, and then repeated and repeated the process.

Now that we look back, we can see little things, extremely little, that show us how carefully and minutely the [Boshe] may have been planning the thing.

It was a hazy day, and so the “air” couldn’t do much to help. About noon I packed most of my stuff, got it on the trailer, and sometime during the afternoon, we withdrew.” (Larry Smith)

A whirlpool of mechanization was turning around the Losheim Gap like a clock.

Meanwhile, Larry’s letter to Bennie he described the front line of this attack:

“Everything was vague…by that I mean we couldn’t find out what the situation was on our flanks, or what the general picture was.

As it turned out, the big picture was an attack, on a grand, all-out scale. We were in a town called Monderfield…about 10 miles east of St. Vith.

One interesting thing; We had some troops in a dinky berg who were about cut off; so, we sent a tank platoon down to help them out. 5 minutes after they evacuated the town, it just plain disappeared. [Jerry] put a TOT on it. “TOT” means “time on target” in which several artillery battalions shell a point and figure their data so that the shells hit at the same time. Well, we crossed that settlement off the map. I guess [Jerry] wanted us out of it…we were!” (Larry Smith)

Mechanized platforms and artillery brought speed and carnage as they came through Losheim. Another observation of the first barrage by a German commander:

“The earth seemed to break open. A hurricane of iron and fire went down on the enemy positions with a deafening noise. We old soldiers had seen many a heavy barrage, but never before anything like this.” — Major Günther Holz, the commander of the 12. Volksgrenadier-Division’s Panzerjäger-Abteilung 12, afterwards described 0530 hrs on 16 December.

On the American side, Staff Sergeant John Hillard of 394th Infantry Regiment describes the psychological effect of this massive artillery fire, “Several of our men went mad and left their shelters in order to get killed or mutilated.”

This third incursion through the corridor in such numbers brought grid lock and devastation both ways. “Surprise and numbers” went up against “familiarity with the terrain and dug in positions”. Throughout the night of the 16/17 Germans poured through the Losheim Gap. Major Smith got little rest and described that “bright and early the next AM the front line units started catching it again.”

Meanwhile the unfortunate top American field commander for the Ardennes General Bradley was in Paris to celebrate his classmate Eisenhower’s promotion to 5-stars and initially discounted the reports (Eisenhower’s quick analysis enabled Bastogne and Losheim to receive timely defense by Patton and Limburg-stationed reinforcements).

The 1st SS Panzer group took a series of towns with the opposition in completely in disarray. In interest of saving time Peiper, after having capturing and having them refuel his vehicles, Peiper would have 84 US POWs abruptly shot in what would become known as the Malmedy Massacre.

Meanwhile both lived by the old adage “all is fair in love and war” with the Americans using brutal new explosives and Germans parading around in costumes.

Resistance began to firm up north of Manderfeld where 40+ German tanks from the 12th were destroyed. The afternoon on 18 December a slight break in the clouds allowed individual sorties from the air and 291st Engineering battalion on the ground managed to blow up two key bridges.

According to a popular story, after seeing the second small bridge scuttled just before they’d reached it, Peiper sank down on his knees and hammered his fist against one knee (or threw his officer’s cap in the ground) and cursed over and over, ‘diese verdammten Ingenieure!’ ’Those damned engineers!’.

The antagonist Peiper, just 29 years old but used to success, worried about fuel. He found his rear turning into a battlefield. He dispatched two convoys of troop carriers to find a route.

PART 8: AMBUSH NEAR POTEAU (& ROAR FROM HOLLAND)

On the 2nd day of fighting 17 December things were not easing up. The 14th Cavalry had used Poteau to rotate and replenish whatever squadron had been on the front. Colonel Devine got his three senior officers including Major Smith into a jeep and armored escort from St. Vith area to ascertain status of the 99th with whom they had lost contact.

After making their way north and hitting a brick wall, they turned around. It was after dusk as the two vehicles navigated a dark wooded road. A convoy of armored cars was on the same road coming towards them. It was 6pm.

Excerpts from letters Major Smith wrote to his wife Bennie. Bennie’s birthday was on 17th of December and she was three days older than Larry.

“…on your birthday, we moved a couple of times. So that kept us busy. The Colonel and staff started out late in the afternoon for [the 99th infantry] division but couldn’t get through due to [some…] machine guns. So we came back. It was dark by that time. 

All of the sudden the armored car up ahead (I was in a jeep with the Col right behind it) stopped!

Somebody walked up to [the armored car], a pistol shot rang out, and the battle was on. It seemed pretty hot and heavy to me, so the old man and I hit the ditch, skinned through a barbed wire fence, and started a little creeping and crawling with the prayers.

What happened was the officers in [our] first car recognized the man...so he was killed. Then [the 14th armored car] turned on their headlights to see what was up, and lo and behold, there was a G-reconnaissance patrol (about 4 armored cars). 

Well, we opened up with our 50 cal mg, and kept [them] stunned for about 30 seconds. [Our guys] backed the car up (it’s an awkward thing), and finally turned around and took off. 

They tried to pick the Col and me up, but couldn’t locate us, so…

I got my compass out, decided which way we wanted to go, grabbed the Col by the arm, and started out. Well…[they were] fully awake by that time and decided to find some of us. So [they] threw up some flares, searched the ground with machine gun fire and some mortar. The firing didn’t last long, but the flares did. Each time a flare with up, we hit the ground.

Well, to shorten this up a bit, with my compass, we walked about seven miles back to our outfit and were okay. That night I was up the whole night, and the next day was a bad one again, but I guess that’ll have to wait.” (Larry Smith)

Whether or not the Germans had mistaken these night-time marauders as their comrades dressed as Americans will never be known. But the 14th Cavalry and the 1st SS Panzer reconnaissance patrol ambushed each other that night.

Upon getting back around midnight, Colonel Devine went immediately to bed saying “You take over Patsy”. (Patsy was nickname of one of the other senior officers).

Colonel Dugan assumed command of the 14th from Colonel Devine at Vielsalm by 2am.

With 28% casualties and 35% of the 14th Cavalry vehicles missing from the two original squadrons, they were combined into one. Dugan directed two task forces, one sent to “seize the high ground” at Born, the other to move the command post to Petit-Their from Poteau, which by that time had again lost telephone communications.

The group tasked with heading up ground for Born immediately ran into three regiments and found themselves defending Poteau itself.

The first defense line of Manderfeld and second of Poteau were over-run later that day. St. Vith would fall on 21 December a day after Larry’s 28th birthday. Between 1pm and 11pm that day 200 of the original 650 men were standing.

There was no time for reflection. Large formations had “roared out of Holland” and the newly arrived 7th Armored division assumed control of the group.

The Battle of the Bulge became the bloodiest single battle for the Americans of the war with over 19,000 killed in 6-weeks.

In those initial days the cut off 99th Infantry Division to the north while green would demonstrate heroism in the field which would also be published widely later on. And the colorful characters like the legendary “Viking Battalion” - a group of conscripts of Norwegian descent whose officers had a humorous disdain for their European interlopers and were lethal in their zone.

From 16 to 24 December Peiper would pace a 40 kilometer line like a polar bear armed with a machete.

And the pack of stubborn but disjoined wolves did their work.

In what is considered a turning point, Major George Brooking’s Thunderbolt, aptly named ’The Fickle Finger’, broke through the Fog & Clouds a few feet from the ground. For the next two hours, “Peiper’s Charge” paid at Amblève as individual sorties chipped at the extended line of SS Panzers.

On the 23rd of December at 1700 hrs a full moon had broken through and the sky was clear.

And in the woods not far away, General Peiper the prodigy was ordered to break out and join the campaign. Out of gas, he and 800 soldiers abandoned 150 vehicles and walked thirty six hours east through foggy woods from whence they came. They arrived cold and hungry at the spot where they began — at the Losheim Gap. For the first time Peiper was stumped.

It was December 24th, the Night Before Christmas. No “visions of sugar plumbs” would dance but the 1832 English St. Nicholas poem seems strangely correct:

“More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONNER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

- Clement C. Moore's poem 
A Visit from St. Nicholas (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) (1823)

Ironically just a few kilometers to the north of the spot sat 3 million gallons of gas at a town called Spa, enough fuel to make a trip with 150 heavy vehicles to Antwerp and back to Losheim 75 times (a nice round number for this 75th anniversary).

That day back home in America a Bing Crosby song “Don’t fence me in” hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts. [click to play]:

“Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don't fence me in.
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze,
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees…”
— “Don’t Fence me In”, Bing Crosby & Andrews Sisters 1944

On French Bastille Day (14 July) in 1976, while living hidden away in France, Peiper's cover was blown. His home was set ablaze and he did not survive.

And Colonel Devine, the S1 of the 14th Cavalry at 2:30am on the 18th December— after five hours behind enemy lines — reached some boiling point of hysteria. Devine left the area via medical evacuation channels.

PART 9: HOW DOES A PHOENIX RISE?

Antwerp has risen from the ashes before. As a world city Antwerp pre-dates Beijing, New York, London and even Amsterdam. The strategic location has meant a millennium of repeated encroachments.

Eight weeks after Antwerp was recovered in tact by Belgian freedom fighters, the port began to pump critical fuel and supplies like the Pershing tank into the grinding war front.

But the Allies desperate December action to the Ardennes left The Netherlands exposed.

If you ever attend a Liberation Day 5 May ceremony in Holland they are somber. A Lion-spirit was evident in 2014 when the Dutch honored 283 people (193 Dutch) who were lost on flight MH17 over Ukraine. The ceremony televised nation-wide, the harpist in our local church (who inspired my own daughter to learn to play) made me feel privileged to call The Netherlands home.

September 1944 had begun with such great promise for the Dutch. Eindhoven, Oss, Nijmegen and Terneuzen were liberated that month.

But Arnhem’s all important Rhine-crossing proved a “Bridge Too Far”.

By October North Brabant in the south of The Netherlands, fighting began to resemble trench warfare from the first war. But Overloon was won and Allies made steady progress liberating Breda, Tholen, Tilberg, Den Bosch, Breskens and in November Middelburg.

Still, this was only 20% of The Netherlands.

Limburg had been liberated four days after Liège on 12 September.

But everything changed at 5:30am on the 16 December. The 7th was pulled south to St. Vith for defense. It would take until March 1945, nearly six months of wounded delay, to get Allies moving northward into The Netherlands again (see map in appendix).

During that pause of Winter 1944/45, many sacrificed. At long last Spring did come:

• Venlo was retaken (end of March)

• In April Wageningen, Arnhem north to Leeuwarden

• Finally by 5 May the “Randstad” (major cities Rotterdam, Den Haag, Amsterdam, Utrecht)

5 May 1945 it stood again except two northern islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog (Historie, No.2 2020).

Those who survived in the Ardennes left shell-shocked. Larry spent January with the Boufflettes regaining himself.

Fernand Boufflette and his wife Therese showed great generosity by opening their Walloon farm near Liège to Major Smith and two other American service members.

The people of Villers-l'Evêque showed a light in those dark months through their benevolence. Those months of alchemy forged Europe — particularly the Allies from this war — into the defender of human values we know today as a distinct character and fault line of the European Union. These were the months we all earned the right to stubbornly safeguard them.

Christmas was celebrated at the Boufflette’s farm, across the road from an old town square with a tall church.

In those days of rejuvenation Larry was taken into the family, also by the Boufflette children Joseph, Paul and youngest daughter Palmyre. Incidentally, I met Palmyre ten years ago with my parents and children. She sat at the head of the table, a chin up Matriarch with her grown family and the eldest stateswoman in the room. It was touching to see her eyes light up when talking about our Grandfather from a time when she had been a girl and he had been on the mend.

Palmyre passed away not long thereafter, but it was clear she handed down the warmth towards Larry from that most difficult Winter to her posterity.

In January 1945, Major Smith left the Boufflettes and Villers-l'Evêque to rejoin his unit. By February the 14th Cavalry Group was back at it.

And six-weeks after a uninvited 5:30am wake up call, on 25 January, the Battle of the Bulge was done.

PART 10: MIRACLE AT REMAGEN

On 7 March history converged on the Rhine. The 14th Tank Battalion (a sibling to the 14th Cavalry also at St. Vith) under the 9th Armored Division unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.

The last unscuttled bridge crossing the Rhine, scheduled to be blown at 4pm, was taken with 10 minutes to spare. In fact, a faulty fuse and backup fuse failed to deploy by defenders desperate to slow the tide that now flowed against them from the forest three months before.

On 10 March the 14th Cavalry rode in and took on security (ground, water and air) on both river banks at the bridgeheads.

Trained suicide teams of saboteurs continually attempted to demolish the bridge over the next several days. Steps were taken to “frustrate [those] efforts” in “the most thorough and complete” way:

“…log, and net booms were constructed across the river to intercept water-borne objects; depth charges were dropped…an average of 12 per hour each night to discourage under­water swimmers and submarines; radar was employed to detect underwater craft; river patrols were maintained; shore patrols were on the alert 24 hours per day; at night, power­ful lights illuminated the surface of the river while high velocity guns were trained on all objects floating downstream; coordination was effected between adjacent corps, who were assisted by river and shore patrols.”

In a last ditch attempt, 17 March Hitler V-2 bombs launched from Holland for months now targeted Remagen. A thousand rockets had landed in Antwerp (see map in appendix). Now 11 V-2 rockets were turned to Ludendorff 200 km away. The first rocket came in at it’s usual 3,000 kph, going through the roof of a house belonging to Christian Schutzeichel.

The warhead split off and landed around 9:54am in the backyard of a farmer named Herman Joseph Lange, a kilometer from the bridge (this would be the closest and deadliest strike).

The Lange family was hosting a dozen servicemen in their home. Three of those men were killed instantly. The next three V-2s landed near two churches and in another berg 8 km away - injuring 31 and killing three.

But this Losheim Gap would be thoroughly defended. It became known as the “Miracle in Remagen”.

During the 12-day period, 16-28 March, a total of 58,262 vehicles crossed over all three pontoon bridges, or an average of 4,855 per day.

And two hours to the north in The Netherlands a Spring thaw began.

And by April, Major Smith and the 14th Cavalry would journey another 400 kilometers East to Nuremberg just two hours from the Schmidt’s ancestral home and his great grandfather’s resting place in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 14th Cavalry ended their tour in Austria. In November 1945 Larry returned home to his wife Bennie and two girls in Lake ‘O.

PART 11: CHOCOLATE CREPES IN PARIS

My kids and I needed two full days to cover the first 200 kilometer leg from Utrecht to the Ludendorff Bridge. Driving through the winding, sunny hills of the Ardennes and into the Rhineland we unpacked family stories of legendary absurdity. And a golden hue washed over equally stunning Belgian and then German country sides.

We stopped the stereotypical American mini-van next to the bridge head at the edge of the Rhine. We painted (a relaxing thing even a teenager might try on a meandering European holiday) the reinforced abutments of Remagen stood like dark sentries on either shore, blackish-blue water snaking still between massive hills. We bid farewell to imaginary figures standing up top on the far side of the river. They ambled away as Odysseus might knowing he was emblazoned already to history.

Ten days after this bridge was crossed and almost six months to the day since Arnhem was not, Ludendorff collapsed. 28 engineers of the 276th Engineer Battalion and 1058th Bridge Group fell while hanging from rafters they had one mind to strengthen.

Engineer John Morgado of the 16th Armored Division remembers “I looked down to see the men, several of whom I knew, trying to keep their heads above water, but because they had on heavy gear and the river was flowing so swiftly they couldn’t.”

Sergeant Alfred W. Enlow, in command of a 30-man platoon from the 32nd squadron said, “At the time the bridge started to collapse I was looking at it, and right in the midst of shaving. I never saw such a sensational sight in my life. There was no shell fire nor were there any explosions. the bridge just trembled and shook and in a mighty cloud of dust fell into the river.”

There was no Ludendorff Bridge for us to cross.

After a worthy pause, with the agility of a mini-van (neatly named Odyssey), we made a 90 degree pivot to Paris.

532 kilometers and six hours later we stood beneath the Eiffel Tower.

We ordered extra large chocolate crepes, captured our “Winter Lights” pics on iPhones and watched the water surge down the Siene reflecting the Christmas lights. Sweet spoils for three lucky Dutch-American kids whose holiday was ambushed in the Ardennes and who nibbled an edge of history.

PART 12: THE EASY STUFF: GROW WITH AI & DEEP TECH GATHERING

With a new sense of purpose and with Parisian pastries accounted for it was time to work.

I contacted “Belgium Remembers”, “Europe Remembers”. Then two weeks ago, a break in the Clouds. I left a voicemail of my predicament with the Mayor of St. Vith who I’d found online. Not five hours later, I received a 10pm call (on a week night in Holland i.e., not “normal”).

After friendly greetings Mayor Grommes got to the point. “You want someone who knows about the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge, then Carl’s your man.” he told me directly. “Carl lives in Antwerp and really the memorial was his idea.” The St. Vith Memorial to 106th was inaugurated on 16 December 2019.

Carl is the Liaison to the 106th Infantry Division Association and did not hesitate. Carl will share what he knows and relate it to what he hears (once we have requisite Pintjes in hand).

PART 13: ONION SOUP & CHRISTMAS

Late December 2019 at the Boufflettes, Christmas lights were draped on the tree in a high ceiling living room. Fire burned in the hearth of Fernand’s family farm rebuilt a century before and renovated by his grandson Denis. And we grandchildren and our children sat together eating Wallonia Onion Soup sharing stories. Now that is ‘gezellig’.

We passed around a square patch of parachute. Through the nylon were stitched signatures of the Americans who had recovered themselves here in Villers-l'Evêque during the six week Battle of the Bulge.

The Boufflette’s feat of reconciliation at the crossroads of two major wars is Epic. And their farm would make a perfect set for a Spielberg film if it had to be real.

I am not surprised to learn that when put in a tough situation, Larry did okay though I assume he was more scared than he let on in his letters to Grandma Bennie. He never mentioned to his grandkids receiving a Bronze star for how he helped to extricate his fellows from encirclement in the pre-dawn moments of the battle and for bravery during an SS ambush near Poteau. And I know this action was one of thousands made by individuals who had doubts & went home with a few demons. But still did what they could where they stood.

And one Belgian WW2 monument stands today in slight disrepair but steadfast and another just six months old in St. Vith, imploring us to stay vigilant and keep watch for ghosts of Losheim Gap’s Future.

FINALE: MIND THE GAP

Today there is new technology all around us, and most of society is going through this rapid 4th industrial revolution McKinsey’s multiples referred to. As we seek new frontiers we see many flanks currently exposed. Looking beyond our own is pretty tough to do.

And meanwhile these vulnerabilities seem like Groundhog Day and often tied up with technology. Regarding our elections, our health or more paralyzing “what to invest or save today” to ensure well-being of our Future Selves. In coming weeks we can be sure the attacks on our freedoms will grow.

We turn to straight-talk historian Carl, Liaison to the 106th Infantry Division Association, who offers some parting thoughts and clear plan of action.

I paraphrase and directly quote below:

1. Bottom-up thinking: Small unit actions are important. Individual and low level initiative is key. Don’t expect reinforcements or a unified plan at the start

2. Cooperate and have contingency plans: Coordinated action works to defend a Losheim Gap. But be prepared for when the shooting starts and communications lines (telephone and radio), signal instructions and networks are likely compromised

3. Mix in new technologies and old: But take the time to re-rethink things. Mobility, intelligence, scenario planning, training, supply were fundamental to the new Mechanized Cavalry introduced by “re-thinkers” like Eisenhower

4. Reconciliation: Acknowledge our mutual interests to preserve a peaceful and healthy society (and tech community). A foe on the field can become “the home team” and a leader in the pack

5. Complacency: Allies believed there was no fight left. Units were unprepared and had a false sense of security and even the Supreme Leaders did not see what was in front of them

Tomorrow 7 March is the date the 14th cavalry would reach the Rhine in 1945. Ten weeks ago 20 of just these sorts of guys from the 106th Infantry came to St. Vith for the 75th Remembrance. One was indeed 100 years old.

• But what would these veterans say about a fog that encircles us, like the Spanish flu did Camp Colt in 1918?

• How would they say to find and defend a Losheim Gap, as mortar and bullets zip around us?

• Would they see us as less able than they were to meet the challenges we face with AI, Coronavirus or climate change?

One thing I do remember is that Larry and Bennie had big plans to move to the City. But Larry’s Dad passed away while he was in the Ardennes and his older brothers were already practicing medicine and were his seniors. So he took a crash course in agriculture that summer. In the end, Larry did the same thing as Fernand had in Belgium after the 1st War. He spent the next many years applying his energies to things he thought mattered and was steadfast to his community:

And as for Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, everyone knows what he went off and did after WW2. But even more fascinating to me is that in 1919, in the months after loosing nearly 200 of his 10,000 soldiers at Camp Colt to the Spanish flu, Eisenhower took a convoy from one ocean to the other (technically it was Wash DC to Oakland).

Eisenhower took the year of a pandemic to get stronger, building support for investments to secure the future. And while I’m not sure a physical world convoy during a pandemic was a great idea — he managed to trouble shoot for the cavalry by driving 5,000 kilometers at an average speed of 8kph to see what broke. Then made sure it did not happen the next time.

A few things said with certainty:

“We raise a Pintje to Antwerp for rising to the occassion, and for the sustenance and fuel they brought for Centuries but especially the last one. To people like the Boufflette’s and Larry and their families. To the 2020s (28 engineers of Remagen and 20 veterans of St. Vith’s 106th Infantry). To new friends and preserving old ones for our collective future.”

If stewarded by people as ready to make a toast to the past as to one another, this our value system can be a guide for ‘safe’ and ‘quality of life’ enhancing tech,

We need some experiments and a ‘grand plan’ to the address unintended consequences like unemployment and some regulatory oversight in areas like ‘digital superintelligence’ (versus ‘narrow AI’ which creates social dislocation but might not pose a fundamental risk).

As we pave a road to better quality of life and longevity in the next era, the same way the Good Roads Movement of the 1890s which preceded Eisenhower’s party-friendly roadtrips and concrete trade & security investment outcomes.

By considering not only the so-called developed world of the US and Europe, but also our friends and neighbors — some Birds of a Feather — we might actually come out of the crisis stronger and more fit for purpose than before.

And maybe Musk is right that we need an AI guiding principal to ‘maximize freedom of human action’, and that policies of a basic income paid for in part by the beneficiaries of productivity gains should be started soon.

How this fits with our individualism and desire to benefit as shareholders in innovative and pioneering work as startup founders and industry transformers — that is for each of us to decide and speak up for.

I for one — in my own dealings with startups and big companies — bet most of my friends would not see a contradiction in the idea of entrepreneurship, investment returns and community cohesion through some shared benefits model.

So in closing, thanks for Reading. And Patriots with > 2.5m (which is more than 1% of all Americans - mostly merit but built upon forebearer investments and sacrifice) in the bank consider making time to identify a worthy startup that might not survive in Holland, the US or Africa as a financial investment.

Or if tech investing is not your cup of tea — try a donation, with the rule the startup should carve out 3 to 5% of their cap-table for a vulnerable community facing hardship during this difficult time. I bet that latter bring many years of returns in the form of stable societies, gratitude and goodwill, not to mention protecting our freedoms which were hard earned 75 years ago.

Besides, once this earthly journey is coming to a close, you’ll leave it like Eisenhower did with no regrets but one. Shoot me a note with a guess (chris@globalventure.com), since every good blog post should have an Easter Egg!

Vigilance and cooperation are good words to keep!

With Warmth & Gratitude,

Christopher Smith Mott (aka, Che)

Larry’s eldest grandson
On behalf of the Smiths & Boufflettes
Steering group lead, Global Venture Exchange

Note: Thanks to Cresco Law, European Leadership University, Adilson, Annemie, Volta Ventures, the speakers and Carl Wouters, historian Liaison for 106th Infantry Division Association and Mayor Grommes from St. Vith. Most sources can be found online or through primary research. Any trespasses are unintentional. Pls send any counter points or additions to chris@globalventure.com.

Post Script to the 75th Remembrance

I hope this writeup using Major Smith (aka Grandpa Larry) as the protagonist gives Readers a modest bridge to connect the lessons of the past with the future of technology. It was sure fun to write.

And if it provoked a Reader to stubbornly secure the bridge to our collective future - or even better to do it together (while still complying with the 1.5 meter rule!) - then the objective was achieved.

Long version

GERMANY

Benelux

France

Bastogne on 27 December 2019, 75 years to the day after

Biography Major Lawrence Smith