bastogne44

Simovitch, Have a great time over there. There is so much to see. When I was in Bastogne, I stayed at the same hotel that Speilberg stayed at while he was doing his research for "The Band of Brothers"...Hotel Melba. Col Kinnard also stayed there a few times. Make sure you go to the Bastogne historical center (Mardasson Hill) and the Original Museum (close to Place McCaullife). Also their is a restaruant in Place McCaullife called "Le Nuts" (I am sure you know the story behind that). Good food. I still keep in touch with the battlefield tour guide that showed me around when I was there. He lives in Bastogne and will take you anywhere you want to go. He charged me 75 Euros for 4 hours in the morning, but has all day sessions as well. Besides Bastogne, he took me to Foy (the woods where the Band of Brothers were in), Noville, Recogne (German cemetary), Houfallize, and other memorials in the area. I would highly recommend him. If you want, I can give you his phone number and you can call him up for a tour. Just reply to this message or email me at hoppb@prodigy.net. He is very accomadating and will go wherever you want to see. In fact, he is going to pick me up some souvenirs from the 60th anniversary. Have a great time over there...they love Americans. When I ate at Le Nuts, they found out I was an American and they stared at me and gave me thumbs up the whole time I was at the restaurant. You will love it!!

Thanks for the info John. When I first found it I thought it was a lid to a soup can, but I saw the raised lettering that sais "60MM Mortar. Yeah, that makes sense that it is part of the container that stores the mortar. Have you ever been to Bastogne? I was over in Holland for work for 5 weeks and only had to work 2 mornings a week, so I had a lot of time to travel around. I went to Amsterdam, Utrecht, Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Nijmegan, Eindhoven, Son, Best, Margraten (American cemetary),Maastricht, Grosbeek,Aachen(Germany), Liege, Bastogne, Foy, Noville, and Houffalize. I had a great time visiting all the WWII museums and memorials over there. It is a shame that it took this long to get a nice WWII memorial here in the US. Bastogne has a huge US memroial, ever see it? Well take care.

Hello all. I am new to this site. I visited Bastogne, Belgium last year and hired a battlefield tour guide to take me to the woods in which the "Band of Brothers" occupied. While walking through the woods and dodging foxholes, I fould a round piece of rusted metal about the size of a soup can lid. The only writing that I can read on it is "60MM Mortar". What part of this shell does this piece come from? I also found a lot of shrapnel (very heavy) in the woods. My tour guide said that it came from the German 88's. I brought a piece with me back to the states and also the part of the 60mm Mortar. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!