Battle of the Bulge

Something amazing happens to those of us who do genealogy – we become novice historians as well. 

To understand our ancestors, often times, we find ourselves reading up on – well, history.  History of clothing, occupations, calamities, diseases, cities, areas and yes, war.

In this instance, I read up on the Battle of the Bulge – yes, yes, I knew it occurred during WWII but I didn’t know the details, specifics, like the name was coined after a battlefield feature – that is, troops moving into enemy territory are surrounded on multiple sides making them vulnerable (picture a platoon of men moving in a line, a group - the bulge)

This is what happened at the Battle of Bulge in the Ardennes – a heavily forested area near Belgium & Luxembourg – providing cover for both sides. The Germans cut into the middle of the Allied bulge, thereby splitting the force which resulted in the highest number of causalities of any operation of the war – the American forces the hardest hit.

1933 Worcester Voc-Tech High School [Ancestry]

One loss was 1Lt Donald Arthur Trotter.

Donald was the son of Arthur R Trotter & Gertrude R Hoglund and he was born in Worcester, MA.  He married into our line by marrying Olive May LaFontaine – the daughter of Louis Arthur LaFontaine & Ella Jane Simpson – Ella the daughter of our William Wallace Simpson & Catherine L ‘Cassie’ Vincent.

Donald died in May of1944 – his son was born in Aug.

Donald's son, Donald Wayne Trotter, also served during Vietnam in the Navy

Olive remarried to a fella named Ernest Bouchard and had one son with him - she died in 1998.