Nate Ericson, a Lawrence resident who turned 102 this month, says the Battle of the Bulge was a major headline 80 years ago. He thinks it still needs to be big news today.
Ericson fought in the battle, one of the deadliest campaigns of World War II on the Western Front. Lasting from Dec. 16, 1944 to Jan. 25, 1945, the skirmish saw about 19,000 American soldiers killed. It was Germany’s last major offensive, and Ericson said that if Allied Forces had lost the battle, they would have also lost the war.
In the decades since the war ended, Ericson has mostly declined to share his story, but he thinks people need a reminder of what he learned.
“War is hell,” he said. “And you don’t want it. It’s horrible.”
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
The number of veterans from the battle still alive today is unknown, but surely small.
“I just think that the Battle of the Bulge should be remembered,” Ericson said. “Because without it, we would have lost the war. And I don’t know where everyone would be then.”
Ericson was born in Topeka in 1924. He enlisted in the Army and attended the University of Kansas for three months before getting called into service.
“I liked the Army because I wanted to be a photographer in the war,” he said with a chuckle. “Well, they didn’t need any photographers. They needed infantrymen.”
Please support
The Lawrence Times!
Subscribe here.
He completed training in Arkansas before being assigned to the 103rd Infantry Division, where he was the only “college man.” He achieved the rank of sergeant with the division.
But Ericson was adamant he didn’t want to tell a story about himself, but about what happened during his service in Europe, and why it should never be forgotten.
The 103rd division arrived in France in late 1944 after a treacherous sea trip through a storm and fought its first major battles through fierce German resistance and harsh winter conditions. Germans were aided by the weather — Ericson recalls sleeping in rainsoaked tents and drudging through two feet of snow — to halt American air support.
Eventually, the division shifted to a defensive position as the Battle of the Bulge began.
Germany, weakened during the latter stages of the war, planned the surprise offensive with thousands of tanks and troops through the Ardennes forest as a last push to quash Allied forces in the region. The Allied forces defeated the Germans in the bloody battle, accelerating the end of the war, which came months later.
Ericson spent his 21st birthday there fighting.
Command of the 103rd division was handed over to General Anthony McAuliffe, the famous Battle of the Bulge commander who replied to a German threat to pressure surrender of the encircled city of Bastogne with a simple reply of: “Nuts!”
After the war ended, Ericson had to stay in Europe for about a year to help handle prisoners, and he got to see places in eastern Europe without the shadow of war.
In the decades since he came home, Ericson has spent time building model airplanes.
In his room at Cedarhurst Senior Living, which he jokingly calls “his shack,” he designed and built his own wood table, now filled with parts for handcrafted aircraft — including an orange plane he finished a few years ago, which his son later test flew.
In 2010, he won first place at the Jayhawk Model Masters building competition.
After wrapping up his story, Ericson had one final comment.
“I’m not doing this for glory,” he said. “I just think that the Battle of the Bulge should be remembered. … No one cared about a buck sergeant. We went through the war. Who cared about me?”
Taylor Snider, a staff member at Cedarhurst Senior Living, chimed in.
“Well, we do now,” she said. “We care now.”
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
Nathan Kramer (he/him), a multimedia student journalist for The Lawrence Times since August 2024, is a senior at Free State High School. He is also a news photo editor for Free State’s student publication, where he works as a videographer, photographer and motion designer. See more of his work for the Times here.
Latest Lawrence news:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
