Today marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and bloodiest battle fought by United States armed forces in World War II. At 5:30 that morning, the Germans threw over 410,000 men, 1,400 tanks and armored fighting vehicles, 2,600 artillery pieces and 1,000 aircraft against U.S. forces.
The attack was a complete surprise.
It would take one month and nine days to retake the area that became known as the “bulge” back from the Germans. The U.S. casualty rates were horrific.
There were a number of reasons why the U.S. high command was caught off guard and U.S. lines thinly held. One of those reasons was a failure to listen to what was being heard in the field in the days before the morning of December 16, 1944.
In this case, tanks and heavy artillery batteries. And they were moving. And they sounded close.
Those men in the field reported back to high command what they were hearing, and those at high command didn’t listen. What soldiers in the field were hearing was the just normal movement of German armor.
Nothing serious.
Until it was.
As a species, we don’t too badly when it comes to hearing. Unfortunately, though, the same can’t be said when it comes to listening. History is replete with tragedies whose root causes were failures in listening.
And with that, I have a simple recommendation for a New Year’s resolution: Listen to what’s really being said, and then pay close attention to the intentions behind what’s being said.
