Marie Rose was about 14 when her crossroads town of Bastogne was surrounded by the Germans in Dec of '44. Her family and her; younger brother Jackie(about 8), her 2 older sisters, her mother and I believe her grandmother were all on the run from danger, as were most of the townspeople of Bastogne, I would imagine. Their home was destroyed during the fighting and a picture was snapped of it with the family posing atop the rubble on Christmas day 1944. Strangely, they smiled for the picture, happy to be alive and not part of the rubble I suppose.
While on the run from danger, they sought refuge in the cellar of a building in town. At some point the Germans took charge of the building and were using it as an aid station. At one point during their stay, the building caught fire, (probably during during combat, keep reading). The inhabitants soon realized what would happen if they remained in the cellar, the building would collapse and bury them in the cellar or the smoke would suffocate them. So in an attempt to save the lives of the wounded Germans, all able bodied German soldiers exited the cellar with white flag in hand and were gunned down by American soldiers. (Wow, how often do we hear about American attrocities?)
At this point panic begins to well up in the civilians and wounded soldiers huddled in the cellar. Marie Roses' mother decides that she will go out with the white flag so they can get out of the cellar. However, showing a lot of courage, Marie tells her mom that she needs to take care of her younger brother if anthing happens to her. She exits the cellar and before the GI's realize it's a civilian, she is machine gunned in the knee, wounding her. (Can you imagine?) She still gets pain in her knee when it's cold.
Apparently there is no ill feelings toward the Americans because they moved here and her younger brother decided that when he gets older, he is going to join the army unit that helped rescue his town, the 101st. Her brother, my wife's great uncle served with the 101st and 82nd during his career in the military, including a tour as an advisor to South Vietnam. He too is alive and well.

Joe from CHG's 2nd ID