They were 400.
From December 20 to 26, 1944, cut off from Allied lines and dug in at Marcouray, they refuse to surrender — and escape on foot on Christmas night.
December 1944. At the heart of the Battle of the Bulge, Lt. Colonel Samuel Mason Hogan and his men refuse to surrender — and cross 16 km of enemy lines at −15 °C. This site restores their faces and their memory.
“If you want this village, come and take it.”
On December 16, 1944, thirty German divisions break through Allied lines. Task Force Hogan — tanks, half-tracks, 400 men of the 3rd Armored Division — is sent to meet the offensive, then cut off from the world at Marcouray.
Ordered to surrender on December 23, they refuse. Two nights later, faces blackened with soot, they set out on foot — and all come home.
Read the full timelineEach had a name,
a face, a family.
Soldiers, airmen, doctors and Belgian civilians — the faces of Marcouray, recovered, restored and colorized.
80 years of oblivion. A film to end it — shot on location, with the reenactors of Hogan's 400.