 FACT: Two of the main characters are from the 101st Airborne  Division, and were supposed to have been fighting on the Elsenborn  Ridge, which is on the north edge of the Bulge. In fact, the 101st  was a couple hundred miles to the rear on 16 December 1944, the day  the German attack began, and was never near Elsenborn. The Malmady  Massacre took place about 17 or 18 December 1944, long before the  101st got to Bastogne.