Lt. Gen. Harry W. O. Kinnard

Daedalus · 01-12-2009, 19:55

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January 11, 2009

Harry W. O. Kinnard, Who Said One Word Would Do, Dies at 93
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Lt. Gen. Harry W. O. Kinnard, who inspired the storied retort "nuts" to a
German surrender ultimatum during the Battle of the Bulge, died Monday in
Arlington, Va. He was 93.

His death was announced by his family.

General Kinnard parachuted into Normandy in the first hours of D-Day. He
received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism during Operation Market

Garden, the airborne attack in the German-occupied Netherlands. And he
helped pioneer the airmobile concept, sending troops into combat aboard
helicopters during the Vietnam War.

But he was perhaps best remembered for what happened in December 1944 at the

Belgian town of Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Division, short on
clothing and boots in a snowstorm and bitter cold, was surrounded by German
troops.

Bastogne, at the intersection of important roads, was a crucial objective
for the Germans in their surprise attack in the Ardennes region of Belgium,
an offensive that had created a "bulge" in Allied lines.

On Dec. 22, two German officers approached the American lines in Bastogne
carrying a demand that the American commander surrender his troops within
two hours or face annihilation from an artillery barrage.

The message was passed on to Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, acting as
division commander while Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor was in Washington.

General Kinnard, a lieutenant colonel at the time and the division's
operations officer, would recall that General McAuliffe "laughed and said:
'Us surrender? Aw, nuts.' "

As General Kinnard related it long afterward in an interview with Patrick
O'Donnell,
a military historian: "He pondered for a few minutes and then told the
staff, 'Well, I don't know what to tell them.' He then asked the staff what
they thought, and I spoke up, saying, 'That first remark of yours would be
hard to beat.'

"McAuliffe said, 'What do you mean?' I answered, 'Sir, you said, 'Nuts.' All

members of the staff enthusiastically agreed. McAuliffe then wrote down: 'To

the German Commander, Nuts! The American Commander.' "

The note was carried back to the German officers by Col. Joseph Harper, a
regimental commander. The officers did not seem to understand it, so Colonel

Harper told them, "If you don't know what 'nuts' means, in plain English it
is the same as 'go to hell.' "

The 101st held out, and four days later an American column broke through the

German lines, lifting the siege. That response of "nuts" came to epitomize
the grit of American soldiers in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.

Harry William Osborne Kinnard II, a native of Dallas, entered military
service after graduating from West Point in 1939.

Having fought extensively with the airborne, he oversaw a more modern way to

get troops into combat quickly when he commanded the 11th Air Assault
Division (Test), created at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1963 to develop the
airmobile concept.

That became the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile), and General Kinnard
commanded it in November 1965 when it undertook the Army's first major
engagement of the Vietnam War, the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. North
Vietnamese casualties were heavy, but that encounter in the Central
Highlands left more than 300 Americans dead and foreshadowed a long war of
attrition. The battle was recounted in the 1992 book "We Were Soldiers Once
... And Young," by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway.

General Kinnard retired from military service in 1969. He is survived by his

wife, Libby; his sons, Crew and Robert; his daughters, Susan Payson,
Kathleen Coursey and Cynthia Harmon; his stepdaughters, Libby Nicholson and
Janmarie Hall; his stepson, Col. Tom Nicholson Jr.; 16 grandchildren; and 15

great-grandchildren.

General McAuliffe became famed for the "nuts" reply, but sometimes grew
weary of hearing the story retold. On one occasion, he thought he had a
respite.

"One evening a dear old Southern lady invited me to dinner," he recalled. "I

had a delightful time talking to her and her charming guests. I was pleased
because no mention was made the entire evening of the 'nuts' incident. As I
prepared to depart and thanked my hostess for an enjoyable evening, she
replied, 'Thank you and good night, General McNut.' "