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south and rising against its eastern face. To the right of the main effort Remer's brigade was under orders to enter St. Vith by direct assault from the northwest via the Hnningen road, orders which he subsequently disobeyed. The German corps commander, General Lucht, had ordered the Mobile Battalion of the 18th Volks Grenadier Division up from reserve during the previous night with orders to advance via Andler. Want this question answered? Boylan got orders from Clarke to withdraw south at once. This was the end. Corps and division artillery was brought forward piece by piece whenever a break in a traffic jam occurred, but the appearance of these horsedrawn guns in the motorized columns only succeeded in further disrupting the march order. Fortunately the stock of artillery shells was replenished (for the first time in three days) from the Samre dump before it was overrun by the enemy. Army Service No. Despite repeated requests by General Lucht, this brigade was not released to reinforce the LXVI Corps until late afternoon on 18 December.9 Colonel Remer reached the corps headquarters that same night, but the movement of his complete brigade from Daun via Prm to St. Vith would take considerable time. Hasbrouck had not yet sent his message to Ridgway when word came of the German advance against the north flank of CCB, 7th Armored, in the Rodt sector. The American positions were much better integrated than on previous days: the 7th Armored Division artillery and attached battalions-of particular importance the one medium tank battalion- were tied in closely with the troops they supported. After an hour or so the battery turned once again and, taking no chances, circled wide to the west. 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. The most advanced elements of the German fog but the nine hundred rounds plunging onto the Schnberg road The American tankers caught on to what had happened when messengers and liaison officers failed to arrive at their destinations, but by this time the Germans had journeyed on to the southwest. The piecemeal employment of lower units, made unavoidable by the march of events, resulted in most involved methods of communication. Both American units were able to drive forward and the Shermans knocked out six light panzers or assault guns. The corps' mission, as it had devolved by the end of the day, would be. For Christmas Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe On December 16 th 1944 the German Army launched an assault in the Ardennes Forrest completely surprising the thinly spread American VIII Corps. The LVIII Panzer Corps commander was anxious to get the 1130th Supply routes to the 7th Armored Division trains were still open, although menaced by the roving enemy and obstructed by west-moving friendly traffic. The second German assault was made in a more methodical manner. Subsequently Hasbrouck sent a platoon of light tanks to help out and an injunction that it was "imperative" that the village be held. By midmorning of 22 December the flood of vehicles streaming into St. Vith was out of control. The motorized rifle battalion, now led by an assault gun company, headed south toward the road center at Beho, found it free of American troops, and there joined a part of the 62d Volks Grenadier Division. 7 That a gap existed on the right of the 424th was known. The high ground commanding Chrain, seven miles northeast of Houffalize at the junction of the roads from Vielsalm and St. Vith which led to that town, was organized for defense without enemy hindrance. The CCB position at the Our (where two companies of armored infantry, a company each of light and medium tanks, plus the reconnaissance company, were deployed on a front over 4,000 yards) was no longer tenable. A disabled German self-propelled gun is in the foreground. Half an hour later three enemy tanks and some infantry appeared before the 168th Engineer Battalion position astride the St. Vith road. Colonel Duggan finally gave the order to retire down the road to Vielsalm. German documents, taken in the fight at Gouvy, showed clearly the intention of the LVIII Panzer Corps to drive on Hotton, at the moment the location of the 3d Armored Division command post. In sharp fighting most of the mechanized force at the tail was destroyed. The threatened sector remained the line from Poteau to St. Vith, and from St. Vith along the eastern front covered by CCB, 7th Armored, and CCB, 9th Armored. About midnight orders from the 106th Division arrived at the group headquarters which had been set up in Poteau: the cavalry were to return to Born, which they had just evacuated, and occupy the high ground. The southern column of the 1st SS Panzer Division, which first had captured the town, was long since gone, hurrying west. 780 Field Artillery Battalion YORK, E. T. 8. During the night, CCB, 9th Armored Division, and the 424th Infantry withdrew across the Our River and established a defensive line along the hill chain running from northeast of Steinebrck south to Burg Reuland; these troops eventually made contact with the advance elements of CCB, 7th Armored Division. Am out of contact with VIII Corps so am sending this to you. The bulk of the German advance guard, as. My division is defending the line St. Vith-Poteau both inclusive. By this time both Hoge's and Clarke's combat commands were under attack. German assault guns or tanks had been spotted west of Schnberg as early as 0850. The division left wing was formed by the 164th Regiment, which had occupied Lommersweiler and Hemmeres following the withdrawal of CCB, 9th Armored. But the newly committed 9th SS Panzer Division, following in its wake via Recht, threw a large detachment of panzer grenadiers into the woods around Poteau, either to retake the crossroad or to pin the Americans there. (It will be remembered that the 18th Volks Grenadier Division was charged with the encirclement and capture of St. Only five Americans escaped.6 Two or more companies crossed near the blasted bridge and by 1530, despite the continual pounding administered by the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and the rapid fire from the cavalry tank, assault, and machine guns, had nearly encircled Troop D. A cavalry request for medium tanks perforce was denied; the tank companies sent north to Hnningen had not yet returned and General Hoge had no reserve. Clarke would hold as long as possible east of the town, but with both combat commands in its streets St. Vith was an obvious trap, It was decided, therefore, that Hoge should pull his command back during the coming night to a new line along the hills west of the railroad running out of St. Vith, thus conforming on its left with CCB, 7th Armored. St. Vith. After firing their last rounds at the town and the column, the German tanks withdrew. In this position the combat command blocked the main Winterspelt-St. Vith highway and the valley of the Braunlauf Creek, a second natural corridor leading to St. Vith. The Mobile Battalion (comprising three platoons of assault guns, a company of engineers, and another of fusiliers) did not arrive at Schnberg until after noon. 800 Port Company (517 Port Bn) BLEVINS, JAMES LEWIS. They had given the XVIII Airborne Corps badly First, mortars went to work against houses and foxholes. The arrival of gasoline, rations, ammunition, and the presence of a few replacement vehicles in the division park would make the last-ditch stand or withdrawal, whichever it might be, a little easier. Thus far events in the southern sector had gone well for the Americans. Cemeteries & Memorials; Burial Search; About Us; Education; Facebook; Twitter; YouTube; Instagram; ABMC Headquarters 2300 Clarendon Blvd, Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Phone: 703-584-1501. liaison officer with such an order had left Hasbrouck's command post The two CCB commanders, Clarke and Hoge, given a free hand by General Jones and General Hasbrouck, agreed that in the event of any future withdrawal CCB, 9th Armored Division, might be trapped as it then stood because Hoge's combat command, deployed southeast of St. Vith, had no roads for a direct move westward and would be forced to retire through St. Vith. After 30 years and learning the computer and finding VetFriends, I went to my first reunion of the USS Navasota AO-106. west from Rodt. The roads to be used were few and in poor state, The Enemy Strikes at the St. Vith Perimeter. Even so, by the evening of 19 December the two infantry divisions of the LXVI Corps were in position to launch piecemeal attacks at or around St. Vith. The 62d Volks Grenadier Division, to the south, finally brought its inner flank into echelon with the left of the 18th near Setz by pivoting the 190th Regiment west. The American defense of St. Vith itself was based on the possession of ridge lines and hills masking the town to the northeast, east, and southeast. At 1030 on 17 December, reports of the German penetration from the east led General Jones to send the 168th out the St. Vith-Schnberg road with orders to defend astride the road at the village of Heuem. The 969th Field Artillery Battalion was an African American United States Army field artillery unit that saw combat during World War II. This roundabout move consumed the daylight hours and through the night the gun carriages streamed along the Verviers-Vielsalm road. The emergency had arrived, fortunately along with the sudden freeze that gave a surface hard enough to bear the weight of armored vehicles. By this time most of the 32d Squadron had threaded their way south through Poteau, apparently unaware that the group had established a command post there. Field Artillery Battalions. 365th Battalion. Finally, On most of the front held by the 7th Armored and the troops of the 9th Armored and 106th the morning passed in ominous quiet. They put up a wonderful show." Possession of the First Army ration dumps at Gouvy Station was a boon to the units in the St. Vith-Vielsalm defense, for by 20 December the 7th Armored Division trains for all practical purposes were cut off from the forward combat elements. At an earlier and more optimistic hour this company had been dispatched to Houffalize with orders to make a counterattack southward to relieve the pressure on Bastogne. In the late afternoon of the 23d the single company of the 112th Infantry at the eastern end of the Salm River bridge had been attacked by a larger force from the 62d Volks Grenadier Division. 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. VIII Corps has ordered me to hold and I will do so but need help. The decision was left to General Hasbrouck, who first was to consult with the 106th Division as to how and when his leading combat command would be employed. able to fight their way out through Schnberg as General Jones The closest of the primary armored routes in the south ran through Burg Reuland, some five miles south. Description Not Specified Reports To Field Artillery Units Active Reporting Unit None Inactive Reporting Units A Battery B Battery C Battery HHB orders I ever issued," the 7th Armored commander sent his "division reserve" -two tank destroyers-hurrying south from Vielsalm. In any event enough pressure was exerted during the morning to drive the small American screening force back toward St. Vith. At Schnberg the 7th Armored task forces would turn south to join CCB of the 9th Armored Division, already engaged along the road to Winterspelt. howitzer, to fire only on the most urgent and well-defined targets. The 62d Volks Grenadier Division had been given the mission of cutting the possible escape routes southwest of St. Vith by an advance through Grufflange and Maldingen. No withdrawal orders reached the troops now behind the enemy. Near Hinderhausen they attempted to surprise the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, an outfit that had been exposed to close-quarter fighting before. The rest of the journey behind Hoge's columns into the 82d Airborne lines was without incident. A few hours later more information filtered. isolated the St. Vith forces from the remainder of the VIII Corps, although made but was checked by fire from the American tank guns and mortars. The reserve available to General Hasbrouck was scant for such wide-flung positions: some 90-mm. Again a confused command situation took its price. It was after midnight when the engineers finally reported that the charge had been replaced and successfully detonated.7 Even then the span was only partially wrecked and was still capable of bearing foot troops; but the German tanks milling about the burning buildings east of the river would have to find other means of crossing the Salm. Silhouetted in light and with blinded crews the Shermans were disposed of in one, two, three order. Around 1400 the German guns and Werfers opened up against Fuller's positions in front of the town. The ground at Rodt, then, overlooked the flank and rear of CCB. The command status was more or less of an assumption." Politely he asked Hasbrouck what he thought should be done with the 7th Armored. About a mile and a half to the east a large wooded hill mass rises as a screen. But unit integrity had been lost, the armored components were far below strength, and many of the armored infantry were weary, ill-equipped stragglers who had been put back in the line after their escape from St. Vith. CCR headquarters started down. Even as a logistical exercise withdrawal presented a It finally arrived in the division assembly area east of Vielsalm late in the afternoon. The southern advance, which had carried a mass there still was a faint hope that the 422d and 423d somehow might be James LEWIS tanks withdrew thus far events in the division assembly area east of Vielsalm late the! Withdrawal orders reached the troops now behind the enemy Strikes at the tail destroyed..., three order assembly area east of Vielsalm late in the division assembly east!, mortars went to my first reunion of the town weight of Armored vehicles which had carried mass... Troops now behind the enemy Strikes at the St. Vith was out of control YORK... 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