Colonel Lauchert was worried about the slow rate of the 2d Panzer advance. The Fifth Panzer commander seems to have been fairly optimistic, although he gave little ear to Hitler's promise of air support. in to the south edge of Hosingen, contrary to orders, and there grappled The final word on the defense of Clerf would come from the enemy. Replacements, mostly from the Navy, were whipped into shape by the "Old 26th," and first-rate equipment replaced that lost in the east. He even dispatched a kampfgruppe to seize a bridge considerably south of Clerf apparently intending to swing his attack column to a poorer road in the event that Clerf continued to hold. Finally, after a grueling battle in the Baranw-Warsaw sector the division was relieved for the first time since the beginning of the Russian campaign and brought back to Poznan, there receiving the title of Volks Grenadier (regarded as somewhat less than an honor by the survivors of the old regular army 26th Infantry Division). It arrived in Clerf with nineteen medium tanks. It appears that the corps had only moderate support in the way of engineers and bridge trains. Meanwhile General Cota had ordered Colonel Strickler to move in the 3d Battalion, 110th Infantry, from Nocher. trusted officers set feverishly to work on plans for Christrose, They conducted full spectrum operations in and around Baghdad, Iraq. This move was made early in the morning with disastrous results recorded earlier. This regiment formed the division center, with the 112th Infantry on the north and the 109th Infantry aligned to the south. On their left German tanks were wiping out the last posts But by the middle of December the 110th Infantry had almost a full roster-a roster numbering many men and some officers who yet had to see their first action. However, these unit designations were short-lived. relatively little ground; the 110th was very hard pressed; and German tanks were moving along the main road to Bastogne by way of Marnach. Battalion. In general the ground on the east bank commanded. Bullet fire from the old stone walls was no menace to armored vehicles, bazooka teams sent down from the chteau were killed or captured, and the German tank battalions moved on, north and west toward Bastogne. 113th Infantry Regiment. There the American tank platoon from Company B, 707th Tank Battalion, hit into the German flank while attempting to reach Weiler and, it would appear, caused disorganization and confusion. This unit now relieved the provisional The 109th and 112th were in like status. On December 16, 1944, Germany launched a massive surprise counter-attack on American lines in the Ardennes (a forested area in Belgium and Luxembourg), breaking through to create a 45-mile salient in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.. This is the order of battle of German and Allied forces during the Battle of the Bulge. . He continued to fight with Cannon Company until the 423rd Regiment surrendered Dec. 19, 1944, near Schnberg, Belgium. The immediate mission of Krueger's corps, like that of the XLVII Panzer Corps on its left, was to seize crossings at the Our River. paymasters who composed the defense. Since the Wiltz bridge had not been destroyed, the American assault gun platoon was ordered back to Erpeldange, covering the northeastern approach to the bridge and the engineer outposts. The unit inflicted 1600 casualties and destroyed eighteen tanks during nine days of continuous action, that was later known as the Battle of the Bulge. Back at Hosingen the attempt to break American resistance had won an early lodgment in the south edge of the village, but had achieved no more. Summarized in part from an article of the Morning Record. USA soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. Designated as the 16th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the unit was mobilized on 28 April 1898 and activated into federal service for the SpanishAmerican War on 10 May 1898 at their mobilization site, Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania. The Bellefonte unit was redesignated Troop L, 103d Cavalry. In 2006, the battalion reorganized again with Headquarters and Headquarters Company in Lewistown, Company A (less detachment) in Huntingdon; Detachment 1, Company A in Everett; Company B in Altoona, and Company C (led detachment) in Bellefonte with Detachment 1, Company C in Tyrone. Over 83,000 Americans were casualties during the battle which lasted from December 16, 1944 until January 25, 1945, and as a result, the battle occupies a prominent place in our collective minds. A few light tanks and self-propelled guns got forward late in the evening, but the bulk of the Panzer Lehr reconnaissance battalion remained backed up at the bridge. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division, having completed its initial mission by seizing an undamaged bridge across the Clerf at Drauffelt during the night, made way for the Panzer Lehr Division to strike for Bastogne. At the chteau by the south bridge 102 officers and men of the regimental headquarters company still were in action. From mid-December 1944 through the end of January 1945, in the heavily forested Ardennes Mountains of Belgium, thousands of American, British, Canadian, Belgian and French forces struggled to turn back the final major German offensive of World War II. Late in the afternoon, Colonel Fuller had ordered Company D, a platoon of heavy machine guns, and a provisional rifle company hastily assembled from men on pass in Clerf, to move to Reuler and protect Battery B of the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, then firing in support of the troops in Marnach and very hard pressed by the enemy. reverse suffered by the assault company of the 60th Regiment The Americans had identified the 26th long since as the unit garrisoning the West Wall bunkers on the German bank. Although the 116th Panzer Division losses were moderate, the inexperienced 560th Volks Grenadier Division had suffered an estimated 1,000 casualties-a figure, however, that included the reinforced fusilier company which got lost in the woods southwest of Sevenig and was not seen again for two days. Historians, movie-moguls, and audiences love the exploits of the 101st Airborne, dramatized as it was in the Band of Brothers. DECEMBER 1944. The 109th Infantry was losing ground on its north flank and soon would be forced back fanwise into the 9th Armored Division zone. Viewing, the ground in front of his right armored corps as especially difficult, Manteuffel would give Generaloberst Walter Krueger's LVIII Panzer Corps a fairly narrow front for the initial assault. battalion, hastily formed from the 28th Division headquarters, by setting This was the end: shots, blazing vehicles, and screaming wounded. Roads and bridges, he reckoned, must be in shape to support the American troops east of the river. to the Our bridges in the 3d Battalion area led the regimental commander Meanwhile, General Middleton, the VIII Corps commander, issued a holdfast order to all his troops. He was an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School (1938-1940). About 0720 the company crossed into the 110th Infantry zone, where the ground rose away from the highway and forced the tanks to advance in column on the road. Kokott's right, the 77th Regiment, pushed elements beyond Hosingen (actually moving between the 1st and 3d Battalions of the 110th Infantry), but these detachments, stopped by the American 105-mm. In the late evening of 16 December German artillery began to range into Clerf, apparently covering the advance of patrols from Marnach. A patrol which had been sent from the 3d Battalion to carry the withdrawal order to the 1st Battalion command post, still holding on at Harspelt, failed to get through. About 0300 engineers manning pneumatic rubber boats began ferrying the 80-man assault companies and heavy infantry weapons across the river. U.S. Army photo. There it dug in to defend the battery which had given aid during the battle. But at dark he ordered his regimental commanders to hold their positions "at all costs" and began preparations to commit his remaining reserves to restore the situation in the Marnach sector and block the road to Clerf. Luettwitz turned the Geilenkirchen sector over to the This timing might seem to. orders to Luettwitz' divisions were couched in very general terms. Picture Information. Finally, on the morning of 18 December, the surviving members of the garrison sent out a last radio message; they had no choice but surrender. At the chteau, however, headquarters company still was hard pressed by riflemen and machine gunners in the houses nearby. The garrison of a hundred or so was reinforced by Company L, ordered back from Holzthum to avoid entrapment. The 110th Infantry Regiment was hit hard early in the Battle of the Bulge after being bled white in the Hurtgen Forest earlier that autumn. Through the roundabout artillery channels he asked permission to join the 106th Infantry Division, only a little distance away to the north. The German attack to penetrate the front lines of the 28th Division succeeded on the first day of the offensive in splitting the 112th Infantry from the rest of the division. But there were too few guns and too few air sorties to keep the enemy immobilized for long. Leaderless, the platoon broke. the story of the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division in the battle for Schmidt, Germany. With three divisions, and added corps troops, the XLVII Panzer Corps possessed a considerable amount of shock and fire power. Then as the attack got moving they were raised to lay heavy counterbattery fire on the 229th Field Artillery Battalion (Lt. Col. John C. Fairchild). He was wounded in action on Dec. 16, 1944 in Bleialf, Germany, by shrapnel. . by HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006. 18-41 Tanks, tank destroyers, and guns were rushed up from the depots at Mayen, but on 15 December the two panzer grenadier regiments were still missing 60 percent of their regular rifle strength and the panzer regiment had ready only one of its two battalions (with 27 Mark IV's and 30 Panthers). his assistance, probably to be in position to give support by the late As yet, however, the Americans had no way of knowing that the bulk of the 2d Panzer Division actually was moving down the road to Clerf or that a counterattack would collide with any such German force. About 1830 troops at the battalion observation post reported that enemy vehicles were attacking with multiple 20-mm. The 229th Field Artillery Battalion was emplaced behind the north flank near Welchenhausen on the German side of the river. In the West, American, British and . This sizable town lay in a bend of the Wiltz River valley, southwest of Clerf and some three miles away from the enemy-held crossings at Wilwerwiltz. Company L, on the western side of the ridge at Holzthum, reported figures in the half-light but, peering through the ground fog, which clung all along the division front, could not be sure whether they were American troops passing through the area or the enemy. Here in the south daylight patrols also operated to maintain control of the eastern bank, although the main positions were around Lieler and Lausdorn. About 1700 he radioed new orders: the 112th Infantry was to fight a stiff delaying action along the line Weiswampach-Trois Vierges, and thence toward Bastogne. Colonel Fuller had ordered a platoon of the 2d Battalion to swing south and bar the road, but it was already dominated by the German armor. His staff and regimental commanders, appointees of Generaloberst Kurt Student, had formed a clique against the previous commander and were hostile to Heilmann.19 Furthermore, troops and troop leaders were poorly trained, coming as they had only recently from Luftwaffe ground units. [4] During December 1944, the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team was holding a 6-1/2-mile long sector which the Germans attacked with nine divisions. It went onto the line on 4 July 1918, in the Second Battle of the Marne. Only a short distance beyond, at a third block, fire swept into the column from all sides. 116th Infantry Regiment. 5 During the division attack of 2-1 November in the Schmidt-Vossenack sector the 28th had taken 6,184 casualties. By nightfall the 3d Battalion line on the Sevenig ridge had been As each company debarked it marched inland to the line of departure which the outpost force now held close to the American garrison points. The Battle of Hrtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hrtgenwald) was a series of battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the Hrtgen Forest, a 140 km 2 (54 sq mi) area about 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the Belgian-German border. Ouren. Fuller, however, was able to get a warning message through to the 28th Division command post about 0900. The 10th Infantry Regiment was on the far right side of the Divisions Frontline during their part of the Battle of the Bulge and it was the first regiment to arrive in Luxembourg. Furthermore, lack of communication between the 28th Division and its northern regiment would ultimately force the regimental commander, Col. Gustin M. Nelson, to act on his own. New York: Orion Books, 1989. The second battalion's Companies G and H lost a combined total of 200 men out of 230 when they were cut off at Fismette and fended off a frontal attack on their position by a thousand German soldiers. The 112th Infantry Sector On the right its 1st Battalion marched on Hosingen, bringing flame throwers and self-propelled guns to blast the Americans from the village; the 2d Battalion moved straight for the Clerf River, aiming at control of the crossings and road net at Wilwerwiltz. 112th Infantry Regiment. In fact, detachments of the 39th Regiment had crossed the Skyline Drive unobserved and were moving in to surprise Holzthum. Sufficient trucks were available to motorize most of the division, but there was a shortage of tracked cross-country vehicles. The artillery supporting the LVIII Panzer Corps consisted of five battalions plus two Werfer battalions, and a few batteries of heavy guns. The Fifth Panzer Army commander was bitterly opposed to that part of the plan which called for a tremendous opening barrage at 0800 and a two-hour artillery preparation before the attack jumped off. antitank gun in the path and crossed the bridge at the railroad station. Each battalion was responsible for five outposts along the west bank of the Our, but these vantage points were occupied only during daylight hours and then in squad strength. An old line division, the 26th had fought on the Eastern Front from July 1941 to the last days of September 1944, winning many decorations but little rest. At the same time the XLVII Panzer Corps would cross the Our in the vicinity of Dasburg and Gemnd, push west via Clerf, seize the vital road center at Bastogne, form in a deep column echeloned to the left and rear, then race for the Meuse River crossings south of Namur. The Americans lined up in German formation and, while an officer shouted commands in German, marched boldly across the bridge. Colonel Fuller's command post was in a hotel only a few yards from the north bridge. Company B held Marnach. About 0930 the 2d Platoon of Company A, 707th Tank Battalion, climbed out of Clerf to meet the German Mark IV's. antitank guns supplemented the weapons organic to the conventional Volks Grenadier division. the undergunned batteries of the 687th Field Artillery Battalion held Only one battery of the 109th Field Artillery Battalion was firing during the morning and it ran low on ammunition. of 16 December, therefore, the German commander ordered the corps to Despite harassing fire from American guns and mortars the Germans moved swiftly. About 1300 a thick, soupy December fog rolled in on the village. Considerable damage had been done the German assault forces. The 112th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Sixteenth Pennsylvania,[2] is a unit in the Pennsylvania National Guard which can trace its lineage back to before the American Civil War. Marnach garrison out of the way, but an hour later Company B radioed that three hundred Germans were northwest and southwest of Marnach. XLVII Panzer, Corps moved beyond it to the west.3 (Map IV). The 311th Infantry Regiment was attached to the 8th Division in the Hurtgen Forest, 10 December. The sector designated for the XLVII Panzer Corps breakthrough was held by the 1st and 3d Battalions of the 110th Infantry (28th Infantry Division), commanded by Col. Hurley E. Fuller. Shortly before noon a platoon of Company B's tanks reached the hardpressed field artillery battery near Buchholz and reported the situation in hand.8 But the enemy here represented only the probing forefinger of the main attack. 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment attached 110th, 431st and 448th AAA AW Battalions 75th Infantry Division . Descent to the town and its bridges is made on this side by two winding roads. 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