On December 21, 18. Bork, Max Hermann (Generalleutnant) - TracesOfWar.nl Ministry of Supply, 1945. js.className = n; Battle of Losheim Gap - Wikipedia Panzer Tracts No. By midnight on the 19th, the horseshoe- shaped defense of St. Vith had taken form. Initially, General Jones wanted Hoge to move his command into the Losheim Gap at Maderfeld and arrive there at dawn on December 17 to counterattack and erase the enemy penetrations that were threatening 106th Division positions on the Schnee Eifel. Zaloga, Steven. }(document, 'script', 'exco-player')); The M8 Greyhound was a small, 7.9 tonne American armored car with 6.4 mm to 25.4 mm of armor, only enough to protect against rifle caliber bullets, and armed with a 37 mm M6 main gun, a peashooter at this point in the war. Created as 22.Infanterie-Division in 1935, one regiment participated in the 1939 Invasion of Poland; the rest of the division stayed in garrison on the Siegfried Line in case of a French attack in defense of Poland. Back in the 1970s I worked with a man who told this story, he claimed he was the driver. The time was approximately 1800 on Saturday, December 16, when Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division began its move to St. Vith. Perrin told General Hoge, You can continue this attack on towards this back country, but you must be back on this side of the river by nightfall.. The StuG III was a turretless assault gun based on the Panzer III. Companies A and B held a line from Grufflingen to Hohenbusch with Company A, 14th Tank Battalion to their north. fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); The situation on Reids left flank was unclear, and the Germans were attacking in considerable force against his right flank. The tanks of the 14th Tank Battalion and the half-tracks of the 27th AIB paused to pick up the foot elements of the 424th RCT, 106th Infantry Division. According to Hugh M. Cole, an American historian and army officer. Jentz, Thomas. Sicherungs-Division) was a rear-security division in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. Company C, 27th AIB withdrew under heavy artillery and sniper fire but managed to destroy a number of German vehicles. One task force was made up of A and B Companies of the 14th Tank Battalion, B Company of the 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery, and another platoon of the 14th. Furthermore, General Clarke had no idea when his command would arrive. 223 223. Osprey Publishing, 2010. The platoon lost four men missing and two wounded in the ensuing engagement. Josef Theissen, the fifteen-year-old who had seen the Germans arrive on Sunday, December 17, watched the soldiers every move with the fascination for things military . The German plan for the attack through the Ardennes, an offensive that would forever be known as the Battle of the Bulge, was to be accomplished in the conventional manner. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. War Department, 1944. M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car 1941-91. The 18. General Hoge set up his command post in the Belgian village of Faymonville, approximately 12 miles north of the town of St. Vith, unaware of the pivotal role his command was to play in a very different battle. It would be unable to turn its full strength on St. Vith until the American surrender in that area. Fortunately for Colonel Reid, word came at about 1730 that his 424th Infantry Regiment was to withdraw immediately. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. The area being defended was beginning to take the form of a large horseshoe, its axis running approximately northeast to southeast. Adding to the slowdown of operations against St. Vith, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was still using two of its three regiments and all but one of its artillery battalions against the two trapped 106th Infantry Division regiments on the Schnee Eifel. At about 1330, three German self-propelled guns and 19 or 20 horse-drawn artillery pieces went into position on the high ground 800 yards to the southeast of Steinebruck. Company B was stationed east of Galhausen and maintained contact with the nearest elements of the 7th Armored Division on 9th Armoreds left flank. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. The two task forces held onto their respective positions on N23 and N27, deflecting all German armored attempts to penetrate St. Vith, until they were relieved late in the afternoon by CCB, 7th Armored Division. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. At the close of the first day of battle, General Lucht could look with some satisfaction at the days events, although his 62nd Volksgrenadier Division had yet to break through the American line. Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. Once St. Vith was taken, Model intended to drive the brigade swiftly for the Meuse River or cut behind the opposition on the Elsenborn Ridge that was bottling up the Sixth Panzer Army. 223 223. On this day, CCB of the 9th Armored Division was still in its assembly area in the vicinity of Faymonville. Between these units, a place was found for the provisional company composed of the 424th Infantry stragglers. Slayden had been sent to Jones by Middleton as an adviser until the 106th Division could become acclimated. Armour Plate Porforation [sic: Perforation] of Tank and Anti Tank Guns. Although the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division drove the American defenders from Winterspelt, all was not going well for the Germans. Thus, there are four different versions of this story circulating: Troop Es version with a Tiger I, Troop Es version with a Tiger II, Captain Ansteys version with a Tiger I, and Captain Ansteys version with a Tiger II. Battle of the Bulge 1944 (1): St Vith and the Northern Shoulder. Boylan, Vincent L. After Action Report, Month of December, 1944. If Hoge told him that the situation was bad, then without a doubt the situation was worse than he thought. As far as Im aware no Ferdinands (all upgraded to Elefants at the stage of Ardennes Offensive) were used in the Ardennes and better yet all Elefants were in Eastern Front with the 614.sPzJgK (formerly 2./653.sPzJgAbt) after August 1944. Since the move from Faymonville to Winterspelt involved a greater distance, Hoge decided to get his command on the road immediately. As stated above, a 37mm cant penetrate the armor of an Tiger tank. At daybreak on December 21, the Germans launched their first assault of the day on CCB, 9th Armored. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. Since General Hoge was supposed to be under Joness command and did not understand the overall situation around St. Vith, he decided to find out exactly what was going on. The move would also have to be done under the cover of darkness in severe wintry conditions. English Edition, Casemate Publishers, 2014. The 27th AIB was ordered to establish a defensive position south, east, west, and southeast of Malempre. With all of these contradictions, ambiguity, and lack of supporting documentation and evidence surrounding Troop Es entry in mind, it is safe to conclude that this is not the most reliable account of what really happened on the 18th of December, 1944 at St. Vith. Approximately three hours later a German company marched out of Neidingen and along the road leading straight into C Companys position, apparently totally unaware of 9th Armoreds recent change of position. This is puzzling, to say the least. 19454 However, there is one major issue with this explanation, Panzer IVs were not attacking Troop B. Panzer Tracts No. Soldiers of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division infiltrated the American lines at the villages of Roth, Weckerath, Kobscheid, and Auw before the artillery barrage began. It was to cross the Meuse on both sides of Liege before advancing on to Antwerp. Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. When you get surprised like this, you become cautious.Undoubtedly much, if not most, of the armor encountered by Manteuffels probing actions during the early days of the German offensive belonged to CCB, 9th Armored Division. At about 2130, General Clarke phoned General Hoge to tell him that the enemy was entering St. Vith from the north and that his forces were withdrawing to form a new line northwest of the city. Situation reports suggested that the Germans were intent on crossing the Our River at Steinebruck. 1940 194111. VGD led by Heinz Kokott, Heinrich Himmler's brother-in-law. This one, however, most likely did not. Infanterie-Division . Orders for CCB, 9th Armored to move to a new defensive position were issued at 1600. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Alchetron, the free social 13 relations. The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge on JSTOR VGD. English PDF (15 MB) Jan B-513 German General Staff Officers, Casualties. Division 3. Clarke, Bruce. Then, four German antitank guns covering the Grufflingen-Maldange road were encountered. December 20 was a day of disappointment for the Germans around St. Vith. The commanders were at the center of the Foret Domaniale du Grand Bois. Panzer Tracts No. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2005. Panzer Tracts No. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. Slayden, knowing that the nearest units of the 7th Armored Division were at least 60 miles away in the Netherlands, had serious doubts that a whole combat command could reach St. Vith on the 17th, much less by 0700 hours. Furthermore, late-war Panzer IVs equipped with Schrzen additional armor would look bigger, even closer to the size of a Tiger and this is before consideration is made on the stress of war, camouflaging materials applied to vehicles, the weather, and level of knowledge of the crews. When a particularly heavy onslaught was launched against 7th Armored, near 9th Armoreds left flank, Company A, 14th Tank Battalion shifted its mediums to fire directly on Breitfield in support of its armored neighbor to the north. Moreover, it was expected that General Luchts two infantry divisions would be forwarded to the Salm River sector as right-wing cover for two panzer corps. Shortly thereafter, Hasbrouck called and asked, Bruce, do you think you can get out? Clarke answered, A miracle has happened, General! 1964. The closest of the northern German armored thrust routes ran through Recht, about five miles northwest of St. Vith. The same story is retold in A Colonel in the Armored Divisions A Memoir, 19411945 by William S. Triplet, and like a game of telephone it gets even more distorted. Heer - TracesOfWar.com Boyer, Donald P. St. Vith The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge 17-23 December 1944 A Narrative After Action Report.
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