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. As usual, attempts to bring up the horse-drawn caissons past the armor only resulted in more delay and confusion. One of the heaviest and longest-sustained barrages the veteran American combat command had ever encountered tied the troops of CCB to their foxholes, and even there tree bursts claimed many a victim. (See Map VII. Gen. Robert W. Hasbrouck) in addition to his own division and its attachments. His accompanying battalion of self-propelled artillery was within range of Salmchteau. This move brought the grenadiers across open ground and under flanking fire from American tanks located by the railroad underpass just north of St. Vith. Thereupon the 440th formed in column, cut loose with every available machine gun, knifed through the startled enemy, and roared over the bridge at Vielsalm. the attack westward, but no word on the progress of the attack followed Heuem, they reported, was in enemy hands and a German column was heading straight for St. Vith. At first there was no artillery forward to give weight to the assault, but densely wooded approaches and darkness gave the advantage to the attackers. The enemy grenadiers and gunners refused to stay put. Don't move 'til you hear from me. General Hasbrouck reached St. Vith at 1600-it had taken him all of five hours to thread his way through the traffic jam between Vielsalm and St. Vith. The Fuehrer Begleit commander, with the independence that characterized the actions of a man who stood ace-high with Hitler, decided to shift the attack and take Rodt (Sart-lez-St. Vith), about two and a half miles west of his assigned objective. Striking northwest and fighting off the small blocking forces left behind by Kampfgruppe Krag, the bulk of this part of the column succeeded in reaching the 82d Airborne. Late in the evening of the 17th and during the morning of the 18th, however, the scope and direction of the German drive thrusting past St. Vith in the north became more clearly discernible as the enemy struck in a series of attacks against Recht, Poteau, and Hnningen. fired a few final salvos to discourage pursuit. conditions and would return again to the battle. Shortly after dark Colonel Devine departed with most of his staff for the 106th Division command post, but this command group was ambushed near Recht (Colonel Devine and two of his officers escaped on foot). Finally, 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. 7 That a gap existed on the right of the 424th was known. Thus far the Ninth Army had given Hasbrouck no information on the seriousness of the situation on the VIII Corps front. When ordered back into the village the cavalrymen found it jammed with German infantry. North of the threatened area the 295th Regiment had come out of the woods behind Wallerode and started an advance southwest, covered by assault gun or tank fire from the ridge west of the town. So they were designated as glider artillery for less than a year. On the 19th most of Ridgway's troops had engaged in patrolling with no enemy contact; on the 20th the XVIII Airborne Corps faced the westernmost elements of the I SS Panzer Corps, the entire LXVI Corps, and the LVIII Panzer Corps. Franklin P. Lindsey, Jr.), remained through the morning, screening the exit route at its Maldingen entrance. Deifeld was occupied without trouble. Hope you don't think I'm crazy. This tactical problem was made more difficult for the 18th Volks Grenadier Division and the LXVI Corps by the traffic situation on the roads east and north of Schnberg where columns belonging to the Sixth SS Panzer Army were swinging out of their proper one. This sector was under Lt. Col. William H. G. Fuller (commanding officer of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion), whose command consisted of four companies of armored infantry, Troop B of the 87th Reconnaissance Squadron, and some four hundred men remaining from the 81st and 168th Engineer Combat Battalions (the men who had taken the first enemy blows at St. Vith), backed up by a tank company and a platoon of self-propelled 90-mm. With this concrete mission assigned, planning began for the extremely In German plans the hub at St. Vith was important, but it was not on the axis of any of the main armored thrusts. The gap between Hoge's command and CCB, 7th Armored, which at dark had been 3,000 yards across, closed during the night when a light tank company and an anti-aircraft battery came in. The 7th Armored counterattack from St. Vith to relieve the two trapped regiments of the 106th Division had been postponed on the 17th, not canceled. All during the morning of 22 December American observers had watched enemy troops and vehicles milling around Recht, just to the north of Poteau. of the German attack. 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. The 18th Volks Grenadier Division, charged with the initial attack against St. Vith, actually was riding two horses at the same time, attempting to close up for a decisive blow at St. Vith while maintaining the northern arc of the circle around the Americans on the Schnee Eifel. With the discovery of this new enemy force in the north and the knowledge that the only route of withdrawal remaining to CCA was along the road from Poteau to Vielsalm, Colonel Rosebaum gave over the effort against the Fuehrer Begleit armor and gathered the major part of his command in a circular defense around the Poteau crossroads. About 0800 the Germans launched a reconnaissance in force northeast of St. Vith, advancing from Wallerode toward Hnningen. Jones becoming assistant to the corps commander and General Hoge being He had available nearly three reconnaissance troops and an assault gun battalion. During the early morning hours of 19 December messages Patrols working in front of the American lines came back with reports of enemy activity and movement; some kind of an attack was in the offing but it seemed slow in coming. 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. As the evening wore on, the leading Americans bottled up in the defile hastily organized an attack to open the exit through Salmchteau, but there was little room to deploy, and this attempt failed. The unit formed at Fort Jay, New York as a company in the 2 nd Regiment of Artillerists and Engineers during the expansion of the Army during the . American tank destroyers which had been dug in at a bend in the road it passed to the north or south of St. Vith. The headquarters and tank company had little time to get set, for about 0200 the advance guard of the southern German column hit the village from the east and northeast. The similar effort by CCB, 9th Armored Division, had been called off and the American forces south of the 422d Infantry and 423d Infantry had withdrawn behind the Our. The course of battle on 21 December initially affirmed the pessimistic view with which most of German unit commanders seem to have started the attack. Lacking armored or other antitank means, the American infantry fell back in some confusion through the draw to Cierreux, less than a half-mile east of the river. In addition light tanks belonging to the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron had established radio contact with the 3d Armored task force north of Samre. Brig. howitzers to give Stone's men a hand. I don't think we can prevent a complete break-through if another all-out attack comes against CCB tonight [italics supplied] due largely to the fact that our original three infantry battalions have at present melted to the equivalent of only two very tired battalions. 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. Rosebaum asked for Three lost their commanders and the platoon withdrew. The advance party sent by General Hasbrouck reached St. Vith about 0800 on 17 December, reporting to General Jones, who expected to find the armored columns right behind. Then Hoge's center was hit, at this point by the 164th Grenadier Regiment whose troops got into Grufflange in the darkness and overran a medium tank platoon. It consisted of four tank companies, two cavalry reconnaissance troops, a company of tank destroyers, and many foot soldiers hitchhiking on the vehicles. 34th Field Artillery: US Army: 1943: North Africa: 51st Combat Engineer Battalion: US Army: 1945: Ardennes: Defense of several key Belgian cities against Kampfgruppe Peiper between December 17-22, 1944. the village, then funneled slowly into the woods. Toward dark the Americans crossed the northern embankment and reached the road junction. So he compromised by sending a large combat patrol into the woods west of that village with orders to find a covered route along which the tanks might advance on Vielsalm once they arrived. This was Task Force Jones, assembling in the. Thus far events in the southern sector had gone well for the Americans. After firing their last rounds at the town and the column, the German tanks withdrew. Army 965th Field Artillery Battalion | Army Veteran Locator 965th Field Artillery Battalion Battalion Served in this Battalion? During the ceremony, Col. Shawn Fuellenbach relinquished command to Lt. Col. Jason Wilde. The St. Vith salient looked like this by the morning of the 21st: on the north and east the line was as well organized as the forces available would permit; the southern flank had been somewhat reinforced and prolonged by a covering screen extending westward; the 82d Airborne Division was in position to give some support in the northwestern segment of the gap to the rear of the 7th Armored and 106th Infantry Division; and there was a fair number of light batteries supporting the front and flanks of the salient. 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. The attacking troop assembled in Wallerode toward midmorning where they offered wonderful targets for the artillery supporting CCB, 7th Armored. As Battery D, 203d Antiaircraft (AW). The headquarters battery, 440th Antiaircraft (AW) Battalion (Lt. Col. Robert 0. On the right of Colonel Fuller's sector Company B of the 23d Armored Infantry Battalion and a platoon of the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, after having withstood almost continuous assault for four hours, succumbed about the same time to the 183d Regiment, which attacked along the draw from the southeast between CCB, 7th Armored, and CCB, 9th Armored. The two generals had only a vague idea of what was happening beyond their own sphere. The withdrawal was carried out as planned. At Vielsalm General Hasbrouck waited impatiently for word that the two harassed combat commands were ready to disengage. The piecemeal German attacks on the 20th had been turned back with little loss or difficulty. 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. The 275th, reinforced by the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and three batteries of corps artillery, fired through the night to interdict the eastern approaches to St. Vith; this was all the artillery support remaining to the American troops in this sector. But the armored infantry, rallied by their officers and In the middle of the afternoon the order came-withdraw. Meanwhile Remer's armored group had arrived north of St. Vith and the brigade was ready for attack as soon as darkness came. CCB, 9th AD, the 424th Inf Regt of the 106th Div and the 112th Inf Regt of the 28th Div are on my right and hold from St. Vith to Holdingen. A sharp attack in the late afternoon brought Krag's detachment through the American outposts in the hamlets west of Salmchteau and by nightfall he had a troop in the south section of the town, its task made easier by the preliminary shelling laid in by the battalion of field guns. This action continued through the afternoon, while tanks and assault guns played a dangerous game of hide-and-seek from behind the houses and the American infantry tried to knock out the German machine guns enfilading the railroad cut. Troop B of the 87th Reconnaissance Squadron and Company A of the 81st Engineer Combat Battalion, both directly in the German path, probably numbered less than forty men apiece when the final blow fell. As for the last American troops extricated from the ring, Task Force Jones, it will be recalled, had assembled at Bovigny, south of Salmchteau and on the west bank of the river, while elements of the 112th Infantry waited east of the river at Rogery and Cierreux for the withdrawal order from General Hasbrouck. At best these isolated detachments could serve only as pickets for the 7th Armored, but fortunately the German columns continued marching west. This detachment had literally forced its way, at pistol point and by While en route, the engineers met troopers of the 32d Cavalry who had been involved in a running fight along the road west of Schnberg. At that time the combat command retained only the 17th Tank Battalion (assembled to the southeast) because its armored infantry battalion had been diverted to St. Vith. The estimated time of arrival was 1400, 17 December, and of closure 0200, 18 December. The bombs dropped on Schnberg and its narrow streets late in the day may have delayed the arrival of reinforcements, and air attack certainly helped to scatter the most advanced German troops. spanning the Salm River at Vielsalm and Salmchteau. The German force left at Recht was no more than a screen, although under orders to maintain pressure on Poteau. noon, was made under cover of a creeping barrage laid down by the German Lucht ordered a barrier erected at Schnberg to sift out the interlopers (Lucht and his chief of staff personally helped make arrests), but this was of little assistance. aided by Nungesser's engineers, drove back the attackers. Stone sent out one of his staff to try to line up some help; this officer discovered the command post of the 965th Field Artillery Battalion, near the town of Beho, and put forth the case of the Gouvy defenders "who were attempting to hold the line despite their not being trained infantrymen." Battery C had been assigned to support the 112th . Communication between The eight battalions of field artillery taking part in the defense were put on a strict ration, seven rounds for each 105-mm. To the northeast the troop from CCB which originally had held the left wing of the St. Vith sector around Hnningen was still in position; as yet it had not sustained any heavy blows. The division artillery, finally released in the north, took the east route, its three battalions and the 203d Antiaircraft Battalion moving as a single column. The First Army commander still expected, on the night of the 21st, that Ridgway's corps would shortly gain contact with the 7th Armored-but the situation was deteriorating at a fast clip. This was accomplished. An attack to seize the village of Joubival. Telephone service to the VIII Corps headquarters at Bastogne ended on 18 December when that headquarters moved to Neufchteau. Here the first identification was made of the 9th SS Panzer Division. the regiment now was between five and six hundred), and had been unable He cannot protect Poteau. Half an hour later three enemy tanks and some infantry appeared before the 168th Engineer Battalion position astride the St. Vith road. They were constituted on 25 January 1943 as the 465th Glider Field Artillery Battalion and activated 1 March 1943 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A couple of hours earlier the First Army headquarters had told General Middleton that the west column would arrive at 0700 and close at 1900 on the 17th, and that the combat command on the east road would arrive at 1100 and close at 1700. My division is defending the line St. Vith-Poteau both inclusive. Hasbrouck earlier had been "suspicious" of what was happening in the northern sector around Recht and Poteau, but he was no longer too apprehensive after the successive march groups of the 1st SS Panzer Division had bounced off the 7th Armored Division roadblocks. CCR headquarters had meanwhile become ensnarled with the remnants of the 14th Cavalry Group and the residue of the corps artillery columns at the little village of Poteau, where the roads from Recht and St. Vith join en route to Vielsalm. faced south, then swung back until it again faced east. after concentration against the enemy thrusting against the 38th and Battalion, at the tail of the column, rolled through Stavelot about 0800 on the morning of 18 December, it found itself in the middle of a fire fight between the advance guard of the 1st SS Panzer Division and a small American force of armored infantry, engineers, and tank destroyers. Since the shift would leave Hoge's northern flank open, it was agreed that contact between the two combat commands would be re-established at Bauvenn, necessitating that Hoge's left be pulled back some two thousand yards. He decided, therefore, to flank the St. Vith defenses from the north as soon as his brigade, scheduled to arrive on 20 December, was in hand. The letter, safely delivered, gave the First Army its first definite picture of events in the far-removed St. Vith sector: I am out of touch with VIII Corps and understand XVIII Airborne Corps is coming in. The town square was a scene of utter confusion. This battalion (Lt. Col. W. L. Nungesser) was at about half strength-attendance at schools or special assignments accounted for the rest. I just did everything I thought necessary. There is a sign that reads Headquarters Battery 969 F and features 2 cannons crossed on the bottom. During the night of l9-20 December the Germans completed a division bridge at Steinebrck near that destroyed by the American armored engineers, and division artillery and heavy vehicles began their move north and west. Colonel Wemple and other officers restored a line, but when daylight came it was hard to tell whether friend or foe really held Crombach. At Recht were located the command post of CCR and the rear headquarters of CCB, with the 17th Tank Battalion assembled to the southeast. CCR headquarters started down. The 183d Regiment now poured through the draw into St. Vith. Although troops of the 18th Volks Grenadier Division or the 9th SS Panzer Division fired on Boylan as his detachment reached the river, they made no attempt to rush the bridge-a fortunate circumstance, as it turned out, for when the 82d Airborne engineers tried to blow the bridge the charge failed to explode. 955th Field Artillery Battalion (155 Howitzer - Tractor Drawn) HOME STATION: Brooklyn, NY Armory 1402 8th Avenue: DATE MOBILIZED: 19 AUG 50: . The enemy recovery was slow. A heavy barrage (the 62d Volks Grenadier Division by this time had a number of pieces. Although rationing had begun, there was no immediate threat that food, gasoline, or ammunition would fail. Stone sent out one of his staff to try to line up some help; this officer discovered the command post of the 965th Field Artillery Battalion, near the town of Beho, and put forth the case of the Gouvy defenders "who were attempting to hold the line despite their not being trained infantrymen." at La Roche and the VIII Corps headquarters at Bastogne. United States. In a matter of minutes German infantry and tanks were to the rear of the foxhole line. The remainder of CCB, 9th Armored Division, remained in the positions on the ridge line west of the Braunlauf Creek and draw. The new defense ordered by Clarke began to form shortly before midnight. 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. CCB, 9th Armored Division, had passed St. Vith en route to aid the 424th Infantry, and a platoon of Troop C, 89th Cavalry Squadron, was commandeered to reinforce the watch east of the town.1 This little force was digging in when, at noon, the first enemy patrols were sighted. This message reached Ridgway's headquarters ten minutes before noon. It finally arrived in the division assembly area east of Vielsalm late in the afternoon. They come back to the more secure positions. Some held where they were; some stampeded blindly through the woods in search of an exit to the west. were abandoned-their crews shelled out by accurate enemy concentrations 695th Armored Field Artillery Battalion: U.S. Army: 1945: Invasion behind enemy lines and capture of the French city Metz. The map shows many roads, but on the ground, the majority of these are mere tracks on which even a jeep bogs down if more than two or three travel on it. block the St. Vith-Houffalize road in the neighborhood of Gouvy and 802 Field Artillery Bn SMITH, ROY BENTON. The southern force of CCB, 7th Armored, under Colonel Wemple, was next to go, the plan calling for a move south through Braunlauf and onto the route traveled by Hoge's columns. It was important, however, as the knot which tied the roads running Meanwhile the hours of darkness were slipping away. In this sector Here, only two thousand yards from St. Vith, two troops of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and a few antiaircraft half-tracks offered the sole barrier to a thrust into the city. a slim connection remained between the 7th Armored Division rear installations Three times the grenadiers Why did the LXVI Corps fail to make a determined push toward St. Vith on 17 December? The formation adopted by CCA was based on a semicircle of ten medium tanks fronting from northwest to east, backed by tank destroyers and with riflemen in a foxhole line well to the front. from the 424th Infantry west of Steinebrck. Between Rodt and the next village to the west, Poteau, two companies of medium tanks patrolled the main road and watched the trails running in from the north. A small German attack hit the right flank just as the move was being. They had met an entire German corps flushed 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. At 1500 a radio message from the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters informed Hasbrouck that the "request of CG, 7 AD" for withdrawal had been approved. the VIII Corps headquarters and the St. Vith command post was almost Within an infantry division, there were four artillery battalions, three M2A1 105mm howitzer battalions and one 155mm battalion. The entire force under Generals Hasbrouck and Jones was to form a defensive ring west of St. Vith and east of the Salm River. The detachment drove them out in a sharp fight but at nightfall withdrew to a road junction a mile and a half to the west, here blocking any further German move toward the north. Despite the American withdrawal from the WinterspeltHeckhuscheid area and the promptings of the impatient commander of the LXVI Corps, the 62d only tardily brought itself into conformity with the forward kampfgruppen of the 18th Volks Grenadier Division. VIII Corps has ordered me to hold and I will do so but need help. The command situation finally was "regularized" when Ridgway gave Maj. Gen. Alan W. Jones the command of the 7th Armored Division (he ranked Brig. Late in the afternoon a battalion of the 424th Infantry was added to the line, but as yet the enemy made no appearance in force in this sector. It was located along the German-Belgium border, and was about 50 square miles. of the 38th Armored Infantry line. command post, lacking any communication with the 7th Armored headquarters, 214th Infantry Brigade. The First Army headquarters was in process of drafting plans for uniting the XVIII Airborne Corps and the St. Vith force when General Hasbrouck's letter arrived. Yet at no time during the day did the Germans use more than three assault guns and one or two platoons of infantry in the piecemeal attacks west of Schnberg. In general, however, the battle was waning all along the eastern arc, bringing a brief respite to the men in the foxholes, now subjected to a freezing, blasting wind after hours of fighting in snow and slush. The 7th Armored Division (by fairly accurate reckoning) had lost 59 medium tanks, 29 light tanks, and 25 armored cars.8. on the main road, was launched late in the day but was repulsed by the American artillery. 4 and two infantry divisions. During the 19th the two CCB's had been operating with very limited artillery support, although the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion had done yeoman service for their respective combat commands. By daylight small hostile groups had pushed far to the west in the sectors of the two armored combat commands'. Description. ABMC Headquarters 2300 Clarendon Blvd, Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Phone: 703-584-1501 The easternmost defenses, as a result, were in the sector bounded by the Prm road on the right and the Bllingen road on the left, susceptible to penetration at either flank or both. Troop D, 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, plus a light tank platoon Access to the Poteau-Vielsalm route in the north or the Beho-Salmchteau route in the south was no longer possible. Apparently the German corps command had some difficulty in organizing a co-ordinated and well-timed advance over the broken and wooded ground around St. Vith. Am out of contact with VIII Corps so am sending this to you. Infantry at Sevenig, had suffered intensely (the fighting strength of threatening to run down the vehicles barring the road, from Vielsalm The opportunity for a decisive American counterattack toward Schnberg was past, if indeed it had ever existed, and Hasbrouck's immediate concern was to establish his division north flank in a posture of defense in the St. Vith-Vielsalm area. It was easy for the German infantry to move unnoticed through the heavy timber. On the morning of 18 December General Hoge, CCB commander, was ordered to hurry to the 106th headquarters where he was told of the threat developing north of St. Vith. The day but was repulsed by the american artillery hostile groups had pushed far the. The situation on the bottom east of Vielsalm late in the middle of the situation on the VIII Corps ordered... 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