They could not give aid to CCB, east of St. Vith, but there the 75th Armored Field Artillery Battalion was in range and already had given a fine demonstration of effective support. The command status was more or less of an assumption." 303rd Battalion. During the afternoon the 7th Armored Division trains, whose officers and men had done a remarkable job in supporting the troops in the salient, got through one last supply column of ninety vehicles to Salmchteau. By mid-afternoon the enemy had reached the 168th Engineer positions less than two miles from St. Vith. This then was the extent of the Fuehrer Begleit effort on the 20th; Remer decided to await the arrival of the full brigade.2. This line was now gravely endangered on its open north flank by the German position astride the ridge at Rodt. 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. CCB of the 7th Armored had meanwhile been making good progress and arrived at Vielsalm about 1100, halting just to the east to gas up. make its delayed drive east of St. Vith on the morning of the 18th. It was the first group in this northern column which CCR had unwittingly eluded and from which the tail of the 7th Armored artillery column had glanced at Stavelot. Half an hour later three enemy tanks and some infantry appeared before the 168th Engineer Battalion position astride the St. Vith road. None of the charts on traffic density commonly used in general staff or armored school training could give a formula for establishing the coefficient of "friction" in war, in this case the mass of jeeps, prime movers, guns, and trucks which jammed the roads along which the 7th Armored columns had to move to St. Vith. difficult job of disengaging from an enemy who might continue the attack 1125th Field Artillery Battalion.pdf 8.54 KB: 999th Field Artillery Battalion.pdf 9.14 KB: 991st Field Artillery Battalion.pdf 9.28 KB: 987th Field Artillery Battalion.pdf 8.53 KB: 978th Field Artillery Battalion.pdf 9.02 KB: 977th Field Artillery Battalion.pdf 8.88 KB Colonel Rosebaum sent the tank platoon and an armored infantry company to clear the houses south of the cut. Communication between the higher American headquarters and their subordinate units was sporadic and, for long periods, nonexistent. fired a few final salvos to discourage pursuit. General Jones and General Hasbrouck still expected that CCB would. named deputy commander of the 7th Armored. 922nd Battalion. When he sent back orders for the emergency task force from CCB to hasten north, the cavalry troop was included. Both American units were able to drive forward and the Shermans knocked out six light panzers or assault guns. Through some confusion in orders both squadrons got onto the St. Vith-Poteau highway, although three reconnaissance teams did reach Recht and took part in the action there. some tank destroyers, hoping to stop the Panthers if they should turn 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. Facilities Managment Company. About a mile and a half to the east a large wooded hill mass rises as a screen. It was easy for the German infantry to move unnoticed through the heavy timber. The assignments were made back in the US and continued upon deployment. Through most of the confusion and immobility characterized the St. Vith bottleneck. From these Jones learned that both regiments had begun 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 . While the 7th Armored Division artillery was working its way onto the west road during the evening of 17 December, most of the division assembled in the St. Vith area along positions roughly indicative of an unconsciously forming perimeter defense. part of the 294th Infantry, whose patrols had been checked Thank you so much again for helping me find my friend." U.S. The 1st SS Panzer Division, forming the left of the I SS Panzer Corps advance in the zone north of St. Vith, had driven forward on two routes. The piecemeal German attacks on the 20th had been turned back with little loss or difficulty. The 7th Armored Division (by fairly accurate reckoning) had lost 59 medium tanks, 29 light tanks, and 25 armored cars.8. d. If the 2d SS Panzer Division attack should succeed in driving back the two RCTs of the 82d Airborne Division now between Salmchteau and Hebronval even as little as 3000 yards we will be completely severed from any source of supplies. Faced with the problem of organizing and integrating a defensive line which had come into being piecemeal and with little regard to the integrity of the tactical units involved, the Americans divided command responsibility along easily discerned map features. Lucht, therefore, was ordered. CHRAIN. the engineers. 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 time now was midafternoon. 413th AAA Gun Bn (Mbl) 20 Dec 44-24 Dec 44. Directly east of St. Vith ran the Schnberg highway, which had been the avenue of the very first German attacks, but this road ran over a ridge just outside St. Vith where the Americans had stood successfully to meet all previous enemy thrusts. By noon the situation was such that the little group of troopers dared delay no longer. Despite a brush with Remer's group and the loss of several tanks in the swampy ground south of Rodt the command reached Crombach and Hinderhausen, where General Clarke was building a second line of defense. CG was well pleased with everything you have done. 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. the VIII Corps headquarters and the St. Vith command post was almost As usual, attempts to bring up the horse-drawn caissons past the armor only resulted in more delay and confusion. Stone), and a light tank platoon had been sent to set up an outpost at the village. A perimeter defense by units cut off from the rest of the XVIII Airborne Corps was a very temporary expedient; the ground now occupied, in the opinion of the local commanders, could not be held for long. It is surprising that under the circumstances control and communication functioned as well as they did. Usually, 4 to 6 guns made up a battery in the field artillery. The main body of the 183d remained in reserve at Winterspelt. on the main road, was launched late in the day but was repulsed by the American artillery. American tank destroyers which had been dug in at a bend in the road 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. In the chain of command only General Ridgway demurred. They put up a wonderful show." from a bazooka; the third tank and the infantry withdrew. unknown to the 7th Armored Division headquarters. Be it noted, however, that the southern route (via Beho, Salmchteau, and through the 82d Airborne lines at Lierneux) followed a hard-surfaced motor road, that as yet there was little traffic congestion, and that the enemy efforts prior to the withdrawal had not disorganized the command but had simply forced its left flank closer to the avenue of escape. With the arrival of the assault guns some attempt was made to probe the American defenses east of St. Vith. Although the 18th Volks Grenadier Division was able, on this third day of the counteroffensive, to push some of its troops close in toward St. Vith, the 62d Volks Grenadier Division on the left had moved more slowly. As part of the reorganization on the 19th, CCB, 7th Armored, took over the 17th Tank Battalion, which had been holding the road southeast of Recht. The division artillery might be in firing position by the morning of the 20th. They were constituted on 25 January 1943 as the 465th Glider Field Artillery Battalion and activated 1 March 1943 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. At 0030 on the 23d General Hasbrouck informed General Hoge that his combat command, which was to initiate the move west, would begin withdrawal at 0200. Task Force Lindsey, whose cavalry and infantry had screened the main withdrawal of the southern segment of the ring, had come under damaging shell-fire as the 62d Volks Grenadier Division artillery got into position. They are standing in rows with 13 sitting on the ground in front with 6 men reclining in front of them. Although no major disruption had occurred in the ring defense, the night attacks had developed cracks in the line at Crombach and in the valley of the Braunlauf which would widen under a little more pressure. firing line. I just did everything I thought necessary. This battalion (Lt. Col. W. L. Nungesser) was at about half strength-attendance at schools or special assignments accounted for the rest. The last German other officers set to work to organize a breakout. the tight control needed in this type of operation General Ridgway ordered The southern advance, which had carried a mass Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Army Officer's Collar Pin: 45th Field Artillery Battalion - c/b, Meyer 9M at the best online prices at eBay! Lt. Col. Fred M. Warren, acting commanding officer, sent the driver on to division headquarters to tell his story, and at the same time he asked for a company of infantry. The troops east of St. Vith simply had to be written off (at least 600 officers and men) although some later would be able to work their way back through the German lines. and the mission no longer was counterattack, but rather defense in place, after concentration against the enemy thrusting against the 38th and The cavalry had been under fire since daybreak, and when the 2d Platoon attempted to return to its position on a commanding hill between Steinebrck and Weppler it was forced to move dismounted in a rain of bullets and shells. 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. In addition light tanks belonging to the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron had established radio contact with the 3d Armored task force north of Samre. was known to be on the Eastern Front), a battalion each of assault and field guns, and eight batteries of flak which had formed the antiaircraft guard for Hitler. had ordered. The St. Vith perimeter, now of substantial size, continued Army Service No. Field Artillery Battation: 2: Field Artillery Battery: 3: 6: M109 155mm SP: Field Artillery Battation: 1: Field Artillery Battery: 3: 6: M109 155mm SP: MLRS Battalion: 1: MLRS Battery: 2: 9: MLRS: DISCOM: 1 : Heavy Division XXI [Mechanized] 1: Headquarters Company INF DIV (MECH) 1: 6: M4 C2V: Rear Operatioms Center (DIV) 1 : MP Company HVY DIV . This estimate was received at the headquarters of the VIII Corps at 0500 on 17 December, the first indication, it would appear, that the leading armored elements would arrive at 1400 instead of 0700 as planned. 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. around the Schnee Eifel barrier to the net which fanned out toward the All through the morning the enemy pressed in on Poteau, moving his machine guns, mortars, and assault guns closer and closer. Jones becoming assistant to the corps commander and General Hoge being A small cavalry detachment, Task Force Lindsey (Capt. block the St. Vith-Houffalize road in the neighborhood of Gouvy and The emergency had arrived, fortunately along with the sudden freeze that gave a surface hard enough to bear the weight of armored vehicles. The Americans did not know that the troops of the 9th SS Panzer Division, who in past days had made raids from Recht southwest toward Poteau, were few in number and that only the day before the main body of the 9th SS Panzer Division had started on a forced march to the northwest in an attempt to break through to Kampfgruppe Peiper, now nearing the end of its tether. In a long distance Near Hinderhausen they attempted to surprise the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, an outfit that had been exposed to close-quarter fighting before. Finally, in midafternoon, Colonel Nelson (commanding the 112th) appeared at the 106th Division command post and reported his situation, and the regiment was taken over by General Jones-a solution subsequently approved by General Middleton. By this time it was obvious to Jones and Clarke that the main forces of the 7th Armored could not reach St. Vith in time to make a daylight attack. Army. Infantry at Sevenig, had suffered intensely (the fighting strength of But the 7th Armored Division was a veteran organization; the general officers in the area dealt with one another on a very cooperative basis; and within the sub-commands established around the coalescing perimeter, the local commanders acted with considerable freedom and initiative. Like the probing thrust at Hnnange, the German efforts on the road east of St. Vith during 18 December were advance guard actions fought while the main German force assembled. The 164th Regiment, reinforced by engineers and assault guns, apparently took some time to re-form after its fight with the 9th Armored Division counterattack force on 17 December. assault, begun after a two-hour fire fight, made a dent in the center One of the tank destroyers arrived just as a German tank platoon hove into sight at Cierreux, hit the two leaders, and drove off the five remaining tanks. The roads to be used were few and in poor state, Two hours later while the division assembled and made ready, an advance party left the division command post at Heerlen, Holland, for Bastogne where it was to receive instructions from the VIII Corps. howitzers scattering the German formation in every direction. 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. General Clarke, the CCB, 7th Armored Division, commander, could do little to influence the course of the battle. 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. It was thickly wooded with fir trees, twenty to thirty feet tall. assembly area, more difficult and tenuous. Then the German tank group, which had been delayed by a mine field, and an infantry company or two swung to the west and rolled down the main road into the village. of the Ardennes battleground. By dark the 293d Regiment was marching through Poteau and the rest of the infantry formations of the division were jumbled along a five-mile front on the east side of the Salm. His accompanying battalion of self-propelled artillery was within range of Salmchteau. The 969th Field Artillery Battalion was an African American United States Army field artillery unit that saw combat during World War II. The Germans driving on Salmchteau were held in tighter control than those advancing toward Vielsalm and moved with greater speed and coordination. Still worse, CCB had no friendly contact on the north, and a patrol sent to establish connection with CCB, 9th Armored, on the south had disappeared. General Clarke had informed General Hoge, whose command post was close at hand, that his command was moving back to re-form west of St. Vith. 806 Bomb Squadron (446 Bomb Group) Three Like the Americans on 17 December, jammed on the St. Vith-Vielsalm road, the Germans lacked adequate military police to handle the situation. No one could say with certainty, of course, what strength the enemy was preparing for the final assault to gain St. Vith. South of St. Vith, where CCB, 9th Armored, had redressed its lines during the previous night consonant with the 7th Armored position on the left and taken over a five-mile front, the enemy made some attempt to press westward. had just crossed the river west of Cierreux and started feeding into 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. In an hour the armored infantry were out of their holes and their half-tracks were clanking down the road to Vielsalm. I can delay them the rest of today maybe but will be cut off by tomorrow. The orders given the 7th Armored Division still held-to assist the 106th Division. Information on the location of the enemy or the routes he was using was extremely vague and generally several hours out of date. After a. hasty conference the counterattack was postponed until the following morning. As a result, orders charging CCB, 9th Armored, to pull out at 0600 were received in Hoge's command post at 0605. South of Nieder-Emmels the St. Vith road crossed the ridge where, the day before, the American tank destroyers had broken the back of the German attack before it could get rolling. In any event enough pressure was exerted during the morning to drive the small American screening force back toward St. Vith. They had firmly choked About 2045 CCR got its first word of the Germans it had so narrowly missed when the driver for the division chief of staff, Col. Church M. Matthews, appeared at the command post with the report that during the afternoon he had run afoul of a large tank column near Pont and that the colonel was missing. At noon the situation was critical, the village was raked by fire, and the task force was no longer. He is getting infiltration in his rear from the vicinity of Recht. The southern route, through Recht and Vielsalm, was assigned to a kampfgruppe of the 1st SS Panzer Division made up of a reinforced panzer grenadier regiment and a battalion of assault guns. Warren and Wemple studied the road net as shown on the map and agreed to try to hold Recht through the night. The southern column of the 1st SS Panzer Division, which first had captured the town, was long since gone, hurrying west. There is a sign that reads Headquarters Battery 969 F and features 2 cannons crossed on the bottom. 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 . St. Vith. 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. Gen. Bruce Clarke, in advance of CCB, agreed with Jones's recommendation that his combat command be organized upon arrival into two task forces and committed in an attack to clear the St. Vith-Schnberg road. A Battery 935th Field Artillery Battalion Overseas World War II. The remainder of CCB, 9th Armored Division, remained in the positions on the ridge line west of the Braunlauf Creek and draw. On the whole it appeared that the north flank of the St. Vith force shortly would be battened down at its western terminus and that the danger of a German turning movement there had been removed. In the early morning of 23 December Remer gathered a truck-mounted battalion of armored infantry, put some tanks at their head, and started them for Hinderhausen, with the intention of cutting south across the rear of the Americans. The corps' mission, as it had devolved by the end of the day, would be. The closest of the primary armored routes in the south ran through Burg Reuland, some five miles south. 365th Battalion. There is a postscript to this story. But the armored infantry, rallied by their officers and The ordnance company beat off the Germans, but the appearance this far west of enemy troops (probably from the 116th Panzer Division) indicated that not only the 7th Armored Division trains but the entire division stood in danger of being cut off from the American force gathering around Bastogne. 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. This optimism, as the record shows, was not shared by the commanders in the ring itself. My right flank is wide open except for some reconnaissance elements, TDs and stragglers we have collected and organized into defense teams at road centers back as far as Cheram [Chrain] inclusive. in the cellars, but most of the battalion finally had to pull back. Stone's group was incorporated in Task Force Jones. When CCB of the 9th Armored, the 424th Infantry, and the larger part of CCB, 7th Armored, had peeled away in layers from the ring, the last two combat commands of the 7th Armored defending the Poteau-Vielsalm highway had to be drawn off. As the leading tank platoon hove in sight of Poteau it came immediately under small arms and assault gun fire. Early on the afternoon of the 17th the 440th Armored Field Artillery, leading the column, entered Malmdy, only to be greeted with the sign THIS ROAD UNDER ENEMY FIRE. Bauvenn, no more than a jog in the road, lay three-quarters of a mile north of the natural corridor through which flowed the Braunlauf Creek, the corridor at whose eastern entrance the enemy had attacked the night before in severing. West of St. Vith, in position to give close support, were located the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion (Lt. Col. Roy Udell Clay) and the remainder of CCB. Description. the river had been completed, that only the 112th covering force remained. As they approached Gouvy station, a railroad stop south of the village, they ran afoul of three German tanks which were just coming in from the south. The American units flanking the road had been badly understrength. Around 1400 the German guns and Werfers opened up against Fuller's positions in front of the town. Control, as the 18th's commander later reported, was almost nonexistent. The enemy took the village quickly, and with it many of the half-tracks belonging to the 48th Armored Infantry Battalion. The next day it was able, with some pride, to turn over to the 7th Armored Division the 350 German prisoners it had guarded since 18 December and the stores at the railhead. On this day it was necessary to instruct all unit commanders that the rations, water, and gasoline on hand must be made to last for three days. The draw extending from the south to the west edge of town served as a boundary between the two CCB's. Of course many of them will show up, but they will be minus weapons, ammunition, blankets and rations as well as at a low physical level. Congrats. The enemy was much impressed. During the afternoon of 18 December while the combat commands of the 7th and 9th Armored Divisions were fighting holding actions along the eastern front of the St. Vith area, General Hasbrouck engaged in an attempt to restore the northern flank of the 7th Armored in the Poteau sector. 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. Be notified when an answer is posted. free main road which served as the main supply route for two armored General Lucht ordered the commander of the 18th Volks Grenadier Division to throw everything he had behind the 294th and continue the attack. He and Lt. Col. Robert L. Rhea (Commanding Officer, 23d Armored Infantry Battalion), who had taken over from Colonel Fuller when the latter was evacuated because of exhaustion, were able to restore some measure of confidence and order. In a matter of minutes German infantry and tanks were to the rear of the foxhole line. In midmorning of 20 December the Germans in the village deployed skirmishers and began a fire fight to test the American strength around the station. Connecting the Bllingen and Schnberg approaches a spider web of secondary roads and trails ran back and forth, centering at the hamlet of Wallerode (two miles northeast of St. Vith) behind which lay a large forest. The three 105mm battalions were assigned to one of the three infantry regiments to support, forming a combat team. Having found a negotiable route for his heavy vehicles, Remer prepared to capture Rodt, cut the main road between that village and Vielsalm, and overrun such of the American batteries as remained in the way. The final composition of the brigade was roughly equivalent to a reinforced American combat command: three grenadier battalions, a battalion of Mark IV tanks from the Grossdeutschland Panzer Division (a unit that caused Allied intelligence no end of trouble since Grossdeutschland. Word that the St. Vith-Vielsalm road had been cut at Rodt reached Lt. Col. Vincent L. Boylan, Commanding Officer, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, who took charge of the few troops of CCB remaining north of St. Vith on the wide open flank. On both sides of the main Schnberg road the 294th Regiment moved groups of forty to fifty men forward in bounds through the woods. Troop B was sent out the east road to reinforce the engineers, but the main body of the reconnaissance battalion deployed to screen the northeastern approaches to the Wallerode area. stocks at Gouvy Station east of the village proper, but this fact was TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. The south ran through Burg Reuland, some five miles south this 965th field artillery battalion Lt.... The infantry withdrew addition light tanks belonging to the east a large wooded hill mass as. American units were able to drive the small American screening force back toward Vith... 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