CCR headquarters started down. 2d Plat, Battery C, 226th AAA SL Bn 8 Feb 45-12 Feb 45. Furthermore, it was recognized that Peiper might try to break out through Stavelot. the easternmost position of any organized nature in the center sector At the Steinebrck bridge the enemy increased in number as the morning progressed, slipping into positions on the south bank under cover given by exploding smoke shells. artillery battalion near Schnberg and momentarily shook the American But this was not all that the 7th Armored Division commander had to report. Both American units were able to drive forward and the Shermans knocked out six light panzers or assault guns. December. They had met an entire German corps flushed CC A (3d Armd Div) 10 Jul 44-16 Jul 44. A trail had been discovered leading west out of the valley, and most of the middle of the column, led by a light tank company, escaped over it. On General Hoge's order a platoon of armored engineers went down and blew the bridge-almost in the teeth of the grenadiers on the opposite bank. This detachment had literally forced its way, at pistol point and by to make an all-out attack and take St. Vith itself on 21 December, whether or not the Fuehrer Begleit Brigade was ready. with the engineers, ordnance, and quartermaster people on the spot. One company of Shermans circled in the direction of Wallerode, falling on the enemy flank while the tank destroyers contained the head of the German column on the Hnnange road. An attempt to give greater weight to the artillery in the St. Vith-Vielsalm area. The loss of this combat command would create a wide breach in front of the enemy congregating south of St. Vith, a breach which hardly could be filled by the last reserves at Hasbrouck's disposal. About 0800 the Panthers engaged the small covering force at Hinderhausen. Another small German detachment deployed in front of the engineers an hour later was engaged and was finally put to flight by American fighter planes in one of their few appearances over the battlefield on this day. exit through a 3,000-yard-wide bottle-neck with only two bridges, those The resulting state of affairs was summed up when the executive officer of CCA reported to the division G-3: "The CO of CCA wanted these facts made known. First Army intelligence sources carried word of an enemy force building up here south of the 30th Division, a matter of considerable concern to Generals Ridgway and Hobbs by the night of 20 December. The reserve available to General Hasbrouck was scant for such wide-flung positions: some 90-mm. 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. This then was the extent of the Fuehrer Begleit effort on the 20th; Remer decided to await the arrival of the full brigade.2. 365th Battalion. 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. They would have to be threaded through the St. Vith bottleneck. tank destroyers. The battalion landed at Utah Beach during Operation Neptune, and participated in the liberation of France and Belgium. At Bastogne General Middleton outlined the mission: one combat command would be prepared to assist the 106th Division, a second could be used if needed, but under no circumstances was the third to be committed. 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. Although the mounted military police platoon in St. Vith had orders to sidetrack the withdrawing corps artillery when the armor appeared, the traffic jam had reached the point where the efforts of a few MP's were futile. 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. howitzer batteries of the 965th Field Artillery Battalion (the only corps artillery still in the sector) put more firepower at the disposal of the St. Vith defenders just at a time when the Germans were bringing their guns into position east of town. 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. This, of course, was the panzer detachment of the 1st SS Panzer Division. 8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Vickers Machine Gunners) 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps. Orders given the 18th Volks Grenadier Division early on the 22d to continue the attack along the main road through Rodt and Poteau toward the Salm River could not be carried out for some hours. The three task forces organized along the new line nominally represented a total of five medium tank companies, a. light tank company, three platoons of 90-mm. The 7th Armored hand, the bulk of the 23d Armored Infantry Battalion appeared to reinforce It is difficult to determine with surety how much of the 7th Armored Division, CCB, 9th Armored, 424th Infantry, 112th Infantry, and the numerous attached units had been lost during the, fight for St. Vith and in the subsequent withdrawal. The closest of the northern armored routes, as these appeared on the German operations maps, ran through Recht, about five miles northwest of St. Vith. But the assault guns which had pulled out of Crombach and gone-south during the night battle now came handily into play. Fortunately, the enemy, too, had to regroup before he resumed the battle. 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Remer's objective, however, was not in that direction. spanning the Salm River at Vielsalm and Salmchteau. CG was well pleased with everything you have done. The Enemy Strikes at the St. Vith Perimeter. Made cautious by the collision at Recht, the German column moved slowly, putting out feelers to the southeast before the main force resumed the march southwest along the Vielsalm road. The St. Vith salient, where the 7th Armored Division was to remain on the defensive during the XVIII Airborne advance, was confronted with growing German forces on three sides. At the tail of the column disaster, in the form of the Fuehrer Begleit advance guard, suddenly struck. This was the end. 365th Field Artillery Battalion (105mm) - 497 men - Lt Col Alfred E Graham * Hq & Hq Bty - 126 men * Service Bty - 74 men * Firing Bty A - 99 men . In a long distance They even succeeded in ambushing enough vehicles, passing back and forth along the road, to promise motorization of the brigade's bicycle battalion. Our supplies must come in through a bottleneck over a bridge near Vielsalm. The addition of the 7th Armored Division to the XVIII Airborne Corps had contributed greatly to the phenomenal expansion of a corps front which measured only some twenty-five miles on 19 December but which represented a sector of approximately eighty-five miles on the evening of 20 December. An hour later the platoon west of the village saw an enemy column of horse-drawn artillery driving into position. The 969th Field Artillery Battalion was an African American United States Army field artillery unit that saw combat during World War II. unknown to the 7th Armored Division headquarters. So they were designated as glider artillery for less than a year. This decision rested with Field Marshal Montgomery, the newly assigned commander of all Allied forces north of the German salient, who had been authorized by the Supreme Commander to give up such ground as was necessary in order to assemble sufficient strength for a decisive counterattack. at 1345). CCB, 7th Armored Division, be it remembered, was a battle-tested outfit of superior morale-as was the entire division-so credit also must go to the unnamed officers, noncoms, and men who withdrew in good order to the new line. The Sixth Panzer Army, thus far unable to win enough roads for a mass movement to the west, turned its reserve formations into the roads threading into the city. Also, the transmittal of the 7th Armored Division's own estimate of its possible progress was subject to "friction." Later, liaison was established with the 424th Infantry on the right, which had been out of contact with the enemy during the day and remained in its river line position. The problem of maintaining control over the heterogeneous formations in the St. Vith-Vielsalm area or of giving complete tactical unity to the defense was very difficult. Of the southern half of the original ring there remained only the rear guard and covering forces strung along the roads east of Salmchteau. Thus far CCA had no contact with CCR headquarters and its scratch force to the west at Petit Thier because the road from Poteau was under fire. The next level up is the Field Artillery Battalion (ABCT) which consists of a Headquarters & Headquarters Battery, an Forward Support Company attached from the Brigade Support Battalion, and 3 Field Artilery Batteries (this). Although the 62d Volks Grenadier Division was quick to occupy the ground vacated by CCB, no attempt was made to follow into the new American position. Wiki User. Apparently General Hasbrouck accepted the veracity of the report (he could hardly risk the chance that it was not true) and so recommended that General Ridgway send the 3d Armored Division east and south to meet this new enemy. Stone), and a light tank platoon had been sent to set up an outpost at the village. By chance the Chrain detachment. the line that the light tanks in the van had been hit by enemy fire For some reason this attack never fully developed-later German reports indicated that the assault waves lost their direction while moving through the thick woods. We may become subjected to enemy artillery fire from practically any direction. After firing their last rounds at the town and the column, the German tanks withdrew. The light tanks and tank destroyers, earlier disposed at Cierreux, and now brought back to form the column rear guard, were spotted by German scouts and set upon in the dark by assault guns that lighted their targets with high velocity flares. The men had not been given any recent training in the use of bazookas or machine guns; a large percentage of the machine gunners would therefore be killed in the fight for St. Vith. Jones ordered the 112th Infantry to draw northward on the night of l9-20 December and make a firm connection with the southern flank of the 424th. 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 town square was a scene of utter confusion. . Meanwhile Remer's armored group had arrived north of St. Vith and the brigade was ready for attack as soon as darkness came. With the enemy infantry inside Steinebrck and excellent direct laying by the German gunners picking off the American vehicles one by one, the cavalry withdrew along the St. Vith road. He cannot protect Poteau. 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. tank destroyers knocked out two of the lead tanks, temporarily halting the attack and giving Lohse's column time to reach Commanster. Only a few feeble German jabs were directed against the American line, which on its eastern face had been strengthened by a series of withdrawals to more favorable ground during the previous night. American tank destroyers which had been dug in at a bend in the road Stragglers came pouring through Recht in the meantime with rumors and reports of the enemy just behind them. But the combat echelons of the two regiments of the 62d Volks Grenadier Division which had bypassed the city on the south were in position by the night of the 22d to renew the attack. 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. East of Hnningen the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (-) had formed roadblocks to bar the northern and northeastern approaches to St. Vith. General Clarke took a hand here as a kind of super traffic cop until the jam cleared. Again a confused command situation took its price. An attack from Bastogne to the NE will relieve the situation and in turn cut the bastards off in rear. General Lucht ordered the commander of the 18th Volks Grenadier Division to throw everything he had behind the 294th and continue the attack. 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. In the midst of a snowstorm, sometime around midnight of the 21st, Remer's tank group and his armored infantry started along the narrow trails winding through the thick woods north of the Rodt-Vielsalm road. Off in rear came handily into play an hour later the platoon west of the lead tanks, temporarily the. 0800 the Panthers engaged the small covering force at Hinderhausen artillery for less than a year weight. Artillery Battalion near Schnberg and momentarily shook the American But this was not all that the 7th Division. The engineers, ordnance, and participated in the St. Vith-Vielsalm area 's,! To report we may become subjected to enemy artillery fire from practically any direction Fuehrer Begleit on. Have done enemy artillery fire from practically any direction than a year commander. 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