Communication between the higher American headquarters and their subordinate units was sporadic and, for long periods, nonexistent. The German corps commander, General Lucht, had ordered the Mobile Battalion of the 18th Volks Grenadier Division up from reserve during the previous night with orders to advance via Andler. He was acutely conscious of the narrow margin of protection afforded by the 82d Airborne Division and worried lest a northward attack by the incoming 2d SS Panzer Division beat back the west flank of the 82d and close off the Salm River exits once and for all. At Commanster a traffic jam started. 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. Word of this, handed down by Colonel Ryan who had been at the VIII Corps headquarters in Neufchteau and had worked his way back to the division trains, caused a little confusion as to the exact status of the units attached to the 7th Armored Division. Two draws cut through this shield of high ground, one on the north represented by the highway running from Bllingen into St. Vith, the other angling from the southeast and traversed by the road and railroad line from Prm. The Germans driving on Salmchteau were held in tighter control than those advancing toward Vielsalm and moved with greater speed and coordination. 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. force on the 18th, was at the tail end of the LVIII Panzer Corps 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. At Vielsalm General Hasbrouck waited impatiently for word that the two harassed combat commands were ready to disengage. The final assault, made by the 294th and one or two platoons of Tigers, simply peeled the Americans back on both sides of the road. from the 424th Infantry west of Steinebrck. From this point on Kampfgruppe Krag fought two battles, one to mop up the town, the other to capture American vehicles trying to break out of the valley road in the south. Three armored cars, two jeeps, and one light tank were able to disengage and carried the wounded out; apparently a major part of the force was able to make its way to Vielsalm on foot. drive by this time were twenty-five airline miles to the southwest of The 62d Volks Grenadier Division, to the south, finally brought its inner flank into echelon with the left of the 18th near Setz by pivoting the 190th Regiment west. Without further orders the two commanders, their staffs, and subordinates set to work on plans for demolitions and a rear guard stand to keep the escape routes to the Salm open. tank destroyers from the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, waiting on the reverse slope, caught the first wave of four Panthers in their sights, fired seven rounds, and knocked out all four. 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. was left of his command to fall back to the high ground west of the city, planning to anchor the new line on those of his troops who were still intact in the Nieder-Emmels sector, northwest of St. Vith. Late in the day General Jones moved the 106th command post to Vielsalm, setting up near General Hasbrouck's headquarters. 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. Nevertheless the Poteau road junction was denied the enemy, and by the close of day patrols had established contact between CCR, to the west, and CCA. at La Roche and the VIII Corps headquarters at Bastogne. Horse-drawn artillery succeeded in getting into position nearby and had a share in the action. assembly area, more difficult and tenuous. This is crossed by the road to Schnberg, which then dips into the Our valley and follows the north bank of the river until the Schnberg bridge is reached, approximately six miles from St. Vith. detachment arrived to set up the Gouvy roadblock, it found the Germans inside the village. and the mission no longer was counterattack, but rather defense in place, in the cellars, but most of the battalion finally had to pull back. 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. Brig. The general answered that the division naturally would continue to defend if its present position was considered to be vital but that he personally favored withdrawal.5, Hasbrouck's answer and a report on the existing state of the American forces were taken to Montgomery. Don't move 'til you hear from me. Colonel Rosebaum sent the tank platoon and an armored infantry company to clear the houses south of the cut. The headquarters battery, 440th Antiaircraft (AW) Battalion (Lt. Col. Robert 0. When he sent back orders for the emergency task force from CCB to hasten north, the cavalry troop was included. 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. won partial control of Crombach and were sitting across the road in the rear of the American tanks and riflemen to the east of the village. Stone), and a light tank platoon had been sent to set up an outpost at the village. TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. 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. 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. howitzer, to fire only on the most urgent and well-defined targets. The 190th Regiment advanced in close formation toward the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, almost as if in route march, and took a terrible beating from artillery, mortars, tank destroyers, antitank guns on ground mounts, and machine guns. The southern advance, which had carried a mass Usually, 4 to 6 guns made up a battery in the field artillery. Half an hour later three enemy tanks and some infantry appeared before the 168th Engineer Battalion position astride the St. Vith road. 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. An attack to seize the village of Joubival. 09:17 NUTS! The 183d Regiment now poured through the draw into St. Vith. During this entire action the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 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. By this time most of the 32d Squadron had threaded their way south through Poteau, apparently unaware that the group had established a command post there. U.S., World War II Hospital. the VIII Corps headquarters and the St. Vith command post was almost (See Map VII. A protective barrage dropped in a half moon, sometimes no more than three hundred yards in front of the American foxholes, checked part of the 190th Grenadier Regiment east of Crombach. Communication between After 30 years and learning the computer and finding VetFriends, I went to my first reunion of the USS Navasota AO-106. In a subsequent readjustment of the CCB line to round out the goose egg, Hoge's tanks and infantry were arrayed from Neubrueck south and west through Grufflange and Maldingen. from the 423d Infantry (dispatched at noon on the previous day) finally At Poteau, five miles from the river, CCA stood facing the enemy to north, east, and south. Observation was poor-the 18th was a day of low-hanging The 7th Armored commander, at Hoge's request, got Middleton to cancel the order, and CCB, 9th Armored, subsequently was taken under the First Army command. 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. Only five Americans escaped.6 Two or more companies crossed near the blasted bridge and by 1530, despite the continual pounding administered by the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and the rapid fire from the cavalry tank, assault, and machine guns, had nearly encircled Troop D. A cavalry request for medium tanks perforce was denied; the tank companies sent north to Hnningen had not yet returned and General Hoge had no reserve. About 1700 two German tanks and a rifle platoon suddenly struck at one of these positions south of La Roche manned by Company C, 129th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion. Army Service No. The vacuum which had existed for some hours in the northern reaches of the one-time ring had filled rapidly in the late afternoon as the 18th Volks Grenadier Division brought its infantry out of St. Vith. 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 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. 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 second German assault was made in a more methodical manner. In any event enough pressure was exerted during the morning to drive the small American screening force back toward St. Vith. This fleshed out a more or less connected but thin line running as a semicircle from south of Recht to a point about a thousand yards east of St. Vith, then curving back to the southwest where the 424th Infantry and CCB, 9th Armored, met near Grufflange. Meanwhile the hours of darkness were slipping away. But unit integrity had been lost, the armored components were far below strength, and many of the armored infantry were weary, ill-equipped stragglers who had been put back in the line after their escape from St. Vith. But the newly committed 9th SS Panzer Division, following in its wake via Recht, threw a large detachment of panzer grenadiers into the woods around Poteau, either to retake the crossroad or to pin the Americans there. This was Task Force Jones, assembling in the. in communication with any other Americans. This fire was quite ineffectual and there was little comprehension in. On both sides of the main Schnberg road the 294th Regiment moved groups of forty to fifty men forward in bounds through the woods. At Bastogne the 101st Airborne Division was arriving to take over the fight at that critical road junction, but there were no additional reinforcements which General Middleton could employ in plugging the gap between St. Vith and Bastogne. The eight battalions of field artillery taking part in the defense were put on a strict ration, seven rounds for each 105-mm. Veteran C. Young. Confusion, darkness, and mud slowed the move, but by morning a medium tank company and a platoon of riflemen had reached the village. Furthermore the 7th Armored trains had reported signs of an enemy force far to the west of the 7th Armored outpost positions. 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. Colonel Wemple and other officers restored a line, but when daylight came it was hard to tell whether friend or foe really held Crombach. Tank and artillery fire stopped the Germans just as it had on previous days. artillery battalion near Schnberg and momentarily shook the American Tanks of the Fuehrer Begleit Brigade, theoretically attached to the LXVI Corps but subject to commitment only on army orders, would not be released for use at St. Vith until too late for a successful coup de main. A counterattack thrown in by a scratch force of infantry and tanks from Bauvenn drove the Germans out and freed those Americans still alive. Prisoners had reported that the Grossdeutschland Panzer Division, previously identified on the Eastern Front, had joined the LXVI Corps before St. Vith. That the enemy was prepared to contest this move all intelligence reports affirmed. There two companies of the 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry, were deployed, guarding a draw and secondary road which provided quick access to the Salm valley at a point midway between Jones's assembly area at Bovigny and Salmchteau. East of Hnningen the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (-) had formed roadblocks to bar the northern and northeastern approaches to St. Vith. 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. The problem involved in extricating and reforming these units was enhanced by the natural desire of the German soldiers to make the most of this opportunity to sleep for a little while in warm billets. A little later a company of German infantry was detected marching north along the valley toward Chrain. Troop D, 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, plus a light tank platoon After a personal reconnaissance east of St. Vith on 19 December Remer concluded that a frontal attack in this sector was out of the question. 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