An attempt to give greater weight to the artillery in the St. Vith-Vielsalm area. 7 That a gap existed on the right of the 424th was known. The roads to be used were few and in poor state, In sharp fighting most of the mechanized force at the tail was destroyed. 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. It is probable that night-flying German planes spotted the American columns in the early hours of the 17th, but it is doubtful that the tank columns of the Sixth Panzer Army traveling west on roads cutting across the 7th Armored routes were aware of this American movement. During this entire action the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 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 estimated time of arrival was 1400, 17 December, and of closure 0200, 18 December. over 2,000 and sufficient billets to house a division headquarters. This crossroads hamlet had been the worst bottleneck in the traffic jam on 17 December; indeed the situation seems to have been completely out of hand when the CCR headquarters arrived in the early morning hours and succeeded in restoring some order. Some had even climbed out of the Braunlauf valley and engaged in scattering fire against the battalion of the 424th Infantry in the reserve position at Maldingen. U.S., World War II Hospital. 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. 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 easternmost position of any organized nature in the center sector 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. The exact location and strength of the 112th Infantry, somewhere south of the 424th, were unknown. At an earlier and more optimistic hour this company had been dispatched to Houffalize with orders to make a counterattack southward to relieve the pressure on Bastogne. By early morning of the 22d the withdrawal of the southernmost units was under way and the circle was beginning to form. Montgomery had consulted with General Hodges, the First Army commander, and here, showed the ability to honor the fighting man which had endeared him to the hearts of the Desert Rats in North Africa: "They can come back with all honor. 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. Wiki User. Fate took a hand to save the rest of the column. 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. Fortunately bright moonlight allowed some maneuver. This fire was quite ineffectual and there was little comprehension in. 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. The German column at Poteau, however, made no attempt to drive on to Vielsalm. United States. 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. specific instructions for the unit to which they were sent. This was not to be the end. Maj. Michael Sherratt secures the brigade colors during the 65th Field Artillery Brigade change-of-command ceremony at Camp Williams, Utah, Aug. 13, 2022. All through the morning the enemy pressed in on Poteau, moving his machine guns, mortars, and assault guns closer and closer. It must be added, however, that Lucht's LXVI Corps was not in position to bring off the smashing attack against St. Vith which had been set tentatively for the 20th. Of the southern half of the original ring there remained only the rear guard and covering forces strung along the roads east of Salmchteau. Prisoners had reported that the Grossdeutschland Panzer Division, previously identified on the Eastern Front, had joined the LXVI Corps before St. Vith. 87th infantry division museum. Then, too, the artillery belonging to the division had been turned inward against the Schnee Eifel pocket on 18 December; only one battalion got up to the Schnberg-St. Vith road.5. 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. It was about an hour before noon. In this position the combat command blocked the main Winterspelt-St. Vith highway and the valley of the Braunlauf Creek, a second natural corridor leading to St. Vith. By noon German infantry were in Setz, with at least five hours of daylight remaining and less than five miles to go, much of that distance being uncontested. Thus far the all-important bridge had been left intact, for there was still some hope that the 423d Infantry, at the least, might free itself from the Schnee Eifel trap. latter village, its right more or less secured by a provisional company Finally, the enemy was under compulsion to reconnoiter anew the outlines of the American eastern front which had been redrawn during the night of 19 December. 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. On both sides of the main Schnberg road the 294th Regiment moved groups of forty to fifty men forward in bounds through the woods. He then ordered the 17th Tank Battalion (Lt. Col. John P. Wemple) to send a tank company into Recht. on the valley floor by high ridges to either side, unable to move forward Without Wemple's tanks, or with them, Task Force Jones was no match for any large detachment of the 2d SS Panzer Division. last bit of hope for the lost regiments must have gone. tricky staff problem. 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. The occupation of St. Vith had considerably disorganized the attacking division, whose regiments jammed into the town from east, north, and south. The liquidation of the Schnee Eifel pocket had freed the last elements of the LXVI Corps for use at St. Vith; General Lucht now could concentrate on the reduction of that town. This bridgehead village lay in the outpost line of the 508th Parachute Infantry. 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. He needed two companies of infantry deployed and one in reserve. General Jones and General Hasbrouck still expected that CCB would. force on the 18th, was at the tail end of the LVIII Panzer Corps On the morning of the 17th Colonel Slayden, VIII Corps' assistant G-2, and Lt. Col. Earle Williams, the 106th Division signal officer, while doing independent scouting east of St. Vith, had seen the enemy and tapped the signal wire to ask for artillery interdiction of the highway. A brace of 90-mm. Division, CCB of the 9th Armored, the remnants of the 106th Division, to St. Vith. Some of the Germans made it to the houses and defended themselves. Stragglers came pouring through Recht in the meantime with rumors and reports of the enemy just behind them. 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. As usual, attempts to bring up the horse-drawn caissons past the armor only resulted in more delay and confusion. Lt. Col. Thomas J. Riggs, Jr., commander of the 81st Engineer Combat Battalion, who had tried to organize a counterattack to wipe out the earlier penetrations was lost trying to organize a last-ditch defense in the hamlet of Prmerberg on the main road. 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. But that the XVIII Airborne Corps lacked the strength to close the gap of thirteen road miles between the VIII Corps and itself (that is, the gap between the 7th Armored Division detachment at Chrain and the elements of the 101st Airborne at Foy) was rapidly becoming apparent to all. Using the church spire as a reference point the cannoneers of Battery C opened fire, their 155-mm. While the 2d SS Panzer Division was awaiting the gasoline needed for its projected attack north along the seam between the 82d Airborne Division and the 3d Armored in the Baraque de Fraiture sector, the reinforced Reconnaissance Battalion (Maj. Ernst Krag) had been dispatched on the 22d to cut the main road between Salmchteau and the Baraque de Fraiture crossroads. after concentration against the enemy thrusting against the 38th and His regiment had lost most of its vehicles, radios, and crew-served weapons but had suffered relatively light casualties and lost but few stragglers. At Vielsalm General Hasbrouck waited impatiently for word that the two harassed combat commands were ready to disengage. conditions and would return again to the battle. In blinding snow, on slippery roads, 9th Armored tanks and infantry headed for Bauvenn, designated as the linkage point for the two combat commands. named deputy commander of the 7th Armored. Don't move 'til you hear from me. To counter this threat the light tank platoon moved into Steinebrck, leaving the American left uncovered. 365th Battalion. difficult job of disengaging from an enemy who might continue the attack Krag decided to shift his advance toward Salmchteau and there possibly link up with friendly forces he knew to be coming from St. Vith. Here forty men or so of the 81st Engineer Combat Battalion (106th Division) joined the 168th. Even when separated from the 7th Armored trains the St. Vith front was considerably stronger and better organized than it had been. West of Wallerode the 295th Regiment started into the assault, possibly only as a feint, but withdrew as the guns supporting CCB, 7th Armored, went into action. The battalion landed at Utah Beach during Operation Neptune, and participated in the liberation of France and Belgium. The 1 st Battalion, 6 th Field Artillery holds a special place of distinction among artillery units of the U.S. Army, fighting at some of the most decisive conflicts in American military history. Our supplies must come in through a bottleneck over a bridge near Vielsalm. Army Service No. 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. This message reached Ridgway's headquarters ten minutes before noon. The traffic jam thus created was made worse by the horde of officers and men driving American vehicles captured in the Schnee Eifel who were grimly determined to hang onto their loot. The ground at Rodt, then, overlooked the flank and rear of CCB. 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. The bulk of the German advance guard, as. The enemy had found a soft spot and was regrouping while his tanks and assault guns moved forward. During the lull that followed, a platoon of light cavalry tanks and a section of towed tank destroyers came east from the river road to give a hand. 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. Originally three routes were chosen: a northern route along the Poteau-Vielsalm road; a center route from Commanster to the Vielsalm bridge (nothing more than a poor woods road); and a southern route via Maldingen, Beho, and Bovigny, thence north along the Salm valley road to the Salmchteau bridge and east along the Salmchteau- La Roche road by way of the Baraque de Fraiture crossroads, which at this time was still in American hands. 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. Their 155-mm 7 that a gap existed on the Eastern Front, had joined the 168th a... 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