About noon the 2d Battalion counterattacked and German pressure along the 112th front began to wane. Early in the month the Germans had undertaken what appeared to be a routine relief in their forward positions. In the 1st Battalion sector, late in the afternoon, two tank platoons arrived in Munshausen to support Company C, already on its way north to relieve Company B in Marnach. The Germans planned to connect this route to their own supply lines by bridging the Our at Dasburg. A half hour before dawn on 18 December German guns and mortars opened heavy fire. Company A, at Heinerscheid, was on the extreme left flank of the 110th and so lay outside the path of the XLVII Panzer Corps attack, as did Company D at Grindhausen. Company D, in its support position on the high ground overlooking Ltzkampen, meanwhile commenced mopping up the enemy who had filtered between the companies on the line. 112th Infantry Regiment. When this was refused the Germans systematically set to work to surround the village; by dark they had ringed Weiler. on the left flank of the US Ninth Army. By the late evening the picture as seen at the division command post had cleared to this extent: the two flank regiments, the 109th and 112th, had lost. General Cota, as a result, decided to concentrate what was left to him-headquarters troops, engineers, stragglers, and the handful of organized units moving back from across the Clerf-in defense of Wiltz, the 28th Division command post. Colonel Nelson's antitank reserve, Company C, 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was deployed on the ridge west of the river, but these were towed guns, dug in and relatively immobile. Manteuffel had found himself in almost complete disagreement with the original operations plan handed down by Jodl in November. Since most of these works were "blind" the final protective line turned on foxholes and extensive patches of barbed wire which the battalion itself had constructed. A German attempt to cut the road between Consthum and Holzthum failed when Capt. While elements of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division were attacking on the north side of the Wiltz, detachments of the 5th Parachute Division struck the American perimeter on the south and southeast. At 1330 the enemy ceased, GERMAN TROOPS ADVANCING PAST ABANDONED AMERICAN EQUIPMENT. Designated as the 16th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the unit was mobilized on 28 April 1898 and activated into federal service for the SpanishAmerican War on 10 May 1898 at their mobilization site, Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania. One rifle regiment and part of the division engineers were still in Denmark. During WWII the regiment landed in Normandy in 1944, after D-Day, where it became the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team (RCT). Company C was in "reserve" in Munshausen. Manteuffel had no precise schedule for his right wing but after the war was over would say that he had hoped for the seizure of St. Vith on the first day of the attack. After the Germans captured the howitzers, a bazooka team of a company officer and a sergeant held the enemy tanks at bay, destroying two which ventured into the village. The casualties suffered by a typical American infantry regiment serving in World War II were horrendous. This was the end: shots, blazing vehicles, and screaming wounded. Despite the general dictum that defended towns would be bypassed, Manteuffel wanted St. Vith as a blocking position and so ordered Lucht to capture it. A section of tank destroyers, supporting the forward outpost, was overrun by the more mobile German tanks, but the engineers held their fire for the German infantry on the heels of the panzers and then cut loose, with satisfying results. Across the lines General Cota had little reason to expect that the 110th Infantry could continue to delay the German attack at the 28th Division center as it had this first day. Panzer Army to receive the highly secret word of a great counteroffensive day-as usual a boundary line had proved a point of little resistance-and . to the Our bridges in the 3d Battalion area led the regimental commander After a long wait the battalion commanding officer, Major Milton, went back into Wiltz to get further orders; when he returned most of his battalion had disappeared. He was able to convince the Army Group B commander that a stand should be taken on a number of tactical points which, in Manteuffel's judgment, were essential to success in the forthcoming attack. Both the 1st and 2d Battalions deployed with the rest of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team on 19 September 2008. This had been accomplished by noon on the first The 304th Regiment had suffered severely at American hands: the regimental commander was a casualty and one battalion had been badly scattered during the piecemeal counterattacks by the American tank platoons. in to the south edge of Hosingen, contrary to orders, and there grappled Hyperleap helps uncover and suggest. The first American planes arrived at 0935, immobilizing the German tanks momentarily. [3] The regiment plowed through France and Germany, participating in the capture of Paris and the bitter fighting in the Huertgen Forest. Through the early hours of 17 December American outposts reported sounds of tank movement in Ltzkampen. He wanted an attack on a broad front with both tank corps in the line at the opening gun-this point Hitler conceded. When daylight came, the German infantry already were stealing through the draws behind and around the forward platoons, aiming to assemble in the wooded areas to the rear.14. The road center at The next morning Colonel Nelson was able to tell General Cota, "Very good news. About 1300 a thick, soupy December fog rolled in on the village. In June 1875, the Logan Guards (Lewistown) were reorganized as Company G (Logan Guards), 5th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Three-quarters of an hour later the regimental commander ordered the artillery to displace behind the river; Colonel Fairchild moved the battalion across the river without losing a piece and immediately resumed firing. Meanwhile, General Middleton, the VIII Corps commander, issued a holdfast order to all his troops. The Battle of the Bulge took place in December 1944, after Adolf Hitler launched a surprise blitzkrieg against Allied Forces in northwest Europe. A brass plate on the stone has an inscription to the men of the 106th and says, ' Dedicated to the Men of the 106th Infantry Division who fought and died for their country 1944-45 .'. Most of the tanks and assault guns were out of action, there were insufficient machine guns to cover the final protective line, radio communication between the desperate units was practically nonexistent, searchlight rays glancing from the low clouds lighted the path of the attackers, and ammunition was running very low. 123th Infantry Regiment. But by the middle of December the 110th Infantry had almost a full roster-a roster numbering many men and some officers who yet had to see their first action. On the afternoon of the 16th the division commander had loaned Neslon the light tank company of the 707th Tank Battalion, but after a sweep through the 1st Battalion area in which not a shot was fired the tanks recrossed the river. In 1917, when America entered World War I, the 28th Infantry Division was the nation's oldest National Guard unit. The story in the 2d Panzer Division zone was the same. At the chteau, however, headquarters company still was hard pressed by riflemen and machine gunners in the houses nearby. About 1000 on 18 December, General Cota received the welcome word that But there were too few guns and too few air sorties to keep the enemy immobilized for long. On the second day of December, a staff officer from General Luettwitz' Only a short distance beyond, at a third block, fire swept into the column from all sides. 28th Infantry Division The 28th Division was destined to move againdestined for another job (the Gloomy Hurtgen Forest). The 112th Infantry Sector Company B of the 2d Tank Battalion, en route to set up a roadblock northeast of Clerf, was appropriated by General Cota and sent to support the 110th Infantry. This sizable town lay in a bend of the Wiltz River valley, southwest of Clerf and some three miles away from the enemy-held crossings at Wilwerwiltz. afternoon. 110th Infantry Regiment; 112th Infantry Regiment ; 107th Field Artillery Battalion; 108th Field Artillery Battalion; 109th . The remaining roads, through the 110th sector normally were poor but were made worse by the rains prior to 16 December; the 26th Volks Grenadier Division intended to enter the two southernmost roads by throwing a bridge across at Gemnd.6. Lewistown was Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Tyrone was Company B (less detached troops), Huntingdon was Company A. Troop G was converted to Company C, the Howitzer Battery was converted to the Combat Support Company, and the Bellefonte unit was redesignated as Detachment 1, Company B. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division was across the Our River in force but had failed to gain its first-day objective, control of the Clerf River crossings. The 112th Infantry south wing was giving way under heavy attack, and during the day all communications between the regiment and division were lost. The 3d Battalion (Maj. Harold F. Milton) formed the regimental right, with its companies on both sides of the ridge line. The coat of arms was approved on 2 January 1930. But Germans struck again and again. On the morning of the 20th Jones ordered the regiment to sideslip back to the east, reoccupy Beiler, and dig in along the eastwest ridge line, Leithum-Beiler-Malscheid. He added, however, that he had "three battalions now trying to counterattack from Clerf to Marnach." The regiment was awarded battle streamers marked Champagne 1918, Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, Oise-Marne, Lorraine 1918, and Meuse-Argonne for its service in France. The German barrage, with a limited number of rounds at the guns, dwindled away after about half an hour to sporadic salvos and stray single shots, leaving the advancing infantry without cover while they were still short of the American positions. The Battle of the Huertgen Forest: The Untold Story of a Disastrous Campaign. up positions north and east of the town. By February, they were back on the offensive. Viewing, the ground in front of his right armored corps as especially difficult, Manteuffel would give Generaloberst Walter Krueger's LVIII Panzer Corps a fairly narrow front for the initial assault. firing positions along the road, sited to cover the Wiltz perimeter Those who could left the road, scattering in small parties into the dark. The town itself lies in a horseshoe bend of the river. Next to the paved through highway via Clerf, the Wiltz valley offered the best avenue westward. Equally important, the green 1130th Regiment (incorporated into the 116th Panzer Division attack on the second day) had failed to follow closely in the path of the tanks and so gave American riflemen and machine gunners time to get set after the tanks rolled past. The division commander, officers, and noncoms were veterans; training throughout the division was reported as adequate. $14.95 + $5.50 shipping. For example, by the end of January, 1945, the 47 th Infantry Regiment (which fought in France and Germany) had lost well over 100% of their strength to battle casualties, where men were either killed, wounded . The regiment reached France in May 1918 as part of the American Expeditionary Force. The capitulation of the gallant garrison at Hosingen, during the morning, removed this threat to the 902d supply road. The 106th Infantry Division took over position for position. At Hosingen, on the ridge road, Company D and Company B were fighting German infantry hand to hand inside the village. The Fifth Panzer Army Attacks the 28th Infantry Division. The government of Luxembourg awarded it the Croix de Guerre, and the 112th Infantry Regiment received a Presidential Unit Citation, but that was the extent of the official recognition. On the evening Colonel Nelson decided to pull back through Huldange since enemy tanks were known to be in Trois Vierges. The authors do a great job of telling the the story with first-person accounts from the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted. This unit now relieved the provisional The American. the 2d Battalion back through Reuler, the Americans fighting stubbornly Two lieutenants from I Company examine German weapons abandoned at Schoppen. about six hundred men (it had been operating sawmills and rock crushers, The 44th was hit from the northeast and east by infantry armed with machine pistols charging in alongside single tanks. Here it lay astride the main attack axis of the German LXVII Panzer Corps of the Fifth Panzer Army headed to Bastogne, Belgium, and points west. Volks Grenadier Division) had not fared too well in the attack Once this barrier was passed the 26th would be responsible for covering the left flank of the corps while the armored divisions made the Meuse crossings. The total impact of the severe German blows dealt the 110th Infantry in the late afternoon and evening of 17 December was not felt at the division and corps headquarters for several hours. The 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, on 16 December 1944, held the center sector of the defensive zone of the division and VIII Corps in the Ardennes. antitank guns supplemented the weapons organic to the conventional Volks Grenadier division. Nicknamed the 'Bloody Bucket,' the 28th Infantry Division held firm against German attacks during the Battle of the Bulge. In August 1950 the Lewistown unit was mustered into federal service for the Korean War. Some artillery support was still available from a battery of the 687th Field Artillery Battalion, whose shells swept the open fields between the two villages. Early morning reports of considerable German penetration and the threat The Americans lined up in German formation and, while an officer shouted commands in German, marched boldly across the bridge. a blasted bridge three kilometers east of Heinerscheid and established World War II Records, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, History . VIII Corps: Medical Support in the Battle of the Bulge In addition to the organic medical support provided in its infantry and armored divisions, the VIII Corps, First U.S. Army, in the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge possessed a well-organized and experienced medical support structure with the 64th Medical Group and its two separate medical battalions, the 169th . If you want a powerful account of the battle from the mouths of those who were there, this is it. 124th Infantry Regiment. At l825 Colonel Fuller phoned the 28th Division chief of staff that his command post was under fire and that enemy tanks occupied the town. The Germans in the way quickly withdrew to the and the few remaining towed tank destroyers of Company B, 630th Tank The regiment was again called to active federal service on 17 February 1941, 10 months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Colonel Fuller set. The presence of two panzer units on the 110th Infantry front was not suspected. But only the 1st (Lt. Col. Donald Paul) and 3rd (Major Harold Milton) Battalions of the 110th were on the line, while the remaining 2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. Ross C. Henbest) was held in division reserve at Doennange and Wiltz, eight miles to the southwest. A part of the German company, perhaps a platoon in strength, succeeded in reaching the stone bridge over the Our south of Ouren, but was dispersed. Time was running out for the American companies: ammunition. General Luettwitz was none too pleased with the progress made by his two attack divisions on this first day. He then became the executive officer (XO) for the 16th Infantry Regiment at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York. Corps headquarters had taken part in the Fifth Panzer These were the stakes when the Germans launched their surprise attack through Belgium on December 16, 1944. This threat north of the Marnach road seems to have caused the German commander some concern. Their fate is unknown. The Bellefonte unit was redesignated Troop L, 103d Cavalry. Tank Battalion-some six crippled tanks and five assault guns was gathered The Lewistown company was consolidated with another company and became Headquarters and Headquarter Troop, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron, 104th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The group never established contact, however, and most of its members were captured when they attempted to break away the following morning. The road net was adequate, although mired by constant rain, but the two forward battalions had to be supplied at night because of German fire. Crest: that for the regiments and separate battalions of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard: From a wreath argent and azure, a lion rampant guardant proper holding in dexter paw a naked scimitar of the first, hilted or and in sinister an escutcheon of the first on a fess sable three plates. It is southeast of Aachen, Germany.D-Day for the Battle of Hurtgen Forest was November 2, 1944, H-hour was 0900. About 0620, however, the 1st Battalion phoned to say that shells were coming over the battalion command post. The 116th had fought itself out in almost continuous battles during the withdrawal across France and the defense of the West Wall but had a fine reputation and was fairly well refitted. In a matter of minutes the left company ran into a strong German skirmish line, deployed at the edge of a wood, which was supported by tanks and self-propelled artillery firing from around Marnach. The ground east of the river was favorable to the defender, who was well entrenched as the result of careful planning and inspection by Nelson and his staff, and whose guns covered the few routes of mechanized advance. observers could see the enemy assembling in the woods just to the north. It became the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team. The 109th Infantry was losing ground on its north flank and soon would be forced back fanwise into the 9th Armored Division zone. Over 83,000 Americans were casualties during the battle which lasted from December 16, 1944 until January 25, 1945, and as a result, the battle occupies a prominent place in our collective minds. Hitler himself seems to have favored this concept (it is found in the first Fuehrer operations order), but only in the Fifth Panzer attack would assault detachments be found inside the American positions when the initial barrage opened up. The only security for the southern flank would have to come from an advance in echelon and such protection as the less mobile divisions of the Seventh Army could offer on the left. By this time, however, the advance infantry detachments of the 2d Panzer Division were not only involved in a battle to knock out Marnach but were pushing past the village en route to Clerf. At the top of the ascent the tanks met: four German tanks were knocked out, three American tanks destroyed. . The eye of the division commander would be on the assault echelons of his right wing regiment, for they would make the main effort to reach the Clerf. Sufficient trucks were available to motorize most of the division, but there was a shortage of tracked cross-country vehicles. At night the strip between the ridge and the river became a no man's land where German and American patrols stalked one another. trusted officers set feverishly to work on plans for Christrose, Of those who were there, this is it formed the regimental right, with its companies on sides. During the morning, removed this threat north of the Bulge took place in December 1944, Adolf... With its companies on both sides of the river became a no man 's land where German and patrols... Garrison at Hosingen, on the offensive presence of two panzer units on the offensive &! Great job of telling the the story in the month the Germans systematically set to on... 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