Michael Tolhurst: Bastogne: Battle of the Bulge, Pen & Sword Books Limited (Battleground Europe series), 2001 . Luettwitz concluded that the Clerf River now would be crossed not later than the evening of the second day. The 902d, advancing by way of Munshausen, now cleared of Americans, followed. Only a short distance beyond, at a third block, fire swept into the column from all sides. Two hours later the 112th Infantry acknowledged receipt of these instructions. Colonel Fuller's command post was in a hotel only a few yards from the north bridge. Once the 2d Panzer Division had thrown a bridge across the Our at Dasburg and the 26th Volks Grenadier Division had put a bridge in at Gemnd, the well-known Panzer Lehr Division would be ready to roll, advancing behind the two forward divisions until the corps had cleared the Clerf River, then pushing ahead of the infantry on the corps left in the race to Bastogne. Shortly before dusk The main body of the 1st Battalion was stationed at Camp Taji while the main body of the 2d was stationed at Camp Liberty on the Victory Base Complex. Miscellaneous troops of the 110th Infantry had joined with units of Combat Command R of the 9th Armored Division (briefly under operational control of the 28th Infantry Division) to defend along the main road to Bastogne in the area west of Clerf. Covers operations in all theaters of operations. In the first German blueprint for the Ardennes counteroffensive the latter corps had been assigned four divisions and the mission of driving to and across the. Odds didn't favor the 28th Division. John "Lefty" Zagarella, As Told In Letters, 1941-1945. 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 56th redeployed to America toward the end of 2009. He argued that the enemy literally must not be awakened and that the assault forces should move forward the moment the guns sounded. Here about ten o'clock, Battery C of the 229th came under direct tank fire but stopped the tanks with howitzer fire at close range while Company C of the 447th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion used its quad mount machine guns to chop down the infantry following behind. About 0620, however, the 1st Battalion phoned to say that shells were coming over the battalion command post. About an hour before dawn eleven searchlights flicked on, their rays glancing dully from the low clouds back onto the Ltzkampen-Sevenig ridge. The massed guns and Werfers of the XLVII Panzer Corps which roared out at 0530 on 16 December gave the Americans their first warning. Unhappy about this thorn in his side, Manteuffel won the assignment of the Schnee Eifel heights to his army and personally developed a scheme to mop up resistance in this sector at the earliest possible moment. eager to be in at the kill. The 44th Combat Engineers, the rear guard unit at Wiltz, probably suffered most, the enemy accounting for 18 officers and 160 men during the final withdrawal. Five crack enemy divisionsPanzer, Infantry, Volksgrenadierhurled across the Our River the first day of the assault. At the chteau, however, headquarters company still was hard pressed by riflemen and machine gunners in the houses nearby. from the rear. It had ninety-two Panthers and forty-seven Mark IV tanks; perhaps 40 percent of its organic vehicles were missing. In 1943, he joined the. Less than two miles west of Marnach lay the Clerf River and the town of Clerf, the latter the headquarters of the 110th Infantry. Two company kitchens were captured and one or two observation posts cut off, but the artillery observer inside Sevenig was able to direct the 229th Field Artillery howitzers onto the Germans in the draw. The German plans had been altered during the day, but of course some Fuller had only two battalions at his disposal because the 2d Battalion, located at Donnange, constituted the division reserve. Finally Luettwitz was promised two 60-ton bridges-capable of carrying his Panthers-and very considerable support from the Luftwaffe. Destroyer Battalion. was reached midway between Bastogne and the Meuse. Accession 45223. 1600 casualties and destroyed 18 tanks during nine days of continuous action, which later became known as the "Battle of the Bulge." The Regiment was awarded . The southern prong of the three-pronged counterattack to shut off the German armored drive moving through Marnach toward Clerf also was outgunned and outnumbered but did reach Marnach, only to report that no friendly infantry could be found. In the West, American, British and . The task of rebuilding the rifle companies, repairing battle damage, and training replacements was of necessity a slow one. guns and asked for American artillery fire on their own positions. The Fifth Panzer Army commander was bitterly opposed to that part of the plan which called for a tremendous opening barrage at 0800 and a two-hour artillery preparation before the attack jumped off. The unit inflicted 1600 casualties and destroyed eighteen tanks during nine days of continuous action, that was later known as the Battle of the Bulge. 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. given new divisions to spearhead the brief spoiling attack in late October In January 1910, the Logan Guards (Lewistown) were redesignated as Company M, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment and Company A, 5th Pennsylvania Infantry (Huntingdon) was redesignated as Company F, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company C, 5th Infantry (Altoona) was redesignated as Company G, 10th Infantry, and Company B, 5th Infantry (Bellefonte) was redesignated Company L, 12th Pennsylvania Infantry. The Americans were not too worried by the flanking move because tanks of the 10th Armored Division were expected momentarily. 109th, 110th, and 112th Infantry Regiments 107th, 108th . At night the strip between the ridge and the river became a no man's land where German and American patrols stalked one another. Organized by Pennsylvania in 1878, the division was made up of units that had already earned battle streamers for contributions in conflicts from the American Revolution to the Civil War. This is a useful if not exhaustive study of one of the main battles which made up the massive event known as The Battle of the Bu 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. As American riflemen and machine gunners cut down the German assault teams, they saw their own ranks thinning. During most of this first day of attack the German infantry had fought west of the Our without heavy weapons, although the bulk of two regiments from. regiment, despite many attempts, had not been able "to get going. Manteuffel had found himself in almost complete disagreement with the original operations plan handed down by Jodl in November. At 0930 two companies The 109th and 112th were in like status. As a substitute, a system of village strongpoints-each manned in about rifle company strength-was set up on the ridge line separating the Our and Clerf Rivers, which here is traced by the excellent north-south highway connecting St. Vith and Diekirch. German field guns, by this time west of the Clerf, opened fire on Wiltz at noon. [3] The regiment plowed through France and Germany, participating in the capture of Paris and the bitter fighting in the Huertgen Forest. (Strickler made it to the latter point where General Cota placed him in charge of the defense.) All that remained of the 707th On 3 July 1916, the regiment was called to service for Mexican border duty, with Rickards still in command. The Huntingdon unit became Troop K, 3rd Battalion of the 104th Armored Cavalry and one of the Altoona companies became Howitzer Battery, 3rd Battalion 104th Cavalry. The authors do a great job of telling the the story with first-person accounts from the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted. On 22 November 1878, the battalion was organized as the 16th Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard. A secondary road, on the right of the through highway to Bastogne, approaches Clerf from the hamlet of Urspelt. Some additional help for the 112th did arrive before daybreak on 17 December, four self-propelled tank destroyers out of the 811th Tank Destroyer Battalion borrowed from Combat Command Reserve, 9th Armored Division, at Trois Vierges. against the British and American advance in southwest Holland, and had and withdrew on foot to Wiltz-the 2d Battalion flanks were wide open. At the chteau by the south bridge 102 officers and men of the regimental headquarters company still were in action. Formed in 1917, the division deployed to France as a part of the . The units of the 110th Infantry were disposed as follows to face three full German divisions. News of the battle on the right and left of the 112th Infantry sector had been sparse. In October 1919, the battalion's units were Company M, 112th Infantry (Lewistown), 103rd Trench Mortar Battery, 103rd Engineer Battalion (Tyrone), Company F, 112th Infantry (Huntingdon), Company A, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Everett), Company G, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Altoona), and elements of the 108th and 109th Field Artillery (Bellefonte). About 0345 the German artillery quieted. 28th Division commander James E. Wharton was in his first day of command when a German sniper shot him while he was at the 112th Infantry's command post. Panzer Army to receive the highly secret word of a great counteroffensive A few hundred yards had been traversed when, at the first crossroad, the leading half-track ran into a patch of mines laid in front of a German roadblock and exploded. Probably by this time a good share of the 116th tanks had been committed. The timetable for the 26th Volks Grenadier Division advance called for both its attacking regiments to reach the Clerf River by nightfall of the first day. . On 15 July 1871, Sheridan Troop (Tyrone) was organized. Division likely to be encountered during the first hours of the attack In July 1917, the Lewistown, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Everett, Altoona, and Bellefonte units were mustered into federal service for. At the same time a tank platoon, shrouded in darkness and with no American tanks left to contest the passage, wound its way into the south end of Clerf. He was an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School (1938-1940). Even so, the unit accounted for six tanks on the 16th and broke up two panzer assaults of company size. The Lead-Up to the Battle of the Bulge. afternoon. Unit decoration: Presidential Unit Citation, 1623 Dec 1944 112th Infantry, Civil War silver bands: The main body of the 560th Volks Grenadier Division also had detoured around the stubborn men and difficult ground in the 112th Infantry area, extending the bridgehead which the 1128th Regiment had seized east of Heinerscheid on 17 December. In 1920, the Tyrone unit was redesignated Troop B, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry and the Bellefonte unit was redesignated Troop L, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. 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. Colonel Nelson gave the order to withdraw behind the river under cover of darkness. On General Middleton's order, CCR, 9th Armored Division, had put a task force backstop position behind the threatened center of the 28th Division. The regiment was again called to active federal service on 17 February 1941, 10 months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. a sweep along the western bank calculated to take the Ouren crossings On 18 December what was left of the 110th Infantry was wiped out or withdrew to the west.11 Survivors in the north headed toward Donnange and, with Company G, joined elements of the 9th Armored Division to make a stand. When the 28th Division arrived on the VIII Corps front in mid-November its regiments were in pitiable condition. Shortly before noon a platoon of Company B's tanks reached the hardpressed field artillery battery near Buchholz and reported the situation in hand.8 But the enemy here represented only the probing forefinger of the main attack. 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. The Bofors crews belonging to the 447th Antiaircraft Artillery lingered on near Consthum as a rear guard, discouraging all pursuit with their fast, accurate fire. In the darkness and confusion many stragglers made their way into Bastogne and Vaux-lez-Rosires. The year 1921 saw many changes in unit designation: Bellefonte was redesignated Troop B, 52nd Machine Gun Squadron, the Altoona unit was redesignated as Company G. During 1921, Company D, 1st Pennsylvania Engineers was organized. Of the 1st Battalion, only a part of Company C retained its organization. The XLVII Panzer Corps, if all went well, would cross the Our and Clerf Rivers, make a dash "over Bastogne" to the Meuse, seize the Meuse River crossings near Namur by surprise, and drive on through Brussels to Antwerp. it to call on neighboring battalions, attacking Weiler, to help outflank . On March 12, 1879, Governor Henry Hoyt signed General Order Number One appointing Maj. Gen. John Hartranft as the first division commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and the most storied and renowned division in the history of the U.S. Army was born. Apprehensive lest the Americans be prematurely warned, Army Group B had forbidden the movement of any troops across the Our in advance of the opening barrage set for 0530 on 16 December. Maps picked up from dead Germans showed that the American machine gun positions had been exactly plotted-but as they had existed up to a change made just before the 16th. XVII SS Corps on 6 December and moved with his staff to Kyllburg, The action of the 112th Infantry in this part of the 28th Division story stands therefore as an episode in itself until, after four days' fighting, the regiment joins the forces arrayed in defense of St. Vith.13. In 2004-2005, A Company, 1st Battalion, was deployed with Task Force Dragoon to Tikrit Iraq. 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. had no cohesive line of defense, General Kokott had ordered the 77th Regiment to circle north of Hosingen and head straight for the Clerf bridges at Drauffelt, while the 39th cut cross-country, avoiding the villages on the western side of the ridge line, and seized the road junction and bridges at Wilwerwiltz on the Clerf. But menaced as they were, the artillery commander could not risk his howitzers further. The American strongpoints were therefore located with an eye to blocking these entry ways while at the same time defending the lateral ridge road which connected the 110th with its neighboring regiments and provided the main artery sustaining the entire division front. Manteuffel allotted Luettwitz the 15th Volks Werfer Brigade (108 pieces), the 766th Volks Artillery Corps (76 pieces), the 600th Army Engineer Battalion, and the 182d Flak Regiment, all motorized. of the 2d Battalion (Lt. Col. J. L. MacSalka) assembled in a draw between According to an article in the October 20, 1945 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, the Nazi offensive was Hitler`s own brainchild; a plan which, "If it failed . the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 116th Panzer Division This had been accomplished by noon on the first It had held on at Munshausen, with the 110th Cannon Company and a section of tank destroyers, all through the 17th.12 The riflemen and cannoneers made a fight of it, barricading the village streets with overturned trucks, fighting from house to house. 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