The Everett unit remained with the 110th Infantry and the remaining Altoona unit became Company C in the. A camouflaged grunt takes aim. 126th Infantry Regiment. 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. He continued to fight with Cannon Company until the 423rd Regiment surrendered Dec. 19, 1944, near Schnberg, Belgium. Krueger had based his plan of attack on the intelligence reports dealing with the Our bridges. Back at Hosingen the attempt to break American resistance had won an early lodgment in the south edge of the village, but had achieved no more. The tankers had been told that there were no friendly troops on the road and just Outside Holzthum knocked out an antitank gun placed there by Company I. This was not quite the end in Clerf. About this time a German tank platoon appeared on the ridge less than a thousand yards from the regimental command post in Ouren. The 2d Panzer Division advance guard had taken a bloody nose columns. 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). Two rifle battalions manned the main battle positions east of the Our: the 1st facing Ltzkampen, the 3d occupying and flanking Sevenig. 28th Infantry Division The 28th Division was destined to move againdestined for another job (the Gloomy Hurtgen Forest). was low and the short winter day was drawing to a close-with the likelihood that the small garrisons would be overwhelmed in the darkness by sheer weight of numbers. His suspicions were confirmed when a patrol sent into the town failed to return. In sum, the way through Clerf would be none too easy for an armored division.10. The Bellefonte unit was designated as Troop L, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 104th Armored Cavalry. 112th Infantry took up their posts in the . The Panzer Lehr (Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein) was one of the divisions earmarked in November for use in the Ardennes counteroffensive, but the American offensive in Lorraine and Alsace had forced OKW to release the Panzer Lehr from its position in the strategic reserve. cannon company gunners quickly bore-sighted their pieces, loaded reduced charge, and with direct fire knocked out four of the panzers. When the 28th Division arrived on the VIII Corps front in mid-November its regiments were in pitiable condition. 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. The assault gun platoon gave good support wherever the line was threatened, but by the end of the afternoon its fuel and ammunition were nearly gone and the gunners, after four days of nearly continuous action, were approaching complete exhaustion. Colonel Nelson decided to pull back through Huldange since enemy tanks were known to be in Trois Vierges. restored while the commander of the 1130th reported that his Heilmann, therefore, had decided. 15 About dark infantry from Ltzkampen attacked in close order formation against Company B. But the credit side of the ledger showed a few entries. The 24-man patrol from Company A ran into the German flank at Fishbach, about 1120, and had to withdraw under intense fire. Odds didn't favor the 28th Division. The Americans had identified the 26th long since as the unit garrisoning the West Wall bunkers on the German bank. Even on the first day of the offensive one of Heilmann's regiments had been lost for several hours. 127th Infantry Regiment. While Allied forces ultimately triumphed, it was a vicious six weeks of fighting, with tens of . From this point the American artillery Only Company K in Hosingen was yet to be heard from. The speed of the German attack caught most of the regimental medical company and troops from the headquarters and cannon companies. 112th Infantry Regiment. At Weiler the Americans, with only a few rounds left, were completely surrounded and decided to fight their way out. The 77th had been unable to win a quick decision at Hosingen. The 110th Antitank Company was in Hoscheid just to the west. The 78th Infantry Division arrived in England, 26 October 1944, and received further training. At the top of the ascent the tanks met: four German tanks were knocked out, three American tanks destroyed. USA soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. The 2d Battalion, surrounded on the ridge east of Clerf, attempted to filter through the enemy lines in the early morning hours. . On 5 April 1877, Company C, 5th Pennsylvania Infantry (Altoona) was organized. From mid-December 1944 through the end of January 1945, in the heavily forested Ardennes Mountains of Belgium, thousands of American, British, Canadian, Belgian and French forces struggled to turn back the final major German offensive of World War II. 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. 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. Colonel Strickler decided to evacuate Wiltz by infiltration and regroup at Sibret, but with the Germans pressing in from all sides and no means of reaching his units except by runner the actual withdrawal would be difficult to control. When Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, Staff Sgt. As the column turned northwest on the main Bastogne highway enemy fire increased; some in the column turned back from the gantlet in hopes of finding another escape route by retracing their steps through Wiltz. Luettwitz and the army commander ran at least two map Our expert research specialists are on site at U.S. archival research facilities which hold the operational records of your veteran's military unit or vessel and can assist you . The presence of two panzer units on the 110th Infantry front was not suspected. The 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry was formed from units of the 104th Armored Cavalry on 01 April 1975. A scratch platoon of less than fifty men collected from the regimental headquarters and Ouren held the supporting German infantry at bay along the ridge east of the village. Early on 19 December the 112th Infantry and 229th Field Artillery Battalion moved under cover of a heavy fog and assembled without hindrance around Huldange, the defensive front now facing south. regiment, despite many attempts, had not been able "to get going. The company leading the left battalion surprised a platoon of Company L at breakfast, overran the company kitchen (which was only 800 to goo yards behind the rifle line) and killed the platoon commander. 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. This regiment formed the division center, with the 112th Infantry on the north and the 109th Infantry aligned to the south. Infantry of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division took over the attack on the northeast (probably the 39th Volks Grenadier Regiment). 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 Americans were not too worried by the flanking move because tanks of the 10th Armored Division were expected momentarily. A patrol which had been sent from the 3d Battalion to carry the withdrawal order to the 1st Battalion command post, still holding on at Harspelt, failed to get through. Although delayed by inadequate deliveries of POL and the traffic jam on the damaged Dasburg-Marnach road the entire division, including its tank regiment, assembled on the west bank around Heinerscheid during the night of 17-18 December. He even dispatched a kampfgruppe to seize a bridge considerably south of Clerf apparently intending to swing his attack column to a poorer road in the event that Clerf continued to hold. 1st Battalion held the northern section with Col. Donald Paul's command post at Urspelt: Company A held Heinerscheid. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division (Generalmajor Heinz Kokott) already was deployed in the Eifel sector of the West Wall adjacent to the Our where it covered not only the XLVII Panzer Corps zone but a wide frontage beyond. 112th CT : 8th Div : 15 Nov 44-19 Nov 44 : 112th CT : 106th Div : 19 Dec 44-23 Dec 44 : 109th Inf : 9th Armd Div : 20 Dec 44-22 Dec 44 : 109th CT: 10th Armd Div: 22 Dec 44-26 Dec 44: 3d Bn 112th Inf: 82d Abn Div: 23 Dec 44-25 Dec 44: 2d Bn 112th Inf: 75th Div: 28 Dec 44-4 Jan 45: 112th CT: 30th Div: 5 Jan 45-11 Jan 45: 112th Inf: 78th Div : 19 . At the same time the XLVII Panzer Corps would cross the Our in the vicinity of Dasburg and Gemnd, push west via Clerf, seize the vital road center at Bastogne, form in a deep column echeloned to the left and rear, then race for the Meuse River crossings south of Namur. 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. Company C had been driven off the road, and the tanks, missing the infantry entirely, rolled into Marnach. effort to clear, and to Krueger's disappointment there was no assurance During the morning the 26th Volks Grenadier Division engaged in desultory action, moving troops around to the north. Late in the afternoon, Colonel Fuller had ordered Company D, a platoon of heavy machine guns, and a provisional rifle company hastily assembled from men on pass in Clerf, to move to Reuler and protect Battery B of the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, then firing in support of the troops in Marnach and very hard pressed by the enemy. Through this gap the panzers moved in on the support positions held by Company D. Earlier a German infantry company in close order had been caught in the glare of its own headlights atop a hill and been massacred by Company D sections lying on the reverse slope, but at 0755 Company D was forced to send out an urgent plea for help "and damn quick." The Tyrone unit was mustered into federal service for World War II as Troop B, 104th Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. they were particularly bad on the axis assigned to Luettwitz' southern Two lieutenants from I Company examine German weapons abandoned at Schoppen. Panzer Army to receive the highly secret word of a great counteroffensive The town itself lies in a horseshoe bend of the river. the 156th Regiment. tanks and guns to help the engineers, bandsmen, telephone linemen, and In fact the troops of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division sent against Wiltz from the northeast were acting under orders to protect the flank and rear of Panzer Lehr against possible American counterattack from the Wiltz valley. Company B and a platoon of the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion were well entrenched there and gave the Germans a warm reception, although themselves under fire from batteries east of the Our. 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 Regiment was formed and officially designated as the 16th Infantry from . 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. To the south Company I held Weiler-les-Putscheid, a hamlet in a knot of trails and byroads on the forward slopes of the ridge line. Hills intersected by wooded draws marked the terrain in this sector. The road center at Wiltz and the bridges there were only about twelve miles from Bastogne. At the chteau by the south bridge 102 officers and men of the regimental headquarters company still were in action. James Russell Fostervold, 86, of Willmar, died Tuesday at his home following an illness. 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. 116th Infantry Regiment. For nearly two hours enemy flares methodically picked out targets for mortar and bullet fire, while the Americans were so closely beset that the Bofors and murderous quad mounts could not retaliate without cutting down their own people. The line of departure for Krueger's corps began across the Our from Kalborn and extended north to a point east of Burg Reuland. whereupon the light tank platoon destroyed its single remaining tank When darkness finally came, the 44th withdrew with the assault guns into Wiltz, having lost four officers and 150 men. A radio message alerted the commander to the danger of a direct approach; so the platoon and some accompanying infantry entered Clerf by a secondary road along the river. On the ridges which look down over Wiltz more Germans appeared in the early evening, apparently. On orders, the three remaining assault guns went back to cover the wrecked structure. The numerous pillboxes provided a substantial amount of cover; the 3d Battalion, for example, was not seriously endangered until the attacking tanks maneuvered close enough for direct fire. For two days and nights Company K and Company B of the 103d Engineer Combat Battalion fought off all enemy attempts to eradicate this block on the Skyline Drive. If you are looking for a definitive book on The Battle of the Bulge this is not it. One tank platoon remained there to bolster the defense, while the other turned back to the south, picked up Company C, and, on orders, returned with the infantry to Munshausen. Early in the month the Germans had undertaken what appeared to be a routine relief in their forward positions. Ration strength was more than 17,000, and forty-two 75-mm. He was an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School (1938-1940). As a junior officer in the prewar panzer troops, Manteuffel had made a mark as an armored specialist. The Battle of the Huertgen Forest: The Untold Story of a Disastrous Campaign. the undergunned batteries of the 687th Field Artillery Battalion held On their left German tanks were wiping out the last posts In July 1917, the Lewistown, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Everett, Altoona, and Bellefonte units were mustered into federal service for. The casualties suffered by a typical American infantry regiment serving in World War II were horrendous. In final form, the LVIII Panzer Corps' mission was to cross the Our River on both sides of Ouren, drive west on the Houffalize axis, and create a bridgehead over the Meuse River in the neighborhood of Namur and Andenne. Colonel Fuller's command post was in a hotel only a few yards from the north bridge. battalion of the 112th. At Hosingen, on the ridge road, Company D and Company B were fighting German infantry hand to hand inside the village. it to call on neighboring battalions, attacking Weiler, to help outflank In 1914 the 2d Squadron was assigned to the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry and Company L, 12th Pennsylvania Infantry was redesignated Troop L, 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry. mortars, and an antitank platoon repelled wave after wave of attacking German infantry. Company C was in "reserve" in Munshausen. They were mustered out of federal service in December 1898. Intelligence reports indicated that the elements of the US 28th Infantry The unit was mustered into federal active service on 16 July 1917 for service in World War I, and Rickards remained its commander. It landed in France, 22 November, and moved to Tongres, Belgium, and to Rotgen, Germany, to prepare for combat. His staff and regimental commanders, appointees of Generaloberst Kurt Student, had formed a clique against the previous commander and were hostile to Heilmann.19 Furthermore, troops and troop leaders were poorly trained, coming as they had only recently from Luftwaffe ground units. The 44th was hit from the northeast and east by infantry armed with machine pistols charging in alongside single tanks. Caveat: This Battle lasted more than a month, with assignments in considerable flux. The Lewistown company was consolidated with another company and became Headquarters and Headquarter Troop, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron, 104th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The appearance of the Shermans in Clerf cooled the ardor of the German infantry. east. 18-41 Nonetheless he advised Cota to withdraw the 110th back of the Clerf, that "under the circumstances it was necessary." In 2004-2005, A Company, 1st Battalion, was deployed with Task Force Dragoon to Tikrit Iraq. DECEMBER 1944. The units of the 110th Infantry were disposed as follows to face three full German divisions. No help could be expected from either the right or left wing regiments in shoring up the division center. Col. Daniel Strickler, the regimental executive officer, who now had assumed command at Consthum, organized a perimeter defense of the town, set out mines along the approaches, and disposed his three effective tanks and three armored cars to watch for the enemy armor known to be on the road from Holzthum. Volks Grenadier Division) had not fared too well in the attack 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. They divided into two groups and headed west through the enemy lines. About 0620, however, the 1st Battalion phoned to say that shells were coming over the battalion command post. The other Altoona unit was mustered into federal service for home station duty during World War II as Battery B, 200th Field Artillery. . 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 . This move was made early in the morning with disastrous results recorded earlier. Yet there was still an opportunity to retard the 2d Panzer march along the road to Bastogne. Company I (minus the platoon at Wahlhausen), a section of 81-mm. These two attacks from west and south had made no headway but were not too costly. 30th Infantry Division 59th Inf Bde . corps zone of attack were narrow, twisting, and certain to be muddy; It was amended to show additional war service on 29 August 1951. It was his intention, however, to move the provisional battalion first, leaving the 3d Battalion to keep the escape exits open while the 44th Engineers acted as rear guard. Their fate is unknown. Ouren. Company A, directly in the way, lost a platoon to tanks rolling and firing methodically along the foxhole line. The German attack to penetrate the front lines of the 28th Division succeeded on the first day of the offensive in splitting the 112th Infantry from the rest of the division. 121st Infantry Regiment. But menaced as they were, the artillery commander could not risk his howitzers further. 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