Penguin Books, 2016. Three times the grenadiers [German] tried to rush their way through the foxhole line held by the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion (Lt. Col. William H. G. Fuller) and B Troop of the 87th astride the Schnberg road. The southern prong was defended by General Hoges CCB, 9th Armored with the weakened 424th Infantry Regiment tied in and bent back protecting Burg Reuland. The Tiger II, also known as the King Tiger, Royal Tiger, Knigstiger, and Tiger Ausf.B, was an enormous, 69.8 tonne German heavy tank. One, the Sixth Panzer Army, was commanded by SS Obergruppenfhrer (brigadier general) Josef Sepp Dietrich, and the other, the Fifth Panzer Army, was commanded by General Hasso von Manteuffel. Within the Kloster, General Hoge found a division headquarters staff in a state of disarray and confusion. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. 1940. The foot elements of the 27th AIB were then to move out with Company B, 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery and some light tanks from Company D, 14th Tank Battalion following behind Company B, 27th AIB. The last of the St. Vith defenders to come out were Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry Regiment. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. Ten tanks, numerous supply vehicles, armored cars, and jeeps were lost to enemy action. Once the bridge at Steinebruck was seized, the 62nd was to support the 18th Volksgrenadier Divisions drive on St. Vith by blocking the western and southern routes in and out of the town. By dark, just as General Hoges command was getting underway from Faymonville, Kittels mobile battalion and infantry from the 190th Regiment were closing in on Winterspelt. On December 16th at 4:00 a.m., they took the twenty-two foot macadam road following the Our River valley towards Manderfield. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. In light of these circumstances, General Hasbrouck felt compelled to write to Clarke that unless the withdrawal began soon the opportunity will be gone., During the night of December 22, a cold wind had begun to blow out of the east bringing what weathermen call a Russian high. Although both Clarke and Hoge noted it, they saw little hope that the ground might freeze in time to aid their withdrawal, but after receiving Hasbroucks message Clarke stepped out and tested the ground. Company A of the 27th AIB had been assigned to the 99th Infantry Division and was in the process of being retrieved when the march to St. Vith began. With all of these contradictions, ambiguity, and lack of supporting documentation and evidence surrounding Troop Es entry in mind, it is safe to conclude that this is not the most reliable account of what really happened on the 18th of December, 1944 at St. Vith. A platoon of tank destroyers had vanished. Stackpole Books, 2015. Soon after General Hoge left 106th Division headquarters for the drive back to Faymonville, Jones received a call from Middleton informing him that a combat command of Brig. Both task forces reached St. Vith shortly before noon on the 18th to find not one, but two German attacks moving against the town. As stated above, a 37mm cant penetrate the armor of an Tiger tank. The distance from Burg Reuland on the southeast to Poteau on the northwest was about 10 miles with only a single secondary road as a line of retreat for thousands of men defending the horseshoe against attack from three directions. 324 324. The attacks made east of St. Vith on 18 December were carried by a part of the 294th Infantry [German], whose patrols had been checked by the 168th Engineers [US] the previous day. (1944) 111 111. of the Army, 1965. The 16th Field Artillery also pitched in, as did a battalion of 155mm howitzers sited around Commanster. 13th Company, 28th Jager Regiment, 8th Jager Division 286. Also no Ferdinand/Elefant recorded to have seen combat on Western Front. Ridgways 82nd Airborne was building a fairly firm line west of the St. Vith defenders that should prevent the Germans from cutting off the salient from the rear. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. The unit attacking Troop B, the 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment, had StuG IIIs and had been using StuG IIIs the previous day in small probing attacks east of St. Vith where Troop B would end up being positioned. The reason for this comparative respite was due to the fact that the roads to the German rear were completely jammed. Since the move from Faymonville to Winterspelt involved a greater distance, Hoge decided to get his command on the road immediately. VGD. With the unexplained disappearance of D Troop from the 89th Reconnaissance Platoon, Company B, 27th AIB became the leading element. The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitlers Winter Offensive. On February 5, 1945 General Walter Botsch took over command of the division. By dark, Lt. Col. Engeman and his two task forces were back in their assembly area in the vicinity of Breitfeld. During ceremonies observing the 20th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, General Clarke was able to talk to General Manteuffel and discuss German operations against St. Vith. 18th Panzer Division (later 18th Artillery Division) 19th Panzer Division (previously 19th Infantry Division) 20th Panzer Division 21st Panzer Division (previously 5th Light Division) 22nd Panzer Division 23rd Panzer Division 24th Panzer Division (previously 1st Cavalry Division) 25th Panzer Division By 1300 on the 21st, the entire line was ablaze with German artillery, rockets, tanks, and infantry. Schiffer Publishing, 1996. After conferring with Clarke, Ridgway wanted to talk to one more man in whom he had supreme confidenceBrigadier General Hoge. . Its possible that the M8 took out an late production Panzer IV, but even that is unlikely due to the danger of more troops coming from behind with Panzerfausts or even a 20 millimeter. Close. The message was that his command was now back with VIII Corps and that he was to go to St. Vith and report to Maj. Gen. Alan W. Jones, commander of the newly arrived 106th Infantry Division. On December 9, 1944, Brig. The other, the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division, bore the number of an infantry division destroyed on the Eastern Front, which had been reconstituted. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. War Department Technical Manual TM 9-1904 Ammunition Inspection Guide. Osprey Publishing, 2003. The northern prong of the horseshoe was composed of CCB, 7th Armored Division from Poteau and Vielsalm. Slayden, knowing that the nearest units of the 7th Armored Division were at least 60 miles away in the Netherlands, had serious doubts that a whole combat command could reach St. Vith on the 17th, much less by 0700 hours. Hoge departed Faymonville at approximately 1800, arriving at General Joness headquarters in the St. Josephs Kloster about a half hour later. Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz (1918) Periode: Eerste Wereldoorlog (1914-1918) . Six paved or macadam roads converged at St. Vith, but none of these was considered by the Germans to be a major military trunk line. Soldiers of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division infiltrated the American lines at the villages of Roth, Weckerath, Kobscheid, and Auw before the artillery barrage began. Since General Hoge was supposed to be under Joness command and did not understand the overall situation around St. Vith, he decided to find out exactly what was going on. Volksgrenadier Division 5. The U.S. 9th Armored Division contested the German advance around St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge, and won precious time in the process. Schiffer Publishing, 1997. Roadblocks were set up and manned. While no Tiger Is were lost on the 18th of December, 1944, four Tiger IIs were lost that day. 1941622 . At approximately 0930 on December 17, B Company was the first 9th Armored Division unit to cross the Our River. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. Thus, there are four different versions of this story circulating: Troop Es version with a Tiger I, Troop Es version with a Tiger II, Captain Ansteys version with a Tiger I, and Captain Ansteys version with a Tiger II. Battle of the Bulge 1944 (1): St Vith and the Northern Shoulder. Company C, 27th AIB withdrew under heavy artillery and sniper fire but managed to destroy a number of German vehicles. Armored Champion, The Top Tanks of World War II. On top of attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B), a Panzer IV can be easily misidentified as a Tiger I. Boyer, Donald P. St. Vith The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge 17-23 December 1944 A Narrative After Action Report. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division.The division, which was under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. It is possible (if unlikely) that this event was completely unrelated to the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. Airfix J6017 Volkswagen Camper Van (Quick Build) R 405.00. While on its way, the platoon was commandeered by a colonel from the 106th Division. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. The second task force consisted of B Company of the 811th Tank Destroyers. 1945. At 0200 on December 22, the Fhrer Escort Brigade launched its attack against the town of Rodt, a small village west of St. Vith. Heeft u zelf meer informatie over deze persoon? This was no place to conduct a mobile defense with armor-heavy forces. All but five troopers of 2nd Platoon were lost to enemy action. A mobile battalion of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was already moving on Andler to seize the Schoenberg bridge and the road to St. Vith. That eliminates this units Pzkw IV being the Tiger encountered by the Troop B M8 on Dec. 18th . Unable to advance, it pulled back to the nearest high ground and dug in. 8 Sturmgeschuetz s.Pak to Sturmmoerser. Armored Champion, The Top Tanks of World War II. Soon after its crossing, B Company ran into German infantry dug in along the high ground overlooking the village of Elcherath. The division's intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Robert P. Stout, noted that the division faced two known enemy divisions, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division and the 26th Volksgrenadier Division. fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); Schiffer Publishing, 1997. According to British penetration diagrams from 1944, the 37 mm M6 gun firing its standard round, the 37 mm APC M51, could, under ideal conditions, penetrate the 80 mm thick rear hull armor angled at 9 degrees when firing at an angle of 0 degrees, albeit just barely. A two-day rest was planned for everyone. Approximately three hours later a German company marched out of Neidingen and along the road leading straight into C Companys position, apparently totally unaware of 9th Armoreds recent change of position. Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. Yes in theory. However, it cannot be safely assumed that the tank killed in this engagement was a Tiger I or a Tiger II. Overall operational command for the offensive fell to Field Marshal Walther Model. During the assault, B Company suffered about 40 casualties including its commanding officer, Captain Henry D. Wirsig. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945.. Lieutenant Olsons version of the story would be the most contradicting version yet. 1945. One task force encountered reconnaissance probes on N27 conducted by units of the 1st SS Panzer Division approximately 1,000 yards north of St. Vith. Two of its tanks were mired in mud that had not frozen and had to be retrieved by a tank dozer. Both B and C Companies pulled back to the vicinity of Neidingen, near the battalion command post, while the 14th Tank Battalion established a perimeter defense around its assembly area near Breitfeld about halfway between the Our and St. Vith. The original story, if there even was one, was told and retold and distorted until everyone and their brother claimed to know the guys that did it. According to the British, 37 mm M6 guns APC M51 can only penetrate around a maximum of 65mm of rolled homogeneous armor plate (RHA) at 30 degrees under V50 ballistic standards. Back in the 1970s I worked with a man who told this story, he claimed he was the driver. VGD captured St. Vith, winning a great victory. In addition, elements of the 116th Panzer Division and the 560th Volksgrenadier Division were moving against the weakly held southern flank of St. Vith defended by remnants of the 424th Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division and the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division. Close. var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; The 18. Johnston, W. Wesley. At the close of the first day of battle, General Lucht could look with some satisfaction at the days events, although his 62nd Volksgrenadier Division had yet to break through the American line. The line companies were down to one officer apiece. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division under the command of Generalmajor Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn patrolled the Schnee Eifel area.
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