223 223. The Germans were now on the high ground north of Eigelscheid overlooking the road to Winterspelt. Anderson, Thomas. Tigers In Combat I. The brigade had 9,000 men, Mark IV tanks, assault guns, 104mm and 105mm artillery, 88mm antiaircraft guns, and a number of heavy automatic weapons batteries. . Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz (1918) Periode: Eerste Wereldoorlog (1914-1918) . Although the 62nd Volksgrenadier captured Winterspelt, its losses were high and its left regiment had made little headway in the Heckhuschied sector. Mines were laid. By dark, Lt. Col. Engeman and his two task forces were back in their assembly area in the vicinity of Breitfeld. Three of these Tiger IIs belonged to Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 501 (Heavy SS Tank Battalion 501); Tiger 105 was abandoned in the town of Stavelot, Belgium after getting itself stuck in a building, Tiger 332 was abandoned near Coo, Belgium as a result of mechanical damage, and Tiger 008 was abandoned at a farmhouse near Trois Ponts, Belgium. The American armor of the 7th and 9th Armored Divisions plus supporting units were being pressed into an area in which motorized forcestanks, half-tracks, self-propelled artillery, tank destroyersoperated with great difficulty. Slayden had been sent to Jones by Middleton as an adviser until the 106th Division could become acclimated. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. Operation Nordwind 1945 Hitlers last offensive in the West. js.src = "//player.ex.co/player/710cf52d-720a-4250-8e95-fc85dcedab01"; According to Hugh M. Cole, an American historian and army officer. Next came B Company, 9th Armored Engineers; the 16th Armored Field Artillery; B Company, 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery; and the 14th Tank Battalion. None of these Tiger IIs were lost at St. Vith and from photographic evidence at least three are recorded to have no burn damage and/or holes in the rear. Lucht anticipated that the Americans would counterattack the next day, but that their reaction would be too late to avoid complete encirclement. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571.Volksgrenadier-Division.Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field . Osprey Publishing, 2003. In the 27th AIBs move to take the high ground, B Company advanced along the center of the road. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. It consisted of the 136th 138th and 139th Mountain Replacement Regiments and the 112th Artillery When B Company pulled back to refuel and rearm, A Company passed through to take up the fight. The story begins on the 18th of December 1944, two days after the start of the German offensive. Jentz, Thomas. Osprey Publishing, 2013. Third Printing, US Army Armored School, 1966. Not only does Troop Es version of the story involve a different unit than the original story, it also takes place in a different location, note the following map. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Anderson, Thomas. Hoge and Ridgway had been on the West Point football team together when Ridgway had been the teams manager. 1941622 . 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Unionpedia, the concept map United States 106th Infantry Division on the 16th and 17th of December 1944 (the first two days of the battle of the Ardennes were as follows: 1. 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. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division. Initially, General Jones wanted Hoge to move his command into the Losheim Gap at Maderfeld and arrive there at dawn on December 17 to counterattack and erase the enemy penetrations that were threatening 106th Division positions on the Schnee Eifel. Its mission was to break through to the south of the 18th Volksgrenadier in the Grosslangenfeld-Heckhuschied sector, advance northwest on a broad front, and seize the Our River crossing at Steinebruck, five miles southeast of St. Vith. The route terminated at several vital crossroads in the city of St. Vith. 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. Bergstrm, Christer. Aside from the cold and mud, there was also the enemy to contend with. The commanders were at the center of the Foret Domaniale du Grand Bois. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. Osprey Publishing, 2002. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2005. One task force was made up of A and B Companies of the 14th Tank Battalion, B Company of the 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery, and another platoon of the 14th. The American plan was that once the 2nd Infantry Division reduced the German defenses at the Wahlerscheid crossroads, CCB was to spearhead a drive to the reservoirs north of Gemund and Schleiden. This forest was criss-crossed only by trails. The division fought in the Ardennes, inflicting on the 106th US Infantry Division the worst defeat suffered by U.S. forces in the ETO, when over 8,000 US soldiers surrendered to the volksgrenadiers. The Battle at St. Vith, Belgium 17-23 December 1944 An Historical Example of Armor in the Defense. An M8 Greyhound armored car of Troop B, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron was lying in a concealed position just northeast of the vitally important crossroads town of St. Vith, Belgium. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, The German armored and infantry attacks were preceded by the shelling of the American positions with at least 657 light, medium, and heavy guns and howitzers and 340 multiple rocket launchers. Chamberlain, Peter, et al. Company C, 27th AIB withdrew under heavy artillery and sniper fire but managed to destroy a number of German vehicles. Rodt was garrisoned by the service company of the 48th AIB and some drivers belonging to the battalion whose vehicles were parked there. The troops request for armored support was denied by General Hoge because his tank companies sent north to help the 7th Armored had not yet returned and no reserve was on hand. At about 1330, three German self-propelled guns and 19 or 20 horse-drawn artillery pieces went into position on the high ground 800 yards to the southeast of Steinebruck. By noon, the 27th AIB, with the help of Company A, 14th Tank Battalion, had retaken that first stretch of high ground. 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. Add to cart. By midnight on the 19th, the horseshoe- shaped defense of St. Vith had taken form. It can be safely assumed that the armored car that Lieutenant Olson is talking about in his story is an M8 Greyhound due to the fact that the only armored cars that the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron fielded were M8 Greyhounds. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. A Company moved south under the protection of the high river bank, while C Company deployed along the left side of the road as the enveloping company. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division completed its southern swing, encircling the two regiments of the 106th Division on the Schnee Eifel. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. On his way to St. Vith, General Hoge stopped in Faymonville to alert his command to be prepared to move immediately. The greatest danger existed in the 424ths position because the regiments flank lay vulnerable to attacks by the 116th Panzer Division to the south. 13 relations. Infanterie-Division 19398 . Encyclopedia of German tanks of World War Two. English Edition, Casemate Publishers, 2014. 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. South of Sixth Panzer Army was General Manteuffels Fifth Panzer Army, with the Seventh Army on its left. He could not believe it. 2014 1945. He is being outflanked and is retiring west another 2,000 yards refusing both flanks. These troops were hit by the Fhrer Escort Brigade and driven from Rogery to Cierreux in some disarray. The division had lost four companies of armored infantry. Johnston, W. Wesley. 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. Chamberlain, Peter, et al. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. German 18th Volksgrenadier Div. Armour Plate Porforation [sic: Perforation] of Tank and Anti Tank Guns. Given the unreliability of the American accounts of this supposed event and the lack of any supporting documentation from the Germans, it is safe to say that neither a Tiger I nor a Tiger II was knocked out by an M8 Greyhound on 18th December 1944 in or around the town of St. Vith. Both task forces reached St. Vith shortly before noon on the 18th to find not one, but two German attacks moving against the town. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division ( 18. A second attempt on the bridge, made by about 40 men four hours later, was also thrown back by machine-gun fire. Jones explained to Hoge that his division was being attacked along its entire front and that two of his three regiments, the 422nd and the 423rd, had been partly surrounded in the Schnee Eifel area just east of Schoenberg. Zaloga, Steven. 19454 Field Marshal Montgomery, believing that Ridgways Corps could not attack successfully toward Vielsalm and that the American forces within the goose egg could better be used in support of other forces committed to the northern shoulder defense, decided upon a general withdrawal. M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car 1941-91. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. The closest primary German armored thrust route to the south ran through Burg Reuland, also about five miles from St. Vith. 2014. In blinding snow and on slippery roads the tanks and infantry of CCB, 9th Armored headed for Bauvenn. Although the Germans were facing stiff resistance all along the American defensive line, they were determined to take St. Vith. All in all, the only things that the American claims concerning the famed M8 Greyhound versus Tiger engagement can agree on are that on the 18th of December 1944 an M8 Greyhound from some unit of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron killed some sort of German tank in or around the town of St. Vith. 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. During the assault, B Company suffered about 40 casualties including its commanding officer, Captain Henry D. Wirsig. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. According to two combat interviews given by men of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadrons After Action Report for the month of December 1944, and Lieutenant Colonel Boylans 1946 letter, on 18th December 1944, the Germans attacked the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B) with infantry and tanks. When you get surprised like this, you become cautious.Undoubtedly much, if not most, of the armor encountered by Manteuffels probing actions during the early days of the German offensive belonged to CCB, 9th Armored Division. Troop D, 89th Recon had positioned its troop headquarters and first platoon to cover the bridge over the Our. Its supporting field artillery battalion was at Kalterherberg, two miles south of Monschau, engaged in firing missions for the 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18th VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army ( Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Generals Manteuffel and Lucht had planned an all-out attack to take St. Vith starting at daylight with a three- pronged envelopment by the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division against 9th Armored positions in the south. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2004. The fall of Rodt effectively split 7th Armoreds CCA from General Clarkes CCB. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. 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. 16 Dec 2022 08:28:00 December 20 was a day of disappointment for the Germans around St. Vith. The job of capturing St. Vith went to the Fifth Panzer Armys 66th Corps, commanded by General Walther Lucht. Before the day ended, renewed fighting broke out along the entire front. Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry eventually found their way into 82nd Airborne Division lines during the night of the 24th, but not before the units suffered heavy losses. Unable to advance, it pulled back to the nearest high ground and dug in. Heeft u zelf meer informatie over deze persoon? Overall operational command for the offensive fell to Field Marshal Walther Model. Gen. Hasbrouck, commander of the 7th Armored Division, sent a message to General Ridgway urging withdrawal, which in part read, P.S. Design, Production & Modifications. 1940. Sell, buy or rent Panzers in Winter: Hitler's Army and the Battle of the Bulge (Praeger Security I 9780275971151 0275971155, we buy used or new for best buyback price with FREE shipping and offer great deals for buyers. Zaloga, Steven. Perrin told General Hoge, You can continue this attack on towards this back country, but you must be back on this side of the river by nightfall.. Fortunately for Colonel Reid, word came at about 1730 that his 424th Infantry Regiment was to withdraw immediately. However, just as the Americans began their pursuit, the Germans noticed them and began traversing their turret to face them. By that time the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division should have the bridge at Steinebruck rebuilt, at least two regiments of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division should be forward, and the Fhrer Escort Brigade should be ready to make the principal thrust down the Ambleve highway into St. Vith. Lever het aan! How to use 'poor shape' in a sentence? Seventh Armored Division Association 2517 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington 8, D.C., 1947. On the morning of the December 20, three tank destroyers were placed in support of Company C, 27th AIB. In the early afternoon of the 22nd, he arrived at General Hasbroucks headquarters in Vielsalm to plan the withdrawal. 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. Confusion, darkness, and mud slowed the move, but by morning a medium tank company and a platoon of riflemen had reached the village. The 27th AIB was ordered to establish a defensive position south, east, west, and southeast of Malempre. 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. There was a bitter struggle to the south of Grufflingen, and the Germans were again active in the Neubruck area. Zaloga, Steven. The event that Lieutenant Olson recounts does bare a resemblance to the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story, with both events taking place at or near St. Vith on the 18th of December 1944 and involving an American armored car from the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron knocking out a German tank by shooting it in the rear. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. The division, which was under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, absorbed . Your email address will not be published. 1947. That night, infantry patrols found German medics removing their wounded. A scratch force made up of one platoon of riflemen from Company A, 27th AIB and a platoon from Company B, 9th Engineers were sent to contain the Germans. Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. Josef Theissen, the fifteen-year-old who had seen the Germans arrive on Sunday, December 17, watched the soldiers every move with the fascination for things military . Germanys Tiger Tanks VK45.02 to TIGER II. 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. For this mission, CCB consisted of the 14th Tank Battalion, the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and miscellaneous smaller units vital to any major command. At daybreak on December 21, the Germans launched their first assault of the day on CCB, 9th Armored. On top of attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B), a Panzer IV can be easily misidentified as a Tiger I. Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. The northern prong of the horseshoe was composed of CCB, 7th Armored Division from Poteau and Vielsalm. General Hoge moved his command post to Commanster. Not only does this change Captain Ansteys version of the story, but this also confirms the possibility that Troop Es entry could have been talking about a Tiger II. An assault on Thommen forced out the troops holding the town, and efforts to retake it failed. Infanterie-Division Hamburg 19453 . Little offtopic here but another misidentification might be the 1 destroyed 88mm assault gun (Ferdinand). Dragon 1625 1/16th Obersturmfuhrer Totenkopf Division Budapest 1945 R 275.00. It is possible that, as part of the attacks on the line held in part by Troop B of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, a lone StuG III was used to probe out the American line, as had been done on the previous day, and was subsequently knocked out by an M8 Greyhound. Schneider, Wolfgang. These German tanks would later be specified to be Panzer IVs or Mark IVs. The staff officer wanted to know if 9th Armored could spare some desperately needed help. The CCB command post was moved to Neubruck, a small group of farmhouses on Braunlauf Creek about two miles southwest of St. Vith. After 1200 hours on 17th December 1944, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was reinforced by a mobile battalion. Contents 1 Allied Forces 1.1 12th Army Group 1.1.1 U.S. First Army 1.1.1.1 V Corps 1.1.1.2 VII Corps 1.1.1.3 XVIII Airborne Corps 1.1.2 U.S. Third Army 1.1.2.1 III Corps 1.1.2.2 VIII Corps 1.1.2.3 XII Corps The 9th Armored Divisions position at the Our was no longer tenable. The StuG III was a turretless assault gun based on the Panzer III. En route, the officer was approached by a member of General Clarkes staff who told him that German tanks were approaching St. Vith along the road from the north. Orders for CCB, 9th Armored to move to a new defensive position were issued at 1600. Out of this grand battle would come a too-good-to-be-true story symbolic of the stiff American resistance put up against the German offensive, that of how an M8 Greyhound armored car destroyed a Tiger I heavy tank. The German plan for the attack through the Ardennes, an offensive that would forever be known as the Battle of the Bulge, was to be accomplished in the conventional manner. events, and resources, The Battle of the Bulge & The Defense of St. Vith. The fact that there were Panzer IVs attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B) and the similarity in appearance between the Tiger I and Panzer IV would account for both Troop Es account and Troop Ds potential account of this event. Accordingly, that evening Sixth Panzer Army commander Dietrich issued orders to the 2nd SS Panzer Corps to move to the south so that parts of that corps could assist Manteuffel in taking St. Vith. The division fought in the Ardennes, inflicting on the 106th US Infantry Division the worst defeat suffered by U.S. forces in the ETO, when over 8,000 US soldiers surrendered to the volksgrenadiers. Still quite a feat for a little Greyhound, though well probably never know conclusively. The resulting blast damaged the bridge to such an extent that the Germans would not be able to bring vehicles across for at least 24 hours. The new sector assigned to CCB was on the fringe of territory the Sixth Panzer Army had mapped out for its further maneuvers. VGD) was a volksgrenadierdivision of the German Army(Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. To cover this dangerous gap in the line C Company, 27th AIB was ordered to the Our between Troop D, 89th Recon and Company A, 27th AIB. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. The village of St. Vith lay approximately 12 miles behind the front lines on December 16, 1944, the day the offensive code-named Operation Watch on the Rhine began. I mention it for the sake of completeness as I suspect that the whole thing is a myth. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18th VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945.. It would be unable to turn its full strength on St. Vith until the American surrender in that area. 13th Company, 28th Jager Regiment, 8th Jager Division 286. However, it cannot be definitively stated that this is another version of the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story due to its ambiguity. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. The Americans knew that their only hope in doing any sort of damage to this beast was to get as close as possible to it and shoot its weaker rear armor. Its population in 1944 was about 2,000, and its citizens were very much pro-German. At about 2130, General Clarke phoned General Hoge to tell him that the enemy was entering St. Vith from the north and that his forces were withdrawing to form a new line northwest of the city. This is an issue because there were two distinct types of German Tiger tanks, both of which took part in the Battle of the Bulge: The Tiger I and the Tiger II. At 0600 Im going to start to move.. It contained the 293., 294. and 295. grenadier regiments, Panzerjger-Bataillon 1818, Pionier-Bataillon 1818, Fsilier-Bataillon 1818 and Artillerie-Regiment 1818.[1]. Although the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division drove the American defenders from Winterspelt, all was not going well for the Germans. Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. This was no place to conduct a mobile defense with armor-heavy forces. Osprey Publishing, 2010. The armored infantrymen kept themselves well hidden until the column was directly in front of them and then opened fire. The time was approximately 1800 on Saturday, December 16, when Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division began its move to St. Vith. The town was also in Fifth Panzer Armys area of advance. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division(18. Beevor, Antony. The supply trains led the way north on N27 to St. Vith. Zaloga, Steven. The mobile battalion consisted of three platoons of assault guns, a company of engineers, and another of fusiliers. Eisernes Kreuz 2.Klasse (1914) Periode: Eerste Wereldoorlog (1914-1918) Toegekend op: 30 oktober 1917. As a result of 7th Armoreds earlier regrouping, Rodt was the junction point between CCA of the 7th Armored under the command of Colonel Rosebaum and General Clarkes CCB.
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