To execute this maneuver, Hoges entire command would have to move all the way up to St. Vith and back down again. With this contact, all units in the vicinity of St. Vith, including 9th Armored Division forces, passed to the command of Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgways XVIII Airborne Corps. The M8 was used mostly as a reconnaissance vehicle for scouting. Beevor, Antony. Because the Our had ceased to be a barrier anywhere else, General Hoge felt that there was little to gain in continuing to overextend his command to hold the low ground along the river. Collins, Joshua, and Erik Albertson. . School of Tank Technology, April 1944. Besides the previously mentioned absence of any recountings of this event in several notable documents that should have contained it, and most peculiarly, Captain Anstey himself makes no mention of the engagement when he discusses and documents the events of the 18th of December 1944 in a combat interview he gave on the 2nd of January 1945, just over two weeks after the event supposedly took place. Moreover, at least a regiment from the 1st SS Panzer Division was in sporadic conflict with the American defenders in the Recht-Poteau area and, in the south, elements of the 560th Volksgrenadier Division, part of General Walter Kruegers 58th Panzer Corps, were also identified as pushing against American forces in the St. Vith salient. At 0600 Im going to start to move.. Next came B Company, 9th Armored Engineers; the 16th Armored Field Artillery; B Company, 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery; and the 14th Tank Battalion. At about 0115 on December 17, a platoon from 9th Armoreds D Troop, 89th Recon was detailed to proceed through St. Vith in a southeasterly direction and seize the high ground along Highway N27 south of Steinebruck. The town was also in Fifth Panzer Armys area of advance. 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 Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Hoge immediately got on the phone and ordered Engeman to move out. Infantry divisions would begin the attack along the entire length of a 50-mile front, forcing a rupture along the Allied line and giving the German panzer divisions freedom of movement in the unoccupied ground beyond the front. Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. 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.. Therefore, he decided to use the 9th Armored at Winterspelt, since capture of that area by the Germans would open to the enemy a direct route to St. Vith, a route even shorter than that leading from the Schnee Eifel. This moment marked the beginning of the famous Battle of the Bulge, Germany's last major offensive on the Western Front in World War II. While on its way, the platoon was commandeered by a colonel from the 106th Division. 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 corps consisted of two infantry divisions. However, by noon on December 18 it was quite apparent to Hoge that the Germans infiltrating across the river were converging on the bridge in such numbers that it had to be blown. That is correct, however, that was off the topic of this story. 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. Now with a new armored combat command due to arrive at 0700 hours the next day, and with the rest of the division to follow, Jones believed he would soon have the potential to deal with both the Schnee Eifel and Winterspelt emergencies. 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 is before you take into account that the manufacturing process for German armor allowed for a tolerance in plates which often left plates 2 to 5 mm thicker than ordered. Panzer Tracts No. The hardest hit, though, were the armored infantrymen of the 27th AIB with nearly 300 battle casualties. Fortunately, a tank destroyer from Vielsalm turned up and hit the leading two German panzers, which drove the rest for cover. Close. Volksgrenadier-Division was formed from the partially formed 571.Volksgrenadier-Division in Denmark in September 1944, it also included excess Kriegsmarine personnel and surviving elements from 18. General Luchts 66th Corps was shifted from General Manteuffels Fifth Panzer Army to the Sixth Panzer. The fight lasted for more than three hours before the Germans withdrew, leaving one burning tank and approximately 150 dead. All but five troopers of 2nd Platoon were lost to enemy action. Late on December 17, General Manteuffel was concerned with the lack of progress in his attack beyond the Schnee Eifel toward St. Vith. And why would it not? First-time contributor Charles Gutierrez is the son of a 9th Armored Division veteran. Its supporting field artillery battalion was at Kalterherberg, two miles south of Monschau, engaged in firing missions for the 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. Should 7th Armored lose St. Vith, 9th Armored would be unable to withdraw on its own axis. Osprey Publishing, 2013. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. During the night, the troopers experienced harassing fire from light and medium artillery and could observe enemy infantry and at least four tanks moving along high ground to the south of the river. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. St. Vith is built on a low hill surrounded on all sides by slightly higher rises. The provisional company of 424th stragglers disappeared during the night. 1945. 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. On December 16th at 4:00 a.m., they took the twenty-two foot macadam road following the Our River valley towards Manderfield. which, in principle, is comparable to the 37 mm American gun. Established in 1941, the unit was deployed in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union, in the Army Group North Rear Area. Clerks were running everywhere and junior staff officers were arguing among themselves; upstairs, however, Hoge found General Jones remarkably composed. By 1245, the original line was restored, and the antitank guns of Company A, 811th Tank Destroyers were recovered. Eventually retreating through Germany until the end of the war, when it surrendered. 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. General Frederich Kittel, the division commander, ordered his mobile battalion up from his 164th Regiment reserve at Pronsfeld and into the attack along the Winterspelt road. Griffin, Marcus S. After Action Report, Month of December 1944. 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. It contained the 293., 294. and 295. grenadier regiments, Panzerjger-Bataillon 1818, Pionier-Bataillon 1818, Fsilier-Bataillon 1818 and Artillerie-Regiment 1818.[1]. War Department, 1944. Infanterie-Division . 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. Personally I have not believed this event at all. Yeah but Panthers rear and side armor is very weak, so its completely different story. The Sixth Panzer Army, with the 15th Army on its right, was to launch the main attack between Monschau in the north and Prum in the south. At 0400 hours on 16th December, 1944, men of the German 18th Volksgrenadier Division began to leave their positions and make their way towards the American lines. Fortunately for Colonel Reid, word came at about 1730 that his 424th Infantry Regiment was to withdraw immediately. Johnston, W. Wesley. I should also note that reconnaissance doctrine was to disengage if at all possible and in no way engage enemy armour beyond scout elements. Furthermore, late-war Panzer IVs equipped with Schrzen additional armor would look bigger, even closer to the size of a Tiger and this is before consideration is made on the stress of war, camouflaging materials applied to vehicles, the weather, and level of knowledge of the crews. Late on the 20th, patrols of the 82nd Airborne Division, on the other side of the Salm River, established contact with patrols of the 7th Armored Division. Having failed to find a soft spot to the north, the Germans then moved against Hoges 9th Armored command in the south; however, even before this attack got going three German tanks were knocked out and the rest of the probing force withdrew. Penguin Books, 2016. When a particularly heavy onslaught was launched against 7th Armored, near 9th Armoreds left flank, Company A, 14th Tank Battalion shifted its mediums to fire directly on Breitfield in support of its armored neighbor to the north. Infanterie-Division 19398 . English Edition, Casemate Publishers, 2014. The platoon lost four men missing and two wounded in the ensuing engagement. After conferring with Clarke, Ridgway wanted to talk to one more man in whom he had supreme confidenceBrigadier General Hoge. Jentz, Thomas. VGD. Armament T-70 gun cal. 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. 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. The time was approximately 1800 on Saturday, December 16, when Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division began its move to St. Vith. 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. The lumbering heavy tank continued moving towards the American line before turning north towards the town of Hunningen, Belgium, passing the armored car. A second attempt on the bridge, made by about 40 men four hours later, was also thrown back by machine-gun fire. Zaloga, Steven. A strong attack has just developed against Clarke again. I am weighing toward a stray Panzer IV or maybe a SP gun like the one you described. The last of the St. Vith defenders to come out were Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry Regiment. Panzertruppen Volume 2 The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Deployment of The German Tank Forces 1943-1945. Manteuffel answered, We estimated that we were up against a division, and perhaps against an entire corps. Our preliminary briefings had told us that there would be no armor in our path. The 9th Armored Divisions position at the Our was no longer tenable. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. On December 21, 18. That eliminates this units Pzkw IV being the Tiger encountered by the Troop B M8 on Dec. 18th . Schneider, Wolfgang. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. Armored Champion, The Top Tanks of World War II. Manteuffel met near Wallerode with Model and Lucht that day. 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. Chamberlain, Peter, et al. So, rather than spill blood needlessly to take meaningless ground, Hoge called off the attack on Winterspelt. At CCB, 9th Armored Divisions headquarters in Faymonville, General Hoge was just finishing up his briefing for his commands move to the Losheim Gap and Manderfeld when the call came through from General Jones informing him of 9th Armoreds new Winterspelt mission. At approximately 0530 on December 16, eight German armored divisions and 13 infantry divisions launched their all-out attack on five divisions of the U.S. First Army. Division 3. 223 223. Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. Both American units were able to drive forward, and the Shermans knocked out six German armored vehicles. 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. History. Soon after its crossing, B Company ran into German infantry dug in along the high ground overlooking the village of Elcherath. Amazing discounts for bundles. The division had lost four companies of armored infantry. This forest was criss-crossed only by trails. js = d.createElement(s); Since St. Vith should have been taken on December 16 or the 17th at the latest, he decided to leave his command post at Waxweiler and spend the night with the 18th Volksgrenadier Division at Schoenberg. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. However, Company B, 27th AIB was sent to help ease the situation, covering the cavalrys left flank. I wanted to focus on the M8 vs Tiger story, I already noticed the Ferdinand claim, but decided not to mention it. On 18 January 1945, the final alignment became (XVIII Corps, U. S. First Army, 12th Army Group) -- the alignment in the hierarchy given here. Due to the lack of detail in Troop Es entry, it is impossible to tell which Tiger tank is the one being referred to in the account. 1/18th Scale Cars; 1/24th Scale Assembly Kits; 1/24th Scale Cars; 1/43rd Scale Cars; . 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 U.S. 9th Armored Division arrived in the European Theater of Operations in late October 1944 as a reserve for Maj. Gen. 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. Possibly such events took place in reality. 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. var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; 1946. #WW2 . Hoge could not see much sense in making an attack, taking ground, and then turning right around and coming back, especially if the attack was successful. Both assault groups suffered heavy casualties. The same story is retold in A Colonel in the Armored Divisions A Memoir, 19411945 by William S. Triplet, and like a game of telephone it gets even more distorted. Maurice Delaval Papers Collection of the Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA. 1945. The two commanders agreed that even without the mud to contend with the withdrawal would have to be delayed simply because of heavy enemy pressure. On February 5, 1945 General Walter Botsch took over command of the division. Its population in 1944 was about 2,000, and its citizens were very much pro-German. Both task forces reached St. Vith shortly before noon on the 18th to find not one, but two German attacks moving against the town. War Department Field Manual FM 2-20 Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop Mechanized. Troop D, 89th Recon had positioned its troop headquarters and first platoon to cover the bridge over the Our. The line companies were down to one officer apiece. 45 mm. Adding to the slowdown of operations against St. Vith, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was still using two of its three regiments and all but one of its artillery battalions against the two trapped 106th Infantry Division regiments on the Schnee Eifel. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2005. First Edition, Presidio Press, 2002. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. On top of attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B), a Panzer IV can be easily misidentified as a Tiger I. After 1200 hours on 17th December 1944, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was reinforced by a mobile battalion. The fight ended when he slammed the M8 (he called it a Greyhound) into the rear of Tiger and the gun crew fired three rapid fire rounds into the engine compartment. Ridgway knew Hoge to be calm, courageous, and imperturbable. I mention it for the sake of completeness as I suspect that the whole thing is a myth. Osprey Publishing, 2003. Clarke pulled back his left flank to protect Hinderhausen, a key position on the emergency exit route to Commanster and Vielsalm. Osprey Publishing, 2013. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. 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 . The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. When Model released the Fhrer Escort Brigade to General Manteuffel, he thought that he would be able to gain quick access to the St. Vith road network. But if four versions was not enough, there is potentially another version of this tale contained in a combat interview given by Lieutenant Arthur A. Olson of Troop D, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron on the 8th of January, 1945. Confusion, darkness, and mud slowed the move, but by morning a medium tank company and a platoon of riflemen had reached the village. Although both men agreed that a withdrawal at this stage was the wiser decision, Hoge was skeptical that, given the weather and ground conditions, the defenders would be able to get out. On December 21, 18. 120th Infantry Regiment (30th Infantry Division) 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion 319th Field Artillery Glider Battalion 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment German Units 3d Parachute Division 12th SS Panzer Division 18th Volksgrenadier Division 246th Volsgrenadier Division 884th March Battalion 905th Assault Gun Brigade No reinforcements were expected. Although the American forces in the St. Vith area came under command of General Ridgways XVIII Airborne Corps, the Airborne Corps itself was under the command of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, overall commander of the northern sector of the Bulge. The fall of Rodt effectively split 7th Armoreds CCA from General Clarkes CCB. The next move was up to General Lucht and his corps. One, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division, was holding the northern reaches of the Schnee Eifel. It is interesting to note that the U.S 7th Armored Division suffered a moderate 425 Battle Casualties, on page 465 of Hitlers Last Gamble by Trevor N. Dupuy, for December 17-23, 1944 in the Battle of Saint Vith including the 1st day of the Battle of Manhay, out of the 3,397 Battle and Non-Battle Casualties suffered during the Battle by the U.S 112th Infantry Regiment of the U.S 28th Infantry Division, the U.S 424th Infantry Regiment of the U.S 106th Infantry Division, Combat Command B of the U.S 9th Armored Division and ofcourse the U.S 14th Cavalry Group. There are two likely candidates, the first being a Panzer IV. Once St. Vith was taken, Model intended to drive the brigade swiftly for the Meuse River or cut behind the opposition on the Elsenborn Ridge that was bottling up the Sixth Panzer Army. Shortly thereafter, Hasbrouck called and asked, Bruce, do you think you can get out? Clarke answered, A miracle has happened, General! Mines were laid. Were any of these Tiger Is and or Tiger IIs knocked out on the 18th of December, 1944? 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. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division would use these assault guns in small probing attacks on the American lines east of St. Vith that same day. 1940 194111. Dragon 1629 1/16th Feldwebel 352nd Volksgrenadier Division R 275.00.