The 5th Parachute Division commander had already experienced great difficulty in maintaining control of his units in action. The massed guns and Werfers of the XLVII Panzer Corps which roared out at 0530 on 16 December gave the Americans their first warning. This was the end: shots, blazing vehicles, and screaming wounded. Hitler himself seems to have favored this concept (it is found in the first Fuehrer operations order), but only in the Fifth Panzer attack would assault detachments be found inside the American positions when the initial barrage opened up. The regimental position, really a series of squad and platoon posts, followed a ridge line south through Harspelt and Sevenig, then bent back across the Our and followed the western slopes of the river nearly to Kalborn. The 77th Regiment formed on the right near Hosingen and the 39th, echeloned to the left and rear, assembled in the woods north of Wahlhausen. On the evening of 15 December the outpost troops, considerably reinforced, crossed to the west bank as usual and moved cautiously forward. The degree of tactical success achieved by the 112th Infantry and the fact that it was able to hold intact as a regiment may be explained by a number of factors. The lay of the ground and defenses in the area north of Ltzkampen were such that Waldenburg's right regiment had to move northwestward at an oblique to the axis of his left wing advance. His first concern would be to gain the ridge west of the Our and thus cover the armor crossings, for he recognized that it would be a difficult stream to bridge. Albert was an Army veteran of World War II, serving in the 28th Division during the Battle of the Bulge. battalion, hastily formed from the 28th Division headquarters, by setting Less than two miles west of Marnach lay the Clerf River and the town of Clerf, the latter the headquarters of the 110th Infantry. Probably by this time a good share of the 116th tanks had been committed. There was still hope on the morning of 17 December that at least one platoon from Company B was holding on in Marnach. Infantry of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division took over the attack on the northeast (probably the 39th Volks Grenadier Regiment). antitank guns supplemented the weapons organic to the conventional Volks Grenadier division. This threat north of the Marnach road seems to have caused the German commander some concern. Map of St Vith drawn 15 November 1944. In the meantime the Company C advance north toward Marnach also ran into trouble: persistent small arms fire forced the infantry to leave the road and move slowly across country. Their fate is unknown. The Infantry School at Fort Benning began collecting academic monographs from company commanders soon after the end of World War II, to record their personal combat experiences. Robert L. Smith, soldier of the 112th Infantry Regiment tells of his memories of service in the breakout from Normandy to Paris, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. At that crucial point the infantry had to take Bastogne as quickly as possible, with or without the help of the armored divisions. XLVII Panzer Corps arrived at the headquarters of the Fifth The little group from regimental headquarters which had been deployed on the ridge line at Ouren was less successful. Marnach remained in American hands, even after the Dasburg bridge was completed and the leading tanks of the 3d Panzer Regiment entered the fight. 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 112th Infantry Regiment protected five miles of the northern section, the 109th covered nine miles on the southern end, and the 110th Infantry Regiment was responsible . 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. Tanks, tank destroyers, and guns were rushed up from the depots at Mayen, but on 15 December the two panzer grenadier regiments were still missing 60 percent of their regular rifle strength and the panzer regiment had ready only one of its two battalions (with 27 Mark IV's and 30 Panthers). The 309th and 310th Infantry Regiments . It contains several maps, showing the sectors of the major air units. Marnach garrison out of the way, but an hour later Company B radioed that three hundred Germans were northwest and southwest of Marnach. The regimental cannon company also provided some interested spectators, who trained their howitzers on Heinerscheid with such good effect that enemy records take rueful note of this harassing fire from the north. The units were located in Erie (Co A), Bradford (Co C), Oil City (Co D), Cooperstown (Co E), Franklin (Co F), Ridgeway, Pennsylvania (Co H), Warren (Co I), and Titusville (Co K). The attack by the light tank company of the 707th along the Skyline Drive was disastrous. Later reports indicate that this group was almost wiped out. Albright, Barry E. CPT, "Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, in the Invasion of Normandy, 5-13 June 1944" (Normandy Campaign Alford, Truman MAJ , "Operations of the 6th Tank Destroyer Group, as part of Taks Force "A", in the march through Brittany Peninsula to Brest, France, 3-9 August 1944 . Other American troops now had to take over the actual defense of that all-important road center, but without the gallant bargain struck by the 110th Infantry and its allied units-men for time-the German plans for a coup-de-main at Bastogne would have turned to accomplished fact.21 The cost had been high, much higher than American units expected to pay at this stage of the war: the 110th Infantry virtually destroyed, the men and fighting vehicles of five tank companies lost, the equivalent of three combat engineer companies dead or missing, and tank destroyer, artillery, and miscellaneous units engulfed in this battle. The story in the 2d Panzer Division zone was the same. Leaderless, the platoon broke. Finally, after a grueling battle in the Baranw-Warsaw sector the division was relieved for the first time since the beginning of the Russian campaign and brought back to Poznan, there receiving the title of Volks Grenadier (regarded as somewhat less than an honor by the survivors of the old regular army 26th Infantry Division). on Sevenig, farther to the south its 1128th Regiment had seized Thus deployed on the right of the 424th Infantry, the 112th was another piece filling out the fast developing "island defense" of St. Vith. This point was conceded when Hitler ruled that the artillery fires along the entire front would begin at 0530. on numerous occasions before; so it is questionable whether either of them expected the Luftwaffe to make good. In the last analysis the losses inflicted on the enemy may have equaled those sustained by the Americans-certainly the Germans paid dearly for their hurried frontal attacks against stonewalled villages and towns-but the final measure of success and failure would be in terms of hours and minutes won by the Americans and lost to the enemy. on the operations of the two armored corps, the Fifth Panzer Army had been given a small infantry corps of two divisions to flesh out its right shoulder. Abstract. These reinforcements arrived at Reuler in time to take a hand against the Germans pouring past Marnach toward Clerf and its bridges. This time the bridge was blown. artillery by this time had displaced to the west and was out of range. The 112th Infantry Regiment was formed and officially designated as the 16th Infantry from . Only one man escaped. In 1975, all except for the Everett unit were reorganized and redesignated as the 2nd Battalion 112th Infantry. Lamoine Olsen, known to his friends as Frank Olsen, joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1941 prior to America's entry into World War II. As the enemy gun layers dropped their range back to the river and then to the American positions, the searchlights blinked on, searching out pillboxes and bunkers. The American infantry had made excellent use of the ground and had held their positions, refusing to buckle under the weight of numbers. The battery commander and fifteen gunners were casualties of the close-range fight before help arrived. There the infantry driving toward the town of Clerf had been stopped short of their objective. On the morning of 19 December the headquarters of the 28th Infantry Division transferred from Wiltz to Sibret, southwest of Bastogne. of the 1st Battalion. The 687th Field Artillery Battalion pulled out to the southwest and the 3d Battalion also started to move, under the impression that this was the plan. 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. The only security for the southern flank would have to come from an advance in echelon and such protection as the less mobile divisions of the Seventh Army could offer on the left. At Weiler the rest of the company and the antitank platoon, their supply of ammunition dwindling, also awaited the tanks. After a brief pause they wheeled back into Ltzkampen. About four and a half miles west of the town, a second block was encountered and a German self-propelled gun lashed out at the lead vehicles while machine gunners blazed away from positions around it. Then too, some welcome tank support had arrived on the scene. . Since the American troops east of the Our were deployed in the Ltzkampen-Sevenig area, Krueger determined that his main effort should be made there. Radio communication, which was functioning fairly well, showed that the division center was most endangered. It was released from active duty in 1953 and was redesignated Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion 104th Cavalry. The line of departure for Krueger's corps began across the Our from Kalborn and extended north to a point east of Burg Reuland. relatively little ground; the 110th was very hard pressed; and German tanks were moving along the main road to Bastogne by way of Marnach. 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. 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. The 112th Infantry Regiment returned home in April 1919 and was mustered out of federal service on 6 May 1919 at Camp Dix, New Jersey. The Lewistown unit was redesignated as Machine Gun Troop, 104th Cavalry, 22nd Cavalry Division. and withdrew on foot to Wiltz-the 2d Battalion flanks were wide open. Most of the positions occupied lay on the east. it to call on neighboring battalions, attacking Weiler, to help outflank . With this team Manteuffel hoped to win a quick penetration and get rolling. 75 (Spring 2010), pp. 116th Infantry Regiment. General Waldenburg committed his infantry here, in the predawn hours, hoping that the 60th Regiment would break through on the right or that the 156th Regiment would reach the river on the left and so secure a bridgehead through which his tank regiment could be passed. For their exploits, the I&R Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, would later become "the most heavily decorated . He argued that the enemy literally must not be awakened and that the assault forces should move forward the moment the guns sounded. On German operations maps Wiltz lay athwart the boundary which divided the attack zones of the XLVII Panzer Corps and the LXXXV Corps. Krueger and Luettwitz were old hands at mechanized warfare, had learned their business as commanders of the 1st and 2d Panzer Divisions, respectively, and had fought side by side in Lorraine. The battle plans and tactics of the Fifth Panzer Army, more than those of any other German army that took part in the Ardennes counteroffensive, bore the very strong personal imprint of its commander, General Manteuffel. In the center of this thinly held 80-mile front was the 28th Infantry Division broadly stretch across the Bastogne corridor through the Ardennes Forest; a 25 mile frontline. Heilmann, therefore, had decided. By this time, however, the advance infantry detachments of the 2d Panzer Division were not only involved in a battle to knock out Marnach but were pushing past the village en route to Clerf. General Cota still had in hand a reserve on the night of the 16th, but it was the last reserve of the 28th Division. In the north, contact was maintained with the 106th Infantry Division at a point northwest of Ltzkampen. Behind the Clerf River and to the west of the regimental command post in the town of Clerf the 2d Battalion (Lt. Col. Ross C. Henbest) lay in divisional reserve. Company B, however, had been badly shot up during the engagement and probably somewhat shaken by the presence of two or three flame-throwing tanks-a new experience to most American troops on the Western Front. ), The corps commander was loath to yield ground to the enemy. 110th Infantry Regiment, Col. Hurley Fuller's command post was in Clervaux; Executive Officer was Col. Daniel B. Strickler. the 2d Battalion back through Reuler, the Americans fighting stubbornly Volks Grenadier Division) had not fared too well in the attack to give an accurate count of losses in the 112th Infantry, but they seem to have been moderate. The mission given Luettwitz conformed to his reputation for drive and audacity. Some of the first Americans to confront Hitler's gamble on the front lines were the men of the 394th Infantry Regiment at Lanzareth Ridge. The 10th Regiment jumped off south of Michelshoff on December 21st and experienced one of their bloodiest fights of World War 2. By 0630 the grenadiers were behind the command post of the 1st Battalion (Lt. Col. William H. Allen) in Harspelt; the first sign of their presence was a kitchen truck ambushed while journeying to the rear. In 2006, the battalion reorganized again with Headquarters and Headquarters Company in Lewistown, Company A (less detachment) in Huntingdon; Detachment 1, Company A in Everett; Company B in Altoona, and Company C (led detachment) in Bellefonte with Detachment 1, Company C in Tyrone. About 1000, therefore, General Cota ordered Companies A and B of the 707th Tank Battalion to reinforce the 110th Infantry, with the intention of clearing up the deepest enemy penetrations and sweeping the ridge road clear. The total impact of the severe German blows dealt the 110th Infantry in the late afternoon and evening of 17 December was not felt at the division and corps headquarters for several hours. 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. At 0930 two companies 113th Infantry Regiment. 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. By the second day it was apparent that the combination of stubborn resistance and poor approach roads would delay the projected crossing at Ouren. Caught off-guard, American units fought to stem . The Bellefonte unit was mustered into federal service in January 1941 as Battery B, 190th Field Artillery. Men in the observation posts watched the enemy move about his daily chores and reported flares and occasional rounds of mortar or artillery fire. The mission remained, but the troops available on 16 December were less than half the number promised: one armored division, the 116th Panzer Division, and two-thirds of an infantry division, the 560th Volks Grenadier Division. Infantrymen of the 110th Infantry, 28th Div., US 1st Army following the German breakthrough in that area, Bastogne, Belgium, 19 December 1944. U.S. Army photo. 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. Directed to the west by Hitler's orders, the division would see its first action in the Ardennes. 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. 1941 to 1945 with the 112th Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division in France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany, including the Liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulg : 04/11/2008 Endicott : to pivot its weight on Ltzkampen in a drive southwestward toward close to the Fifth Panzer Army headquarters, where a few If you are looking for a definitive book on The Battle of the Bulge this is not it. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1985. Unit decoration: Presidential Unit Citation, 1623 Dec 1944 112th Infantry, Civil War silver bands: The Logan Guards were mustered as Company E, 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers and then as Company A, 46th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Arriving in France in late Spring 1918 . At 2013 General Cota phoned the VIII Corps commander to say that the situation was critical, that routes were open for the German tanks to come through, and that "there is some question in regard to the 110th Infantry CP." The Americans lined up in German formation and, while an officer shouted commands in German, marched boldly across the bridge. Although the 116th Panzer Division losses were moderate, the inexperienced 560th Volks Grenadier Division had suffered an estimated 1,000 casualties-a figure, however, that included the reinforced fusilier company which got lost in the woods southwest of Sevenig and was not seen again for two days. 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