He could not believe it. First Edition, Presidio Press, 2002. Lucht anticipated that the Americans would counterattack the next day, but that their reaction would be too late to avoid complete encirclement. It is stated as being reported to Major Boyer by one Captain Walter Henry Anstey of Company A of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, who is said to have been a witness to the event. An assault on Thommen forced out the troops holding the town, and efforts to retake it failed. Battle of Losheim Gap - Wikipedia VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. It was a race between the Germans who were desperately trying to bring their 88 mm gun to bear and the Americans who were trying to get as close as possible to the Tiger Is rear. The next version of this story can be found in a 1947 book by Major Donald P. Boyer of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion titled St. Vith, The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge, 17-23 December 1944: A Narrative After Action Report. Ardennes-Alsace Campaign Based upon this fairly optimistic view, Ridgway, shortly after midnight, ordered the entire St. Vith force to withdraw from its current positions and form a defensive ring west of St. Vith and east of the Salm River. German reports are also far from subtlety. The lumbering heavy tank continued moving towards the American line before turning north towards the town of Hunningen, Belgium, passing the armored car. One gun, firing from the house that had been the 14th Tanks command post an hour earlier, disabled two of the Shermans, but the other tanks managed to knock out the four antitank guns plus three German command vehicles. Orders for CCB, 9th Armored to move to a new defensive position were issued at 1600. The unit was converted to an infantry division in 1945, while stationed in Courland. Were any of these Tiger Is and or Tiger IIs knocked out on the 18th of December, 1944? On the road to Winterspelt, General Hoge soon learned that the situation there was worse than General Jones had described. General Hoge moved his command post to Commanster. General Jones and his staff had pulled out of St. Vith on the morning of the 18th for Vielsalm. Within the Kloster, General Hoge found a division headquarters staff in a state of disarray and confusion. The losses in men and equipment for CCB, 9th Armored, as with the rest of the American units defending St. Vith, had been severe. The circuitous march up one road and down another led to a new line just a few hundred yards to the west of the old one and was miraculously carried out while under attack without the loss of any men or equipment. Shortly thereafter, Hasbrouck called and asked, Bruce, do you think you can get out? Clarke answered, A miracle has happened, General! The tanks of the 14th Tank Battalion and the half-tracks of the 27th AIB paused to pick up the foot elements of the 424th RCT, 106th Infantry Division. After the Tiger I had passed, the armored car then slipped out of its concealed position and began accelerating towards the tank in an attempt to close the gap between the two. So its quite possible! 2014. At daybreak on December 21, the Germans launched their first assault of the day on CCB, 9th Armored. For faster navigation, this Iframe is preloading the Wikiwand page for 18th Volksgrenadier Division. The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge on JSTOR Troop D, 89th Recon held the sector from Steinebruck to Weppeler while A Company, 27th AIB put up a defensive line anchored on the high ground east of Maspelt. Which specific Tiger II this was is unknown. 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. Tiger. Anderson, Thomas. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. 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. 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. VGD captured St. Vith, winning a great victory. 22 () - On December 9, 1944, Brig. Volksgrenadier-Division. The M5 got within a yard of the Tiger and knocked it out with 5 rounds. }(document, 'script', 'exco-player')); The M8 Greyhound was a small, 7.9 tonne American armored car with 6.4 mm to 25.4 mm of armor, only enough to protect against rifle caliber bullets, and armed with a 37 mm M6 main gun, a peashooter at this point in the war. Zaloga, Steven. The second task force hit another probe by the 1st SS Panzer and pushed it out of Hunningen. 1964. However, this version of Captain Ansteys account has one key difference: it was not a Tiger I that was knocked out, but rather a Tiger II, almost analogous to the fisherman whose fish gets bigger each time he tells the tale of his catch. Osprey Publishing, 2002. Design, Production & Modifications. js.className = n; 20th Panzergrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Atozwiki.com Perhaps the most unlikely performer of the entire battle was the 18th Volksgrenadier Division. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Unionpedia, the concept map 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. On top of the contradictions and ambiguity of Troop Es entry, there is also the curious fact that Troop A does not make any mention of this event in its morning report and record of events entry for the 18th of December, 1944. Between these units, a place was found for the provisional company composed of the 424th Infantry stragglers. 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. Zaloga, Steven. Fire from the 16th Field Artillery broke up other enemy formations trying to assemble on the high ground to the south. 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. Hoge pointedly asked Ridgway how it could be done. No one knew what was happening. The Battle at St. Vith, Belgium 17-23 December 1944 An Historical Example of Armor in the Defense. All but five troopers of 2nd Platoon were lost to enemy action. Companies A and B held a line from Grufflingen to Hohenbusch with Company A, 14th Tank Battalion to their north. Schiffer Publishing, 2000. The 27th AIB was ordered to establish a defensive position south, east, west, and southeast of Malempre. 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 move would also have to be done under the cover of darkness in severe wintry conditions. 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. First-time contributor Charles Gutierrez is the son of a 9th Armored Division veteran. VGD. 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. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2004. Yeah but Panthers rear and side armor is very weak, so its completely different story. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. CCBs new position blocked the main Winterspelt-St. Vith highway and the valley of the Braunlauf Creek, a second natural corridor leading to St. Vith. However, it cannot be safely assumed that the tank killed in this engagement was a Tiger I or a Tiger II. The southernmost battle group of the 18th Volksgrenadier would also undertake a mobile thrust and, finally, the 62nd Volksgrenadier would break loose at Heckhuscheid and drive for the Our River Valley. However, there is one major issue with this explanation, Panzer IVs were not attacking Troop B. Osprey Publishing, 2013. 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. Its supporting field artillery battalion was at Kalterherberg, two miles south of Monschau, engaged in firing missions for the 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. While on its way, the platoon was commandeered by a colonel from the 106th Division. Germanys Tiger Tanks VK45.02 to TIGER II. When B Company pulled back to refuel and rearm, A Company passed through to take up the fight. Tiger. 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. Ridgways plan was premised on the assumption that that the American forces in this goose egg-shaped defense could be supplied by air; however, whoever drew up the plan was thinking in terms of supply requirements for the lighter airborne divisions, not for fuel-hungry and shell-reliant armored forces. Chamberlain, Peter, et al. 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.