But . A half hour before dawn on 18 December German guns and mortars opened heavy fire. Then too, some welcome tank support had arrived on the scene. But the credit side of the ledger showed a few entries. A Symbol of the Combat Ability of MI Soldiers. This sizable town lay in a bend of the Wiltz River valley, southwest of Clerf and some three miles away from the enemy-held crossings at Wilwerwiltz. Time was running out for the American companies: ammunition. The company leading the left battalion surprised a platoon of Company L at breakfast, overran the company kitchen (which was only 800 to goo yards behind the rifle line) and killed the platoon commander. Caveat: This Battle lasted more than a month, with assignments in considerable flux. Lewistown was Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Tyrone was Company B (less detached troops), Huntingdon was Company A. Troop G was converted to Company C, the Howitzer Battery was converted to the Combat Support Company, and the Bellefonte unit was redesignated as Detachment 1, Company B. Small detachments with burp guns now crept down through the dark and engaged the troops in and around the chteau. At nearly every point the American tanks would have to fight their way down the roads to reach the infantry holding the villages. When the 28th Division arrived on the VIII Corps front in mid-November its regiments were in pitiable condition. The camp was liberated by the Russian Army May 1, 1945. It went onto the line on 4 July 1918, in the Second Battle of the Marne. to cross the XLVII Panzer Corps bridge at Dasburg and commence The German guns and Werfers had finally opened fire to neutralize or destroy the rearward artillery and reserve positions in the, 112th sector. . The 2d Battalion, surrounded on the ridge east of Clerf, attempted to filter through the enemy lines in the early morning hours. By dusk the American line had been pushed back nearly to Weidingen when orders came to withdraw behind the Wiltz River and destroy the bridge at Weidingen. Finally Luettwitz was promised two 60-ton bridges-capable of carrying his Panthers-and very considerable support from the Luftwaffe. In 1968, all of the units, except for the units in Huntingdon and Everett became the 2nd Battalion, 104th Cavalry; Lewistown was Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (less detached troops), Tyrone was Troop H, Altoona unit became Troop G and Howitzer Battery, and the Bellefonte unit became a Detachment of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop. Before daybreak on 18 December the survivors, now only a handful, started west. . 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. Two lieutenants from I Company examine German weapons abandoned at Schoppen. Radio communication, which was functioning fairly well, showed that the division center was most endangered. WW2 Order of Battle Medical Units. good tank-going could not be expected until the Marche-Rochefort line Shortly before dusk 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 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. This came late in the morning, after the 28th Division commander, General Cota, ordered a tank platoon from the 707th man infantry out of the Battery C area. German tanks opened fire on them, but a direct hit stopped the leading Mark IV, for the moment effectively blocking the serpentine approach from Marnach. At 2100, therefore, General Cota turned the reserve rifle battalion back to the 110th Infantry, minus Company G which was moved to Wiltz to defend the division command post, and agreed with Colonel Fuller's proposal that the battalion be used in an attack eastward to restore American control at Marnach. Their fate is unknown. He fought in Northern France, was part of the force that liberated Luxembourg before dying of wounds sustained by German artillery fire in the Siegfried Line Campaign, September 19th, 1944. 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. Infantrymen of the 110th Infantry, 28th Div., US 1st Army following the German breakthrough in that area, Bastogne, Belgium, 19 December 1944. Although the left division (the 560th The presence of enemy tanks in Ltzkampen constituted a distinct threat, even to infantry in pillboxes. Here it lay astride the main attack axis of the German LXVII Panzer Corps of the Fifth Panzer Army headed to Bastogne, Belgium, and points west. Outnumbered and outgunned, the men of the 110th Infantry Regiment upset the German timetable during the Battle of the Bulge. This had been accomplished by noon on the first On 11 May 1898, these units were mustered into federal service for the. The company from the 60th ran into trouble almost immediately when it was immobilized in some woods northwest of Berg by flanking fire from Heckhuscheid, in the 424th Infantry sector. The orders given the 116th Panzer Division on the night of 16 December to switch to the left were altered on the 17th to start its infantry regiments marching still farther south to the Dasburg bridgehead held by the neighboring corps. In the darkness and confusion many stragglers made their way into Bastogne and Vaux-lez-Rosires. . One 112th Infantry Regiment. 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. Marnach remained in American hands, even after the Dasburg bridge was completed and the leading tanks of the 3d Panzer Regiment entered the fight. It arrived in Clerf with nineteen medium tanks. The 116th had fought itself out in almost continuous battles during the withdrawal across France and the defense of the West Wall but had a fine reputation and was fairly well refitted. Colonel Nelson's antitank reserve, Company C, 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was deployed on the ridge west of the river, but these were towed guns, dug in and relatively immobile. This unit now relieved the provisional ridge, covering an observation post. Kokott's screening regiment, the 78th, had been in the habit of throwing out an outpost line west of the Our from nightfall till dawn. 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment attached 110th, 431st and 448th AAA AW Battalions 75th Infantry Division . Shortly before dark the 60-ton bridges were completed at Gemnd and Dasburg (inexperienced engineers and the difficulties attendant on moving the heavy structures down to the river bed had slowed construction markedly), and the German tanks and assault guns moved across to give the coup de grce to the villages still defended by the 110th Infantry. given new divisions to spearhead the brief spoiling attack in late October 110th Infantry Regiment, Col. Hurley Fuller's command post was in Clervaux; Executive Officer was Col. Daniel B. Strickler. The division advance guard from the 15th Parachute Regiment (supposedly on its way to capture Sibret) somehow became confused, wandered away northward, and about 1500 struck the 687th Field Artillery Battalion, whose batteries had displaced to a road angling southeast from the town.20 Battery A met the tanks leading the German column with direct fire, disabled or destroyed them, and briefly slowed the advance toward Wiltz. These units combined have 17 campaign streamers from the American Civil War: Po Valley, Manassas, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Battle of Appomattox, Virginia 1861, South Carolina 1862, Mississippi 1863, Tennessee 1863. The 2d Panzer Division advance guard had taken a bloody nose Southeast of the town About dusk the Marnach garrison radioed that half-tracks could be heard moving toward the village. About 0720 the company crossed into the 110th Infantry zone, where the ground rose away from the highway and forced the tanks to advance in column on the road. The 109th and 112th were in like status. 28th Division commander James E. Wharton was in his first day of command when a German sniper shot him while he was at the 112th Infantry's command post. 28th Reconnaissance Troop (Mech.) Colonel Nelson gave the order to withdraw behind the river under cover of darkness. The 39th Regiment had got involved in local actions and been diverted from the westward axis-sustaining high losses in the bargain. When the mortar crews and antitank platoon had used all their ammunition they joined the infantry in the center of the village and fought as riflemen. The northern regiment of the Panzer Lehr Division, the 902d, made better progress. Here in the south daylight patrols also operated to maintain control of the eastern bank, although the main positions were around Lieler and Lausdorn. Finally, on the morning of 18 December, the surviving members of the garrison sent out a last radio message; they had no choice but surrender. . The division commander, officers, and noncoms were veterans; training throughout the division was reported as adequate. Two hours later tanks and self-propelled guns struck the 44th Engineers, which was outposting the little hamlets northeast of Wiltz. Furthermore, Middleton instructed Cota to use. was reached midway between Bastogne and the Meuse. First, Luettwitz could not allow any slackening to an infantry pace by frontal attacks against strongly defended American positions. 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. The appearance of the Shermans in Clerf cooled the ardor of the German infantry. Here Nelson received a message from the 28th Division which ordered the regiment to hold the line LausdornWeiswampach-Beiler, which the 112th Infantry had just abandoned. Manteuffel had found himself in almost complete disagreement with the original operations plan handed down by Jodl in November. But Germans struck again and again. Before noon five separate assaults had been made at Consthum, but all were beaten off by small arms, .50-caliber, and artillery fire. Each division was reinforced with additional self-propelled assault guns or tank destroyers and each had a full complement of divisional artillery (four battalions for the infantry division and three motorized battalions in the armored divisions). After the fall of Hosingen the 3d Battalion elements in Consthum offered the last organized resistance in the 28th Infantry Division center east of the Clerf River. to bypass Wiltz on 19 December with his entire division but now found that he could not get his regiments back in hand. German defenses. Through the roundabout artillery channels he asked permission to join the 106th Infantry Division, only a little distance away to the north. Attempts during the evening to send a task force of stragglers and trains forward from the 28th Division headquarters at Sibret were abortive; the roads east to Wiltz now were blocked every few kilometers by enemy infantry and self-propelled guns. Without it the western exit road from the Gemnd bridge was hopelessly blocked; through Hosingen ran the main divisional supply route to the Clerf. All of these units were released from federal service in 1945. Replacements, mostly from the Navy, were whipped into shape by the "Old 26th," and first-rate equipment replaced that lost in the east. Two of the American tanks, destroyed during the German assault later in the day. 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. But, the purpose here is not to tell that tale nor even tell of the later tribulations of training in the United States and further training in England. Meanwhile General Cota had ordered Colonel Strickler to move in the 3d Battalion, 110th Infantry, from Nocher. According to an article in the October 20, 1945 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, the Nazi offensive was Hitler`s own brainchild; a plan which, "If it failed . The latter was a hard-driving commander, daring and tenacious, and had a reputation of giving help to neighboring formations without debate. Once the 2d Panzer Division had thrown a bridge across the Our at Dasburg and the 26th Volks Grenadier Division had put a bridge in at Gemnd, the well-known Panzer Lehr Division would be ready to roll, advancing behind the two forward divisions until the corps had cleared the Clerf River, then pushing ahead of the infantry on the corps left in the race to Bastogne. They heard, and duly reported, heavy artillery to the south, they saw searchlights and flames lighting up the sky, but again in the south. Company B of the 2d Tank Battalion, en route to set up a roadblock northeast of Clerf, was appropriated by General Cota and sent to support the 110th Infantry. Most of the tanks and assault guns were out of action, there were insufficient machine guns to cover the final protective line, radio communication between the desperate units was practically nonexistent, searchlight rays glancing from the low clouds lighted the path of the attackers, and ammunition was running very low. In October 1919, the battalion's units were Company M, 112th Infantry (Lewistown), 103rd Trench Mortar Battery, 103rd Engineer Battalion (Tyrone), Company F, 112th Infantry (Huntingdon), Company A, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Everett), Company G, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Altoona), and elements of the 108th and 109th Field Artillery (Bellefonte). In general the ground on the east bank commanded. At the crossroads east of Eschweiler the Reconnaissance Battalion turned to the left and bore down on Wiltz. Only one man escaped. Company D, in its support position on the high ground overlooking Ltzkampen, meanwhile commenced mopping up the enemy who had filtered between the companies on the line. Although delayed by inadequate deliveries of POL and the traffic jam on the damaged Dasburg-Marnach road the entire division, including its tank regiment, assembled on the west bank around Heinerscheid during the night of 17-18 December. The bulk of the provisional battalion, inside Wiltz, started southwest an hour or so before midnight, some on foot, the rest riding on trucks, half-tracks, and tank destroyers. Legacy : Acker, Lewis F. Lt Col CWS : . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1969. But the tactical effect of this artillery preparation was considerably less than the German planners had anticipated. Shortly before noon a platoon of Company B's tanks reached the hardpressed field artillery battery near Buchholz and reported the situation in hand.8 But the enemy here represented only the probing forefinger of the main attack. The dates of its approval and amendment are also the same. A radio message alerted the commander to the danger of a direct approach; so the platoon and some accompanying infantry entered Clerf by a secondary road along the river. Across the Vesle was the larger town of Fismes headquarters of the 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division. 3d Battalion sector, compressing the American companies in the village paymasters who composed the defense. Perhaps the tankers were too busy looting the American freight cars and supply dumps to bother with the little force in the chteau. Jones attached the 112th Infantry to his own division on the spot, assuring Nelson that he would assume full responsibility. The enemy made three attacks in the same close formation over the same ground before they discovered the error of their ways. At dawn a single tank or self-propelled gun began firing from the curving road to the south; more enemy infantry joined the fire fight near the chteau as the morning advanced. I Company examine German weapons abandoned at Schoppen the camp was liberated the. 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