On the evening Later Colonel Fuller was captured, with a group of stragglers he commanded, while attempting to break through to the west. The two heavy tank bridges were the Americans obviously were weakening, and the 2d Panzer Division had been able to move its tanks forward on the relatively good road in the northern part of the corps zone. About dusk the Marnach garrison radioed that half-tracks could be heard moving toward the village. On the morning of 19 December the headquarters of the 28th Infantry Division transferred from Wiltz to Sibret, southwest of Bastogne. In this case, as in many others during the American withdrawal, the full story is that of the cooperation of the combined arms. 16-20 December, The German attack to penetrate the front lines of the 28th Division succeeded on the first day of the offensive in splitting the 112th Infantry from the rest of the division. Corps headquarters had taken part in the Fifth Panzer On March 12, 1879, Governor Henry Hoyt signed General Order Number One appointing Maj. Gen. John Hartranft as the first division commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and the most storied and renowned division in the history of the U.S. Army was born. ridge, covering an observation post. the 156th Regiment. Their fate is unknown. Through the early hours of 17 December American outposts reported sounds of tank movement in Ltzkampen. Those who could left the road, scattering in small parties into the dark. The town itself lies in a horseshoe bend of the river. He purchased the farm from his parents in 1943. 120th Infantry Regiment. 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. . While elements of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division were attacking on the north side of the Wiltz, detachments of the 5th Parachute Division struck the American perimeter on the south and southeast. Later reports indicate that this group was almost wiped out. 112th Regimental Combat Team, WW1 29th Infantry Div Casualties, WW2 303rd Bomb Group, Casualties, WW2 . Only three of the howitzers left could be withdrawn and losses among the cannoneers and drivers were high. When Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, Staff Sgt. At Heinerscheid, Company A had been overrun in A brass plate on the stone has an inscription to the men of the 106th and says, ' Dedicated to the Men of the 106th Infantry Division who fought and died for their country 1944-45 .'. Company D positions had been taken by assault only a few minutes earlier. Probably by this time a good share of the 116th tanks had been committed. Only Company K in Hosingen was yet to be heard from. The Lewistown unit was redesignated as Machine Gun Troop, 104th Cavalry, 22nd Cavalry Division. A sharp hairpin turn breaks the descent; then the road crosses the river into the northern edge of Clerf near the railroad station and enters the main highway. In the 1st Battalion zone to the north the advance detachments of the 2d Panzer Division moved straight for Marnach, attempting with one quick blow to clear the Americans obstructing the through road from Dasburg to Clerf.7 While the German engineers labored at the Dasburg site to bring their heavy tank bridging equipment down to the river, the 28th Panzer Engineer Battalion and the 2d Battalion, 304th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, crossed the Our in rubber boats and moved west through the predawn darkness. George C. Rickards, a career Pennsylvania National Guard officer, was promoted to Colonel as commander of the 16th Pennsylvania in 1907. Even on the first day of the offensive one of Heilmann's regiments had been lost for several hours. General Luettwitz was none too pleased with the progress made by his two attack divisions on this first day. 3 Jan - May 45 Last Offensive CD 2 555 Pages - PDF. XLVII Panzer, Corps moved beyond it to the west.3 (Map IV). Southeast of the town The Bellefonte unit was redesignated Troop L, 103d Cavalry. But Battery A of the battalion was swept up by the Germans who had bypassed the left wing anchor of the regiment at Heinerscheid. trusted officers set feverishly to work on plans for Christrose, 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. On the right its 1st Battalion marched on Hosingen, bringing flame throwers and self-propelled guns to blast the Americans from the village; the 2d Battalion moved straight for the Clerf River, aiming at control of the crossings and road net at Wilwerwiltz. the 109th and 112th Regiments gave ground slowly, but they . 1st Cavalry Medical Squadron. 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. 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. The road to Hosingen was muddy and winding; but worse, at the western exit of the bridge an American abatis and a series of bomb craters blocked the flow of traffic. The Logan Guards were mustered as Company E, 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers and then as Company A, 46th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Marnach garrison out of the way, but an hour later Company B radioed that three hundred Germans were northwest and southwest of Marnach. Division likely to be encountered during the first hours of the attack The responsibility for command here was assumed directly by the VIII Corps. Reports include lessons learned, analysis, and criticisms. Companies E and F dug in on a ridge north of Reuler under a rain of German shells. When orders finally arrived to hold in place, the 3d Battalion had reached a trident crossroad southwest of the town. The final word on the defense of Clerf would come from the enemy. brought in from Austria (the home station for the 2d Panzer Division was Vienna), and new-model Panther tanks, equipped for night fighting with the new infrared sighting apparatus, arrived fresh from assembly plants near Breslau. One tank platoon remained there to bolster the defense, while the other turned back to the south, picked up Company C, and, on orders, returned with the infantry to Munshausen. West of the ridge, Company L in Holzthum and the headquarters company and Company M in Consthum barred a direct approach to the Clerf crossing site at Wilwerwiltz. Both Luettwitz and Manteuffel had been "promised" air support. 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. The group never established contact, however, and most of its members were captured when they attempted to break away the following morning. This was the end: shots, blazing vehicles, and screaming wounded. Odds didn't favor the 28th Division. Despite the general dictum that defended towns would be bypassed, Manteuffel wanted St. Vith as a blocking position and so ordered Lucht to capture it. whereupon the light tank platoon destroyed its single remaining tank Minus his heavy weapons, the enemy failed to knock the. Bofors of the protecting antiaircraft company with saving his howitzers. Original WW2 US Army 112th Infantry Regiment DUI Crest Pinback. At Hosingen, on the ridge road, Company D and Company B were fighting German infantry hand to hand inside the village. The gunners and their attached antiaircraft artillery unit made a stand with their carbines, Colts, and a few .50-caliber machine guns. quieted down, although there still were small groups of the enemy crawling about in the gap breached that morning Ltzkampen would continue as a sally port for sorties against the 1st Battalion and the best efforts by the American field pieces to flatten the village failed to still the men and vehicles moving in its streets. Only one man escaped. For their exploits, the I&R Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, would later become "the most heavily decorated . Then, too, the 2d Battalion had once again used the stone bridge south of Ouren to launch a counterattack across the river and, during the afternoon, materially restored the 3d Battalion positions. Descent to the town and its bridges is made on this side by two winding roads. The presence of two panzer units on the 110th Infantry front was not suspected. 20th Armored Division (480th AIR*) 8th AIB by HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006. Schoppen, Belgium, the 16th Infantry Regiment's first objective after going on the offense during second half of the Battle of the Bulge. The year 1921 saw many changes in unit designation: Bellefonte was redesignated Troop B, 52nd Machine Gun Squadron, the Altoona unit was redesignated as Company G. During 1921, Company D, 1st Pennsylvania Engineers was organized. It is southeast of Aachen, Germany.D-Day for the Battle of Hurtgen Forest was November 2, 1944, H-hour was 0900. The 77th had been unable to win a quick decision at Hosingen. On the ridges which look down over Wiltz more Germans appeared in the early evening, apparently. The Americans had identified the 26th long since as the unit garrisoning the West Wall bunkers on the German bank. Most members of the 1st Battalion, for example, eventually found their way back to the regiment. Fuller had only two battalions at his disposal because the 2d Battalion, located at Donnange, constituted the division reserve. 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. In a matter of minutes the left company ran into a strong German skirmish line, deployed at the edge of a wood, which was supported by tanks and self-propelled artillery firing from around Marnach. About 1830 troops at the battalion observation post reported that enemy vehicles were attacking with multiple 20-mm. German field guns, by this time west of the Clerf, opened fire on Wiltz at noon. On the Battle of the Bulge: Eisenhower, John S. D. The Bitter Woods. During the afternoon the Germans pressed . Separated of necessity by the width of the front and the requirements of some depth in the defenses athwart the east-west roads, the units of the 110th could offer little reciprocal support against an enemy attacking in any force. The regiment consisted of companies from Erie, McKean, Venango, Elk, Warren, and Crawford counties. 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. 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. A Symbol of the Combat Ability of MI Soldiers. The 110th Antitank Company was in Hoscheid just to the west. Summarized in part from an article of the Morning Record. The assault gun platoon gave good support wherever the line was threatened, but by the end of the afternoon its fuel and ammunition were nearly gone and the gunners, after four days of nearly continuous action, were approaching complete exhaustion. In 1951, a rampant lion as found on the arms of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg grasping a red cross of the province of Lorraine in France were added to the old coat of arms of the 112th Infantry Regiment. [] In 1949, the Bellefonte unit was redesignated Battery B, 688th Field Artillery. The American infantry had made excellent use of the ground and had held their positions, refusing to buckle under the weight of numbers. 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. The Our, in many places, was no more than forty feet wide and easily fordable, but the roads leading to the river made circuitous and abrupt descent as they neared its banks. A Silver color metal and enamel device 1 5/32inches (2.94cm) in height overall consisting of shield blazoned: argent (silver gray), issuant in fess a bridge of one arch sable masoned of the first, the center portion shot away, in chief a cross pate azure and a Spanish castle gules; in base a lion rampant of the third grasping a cross of Lorraine of the fourth. General Cota, as a result, decided to concentrate what was left to him-headquarters troops, engineers, stragglers, and the handful of organized units moving back from across the Clerf-in defense of Wiltz, the 28th Division command post. During December 1944, the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team was holding a 6-1/2-mile long sector which the Germans attacked with nine divisions. 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. The approach road on the east bank was 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. Certainly the enemy infantry were spreading rapidly through the woods and draws between the American front line and the Our River. The sector at the Our River in which Luettwitz' corps would begin the attack was a little over seven miles wide, the villages of Dahnen on the north and Stolzembourg on the south serving as boundary markers. At 1330 the enemy ceased, GERMAN TROOPS ADVANCING PAST ABANDONED AMERICAN EQUIPMENT. When darkness finally came, the 44th withdrew with the assault guns into Wiltz, having lost four officers and 150 men. To complete the concentration against the enemy in or around Marnach, Colonel Fuller ordered the medium tank platoon in Munshausen to attack to the northeast with a rifle platoon from Company C. When Fuller heard of the light tanks, he ordered Colonel Henbest to delay the 2d Battalion attack next morning until the incoming tank detachment was ready to attack on the Skyline Drive. . The unit was awarded the sattle streamer marked Puerto Rico for their service. 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. 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. Hyperleap helps uncover and suggest. The enemy made three attacks in the same close formation over the same ground before they discovered the error of their ways. The 560th Volks Grenadier Division (Generalmajor Rudolf Langhaeuser) was assigned two specific bridges as targets, one just north of Ouren, the other a stone arch a little to the south of the village. Picture 1 of 6. But the enemy armor weight was too heavy, nor could it be checked by the handful of tanks and light assault guns remaining to the 707th Tank Battalion. Marnach remained in American hands, even after the Dasburg bridge was completed and the leading tanks of the 3d Panzer Regiment entered the fight. Around them Clerf was crawling with tanks, for most of the Mark IV Battalion of the 3d Panzer Regiment had assembled in the town during the night. It was breached at midnight when tanks and self-propelled guns of the 3d Panzer Regiment entered Marnach. Fred was part of "The Big Red" 1st Infantry Division. This was the Mark V Battalion of the 116th Panzer Division assembling to lead the attack toward the Ouren bridges. Three-quarters of an hour later the regimental commander ordered the artillery to displace behind the river; Colonel Fairchild moved the battalion across the river without losing a piece and immediately resumed firing. All this gave the 112th Infantry a chance to get its breath on 18 December. of the 77th, ran into a snag. The insignia was amended to correct the blazon on 16 May 2008. Just before dark, therefore, Kokott threw a part of his replacement training battalion into the action; these fresh troops succeeded in forcing their way into the north edge of the village, although with heavy losses. Radio communication, which was functioning fairly well, showed that the division center was most endangered. Then too, some welcome tank support had arrived on the scene. With surprise almost certainly assured and the knowledge that the Americans. tank destroyers from the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, weapons of Volks Grenadier Division) had not fared too well in the attack German plans. Beautifully illustrated with 200 photographs. 29th Infantry Division 58th Inf Bde 115th 175th 88th Inf Bde 116th 176th. The German guns and Werfers had finally opened fire to neutralize or destroy the rearward artillery and reserve positions in the, 112th sector. Meanwhile the 39th Regiment, echeloned to the left The bulk of the 3d Battalion held their positions despite surprise, defending from pillboxes and foxholes. It was his intention, however, to move the provisional battalion first, leaving the 3d Battalion to keep the escape exits open while the 44th Engineers acted as rear guard. The 109th and 112th were in like status. The second battalion's Companies G and H lost a combined total of 200 men out of 230 when they were cut off at Fismette and fended off a frontal attack on their position by a thousand German soldiers. When Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, Staff Sgt HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006 German shells the Battle of 3d... Sattle streamer marked Puerto Rico for their service a career Pennsylvania National Guard officer, was promoted to Colonel commander! 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