9th armored division battle of the bulge

Captain Seymour Green, the Supply Officer of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, who was acting as CCB Trains Commander, was captured along with many trucks from his unit and from the 16th Armored Field Artillery. By 0930 one company was across the river and had run into German infantry dug in along the high ground overlooking the village of Elcherath, 1,500 yards from Steinebruck. By the end of the day the CCB, 9th Armored Division position at the Our was considered to be no longer tenable. The light tanks beat off the Germans but were forced to give up their screening activities in this area. The 14th Tank Battalion would assemble west of the Our River and be prepared to attack as the situation developed. 9. The enemy was still denied access to St. Vith from the south and southeast. toward Ettelbruck. Combat Command "B" 9th Armored Division, was composed of the following units: With no real prior combat experience, the 9th Armored took on the brunt of the surprise German offensive on December 16 with units stationed in St. Vith, Echternach, and Bastogne. They were particularly apprehensive because members of the local gendarmerie had fought alongside the Americans and taken a score of German prisoners who now were housed in the local jail. Combat Command “B”, 9th Armored Division, continued to hold positions in the vicinity of Steinebruck. The 109th "could fight it out . The selection of this particular site had been forced upon the German commander because it was the only point at which the river had moderate banks that could be reached by a passable approach road. Hitler's hope of victory rode with his two panzer armies. A little after 1500 hours, General Hoge ordered the 27th Infantry Battalion to halt and dig in. In fact this leading contingent of the 915th had shot its bolt and for the next couple of days would take little part in the battle. As might be expected there was little coordination in this assault; furthermore the Germans were forced to divert much strength to meet the twin-pronged American counterattack moving. At 0530 hours, orders were issued for the withdrawal of CCB, 9AD. Across the river a fresh German Division, the 276th Volks Grenadier (Generalleutnant Kurt Moehring), had just come in from Poland and was dispersed in the little Eifel villages between Echternach and Bitburg. When night fell they loaded on the foot soldiers and made a dash south to the 687th Field Artillery command post at Lipperscheid, where they found that the batteries were in process of displacing across the Wiltz River. In this instance, however, the military axiom that a commander who is worried about the enemy may reflect on the worries besetting the enemy commander, was proven by the event. Late in the day Company E radioed for ammunition and rations. Although the penetration was checked, the dual attempt to relieve Führen made no headway. Combat Command RCCR of the U.S. 9th Armored Division sacrificed heroically to win precious time at … Despite the poverty of forces allotted Brandenberger's Seventh Army, the Fuehrer was prepared, as always, to expect the impossible. Beginning at 0130 hours, the enemy attacked the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion’s position at Neubruck. Here, during the night, the 14th made a crossing near Kautenbach, opening the way to Wiltz and the west for the main forces of the division. Handling bridge sections in the swift current and on the muddy river bottom was difficult enough without this steady fire. With company fronts a mile wide, the fight became a series of squad actions as the enemy infantry filtered through and behind the American "line." 9th Armored Division. The 352d Volks Grenadier Division was still on hand; it was approaching full strength west of the Our and for the first time could employ a number of its heavier supporting weapons in the attack. Casualties in manpower and equipment while substantial did not permit the enemy to close in the vital road center at St. Vith. Division, because this division, under peremptory orders from its commander, had continued the westward advance through the night, the forward troops defiling into the Kautenbach bridgehead. The remnants of Company A joined the regimental antitank company at road junction 206, the avenue by which enemy vehicles had to move to cut the supply road to the 3d Battalion, with orders to "hold that road." The German attacks suddenly gained strength on the night of 17 December. The situation in the 109th area developed as follows. Part of one battalion circled into the sharp valley where the Our and Sauer meet, intending to seize Hill 402 (southwest of Bigelbach), which offered the best observation in the vicinity. Some distance back from the river the 2d Battalion (Maj. William J. Maroney) maintained a series of seven outposts watching the German fortifications on the eastern bank. These strongpoints were nearly two miles apart; behind them the third rifle company was located in reserve at Brandenburg with one howitzer battery to give support. The enemy infantry proved more vulnerable, twenty-five being captured and a large number killed. At 0930 at 27th Infantry Command Post at Neubruck reported that they were surrounded and being attacked. During the night of 17-18 December, CCB, 9th Armored Division made a successful withdrawal back across the Our River and took up defensive positions. howitzers (which the 707th Tank Battalion had organized as an assault gun platoon) and three regular mediums. Colonel Rudder's reserves consisted of Company A, 103d Engineer Battalion; Company C, 707th Tank Battalion; the towed 3-inch guns of Company A, 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion; and his regimental antitank company. Books published 12. Company “A”, 14th Tank Battalion, in support of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, was also ordered to support the 424th Infantry of the 106th Infantry Division and in addition to cover the withdrawal of the 27th Armored Infantry halftracks. One was crippled by enemy fire, its driver and loader wounded by a rifle grenade when it drove squarely into the files of German infantry on the road, guns blazing; but the other fought its way north to the beleaguered batteries. On 19 December, then, Dempwolff reorganized his regiments, moved artillery and rocket projectors forward, and gave his troops food and rest. In the meantime, however, the 2d Battalion of the 14th Parachute Regiment had cut the road south of Hoscheid and the relief force was checked within a thousand yards of the village by enemy fire concentrated on a sharp bend in the road. The 212th Volks Grenadier Division, acting as the southern pivot for the entire German counteroffensive, would cross the Sauer in the Echternach sector and drive head on against the 12th Infantry. CCB, 9th Armored Division broke contact with the enemy in the St. Vith salient and made a daylight withdrawal to blocking positions set up by the XVIII Airborne Corps. Führen was attacked during the day by troops of the 15th Parachute Regiment, the 915th Regiment, and the 914th Regiment. Forty tons of supplies and the hospital units were moved first. Bigelbach. The compromise solution that moved one much depleted battalion of the 109th southeast to make contact at Stegen gave General Leonard's tanks some badly needed infantry protection but could hardly deflect any determined enemy thrust around the left flank of the 9th Armored Division. Company B, sent up the Tandel road to reach Führen, had paused at about the same hour only a short distance from the village.4 The next morning a patrol with a tank and a jeep reached the edge of Führen, but found the company command post burned and no sign of American troops. By this time, however, the German advance parties farther north had passed through the weak outpost line and were gathering strength and momentum. The only definite mission given the 276th was to gain the high ground across the Sauer, dislocate the American artillery positions around Haller, and form the western extension of the blocking line which the LXXX Corps was to present to any American thrust aimed at the southern pivot of the great counteroffensive. But the company reached Brandenburg shortly before midnight without encountering the Germans. mortars and four sections of heavy machine guns were left; the antitank company had no pieces; the tank company badly needed fuel and maintenance. At 0930 hours General Hoge ordered Lieutenant Colonel Leonard E. Engeman, Commanding Officer, 14th Tank Battalion, to contain this treat. Lindel Pinson, a friend from his unit, on March 3, 1944. The approach roads on both sides of the river were steep, curved, and mud slick. An M5A1 light tank from Company D, 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, leads a column of trucks into Bastogne on 27 December during Patton's drive to relieve the town. In addition the divisional artillery and train were horse-drawn. When the batteries displaced, forty artillerymen, with four half-tracks, and Battery A of the 482d Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion remained behind to block any German penetration through the cross-corridor of the Schwarz Erntz which led past Haller back into the Savelborn position. This left the Tank Company isolated. Patrols that went out to the front and flanks found nothing in the dangerous gap between Ermsdorf and Diekirch but drove off a German patrol which was moving south from Eppeldorf, not west into the gap. Lacking sufficient infantry to clear the woods or defend the tanks, the Americans had been unable to profit by their superiority in heavy weapons. Battle of the Bulge. 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