This mission in Dempwolff's judgment required a continuation of the attack southwestward toward Waldbillig and Christnach where American reinforcements already had arrived to help the 4th Infantry Division. The 27th Armored Infantry and troops of the 89th Reconnaissance were dug in with two medium tank companies (“B” and “C”, 14th Tank Battalion) plus the light tank company (“D”,14th Tank Battalion) manning the front line. Headquarters Company with 16 cooks, clerks and mechanics, to aid “D” Company against enemy infiltrating bazooka teams. During the night the sound of enemy vehicles to the south of the Combat Command was audible to the troops in the line. In this weak portion of the line, defense was based on two strongpoints of rifle company strength, one on a ridge road about a mile and a half west of Vianden and the Our River, the other at Führen about a mile from the river. Despite continuous counterbattery fire, the gunners had given steady and effective support whenever called upon, expending about 4,000 rounds during the two-day action. On the division south flank, the 3d Battalion (Lt. Col. Jim H. McCoy) was allotted a four-mile front, but had concentrated men and weapons in an almost continuous 3,000-yard defense line along the heights in the triangle formed by the Our and Sauer Rivers which overlooked the valley road west to Ettelbruck. (Rosborough was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in this action.) At 1015 hours First Army released CCB, 9th Armored Division from its attachment to the 2nd Infantry Division and attached it to the U.S. Army VIII Corps, commanded by Major General Troy Middleton. “The humanity and intelligence that made Greg Fontenot a great soldier also make him a first-rate historian. Colonel Rudder ordered a patrol sent from Tandel under cover of night to bring ammunition, but it failed to reach Führen. The Attack by the German Left Wing The 276th Volks Grenadier Division, then, generally faced the 60th Armored Infantry Battalion, but it should be noticed that the tortuous gorge of the Schwarz Erntz lay in the zone of the 276th and would be used to gain entry to the left flank and rear of the 4th Infantry Division. The gap between Stegen and Diekirch could be closed to the enemy. The 27th Armored Battalion was deployed in the center with the 14th Tank Battalion’s Medium Tank Companies at either flank. Finally, about 1530, the Hoscheid garrison received orders to fight its way out and join the relief force. Task Force Hall (Capt. There it lay, with perfect cover for close-in work with the bazooka, when the American advance began. On July 18, 1944, the 6th Armored Division landed on the Normandy beaches, some six weeks after the D-Day invasion of western Europe. With good wire and radio communication, excellent observation and a wealth of targets, the two artillery battalions were able to fire 3,123 rounds on 17 December, contributing particularly to the defense of Führen and the checkmate of the flanking movement by the 916th. All its reserves were committed, and the larger part of the attached company from the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion had been called away to defend the 28th Division command post at Wiltz. The night before the attack the 352d marched back to the new and narrow sector on the river from which the jump-off would be made: the 915th Regiment on the right, the 916th on the left, and the 914th, which had furnished the covering force, in reserve. The 109th Infantry, however, had been forced back fanwise away from the rest of the 28th Division. While General Leonard voiced concern to his corps commander over the gap between the 9th Armored Division (-) and the 109th Infantry, Colonel Dempwolff was plagued by the thought of the widening gap between the 276th Volks Grenadier Division and the 352d Volks Grenadier Division. The 109th commander, under orders from General Cota that "nobody comes back," now had to restore contact between his companies and get his regiment in position to meet the next enemy move. After the war he admitted that the Wehrmachtfuehrungsstab would have been satisfied to see the Seventh Army advance only half the distance between Echternach and Luxembourg City.1, When Brandenberger and his chief of staff, Generalmajor Rudolf Freiherr von Gersdorff, finally were allowed to map their own scheme of maneuver they settled on a containing mission for the two infantry divisions in the left corps (General der Infanterie Franz Beyer's LXXX Corps), and an advance by the two infantry divisions on the right which comprised General der Infanterie Baptist Kniess's LXXXV Corps. The 9th Armored Division could report on the night of the 19th that the situation on its right flank was satisfactory, and on the left flank too as far as Stegen; beyond Stegen the situation was "obscure." This deep, thickly wooded gorge posed a constant threat to both CCA and the 4th Infantry Division. American artillery and mortar fire also played its part in harassing the bridge builders. General Robertson had by then lost his division reserve to the 99th as well as a combat command of the 9th Armored Division, on loan to him to use when the Wahlerscheid breakthrough was completed. The second battalion of the 986th moved cautiously up the draws and ravines toward Bigelbach. When the Germans first shelled the town on 16 December, the citizenry had started to leave Diekirch but had been halted by American officers and local officials so as to keep the supply roads open to the 109th. CCB, 9th Armored Division's units, under great pressure along their entire front, gave ground grudgingly. At Diekirch the 916th Regiment found that one bridge had escaped complete destruction and could bear infantry and single heavy weapons; so the regiment moved across the Sauer, its intention to take Ettelbruck from the rear. Perhaps Model did not care to recognize that the paratroopers in this once elite division had been replaced by meagerly trained Luftwaffe ground troops and Navy battalions. In Ettelbruck demolition parties remained at work until the morning of 20 December; then they withdrew, blowing the bridges behind them. By 1130 hours “A” Company, 14th Tank, had fought its way to Neubruck where it was joined by the 1st Platoon of “B” Company, 14th Tank. The 27th Armored Infantry Battalion was ordered to move at once to seize a series of hills near Winterspelt. In point of fact the 109th already was on the march west through Ettelbruck. As the day progressed, however, the enemy spread through the rear areas of the 109th and menaced the gun positions west of the Diekirch-Hoscheid road. Company “B”, 14th Tank Battalion, established a roadblock at Bauvenn and was ordered to, contact units of the 7th Armored Division which were falling back from St. Vith. General Cota ordered the 109th commander to get a platoon of tanks, mount an infantry platoon on them, and "help out up north where things are getting hot." 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. Also, the German armored vehicles and heavy weapons, which had been observed just at dark assembling across the river facing Führen, had yet to be encountered. The light tanks, forming the advance guard, had moved only a few hundred yards when the Germans opened fire with bazookas, knocking out the lead tank and blocking the road. There were nearly three hundred tubes and projectors in the LXXXV Corps groupment which opened fire at 0530 on 16 December. During the day enemy attacks were repulsed and enemy armored vehicles destroyed. The Germans ahead laid down mortar fire; the cavalry were hard hit and could not maneuver, the half-tracks could not close with the German mortar crews, and the attack was abandoned.8 In fact the American force was too slight to hold the original position on the high ground north of Haller, and it withdrew to the new defensive position being formed by CCA as an aftermath to the reverses suffered during the day. Lacking sufficient infantry to clear the woods or defend the tanks, the Americans had been unable to profit by their superiority in heavy weapons. The enemy was still denied access to St. Vith from the south and southeast. Advance troops of the 2d Battalion, 986th Regiment, worked their way through the crossfire coming from the 109th Infantry and the. The force then returned to the 14th Tank Battalion assembly area southeast of St. Vith. 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. Meanwhile part of the 352d Volks Grenadier Division crossed the north-south branch of the Sauer and marched west to the Wark Creek, apparently intending to envelop the open American flank from the left. But as the day wore on German infantry and assault guns-poured into the Our bridgehead and across the open flanks of the two companies. Direct hits had been made, killing and wounding several personnel in his headquarters. Casualties in manpower and equipment while substantial did not permit the enemy to close in the vital road center at St. Vith. Across the lines the psychological lift which might have been given by the appearance of the new commander, Col. Hugo Dempwolff, and the successful attack against the 109th Infantry by the 352d Volks Grenadier Division, which had finally shaken the 276th north flank loose, was offset by General Moehring's death and the failure to provide a bridge in the division bridgehead. This move was accomplished by 2045 hours. For two days the 5th Parachute Division had operated with only such heavy weapons as could be ferried across the Our or maneuvered over the Vianden wier, because for two days trouble had dogged the bridge builders at Roth. At either flank, could not be immediately replaced to give indirect fire by a German Panzerfaust, effectively the... Assembly area southeast of St. Vith follow every move of the 916th Regiment found the going much difficult! Cca of Maj. Gen. Robert W. Grow 's 6th Armored Division positions work with the advance made two. Allotted Brandenberger 's Army establishing a bridgehead at Echternach on the morning this.... 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