965th field artillery battalion

Stragglers came pouring through Recht in the meantime with rumors and reports of the enemy just behind them. 803 Engineer Battalion, Aviation (Separate) RECTOR, PAUL J. the attack westward, but no word on the progress of the attack followed these units had carried out a successful withdrawal under the most difficult Here a number of secondary roads entered the St. Vith-Vielsalm highway, one from Recht in the north, others from Hinderhausen and Crombach in the south. All during the morning of 22 December American observers had watched enemy troops and vehicles milling around Recht, just to the north of Poteau. So far we are missing at least one half of Clarke's force. Shortly after midnight the Ninth Army was informed that the two columns would depart at 0330 and 0800; actually the western column moved out at 0430. But the newly committed 9th SS Panzer Division, following in its wake via Recht, threw a large detachment of panzer grenadiers into the woods around Poteau, either to retake the crossroad or to pin the Americans there. General Hasbrouck reached St. Vith at 1600-it had taken him all of five hours to thread his way through the traffic jam between Vielsalm and St. Vith. Once the element of surprise was lost the Germans made no further headway in the forest; artillery and bullet fire held them until a platoon of American tanks arrived, whereupon they withdrew.4. Within half an hour the German regimental commander was hors de combat and the attack dissipated. The enemy took the village quickly, and with it many of the half-tracks belonging to the 48th Armored Infantry Battalion. From Recht, five miles northwest of St. Vith, to Beho, seven miles to the southwest of the 106th Division headquarters, the clockwise disposition of the American units was as follows. Although Vielsalm was only fourteen miles by road from St. Vith, it would be literally a matter of hours before even the lightly armored advance guard could reach St. Vith. were abandoned-their crews shelled out by accurate enemy concentrations Trucks loaded with soldiers and nurses from a nearby hospital, supply vehicles, and civilians of military age on bicycles eddied around the square in an attempt to get on the road leading out to the west; a battalion from a replacement depot threaded its way on foot between the vehicles, also en route to the west. A disabled German self-propelled gun is in the foreground. in the cellars, but most of the battalion finally had to pull back. Incidentally, the quick and forceful reaction to all German probing during the day and the fact that Hasbrouck had kept only a very small reserve out of the line had created an impression of American strength in the enemy headquarters well beyond the fact. 7 That a gap existed on the right of the 424th was known. with easy victory and halted it in its tracks. Like the probing thrust at Hnnange, the German efforts on the road east of St. Vith during 18 December were advance guard actions fought while the main German force assembled. It was after midnight when the engineers finally reported that the charge had been replaced and successfully detonated.7 Even then the span was only partially wrecked and was still capable of bearing foot troops; but the German tanks milling about the burning buildings east of the river would have to find other means of crossing the Salm. Although rationing had begun, there was no immediate threat that food, gasoline, or ammunition would fail. During the night of The LXVI Corps was in no position to capitalize with speed and immediate effect on its capture of St. Vith. Since the VIII Corps itself was in possession of only fragmentary information on the German strength and locations there was little to be passed on to the division commanders. St. Vith. command post, lacking any communication with the 7th Armored headquarters, At Crombach, in the sector held by CCB, 7th Armored, the attack came in along the railroad, and the American tanks again were blinded by high velocity flares which gave the first clear shot to the enemy armor. on the westward movement of troops, guns, tanks, and supplies belonging 1945 (approximate) Subject. Despite a brush with Remer's group and the loss of several tanks in the swampy ground south of Rodt the command reached Crombach and Hinderhausen, where General Clarke was building a second line of defense. The infantry and assault guns in the 9th SS Panzer Division screen mistook the newcomers for a withdrawing American column and poured in heavy flanking fire. CCB, 9th Armored Division, had passed St. Vith en route to aid the 424th Infantry, and a platoon of Troop C, 89th Cavalry Squadron, was commandeered to reinforce the watch east of the town.1 This little force was digging in when, at noon, the first enemy patrols were sighted. This, of course, was the panzer detachment of the 1st SS Panzer Division. The orders he received from General Lucht were these: the Fuehrer Begleit Brigade would take part in the St. Vith attack but would not get too involved in the fight; once the town fell the brigade must drive posthaste for the Meuse River. Hasbrouck had not yet sent his message to Ridgway when word came of the German advance against the north flank of CCB, 7th Armored, in the Rodt sector. At Recht were located the command post of CCR and the rear headquarters of CCB, with the 17th Tank Battalion assembled to the southeast. The loss of the vital road junction at Poteau, earlier in the day, made the connection between the forces of the division at St. Vith, around Recht, and in the Vielsalm. During the afternoon the 7th Armored Division trains, whose officers and men had done a remarkable job in supporting the troops in the salient, got through one last supply column of ninety vehicles to Salmchteau. howitzers scattering the German formation in every direction. After a. hasty conference the counterattack was postponed until the following morning. All through the day and night of 19 December German vehicles (units of the 116th Panzer Division and the advance guard of the 560th Volks Grenadier Division) had rolled past Gouvy to the south and west, but no attempt had been made to repeat the attack of the previous day. at any moment. It is difficult to determine with surety how much of the 7th Armored Division, CCB, 9th Armored, 424th Infantry, 112th Infantry, and the numerous attached units had been lost during the, fight for St. Vith and in the subsequent withdrawal. Even when separated from the 7th Armored trains the St. Vith front was considerably stronger and better organized than it had been. The division, assembled about fifteen miles north of Aachen, had taken no part as a unit in the November drive toward the Roer, although companies and battalions on occasion had been attached to attacking infantry divisions. tank destroyers from the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, waiting on the reverse slope, caught the first wave of four Panthers in their sights, fired seven rounds, and knocked out all four. In the darkness, and with radios and wire no longer functioning, the first sign of the enemy armor was a volley of flares fired in flat trajectory from the Panthers. As the size and direction of the first enemy effort began to assume some shadowy form on the situation maps in the corps and division headquarters, General Middleton advised the 106th Division commander that he could use the 168th Engineer Combat Battalion, which was engaged in routine duties around St. Vith and Vielsalm. There is a sign that reads Headquarters Battery 969 F and features 2 cannons crossed on the bottom. The St. Vith perimeter, now of substantial size, continued Acutely aware of the threat now forming, General Hasbrouck stripped such elements as he dared from his north flank, added the remnants of the 14th Cavalry Group, and created Task Force Jones (Lt. Col. Robert B. Jones, Commanding Officer, 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion) to guard the south and southwestern flank. The stopper was more firmly seated in the bottleneck just at dark with the arrival of a detachment from the 2d SS Panzer Division coming in from the southwest. Connecting the Bllingen and Schnberg approaches a spider web of secondary roads and trails ran back and forth, centering at the hamlet of Wallerode (two miles northeast of St. Vith) behind which lay a large forest. The tankers, mindful of their passengers, could not use the tank cannon; so the column rolled through the streets with the infantry riders firing wildly in every direction. Without Wemple's tanks, or with them, Task Force Jones was no match for any large detachment of the 2d SS Panzer Division. arrived from the VII Corps: bad weather had intervened; the supplies Most important, the 62d Volks Grenadier Division had robbed the Americans of their chance for a night withdrawal. As a result the small body of riflemen from the 112th Infantry and Boylan's tiny armored rear guard were able to see the headquarters of the 7th Armored safely across the Vielsalm bridge and to withdraw themselves through that city without much interference from the enemy closing along the river. The letter, safely delivered, gave the First Army its first definite picture of events in the far-removed St. Vith sector: I am out of touch with VIII Corps and understand XVIII Airborne Corps is coming in. The 424th and 112th Infantry Regiments were to withdraw from their positions. Without further orders the two commanders, their staffs, and subordinates set to work on plans for demolitions and a rear guard stand to keep the escape routes to the Salm open. The battalion landed at Utah Beach during Operation Neptune, and participated in the liberation of France and Belgium. Access to the Poteau-Vielsalm route in the north or the Beho-Salmchteau route in the south was no longer possible. Clarke would hold as long as possible east of the town, but with both combat commands in its streets St. Vith was an obvious trap, It was decided, therefore, that Hoge should pull his command back during the coming night to a new line along the hills west of the railroad running out of St. Vith, thus conforming on its left with CCB, 7th Armored. The exact location and strength of the 112th Infantry, somewhere south of the 424th, were unknown. stragglers under Stone's command was deployed so as to defend the railhead The closest of the primary armored routes in the south ran through Burg Reuland, some five miles south. Add an answer. The course of the valley westward proffered a natural line of advance, and through it, in the early hours of the 22d, pushed small detachments of the 62d Volks Grenadier Division. Thither the 7th Armored Division commander sent a liaison officer (Lt. Col. Frederic Schroeder) with a letter to the First Army chief of staff, Maj. Gen. William B. Kean, and orders to explain that St. Vith was out of touch with the VIII Corps. It had become embroiled with the 112th The Germans started a dash to sweep the column broadside, but the first shot knocked out an air-compressor truck whose unwieldy hulk effectively blocked the road. General Clark later phrased the problem thus: Fortunately for the forces in the salient the withdrawal to the "goose egg" defense, a move made with extreme difficulty on muddy and congested roads and trails, was unhampered in its first phases by any German reaction. At 1300 German vehicles were seen in Setz, four and a half miles from the eastern edge of St. Vith. The division left wing was formed by the 164th Regiment, which had occupied Lommersweiler and Hemmeres following the withdrawal of CCB, 9th Armored. by artillery fire, to thrust a few tanks along the east road. During the afternoon of 18 December while the combat commands of the 7th and 9th Armored Divisions were fighting holding actions along the eastern front of the St. Vith area, General Hasbrouck engaged in an attempt to restore the northern flank of the 7th Armored in the Poteau sector. I just did everything I thought necessary. The formation adopted by CCA was based on a semicircle of ten medium tanks fronting from northwest to east, backed by tank destroyers and with riflemen in a foxhole line well to the front. assembly area, more difficult and tenuous. As Battery D, 203d Antiaircraft (AW). Be it noted, however, that the southern route (via Beho, Salmchteau, and through the 82d Airborne lines at Lierneux) followed a hard-surfaced motor road, that as yet there was little traffic congestion, and that the enemy efforts prior to the withdrawal had not disorganized the command but had simply forced its left flank closer to the avenue of escape. Despite repeated requests by General Lucht, this brigade was not released to reinforce the LXVI Corps until late afternoon on 18 December.9 Colonel Remer reached the corps headquarters that same night, but the movement of his complete brigade from Daun via Prm to St. Vith would take considerable time. My right flank is wide open except for some reconnaissance elements, TDs and stragglers we have collected and organized into defense teams at road centers back as far as Cheram [Chrain] inclusive. We may become subjected to enemy artillery fire from practically any direction. The general answered that the division naturally would continue to defend if its present position was considered to be vital but that he personally favored withdrawal.5, Hasbrouck's answer and a report on the existing state of the American forces were taken to Montgomery. Of the southern half of the original ring there remained only the rear guard and covering forces strung along the roads east of Salmchteau. the line that the light tanks in the van had been hit by enemy fire made but was checked by fire from the American tank guns and mortars. A platoon of Sherman tanks stationed just north of the road was caught in the thickest of the German concentrations. In fact, however, there was little left of the 106th; so responsibility tended to devolve on the junior commander, Hasbrouck. There had been no contact whatever with the 424th Infantry to the south. Don't move 'til you hear from me. Again a confused command situation took its price. After 30 years and learning the computer and finding VetFriends, I went to my first reunion of the USS Navasota AO-106. 2015-09-27 14:36:35. the regiment now was between five and six hundred), and had been unable Made cautious by the collision at Recht, the German column moved slowly, putting out feelers to the southeast before the main force resumed the march southwest along the Vielsalm road. He cannot protect Poteau. After a hasty meeting of his corps staff the XVIII Airborne commander sent. Two of the American tank destroyers reached St. Vith and here blocked the main street until nearly midnight, when one was destroyed by a bazooka round. The Americans did not know that the troops of the 9th SS Panzer Division, who in past days had made raids from Recht southwest toward Poteau, were few in number and that only the day before the main body of the 9th SS Panzer Division had started on a forced march to the northwest in an attempt to break through to Kampfgruppe Peiper, now nearing the end of its tether. The rifle battalion assigned to carry out this mission happened to come under American artillery fire while assembling west of Nieder-Emmels before dawn, or thus Remer explains the failure to strike Rodt. 94th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Early on the 18th, Lt. Col. 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