A Company moved south under the protection of the high river bank, while C Company deployed along the left side of the road as the enveloping company. Clerks were running everywhere and junior staff officers were arguing among themselves; upstairs, however, Hoge found General Jones remarkably composed. General Luchts 66th Corps was shifted from General Manteuffels Fifth Panzer Army to the Sixth Panzer. The brigade had 9,000 men, Mark IV tanks, assault guns, 104mm and 105mm artillery, 88mm antiaircraft guns, and a number of heavy automatic weapons batteries. Accordingly, that evening Sixth Panzer Army commander Dietrich issued orders to the 2nd SS Panzer Corps to move to the south so that parts of that corps could assist Manteuffel in taking St. Vith. 18th Volksgrenadier Division - Wikipedia Schneider, Wolfgang. Although the American forces in the St. Vith area came under command of General Ridgways XVIII Airborne Corps, the Airborne Corps itself was under the command of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, overall commander of the northern sector of the Bulge. 22 () - However, this version of Captain Ansteys account has one key difference: it was not a Tiger I that was knocked out, but rather a Tiger II, almost analogous to the fisherman whose fish gets bigger each time he tells the tale of his catch. He could not believe it. This moment marked the beginning of the famous Battle of the Bulge, Germany's last major offensive on the Western Front in World War II. At about 1700, the enemy attacked along the Schoenberg road from the east; at 1830, they came down the Malmedy road from the north, and at 2000, an attack started from the southeast along the Prum road. Having failed to find a soft spot to the north, the Germans then moved against Hoges 9th Armored command in the south; however, even before this attack got going three German tanks were knocked out and the rest of the probing force withdrew. The northern prong of the horseshoe was composed of CCB, 7th Armored Division from Poteau and Vielsalm. The division fought in the Ardennes, inflicting on the 106th US Infantry Division the worst defeat suffered by U.S. forces in the ETO, when over 8,000 US soldiers surrendered to the volksgrenadiers. The fortified goose egg ran nearly 10 miles in diameter, containing a mass of forest and only one decent road running northwest to southwest. With the enemy inside Steinebruck and excellent direct fire by the German artillery, what was left of 2nd Platoon, 89th Recon withdrew along the St. Vith road. Shortly thereafter, Hasbrouck called and asked, Bruce, do you think you can get out? Clarke answered, A miracle has happened, General! The surviving Volksgrenadiers fled in disarray. After putting down a heavy concentration of artillery fire, the Germans moved their infantry across the river east of the position held by the 2nd platoon of D Troop, 89th Recon. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. Infanterie-Division . Zaloga, Steven. Just kept to the main story. Lieutenant Olsons version of the story would be the most contradicting version yet. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) Wiki Rejection & Neglect available to buy on Payhip! Looking at German records The Fhrerbegleit Brigade with one Panzerabteilung of four companies of Pzkw IV and a Sturmgeschutzabteilung with four batteries of StuG III were in reserve assembled in the area around Daun on the 17th and not yet in action only beginning to move up at 1600H on the 18th. The Germans were now on the high ground north of Eigelscheid overlooking the road to Winterspelt. Back in the 1970s I worked with a man who told this story, he claimed he was the driver. 18th Flak Division 651 . Please click for detailed translation, meaning, pronunciation and example sentences for 18e volksgrenadier division in English var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; Soldiers of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division infiltrated the American lines at the villages of Roth, Weckerath, Kobscheid, and Auw before the artillery barrage began. Eisernes Kreuz 2.Klasse (1914) Period: First World War (1914-1918) Awarded on: October 30th, 1917. The next version of this story can be found in a 1947 book by Major Donald P. Boyer of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion titled St. Vith, The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge, 17-23 December 1944: A Narrative After Action Report. Volksgrenadier-Division. At approximately 0530 on December 16, eight German armored divisions and 13 infantry divisions launched their all-out attack on five divisions of the U.S. First Army. 18th Volksgrenadier Division - Wikiwand A strong attack has just developed against Clarke again. Im going to guess that they just created this all up in their head. Since speed was the key to success of the German plan, two panzer armies would spearhead the offensive. Armament T-70 gun cal. The same story is retold in A Colonel in the Armored Divisions A Memoir, 19411945 by William S. Triplet, and like a game of telephone it gets even more distorted. In my opinion, the only definite conclusion that can be made from all this is that some American vehicle engaged something at St. Vith on the night of the 18th. It appeared now that the fate of his two northern regiments was sealed. VGD captured St. Vith, winning a great victory. The fight ended when he slammed the M8 (he called it a Greyhound) into the rear of Tiger and the gun crew fired three rapid fire rounds into the engine compartment. Initially, General Jones wanted Hoge to move his command into the Losheim Gap at Maderfeld and arrive there at dawn on December 17 to counterattack and erase the enemy penetrations that were threatening 106th Division positions on the Schnee Eifel. Given that the American accounts do not give a consistent account of what happened that day at St. Vith, the other side of this story must also be investigated. The 424th Infantry still blocked the road to the Our River and Steinebruck. Andrews, Frank L. The Defense of St. Vith in the Battle of the Ardennes December, 1944. The story begins on the 18th of December 1944, two days after the start of the German offensive. Hoge managed to stop the stragglers, and soon a provisional company of men from the 424th was formed to reinforce the 27th AIB on its march toward the Our. At least 900 soldiers who had stood in front of the town were either dead or captured. The greatest danger existed in the 424ths position because the regiments flank lay vulnerable to attacks by the 116th Panzer Division to the south. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. General Jones and his staff had pulled out of St. Vith on the morning of the 18th for Vielsalm. The similarity in appearance between the Panzer IV and Tiger I is often cited as a reason to why there are so many claims made by soldiers during World War II of battling Tiger Is, despite Tiger Is being a fairly rare encounter. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was to attack along the two roads from Schoenberg, with the Fhrer Escort Brigade assaulting from the north. Zaloga, Steven. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, The platoon lost four men missing and two wounded in the ensuing engagement. But if four versions was not enough, there is potentially another version of this tale contained in a combat interview given by Lieutenant Arthur A. Olson of Troop D, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron on the 8th of January, 1945. 281st Security Division (281. CCBs new position blocked the main Winterspelt-St. Vith highway and the valley of the Braunlauf Creek, a second natural corridor leading to St. Vith. A platoon of tank destroyers had vanished. While on its way, the platoon was commandeered by a colonel from the 106th Division. One task force was made up of A and B Companies of the 14th Tank Battalion, B Company of the 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery, and another platoon of the 14th. Osprey Publishing, 2003. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. Since General Hoge was supposed to be under Joness command and did not understand the overall situation around St. Vith, he decided to find out exactly what was going on. This information came from the division's senior headquarters, the VIII Corps, First U.S. Army. Under cover of automatic weapons fire from a platoon of light tanks, Sergeant Eugene Dorland and two other men from the engineers went into the cold, bullet-splattered water carrying three cases of TNT and placed their charges on the south abutment of the bridge. 1946. Jentz, Thomas. Its possible that the M8 took out an late production Panzer IV, but even that is unlikely due to the danger of more troops coming from behind with Panzerfausts or even a 20 millimeter. At CCB, 9th Armored Divisions headquarters in Faymonville, General Hoge was just finishing up his briefing for his commands move to the Losheim Gap and Manderfeld when the call came through from General Jones informing him of 9th Armoreds new Winterspelt mission. The colonel ordered the troop east along the road to Schoenberg to delay a German tank and infantry team approaching St. Vith from that direction. Contents 1 Allied Forces 1.1 12th Army Group 1.1.1 U.S. First Army 1.1.1.1 V Corps 1.1.1.2 VII Corps 1.1.1.3 XVIII Airborne Corps 1.1.2 U.S. Third Army 1.1.2.1 III Corps 1.1.2.2 VIII Corps 1.1.2.3 XII Corps One gun, firing from the house that had been the 14th Tanks command post an hour earlier, disabled two of the Shermans, but the other tanks managed to knock out the four antitank guns plus three German command vehicles. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. The other, the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division, bore the number of an infantry division destroyed on the Eastern Front, which had been reconstituted. Panzer Tracts No. Although both men agreed that a withdrawal at this stage was the wiser decision, Hoge was skeptical that, given the weather and ground conditions, the defenders would be able to get out. The M5 got within a yard of the Tiger and knocked it out with 5 rounds. Situated next to B Company were Company A, 27th AIB and Company D, 14th Tank Battalion. Thus, the Fifth Panzer Army commander ordered that St. Vith be taken no later than the second day of the offensive. On his way to St. Vith, General Hoge stopped in Faymonville to alert his command to be prepared to move immediately. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division ( 18. Troop D, 89th Recon had positioned its troop headquarters and first platoon to cover the bridge over the Our. For this mission, CCB consisted of the 14th Tank Battalion, the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and miscellaneous smaller units vital to any major command. To this end, General Hoge was in the town of Monschau to check on the possibility of getting his command across in that area. 4 Grosstraktor to Panzerbefehlswagen IV. Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. Roadblocks were set up and manned. Hoge and Clarke agreed that Hoges entire command should be withdrawn west of the railroad tracks. Outnumbered and in danger of encirclement, the cannoneers and their rifle support from C Company made a platoon-by-platoon withdrawal toward Winterspelt. Infanterie-Division 193510 [1] 22 22. Based upon this fairly optimistic view, Ridgway, shortly after midnight, ordered the entire St. Vith force to withdraw from its current positions and form a defensive ring west of St. Vith and east of the Salm River. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. 12th Volksgrenadier Division 89; 197; 487; 557; 650; 727. The area being defended was beginning to take the form of a large horseshoe, its axis running approximately northeast to southeast. Although the bridge over the Our was blown, the German presence kept growing. Revised Edition, Arms and Armour Press, 1973. One would think that Lieutenant Colonel Boylan, or at the very least Troop A, would make some sort of mention of this fairly notable engagement. General Luchts plan for December 17 was simple. Company A of the 27th AIB had been assigned to the 99th Infantry Division and was in the process of being retrieved when the march to St. Vith began. Germanys Tiger Tanks VK45.02 to TIGER II. By dark, just as General Hoges command was getting underway from Faymonville, Kittels mobile battalion and infantry from the 190th Regiment were closing in on Winterspelt. Once St. Vith was taken, Model intended to drive the brigade swiftly for the Meuse River or cut behind the opposition on the Elsenborn Ridge that was bottling up the Sixth Panzer Army. It was around 1200 hours and all was quiet when suddenly a German heavy tank was spotted slowly approaching the American line, a Tiger I. He also hoped the 3rd Armored Division soon might attack to remove all threat of encirclement. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. First-time contributor Charles Gutierrez is the son of a 9th Armored Division veteran. However, Company B, 27th AIB was sent to help ease the situation, covering the cavalrys left flank. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2004. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. The distance from Burg Reuland on the southeast to Poteau on the northwest was about 10 miles with only a single secondary road as a line of retreat for thousands of men defending the horseshoe against attack from three directions. Volksgrenadier Division 5. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke, commander of CCB, 7th Armored Division, arrived at General Joness command post in St. Vith at approximately 1030. Battle of the Bulge 1944 (1): St Vith and the Northern Shoulder. Wikizero - 18th Volksgrenadier Division Tiger. Zaloga, Steven. Clarke asked, Why in the world when I had only 2,500 men available to my command on December 17, did you not just execute a powerful frontal assault and overrun me?. Panzertruppen Volume 2 The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Deployment of The German Tank Forces 1943-1945. Beevor, Antony. However, just as the Americans began their pursuit, the Germans noticed them and began traversing their turret to face them. Next came B Company, 9th Armored Engineers; the 16th Armored Field Artillery; B Company, 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery; and the 14th Tank Battalion. Infanterie-Division . The stubborn defenders of St. Vith played a major role in defeating the final German offensive of World War II in Western Europe. Germanys Tiger Tanks VK45.02 to TIGER II. Gen. Hasbrouck, commander of the 7th Armored Division, sent a message to General Ridgway urging withdrawal, which in part read, P.S. Its population in 1944 was about 2,000, and its citizens were very much pro-German. It is possible (if unlikely) that this event was completely unrelated to the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story. Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz (1918) Period: First World War (1914-1918) Awarded on: . Early on the 19th, the Germans made reconnaissance probes. Bork, Max Hermann (Generalleutnant) - TracesOfWar.nl 188 was raised in late 1939. The mud had made the roads and open areas impassable for armored vehicles. Volksgrenadier-Division 5 [ ] Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. Boylan, Vincent L. After Action Report, Month of December, 1944. While a single troop of the 14th Cavalry Group continued to resist the German spearheads, the 106th's engineers dug in to block the crucial Schoenberg road 2 miles east of St. Vith, a last ditch defense, hoping . 13 relations. Should 7th Armored lose St. Vith, 9th Armored would be unable to withdraw on its own axis. Once the bridge at Steinebruck was seized, the 62nd was to support the 18th Volksgrenadier Divisions drive on St. Vith by blocking the western and southern routes in and out of the town. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. Johnston, W. Wesley. How about a Tiger II? The M8 was used mostly as a reconnaissance vehicle for scouting. On this day, CCB of the 9th Armored Division was still in its assembly area in the vicinity of Faymonville. With this contact, all units in the vicinity of St. Vith, including 9th Armored Division forces, passed to the command of Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgways XVIII Airborne Corps. Company B was stationed east of Galhausen and maintained contact with the nearest elements of the 7th Armored Division on 9th Armoreds left flank. The bridge at Steinebruck was intentionally left intact by General Hoge on the outside chance that some of the American troops trapped in the vicinity of the Schnee Eifel might be able to maneuver their way there. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Still quite a feat for a little Greyhound, though well probably never know conclusively. Much like the Panzer IV, the StuG III was a mainstay of the German army as well as Germanys most produced armored fighting vehicle of the war with over 9,400 produced. The German 20th Infantry Division was an infantry division of Nazi Germany.HistoryThe was established in 1934 under the cover name. First Edition, Presidio Press, 2002. Two of its tanks were mired in mud that had not frozen and had to be retrieved by a tank dozer. Rapidly, the M8 advanced to within 25 yards (23 meters) of the Tiger I and quickly pumped three rounds into its rear. The division retrained as 22.Luftlande-Division (Air Landing Division) for rapid tactical deployment to capture enemy airbases and performed in that role during the . It can be safely assumed that the armored car that Lieutenant Olson is talking about in his story is an M8 Greyhound due to the fact that the only armored cars that the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron fielded were M8 Greyhounds. 1940 194111. However, I am not so emotionally attached to my favorite LAV that I cant see the improbabilities. Those factors dictated that at least another 24 hours would be needed before a major assault on St. Vith could begin. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. The provisional company of 424th stragglers disappeared during the night. By 2300 enemy patrols tested 27th AIBs new position and a night attack was thrown back with the help of D Troop, 89th Recon. Infanterie-Division Hamburg 19453 . Schiffer Publishing, 2000. The attacks made east of St. Vith on 18 December were carried by a part of the 294th Infantry [German], whose patrols had been checked by the 168th Engineers [US] the previous day. What Jones did not tell Hoge was that in one of those regiments his own son was serving at regimental headquarters. The Sherman tanks of B Company repulsed the enemy with fire from their 76mm guns. The guns from a platoon of Shermans, the antiaircraft company, and a mortar platoon supplied a covering barrage, which broke up the German assault and inflicted heavy casualties. Each attack was preceded by an intense artillery barrage lasting from 15 to 35 minutes. Airfix J6017 Volkswagen Camper Van (Quick Build) R 405.00. Armored Champion, The Top Tanks of World War II. Could a Panther be a possibility? In the 27th AIBs move to take the high ground, B Company advanced along the center of the road. The troop was to hold until relieved by the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion (AIB) and then reconnoiter farther down the road toward Winterspelt. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Germany) (Paperback) If it was on a slope and firing down to the engine bay, then maybe but that would require it to be at such an angle that the M8 would topple and roll down. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. By dark, Lt. Col. Engeman and his two task forces were back in their assembly area in the vicinity of Breitfeld. Since St. Vith should have been taken on December 16 or the 17th at the latest, he decided to leave his command post at Waxweiler and spend the night with the 18th Volksgrenadier Division at Schoenberg. Our preliminary briefings had told us that there would be no armor in our path. What he claimed was that the fight wasnt as easy as it is presented here. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571.Volksgrenadier-Division.Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field . The 16th Field Artillery also pitched in, as did a battalion of 155mm howitzers sited around Commanster. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=18th_Volksgrenadier_Division&oldid=1127007404, Military units and formations established in 1944, Military units and formations disestablished in 1945, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 11:24. This forest was criss-crossed only by trails. Jentz, Thomas. 22 22. By the end of the day, the 27th AIB had withdrawn through Steinebruck without casualties despite enemy shelling of the village. Late on December 17, General Manteuffel was concerned with the lack of progress in his attack beyond the Schnee Eifel toward St. Vith. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. 1964. The fight lasted for more than three hours before the Germans withdrew, leaving one burning tank and approximately 150 dead. Little offtopic here but another misidentification might be the 1 destroyed 88mm assault gun (Ferdinand). The 424th Infantry had its back to the Our River, and if the Germans seized the bridge at Steinebruck and spread along the far bank his regiment would be hard pressed to effectively withdraw. This one, however, most likely did not. At the close of the first day of battle, General Lucht could look with some satisfaction at the days events, although his 62nd Volksgrenadier Division had yet to break through the American line. EN. 18th Artillery Division 651. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2005. During the night, the troopers experienced harassing fire from light and medium artillery and could observe enemy infantry and at least four tanks moving along high ground to the south of the river. In blinding snow and on slippery roads the tanks and infantry of CCB, 9th Armored headed for Bauvenn. Ridgways plan was premised on the assumption that that the American forces in this goose egg-shaped defense could be supplied by air; however, whoever drew up the plan was thinking in terms of supply requirements for the lighter airborne divisions, not for fuel-hungry and shell-reliant armored forces. During the afternoon of December 19, Hoge visited Clarkes command post in St. Vith and expressed his frustration with the current chain of command. Plastic Models - Page 8 - Esswex Hobbies The German armored and infantry attacks were preceded by the shelling of the American positions with at least 657 light, medium, and heavy guns and howitzers and 340 multiple rocket launchers. Besides the previously mentioned absence of any recountings of this event in several notable documents that should have contained it, and most peculiarly, Captain Anstey himself makes no mention of the engagement when he discusses and documents the events of the 18th of December 1944 in a combat interview he gave on the 2nd of January 1945, just over two weeks after the event supposedly took place. How to use 'poor shape' in a sentence? Adding to the slowdown of operations against St. Vith, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was still using two of its three regiments and all but one of its artillery battalions against the two trapped 106th Infantry Division regiments on the Schnee Eifel. Wikizero - 281st Security Division (Wehrmacht) Once in St. Vith, Jones explained that only the leading elements of the 7th Armored Division had arrived thus far and that St. Viths northern approach was under attack. Counter to the plan laid out earlier by General Jones, Hoge had decided to launch his attack on Winterspelt with the entire 14th Tank Battalion as the lead element rather than with the more vulnerable infantry of the 27th AIB. At 0130 the 27th AIB was hit hard and the sector held by Company B, 9th Engineers was deeply penetrated, causing the armored infantry to fall back under the protective guns of Company A, 14th Tank Battalion. It contained the 293., 294. and 295. grenadier regiments, Panzerjger-Bataillon 1818, Pionier-Bataillon 1818, Fsilier-Bataillon 1818 and Artillerie-Regiment 1818.[1]. Osprey Publishing, 2003. The Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies were to advance abreast, cross the Meuse River, and then drive for the Belgian port city of Antwerp, a major staging and supply center for the Allied armies in western Europe. That evening General Clarke also put his command into Commanster. 18th Volksgrenadier Division Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 Colonel Alexander D. Reid, commander of the 424th Infantry Regiment, had reason to fear encirclement. The resulting blast damaged the bridge to such an extent that the Germans would not be able to bring vehicles across for at least 24 hours. This means that 50% of shots fired will penetrate this amount of armor. It is time to withdraw.. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army ( Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Moreover, at least a regiment from the 1st SS Panzer Division was in sporadic conflict with the American defenders in the Recht-Poteau area and, in the south, elements of the 560th Volksgrenadier Division, part of General Walter Kruegers 58th Panzer Corps, were also identified as pushing against American forces in the St. Vith salient. Seventh Armored Division Association 2517 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington 8, D.C., 1947. According to the British, 37 mm M6 guns APC M51 can only penetrate around a maximum of 65mm of rolled homogeneous armor plate (RHA) at 30 degrees under V50 ballistic standards. Although the 62nd Volksgrenadier captured Winterspelt, its losses were high and its left regiment had made little headway in the Heckhuschied sector. Schiffer Publishing, 1997. I think we can make it now. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. Despite nearly a foot of snow, the ground underneath was still soft, and with the passage of only a few heavy vehicles it was soon churned into a morass of mud. One Day at Stavelot, a Tale of Two Archives The Tiger II vs US Tank Destroyers in the Ardennes. Schiffer Publishing, 1996. 223 () - Ridgway answered, Bill, we can and we will. The withdrawal plan called for a general pullback west of the Salm River to an assembly area in the zone controlled by the 82nd Airborne Division in the vicinity of Lierneux.

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