Both American units were able to drive forward, and the Shermans knocked out six German armored vehicles. Johnston, W. Wesley. 1945. Infanterie-Division 193510 [1] 22 22. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. Overall operational command for the offensive fell to Field Marshal Walther Model. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. 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 . 120th Infantry Regiment (30th Infantry Division) 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion 319th Field Artillery Glider Battalion 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment German Units 3d Parachute Division 12th SS Panzer Division 18th Volksgrenadier Division 246th Volsgrenadier Division 884th March Battalion 905th Assault Gun Brigade M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car 1941-91. It is time to withdraw.. Inform us! (function (d, s, n) { All but five troopers of 2nd Platoon were lost to enemy action. 13 relations. 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. 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. General Luchts 66th Corps was shifted from General Manteuffels Fifth Panzer Army to the Sixth Panzer. 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. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Ridgway knew Hoge to be calm, courageous, and imperturbable. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. After Action Report, Month of December, 1944. The CCB command post was moved to Neubruck, a small group of farmhouses on Braunlauf Creek about two miles southwest of St. Vith. VGD captured St. Vith, winning a great victory. Manteuffel had hoped for considerably more on the 19th. They were repulsed by machine-gun fire. 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. What he claimed was that the fight wasnt as easy as it is presented here. The town was also in Fifth Panzer Armys area of advance. Andrews, Frank L. The Defense of St. Vith in the Battle of the Ardennes December, 1944. No one knew what was happening. According to Hugh M. Cole, an American historian and army officer. Communications with division headquarters in St. Vith were limited to liaison officers running along a road now being shelled by the Germans. Thus, the Fifth Panzer Army commander ordered that St. Vith be taken no later than the second day of the offensive. 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. One German tank was seen going up in flames. Gen. Herbert T. Perrin, assistant commander of the 106th Infantry Division, drove up carrying a message from General Jones. I think we can make it now. Perrin told General Hoge, You can continue this attack on towards this back country, but you must be back on this side of the river by nightfall.. Combat Interviews of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division: The St. Vith Salient and Manhay, December 17-23, 1944. They were sometimes misidentified as Tiger HIs. Staff officers were casualties. There is no comparison to Tiger. 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. Furthermore, late-war Panzer IVs equipped with Schrzen additional armor would look bigger, even closer to the size of a Tiger and this is before consideration is made on the stress of war, camouflaging materials applied to vehicles, the weather, and level of knowledge of the crews. Panzer Tracts, 2001. During the afternoon of December 19, Hoge visited Clarkes command post in St. Vith and expressed his frustration with the current chain of command. Not only does Troop Es version of the story involve a different unit than the original story, it also takes place in a different location, note the following map. Airfix J6017 Volkswagen Camper Van (Quick Build) R 405.00. The StuG III was a turretless assault gun based on the Panzer III. Operation Nordwind 1945 Hitlers last offensive in the West. How about a Tiger II? The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. 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. That night, infantry patrols found German medics removing their wounded. Armour Plate Porforation [sic: Perforation] of Tank and Anti Tank Guns. German reports are also far from subtlety. Our preliminary briefings had told us that there would be no armor in our path. By midnight on the 19th, the horseshoe- shaped defense of St. Vith had taken form. Elements of D Company, 89th Recon screened the flanks. CCB, 9th Armored was linked on its left with CCB, 7th Armored and what was left of the 424th Infantry Regiment on its right. War Department, 1944. General Hoge received his order to pull CCB, 9th Armored out at 0605 on December 23. The Americans knew that their only hope in doing any sort of damage to this beast was to get as close as possible to it and shoot its weaker rear armor. English PDF (33 MB) Jan B-700 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. The Germans were now on the high ground north of Eigelscheid overlooking the road to Winterspelt. 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. Although the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division drove the American defenders from Winterspelt, all was not going well for the Germans. Back in the 1970s I worked with a man who told this story, he claimed he was the driver. The American plan was that once the 2nd Infantry Division reduced the German defenses at the Wahlerscheid crossroads, CCB was to spearhead a drive to the reservoirs north of Gemund and Schleiden. That eliminates this units Pzkw IV being the Tiger encountered by the Troop B M8 on Dec. 18th . St. Vith is built on a low hill surrounded on all sides by slightly higher rises. I am weighing toward a stray Panzer IV or maybe a SP gun like the one you described. The sector now defended by CCB, 9th Armored extended across five miles of rugged terrain that was primarily held by the three infantry companies making up the 27th AIB. 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. Third Printing, US Army Armored School, 1966. The heroic defense of St. Vith, though costly in men and materil, disrupted the German timetable extensively. Osprey Publishing, 2013. Zaloga, Steven. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division would use these assault guns in small probing attacks on the American lines east of St. Vith that same day. Company B was stationed east of Galhausen and maintained contact with the nearest elements of the 7th Armored Division on 9th Armoreds left flank. That is correct, however, that was off the topic of this story. The entire division was to follow shortly thereafter. The job of capturing St. Vith went to the Fifth Panzer Armys 66th Corps, commanded by General Walther Lucht. However, I am not so emotionally attached to my favorite LAV that I cant see the improbabilities. The village of St. Vith lay approximately 12 miles behind the front lines on December 16, 1944, the day the offensive code-named Operation Watch on the Rhine began. The entry only states that a Tiger tank was knocked out. The tanks of the 14th Tank Battalion and the half-tracks of the 27th AIB paused to pick up the foot elements of the 424th RCT, 106th Infantry Division. Two hits were scored on the enemy tank in the rear, and its crew evacuated. Furthermore, the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadrons After Action Report (AAR) for the month of December 1944, written by Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Laurence Boylan, the commanding officer of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron at the time, makes no mention of this event either. Stackpole Books, 2015. Beevor, Antony. Fortunately for Colonel Reid, word came at about 1730 that his 424th Infantry Regiment was to withdraw immediately. The U.S. 9th Armored Division arrived in the European Theater of Operations in late October 1944 as a reserve for Maj. Gen. Unable to advance, it pulled back to the nearest high ground and dug in. At approximately 0930 on December 17, B Company was the first 9th Armored Division unit to cross the Our River. var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; Volksgrenadier-Division. During the early hours of December 17, the Germans laid heavy mortar and artillery fire on the front-line positions of his regiment. VGD led by Heinz Kokott, Heinrich Himmler's brother-in-law. 223 223. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. German Division Nr. The troops request for armored support was denied by General Hoge because his tank companies sent north to help the 7th Armored had not yet returned and no reserve was on hand. Lever het aan! On the road to Winterspelt, General Hoge soon learned that the situation there was worse than General Jones had described. Gen. Robert Hasbroucks 7th Armored Division would be arriving at St. Vith at 0700 on the 17th. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. Between these units, a place was found for the provisional company composed of the 424th Infantry stragglers. Panzertruppen Volume 2 The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Deployment of The German Tank Forces 1943-1945. Eventually retreating through Germany until the end of the war, when it surrendered. 13th Flak Division 651 . The next move was up to General Lucht and his corps. Revised Edition, Arms and Armour Press, 1973. In this version the M8 is replaced by an M5 Stuart from the 17th Tank Battalion of the 7th Armored during the retreat from St. Vith, that somehow miraculously ended up behind a Tiger when they thought they were following a Sherman. Thus, there are four different versions of this story circulating: Troop Es version with a Tiger I, Troop Es version with a Tiger II, Captain Ansteys version with a Tiger I, and Captain Ansteys version with a Tiger II. The greatest danger existed in the 424ths position because the regiments flank lay vulnerable to attacks by the 116th Panzer Division to the south. While making his reconnaissance at Monschau he received an urgent message to call V Corps headquarters. These troops were hit by the Fhrer Escort Brigade and driven from Rogery to Cierreux in some disarray. The German plan for the attack through the Ardennes, an offensive that would forever be known as the Battle of the Bulge, was to be accomplished in the conventional manner. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division.The division, which was under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. The situation on Reids left flank was unclear, and the Germans were attacking in considerable force against his right flank.