Manteuffel had found himself in almost complete disagreement with the original operations plan handed down by Jodl in November. The 112th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Sixteenth Pennsylvania,[2] is a unit in the Pennsylvania National Guard which can trace its lineage back to before the American Civil War. as it careened down the road back through Clerf. In 1951, a rampant lion as found on the arms of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg grasping a red cross of the province of Lorraine in France were added to the old coat of arms of the 112th Infantry Regiment. in the Ardennes sector. But only the 1st (Lt. Col. Donald Paul) and 3rd (Major Harold Milton) Battalions of the 110th were on the line, while the remaining 2nd Battalion (Lt. Col. Ross C. Henbest) was held in division reserve at Doennange and Wiltz, eight miles to the southwest. mortars, and an antitank platoon repelled wave after wave of attacking German infantry. Table of Contents. Legacy : Acker, Lewis F. Lt Col CWS : . reverse suffered by the assault company of the 60th Regiment Bastogne presented a special problem, a problem recognized in the first Since the Wiltz bridge had not been destroyed, the American assault gun platoon was ordered back to Erpeldange, covering the northeastern approach to the bridge and the engineer outposts. 113th Infantry Regiment. Since the American troops east of the Our were deployed in the Ltzkampen-Sevenig area, Krueger determined that his main effort should be made there. . Army counterattack against the US Third Army in September, had been The 28th Division got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and endured many casualties. At l825 Colonel Fuller phoned the 28th Division chief of staff that his command post was under fire and that enemy tanks occupied the town. Colonel Nelson decided to pull back through Huldange since enemy tanks were known to be in Trois Vierges. 22 Mar - 11 May 45 Central Europe Campaign CD 2 36 Pages - PDF. But first, they had to win the Battle of the Bulge. The 2d Battalion manned observation posts and operated patrols across the river but was deployed in a refused position west of the Our. Thomas G. Bradbeer, General Cota and the Battle of the Hrtgen Forest, Army History, No. This created a bulge in the German line. Subsequently General Cota ordered them to go to the aid of the hardpressed 110th Infantry. 5 During the division attack of 2-1 November in the Schmidt-Vossenack sector the 28th had taken 6,184 casualties. On the evening of the 18th Col. Ludwig Heilmann, commander of the 5th Parachute Division, knew that the divisions on his right and left were well ahead of his own. Meanwhile, General Middleton, the VIII Corps commander, issued a holdfast order to all his troops. been deployed along the Wahlhausen road on the forward slope of the were battle-weary, small in number, and widely dispersed. the German engineers moved in. Manteuffel had two armored formations in reserve, the Panzer Lehr Division and the Fuehrer Begleit Brigade.1 These he intended to throw in behind the armored corps which made the first bridgehead at the Our. Located at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. About 1300 a thick, soupy December fog rolled in on the village. Schoppen, Belgium, the 16th Infantry Regiment's first objective after going on the offense during second half of the Battle of the Bulge. The latter was a hard-driving commander, daring and tenacious, and had a reputation of giving help to neighboring formations without debate. positions. For their exploits, the I&R Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, would later become "the most heavily decorated . The tank thrust through the 1st Battalion center pushed parts of companies C (a platoon of which had joined the battalion from training), A, and D back through the woods toward Welchenhausen. on the left flank of the US Ninth Army. In 1943, he joined the. A Symbol of the Combat Ability of MI Soldiers. blocked with trees and mines, the bridge debris would have taken much Southeast of the town $14.95 + $5.50 shipping. Company I (minus the platoon at Wahlhausen), a section of 81-mm. In sum, the way through Clerf would be none too easy for an armored division.10. Colonel Nelson gave the order to withdraw behind the river under cover of darkness. At one point, after the fight for Kommerscheidt, the regiment was reduced to 300 men. started a march intended to bring it east of Sevenig on the left of A small tank-infantry team blasted the single 57-mm. The 109th and 112th were in like status. In the last planning conference held at Hitler's headquarters, Model and Manteuffel combined forces in a forthright appeal that carried the day on a series of tactical decisions although it failed to sway the Fuehrer from his strategic decision for the Big Solution. working on roads, and the like). Colonel Fuller set. The Infantry School at Fort Benning began collecting academic monographs from company commanders soon after the end of World War II, to record their personal combat experiences. In July 1917, the Lewistown, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Everett, Altoona, and Bellefonte units were mustered into federal service for. Completely surrounded by the enemy, it had hoped to join the withdrawal of the line companies. This unit was redesignated as Service Battery, 166th Field Artillery, then Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion 166th Field Artillery, then Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion 166th Field Artillery and was mustered into federal service for World War II in February 1941. About 1830 troops at the battalion observation post reported that enemy vehicles were attacking with multiple 20-mm. He personally rated four of his armored divisions as good attack formations (the 116th, 2d, Panzer Lehr, and Fuehrer Begleit), and his panzer corps commanders were of his own choosing. 16-18 December. There it dug in to defend the battery which had given aid during the battle. The heavy barrage and the pyrotechnic display which opened elsewhere on the 28th Division front on 16 December was viewed at first with some detachment by the men at the 112th observation posts. The 304th Regiment had suffered severely at American hands: the regimental commander was a casualty and one battalion had been badly scattered during the piecemeal counterattacks by the American tank platoons. The 29th Infantry Division (29th ID), also known as the "Blue and Gray Division", is an infantry division of the United States Army based in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.It is currently a formation of the U.S. Army National Guard and contains units from Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.. The 2d Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment's heritage can be traced back to the Logan Guards Tank Battalion-some six crippled tanks and five assault guns was gathered Although delayed by inadequate deliveries of POL and the traffic jam on the damaged Dasburg-Marnach road the entire division, including its tank regiment, assembled on the west bank around Heinerscheid during the night of 17-18 December. The lay of the ground and defenses in the area north of Ltzkampen were such that Waldenburg's right regiment had to move northwestward at an oblique to the axis of his left wing advance. In the weeks that followed, the division rested and re-formed in the Bitburg-Wittlich area, its units moving constantly to escape Allied observation. observers could see the enemy assembling in the woods just to the north. The Bellefonte Fencibles were mustered as Company H, 2d Pennsylvania Volunteers. Even before the seizure of Ouren the LVIII Panzer Corps had shifted its interest to the south. one platoon to clearing the Germans out of the south end of town, sent one platoon to Reuler to help the 2d Battalion, and, sent one to the 1st Battalion at Heinerscheid where the light tanks of the 707th Tank Battalion had been smashed earlier in the day. The sequence of events in this story of difficulties in command and communication is none too clear, but the VIII Corps commander approved the attachment. Apprehensive lest the Americans be prematurely warned, Army Group B had forbidden the movement of any troops across the Our in advance of the opening barrage set for 0530 on 16 December. The 687th Field Artillery Battalion pulled out to the southwest and the 3d Battalion also started to move, under the impression that this was the plan. On the Wahlhausen road the 3d Battalion observation post, defended by the Company I platoon, called for ammunition and was told that tanks were being sent with resupply. 112th Infantry took up their posts in the . He was a prisoner of war at Stalag IV-B in the town of Mhlberg an der Elbe for six months. As each company debarked it marched inland to the line of departure which the outpost force now held close to the American garrison points. But there were too few guns and too few air sorties to keep the enemy immobilized for long. Leaderless, the platoon broke. It is impossible to assess in hours the violence done the 2d Panzer Division timetable at Clerf, but it is clear that the race by this division to Bastogne was lost as the result of the gallant action by the 110th Infantry in front of and at the Clerf crossings. German shells. Six three-inch towed The German barrage, with a limited number of rounds at the guns, dwindled away after about half an hour to sporadic salvos and stray single shots, leaving the advancing infantry without cover while they were still short of the American positions. Less than two miles west of Marnach lay the Clerf River and the town of Clerf, the latter the headquarters of the 110th Infantry. Crest: that for the regiments and separate battalions of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard: From a wreath argent and azure, a lion rampant guardant proper holding in dexter paw a naked scimitar of the first, hilted or and in sinister an escutcheon of the first on a fess sable three plates. One thing clearly worried him: would the Seventh Army keep pace and cover his left flank to Bastogne? By nightfall the 3d Battalion line on the Sevenig ridge had been It will be recalled that the troops at Consthum held the 901st Panzer Grenadier, Regiment at bay until the afternoon of 18 December and, even as they withdrew, continued to block the road to Wiltz. to cross the XLVII Panzer Corps bridge at Dasburg and commence As yet, however, the Americans had no way of knowing that the bulk of the 2d Panzer Division actually was moving down the road to Clerf or that a counterattack would collide with any such German force. On 3 July 1916, the regiment was called to service for Mexican border duty, with Rickards still in command. Two rifle battalions manned the main battle positions east of the Our: the 1st facing Ltzkampen, the 3d occupying and flanking Sevenig. . This new Altoona unit converted back to an engineer company unit they were redesignated Troop C, 104th Cavalry in 1929. The German plans had been altered during the day, but of course some Lauchert arrived too late to meet all of his regimental commanders, but the 2d Panzer, like the rest of the corps, was already in position to move the moment darkness came. In the first German blueprint for the Ardennes counteroffensive the latter corps had been assigned four divisions and the mission of driving to and across the. At that crucial point the infantry had to take Bastogne as quickly as possible, with or without the help of the armored divisions. The unit was also awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions during the Battle of the Bulge, from 16 to 24 December 1944. The Everett unit remained with the 110th Infantry and the remaining Altoona unit became Company C in the. The 1st Platoon of Company I had First the Werfers and guns pounded the front line, particularly the 1st Battalion positions. According to an article in the October 20, 1945 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, the Nazi offensive was Hitler`s own brainchild; a plan which, "If it failed . A few hundred yards had been traversed when, at the first crossroad, the leading half-track ran into a patch of mines laid in front of a German roadblock and exploded. afternoon. In 1920, the Tyrone unit was redesignated Troop B, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry and the Bellefonte unit was redesignated Troop L, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. Hitler himself seems to have favored this concept (it is found in the first Fuehrer operations order), but only in the Fifth Panzer attack would assault detachments be found inside the American positions when the initial barrage opened up. The Americans were not too worried by the flanking move because tanks of the 10th Armored Division were expected momentarily. a blasted bridge three kilometers east of Heinerscheid and established The American. Company B and a platoon of the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion were well entrenched there and gave the Germans a warm reception, although themselves under fire from batteries east of the Our. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army. In 1968, all of the units, except for the units in Huntingdon and Everett became the 2nd Battalion, 104th Cavalry; Lewistown was Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (less detached troops), Tyrone was Troop H, Altoona unit became Troop G and Howitzer Battery, and the Bellefonte unit became a Detachment of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop. The ground east of the river was favorable to the defender, who was well entrenched as the result of careful planning and inspection by Nelson and his staff, and whose guns covered the few routes of mechanized advance. Before daybreak on 18 December the survivors, now only a handful, started west. on Sevenig, farther to the south its 1128th Regiment had seized The 78th Infantry Division arrived in England, 26 October 1944, and received further training. But the credit side of the ledger showed a few entries. Of the 1st Battalion, only a part of Company C retained its organization. At the chteau, however, headquarters company still was hard pressed by riflemen and machine gunners in the houses nearby. Colonel Fuller had ordered a platoon of the 2d Battalion to swing south and bar the road, but it was already dominated by the German armor. Accession 45223. The provisional battalion which had been recruited from the headquarters staff remained in Wiltz. Infantrymen of the 110th Infantry, 28th Div., US 1st Army following the German breakthrough in that area, Bastogne, Belgium, 19 December 1944. XVII SS Corps on 6 December and moved with his staff to Kyllburg, Minus his heavy weapons, the enemy failed to knock the. The Lewistown unit was redesignated as Machine Gun Troop, 104th Cavalry, 22nd Cavalry Division. good tank-going could not be expected until the Marche-Rochefort line The 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, on 16 December 1944, held the center sector of the defensive zone of the division and VIII Corps in the Ardennes. Shortly before noon the advance guard of the 60th Panzer Regiment, rolling along the Ltzkampen-Leidenborn road, appeared on the knoll west of Ltzkampen. It contains several maps, showing the sectors of the major air units. In May of the same year the Sheridan Troop was assigned to Squadron B which was redesignated as 2d Squadron in 1911. Early morning reports of considerable German penetration and the threat corps zone of attack were narrow, twisting, and certain to be muddy; Lewistown was Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Tyrone was Company B (less detached troops), Huntingdon was Company A. Troop G was converted to Company C, the Howitzer Battery was converted to the Combat Support Company, and the Bellefonte unit was redesignated as Detachment 1, Company B. At the same time a tank platoon, shrouded in darkness and with no American tanks left to contest the passage, wound its way into the south end of Clerf. Maps picked up from dead Germans showed that the American machine gun positions had been exactly plotted-but as they had existed up to a change made just before the 16th. The assault company from the 156th was initially more fortunate in its advance west of Ltzkampen. Sufficient trucks were available to motorize most of the division, but there was a shortage of tracked cross-country vehicles. Equally important, the green 1130th Regiment (incorporated into the 116th Panzer Division attack on the second day) had failed to follow closely in the path of the tanks and so gave American riflemen and machine gunners time to get set after the tanks rolled past. Fuller had only two battalions at his disposal because the 2d Battalion, located at Donnange, constituted the division reserve. At 2100, therefore, General Cota turned the reserve rifle battalion back to the 110th Infantry, minus Company G which was moved to Wiltz to defend the division command post, and agreed with Colonel Fuller's proposal that the battalion be used in an attack eastward to restore American control at Marnach. the undergunned batteries of the 687th Field Artillery Battalion held Col, Plt Sgt, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division, Battle of the Bulge, Huertgen Forest, USA. Arriving in France in late Spring 1918 . The unit inflicted 1600 casualties and destroyed eighteen tanks during nine days of continuous action, that was later known as the Battle of the Bulge. From this point the American artillery and the few remaining towed tank destroyers of Company B, 630th Tank From Philadelphia to the Battle of the Bulge: The Brief Life of Pvt. It was disbanded on 16 July 1883 and reorganized as Company A, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry on 3 July 1884. At least a third of the 5th Parachute Division was finally engaged at Wiltz contrary to Heilmann's orders. Most of the positions occupied lay on the east. The 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry was formed from units of the 104th Armored Cavalry on 01 April 1975. Fred was part of "The Big Red" 1st Infantry Division. Cota, as it turned out, already had phoned the corps commander and asked permission to bring the 112th back to the high ground west of the river. 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