This time the bridge was blown. Under this natural smoke screen German tanks and grenadiers poured into Consthum. The 2d Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment's heritage can be traced back to the Logan Guards 120th Infantry Regiment. The lion is in the infantry color and both symbols represent the locale of the regiment's combat in World War II. Southeast of the town Ration strength was more than 17,000, and forty-two 75-mm. both the 26th Volks Grenadier Division and the 2d Panzer Division had crossed the river and taken some part in the fight. 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. Eighteen men put up devastating fire against the first attack of over 500 German paratroopers. Fuller, however, was able to get a warning message through to the 28th Division command post about 0900. The division commander, officers, and noncoms were veterans; training throughout the division was reported as adequate. The main paved road from Marnach approaches Clerf through a shallow draw, passing just to the south of the little village of Reuler, which perches on the high ground overlooking the river bend. The 3d Battalion (Maj. Walden F. Woodward), in the regimental center, was hit by the 1130th Regiment of the 560th Volks Grenadier Division. 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. The Fifth Panzer Army commander was bitterly opposed to that part of the plan which called for a tremendous opening barrage at 0800 and a two-hour artillery preparation before the attack jumped off. Located at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. Our expert research specialists are on site at U.S. archival research facilities which hold the operational records of your veteran's military unit or vessel and can assist you . German tanks opened fire on them, but a direct hit stopped the leading Mark IV, for the moment effectively blocking the serpentine approach from Marnach. At the top of the ascent the tanks met: four German tanks were knocked out, three American tanks destroyed. If you are looking for a definitive book on The Battle of the Bulge this is not it. that a bridge could be in before the night of 17 December. Battery B fired its few remaining rounds to cover the other batteries, the battalion assembling during the evening at a crossroad southeast of Harlange. The battalion, perhaps 200 strong, arrived in Wiltz about noon and Strickler assumed command of the forces in the town. (Lewistown) and the Bellefonte Fencibles, both organized in 1858. The American infantry had made excellent use of the ground and had held their positions, refusing to buckle under the weight of numbers. Rocco J. Of the 1st Battalion, only a part of Company C retained its organization. antitank guns supplemented the weapons organic to the conventional Volks Grenadier division. With daylight the fire lifted and the enemy infantry advanced, attacking in one wave after another as the morning progressed but making no headway. On the evening of 15 December the outpost troops, considerably reinforced, crossed to the west bank as usual and moved cautiously forward. During WWII the regiment landed in Normandy in 1944, after D-Day, where it became the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team (RCT). It went onto the line on 4 July 1918, in the Second Battle of the Marne. But at dark he ordered his regimental commanders to hold their positions "at all costs" and began preparations to commit his remaining reserves to restore the situation in the Marnach sector and block the road to Clerf. As the column turned northwest on the main Bastogne highway enemy fire increased; some in the column turned back from the gantlet in hopes of finding another escape route by retracing their steps through Wiltz. He added, however, that he had "three battalions now trying to counterattack from Clerf to Marnach." This was the last word from Marnach. The speed of the German attack caught most of the regimental medical company and troops from the headquarters and cannon companies. Fortunately Major Woodward, the battalion commanding officer, was suspicious of this route. 1st Army (1-A): Gen Courtney H. Hodges - 526th Armored Infantry Battalion - 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate) - 61st Engineer [] regiment, despite many attempts, had not been able "to get going. The advance was delayed somewhat when the grenadiers marched into an American mine field, but by 0800 the leading Germans had reached Marnach. 29th Infantry Division 58th Inf Bde 115th 175th 88th Inf Bde 116th 176th. The origins of the 1st Battle Group are derived from the 112th Infantry Regiment in which it was . In any case the defenders made radio contact (their last) with the 28th Division as late as 0528 on the morning of 18 December. had no cohesive line of defense, General Kokott had ordered the 77th Regiment to circle north of Hosingen and head straight for the Clerf bridges at Drauffelt, while the 39th cut cross-country, avoiding the villages on the western side of the ridge line, and seized the road junction and bridges at Wilwerwiltz on the Clerf. The town itself lies in a horseshoe bend of the river. XVII SS Corps on 6 December and moved with his staff to Kyllburg, This came late in the morning, after the 28th Division commander, General Cota, ordered a tank platoon from the 707th man infantry out of the Battery C area. German shells. 126th Infantry Regiment. The Bellefonte unit was mustered into federal service in January 1941 as Battery B, 190th Field Artillery. The degree of tactical success achieved by the 112th Infantry and the fact that it was able to hold intact as a regiment may be explained by a number of factors. In January 1910, the Logan Guards (Lewistown) were redesignated as Company M, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment and Company A, 5th Pennsylvania Infantry (Huntingdon) was redesignated as Company F, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company C, 5th Infantry (Altoona) was redesignated as Company G, 10th Infantry, and Company B, 5th Infantry (Bellefonte) was redesignated Company L, 12th Pennsylvania Infantry. The German infantry would have to fight step by step; the hope of a quick breakthrough had proven illusory. But . Covers operations in all theaters of operations. The fight in the Schmidt area had cost the 112th Infantry alone about 2,000 killed, wounded, missing, and nonbattle casualties. initial breakthrough at the Our and Clerf Rivers, but rather how to A scratch platoon of less than fifty men collected from the regimental headquarters and Ouren held the supporting German infantry at bay along the ridge east of the village. Company B held Marnach. The Huntingdon unit was the Howitzer Battery 1st Battalion of the 104th Armored Cavalry and the unit in Everett was a Detachment of Company B, 167th Quartermaster Battalion and then was converted to Company C, 1st Battalion 110th Infantry. Nonetheless he advised Cota to withdraw the 110th back of the Clerf, that "under the circumstances it was necessary." of the 77th, under the cover provided by German artillery, drove About 0930 the 2d Platoon of Company A, 707th Tank Battalion, climbed out of Clerf to meet the German Mark IV's. In this fight the crossroads near Erpeldange changed hands four times. 113th Infantry Regiment. the 2d Battalion back through Reuler, the Americans fighting stubbornly Finally, after a grueling battle in the Baranw-Warsaw sector the division was relieved for the first time since the beginning of the Russian campaign and brought back to Poznan, there receiving the title of Volks Grenadier (regarded as somewhat less than an honor by the survivors of the old regular army 26th Infantry Division). Company A, at Heinerscheid, was on the extreme left flank of the 110th and so lay outside the path of the XLVII Panzer Corps attack, as did Company D at Grindhausen. a bridgehead over the Our at the boundary between the 112th Infantry 194 Glider Infantry Regiment Interrogation & Patrol Reports, Dec 1944-Jan. 1945 . After the fall of Hosingen the 3d Battalion elements in Consthum offered the last organized resistance in the 28th Infantry Division center east of the Clerf River. west of the German jump-off positions on the Our River and the final Company D positions had been taken by assault only a few minutes earlier. 121st Infantry Regiment. The German guns and Werfers had finally opened fire to neutralize or destroy the rearward artillery and reserve positions in the, 112th sector. The capitulation of the gallant garrison at Hosingen, during the morning, removed this threat to the 902d supply road. About 1300 a thick, soupy December fog rolled in on the village. To the surprise of the division staff the task of re-equipping and replenishing the 26th went amazingly fast for the beginning of the sixth year of the war. 103d Engineer Combat Battalion 103d Medical Battalion 28th Division Artillery. The 3d Battalion commenced its withdrawal at 2200 under orders to pull back through Ouren. Back at Hosingen the attempt to break American resistance had won an early lodgment in the south edge of the village, but had achieved no more. The sector designated for the XLVII Panzer Corps breakthrough was held by the 1st and 3d Battalions of the 110th Infantry (28th Infantry Division), commanded by Col. Hurley E. Fuller. This attack aimed at the bridges near Burg Reuland (in the 106th Division sector) and Oberhausen, in the rear of the positions manned by the left. In 2006, the battalion reorganized again with Headquarters and Headquarters Company in Lewistown, Company A (less detachment) in Huntingdon; Detachment 1, Company A in Everett; Company B in Altoona, and Company C (led detachment) in Bellefonte with Detachment 1, Company C in Tyrone. 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. Both Luettwitz and Manteuffel had been "promised" air support. It was his intention, however, to move the provisional battalion first, leaving the 3d Battalion to keep the escape exits open while the 44th Engineers acted as rear guard. In October 1919, the battalion's units were Company M, 112th Infantry (Lewistown), 103rd Trench Mortar Battery, 103rd Engineer Battalion (Tyrone), Company F, 112th Infantry (Huntingdon), Company A, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Everett), Company G, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Altoona), and elements of the 108th and 109th Field Artillery (Bellefonte). For this reason the fight put up by the 112th Infantry on the north flank of the division had little or no effect on the operations of its sister regiment east of Bastogne. . The latter was a hard-driving commander, daring and tenacious, and had a reputation of giving help to neighboring formations without debate. Once through St. Vith the LXVI would follow Krueger to Andenne, but if things grew rough on the left wing Manteuffel intended to switch Lucht's corps to the south. 107th Field Artillery Battalion (105 Howitzer) . The timetable for the 26th Volks Grenadier Division advance called for both its attacking regiments to reach the Clerf River by nightfall of the first day. The authors do a great job of telling the the story with first-person accounts from the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted. At 2013 General Cota phoned the VIII Corps commander to say that the situation was critical, that routes were open for the German tanks to come through, and that "there is some question in regard to the 110th Infantry CP." The shield is white, the old infantry color. The road center at Wiltz and the bridges there were only about twelve miles from Bastogne. 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. While elements of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division were attacking on the north side of the Wiltz, detachments of the 5th Parachute Division struck the American perimeter on the south and southeast. The areas selected by the two corps for their main efforts were some six to seven air-line miles apart-an indication of the weight to be thrown against the American 28th Infantry Division. The presence of two panzer units on the 110th Infantry front was not suspected. XLVII Panzer, Corps moved beyond it to the west.3 (Map IV). 109th, 110th, and 112th Infantry Regiments 107th, 108th . MacDonald, Charles B. Descent to the town and its bridges is made on this side by two winding roads. On the west slopes of the ridge a platoon of medium tanks was committed early in the afternoon to drive the Germans off the side road linking Holzthum and Consthum. At Weiler the Americans, with only a few rounds left, were completely surrounded and decided to fight their way out. Reports include lessons learned, analysis, and criticisms. Through the roundabout artillery channels he asked permission to join the 106th Infantry Division, only a little distance away to the north. The attack by the light tank company of the 707th along the Skyline Drive was disastrous. The final word on the defense of Clerf would come from the enemy. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division was across the Our River in force but had failed to gain its first-day objective, control of the Clerf River crossings. This was the Mark V Battalion of the 116th Panzer Division assembling to lead the attack toward the Ouren bridges. 3. Company B, on the extreme north flank, had been forced back into the 424th Infantry area, but about 235 men withdrew cross-country toward Ouren. The two heavy tank bridges were the Americans obviously were weakening, and the 2d Panzer Division had been able to move its tanks forward on the relatively good road in the northern part of the corps zone. These reinforcements arrived at Reuler in time to take a hand against the Germans pouring past Marnach toward Clerf and its bridges. Furthermore, lack of communication between the 28th Division and its northern regiment would ultimately force the regimental commander, Col. Gustin M. Nelson, to act on his own. It became the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team. The initial penetration by the corps' right was charged to the armored infantry of the famous 2d Panzer Division (Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert), a unit that had fought the Allies all the way from Normandy back to the German frontier. The units from Lewistown, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Everett, and Altoona were all mustered into federal service for duty on the Mexican border in July 1916. Hills intersected by wooded draws marked the terrain in this sector. Colonel Nelson's antitank reserve, Company C, 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was deployed on the ridge west of the river, but these were towed guns, dug in and relatively immobile. In 2004-2005, A Company, 1st Battalion, was deployed with Task Force Dragoon to Tikrit Iraq. 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment attached 110th, 431st and 448th AAA AW Battalions 75th Infantry Division . Earlier the XLVII Panzer In fact the troops of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division sent against Wiltz from the northeast were acting under orders to protect the flank and rear of Panzer Lehr against possible American counterattack from the Wiltz valley. the 109th and 112th Regiments gave ground slowly, but they . At least fifteen tanks had been disabled or destroyed on the first day and German sources indicate that this figure may have doubled on the 17th. 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. The only security for the southern flank would have to come from an advance in echelon and such protection as the less mobile divisions of the Seventh Army could offer on the left. was reached midway between Bastogne and the Meuse. From Philadelphia to the Battle of the Bulge: The Brief Life of Pvt. The northernmost of the four roads had a good all-weather surface, was the only main through road running east to west through the area, and gave direct access to Clerf and Bastogne. The 28th Division got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and endured many casualties. The 3rd Battalion of the 395th Infantry Regiment (3/395), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel McClernand Butler, occupied the town of Hfen on the German border. Bastogne presented a special problem, a problem recognized in the first with the aid of the dwindling tank force from the 9th Armored Division It was the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the . But now the north road into the town was open. a blasted bridge three kilometers east of Heinerscheid and established to the Our bridges in the 3d Battalion area led the regimental commander In the meantime the Company C advance north toward Marnach also ran into trouble: persistent small arms fire forced the infantry to leave the road and move slowly across country. The problem No help could be expected from either the right or left wing regiments in shoring up the division center. . Volks Grenadier Division) had not fared too well in the attack Formed in 1917, the division deployed to France as a part of the . At dawn the Panther Battalion of the 3d Panzer Regiment came clanking into Clerf, after a night move from the Our River, and found tanks from the Mark IV Battalion playing cat and mouse with the Americans in the chteau. Proven illusory left, were completely surrounded and decided to fight step by step ; hope. 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