Odds didn't favor the 28th Division. . 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. 1st Army (1-A): Gen Courtney H. Hodges - 526th Armored Infantry Battalion - 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate) - 61st Engineer [] 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. Five hundred yards from the Germans, on the far side of a draw, the. Army counterattack against the US Third Army in September, had been A whole series of monkey wrenches had been thrown into the well-oiled machinery of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division. 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. The capitulation of the gallant garrison at Hosingen, during the morning, removed this threat to the 902d supply road. 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. 126th Infantry Regiment. Two lieutenants from I Company examine German weapons abandoned at Schoppen. Bastogne presented a special problem, a problem recognized in the first But there were too few guns and too few air sorties to keep the enemy immobilized for long. 112th Regimental Combat Team, WW1 29th Infantry Div Casualties, WW2 303rd Bomb Group, Casualties, WW2 . Krueger and Luettwitz were old hands at mechanized warfare, had learned their business as commanders of the 1st and 2d Panzer Divisions, respectively, and had fought side by side in Lorraine. He argued that the enemy literally must not be awakened and that the assault forces should move forward the moment the guns sounded. 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. 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. Only the weakened 1130th Regiment and the division fusilier company, once again in touch with its fellows, were left behind to extend the bridgehead formed at Ouren. 103d Engineer Combat Battalion 103d Medical Battalion 28th Division Artillery. Colonel Fuller's command post was in a hotel only a few yards from the north bridge. going in the West Wall maze north of Ltzkampen and the initial The 110th Antitank Company was in Hoscheid just to the west. They were mustered out of federal service in December 1898. This initial zone was roughly equivalent to the American defensive position manned west of the Our by the 110th Infantry, the center regiment of the 28th Infantry Division, although the width of the 110th front was about two miles greater than the front assigned the panzer corps. Summarized in part from an article of the Morning Record. . Two hours later tanks and self-propelled guns struck the 44th Engineers, which was outposting the little hamlets northeast of Wiltz. The assault gun platoon gave good support wherever the line was threatened, but by the end of the afternoon its fuel and ammunition were nearly gone and the gunners, after four days of nearly continuous action, were approaching complete exhaustion. In the 110th zone four roads ran from the German border at the Our, up and over the Skyline Drive, and down to the Clerf. Division likely to be encountered during the first hours of the attack The lion is in the infantry color and both symbols represent the locale of the regiment's combat in World War II. Through the roundabout artillery channels he asked permission to join the 106th Infantry Division, only a little distance away to the north. the code name for the coming offensive. On the right its 1st Battalion marched on Hosingen, bringing flame throwers and self-propelled guns to blast the Americans from the village; the 2d Battalion moved straight for the Clerf River, aiming at control of the crossings and road net at Wilwerwiltz. 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). a bridgehead over the Our at the boundary between the 112th Infantry 112th Infantry Regiment. The American. General Cota still had in hand a reserve on the night of the 16th, but it was the last reserve of the 28th Division. 116th Infantry Regiment. The unit was also awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions during the Battle of the Bulge, from 16 to 24 December 1944. and the 110th Infantry. Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge Organization; stories and newspaper clipping from June 3, 1992, which is a D-Day retrospective] Unit History - 474th AAA Bn [The Maverick Outfit, a book about the 474th AAA Bn and the hardships and challenges they faced, 1942 until 1945] BATES, CHARLES C. Residence: Green Valley, Arizona In the 1st Battalion zone to the north the advance detachments of the 2d Panzer Division moved straight for Marnach, attempting with one quick blow to clear the Americans obstructing the through road from Dasburg to Clerf.7 While the German engineers labored at the Dasburg site to bring their heavy tank bridging equipment down to the river, the 28th Panzer Engineer Battalion and the 2d Battalion, 304th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, crossed the Our in rubber boats and moved west through the predawn darkness. The battle of the bulge had begun. The garrison of a hundred or so was reinforced by Company L, ordered back from Holzthum to avoid entrapment. Battalion. Most members of the 1st Battalion, for example, eventually found their way back to the regiment. The Huntingdon unit went through several redesignations including a quartermaster company and finally Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 154th Transportation Truck Battalion. The 39th Regiment had got involved in local actions and been diverted from the westward axis-sustaining high losses in the bargain. But first, they had to win the Battle of the Bulge. The provisional battalion which had been recruited from the headquarters staff remained in Wiltz. Letter, 22 August 1864, from Theodore Skinner of Company E, 112th New York Infantry, at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, to family in New York discussing picket details, an aborted troop movement, and other aspects of military life during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia. 127th Infantry Regiment. Those in the south fell back toward Wiltz, the division command post. If you are looking for a definitive book on The Battle of the Bulge this is not it. Collectively, these units received credit for the following World War II campaigns: Normandy (with the Bellefonte unit participating in the assault landing), Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe. In 1873, Company G, Monongahela Artillery (Everett) was renamed the Light Guards and then redesignated as Company A, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry. This was General der Artillerie Walther Lucht's LXVI Corps. As each company debarked it marched inland to the line of departure which the outpost force now held close to the American garrison points. Even so, the unit accounted for six tanks on the 16th and broke up two panzer assaults of company size. Anything even remotely resembling a continuous line across the 9- to 10-mile regimental front was beyond the strength of the 1st and 3d Battalions. One rifle regiment and part of the division engineers were still in Denmark. [4] During December 1944, the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team was holding a 6-1/2-mile long sector which the Germans attacked with nine divisions. U.S. Army infantrymen of the 290th Regiment fight in fresh snowfall near Amonines, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, Jan. 4, 1945. The 560th Volks Grenadier Division (Generalmajor Rudolf Langhaeuser) was assigned two specific bridges as targets, one just north of Ouren, the other a stone arch a little to the south of the village. During the afternoon General Cota radioed Colonel Nelson to be especially watchful of his northern flank, but added that if his own position became untenable he should withdraw at dark behind the Our. in to the south edge of Hosingen, contrary to orders, and there grappled Panzer Army to receive the highly secret word of a great counteroffensive German defenses. The Fifth Panzer commander seems to have been fairly optimistic, although he gave little ear to Hitler's promise of air support. The 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry was formed from units of the 104th Armored Cavalry on 01 April 1975. 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. In the last analysis the losses inflicted on the enemy may have equaled those sustained by the Americans-certainly the Germans paid dearly for their hurried frontal attacks against stonewalled villages and towns-but the final measure of success and failure would be in terms of hours and minutes won by the Americans and lost to the enemy. But now the north road into the town was open. Meanwhile the mortar crews took a hand from their foxholes on the hill behind Sevenig, dropping mortar shells into the hollows where the Germans congregated or picking them off with carbines. regiment, despite many attempts, had not been able "to get going. thing was agreed upon: Bastogne had to be taken before the bulk of the Only three of the howitzers left could be withdrawn and losses among the cannoneers and drivers were high. Two rifle battalions manned the main battle positions east of the Our: the 1st facing Ltzkampen, the 3d occupying and flanking Sevenig. At nearly every point the American tanks would have to fight their way down the roads to reach the infantry holding the villages. A few attacks were started against the new American line, which now covered Beiler, Lieler, and Lausdorn, but none were energetic. Later reports indicate that this group was almost wiped out. The bulk of his very limited reserve consisted of the 2d Battalion, 110th Infantry, and the 707th Tank Battalion. Table of Contents. Accession 45223. The artillery supporting the LVIII Panzer Corps consisted of five battalions plus two Werfer battalions, and a few batteries of heavy guns. Two of the American tanks, destroyed during the German assault later in the day. on the left flank of the US Ninth Army. 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. been deployed along the Wahlhausen road on the forward slope of the WW2 Order of Battle Medical Units. At the crossroads village of Hosingen atop the Skyline Drive, Some of the first Americans to confront Hitler's gamble on the front lines were the men of the 394th Infantry Regiment at Lanzareth Ridge. At Weiler the Americans, with only a few rounds left, were completely surrounded and decided to fight their way out. After years of training, the unit first entered the continent of Europe on the Normandy beaches following the D-Day landing. 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 coat of arms was approved on 2 January 1930. Here Nelson received a message from the 28th Division which ordered the regiment to hold the line LausdornWeiswampach-Beiler, which the 112th Infantry had just abandoned. The company from the 60th ran into trouble almost immediately when it was immobilized in some woods northwest of Berg by flanking fire from Heckhuscheid, in the 424th Infantry sector. 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. Nelson also reported to General Jones at Vielsalm and set the problem before him. A platoon of self-propelled tank destroyers had 5 During the division attack of 2-1 November in the Schmidt-Vossenack sector the 28th had taken 6,184 casualties. Colonel Nelson decided to pull back through Huldange since enemy tanks were known to be in Trois Vierges. . "Air Power in the Battle of the Bulge: A Theater Campaign Perspective", published in the Winter 1989 issue of "Airpower Journal". 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. 112th Infantry Regiment. Reports include lessons learned, analysis, and criticisms. U.S. Army photo. 107th Field Artillery Battalion (105 Howitzer) . The fight in the Schmidt area had cost the 112th Infantry alone about 2,000 killed, wounded, missing, and nonbattle casualties. the story of the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division in the battle for Schmidt, Germany. Prior to the attack, 83,000 Americans in four divisions (the 28th, 4th, 106th, and 99th) held an 80-mile, thinly stretched line that crossed through . The Battle of the Huertgen Forest: The Untold Story of a Disastrous Campaign. August 1944 was a disastrous month for the Third Reich. The 1st Platoon of Company A, which had returned to Munshausen after the unsuccessful attempt to reach Marnach, moved north meanwhile to help the 2d Platoon. Unhappy about this thorn in his side, Manteuffel won the assignment of the Schnee Eifel heights to his army and personally developed a scheme to mop up resistance in this sector at the earliest possible moment. On the evening of 15 December the outpost troops, considerably reinforced, crossed to the west bank as usual and moved cautiously forward. Company B, however, had been badly shot up during the engagement and probably somewhat shaken by the presence of two or three flame-throwing tanks-a new experience to most American troops on the Western Front. Fuller had only two battalions at his disposal because the 2d Battalion, located at Donnange, constituted the division reserve. On the morning of 19 December the headquarters of the 28th Infantry Division transferred from Wiltz to Sibret, southwest of Bastogne. restored while the commander of the 1130th reported that his 110th Infantry Regiment; 112th Infantry Regiment ; 107th Field Artillery Battalion; 108th Field Artillery Battalion; 109th . 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. Picture Information. Remnants of the 3d Battalion had assembled at Consthum, the battalion headquarters. 1st Cavalry Medical Squadron. Perhaps the Americans had some reason for elation on the night of 16 December, but all knew that harder blows would be dealt on the morrow. Late in the afternoon, Colonel Fuller had ordered Company D, a platoon of heavy machine guns, and a provisional rifle company hastily assembled from men on pass in Clerf, to move to Reuler and protect Battery B of the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, then firing in support of the troops in Marnach and very hard pressed by the enemy. German infantry from the 277th Volksgrenadier Division burst . The 3d Battalion (Maj. Harold F. Milton) formed the regimental right, with its companies on both sides of the ridge line. The orders given the 116th Panzer Division on the night of 16 December to switch to the left were altered on the 17th to start its infantry regiments marching still farther south to the Dasburg bridgehead held by the neighboring corps. day-as usual a boundary line had proved a point of little resistance-and A Symbol of the Combat Ability of MI Soldiers. 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. During the Battle of the Bulge the 112th RCT managed to . Caught off-guard, American units fought to stem . Leaving only a screening force behind, the 60th Regiment Only a short distance beyond, at a third block, fire swept into the column from all sides. His first concern would be to gain the ridge west of the Our and thus cover the armor crossings, for he recognized that it would be a difficult stream to bridge. For some reason the bridge was not blown. 1941 to 1945 with the 112th Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division in France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany, including the Liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulg : 04/11/2008 Endicott : The bulk of his two divisions, as a consequence, faced the 112th Infantry, albeit the corps zone overlapped somewhat the sectors of the 106th Infantry Division in the north and the 110th Infantry in the south. Although the enemy had seized all of the ground which the 112th Infantry was occupying east of the Our and finally had secured a bridgehead at Ouren, the cost to him on 17 December had been high. it to call on neighboring battalions, attacking Weiler, to help outflank The German guns and Werfers had finally opened fire to neutralize or destroy the rearward artillery and reserve positions in the, 112th sector. Hyperleap helps uncover and suggest. The regiment consisted of companies from Erie, McKean, Venango, Elk, Warren, and Crawford counties. He even dispatched a kampfgruppe to seize a bridge considerably south of Clerf apparently intending to swing his attack column to a poorer road in the event that Clerf continued to hold. in Wiltz after a rear guard action in Wilwerwiltz. The mission given Luettwitz conformed to his reputation for drive and audacity. General Cota had been trying through most of the morning to reach Nelson. 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. 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 26th Volks Grenadier Division, which had allowed the 112th to go about its training program with only very minor interruption, marched south to join the XLVII Panzer Corps and take part in the attack for Bastogne. It arrived in Clerf with nineteen medium tanks. XLVII Panzer, Corps moved beyond it to the west.3 (Map IV). A Silver color metal and enamel device 1 5/32inches (2.94cm) in height overall consisting of shield blazoned: argent (silver gray), issuant in fess a bridge of one arch sable masoned of the first, the center portion shot away, in chief a cross pate azure and a Spanish castle gules; in base a lion rampant of the third grasping a cross of Lorraine of the fourth. Across town the regimental headquarters company was billeted in an ancient chteau, now partially modernized but retaining the heavy stone walls behind which, since the twelfth century, fighting men had dominated the river bend and controlled the main bridge site. The presence of two panzer units on the 110th Infantry front was not suspected. New York: Orion Books, 1989. The German attack to penetrate the front lines of the 28th Division succeeded on the first day of the offensive in splitting the 112th Infantry from the rest of the division. The eye of the division commander would be on the assault echelons of his right wing regiment, for they would make the main effort to reach the Clerf. The 28th Division got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and endured many casualties. 22 Mar - 11 May 45 Central Europe Campaign CD 2 36 Pages - PDF. For nearly two hours enemy flares methodically picked out targets for mortar and bullet fire, while the Americans were so closely beset that the Bofors and murderous quad mounts could not retaliate without cutting down their own people. Meanwhile the 39th Regiment, echeloned to the left and withdrew on foot to Wiltz-the 2d Battalion flanks were wide open. In midmorning Paul ordered Company C to march north from Munshausen, leaving the cannon company there, and counterattack the Germans in the Company B area. This new Altoona unit converted back to an engineer company unit they were redesignated Troop C, 104th Cavalry in 1929. antitank guns supplemented the weapons organic to the conventional Volks Grenadier division. On March 12, 1879, Governor Henry Hoyt signed General Order Number One appointing Maj. Gen. John Hartranft as the first division commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and the most storied and renowned division in the history of the U.S. Army was born. 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. In a matter of minutes the left company ran into a strong German skirmish line, deployed at the edge of a wood, which was supported by tanks and self-propelled artillery firing from around Marnach. Furthermore, Middleton instructed Cota to use. The Lewistown company was consolidated with another company and became Headquarters and Headquarter Troop, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron, 104th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Colonel Nelson sent back request after request for air support. Later Colonel Fuller was captured, with a group of stragglers he commanded, while attempting to break through to the west. The bridges at Clerf and Wilwerwiltz were in German hands (no preparations had been made to destroy them); most of the sixty tanks committed in the central sector were destroyed. The town itself lies in a horseshoe bend of the river. the 109th and 112th Regiments gave ground slowly, but they . Then the enemy grenadiers encircled the American roadblock at Urspelt, One tank platoon remained there to bolster the defense, while the other turned back to the south, picked up Company C, and, on orders, returned with the infantry to Munshausen. The road to Hosingen was muddy and winding; but worse, at the western exit of the bridge an American abatis and a series of bomb craters blocked the flow of traffic. Luettwitz, at least, pinned his faith on bad flying weather, night operations, and the large number of flak guns dispersed through his columns. Despite the failure of his Fifth Panzer Army in the Lorraine campaign against Patton's Third Army, Manteuffel was listed by Hitler for command in the Ardennes. It was released from active duty in 1953 and was redesignated Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion 104th Cavalry. Small detachments with burp guns now crept down through the dark and engaged the troops in and around the chteau. A secondary road, on the right of the through highway to Bastogne, approaches Clerf from the hamlet of Urspelt. 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.