The StuG III explanation also accounts for why Troop B makes no mention of it in their morning report and record of events entry for 18th December 1944 and why Lieutenant Colonel Boylan makes no mention of it his 1946 letter or in the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadrons After Action Report for the month of December 1944. There are a few notable issues raised by this morning report and record of events entry, the most obvious one being that the M8 Greyhound is reported as being from Troop A of the 87th, not Troop B of the 87th, as it is in the contemporary story. Additionally, the M8s 37 mm M6 gun is more than capable of penetrating the rear hull and rear casemate armor of the StuG III. 223 223. The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitlers Winter Offensive. Good Tank, Poor Deployment | T-34-76 and T-34-85 in Yugoslav Partisan Service. Design, Production & Modifications. This is an issue because there were two distinct types of German Tiger tanks, both of which took part in the Battle of the Bulge: The Tiger I and the Tiger II. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. All but five troopers of 2nd Platoon were lost to enemy action. Another attack hit the left flank of 7th Armored. Clerks were running everywhere and junior staff officers were arguing among themselves; upstairs, however, Hoge found General Jones remarkably composed. Dragon 1629 1/16th Feldwebel 352nd Volksgrenadier Division R 275.00. The line companies were down to one officer apiece. Clarke, Bruce. Panzer Tracts, 2001. 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. However, it cannot be safely assumed that the tank killed in this engagement was a Tiger I or a Tiger II. Volksgrenadier-Division 5 [ ] The Seventh Armored Division in the Battle of St. Vith. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division(18. The ultimate objective was to open an escape route for the soldiers of the 424th. Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. 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. The Sixth Panzer Army, with the 15th Army on its right, was to launch the main attack between Monschau in the north and Prum in the south. Germanys Tiger Tanks VK45.02 to TIGER II. Zaloga, Steven. According to Hugh M. Cole, an American historian and army officer. Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. Anderson, Thomas. 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. 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 . This leads to a second candidate, the StuG III. Perhaps the most unlikely performer of the entire battle was the 18th Volksgrenadier Division. At about 0115 on December 17, a platoon from 9th Armoreds D Troop, 89th Recon was detailed to proceed through St. Vith in a southeasterly direction and seize the high ground along Highway N27 south of Steinebruck. Its supporting field artillery battalion was at Kalterherberg, two miles south of Monschau, engaged in firing missions for the 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. South of Sixth Panzer Army was General Manteuffels Fifth Panzer Army, with the Seventh Army on its left. 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. 1/18th Scale Cars; 1/24th Scale Assembly Kits; 1/24th Scale Cars; 1/43rd Scale Cars; . It saw action in France before taking part in the fighting in the Ardennes where it suffered heavy losses, it continued fighting on the western front until the end . The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitlers Winter Offensive. Overall operational command for the offensive fell to Field Marshal Walther Model. 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. Should 7th Armored lose St. Vith, 9th Armored would be unable to withdraw on its own axis. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. What Jones did not tell Hoge was that in one of those regiments his own son was serving at regimental headquarters. The 16th Field Artillery also pitched in, as did a battalion of 155mm howitzers sited around Commanster. This forest was criss-crossed only by trails. The 9th Armored Divisions position at the Our was no longer tenable. The circuitous march up one road and down another led to a new line just a few hundred yards to the west of the old one and was miraculously carried out while under attack without the loss of any men or equipment. Volksgrenadier-Division. The new sector assigned to CCB was on the fringe of territory the Sixth Panzer Army had mapped out for its further maneuvers. On top of attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B), a Panzer IV can be easily misidentified as a Tiger I. Add to cart. December 20 was a day of disappointment for the Germans around St. Vith. I think we can make it now. If neither a Tiger I nor a Tiger II was killed on 18th December 1944 in or around the town of St. Vith by an M8 Greyhound, what was? The story begins on the 18th of December 1944, two days after the start of the German offensive. It is time to withdraw.. How about a Tiger II? The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. 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. As far as Im aware no Ferdinands (all upgraded to Elefants at the stage of Ardennes Offensive) were used in the Ardennes and better yet all Elefants were in Eastern Front with the 614.sPzJgK (formerly 2./653.sPzJgAbt) after August 1944. An M8 Greyhound armored car of Troop B, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron was lying in a concealed position just northeast of the vitally important crossroads town of St. Vith, Belgium. It is a classic David versus Goliath tale straight out of World War II that features American heroism. Schneider, Wolfgang. It was a new and inexperienced division made up of Luftwaffe personnel, former Kriegsmariners out of a At least 900 soldiers who had stood in front of the town were either dead or captured. The guns of two platoons of Company A, 811th Tank Destroyers were overrun. Elements of the 62nd Volksgrenadier had taken the eastern half of Winterspelt during the night, and at daybreak reinforcements finally drove Colonel Reids 1st Battalion from the village. Ninth Armored and its attachments traveled southwest on N26 to the junction with N33 west of Beho, then turned north on N33 to Salmchateau, and finally west on N183 through Lierneux to Malempre-Jevigne, southeast of Manhay. 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. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18th VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army ( Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. 4 Grosstraktor to Panzerbefehlswagen IV. Johnston, W. Wesley. However, I am not so emotionally attached to my favorite LAV that I cant see the improbabilities. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2005. 301 sentences with 'poor shape'. The Germans attacked the center of the 27th AIB. js.src = "//player.ex.co/player/710cf52d-720a-4250-8e95-fc85dcedab01"; VGD led by Heinz Kokott, Heinrich Himmler's brother-in-law. On December 21, 18. Tigers In Combat II. At St. Vith, Lt. Col. William H. Slayden was with Jones when Jones received the call from Middleton concerning 7th Armored Division support. Bergstrm, Christer. There was little they could do other than vow to get the attack moving early on the 20th. Collins, Joshua, and Erik Albertson. 18th Artillery Division 651. 13 relations. 47. The stubborn defenders of St. Vith played a major role in defeating the final German offensive of World War II in Western Europe. General Lucht hurried to Winterspelt to get the 62nd Volksgrenadier moving to the Our. After Clarke and Hoge settled upon a mutually supportive command structure, Clarke noted that Hoges command was, for the most part, forward of a railroad track built on a high embankment. The Pontiac, Michigan, resident also served 10 years in the U.S. Army. Its population in 1944 was about 2,000, and its citizens were very much pro-German. Zaloga, Steven. General Luchts plan for December 17 was simple. Rejection & Neglect available to buy on Payhip! Infantry divisions would begin the attack along the entire length of a 50-mile front, forcing a rupture along the Allied line and giving the German panzer divisions freedom of movement in the unoccupied ground beyond the front. For example, when G.I. 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. On December 16th at 4:00 a.m., they took the twenty-two foot macadam road following the Our River valley towards Manderfield. The failure to capture St. Vith was preventing the linkup of the Fifth and the Sixth Panzer Armies. Next came B Company, 9th Armored Engineers; the 16th Armored Field Artillery; B Company, 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery; and the 14th Tank Battalion. The supply trains led the way north on N27 to St. Vith. This is before you take into account that the manufacturing process for German armor allowed for a tolerance in plates which often left plates 2 to 5 mm thicker than ordered. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18th VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. So its quite possible! 1945) English PDF (18 MB) Jan B-627 Volkssturm (Oct. 1944-Apr. While on its way, the platoon was commandeered by a colonel from the 106th Division. Troop D, 89th Recon held the sector from Steinebruck to Weppeler while A Company, 27th AIB put up a defensive line anchored on the high ground east of Maspelt. 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. 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. M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car 1941-91. According to two combat interviews given by men of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadrons After Action Report for the month of December 1944, and Lieutenant Colonel Boylans 1946 letter, on 18th December 1944, the Germans attacked the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B) with infantry and tanks. Armament T-70 gun cal. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. German Division Nr. Due to the lack of detail in Troop Es entry, it is impossible to tell which Tiger tank is the one being referred to in the account. Back in the 1970s I worked with a man who told this story, he claimed he was the driver. Developed in the 1930s, the Panzer IV was one of the mainstay German armored fighting vehicles of the Second World War as well as Germanys most-produced tank of the war, with over 8,500 produced. Operation Nordwind 1945 Hitlers last offensive in the West. That cold snap that hit us has frozen the roads. 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. Revised Edition, Arms and Armour Press, 1973. The event simply was not that notable. 1945. 45 mm. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. Inside the command post, General Hoge learned that the Germans had launched a heavy assault on Winterspelt against the men of the 424th Infantry. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. Infanterie-Division 19398 . 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. The U.S. 9th Armored Division contested the German advance around St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge, and won precious time in the process. I mention it for the sake of completeness as I suspect that the whole thing is a myth. Manteuffel had hoped for considerably more on the 19th. fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); #WW2 . When a particularly heavy onslaught was launched against 7th Armored, near 9th Armoreds left flank, Company A, 14th Tank Battalion shifted its mediums to fire directly on Breitfield in support of its armored neighbor to the north. By 1245, the original line was restored, and the antitank guns of Company A, 811th Tank Destroyers were recovered. Were any of these Tiger Is and or Tiger IIs knocked out on the 18th of December, 1944? VGD division was absorbed into the 26. In minutes, a platoon of medium tanks from A Company of the 14th rolled across the bridge at Steinebruck and placed high explosive and heavy machine-gun fire on the enemys position in the woods and along the draw. How to use 'poor shape' in a sentence? Dragon 1625 1/16th Obersturmfuhrer Totenkopf Division Budapest 1945 R 275.00. The fall of Rodt effectively split 7th Armoreds CCA from General Clarkes CCB. However, there is one major issue with this explanation, Panzer IVs were not attacking Troop B. Gen. William Hoges Combat Command B (CCB) of the 9th was attached to V Corps to support the 2nd Infantry Division in its planned attack through the Monschau Forest as part of the U.S. Armys strategy to capture or destroy the Roer River dams. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. One, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division, was holding the northern reaches of the Schnee Eifel. 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. At about midday, the field marshal sent a message to General Hasbrouck: You have accomplished your missiona mission well done. The second task force hit another probe by the 1st SS Panzer and pushed it out of Hunningen. 10 Apr. Osprey Publishing, 2010. The northern prong of the horseshoe was composed of CCB, 7th Armored Division from Poteau and Vielsalm. The last of the St. Vith defenders to come out were Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry Regiment. I am weighing toward a stray Panzer IV or maybe a SP gun like the one you described. Excellent deductive research! After learning of the attack by the Fhrer Escort Brigade, Brig. When Model released the Fhrer Escort Brigade to General Manteuffel, he thought that he would be able to gain quick access to the St. Vith road network. Clad in armor between 25 mm and 180 mm thick and armed with deadly 88mm KwK 43 L/71 gun, the Tiger II was one of the deadliest tanks of the Second World War. This left General Clarke with only one full company of armored infantrymen. CCB, 9th Armored was linked on its left with CCB, 7th Armored and what was left of the 424th Infantry Regiment on its right. As stated above, a 37mm cant penetrate the armor of an Tiger tank. While 9th Armored was thus engaged in the Winterspelt area during the morning hours of December 17, Brig. A platoon of tank destroyers had vanished. of the Army, 1965. General Frederich Kittel, the division commander, ordered his mobile battalion up from his 164th Regiment reserve at Pronsfeld and into the attack along the Winterspelt road. Together they broke up the attack. 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. December, 1944 By Greg Moore gregpanzerblitz.com December, 2008 Battalion I x 5 x 4 x 1 x 2 x 12 293rd Volks- . The 18th Volksgrenadier Division under the command of Generalmajor Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn patrolled the Schnee Eifel area. 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. Boylan, Vincent L. Letter to Robert W. Hasbrouck. 18e volksgrenadier division English translation: 18th volksgrenadier division (wehrmacht).. The Seventh Armored Division in the Battle of St. Vith. Ridgway knew Hoge to be calm, courageous, and imperturbable. Eventually retreating through Germany until the end of the war, when it surrendered. Jentz, Thomas. 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. Although it was beaten off, the attacking Germans were identified as new to the area, soldiers of the 9th SS Panzer Division, a cause for considerable concern at this point in the battle. Double-talking his identification over the radio with allusions to West Point football days, Ridgway gave Hoge a location at which to meet him. Fire from the 16th Field Artillery broke up other enemy formations trying to assemble on the high ground to the south. Similar events have happened more than once, though on the Eastern Front. The heroic defense of St. Vith, though costly in men and materil, disrupted the German timetable extensively. Three of these Tiger IIs belonged to Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 501 (Heavy SS Tank Battalion 501); Tiger 105 was abandoned in the town of Stavelot, Belgium after getting itself stuck in a building, Tiger 332 was abandoned near Coo, Belgium as a result of mechanical damage, and Tiger 008 was abandoned at a farmhouse near Trois Ponts, Belgium. With the unexplained disappearance of D Troop from the 89th Reconnaissance Platoon, Company B, 27th AIB became the leading element. 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. 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. Lucht anticipated that the Americans would counterattack the next day, but that their reaction would be too late to avoid complete encirclement. 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. Schiffer Publishing, 1996. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. There was a bitter struggle to the south of Grufflingen, and the Germans were again active in the Neubruck area. The American armor of the 7th and 9th Armored Divisions plus supporting units were being pressed into an area in which motorized forcestanks, half-tracks, self-propelled artillery, tank destroyersoperated with great difficulty. The route terminated at several vital crossroads in the city of St. Vith. Then, four German antitank guns covering the Grufflingen-Maldange road were encountered. It was a race between the Germans who were desperately trying to bring their 88 mm gun to bear and the Americans who were trying to get as close as possible to the Tiger Is rear. 2014. Your email address will not be published. Gen. Herbert T. Perrin, assistant commander of the 106th Infantry Division, drove up carrying a message from General Jones. On the morning of the December 20, three tank destroyers were placed in support of Company C, 27th AIB. 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. German reports are also far from subtlety. Mines were laid. 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.. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18th VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. None of these Tiger IIs were lost at St. Vith and from photographic evidence at least three are recorded to have no burn damage and/or holes in the rear. On February 5, 1945 General Walter Botsch took over command of the division. Required fields are marked *. 18th Flak Division 651 . The 18th Volksgrenadier Division would use these assault guns in small probing attacks on the American lines east of St. Vith that same day. The unit attacking Troop B, the 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment, had StuG IIIs and had been using StuG IIIs the previous day in small probing attacks east of St. Vith where Troop B would end up being positioned. The mud had made the roads and open areas impassable for armored vehicles. 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. Operation Nordwind 1945 Hitlers last offensive in the West. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. The defense of St. Vith was now achieving some kind of order in contrast to the chaos that had reigned during the previous three days. His troops remained in place, and the pullout to the west side of the Our River began at dusk. General Hoge received his order to pull CCB, 9th Armored out at 0605 on December 23. The southernmost battle group of the 18th Volksgrenadier would also undertake a mobile thrust and, finally, the 62nd Volksgrenadier would break loose at Heckhuscheid and drive for the Our River Valley. The fight lasted for more than three hours before the Germans withdrew, leaving one burning tank and approximately 150 dead. Outnumbered and in danger of encirclement, the cannoneers and their rifle support from C Company made a platoon-by-platoon withdrawal toward Winterspelt. It is possible that, as part of the attacks on the line held in part by Troop B of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, a lone StuG III was used to probe out the American line, as had been done on the previous day, and was subsequently knocked out by an M8 Greyhound. 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 division had lost four companies of armored infantry. Instead of the M8 Greyhound firing three shots into the Tigers rear, the M8 Greyhound in Lieutenant Olsons version of events fired two shots. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. English PDF (33 MB) Jan B-700 The German 20th Infantry Division was an infantry division of Nazi Germany.HistoryThe was established in 1934 under the cover name. It was to cross the Meuse on both sides of Liege before advancing on to Antwerp. The 18. Since 7th Armoreds withdrawal meant that 9th Armoreds left flank would be in danger, the two generals agreed that Hoge would have to readjust part of his line to maintain contact with Clarkes new rearward position. This break appeared to be only a dream, however, as it seemed every outfit wanted a piece of CCB, 9th Armored to help shore up its positions. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. Protected by armor between 25 mm to 145 mm thick and armed with a fearsome 88mm KwK 36 L/56 main gun, the Tiger I was arguably the most feared tank of World War II by Allied soldiers. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was to attack along the two roads from Schoenberg, with the Fhrer Escort Brigade assaulting from the north.
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