The most startling difference however is the range at which this engagement occurred, with Lieutenant Olsons version having the engagement take place at 800 yards (732 meters), compared to the original storys 25 yards (23 meters)! CCB, 9th Armored was linked on its left with CCB, 7th Armored and what was left of the 424th Infantry Regiment on its right. Excellent deductive research! The staff officer wanted to know if 9th Armored could spare some desperately needed help. That evening General Clarke also put his command into Commanster. General Luchts plan for December 17 was simple. Within the Kloster, General Hoge found a division headquarters staff in a state of disarray and confusion. Perhaps the most unlikely performer of the entire battle was the 18th Volksgrenadier Division. English translation for " 18e volksgrenadier division By dark, Lt. Col. Engeman and his two task forces were back in their assembly area in the vicinity of Breitfeld. The resulting blast damaged the bridge to such an extent that the Germans would not be able to bring vehicles across for at least 24 hours. Outnumbered and in danger of encirclement, the cannoneers and their rifle support from C Company made a platoon-by-platoon withdrawal toward Winterspelt. CCBs new position blocked the main Winterspelt-St. Vith highway and the valley of the Braunlauf Creek, a second natural corridor leading to St. Vith. On February 5, 1945 General Walter Botsch took over command of the division. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. Company C, 27th AIB withdrew under heavy artillery and sniper fire but managed to destroy a number of German vehicles. 111 () - Volksgrenadier-Division. The event simply was not that notable. 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. Wikizero - 281st Security Division (Wehrmacht) The attacks made east of St. Vith on 18 December were carried by a part of the 294th Infantry [German], whose patrols had been checked by the 168th Engineers [US] the previous day. Since St. Vith should have been taken on December 16 or the 17th at the latest, he decided to leave his command post at Waxweiler and spend the night with the 18th Volksgrenadier Division at Schoenberg. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Germany) - liquisearch.com Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. On the road to Winterspelt, General Hoge soon learned that the situation there was worse than General Jones had described. In addition, the massive road jam caused by the inability to pass through St. Vith was creating acute shortages of gasoline and ammunition well to the west of St. Vith. 1946. Encyclopedia of German tanks of World War Two. which, in principle, is comparable to the 37 mm American gun. Schiffer Publishing, 1996. All in all, the only things that the American claims concerning the famed M8 Greyhound versus Tiger engagement can agree on are that on the 18th of December 1944 an M8 Greyhound from some unit of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron killed some sort of German tank in or around the town of St. Vith. At 0400 hours on 16th December, 1944, men of the German 18th Volksgrenadier Division began to leave their positions and make their way towards the American lines. 223 223. js = d.createElement(s); Farther to the north, in the 7th Armored sector, the pressure exerted by the enemy was also intense. It would be unable to turn its full strength on St. Vith until the American surrender in that area. After the Tiger I had passed, the armored car then slipped out of its concealed position and began accelerating towards the tank in an attempt to close the gap between the two. The rounded portion of the horseshoe was composed of Colonel Dwight Rosebaums CCA, 7th Armored between Poteau and Rodt and General Clarkes CCB, 7th Armored in the very center protecting St. Vith. Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. Therefore, Montgomery ordered Ridgway to attack to the southeast until Vielsalm could be reached, ensuring an escape corridor for those trapped within the defense. The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge on JSTOR First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2004. Early on the 19th, the Germans made reconnaissance probes. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. The story begins on the 18th of December 1944, two days after the start of the German offensive. 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 . It is possible (if unlikely) that this event was completely unrelated to the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story. While walking to avoid the traffic congestion, Manteuffel encountered his superior, Field Harshal Model. They were followed in order by the half-tracks and other vehicles of the 27th AIB, the tank companies, the antiaircraft company, and the engineers. 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. Maurice Delaval Papers Collection of the Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=18th_Volksgrenadier_Division&oldid=1127007404, Military units and formations established in 1944, Military units and formations disestablished in 1945, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 11:24. Combat Interviews of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division: The St. Vith Salient and Manhay, December 17-23, 1944. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. The 9th Armored Divisions position at the Our was no longer tenable. That night, infantry patrols found German medics removing their wounded. As a result of 7th Armoreds earlier regrouping, Rodt was the junction point between CCA of the 7th Armored under the command of Colonel Rosebaum and General Clarkes CCB. 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. The town was also in Fifth Panzer Armys area of advance. Add to cart. During the assault, B Company suffered about 40 casualties including its commanding officer, Captain Henry D. Wirsig. Zaloga, Steven. School of Tank Technology, April 1944. With the unexplained disappearance of D Troop from the 89th Reconnaissance Platoon, Company B, 27th AIB became the leading element. 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 . The same story is retold in A Colonel in the Armored Divisions A Memoir, 19411945 by William S. Triplet, and like a game of telephone it gets even more distorted. }(document, 'script', 'exco-player')); The M8 Greyhound was a small, 7.9 tonne American armored car with 6.4 mm to 25.4 mm of armor, only enough to protect against rifle caliber bullets, and armed with a 37 mm M6 main gun, a peashooter at this point in the war. Hoge pointedly asked Ridgway how it could be done. Tigers In Combat I. 324 324. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. On 18 January 1945, the final alignment became (XVIII Corps, U. S. First Army, 12th Army Group) -- the alignment in the hierarchy given here. 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. Bergstrm, Christer. Not long after Rodt fell to the Fhrer Escort Brigade, an attack came against the 7th Armored from the direction of Recht. Volksgrenadier-Division. The M8 was used mostly as a reconnaissance vehicle for scouting. 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. VGD division was absorbed into the 26. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. 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. Its supporting field artillery battalion was at Kalterherberg, two miles south of Monschau, engaged in firing missions for the 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. The hardest hit, though, were the armored infantrymen of the 27th AIB with nearly 300 battle casualties. The distance from Burg Reuland on the southeast to Poteau on the northwest was about 10 miles with only a single secondary road as a line of retreat for thousands of men defending the horseshoe against attack from three directions. No one knew what was happening. The provisional company of 424th stragglers disappeared during the night. United States 106th Infantry Division on the 16th and 17th of December 1944 (the first two days of the battle of the Ardennes were as follows: 1. After 1200 hours on 17th December 1944, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was reinforced by a mobile battalion. Osprey Publishing, 2010. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. 4 Grosstraktor to Panzerbefehlswagen IV. 19454 The message was that his command was now back with VIII Corps and that he was to go to St. Vith and report to Maj. Gen. Alan W. Jones, commander of the newly arrived 106th Infantry Division. Staff officers were casualties. Eventually retreating through Germany until the end of the war, when it surrendered. The U.S. 9th Armored Division arrived in the European Theater of Operations in late October 1944 as a reserve for Maj. Gen. However, it cannot be safely assumed that the tank killed in this engagement was a Tiger I or a Tiger II. 18th Volksgrenadier Division Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Alchetron, the free social It is stated as being reported to Major Boyer by one Captain Walter Henry Anstey of Company A of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, who is said to have been a witness to the event. Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Personally I have not believed this event at all. Home News Random Article Install Wikiwand Send a suggestion Uninstall Wikiwand Upgrade to Wikiwand 2.0 Panzer Tracts No. The troops were exhausted and spread out. St. Vith is built on a low hill surrounded on all sides by slightly higher rises. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. 3. 4 Grosstraktor to Panzerbefehlswagen IV. The Tiger I was a 57 tonne German heavy tank that has become one of the most famous tanks in history. Wikizero - 18th Volksgrenadier Division 13th Flak Division 651 . VGD division was absorbed into the 26. Were any of these Tiger Is and or Tiger IIs knocked out on the 18th of December, 1944? 18th Artillery Division 651. The armored infantrymen kept themselves well hidden until the column was directly in front of them and then opened fire. 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. Colonel Alexander D. Reid, commander of the 424th Infantry Regiment, had reason to fear encirclement. of the Army, 1965. Add to cart. Clarke asked, Why in the world when I had only 2,500 men available to my command on December 17, did you not just execute a powerful frontal assault and overrun me?. En route, the officer was approached by a member of General Clarkes staff who told him that German tanks were approaching St. Vith along the road from the north. 110 () - It contained the 293., 294. and 295. grenadier regiments, Panzerjger-Bataillon 1818, Pionier-Bataillon 1818, Fsilier-Bataillon 1818 and Artillerie-Regiment 1818.[1]. December, 1944 By Greg Moore gregpanzerblitz.com December, 2008 Battalion I x 5 x 4 x 1 x 2 x 12 293rd Volks- . 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. Hoge managed to stop the stragglers, and soon a provisional company of men from the 424th was formed to reinforce the 27th AIB on its march toward the Our. 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. The similarity in appearance between the Panzer IV and Tiger I is often cited as a reason to why there are so many claims made by soldiers during World War II of battling Tiger Is, despite Tiger Is being a fairly rare encounter. A two-day rest was planned for everyone. Josef Theissen, the fifteen-year-old who had seen the Germans arrive on Sunday, December 17, watched the soldiers every move with the fascination for things military . Hoge and Clarke agreed that Hoges entire command should be withdrawn west of the railroad tracks. Late on the 20th, patrols of the 82nd Airborne Division, on the other side of the Salm River, established contact with patrols of the 7th Armored Division. The next move was up to General Lucht and his corps. In the 27th AIBs move to take the high ground, B Company advanced along the center of the road. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. Plastic Models - Page 8 - Esswex Hobbies This version is also attributed to Captain Anstey and is nearly the exact same as his original version of the story as well as being plagued by the exact same issues. The original story, if there even was one, was told and retold and distorted until everyone and their brother claimed to know the guys that did it. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. To cover this dangerous gap in the line C Company, 27th AIB was ordered to the Our between Troop D, 89th Recon and Company A, 27th AIB. It is a classic David versus Goliath tale straight out of World War II that features American heroism. So its quite possible! 18th Panzer Division (later 18th Artillery Division) 19th Panzer Division (previously 19th Infantry Division) 20th Panzer Division 21st Panzer Division (previously 5th Light Division) 22nd Panzer Division 23rd Panzer Division 24th Panzer Division (previously 1st Cavalry Division) 25th Panzer Division However, Company B, 27th AIB was sent to help ease the situation, covering the cavalrys left flank. Resistance by service company personnel in Rodt was fierce with every possible mandrivers, cooks, radio operatorsemployed in the defense; however, after nine hours of battle against the much superior German force, Rodt fell. In addition, elements of the 116th Panzer Division and the 560th Volksgrenadier Division were moving against the weakly held southern flank of St. Vith defended by remnants of the 424th Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division and the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry 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. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Stackpole Books, 2015. 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 . 194311 A strong attack has just developed against Clarke again. According to British penetration diagrams from 1944, the 37 mm M6 gun firing its standard round, the 37 mm APC M51, could, under ideal conditions, penetrate the 80 mm thick rear hull armor angled at 9 degrees when firing at an angle of 0 degrees, albeit just barely. The lumbering heavy tank continued moving towards the American line before turning north towards the town of Hunningen, Belgium, passing the armored car. Revised Edition, Arms and Armour Press, 1973. There are two likely candidates, the first being a Panzer IV. Boylan, Vincent L. After Action Report, Month of December, 1944. Volksgrenadier-Division. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. Volksgrenadier Division 5. Division 3. The corps consisted of two infantry divisions. A mobile battalion of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was already moving on Andler to seize the Schoenberg bridge and the road to St. Vith. At approximately 0100 on December 18, a German force of about 30 men tried to cross the Our at Steinebruck after a brief artillery barrage. When B Company pulled back to refuel and rearm, A Company passed through to take up the fight. He said that the fight took about ninety minutes and that they used almost all their ammunition. Ridgway knew Hoge to be calm, courageous, and imperturbable. The last of the St. Vith defenders to come out were Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry Regiment. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. Together they broke up the attack. 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. Your email address will not be published. Unable to advance, it pulled back to the nearest high ground and dug in. WAR DEPARTMENT - Indiana Military On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Both assault groups suffered heavy casualties. Much like the Panzer IV, the StuG III was a mainstay of the German army as well as Germanys most produced armored fighting vehicle of the war with over 9,400 produced. The 424th Infantry still blocked the road to the Our River and Steinebruck. Not only does this change Captain Ansteys version of the story, but this also confirms the possibility that Troop Es entry could have been talking about a Tiger II. Johnston, W. Wesley. The Sherman tanks of B Company repulsed the enemy with fire from their 76mm guns. Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Johnston, W. Wesley. At about 0930, the enemy attacked St. Vith from Hunningen to the north, apparently in an effort to envelop Clarkes left flank. The division had lost four companies of armored infantry. Panzer Tracts No. Chamberlain, Peter, et al. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division(18. Your email address will not be published. The mud had made the roads and open areas impassable for armored vehicles. The northern prong of the horseshoe was composed of CCB, 7th Armored Division from Poteau and Vielsalm. General Hoge received his order to pull CCB, 9th Armored out at 0605 on December 23. Field Marshal Montgomery, believing that Ridgways Corps could not attack successfully toward Vielsalm and that the American forces within the goose egg could better be used in support of other forces committed to the northern shoulder defense, decided upon a general withdrawal. 2014. The failure to capture St. Vith was preventing the linkup of the Fifth and the Sixth Panzer Armies. There was a bitter struggle to the south of Grufflingen, and the Germans were again active in the Neubruck area. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division. A mobile battalion of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was already moving on Andler to seize the Schoenberg bridge and the road to St. Vith. Clerks were running everywhere and junior staff officers were arguing among themselves; upstairs, however, Hoge found General Jones remarkably composed. After conferring with Clarke, Ridgway wanted to talk to one more man in whom he had supreme confidenceBrigadier General Hoge. Schiffer Publishing, 1996. 1945) English PDF (18 MB) Jan B-627 Volkssturm (Oct. 1944-Apr. The brigade had 9,000 men, Mark IV tanks, assault guns, 104mm and 105mm artillery, 88mm antiaircraft guns, and a number of heavy automatic weapons batteries. Soldiers of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division infiltrated the American lines at the villages of Roth, Weckerath, Kobscheid, and Auw before the artillery barrage began. The fall of Rodt effectively split 7th Armoreds CCA from General Clarkes CCB. The two task forces held onto their respective positions on N23 and N27, deflecting all German armored attempts to penetrate St. Vith, until they were relieved late in the afternoon by CCB, 7th Armored Division. For example, when G.I. Rejection & Neglect available to buy on Payhip! Infanterie-Division . Heeft u zelf meer informatie over deze persoon? Battle of the Bulge order of battle | Military Wiki | Fandom There is no comparison to Tiger. 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. Heer - TracesOfWar.com #WW2 . 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 On December 21, 18. The supply trains led the way north on N27 to St. Vith. One, the Sixth Panzer Army, was commanded by SS Obergruppenfhrer (brigadier general) Josef Sepp Dietrich, and the other, the Fifth Panzer Army, was commanded by General Hasso von Manteuffel. Should 7th Armored lose St. Vith, 9th Armored would be unable to withdraw on its own axis. VGD. Although the American forces in the St. Vith area came under command of General Ridgways XVIII Airborne Corps, the Airborne Corps itself was under the command of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, overall commander of the northern sector of the Bulge. The event that Lieutenant Olson recounts does bare a resemblance to the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story, with both events taking place at or near St. Vith on the 18th of December 1944 and involving an American armored car from the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron knocking out a German tank by shooting it in the rear. 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. Griffin, Marcus S. After Action Report, Month of December 1944. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division completed its southern swing, encircling the two regiments of the 106th Division on the Schnee Eifel. The route terminated at several vital crossroads in the city of St. Vith. At 0100 the 23rd, D Troop, 89th Recon lost an armored car and a jeep to antitank guns. English PDF (33 MB) Jan B-700 Roadblocks were set up and manned. 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. 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 two commanders agreed that even without the mud to contend with the withdrawal would have to be delayed simply because of heavy enemy pressure. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. 18th Volksgrenadier Division - Wikiwand Rebuilding the blown bridge to get their assault guns across was their first priority. One gun, firing from the house that had been the 14th Tanks command post an hour earlier, disabled two of the Shermans, but the other tanks managed to knock out the four antitank guns plus three German command vehicles. Hoge immediately got on the phone and ordered Engeman to move out. During ceremonies observing the 20th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, General Clarke was able to talk to General Manteuffel and discuss German operations against St. Vith. Mastering all the usages of 'poor shape' from sentence examples published by news publications. On the morning of the December 20, three tank destroyers were placed in support of Company C, 27th AIB. As each unit joined the rear of the column, it took its turn being the rear guard. However, I am not so emotionally attached to my favorite LAV that I cant see the improbabilities. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Military Wiki Troop D, 89th Recon had positioned its troop headquarters and first platoon to cover the bridge over the Our. 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. It appeared now that the fate of his two northern regiments was sealed. Yeah but Panthers rear and side armor is very weak, so its completely different story. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. Boyer, Donald P. St. Vith The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge 17-23 December 1944 A Narrative After Action Report. The next notable version of this tale comes from a 1966 book by the US Army Armor School titled The Battle at St. Vith, Belgium 17-23 December 1944: A Historical Example of Armor in the Defense. Therefore, he decided to use the 9th Armored at Winterspelt, since capture of that area by the Germans would open to the enemy a direct route to St. Vith, a route even shorter than that leading from the Schnee Eifel. VGD captured St. Vith, winning a great victory. The new sector assigned to CCB was on the fringe of territory the Sixth Panzer Army had mapped out for its further maneuvers. VGD) was a volksgrenadierdivision of the German Army(Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. I am weighing toward a stray Panzer IV or maybe a SP gun like the one you described. The division's intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Robert P. Stout, noted that the division faced two known enemy divisions, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division and the 26th Volksgrenadier Division. Penguin Books, 2016. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. 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. Lieutenant Olsons version of the story would be the most contradicting version yet. VGD captured St. Vith, winning a great victory. Because Ridgway was not in total agreement with the withdrawal and to get a feel for the real situation on the ground, he and Hasbrouck made their way to General Clarke at Commanster. EN RU CN DE ES. 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.
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