Having cut the St. Vith-Vielsalm road by capturing Rodt in the late morning of the 22d, Remer's Fuehrer Begleit Brigade made no serious attempt to push beyond Rodt, either against CCA, 7th Armored Division, to the west or CCB to the south. During this entire action the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, So far we are missing at least one half of Clarke's force. reached Vielsalm. Description. It was just turning dark when the assistant G-2 of the 7th Armored During the night of The combat engineer battalion deployed about two miles east of St. Vith along the outer edge of a pine forest fringing the ridge mask over which climbs the road from Schnberg. By noon German infantry were in Setz, with at least five hours of daylight remaining and less than five miles to go, much of that distance being uncontested. This, one of his division commanders opined, was easier said than done. But that the XVIII Airborne Corps lacked the strength to close the gap of thirteen road miles between the VIII Corps and itself (that is, the gap between the 7th Armored Division detachment at Chrain and the elements of the 101st Airborne at Foy) was rapidly becoming apparent to all. hand, the bulk of the 23d Armored Infantry Battalion appeared to reinforce With the enemy infantry inside Steinebrck and excellent direct laying by the German gunners picking off the American vehicles one by one, the cavalry withdrew along the St. Vith road. Colonel Rosebaum sent the tank platoon and an armored infantry company to clear the houses south of the cut. The three Shermans had aimed their guns to blast the first tanks as they came over the ridge where the American foxhole line had been drawn. Striking northwest and fighting off the small blocking forces left behind by Kampfgruppe Krag, the bulk of this part of the column succeeded in reaching the 82d Airborne. on the valley floor by high ridges to either side, unable to move forward Also, the transmittal of the 7th Armored Division's own estimate of its possible progress was subject to "friction." They would have to be threaded through the St. Vith bottleneck. The troops within the perimeter occupied an "island" with a German tide rushing past on the north and. By chance the Chrain detachment. That the German strength was increasing was made apparent by the events during the night of 17-18 December, but the 7th Armored light observation planes were not available for scouting the enemy dispositions or movements east of St. Vith. . Volks Grenadier Division, bivouacked in and west of the village Sustained shelling had also destroyed all means of communication, except by runner, and left the little groups isolated and unable to support one another. up to cover his right rear and had ordered the regiment to seize and The 1st SS Panzer Division, forming the left of the I SS Panzer Corps advance in the zone north of St. Vith, had driven forward on two routes. Fate took a hand to save the rest of the column. It is difficult to determine with surety how much of the 7th Armored Division, CCB, 9th Armored, 424th Infantry, 112th Infantry, and the numerous attached units had been lost during the, fight for St. Vith and in the subsequent withdrawal. During the 19th the two CCB's had been operating with very limited artillery support, although the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and the 16th Armored Field Artillery Battalion had done yeoman service for their respective combat commands. When the raiders turned back to rejoin Remer they found the American tankers waiting; however, evasion in the woods was easy, although at this point the prized vehicles were abandoned and most of the captured Americans escaped. But the newly committed 9th SS Panzer Division, following in its wake via Recht, threw a large detachment of panzer grenadiers into the woods around Poteau, either to retake the crossroad or to pin the Americans there. the troops and vehicles to be moved were so numerous that a thirty minute The only force in position for an immediate exploitation was Remer's Fuehrer Begleit Brigade, whose tanks finally had arrived on the evening of 21 December. The last German The new defense ordered by Clarke began to form shortly before midnight. German infantry and a few tanks pursued but were held off until the last of the CCB column had been pushed through the village and was on its way northwest to the Vielsalm bridge. On the 19th most of Ridgway's troops had engaged in patrolling with no enemy contact; on the 20th the XVIII Airborne Corps faced the westernmost elements of the I SS Panzer Corps, the entire LXVI Corps, and the LVIII Panzer Corps. Three lost their commanders and the platoon withdrew. With the help of two tanks and an antiaircraft artillery half-track mounting the dreaded .50-caliber quad, the artillerymen beat off the attack. About 2200 General Clark reached General Hasbrouck with word of what had happened at St. Vith and the latter immediately informed the XVIII Airborne Corps. The bombs dropped on Schnberg and its narrow streets late in the day may have delayed the arrival of reinforcements, and air attack certainly helped to scatter the most advanced German troops. He decided, therefore, to flank the St. Vith defenses from the north as soon as his brigade, scheduled to arrive on 20 December, was in hand. General Hoge conferred with General Jones at St. Vith and the two decided that the combat command should withdraw from the river northwest to slightly higher ground. Heavy Antitank Battalion, was toiling slowly westward on the single, The attacks made east of St. Vith on 18 December were carried by a The Americans had blown the bridge and fallen back through Salmchteau to the lines of the 82d, whereupon a few of the Germans crossed the river and entered the village. The first German waves then hit between Company A of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion and Company A of the 23d Armored Infantry Battalion. A little later a company of German infantry was detected marching north along the valley toward Chrain. At Recht were located the command post of CCR and the rear headquarters of CCB, with the 17th Tank Battalion assembled to the southeast. Late in the evening of the 17th and during the morning of the 18th, however, the scope and direction of the German drive thrusting past St. Vith in the north became more clearly discernible as the enemy struck in a series of attacks against Recht, Poteau, and Hnningen. German columns heading west. The eight battalions of field artillery taking part in the defense were put on a strict ration, seven rounds for each 105-mm. 955th Field Artillery Battalion (155MM) George L. Davidson Email address wrote: The 955th was a "rogue" outfit called up by General Matt Ridgeway along with 9 other battalions most of which ended up in IX Corps Arty in support of the IX Corps and ROK II Corps. The Germans driving on Salmchteau were held in tighter control than those advancing toward Vielsalm and moved with greater speed and coordination. The gap between the western anchor of the north flank at Vielsalm and the eastern outposts of the 82d Airborne Division was closed toward the end of the day when patrols from the 505th Parachute Infantry met a reconnaissance party from the 7th Armored south of Trois Ponts. But the combat echelons of the two regiments of the 62d Volks Grenadier Division which had bypassed the city on the south were in position by the night of the 22d to renew the attack. 746th Tk Bn 28 Jun 44-10 Jul 45. Tank and artillery fire stopped the Germans just as it had on previous days. However they lost their Glider designation when they were redesignated on 15 January 1944 as the 465th Field Artillery Battalion. d. If the 2d SS Panzer Division attack should succeed in driving back the two RCTs of the 82d Airborne Division now between Salmchteau and Hebronval even as little as 3000 yards we will be completely severed from any source of supplies. What is the history of the 965th Field Artillery Battalion during World War 2? Find A Battery, 965th Field Artillery Battalion unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. It was after midnight when the engineers finally reported that the charge had been replaced and successfully detonated.7 Even then the span was only partially wrecked and was still capable of bearing foot troops; but the German tanks milling about the burning buildings east of the river would have to find other means of crossing the Salm. St. Vith lay approximately twelve miles behind the front lines on 16 Some of the Germans made it to the houses and defended themselves. It was thickly wooded with fir trees, twenty to thirty feet tall. He and Lt. Col. Robert L. Rhea (Commanding Officer, 23d Armored Infantry Battalion), who had taken over from Colonel Fuller when the latter was evacuated because of exhaustion, were able to restore some measure of confidence and order. At first there was no artillery forward to give weight to the assault, but densely wooded approaches and darkness gave the advantage to the attackers. A company of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, however, was put in to cover the cavalry left flank. Darkness descended over the Salm valley as CCR sped across the Vielsalm bridge. The course of battle on 21 December initially affirmed the pessimistic view with which most of German unit commanders seem to have started the attack. Subsequently Hasbrouck sent a platoon of light tanks to help out and an injunction that it was "imperative" that the village be held. As the 7th Armored commander phrased it: "I never knew who was in my command. tried to rush their way through the foxhole line held by the 38th Armored The Fuehrer Begleit trains could not negotiate the churned and mired trails at all. It is surprising that under the circumstances control and communication functioned as well as they did. The move had no more than started when the Fuehrer Begleit Brigade descended on Hinderhausen. Vith.) After a. hasty conference the counterattack was postponed until the following morning. the road southwest toward Vielsalm, and the tanks rejoined Wemple. Understand 82AB is coming up on my north and the north flank is not critical. Vith.". trunk lines, although in the late summer of 1944 work had been started The American defense of St. Vith itself was based on the possession of ridge lines and hills masking the town to the northeast, east, and southeast. The 7th Armored counterattack from St. Vith to relieve the two trapped regiments of the 106th Division had been postponed on the 17th, not canceled. The strength of the German forces thrusting west was not yet fully appreciated. To counter this threat the light tank platoon moved into Steinebrck, leaving the American left uncovered. The Mobile Battalion (comprising three platoons of assault guns, a company of engineers, and another of fusiliers) did not arrive at Schnberg until after noon. The enemy took the village quickly, and with it many of the half-tracks belonging to the 48th Armored Infantry Battalion. over 2,000 and sufficient billets to house a division headquarters. middle of the afternoon at Bovigny some three and a half miles south of Salmchteau on the west side of the Salm River. The troops under General Hasbrouck's command who came back across the Salm River were greeted by a warm letter of commendation from the Supreme Commander and orders to return at once to the fight. But some Germans filtered into town from the north and started hunting down the American tanks and assault guns. The front held by the 7th Armored Division, CCB of the 9th Armored, and attached units by this time had expanded to about thirty-two miles. When the Germans finally maneuvered into position to renew the attack, the Americans broke free and fell back toward Commanster. On the movement of the main body of the 7th Armored Division on 17 December hung the fate of St. Vith. There two companies of the 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry, were deployed, guarding a draw and secondary road which provided quick access to the Salm valley at a point midway between Jones's assembly area at Bovigny and Salmchteau. Want this question answered? For some hours the columns could move neither forward nor back, and when Field Marshal Model arrived on the scene he was forced to dismount and make his way into the city on foot. Troop D, 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, plus a light tank platoon On the morning of 18 December General Hoge, CCB commander, was ordered to hurry to the 106th headquarters where he was told of the threat developing north of St. Vith. Actually the pick-up force of quartermaster troops, light tanks, and The 969th Field Artillery Battalion was an African American United States Army field artillery unit that saw combat during World War II. The First Army headquarters was in process of drafting plans for uniting the XVIII Airborne Corps and the St. Vith force when General Hasbrouck's letter arrived. The division artillery might be in firing position by the morning of the 20th. The attachment of CCB, 9th Armored Division, to the 106th Division late in the morning promised such aid as then seemed necessary, but Hoge's command post was at Monschau and he would not receive his orders from Jones until about 1800. 800 Port Company (517 Port Bn) BLEVINS, JAMES LEWIS. Armored. Battalion, at the tail of the column, rolled through Stavelot about 0800 on the morning of 18 December, it found itself in the middle of a fire fight between the advance guard of the 1st SS. 965th Field Artillery Battalion United States Army Strength Battalion Type Defence Agency Years 1942 - 1959 Report To Field Artillery Units Reporting Units A Battery B Battery C Battery HHB Service Battery Members Who Served in 965th Field Artillery Battalion 965th Field Artillery Battalion Description Not Specified Field Artillery Battalions. With great difficulty the task force vehicles were sorted out, lined the road, and then turned about and faced toward Recht. 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965th field artillery battalion
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