Name already in use - Github September 18th, 1944: Kdr. Possibly such events took place in reality. 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. Infanterie-Division . That cold snap that hit us has frozen the roads. These German tanks would later be specified to be Panzer IVs or Mark IVs. 18th Artillery Division 651. German reports are also far from subtlety. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "aefa00eeca3d30bd3e762fcc54816f6d" );document.getElementById("f87928873f").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. General Hoge received his order to pull CCB, 9th Armored out at 0605 on December 23. Heer - TracesOfWar.com Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. To this end, General Hoge was in the town of Monschau to check on the possibility of getting his command across in that area. 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. On this day, CCB of the 9th Armored Division was still in its assembly area in the vicinity of Faymonville. Captain Ansteys version lacks supporting documentation. The line companies were down to one officer apiece. I am a huge M8 Greyhound fan, having built a model at age 13 and I now own a 1:6 scale one with 4-man crew. Ninth Armored sent out billeting parties as it reached its new area. For faster navigation, this Iframe is preloading the Wikiwand page for 18th Volksgrenadier Division. Panzer Tracts No. The fall of Rodt effectively split 7th Armoreds CCA from General Clarkes CCB. Furthermore, General Clarke had no idea when his command would arrive. EN. Zaloga, Steven. The failure to capture St. Vith was preventing the linkup of the Fifth and the Sixth Panzer Armies. Excellent deductive research! Schneider, Wolfgang. 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 German armored and infantry attacks were preceded by the shelling of the American positions with at least 657 light, medium, and heavy guns and howitzers and 340 multiple rocket launchers. 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. 4 Grosstraktor to Panzerbefehlswagen IV. Shortly thereafter, Hasbrouck called and asked, Bruce, do you think you can get out? Clarke answered, A miracle has happened, General! School of Tank Technology, April 1944. 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. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. The division had lost four companies of armored infantry. Both American units were able to drive forward, and the Shermans knocked out six German armored vehicles. The entire division was to follow shortly thereafter. South of St. Vith, even as Lt. Col. Engemans task forces were responding to the 7th Armoreds cry for help, Germans of the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division were trying to get across the Our River at Steinebruck and hit St. Vith from that direction. Schneider, Wolfgang. This information came from the division's senior headquarters, the VIII Corps, First U.S. Army. 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)! 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. Armament T-70 gun cal. 2014 . Those factors dictated that at least another 24 hours would be needed before a major assault on St. Vith could begin. The town was also in Fifth Panzer Armys area of advance. 6 Schwere Panzerkampfwagen DW to E-100. After conferring with Clarke, Ridgway wanted to talk to one more man in whom he had supreme confidenceBrigadier General Hoge. The closest primary German armored thrust route to the south ran through Burg Reuland, also about five miles from St. Vith. Battle of the Bulge order of battle | Military Wiki | Fandom This forest was criss-crossed only by trails. The men of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps had expected to be on the Meuse by December 19, but on the night of December 20 the Americans still denied them access to St. Vith. With the unexplained disappearance of D Troop from the 89th Reconnaissance Platoon, Company B, 27th AIB became the leading element. of the Army, 1965. 1945). The entry only states that a Tiger tank was knocked out. 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 mud had made the roads and open areas impassable for armored vehicles. 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. Volksgrenadier-Division. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Alchetron, the free social Thus, the Fifth Panzer Army commander ordered that St. Vith be taken no later than the second day of the offensive. Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. This version of the story, which is paraphrased in the introduction, will be referred to as the original version of the story. Ridgway knew Hoge to be calm, courageous, and imperturbable. Osprey Publishing, 2002. Manteuffel answered, We estimated that we were up against a division, and perhaps against an entire corps. Pegov in March 1944 on a light tank T-70 destroyed two German Panthers aboard. Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry eventually found their way into 82nd Airborne Division lines during the night of the 24th, but not before the units suffered heavy losses. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division ( 18. Hoge has just reported an attack. Two regiments of the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division attacked 9th Armored positions early that morning, their goal to gain the Salm River at Salmchateau. Under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, the new division absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. Panzer Tracts No. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. 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?. On top of the contradictions and ambiguity of Troop Es entry, there is also the curious fact that Troop A does not make any mention of this event in its morning report and record of events entry for the 18th of December, 1944. The 7th Armored had taken a beating in defending St. Vith. Schneider, Wolfgang. The new sector assigned to CCB was on the fringe of territory the Sixth Panzer Army had mapped out for its further maneuvers. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) Wiki Operation Nordwind 1945 Hitlers last offensive in the West. 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. I should also note that reconnaissance doctrine was to disengage if at all possible and in no way engage enemy armour beyond scout elements. Lever het aan! Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. events, and resources, The Battle of the Bulge & The Defense of 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. Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. In the early afternoon of the 22nd, he arrived at General Hasbroucks headquarters in Vielsalm to plan the withdrawal. St. Vith is built on a low hill surrounded on all sides by slightly higher rises. Lieutenant Colonel Boylan also makes no mention of this event in a 1946 letter he wrote to Major General Robert W. Hasbrouck, the former commanding general of the 7th Armored Division, which details the actions of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron at the Battle of St. Vith. Could an M8 Greyhounds 37 mm M6 gun even penetrate the rear hull armor of a Tiger I? Hoge and Clarke agreed that Hoges entire command should be withdrawn west of the railroad tracks. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. 45 mm. 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. This leads to a second candidate, the StuG III. However, he kept these misgivings to himself. Boylan, Vincent L. After Action Report, Month of December, 1944. The division, which was under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, absorbed . . In blinding snow and on slippery roads the tanks and infantry of CCB, 9th Armored headed for Bauvenn. It is time to withdraw.. A two-day rest was planned for everyone. Then, four German antitank guns covering the Grufflingen-Maldange road were encountered. Having first conferred with General Jones, Hoge ordered a withdrawal from the river to begin after nightfall. The commanders were at the center of the Foret Domaniale du Grand Bois. American Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Choose a Unit. Tigers In Combat I. 18th Volksgrenadier Division Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 Then there is the issue of the entrys ambiguity in regards to the Tiger tank that was knocked out. Although the Germans were facing stiff resistance all along the American defensive line, they were determined to take St. Vith. I wanted to focus on the M8 vs Tiger story, I already noticed the Ferdinand claim, but decided not to mention it. Germanys Tiger Tanks VK45.02 to TIGER II. Despite the loss of St. Vith, General Ridgway believed that the American armored and infantry forces defending St. Vith since December 16 could still hold. 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. Division 4. The next move was up to General Lucht and his corps. 188th Division (Nazi Germany) - Atozwiki.com VGD led by Heinz Kokott, Heinrich Himmler's brother-in-law. Ministry of Supply, 1945. The earliest known mention can be found in the December 18th, 1944 morning report and record of events entry of Troop E, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron which briefly states that an M-8 atchd [attached] to A Tr [Troop A] knocked out one Tiger tank. Bork, Max Hermann (Generalleutnant) - TracesOfWar.com By 2300 enemy patrols tested 27th AIBs new position and a night attack was thrown back with the help of D Troop, 89th Recon. English PDF (33 MB) Jan B-700 Having failed to find a soft spot to the north, the Germans then moved against Hoges 9th Armored command in the south; however, even before this attack got going three German tanks were knocked out and the rest of the probing force withdrew.
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