Zaloga, Steven. Moreover, it was expected that General Luchts two infantry divisions would be forwarded to the Salm River sector as right-wing cover for two panzer corps. 1940 194111. Osprey Publishing, 2013. On top of attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B), a Panzer IV can be easily misidentified as a Tiger I. Infanterie-Division 19398 . American Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Choose a Unit. General Hoge moved his command post to Commanster. Andrews, Frank L. The Defense of St. Vith in the Battle of the Ardennes December, 1944. The StuG III was a turretless assault gun based on the Panzer III. This story has gained a good deal of attention in recent years, especially on the internet thanks to videos such as The Tank Duel at St. Vith, Belgium by Lance Geiger The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views. English translation for " 18e volksgrenadier division Roadblocks were set up and manned. Three times the grenadiers [German] tried to rush their way through the foxhole line held by the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion (Lt. Col. William H. G. Fuller) and B Troop of the 87th astride the Schnberg road. Battle of Losheim Gap - Wikipedia So its quite possible! [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. After listening to the information provided by General Clarkes staff officer, General Hoge decided to go to St. Vith himself to assess the situation. Heer - TracesOfWar.com var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; Late on December 17, General Manteuffel was concerned with the lack of progress in his attack beyond the Schnee Eifel toward St. Vith. He said that the fight took about ninety minutes and that they used almost all their ammunition. Your email address will not be published. Overall operational command for the offensive fell to Field Marshal Walther Model. EnWik > 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) 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. 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 . Soon after General Hoge left 106th Division headquarters for the drive back to Faymonville, Jones received a call from Middleton informing him that a combat command of Brig. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2005. Company C, 27th AIB withdrew under heavy artillery and sniper fire but managed to destroy a number of German vehicles. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was to attack along the two roads from Schoenberg, with the Fhrer Escort Brigade assaulting from the north. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division under the command of Generalmajor Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn patrolled the Schnee Eifel area. Panzer Tracts No. Penguin Books, 2016. A mobile battalion of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was already moving on Andler to seize the Schoenberg bridge and the road to St. Vith. Staff Sergeant Frank Mykalo knocked out a German machine-gun position, enabling the men in the lead half-tracks to dismount and deploy along the side of the road. The formations started to peel backward in succession from opposite Neubruck to Maldingen. 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. Although the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division drove the American defenders from Winterspelt, all was not going well for the Germans. It is possible that it was really a Tiger tank. Situated next to B Company were Company A, 27th AIB and Company D, 14th Tank Battalion. Ridgway answered, Bill, we can and we will. The withdrawal plan called for a general pullback west of the Salm River to an assembly area in the zone controlled by the 82nd Airborne Division in the vicinity of Lierneux. Seventh Armored Division Association 2517 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington 8, D.C., 1947. 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. Bergstrm, Christer. In my opinion, the only definite conclusion that can be made from all this is that some American vehicle engaged something at St. Vith on the night of the 18th. Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. The time was approximately 1800 on Saturday, December 16, when Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division began its move to St. Vith. While making his reconnaissance at Monschau he received an urgent message to call V Corps headquarters. A mobile battalion of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was already moving on Andler to seize the Schoenberg bridge and the road to St. Vith. The entire division was to follow shortly thereafter. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Alchetron, the free social Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. Infanterie-Division . Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. 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. The 7th Armored had taken a beating in defending St. Vith. The troop was to hold until relieved by the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion (AIB) and then reconnoiter farther down the road toward Winterspelt. The armored infantrymen kept themselves well hidden until the column was directly in front of them and then opened fire. After putting down a heavy concentration of artillery fire, the Germans moved their infantry across the river east of the position held by the 2nd platoon of D Troop, 89th Recon. The Germans attacked the center of the 27th AIB. I should also note that reconnaissance doctrine was to disengage if at all possible and in no way engage enemy armour beyond scout elements. 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. A second attempt on the bridge, made by about 40 men four hours later, was also thrown back by machine-gun fire. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. The village of Bauvenn was designated the linkage point for the two combat commands. However, the monumental traffic jams in the Losheim Gap and at Schoenberg continued to delay both the 18th Volksgrenadier Division and the Fhrer Escort Brigade, and not until after daylight on the 20th would a bridge be ready at Steinebruck for the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division. First-time contributor Charles Gutierrez is the son of a 9th Armored Division veteran. Mines were laid. Boyer, Donald P. St. Vith The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge 17-23 December 1944 A Narrative After Action Report. While on its way, the platoon was commandeered by a colonel from the 106th Division. The unit was converted to an infantry division in 1945, while stationed in Courland. Please click for detailed translation, meaning, pronunciation and example sentences for 18e volksgrenadier division in English 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. Ardennes-Alsace Campaign Yeah but Panthers rear and side armor is very weak, so its completely different story. It can be safely assumed that the armored car that Lieutenant Olson is talking about in his story is an M8 Greyhound due to the fact that the only armored cars that the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron fielded were M8 Greyhounds. The entry only states that a Tiger tank was knocked out. Fifth Panzer was to attack from Prum in the north down to Bitburg and Bastogne in the south. events, and resources, The Battle of the Bulge & The Defense of St. Vith. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Attacking the rear of a Tiger when you had no way of knowing if it was supported by one or more others is extremely unlikely. However, he kept these misgivings to himself. Do you have more information about this person? Gen. Robert Hasbroucks 7th Armored Division would be arriving at St. Vith at 0700 on the 17th. 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. which, in principle, is comparable to the 37 mm American gun. There are no German records or histories which indicate that, on 18th December 1944, a Tiger I or a Tiger II was knocked out in or around St. Vith. One task force encountered reconnaissance probes on N27 conducted by units of the 1st SS Panzer Division approximately 1,000 yards north of St. Vith. It is possible (if unlikely) that this event was completely unrelated to the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story. 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. Add to cart. At 0200 on December 22, the Fhrer Escort Brigade launched its attack against the town of Rodt, a small village west of St. Vith. On December 9, 1944, Brig. 18th Volksgrenadier Division - Wikipedia Looking at German records The Fhrerbegleit Brigade with one Panzerabteilung of four companies of Pzkw IV and a Sturmgeschutzabteilung with four batteries of StuG III were in reserve assembled in the area around Daun on the 17th and not yet in action only beginning to move up at 1600H on the 18th. The guns of two platoons of Company A, 811th Tank Destroyers were overrun. Both American units were able to drive forward, and the Shermans knocked out six German armored vehicles. A two-day rest was planned for everyone. 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. 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. During his meeting with Hoge, General Ridgway became convinced that defending this area any further would be futile. Johnston, W. Wesley. M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car 1941-91. General Jones wanted Hoge to use the infantry of his 27th AIB to seize the series of hills near Winterspelt while the 14th Tank Battalion was to remain west of the Our River for use as the situation developed. At about midday, the field marshal sent a message to General Hasbrouck: You have accomplished your missiona mission well done. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Germany) - liquisearch.com Once St. Vith was taken, Model intended to drive the brigade swiftly for the Meuse River or cut behind the opposition on the Elsenborn Ridge that was bottling up the Sixth Panzer Army. The route terminated at several vital crossroads in the city of St. Vith. What a fantastic real-life story or is it? Jones explained to Hoge that his division was being attacked along its entire front and that two of his three regiments, the 422nd and the 423rd, had been partly surrounded in the Schnee Eifel area just east of Schoenberg. Jones wanted Clarke to counterattack immediately with his combat command and break that ring that these people have closed around the Schnee Eifel.. Panzertruppen Volume 2 The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Deployment of The German Tank Forces 1943-1945. They were repulsed by machine-gun fire. Rebuilding the blown bridge to get their assault guns across was their first priority. The silhouettes of the Panzer IV and the Tiger I are quite similar, especially due to their rectangular shapes and rounded turret (rounded through the later use of a curved armor plate around the otherwise angular turret). Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. There are two likely candidates, the first being a Panzer IV. It is interesting to note that the U.S 7th Armored Division suffered a moderate 425 Battle Casualties, on page 465 of Hitlers Last Gamble by Trevor N. Dupuy, for December 17-23, 1944 in the Battle of Saint Vith including the 1st day of the Battle of Manhay, out of the 3,397 Battle and Non-Battle Casualties suffered during the Battle by the U.S 112th Infantry Regiment of the U.S 28th Infantry Division, the U.S 424th Infantry Regiment of the U.S 106th Infantry Division, Combat Command B of the U.S 9th Armored Division and ofcourse the U.S 14th Cavalry Group.