by Harry Yeide
A German tank attempted to round a curve into Hinderhausen. We were fighting our TDs over the rear end to help out maneuvering and our withdrawal. I was with my lead destroyer. James Cochran, the gunner, attempted to point the 90mm at the tank (a Panther). He could not get low enough because a camouflage net stopped the tube. We could see that German tank gun traversing our direction. My number-two TD was just across the road, and I [ran over and] called to Gilbert Dahms to get him quick. When he fired, we could hear the click—we had a misfire. Needless to say, our pucker strings were straining.
Dahms and Cochran kept each other supplied with chewing tobacco and both were cool country boys. Dahms reached up to the top of that 90mm breechblock and quickly moved the cocking lever to recock the gun. He then checked his aim and fired, and we hit that tank with an APC [armor piercing, capped] round head-on. We quickly loaded an HE round and let him have it again. That started him to burn.
A German opened the hatch and attempted to jump off. Cochran on the other side of the road aimed a rifle and shot the guy. He then spat a big wad of tobacco and said, “That’s one you missed, Dahms.”
Fortunately, it had turned cold, and we had had some snow the night before. If that hadn’t happened, we would not have been able to make it. Anyway, we took a couple more tanks trying to enter Hinderhausen. [The battalion’s AAR indicates three Tigers were destroyed.] I was on the deck of my number-two TD with [James] Foss, the commander. We had to back up for some shots, and in doing so we were no longer covered by a building on our right side. Shortly thereafter, we took a hit in the side. Foss was knocked off the deck. They repeated with another hit, which gave me a wound to my left leg and knocked me off the deck. I fell on top of Foss, who was not wounded, but I fell on him as he was getting up, which really clobbered him.
Our TD was starting to burn so we started helping to get everybody out and rolled in the snow to put the fire out. Everybody got out burnt and wounded, some worse than others, but all alive…. We could not put our wounded inside the other TDs because we still had to fight, so we strapped them on the outside of the TDs. It hurt us to do that, but it was the only way to get them out. Our mad run out of Hinderhausen was successful, and we got to a ridge near Commanster where we could make another stand.46
Indeed, the two remaining M36s engaged the pursuing panzers and destroyed one Tiger and two Panthers. One more TD fell victim to German fire, however. The remaining gun joined the withdrawal through Neuville.47
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jones, CO of the 814th, commanded a task force that fought a rear-guard action to cover the retreat. Jones had two of his TD companies, his recon company, a company of light tanks, and the remnants of the 14th Cavalry Group.48
All but the last elements had crossed the bridges across the river when Lt Hugh Bertruch saw more panzers from the Führer Begleit Brigade approaching. His four TDs began a raging fire fight that cost the Germans seven tanks and the 814th all four M36s. The crewmen retreated through the moonlight, where they found engineers who were just finishing preparations to blow the bridge. The TDs had won the time needed to close this road.49
The 2d SS Panzer Division, however, had worked its way to the west side of the Salm from the south, and Task Force Jones had to fight for every mile toward the safety of the 82d Airborne Division lines. The command broke up into small groups, many of which made it back to American lines over the next several days.
Jones’s battalion escaped the St. Vith battle with remarkably low casualties: Two men were killed, nineteen were wounded, and twenty were missing in action. Nevertheless, nearly half the 814ths M36s had been damaged or destroyed. But the 814th’s gunners had KO’d eight Tigers, twelve Panthers, six Mark IVs, six other tanks of unknown type, and various other vehicles.50
The stubborn defense at St. Vith, combined with that at Rocherath-Krinkelt, had limited the Sixth Panzer Army to a twenty-mile-deep but only five-mile-wide salient carved out by Oberstleutnant Joachim Peiper’s 1st SS Panzer Division spearhead. To the south, the Fifth Panzer Army sent the 2d Panzer and Panzer Lehr divisions racing for a second key road junction: Bastogne.51 But Fifth Panzer Army’s commanding general, General der Panzertruppe Hasso von Manteuffel, on Christmas Eve recommended to Hitler’s adjutant that the attack be abandoned because of the time lost at St. Vith.52
Channeling the Flood
The American response to Wacht am Rhein followed the outlines foreseen by Bradley, although by 19 December he had largely lost his ability to control the northern wing of First Army.53 Reinforcing divisions initially deployed mostly along the flanks of the German penetration to build two solid containing walls. On the north, the 1st and 30th Infantry divisions and 82d Airborne Division shifted into what would become an east–west line anchored on the shoulder formed by the 99th and 2d Infantry divisions at Elsenborn Ridge.
The battle-tested 30th Infantry Division on 17 December had been ordered south from the Roer sector, and the crews of the 823d Tank Destroyer Battalion—who had never fired their new M10s’ guns in anger—accompanied the division on its march south through a bitter cold night along unfamiliar roads. Worse yet, Company B still had several towed 3-inch guns, while Company A remained entirely towed. By dawn on 18 December, the men arrived in the area of Malmedy, Belgium. Company B deployed its towed guns forward and held its M10s back as a mobile reserve. Company A received orders to move to Stoumont, while Company C was sent to Stavelot.
In Stavelot, where Peiper’s 1st SS Panzer Regiment had pushed through a day earlier without leaving a holding force behind, columns from the two sides arrived almost simultaneously on 18 December. The M10s had hardly taken up firing positions when panzers struck from the east and west. Second Platoon claimed between nine destroyed and eleven tanks probably destroyed, while 1st Platoon accounted for a Panther and a halftrack.
A platoon of towed guns from the 825th Tank Destroyer Battalion—which had been engaged in rear-area security duties since arriving in France four months earlier—had also arrived in Stavelot about 0330 hours to establish two road blocks with the doughs. Two halftracks trying to move guns to high ground south of town had come under fire and been knocked out. One of the two surviving 3-inchers began pounding German-occupied buildings until the men spotted four Tigers approaching at about 1000 hours. Both crews turned on the panzers, and each gun knocked out a pair. A fifth panzer, however, could be heard nearby. It had entered via another route, and was now crawling through town conducting reconnaissance by fire.
One crew moved its gun into the center of the street, where it could engage the panzer. The men were doubtless appalled when they saw the house-size form of a Royal Tiger. The men fired fifteen rounds as quickly as they could, one of which struck the base of the panzer’s main gun. The Germans decided to back away from the fight, but the driver miscalculated and steered into a building that collapsed and pinned the Tiger. Ordered to withdraw, the unnamed TD platoon leader and another noncomm continued to fire the gun until the rest of the crew had gotten away, at which time they destroyed the weapon and withdrew on foot.
* * *
The TD crews crouching behind their 3-inch guns in Stoumont heard Peiper’s tanks maneuvering in the dark early on 19 December. Company A requested permission to fire flares so that the guns could engage the panzers, but the local infantry commander refused. About 0600, amidst fog so thick that the men could see no more than fifty yards, panzers were discovered already in the outskirts of town. The doughs began a fighting withdrawal, which exposed gun after gun to enemy assault. The Germans overran 1st and 3d platoons; nine crewmen had been wounded and sixteen were missing when the company pulled out to the north with the remaining 2d Platoon guns. The gun-less platoons drew four 3-inch and two captured 75mm guns held by battalion maintenance.
It was a cruel twist of fate that the men of the 823d had to experience again the vulnerability imposed by towed weapons one day after its conversion to self-propelled TDs was to have taken effect. The M10s of Company C back in Stave
lot, meanwhile, claimed five Tiger tanks during fighting that day. One more twist of the knife awaited the 823d: The outfit was repeatedly bombed and strafed by American aircraft on 24 and 26 December and lost three men and several vehicles. The battalion history noted, “The men feared our own planes as much as they did the enemy.”54
* * *
The 703d Tank Destroyer Battalion was detached from the 3d Armored Division and sent south with the 823d. When Company B was attached to the 82d Airborne Division on 20 December, the paratroopers were trying to contain the German along the Salm River between Trois Ponts and Salmchateaux as the battle progressed around St. Vith.
It was cold. So cold, in fact, that one 3d Platoon M36 turret froze solid and stayed that way for days, and some vehicles would not start again once shut off.
Lieutenant Roberts’s 2d Platoon joined the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was attempting to retake the village of Cheneux near Stoumont. The TDs were ordered to advance with the infantry and make as much noise as possible to give the impression of great strength. They were also told to shoot at anything that moved in front of them. It was so dark that the crews could see no more than twenty-five yards as they entered town.
A 20mm flak gun opened up on the paratroopers, who hit the dirt. One M36 advanced to destroy the gun and almost ran into a German halftrack. The gunner tried to engage the vehicle, but as the turret traversed, the 90mm gun barrel struck the halftrack. This was enough for the panzergrenadiers, who bailed out and scooted. By now, the driver had the Jackson in reverse and backed up far enough for the gunner to destroy the halftrack. This accomplished, the men knocked out the troublesome 20mm gun. The paratroopers and TDs were able to clear the town the next day. But the German pressure had only begun.
First Platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, joined the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The infantry drove back a German attempt to cross the Salm River on the night of 22 December.
Early the next day, Ball—who was with his first section—spotted two well-camouflaged SP guns emerging out of the forest two thousand yards away on the far side of the river. Rather than fire on them, he waited to see whether any more interesting targets appeared. Shortly, three Panthers moved cautiously into view. Unfortunately, the SP guns were now almost out of sight close to a draw from which they could menace the paratroopers. Ball ordered his M36s to fire, and almost immediately both SP guns started to burn. The Panthers backed out of sight before the TDs could traverse and shoot.
Direct HE fire crashed into Ball’s position. One round struck a tree only thirty yards from one destroyer, and a shell fragment killed a crewman.
The Germans shifted their efforts to another sector and successfully crossed the river at Vielsalm. During the night of 24 December the 82d Airborne began a withdrawal to new defensive positions near Basse Bodeaux.55
* * *
With every spare unit rushing to stem the German offensive, Ninth Army went over to the defensive along the Roer River north of the Bulge. Dug-in tank destroyers and tanks were positioned in depth along the line. Supplemental, alternate, and decoy positions were prepared. Skeleton crew manned captured German AT guns of all types. And, behind the TDs, 90mm antiaircraft guns moved into direct-fire positions.56
The Battered Bastards of Bastogne
The men of Company C, 609th Tank Destroyer Battalion, were fighting along the Sauer River when they were alerted on 18 December to deploy to a place called Bastogne, Belgium, with CCB/10th Armored Division. The M18s, less one platoon, followed the Shermans north. The lead elements arrived in Bastogne about dusk and formed a screening force consisting of three small task forces east of town. The men in the destroyers had no idea what was going.57
Also on 18 December, the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion, located near Aachen, received orders to report to the CG of VIII Corps in Bastogne. The M18s rolled south, and the advance guard arrived in La Roche the next day. Battalion CO LtCol Clifford Templeton noted that “visual and oral evidence” suggested “a certain degree of confusion in the general situation.” Templeton deployed his men in defensive positions until he was able to obtain orders that attached his command to the 101st Airborne Division, which had hiked into Bastogne the preceding night and was exchanging its first shots with the spearhead of Panzer Lehr Division. Templeton encountered a small German tank-infantry force while returning to his men but escaped harm.58
By evening, the battalion had entered Bastogne. The terrain was rolling; open fields interspersed with heavily wooded tracts were the only obstacles to cross-country tank movement. The command was deployed in defensive positions along the front lines within two hours of arrival. The battalion’s sector of the perimeter would extend to 13,000 yards.59
* * *
Early the next morning, 3d Platoon, C/609th Tank Destroyer Battalion, commanded by Lt David Hagen, pulled into Noville (north-northeast of Bastogne) to join the fifteen Shermans and four hundred soldiers, mostly armored infantrymen, of Major William Desobry’s team from the 10th Armored Division’s CCB. Artillery rounds exploded around them, and even before a single German was seen, a sergeant was killed and another man wounded. Sergeant Richard Beaster’s M18 raced through town and arrived on the northern edge in time to join a veritable cannonade from tanks, bazookas, and just about anything else that would fire that knocked out two Mark IVs that had appeared on the road to Houffalize.60
Lieutenant Hagen employed the gun section commanded by Sgt John Pilon in static positions on the east edge of town, where the M18s took advantage of buildings for cover. The other two destroyers of his platoon roved through the village and were ready to respond on call. The fog swirled about, sometimes so thick that the crewmen could see barely ten feet.
About 1000 hours, the fog lifted suddenly and revealed some thirty tanks from the 2d Panzer Division, the closest no more than 300 yards away. The M18s and Sherman tanks opened fire. The gunners knocked out nine of fourteen tanks on a ridgeline to the north. The destroyer commanded by Sergeant Beaster claimed five Panthers with six rounds, but the M18 was struck just as it loosed its last killing shot, and the gun crewmen were wounded and the driver killed. Sergeant Pilon later recalled being able to hear the Germans in two approaching halftracks shouting to one another; the vehicles pulled back when they realized their peril, but Pilon’s gunner, Cpl Justin Double, got them both. Pilon then spotted a Panther approaching from his left. The M18’s turret traversed, the 76mm gun spat fire, and the Mark V started to burn.61
Desobry sought and received permission to withdraw his own small force but decided to attack instead when he was reinforced by a platoon of M18s from C/705th Tank Destroyer Battalion and a battalion of paratroopers from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.62
A meeting engagement ensued, in which the paratrooper battalion, supported by a few tanks and TDs, attempted to take high ground east of Noville while an estimated battalion of German grenadiers backed by panzers tried to push westward. For some reason, the German tanks generally held back, and when a few advanced, the TDs engaged them from the flank and destroyed five at fifteen hundred yards range. The clash resulted in a draw. Overnight, artillery pounded the American lines, and Major Desobry was badly wounded; panzer engines growled in the dark along the perimeter.63
The Germans attacked again out of thick fog at about 0400 on 20 December, when C/705th reported contact with German infantry near Foy and Noville. Between 0800 and 1000, heavy artillery concentrations crashed down on the defenders, followed by the appearance of panzers and grenadiers out of the murk. The fog did not lift until mid-day, and until then the action took place at distances of only a few yards. The eight remaining Shermans were out of AP ammo, and Company C’s 1st Platoon M18s moved forward. When the fog lifted suddenly as it had the day before, the gunners could see a skirmish line of fifteen panzers. The TDs fairly quickly dispatched five Mark IV tanks and raked the escaping crews with .50-caliber machine gun fire while the remaining panzers retreated out of sight.64
T
he battered command was now surrounded, however, and late in the day fought its way back through fog and smoke to the main Bastogne defensive line. Lieutenant Hagen ordered Sergeant Pilon to join the rearguard, which consisted of a paratrooper company and four TDs. Looking back into the village, Pilon spotted German infantry accompanied by a panzer entering the ruins. He fired HE at the infantry and was pleased to hear cries for medics in German. Armor piercing rounds convinced the panzer to pull back. Pilon then ordered his driver to follow the rest of the column westward.65
Team Desobry had lost about half its men, eleven Shermans, and five tank destroyers, but it had held up the German advance on Bastogne for two critical days.66
* * *
While the 609th’s 3d Platoon fought in Noville, 2d Platoon, commanded by Lt Edward Gladden, had joined Team Cherry in Longvilly due east of Bastogne. The destroyers mainly fought against infantry attacks, but the platoon claimed a single Mark V, with the credit going to an M18 destroyer that battalion records say was manned by a makeshift crew composed of personnel from company HQ. The M18 had been recovered under fire, manned, and successfully employed. This M18 may actually have been crewed by men from Company C, 811th Tank Destroyer Battalion, who made their way through German lines and attached themselves to the 609th on 20 December.67
After waging a more scattered and confused defensive action than that in Noville, the remnants of Team Cherry fell back to the MLR near Neffe, one mile outside Bastogne.
* * *
Company B/705th’s 1st and 3d platoons were deployed near Neffe with the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment when the panzers and grenadiers attacked at 1930 hours on 20 December. 1st Platoon’s M18s fired flares to illuminate the enemy and destroyed three panzers while raking the infantry with machine-gun fire. Third Platoon also reported destroying three panzers.68