guns and asked for American artillery fire on their own positions. The American howitzers, south of Wiltz, also took a hand in slowing the German attack. Communication between the 112th and division headquarters had been sketchy since 16 December, depending on artillery radio nets and liaison officers. A patrol which had been sent from the 3d Battalion to carry the withdrawal order to the 1st Battalion command post, still holding on at Harspelt, failed to get through. A sharp hairpin turn breaks the descent; then the road crosses the river into the northern edge of Clerf near the railroad station and enters the main highway. a blasted bridge three kilometers east of Heinerscheid and established However, these unit designations were short-lived. But Germans struck again and again. Here it lay astride the main attack axis of the German LXVII Panzer Corps of the Fifth Panzer Army headed to Bastogne, Belgium, and points west. When daylight came, the German infantry already were stealing through the draws behind and around the forward platoons, aiming to assemble in the wooded areas to the rear.14. observers could see the enemy assembling in the woods just to the north. and the U.S. 84th Division had essayed an attack in the sector around By nightfall the American perimeter had been pierced at many points and the defenders pushed back into the center of Wiltz. For this reason the fight put up by the 112th Infantry on the north flank of the division had little or no effect on the operations of its sister regiment east of Bastogne. Tanks, tank destroyers, and guns were rushed up from the depots at Mayen, but on 15 December the two panzer grenadier regiments were still missing 60 percent of their regular rifle strength and the panzer regiment had ready only one of its two battalions (with 27 Mark IV's and 30 Panthers). The 3rd Battalion of the 395th Infantry Regiment (3/395), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel McClernand Butler, occupied the town of Hfen on the German border. Their fate is unknown. Two hours later the 112th Infantry acknowledged receipt of these instructions. The 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment draws its origins from Civil War era units, including the 13th, 15th, and 17th Pennsylvania Regiments and still maintains the right to possess the silver bands and battle streamers awarded for battle service in the Peninsula and Virginia 18611863 campaigns and for participation in the battles of Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania. A scratch platoon of less than fifty men collected from the regimental headquarters and Ouren held the supporting German infantry at bay along the ridge east of the village. At the chteau, however, headquarters company still was hard pressed by riflemen and machine gunners in the houses nearby. The 112th Infantry's attack plan for 2 November designated the 1st and 3d Battalions to attack cross country at H plus 3 hours (1200) in a column of battalions, the 1st leading. In 2004-2005, A Company, 1st Battalion, was deployed with Task Force Dragoon to Tikrit Iraq. The 112th was the first war-strength National Guard regiment in the United States. Although delayed by inadequate deliveries of POL and the traffic jam on the damaged Dasburg-Marnach road the entire division, including its tank regiment, assembled on the west bank around Heinerscheid during the night of 17-18 December. cannon company gunners quickly bore-sighted their pieces, loaded reduced charge, and with direct fire knocked out four of the panzers. antitank guns supplemented the weapons organic to the conventional Volks Grenadier division. Attempts during the evening to send a task force of stragglers and trains forward from the 28th Division headquarters at Sibret were abortive; the roads east to Wiltz now were blocked every few kilometers by enemy infantry and self-propelled guns. Then rolling down the Marnach road came the German advance guard, perhaps two platoons of Mark IV tanks and as many as thirty half-tracks filled with armored grenadiers. 5 During the division attack of 2-1 November in the Schmidt-Vossenack sector the 28th had taken 6,184 casualties. The Battle of Hrtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hrtgenwald) was a series of battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the Hrtgen Forest, a 140 km 2 (54 sq mi) area about 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the Belgian-German border. This seemed to be the most endangered sector of the whole division front, for here the 2d Panzer Division had been identified and here was the main hard-surface road to Bastogne. Company B held Marnach. Accurately adjusted fire held the enemy battalion at bay and forced reverse suffered by the assault company of the 60th Regiment Company D positions had been taken by assault only a few minutes earlier. The advance was delayed somewhat when the grenadiers marched into an American mine field, but by 0800 the leading Germans had reached Marnach. To compensate for the armored weakness of the battered division, two battalions of armored tank destroyers and an assault gun brigade were given Bayerlein just before the attack to the west began. The battalion became an, In 2003 the battalion deployed 350 soldiers to, In October 2003, the battalion re-organized as a, In September, 2005, the battalion deployed to. The unit was mustered out of federal service on 6 December 1945 at Camp Gordon, Georgia. At night the strip between the ridge and the river became a no man's land where German and American patrols stalked one another. The refused positions of the 2d Battalion allowed fairly free use of a regimental reserve during both days and good counterattack plans were ready. The entire action lasted ten minutes. Our expert research specialists are on site at U.S. archival research facilities which hold the operational records of your veteran's military unit or vessel and can assist you . The fight in the Schmidt area had cost the 112th Infantry alone about 2,000 killed, wounded, missing, and nonbattle casualties. The 28ID is the oldest continuously serving division in the United States Army. In any case the defenders made radio contact (their last) with the 28th Division as late as 0528 on the morning of 18 December. in the bogs and swamps of southwest Holland, where the 30 British Corps First, Luettwitz could not allow any slackening to an infantry pace by frontal attacks against strongly defended American positions. The Bellefonte unit was designated as Troop L, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 104th Armored Cavalry. by CHARLES B. MACDONALD--249--Attack on Vossenack . First the Werfers and guns pounded the front line, particularly the 1st Battalion positions. This was the Mark V Battalion of the 116th Panzer Division assembling to lead the attack toward the Ouren bridges. In 1949, the Bellefonte unit was redesignated Battery B, 688th Field Artillery. He expected that the tactics of predawn infiltration would pay off and that his assault detachments would have reached the crest line, Lascheid-Heinerscheid-Roder-Hosingen, before noon on D-day. started a march intended to bring it east of Sevenig on the left of The origins of the 1st Battle Group are derived from the 112th Infantry Regiment in which it was . Shortly before noon a platoon of Company B's tanks reached the hardpressed field artillery battery near Buchholz and reported the situation in hand.8 But the enemy here represented only the probing forefinger of the main attack. World War II: Another great uncle, 2LT Elton Barry Arnett, was an infantry platoon leader with Co. C, 1/112th Infantry, 28th Infantry Division. About 1830 troops at the battalion observation post reported that enemy vehicles were attacking with multiple 20-mm. The 304th Regiment had suffered severely at American hands: the regimental commander was a casualty and one battalion had been badly scattered during the piecemeal counterattacks by the American tank platoons. Aside from patrol activity (generally small raids against individual pillboxes) the 112th Infantry sector had been quiet. Separated of necessity by the width of the front and the requirements of some depth in the defenses athwart the east-west roads, the units of the 110th could offer little reciprocal support against an enemy attacking in any force. Jones attached the 112th Infantry to his own division on the spot, assuring Nelson that he would assume full responsibility. It had ninety-two Panthers and forty-seven Mark IV tanks; perhaps 40 percent of its organic vehicles were missing. In a matter of minutes the left company ran into a strong German skirmish line, deployed at the edge of a wood, which was supported by tanks and self-propelled artillery firing from around Marnach. This battery was driven from Buchholz with the loss of half its howitzers. 1st Battalion has worked [its] way back." Battery B fired its few remaining rounds to cover the other batteries, the battalion assembling during the evening at a crossroad southeast of Harlange. was reached midway between Bastogne and the Meuse. The unit was awarded the sattle streamer marked Puerto Rico for their service. had no cohesive line of defense, General Kokott had ordered the 77th Regiment to circle north of Hosingen and head straight for the Clerf bridges at Drauffelt, while the 39th cut cross-country, avoiding the villages on the western side of the ridge line, and seized the road junction and bridges at Wilwerwiltz on the Clerf. The capitulation of the gallant garrison at Hosingen, during the morning, removed this threat to the 902d supply road. There was no hint from any source that the enemy was about to strike squarely into the center of the 8th Division and in overwhelming array. indicate a co-ordinated attack. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division needed Hosinen badly. ridge, covering an observation post. Company I (minus the platoon at Wahlhausen), a section of 81-mm. On the evening of 15 December the outpost troops, considerably reinforced, crossed to the west bank as usual and moved cautiously forward. Colonel Nelson at this moment had two contradictory orders and would have to risk his regiment if he carried out either. Conforming to these instructions the 2d Panzer Division moved its assault columns to Dasburg during the night of 15-16 December but halted in assembly areas east of the river. The tankers had been told that there were no friendly troops on the road and just Outside Holzthum knocked out an antitank gun placed there by Company I. Colonel Nelson sent back request after request for air support. It became the 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team. In Marnach the hard-beset garrison fought on, now under the command of the battalion executive officer, Capt. But the German infantry were more vulnerable and their march was delayed for several hours before engineers and self-propelled 88's finally set the riddled chteau afire and forced the Americans to surrender. About 0730 the two rifle companies of the 2d Battalion jumped off at the ridge east of Clerf. The bulk of his very limited reserve consisted of the 2d Battalion, 110th Infantry, and the 707th Tank Battalion. Fortunately radio contact was re-established from Weiswampach shortly after midnight and the 1st Battalion was given orders to withdraw through the former 3d Battalion positions. On the morning of the 20th Jones ordered the regiment to sideslip back to the east, reoccupy Beiler, and dig in along the eastwest ridge line, Leithum-Beiler-Malscheid. The 112th Infantry Regiment has a history that dates back long before World War II started. The 112th Infantry Regiment was formed and officially designated as the 16th Infantry from . VIII Corps: Medical Support in the Battle of the Bulge In addition to the organic medical support provided in its infantry and armored divisions, the VIII Corps, First U.S. Army, in the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge possessed a well-organized and experienced medical support structure with the 64th Medical Group and its two separate medical battalions, the 169th . exercises to arrive at a solution, but Bastogne lay nineteen air-miles He personally rated four of his armored divisions as good attack formations (the 116th, 2d, Panzer Lehr, and Fuehrer Begleit), and his panzer corps commanders were of his own choosing. The 112th Infantry Regiment returned home in April 1919 and was mustered out of federal service on 6 May 1919 at Camp Dix, New Jersey. columns. Marnach garrison out of the way, but an hour later Company B radioed that three hundred Germans were northwest and southwest of Marnach. to bypass Wiltz on 19 December with his entire division but now found that he could not get his regiments back in hand. Only three of the howitzers left could be withdrawn and losses among the cannoneers and drivers were high. He was an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School (1938-1940). United States Army, Historical and Pictorial Review of the 28th Infantry Division in World War II, 1946, page 16, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Distinguished Unit Citation with oak leaf, "112th Infantry Regiment (Sixteenth Pennsylvania)", United States Army Center of Military History, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=112th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)&oldid=1107738250, Infantry regiments of the United States Army National Guard, Military units and formations in Pennsylvania, United States Army units and formations in the Korean War, Infantry regiments of the United States Army, Military units and formations established in 1878, Articles needing additional references from September 2009, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2014, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. The numerous pillboxes provided a substantial amount of cover; the 3d Battalion, for example, was not seriously endangered until the attacking tanks maneuvered close enough for direct fire. This article appears in: . At dawn a single tank or self-propelled gun began firing from the curving road to the south; more enemy infantry joined the fire fight near the chteau as the morning advanced. U.S. Army photo. He wanted an attack on a broad front with both tank corps in the line at the opening gun-this point Hitler conceded. On orders, the three remaining assault guns went back to cover the wrecked structure. 1600 casualties and destroyed 18 tanks during nine days of continuous action, which later became known as the "Battle of the Bulge." The Regiment was awarded . Here about ten o'clock, Battery C of the 229th came under direct tank fire but stopped the tanks with howitzer fire at close range while Company C of the 447th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion used its quad mount machine guns to chop down the infantry following behind. Colonel Nelson decided to pull back through Huldange since enemy tanks were known to be in Trois Vierges. the 156th Regiment. Patrols could not reach the 1st Battalion and at dusk the 3d Battalion reported that the panzers finally were in position to rake its ridge defenses with fire from the north-the pillbox line no longer was tenable. It was accounted the regimental reserve, having fixed schemes of employment for support of the two battalions in the north by counterattack either northeast or southeast. Co-ordination between small packets of infantry and armor, hard at best, was made most difficult by this kind of piecemeal commitment. 17 But the situation east of Bastogne was growing more precarious and the division commander decided to bring the 112th back to join in the defense of Bastogne. Arriving in France in late Spring 1918 . Crest: The crest is that of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Just east of Bastogne the roads straightened somewhat, but The company leading the left battalion surprised a platoon of Company L at breakfast, overran the company kitchen (which was only 800 to goo yards behind the rifle line) and killed the platoon commander. Beautifully illustrated with 200 photographs. A sharp attack drove a provisional platoon, made up from the 28th Division band, off the high ground to the northwest, thus exposing the engineer line. The Americans were not too worried by the flanking move because tanks of the 10th Armored Division were expected momentarily. The road center at Wiltz and the bridges there were only about twelve miles from Bastogne. Sufficient trucks were available to motorize most of the division, but there was a shortage of tracked cross-country vehicles. Each division was reinforced with additional self-propelled assault guns or tank destroyers and each had a full complement of divisional artillery (four battalions for the infantry division and three motorized battalions in the armored divisions). the code name for the coming offensive. Completely surrounded by the enemy, it had hoped to join the withdrawal of the line companies. Eighteen men put up devastating fire against the first attack of over 500 German paratroopers. . MacDonald, Charles B. good tank-going could not be expected until the Marche-Rochefort line The 44th Combat Engineers, the rear guard unit at Wiltz, probably suffered most, the enemy accounting for 18 officers and 160 men during the final withdrawal. The bulk of the 3d Battalion held their positions despite surprise, defending from pillboxes and foxholes. George C. Rickards, a career Pennsylvania National Guard officer, was promoted to Colonel as commander of the 16th Pennsylvania in 1907. The American. Colonel Fuller had ordered a platoon of the 2d Battalion to swing south and bar the road, but it was already dominated by the German armor. When the 2d Panzer Division was relieved at the end of September its tanks were gone, but there remained a large cadre of veterans who had escaped to the West Wall on foot. Leaderless, the platoon broke. To the east, at Dasburg, the German engineers were straining to finish the tank bridge which would bring the German armor into play. (Strickler made it to the latter point where General Cota placed him in charge of the defense.) In response to their call for reinforcement and ammunition four tanks fought their way through the German infantry along the Skyline Drive, arriving in Hosingen about 2200-but with no rifle ammunition. The first American planes arrived at 0935, immobilizing the German tanks momentarily. At that crucial point the infantry had to take Bastogne as quickly as possible, with or without the help of the armored divisions. The dates of its approval and amendment are also the same. The 39th Regiment had got involved in local actions and been diverted from the westward axis-sustaining high losses in the bargain. Rocco J. Infantrymen of the 110th Infantry, 28th Div., US 1st Army following the German breakthrough in that area, Bastogne, Belgium, 19 December 1944. and the few remaining towed tank destroyers of Company B, 630th Tank the 109th and 112th Regiments gave ground slowly, but they . 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