VGD) was a volksgrenadierdivision of the German Army(Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Clerks were running everywhere and junior staff officers were arguing among themselves; upstairs, however, Hoge found General Jones remarkably composed. Close. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. At 0100 the 23rd, D Troop, 89th Recon lost an armored car and a jeep to antitank guns. Double-talking his identification over the radio with allusions to West Point football days, Ridgway gave Hoge a location at which to meet him. Johnston, W. Wesley. The guns of two platoons of Company A, 811th Tank Destroyers were overrun. The town was also in Fifth Panzer Armys area of advance. A second attempt on the bridge, made by about 40 men four hours later, was also thrown back by machine-gun fire. 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. Your email address will not be published. On the morning of the December 20, three tank destroyers were placed in support of Company C, 27th AIB. 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 ground was frozen solid. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Combat Interviews of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division: The St. Vith Salient and Manhay, December 17-23, 1944. Little offtopic here but another misidentification might be the 1 destroyed 88mm assault gun (Ferdinand). English Edition, Casemate Publishers, 2014. However, this version of Captain Ansteys account has one key difference: it was not a Tiger I that was knocked out, but rather a Tiger II, almost analogous to the fisherman whose fish gets bigger each time he tells the tale of his catch. The southernmost battle group of the 18th Volksgrenadier would also undertake a mobile thrust and, finally, the 62nd Volksgrenadier would break loose at Heckhuscheid and drive for the Our River Valley. The provisional company of 424th stragglers disappeared during the night. Troop D, 89th Recon had positioned its troop headquarters and first platoon to cover the bridge over the Our. If it was on a slope and firing down to the engine bay, then maybe but that would require it to be at such an angle that the M8 would topple and roll down. 18th Artillery Division 651. Although the 7th Armored Division was finally arriving, General Jones had been led to believe that the whole division would arrive in St. Vith starting at 0700. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. The event simply was not that notable. events, and resources, The Battle of the Bulge & The Defense of St. Vith. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army ( Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=18th_Volksgrenadier_Division&oldid=1127007404, Military units and formations established in 1944, Military units and formations disestablished in 1945, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 11:24. Farther to the north, in the 7th Armored sector, the pressure exerted by the enemy was also intense. Troy Middletons VIII Corps. The new sector assigned to CCB was on the fringe of territory the Sixth Panzer Army had mapped out for its further maneuvers. Johnston, W. Wesley. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Accordingly, that evening Sixth Panzer Army commander Dietrich issued orders to the 2nd SS Panzer Corps to move to the south so that parts of that corps could assist Manteuffel in taking St. Vith. The next move was up to General Lucht and his corps. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. Ninth Armored and its attachments traveled southwest on N26 to the junction with N33 west of Beho, then turned north on N33 to Salmchateau, and finally west on N183 through Lierneux to Malempre-Jevigne, southeast of Manhay. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. An attack to the east by the 7th Armored Division could then relieve the two surrounded regiments of the 106th. The CCB command post was moved to Neubruck, a small group of farmhouses on Braunlauf Creek about two miles southwest of St. Vith. Protected by armor between 25 mm to 145 mm thick and armed with a fearsome 88mm KwK 36 L/56 main gun, the Tiger I was arguably the most feared tank of World War II by Allied soldiers. The heroic defense of St. Vith, though costly in men and materil, disrupted the German timetable extensively. The southern prong was defended by General Hoges CCB, 9th Armored with the weakened 424th Infantry Regiment tied in and bent back protecting Burg Reuland. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. War Department, 1944. Both assault groups suffered heavy casualties. Thus, the Fifth Panzer Army commander ordered that St. Vith be taken no later than the second day of the offensive. Infanterie-Division 193510 [1] 22 22. Slayden, knowing that the nearest units of the 7th Armored Division were at least 60 miles away in the Netherlands, had serious doubts that a whole combat command could reach St. Vith on the 17th, much less by 0700 hours. Osprey Publishing, 2013. The next version of this story can be found in a 1947 book by Major Donald P. Boyer of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion titled St. Vith, The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge, 17-23 December 1944: A Narrative After Action Report. 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. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. There was little they could do other than vow to get the attack moving early on the 20th. 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. Instead of the M8 Greyhound firing three shots into the Tigers rear, the M8 Greyhound in Lieutenant Olsons version of events fired two shots. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. 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. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. Orders for CCB, 9th Armored to move to a new defensive position were issued at 1600. The sector now defended by CCB, 9th Armored extended across five miles of rugged terrain that was primarily held by the three infantry companies making up the 27th AIB. Under the chain of the northern sector command, only General Ridgway was unsure of Field Marshal Montgomerys decision to withdraw from the defense. On his way to St. Vith, General Hoge stopped in Faymonville to alert his command to be prepared to move immediately. Clad in armor between 25 mm and 180 mm thick and armed with deadly 88mm KwK 43 L/71 gun, the Tiger II was one of the deadliest tanks of the Second World War. As the offensive steam came to an end in the Ardennes, the division went on the defensive, and there they would stay. Possibly such events took place in reality. Combat Interviews of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 7th Armored Division: The St. Vith Salient, December 17-23, 1944. Hoge immediately got on the phone and ordered Engeman to move out. VGD division was absorbed into the 26. At least 900 soldiers who had stood in front of the town were either dead or captured. Under cover of automatic weapons fire from a platoon of light tanks, Sergeant Eugene Dorland and two other men from the engineers went into the cold, bullet-splattered water carrying three cases of TNT and placed their charges on the south abutment of the bridge. Tigers In Combat I. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. Griffin, Marcus S. After Action Report, Month of December 1944. Ministry of Supply, 1945. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. 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. Penguin Books, 2016. Mines were laid. 1/18th Scale Cars; 1/24th Scale Assembly Kits; 1/24th Scale Cars; 1/43rd Scale Cars; . Add to cart. Volksgrenadier Division 5. The distance from Burg Reuland on the southeast to Poteau on the northwest was about 10 miles with only a single secondary road as a line of retreat for thousands of men defending the horseshoe against attack from three directions. Zaloga, Steven, and Tony Bryan. When Model released the Fhrer Escort Brigade to General Manteuffel, he thought that he would be able to gain quick access to the St. Vith road network. 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. 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. Combat Interviews of the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division: The St. Vith Salient and Manhay, December 17-23, 1944. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Unionpedia, the concept map 1940 194111. An assault on Thommen forced out the troops holding the town, and efforts to retake it failed. The greatest danger existed in the 424ths position because the regiments flank lay vulnerable to attacks by the 116th Panzer Division to the south. The only known witness to the supposed event, Captain Walter Henry Anstey, died on 26th October 2003 at the age of 90, taking the truth of the events that day to his grave. Yeah but Panthers rear and side armor is very weak, so its completely different story. War Department Field Manual FM 2-20 Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop Mechanized. English PDF (15 MB) Jan B-513 German General Staff Officers, Casualties. The Battle at St. Vith, Belgium 17-23 December 1944 An Historical Example of Armor in the Defense. At about 2130, General Clarke phoned General Hoge to tell him that the enemy was entering St. Vith from the north and that his forces were withdrawing to form a new line northwest of the city. 2014 En route, the officer was approached by a member of General Clarkes staff who told him that German tanks were approaching St. Vith along the road from the north. 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)! According to Hugh M. Cole, an American historian and army officer. The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitlers Winter Offensive. The tanks of the 14th Tank Battalion and the half-tracks of the 27th AIB paused to pick up the foot elements of the 424th RCT, 106th Infantry Division. While 9th Armored was thus engaged in the Winterspelt area during the morning hours of December 17, Brig. Hoge could not see much sense in making an attack, taking ground, and then turning right around and coming back, especially if the attack was successful.