Sell, Buy or Rent Panzers in Winter: Hitler's Army and the Battle of VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army (Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945.. What a fantastic real-life story or is it? 13th Flak Division 651 . The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. Still quite a feat for a little Greyhound, though well probably never know conclusively. 120th Infantry Regiment (30th Infantry Division) 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion 319th Field Artillery Glider Battalion 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment German Units 3d Parachute Division 12th SS Panzer Division 18th Volksgrenadier Division 246th Volsgrenadier Division 884th March Battalion 905th Assault Gun Brigade The Seventh Armored Division in the Battle of St. Vith. Perrin told General Hoge, You can continue this attack on towards this back country, but you must be back on this side of the river by nightfall.. I have come to believe is that this type of fight happened more than once. Dragon 1629 1/16th Feldwebel 352nd Volksgrenadier Division R 275.00. Volksgrenadier-Division. Sell, buy or rent Panzers in Winter: Hitler's Army and the Battle of the Bulge (Praeger Security I 9780275971151 0275971155, we buy used or new for best buyback price with FREE shipping and offer great deals for buyers. Having first conferred with General Jones, Hoge ordered a withdrawal from the river to begin after nightfall. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division. According to British penetration diagrams from 1944, the 37 mm M6 gun firing its standard round, the 37 mm APC M51, could, under ideal conditions, penetrate the 80 mm thick rear hull armor angled at 9 degrees when firing at an angle of 0 degrees, albeit just barely. Fortunately for Colonel Reid, word came at about 1730 that his 424th Infantry Regiment was to withdraw immediately. 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. (1944) 111 111. Panzer Tracts No. The 18. The brigade had 9,000 men, Mark IV tanks, assault guns, 104mm and 105mm artillery, 88mm antiaircraft guns, and a number of heavy automatic weapons batteries. 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 surviving Volksgrenadiers fled in disarray. It is a classic David versus Goliath tale straight out of World War II that features American heroism. Little offtopic here but another misidentification might be the 1 destroyed 88mm assault gun (Ferdinand). According to Hugh M. Cole, an American historian and army officer. Perhaps the most unlikely performer of the entire battle was the 18th Volksgrenadier Division. Although the American forces in the St. Vith area came under command of General Ridgways XVIII Airborne Corps, the Airborne Corps itself was under the command of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, overall commander of the northern sector of the Bulge. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division.The division, which was under the command of Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn, absorbed elements of the 18th Luftwaffe Field Division. While making his reconnaissance at Monschau he received an urgent message to call V Corps headquarters. So its quite possible! Jones had been counting on this when he sent Hoges 9th Armored Command to Winterspelt rather than Schoenberg. Furthermore, the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadrons After Action Report (AAR) for the month of December 1944, written by Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Laurence Boylan, the commanding officer of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron at the time, makes no mention of this event either. 10 Apr. Were any of these Tiger Is and or Tiger IIs knocked out on the 18th of December, 1944? 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. On the road to Winterspelt, General Hoge soon learned that the situation there was worse than General Jones had described. Division 4. 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. During ceremonies observing the 20th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, General Clarke was able to talk to General Manteuffel and discuss German operations against St. Vith. The Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies were to advance abreast, cross the Meuse River, and then drive for the Belgian port city of Antwerp, a major staging and supply center for the Allied armies in western Europe. 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 division's intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Robert P. Stout, noted that the division faced two known enemy divisions, the 18th Volksgrenadier Division and the 26th Volksgrenadier Division. However, by noon on December 18 it was quite apparent to Hoge that the Germans infiltrating across the river were converging on the bridge in such numbers that it had to be blown. VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army ( Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. It is certainly possible that the tank destroyed in this engagement was a Panzer IV or a StuG III but in the absence of new evidence coming to light it can only be concluded that either the Greyhound crew knocked out a completely different tank or were otherwise exaggerating some action. Airfix J6017 Volkswagen Camper Van (Quick Build) R 405.00. The last Tiger II belonged to Schwere Panzer Abteilung 506 (Heavy Tank Battalion 506) and was lost to enemy fire on the Lentzweiler road in Luxemburg. These German tanks would later be specified to be Panzer IVs or Mark IVs. Double-talking his identification over the radio with allusions to West Point football days, Ridgway gave Hoge a location at which to meet him. Jones wanted Clarke to counterattack immediately with his combat command and break that ring that these people have closed around the Schnee Eifel.. events, and resources, The Battle of the Bulge & The Defense of St. Vith. 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. The original story, if there even was one, was told and retold and distorted until everyone and their brother claimed to know the guys that did it. This one, however, most likely did not. Wikizero - 18th Volksgrenadier Division Infanterie-Division 19398 . However, Company B, 27th AIB was sent to help ease the situation, covering the cavalrys left flank. Those men were a scrappy bunch. 12th Volksgrenadier Division 89; 197; 487; 557; 650; 727. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. Heer - TracesOfWar.com The move would also have to be done under the cover of darkness in severe wintry conditions. Battle of the Bulge 1944 (1): St Vith and the Northern Shoulder. By 1300 on the 21st, the entire line was ablaze with German artillery, rockets, tanks, and infantry. At 0600 Im going to start to move.. 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. EnWik > 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) The fight lasted for more than three hours before the Germans withdrew, leaving one burning tank and approximately 150 dead. Schneider, Wolfgang. Ardennes 1944: Hitlers Last Gamble. 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. At approximately 0530 on December 16, eight German armored divisions and 13 infantry divisions launched their all-out attack on five divisions of the U.S. First Army. 281st Security Division (281. 18th Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) - Military Wiki Add to cart. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating 571. Infantry divisions would begin the attack along the entire length of a 50-mile front, forcing a rupture along the Allied line and giving the German panzer divisions freedom of movement in the unoccupied ground beyond the front. How about a Tiger II? Counter to the plan laid out earlier by General Jones, Hoge had decided to launch his attack on Winterspelt with the entire 14th Tank Battalion as the lead element rather than with the more vulnerable infantry of the 27th AIB. Johnston, W. Wesley. English Edition, Casemate Publishers, 2014. The Germans attacked the center of the 27th AIB. Should 7th Armored lose St. Vith, 9th Armored would be unable to withdraw on its own axis. 188 was raised in late 1939. This was no place to conduct a mobile defense with armor-heavy forces. Clarke, Bruce. Volksgrenadier-Division. The closest primary German armored thrust route to the south ran through Burg Reuland, also about five miles from St. Vith. Troop D, 89th Recon held the sector from Steinebruck to Weppeler while A Company, 27th AIB put up a defensive line anchored on the high ground east of Maspelt. 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. On 18 January 1945, the final alignment became (XVIII Corps, U. S. First Army, 12th Army Group) -- the alignment in the hierarchy given here. Osprey Publishing, 2003. Rapidly, the M8 advanced to within 25 yards (23 meters) of the Tiger I and quickly pumped three rounds into its rear. One Day at Stavelot, a Tale of Two Archives The Tiger II vs US Tank Destroyers in the Ardennes. The U.S. 9th Armored Division contested the German advance around St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge, and won precious time in the process. 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. Manteuffel met near Wallerode with Model and Lucht that day. . Model informed Manteuffel that he would be given the Fhrer Escort Brigade, which was nearly equal in strength to an American light armored division, for the upcoming assault on St. Vith. Excellent deductive research! A platoon of tank destroyers had vanished. Two of its tanks were mired in mud that had not frozen and had to be retrieved by a tank dozer. Fifth Panzer was to attack from Prum in the north down to Bitburg and Bastogne in the south. 1945. Inform us! Fortunately, a tank destroyer from Vielsalm turned up and hit the leading two German panzers, which drove the rest for cover. German 18th Volksgrenadier Div. Zaloga, Steven. Bork, Max Hermann (Generalleutnant) - TracesOfWar.com Between these units, a place was found for the provisional company composed of the 424th Infantry stragglers. Maurice Delaval Papers Collection of the Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA. At 0400 hours on 16th December, 1944, men of the German 18th Volksgrenadier Division began to leave their positions and make their way towards the American lines.