He escaped from the camp and headed for the Russian lines, surviving on snow and sugar beets. The 51st Engineer Combat Battalion continued to man roadblocks and hold bridges in the area until 3 January.Throughout the Ardennes, divisional, corps, and army engineer units on the front lines and in rear areas participated valiantly in a sometimes desperate attempt to stem the tide of the unexpected German counteroffensive. So, again, I thank you for this article and I will share what information I have discovered here to my siblings. Here forty men or so of the 81st Engineer Combat Battalion (106th Division) joined the 168th. Unfortunately, my father passed in 2011, and I have always been disappointed in myself for not taking some time to sit down with him to hear his experiences. Army. Office of History.] Minutes later, Captain Hodges heard an explosion that sounded like a bazooka round, and the German tank slipped into View between two buildings. displayed by the personnel of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion, in delaying and : Situation 2400 hrs. lt caught fire and its 105-mm. [2] These spanned such diverse activities as construction, demolition, sanitation, map production, minefield clearing, and unit intelligence. Colonel Riggs ordered his men to break up in small groups and attempt to escape to the rear. Indeed, the Battle of the Bulge was an important turning point in the war in the Allies’ favor, but it was not without its cost. Having delayed the enemy advance for a day and allowed some more supplies to reach beleaguered Bastogne, the 158th retired to the west to establish still more barrier lines. Huertgen Forest, 1944: The Worst Place of Any General Related Links He also told us ( his sons and daughter ) that he was at the Battle of the Bulge ( among other actions ). Engineers sweep for mines in the snow during the Ardennes campaign. JUST TO THE south of the Elsenborn Ridge we left Obersturmbannführer Jochen Peiper camped just outside Stavelot on the night of 17–18 December.A town of about 5,000, Stavelot, like Malmedy and St Vith, had religious roots. Snaking their way along the twisted Ardennes road network, the German battle groups were bent on reaching the Meuse River with the least possible delay. US Army Battle of the Bulge 17 December 1944 to 5 January 1945 1st Army: Lt. General Courtney H. Hodges 526th Armored Infantry Battalion 99th Infantry Battalion 61st Engineer Battalion 158th Engineer Battalion 299th Engineer Battalion 300th Engineer Battalion 1278th Engineer Battalion Troop B, 125th Cavarly Reconnaissance Squadron On December 15th, just prior to the onset of hostile action, the 1278th was attached to the 1128th Engineer Combat Group, which was located in the vicinity of Habay-la-Vieille, Belgium, and consisted of the 1278th, 158th, and 299th Engineer Combat Battalions, the 467th Engineer Maintenance Company, and the 626th Engineer Light Equipment Company. Just a few miles to the southwest, engineers of the 35th Combat Battalion occupied positions blocking another crossing of the Ourthe River and, reinforced by an engineer base depot company, held off German tanks and infantry for most of the day. Thank you for posting this article. The Battle of the Bulge is considered one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The citation reads as containing a powerful enemy force along a route of vital importance to the Allied FUSAG -- Situation 1200 hrs. On the morning of 17 December, as German troops were cutting off and surrounding the regiments of the 106th, the division commander ordered Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J.Riggs, Jr., the commander of the 81st, to establish defensive positions east of the important crossroads at St. Vith. Headquarters First United States Date of situation printed on each sheet, e.g. Engineer officers, like Riggs, Pergrin, Fraser, and Yates, insisted on staying in their positions, even when other Americans fled to the rear: Relying on their training in defensive operations, engineer troops established roadblocks with whatever troops and weapons were at hand, blew up bridges, planted minefields, and succeeded, often at the cost of heavy casualties, in delaying the powerful German armored columns. A soldier from the 51st Engineer Combat Battalion checks a TNT charge during the Battle of the Bulge. Under the cover of winter weather, Hitler and his generals massed some 25 divisions opposite the Ardennes and planned to crash through the thinly held American front, cross the Meuse River, and drive to Antwerp. It was their first news of him since St. Vith.Other divisional and nondivisional engineer units found themselves in situations similar to the 81st during the first few days of the German offensive. On the 20th, however, the forward positions of the 51st along the Our-the toward La Roche came under German attack, and by early morning on the next day, enemy armor reached Hotton. I have been looking for information concerning my father`s time in WW2 ETO. While another detachment of the 291st wired one bridge south of the village, Company C, reinforced by an antitank gun and a squad of armored infantry, prepared its defenses. This is the order of battle of German and Allied forces during the Battle of the Bulge — specifically, at a point near the end of the battle, which lasted from 16 December 1944 until 25 January 1945.. As with any large Army organization in extended combat, forces and their assignments shifted over the course of the battle. J J J From D-day on, the Allies had swept quickly across Europe—sometimes getting too far The determination, devotion to duty, and unyielding fighting spirit The battalion set up essential roadblocks and prepared hasty defenses. 4-0, War Department Battle Honors–Citation of Units: GENERAL ORDERS WAR DEPARTMENT No. Thank you for posting this article. Trois Ponts was the headquarters of the 1111th Engineer Combat Group, and one of its units, the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion, had detachments working throughout the area. One of the new divisions there was the 106th Infantry, which had relieved the 2d Infantry Division starting on 10 December. moving in the direction of Malmedy were engaged. The 300 th Combat Engineers Company A, Company B, Company C and it was their job blow up or to build bridges. In spite of mines the 158th had hastily planted on the road in front of the bridge, the tanks seized it. During that march, Colonel Riggs lost 40 pounds. Richardson vet served as a combat engineer in Battle of the Bulge. Another combat battalion, the 299th, had prepared the bridge for demolition; and one of its platoons, reinforced by some tank destroyers on their way to Bastogne, was defending the bridge when German troops attacked early on 20 December. These small groups of engineers played important roles in the Battle of the Bulge. An American tank destroyer, which had slipped off the road and into the river a few days earlier, provided the artillery. The 291st received a Presidential Citation for its "outstanding performance of duty in action" for holding a defensive position against a German offensive from 17 December to 26 December in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge: As authorized by Executive Order No. duty in action against the enemy from 17 to 26 December 1944, in Belgium. In early December 1944, five American divisions and a cavalry group held the 85-mile-long Ardennes front. It is evident that the Infantry could not have succeeded without the support of the courageous and hardworking Combat Engineers. follows: The 291st Engineer Combat Battalion is cited for outstanding performance of 291st Engineer Combat Battalion was assigned the mission of establishing and round wedged between the turret and the hull, and as the smoke cleared, the 51st saw the German crew abandoning the tank. On his way back to the unit, Riggs stopped in Paris for a debriefing and made his first contact with his unit when he ran into some engineers from the 81st in a bar. If the offensive succeeded, it would split the British and American armies and, Hitler hoped, force the British out of the war Before daybreak on 16 December 1944, the German army launched its last desperate offensive, completely surprising the American divisions in the Ardennes. In the meantime the Germans broke through in the Battle of the Bulge. Engineers (Builders and Fighters) in the Battle of the Bulge Hits: 43340 Although D-day gave the western Allies a beachhead in northern France, it took them almost two months of bitter fighting to break out of the Normandy hedgerows. enemy armor and infantry on roadblocks and defensive positions and, in each Howard C. Speck ( d. 2011 ). Equipped with some mines and a bazooka, the detachment delayed the column for a few hours. 333, War Department, 1943, in the name of the President, of the United States Each quadrangle sheet shows the position of the 12th Army Group and adjacent Allied Forces and of the German units for each day from D-Day (6 June 1944) thru 26 July 1945. These included the deployment and operation of assault boats and the construction of various pontoon bridges,[5] including M1 treadways, and modular steel truss Bailey bridges. Also included are units of the 8th and 9th Army Air Forces. An unidentified soldier volunteered to flush out this tank and crossed the bridge with a bazooka and two rounds of ammunition. antitank gun, but Private Lee Ishmael of the 51st volunteered to man the weapon. During the afternoon of the 17th, engineers manning a roadblock on the outskirts of Malmedy heard small arms fire coming from a crossroads just southeast of their position. As he rolled into a ditch, he heard machine gun fire close by. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/291st_Engineer_Combat_Battalion_(United_States) In addition to two squads of engineers, Hodges’ small force included a 7th Armored Division tank, which the engineers discovered in a nearby ordnance shop. After the breakout, Allied armies raced across France, liberated Paris, and headed toward the German frontier. As the American front in the Ardennes collapsed, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his subordinates redeployed their forces as quickly as they could to meet the German attack; but while these troops were moving into position, the American commanders had to rely on rear area troops already in the Ardennes. Commanded by Colonel David E. Pergrin, it earned a Presidential Citation for its performance in the Ardennes, blowing up bridges and fighting as infantry in helping stunt the German advance towards Antwerp. 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