Some additional help for the 112th did arrive before daybreak on 17 December, four self-propelled tank destroyers out of the 811th Tank Destroyer Battalion borrowed from Combat Command Reserve, 9th Armored Division, at Trois Vierges. 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. In fact, detachments of the 39th Regiment had crossed the Skyline Drive unobserved and were moving in to surprise Holzthum. The authors do a great job of telling the the story with first-person accounts from the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted. Company A, directly in the way, lost a platoon to tanks rolling and firing methodically along the foxhole line. Colonel Nelson's antitank reserve, Company C, 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was deployed on the ridge west of the river, but these were towed guns, dug in and relatively immobile. Company D, in its support position on the high ground overlooking Ltzkampen, meanwhile commenced mopping up the enemy who had filtered between the companies on the line. On the left of the regimental zone, the 1st Battalion (Lt. Col. Donald Paul) held the intersection of the Skyline Drive and the Dasburg-Bastogne main highway at Marnach, employing Company B and a platoon from the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion. This company was also in Altoona. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division, which had allowed the 112th to go about its training program with only very minor interruption, marched south to join the XLVII Panzer Corps and take part in the attack for Bastogne. 3. The latter consisted of three divisions. been deployed along the Wahlhausen road on the forward slope of the In June 1880, Company A, 45th Pennsylvania Volunteers were reorganized as Company B, 5th Pennsylvania Infantry (Bellefonte Fencibles). The 902d, advancing by way of Munshausen, now cleared of Americans, followed. was low and the short winter day was drawing to a close-with the likelihood that the small garrisons would be overwhelmed in the darkness by sheer weight of numbers. The Huntingdon unit went through several redesignations including a quartermaster company and finally Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 154th Transportation Truck Battalion. 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 . Outnumbered and outgunned, the men of the 110th Infantry Regiment upset the German timetable during the Battle of the Bulge. The responsibility for command here was assumed directly by the VIII Corps. The 26th Volks Grenadier Division needed Hosinen badly. This road makes a twisted and tortuous descent to the valley floor, finally crossing the river at the southeastern edge of the town and proceeding, through narrow streets until it emerges on the north. With the first light some eighteen Mark V tanks started down the ridge spur pointing toward Ouren; at the same time the 1130th Regiment and the 156th Regiment resumed the attack to cut off and destroy the forward American companies. Less than two miles west of Marnach lay the Clerf River and the town of Clerf, the latter the headquarters of the 110th Infantry. The second battalion's Companies G and H lost a combined total of 200 men out of 230 when they were cut off at Fismette and fended off a frontal attack on their position by a thousand German soldiers. The 560th Volks Grenadier Division (Generalmajor Rudolf Langhaeuser) was assigned two specific bridges as targets, one just north of Ouren, the other a stone arch a little to the south of the village. In the darkness and confusion many stragglers made their way into Bastogne and Vaux-lez-Rosires. . Back at Hosingen the attempt to break American resistance had won an early lodgment in the south edge of the village, but had achieved no more. It is impossible to assess in hours the violence done the 2d Panzer Division timetable at Clerf, but it is clear that the race by this division to Bastogne was lost as the result of the gallant action by the 110th Infantry in front of and at the Clerf crossings. August 1944 was a disastrous month for the Third Reich. This was the Mark V Battalion of the 116th Panzer Division assembling to lead the attack toward the Ouren bridges. 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. a bridgehead over the Our at the boundary between the 112th Infantry Considerable damage had been done the German assault forces. In May of the same year the Sheridan Troop was assigned to Squadron B which was redesignated as 2d Squadron in 1911. 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 . At the same time a tank platoon, shrouded in darkness and with no American tanks left to contest the passage, wound its way into the south end of Clerf. Minus his heavy weapons, the enemy failed to knock the. Tank Battalion-some six crippled tanks and five assault guns was gathered But the tactical effect of this artillery preparation was considerably less than the German planners had anticipated. General Cota had been trying through most of the morning to reach Nelson. One battalion of armored infantry was given bicycles, and would move so slowly through the mud and over the hills that its function during the drive to the west was simply that of a replacement battalion, feeding into the more mobile units up ahead. Extensive pine forests covered much of the area, making observation difficult. Accurately adjusted fire held the enemy battalion at bay and forced Cota, as it turned out, already had phoned the corps commander and asked permission to bring the 112th back to the high ground west of the river. The total impact of the severe German blows dealt the 110th Infantry in the late afternoon and evening of 17 December was not felt at the division and corps headquarters for several hours. Both flanks of the regiment, however, were in process of being uncovered by enemy thrusts against the neighboring units-although this effect may not have been immediately apparent. Despite the failure of his Fifth Panzer Army in the Lorraine campaign against Patton's Third Army, Manteuffel was listed by Hitler for command in the Ardennes. battalion of the 112th. 194 Glider Infantry Regiment Interrogation & Patrol Reports, Dec 1944-Jan. 1945 . The Huntingdon unit was the Howitzer Battery 1st Battalion of the 104th Armored Cavalry and the unit in Everett was a Detachment of Company B, 167th Quartermaster Battalion and then was converted to Company C, 1st Battalion 110th Infantry. Communication between the 112th and division headquarters had been sketchy since 16 December, depending on artillery radio nets and liaison officers. Two hours later the 112th Infantry acknowledged receipt of these instructions. . Nonetheless he advised Cota to withdraw the 110th back of the Clerf, that "under the circumstances it was necessary." The entire action lasted ten minutes. It was the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the . The 3d Battalion (Maj. Harold F. Milton) formed the regimental right, with its companies on both sides of the ridge line. 107th Field Artillery Battalion (105 Howitzer) . 1st Cavalry . On the ridges which look down over Wiltz more Germans appeared in the early evening, apparently. The regimental cannon company also provided some interested spectators, who trained their howitzers on Heinerscheid with such good effect that enemy records take rueful note of this harassing fire from the north. Two lieutenants from I Company examine German weapons abandoned at Schoppen. 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. With daylight the fire lifted and the enemy infantry advanced, attacking in one wave after another as the morning progressed but making no headway. At nearly every point the American tanks would have to fight their way down the roads to reach the infantry holding the villages. He was able to convince the Army Group B commander that a stand should be taken on a number of tactical points which, in Manteuffel's judgment, were essential to success in the forthcoming attack. 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. Some artillery support was still available from a battery of the 687th Field Artillery Battalion, whose shells swept the open fields between the two villages. the code name for the coming offensive. 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. In October 1919, the battalion's units were Company M, 112th Infantry (Lewistown), 103rd Trench Mortar Battery, 103rd Engineer Battalion (Tyrone), Company F, 112th Infantry (Huntingdon), Company A, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Everett), Company G, 10th Pennsylvania Infantry (Altoona), and elements of the 108th and 109th Field Artillery (Bellefonte). The remainder of the casualties were fairly evenly split between the 109th Infantry to the . On 18 December what was left of the 110th Infantry was wiped out or withdrew to the west.11 Survivors in the north headed toward Donnange and, with Company G, joined elements of the 9th Armored Division to make a stand. 112th Infantry Regiment. The presence of enemy tanks in Ltzkampen constituted a distinct threat, even to infantry in pillboxes. To the surprise of the division staff the task of re-equipping and replenishing the 26th went amazingly fast for the beginning of the sixth year of the war. These units combined have 17 campaign streamers from the American Civil War: Po Valley, Manassas, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Battle of Appomattox, Virginia 1861, South Carolina 1862, Mississippi 1863, Tennessee 1863. The 112th Infantry Considerable damage had been sketchy since 16 December, on. For command here was assumed directly by the VIII Corps Ltzkampen constituted a distinct,. 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