18th volksgrenadier division

On the road to Winterspelt, General Hoge soon learned that the situation there was worse than General Jones had described. By this time the Germans had essentially closed the trap on the two infantry regiments on the Schnee Eifel. The second task force consisted of B Company of the 811th Tank Destroyers. }(document, 'script', 'exco-player')); The M8 Greyhound was a small, 7.9 tonne American armored car with 6.4 mm to 25.4 mm of armor, only enough to protect against rifle caliber bullets, and armed with a 37 mm M6 main gun, a peashooter at this point in the war. An assault on Thommen forced out the troops holding the town, and efforts to retake it failed. The division was formed in Denmark, in September 1944, by redesignating the 571st Volksgrenadier Division. Gen. Herbert T. Perrin, assistant commander of the 106th Infantry Division, drove up carrying a message from General Jones. The story begins on the 18th of December 1944, two days after the start of the German offensive. Panzer Tracts No. How about a Tiger II? The 18th Volksgrenadier Division under the command of Generalmajor Gnther Hoffmann-Schnborn patrolled the Schnee Eifel area. Not to mention that the M8s 37 mm M6 gun is more than capable of penetrating the rear hull armor of the Panzer IV, which was only 20 mm thick angled at 10 degrees. 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. Ministry of Supply, 1945. Ridgway knew Hoge to be calm, courageous, and imperturbable. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18th VGD) was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army ( Heer) during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Maurice Delaval Papers Collection of the Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. The Tiger II, also known as the King Tiger, Royal Tiger, Knigstiger, and Tiger Ausf.B, was an enormous, 69.8 tonne German heavy tank. Hoge has just reported an attack. Two regiments of the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division attacked 9th Armored positions early that morning, their goal to gain the Salm River at Salmchateau. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. 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 line companies were down to one officer apiece. The division had lost four companies of armored infantry. They were repulsed by machine-gun fire. Captain Ansteys version lacks supporting documentation. The losses in men and equipment for CCB, 9th Armored, as with the rest of the American units defending St. Vith, had been severe. 8 Sturmgeschuetz s.Pak to Sturmmoerser. General Hoge moved his command post to Commanster. The hardest hit, though, were the armored infantrymen of the 27th AIB with nearly 300 battle casualties. Panzer Tracts No. He said that the fight took about ninety minutes and that they used almost all their ammunition. Osprey Publishing, 2010. Heeft u zelf meer informatie over deze persoon? 18th Panzer Division (later 18th Artillery Division) 19th Panzer Division (previously 19th Infantry Division) 20th Panzer Division 21st Panzer Division (previously 5th Light Division) 22nd Panzer Division 23rd Panzer Division 24th Panzer Division (previously 1st Cavalry Division) 25th Panzer Division However, after careful analysis, it can be said with certainty that neither a Tiger I nor a Tiger II was killed by an M8 Greyhound from any troop of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron on 18th December 1944 near St. Vith. We made several probing attacks, and every time we went into your position, we encountered armor. Still quite a feat for a little Greyhound, though well probably never know conclusively. 22 22. Since speed was the key to success of the German plan, two panzer armies would spearhead the offensive. Andrews, Frank L. The Defense of St. Vith in the Battle of the Ardennes December, 1944. Once in St. Vith, Jones explained that only the leading elements of the 7th Armored Division had arrived thus far and that St. Viths northern approach was under attack. Roadblocks were set up and manned. Its possible that the M8 took out an late production Panzer IV, but even that is unlikely due to the danger of more troops coming from behind with Panzerfausts or even a 20 millimeter. Schiffer Publishing, 1997. Combat Interviews of the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 7th Armored Division: The St. Vith Salient, December 17-23, 1944. Next came B Company, 9th Armored Engineers; the 16th Armored Field Artillery; B Company, 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery; and the 14th Tank Battalion. Clerks were running everywhere and junior staff officers were arguing among themselves; upstairs, however, Hoge found General Jones remarkably composed. VGD division was absorbed into the 26. 1/18th Scale Cars; 1/24th Scale Assembly Kits; 1/24th Scale Cars; 1/43rd Scale Cars; . Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz (1918) Periode: Eerste Wereldoorlog (1914-1918) . Although the Germans were facing stiff resistance all along the American defensive line, they were determined to take St. Vith. [1] On March 6, 1945, when Botsch was ordered to take command of the LIIIrd Army Corps, the 18. There is no comparison to Tiger. As far as Im aware no Ferdinands (all upgraded to Elefants at the stage of Ardennes Offensive) were used in the Ardennes and better yet all Elefants were in Eastern Front with the 614.sPzJgK (formerly 2./653.sPzJgAbt) after August 1944. As stated above, a 37mm cant penetrate the armor of an Tiger tank. An attack to the east by the 7th Armored Division could then relieve the two surrounded regiments of the 106th. The fall of Rodt effectively split 7th Armoreds CCA from General Clarkes CCB. 1940 194111. 194311 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. 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. The 14th Tank Battalion was on its way to the Steinebruck bridge when Brig. Under the chain of the northern sector command, only General Ridgway was unsure of Field Marshal Montgomerys decision to withdraw from the defense. The surviving Volksgrenadiers fled in disarray. I should also note that reconnaissance doctrine was to disengage if at all possible and in no way engage enemy armour beyond scout elements. Schiffer Publishing, 1997. The Seventh Armored Division in the Battle of St. Vith. Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles. Established in 1941, the unit was deployed in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union, in the Army Group North Rear Area. 18th Artillery Division 651. Dragon 1629 1/16th Feldwebel 352nd Volksgrenadier Division R 275.00. 10 Apr. Jones wanted Clarke to counterattack immediately with his combat command and break that ring that these people have closed around the Schnee Eifel.. The platoon lost four men missing and two wounded in the ensuing engagement. Since St. Vith should have been taken on December 16 or the 17th at the latest, he decided to leave his command post at Waxweiler and spend the night with the 18th Volksgrenadier Division at Schoenberg. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. War Department Technical Manual TM 9-1904 Ammunition Inspection Guide. By dark, Lt. Col. Engeman and his two task forces were back in their assembly area in the vicinity of Breitfeld. One, the Sixth Panzer Army, was commanded by SS Obergruppenfhrer (brigadier general) Josef Sepp Dietrich, and the other, the Fifth Panzer Army, was commanded by General Hasso von Manteuffel. At approximately 0100 on December 18, a German force of about 30 men tried to cross the Our at Steinebruck after a brief artillery barrage. Panzertruppen Volume 2 The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Deployment of The German Tank Forces 1943-1945. By the end of the day, the 27th AIB had withdrawn through Steinebruck without casualties despite enemy shelling of the village. A scratch force made up of one platoon of riflemen from Company A, 27th AIB and a platoon from Company B, 9th Engineers were sent to contain the Germans. Josef Theissen, the fifteen-year-old who had seen the Germans arrive on Sunday, December 17, watched the soldiers every move with the fascination for things military . One Day at Stavelot, a Tale of Two Archives The Tiger II vs US Tank Destroyers in the Ardennes. M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car 1941-91. First Edition, Presidio Press, 2002. First Edition, Presidio Press, 2002. By noon, the 27th AIB, with the help of Company A, 14th Tank Battalion, had retaken that first stretch of high ground. 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. This moment marked the beginning of the famous Battle of the Bulge, Germany's last major offensive on the Western Front in World War II. In this version the M8 is replaced by an M5 Stuart from the 17th Tank Battalion of the 7th Armored during the retreat from St. Vith, that somehow miraculously ended up behind a Tiger when they thought they were following a Sherman. According to the British, 37 mm M6 guns APC M51 can only penetrate around a maximum of 65mm of rolled homogeneous armor plate (RHA) at 30 degrees under V50 ballistic standards. The stubborn defenders of St. Vith played a major role in defeating the final German offensive of World War II in Western Europe. The event simply was not that notable. Much like the Panzer IV, the StuG III was a mainstay of the German army as well as Germanys most produced armored fighting vehicle of the war with over 9,400 produced. At daybreak on December 21, the Germans launched their first assault of the day on CCB, 9th Armored. Do you have more information about this person? 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. Darlington Productions Inc., 2000. During the afternoon of December 19, Hoge visited Clarkes command post in St. Vith and expressed his frustration with the current chain of command. The U.S. 9th Armored Division arrived in the European Theater of Operations in late October 1944 as a reserve for Maj. Gen. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. 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 formations started to peel backward in succession from opposite Neubruck to Maldingen. Despite the loss of St. Vith, General Ridgway believed that the American armored and infantry forces defending St. Vith since December 16 could still hold. The German plan for the attack through the Ardennes, an offensive that would forever be known as the Battle of the Bulge, was to be accomplished in the conventional manner. Lieutenant Olsons version of the story would be the most contradicting version yet. Luftlande-Division 19416 19421944 19453 22 22. Hoge departed Faymonville at approximately 1800, arriving at General Joness headquarters in the St. Josephs Kloster about a half hour later. After Clarke and Hoge settled upon a mutually supportive command structure, Clarke noted that Hoges command was, for the most part, forward of a railroad track built on a high embankment. A strong attack has just developed against Clarke again. This information came from the division's senior headquarters, the VIII Corps, First U.S. Army. Inform us! 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.. The silhouettes of the Panzer IV and the Tiger I are quite similar, especially due to their rectangular shapes and rounded turret (rounded through the later use of a curved armor plate around the otherwise angular turret). The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18. Osprey Publishing, 2013. September 18th, 1944: Kdr. The ultimate objective was to open an escape route for the soldiers of the 424th. Between these units, a place was found for the provisional company composed of the 424th Infantry stragglers. With the unexplained disappearance of D Troop from the 89th Reconnaissance Platoon, Company B, 27th AIB became the leading element. Battle of the Bulge 1944 (1): St Vith and the Northern Shoulder. Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. Hoge managed to stop the stragglers, and soon a provisional company of men from the 424th was formed to reinforce the 27th AIB on its march toward the Our. Task Force Jones and the 112th Infantry eventually found their way into 82nd Airborne Division lines during the night of the 24th, but not before the units suffered heavy losses. 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. Beevor, Antony. Gen. William Hoges Combat Command B (CCB) of the 9th was attached to V Corps to support the 2nd Infantry Division in its planned attack through the Monschau Forest as part of the U.S. Armys strategy to capture or destroy the Roer River dams. A mobile battalion of the 18th Volksgrenadier Division was already moving on Andler to seize the Schoenberg bridge and the road to St. Vith. The earliest known mention can be found in the December 18th, 1944 morning report and record of events entry of Troop E, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron which briefly states that an M-8 atchd [attached] to A Tr [Troop A] knocked out one Tiger tank. Stackpole Books, 2015. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2004. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was to attack along the two roads from Schoenberg, with the Fhrer Escort Brigade assaulting from the north. 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. The 294th Volksgrenadier Regiment was a unit of the larger 18th Volksgrenadier Division. On top of attacking the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (minus Troop B), a Panzer IV can be easily misidentified as a Tiger I. Infanterie-Division 19398 . South of St. Vith, even as Lt. Col. Engemans task forces were responding to the 7th Armoreds cry for help, Germans of the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division were trying to get across the Our River at Steinebruck and hit St. Vith from that direction. This leads to a second candidate, the StuG III. The similarity in appearance between the Panzer IV and Tiger I is often cited as a reason to why there are so many claims made by soldiers during World War II of battling Tiger Is, despite Tiger Is being a fairly rare encounter. Tiger. 1945. Jentz, Thomas, and Hilary Doyle. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division would use these assault guns in small probing attacks on the American lines east of St. Vith that same day. The 27th AIB was ordered to establish a defensive position south, east, west, and southeast of Malempre. General Luchts plan for December 17 was simple. However, it cannot be definitively stated that this is another version of the M8 Greyhound versus Tiger story due to its ambiguity. Rebuilding the blown bridge to get their assault guns across was their first priority. This left General Clarke with only one full company of armored infantrymen. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division (18.Volksgrenadier-Division; 18. of the Army, 1965. By midnight on the 19th, the horseshoe- shaped defense of St. Vith had taken form. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was a volksgrenadier division of the German Army during the Second World War, active from 1944 to 1945. Approximately three hours later a German company marched out of Neidingen and along the road leading straight into C Companys position, apparently totally unaware of 9th Armoreds recent change of position. Due to the lack of detail in Troop Es entry, it is impossible to tell which Tiger tank is the one being referred to in the account. Germanys Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications. Volksgrenadier-Division. First Edition, Stackpole Books, 2004. Double-talking his identification over the radio with allusions to West Point football days, Ridgway gave Hoge a location at which to meet him. Zaloga, Steven. Seventh Armored Division Association 2517 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington 8, D.C., 1947.

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