TABLE OF CONTENTS
Original caption: "Two American soldiers of U.S. 4th Signal Company, 4th Infantry Division, hold the day’s bag during the Ardennes Counteroffensive of the Battle of the Bulge; one deer and two rabbits, which will supplement their rations. Left is Pfc. Clinton Calvert of Baynard, Nebraska, and right is Cpl. Roy Swisher of Washington, D.C. Near Goesdorf, Wiltz, Luxembourg. December 1944."
The Bitter Woods: Battle of the Bulge
With the Hurtgen Forest behind it, the Division closed into a defensive position on a 35-mile front along the Sauer and Moselle Rivers, north and east of the City of Luxembourg on December 12. Here, in what was regarded as a quiet sector, it was intended that the battle-weary Division would rest, receive vitally-needed reinforcements, and raise the level of supply. Motorized equipment, especially tanks, stood partly disassembled for repairs. But the enemy had other plans.
At dawn on December 16, the German Army struck along the greater portion of the First Army front in what was to become known as Von Rundstedt's Ardennes Offensive, or the Battle of the Bulge. It soon became apparent the intended southern shoulder of this German drive fell squarely within the zone of the 4th Division. After intensive artillery and under the concealment of low-hanging fog, the enemy began crossing the Sauer River early in the morning of December 16. A network of roads in the northern sector of the Division led into the city of Luxembourg. It was down these roads that the enemy planned to advance. The city was at stake, which was a hub of Allied activities and headquarters of the Twelfth Army Group.
Several divisions to the north were overrun as the spectacular offensive swept deep into Belgium, splitting the First Army. This necessitated a swift reorganization by the Twelfth Army Group, which placed forces (including the 4th Infantry Division) south of the Bulge under Third Army control. On December 19, General George S. Patton, Jr., Third Army Commander, set up his headquarters in Luxembourg City. Conscious of the urgency of the situation, the order was issued by General Barton that there would be no retrograde movement in the sector of the 4th Division. Despite the extended front, the condition of the troops, and the efforts of an enemy inflamed by his seeming successes to the north in this big gamble, the 4th Division held its ground.
Soldiers James C. Lindsey remembered, "We had just left the Hurtgen Forrest around December 13, and were taken to a deserted castle where we got hot meals, a hot bath, and tetanus shots. That was the last hot bath we had for a couple of months. We spent 3 nights there. When we walked out of the castle, American planes were flying overhead and opened fire on us. It was December 16, 1944, and the Battle of the Bulge had begun. We spent Christmas of ‘44 cut off in a big old building that looked like a gristmill. The Germans had captured the American planes and were shooting at us. We didn’t know who was who. This got us all upset. The Germans got a lot of the American equipment and used it against us so we couldn’t tell who was Americans and who was Germans. We shot a lot of our own men. My squad was told to go up with the riflemen to support them. We got up there, and Germans were all over the place, and there were no riflemen. I guess they were all killed. We lost communications, and the Germans started shooting at us. They had us pinned to the ground. Pretty soon we ran out of food and ammunition." The story of the Battle of Luxembourg is, more than anything else, the story of the fight of a few heroic companies of men who were determined to hold their ground. Someone has suggested that they had fought so hard in Hurtgen for the privilege of moving to a quiet sector where they might get a chance to sleep in beds that they weren't willing to give them up without a struggle.
In any case, the German offensive never succeeded in driving the Americans out of Berdorf, Osweiler, and Dickweiler, and it took five days for the Germans, with overwhelming superiority, to conquer Echternach. As the advancing 212th Volksgrenadier Division pushed its spearheads down the valleys, it was met by all of the reserves that the 4th Division could muster. It was an assorted crew. Two battalions of infantry, a company of cooks, military police, and mechanics, two battalions of engineers, a reconnaissance troops, and any other miscellaneous troops in the area were shoved into the line to halt the enemy. The Germans were stopped, and Luxembourg was saved. No less important was the fact that the line held by the 4th Division constituted the barrier behind which Allied forces in the south reorganized, and from which the Bulge was counterattacked.
Thereafter, the attention of Army and Corps commanders was switched to the "Bulge" farther north, which was growing at an alarming rate. Those Germans who had been stopped by the 4th were driven back across the river, and the 4th once more relaxed. This time, however, they had a much narrower front to worry about. It had begun the battle with its rifle companies 1,600 men short of "T/O" strength, and it finished the battle still more depleted in strength, and under-equipped. Many men had been lost in the fierce fights in the snow, and trench foot again dragged other men down.
On December 26, after the thrust toward Luxembourg City had been hurled back, Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton, who had led the Division through its brilliant performances on Utah Beach, at Cherbourg, Villedieu, and Paris, and into Germany, was ordered to the United States for medical care. In a letter addressed to General Barton, on occasion of his relief, General George S. Patton said in part: "So far as l know, no American division in France has excelled the magnificent record of the 4th Infantry Division, which has been almost continuously in action since it fought its way ashore on the 6th day of last June. Your fight in the Hurtgen Forest was an epic of stark infantry combat; but, in my opinion, your most recent fight—from the 16th to the 26th of December—when, with a depleted and tired division, you halted the left shoulder of the German thrust into the American lines and saved the City of Luxembourg, and the tremendous supply establishments and road nets in the vicinity, is the most outstanding accomplishment of yourself and your division."
In similar vein, Major General Manton S. Eddy, Commander of the XII Corps, under whom the Division had operated after the Bulge, compelled a reorganization of the Twelfth Army Group, commended General Barton at this time as follows: "The pages you have written in the history of the 4th Division will surely be red-letter pages in the history of the United States Army. You battled on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day; you drove through the German line in the great July breakthrough at St. Lo; you were first into Paris in August; you swept across France and Belgium, breached the Siegfried Line, and were first into Germany in September; you held at bay an entire German corps in the Luxembourg area in December. During this remarkable campaign your Division maintained always an efficiency and a spirit which could have come only from leadership in its highest sense."
Also indicative of the efficiency of the Division's defense of Luxembourg, in relation to the general picture, is this statement by General Marshall in his Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, July 1, 1943 to June 30, 1945, to the Secretary of War: "General Eisenhower reacted promptly and decisively and subsequent results have proved the eminent soundness of his plan. All available reserves in the Central Army Group were used to strengthen the northern and southern flanks of the penetration and the XXX British Corps of the Northern Army Group was deployed to hold the line of the Meuse and the vital Liege area. With communications seriously disrupted."
"Field Marshal Montgomery was charged with the operation of forces north of the penetration, involving temporary operational control over most of the U. S. First and Ninth Armies while General Bradley coordinated the effort from the south. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were brought up from theater reserve to retard the momentum of the enemy thrust, with the 101st, reinforced by armor and artillery, holding the important road center at Bastogne. The shoulders of the penetration at Monschau and Echternach were stubbornly held by infantry divisions moved in from the north and from the south, outstanding among which were the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 99th Divisions." Brigadier General Harold W. Blakeley, Division Artillery commander during those same operations, assumed command of the division on December 27, l944. That Christmas was a cold and desperate one.
At dawn on December 16, the German Army struck along the greater portion of the First Army front in what was to become known as Von Rundstedt's Ardennes Offensive, or the Battle of the Bulge. It soon became apparent the intended southern shoulder of this German drive fell squarely within the zone of the 4th Division. After intensive artillery and under the concealment of low-hanging fog, the enemy began crossing the Sauer River early in the morning of December 16. A network of roads in the northern sector of the Division led into the city of Luxembourg. It was down these roads that the enemy planned to advance. The city was at stake, which was a hub of Allied activities and headquarters of the Twelfth Army Group.
Several divisions to the north were overrun as the spectacular offensive swept deep into Belgium, splitting the First Army. This necessitated a swift reorganization by the Twelfth Army Group, which placed forces (including the 4th Infantry Division) south of the Bulge under Third Army control. On December 19, General George S. Patton, Jr., Third Army Commander, set up his headquarters in Luxembourg City. Conscious of the urgency of the situation, the order was issued by General Barton that there would be no retrograde movement in the sector of the 4th Division. Despite the extended front, the condition of the troops, and the efforts of an enemy inflamed by his seeming successes to the north in this big gamble, the 4th Division held its ground.
Soldiers James C. Lindsey remembered, "We had just left the Hurtgen Forrest around December 13, and were taken to a deserted castle where we got hot meals, a hot bath, and tetanus shots. That was the last hot bath we had for a couple of months. We spent 3 nights there. When we walked out of the castle, American planes were flying overhead and opened fire on us. It was December 16, 1944, and the Battle of the Bulge had begun. We spent Christmas of ‘44 cut off in a big old building that looked like a gristmill. The Germans had captured the American planes and were shooting at us. We didn’t know who was who. This got us all upset. The Germans got a lot of the American equipment and used it against us so we couldn’t tell who was Americans and who was Germans. We shot a lot of our own men. My squad was told to go up with the riflemen to support them. We got up there, and Germans were all over the place, and there were no riflemen. I guess they were all killed. We lost communications, and the Germans started shooting at us. They had us pinned to the ground. Pretty soon we ran out of food and ammunition." The story of the Battle of Luxembourg is, more than anything else, the story of the fight of a few heroic companies of men who were determined to hold their ground. Someone has suggested that they had fought so hard in Hurtgen for the privilege of moving to a quiet sector where they might get a chance to sleep in beds that they weren't willing to give them up without a struggle.
In any case, the German offensive never succeeded in driving the Americans out of Berdorf, Osweiler, and Dickweiler, and it took five days for the Germans, with overwhelming superiority, to conquer Echternach. As the advancing 212th Volksgrenadier Division pushed its spearheads down the valleys, it was met by all of the reserves that the 4th Division could muster. It was an assorted crew. Two battalions of infantry, a company of cooks, military police, and mechanics, two battalions of engineers, a reconnaissance troops, and any other miscellaneous troops in the area were shoved into the line to halt the enemy. The Germans were stopped, and Luxembourg was saved. No less important was the fact that the line held by the 4th Division constituted the barrier behind which Allied forces in the south reorganized, and from which the Bulge was counterattacked.
Thereafter, the attention of Army and Corps commanders was switched to the "Bulge" farther north, which was growing at an alarming rate. Those Germans who had been stopped by the 4th were driven back across the river, and the 4th once more relaxed. This time, however, they had a much narrower front to worry about. It had begun the battle with its rifle companies 1,600 men short of "T/O" strength, and it finished the battle still more depleted in strength, and under-equipped. Many men had been lost in the fierce fights in the snow, and trench foot again dragged other men down.
On December 26, after the thrust toward Luxembourg City had been hurled back, Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton, who had led the Division through its brilliant performances on Utah Beach, at Cherbourg, Villedieu, and Paris, and into Germany, was ordered to the United States for medical care. In a letter addressed to General Barton, on occasion of his relief, General George S. Patton said in part: "So far as l know, no American division in France has excelled the magnificent record of the 4th Infantry Division, which has been almost continuously in action since it fought its way ashore on the 6th day of last June. Your fight in the Hurtgen Forest was an epic of stark infantry combat; but, in my opinion, your most recent fight—from the 16th to the 26th of December—when, with a depleted and tired division, you halted the left shoulder of the German thrust into the American lines and saved the City of Luxembourg, and the tremendous supply establishments and road nets in the vicinity, is the most outstanding accomplishment of yourself and your division."
In similar vein, Major General Manton S. Eddy, Commander of the XII Corps, under whom the Division had operated after the Bulge, compelled a reorganization of the Twelfth Army Group, commended General Barton at this time as follows: "The pages you have written in the history of the 4th Division will surely be red-letter pages in the history of the United States Army. You battled on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day; you drove through the German line in the great July breakthrough at St. Lo; you were first into Paris in August; you swept across France and Belgium, breached the Siegfried Line, and were first into Germany in September; you held at bay an entire German corps in the Luxembourg area in December. During this remarkable campaign your Division maintained always an efficiency and a spirit which could have come only from leadership in its highest sense."
Also indicative of the efficiency of the Division's defense of Luxembourg, in relation to the general picture, is this statement by General Marshall in his Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, July 1, 1943 to June 30, 1945, to the Secretary of War: "General Eisenhower reacted promptly and decisively and subsequent results have proved the eminent soundness of his plan. All available reserves in the Central Army Group were used to strengthen the northern and southern flanks of the penetration and the XXX British Corps of the Northern Army Group was deployed to hold the line of the Meuse and the vital Liege area. With communications seriously disrupted."
"Field Marshal Montgomery was charged with the operation of forces north of the penetration, involving temporary operational control over most of the U. S. First and Ninth Armies while General Bradley coordinated the effort from the south. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were brought up from theater reserve to retard the momentum of the enemy thrust, with the 101st, reinforced by armor and artillery, holding the important road center at Bastogne. The shoulders of the penetration at Monschau and Echternach were stubbornly held by infantry divisions moved in from the north and from the south, outstanding among which were the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 99th Divisions." Brigadier General Harold W. Blakeley, Division Artillery commander during those same operations, assumed command of the division on December 27, l944. That Christmas was a cold and desperate one.