At 16:50 on December 26th, the 4th Armored reached the lines of the 326th Airborne Engineers. The Siege had been lifted.
#HOIHistoryLive
The 39th Tank Battalion has reached Assenois, and is engaged against 100 Germans backed up by 8 anti-tank guns.
One gun and two machine guns are taken by Sergeant James Hendrix in an action that would win him the Medal of Honor.
(Yes we know Patton commanded the 3rd Army and not the division, but only so many words in a tweet...)
To the south of Bastogne, General Patton’s 4th US Armored Division is charging north, to break the siege.
By 3pm, the 4th’s spearhead of Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams' 37th tank battalion was at Remichampagne, just 10km from Bastogne.
More attacks from the German 5th Panzer Army hit Bastogne today, but all were repelled by a defending force which had perfected its combined-arms tactics.
By contrast, the German Volksgrenadiers struggled to co-ordinate properly with their supporting tanks.
After furious fighting for several hours, the German tanks have been caught in a lethal crossfire of machine-guns, bazooka fire and US tanks.
They are forced back, losing many of their tanks. Bastogne lives to fight another day.
(yes, we know it says 327rd; apologies)
The German Panzers have broken through the lines of th 327th Glider regiment and destroyed several American Tank destroyers.
US reinforcements rush to the area, as the Germans wheel round to attack part of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment.
Okay the map isn’t in this one... maybe it’s attached to the next tweet?
The joys of scheduling tweets :p
It’s Christmas morning, 1944. At Bastogne, the largest German attack crashes into US positions between Champs and Hemroulle (map below). 18 Panzer IVs with supporting infantry attack in line-abreast.
The German night assault has been driven back, thanks to a mobile ‘fire brigade’ of additional tanks and infantry that shuttles between troublesome areas to shore up the defences.
3am, 25th Dec:
Paratrooper Ed Peniche takes cover as German artillery opens up on the US front lines. Moments later, German Grenadiers in snow suits advance, turning the area into a ‘specturm of bright flares, deafening explosions and machine gun tracers”
It’s now Christmas Eve night 1944, and mixed groups of German tanks and infantry are probing American defences around Bastogne, as larger regiment-sized units are assembled.
Frustrated by Bastogne’s defiance, Hitler orders what is left of the Ardennes offensive to focus on taking the town.
15th Panzergrenadier division is brought up, as preparations are made for attacks once darkness falls.
At Bastogne, attacks by Volksgrenadiers develop in the south-east and west of the perimeter but to little effect.
The global press has picked up the ‘Nuts’ reply from yesterday and is celebrating Bastogne as a modern-day Alamo, to Hitler's fury.
It’s December 23rd 1944, and the sky is clear blue. For the first time in the Ardennes campaign, the Allied air forces are able to fly, and they quickly set to work on enemy units.
Movement in daylight quickly becomes hazardous for the Germans.
The German ultimatum has now reached General McAuliffe. His first reaction is to laugh- he knows full well that the enemy troops then encircling Bastogne were actually outnumbered by the defenders.
He writes an immortal one-word reply: “Nuts.”
The German envoys have arrived at American lines, carrying their ultimatum. It read:
“There is only one possibility to save the encircled USA troops from total annihilation: that is the honourable surrender of the encircled town.”
With Bastogne thinly-encircled, the German Corps commander, General Heinrich von Lüttwitz, opted to try and bluff the American defenders into surrendering.
He sends two officers with a surrender ultimatum for the commander of the 101st Gen. Anthony McAuliffe
At dawn, Panzer Lehr has taken the village of Morhet to the south-west of Bastogne, while 2nd Panzer has pushed past Bertogne to the north east.
Bastogne is encircled.
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