buildings until the men spotted four Tigers approaching at about 1000 hours. Both crews turned on the panzers, and each gun knocked out a pair. A fifth panzer, however, could be heard nearby. It had entered via another route, and was now crawling through town conducting reconnaissance by fire.
One crew moved its gun into the center of the street, where it could engage the panzer. The men were doubtless appalled when they saw the house-size form of a Royal Tiger. The men fired fifteen rounds as quickly as they could, one of which struck the base of the panzer’s main gun. The Germans decided to back away from the fight, but the driver miscalculated and steered into a building that collapsed and pinned the Tiger. Ordered to withdraw, the unnamed TD platoon leader and another noncomm continued to fire the gun until the rest of the crew had gotten away, at which time they destroyed the weapon and withdrew on foot.
The TD crews crouching behind their 3-inch guns in Stoumont heard Peiper’s tanks maneuvering in the dark early on 19 December. Company A requested permission to fire flares so that the guns could engage the panzers, but the local infantry commander refused. About 0600, amidst fog so thick that the men could see no more than fifty yards, panzers were discovered already in the outskirts of town. The doughs began a fighting withdrawal, which exposed gun after gun to enemy assault. The Germans overran 1st and 3d platoons; nine crewmen had been wounded and sixteen were missing when the company pulled out to the north with the remaining 2d Platoon guns. The gun-less platoons drew four 3-inch and two captured 75mm guns held by battalion maintenance.
It was a cruel twist of fate that the men of the 823d had to experience again the vulnerability imposed by towed weapons one day after its conversion to self-propelled TDs was to have taken effect. The M10s of Company C back in Stavelot, meanwhile, claimed five Tiger tanks during fighting that day. One more twist of the knife awaited the 823d: The outfit was repeatedly bombed and strafed by American aircraft on 24 and 26 December and lost three men and several vehicles. The battalion history noted, “The men feared our own planes as much as they did the enemy.”54
The 703d Tank Destroyer Battalion was detached from the 3d Armored Division and sent south with the 823d. When Company B was attached to the 82d Airborne Division on 20 December, the paratroopers were trying to contain the German along the Salm River between Trois Ponts and Salmchateaux as the battle progressed around St. Vith.
It was cold. So cold, in fact, that one 3d Platoon M36 turret froze solid and stayed that way for days, and some vehicles would not start again once shut off.
Lieutenant Roberts’s 2d Platoon joined the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was attempting to retake the village of Cheneux near Stoumont. The TDs were ordered to advance with the infantry and make as much noise as possible to give the impression of great strength. They were also told to shoot at anything that moved in front of them. It was so dark that the crews could see no more than twenty-five yards as they entered town.
A 20mm flak gun opened up on the paratroopers, who hit the dirt. One M36 advanced to destroy the gun and almost ran into a German halftrack. The gunner tried to engage the vehicle, but as the turret traversed, the 90mm gun barrel struck the halftrack. This was enough for the panzergrenadiers, who bailed out and scooted. By now, the driver had the Jackson in reverse and backed up far enough for the gunner to destroy the halftrack. This accomplished, the men knocked out the troublesome 20mm gun. The paratroopers and TDs were able to clear the town the next day. But the German pressure had only begun.
First Platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, joined the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The infantry drove back a German attempt to cross the Salm River on the night of 22 December.
Early the next day, Ball—who was with his first section—spotted two well-camouflaged SP guns emerging out of the forest two thousand yards away on the far side of the river. Rather than fire on them, he waited to see whether any more interesting targets appeared. Shortly, three Panthers moved cautiously into view. Unfortunately, the SP guns were now almost out of sight close to a draw from which they could menace the paratroopers. Ball ordered his M36s to fire, and almost immediately both SP guns started to burn. The Panthers backed out of sight before the TDs could traverse and shoot.
Direct HE fire crashed into Ball’s position. One round struck a tree only thirty yards from one destroyer, and a shell fragment killed a crewman.
The Germans shifted their efforts to another sector and successfully crossed the river at Vielsalm. During the night of 24 December the 82d Airborne began a withdrawal to new defensive positions near Basse Bodeaux.55
With every spare unit rushing to stem the German offensive, Ninth Army went over to the defensive along the Roer River north of the Bulge. Dug-in tank destroyers and tanks were positioned in depth along the line. Supplemental, alternate, and decoy positions were prepared. Skeleton crew manned captured German AT guns of all types. And, behind the TDs, 90mm antiaircraft guns moved into direct-fire positions.56
The Battered Bastards of Bastogne
The men of Company C, 609th Tank Destroyer Battalion, were fighting along the Sauer River when they were alerted on 18 December to deploy to a place called Bastogne, Belgium, with CCB/10th Armored Division. The M18s, less one platoon, followed the Shermans north. The lead elements arrived in Bastogne about dusk and formed a screening force consisting of three small task forces east of town. The men in the destroyers had no idea what was going.57
Also on 18 December, the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion, located near Aachen, received orders to report to the CG of VIII Corps in Bastogne. The M18s rolled south, and the advance guard arrived in La Roche the next day. Battalion CO LtCol Clifford Templeton noted that “visual and oral evidence” suggested “a certain degree of confusion in the general situation.” Templeton deployed his men in defensive positions until he was able to obtain orders that attached his command to the 101st Airborne Division, which had hiked into Bastogne the preceding night and was exchanging its first shots with the spearhead of Panzer Lehr Division. Templeton encountered a small German tank-infantry force while returning to his men but escaped harm.58
By evening, the battalion had entered Bastogne. The terrain was rolling; open fields interspersed with heavily wooded tracts were the only obstacles to cross-country tank movement. The command was deployed in defensive positions along the front lines within two hours of arrival. The battalion’s sector of the perimeter would extend to 13,000 yards.59
Early the next morning, 3d Platoon, C/609th Tank Destroyer Battalion, commanded by Lt David Hagen, pulled into Noville (north-northeast of Bastogne) to join the fifteen Shermans and four hundred soldiers, mostly armored infantrymen, of Major William Desobry’s team from the 10th Armored Division’s CCB. Artillery rounds exploded around them, and even before a single German was seen, a sergeant was killed and another man wounded. Sergeant Richard Beaster’s M18 raced through town and arrived on the northern edge in time to join a veritable cannonade from tanks, bazookas, and just about anything else that would fire that knocked out two Mark IVs that had appeared on the road to Houffalize.60
Lieutenant Hagen employed the gun section commanded by Sgt John Pilon in static positions on the east edge of town, where the M18s took advantage of buildings for cover. The other two destroyers of his platoon roved through the village and were ready to respond on call. The fog swirled about, sometimes so thick that the crewmen could see barely ten feet.
About 1000 hours, the fog lifted suddenly and revealed some thirty tanks from the 2d Panzer Division, the closest no more than 300 yards away. The M18s and Sherman tanks opened fire. The gunners knocked out nine of fourteen tanks on a ridgeline to the north. The destroyer commanded by Sergeant Beaster claimed five Panthers with six rounds, but the M18 was struck just as it loosed its last killing shot, and the gun crewmen were wounded and the driver killed. Sergeant Pilon later recalled being able to hear the Germans in two approaching halftracks shouting to one another; the vehicles pulled back when they realized their peril, but Pilon’s gunner, Cpl Justin Double, got them both. Pilon then spotted a Panther approaching from his left. The M18’s turret traversed, the
