Elsenborn Ridge - The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge

The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge

Large numbers of German infantry from the 12th Volksgrenadier Division followed the barrage and attacked, beginning the ground offensive west towards their eventual goal of Antwerp. The 99th Division and its three regiments, the 393rd, 394th, and the 395th, were on the northern shoulder of the German offensive and in the towns and villages to the east and south of the Elsenborn Ridge. Intelligence that reached them was spotty and contradictory. General Lauer, commanding officer of the 99th, ordered Col. Robertson to stay put until at least the next morning when more orders would be forthcoming. Robertson told his men to hold and he also prepared them for an orderly withdrawal in the morning.

The main drive against Elsenborn Ridge was launched in the forests east of the twin villages on the early morning of 17 December. This attack was begun by tank and Panzergrenadier units of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. By 11:00, this attack had driven units of the U.S. 99th Infantry Division back into the area of the twin villages. These units were joined by forces of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division moving into the villages from the north. Tanks from the U.S. 741st Tank Battalion supported the withdrawal but were quickly destroyed by German Panther tanks advancing with the Panzergrenadiers. The U.S. withdrawal was hastened by an increasing shortage of ammunition. Fortunately for the defense, three tank destroyers of the U.S. 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion arrived with a good supply of bazookas and anti-tank mines. These reinforcements were put to good use when the 12th SS Panzer Division launched a powerful tank and infantry attack on the twin villages. The U.S. forces responded with a powerful artillery barrage supported by mortar fire, bazooka rockets, and anti-tank mines that repelled the German attack by midnight. The German attack failed to clear a line of advance for the 12th SS.

Immediately southeast of Elsenborn, the 1st SS Panzer Division, spearhead of the entire German 6th Panzer Army, a critical element in the German offensive, was held up for all of December 16 along its Rollbahn to the west by a single Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon of the 394th Infantry Regiment. Dug in on a slight ridge overlooking a village of about 15 homes, in the vicinity of the Losheim Gap, the 18 man platoon, led by a 20-year old lieutenant Lyle Bouck Jr., inflicted 93 casualties on the Germans during a 20-hour long fight at a key intersection southeast of Krinkelt-Rocherath. They seriously disrupted the entire German German Sixth Panzer Army schedule of attack along the northern edge of the offensive. The entire platoon was recognized with a Presidential Unit Citation, and every member of the platoon was decorated, making it the most highly decorated platoon of World War II. During the night of the 16th and dawn of the 17th, General Walter Melville Robertson, Commander of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, consolidated his and other forces moving through the area around the twin villages. He moved his headquarters from Wirtzfeld, south and west of the twin villages, to Elsenborn, just west of the ridge line. Robertson also informed General Leonard T. Gerow, commander of V Corps, that he intended to hold the twin villages until troops east of the villages had retreated through them to the ridge line, which then would become the next line of defense. This defensive line was intended to safeguard the key high ground on Elsenborn Ridge from the German advance.

On the German side, demands from Walter Model and Gerd von Rundstedt that Elsenborn ridge be captured and the advance of Sixth Panzer Army resume had been pouring down the chain of command into 12th SS Panzer Headquarters. General Hermann Priess, commander of the 1st SS Panzer Corps, ordered Waffen-SS Obersturmbannführer Hugo Kraas, Commander of the 12th SS Panzer division, to take command of all forces facing Elsenborn ridge, and capture it.