Lyle Bouck - Aftermath

Aftermath

Bouck considered the wounding of most of his men and the capture of his entire unit a failure. He only later learned that because his platoon prevented the lead German infantry elements from advancing, armor units were backed up behind them for miles during the entire day. At the end of the fight, exhausted from more than 15 hours of continuous combat, out of contact with their division, and out of ammunition, after Bouck and most of his men had been wounded, the platoon was overrun by German soldiers. The remaining 15 men were captured and were prisoners of war in freezing, disease-infested prison camps for five months until the war ended, and were near death when their own Army division freed them.

Wilhelm Mohnke, in charge of the Sixth Panzer Army, had charged his best colonel, Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper, commander of the 1st SS Panzer Division, with leading the push to Antwerp. The unit finally arrived in Lanzerath just after midnight, having been delayed 12 hours by horrendous road traffic, blown bridges, and ultimately the tenacious defense of the American soldiers. The eighteen men's day-long battle not only prevented the German infantry from advancing, but held up the entire 6th Panzer Army behind them. Instead of reaching the Meuse River on the battle's first day, the Germans went almost nowhere. The entire northern wing of the German attack fell hopelessly behind schedule, never to recover.

Author Alex Kershaw said, "Had they not stood and held the Germans and halted their attack, or rather postponed it for a crucial 24 hours, the Battle of the Bulge would have been a great German victory." Bouck attributed the unit's success to the fact that all of his men were expert marksmen. The excellent defensive terrain, the extra weapons Bouck acquired, and their prepared and well-concealed defensive positions contributed significantly to the massively disproportionate casualties they inflicted on the Germans. The inadequately trained and inexperienced German troops also attacked across an open field in waves that made them easy targets for Bouck and his men.

Due to their capture and the general chaos of the Battle of the Bulge, the unit's story was not well known. When Lt. Bouck was freed as a prisoner of war, he was too weak to file a combat report, and didn't think much of what the men had done. "We were in those foxholes and ... what we did was to defend ourselves and try to live through it."