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that is, to see this

2:13

thing go to the end.

2:16

Meanwhile in the Arndand, the

2:18

Americans have recaptured the initiative,

2:20

moving step by step back

2:23

over the lost ground. It

2:25

was an absolute death trap

2:28

for the Panzas. In the

2:30

lead was the Panzas of

2:33

first company. Then came our

2:35

company with SS Haukstern-Führer-Kurekert-Rodel in

2:37

my command. I myself was positioned

2:40

between SS over Shafjor and Boitlhauser, my

2:42

platoon commander. As I reached a point

2:44

near the church, I was given a

2:46

far taste of the dire events to

2:48

come. Boitlhauser catching it right in front

2:51

of me. We had already passed over

2:53

the second crossing. Then Boitlhauser caught it,

2:55

I was able to make out the

2:57

approximate position of the anti-tank gun. Boitlhauser

2:59

succeeded in getting out, and reaching a

3:02

place of safety safety, but the gun

3:04

there was hit by rifle fire-fireful fire

3:06

as he got out. I moved my

3:08

panzer behind a house that could not

3:11

be seen or fallen without at that

3:13

moment knowing what would happen. Near me,

3:15

Brodal's panzer was burning gently, with Brodal

3:17

sitting lifeless in the tide. In front

3:19

of me, further along the road, more

3:22

panzers had been put out of action

3:24

and were still burning. However, Van was

3:26

still moving. I think it was friars,

3:28

and under my covering fire, he was

3:30

able to move back to where the

3:33

unit was later engaged. Some of us

3:35

shot up Cruz who had hidden in

3:37

a barn took advantage of this opportunity

3:39

and likewise fell back with the panzer

3:41

protecting them for being observed. This enabled

3:44

them to escape being taken prisoner by

3:46

the American infantry surrounding them. Behind me,

3:48

as a stern Van Fjour Arnold Jurgerson's

3:50

panther, suddenly appeared. I realized that I

3:52

must abandon my hopeless position and tried

3:55

to pull... back behind the crossing. It

3:57

was clear to me that the American

3:59

anti-tank gun had anticipated this maneuver and

4:01

it was ready to fire on the

4:03

crossing. But that is just what it

4:06

did. The first shot missed. The second

4:08

hit the track and the hull on

4:10

the side. Fortunately, no one was killed

4:12

but the radio set was destroyed and

4:14

the track was almost unusable. I was

4:17

just able to follow the advice of

4:19

Jurgensen. Then the attack came off on

4:21

side and the running wheel sank in

4:23

the mud that later froze hard. The

4:26

whole attack had come to a standstill,

4:28

and our new position we made out

4:30

about 20 of the army in hollow

4:32

under Tarpolin, and then saw them quickly

4:34

emerging. So the army was still in

4:37

various houses in the part of the

4:39

village we had already occupied. Some of

4:41

them also ambushed are comrade band-off and

4:43

shot him through the heart while he

4:45

was unsuspectingly trying to camouflage tanks with

4:48

planks of wood. This happened quite close

4:50

to me, right under my eyes. And

4:52

that was an account of the fighting

4:54

in Kinkelt on the 18th of December

4:56

by the Panther Commander Villie Fisher from

4:59

third company SS Panser Regiment 12. You

5:01

did that absolutely magnificently, can I say?

5:03

Thanks Jim. The willage. I mean, the

5:05

drama. I've got to say, if I

5:07

was German, I'd quite like to be

5:10

called Boitlhauser. I'd like to be called

5:12

Boital Hazar, but I wouldn't want to

5:14

be taking some panzer up into a

5:16

village crawling with Americans with bazookas and

5:18

57 mils, you know, six pounds or

5:21

whatever. I mean, no way. Yes, I

5:23

mean, what will come increasingly clear is

5:25

the importance of American artillery in its

5:27

various forms in this battle. And here

5:29

we have it, you know, the anti-tank

5:32

gun anticipating the maneuver of the Panther,

5:34

being unable to do anything about that.

5:36

and just getting clobbed. I mean, just

5:38

fascinating. But we promised at the end

5:40

of the last episode that we were

5:43

going to talk a little bit about

5:45

the Battle of the Twin Villages and...

5:47

so we are but before we do

5:49

that we need to talk about what's

5:52

going on in the in the high

5:54

command really yes yeah we do at

5:56

the end of day one beginning of

5:58

x plus one yeah yeah the 17th

6:00

of December so huge problems for the

6:03

Germans you know the trouble is that

6:05

the temperatures are not freezing You know

6:07

that it's cold, it's miserable, there's low

6:09

cloud, inevitably there's been not a single

6:11

sign of the 2000 Luftwaffe of fighter

6:14

planes that have been promised. Because surprise,

6:16

surprise, it's loud. There's a reason why

6:18

they're doing it when they're doing it.

6:20

Oh God! I know, I know, it's

6:22

so mad, isn't it? I can't do

6:25

the contradictions, Jim, I can't deal with

6:27

them. No, I know. We live in

6:29

a world of contradictions, and this is

6:31

just enhancing enhancing that. But what it

6:33

means is that the ground is just

6:36

really, really badly chewed up by the

6:38

kind of vast weight of traffic, which

6:40

is going over roads which are just

6:42

not designed for that. You know, these

6:44

are roads that are constructed in the

6:47

19, you know, reinforced in the 1920s

6:49

and 1930s, then predominantly dirt roads. And

6:51

as we've said before, you know, they're

6:53

designed for kind of the odd light

6:55

car, kind of, you know, horse-drawn vehicles,

6:58

you know, they're just not designed for

7:00

massive great pansansa tanks that has happened.

7:02

Well, that was happening at the time,

7:04

because after all, in that earlier episode,

7:07

Hitler's saying, well, our tanks are fewer,

7:09

but they are superior to American tanks,

7:11

or the Americans may have more, but

7:13

ours are better. Or for all the

7:15

sort of tank purving that goes on

7:18

around German panzers, these vehicles are problematic

7:20

on these kind of roads. They're just

7:22

are, you know, and particularly this time

7:24

of year. And even simple things like

7:26

all the gradients mean if you're driving

7:29

uphill, you're burning more fuel. Also, I

7:31

mean the other thing that's going on

7:33

is don't forget we have an airborne

7:35

operation tied up in all this. Oh

7:37

my god. Yes. I mean, it's just

7:40

total, total fiasco. Yeah. Operation Stossa. Of

7:42

course, they're trying to do an airborne

7:44

operation in the winter. So the weather

7:46

is going to, the weather gets a

7:48

vote with airborne operations far more than

7:51

in a, you know, normal ops. And

7:53

with transport aircraft. whose crews are not

7:55

experiencing operating with airborne troops. Sam familiar

7:57

anyone? Oh God! Well I mean given

7:59

the Germans invented this sort of form

8:02

of operational art is a bit, you

8:04

know, it's all a bit desperate and

8:06

kind of tragic really. They dropped 200

8:08

men near Bonn, only 10 of the

8:10

aircraft. get anywhere near the drop zones.

8:13

This sounds positively British. The winds are

8:15

very strong. It's very sisily, isn't it?

8:17

It's very sisily. Winds are very strong.

8:19

Yes, tick. Hardly anyone landing where they're

8:21

supposed to. Tick. Wow. Men landing being

8:24

blown onto the propellers of aircraft behind.

8:26

That's a new one. Right? Yeah, yeah,

8:28

yeah. Even the Brits over Americans over

8:30

Sicily didn't do that. Oh God. So

8:33

by dawn of X plus 1, Fondahator,

8:35

who's been, you know, sprung from the

8:37

Faucien-Yager Academy, has only 150 men, the

8:39

200 is supposed to drop. So at

8:41

least they're making their rondo views, most

8:44

of them. They haven't got their weapons

8:46

canisters, and they've only got eight of

8:48

the 500 pans first, they've come with.

8:50

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, von der I thinks

8:52

it's been an utter failure and I

8:55

think we can. An utter failure. I

8:57

think we can agree with that. He's

8:59

not 90% successful, 80% successful, 10% total

9:01

cock-up. Total cooker. The great news is

9:03

that we don't have to linger any

9:06

further on that. We can just pin

9:08

it. That's the end of that, yeah.

9:10

That's the end of that. Operation Stossa

9:12

is Alice Caput. Alice Caput, yeah. Meanwhile,

9:14

in the US High Command, you know,

9:17

there's something to realise that the Germans

9:19

have broken through in five different places

9:21

with clearly the most threatening position in

9:23

the Los Angeles Gap and around the

9:25

106 Golden Lions Division. But you know,

9:28

the Americans are, you know. slow to

9:30

kind of realize what's happening in many

9:32

ways. So General Hodges, of course, is

9:34

the command of the first, US First

9:36

Army, and he's thinking that the German

9:39

assault is only a spoiling attack. By

9:41

the afternoon of the 16th Assembly, he's

9:43

realized it's something much bigger. Bradley is

9:45

also slow to realize. Bradley's out of

9:48

sorts, isn't he? Yeah. At this time.

9:50

He's not feeling very well. No. He's

9:52

feeling a little bit kind of disgruntled

9:54

about everything. because it was dragging on

9:56

the burdens of command all that kind

9:59

of stuff and I don't I don't

10:01

think he's a kind of laugh a

10:03

minute kind of guy anyway is it

10:05

no he's not he's just very serious

10:07

sort of which doesn't mean he hasn't

10:10

got a sense of humor he does

10:12

but he's just he's out of sorts

10:14

so he's out of sort so he's

10:16

with like but he's with like to

10:18

realize to realize he's out of sorts

10:21

so he's with like but he's with

10:23

like to go to see like they're

10:25

drinking to see like they're drinking to

10:27

see like they're drinking And smoking 400

10:29

camels. Exactly. And as they get the

10:32

news, Ike goes, no, no, no, this

10:34

is the real thing. Bradley's saying this

10:36

can't be an offensive because there's no

10:38

strategic objective there. And he's right, of

10:40

course. I think we've made our point

10:42

in the last few episodes that, you

10:44

know, only a madman would do. Herb

10:46

Snabel just so happens that a madman

10:48

has ordered this attack. Or someone who's

10:50

lost all sense of reality. Yeah, completely.

10:52

And so Ike makes orders. And one

10:55

of the things, of course, Hitler's banked

10:57

on, is the fact that Ike won't

10:59

be able to order reinforcements because he'll

11:01

have to check with his bosses, because

11:03

that's what his field marshals or generals

11:05

of the army, as it were, would

11:07

have to do, wouldn't they? You know,

11:09

so he's judging the Americans by their

11:11

own standards. already gone and pattern to

11:13

transfer 10th armored division. So reinforcing from

11:15

the South as well from third army

11:17

and Simpson does it straight away. Simpson

11:19

is just so easy. He's the real

11:21

deal. Yeah, he's a tremendous guy. Yeah.

11:23

And so by 10 p.m. on the

11:25

16th, I mean, it's Simpson rings back

11:27

and says two hours later, they're on

11:29

their way. You know. it's all done.

11:31

Hodges then at 10 p.m. on the

11:33

16th, Hodges who's been numbing and aring,

11:35

orders second division to stop its attack

11:37

on the Roar Dam and move back

11:39

to the Elson Board Ridge which is

11:41

the which is the sort of next

11:43

peat stretch of the corrugated iron we

11:45

were talking about in the last chapter

11:47

and actually when you get to the

11:49

top of there as we did where

11:51

there's a big radio mast you really

11:53

you can see everything laid out in

11:55

front of you can't you from up

11:57

there. Yeah but again it's not particularly

11:59

high. is it? No, no, no, no,

12:01

but it's that relative high ground and

12:03

there's the main road running along. Yeah,

12:05

exactly. Main road running along it. And

12:07

he sends the big red one or

12:09

in the thick of it. They're sent

12:11

to... Well, don't forget they'd also been

12:14

in the hurt gun. You know, they're

12:16

the ones that are involved in the

12:18

Battle for Arkansas, as well as being

12:20

on Omaha Beach, on D-Day, etc. etc.

12:22

etc. So they're sent down as well,

12:24

in pretty much, on Omaha Beach, on

12:26

D-Day, etc. etc. etc. So they're sent

12:28

down as purpose... civity on the American

12:30

side at this stage. Well, actually, you

12:32

know, they're diverting from an offensive here.

12:34

They're not sat around. And I can't

12:36

even begin to stress how difficult that

12:38

is to suddenly, you know, your head,

12:40

because everything is moving, it's, think of

12:43

it as a sort of the gyro

12:45

effect, how difficult it is to kind

12:47

of deviate. Once your gyros kind of

12:49

rotating in one particular direction, to then

12:51

make it. go in another direction is

12:53

quite actually quite difficult and this is

12:55

the same you've got this you know

12:57

a divisional attack is quite a machine

12:59

yeah because everything's suddenly pointing one way

13:01

yeah and they're all using roads that

13:03

have been worked out to resupply with

13:05

ammunition with food and everything in one

13:07

direction so to move them in another

13:09

direction it's not just a case of

13:11

charging across a field at 90 degrees

13:14

to the route you've been doing you've

13:16

got to backtrack you've got to turn

13:18

around out your supply lines and your

13:20

in your frontline troops have got to

13:22

pass through your echelons, but echelons have

13:24

got to follow up behind. So the

13:26

logistics of changing from one direction to

13:28

you know 90 degrees heading southwards is

13:30

really really complicated and it's made more

13:32

complicated by the fact that you're actually

13:34

suddenly moving quite a lot of units.

13:36

So in this case two armored divisions.

13:38

two infantry divisions. They've all got to

13:40

use, you know, all trying to get

13:43

to the same direction. So there's then

13:45

competition for roads. This is not a

13:47

straightforward operation at all. We've talked about

13:49

this before, but when armchair historians criticize

13:51

the allies for slow movement, they are

13:53

simply not... comprehending, understanding, taking into consideration

13:55

enough, the complications and difficulties of moving

13:57

a formation of 15,000 men that is

13:59

entirely 100% mechanised. You know, you're talking

14:01

hundreds of vehicles in a division. Hundreds,

14:03

if not thousands. I mean, you know,

14:05

it is a lot. Making sure they

14:07

don't all bump into each other, get

14:09

tangled up, get confused. You know, and

14:12

also once you start organizing artillery and

14:14

everything, making sure you're not going to,

14:16

you know, shelling your own side and

14:18

all that. formation is timings all of

14:20

this stuff incredibly difficult you know one

14:22

field battalion of 24 guns is probably

14:24

half a mile road stretch yeah you

14:26

know at least that you've got the

14:28

truck you got the gun you got

14:30

the ammunition they've all got be towed

14:32

you've all got be towed you know

14:34

24 guns by the time they're strung

14:36

out that's what you're talking about and

14:38

that's just one field battalion that doesn't

14:40

include your your medical corps it doesn't

14:43

include food your supply lines it's your

14:45

supply lines it doesn't include your supply

14:47

lines it's your supply lines component all

14:49

of that component all that you know

14:51

so it is it is a big

14:53

big big complicated thing and someone's got

14:55

to work this out in a pre-digital

14:57

age you know that's the point and

14:59

then work it out agree it with

15:01

their bellow units decide it except it

15:03

issue the orders enact the orders yeah

15:05

yeah which is why those combat command

15:07

you know from the 7th, armored and

15:09

night far, and aren't likely to be

15:12

supporting the 106th on the Schneee Eiffer

15:14

or, you know, backwards on the, on

15:16

the, our, Blyalfe Ridge by the dawn

15:18

of the 17th of December. It's just

15:20

not going to happen. All I'm thinking

15:22

of when we're talking about this is

15:24

the some poor fried staff officer thinking,

15:26

I've done it all, you know? I've

15:28

got to, I've got to, I've got

15:30

to unpick all this and start all

15:32

over again, to start all over again.

15:34

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People don't, you know,

15:36

when they're talking about all this stuff,

15:38

they don't talk about this. Yeah. Combat

15:40

Command B of the 7th, you know,

15:43

got stuck in a bit of traffic

15:45

and wasn't there till the 18th. In

15:47

one sentence you have just dismissed a

15:49

whole kind of bucket load of trouble

15:51

and I think it is worth spelling

15:53

it out. Why this is just not

15:55

a straightforward activity? There are no motorways

15:57

down which you can just burn and

15:59

jump off at Junction 23. It's not

16:01

like that. And these are roads which

16:03

are for the most part not tarmac.

16:05

Yeah, I mean of course it isn't.

16:07

Right, so the 17th of December, so

16:09

X plus 1. And I think it's

16:12

quite interesting. We're heading south, 28th Division

16:14

Front, 116th pans up front, send 13

16:16

Panthers to bolster the Pans of Grenadier.

16:18

I mean it's not very many. And

16:20

as a result, there's a great big

16:22

tank and artillery battle that follows. By

16:24

the afternoon, most of 116 Pansa's armour

16:26

is committed to taking Oran. again this

16:28

is you know it's an exploitation force

16:30

which is being used in the breakthrough

16:32

yes they're supposed to be rolling on

16:34

through great tank country aren't they're not

16:36

they bogged down trying to take a

16:38

river a late afternoon US 112th infantry

16:40

this is on the 17th this is

16:43

X cross one still the same day

16:45

given permission to pull back to the

16:47

ridge behind or out after dark this

16:49

has succeeded in holding up a fifth

16:51

Panzer army for a second day for

16:53

a second day and then 112 infantry

16:55

and then 112th infantry and revered northwards

16:57

back towards St Witt which is off

16:59

becoming a sort of you know magnetic

17:01

place as the battle progresses. Yes, so

17:03

in the, in the, it's worth just

17:05

saying that in the 28th division, this

17:07

is Norman Cota's mob, it's 112, 110th,

17:09

109th infantry regiments. The 112 pushes north

17:12

and it veers north and joins up

17:14

the factory with the 424th of the

17:16

Golden Lions. So that that regiment that

17:18

was isolated on the southern, on a

17:20

southern limb from the other two are

17:22

from the Schnee Eiffel, comes back and

17:24

pulls back to a little place called

17:26

vintage belt. What's interesting is that the

17:28

424th is sort of veering slightly southwards

17:30

and backwards westwards. 112th is veering slightly

17:32

northwards, so they're coming alongside one another,

17:34

even though they're from different divisions. Well,

17:36

I mean, that's the nature of this

17:38

particular beast, isn't it? And now you

17:41

get, I mean, this is the absolutely

17:43

extraordinary fighting that starts to develop around

17:45

St. Vitt. A hundred and tenth infantry's

17:47

front. Yeah, so this is a bit

17:49

further south, this is Neklervo. Yeah. these

17:51

ridgelines running kind of sort of roughly

17:53

south. So once you get off the

17:55

skyline drive, which is the one that's

17:57

west of the Urem, and down to

17:59

the Urem, you've got this this region,

18:01

it drops down from these villages along

18:03

the top of this skyline drive down

18:05

to the kind of a significant town

18:07

which is is clever. And this is

18:09

where the 110th infantry are. So then

18:12

then the next one down from 112,

18:14

all part of the 28th division. And

18:16

this is, I mean, this is extraordinary.

18:18

It's 31, 31, and 2,000 Americans. So

18:20

Fuller's got two battalions, you know, who

18:22

are pretty scrappy after Hurtgan anyway, and

18:24

they're hit by elements of three pan's

18:26

divisions and two infantry divisions. It's just,

18:28

ladies and gentlemen in the notes, Jim

18:30

simply writes, yikes. And I think that

18:32

sums it up. But they basically, they

18:34

hold a string of villages, 110th, they

18:36

try to hold a string of villages

18:38

on a ridge line, and it's second

18:41

pounds of division, 116th pounds, 26 volts,

18:43

Grenadier. This is what they'd be doing

18:45

on the 16th on X Targ. The

18:47

Germans, you know, are using battalions against

18:49

companies and battalions against platoons because the

18:51

Americans are fighting tooth and nail. And

18:53

I think it's very interesting because the

18:55

Balk action, for instance, that we talked

18:57

about at Lazard. You turn a Balk,

18:59

yes. Yeah, he's known about, right? and

19:01

is one that's gone in the record,

19:03

but there are loads of those kind

19:05

of actions happening all over, where eventually

19:07

people are overwhelmed and maybe they're all

19:09

killed or they're all captured and we

19:12

don't know the full story. But the

19:14

Americans are fighting like that everywhere because

19:16

if the Germans are having to deploy,

19:18

you know, companies against platoons or battalions

19:20

against platoons, it's not going well, is

19:22

it? No. There's no blitz in this

19:24

particular bit of creek. Well, there isn't

19:26

is there? It's shit's creak, it's really,

19:28

it's shit's creak. Fuller is called, Norman

19:30

Cota calls Fuller and says, you're gonna

19:32

hang on to the whole lot of

19:34

cast. Hurley, Furlough. And he knows, he

19:36

knows what that. Hurley Harland. Be a

19:38

very good gym. He's got early. I

19:41

think you'd be a different person if

19:43

you're called Hurley Holland, Jim. You know

19:45

how names, names, names, register who you

19:47

are. Yeah, owners and dogs and all

19:49

that. Exactly, Hurley Harland. From now on

19:51

I want to be known as Hurley.

19:53

But you know, he's told to fight

19:55

to the last round last man by

19:57

Kota. Yeah, and that kind of is...

19:59

really what's going on at this point.

20:01

700 and this is this is the

20:03

ridge to clever and the clever road

20:05

protects the road into Bastoyne. So and

20:07

that's a kind of our first or

20:09

maybe our second mention of Bastoyne in

20:12

this so far. I think for those

20:14

of you who if you've come at

20:16

the Battle of the Bulge too popular

20:18

culture, the fact that we've only mentioned

20:20

the B word once or twice is

20:22

an indication of how much more there

20:24

is to this battle than perhaps that

20:26

perception. So 707th Tank Battalion is sent

20:28

forward to Manach in hope for keeping

20:30

the road. Manach is one of those

20:32

villages on the skyline drive. Yeah, and

20:34

they're there to keep the road blocked,

20:36

but by the morning, Germans are almost

20:38

in Clervo, 110th Regiments are to lose

20:41

down to one battery, and that 7

20:43

seventh have lost eight Shermans which have

20:45

been picked off. But the point is,

20:47

this fighting is again, the Germans second

20:49

day, but don't want to be fighting

20:51

here. And there's a castle, isn't there?

20:53

A big castle in the middle. So

20:55

clever is amazing because the river kind

20:57

of runs around it in one of

20:59

those sort of snaking things. And it's

21:01

got this deep-sided escarpment running around the

21:03

town and then they're down in the

21:05

bottom. Yeah. encased by the river and

21:07

this sort of steep escarpment, wooded escarpment,

21:10

is clervo itself of its castle right

21:12

at the centre and it's all very

21:14

kind of sort of middle Europa. I

21:16

mean it's very cool. It's actually a

21:18

lovely place, it's a lovely little town

21:20

now, but the castle is you know

21:22

a thick walled bastion. There's no getting

21:24

away from it. Yeah, cotas hold up

21:26

though, isn't he? No, he's sort of

21:28

a back, but fuller back, but fuller,

21:30

but fuller is, yes, yes, yeah, full

21:32

as headquarters headquarters, full as headquarters, is

21:34

headquarters, isn't it, isn't it, isn't it,

21:36

isn't it, isn't it, isn't it, isn't

21:38

it, isn't it, is head quarters, isn't

21:41

it, isn't it, War film cliches, as

21:43

we all know, is the sound of

21:45

a piano playing between the crashes of

21:47

shells. Yes, but it really happened. It

21:49

really happened on this occasion. It's a

21:51

GI playing Debusi's. reflections in the water

21:53

without a note missed. Yes, as the

21:55

shells are crashing all around him. I

21:57

love it. But the amazing thing is

21:59

the Americans just don't really give up.

22:01

They get overrun, but they don't give

22:03

up. They're not throwing in the towel.

22:05

By nightfall on the 17th December, X

22:07

plus 1, the Germans are in the

22:10

town. They're swarming through the town, but

22:12

there are still little American outposts and

22:14

snipers. At 6.25 p.m. Fuller abandoned his

22:16

headquarters. but then he his headquarters and

22:18

most of Company G are captured and

22:20

that shows you just how how last

22:22

minute they've left it, how they have

22:24

taken coaters worse to hold on at

22:26

all costs. They've taken it very literally.

22:28

And some Americans who hold out in

22:30

the shadow right through the 18th and

22:32

December. In other words, they're still not

22:34

throwing in the towel and they're still

22:36

not throwing in the towel and they're

22:38

still making life difficult for the Germans.

22:41

You've then got to kind of stop

22:43

and pause and kind of winkle them

22:45

out. And all this of course just

22:47

eats up time. the more their whole

22:49

operational plan starts to crumble very very

22:51

badly. And the action of the 110th

22:53

infantry regiment around skyline drive and monarch

22:55

and the town of Clervo is just

22:57

an epic. It's an absolute epic. They

22:59

get overrun, they get lost, they get

23:01

put in the bag on all the

23:03

rest of it. But the damage they

23:05

have inflicted over two days is immense

23:07

to the Germans. All the German momentum

23:10

has gone. Already those pans of divisions

23:12

are being sucked into this nutritional battle

23:14

rather than the exploitative battle. Then 106

23:16

division. So pushing northward, so we started

23:18

the last episode, we started X-Day going

23:20

in the north and working southwards, we're

23:22

now starting in the south and working

23:24

northwards. 106 divisional artillery pulls back, pulling

23:26

back to Shomburg, and there's a, we

23:28

did it then and now when we

23:30

were there recently, there's that 90 millimeter

23:32

tank gun in the grotto on the

23:34

road. Yes, just as it's climbing out

23:36

of the town. Yeah, exactly. We're a

23:38

rather nervous-nervous-looking-looking crew-looking crew looking crew on

23:41

the on their anti- nine in the

23:43

morning. I mean, the problem is the

23:45

German units behind them, they're pulling back

23:47

to Germany, the Germans are going around

23:49

them. Because the man toyful's looking to

23:51

encircle rather than just bash at the

23:53

American lines. By nine, the four 22nd,

23:55

four 23rd are surrounded, but the Germans

23:57

have been ordered to keep going. So

23:59

there are gaps and there are men

24:01

streaming through the lines the whole time

24:03

and trying to reorganize themselves and get

24:05

together, aren't there. So these two regiments,

24:07

they set up airdrops, but. comic command

24:10

be accorded traffic they're not going to

24:12

arrive and they're they're this is part

24:14

of the confusion from the phone call

24:16

as well who's where and why they're

24:18

there and all that sort of stuff

24:20

at quarter to three and when does

24:22

it get dark well sort of five

24:24

yeah so there's only eight hours of

24:26

daylight this time the daylight's really running

24:28

out so quarter to three orders are

24:30

issued for the two regiments to withdraw

24:32

they don't get the orders until midnight

24:34

it's all so unfortunate for these guys

24:36

everything just doesn't join up It's an

24:38

unhappy ending really. And we were up

24:41

in those hills above Schoenberg the other

24:43

day and we were wandering around and

24:45

finding all these fox holes of this

24:47

stand by the 106. You could absolutely

24:49

see them, couldn't you, all in a

24:51

row? And then on the 18th, they're

24:53

ordered further instructions to come at half

24:55

or seven in the morning to get

24:57

out and to go to said Vitt,

24:59

but they can't, they can't do it.

25:01

they try putting in a counter attack

25:03

and all this stuff but they run

25:05

out they've run out of ammunition. Yeah

25:07

and actually the decision has been made

25:10

on the afternoon of the 18th that

25:12

combat command B of the 7th and

25:14

combat command B of the 9th just

25:16

cannot get to them so that they

25:18

are not going to an attempt to

25:20

go and rescue them they are going

25:22

to hold the line out of Sam

25:24

Witt instead. Yeah and so I mean

25:26

basically they surrender. They're on their own

25:28

so they surrender so that four 23rd

25:30

surrender the afternoon the afternoon of the

25:32

afternoon of the 19th, four 22th, four-

25:34

four- four- four- four- four- four- four-

25:36

four- four- four- four-four-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two- And it's not

25:39

an every man for yourself thing, isn't

25:41

it? The commanding officer goes, you know

25:43

what, we're going to have to throw

25:45

in the towel here. And this is

25:47

Kurt Vonnegut's part of this, isn't it?

25:49

And this is the thing where he

25:51

says I... I joined the wave of

25:53

humiliation. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And this

25:55

is 7,000 guys going in the bag,

25:57

which is the biggest single setback for

25:59

the American, for the US Army, in

26:01

Europe, in the European Theatre of Operations.

26:03

Yep, yeah, yeah. It's a bad moment.

26:05

It's a very, very bad, a low,

26:07

low, low moment. I'll tell you what

26:10

we'll do. We'll take a break and

26:12

we'll look at what's happening in the

26:14

two villages in the two villages. Yeah,

26:16

yeah, yeah, why not, why not, why

26:18

not, why not, see in a, see

26:20

in a second, see in a second.

26:22

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27:58

had no Welcome back

28:00

to we have ways of making

28:03

you talk. We just ended on

28:05

the rather down moment of the

28:07

biggest surrender in the US Army.

28:09

It's not good, is it? Yeah,

28:12

but it needs, requires context. I

28:14

mean, you know, absolutely. Don't forget

28:16

that's still the 19th for December.

28:18

So that is, you know, 16th,

28:21

17th, 18th, 18th, that's the fourth

28:23

day. So they're holding up German

28:25

troops until that point. You know,

28:27

Sam Vitt is absolutely key to

28:30

the success of the Fifth Pansarami

28:32

and then they're nowhere near Sam

28:34

Vitt at this point. Well, they are,

28:36

they're near it, but they're still haven't got...

28:38

It's not good enough. They're not there. So

28:41

what we're going to do now is we're

28:43

going to look at the... frost of first

28:45

SS Pansakor through the Los Angeles Graben in

28:48

the next episode because that of course is

28:50

Camp grouper Piper and we're going to do

28:52

a whole episode if not two on KG

28:54

Piper. The notorious Kgee Piper I think. The

28:57

notorious Kia, yeah the infamous Kgee Piper. So

28:59

we're going to go through that next but

29:01

in this one we're going to leapfrog over

29:03

the Los I'm Graben and head back

29:06

to that northern bit in the

29:08

Krenkelterwald and the battle of the two

29:10

villages because and the... last episode when

29:12

we were up there we were looking

29:14

at the we were saying how the

29:16

12 SS had been brought in earlier

29:18

than the price the commander of first

29:21

SS Pansagore had wanted to because the

29:23

Volts Grenadier divisions just simply couldn't get

29:25

through the woods the valve quickly enough

29:27

but by the morning of the 17th

29:29

they are starting to kind of push

29:31

their way through yeah and it's absolutely

29:33

clear that General Joro of the is

29:35

it Joro I think we keep getting

29:38

this wrong Joro General Giro, who is

29:40

the command of the Fifth Corps, which is

29:42

part of Hodges' first army, is sort of

29:44

the head of Hodges in reading the situation.

29:46

And he recognizes that the two villages of

29:48

rock around Kinkel, need to be held absolutely

29:50

as long as possible, because he can see

29:53

where the frost is coming. It's coming through

29:55

this forest. Once you get through the other

29:57

side of the forest, you have to get

29:59

through Kringelt. and Rockerart before you can start

30:01

moving on to the Elsonbourne Ridge. The key

30:03

thing about the road that passes through this

30:06

and goes up onto Elsonbourne Ridge is this

30:08

is the quickest road to the Murs and

30:10

indeed subsequently to Antwerp. So this is why

30:12

this is so important. Yeah, and when you're

30:15

there, I mean we were there in January,

30:17

the traffic rolls through there, you can tell

30:19

it's a major thoroughfare, there's enormous log lorries

30:22

coming through the town, hurtling through the town,

30:24

gigantic lorries. You know, the issue here of

30:26

course is we've gone from, they've gone from

30:28

fighting in woodland and then rolling country, and

30:31

now they're basically in a built up area,

30:33

which if you're armor. is hugely problematic. Well,

30:35

yes, but even before they get to the

30:37

villages, they've got to get past these blocking

30:40

positions. And what's really interesting is, is there

30:42

are these roads that lead out of Krinkelton

30:44

Rockarad, which then bifurcate again and bifurcate again,

30:46

and where these roads all converge ahead to

30:49

the east of the villages, is an obvious

30:51

blocking position. And one of the key ones

30:53

of these is at Lorsdale. And the Lorsdale

30:55

Crossroads is a scene of an epic, epic

30:58

defense. An amazing, amazing defense. Yeah, so by

31:00

dawn of the 17th December, the 99th Chequeboard

31:02

Division is still fighting in the woods. And

31:04

that allows Girao to organize these blocking positions

31:07

because... The second infantry division, which had been

31:09

where the Golden Lions were on the Schnee

31:11

Eiffel, has been moved north of this assault

31:13

on the Rurd Damms, and that Rurd Dam

31:16

assault has now been cancelled, and they've been

31:18

sent southwards. But actually, you're only talking about

31:20

kind of five, six miles, something like that.

31:23

Yeah, so I've got a huge distance to

31:25

go. So let's just go through this kind

31:27

of sort of bit by bit, shall it?

31:29

So 1230 PM on the 17. So this

31:32

is X plus one, this is way more

31:34

than way more than 24 hours on. Camp

31:36

grouper Mueller of the 12th SS Hitler-Eugen division

31:38

finally emerges from the Krenkelterfeld. There's these two...

31:41

trails that go through, you know, main trails

31:43

that they're using. One of the, is the

31:45

Schwarzenbrook Trail, which is Roll Barnet, and they

31:47

finally emerged, and we walked down that route,

31:50

didn't we, little bits? Yeah. And I mean,

31:52

you know, you're so catalyzed by this trail.

31:54

you know which is basically a forest track

31:56

it's like a dead straight forest track that

31:59

runs straight through the through the middle of

32:01

it you can shove your drone up and

32:03

there's your straight line going through and it's

32:05

all pine trees and you know thick as

32:08

you like you know you can tell what

32:10

you like but no pamper tank is getting

32:12

through that wood yeah so the only way

32:14

they're going to get through is by these

32:17

trails and that is a total bumper kind

32:19

of thing this is lying the stern yeah

32:21

rather than line of rest. And that means

32:24

that at some point, your point man has

32:26

got to take the lead and just emerge

32:28

into the open from the forest, which makes

32:30

it very, very vulnerable. Yes. And the Americans

32:33

exploit this completely. So in the afternoon, Count

32:35

Ficopa-Muller ran into a blocking position by men

32:37

for 23rd infantry, who are from second infantry

32:39

division, and two shermans, at the 741st tank

32:42

Italian. who lost nearly everything on Omaha Beach

32:44

on D-Day when they sent in first too

32:46

early and all sank. This blocky position, again

32:48

you said a moment ago, it's all about

32:51

time, they hold them up till dusk. and

32:53

they do a good job of it. And

32:55

so yes, but you know for four hours

32:57

basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Lieutenant Colonel

33:00

William D. McKinley, who is, is he his

33:02

nephew? He's a nephew of President McKinley. Yeah,

33:04

who was assassinated. Who's the tariff man, of

33:06

course. He's the man he likes. Trump's idle.

33:09

Yeah, hero. He's the commanding officer first night

33:11

victory from second division. They get to the

33:13

two villages and he rushes forward. It's basically,

33:16

it's country lanes that sort of separate. There's

33:18

a farmhouse, isn't there? There's a farmhouse just

33:20

on the left-hand side. That's right, the road

33:22

goes up to the farmhouse. Yeah, and the

33:25

other one goes straight on. There's fields on

33:27

the right, just up ahead, literally, kind of

33:29

half a mile away is the Krenkaltavalt. undulating

33:31

it's not you know it's not flat but

33:34

it's not particularly hilly you can see you

33:36

feel the fire is pretty good isn't it

33:38

yeah and actually you know it's great tank

33:40

country in summer it's great tank country in

33:43

summer but in the winter not so great

33:45

and he says streams of men of vehicles

33:47

were pouring down the firest roads through the

33:49

junction and wild confusion and disorder control of

33:52

the 99th division have been irretrievably last and

33:54

the stragels echoed each other with remarks that

33:56

the units have been surrounded been surrounded surrounded

33:58

and annihilated. but he goes no we're not

34:01

having that then well you can tell he's

34:03

a second division man not a 99th division

34:05

man to be there but you know yeah

34:07

and he basically he gets cracking doesn't he

34:10

they put out anti-tank mines and they dig

34:12

in and change of anti-mines on the roads

34:14

that found yeah they've got bazuka teams yeah

34:17

By 6.40 p.m. the German armor under cover

34:19

of darkness passes the roadblock. So this is

34:21

just a handful of Panthers managers just sidestep

34:23

it. And again, when you're standing on that

34:26

crossroads, it's not really crossroads, is it? It's

34:28

like a fork of different prongs. You could

34:30

see how they could just cross the fields

34:32

to the south and squeeze past. And one

34:35

of the reasons they do is because they've

34:37

been told that there's some Americans and tanks

34:39

up ahead. And that's how these two tanks

34:41

get, you know, these couple of Panthers managed

34:44

to get across. Yeah. But, and so these

34:46

two tanks get past and do hit another

34:48

crossroads, which hits the first battalion of the

34:50

38th infantry, which is also part of the

34:53

2nd Infantry Division. you know there's very very

34:55

vicious fighting discover the 57 millimeter anti-tanker which

34:57

is of course is a British six pounder

34:59

yeah he's not so hot against Panthers yeah

35:02

not on the front of a panther it's

35:04

all right side and rear but it's the

35:06

front armor it can't deal with yeah and

35:09

so but bazuka teams are much more effective

35:11

not least because they're much more renewable you

35:13

can sort of scuffle around of course you

35:15

know this is a dark you know it's

35:18

six forty m m m m m it's

35:20

pitch black apart from kind of the flicker

35:22

of lights from explosions and so on. So

35:24

you know you can do stuff with in

35:27

stealth which you know this is why the

35:29

British have a thing that you know you

35:31

don't use tank. after dark. Yeah, for precisely

35:33

this reason. Because you can't defend them, but

35:36

you know, the Germans are in a rush,

35:38

they haven't made choice. And you've got desperate

35:40

stuff though. Guys running up to tanks and

35:42

pouring petrol on them and setting them on

35:45

fire. There's a man, oh God, what was

35:47

his name, who's killed there, who climbs on

35:49

a panther and uses the machine gun on

35:51

the panther on the Germans. It's absolutely desperate.

35:54

They're all right on top of each other

35:56

stuff. It's incredibly impressive, isn't. for this sort

35:58

of total non-entity of a patch of land

36:00

about which no one cares very much, apart

36:03

from if you actually live there. You know,

36:05

it's incredibly inconsequential in the big scheme of

36:07

things, but in this moment, you know, the

36:10

fighting is just absolutely ferocious. You know, so

36:12

basically these two sergeants of McKinley's lot, and

36:14

basically this is known as a task force,

36:16

this is effectively a battle group, this is

36:19

an ad hoc. you know this is stragglers

36:21

from the 99th infantry who are and pulled

36:23

in on this this is forward observation officers

36:25

from a different artillery unit this is a

36:28

handful of tanks and it's men from different

36:30

units here are you know based around the

36:32

first battalion but there's also men from the

36:34

third battalion here because there's company K isn't

36:37

there is the third battalion of the 9th

36:39

infantry so they're all thrown together and they

36:41

just sort of get on with it and

36:43

two sergeants of McKinley's first battalion run up

36:46

to this disabled pamfer So basically the panfers

36:48

come through, the first one has been knocked

36:50

out, but it's still firing. And with both

36:52

its machine guns and its main gun. And

36:55

so these two soldiers go up in the

36:57

darkness and they decide to get round the

36:59

back of it and pour petrol on it.

37:01

And at that moment the hatch opens at

37:04

the top of the panfering. And someone lobs

37:06

out a grenade and they jump to it

37:08

and run and one of them gets badly

37:11

wounded, doesn't he, by the blast of a

37:13

grenade. but they then in turn throw a

37:15

phosphorus grenade onto the back of the pamper

37:17

which then ignites the fuel a whole thing

37:20

bruise up yeah it's amazing and 15 minutes

37:22

after that event a lieutenant stalks a tiger

37:24

tank and knocks it out of of Bizuka.

37:26

It's absolutely amazing. That's all, you know, 8.30

37:29

p.m. that night, the 17th. Finally, you know,

37:31

the full weight of Camp Group and Mueller

37:33

attacks McKinley's lot at the Lausdale crossroads. And

37:35

17 hours of fighting follows. Yeah. that night

37:38

in while the fighting is going on at

37:40

last or four yagged pansers which is a

37:42

sort of which is a pans of four

37:44

chassis with a 88 on it I think

37:47

yeah I think so maybe a 75 I'm

37:49

not sure but I've lost the anti-tank gun

37:51

tons of variants yeah yeah and a platoon

37:53

of pans grown it is they measures will

37:56

get past allows a crossroads but they're still

37:58

being held up there that's the point yeah

38:00

not driving through it they got to go

38:03

around it this is the point so the

38:05

following morning 18th December at this point? So

38:07

at dawn at 830, Company K of the

38:09

9th are overrun. And this is a lot

38:12

which is by that farmhouse that we mentioned

38:14

just a little bit. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

38:16

And there's a very good picture that one

38:18

of them drew of the landscape. One officer

38:21

left, 10 deep GIs managed to pull back.

38:23

During the morning, the German armour gets into

38:25

Rockaracht. But again, the Pansa Grenadier's infantry, infantry

38:27

support that the tanks need a cut down

38:30

in the attack, and 12... SS lose lots

38:32

of their armor to bazooka teams and and

38:34

actually 57 mill guns because the quote at

38:36

the start we had from Villy Fisher was

38:39

about a crew on a 57 mill doing

38:41

for him well yes that's happening in the

38:43

middle of the day on the 18th December

38:45

the same day it's not until 1 p.m.

38:48

that McKinley's lot pulled back from the Lausa

38:50

crossroads under the cover of four Shermans of

38:52

the 741 tank battalion yeah and they they

38:54

managed to scuttled back and there's then house

38:57

to house to house fighting in rocker out.

38:59

In rocker out, yeah. Which is what Fisher's

39:01

talking about. Five Panthers get to Kinkel and

39:04

they do manage to shell the American command

39:06

place, but they lose four of them. Four

39:08

tanks are lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That amazing

39:10

photograph of those two Panthers knocked out outside

39:13

this house with a kind of sort of

39:15

farmhouse attached to it. And that's still there

39:17

in the kind of main drag in rocker

39:19

out, isn't it? And you can, you can,

39:22

you can, you can go. there match up

39:24

the then and now photograph of it. Completely

39:26

matched up. And then in the evening, Major

39:28

General Walter Robinson, who's the commander of second

39:31

dive, he orders a withdrawal to Vertfeld, which

39:33

is a couple of masterwares, so shorten his

39:35

lines, tidy up. Yeah. But the point is,

39:37

that's the end of the 18th. Three days.

39:40

Three days? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Squandered. And at

39:42

that point, price orders of the 12th SS

39:44

pull back completely, and leaves the third Pans

39:46

of Grenadiers, who anyone who's listened to any

39:49

of our Italian podcast will be familiar with

39:51

them, from southern Italy and so on. Yeah.

39:53

Yeah. So the fighting in the two villages,

39:55

basically, completely, I mean, for three entire days,

39:58

12th SS hit the Yuggena held up. Yeah,

40:00

they're supposed to be the Murs by then.

40:02

They're supposed to be in the Murs. Yeah,

40:05

they've not gone 10 10 10 10 miles,

40:07

30 miles, 30 miles, 30 miles, 30 miles,

40:09

30 miles, 30 miles, and they've, 30 miles,

40:11

30 miles, and they've, 30 miles, 30 miles,

40:14

30 miles, and they've, 30 miles, 30 miles,

40:16

and they've, 30 miles, 30 miles, and they've,

40:18

30 miles, 30 miles, and they've, 30 miles,

40:20

30 miles, and they've, 30 miles, 30 miles,

40:23

30 miles, 30 miles, and they've, 30 at

40:25

the breakthrough so they've they've well what what

40:27

price now does is he now redirects the

40:29

12th SS just a little bit further south

40:32

to Bullion and domain Bertcom back which will

40:34

be looking at in later episodes but the

40:36

12 SSs just can't get through. And of

40:38

course the defence of these twin villages allows

40:41

5th Corps, part of the US First Army,

40:43

to build up defences on the all-important Elsonbourne

40:45

Ridge. And by dawn of the 90 December,

40:47

the shortest route to the MERS is completely

40:50

blocked. And so far the Germans have lost

40:52

around 60 tanks and AFEs, you know, armoured

40:54

fighting vehicles at this point, which is a

40:57

big bite, you know, when it has only

40:59

got, you know, double that, if, if, if.

41:01

If, right, so that was the battle for

41:03

the Twin Villages in this second part of

41:06

this episode. In our next episode, we'll be

41:08

looking at the most notorious infamous of all

41:10

the pans of battle groups, Camp Gripper, Piper,

41:12

whose exploits I think are also a kind

41:15

of the other thing about the Battle of

41:17

Ozic people know about and also offer a

41:19

clue to some of the American motivation when

41:21

the moment comes, doesn't it? It's the truth.

41:24

You know, we often we scratch our heads

41:26

and wonder why American lads from, you know,

41:28

you know, Louisiana... fighting here here Piper's

41:30

men's behavior offers us a offers

41:33

us a very strong

41:35

motivation as we'll very much for

41:37

very much for listening.

41:39

to If you want

41:42

to subscribe and listen

41:44

to those in one one enormous

41:46

lump then you you can

41:48

subscribe to Channel officer class or we

41:51

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41:53

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41:55

course of course. still come to

41:58

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42:00

14th to 14th tickets are

42:02

on sale are on sale .co

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42:07

you can camp, you can

42:09

you can drink beer like-minded

42:11

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42:13

lectures, you can can

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on tanks if that's

42:18

what you want to

42:20

do. Everything you could

42:22

possibly want to do possibly

42:25

World War in a

42:27

field for a weekend.

42:29

Thanks very much for

42:31

listening. for a We will

42:34

be back with camp

42:36

much for listening. We will be back with

42:38

appalling Piper, and then I'm

42:40

going to put yoken Piper. I'm

42:43

going to stick my I don't

42:45

think there. I controversial opinion

42:48

we'll see you next time. Cheerio. next

42:50

time. Cheerio. Cheerio.