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99th’s 393rd Infantry Division when the Germans hit. Until then, “it was real quiet” along the Siegfried line, where his division was strung out for 22 miles. Although German patrols would occasionally go through, so would American patrols routinely penetrate the other side.But this was no routine enemy patrol. Johnson recalled a barrage of enemy artillery fire and tanks, and jumping into his foxhole.- “We held out for a while’ before being ordered to withdraw, he said. Soon came enemy paratroopers, some of whom “could speak American — and well enough,” presumably members of Greif.He encountered another German plan to wreak confusion, this time over the radio.• “We got a message to attack El-senbom Ridge,” Johnson said. “When we went up, (the Germans) were waiting for us; it was a trap. We lost a lot of men.’The enemy spoke “very good dialect” and wore American uniforms and drove jeeps, Johnson said.Johnson escaped his brush with the Germans and would again later, when he was repairing communication urirpc that wprp qfrpfrhpH nvpr“Alf men, including clerks, cooks, mechanics, truck drivers ... became riflemen,’-’ Halldin said. “This helped slow the German offensive/’. file troops made it back to their original position. 4. “God was on our side that night,” Lauer wrote. “The Germans did not take advantage of that mistaken operation. Maybe they did not know it took place. Maybe they were too tired to bother. Maybe they thought it was a trap. Maybe the heavy casualties they had suffered at the hands of our troops had left them too stunned to follow up closely.”On Dec. 23, Halldin was wounded by artillery shrapnel and later went on to England for surgery.While to this day some participants and historians differ as to which units played the most important role and where, the end result was that American troops held the north shoulder at Elsenborn and contained the enemy from taking regions to the north. Despite intense fighting, the 25th German Army was halted near Hofen-Eisenborn. - The 6th Pan*er Division was eventuallystopped between the Orth;. and. Meuse rivers. . . T ;‘tA Allirl nitric tn nrpupnt
Newspaper Details
Indiana Gazette
Indiana, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Jan 26, 1985
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Apr 2019
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