The Hour of the Battle Babies

The battle of Elsenborn Ridge

Soldiers of the 2nd Division digging in on Elsenborn Ridge on December 20
(Photo: U.S. Army)

The Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s last major counteroffensive in the west, was a massive operation involving hundreds of thousands of men and uncountable individual battles and skirmishes; and yet, most people know little about it beyond the defense of Bastogne and General MacAuliffe’s (The Man Who Said “Nuts!”) famous “NUTS!” message. (To the German Commander: NUTS!) The rest of the Battle of the Bulge is unfairly neglected by the public. This is especially true of the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, which unfolded in the northern half of the salient, and which many historians, including General and later President Eisenhower’s own son John S. D. Eisenhower, consider objectively more important in defeating the German advance than Bastogne was. This article is about the oft-overlooked battle.
 
Elsenborn Ridge, the westernmost ridge of the Ardennes, is a stretch of high ground surrounded by a cluster of hamlets, villages and towns. What was far more important about it at the time, however, was what lay further to its west: a well-developed road network and various Allied supply bases. Any German forces that got past the ridge could potentially raid the bases for fuel, and use the roads to strike further west. Some 16 miles (27 km) to the northwest of the ridge lay Eupen, the headquarters of V Corps; a further 7.5 miles (12 km) behind Allied lines lay the city of Liège and the headquarters of the First Army. Well beyond that lay the ultimate German goal: the port of city of Antwerp. Capturing Antwerp would have driven a wedge between British and American forces, which Hitler hoped would have allowed him to negotiate a peace.

 

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A map showing the route of Kampfgruppe Peiper during the Battle of the Bulge, with Elsenborn Ridge and the nearby villages circled
(Image: bigpigeon.us)

The area of Elsenborn Ridge was occupied by the 99th Infantry Division from Pittsburgh. Nicknamed “Battle Babies” by a war correspondent, the 99th had only arrived in Europe recently and had not yet fired its guns in combat. The green division was expected to guard 6.8 miles (11 km) of the front, three to four times wider than recommended Army textbooks. All three regiments of the division had to be put on the line with none left in reserve, and there were still gaps between positions that could only be patrolled.

A soldier from the 99th Infantry Division on Elsenborn Ridge
(Photo: U.S. Army)

Just before 5:30 am on December 16, 1944, German artillery opened up along 100 miles (160 km) of the frontline, the first move in the Battle of the Bulge. The dugouts and foxholes of the 99th were well-built, deep and covered with logs, so initial casualties were light. The bombardment was immediately followed by an infantry charge by the 12th Volksgrenadier Division. (Volksgrenadier units were built around a cadre of veterans, but most of the soldiers were teenagers, old men, wounded recently discharged from hospitals, and “jobless” Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine personnel.) In one area, where the forest vegetation did not allow long lines of sight, many Germans reached the edges of American foxholes and toppled onto the soldiers when shot at point-blank range.
 
The infantry attack was ferocious, because it had to be quick. The Volksgrenadier assault’s job was to open up the path for the elite SS-Panzer divisions behind them. The spearhead of the armored advance in the north was the battlegroup led by SS Colonel Joachim Peiper, who would become known for the massacres of Allied POWs by troops under his command.
(The War Crimes of Joachim Peiper) The tank force had five pre-planned routes assigned to it in the area, two of which crossed or skirted the adjacent villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt, a mile to the southeast of Elsenborn Ridge.

American POWs marching past a Tiger II on December 16
(Photo: US Army Center for Military History)

The scope of the German attack caught the scattered units of the 99th by surprise. Many positions were quickly overrun with their defenders killed, captured or simply ignored by the Germans as they advanced past. One notable exception occurred at the village Lanzerath 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to the south of the ridge. Led by 1st Lieutenant Lyle Bouck, an 18-man intelligence and recon platoon, helped by four artillery observers, held back 500 Germans for 20 hours, losing one man before the rest, many of them wounded, were captured. The platoon became the most decorated American unit of their size in the war in the 1980s, when much lobbying and a congressional hearing led to the formal recognition of the valor of every single member.

First Lieutenant Lyle Bouck
(Photo: U.S. Army)

German forces penetrated Allied lines in many areas along the Ardennes on the first day of the battle. The 99th was still holding the line at nightfall, but with gaps in the lines that allowed German patrols of 50 men or more to penetrate and probe for weaknesses, while Peiper’s tanks were drawing closer to Elsenborn from the south. At 4 am on December 17, Peiper overran the hamlet of Buchholz 5 miles (8 km) south of the ridge, routing the defenders. A single American remained hiding in a cellar, making radio reports of the number of tanks rolling past until he was found and captured.

Soldier of the 393rd Regiment, 99th Division on the front line at Elsenborn
(Photo: U.S. Army)

Moving on, Kampfgruppe Peiper encountered a column of retreating American vehicles just before Honsfeld, one of the 99th Division’s rest centers. Rather than opening fire, Peiper used the pre-dawn darkness and the general confusion to join the column, his tanks pulling into breaks in the convoy. Once they were inside the village, the tanks and the men riding on them opened fire, eliminating U.S. forces and capturing valuable supplies of gasoline.
 
Late in the morning, Peiper ran into a last-ditch American effort to block the road. Miraculously, rather than swatting it aside, he gave up on the route and turned to the southwest to seek an alternative path. Had he persisted, he could have trapped both the 2nd and 99th Divisions and quickly secured Elsenborn Ridge and the road network beyond. Instead, Kampfgruppe Peiper was sent on narrower, partially unpaved roads, which caused significant jams and delays that doomed the northern part of the German advance to eventual failure.

An American machine gun position near the village of Rocherath on December 18
(Photo: U.S. Army)

By 11 am, U.S. troops in Elsenborn area were driven back to the villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt. They were joined by veteran troops from the 2nd Infantry Division, who had been carrying out an offensive farther away north as part of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest (The Battle of Hürtgen Forest), but were pulled back to rescue the 99th.

Soldiers of the 2nd Division passing a tank destroyer and into Krinkelt
(Photo: U.S. Army)

The twin villages became a cauldron of destruction as German forces still tried to take them and the ridge beyond. The fighting on the 18th and the 19th reduced the villages to rubble. Americans and Germans shot at each other from across the street, while German armor, including Tiger tanks and Jagdpanther tank destroyers prowled the streets, making short work of Shermans (The M4 Sherman). In reply, American GIs stalked the German vehicles with bazookas (The Bazooka) in the narrow lanes or fired at them from rooftops. Some men jumped on top of German tanks and threw grenades down the open hatches. American heavy artillery assembled on Elsenborn Ridge was used to murderous effect.

A knocked-out Panther tank in Krinkelt
(Photo: U.S. Army Center for Military History)

One man, Lieutenant Jesse Morrow, hit the rear side of a Tiger with a bazooka, causing the tank to careen into a house, then shot the crewmen trying to climb out with his pistol. He quickly fetched a second bazooka and leapt around the corner to finish off the tank… only to find himself staring down its barrel. The Tiger fired, its 88 mm shell actually grazing Morrow’s neck and knocking him unconscious with its explosion. He miraculously survived, and was evacuated along with three of the Tiger’s crewmen.

An American sergeant escorting a German POW past a burning Panther tank.
(Photo: U.S. Army Signal Corps)

American forces abandoned the remains of Rocherath and Krinkelt on the 19th and dug in on Elsenborn Ridge itself. Six men were awarded the Medal of Honor (The Medal of Honor), one posthumously, for their actions during the defense of the villages.

U.S. infantry crossing an open field near Krinkelt
(Photo: U.S. Army Center for Military History)

Once the retreating forces dug in, the ridge proved unassailable. Over the next few days, the Germans launched several more attacks against the high ground and the few towns still in American hands, but were beaten back with the support of artillery, tanks and M36 tank destroyers. (How to Kill a Panzer)
 
The underappreciated defense of Elsenborn Ridge had a significant effect on the Battle of the Bulge at large. By forcing Colonel Peiper’s battle group onto worse roads, it contributed to the German spearhead running out of steam and time before reaching its objectives. The fact that only few people know about it is thanks to the circumstances. There were many war correspondents in Bastogne at the beginning of the German offensive, but few along the northern part of the frontline. Additionally, the story of surrounded paratroopers fighting in Bastogne and relying on air drops was just more spectacular and sold better than the stalwart but more traditional tenacity of the Battle Babies of the 99th Division and the various units that came to their aid.

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