Bastogne: The Story of the First Eight Days - US Army Center Of ...

CHAPTER 19
WEST OF BASTOGNE
FOR SIX DAYS the enemy had made only a few swift passes
at General McAuliffe's line facing toward the west. That
was the way the command and staff had figured the battle was
most likely to develop. Colonel Kinnard, who had worked out
the tactical plan for the defense of Bastogne, felt that the forces
could be spread thinnest toward the southwest. 1
Between Colonel Harper, commanding the 327th, and Lieutenant
Colonel Ray C. Allen, commanding the 3d Battalion
which held the attenuated lines covering toward NeufcMteau,
there passed a jest typifying the situation. "How are you doing
on yourleft?" "Good! We have two jeeps out there."2
In the northwest sector, the Germans accommodated General
McAuliffe's plan of saving the 502d Parachute Infantry for his
Sunday punch and that regiment had relatively little fighting
though it went through a great many motions.s
In the beginning Colonel Allen's 3d Battalion, 327th, became
engaged because 'Of the enemy penetration which on the night of
December 19-20 reached the Bois de Herbaimont from the direction
of Houffalize. and overran and captured the 326th Medical
Company near crossroads "X." Nine men from the 28th Division
-remnant of a group of more than 100 men-got back to Colonel
Allen's command post at 2030 and told him how this same German
force had anibushed and destroyed their company. It was
the first information that the Bastogne-St. Hubert road had been
cut and it meant the probable end of any possibility that supplies
could be brought in from the northwest. The 101st Division
Headquarters became alarmed. At 2200 Colonel Allen was told
to move a company out against the roadblock which the enemy
had established and destroy it.
Company B under Captain Robert J. McDonald was two
hours in preparing for the attack, but it moved out at midnight,
December 20-21, and was approaching the roadblock after about
a 90-minute march. The men moved down the ditches on either
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