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

CHRISTMAS EVE 161
Colonel Harper had heard by phone from Company A of his 3d
Battalion that 18 enemy tanks were formed for attack just east of
Mande-St.-£tienne. 2 ' At 0710 the German armor supported by
infantry of the 77th Grenadier Regiment smashed through the
positions held by Companies A and B. 25 In coming through the
companies, the tanks fired all their guns and the German infantrymen
riding the tanks blazed away with their rifles. The spearpoint
of the German armor had already broken clear through to
the battalion command post. 26 At the 327th regimental headquarters
Colonel Harper heard by telephone of the breakthrough,
and on the heels of that message came word from Lieut. Colonel
Cooper that his 463d Parachute Field Arrillery Battalion already
had the German tanks under fire.27 At 0715 Colonel Allen, the
3d Battalion C327th) commander, called and said that the tanks
were right on him.
Harper asked, "How close?"
"Right here!" answered Allen. "They are firing point-blank at
me from 150 yards range. My units are still in position but I've
got to run." But Colonel Allen's battalion had not been wholly
taken by surprise. "Tanks are coming toward you!" Captain
Preston E. Towns, commanding Company C, had telephoned to
Allen.
'Where?" Allen had asked.
"If you look out your window now," said Captain Towns,
"you'll be looking right down the muzzle of an 88."28
Christmas Day was just then breaking. Colonel Allen stayed
at his 3d Battalion, .J27th, command post only long enough to
look out of his window, and prove what Towns had told him, and
to call Colonel Harper and tell him he was getting out. Then he
ran as fast as he could go and the German tanker fired at him as
he sprinted toward the woods. He could see the muzzle blasts
over his shoulder in the semidarkness. But all of the shots were
leading him. The Germans were giving him credit for more
speed than his legs possessed.
Two members of Allen's staff followed him. As they all came
out of the other end of the woods, men of Colonel Chappuis' 502d
Parachute Infantry along the ridge road saw them and promptly