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

166 BASTOGNE
67 German dead and 35 prisoners, many of them wounded, in
the area around the ruined tanks. 49
One tank did break through Company B and charge on into
Champs. Company A, 502d, fired bazookas at it and it was also
shelled by a 57mm. gun which had taken position in the village.
The tank was hit by both types of fire but which weapon made
the kill is uncertain. fio
Captain James J. Hatch, S-3 of the 502d, had gone forward to
reconnoiter Company A's situation and was in the Company A
command post at the time. He heard the fight going on outside,
grabbed his pistol and opened the door. He was looking straight
into the mouth of the tank's 75mm. gun at a range of 15 yards.
Hatch closed the door and said to the others, "This is no place
for my pistol."61
The seventh tank in the German group-it was later determined
that this was the same tank that had knocked out the two
tank destroyers-was captured intact at Hemroulle. 52 By 0900,
December 25, the action was cleared up around Rolle. Headquarters
of the 502d Parachute Infantry had called WIst Division
Headquarters and asked about the situation of 327th Glider
Infantry over on its left. Colonel Kinnard (iOIst Airborne Division
G3) reported that the 327th's lines were generally intact
and the situation there well in hand. 53
In the 327th's sector there had been four tank destroyers behind
Captain McDonald's Company B and four behind lieutenant
Bowles' Company A. Captain Towns' Company C was unsupported
by tank destroyers but Colonel Harper had sent him
. two Sherman tanks on hearing that the German attack was coming.
5 '
These guns, the bazooka fire of the 327th Glider Infantry outfits
and the barrage fire of Colonel Cooper's 463d Parachute Field
Artillery Battalion had dealt in detail with that part of the German
armor that tried to ride on through toward Hemroulle after
breaking Harper's front.55 The German tanks were fired at from
so many directions and with such a mixture of fire that it was
not possible to see or say how each tank met its doom. 18 One
battery from the 463d stopped two tanks at a range of 600