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

172 BASTOGNE
tanks moved in among the houses. There were some infantry
losses from our own fire. In the smoke and confusion, the infantry
company of Captain Dwight's team dismounted and engaged
the enemy in a fight for the village.
But five tanks and one infantry half-track stuck to the letter of
their assignment and kept moving toward Bastogne. Three of the
tanks had forged several hundred yards to the fore and the enemy
strewed Teller mines between them and the rest of the tank
force as they were pulling out of Assenois. The half-track hit a
mine and was destroyed. Captain Dwight jumped down from his
tank to clear the other mines away, so that he could get forward
with his two tanks. Meanwhile, the three lead tanks kept going
and at 1650 First Lieutenant Charles P. Boggess, commanding
officer of Company C, 37th Tank Battalion, drove the first vehicle
from the 4th Armored Division to within the lines of the 326th
Airborne Engineer Battalion, lOlst Division, .of the Bastogne
forces.
This was the beginning. The German encirclement was now
finally broken, though some days would pass before the American
lines to the south were again firm and several weeks of fighting
would ensue before the siege of Bastogne was finally lifted. Captain
Dwight, having followed Lieutenant Boggess on into Bastogne,
radioed Colonel Abrams to come up with the rest of the
breakthrough team.
With them came Major General Maxwell D. Tayl