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

THE ENEMY STORY 185
passed through the village during the noon hour, some time before
Ryerson's force really went to work against the block. His
men had captured an American hospital in Mageret and he
asked one of the nurses to look after his wounded. His nerve
was working better now. He noted that the nurse was "loung,
blonde and beautiful." He no longer had any thought 0 pushing
forward with his initial task force and he had about concluded
that the capture of Bastogne would require the utmost
effort on the part of his entire division.
It is now necessary to follow the course of the 2d Panzer Division
through these same hours. That division was under orders
to capture Noville as soon as possible. Having made the northward
tum to the east of Longvilly, the point of the division advanced
rapidly toward Bourey, meeting no resistance en route.
The small action at the Bourey roadblock (described on pages 53-
54), although seemingly inconsequential, was sufficient to convince
the division commander that he was blocked in that direction
and that Noville was probably strongly held. He so advised
the Corps commander and the course of the division was turned
north so that Noville could be attacked from several sides. The
men at the Bourey block had mistaken this point for a "reconnaissance
element" and concluded that they had made off after
completing their mission. Instead, the block had changed the
course of an entire division. There followed the heavy attacks
against Noville on December 19 with the tactical results described
earlier in the book. Its road temporarily blocked by this
engagement, the 2d Panzer Division on the morning of December
19 was strung out along the road all the way from Noville
back to the northwest of Allerborn.
By afternoon of December 19, Bayerlein, commander of the
Panzer Lehr Division, had begun to feel himself harassed from
every side and was thinking of extricating what he co:p.sidered
to be his "pocketed" forces. In his own words: liAs to my own
position, I felt that the resistance on my Banks would have to be
annihilated before I could again attack. The movement of the
infantry regiment which had come out of Bastogne to attack
me had reacted decisively on my thinking. Their fire superiority