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

186 BASTOGNE
at Neffe was something I had witnessed with my own eyes. I
thought and said that we should attack Bastogne with the whole
XXXXVII Corps."
In these calculations, an overstrained imagination undoubtedly
played a strong part. During the day, elements of Panzer
Lehr (Bayerlein's reconnaissance battalion) covered on their
south flank by the third regiment of Kokott's Division-the 39th
Fusiliers of 26th Volksgrenadier-had pushed on toward Wardin.
As we saw earlier, they had a limited success there and one
of Colonel Ewell's companies of the 502d Parachute Infantry­
Company I, on his extreme right-had been fragmented. But
Bayerlein had eyes and ears only for the signs and sounds of
enemy fire on his left, a state of mind aggravated no doubt by
the activity of Team O'Hara's guns which had not supported
Colonel Ewell's attack on Wardin but which were continuing
to punish all enemy forces within sight or hearing.
Bayerlein, by his own account, gained the distinct impression
that strong American forces had arrived in Wardin and were
about to envelop his left; he could not conceive that the American
infantry had been defeated there and that the American
armor was preparing to withdraw to ground closer to Bastogne.
The time had come, Bayerlein concluded, to direct every energy
to the extrication of his force. But this was not easy to do. He
felt that retirement by the narrow, winding road on which' he
had come-the road to Benonchamps-was now out of the question.
If he were to make it at all, he would have to completely
destroy and clear the American roadblock at Longvilly and move
by the main highway. These were his thoughts after he had
moved farther rearward from Mageret and he so reported them
to his Corps commander, adding his personal urging that the
plan be changed and that the entire Corps be thrown against
Bastogne.
During these same hours, the XXXXVII Corps commander,
Lieutenant General Liittwitz, had received nothing but bad news
from any part of his front. In sum, he had heard that Bayerlein
had been stopped at Neffe, that parts of the 77th Regiment of
the 26th Volksgrenadier Division had been stopped east of