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

192 BASTOGNE
command reacted gloomily. Again Bayerlein got a slightly exaggemted
idea of the forces opposing him. "I was stopped by a tremendous
artillery [true enough] and I also found myself opposing
a great number of tanks [not accurate]. The effect was
overpowering. We were stopped before we could begin." Again,
to General Bayerlein the shock at Neffe was decisive. It also
spelled failure for the Corps as a whole.
The Corps, meanwhile, had been extending westward to the
south of Bastogne. When Liittwitz heard that units of the Panzer
Lehr Division 'had taken Wardin, he told General Kokott
to take his reconnaissance battalion and the 39th Regiment, and
swinging on a wide arc toward Sibret, make ready to attack Bastogne
from the south. The advance followed the general line
through Lutremange to Villera-Ia-Bonne-Eau to Hompre to
Sibret but the roads on this line were so difficult for the armored
cars that they had to advance well to the southward of the forest.
Sibret. was captured about 2000. The 39th Regiment reached
high ground one kilometer north of Remoifosse and the wood
one kilometer north of Assenois and there was brought in check,
chiefly through the efforts of Colonel Harper's 327th Glider
Infantry and the engineers. Having taken Sibret, Kokott's reconnaissance
battalion went on to Chenogne, where it was brought
in check temporarily.
Thus the Corps stood on the night of December 20, with Bastogne
almost solidly in its embrace. On the south was Kokott's
39th Regiment (26th Volksgrenadier Division). To the southeast,
near Marvie, was Bayerlein's 901st Regiment (Panzer Lehr
Division). And next to it, confronting Neffe, was hi's 902d. The
77th and 78th Regiments of Kokott were on each side of the .railway
running northeast out of Bastogne. Across the north, blocking
all roads, were the elements of the 2d Panzer Division. That
division was advancing to the west, and the extension of the generalline,
in so far as it was concerned, consisted only of roadblock
elements whose mission was to protect the flank of the marching
column.
Yet despite this apparently excellent situation of the Corps,
Liittwitz felt that night that so far as Bastogne was concerned,