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

THE CONCENTRATION ON BASTOGNE 11
borne Corps could not move in and. become operational until the
morning of December 19), and the IOl$t Division to the VIII
Corps. However, no word of this change got down to the WIst
Division; throughout that day its staff was unaware either that
Bastogne was the destination or that VIII Corps was now their
next higher headquarters. 7B
An advance party was then set up to precede the WIst Division
to Bastogne. In the party were a representative from each
major unit and a company of Engineers who were to be used
as guides to lead the combat teams into their Bastogne assembly
areas. 8 During the morning of December 18, there had been no
time to brief the advance party. Just as the party was pulling
away from Camp Mourmelon (plate 30) during the noon hour
Colonel Moore ran out of the division command post and advised
them that XVIII Corps was to handle the operation and
that they should go to a rendezvous with a part of the XVIII
Corps staff. They were to meet them at the crossroads in Werbomont.
This they did.9A
General Ridgway arrived at Mourmelon about an hour later,
having flown from England. He went to the command post of
the WIst and Colonel Moore gave him the situation as he had
given it to the advance party. Then occurred an odd sequence of
events in which Fate might have played a stronger hand against
WIst Division had it not been for several providential circumstances.
Ridgway went into General Taylor's empty office and
called a higher headquarters-presumably his own Corps. In this
conversation he learned that WIst's destination was Bastogne,
not Werbomont. On the heels of this conversation, Genera]
Higgins entered the room, having just reported from England.
Ridgway told him that WIst Division was to go to Bastogne.
Ridgway then left Mourmelon for the front. Higgins soon followed.
McAuliffe had left an instruction that Higgins was to get
forward as rapidly as possible, so he picked a route via Sedan,
figuring that it would be less encumbered with traffic. But the
word that Bastogne was the Division's destination was not passed
to Colonel Moore and the units remained alerted for movement
to Werbomont. IIB