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

FIRST MEETING WITH THE ENEMY 31
ning eastward-toward the ridges where Ewell had walked in
November-although neither General Middleton nor General
McAuliffe ever knew that he had seen the ground. T The enemy
was coming that way. At Corps headquarters the 9th Armored
Division was thought to have a roadblock somewhere around
Longvilly and the 10th Armored Division a block farther west
toward Neffe. The 9th's block was thought to be surrounded;
the 10th's block was supposed to be engaged but not yet surrounded.a
General Middleton had described the situation at these blocks
when General McAuliffe had reported to him, and he had said:
"There is a battle now going on for Bastogne."9 He spoke of the
block out along the Longvilly road as "surrounded" and indicated
the positions of the three blocks which Combat Command
B of the 10th Armored was maintaining to the east, northeast
and southeast of the city.10 The Corps commander had no specific
plan for the employment of the lOIst Division. The news that
he was to have that division had come so recently that he had
had no time to prepare a plan. At first General McAuliffe could
think of nothing. ll At 2200 he suggested to General Middleton
that a combat team be sent east to develop the situation.12 That
idea appealed to General McAuliffe simply as a "good old leavenworth
solution of the problem."lB It was wholly consistent with
General Middleton's concern for the preservation of the other
elements of his command. uA As General Middleton reasoned
the problem, so long as the 10th Armored team was already employed
in the east, it was not urgent that the lOIst Airborne Division
develop the situation there, although it was sound practice
to reinforce the armored team's roadblock, since it was becoming
evident that the weight of the enemy attack was coming down
the Longvilly road. 14 ,B
Middleton and McAuliffe sent for Ewell. He had been spending
a pmt of his time unprofitably at the road intersections trying
to get information from men who were straggling in from the
north and northeast. All talked vaguely and dispiritedly. Man
after man said to him: 'We have been wiped out," and then stumbled
away through the dark. They did not know where they had