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

CHAPTER 5
EAST OF BASTOGNE
THE THIRD BATTALION of the 501st Parachute Infantry
had been caught in the traffic snarl west of Bastogne and was
at a standstill. Colonel Ewell checked on them at 1200, December
19, and found that they had scarcely moved at all. After trying
to get out of town, the battalion had backtracked, only to
find that other routes were likewise clogged with outgoing troopS.l
Yet even this delay had its benefits. Some of the infantrymen
lacked helmets, riRes and ammunition. They begged them from
the armored troops of Combat Command B, 10th Armored Division,
who were in the town, and thus in the interval the battalion
became somewhat better equipped. 2 Colonel Ewell ordered Lieutenant
Colonel George M. Griswold, commanding the 3d Battalion,
to march his battalion to Mont, a little hamlet lying south
of the Neffe road. (Plate 20.) It seemed like the best opportunity
to get the battalion out of Bastogne. Ewell also directed that one
of Griswold's companies be sent down the Wiltz road to cover
the 3d Battalion's right Rank as it moved. Colonel Griswold was
told to send the company to the bend in the road directly east
of the village of Marvie. Colonel Ewell planned to send the 3d
Battalion against Neffe from the southwest after it had reached
Mont, but he issued no orders to the effect at the time. He followed
his usual plan of giving his subordinate commanders only
a limited objective. 8
At 1203 the 2d Battalion took Bizory (Map 4, page 35) without
opposition except for unobserved fire from the German tanks
in Neffe. Still convinced that the Neffe roadblock was the only
immediate threat to his front, Ewell ordered his 2d Battalion to
advance and seize Mageret. By this move he figured he would
box the tanks in so that he could then move against them either
from front or rear according to the advantages of the ground.
But he specified that Major Sammie N. Homan, commander of
the 2d Battalion, send one of his companies to seize the patch
of woods directly north of Mageret. This wood is a small planta-
[39 ]