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

50 BASTOGNE
pressed in against the building; the west side of the ch!teau was
raked with 20mm. and machine-gun fire. 8 But though some died
within five yards of the walls, not one German got into the
cMteau.
There was only one somber note in the defense. A depleted
platoon of engineers, which had arrived from the direction of
Mont early in the morning, was ordered to the south of the
cMteau at the height of the action. The enemy was moving
through woods toward the high ground in that direction. The
engineers started on their mission but kept on over the hill and
Team Cherry never saw them again.'
Some time around mid-afternoon on the 19th a platoon from
Ewell's 3d Battalion of the 501st in Mont worked its way. carefully
forward, taking advantage of the cover afforded by the
forest patches and the rise and fall of the ground, and entered
the ch!teau. B It had turned out this way, that whereas the fire of
the German tanks had kept Colonel Griswold's 3d Battalion from
closing on Neffe, his infantry fire had compelled the Germans
to release their tight hold on the cMteau. Too, the enemy must
have felt mounting concern for what was occurring on their right.
The platoon had come as reinforcements-to help Cherry hold
the fort. But by that time the roof was blazing over his head and
his men were being smoked out by another fire lighted by German
HE shells. 6 He waited until the approach of darkness and
then led all hands out of Neffe and back to the infantry lines
at Mont.
Before leaving, Colonel Cherry sent Combat Command B this
message, 'We're not driven out ... we were burned out. We're
not withdrawing . . we are moving."7