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

TEAM DESOBRY AT NOVILLE 53
clog the streets of Noville and increase his vulnerability to enemy
artillery fire. The infantry strays came into the line usually in
groups of three or four. Many of them had discarded all fighting
equipment; few were able to say where they had been; none had
maps and none was able to pinpoint the area where he had last
seen the Germans. It became the experience of T earn Desobry
that these stragglers who came to Noville singly or in small
groups were of almost no value to the defense; when the action
started, they took to the cellars.
This was not true of a platoon of armored infantry from CCR
which fell back into Noville near midnight. Their lieutenant had
held them together during a running 36-hour fight with enemy
armored forces. He gave Major Desobry a vivid picture of his experience
and of the action of the enemy forces moving toward
Noville from the east. He volunteered to move his platoon into
position at Noville and throughout the defense there, it fought
courageously.
On the strength of what the lieutenant had told him about the
enemy armor, Desobry decided that his own vehicles were overcrowding
the village. He ordered the main streets to be cleared
and the vehicles to be parked along the side roads. Detailing one
officer to stand watch, he then suggested that the rest of the force
within the village try to snatch some sleep.
At 0430 on December 19 the How of stragglers abruptly ceased
and Desobry's men grew tense as they waited for an enemy attack.
At 0530 a group of half-tracks could be heard and dimly
seen approaching the block on the Bourey road. In the darkness
the outpost could not tell whether they were friend or enemy.
The sentry to the front yelled "Halt!" four times. The first vehicle
pulled to a grinding halt within a few yards of him. Someone
in the half-track yelled something in German. From a bank
on the right of the road, Desobry's men showered the half-track
with hand grenades. Several exploded as they landed in the vehicle.
There was loud screaming as some of the Germans jumped
or fell from the half-track and lay in the road. The rest of the
enemy column quickly unloaded and deployed in the ditches
along the road. There ensued a 20-minute close-up fight with