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

TEAM DESOBRY AT NOVILLE 55
knocked out the other one. The succeeding rounds also scored
direct hits. Yet none of the tankers was killed though several
were hard hit. One man had his right leg blown off and his left
badly mangled. Private John J. Garry, an infantryman, moved
over to the ditch to help the wounded tankers and was hit in the
shoulder by a shell fragment.
Jones and the other men in the advanced positions were pinned
to their foxholes by the grazing fire from the enemy guns. The
American half-tracks were in line behind the Shermans. The
position of the ruined armor not only blocked the enemy from
coming down the road but gave the half-tracks partial cover so
that they could tum their machine guns against the enemy column.
A bazooka team tried to get forward but couldn't find a
route by which they could bring their rockets to hear. Under
these conditions of deadlock the two forces continued to slug it
out toe-to-toe while the fog swirled around them and at last closed
in so thick that they could scarcely see the muzzle Hashes of the
guns. At 0730 the platoon disengaged and withdrew to Noville,
acting on the orders given by Major Desobry the night before.
They had held to the last minute and so complied with the order,
but they were about through in any case, as enemy infantry
was now coming up around the Hank. The roadblock on the Vaux
road was not attacked. But while that party likewise was withdrawing
at 0730 they heard the enemy coming down from the
north.
During the night of December 18-19 Captain Geiger had set
up roadblocks on all roads entering Noville and had placed a
thin screen of infantry in a circle just beyond the buildings. The
position was particularly weak on the south and west-the sides
which the enemy seemed least likely to approach. One tank was
posted on the road leading to Bastogne and two were put on the
other main exits from the town. In addition, one 57mm. gun
and a 75mm. assault gun were placed to cover each of the roads
which had been outposted during the night. The survivors of
the two opening skirmishes had just drawn back within this defensive
circle when 88mm. fire from the northward ripped out
of the fog which by this time completely enveloped the village.