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

80 BASTOGNE
pushing rightward toward the railroad station at Halt against
stubborn resistance. When evening of the 20th came the company
had reached the Foy-Bizory road. It stayed there with its
right Bank some hundreds of yards distant from the railroad station
at Halt, which was held by an enemy force. There had been
no contact with the 501st. Colonel Sink (Plate 3), commander
of the 506th, called both Headquarters, 501st Parachute Infantry,
and Headquarters, 101st Division, and urged that the 501st
swing leftward to meet him. He said that his force was standing
on the railroad line which was supposed to be the regimental
boundary-but this overstated the case.
The first three patrols which had gone out from Company D
of the 50lst to search for the 506th's Bank had been turned back
by fire from the Bois Jacques. They got no idea of the enemy
strength in the forest area for they were beaten back by a scattering
small-arms fire at long range whenever they moved to right
of the Foy-Bizory road in an attempt to gain the railroad.
Corporal Frank Lasik of Company D, 501st, led out his fourth
patrol of the day just as the evening twilight of the 20th came on.
There were eight men with him, and instead of beating over the
same ground as the earlier patrols they swung around to the
westward of the Bizory-Foy road. When within a short distance
of the railroad Lasik dropped six of his men and continued on
with two others. They reached the rail line and moved east along
it to within a hundred yards of the Halt station. At that point
they saw a force of seven German tanks supported by a body of
infantry moving straight toward them down the railroad track,
and only 75 yards away. Private Manzi fired one shot toward the
enemy force and then the three men withdrew as rapidly as they
could. Lasik knew that Company A had been given an assignment
and was supposed to be moving toward the same ground
which the Germans were approaching. He rushed to the Battalion
command post and told them to get word to Company A,
501st, that tanks were coming down the railway track.
Company A had moved out about 1600 on December 20 and
was already engaged in clearing the woods that lay south of the
railroad and west of the Foy-Bizory road. They found no enemy