WWII Forums Quiz Part IV

I think it was Martin's unanswerable question the one in the air...

 

...which went along the lines of :

A 'Bulge' question...one of the greatest military disasters for the US forces in the opening stages of the battle was the loss of the Schnee Eifel.

Who was the American officer 'on the spot' who, historians generally concur, mishandled the tactical situation here ?

 

After reading on this I still think quite alot of things were turning that situation into a chaos like reverse orders arriving to the battle place and as well the air force not able to deliver supplies to the men.And like said forces going into the wrong direction...

ANyway, I have nothing to lose..anymore..so I´ll try the third person now..:

Meanwhile Colonel Cavender had gone forward to see what the situation was, but en route he received a radio message from General Jones telling him that the relief attack by the American armor would not take place and ordering the two regiments to shift their move to Schönberg

 

kai's nominating every US officer except the one I'm after !

You're absolutely right - of all the Ardennes sectors, this one was the most confused and possibly the worst-managed ( and the German commander involved was decisive and lucky ) - so here's a clue, at the start of the offensive, the officer in question had his command post at the village of Schlausenbach ( actually on the Sc hnee Eifel ridge itself )....

 

Yeah, this is going to be interesting...



I mean who is the low-ranked guy that gets all the blame....??



Nah, I guess one should go with one author here as the articles in the net blame the mentioned factors foremost and as well some articles refuse to blame anyone or anything. I don´t know if that´s wrong either as the situation was totally awful.

For example I would not want to be the commander of those "green" soldiers and one day tell them that you´re in the safest of places and the next day you´re facing " all of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS as well"...

 

Just for interest:

Colonel C. C. Cavender told me that we, the 3rd Battalion of the 423rd Regiment were attempting to get to Radscheid to assist the 2nd Battalion of the 423rd Regiment. They were engaged in a fire-fight along the Bleialf-Schönberg road during their attempt to cut the road which had been taken by the Germans. He told me that originally the two regiments were to march south of Schönberg and make their way back to St Vith to join the rest of the division in a defense situation. Instead of assisting the 2nd Battalion Colonel Cavender received orders to move the 3rd battalion to the right of the 2nd battalion and head it toward Schönberg. The route was to be through the hilly woods, later identified as "Linscheid Hill" southeast of Schönberg, Belgium. According to orders, we were to cause utmost damage to the German troops there and continue to St. Vith.

Colonel Cavender, after the war, received much criticism for moving the 3rd battalion to the right around Puett. In a recent conversation, October 1989, with him, he said, "Those were the orders I received from General Jones." He then told me more about the battle at Bleialf. He formed a provisional battalion, the 423rd Anti-Tank Company plus a mixture of men from other units. This provisional battalion threw the Germans back on the 16th, only to be thrown overrun again on the 17th. After moving into the Schnee Eifel front line positions he, Colonel Cavender, inspected the whole area, including the area around Bleialf.

Accompanying him was his counterpart, Colonel Boos, the 2nd Division's Regimental Commander. Colonel Cavender expressed concern to him, to about the open corridor from Prüm to Schönberg. It was defended by a thin line of troops. He was concerned, as had been his 2nd Division counterpart, that in case of an attack there was a lack of secondary defense. His fears turned out to be true. When the Ardennes Offensive broke, the Germans poured around the Schnee Eifel from the South, through the Prüm Corridor. They then closed the pincers by joining with the Germans coming into Schönberg from the North along the Andler-Schönberg road. he asked what reserve or "backup" resources were available and Colonel Boss replied, "None."

It seems, at least to me and some of my buddies, that the Prüm Corridor, the area that the 423rd Anti-Tank Company was defending and the Losheim Gap, the area that the 14th Cavalry was defending, were left open for a purpose. Could that be true? Were we part of a calculated risk, or were we setup? It looks as if we will never know. I, personally, can only relate what we were told as we left the Schnee Eifel to march to the rear towards Schönberg Belgium (about three miles to the West). There we were to meet a combat team of an armored division in Schönberg, Belgium. Later, after getting underway, we were informed that the Germans had encircled us, and that we had orders to fight our way through Schönberg and try to reach St. Vith. In fact, he Germans did occupy Schönberg, the promised armor was not there.

http://home.planet.nl/~wijer037/JohnKl.html

 

Major-general Alan W. Jones. he failed to withdraw the 106th Infantry Division when the decision was left up to him, it was then encircled and cut to pieces.

 

Maj.-Gen. Alan Jones Snr did indeed not cover himself in glory.

But, he wasn't actually on the Schnee Eifel...

( 24 hrs and I'll post another question ! )

 

I think I´ve run out of American officers I could name here...

Can we please get the right answer and a new question...?

 

I forgot the 24 hrs was up !

It was Descheneux. Agreed, all sorts of officers at various levels did not perform well in this sector, but Descheneux comes in for particular criticism from historians such as Macdonald and Dupuy.

Kai, as a special mention in dispatches for your 2,000th - you ask the next one....

 

Well, all right, and Thanx Martin!

Sorry I could not answer the question properly...

Anyway,The question:

As Rommel got the command of 7th Panzer in 1940 what did he do as he met the officers for the first time? This includes two things.

Something of a tip

He suprised the officers of his division
by ______ and distributed them some _______


----------------------------------------------

Extra info:

Under Rommel, the 7th Panzer captured in 1940:

The Admiral of the French Navy, 4 other Admirals, 277 guns and 64 AT guns, 458 tanks and armoured vehicles, 4-5,000 trucks, 1,5-2,000 cars, 1,5-2,000 horse and mule wagons, 300-400 buses, 300-400 motorcycles, 4 divisional commanders and staffs, and finally 97,468 prisoners.

They lost:

3 Pzkw Is, 5 Pzkw IIs, 26 Pzkw IIIs, 8 Pzkw IVs, 682 killed, 1,746 wounded, and 263 missing

 

Ha! That is what I call IMPRESSIVE! Even more impressive than his African campaign...

But I have no idea of the answer of that question...

 

I've been looking through my 'Rommel library' and can't really find the answer to this

He did buy ten copies of Infanterie greift an and distributed them to his subordinates, and then sent the Division on leave...but I don't think that's what you're looking for ?

 

I have just recently stolen my first Rommel biography, but I have not read it yet. I hope I'll be able to do so today and see if I can find the answer...

 

Yes, Martin, he gave the book to his officers, and that´s the other part.

The other is a bit harder, and it has things to do with Rommel being in Hitler´s bodyguard previously as well as the way Rommel entered the room where the officers waited...



[ 02. March 2003, 06:46 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Rommel entered the room briskly and surprised his officers by greeting them with 'Heil Hitler'...is that it ?

 

G'day

Rommel didn't shave properly and left a moustache like Hitler on his lip??

PS That would not be it but it would be fun

Pop

 

Yes, Martin! That is correct! At the time Rommel was quite heavily "under the influence", it seems!

You got them both right so over to you, Martin!

 

Indeed, Popski, it would have been very funny!

And yes, that fact shows that Rommel was a man full of faith on his Führer as well as the whole nation, let's accept it...