Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who won The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge?
The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge was the only sector of the American front lines during the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans failed to advance.[2]:33 The battle centered on the Elsenborn Ridge east of Elsenborn, Belgium in the Ardennes forest. West of Elsenborn Ridge, near the cities of Liège and Spa, Belgium, was a vast array of Allied supplies and the well-developed road network leading to the Meuse River and Antwerp. The Germans planned on using two key rollbahns or routes through the area to seize Antwerp and force a separate peace with the United States and Britain.[3]:259–271 Capturing Monschau and the nearby village of Höfen, and the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt just east of Elsenborn Ridge, were key to the success of the German plans, and Hitler committed his best armored units and infantry troops to the area, including the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.
This made little difference to the American troops defending Elsenborn Ridge, however. On the same day, the Sixth Panzer Army made several all-out attacks trying to smash U.S. lines. They committed artillery, tanks, infantry, self-propelled guns, supported by an attached Jagdpanther Battalion, remnants of the PzKpfw IV tanks and Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyers. They unsuccessfully attacked at 09:00, 11:00 and 17:30 that day. The 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division, supported by elements of the 12th and 277th Volksgrenadier Division to left and right, made a frontal attack on the Elsenborn Ridge, with the objective of seizing the high feature called Roderhohe. But the German attack on Domäne Bütgenbach to break through the American lines foundered in face of strong American resistance.[2]:51 They were met by a deluge of American artillery and anti-tank gun fire from units of the American 1st Infantry Division.
To the northeast of the 99th Division, the 1st Infantry Division had been recuperating near Liege, from nearly constant combat after landing on D-Day. When the German counterattack broke out and while the fight for the twin villages raged, the division hastily relocated on any available transport to the unguarded southern end of the 99th's line near Bütgenbach. Troops from the U.S. 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions, moved into position to fortify Elsenborn Ridge and complete the defense. The 9th Division held positions on the northern portion of the ridge, in the vicinity of Kalterherberg.[28]
Monuments to the battles in the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt. Memorial to the Battle of Lanzerath Ridge U.S. Army memorial in Hoscheid U.S. Army memorial in Hoscheid
The green, untested troops of the 99th Infantry Division had been placed in the sector during mid-November because the Allies thought it was an area unlikely to see battle. Their soldiers were stretched thin over a 22-mile (35km) front, and all three regiments were on line, with no reserve. In early December, the 2nd Infantry Division was assigned to capture a vital crossroads marked by a customs house and a forester’s lodge named Wahlerscheid, at the southern tip of the Hurtgen Forest. They transitioned through the 99th Division's lines and after a deadly, costly battle, captured the crossroads. But Hitler counterattacked in what the Americans initially thought was a localized spoiling action, but was actually a leading element of the Battle of the Bulge. The 2nd Division consolidated their lines, pulling back into Hünningen, and then to the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt, and finally at the dug-in positions held by the 99th Division at Elsenborn Ridge.
On December 11, General Walter M. Robertson, commander of the battle-hardened 2nd Infantry Division, was ordered to attack and seize the Roer River dams. In case he had to pull back, he chose Elsenborn Ridge as his defensive line. General Walter E. Lauer, commanding the 99th Infantry Division, was charged with building up the defenses around Elsenborn Ridge. Lauer knew his front was extremely long and very thinly manned; he gave instructions to his division's soldiers to dig in and build cover for their foxholes.
The 9th Infantry Regiment pulled back to the Baracken crossroads in the forest about 5 miles (8.0km) to the south of the cross roads at Wahlerscheid.[24] The other units moved south through the area near the twin villages. Robertson moved his headquarters from Wirtzfeld, south and west of the twin villages, to Elsenborn, just west of the ridge line. Robertson also informed General Gerow that he intended to hold the twin villages until troops east of the villages had retreated through them to the ridge line, which then would become the next line of defense. This defensive line was intended to safeguard the key high ground on Elsenborn Ridge from the German advance.
Von Rundstedt had sacrificed most of four of the best divisions on the Western front during his repeated attempts to overrun the Elsenborn Ridge and Monschau. Unable to access the Monschau-Eupen and Malmedy-Verviers roads, he was unable to commit II Panzer Corps, which was still waiting in reserve on the east flank of I SS Panzer Corps. Von Rundstedt's hopes of reaching Liège via Verviers were stopped cold by the stubborn American resistance.[43]
On 26 December, the 246th Volksgrenadier Division made a final, forlorn, attack on the Elsenborn Ridge against units of the U.S. 99th Infantry Division. This attack by more infantry conscripts was mowed down by artillery fire virtually at the moment of its start. The vast artillery concentration of an entire American army corps made the Elsenborn Ridge position virtually unassailable.[4]:404–411
The cost of this relentless, close-quarters, intense combat was high for both sides, but the losses for Germany were irreplaceable. An exact casualty accounting for the Elsenborn Ridge battle itself is not precise. The U.S. Army's 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions later revealed their losses, while only the German's armored fighting vehicles losses are accounted for.[4]:410
During the day on 19 December all forces abandoned the rubble of the twin villages, and General Robertson ordered the remnants of the 2nd Division to withdraw to defensive positions dug into the open terrain along the ridge. Troops from the remaining elements of the 99th Infantry Division also used this time to withdraw to Elsenborn Ridge and fortify positions on it. They found it required dynamite to blow holes in the frozen ground.[41]:258
At 0930 on 17 December, Peiper sent a section of the Kampfgruppe in reconnaissance to the north, but they quickly encountered strong American resistance improvised by a barrage of tank-destroyers of the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion and lost two Panzer IV. Two days into the offensive, the high ground of Elsenborn Ridge and two of the three routes the Germans planned to use remained solidly within American fortified defense zones.[4]:410[26]
As the battle ensued, small units, company and less in size, often acting independently, conducted fierce local counterattacks and mounted stubborn defenses, frustrating the German's plans for a rapid advance, and badly upsetting their timetable. By 17 December, German military planners knew that their objectives along the Elsenborn Ridge would not be taken as soon as planned.[3]:75–106
At sunrise on 27 December 1944, Sepp Dietrich and his 6th Panzer Army were in a difficult situation east of Elsenborn Ridge.[4]:411 The 12th SS Panzer Division, 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, and its supporting Volksgrenadier divisions had beaten themselves into a state of uselessness against the heavily fortified American positions on Elsenborn Ridge.[4]:410 They could advance no further, and as the Americans counter-attacked, on 16 January 1945, the Sixth Panzer Army was transferred to the Eastern Front.[44]
Orders from Field Marshal Walter Model and Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt that Elsenborn Ridge be captured and the advance of Sixth Panzer Army resume had been pouring down the chain of command into 12th SS Panzer Headquarters.[4]:394–395 General Hermann Priess, commander of the 1st SS Panzer Corps, ordered Waffen-SS Obersturmbannführer Hugo Kraas, Commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division, to take command of all forces facing Elsenborn Ridge and capture it.[4]:181–182
The 9th Infantry Regiment pulled back to another crossroads in the forest at Baracken, about 5 miles (8.0km) to the south of the cross roads at Wahlerscheid.[24] The other 2nd Division units moved south through the area near the twin villages. Robertson moved his headquarters from Wirtzfeld, south and west of the twin villages, to Elsenborn, just west of the ridge line. Robertson also informed General Gerow, commander of V Corps, that he intended to hold the twin villages until troops east of the villages had retreated through them to the ridge line, which then would become the next line of defense. This defensive line was intended to safeguard the key high ground on Elsenborn Ridge from the German advance.
The 2nd and the 99th Infantry Divisions defending Elsenborn Ridge, along with the 1st Division to the south and the 78th Division in the north, were the only Allied units that completely stopped the German's main axis of advance during the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans were denied access to three of five planned routes of advance across their northern sector of the battle and were required to significantly alter their plans, considerably slowing their advance in the north. This success allowed the Americans to maintain the freedom to effectively maneuver across the north flank of the German's line of advance and continually limit the success of the German offensive.[13]
The organized retreat of the U.S. 2nd and 99th Divisions to the Elsenborn Ridge line and their subsequent stubborn defensive action blocked the 6th Panzer Army's access to key roads in northern Belgium that they were counting on to reach Antwerp. It was the only sector of the American front line on the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans failed to advance.[2]:33 Historian John S.D. Eisenhower noted, "...the action of the 2nd and 99th divisions on the northern shoulder could be considered the most decisive of the Ardennes campaign."[26]:224
Except for their positions around Höfen, the 99th Division and its three regiments, the 393rd, 394th, and the 395th were positioned within towns and villages to the east and south of Elsenborn Ridge and in the thick coniferous forest around them, carpeted with a blanket of snow.[13][3]:77–78 The division had not yet fired its weapons in battle.[16]
"Battle of the Bulge 2: Elsenborn Ridge", called simply "Elsenborn Ridge" on Avalanche Press' website, is the first boxed "Panzer Grenadier" game in 2008. It covers the northern half of the Battle of the Bulge and was designed at the same time as "North Wind".
By 07:45, the Germans withdrew, except for a group of the 753rd Volksgrenadier Regiment who penetrated the Battalion's center. They were soon repulsed.
The German 277th Volksgrenadier Division responsible for capturing Krinkelt-Rocherath was composed for the most part of recent, inexperienced and poorly trained infantry conscripts. They were assigned the task of capturing the twin villages of Krinkelt-Rocherath, just southeast of Elsenborn Ridge. Rocherath to the north and Krinkelt to the south share the same main street. They were the first German infantry force to advance on the Americans.
In a fierce battle lasting 10 days, the American and German lines were often confused. During the first three days, the battle raged over the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt, during which American G.I.s were at times isolated in individual buildings surrounded by German armor. Attacking Elsenborn Ridge itself, the Germans, although superior in numbers, were stopped by the Americans' well-prepared and deeply dug-in defensive positions. The German attack plans were not well coordinated and frustrated by the rugged terrain, built-up areas around the twin villages, and massed American artillery firepower positioned behind Elsenborn Ridge. American artillery batteries repeatedly pounded the German advance. While the Germans employed an effective combined arms tactic and penetrated the U.S. lines several times, the Americans called in indirect fire on their own positions, pushing the Germans back. U.S. reserve forces consisting of clerks and headquarters personnel were rushed in at one point to reinforce the 395th Infantry Regiment's lines. Although the Germans possessed superior armor, they were held in check by the innovative American tactics, including better communications, coordinated time on target artillery strikes, new proximity fuses for artillery shells, and superior air power.
The German plan of advance included Rollbahn A passing through a crossroad in the center of Rocherath and Rollbahn B skirting the southern edge of Krinkelt and continuing on toward Wirtzfeld. The Germens' first objective was to break through the defending line of the inexperienced U.S. 99th Infantry Division and positions of battle-hardened 2nd Infantry Division. Once they cleared the Americans from the twin villages, they needed to seize Elsenborn Ridge so they could control the roads to the south and west and ensure supply to the German troops.[13]
The American lines were backed up by impressive artillery support. The 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division hit the left or north side of Elsenborn ridge from the Schwalm Creek valley against 99th Infantry Division. But their tanks found the soft ground almost impassible, and one after another the Sturmgeschütz III assault guns bogged down, making them easy prey for the American artillery. On 20 December, the Pz Abt 103 lost a total of fifteen StuG III. Twelve of them bogged down in front of the Elsenborn Ridge, the others ran onto mines inside Krinkelt and Rocherath. The Germans attacked for a second time on the 20th. All these attacks were repelled with heavy losses.[4]:409