The Story of the 10th Armored Division cont.
While the Tiger's steel-treaded tanks ground over Bastogne's cobble-stone
streets, the avalanche of German might rolled westward with increasing
momentum.
Capture of Bastogne, hub from which seven main roads spread spoke-like in
all directions, was essential to the swift movement of Rundstedt's panzers.
Riding the crest of a 14-mile advance, five Nazi divisions knifed
through blanket-like fog to strike CC B in the predawn darkness of Dec.19.
For the first time since he launched his onslaught, von Rundstedt was
stopped!
Bazooka-armed doughboys and a single platoon of tank destroyers came to
grips with a column of German Mark IV tanks on the Houffalize-Noville
highway, turned them back after a furious engagement. More enemy armor
followed and with the road blocked, the battle spilled into the snow-mantled fields and woods, raged unabated.