The Battle of the Bulge during World War II is often associated with the 101st Airborne Division’s heroic stand at Bastogne in Belgium. But it was the 28th Infantry Division’s tenacious defense at the start of the battle that delayed the Germans long enough to allow the 101st to move into Bastogne.
Nicknamed the “Bloody Bucket” by the Germans for the red keystone patches its soldiers wore on their uniforms, the 28th Infantry Division had just suffered about 5,700 casualties during the grueling battle of the Hürtgen Forest.
During the start of the Battle of the Bulge, 28th Division soldiers were outnumbered 10-to-1 by Germans in some areas. Almost immediately, the German advance shattered their lines and communications, leaving the soldiers of the 28th to fight in squad and platoon-sized elements, on their own — arguably more perilous conditions than faced by others who were able to keep their lines together as the Germans came on. Still, they put up a dogged resistance that bought other Army units valuable time. Eventually, their lines broke and the division withdrew West. By the time it was pulled off the front lines in December 1944, only about 200 soldiers remained in the division.
“The Germans basically bypassed many of them and cut them off. Because they had to fight in so many little pieces and parts to the point of being broken down into squad- and platoon-sized elements, that story is a lot harder to tell, it’s a lot harder to document as compared to an entire division defending a city like Bastogne,” said Peter G. Knight, director of Historical Studies at the U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.
In honor of the Army’s 250th birthday on Saturday, this is the story of the 28th Infantry Division’s bravery during the Battle of the Bulge, which has largely been lost to history.
“The 28th Division was incredibly important in delaying the German timetable,” Knight told Task & Purpose. “If they had not made their delaying action, if they had simply cut tail and tried to retreat instead of fighting them as they did so, then the 101st wouldn’t have been able to reach Bastogne.”
When the Germans launched their offensive on Dec. 16, 1944, they planned to cross the Meuse River within the first 72 hours of the attack as part of their effort to capture the port of Antwerp in Belgium, thus splitting Allied forces, Knight told Task & Purpose.
But the soldiers in the 28th Infantry Division were able to delay the Germans for about three days by holding their ground and trying to inflict as much damage on the overwhelming enemy as possible, Knight said.
At the start of the battle, the 28th Infantry Division had already lost about 36% of its total strength from the fighting in the Hürtgen Forest, he said. Nearly all the casualties came from infantry regiments, and the division had lost many of its enlisted leaders and combat-experienced officers.
“And so, these units were newly reconstituted to about 80% strength when the Germans launched their offensive,” Knight said. “And those units were three regiments that had to cover a 25-mile line of territory along the Luxembourg border with Germany overlooking the Our River. That’s nearly four times the doctrinal allowance for a division’s coverage.”
The soldiers in the division were spread thin because the Allies had not expected the Germans to attack through the Ardennes Forrest, Knight explained.
From the very start of the Battle of the Bulge, soldiers with the 28th Infantry Division were plunged into brutal fighting, he said. Pfc. Alexander Hadden of the 112th Infantry Regiment — the division’s northernmost unit — later described the German attack on his position in his book Not Me: The World War II Memoir of a Reluctant Rifleman.
“At 0:600 hours, the Germans had struck his outpost, and they knocked it out and stormed the first and third platoon CPs [command posts],” Knight said. “Hadden wrote that his company commander was killed in the first few minutes of the fighting, and in the ensuing battles – some of it hand-to-hand – the Germans lost 150 men with 73 captured. Meanwhile, Baker Company, his company, had lost 95 men killed, captured, or missing.”
Separately, soldiers in the 109th Infantry Regiment expended 280,000 small arms rounds, 5,000 mortar rounds, 3,000 grenades, and 300 bazooka rounds in just three days of fighting, Knight said.
For the most part, 28th Infantry soldiers fought as squads or platoons to trade space for time, Knight said. For example, Sgt. J.J. Kuhn, of the division’s 110th Infantry Regiment, called in fire and directed machine guns in Marnach, Luxembourg, for two days until his position was overrun by a German Tiger tank, Knight said.
Lt. Col. James Rosborough, commander of the 107th Field Artillery Battalion, was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for organizing a counterattack to reach an encircled gun group near Hoscheid, Luxembourg.
“Encountering intense small arms fire, he then fired his submachine gun and directed effective fire of two tanks in eliminating the hostile resistance,” his award citation reads. “Reaching the battery position, he led a vicious assault upon the numerically superior enemy force, which resulted in 150 Germans killed and 40 prisoners captured.”
With the help of the 10th Armored Division, the soldiers in the 28th Infantry Division put up a tenacious defense at Wiltz, Belgium on Dec. 19, that bought enough time for the 101st Airborne Division to move into Bastogne, Knight said. They actually cobbled together units – their own divisional band among other supply units in the area – actually put up a bit of a defense in conjunction with the armored force,” Knight said. “That last bit of delay bought just enough time, because the 101st arrived in Bastogne on the 19th.”
One reason why the 28th Infantry Division was so successful at delaying the attack on Bastogne was that the German tanks could only travel by roads, and that’s where the division placed its strongpoints, he said.
On Dec. 20, the division was withdrawn from Bastogne to France shortly before the Germans completely encircled the town, Knight said.
Over the course of the first few days of fighting, the 28th Infantry Division lost its cohesion, Knight said. It began the battle with close to 16,000 soldiers, but it was reduced to about 200 soldiers when it was pulled off the front lines, with many of its soldiers joining adjacent units.
Eventually, both the 112th Infantry Regiment and 109th Field Artillery received a Presidential Unit Citation, the highest award for combat valor a unit can receive. Both were also cited by the Belgian army for their heroism during the Battle of the Bulge, Knight said. The entire 28th Infantry Division received the Croix de Guerre from Luxembourg.
“These were company strong points, and the Germans basically bypassed many of them and cut them off. Because they had to fight in so many little pieces and parts to the point of being broken down into squad- and platoon-sized elements, that story is a lot harder to tell, it’s a lot harder to document as compared to an entire division defending a city like Bastogne.”
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