Figure 1.--Here a 9th Armored Division soldier gets a thank you peck on the cheek from a little girl. The phoptograph was taken just after the Battle of the Bulge, perhaps February 1945 before the division began its drive east into the Reich. The photograph was taken in Abancourt, France just south of the Bulge.

The The United Stares 9th Armored Division had been a part of FUSAG, tasked with convincing the Germans that the Allied cross-Channel invasion would come as the Pas-de Calais, After the Normandy breakout the Division was landed in France after which most of France had been liberated (September 25, 1944). The Division became part of the VIII Corps of the First U.S. Army, assigned to the Ardennes (Belgium and Luxembourg). This was the rugged heavily forested and mountainous region where the Germans achieved their great victory leading to the fall of France (1940). As winter settled in with out aesolution, the Americans saw the Ardennes as auiet part of the front. The Twelfth U.S. Army Group used it go to refit and rest divisions that had suceeded in liberating France. And new units arriving at the front like the 9th Armored were able to experienc some light combat experience. The 482nd Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (Self-Propelled) and 811th Tank Destroyer Battalion were attached (November 1944). The 9th Armored Division's three combat commands (A, B, and C) were divided used to augment infantry divisions in the area. 【U.S. Army】 This was the situation when the Germans struck, launching the Bulge Offenoce (December 16). The Division's Combat Command C played a key role in delaying the Germans at St. Vith. Reserve Command then delayed the German drive on Bastogne, giving time for the 101st Airborn to reach Bastaogne. They then fought with the 101st Airborne in defending the vital Belgian town where several important roads crossed. The 9th Combat Command A fought on the southern shoulder of the Bulge, attempting to enlarge and defend the Bastogne Corridor. During this fighting Combat Command A was temporarily attached to the 4th Armored Division as Combat Command X. 【Reichelt】 After the Bulge, the reformed 9th Armored Division would seize the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine (March 1945), help reduce the Ruhr pocket, and then cut across central Germany to Czechoslovakia.

Sources

Reichelt, Walter E. Phantom Nine (Austin: Presidal Press, 1987).

U.S. Army. Office of the Theater Historian. U.S. Army European Theater of Operations: Order of Battle of the United States Army World War II (Paris, France: December 1945.)

Created: 7:53 PM 3/25/2013
Last updated: 7:53 PM 3/25/2013