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| The following day the 90th, now assigned to
III Corps, began its highly secret trek toward its assembly area in
Luxembourg. Identification on vehicles was obscured, relieving troops
assumed the T-O patch in order to keep the enemy in complete ignorance, and
the 50 mile march began. Southeast of famed Bastogne the enemy had thrust a salient contained for the past several weeks by the 26th and 35th Infantry and 6th Armored Division. These units had successfully prevented further penetration, but the strength of the enemy, the terrain and wintery weather combined to make their operations difficult in the extreme. Corps plans called for an assault along the perimeter of the enemy salient with the 90th making the main effort with the object of reducing the salient and destroying the enemy contained therein. On January 9th all was in readiness for the attack. The 90th examined the terrain which stood in its way and saw endless reaches of towering hills coated with snow and ice. From this day until the end of combat the 90th was destined to conduct its activities in the hill of Europe. The weather was also a formidable foe. For now the January winds swept paralyzingly through the exposed valleys, the temperature hovered around the zero mark, armor and other vehicles ground helplessly on the ice for traction, and the specter of trench foot and frost-bite hung night-marishly over the American troops. The enemy, with mobile reserves of SS Panzer units, were well dug in on the sides of the hills ready to resist fanatically any encroachment on their main supply roads running east from Bastogne itself. And so the 90th Division arraigned itself against the hills, the winter, and the Germans. With the 357th on the left, the 359th on the right, and 358th in reserve, the assault was launched on the morning of January 9th from line running generally from Bavigne northeast to a crossroads north of Nothum. Where precious gains in the area had been measured in terms of yards, the 90th provided the added impetus required to shrivel the salient to nothing. Nebelwerfer barrages of unaccustomed intensity roared menacingly overhead ; artillery and tank fire added their bit in an attempt to halt the rising tide that threatened to engulf the salient. Berlé fell to the 90th the first day, on the third day Sonlez and Doncols were taken. |
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