O C Moving on the Left, Along Secondary Roads. Entrenched German Paratroopers of the S.Fallschlrmjaeger-Diuision, Which The
moving on the left, along secondary roads. Entrenched German paratroopers of the S.Fallschlrmjaeger-Diuision, which the 4th Armored Division had met previously in Brittany, checked CCA's advance at Mzuielange for the rest of the day. In Bastogne, General McAuliffe, commander of the surrounded American troops, rejected a German surrender demand with the famous comment, "Nuts!" The CCA columns spent most of the day waiting at Marlenge while engineers spanned the wide chasm of the Sure River with a ninety-foot Bailey bridge. To the west, CCB reached Bumon, only seven miles from Bastogne the first day, but the head of the column was stopped by anti• tank fire in nearby Chaumont after midnight. CCB decided to take no chances and waited for daylight. Saturday dawned clear and bright, enabling Allied aircraft to intervene in the fighting for the first time. Tankers and crewmen of the 704th watched hundreds of C47 transports rumble overhead, bound for Bastogne to paradrop supplies. Soon afterwards, P38s now relieved of their escort duties, swooped down to bomb and sh-affe. After soften• ing Chaumont with an artillery barrage and airstrikes, CCB launched an attack at 1330 hours. At first everything seemed to go fine as the armored infantry and the twenty-two remaining Shermans of the 8th Tank Battalion swept into the village while M18 Hellcats of the 704th laid down a base of fire. But, the clear weather had thawed the fields, and the soft ground bogged down the American tanks. Then, a counterattack from the high ground beyond, led by the 26.Volks- Grenadier-Division's 11 .Sturmgescheutz-Brlgade, blasted eleven of the Shermans and the enemy reentered the village.
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