Frederick T. Baird, Provo, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, August 30, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 528 & 527

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tretch of the we t bank, including Stra bourg. Further outh, the German rill held a large alient on the west bank of the Rhine to the Vo ges Mountain centered on th town of Colmar Pocket. All through the fall, the Germans had been gathering their last re erves into three massive Panzer Armies and in the early morning of December 16, 1944, they hurled them into the fifty-mile sector of thinly held American lines in Eastern Belgium and Luxembourg. Thus began the largest and most costly battle of the western front, the Battle of the Bulge. The green and lightly armed US 99th and 1 O(Jh Infantry Divisions bore the initial brunt of the attack. The first waves of German infantry infiltrated easily in the morning fog and snow through the dense forest in which the outposts of 9gth and 1 O(Jh Infantry Divisions were scattered. German tanks poured through a gap in the lines between the two American divisions. The 991h, battered but still intact, was forced back to the north and west widening the gap. Here, reinforced by units rushed down from the north, they held fast creating the "Northern shoulder" of the Bulge, which ultimately caused the Germans to miss their objectives. Disaster overwhelmed the American 1 O(Jh Division just to the south. Three regiments of the 1 O(Jh were penetrated and engulfed. Two of these regiments were cut off and forced to surrender. The third regiment, all that was left of the 1 O(Jh Division, staggered back in disorder to the crossroads town of St. Vith. Here they found the 7th Armored Division, elements of the 9th Armored Division and 28th Infantry Division. They were determined to hold St. Vith as long as possible. The Germans needed to take St. Vith immediately for their overall plan to succeed. The Gls in St. Vith managed to hold the town four days. The German timetable was thrown further behind and the Germans were diverted even further to the south. The delay of those four days had doomed the German offensive to ultimate failure, even as German tanks continued to roll westward toward the Meuse River. The Germans had hoped to 22