Seven miles south of Hofen, near the German villages of Hollerath and Hellenthal, lay two additional pre-designated attack routes, or “Rollbahns” A and B, for the German assault to open the northern shoulder. These routes were directed against the Twin Villages of Krinkelt-Rocherath, three miles across the border into Belgium through the Krinkelt Forest, or “Krinkerwald.” Secondary German attacks were directed another five miles further south against the village of Losheimergraben just across the German border at the Losheim Gap. The German 277th Volsgrenadier Division attacked the Twin Villages, and the 12th Volksgrenadier Division attacked Losheimergraben. Entire SS Panzer divisions were to follow each of the breakthroughs.

After visiting the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and nearby Aachen Germany, we drove down Highways 258 and 265 from Aachen along the Belgian-German border through Monschau and the small German towns in the heavily wooded Schnee Eifel low mountain range, stopping briefly in Hollerath and Losheimergraben. It was here among the Haselpath and Krinkelt forests, along the mountainous, curving, narrow paved roads running from village to village amid gorges and rocky sharp hills and streams, that the German Sixth SS Panzer Army, including the 12th SS Panzer Division, quietly assembled its infantry and tanks in the weeks before the attack toward Elsenborn Ridge.

We walked among German tank traps of the Siegfried Line, the starting point for the logging trails of the time leading through the woods towards the U.S. 99th Infantry positions. The area today, is cross-country skiing terrain for the Germans, an area of scattered half-timbered resort towns, each with a large spa-like lodge and family houses built along hillsides.

We continued south along the same highway another three miles through steep forested hills and valleys and woods until we reached Losheim and the five-mile gap through the Schnee Eifel range. From here, the 1st SS Panzer Combat Group under Peiper started northwest to Stavelot, while the German 5th Panzer Army under Manteuffel attacked slightly southwest to St. Vith. We continued south again along the border near Prum, Germany, amazed that the German soldiers accomplished so much despite the demanding challenges of terrain.

The struggle for the Twin Villages, perhaps the premier American success of the Bulge, began in the forest trails along the German Belgian border as the 277th Volksgrenadiers attacked the dug-in GIs of the 393rd Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, who blocked the attack but were forced to slowly withdraw. These were desperate fights, with the novice but tough U.S. regiment losing 1,300 of it 3,100 men. Survivors were either captured or fled west to regroup. The 3rd Battalion of the 393rd in the Krinkelt forest at Jansback Creek was the first unit hit, and lost 72 percent of its troops. Soldier siphoned gasoline from wrecked jeeps to ignite flame pits across forest trails, but the enemy came on, bayoneting the Americans in their foxholes. The 1st Battalion also suffered almost as much. The two battalions bent but did not break.

The morning of the second day, December 17, following the blunted 277th Volksgrenadier attacks, General Dietrich threw in two battalions of the 12th SS Panzer Division’s infantry (“Hitler Youth”) and tanks to finish the job. The 12th SS Panzer, drawn from the Hitler Youth for which it was named, had blocked the British breakout at Normandy and had lately been fighting on the Eastern Front. It comprised 14,000 SS troops, 90 tanks, 60 self-propelled guns, and 40 tank destroyers. It as also known as the “Murder Division” for atrocities committed by its youthful fanatics, including the killing of British and Canadian prisoners in Normandy. It often did not take prisoners. On this morning, the 12th SS Panzer grenadiers and tanks emerged from forest trail at a place called the “Ruppenvenn” on the western edge of the forest, where they butted up against the veterans of the nearby U.S. 2nd Infantry Division who had been rushed from the north the evening before.

The 2nd Infantry Division was a experienced unit, having fought three elite German paratroop division in Normandy. Our veteran friend back in Helena, Ed Miller, a sergeant in the U.S. 69th Infantry Division, recalled fighting alongside the 2nd Infantry at the end of the Bulge, together taking Leipzig after crossing the Rhine.

The 23rd Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division was dug in, blocking the Germans’ route to the Twin Villages while covering the withdrawal of the battered U.S. 99th Infantry Division survivors to Rocherath and onto Elsenborn Ridge half a mile to the rear. Noted Bulge historian Charles MacDonald, who was Company K Commander with the 23rd Infantry at the “Ruppenvenn,” described a situation where “bullets were so thick one couldn’t move around let alone escape.” The Germans lost approximately 300 killed by the end of the second day, and the Americans lost 300 killed, wounded, or captured a well.

On December 17-18, the 12th SS Panzer Division finally pushed beyond the “Ruppenvenn” into the Twin Villages where fierce and confused street fighting ensued, with U.S. infantry squads, bazooka teams and tank destroyers from the 2nd Infantry’s 23rd and 38th Regiments stealing between stone buildings to pick off German infantry and hunt down Tiger and Panther tanks. This was a heroic stance with no quarter given. The last thing MacDonald saw as he was being carried away on a stretcher was an American infantryman attacking a German tank with his rifle. Other soldiers were pouring gasoline on disabled German tanks to set them on fire. In two days of desperate fighting, U.S. tanks and tank destroyers from the 612th and 644th Tank Destroyer Battalions and the 741st Tank Battalion, ambushing the German Panzers from hedgerows and houses, combined to destroy almost 50 German tanks.

At the same time, at a crossroads called “Lausdell” a few hundred meters north of Rocherath, the 2nd Infantry Division’s 9th (Manchu”) Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel McKinley, President William McKinley’s grand-nephew, was having its own fight with “Hitler Youth” battalions trying to cut off American escape routes. With assistance from U.S. tank destroyers and field artillery, the Regiment stopped the Germans but at a high cost, starting with 600 men and ending with 270, as U.S artillery targeted German tanks that were assaulting and rolling over American foxholes. An America commander once again had called indirect fire onto his own position. McKinley’s stand became legend for saving the day against overwhelming odds.

Surviving Lausdell was First Lieutenant Sam Milesnick, a rancher’s son from Belgrade, Montana, one of 16 Montanans to earn the second highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross. While serving with the 9th Regiment, Company B, Milesnick, although severely wounded, helped fight off a tank attack by the 12th SS Panzer Division on December 17. As German tanks arrived in a column of five accompanied by infantry, Milesnick destroyed the first tank by igniting it with gasoline. A bazooka hit failed to destroy the second, but it ran over a mine and was disabled. Two other tanks then took bazooka rocket hits.

The Germans returned in the dark to continue the fight through that night and the next day. Milesnick stayed on the field, helping his battalion stand its ground despite dwindling numbers over a two-day battle. When he was interviewed in 1945 about his action by a New York Times war correspondent, Milesnick responded imply that they had orders to “stand their ground at all costs.”

He recounted the situation on the 17th, as he and others watched the Germans massing tanks and moving on American positions: “We had nothing to work with but rifles, machine guns, and mortars. Some bazookas just showed up-we didn’t have time to discuss things during the battle, ‘look there’s a tank.’ We were pinned down and the situation was too hot and we were too busy.” Milesnick turned down a promotion after the war so that he could return home to help with the family ranch. He stayed ranching raising Angus cattle until he retired in the 1980’s.

Ultimately, the defense of the Twin Villages by four U.S. regiments fatally delayed the northern shoulder of the German offensive, giving time for the U.S. 99th and 2nd Infantry survivors to assemble a new line of defense on the slope of Elsenborn Ridge. Although 1,000 soldiers of the 99th Division were captured in the first two days of fighting, the majority, along with the 2nd Division, made it to pre-prepared U.S. defensive foxholes on the ridge.

The Twin Villages today are a handful of small stone houses, with the Catholic Church in Krinkelt serving as the imaginary dividing line between the towns. Visiting the silent village stirred a feeing of awe and melancholy in us. This is a place that should be a household name, like Antietam, Anzio, or Guadalcanal. Yet, it is practically unknown. Nothing suggests that a tremendous and significant confrontation took place here, and that five Medals of Honor were won here, except for three monuments across the road from the church. One notes that the last German offensive of World War II took place here. The other two, of polished granite, memorialized the U.S. 2nd Infantry and the 99th Infantry Divisions. Inside the church, mosaic windows composed of blue and white stained glass are pieced together in abstract fashion and are reminiscent of the blue and white checkerboard emblem of the 99th Infantry.

East of the church is a clearing for half a mile followed by forest leading to the German border. This is where two companies of GIs from the U.S. 38th Infantry Regiment were fighting their own small battle, amid three small houses and some hedges, against German SS tanks and grenadiers, finally surrendering and pleading not to be killed before being put up against the houses and shot by burp gun and rifles. It was that kind of war.

First U.S. Army Commander, General Courtney Hodges, who experienced the shock of the surprise German offensive, recognized the significance of the Twin Villages after the war, saying, “What the Second Infantry has done here will live forever in the pages of history of the U.S. Army.” His reasons for the American success could have been credited to the typical American soldier.

In a postwar interrogation, SS General Priess, Commander of the German Sixth SS Panzer Army’s First Corps, gave his assessment of the battle’s significance, saying the “Krinkelt tie-up” was crucial to the overall result of the Bulge, as it allowed the U.S. time to get troops between Peiper and his reconnaissance battalion behind him, also giving time for the 82nd Airborne to arrive front of Peiper. Around Losheimergraben, too, U.S. troops of the 394h Regiment, he said, defended themselves fiercely and skillfully in bitter fighting. The Germans felt, Priess said, that they would have success if they achieved tactical surprise and the Allies were slow to react with few reserves available. Surprisingly, however, the U.S. defenders received considerable reinforcement the night of the first day.

General Kramer, General Dietrich’s Chief of Staff, was more specific, saying the German High Command had miscalculated. The veteran U.S. 2nd Infantry Division was located only four miles north at nearby Wahlerscheid at the start of the Bulge, and its quick transfer into the battle had thrown off “all of (the German) plans.” As a result, the German infantry attacks were not strong enough and the Panzers had to fight their way through the area. No holes were opened for a quick armor advance.

Hearing the German generals describe the skillful American soldiers, we are reminded of the World War II museum in Centerville, Mississippi, former site of Camp Van Dorn, one of many US. Army training camps built hastily in 1943 but now gone. In one of the museum bookcase is George Neill’s book of his combat experience at Hofen, praising the anti-tank training he had received in Mississippi. On the museum’s wall were unit photos showing the recruits in the 99th Division’s 393rd, 394th, and 395th Regiments, young men who would a year later find themselves at Krinkelt, Losheimergraben, and Hofen. Many of the men in the company photos, those carrying guidons, sitting on bleachers, or crouching in a field together in pressed khakis, were not to survive.

The young faces in the photograph recall another postwar interview with General Denkert, Commander of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division who led his troops through the Kinkelt woods on December 18 to replace the 12th SS Panzer Division. Denkert described the aftermath of the Twin Villages battle, of passing through the forest and seeing the bodies of American soldiers scattered everywhere through the fields and along the trail, men, he said, from the American U.S. 99th Infantry Division “who had fought so well.”

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