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Elsenborn Ridge

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Running Head: BATTLE OF ELSENBORN RIDGE

THE BATTLE OF ELSENBORN RIDGE 12

The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge
SSG Correa
SSG Hlebinsky
SSG Smith, Jonathan
SSG Smith, Joshua
13B Senior Leadership Course: Class

The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge
The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, part of the Battle of the Bulge, was a major battle during World War II (WWII) between the enemy troops of Germany and American troops. The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge took place in the Ardennes region, where Adolph Hitler planned for his troops to pull a surprise attack and then advance to Antwerp. The battle began on December 16th, 1944, and only lasted ten days; yet, it was one of the most iconic turning points of World War II claiming another victory for the United States …show more content…
The gunnery section of the three basic skills pertains to any activities involving the placement of artillery fire on a given target. American field artillery mastered their ability to gun and offered its most momentous contribution through means of mass fires. WWI had redirected the U.S. Army to give more training in massing fire in their artillery sector. As the only nation, willing to undergo changes to make this improvement it reflected during the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge. The Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Ok, were successful in mastering this capability due to restructuring their division. The first overhaul was to have a centralized battalion headquarters. This was meant to relinquish fire control from the battery commanders and into the hands of the battalion commander. Going against tradition was opposed until mid-1930s, but eventually happened. The other major change would be the creation of a Fire Direction Center (FDC) (Biggio, 2004). This enabled the battalion commander to control the fires of the batteries below him. The FDC would be comprised of gunnery experts to form a battalion staff. Requests would be processed from the FDC to relay the command to fire until its funneled down to the howitzer position. The FDC systems were approved for artillery …show more content…
After the artillery attack, large numbers of enemy infantrymen assigned to the 12th Volksgrenadier Division continued to fight the American troops at the Wahlerscheid crossroads, southeast of the twin villages of Krinkelt-Rocherath. Their objective was to gain control of the crossroads to access the roads that would aid in German troops attempt to gain entree of Antwerp to better aid their troops in hopes of defeating the Allied forces. This attack was led by the 1st SS Panzer Corps, comprised of the 12th SS Panzer Division and the 1st SS Panzer Division. Col. Peiper was given the orders to use an alternative route to penetrate the Allied Forces line of defense, but the overpass could not withstand the weight of most of the German armor. After reaching an alternative to that route, Peiper received orders to change directive and pulled his troops back to head for Lanzerath to advance north to Bucholz Station (History Channel,

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