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| It required still another night and day of ceaseless,
but futile counterattacks to teach the enemy that the 90th had no
intention of giving ground no matter what pressure might be exerted. Tankers
of the 712th Tank Battalion accounted for six enemy tanks, eight
German panzers were knocked out by the Tank Destroyers, Division artillery
cut five notches in its belt. In all, the Germans launched nine counterattacks led by powerful armor. Snow and wind blanketed their dead, so that no accurate count of casualties could be obtained. In the 36-hour period during which the battle raged, the 344th Field Artillery Battalion fired 6,000 rounds of ammunition. When at last the Germans realized the hopelessness of their mission and attempted to make good their escape artillery concentrations boxed off their avenues of retreat and made an inferno of the enemy lines. What had begun as an ambitious counterattack against elements of the 90th, ended in a dismal fiasco with the 90th in firm possession of Oberwampach. Thereafter, the Division moved in a general northeasterly direction, plodding through deep drifts of snow, engaging the enemy and the snow and ice and wind of winter with equal fortitude. One by one, the objectives fell, and obstacles were brushed aside with veteran efficiency.
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- 55 - |
