Hitler's Last Stand (2018) s04e06 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: December 1944, when an American
scout loses his way behind enemy lines
he does his best to collect
important information and create havoc.
(explosion)
(yells)
In response, German forces
strive to locate the intruder
and close in on his position.
(dramatic music)
GERMAN SOLDIER: Halt.
NARRATOR:
On June 6th, 1944,
Allied forces
finally land troops in Normandy
to open the Western Front.
Ten-hut. Fire!
NARRATOR:
But Nazi fanatics and diehards
continue to fight ferociously
for survival.
(explosion)
(gunshots)
D-Day was a battle.
They still need to win the war.
(theme music plays)
December 22nd, 1944,
the Ardennes sector, Belgium.
American Lieutenant Michael McDonald
peers out into a dark winter night.
The main fighting force of the 3rd Armored
Division pulled out two days before
to meet the German attack
launched into Belgium.
Thirty three miles from the border,
the village of Hotton
was thought to be far from the front line.
This left McDonald, some engineers,
and a mix of reserve forces
when a surprise German attack
hit the village the next day.
BORYS: They're soldiers
that are working the logistics, in supply,
they're clerks, they're mechanics,
they're drivers,
there's priests,
and there's headquarters staff,
what we call rear echelon troops
or rearguard troops.
(clicking)
NARRATOR: But not necessarily
the battle-hardened soldiers
a commander would want to defend
against a German tank attack.
McDonald is a scout
and should have moved out too,
but he was in sickbay with pneumonia.
As one of the few
combat officers available,
McDonald dragged himself
out of bed and now directs the fight
from a schoolhouse in the north of Hotton.
For the last 26 hours,
he has called down mortar fire on the
German forces probing the edge of town.
He's one reason the Germans
have not swept through the village.
(dramatic music)
Send out a flare.
NARRATOR:
From his observation post,
McDonald radios for a flare
in front of the schoolhouse.
(thuds, sizzles)
The illuminated field
swarms with German soldiers.
AMERICAN SOLDIER:
Ready.
NARRATOR:
McDonald uses the artificial light
to call out German positions
to his mortar team.
(explosion)
But he's cut short.
A German soldier
with a panzerfaust spots him
and launches a rocket
at the American lieutenant.
MCDONALD (yelling):
Panzerfaust!
(explosion)
NARRATOR: The rocket
rips into the schoolhouse
and blows McDonald across the classroom.
The chaplain responds and moves forward
to drag McDonald to safety
(gunfire in distance)
(gunfire)
as another rocket
tears into the building.
(explosion)
Word will go out,
the north of Hotton has fallen.
These troops must retreat
into town and hope for reinforcements.
(gunfire)
By December 1944,
the war on the Western Front
reached a stalemate.
RICHIE: The Allies have
broken out from the Normandy landings
where they were bogged down,
and they really raced ahead.
But the big problem that they're facing is
that they have overrun their supply lines
and they can't get
enough material to fight on.
So the idea is to consolidate,
to rest for a little while
before they carry on
the fight into Germany.
NARRATOR:
Instead, German forces attack
and pour into Luxembourg
and Belgium on December 16th
to recapture the critical
supply port of Antwerp.
The Germans follow the road
network from town to town.
RICHIE: The small towns mark
where there are crossroads or bridges.
And it's one thing to move
men and material in through an area,
but in order to get heavy
equipment like tanks across,
you do really need to rely on the bridges.
NARRATOR: The German 116th Panzer,
or Greyhound Division,
is in search of one such bridge.
LIEB:
It fought in Normandy
and its performance
was criticized by some superiors.
Nonetheless, the 116th Panzer Division
is one of the best German divisions
in the Western Theater
of War in late 1944.
Its emblem is a greyhound,
and it shows that this is a very quick,
fast and furious division.
NARRATOR: During an opening blitz
of the Battle of the Bulge,
these Greyhounds
raced 18 miles in a day and half.
On December 21st,
a Kampfgruppe or Battlegroup from the
Greyhound Division arrives in Hotton
to capture the timber bridge
across the river Ourthe,
at the western-most edge
of the famous Bulge.
BORYS: The Germans are the farthest west.
They are closest to the Meuse River.
If the Germans capture Hotton,
they can cross the Meuse River
and then they get a direct beeline
to the important city of Antwerp.
NARRATOR: American command
labels the relief and defense of Hotton
as a key priority for the U.S. Army.
One solution is to bolster the Allied line
with airborne units like paratroopers.
Members of the 517th Parachute Infantry
Regiment set out for Hotton.
The 517th were undergoing a retrofit
when they're rushed to the Front.
They receive weapons so new,
they're still covered in cosmoline.
Cosmoline is a type of material that's
used to preserve weapons during shipment.
Typically, it's intended to prevent rust.
NARRATOR: It's a waxy grease
that must be stripped away
for the weapons operate properly,
a challenge in the cold.
The paratroopers use gasoline
to remove the cosmoline,
but they do not have time
to test or sight the weapons.
Soldiers don't like going into
combat with a new weapon
because they don't know
how it's gonna perform.
You don't know if there's some damage
that occurred to the weapon.
The only way you can trust a weapon
is to fire it before you
bring it out into combat.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR: The normally airborne troops
board trucks in freezing temperatures.
(truck rumbling)
After more than 20 hours, they unload
near the town of Soy, Belgium.
AMERICAN SOLDIER:
Let's go!
With little preparation, 1st Battalion is
ordered to attack along the highway.
(gunfire in distance)
Camouflaged armor hidden in the
woods quickly opens fire.
The Germans repel the attack
and the battalion fails
in its first bid to relieve Hotton.
After the setback,
the 517th splits their unit.
One task force
will advance along side roads
to outflank enemy troops to reach Hotton.
While another task force
continues to strike German defenses
along the main highway
towards the village.
(gunfire)
But instead of attacking in the open,
Captain Dean Robbins,
Commander of B Company,
moves his men off the highway
and into the woods.
Biddle.
NARRATOR: He summons
Private First Class Melvin Biddle
Need you out front.
NARRATOR:
and sends him to scout ahead.
ZALOGA: The scout is the
reconnaissance element of an army unit,
and that's the soldier
or small group of soldiers
that goes out to see
where the enemy is located.
If the enemy is setting up an ambush,
if there's a way
to get across a key river.
So their mission is to lead ahead
with the main body.
NARRATOR: In the quiet of the woods,
Biddle advances in bursts.
(tense music)
He worked in a factory
when he received his draft notice
two years before at the age of 19.
He's the third of three brothers
to enter the service.
(gunfire in distance)
When gunfire pierces the silence,
the scout hits the snow.
(gunfire continues)
He continues to pick a path
through the dense trees
near some train tracks.
Despite his limited field of view,
he discovers a camouflaged German
position occupied by three soldiers.
BORYS: Biddle is a good scout
for a number of reasons.
He's calm under pressure.
He's an excellent marksman, but most
importantly he has excellent eyesight,
and this means he can see the enemy
before the enemy sees him.
NARRATOR: With this target,
Biddle circles around and closes in.
NARRATOR: Private First Class Melvin
Biddle creeps towards a German position.
He must proceed carefully.
Any sound or movement
could give away his location.
When within 30 yards,
he crouches and takes aim.
A German soldier goes down.
Biddle lines up a second shot,
yet hesitates to pull the trigger.
He considers taking the
other two prisoner,
but they reach for their rifles
to return fire.
(gunshot)
Biddle shoots
the second German in the torso.
The last soldier bolts.
(gunshots)
Biddle fires off two more shots
hitting him twice.
But he stays on his feet
and stumbles toward the rear.
Biddle approaches the German position
but there is no sign of the fleeing
soldier through the brush.
He turns to the second soldier
who has a severe wound to his stomach.
The man is young
and reminds Biddle of himself.
He reaches to release the belt of the
dying German to relieve the pressure.
Suddenly, the woods around him
erupt in mortar and small arms fire.
(gunfire)
It appears the third German
has made it back to his own line
and alerted them to Biddle's presence.
(dramatic music)
(dramatic music)
Throughout much of
southeast Belgium on December 23rd, 1944,
German forces exploit the weakness
of the Allied line in the Ardennes region.
RICHIE: The Ardennes
is considered to be a bit of a backwater.
One of the main reasons is the terrain.
It's very hilly and boggy and wooded,
and there's the assumption
that the Germans
are simply not gonna come through there.
Eisenhower has troops
to the north and to the south
that he's planning to sort of send forward
once the military,
once the battles start up again,
but the Ardennes
has really been overlooked.
NARRATOR: This allows
German tanks and soldiers
to plunge more than 30 miles into Belgium
in their quest to retake Antwerp.
(rapid gunfire)
(explosion)
Melvin Biddle crawls away from
the fierce crossfire to the highway
(rapid gunfire)
(explosion)
which connects the Belgian town of Soy
to neighboring Hotton in the west.
(gunfire continues)
(explosion)
As he approaches the road,
Biddle sees vehicles up ahead.
He creeps forward to take a better look.
(distant gunfire)
(suspenseful music)
BORYS: As Biddle gets closer he sees
that they are American vehicles
with the star on the side,
but at the same time, the soldiers
around those vehicles are speaking German,
and that makes him very suspicious.
NARRATOR: He decides
he must tell his commanding officer.
The captured vehicles could be used
to infiltrate the American lines.
BORYS:
Biddle's a good scout.
He realizes that he's discovered
an important piece of information
and now he has to get back
and report back to headquarters.
NARRATOR:
At the western edge of the German advance,
the other task force
of American paratroopers
from the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment
have traveled along back roads
to the besieged town of Hotton.
(explosion)
They rendezvous
with Lieutenant Michael McDonald
and the other 3rd Armored Division
reserve troops who defied the odds.
(gunfire)
BORYS: This delay
of the German advance is impressive.
These are soldiers that had
very little front line combat experience
and here they are holding back
the tide of Germans.
NARRATOR:
But while the Germans can't take Hotton,
the combined American forces
can't break out of the village either.
(explosion)
They're trapped together
and continue to hold the town.
(gunfire)
The delay frustrates
the Greyhound Panzer Division troops
- who need to cross the Ourthe River.
- AMERICAN SOLDIER: Go, go, go, go, go!
NARRATOR: Unable to capture
the Hotton bridge quickly,
they move southeast
to find easier passage.
The rerouting takes
the spearhead unit further off course.
It also has larger implications.
AMERICAN SOLDIER:
Come on.
RICHIE: Hitler begins
the Ardennes offensive with the idea
that he's going to surprise
the Western Allies.
That they're gonna be so shocked
that they won't know what to do
and he's just gonna
race through, take Antwerp.
Well, of course that doesn't happen
quite the way Hitler planned.
The more time the Allies have to scramble,
to react to this surprise attack,
to bring in more troops,
more ammunition and tanks and equipment
and actually fight back.
NARRATOR: As the Greyhounds move out,
German Volksgrenadiers move in
under the command
of Oberstleutnant Helmut Zander.
LIEB:
Zander joins the army in the late 1920s,
initially as a ranker and then as an NCO.
He gets commissioned only very
late in 1940 as a first lieutenant,
but then pursues a quick
and successful career during the war.
He's a battle-hardened Eastern Front
veteran and highly decorated.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Zander's men continue
to hammer the Americans in Hotton
and along the Soy-Hotton
highway with tank destroyers.
The Americans must locate and eliminate
these camouflaged gun positions
if they hope to fully
reunite their forces.
(rapid gunfire in distance)
(tense music)
After reporting to his commanding officer,
Private Melvin Biddle
and two other paratroopers
set out to investigate the suspicious
American vehicles as night falls.
They've also got orders
to seize an enemy soldier if possible.
BORYS: Capturing German prisoners
is pretty standard protocol.
If they can capture a German prisoner,
they can get even more information
on the situation.
NARRATOR: Along the highway,
the trio spot a German officer
next to an American decoy vehicle.
One of the men with Biddle,
a sergeant takes aim.
When they try to capture the German
officer things go a little awry.
The sergeant tells
the German officer to halt.
Halt.
BORYS: And he does this twice,
but very quietly.
AMERICAN SERGEANT:
Halt.
BORYS: Almost so that
the German officer can't hear.
NARRATOR:
At very close range, only about 15 yards,
the sergeant fires at
the officer, but misses.
BORYS: At this point, the German officer
fires back and everybody scatters.
Hey, Johnny!
(gunfire)
NARRATOR: While his partners
race back to the US line,
Biddle freezes.
BORYS:
Biddle is shocked.
He can't believe the sergeant
missed the German officer twice.
NARRATOR: He finally
pulls himself together and starts to run.
But in his haste Biddle turns away
from the American line.
(dramatic music)
US Private First Class Melvin Biddle
runs in the wrong direction
toward German positions in the forest.
He carries his M1 Garand,
a knife, and some grenades.
In addition to being lost,
American artillery targets German activity
in the woods, and now falls around him.
Despite the danger of friendly fire,
the 21 year old resolves
to continue his mission.
BORYS: When Biddle realizes
he's behind enemy lines
he's going to do what he's
always done, he's a scout.
He's going to try as quietly as possible
to gather as much information as he can.
(tense music)
NARRATOR: He prowls through the trees
and tries to pinpoint enemy positions
without revealing himself.
As Biddle watches,
a German patrol nears his location.
Out of the darkness
he hears another German challenge.
- GERMAN SOLDIER: Halt!
- NARRATOR: "Halt."
The German patrol calls back, "Hottentot."
Hottentot.
NARRATOR: Although Biddle
does not understand or speak German,
he recognizes "hottentot"
as the password to the challenge, halt.
The information could save his life if he
stumbles into a German post by mistake.
But there's a problem.
BORYS: Biddle is worried
about his Indiana accent.
The simple fact is that
if he yells out "hottentot,"
and he doesn't sound German,
the Germans are gonna know
an enemy is in their midst.
NARRATOR: He decides
if he does encounter anyone,
he will have to be quick
to challenge halt first.
BORYS: He figures it'll be easier
to say for a boy from Indiana.
NARRATOR: As Biddle continues
to roam in the darkness,
he does more than collect information.
He decides to eliminate
a machine gun nest he identifies ahead.
Despite the risk of exposing his presence,
Biddle pulls the pin on a grenade.
(dramatic music)
After it explodes, he opens fire
with his M1 Garand to clear the soldiers.
He fades back into the night
while the Germans search for the attacker.
US troops currently hold out
in Hotton, Belgium
under attack from enemy
forces outside the town.
The American goal is to protect a bridge
across the Ourthe River
which would allow German tanks
access to the Belgian road network
and to race towards Antwerp.
Members of Biddle's regiment also try
to attack the German forces from the rear
along the highway from the northeast.
Hidden in the German line, Biddle stumbles
across tank destroyers in the forest.
BORYS:
These tank destroyers have been key
in allowing the Germans
to beat back American attacks
and now Biddle knows where they are.
If he can get this information back to
headquarters, the tide of battle can turn.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR: After-action reports
often misidentified enemy
tank destroyers as tanks.
ZALOGA:
When American Gis would encounter
a German armored vehicle
on the battlefield,
usually it was covered with pine boughs
or tree branches
or other forms of camouflage.
So, whether it was a Panzerkampfwagen IV
or a Panzerjäger or some other type,
the Gis had a hard time
telling what it was.
NARRATOR: But armored vehicles
serve different purposes.
ZALOGA: The German tank destroyer,
also called a Panzerjäger
is a dedicated anti-tank vehicle.
Its weapon is located
within a fixed casemate,
a fixed superstructure without a turret.
NARRATOR: The tank destroyer's low profile
made it difficult for the Americans
to get a fix on its position.
Its primary purpose is to attack enemy
tanks, so it must be well protected.
ZALOGA: A German Panzerjäger
usually has more armor than a tank,
and at the same time,
it usually has a more powerful gun.
NARRATOR: He notes
the location of the tank destroyers.
Biddle doesn't attack the tank destroyers
because he's just one man,
and he's a scout.
His job is to gather information.
NARRATOR:
With this key intelligence, he moves on.
(suspenseful music)
But out of the darkness,
a voice stops Biddle in his tracks.
GERMAN SOLDIER:
Halt!
NARRATOR:
When a young American private
tries to answer
a password challenge in German
Hottentot.
NARRATOR: the enemy sentry
does not buy it.
Nein.
NARRATOR:
As the German soldier raises his rifle,
Melvin Biddle takes off into the night.
- The soldier opens fire
- Halt!
NARRATOR: but the shots go wide.
GERMAN SOLDIER:
Alarm!
NARRATOR:
Biddle runs deeper into the woods
finds cover
and waits.
(dramatic music)
Members of
the 560th Volksgrenadier Division
under Oberstleutnant Helmut Zander
(yelling in German)
must locate the enemy interloper
who has created havoc in the German lines.
(tense music)
Biddle hears boots in the snow.
The Germans creep nearer.
BORYS:
Biddle is extremely cold,
in fact he's worried
that his fingers are so cold
he won't be able to pull the trigger
if he gets into trouble.
(gunfire in distance)
NARRATOR:
He makes a quick decision.
BORYS:
His solution is to use his left hand
to pull the trigger finger of his right
hand in case he gets into a fire fight.
(inaudible)
NARRATOR: In the darkness,
a German soldier gets so close,
his boot lands next to Biddle's hand
but he does not detect
the American scout's presence.
The German soldiers move on.
After the threat passes
(gunfire in distance)
Biddle hears gunfire in the distance.
He recognizes the sound of
his own machine guns.
(gunfire continues)
Every machine gun makes a distinct sound
and when he hears the American
machine guns firing at the Germans,
he can sort of pinpoint
the location of the Americans.
(gunfire continues)
NARRATOR: Biddle tracks
the gun chatter in the direction
of what he hopes is friendly fire.
Back along the American line, Biddle's
fellow paratroopers from the 517th
are in a firefight with German defenders
over a key crossroad
along the highway from Soy.
(rapid gunfire)
After a big US push, the Germans
counterattack with everything at hand.
(dramatic music)
(explosion)
The nighttime fight is
fierce and in close.
BORYS: The German machine gunners
in between bursts are yelling,
"Merry Christmas, American bastards."
And this incites the Americans.
Many of them don't even know
they're fighting on Christmas Eve,
and this is sort of fuel
to the attacking fire.
NARRATOR: Defense by a platoon from
C Company holds off the German assault.
(gunfire in distance)
They then advance about ten yards
and the enemy fire drops off.
The paratroopers seize the moment.
The platoon rises up and
charges, firing as they go.
Others join in from B and A Companies.
They overrun the dug-in German positions
to finally take the crossroads.
The capture of the crossroads
is extremely important,
because now the Americans can push on to
Hotton and relieve the men fighting there.
NARRATOR:
The lost scout, Melvin Biddle
gets closer to the sound
of the American machine guns
when he hears something different.
(airplane droning)
It's a German Junkers JU 88,
a reconnaissance plane flying low.
Its wings almost touching the treetops.
Biddle watches as the German
aircraft nears his position
when a second plane appears.
An American P-61 Black Widow
speeds overhead.
(distant gunfire)
ZALOGA: The P-61 was the U.S. Army
Air Force's dedicated night fighter.
It was a very large aircraft.
It had twin engines, had a three-man
or sometimes four-man crew.
It had a very good air-to-air radar,
so that the fighter could locate
enemy aircraft at nighttime.
It didn't have to see the enemy aircraft,
it could pick them up simply by its radar.
NARRATOR: Suddenly one of the planes
erupts into flames.
(dramatic music)
Under attack
from the American night fighter,
the German Junkers JU 88
falls from the sky.
Watching an aircraft battle
at night would've been pretty surreal.
It would've been loud,
especially at low altitude.
You would've at first celebrated
the fact that the American plane
had emerged victorious
and then you would've started to panic
as the German plane started to come
down really close to where you are.
NARRATOR: The wreckage misses
Private First Class Melvin Biddle.
But it crashes nearby
and illuminates the forest.
Biddle sets off again to locate
the American line in the darkness.
He's been gone since the day before
and doesn't know the new
password for December 24th.
He worries he might get shot
because he can't properly
answer the challenge.
As Biddle moves forward
- he hears a voice.
- Biddle, is that you?
- Yeah.
- BORYS: An American soldier hears him
and instead of shooting
or asking for the password,
he actually calls him by name
and Biddle is able to make it back safely.
NARRATOR: Biddle locates his
company commander, Captain Dean Robbins.
BORYS:
Captain Robbins thought Biddle was dead.
And when Biddle turns up,
Captain Robbins is very happy to see him.
But he's even happier to know
that Biddle has an extremely important
piece of intelligence to give him.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Biddle identifies German
machine gun emplacements,
and most importantly,
shows Robbins where the camouflaged
German tank destroyers are dug in.
With an attack planned for early, Robbins
dismisses Biddle to eat and get some rest.
Biddle leans against a tree
and opens a tin of cold rations.
He eats the food and closes his eyes.
BORYS: In the early hours of December
24th, the 517th has had no rest,
and to top it off,
they're really, really cold
and most of them have to
keep moving around to avoid freezing.
(somber music)
- NARRATOR: Biddle manages to drift off
- Biddle.
NARRATOR: but is soon shaken awake
with a familiar command.
Need you out front.
BORYS: Captain Robbins is happy
that he's there and he says to him,
"You're so damn lucky,
we want you back out there."
And Biddle finds himself
right at the front again.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
Robbins positions his paratroopers
in front of a contingent
of American armor.
They have tried twice
to breakthrough into Hotton
and the hidden German tank destroyers
turned them back.
BORYS:
This time they have an advantage,
because of Biddle they know
where the tank destroyers are
and they're gonna be able to target
these German pieces of armor.
NARRATOR: As Biddle gets underway,
his sergeant gives him a signal
(whistles)
then motions for him to drop.
Biddle hits the snow
as the Sergeant fires.
BORYS: Scouts normally work in teams,
and this time it saved Biddle's life.
He didn't see the camouflaged German
soldier, but his teammate did.
(tense music)
NARRATOR: Biddle gets to his feet
and continues ahead of the paratroopers
from the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment
fighting through to stranded Americans
forces in Hotton, Belgium.
Biddle has orders to hold the left flank
while American armor moves toward
the German tank destroyer positions.
He crawls ahead.
In the distance, he sees a group of enemy
soldiers, but the brush limits his view.
(distant gunfire)
Biddle moves to a seated position.
From here, he spots a line of helmets
bobbing along, about 200 yards out.
He tucks his elbow
below his knee to steady his rifle,
takes a deep breath
and fires.
(dramatic music)
The posture assumed by Private First
Class Melvin Biddle looks unusual.
It's called the seated position,
and it is one of four drilled into
American recruits during basic training.
The goal is to always have
the soldier's bones
and not his muscles support the rifle.
In the seated position, the rifleman
secures the rifle strap as a brace
and twists slightly before resting
the left elbow below the knee.
BORYS: The seated position
is an extremely awkward firing position.
You have to practice it a lot to get
that muscle memory to do it effectively.
NARRATOR: It allows
Biddle to see just over the rise.
He is not exposed, but he has
eyes on the enemy helmets.
Biddle fires, aiming a little high
to compensate for the distance.
(dramatic music)
(gunshot)
At about 200 yards,
his shots find their mark repeatedly.
(gunshot)
BORYS: Back in basic training
as he's practicing it over and over again,
he thought to himself
he was never going to need to use it.
He obviously thought wrong.
NARRATOR: Biddle makes at least
a dozen successful shots,
but chose not to look for himself.
BORYS: Later in life Biddle was glad
he didn't go and inspect the dead Germans.
He felt that would've been
a horrific memory to carry with him.
NARRATOR: To Biddle's right,
American armor rumbles toward Hotton.
Assisted by the intelligence
from his scout the night before,
they approach
the camouflaged German positions.
Schnell, schnell.
(inaudible)
(speaking German)
NARRATOR: The German tank destroyers
turn to confront the American force
(inaudible)
but the Americans fire first
and finally eliminate the German armor
which has stymied their advance for days.
(dramatic music)
With the combination
of US armor and paratroopers,
the German defenses give way.
At this time, the Germans
are fighting on two fronts.
You've got the American troops
fighting out of Hotton,
and you've got another American force
pushing along the highway westwards.
So, what remains of the German forces
melt down to the south.
NARRATOR: The two American groups
tie in on the outskirts of Hotton.
(inaudible)
BORYS: These rear echelon troops had just
spent days defending against Germans.
Germans in the town, Germans in the
forest, Germans in the houses.
And then all of a sudden,
it's an American soldier,
and it means the
battle's over. They did it.
NARRATOR: Hotton and its bridge
are now firmly in Allied hands.
The devastation and the wreckage
show the steep cost
of the battle to the combatants
and the residents of the village.
(somber music)
Most members of the 517th
are sent back to get some respite
and Christmas dinner in Soy.
For B Company and Biddle,
they can't rest yet,
but B Company returns to the crossroads
Biddle. Need you out front.
NARRATOR: to clear the woods
and secure the highway.
1st battalion of the
517th parachute infantry Regiment
earns a Presidential Unit Citation
for their actions at Hotton.
The trapped men of 3rd Armored Division
also distinguish themselves
within the village.
Defensive maneuvers there
earned the grudging admiration of even
the German general, Hasso Manteuffel.
Private First Class Melvin Biddle
earns the highest award
in the American Army
for actions in combat,
the Congressional Medal of Honor,
for his intrepid courage and superb daring
which enabled his battalion
to break the enemy grasp on Hotton
with a minimum of casualties.
Biddle's actions were
worthy of a Medal of Honor
because he went above
and beyond the call of duty.
Often, we think of battles as large
formations achieving grand objectives.
But often battles come down to the bravery
or the decisions being made
by one or two people,
and this is what happens here at Hotton,
and Biddle makes a major difference.
NARRATOR: The 517th and the 3rd Armored
hold off the Greyhound troops at Hotton,
but it's only a delay.
German troops soon divert to La Roche,
Belgium and cross the Ourthe River there.
However, like the other panzer troops
soon outrun their supply lines.
RICHIE: There's an old expression that,
armchair warriors look at tactics,
but the true generals look at logistics,
because if you can't supply your troops,
you can't supply your men,
you can't defend the flanks,
then you're in big trouble.
LIEB: The Battle of the Bulge
was the last German attempt
to win back the initiative in the west.
However, it failed,
and it was at great costs
because the Germans deployed
their last armored reserves,
and they were more or
less naked in the east.
On the 12th of January,
the Soviets start their Winter Offensive
and break quickly
through the German defenses
and pushed through Poland towards Berlin.
NARRATOR: And the war in Europe will
still rage for nearly four more months.
(airplane drone)