It was stationed
in the Ardennes when the Germans launched their
massive attack there on 16 December. At that
time the 801st was attached to the 99th Infantry
Division.
The 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion, a towed
outfit, was placed close to the infantry line.
The battalion'ss 3 inch guns were brought under
intense shelling and could be moved only at
night.
During attack, bogged in mud and unable to shift
firing positions, the towed tank destroyers
quickly fell prey to direct fire or infantry
assault. Between 17 and 19 December the 801st
lost 17 guns and 16 half-tracks.
In
those first few hours of the German assault, the
men of the 801st would face what would become
the most notorious German unit fighting during
this offensive; SS Kampfgruppe Peipper.
Hugh M. Cole writes in "The Ardennes; Battles Of
The Bulge":
"About
0500 on 17 December the main German column began
its march through Buchholz. Still at his post,
the radio operator counted thirty tanks,
twenty-eight half-tracks filled with German
infantry, and long columns of foot troops
marching by the roadside. All of the armored
task force of the 1st SS Panzer Division and a
considerable part of the 3d Parachute Division
were moving toward Honsfeld.
Honsfeld, well in the rear area of the 99th, was
occupied by a variety of troops. The provisional
unit raised at the division rest camp seems to
have been deployed around the town. Two platoons
of the 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion had been
sent in by General Lauer to hold the road, and
during the night a few towed guns from the 612th
Tank Destroyer Battalion were added to the
defenses. Honsfeld was in the V Corps
antiaircraft defense belt and two battalions of
90-mm. antiaircraft guns had been sited
thereabout. In addition, Troop A, 32d Cavalry
Reconnaissance Squadron, had arrived in Honsfeld
late in the evening.
The stream of American traffic moving into the
village during the night probably explains the
ease with which the Honsfeld garrison was routed.
The leading German tanks simply joined this
traffic, and, calmly led by a man signaling with
a flashlight, rolled down the village streets.
With German troops pouring in from all sides the
Americans offered no concrete resistance. Though
some made a fight of it, most engaged in a wild
scramble to get out of town. Some of the tank
destroyers were overrun by infantry attack
through the dark. Guns and vehicles, jammed on
the exit roads, were abandoned; but many of the
Americans, minus their equipment, escaped." (1)
An 3 inch gun of
the 801st TD Bn at Honsfeld, after the battle. (NARA)
The After Action Report of the 99th Infantry
Division for 17 December states;
"17 December 1944
a. Division CP: K912042
b. Heavy enemy artillery fire was continuous
throughout the night. 254th Engineer Battalion
was
attached to Division at 0100, and given the
mission of preparing a defense of roads leading
into Bullingen from the South and Southeast. At
0555 hours, the enemy continued his attack with
tanks, followed by armored infantry. The attack
was launched from the vicinity of Honsfeld and
in front of 393rd and 394th Infantry, objectives
appearing to be the towns of Krinkelt and
Bullingen. By 0730 hours, the enemy had
penetrated elements of the 394th infantry and
the 801st T.D. Battalion in the vicinity of
Honsfeld, and was in contact with units of the
254th Engineer Battalion in defense of Bullingen.
By 0850 hours enemy tanks and armored infantry
were attacking the town of Bullingen from the
South and East. At 815 hours, the 26th Infantry,
1st Division, was attached to 99th Division and
ordered to hold the town of Butgenbach, with
defensive positions on the road Southeast and
South of town. They arrived in position at 1300
hours. At 0633 hours, paratroopers dropped
around Tank Destroyer positions in the vicinity
of Honsfeld. At 0647 hours, a company of the
612th Tank Destroyer Battalion of the 2nd
Division was ordered to go into position on the
road leading Southeast from Butgenbach.[..] "
(2)
It
is most likely that Pvt Jasper Vandenbergh was
killed in the fighting with kampfgruppe Peipper
in Honsfeld, Belgium. The kampgruppe moved on
and a few hours later would run into another
group of Americans. After taking a large number
prisoner, they gunned these men down, in what
would become known as the Malmedy massacre.
Pvt Vandenbergh was buried at an American
cemetery. After the war his family requested
that his remains be buried near family in
Nieuw-Loosdrecht, the Netherlands. Jasper was
from Dutch descent and is one of the few who is
buried in Europe outside an American Military
Cemetery.
