The 10th Armored Division was activated at fort benning, georgia on the 15th of july in 1942. From the very beginning it was known as a hot outfit. Its nickname tiger division. The commanding general of the 10th, Major General paul gardener, was a superb leader. Carryout orders, march, maneuver and shoot where his by words. No journal was more revered by his men. I am john drew devereaux, a Company Commander in the 10th Armored Division in world war ii. We had a marvelous kind of spirit in our division. I think it was due to the training we got from the general newgarden, Division Commander in the states. He was killed in an airplane crash before we went overseas. He had a couple of very pet things that he liked. One that we had to wear the top button of our coveralls buttoned. This was uncomfortable, but we got so that we looked at other outfits that wore them unbuttoned and thought they look liked slobs. When you gave a salute in the 10th Armored Division, a tiger salute, you lifted your chin in the air like that. That seemed to silly until after a while we got used to it. Then we thought were the only outfit in the whole army that thought we knew how to salute properly. In july, 1944, a new leader assumes command. I am Lieutenant General william hh morris junior. I was commanding general of the 10th Armored Division in europe during world war ii. The division sailed from new york on september 14, 1944. The long period of training was over. The men were prepared for anything. But their imagination could not conjure what destiny held in store for them. Two days later, on the 16th of september, hitler, leading with his most trusted generals made a , momentous decision decision , a which would alter the course of the war. , thetion crossroads ardenness offensive, a campaign in which the tigers of the tenth would cover themselves with glory and make military history. The division arrived in battle torn cherbourg on september 22 and was assigned to a group under the control of george ash pattons third army. General George S Pattons third army. General patton came to visit , as he did with all the divisions assigned to his army. He covered effectively the combat Lessons Learned during the war at the squad, section, and platoon level. I am colonel thomas tamerlan. During world war ii i commanded the 11th tank battalion of the 10th Armored Division. I remember vividly the first days of combat, the first orders we received. Colonel roberts called us into a small church yard in a french town. His first words were that the reason he called us into this particular churchyard in this particular town, were that this was the place that he had received his first orders go into combat, during world war i, and he wanted to use this particular spot to start us off. We moved up all afternoon, past toward metz, on a beautiful halloween night we infiltrated our half tracks one by 1, 3 minutes apart, down a very spooky road through a village and up into a wooded area, dismounted and trucked on up and relieved that 90th division. I am william. I was a Battalion Commander, a major in the 10th Armored Division in world war ii. The 10th armored was a very welltrained division. Its first combat was against metz. Metz was a defensive sector as far as the 10th was concerned. We were supposed to aggressively patrol and we did. We saw that every instrument and every weapon was fired at least once in more or less anger against the enemy. [guns firing] i am william lynn roberts, u. S. Army, retired. I was combat command commander of ccb 10th Armored Division in world war ii. I am colonel curtis l. Hanki ns, i was a Battalion Commander in the 10th Armored Division. My First Encounter with enemy fire was during the defensive Operation West of metz. It was here that we learned to sense artillery fire, that is , determine the difference between outgoing, which was friendly fire, [blasting] and incoming, which was german fire. If you could determine with some degree of accuracy where the enemy rounds were going to land, this would save a lot of wear and tear on your knees and elbows, and you would try to take cover every time the rounds would come over. I am colonel james ohara. I commanded the 54th armored Infantry Battalion in the 10th Armored Division. I considered this initial baptism of fire in the defensive position was very good for the battalion. It give us time to gather our thoughts, practice some of the things we had been learning in the states, get our communications working, having reconnaissance work with the free french, practice patrolling, all these things it that are so necessary for battalion to do. I remember my first in combat. We felt very safe in a tank. But during this first day, after i seen the first tank hit by 88 and burned, we began to get scared. But even though we were awful scared, it did not seem to be much for handicap of doing our job, which was to destroy the enemy, and we did a fairly good job that first day. My name is john winter. I was a tank platoon sergeant, 10th Armored Division during world war ii. After fighting for about three weeks around metz, we moved north to participate in the third Army Offensive designed to capture metz. The plan of 20th core, to which the 10th army was assigned, had two phases. To destroy the enemy in metz. And to catch him as he tried to pull out of metz. The mission of the 10th was to make a deep penetration into the enemys lines. Once it crashed through the german defense, the left column, combat command b was to events east and sees a bridgehead over the czar river. The right column, combat command a, was to take the division objector objectives, including ille, the center of arterial highway and Railroad Traffic running northeast of metz. The enemy fought savagely and blocked the way. [explosions] but the tigers clawed their way through the german defense. [gunfire] by the time the tigers had completed their first major offensive mission, they had taken 64 towns, repulsed 11 counterattacks, captured prisoners, and destroyed great quantities of material. But the price was high. On december 7, hitler approved the final operation now renamed watch on the rhine. The plan of attack was to break through on the ardennes with three armies. The sixth panzer army led by the butcher from bavaria. The fifth panzer army, led by a baron. And the seventh army led by general brandenburger. They would cross the river on the second day between liege and namur, bypass brussels and reached the great port of antwerp on the second day. This was to destroyed more than 30 american and british divisions, and they believed it would be the beginning of the end for the allies. Within the next week, thousands upon thousands of troops and thousands upon thousands of tons of materiel were transported secretly from Assembly Areas to terminals just behind the front lines. [marching troops] on the eve of december 15, onequarter of a million germans stood poised on the line of departure, prepared to annihilate the enemy. [dramatic music] at 5 30 a. M. , the following morning [bombs] flames erupted along an 85mile front. Hitlers great drive to antwerp had begun. [artillery fire] on december 16, 1944 about 6 00 p. M. , i received a telephone call from general walker, who informed me there that i was meant to be transferred with the division to the first army and replaced under the eighth call, that they had been attacked by the germans in the vicinity of luxembourg. I immediately dispatched my chief of staff to the headquarters of the eighth corps for orders. The chief of staff returned about 2 00 a. M. The next morning and informed me that the division was to go into a quartering area, just west of luxembourg. When the battle of the bulge began, my unit was in a rest area south of luxembourg. We received orders to be prepared to move north on 24 hours notice. A short time later, the alert was changed to 12 hours. A short time later, we were on the road. The 10th Armored Division sent two of its comeback commands northwest of luxembourg to go into action there. They sent my combat command west to one town and then north to another. Preceded my outfit and got in around 4 00 p. M. The general asked how my outfit fought and have any pieces my outfit would fight in, and i told him three, and he said all right. Send one six or seven commoners north, one east and one southeast. A little sidelight here. I had held up the march of our outfit to get ohara in front, because ohara had not been in the fighting heavily down around the mertzig area. So we got ohara in front, and i sent him out. I took my team down, and we stopped for the night opposite the town of warden. On our way down this road, we passed Many American soldiers coming to the rear, most of whom seemed to be from the 28th division. Apparently they had been hit hard further forward. When we got to our destination for the night, since we received our orders at 5 00 in the afternoon, and there was not much daylight left, we settled astride the road and blocked the road. I arrived in baston just as night was falling. I found an mp, who led me to colonel roberts cp. It was a brief meeting, and he told me that ohara had been sent east of the town and was in the defensive position, and the cherry was moving slightly northeast of the town. And as soon as my column arrived, i was to keep moving to the north of the town, and if there were any germans there, i was to knock them out and to of the town and to occupy it. If there were no germans, i was to occupy the town going north for the north, because this be the limit of the range of the 10th Armored Division artillery, which was located in the vicinity of baston. This was the disposition of combat command b on the 18th of december, the night of their arrival in baston. One team was north, one team east, team ohara at wardin. The the total strength of the defending units was 75 tanks and 2800 officers and men. Battering at the gates of bastogne with events elements of the fifth panzer army and general brandenburger seventh army. Approximately 300 tanks and 50,000 men Whose Mission in addition to taking the towns was to take bastogne and to take a fast. [speaking german] it was very important to capture bastogne fast. It was it was the most important road junction in the Southern Area of the combat section. Generalvent, eisenhowers reserve forces, which we expected were near arrived to attack, and they would have to pass bastogne. [speaking german] im a former general of the panzertruppe and commanderinchief of the fifth panzer army. Aswe completed tableting the defenses about midnight. Actually the defense was a , routine traditional type defense. We set out roadblocks to the east, one to the north, and one to the northwest, because these were the directions that we expected the germans to attack us. The fighting throughout the night was sporadic. It was a piecemeal attack. They would hit us with small units from the north, and then they would hit us with small units from the east. [shooting] [bomb blasts] terry, who is not here, went out to one town, came back at midnight, and found me asleep. He asked that he be allowed to sit on a road out east, because he had found a combat command, ccr, on the ninth Armored Division in position, 10 or 12 tanks, a colonel, and some artillery. I gave him permission to stay where he was. Terry never got back to his command. In the meantime, some of the panzer lair division had cut in behind his outfit, and he never joined. However, his headquarters went in to a little chateau. Chateau, terry had a tank or two and a few machine guns and his whole headquarters company. And he put up a real nice fight all day. That evening, he had to retire. He felt like he had to get out, because he was being bird out. Terry lined up his vehicles to go out. He was to go out last in a jeep. He went outside. He got two tommy guns. He emptied one tommy gun to the right. Got the other one to the left, climbed in his jeep, and pulled out. The driver was hit, the jeep was hit, the medic in the back was hit. Terry got out. He got a dsc for this. My battalion spent the night on the high ground to the south. All night long we saw no german troops or heard nothing of them. However, we did have one straggler come to the rear who , who told us they were east of us in the area. By 10 00 in the morning, they came down the road and shot out the artillery observers tank and one or two other tanks. We fought all morning long and part of the afternoon, staying in the same position there, keeping the germans at bay. [shooting] at first, the defense of bastogne rested with three units of the division in the tas task force in the intheast, task force cherry the east, and task force ohare in the southeast. I am general anthony mcauliffe, United States army retired. I was at bastogne with the 101st Airborne Division in mid december, 1944. The 101st Airborne Division was at a camp in france. We were recuperating from the holland airborne operation, where we had suffered 30 casualties. And we were absorbing our replacements and going through a training program. General taylor had been recalled to washington, and i was the acting commander of the division. I believe it was on december 18 that we received a telephone call from the chief of staff of the 18th airborne corps, saying the division should be prepared to move the following day to the north. We had known the germans had attacked, but we did not know the extent of the attack or the conditions to the north. But we made all preparations to get away the following day, and the first thing in the morning, i preceded the division to the north in a sedan with my aid to e to camp and my operations officer. As i drove north, i reached across road a couple of miles west of the town of bastogne. Orpsew that the viii Co Headquarters was located in that town, so i decided to drive over to the headquarters and try to learn more about the situation. It was fortunate that i did so, because i learned from the corps commander, general middleton, that the orders for the 101st Airborne Division had been changed, and that the division would come to bastogne. I also met there colonel roberts, who was commander of combat command b of the 10th Armored Division, who were already on the scene and in the fighting. It was attacked five or six times that first day, he will describe. During the morning of that first day, one battalion under prade of the 101st airborne joined him. As soon as the colonel joined, they decided to attack, apparently at the same time the germans decided to attack. Paratroopers and our tanks and s and our tanks and our armored infantry launched the attack. 1400 hours, the German Forces launched an all out attack. So we had the situation of the germans and the american units attacking one another simultaneously from points about 700 yards distant. [machine gun fire] actually the germans were stopped. They withdrew behind the ridge. Paratroopers on the northwest of the town gained the ridge. The tanks, the armored infantry on the northeast of the town were unable to get to their positions. So after a fight of about 45 minutes or an hour, we withdrew the paratroopers from the northeast back into the town. One officer is hit badly and colonel prade was killed that evening. I did not know this, but he was hurt for 24 hours. He was later captured when the hospital is captured. For 24 hours, they slugged it out with a pneumatically superior enemy. Then on the 22nd of december , [explosions] when the besieged city was finally encircled, the commanding general of the 47th panzer corps sent the following surrender ultimatum. It called for the surrender of the bastogne garrison. If the americans did not comply within two hours, bastogne would destroyed, and its defenders annihilated. General mcculloughs oneword answer, nuts , reverberated around the world. This is lorne greene. In world war ii, 61 United StatesArmy Divisions were locked in mortal combat with the enemy. The european theater of operations. This film is about one of those divisions. The 10th armored. Its nickname was the tiger division. On the 16th of december, 1944, hiler began his great drive to hitler began his great drive to the port of antwerp, they are dens offensive ardennes offensive. Six days later, on the 22nd of december, strong German Forces surrounded the outnumbered and outgunned american defenders of bastogne, a Key Communication center. As a result of this encirclement, the commanding general of the german 47th panzer corps delivered the surrender ultimatum to general anthony mcauliffe, commander of the bastogne garrison. The reply was nuts. Fighting in the city was combat commander [machine gun fire] from the very beginning of the battle for bastogne, heavy fire and bad weather prevented aerial resupply. There was a shortage of Surgical Equipment and not enough blankets for the men suffering from wounds and shock. Ammunition was running low and some of the artillery batteries were down to less than 10 rounds per gun. But the morning of december 23 broke clear and cold and visibility was unlimited. From england Bastogne Bastogne ne,to the foxholes of bastog where every man man looked up to the sky and prayed. And their prayers were answered. [airplanes flying] im a retired berg dear Brigadier General u. S. Army r