The 5lst Engineer Combat Battalion
and the Battle of the Bulge
December 1944 January 1945
Ken
During the German breakthrough in the Ardennes, the
51st Engineer Combat Battalion held and delayed the enemy
at a number of vital points along the lines of
penetration. For four days-- 18 to 21 December--Companies
A and B held a barrier line from Barvaux to Hotton, south
of Marche to Rochefort, blowing up and defending three
footbridges, two highway bridges, and one railway bridge,
while holding a 25-mile front against enemy armored and
infantry thrusts. At the same time, Company C was holding
Trois-Ponts, denying the enemy the use of the vital east-
west Highway N23 to Werbomont. Company C stood its ground
in Trois-Ponts, tricked the enemy into believing it had
superior forces and armor, and, after being relieved by
a regiment of the 82d Airborne Division, covered the
withdrawal of that regiment from the town after its
abortive attack east of the Salm River.1
There was nothing in the background of the battalion
that was related to these achievements. Since activation
as the 1st Battalion of the 51st Engineer Combat Regiment
on 13 June 1942, this unit had passed a rather
uninteresting career. They trained at Camp Bowie [Texas];
shivered through a hard winter at Plattsburg Barracks, New
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