Staff Sergeant Donald A. Bonifay, with an M8 armored car
and one squad (Sergeant Benjamin Ham's) to Marcourt. Task
Force Bonifay arrived at the 2d Platoon at 0130 on 21
December, where Lieutenant Paul Curtis, 2d Platoon leader,
put them out to assist in the defense of the town.
Lieutenant Curtis reported that there had been a brief,
brisk firefight between two half-tracks approaching
the bridge and his own .50-caliber machine guns. No
casualties resulted from this firefight, but through
mistaken identity one guard was killed and one wounded
when they halted an American patrol at Marcourt.
Leaving Sergeant Ham's squad in Marcourt, Sergeant
Bonifay returned to Hampteau just in time to get in on the
excitement there. At 0510, Private Driggs ran back across
the bridge and reported that an armored car was
approaching along the secondary road from the northeast.
The armored car started shelling the high ground behind
and in the village and then started firing its small arms
at the bazooka teams. A battalion staff officer, Captain
Richard F. Huxmann, directed Sergeant Bonifay to blow the
bridge; however, this was impossible because the detonator
had been removed. The shelling set Hampteau on fire, and
by this time the battle of Hotton was commencing and
Colonel Fraser ordered Lieutenant Wright to send his men
Taking a last look at
to reinforce Company B at Hotton.
the burning and completely deserted town of Hampteau at
0900, Sergeant Bonifay made his way back to Hotton on foot
to join the battle that was in progress there.
The sequel to the Hampteau action is that Lieutenant
Paul Curtis, accompanied by Sergeants Joseph H. Ochson and
Harry S. Wimberley, returned in the afternoon in an
attempt to rewire and blow the bridge. Lieutenant Curtis
was killed in the unsuccessful attempt.64
On 21 December bitter fighting took place at the
point (369879) where a vital class 70 bridge spanned the
5) Hotton is at the junction
Ourthe River at Hotton.
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