The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-04
o9th Division
 Battle Bubies
By JOHN McDERMOTT United Press War Correspondent

U. s. First Army Headquarters
 Western Front. Jan. { -- (U.P) --
 The battle babies" of the Amer
 ican 99th Division received their
 baptism of fire on the bloody north ern corner of the Ardennes Salient and fought off four German divi. Sions for five days and nights at the start of the NaZ winter offensive. it was revealed today.
 First Army Headquarters lifted itg security ban for the first time to permit disclosure of the role played by the 99th and nine other Amer ican divisions in stemming the Wehrmacht's bid for breakthrough in the Ardennes last month.
 Going into action for the first time, the 99th faced wave after wave of German assault forces at the be- ginning of the Ardennes drive when two panzer and two Volksgrenadier divisions, reinforced by tanks, hit 1t amidships on December IT in the vicinity of Hollerath, Bulling and Wirtzfeld, below Monschau.
 Some of the bitterest fighting of the entire German offensive cen- tered around those towns, with the battle babies" taking it on the chin, fighting a gallant delaying action.
 For five days the 99th battled around the clock, sometimes fall ing back then charging the Ger mans and forcing the Nazis to re- treat. Their baptism of fire was one of the strangest any American out Tt ever received. It was the 99th that captured Marshal Karl Von Rundstedt's order telling his troops their moment had come to strike a decisive blow tipping the Allies that this was full-scale Nazi of fenSive.
 The First Army also paid high tri- bute to the stand made elsewhere in the Ardennes by the Ninth, Second First, 30th and 18th Infantry Divi- sionS, the 82nd airborne. the Sev- enth and Ninth armored, and the ll2th Regiment of the 28th Division.
 The 30th Division, which was in the thick of the fighting at Stavelot and La Gleize, knocked out 92 Ger man tanks and 36O vehicles, captur- cd 337 prisoners and buried IF enemy dead while serving as the forward wall of the First Army on the northern flank.
 In the Stavelot area alone, the di- visions supporting artillery claimed to have killed 2000 Germans and destroyed 200 vehicles.
 The 30th. commanded by Major General Leland s. Hobbs, Washing ton, D. C., won grudging praise from the Germans themselves, who dubbed the outfit "Roosevelts shock troops"
 The Ninth Infantry. commanded by Major General Louis A. Craig. Raleigh, N. C.. was thrown into the line in the Monschau area when the German offensive began. When the 99th was taking 1t" hardest, the Ninth moved in to relieve that di- vision around Elsenborn.
 The 18th Division held the line along the Hotton-G -Grandmenil sec tor where the Germans were stop ped in their tracks. That was the iirst important action of the 75th had seen since 1t was actiyiated at Fort Leonard Wood. Mo, in l942.
 The Ninth Armored, part of which was going under fire for the first time. held off the Germans near St. With until 1t was relieved by the Seventh Armored.
 The Seventh Armored, which fought one of the most gallant hold ing actions of the battle in the St. With area. previously had been iden- tiiied as in action in the Ardennes. along with the 82nd Airborne and the First Infantry.
 The Second Infantry Division held the hot corner" around Bulll- gen and plugged the holes ripped in the advanced American lines, win- ming a special citation from First Army Commander Lieutenant Gen eral Courtney H. Hodges.
 Tie Second had just begun attack of its own into Germany on December 16-l7 when the Nazis struck. Cooks, clerks, and Military Police were called into the front lines to hold the Germans back and when the hot corner" cooled of 700 enemy dead were counted there, another 1000 or more were prisoners and the Nazis had lest 60 tanAs.