242 Infantry Regiment (USA) battle for Hatten

At 0500 on the ninth of January the Germans launched their first attack and the men of the 1st Battalion began the defense which was to win them a Presidential Unit Citation. The first assault, made by white-clad infantry and with white-painted tanks, penetrated the lines of Company B, but these men who were fighting their first real battle didn't think of retreat. Instead, they let the Germans pass and then Company C launched a counterattack which restored the original line.

A new assault was then launched against Company A, which had taken up positions in Maginot Line pillboxes, and Germans by-passed them. The enemy then made their way into Hatten and began a furious house-to-house battle with the men of Company C. In this fighting and that which had preceded it every Company C officer was a casualty and the first sergeant temporarily took charge of the company.

Shortly after 11 o'clock 18 enemy tanks followed by 18 to 20 personnel carriers attacked Company B, penetrated their lines and surrounded a large Maginot pillbox which a number of men of the company were defending. Still the men held their ground.

The original orders had been to hold their positions at all costs and they held.

Now, however, the enemy was well into Hatten, but they could not advance. Anti-tank mines had been laid cross the streets of the town and the men of the 242nd Infantry were covering these with fire. By now everyone was in the battle. Cooks and clerks and Battalion Headquarters personnel were operating machine guns and manning rifles.

At the headquarters of the First Battalion, Private First Class Bertoldo was waging his 48-hour defense of the Command Post which won him the Congressional Medal of Honor. When the battalion CP was attacked by a German tank with its 88-mm. gun and machine gun fire, Bertoldo remained at his post and with his own machine gun killed the occupants of the tank when they tried to remove mines which were blocking their advance.

When, its headquarters was blasted by an enemy assault gun the Battalion Command Post moved two buildings to the west only to be attacked there by a Mark V tank.

Meanwhile another German attack, launched about 1300, broke around Hatten and penetrated to Rittershoffen. The Second Battalion of the 242nd Infantry, supported by tanks, launched a counterattack and drove the enemy back into Hatten. There Company G took up positions in the west end of town.

Back and forth moved the battle throughout the afternoon and night with the Germans trying desperately to drive the stubborn defenders from the town. At midnight, however, the 242nd held more than half the community and both sides were preparing to launch fresh attacks at dawn.