The Golden Lions’ Last Stand: How the 106th Was Destroyed at St Vith | Battle of The Bulge

In December 1944, two entire regiments of the 106th Infantry Division — the Golden Lions — were surrounded, outfought, and forced to surrender in the frozen hills east of St Vith. It was one of the largest mass surrenders of American troops since the Civil War. Among the captured: a young private named Kurt Vonnegut, who would one day turn what he witnessed into Slaughterhouse-Five.

James Holland and Al Murray walk the very ground where it happened.The foxholes on Point 536 near Schöenenberg are still there — silent witnesses to the final hours of the 422nd and 423rd Regiments.

James and Al explore the positions metre by metre, tracing the moment the Golden Lions ran out of ammunition, out of options, and out of time.They also examine the desperate blocking line east of St Vith itself: the high ground held by Combat Command B of the 7th Armored Division and Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division, thrown across the roads to buy time against General Manteuffel's 5th Panzer Army Volksgrenadier divisions.

At the centre of the crisis: Major General Alan Jones, commanding a division that is disintegrating around him, hands authority to the most experienced officer on the ground — Brigadier General Bruce C. Clarke — in one of the most consequential command decisions of the Battle of the Bulge.This is the Battle of the Bulge at its most human. A catastrophic defeat, a desperate defence, and a last stand that history nearly forgot.

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