Fields of Fire: 9th Infantry Bulge Campaign

The 9th Infantry Regiment “Manchus,” 2nd Infantry Division faced three weeks of intense combat from December 13th, 1944 to January 8th, 1945 as part of the Battle of the Bulge. This campaign covers those critical days. The Campaign consists of seven new missions featuring a new Terrain Deck for the forests, fields, and villages of the Ardennes. The counter sheet includes a U.S. heavy machine gun platoon, Bangalore torpedoes, anti-tank mines, wire entanglements, German tanks, assault guns, Panzergrenadiers, and Volksgrenadiers.

We left the “Manchus” of World War Two in Fields of Fire: Volume I at the close of the Normandy Campaign. The 2nd Infantry Division was rapidly moved to join the assault on the port city of Brest, in Brittany. The city was captured after heavy fighting from August 21st to September 18th. By that time, the German resistance elsewhere in France had collapsed, and the 2nd Infantry Division raced to Paris, arriving on September 29th. The rapid advance ended on October 4th when the Division entered the region just east of St. Vith, Belgium called the Schnee Eifel on the highly symbolic German border. The 2nd Infantry Division relieved the 4th and 28th Infantry Divisions, completing the relief on October 5th. Ahead lay the German border, defended by the Siegfried Line cutting across difficult terrain.

The “Manchus” were able to incorporate replacements and prepare for whatever would come next throughout October and November. This period saw frequent patrol activity but no major combat actions. On December 10th, the 2nd Infantry Division began a relief in place by the 106th Infantry Division. By the 11th, the relief was complete, and the Division gathered at Camp Elsenborn to prepare for the renewed offensive. The attack north through the Siegfried line would commence on December 13th.