14, they were approaching the town of Noville and an ambush aided by a battalion command the company commander interpreted to mean the company was to proceed through the town despite approaching darkness. ![]() ![]() In his book, "Tank Driver," he wrote, "It took us 14 hours to go eight miles." 12, 1945, the hard-fought battle line had moved slightly north of Bastogne, and Hartman and his tank crew were contending with freezing rain and ice that made the tank slide in all directions. But as soon as they moved in, the Germans moved back behind them and blocked the whole thing."īy Jan. "The 11th Armored Division had fought its way in to Bastogne to bring relief. "We entered battle south of Bastogne," Hartman remembers. Eisenhower, supreme allied commander, and he responded by deploying troops to counter the thrust. It had drawn the personal attention of Gen. There was an emergency aspect to the German breakout at Bastogne, Belgium. It was probably 50 miles long with all of us strung out," Hartman remembers. The German army was breaking through Allied lines and might drive all the way to the coast to divide the forces that had invaded Normandy. ![]() They were urgently ordered on a forced march to Belgium three days after the start of a German offensive called the Battle of the Bulge. Hartman was 19, and the men in his tank crew had departed from England in the latter half of December 1944. Ted Hartman of Lubbock, and several others from the 11th Armored Division, the test of courage was the town of Noville in Belgium in January 1945 during World War II. Valor takes different forms in different wars.įor J.
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