     On the morning of December 18th, the full weight of the Sixth Panzer Army came down on the defenders of the little village of Rocherath, northeast of St. Vith. Standing directly across the path of the German steamroller was the 1st Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment. In heavy fog, German tanks bore down on the foxhole line and broke right through. Company A was overrun by German infantry; Lt. Stephen Truppner called for artillery fire on his own position. For half an hour an entire artillery battalion shelled Truppner's position. Twelve men from Company A escaped. Company K was similarly overwhelmed; its commander, Captain Jack Garvey, radioed from his cellar command post that he would not retreat without bringing his men. Only eleven men from Company K escaped.
     Companies B and C managed to hold on. They let the German tanks roll past them, then turned to fight the oncoming German infantry with grenades and bayonets. When the enemy infantry had been driven off, bazooka teams went out into the fog to stalk the German tanks. Lieutenant. R. A. Parker knocked out six enemy tanks in this manner.
     Colonel McKinley, the battalion commander, knew that he could not retreat while his battalion was under direct fire from German tanks. Miraculously, a platoon of Shermans appeared shortly thereafter. They counterattacked towards the Company A and K positions, but nobody was left alive there. Then, under the covering fire of the Shermans, the shattered remains of 1st Battalion withdrew. Only 240 men out of nearly 1,000 were still alive.
/Grenades
     The hand grenade is a small explosive, weighing about a pound, thrown by hand. Even the largest hand grenades contained only a few ounces of high explosive. When compared to even a small artillery shell with 10 pounds of explosive charge, a hand grenade looks pretty puny. Its explosion is not very powerful and is unlikely to kill anybody unless it goes off right next to them.
     Nevertheless, hand grenades had some value. In the initial stages of an infantry assault, the attackers dash across the open towards the defenders' line. As they approach the defenders' line, the explosions of hand grenades might stun or confuse them, or slow them down, buying the defenders precious time. In some cases, the attackers jump into shell holes a few yards in front of the defenders. It is in this situation that the grenade really shines. A few grenades tossed into such holes will kill any such intruders.
     Grenades were also useful for house-to-house fighting; they stun the defender just long enough for the attacker to enter the house and shoot him. They were also used heavily by GIs in anti-tank combat. Once a tank had been disabled, a grenade dropped into a hole or wedged next to the turret would often start a fire.
     The most common German grenade was the stick grenade, sometimes called the "potato masher." The wooden handle contained the fuse, which burned for 4 to 5 seconds before detonating the grenade. The American "pineapple" grenade was made with a serrated casing so that, on detonation, fragments of the casing would fly outward, inflicting injuries. Modern grenades have a smooth casing with a heavy wire wrapped inside the case. When the grenade explodes, the wire fragments inflict injuries./