Much has been made of the Battle for Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge and rightfully so.
Less attention has been paid to the fight at St. Vith. Here elements of the 106th Infantry Division , The 28th Infantry Division, 7th and 9th Armored division held up the Germans onslaught for 4 days. The town of St Vith was supposed to be captured by 1700 of Dec 17th but the American forces held out until Dec 21.
This deprived the Germans of a critical road net for 4 days which severely disrupted and the Germans plans and inflicted many casualties on the Germans as well.
The Americans were eventually able to fall back to American lines by Dec 24th in fairly good order. This deprives the Germans of many prisoners and equipment and helped to bolster the defenses in that area.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
The book says to defend against a salient, first secure the shoulders and stop it from widening. Holding St. Vith for so long and then holding at Elsenborn Ridge and Bastogne accomplishes that here. The Germans are canalized into a narrow area that really isn’t capable of sustaining an advance to Antwerp.