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Entrance of Wiltz, parking place just nearby. Don't forget to have a look at the information panels. The panels headed "Remember" or "Remember us" are part of a pile of informative boards spread all over the northern part of the country. At the upper left you see a little child with long blond hair, giving a rose to a GI. The child is my dad who had long hair because his parents wanted him to be a girl...funny. Good Luck!
On December 19, 1944, as the pressure from the German troops on the encircled town of Wiltz became too strong, Lieutenant-Colonel R. W. Ripple’s tank had retreated from its position at the Café Halt to Erpeldange/Wiltz. While looking for a good firing position, it crashed backwards into the Clees’s house and barn gables. These collapsed and the tank continued towards the Krischler’s house and then ran into the dung pit, where it sank. In spite of all efforts, it bogged down in the morass repeatedly and became stuck. The crew had no other choice but to abandon the vehicle. However, minutes later, the Germans captured the colonel with his crew who spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war in a prison camp in Germany. In 1946, about 12 months after the war ended, the tank was removed from the dung pit and relocated. A few German prisoners of war, guarded in a camp in Wiltz by Luxembourger soldiers, demolished the enclosure wall of the dung pit. Then with the help of a truck loaded with wood and equipped with a cable winch, they worked for hours to remove the tank from its awkward predicament. They discovered that the engine was damaged, but the steering was operational, so a column of four trucks bound together pulled the tank, while one truck was fixed behind in order to brake the tank when going downhill. Leo Wilmes, who had been a compulsory recruit and a tank driver in the German army, guided the tank together with a German prisoner of war to the Place des Martyrs, where it remained for nearly 70 years. Lt. Col. Ripple visited Wiltz in 1994. He was very surprised when he realised that the tank at the entrance to town was his command tank (3038800) during the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. The Sherman tank 3038800 was restored owing to a close collaboration between the Municipal Administration of Wiltz, the Musée sur la Bataille des Ardennes Wiltz asbl, the asbl National Liberation Memorial Schumanns Eck and the Vehicle Restoration Center du Détachement du Musée Royal de l’Armée à Bastogne (B). On September 10, 2016, the inauguration ceremony of the monument, symbolized by the restored tank, took place at its new site in Wiltz. The 707th TANK BATTALION in supp ort of the 110th Regiment, 28th US Infantry Division In December 1944, the 707th Tank Battalion was attached to the 28th US Infantry Division and was in the Division’s reserve. On December 16, 1944, at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, the 707th Tank Battalion was alerted and partitioned as follows: - Companies A and B were assigned to the 110th Regiment (Clervaux) - Company C came under the orders of the 109th Regiment (Diekirch) - Company D (light tanks) was attached to the 112th Regiment (Weiswampach). For four days, the tanks of Companies A and B, together with the defenders of the 110th Regiment and its attached units, offered stiff resistance to the attacking German units in Marnach, Munshausen, Clervaux, Hosingen, Bockholtz, Consthum, Hoscheid and Wiltz. Gradually, however, the stronger German “Panther” tanks eliminated many of the American tanks. The remaining tanks concentrated in Willtz and bravely defended the town. When the Germans encircled the town, and the Americans had run out of ammunition and fuel, the crews destroyed their remaining tanks and fled to Belgium. - Total losses: 34 tanks from Company A and B, 17 light tanks of Company D and 19 tanks of Company B, Combat Command R, 9th US Armored Division that had fought in Clervaux, Reuler and Heinerscheid. !!!!!! THE ENGINE of the TANK can be admired at the Battle of the Bulge Museum located at the entrance of the Castle of Wiltz -> radial compound engine !!!!!! You can find more panels at "Schumanns ECK" -> National Liberation Memorial (+- 5km) + Mass Grave "Dahl" +- 7km Weiler (Putscheid) +- 25km Daleiden +- 25km Stolzemburg +- 40km Gralingen +- 25km
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