The hard-fought battle was a solid American victory.
Here s What You Need to Know: A scratch force of an American armored division held a German panzer division at bay north of Bastogne during World War II.
It was December 19, 1944, one day before the Siege of Bastogne. Shortly after 10:30 am, 26-year-old Major William Desobry picked up his field telephone, called his combat commander, Colonel William Roberts, and asked if he could withdraw from the Belgian village of Noville. Desobry had been holding off the entire German 2nd Panzer Division some 16,000-men with more than 120 tanks and assault guns for the last six hours with only 400 men and a handful of tanks and tank destroyers.