Baraque Fraiture Steel Sign

Baraque Fraiture - Parkers Crossroads
833mm x 312mm steel sign

The German Ardennes Offensive began December 16, 1944, along an 80-mile front. Now known as the Battle of the Bulge, it remains the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army. The Germans met with initial success in most parts of their central thrust, spearheaded by Battle Group Peiper. Their plan was for the central thrust (by Sixth SS and Fifth Panzer Armies) to have parallel thrusts to the north (Fifteenth Army) and south (Seventh Army), which would prevent American reinforcements from reaching the flanks of the main thrust toward Antwerp. However, the troops on the northern shoulder held most of their ground, thanks to the efforts of the 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions. This allowed the U. S. 7th Armored Division to move, on the morning of December 17, from north of Aachen, Germany to the center of the front, at St. Vith, Belgium.

St. Vith was an extremely important town. The dense Ardennes forest had few roads that could carry heavy traffic, and what roads there were were canalized by the trees. But St. Vith was the easternmost major crossroads in the path of the central German armies. And St. Vith was the only place along the entire front where a railroad line crossed from Germany into the battle area. It was critically important to the German flow of supplies that they take St. Vith very early in the battle, which was their plan. However, the rapid movement of the 7th Armored Division into St. Vith upset their plans. The 7th Armored Division and attached troops (from the 106th and 28th Infantry Divisions and Combat Command "B" of the 9th Armored Division) created a defense that held up long against German assaults, even as other German units of the two central German armies drove far beyond St. Vith, to the north and south of the defensive perimeter.

By December 20, the defenders of St. Vith were, in fact, almost completely surrounded inside an oval-shaped perimeter that was called the "fortified goose egg" -- a salient within a salient. The 7th Armored Division's supply units many miles west of St. Vith were fighting as infantry on a front line that ran east-west instead of north-south. Only a narrow strip connected the fortified goose egg to the rest of the American lines. The 82nd Airborne Division was sent in to protect the eastern part of this strip, from Salm-Chateau/Vielsalm to Trois Ponts. And they did. But there were no committed reinforcements to hold the southwestern end of the strip, where there was a strategically critical crossroads at the place known as Baraque de Fraiture.

South of the crossroad, the Germans swept past to the west. To the east, the road ran to Salm-chateau and Vielsalm on the Salm River -- the only way in and out of the fortified goose egg. (Click here to see the web page of the big picture of the defense of this south road.) To the north, the road from Baraque de Fraiture ran through Manhay to the important city of Liège. The critical nature of the crossroad was obvious to all, and by December 19, it's defenders were told that they must hold at all cost. They held against increasingly strong German attacks until December 23, when they were overrun by vastly more numerous forces.