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It was called the ghost front, from Monschau to Echternach, a cold twisting eighty-five mile sector in the Ardennes for resting battered divisions and instructing new ones. At 5:30 am on December 16, 1944 this all changed; Hitler launched “Waeht am Rhein ” (Watch on the Rhine), his last desperate gamble to turn the tide in the west. Like a rolling thunderclap, the artillery barrage broke over the unsuspecting American lines. Then the Germans hurled 23 divisions against the sparsely held sector. Chaos reigned as the commanders tried to make sense of what was happening, for the soldiers in the foxholes, information was nonexistent. The front line American soldier; surprised, stunned, unbelieving and not understanding what was hitting him stood his ground. Companies, Platoons, squads and in some cases individual soldiers all up and down the front fought the Germans to a standstill. One of these small units that stood until overwhelmed was Company ‘B’, 612th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The 612th had been pulled out of the line on December 11th to a rear assembly area a