U.S. engineer plants mine to impede Nazi counter trust. An engineer of the First U.S.

U.S. engineer plants mine to impede Nazi counter trust. An engineer of the First U.S. Army plants a mine in a hole along a Belgium road to impede the German counter-thrust into Belgium December 16, 1944. Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, announced December 23 that a German armorce column had reached the area of Marche and had cut the Marche-Hotton road. Hotton is 26 miles due south of Liege on the River Ourthe, and Marche, six miles south-west of Rotten, is 38 miles west of the German-Luxembourg border. More then 4,000 Allied bombers and fighters blasted the Germans in and behind the battle area. Major aerial battles resulted in 178 Nazi planes being shot down, with 22 more probably shot down, 29 damaged, and nine more destroyed on the ground. The same day American ground forces cut into the lower flank of the German penetration due north of Luxembourg at Morsch.