The German 2nd Panzer Division drives for Clervaux
This was a main objective of von Manteuffel’s tank drive on Bastogne because of its strategic location on the main highway leading to Bastogne. So Colonel von Lauchert, commander of 2nd Panzer, was concerned about the division’s slow rate of advance. Clervaux should have fallen before noon on the 16th according to the original German timetable. Instead, it was still holding on the morning of the 17th, with no indications as to how soon German forces would be able to secure it.
Clervaux fell on December 18, 1944. The 2nd Panzer Divisions timetable was so badly disrupted at Clervaux that there was no longer a question of who would win the race to Bastogne. That the race to secure Bastogne as quickly as possible was ultimately lost by the Germans was primary the result of the desperate holding action by the US 110th Infantry and its supporting units in front of and at the Clerf River crossings
