A BATTERY OF 155-MM. HOWITZERS M1 being emplaced (top). Members of an airborne division moving up through the forest (bottom). On 18 December German patrols passed through a gap between Malmédy and Saint-Vith and continued as far west as Werbomont. Other enemy troops tried to push north through Stavelot but were stopped by a blown bridge over the Ambleve River and by an improvised task force consisting of U. S. infantrymen, engineers, and tank destroyers. Engineer demolitions and effective use for the first time of the new proximity fuze by artillery strengthened the north shoulder of the growing salient. During the first week of the Battle of the Bulge most planes were grounded because of extremely poor flying weather.] [Illustration] [Illustration: BELGIUM BATTLE-WEARY TROOPS being relieved of front-line duty as reinforcements arrive to take over (top). Infantrymen batter down the door of a house where German snipers are holding out in the town of Stavelot (bottom). On 19 December the north and south flanks continued to hold, and road centers of Saint-Vith and Bastogne were still occupied by U. S. troops though almost surrounded by the enemy. The enemy captured Stoumont but the U. S. forces strengthened the line between Malmédy and Stavelot and with additional reinforcements began to attack the enemy east of Stoumont. To the south the enemy took up blocking positions south of the Sauer River with some troops as far west as the Arlon-Bastogne highway.] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY CREW OF A MULTIPLE GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M16 waiting to fire on an enemy plane as vapor trails fill the sky. On 20 December control of the First and Ninth U. S. Armies passed to the 21 Army Group, while the Third U. S. Army and a corps of the First Army remained under 12th Army Group control. On 23 December the weather cleared sufficiently for planes of the Eighth and Ninth U. S. Air Forces and the British Bomber Command to begin a large-scale aerial assault on German positions and installations. The German planes which were sent up in greater strength than at any other time since the invasion were no match for the Allies. On Christmas Day the First U. S. Army launched an attack and made contact with the British forces in the northern section of the front. For the first time since 16 December a continuous Allied front was established.] [Illustration: BELGIUM