Holding the Line: The 51st Engineer Combat Battalion and the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944-January 1945 - Paperbackby Ken Hechler (Author) On 16 December 1944, when the 51st Engineer Combat Battalion faced the Germans' last gasp effort to win the war, it had been operating 30 sawmills in support of the First United States Army. Within days the battalion was spread over the Belgian countryside, defending roads, bridges, and towns from the Nazi attempt to break through to the Meuse River and to split the British and American forces. The men set up roadblocks, using