strength of 10,000 men, 28 Panther tanks and 14 Panzer IV tanks. Along with elements of the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division, 9th Panzer fought a bitter six-day battle with the U.S. 2nd Armored Division in the Puffendorf-Immendorf sector, knocking out 76 tanks and inflicting 1,300 casualties while suffering 1,100 men and 86 tanks lost. Following this, the division was sent into the OKW reserve. It continued fighting to slow the progress of the U.S. First Army pushing from the west, destroying its 2,325th enemy tank near Geilenkirchen. In December 1944, 9th Panzer was assigned to XLVII Panzer Corps again as part of the 5th Panzer Army, Army Group B and was one of the units participating in the Battle of the Bulge. At this time sPzAbt 301 (equipped with Tiger I tanks) was attached to the division. The Corps was part of the central attack, pushing back the U.S. Ninth Army. The division initially advanced quickly, but once the tide of the campaign turned in the Allies' favor, the division took extreme losses once again as Adolf Hitler refused to allow the German forces in the campaign to retreat in a timely manner. It was eventually pulled back to the German lines. In early 1945, the division engaged the Allied in fighting around the Eifel mountain range. It also participated in fighting around the Erft River in February, where its armored force was reduced to 29 tanks and 16 assault guns. Late in the month, it launched an attack on the Allied Remagen Bridgehead over the Rhine River, which failed to reach the Remagen Bridge. By the end of this fight, the division consisted of only 600 men and 15 tanks. Destruction The 9th Panzer Division's final combat assignment came in a battle near Cologne on 6 March, as a part of the battered LXXXI Corps, alongside the 363rd Volksgrenadier Division and the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division which were in equally poor shape, and the entire corps was barely the strength of one division. Facing them was the US 3rd Armored Division. The division attempted to defend the town from attack, but was unable to make progress against American forces. After its unsuccessful attack, the shattered 9th Panzer Division was counterattacked by strong Allied forces. The division engaged the Americans in the city center of Cologne, but were quickly pushed back, and the divisional commander was killed. Remnants of the division