which took place to the west of St. Lõ. The division and the 741st advanced together as far as Tinchebray before new orders temporarily sent them on divergent paths. The 2nd Infantry Division was withdrawn from the line in order to reduce the fortress at Brest while the 741st Tank Battalion reverted to 3rd Armored Group control, under whose direction the battalion raced across western France to the outskirts of Paris at Sceaux. On 27 August, it was attached to the 28th Infantry Division in order to participate with the division in the Liberation Day Parade through Paris on 29 August, a tumultuous procession around the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs-Élysées just four days after the Germans had formally surrendered the city. After a brief two-day respite, the battalion was on the march again; this time through Compiègne, the Aisne valley and Belgian Luxembourg and into the Duchy of Luxembourg, reaching the West Wall in Germany by 9 September in the vicinity of Sevenig and Roscheid. On 2 October, the 741st Tank Battalion was relieved from attachment to the 28th Infantry Division and again attached to the 2nd Infantry Division, with which it remained until the end of the war. Battle of the Bulge In support of the 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions, the 741st, along with a company of the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was instrumental in helping hold the northern shoulder of the Bulge in vicious fighting in and around Rocherath-Krinkelt during the German Ardennes Offensive (Battle of the Bulge) in December 1944. By now battle-seasoned veterans, tankers from the battalion resisted repeated numerous hard-pressed attacks by spearheading elements of the SS-heavy Sixth Panzer Army from 16 to 19 December. Facing superior German Panther and Tiger tanks (among others) supported by infantry, the battalion fought many small unit engagements, deftly stalking the German tanks in twos and threes until they could destroy or immobilize them with shots from the flanks or rear. On 19 December, elements of the battalion were the rear guard of an orderly withdrawal from Rocherath-Krinkelt to positions behind Wirtzfeld to the west and northwest. The resistance put up by the 2nd Infantry Division, along with the attached tanks and tank destroyers, thwarted the northern penetration of the German offensive, delaying their advance by three days, and caused them to side step to a less suitable road network, allowing allied reinforcements to prepare