Whether the Americans could be relied upon was hard to say, but Pierre never liked leaving his fate in the hands of others. Almost as soon as he received the order to defend Bastogne, he immediately ordered Sun Delin to lead two search battalions from Metz to reinforce the position.
"Abandon all heavy weapons, just bring the men…"
The order couldn't have been simpler: reach Bastogne as quickly as possible, before the Germans could complete their encirclement.
As for weapons and ammunition, Bastogne was not lacking. After all, the Germans had abandoned so many weapons in the Ardennes that it was more than enough to arm not just one division, but five or six. Most of these weapons had already been transported to Bastogne by the search teams.
The only problem was manpower.
