The M18 Hellcat was a key element during the Battle of the Bulge. On December 19–20, Team Desobry, a battalion-sized tank-infantry task force of the 10th Armored Division was assigned to defend Noville located north-northeast of both Foy and of Bastogne, just away. With just four M18 tank destroyers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion to assist, the paratroopers of 1st Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked units of the 2nd Panzer Division, whose mission was to proceed by secondary roads via Monaville (just northwest of Bastogne) to seize a key highway and capture, among other objectives, fuel dumps—for the lack of which the overall German counter-offensive faltered and failed. Worried about the threat to their left flank in Bastogne, the Americans organized a major joint arms attack to seize Noville. Team Desobry's high-speed highway journey to reach the blocking position is one of the few documented cases in which the top speed of the M18 Hellcat, , was actually used to get ahead of an enemy force.
