FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF KAMPFGRUPPE PEIPER

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF KAMPGRUPPE PEIPER


Battle historians have pinpointed the route followed by Kampfgruppe Peiper’s offensive in the Battle of the Bulge so we were able to follow it quite easily.


Jochem Peiper





Peiper’s group were members of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, a crack group of Waffen SS soldiers who had sworn allegiance to Hitler. They had fought together on the Russian front and had gained the notorious title of “the blowtorch brigade” as they ruthlessly eliminated enemy forces without mercy.

They were chosen to lead the centre “rollbahn” under overall command of General Sepp Dietrich who was one of Hitler’s most trusted officers. Their objective was to penetrate the Ardennes through to the River Meuse and there to await further instructions for the attack on Antwerp.

The battle group was made up of 6,000 well equipped troops and 1,800 vehicles but they were short of fuel – their success very much depended on their capturing American fuel depots.

The group entered the Ardennes at Losheim in Germany and from there proceeded first to Lanzerath and then to Modderscheid where he set up a temporary assembly point at the Cafe Scholzen, which is now the Calypso Night Club

 

 

After passing through Bucholz where they managed to overun an American fuel depot the group entered Hornsfeld in Belgium. At the building now known as the Eifelerhof Guesthouse they kept a number of American prisoners of war in detention until sending them back to Lanzerath

 

 

In Honsfeld they also murdered a number of American prisoners of war and in a particular incident they refused to let American POWs remove the bodies of three of their dead comrades from the road near a water trough – the bodies were flattened when the remaining vehicles, including tanks, rode over them.

 

 

Advancing further they passed through the towns of Bullingen, Odenval and Thirimont until they reached the crossroads to Malmedy at Baugnez where the terrible massacre described in the previous posting occurred.

The Gruppe reached the village of Ligneuville where Brigadier Edward Timberlake's anti-aircraft brigade had set up its headquarters at the Hotel du Moulin. Timberlake and his staff managed to evacuate the building in the nick of time thereby avoiding capture.

 

The convoy proceeded to Stavelot negotiating winding and steep roads which were completely unsuitable for tank warfare. Here they began to meet with strong opposition. American combat engineers blew up the bridge crossing the Ambleve River after part of the convoy had passed through.

The group then proceeded to Trois Points and again bridges were blown and American armour and artillery reinforcements opposed them. The weather also started clearing and Peiper’s group was attacked by fighter bombers.

Most of the group reached La Gleize and then tried to secure the bridge at Stoumont but again the American engineers blew them up. Just after Targon they attempted to go to Werbimont along a steep and narrow road. The Americans by this time were closing the pocket and attacked the group with artillery and aircraft – Peiper was forced to return to La Gleize and for several days attempted to hold off the American forces.

However, his fuel and ammunition were running out and the Americans had cut off his supply lines from the east. Peiper realized that the battle was lost. Leaving a small rearguard to deceive the American that they were still holding their position and to destroy their remaining tanks, Peiper led 800 of his men by foot through a narrow lane onto a footbridge crossing the Ambleve. After a 2 day trek through snow and forests, with little food, all 800 men reached their own lines 40 hours later – a credit to the leadership of Peiper.

The entry point to the footbridge where the group escaped on foot

 

At La Gleize there is an excellent museum with diaramas of battle scenes as well as displays of German and American weapons, uniforms and equipment. A movie is also shown of Peiper’s offensive.

Note the totdenkopf (Death's Head) insignia on the uniform of the Waffen SS trooper below

 

 

Outside the museum there stands a perfectly restored King Tiger with its 88mm canon – this tank experienced mechanical failure at La Gleize and was left there. This machine is awesome – all 69 tons of it! It outclassed all the allied tanks with its 6” armour and its effective firing range of 2 kilometers against that of 700 meters of its opponents – it was a real mother!

If you want to know more about Peiper you can click him at the following address:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Peiper