In The Tracks Of Joachim Peiper

The German offensive that became The Battle Of The Bulge jumped off on an 80-mile front on December 16, 1944, in the Ardennes Forest on the German-Belgian border.  Hitler's idea was to seize the port of Antwerp and split the Allied armies in half (British to the north, Americans to the south).  The Wehrmacht generals considered this a fantasy, but they were hopeful they could reach the Meuse River on a line that ran from Huy to Liege.  This might create enough mischief to delay or derail the Allied spring offensive.

The sharp part of the German spear was Task Force (Joachim) Peiper, on the north end of the line.  He had the heaviest concentration of armor and truck-mounted infantry, built around his own SS Division. Peiper was to bypass fighting and make for the Meuse as fast as he could.  Units to his south would try to encircle Allied units while also pushing on to support his left.  Appallingly cold, overcast, wet weather hampered both sides.  Allied tactical air could not fly for the first few days.  Narrow and muddy secondary roads and farm lanes slowed the Germans, especially Peiper's tanks.

Battle of the Bulge: this map shows the deepest penetration of German units, although the bulk of them did not get much past Bastogne on the south and Trois Ponts (Peiper's Task Force) on the north.

Joachim Peiper was a committed Nazi with a superb combat record on the Eastern Front, where "civilized warfare" was not practiced--least of all by S.S. Divisions like the one he commanded and brought west to form the nucleus of his task force.

Ridge at the hamlet of Lanzerath.  A small U.S. Army unit held this ridge for 12 hours against German units who were to punch a hole for Peiper's armored column.  He had to run the GI's off the ridge himself, and was already behind schedule before he got going.  Even having read a biography of Peiper before following his route, with detailed maps, I got lost several times.  Some of the roads he took were farm lanes.  Crazy routing for armored columns, but the topography of the Ardennes dictated much of it.    

Crossroads of Bullingen.  Peiper had to turn west here (in the direction the picture was taken) to avoid heavy fighting in the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt just to the north.  The Allies contested these villages for two days before reforming a defensive line on Elsenborn Ridge.  This gave Peiper a narrower road network and less maneuvering room on his right flank than the plan called for.  Also, these roads were not ideal for his heavy King Tiger tanks.  He refueled in Bullingen from a captured Allied dump.  The Germans could not get their meager supplies of fuel forward fast enough, so the plan called for refueling from captured supplies.  But, even though Peiper "leapfrogged" his units, refueling downtime and inadequate supply further slowed his advance.

The main drag in the village of Stavelot.  Peiper's troops had already committed the Malmedy Massacre of over 100 GI's who surrendered, a few miles south of Malmedy, by the time they reached here.  For good measure, they massacred about 50 Belgian civilians in Stavelot.  Peiper was now fully two days behind schedule.  No satisfactory explanation for the Malmedy Massacre was ever made.  One theory is that it was "more efficient" to shoot the prisoners than to further slow the advance by getting them to the rear over farm lanes needed for Peiper's tanks and trucks.  Yes,  that Stavelot and that Malmedy--from the corners of the same names on the "Old" Spa-Francorchamps road racing course.

Trois Ponts: the beginning of the end for Peiper.  Stavelot is about 3 miles to the right (east), via the road under the railroad overpass.  Peiper's preferred route was to turn left (toward the photographer) and cross the Ambleve and Salm Rivers, which are just out of frame, on a main highway with good bridges.  Allied engineers had blown them.  So he had to turn right (north, and then west), on a smaller road, still looking for a place to cross, to get back to his best line of advance.

For good measure, Peiper's troops gratuitously executed a few more Belgian civilians in Trois Ponts.

Village of La Gleize: end of the line for Peiper.  This is a few miles west of Trois Ponts.  His tanks were almost out of fuel.  A pick-up American armored force blocked his way west, at the village of Stoumont, where there was a significant fire-fight.  American infantry had re-occupied Stavelot behind him.  Peiper's men blew up their remaining tanks and trucks and tried to infiltrate back to German lines.  A surprising number of them made it, including Peiper.  After the war he was tried for the Malmeday Massacre and spent some time in prison, but it was not proved that he ordered or knew about it.

This is one of the few surviving King Tigers in the world.  It is La Gleize's War Memorial, and it has a funny back-story.  The wife of the inn-keeper in La Gleize thought the town needed a memorial.  She saw an American armor recovery team working on this King Tiger.  "I'd like that for La Gleize," she said.  "No way," they replied.  "Give you a bottle of cognac for it."  "It's yours, lady."

The other part of the War Memorial in La Gleize.  'Nuff said.