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Von Rom -> RE: Why was Patton so great? (7/19/2004 2:43:28 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kevinugly
When they arrived in Belgium, this coincided with the occupation of the Allies, and they had to bash through their lines again. Large groups broke through at Jodoigne, Tirlemont, Hasselt and Diest, into the area Bree-Neerpelt-Lommel Mol. On 4 September 1944 they recieved orders to withdraw to Germany, area of Bitburg.
SS-Obersturmführer Rink reports the following:
"And we, who had come depleted and exhausted from the inferno of Caen, through the breakout from the pocket of Falaise, through the nerve wracking retreat across France and partizan plagued Belgium, we had gathered our strenght and rebuilt our confidence."
Leibstandarte's daughter unit, the Hitlerjugend suffered even more from the retreat through Belgium. Kurt Meyer, that gallant SS officer, was captured by a Belgian farmer and his son who carried an old hunting rifle, and Hans Waldmüller (I./SS-Pz.Reg. 25, later Kampfgruppe Waldmüller, Ritterkreuz 27 August) was tricked into an ambush, killed and horribly mutilated by Belgian partizans on 8 september. He finds rest at the Heroes' cemetary in Düren.
With the Allies halted north by II. SS-Panzerkorps and south by a determined defence from 11. Panzerdivision and several Volksgrenadier divisions, Hitler felt that is was time for a large offensive again. This was not without ground. The Allies would pick up momentum again as soon as their supply lines were brought up, and if he could wound them bad enough before that, he would have enough time and resources to deal with the Russians.
Before the Leibstandarte would participate in the last great offense, they were raced to help the bombed population of Düren (see Waldmüller). The city had just suffered from an extensive American bombing raid, there were dead women and children everywhere. Jochen Peiper reported:
"We had to scrape them off the walls, it was that bad! I could have castrated the swine who did that to those people with a blunt piece of glass!"
By now the Leibstandarte wasn't it former self anymore, many recruits with hardly any training were to fill the gaps and munition and fuel were scarce. But the core of the Leibstandarte was made up of elite veterans who quickly passed on their knowledge to the younger ones. LAH was divided into 4 Kampfgruppen for the December 16 attack:
- SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper (SS-Obersturmbannführer Jochen Peiper)
- I./SS-Panzerregiment 1 (gemischt; 72 Panthers and IVH's, Werner Poetschke, attached was 9.(Pi.)/SS-Pz.Reg. 1 and 10.Kp.SS-Panzerflak, 3 Wirbelwind)
- s.SS-Panzerabteilung 501 ( 45 Königstiger, SS-Sturmbannführer Hein von Westernhagen)
- III./SS-Panzergrenadierregiment 2 (5 Kp., 5.Kp. - SP 150mm, SS-Sturmbannführer Jupp Diefenthal)
- II./SS-Panzerartillerieregiment 1 (geschleppt)
- Luftwaffe Flaksturmabteilung 84 (20mm, 37mm)
- SS-Kampfgruppe Sandig
- SS-Panzergrenadierregiment 2
- SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen
- SS-Panzergrenadierregiment 1
- SS-Panzerjägerabteilung (21 Jagdpanzer IV, 11 75mm PaK)
- Artillerieabteilung (105mm, geschleppt)
- 24 Nebelwerfers
- SS-Kampfgruppe Knittel
- SS-Aufklärungsabteilung 1
- 1 Batterie 105mm (geschleppt)
- 1 Kompanie SS-Panzerpioniere
Kampfgruppe Peiper (4800 men, 600 vehicles including some 150 SPW's) was given Rollbahn (highway) D, with Kamfgruppe Sandig following closely. Rollbahn E was followed by Kampfgruppe Hanssen, with Kampfgruppe Knittel behind him. Knittel wasn't bound to a Rollbahn, he had freedom of movement.
SS-Panzerregiment 1 is placed on alert by the end of nov. 44, regio of Stadtkyll, 13 km E of the Belgian border. Vehicles are carefully camouflaged.
14 december: Jochen Peiper, Rudi Sandig, Max Hansen, Gustave Knittel and Otto Skorzeny attend a meeting at Mohnke’s HK at Tondorf.
15 december : During the night, assault forces are placed into position.
16 december: 05:15 : order n°10697/44 (signed by v. Rundstedt) gives the order to attack, orders are given through the radio.
05:35 : assault commences, some 620 artillery pieces, 32.Gr.Werf. open up on the American lines.
08:00 : SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper is still waiting behind 12. Volksgrenadier, which should have achieved a breakthrought at Losheim and Losheimgraben by 07:00 : Peiper’s tanks are cought in traffic on the Blankenheim-Schnied road.
14:00 : Peiper is at HK of 12. Volksgrenadierdivision (General Engel)
16:30 : Peiper gives order to move out. At Scheid, the Pioniere of 12. VG proved themselves unable to repair the bridge, Peiper’s entire column dashes across an slope next to it, ignore the destroyed bridge.
Composition of Peiper’s Spitze:
SS-Obersturmbannführer Werner Sternebeck (commander), Panther
- SS-Untersturmführer Hans-Jürgen Bahrendt (1.Pz.Kp.), Panther
- SS-Untersturmführer Herbert Junker, SS-Oberscharführer August Wien (5.Pz.Kp), Mk.IVH
- SS-Unterstumführer Karl-Heinz Asmussen, SS-Hauptscharführer August Tonk (6.Pz.Kp.), Mk.IVH
- SS-Scharführer Horst Rempel (8.Pz.Kp.), Mk.IVH
- 2 Schützenpanzerwagen from 9.Pi.Kp./SS-Pz.Reg. 1, SS-Oberscharführer Dörr en SS-Rottenführer Wemmel
- In other terms; 2 Pz.V, 5 Pz.IVH and 2 SPW.
Behind them came Oskar Klingelhöfer’s 6.Pz.Kp., in Mk. IVH.
21:30 : Losheim reached. Korps orders a detour, Peiper is to move to the west of Lanzerath. Fallschirmjägerregiment 9, 3. Fallschirmjägerdivision, reports heavy resistance from the woods near Büllingen. Forward two Pz. IVH drive on German mines when entering Hüllscheid. SS-Obersturmführer Erich Rumpf’s Pioniere clear minefield, but Sternebeck’s Panzer jumps on another mine SE of Merscheidt, he switches to Asmussen’s Panzer. After finding his Kommando-Panther 001 having engine trouble, Jochen Peiper switches to the command SPW of Jupp Diefenthal, commanding Peiper’s old III.Bat.
22:00 : Königstiger of s.SS-Pz.Abt. 501 catch up with the column.
24:00 : SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper reaches Lanzerath, losses amounted to 3 Panzer and 2 SPW. Peiper meets with Oberst Hoffmann (Fallschirmjägerreg. 9) at his HK at Café Palm. In a bad mood, he demands to know why he halted. He said he heard that Battalion reported a strong opposition. Peiper knows it is just gossip, mad at Hoffman, demands a Fallschirmjägerabteilung to be placed under his command. Attack is delayed, Fallschirmjäger do not wish to attack, the Waffen-SS Panzer suffer loss of time, again.
Peiper re-arranges his Spitze: 2 Panther take the lead, followed by a Zug from 10.Kp./SS-Pz.Gren.Reg 2 (SS-Hauptsturmführer Georg Preuss), followed by 2 Flak-Vierlinge (SS-Obersturmführer Vögler).
17 december: 04:00 : assault on the Büllingen woods, II./FJÄ.Reg. 9 (Major Taubert) takes the lead. The Panzer commanders communicate by radio, the Fallschirmjäger lead with white hankerchiefs. No opposition encountered near the woods, Jochen mad about the loss of time. Americans fleeing at the other side of the woods, at Buchholz railway station. The Vierlinge follow the tracks of the Panzer in the snow, are taken under fire by American MG and AT, but suffer no damage, open fire and silence the enemy fire.
04:30 : Peiper’s Spitze rushes Honsfeld, GI’s are taken by surprise, AT guns and halftracks are unmanned, surprise is complete. Around this time, SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen starts entering the offensive.
05:40 : Bulk of the SS-Kampfgruppe rumbles through Honsfeld. The leading 2 Wirbelwinds are taken out by American AT guns. The third Vierlinge opens up and silences the cannons. When they reach the middle of the town, they are taken under fire again from the windows of the surrounding houses. The fire is answered, and soon the Americans surrender. Many dead and wounded on both sides. The Kp.Fhr. for the FlaK units, SS-Obersturmführer Vögler, who was in the first vehicle, was slightly wounded. Panther 232 and 235 are also taken out by AT gunfire when riding through Honsfeld. A Königstiger who rumbled along, carrying Fallschirmjäger, took four hits but destroyed the two firing AT guns without taking any damage itself whatsoever. The Fallschirmjäger pass on captured food, drinks and cigarettes to the passing Königstiger crews.
The bulk of Fallschirmjägerregiment 9 remains at Honsfeld, one Kompanie joins the SS-Kampgruppe. When he drives out of Honsfeld, Jochen realizes he has little fuel left, and the roads to the west of Honsfeld aren’t in a suitable condition. He did not hear any sound around him, so he took the guess that 12. SS-Panzerdivision wasn’t following. Therefore he took Rollbahn C, given to 12. SS, and drove as fast to Büllingen as fast as he could, hoping to capture the fuel depot there.
06:00 : Peiper moves out of Honsfeld, on to Büllingen. 2 km S of the city, 12 spotter planes were destroyed on the ground, a 13th got away.
08:05 : SS-Kampfgrupe Peiper drives into Büllingen, loss of one Pz. IVH outside the city, crew shot down while attempting to leave the vehicle. Sternebeck and Georg Preuss break trough the defence, despite heavy AA and MG fire. After house-to-house fighting, the Americans stop the fight and surrender. They find the Fuel depot on the market, and some US POW’s are made to refuel the Panzer. Preuss is put forward by Peiper for the Ritterkreuz, altough he didn’t like him.
10:00 : The Panzerspizte, rested and refueled, roars out of Büllingen and continues SW towards Möderscheid and Amel, not N towards Elsenborn as the Americans anticipate. Sternebeck did not notice he took the wrong turn, and went N of Büllingen towards Wirtzfeld. When, 1 km outside Büllingen, a Pz. IVH was hit in the tower, killing the commander, he realised he had taken the wrong turn. He detoured, and drove direction Bütgenbach. He ran into American doctors, who offered him the surrender of Fieldhospital 47, but Sternebeck wasn’t interested and drove on. He, his own Pz. IVH together with SS-Hauptscharführer August Tonk’s Pz. IVH and the 2 SPW from 9.Pz.Pio.Kp. linked up with Peiper again at the crossroads NO of Amel, near point 616.
Following Möderscheid, the Spitze continued towards Schoppen. Because of the bad condition of the roads, they advance very slowly. After the capture of a US Lt.Colonel just outside Thirimont, Jochen learns that General Timberlake had set up the HQ of the 49th AA-Art. at Ligneuville, and orders his Panzerspitze to push on hard. This radio-message is recieved by Sternebeck, who is located at the Baugnez crossroads.
11:00 : The Kampfgruppe drives through Thirimont. 10.Kp./SS-Pz.Gren.Reg. 2, with Peiper right behind them, drives on to Ligneuville through very difficult terrain, several detours have to be be taken.
13:00 : Panzerspitze (Sternebeck) reaches Ligneuville. They find no American units in the centre of the town, so they halt in front of the bridge over the Ambléve. Peiper ordered to seize the brigde intact. The Pioniere crawl forwards and check the bridge for explosives. A machinegun opens up, several men get wounded. The enemy machineguns are silenced. The Americans left in such a hurry, that the SS men found their meals at the Hotel Moulin still on table, the cigarettes still smoking and the glasses half-empty. Within ten minutes, the bulk of Peiper’s forces will arive. The Spitze witnesses how a battalion of US Sherman tanks (Captain Green), from 9th Armoured Division, prepares itself for combat outside the town.
13:10 : SS-Kampfgruppe arrives at Lignueville, fierce combat breaks out between the German and American tanks. The Shermans are all knocked out, and Green was captured. Preuß’ 10.Kp. entered combat with US Armoured battalion 14. Arndt Fisher remembers how
“My Panther arrived at Ligneuville ten minutes after the Panzerspitze, and was knocked out there from behind, it was an ambush. Peiper gave us cover fire when we left our tank from his SPW, we were taken under fire by small arms. I was terribly burned, we had spilled oil on our uniforms at Büllingen. Peiper, who give me first aid, was so irritated that he put on the bandage backwards.”
A Schützenpanzerwagen from 11.(gep.)Kp. was also taken out. Peiper wanted to destroy the Sherman A3 with a Panzerfaust, but a soldier from 11.Kp. beat him to it.
17:00 : SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper continues W, through Pont, Beaumont et Lodomez towards Stavelot and spends the night at Vaulx-Richard. Wilhelm Monhke, divisional commander of the Leibstandarte, set up his HK at Ligneuville (Hotel Moulin), and Peiper stays at Ligneuville to discuss the situation with him. SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Pötschke takes over command in the meantime.
3 Mk.IVH and 3 Mk.V had been knocked out sofar. 4 IVH and 8 V were having technical difficulties, along with several VIB.
Mrs. Willems de Spa comments:
“In december ’44, I lived in Ligneuville with my brother,in the bakery, right across the post officer.I saw Peiper several times. He himself was very friendly, something I can’t say of all his soldiers. He said that we should best stay in the cellar, because of the danger and the situation. He and some of his Unteroffiziere slept several hours during the night of 17/18 december, in a barn behind the bakery on field matrasses.”
18 december : 01:00 : Peiper and his group are located in the western partof Vaulx-Richard. SS-Obersturmfüher Kremser’s 1.Pz.Kp. is send to the front to prepare for the attack on Stavelot, at the front is Pantherzug 1 under SS-Untersturmführer Hans Hennecke. SS-Obersturmführer Christ’s 2.Pz.Kp. and Diefenthal’s III. are right behind them. This replaced the Sternebeck Panzerspizte, and 6. and 7.Pz.Kp, along with 3.(gep.)Pi.Kp. were held back. Pötsche had, with his communicationsofficer, scouted the area the night before the attack.
02:00 : 11.(gep.)Kp./III., SS-Obersturmführer Heinz Tomhardt attacks Stokeu, outskirts of Stavelot, with Zug 1 (SS-Untersturmführer Wille Horn) and 4 (SS-Oberscharführer Rudi Rayer) who engaged the Americans without the support of the SPW’s. They managed to seize the brigde, but were attacked by American tanks and taken under fire by machineguns. Tomhardt was wounded and Horn was killed, Rayer took over command. 9.(Pio.)Kp./SS-Pz.Reg.1 checked the brigde for explosives; it was clear. Immediatly afterwards came the Panther of 1.Pz.Kp. (the leading tank was that of SS-Oberscharführer Erich Strelow), who saw 2 American 57mm AT guns blocking his path, appearantly the SS-Panzergrenadiere has missed these. He drove on hard, rode over the first two guns and crossed the bridge where he drove over another AT gun. Hennecke’s 111 was taken out in front of the the bridge, but he switched to Kremser’s Panzer and took over command of 1.Pz.Kp.
Hennecke wasted no time and rode over the bridge, two Panther (SS-Untersturmführer
Heubeck and SS-Oberscharführer Thomas) of his Kp. following him. Outside Stavelot, the rest of SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper’s Panzer and Schützenpanzewagen were lined up, waiting on a steep road. The Americans attacked the left flank of the column, but this was repulsed by Diefenthal, who afterwards, at the head of his Batallion attacked Stavelot and kept the bridge open. He recieved the Ritterkreuz for this. Belgian Zivillisten (civilians, thus partisans) and American soldiers alike fired at Diefenthal’s III.Abt. at Stavelot. Peiper did not know that, N of Stavelot, there was a huge fuel depot at Francorchamps. The Panzer did not go further than they had to, and turned left at the market, heading W towards Trois Ponts following the N23.
12:00 : Right before the 2 important railway bridges in Trois Ponts, the Americans had laid down a minefield of some 20-25 mines. Strelow, in the forward Panther, climbed out of his tank, cleared all the mines while his gunner took out an AT gun and a MG nest. When the attack started, the left bridge (over the Amblève) exploded. Jochen Peiper and Pötschke came to watch the situation on foot. Peiper wanted to go south towards Werbomont, but because the two bridges over the Amel and the Salm rivers were already blown up, he took the road to the north, following the N33.
13:00 : The Panzerspitze (1.Pz.Kp.- Hennecke) reaches La Gleize, after having passed through Coo. There, it turned SW towards Cheneux to get back on the N23, Rollbahn D. Second bridge at Trois Ponts, over the Salm is also blown up.
13:30 : Panzerspitze passed the undamaged bridge over the Amel at Cheneux.
13:35 : With the weather clearing up for the first time since the offensive, 4 P47 (Thunderbolts) spot the column and attack.
14:40 : 16 P47’s attack the strung out SS column all the back to Lodomez, before Stavelot. Pötschke takes cover under a tank, Peiper takes cover in a ditch.
16:10 : Attacks end. A total of 3 Panzer, two Pz.V and one Pz.IVH and 5 Schützenpanzer were destroyed, some 40 men are wounded. A Wirbelwind shot down one P47, several other are damaged. The medical treatment and the towing of the damaged vehicles took hours.
16:30 : SS-Kampfgruppe Knittel drives to Stavelot, Knittel rides ahead and meets with Peiper at the Cheneux bridge. Along with Knittel’s command, 6 Mk.IVH, 2 Zuge Pioniere in SPW and 3 Königstiger drive through Stavelot. The fourth is damaged and blocks the bridge.
20:00 : The Spitze continued, and reached Chauveheid. Peiper gives Diefenthal the order to cross the bridge over the Lienne at Neufmoulin. When Diefenthal arrived, the bridge was blown up by a small group of men from the 291st US Engineer battalion. Peiper heard the explosion and arrived with his communications officer and some SPW’s. Peiper had to change routes again, and ordered 10. and 11.Kp. to scout for bridges across the Lienne that can carry his tanks. It had gotten dark by now.
11.Kp. (Heinz Tomhardt) finds a small bridge near Les Forges and passed it, driving further south to the destroyed bridge at Neufmoulin. They could not locate the N23 and drove to Trou de Bras but were ordered by radio to return.
10.Kp. (SS-Obersturmführer Preuß) found a bridge 4 km NE of Neufmoulin at Moulin Rahier but it could not support any tanks. He drove on towards Chervon and Habiemont but was halted by 4 M10’s and 3 57mm AT guns from 823st US TD battalion. He lost three SPW’s and 15 SS-Panzergrenadiere. He was recalled by Peiper over the radio.
Jochen got his Kampfgruppe together again, and drove back to La Gleize since he did not have the needed bridge equipment to construct bridges during the night. He would try an attack towards the West next day direction Stoumont. LW-FlaK.Abt. 84 stays at Cheneux to observe the other side of the Lienne river.
23:00 : SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper rests between La Gleize and Stoumont. Only 5 Pz.IVH of 6.Pz.Kp. manage to reach Peiper’s group at around midnight, the rest doesn’t have enough fuel.
24:00 : SS-Kampfgruppe Knittel links up with Peiper, he has been ordered N by Mohnke because Hansen’s Kampfgruppe did not advance far enough to aide Peiper. A small supply group manages to provide Peiper with enough fuel for his attack towards Stoumont. At this point, 22 Mk.IVH, 9. Mk.IVH and 27 Mk.VIB did even attain Stavelot because of fuel shortages or mechanical breakdown.
19 december : 08:00 : Peiper attacks Stoumont with 7 Panther from 2.Pz.kp. (Christ), several Mk.IVH, Diefenthal’s Battalion, Rumpf’s 9.Pi.Kp. and the remaining Fallshirmjäger.
10:00 : Stoumont captured by the SS, but Peiper’s group has no more fuel left to continue. The MK.IVH along with Rumpf’s SS Pioniere were sent back to La Gleize. Diefenthal was ordered to defend Stoumont with his unit. Peiper now only possed of 7 Panther, 2 Wirbelwind, 11.Kp (SPW) and one Zug from Sievers 3. Pioniere.
Peiper pressed on with these units.
12:00 : The first attack on Stoumont failed, they came under tremendous artillery fire, and Peiper pulled back to just before La Gleize.
Pötschke ordered a second assault sometime later, but the artillery was still raining down. He ordered Christ (2.Pz.Kp.) to advance, but he simply shook his head. Pötschke grabbed a Panzerfaust and pointed it to Christ and told him again to advance. He refused again. Pötschke positioned himself in front of the first Panther, aimed the Panzerfaust at the vehicle and ordered forwards, into the hail of artillery. The engine started, and the Panther moved towards the village, with shells raining down left and right. It entered the village, even made it to the church, but 200 m from the station a blast from the 90 mm AA stopped it. The 11.Kp. attacked from the south, on foot, while the other Panther attacked from the road. Some Americans surrendered, others retreated and the village was taken, at the cost of one damaged Panther. The Americans had disabled the 90mm gun before they fled. Peiper chased the fleeing Americans immediatly with 5 Panther.
13:00 : Stavelot was recaptured during the night by the Americans, they had found almost no opposition. Stavelot was vital to the offensive, as it was in the route of the supply line. Americans were on the northren side, Germans on the southren egde. A counterattack was launched. The first Königstiger who approached the southren side of the village was immobilised. I.Bat. from SS-Kampfgruppe Sandig’s Panzergrenadiere rushed for the bridge to reclaim it, but are stopped by intense machinegun and mortar fire, and suffer heavy losses. Knittel, who has been send back by Peiper so secure his supply line through Stavelot, attacks from the west supported by 2 Königstiger. But the area was mined, so the 2 Tiger could not participate, and Knittel only managed to reach the western outskirts of the city. Sandig leaves I.Bat. where it is, and sends II.Bat. (SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Schnelle) towards Wanne. When they arrive, Mohnke orders them to join Peiper.
15:00 : Peiper runs into a numerically superior enemy, 3rd battalion from 119th US inf.reg., with 12 Shermans and 4 M10 TD’s. They were holding an exellent defensive position, namely there were the Amblève river, the N33 and the railroad run next to the each other, a valley of only 300 m wide. The Shermans opened up and 2 Panther were damaged, a third immobilised (caught fire) by an AT gun. Peiper withdrew to Stoumont. At this point, he had penetrated 100 km in the American lines, but he had no fuel left. He left Hennecke’s 1.Pz.Kp. to guard the station at Stoumont with III.Abt., Christ’s 2.Pz.Kp. to guard La Gleize from the NE.
Peiper set up his HK at La Gleize, at the gardener’s house of the Froid Cour castle. The castle served as POW camp for the Americans.
19:30 : The Americans, under pressure by the Waffen-SS who are eager to retake the bridge, blow up the bridge over the Ambléve at Stavelot during a pause in the fighting. This ment that SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper was now trapped.
23 december: Bulk of SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen arrives at Petit Spai, but a Pz.Jgr. IV destroys the bridge accidentally by driving over it. That bridge was now blocked as well.
from http://www.geocities.com/wolfram55/ardennes.html
See my post above.
Also, is this the best you could do?
OK, so you copied all this info from a website that was put together by some private individual.
He probably has some facts correct.
But he cites NO sources for this info. Where did he get it all from?
It stops at Dec 23. It says NOTHING about the history of 1SS Panzer AFTER Dec. 23.
The Official History said the 1SS Panzer was ordered south on Dec 26. Once it was refueled, got some tanks repaired, etc, it started to move south on Dec 29. Estimates are that it had about 50 tanks: an assortment of PzIVs, Panthers, Tigers. . .
Do you really want to place this website against the Official History (which took years to write and which was last updated in 2000)?
Further: this was included from that website you copied:
quote:
Before the Leibstandarte would participate in the last great offense, they were raced to help the bombed population of Düren (see Waldmüller). The city had just suffered from an extensive American bombing raid, there were dead women and children everywhere. Jochen Peiper reported:
"We had to scrape them off the walls, it was that bad! I could have castrated the swine who did that to those people with a blunt piece of glass!"
In Reply:
I'll bet the innocent people of Warsaw, Rotterdam, Belgrade, London, Coventry, leningrad, etc who were bombed by German planes, would probably feel the same way too, no? [;)]
And these from the Official History of the Ardennes Battle:
Malmedy Massacre:
quote:
It was between noon and one o'clock of 17 December, on the road between Modersheid and Ligneuville, that the German advance guard ran into an American truck convoy moving south from Malmedy. This was ill-fated Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. The convoy was shot up and the advance guard rolled on, leaving the troops to the rear to deal with the Americans who had taken to the woods and ditches. About two hours after, or so the dazed survivors later recalled, the Americans who had been rounded up were marched into a field where, at a signal, they were shot down by machine gun and pistol fire. A few escaped by feigning death, but the wounded who moved or screamed were sought out and shot through the head. At least eighty-six Americans were massacred here. This was not the first killing of unarmed prisoners chargeable to Kampfgruppe Peiper on 17 December. Irrefutable evidence shows that nineteen unarmed Americans were shot down at Honsfeld and fifty at Bullingen.
AND THIS:
quote:
The commander of the Sixth SS Panzer Army took oath in the trials of 1946 that, acting on Hitler's orders, he issued a directive stating that the German troops should be preceded "by a wave of terror and fright and that no human inhibitions should be shown." There is conflicting testimony as to whether the orders finally reaching Peiper specifically enjoined the shooting of prisoners.
There is no question, however, that some of Peiper's subordinates accepted the killing of prisoners as a command and that on at least one occasion Peiper himself gave such an order. Why Peiper's command gained the bestial distinction of being the only unit to kill prisoners in the course of the Ardennes is a subject of surmise.
Peiper had been an adjutant to Heinrich Himmler and as a battalion commander in Russia is alleged to have burned two villages and killed all the inhabitants. The veteran SS troops he led in the Ardennes had long experience on the Eastern Front where brutality toward prisoners of war was a common-place. On the other hand Peiper's formation was well in the van of the German attack and was thus in position to carry out the orders for the "wave of terror" tactic-which might be excused, or so Peiper claimed, by the rapid movement of his kampfgruppe and its inability to retain prisoners under guard.
[4] Hitler's order to take no prisoners probably had wide circulation. Lt. Col. George Mabry, commander of the 2d Battalion, 8th Infantry, has stated that his unit captured a German colonel from the Seventh Army who had such an order. Ltr, Gen Barton to author, 17 Nov 59.
Page 263
So please, in the future, remove sensational items from things you post, before you copy and post them, OK? Otherwise I will post similar items in return. And these are NOT the subject under discussion.
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