12/30/07

Dawn of 19 December saw the different elements of s. SS-Pz.Abt. 501 widely dispersed.  Only six Tigers had made it forward with Kampfgruppe Peiper: the 1. Kompanie tank of SS-Obersturmführer Wessel, SS-Hauptsturmführer Möbius with  204 and two other 2. Kompanie tanks, and two 3. Kompanie tanks.  These tanks gathered in and around La Gleize.  Peiper placed the defense of this area under the control of von Westernhagen while he attacked Stoumont with the rest of the kampfgruppe’s armor.  19 December passed relatively quietly for the Tigers in La Gleize, except for a short action around 3:00 p.m. against a probing force coming down the Francorchamps road.  The Königstiger that had thrown a track at the bottom of the hill where the N33 entered La Gleize destroyed one Sherman and repulsed several others from the 743rd Tank Battalion. (9)

This tank's crew continued to fight after their tank threw track on the road to La Gleize.  (US National Archives at College Park, Signal Corps Collection)

Farther back along the kampfgruppe’s route the fight for Stavelot continued.  Both Peiper and his division commander realized that Stavelot was a critical point that must be kept open and under German control.  SS-Obersturmbannführer Sandig was ordered to attack through Stavelot from the east with his kampfgruppe of the 2. SS-Panzergrenadierregiment.  Several Königstigers that had fallen behind had now reached Stavelot, and assisted his panzergrenadiers with fire support.  Among these were Tiger 331 of the battalion commander’s brother, SS-Hauptscharführer Rolf von Westernhagen, and SS-Hauptscharführer Lötzsch’s tank from the 2. Kompanie.  Von Westernhagen’s tank suffered a final drive failure and the tank would only drive in reverse, so he had to return to the forward assembly area, but Lötzsch continued to engage the enemy across the river.  (10)  SS-Oberscharführer Kurt Sowa had taken his tank 222 on a route south of Peiper’s area, trying to catch up.  Along the way his tank was photographed in four different locations, making it probably the best-recognized tank of the battle!  On the afternoon of 19 December he arrived at Stavelot and joined the fighting, firing from beside a house at the south end of the bridge.  During the night American engineers blew the bridge and ended any hopes that vehicles could pass through Stavelot to reinforce Peiper.

Rolf von Westernhagen, brother of the battalion commander and a platoon leader in the 3. Kompanie.  (Wilhelm Kiesselbach)

One of the most famous of all Battle of the Bulge images - Tiger 222 rolls past the cameramen at Kaiserbaracke crossroads.  From a captured SS war reporter film.  (US National Archives at College Park, Signal Corps Collection, 111-M-1130)

At the same time as Sandig’s attacks, SS-Sturmbannführer Knittel attacked Stavelot from the west with elements of his 1. SS-Panzeraufklärungsabteilung (armored reconnaissance battalion).  The 1. Kompanie Tigers of SS-Oberscharführer Brandt and Wendt assisted this attack.  They had driven toward Trois Ponts after spending the night of 18 December in Stavelot.  Knittel stopped them at the buildings of the Antoine farm that he had chosen for a command post, and later in the morning had them move back toward Stavelot.  The tanks approached the city but could not attack because the road was mined.  After they withdrew Knittel directed Wendt to guard his command post and sent Brandt farther west to guard the area of Petit-Spai, where a small bridge spanned the Ambleve and allowed reinforcements from the south to cross.

The Ferme Antoine west of Stavelot.  SS-Oscha. Wendt supported the attacks of the LSSAH reconnaissance battalion from this area.  The building still shows bullet holes today.  (author's photo)

Peiper withdrew back into Stoumont during the night of 19 December, having been turned back from the alternate route he had tried to reach.  He was now essentially cut off in the area of Stoumont - La Gleize, with insufficient fuel to take him farther.  He was forced to defend this area and rely on the rest of the division breaking through Stavelot and Trois Ponts to reinforce him.  The Americans were feeding more units into the battle to contain and defeat Peiper.  While elements of the 30th Infantry Division (including the 740th Tank Battalion) continued to attack Stoumont from the west, the 3rd Armored Division now entered the battle from the north.  Combat Command B of the 3rd Armored operated in three battalion task forces.  Task Force Jordan moved toward Stoumont from the north, while Task Force McGeorge and the strongest element, Task Force Lovelady, approached La Gleize along narrow roads from the north and northeast.

Peiper and von Westernhagen countered the forces approaching La Gleize by pushing out Tigers and PzKw IVs in blocking positions.  TF McGeorge ran into one of these positions about two kilometers north of La Gleize on the road to Bourgomont, where Tiger 334 and a PzKw IV stopped any further advance.  Another outpost group, led by the 7. Panzerkompanie’s commander, took up a strong position at the Marechal mill south of La Gleize along the road from Trois Ponts.  The 7. Kompanie PzKw IV was joined by SS-Untersturmführer Hantusch’s Tiger and a Puma eight-wheeled armored car from the reconnaissance battalion.  The PzKw IV’s driver, SS-Rottenführer Rolf Ehrhardt, recalled after the war that dense fog kept the group from observing much.  At one point an American dismounted element approached close to the mill, only to be driven back by fire from the Puma.  In the afternoon the group discovered a large armored force (TF Lovelady) moving south on the road from Francorchamps, just to the east of their position.  The tank driver turned scout suggested that the Tiger pick off the first tank while the PzKw IV destroyed the last, which would prevent the rest of the tanks from deploying and make them easy targets.  SS-Untersturmführer Hantusch is said to have refused to take part in the plan, saying “Fire uphill?  I’m not tired of living, and I only have three centimeters of armor on top.”  (11)  While the tanks at the mill were well sited to turn back advances from Trois Ponts, it is difficult to imagine how they could have engaged the American tanks of TF Lovelady without moving from their prepared positions.  The Francorchamps road averages about 50 meters higher in elevation than the mill and is about 600 meters away.  The road cannot be seen from the mill.  At any rate, TF Lovelady pushed on toward Trois Ponts, along the way ambushing several vehicles that were moving north to reinforce Peiper.  When the lead Shermans of E Company 33^rd Armored Regiment tried to move from Trois Ponts toward Stavelot they were driven back by antitank guns and Brandt’s Königstiger near the Petit-Spai bridge, and four were destroyed.  (12)

Map of the area between Stavelot and Stoumont.  On 20 December US Task Force McGeorge of the 3rd Armored Division attacked toward La Gleize along the route marked in red, while Task Force Lovelady moved down the road from Francorchamps and Ruy toward Trois Ponts (route marked in blue) (Microsoft MapPoint via Expedia.com)

The fight for Stavelot continued on 20 December.  Early in the day Brandt and Wendt again supported a reconnaissance battalion attack.  The Americans brought heavy artillery fire and air support into play, and the attack was repulsed.  Kampfgruppe Sandig attacked repeatedly from the south, but could not cross the river.  While supporting these attacks Tiger 222 was knocked out by an antitank round at the southern approach to the bridge.  Since the tank did not catch fire, 222’s crew remained inside until they could escape during darkness.  This is almost certainly the same action described by Captain Raney of the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, whose M-10 tank destroyers were firing at the Tigers:

     We saw the long tube of the Tiger’s 88mm gun emerge from behind the last building.  The M-10 gunner must have been tracking the tank with his telescopic sight, for as the Tiger cleared the building, the M-10 fired one round of armor piercing shot which penetrated the armor on the right side above the track, about 14 inches under the turret and four to five feet to the rear of the front glacis plate.  The Tiger stopped in its tracks... Surprisingly the tank did not burn.    (13) 

The penetration effect of this shot (and several others) may be seen in photographs of Tiger 222 taken after the battle.  (M. Courtejoie, Stavelot)

One by one, a few Tigers continued to arrive at Stavelot and assist the battle.  However, most were still broken down far behind.  The battalion’s workshop company had established a maintenance area in Ligneuville.  A number of tanks were recovered there to be repaired, but spare parts and fuel were in short supply.  Peiper would get no further reinforcements from his heavy tank battalion.

Notes:

(9) Gérard Grégoire, Les Panzer de Peiper face a l’U.S. Army (Stavelot, Belgium: J. Chauveheid, n.d.), 80.

(10) Agte, Michael Wittmann, 311-313 (English translation pp. 509-511); Wilhelm Kiesselbach, email to author with information from Rolf von Westernhagen, 19 July 2004.

(11) Ibid., 315 (English translation page 512); Cuppens, Massacre a Malmedy?, 74.

(12) Interview with Walter Stitt, E Company 33^rd Armored Regiment (TF Lovelady), on 3^rd Armored Division WWII Web site 

(13) Michael Reynolds, The Devil’s Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader (New York: Sarpedon, 1995), 162.

All text copyright 2005-2008 Gregory A. Walden. All rights reserved; material from this website may only be republished with the author’s permission.