The Allies captured the port of Antwerp intact in the first days of September, but it was not operational until 28 November. Below are the top five veteran research questions, where to go for further resources, and how to begin your search. On our team, the captain is General Ike. By November, it was clear that Soviet forces were preparing for a winter offensive.[34]. Headquarters now freed up the 9th Panzer Division for Fifth Panzer Army, which was deployed at Marche. Equipped with a vast array of armored vehicles from tanks to mobile flak vehicles, the 1st SS was a formidable foe for any unit opposing them. German units assembling in the area were even issued charcoal instead of wood for cooking fires to cut down on smoke and reduce chances of Allied observers deducing a troop buildup was underway. [88], In La Gleize, Peiper set up defenses waiting for German relief. Here, a patrol from the 45th Infantry Divisions 180th Regiment fights house to house in Bobenthal, Germany under sniper fire on December 16, 1944. Kampfgruppe Von Allworden S.S. Capt. The OKW decided by mid-September, at Hitler's insistence, that the offensive would be mounted in the Ardennes, as was done in 1940. Thus Peiper was without reinforcements, ammo or fuel and forced to retreat, escaping by sneaking through the American encirclement, leaving all equipment behind. This page was last edited on 18 April 2023, at 11:41. The Allied occupation zones in Germany had been agreed upon in February 1944, and a faster Allied advance in the autumn of 1944 would not have altered this. These units, which operated under the command of Generals Robert W. Hasbrouck (7th Armored) and Alan W. Jones (106th Infantry), successfully resisted the German attacks, significantly slowing the German advance. It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability. Untested troops of the 99th Infantry Division prevented the best equipped armored units of the German army from advancing and forced them to reroute their troops to unfavorable alternative routes that considerably slowed their advance. . Drawing broad conclusions was for the intelligence staff at SHAEF, who had information from all sources," including aerial reconnaissance. Kampfgruppe Hansen contained a full regiment of SS troopers with a bit of artillery. The farthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Ntre-Dame, south east of Dinant, being stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944. Because it lacked sufficient troops and those of the 26th VG Division were near exhaustion, the XLVII Panzerkorps concentrated its assault on several individual locations on the west side of the perimeter in sequence rather than launching one simultaneous attack on all sides. 1, Engineers from the Pionierkompanie and Grenadiers from III./SS-PzGren.Rgt. [40] Hitler originally set the offensive for late November, before the anticipated start of the Russian winter offensive. [68] After capturing Honsfeld, Peiper detoured from his assigned route to seize a small fuel depot in Bllingen, where the Waffen-SS infantry summarily executed dozens of U.S. Some German units employed American vehicles during the Ardennes offensive. The Battle of the Bulge remains among the most important battles of the war, as it marked the last major offensive attempted by the Axis Powers on the Western front. SS). Country of Origin : USA. As the Panther crewmen bailed out of their vehicle and took cover in a ditch, they came under intense small arms fire from the buildings in the center of town. Vehicle numbers and there fates are also listed where possible. Somewhere between 65,000-125,000 Germans troops were killed, wounded, captured or missing during those furious six weeks of fighting. The Americans in Stoumont sat and waited. As the Ardennes crisis developed, the U.S. First Army (Hodges) and U.S. Ninth Army (Simpson) on the northern shoulder of the German penetration lost communications with adjacent armies, as well as with Bradley's headquarters in Luxembourg City to the south of the "bulge". . Stills from it are in all the histories of the battle. By 1939, the LSSAH was a full infantry regiment . It contained all the tanks from the division along with an attached battalion of King Tiger tanks. Yet despite the lack of losses, the American Shermans began to withdraw due to the heavy German tank fire. While Peipers men made their way back to their former positions, the Americans of the 30th Infantry Division along with elements of the 3rd Armored Division and 82nd Airborne Division poured men in and around the areas of Stoumont, La Gleize, and Stavelot. Though some of his staff were concerned at how the press conference would affect Montgomery's image, it was cleared by CIGS Alan Brooke, who was possibly the only person from whom Montgomery would accept advice. panzerok. In the context of Patton's and Montgomery's well-known antipathy, Montgomery's failure to mention the contribution of any American general besides Eisenhower was seen as insulting. After the war ended, this assessment was generally viewed as unrealistic, given Allied air superiority throughout Europe and their ability to continually disrupt German offensive operations. [149], Focusing exclusively on his own generalship, Montgomery continued to say he thought the counteroffensive had gone very well but did not explain the reason for his delayed attack on 3 January. Hansen, Max, born 31-07-1908 in Niebull, as the son of a rail freight forwarder, and a total of six Hansen brothers served on the war front during the war, plus three sisters. Preliminary figures cited by SHAEF G-2 as cited by Pogue: 8,407 killed, 20,905 missing, 46,170 wounded. [85], At dawn on 19 December, Peiper surprised the American defenders of Stoumont by sending infantry from the 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Regiment in an attack and a company of Fallschirmjger to infiltrate their lines. On 24 December, German forces made their furthest penetration west. Eisenhower, after saying he was not that optimistic, asked Patton how long it would take to turn his Third Army, located in northeastern France, north to counterattack. Eisenhower commented in his own memoirs: "I doubt if Montgomery ever came to realize how resentful some American commanders were. [102], Unlike the German forces on the northern and southern shoulders who were experiencing great difficulties, the German advance in the center gained considerable ground. Following this, 60 grenadiers advanced forward but were stopped by concentrated American defensive fire. Considerable fighting went on for another 3 weeks, with Third Army and First Army linking up on 16 January with the capture of Houffalize. KAMPFGRUPPE HOHENSTAUFEN. by Timo 22 Aug 2004, 12:48, Post The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the . It is one of several taken (along with newsreel film) on December 18, 1944 near Poteau, Belgium during the Battle of the . It is not the lack of roads as much as the lack of almost anything else on which to move that matters. [40] Security around the general was greatly increased, and Eisenhower was confined to his headquarters. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. The battle has been the most interesting, I think possibly one of the most interesting and tricky battles I have ever handled. by Andy H 22 Aug 2004, 12:22, Post [163], The German High Command estimated that they lost between 81,834 and 98,024 men on the Western Front between 16 December 1944 and 25 January 1945; the accepted figure was 81,834, of which 12,652 were killed, 38,600 were wounded, and 30,582 were missing. The amount lost in arms and equipment, of course, was very substantial. The Germans' initial attack involved around 410,000 men; just over 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns; 2,600 artillery pieces; and over 1,000 combat aircraft, as well as large numbers of other armored fighting vehicles (AFVs). Thus McAuliffe wrote on the paper, which was typed up and delivered to the Germans, the line he made famous and a morale booster to his troops: "NUTS! [29] German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast into the autumn, while Dunkirk remained under siege until the end of the war in May 1945. Kampfgruppe Hansen is a tactical group of the 1-SS-PanzerDivision Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. Peiper's Panthers flank Stoumont from the fields east of town. The first shots either flat out missed the targets or ricocheted off the heavy German frontal armor. As Prahms Panther rounded the corner of the main road and entered Stoumont, the last remaining American anti-tank gun opened fire. Kampfgruppe Hansen, during the Third Battle of . The German tanks along the road leading to Stoumont came under heavy American tank fire from Stoumont and the nearby village of Roua. German historian Hermann Jung lists 67,675 casualties from 16 December 1944 to late January 1945 for the three German armies that participated in the offensive. Kampfgruppe Hansen of the 1st SS Panzer Division LSSAH were the flank protection for the main force of Kampfgruppe Peiper in the advance west as part of Wach. [180] A total of 708 black Americans were killed in combat during World War II. The U.S. Army suffered more than 89,000 casualties and the loss of over eight hundred armored vehicles and tanks. [78] Instead, intent on driving west, Peiper turned south to detour around Hnningen, choosing a route designated Rollbahn D as he had been given latitude to choose the best route west.[59]. This drastically reduced their supply problems despite Allied control of the air. Peiper learned that his reinforcements had been directed to gather in La Gleize to his east, and he withdrew, leaving wounded Americans and Germans in the Froidcourt Castle[fr]. Occupation of this dominating terrain would allow control of the roads to the south and west and ensure supply to Kampfgruppe Peiper's armored task force. The Fifth Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel was assigned to the middle sector with the objective of capturing Brussels. By the beginning of February 1945, the lines were roughly where they had been in December 1944. Mohnke ordered Hansen to throw his Jagdpanzer tank destroyers against Company E 505 at Trois-Ponts on December 21 in an attempt to capture the damaged bridge there, repair it and . [119] Total casualties included at least 9,000 wounded. As they did, the Panthers continued their advance on the flanks of town while at the same time the German paratroopers and Panzergrenadiers pushed through the center of the town clearing house after house. Armies listed 75,482 casualties (8,407 killed, 46,170 wounded and 20,905 missing); British XXX Corps losses to 17 January 1945 were recorded as 1,408 (200 killed, 969 wounded, and 239 missing. [175] It had been brought forward from 20 January to 12 January because meteorological reports warned of a thaw later in the month, and the tanks needed hard ground for the offensive (and the advance of the Red Army was assisted by two Panzer Armies (5th and 6th) being redeployed for the Ardennes attack). As the first Panther rounded the bend in the road and took Stoumont station into view, a round from a camouflaged 90mm gun screamed down the road and slammed into the Panther, penetrating the armor and exploding. The 110th's situation was by far the worst, as it was responsible for an 18-kilometer (11mi) front while its 2nd Battalion was withheld as the divisional reserve. They took 36 hours to advance from the Eifel region to Stavelot, while the same advance required nine hours in 1940. These 4 kampfgruppes where involved in the battle of the bulge, but where there any more kampfgruppes from any other divison than from LAH involved in the battle for the bulge? Around 0730 hours the lead Panthers throttled forward and attempted to force the issue. [169] Of the German write-offs, 1620 were Tigers, 191194 Panthers, 141158 Panzer IVs, and 179182 were tank destroyers and assault guns. The 12th SS Panzer Division, reinforced by additional infantry (Panzergrenadier and Volksgrenadier) divisions, took the key road junction at Losheimergraben just north of Lanzerath and attacked the twin villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt. [178], During World War II, most U.S. black soldiers still served only in maintenance or service positions, or in segregated units. Sunday, April 02, 2017 - 12:29 PM UTC. Rather than face the French in their concrete defenses of the Maginot Line, the advancing armies went through Holland and Belgium. 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