Leibstandarte: Ardennes 1944

By Stephen Smith and Simon Forty

The missions and massacres of the infamous panzer division that spearheaded the German Ardennes Offensive in the Battle of the Bulge.

From the outset of the offensive, launched on a snowy December 16, the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler faced difficulties. It captured a fuel dump at Büllingen, but brave defense forced Commander Joachim Peiper onto tight, winding roads that proved difficult to negotiate and soon the battle group was strung out over 25 kilometers with its heavy armor—the King Tigers—slowly losing ground as vehicle after vehicle succumbed to automotive failures. Pushing through Stavelot and Trois Pont, the advanced units of the battle group reached Stoumont before lack of fuel—the Americans had retaken Stavelot and closed off the route for German resupply—and US Army action forced it to halt at La Gleize. Six days later, on Christmas Eve, with no hope and no fuel, Peiper and his men abandoned their vehicles and made their way back to their lines: only 770 got there.

They left behind 135 armored vehicles including the King Tiger that today stands in front of the museum at La Gleize. They also left scattered on their route the murdered bodies of US servicemen—at Malmedy, Ligneuville, and Wereth—and civilians, massacres that would lead to postwar trials and continued recriminations.

The Past & Present Series reconstructs historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link between now and then.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Casemate Publishers
• Release date: Aug 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781612005430

Book preview

Introduction

As the end of 1944 approached, Nazi Germany found itself in a vise. Having lost nearly all of its conquered territory, opposing armies were now up to the very gates of the Reich, from both the east and west—not to mention from above, where Allied airpower was raining down bombs on every city or industrial facility they could find.

After the disasters of summer 1944, however, some automatic advantages accrued to the Germans once fall arrived. For one thing, the fast advances of the Soviets and Western Allies had caused them both to outrun their supply lines, while the Germans had only fallen back closer to their own. The fixed defenses of the Reich, such as the Westwall, gave German troops succor, and intelligence resources also improved once on native territory. Even as the last German troops were evacuating France and the Low Countries, and the Soviets had pulled up outside Warsaw, Adolf Hitler was thinking of the counterblow he could launch once Germany had returned to a tightened knot.

He had the wherewithal for one more major blow—seizing back the initiative in either the East or West. If he could defeat one opponent, then he could turn on the other. Hitler decided that his most vulnerable opponent was the Americans— so the last great German offensive of the war would take place in the Ardennes, a scene of German successes in the past, and where for some reason the US still only maintained a thinly held front.

Leibstandarte’s insignia, the skeleton key, was a play on Sepp Dietrich’s name: Dietrich means skeleton key or lockpick.

During the fall of 1944, while resisting Eisenhower’s broad front with stubbornness, the Germans meantime created a strategic reserve. Accustomed to camouflage and concealment by now, the Germans assembled two full panzer armies for a counteroffensive, unknown to Allied intelligence.

The great attack would be led by the 1st SS Panzer Division, Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, and the spearhead of that division would be led by Joachim Peiper, a 29-year-old with a combat-record second to none in the Wehrmacht. It is fair to consider it understandable that in Hitler’s last great offensive of the war he relied foremost on the division that bore his name. It is also clear that, after all its great struggles in Russia and Normandy, the Leibstandarte—now fully re-equipped and rested—was eager to prove itself again. The Ardennes Offensive, or as it is more commonly known, The Battle of the Bulge, would give the Leibstandarte one more chance to strike a telling blow for Germany.

Jochen Peiper (at right in overcoat) seen in Russia with tank ace Michael Wittmann and his crew.

Max Hansen (1908– 90) commanded 12. Company of LSSAH in 1939. By fall 1944 he was a Standartenführer (Colonel) commanding the 1st SS-PzGr Regt.

1 KG Peiper leaves assembly area in Blankenheim Forest; 2 Crosses the Scheid railway bridge; 3 Büllingen fuel dump; 4 Massacre at Baugnez crossroads takes place around 14:30; 5 Peiper just misses Brig. Timberlake; 6 Stavelot bridge crossed—retaken by US forces, fighting continues until December 25; 7 Wanne is taken and Mohnke moves Div HQ here on

Reviews for Leibstandarte

[Jacek Lubecki · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great photographic record of the advance. Clear, with good maps and pictures. A guide to the battlefield.