Ardennes dec 1944 Events North East of La Gleize

[Mayer124]

I am researching the actions of LSAH north east of La Gleize (Borgoumont, Cour and Le Rosier). Does anyone have information about tiger 334 and Pkw IV 601 and 612 (KO'd on 20 dec 1944 at Les Tchéous on the road from La Gleize to Borgoumont) and about the ambush of a column of the Knittel’s aufklärungsabteilung and SS-Pz.Pioniere on the road to the American fuel dump at Le Rosier.

All help is very much appreciated

[Harro]

I never heard about such an ambush before. None of the captured members of the SS-PzAA1 mentioned it.

What is your source?

It seems to me it would refer to the Vorauskompanie of the SS-PzAA1 which was intended to be Knittel's advance guard but was transfered to Korps level on the 16th or 17th of December - most likely to act as Peiper's advance guard.

Coblenz stated after the war:

“When the exhausted 2. Kompanie arrived in La Gleize around midnight on December 18/19, the company could go to rest right at the entrance of La Gleize. Shortly before I went to sleep, the ‘Sicherungs-Offizier’, the security officer reported to me that the Stabskompanie with Goltz and including Pumas and part of the 4. Kompanie (possibly without l. IG-Zug/possibly with Leidreiter), had been in La Gleize since the afternoon of the 18th.”

It seems evident that ‘Pumas and part of the 4. Kompanie’ actually referred to the Vorauskompanie.

The Vorauskompanie had been formed by Wawrzinek and consisted of four platoons: a Panzerspähzug with five Sd.Kfz 234/3 and three Sd.Kfz. 234/2 from the 1. Kompanie, a platoon of twelve Schwimmwagens from the 3 (VW) Kompanie led by SS-Untersturmführer Reichl, an armoured infantry platoon with six Sd.Kfz. 250/5 from the 2. (le.SPW) Kompanie and a squad of four 8cm mortars from the schwere Kompanie. The Vorauskompanie was led by SS-Untersturmführer Rentsch who until then had been in command of the 1. Kompanie. It lost one Puma and a Schwimmwagen when they took a wrong turn at Dom Bütchenbach where it was taken out by the 1st US Infantry Division. Another Puma plus part of the 250-mounted infantry ended up at the Moulin Marechal with Sperrgruppe Muhle.

Goltz himself stated:

We arrived in La Gleize at about midnight. We made a turn in La Gleize and drove on in the direction of Cheneux. On the way the battalion was stopped and we received orders to go back to La Gleize as we could not continue our advance because of a blown bridge in front of us. That might have been between 01.00 and 02.00hrs in the morning of the 19th of December. We were back in La Gleize around 03.00 or 04.00hrs and took up quarters for the night. At that time the tanks were fighting the Americans at Cheneux and Stoumont.”

The above info is from my book: https://knittelbooks.com/schnelle-grupp ... francaise/

[Jochen S.]

Maybe, as an introduction, read part 2 and 3 volumes of the 'Duel in the Mist' series. Interesting topic btw.

[Mayer124]

Sources are Duel in the mist part 1 (chapter 13 The search for gas. Clash at au Rosier.
The autors also mention Dr . Bastin Borgoumont et l’offensive von Rundstedt as a source.
Also The Devil’s adjutant (Michael Reynolds) mentions the roadblock/ambush.
See text with reference to elements of Knittels recce force below.

‘According to Lt Butts these were two armoured cars, two trucks and two self-propelled 88's (with prime movers). ‘The description of two self-propelled 88 guns with prime movers sounds suspicious,.
Dr. Bastin, now standing on the balcony of the sanatorium at 1100, saw two amphibious cars (Schwimmwagen) and four armoured cars. The 110th AAA gun Bn identified one light tank, one armoured car two balftracks, and several personnel carriers. If there were armoured cars among this small force, they must have been elements of KG Knittel, then still at LA GLEIZE’

[Mayer124]

The blocking force at the fuel dump (Fuel Depot Number 2) consisted of two 90 mm AA guns and three M-51s.
The German patrol ran into the American roadblock at 1615 on Tuesday 19th December. The Americans claim to have killed several enemy and damaged a light tank and half-track, for the loss of one man killed and another wounded (Reynolds). The Americans lost one man (the guy who prematurely fired a M51).

[Harro]

Thanks, that fits the OoB for the Vorauskompanie I posted above. They originated from the SS-PzAA1 but were no longer under Knittel's command. Somewhere between their departure from Stadtkyll and the morning of the 17th of December, the ‘Vorauskompanie’, intended to be the advance company of the Schnelle Gruppe, was placed under direct divisional command. After seventy years it is difficult to find the exact reasons for this decision, but it seems evident that Rentsch and his men were sent ahead to act as a reconnaissance unit for ‘Panzergruppe Peiper’. This would also explain why part of the Aufklärungsabteilung was reported in the War Diaries of OB West (Ia the 16th of December 1944) to have reached Losheimergraben before Panzergruppe Peiper.