Kampfgruppe Peiper at Stavelot

Discussions on WW2 in Western Europe & the Atlantic.
Post Reply
User avatar
Imad
Member
Posts: 1412
Joined: 21 Nov 2004, 04:15
Location: Toronto

Kampfgruppe Peiper at Stavelot

#1

Post by Imad » 05 Dec 2004, 02:14

I read a book entitled "The Devil's Adjutant" by a Michael Reynolds, who happens to be a retired British Army officer. The book purports to be a biography of Jochen Peiper of Ardennes fame but is more of a revisionist account of the Battle of the Bulge. I am sure anyone who is familiar with that battle would have read of the famous incident at Stavelot where Peiper's Panzers were stopped by a wall of flames. Supposedly a petrol dump, which was one of Peiper's targets as he was running out of fuel, was set on fire by the Americans in order to deny the Germans use of the facility. The incident has been recorded in many books on the Ardennes offensive but this author, Reynolds, states quite emphatically that it did not happen! That it was all made up. I was very skeptical at first but the author has been living in Belgium for a long time and has presumably talked to many veterans on the subject. Can someone throw some light on this?

Patrice
Member
Posts: 722
Joined: 03 May 2004, 17:44
Location: Liège Belgium

#2

Post by Patrice » 05 Dec 2004, 09:49

Hello.
This petrol dump located along the Francorchamps-Stavelot road was underthe Belgian guard of troops, the 5th Fusiliier Bataillion.(the 5th battalion of fusiliers was at the disposal of the 12th Groupe of US armies)
Peiper did not know the existence of this petrol dump,and it did not enter its plans to go in this direction.
December 18 major Solis being withdrawn from Stavelot and believing
wrongly the German tanks on these heel,give the order to the Belgian soldiers to put fire at the dépot.
And when later a detachment of 117th Inf.Reg of the 30th Infantry Division is sent in reinforcement to Stavelot,the fire is finished,548 000 liters of gasoline will have burned,and the three million liters remaining will be evacuated by trucks.
Peiper did not even send a unit of recognition in this direction,thus the fire stopping the panzers forms part of the legend.
Patrice


User avatar
JC
Member
Posts: 1326
Joined: 12 Mar 2002, 15:18
Location: USA

#3

Post by JC » 05 Dec 2004, 16:34

That is what happens when one takes one's history lessons from movies. :)

BR...........JC

User avatar
Dessek Warrior
Member
Posts: 42
Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 21:22
Location: Netherlands

#4

Post by Dessek Warrior » 05 Dec 2004, 17:57

Peiper's unit was supposed to cross the Meuse at Huy, which is west but also quite a bit south from his position at Stavelot. He wasn't planning to move further north, such as at the fuel dump desribed above, but rather he was trying to get back on a road south!

User avatar
Lipton
Member
Posts: 259
Joined: 03 Apr 2004, 19:45
Location: Slovakia

#5

Post by Lipton » 05 Dec 2004, 20:59

I learned about this event while reading Hugh M. Coles’s The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge.

An excerpt from the book:

Maj. Paul J. Solis ordered his detachment to retire to the top of the hill above Stavelot, but in the confusion of disengagement the remaining antitank weapons and all but one of the rifle platoons fell back along the Malmedy road. With German tanks climbing behind the lone platoon and without any means of antitank defense, Solis seized some of the gasoline from the Francorchamps dump, had his men pour it out in a deep road cut, where there was no turn-out, and set it ablaze. The result was a perfect antitank barrier. The German tanks turned back to Stavelot-this was the closest that Kampfgruppe Peiper ever came to the great stores of gasoline which might have taken the 1. Panzer Division SS to the Meuse River. Solis had burned 124,000 gallons for his improvised roadblock, but this was the only part of the First Army's POL reserve lost during the entire Ardennes operation.

User avatar
Dessek Warrior
Member
Posts: 42
Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 21:22
Location: Netherlands

#6

Post by Dessek Warrior » 06 Dec 2004, 16:01

Well, sorry, but that is simply not true. Also, had Kampfgruppe Peiper ever taken the fuel and used it for their tanks, they still wouldn't have gotten to the Meuse. What eventually did them in was the fact that all roads west from La Gleize were occupied by American troops, causing them to undertake one attack and retreat after another, ending them up encircled in the small town itself. Only there did they run out of fuel entirely, with as a result the famous scene of the forest where Peiper abandoned 27 halftracks...

They were encircled by elements of the 3rd Armoured, 82nd Airborne and 30th Infantry divisions. No fuel would have gotten them out of there.

User avatar
Lipton
Member
Posts: 259
Joined: 03 Apr 2004, 19:45
Location: Slovakia

#7

Post by Lipton » 06 Dec 2004, 17:46

Hello Dessek

It’s a word-for-word excerpt from the book mentioned above. I also think it was impossible for KG Peiper to complete its task; I was just waiting for the reactions of other users.

As for the La Gleize siege, it was a horror for the Germans and a great victory of the U.S. 30th Infantry. When the town was captured, the prisoners that were taken, nearly all wounded numbered 300. 28 tanks, 70 half-tracks, and 25 artillery pieces were found in the town. This booty, plus the German tanks and guns destroyed earlier in the operation, accounted for nearly the entire heavy equipment of the 1. Panzer Regiment SS.

User avatar
Dessek Warrior
Member
Posts: 42
Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 21:22
Location: Netherlands

#8

Post by Dessek Warrior » 07 Dec 2004, 22:49

Lipton wrote:Hello Dessek

It’s a word-for-word excerpt from the book mentioned above. I also think it was impossible for KG Peiper to complete its task; I was just waiting for the reactions of other users.

As for the La Gleize siege, it was a horror for the Germans and a great victory of the U.S. 30th Infantry. When the town was captured, the prisoners that were taken, nearly all wounded numbered 300. 28 tanks, 70 half-tracks, and 25 artillery pieces were found in the town. This booty, plus the German tanks and guns destroyed earlier in the operation, accounted for nearly the entire heavy equipment of the 1. Panzer Regiment SS.
Yes, well, it seems that once a myth gets started in one source, it is easily taken from one to another and finally there will always be new sources with the same error imbedded. It's a problem. Can't help it, except through topics like these!

Estimates for the amount of soldiers that escaped from this siege range between 800 and 900 - where Kampfrguppe Peiper at the start of the offensive counted about 5000 men. All 45 Tiger IIs of SchwPzAbt 501 were lost. This was indeed a glorious day, for all of the 1st US Army, since Peiper was supposed to spearhead the entire offensive. The morale blow for the German troops stuck against American divisions, desperately trying to relieve Peiper, must have been huge.

Post Reply

Return to “WW2 in Western Europe & the Atlantic”