kampfgruppe hansen order of battle

Sunday, April 02, 2017 - 12:29 PM UTC. In foreground a platoon leader indicates the target to a rifleman by actually firing on the target. Since the German plan called for the capture of St. Vith by 18:00 on 17 December, the prolonged action in and around it dealt a major setback to their timetable. 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. Rundstedt later testified that while he recognized the merit of Hitler's operational plan, he saw from the very first that "all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking."[44]. ----military police section with 60 men. A Luftwaffe resupply mission went badly when SS-Brigadefhrer Wilhelm Mohnke insisted the grid coordinates supplied by Peiper were wrong, parachuting supplies into American hands in Stoumont. The British 29th Armoured Brigade of British 11th Armoured Division, which had turned in its tanks for re-equipping, was told to take back their tanks and head to the area. Nevertheless, some 4050 messages per day were decrypted by Ultra. General Omar Bradley was briefly detained when he correctly identified Springfield as the capital of Illinois because the American MP who questioned him mistakenly believed the capital was Chicago. But even through the fog, American observers on the outskirts of Stoumont could see that a sizable attack was about to commence. Although advancing only in a narrow corridor, 2nd Panzer Division was still making rapid headway, leading to jubilation in Berlin. [k], Both 2nd Panzer and Panzer-Lehr division moved forward from Bastogne after 21 December, leaving only Panzer-Lehr division's 901st Regiment to assist the 26th Volksgrenadier-Division in attempting to capture the crossroads. 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. Their ideas shared the same fate as Dietrich's objections.[91]. While the German command did not reach its goals, the Ardennes operation inflicted heavy losses and set back the Allied invasion of Germany by several weeks. The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. More than 2,000 black soldiers had volunteered to go to the front. Kampfgruppe Peiper is a perfect example of this and put all the armor eggs in one basket. The 112th Infantry Regiment (the most northerly of the 28th Division's regiments), holding a continuous front east of the Our, kept German troops from seizing and using the Our River bridges around Ouren for two days, before withdrawing progressively westwards. An incredibly thick blanket of fog hung low over Stoumont and the Amblve valley on the morning of December19. Copy No. More importantly, they had also recaptured the roads leading in and out of it, cutting Peiper off from the rest of the 1st SS Panzer Division. Despite his victory at Stoumont and the seemingly wide-open road ahead, he was now helpless, and he knew it. Training time, equipment and supplies were inadequate during the preparations. Instead, he was provided with a Kampfgruppe of 800 men. [36] Hitler believed he could split the Allied forces and compel the Americans and British to settle for a separate peace, independent of the Soviet Union. [144] Montgomery started with giving credit to the "courage and good fighting quality" of the American troops, characterizing a typical American as a "very brave fighting man who has that tenacity in battle which makes a great soldier", and went on to talk about the necessity of Allied teamwork, and praised Eisenhower, stating, "Teamwork wins battles and battle victories win wars. Two separate westbound German columns that were to have bypassed the town to the south and north, the 2nd Panzer Division and Panzer-Lehr-Division of XLVII Panzer Corps, as well as the Corps' infantry (26th Volksgrenadier Division), coming due west had been engaged and much slowed and frustrated in outlying battles at defensive positions up to 16 kilometers (10mi) from the town proper, but these defensive positions were gradually being forced back onto and into the hasty defenses built within the municipality. The weather cleared the next day and supplies (primarily ammunition) were dropped over four of the next five days. See more ideas about german soldiers ww2, ardennes, world war two. The damaged Panther retrieved the wounded crewmen from the first tank and reversed course. He entrusted them with carrying out his decisive counterattack. Panzer columns took the outlying villages and widely separated strong points in bitter fighting, and advanced to points near Bastogne within four days. The struggle for the villages and American strong points, plus transport confusion on the German side, slowed the attack sufficiently to allow the 101st Airborne Division (reinforced by elements from the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions) to reach Bastogne by truck on the morning of 19 December. Published: 27 July 2013. One of the fault lines between the British and American high commands was General Dwight D. Eisenhower's commitment to a broad front advance. [p] Lucas and Calvocoressi added that "it would be interesting to know how much reconnaissance was flown over the Eiffel sector on the U.S. First Army Front". Armies were separated by about 40km (25mi). The battle severely depleted Germany's armored forces, which remained largely unreplaced throughout the remainder of the war. Dupuy's review of German records suggests casualties among divisions and brigades alone (excluding attached elements, corps and army-level combat support, and rear-area personnel) totaled 74,459 from 16 December 1944 to 16 January 1945, inclusive: 11,048 killed, 34,168 wounded, and 29,243 missing. [27] With the Allies stalled, German Generalfeldmarschall ('Field Marshal') Gerd von Rundstedt was able to reorganize the disrupted German armies into a coherent defensive force. [160] Ambrose wrote that: "Far from directing the victory, Montgomery had gotten in everyone's way, and had botched the counter-attack. info@nationalww2museum.org Eight of Peipers Panthers entered a field to the east of Stoumont and approached the town from its flanks. He maintained his lines west of Stoumont for a while, until the evening of 19 December when he withdrew them to the village edge. by Lasse 22 Aug 2004, 10:40, Post The Fifth Panzer Army was spearheaded by the 2nd Panzer Division while the Panzer Lehr Division (Armored Training Division) came up from the south, leaving Bastogne to other units. Peiper's unit was delayed and his vehicles denied critically needed fuel. Best 1/35 figures ive seen in a while . Montgomery wrote about the situation he found on 20 December: The First Army was fighting desperately. As he withdrew from Cheneux, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division engaged the Germans in fierce house-to-house fighting. The National WWII Museum Digital Collections. With casualties mounting, and running short on replacements, tanks, ammunition, and supplies, Seventh Army was forced to withdraw to defensive positions on the south bank of the Moder River on 21 January. British XXX Corps was significantly reinforced for this effort. While the Siege of Bastogne is often credited as the central point where the German offensive was stopped,[62] the battle for Elsenborn Ridge was actually the decisive component of the Battle of the Bulge. [citation needed], On the Eastern Front, the Soviets' Operation Bagration during the summer had destroyed much of Germany's Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte). Units of the corps which fought in the Ardennes were the 51st (Highland) and 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, the 29th and 33rd Armoured Brigades, and the 34th Tank Brigade. [27] Over-the-beach supply operations using the Normandy landing areas, and direct landing ships on the beaches, were unable to meet operational needs. SS-Sturmbannfhrer Knittel crossed the bridge at Stavelot around 19:00 against American forces trying to retake the town. Following this, 60 grenadiers advanced forward but were stopped by concentrated American defensive fire. [186], At Bletchley Park, F. L. Lucas and Peter Calvocoressi of Hut 3 were tasked by General Nye (as part of the enquiry set up by the Chiefs of Staff) with writing a report on the lessons to be learned from the handling of pre-battle Ultra. LSSAH, fighting in Kampfgruppe Hansen. [64][65] SS-Obersturmbannfhrer Joachim Peiper led Kampfgruppe Peiper, consisting of 4,800 men and 600 vehicles, which was charged with leading the main effort. As the battle ensued, on the northern shoulder of the offensive, Dietrich stopped the armored assault on the twin villages after two days and changed the axis of their advance southward through the hamlet of Domne Btgenbach. Here is the composition on 24 September 1944. The 90th would later be thrust into the American counter-attack and ended up fighting around Bastogne. 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. [187] Among the signs misread were the formation of the new 6th Panzer Army in the build-up area (west bank of the Rhine about Cologne); the new 'Star' (signals control-network) noted by the 'Fusion Room' traffic-analysts, linking "all the armoured divisions [assembling in the build-up area], including some transferred from the Russian front";[191][189] the daily aerial reconnaissance of the lightly defended target area by new Arado Ar 234 jets "as a matter of greatest urgency"; the marked increase in railway traffic in the build-up area; the movement of 1,000 trucks from the Italian front to the build-up area; disproportionate anxiety about tiny hitches in troop movements, suggesting a tight timetable;[190][189] the quadrupling of Luftwaffe fighter forces in the West;[190] and decrypts of Japanese diplomatic signals from Berlin to Tokyo, mentioning "the coming offensive". The Battle of St. Vith was an engagement in Belgium fought during the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine in World War II.It was one of several battles on December 16, 1944 constituting the opening of Germany's Ardennes counteroffensive (more commonly known as the "Battle of the Bulge").. Kampfgruppe Peiper. [86], German efforts to reinforce Peiper were unsuccessful. Ardennes battle. To preserve the quantity of armor available, the infantry of the 9th Fallschirmjaeger Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjaeger Division, had been ordered to clear the village first. Another, smaller, massacre was committed in Wereth, Belgium, approximately 6.5 miles (10.5km) northeast of Saint-Vith on 17 December 1944. This congestion, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. Similar action was taken on the southern flank of the bulge by Bradley, with the Third Army.[142]. I embarked on these measures: I put British troops under command of the Ninth Army to fight alongside American soldiers, and made that Army take over some of the First Army Front. Actually, the 10thArmored Division was in there December 18th, a day before we were, and had some very hard fighting before we ever got into it, and I sincerely believe that we would never have been able to get into Bastogne if it had not been for the defensive fighting of the three elements of the 10th Armored Division who were first into Bastogne and protected the town from invasion by the Germans.[109], In the extreme south, Brandenberger's three infantry divisions were checked by divisions of the U.S. VIII Corps after an advance of 6.4km (4mi); that front was then firmly held. [108] Skorzeny and his men were fully aware of their likely fate, and most wore their German uniforms underneath their American ones in case of capture. In the book Steel Rain it show the OOB of this Kampfgruppe as. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany du Bradley's response was succinct: "Let them come. [114] When Brig. [124], Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons following the Battle of the Bulge said, "This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory. According to Winston Churchill, the attack from the south under Patton was steady but slow and involved heavy losses, and Montgomery was trying to avoid this situation. Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2002 1:48 am. Taking Peipers orders to heart, Poetschke dismounted his vehicle, grabbed a panzerfaust and personally threatened to shoot any man who did not move forward immediately. The research process of over twenty years culminated in five volumes: Birth of a Regiment (May 1942-September 1943), Spearhead of the Fifth Army (September 1943-April 1944), The Battle of the Bridges (April 1944-November 1944), Blocking Kampfgruppe Peiper (November 1944-February 1945), End of an Odyssey (February 1945-January 1946). 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). By 1939, the LSSAH was a full infantry regiment . The lead role in the attack was given to the 6th Panzer Army, commanded by SS Oberstgruppenfhrer Sepp Dietrich. This page was last edited on 18 April 2023, at 11:41. [196], Five copies of a report by the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service Indications of the German Offensive of December 1944, derived from ULTRA material, submitted to DMI were issued on 28 December 1944. [83][84] Peiper detoured north towards the villages of La Gleize and Cheneux. disclaimer: our products are for I Abt SS-Panzer Artillerie Regt 1 "LSSAH". Although they failed to take the vital bridges over the Meuse, their presence caused confusion out of all proportion to their military activities, and rumors spread quickly. Poised on the opposite bank of the Amblve River, Peiper forced his . Conditions inside the perimeter were toughmost of the medical supplies and medical personnel had been captured. The National WWII Museum Digital Collections. Max joined the NSDAP, Nr 478376, on 01-03-1931 and the SS, Nr 27813, on 01-08-1931, he was apprenticed to a locksmith. By nightfall on December 18, elements of the 119th Infantry Regiment were deployed in and around Stoumont while elements of the 117th Infantry Regiment had set up road blocks and recaptured half of the town that Peiper had ignored, Stavelot. The SS Colonel assessed his situation and quickly realized he was in dire straits. It was the German paratroopers' only night time drop during World War II. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill found it necessary in a speech to Parliament to explicitly state that the Battle of the Bulge was purely an American victory. In the south, Patton's Third Army was battling to relieve Bastogne. Eisenhower and his principal commanders realized by 17 December that the fighting in the Ardennes was a major offensive and not a local counterattack, and they ordered vast reinforcements to the area. While the Ardennes Counteroffensive is the correct term in Allied military language, the official Ardennes-Alsace campaign reached beyond the Ardennes battle region, and the most popular description in English speaking countries remains simply 'Battle of the Bulge'. by Timo 22 Aug 2004, 13:23, Post It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability. [19] Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. The foggy autumn weather also prevented Allied reconnaissance aircraft from correctly assessing the ground situation. Montgomery, refusing to risk underprepared infantry in a snowstorm for a strategically unimportant area, did not launch the attack until 3 January. [130][131] Thus Hitler gave responsibility for the key right flank of the assault to the best SS troops and a few Volksgrenadier units under the command of "Sepp" (Joseph) Dietrich, a fanatical political disciple of Hitler, and a loyal follower from the early days of the rise of National Socialism in Germany. Considerable fighting went on for another 3 weeks, with Third Army and First Army linking up on 16 January with the capture of Houffalize. Von der Heydte was given only eight days to prepare prior to the assault. Von der Heydte ended up with a total of around 300 troops. Most of the units committed to the offensive reached their jump off points undetected. A Waffen SS soldier with Kampfgruppe Hansen seen after elements of the 14th Cavalry Group were ambushed and destroyed outside of Poteau, Belgium on December 18, 1944. [89], The U.S. 99th Infantry Division, outnumbered five to one, inflicted casualties in the ratio of 18 to one. [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]. Even Dietrich believed the Ardennes was a poor area for armored warfare and that the inexperienced and badly equipped Volksgrenadier soldiers would clog the roads the tanks needed for their rapid advance. [67] Peiper's forces were rerouted through Lanzerath. After the town was cleared of resistance, Peipers men paused, took stock of the situation, looted American gear,and then resumed their advance, this time out of towntowards Stoumonts small train station only a few kilometers down the road. This view was opposed by the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, as well as Field Marshal Montgomery, who promoted a rapid advance on a narrow front under his command, with the other allied armies in reserve. General Gavin of the 82nd Airborne Division arrived on the scene first and ordered the 101st to hold Bastogne while the 82nd would take the more difficult task of facing the SS Panzer Divisions; it was also thrown into the battle north of the bulge, near Elsenborn Ridge. Model told him it was necessary to make the attempt: "It must be done because this offensive is the last chance to conclude the war favorably. Country of Origin : USA. ", Then Montgomery described the course of the battle for a half-hour. Drawing broad conclusions was for the intelligence staff at SHAEF, who had information from all sources," including aerial reconnaissance. The 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Italian) also Legione SS Italiana ( German: 29. Due to the use of landline communications within Germany, motorized runners carrying orders, and draconian threats from Hitler, the timing and mass of the attack was not detected by Ultra codebreakers and achieved complete surprise. Infuriated by the delay, Peiper relayed direct orders to his tank commanderWerner Poetschketo get his men going in any way necessary. 560 was assigned to Kampfgruppe Kuhlmann (12. Indeed Peiper got closest to the Meuse but got encircled in La Gleize. Discussions on all (non-biographical) aspects of the Freikorps, Reichswehr, Austrian Bundesheer, Heer, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Fallschirmjger and the other Luftwaffe ground forces. The more experienced U.S. 28th Infantry Division put up a much more dogged defense than the inexperienced soldiers of the 106th Infantry Division. The 109th and 110th Regiments of the 28th Division fared worse, as they were spread so thinly that their positions were easily bypassed. by Andy H 22 Aug 2004, 12:22, Post In an indirect, secondary role, the Fifteenth Army, under General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen, recently brought back up to strength and re-equipped after heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden, was located just north of the Ardennes battlefield and tasked with holding U.S. forces in place, with the possibility of launching its own attack given favorable conditions. Between 63,222 and 103,900 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. The Ardennes offensive was also named Rundstedt-Offensive, but von Rundstedt strongly objected "to the fact that this stupid operation in the Ardennes is sometimes called the 'Rundstedt-Offensive'. After the war Hasso von Manteuffel, who commanded the 5th Panzer Army in the Ardennes, was imprisoned awaiting trial for war crimes. American losses over the same period were similarly heavy, totaling 733 tanks and tank destroyers (exclusive of other types and losses suffered by British XXX Corps). [188][189] "Ultra intelligence was plentiful and informative" though "not wholly free from ambiguity", "but it was misread and misused". Planning for the "Watch on the Rhine" offensive emphasized secrecy and the commitment of overwhelming force. Up to this point the German losses had been light, notably in armor, with the exception of Peiper's losses. Hitler rejected this. Panthers of Kampfgruppe Peiper move towards Stoumont under cover of smoke. 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. By moving around the town with the Panthers, the Germans were able to engage the American spotters in the church steeple, and engage and destroy the 90mm that had knocked out Prahms tank earlier. The offensive went forward regardless. "[151][152], Montgomery later said, "Distorted or not, I think now that I should never have held that press conference. Sixth Panzer Army left the Ardennes and ceded its sector to the Fifth Panzer Army on 22 January, while St. Vith was recaptured by the Americans on 23 January, and the last German units participating in the offensive did not return to their start line until February. The author states they are a part of 2. [71] The terrain and poor quality of the roads made the advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper difficult; at the exit to the village of Thirimont, the armored spearhead was unable to travel the road directly to Ligneuville, and Peiper deviated from the planned route, and rather than turn to the left, the armored spearhead turned to the right, and advanced towards the crossroads of Baugnez, which is equidistant from the city of Malmedy and Ligneuville and Waimes. In October, the First Canadian Army fought the Battle of the Scheldt, opening the port of Antwerp to shipping. Involved units are tanks from 7./SS-Pz.Rgt. The total for Seventh Army for January was 11,609. Kampfgruppe Hansen was still struggling against bad road conditions and stiff American resistance on the southern route. They were given priority for supply and equipment and assigned the shortest route to the primary objective of the offensive, Antwerp,[32] starting from the northernmost point on the intended battlefront, nearest the important road network hub of Monschau.[49]. Two major special operations were planned for the offensive. It also stresses the role played by poor Allied security: "The Germans have this time prevented us from knowing enough about them; but we have not prevented them knowing far too much about us".[198]. Eleven black American soldiers were tortured after surrendering and then shot by men of the 1st SS Panzer Division belonging to Schnellgruppe Knittel. By the beginning of February 1945, the lines were roughly where they had been in December 1944. American progress in the south was also restricted to about a kilometer or a little over half a mile per day. approx. The 6th Panzer Army was given priority for supply and equipment and was assigned the shortest route to the ultimate objective of the offensive, Antwerp. While having the effect of keeping the Allied aircraft grounded, the weather also proved troublesome for the Germans because poor road conditions hampered their advance. The leadership composition of the Sixth Panzer Division had a distinctly political nature. BBC correspondent Chester Wilmot explained that "my dispatch to the BBC about it was intercepted by the German wireless, re-written to give it an anti-American bias, and then broadcast by Arnhem Radio, which was then in Goebbels' hands. A trucking system nicknamed the Red Ball Express brought supplies to front-line troops, but used up five times as much fuel to reach the front line near the Belgian border. [172][173], In response to the early success of the offensive, on 6 January Churchill contacted Stalin to request that the Soviets put pressure on the Germans on the Eastern Front. Known as the Battle of the Bulge, the fighting raged for over a month and consumed most of the Third Reichs remaining reserves of fuel and oil. Kampfgruppe Hansen was still struggling against bad road conditions and stiff American resistance on the southern route. Ninth Army had two corps and three divisions; First Army had three corps and fifteen divisions. As a result, parts of the 2nd Panzer Division were cut off. In the 12 years he was Manager of Research Services, Seth and his team increased the oral history collection from 25 to nearly 5,000 oral histories. It contained all the tanks from the division along with an attached battalion of King Tiger tanks. In the west supply problems began significantly to impede Allied operations, even though the opening of the port of Antwerp in late November improved the situation somewhat. On the following day of 26 December the spearhead of Gen. Patton's 4th Armored Division, supplemented by the 26th (Yankee) Infantry Division, broke through and opened a corridor to Bastogne. The objective was the "Baraque Michel" crossroads. As for Peiper and his men, on the night of the 18th and into the early hours of the 19th, his Kampfgruppe paused just outside the small town of Stoumont. In the bitter, desperate fighting of Operation Nordwind, VI Corps, which had borne the brunt of the fighting, suffered a total of 14,716 casualties. A Waffen SS soldier with Kampfgruppe Hansen seen after elements of the 14th Cavalry Group were ambushed and destroyed outside of Poteau, Belgium on December 18, 1944. Army Group A provided the southern advance. This is probably within the first five or six days when US units were still being caught trying to withdraw. 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. SS-Pz.Div. From among the Americans' peak strength of 610,000 troops there were 75,500 battle casualties, including about 8,400 killed. The Americans shelled Kampfgruppe Peiper on 22 December, and although the Germans had run out of food and had virtually no fuel, they continued to fight. Patton and Eisenhower both felt this was a misrepresentation of the relative share of the fighting played by the British and Americans in the Ardennes (for every British soldier there were thirty to forty Americans in the fight), and that it belittled the part played by Bradley, Patton and other American commanders. Ultra also picked up communiqus regarding extensive rail and road movements in the region, as well as orders that movements should be made on time. In 1940 German forces had passed through the Ardennes in three days before engaging the enemy, but the 1944 plan called for battle in the forest itself. They took 36 hours to advance from the Eifel region to Stavelot, while the same advance required nine hours in 1940. So great were the feelings against me on the part of the American generals that whatever I said was bound to be wrong. Shots were traded back and forth but astonishingly no tanks were knocked out by either side. [74], Driving to the south-east of Elsenborn, Kampfgruppe Peiper entered Honsfeld, where they encountered one of the 99th Division's rest centers, clogged with confused American troops. Kampfgruppe Peiper, at the head of Sepp Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army, had been designated to take the Losheim-Losheimergraben road, a key route through the Losheim Gap, but it was closed by two collapsed overpasses that German engineers failed to repair during the first day. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexanders 18th Army Group. Although he realized nothing significant could be accomplished in the Eastern Front, he still believed an offensive against the Western Allies, whom he considered militarily inferior to the Red Army, would have some chances of success.

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