Kampfgruppe Peiper @ Malmedy

[TMurray]

Hi Guys, does anyone have information on the number and type of armoured vehicles attached to KG Peiper which were involved in the clash at Baugnez Crossroads SE of Malmedy on 17th Dec '44? trying to build up a picture of the actual fire fight b/w the WSS and elements of the US 285th Field Artillery.
regards Thomas

[Greg Walden]

Originally Posted by TMurray

Hi Guys, does anyone have information on the number and type of armoured vehicles attached to KG Peiper which were involved in the clash at Baugnez Crossroads SE of Malmedy on 17th Dec '44? trying to build up a picture of the actual fire fight b/w the WSS and elements of the US 285th Field Artillery.
regards Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Are you more interested in the initial fight between Peiper's Panzerspitze and the B/285th FAOB vehicles (if you can call it a fight), or the killing of the POWs later on?

If you have access to any of these books, they go into some detail -

Agte, Patrick
Michael Wittmann: erfolgreichster Panzerkommandant in Zweiten Weltkrieg und die Tiger der Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (Michael Wittmann: most successful tank commander in the Second World War and the Tigers of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler). Rosenheim, Germany: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1994. Translated by David Johnston under the title Michael Wittmann and the Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte (Winnipeg, Canada: J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing Inc., 1996).

Cuppens, Gerd J. Gust
Massacre a Malmedy? Ardennes: 17 décembre 1944. Bayeux, France: Editions Heimdal, 1989.

Reynolds, Michael
The Devil's Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader. New York: Sarpedon, 1995.

Weingartner, James J.
Crossroads of Death: The Story of the Malmedy Massacre and Trial. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.


I think the Weingartner book has some good details, and the Cuppens book has interviews with Werner Sternebeck, the commander of the Panzerspitze. If you don't have those books, I'll look up some specifics in them at home.

Regards,
Greg

[Lloyd I.]

Patrick Agte: Jochen Peiper. Kommandeur Panzerregiment Leibstandarte

looks at the event very well as does Reynolds, Michael
The Devil's Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader. New York: Sarpedon, 1995. Agtes massive volume on Peiper focused a good bit on the trial itself and Peipers postwar woes. Reynold's on the other hand offers an attempt at a forensic study of wether it was shooting POWs out of hand or an effort to stop an escape attempt that went horribly wrong.

I read them both some time ago and recall unit and or vehicle figures in an effort to refute Peipers presence at Malmedy. Sternebecks spitze moved on after the initial engagement followed by Peiper and then Poetschke's group who were charged with doing something with the POWs.

You need to get the composition of a KG to get the figures you need.

[Greg Walden]

The Cuppens book has interviews with Werner Sternebeck, commander of the lead element (Panzerspitze). Sternebeck said his Panzerspitze initially consisted of two Panthers (one from 1. Kompanie LSSAH Panzerregiment and the other from the 2. Kompanie), five PzKw IVs (from 6. Kompanie), and two SPW from the 9. Panzerpionierkompanie.

In Ralf Tiemann's "The Leibstandarte IV/2" (English translation published by Fedorowicz in 1998), Sternebeck relates that the two Panthers were lost to mines around Losheim, one of the PzKw IVs was also lost to mines, another knocked out by a bazooka near Büllingen, and another hit in the turret by antitank fire. So by the time he reached the Baugnez crossroads Sternebeck only had two PzKw IVs and the two pionier SPWs in the Panzerspitze. It was these vehicles that fired on the trucks and jeeps of the 285th FAOB at the crossroads.

Agte's "Jochen Peiper: Kommandeur Panzerregiment Leibstandarte" says about the same, with details of how Sternebeck's elements fired on the US vehicles.

Hope this helps,
Greg

[TMurray]

thanks Greg, yes the original fire fight prior to the capture and killing of members of Battery B (285th Field Artillery).

I did read that some of Peiper's armour was initially knocked out by AT rounds and these vehicles were PzIV's. I also read that there may have been some Wirbelwind AA vehicles involved? does this sound right?

rgds Thomas