Clash at Stoumont WTO (id:#56124)

Avalon Hill (HASL 2 - Kampfgruppe Peiper I ID: KGP CG I)   [next]   [previous]

Stoumont, Belgium 1944-12-19 (57 others)

Overview:

One of the two armored spearheads of the German 6. Panzer Armee in the Ardennes offensive was Kampfgruppe Peiper of SS-Panzer Division 1 “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler”. This Kampfgruppe comprised various elements of SS-Panzer Regiment 1, SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 2, SS-Panzer Artillerie Regiment 1 and SS-Panzer Pionier Bataillon 1, with schwere-SS-Panzer Abteilung 501 and FlaK-Sturm Abteilung 84 attached. After a slow start on 16 December due to poor road conditions, traffic jams, minefields, and the less than satisfactory progress of Volksgrenadiers trying to breach the initial American positions, the Kampfgruppe rolled through the U.S. lines with relative ease. A bridge across the Amblève river at Stavelot was seized on the morning of the 18th; but at Trois-Ponts, a village nestled amidst high hills and named after its three bridges, American engineers blew the bridge that controlled the exit west from the Amblève valley, forcing Peiper to follow the right bank of the river to La Gleize through the most mountainous terrain in Belgium. After capturing another bridge over the Amblève at Cheneux that afternoon, Peiper’ s lead column was rebuffed farther on near Habiémont. Denied exit from the river valley once again, the armored tip of KG Peiper halted for the night in the woods between La Gleize and Stoumont. At about the same time, the U.S. 3/119th Infantry began detrucking in the latter village. To the sound of Germans singing loudly in the distance, the GIs deployed and dug in-though darkness prevented them from choosing positions with optimum fields of fire. Just before dawn, several Shermans and two 90mm AA guns arrived to bolster the defenses; unfortunately for the Americans, one of the latter fell into a ditch as it was being positioned and had to be abandoned. On this ominous note, the stage for the coming battle was set.

Defender: German (SS) (SS-Panzer Regiment 1 and SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 2)  

Errata (source)