Part 4 - Stoumont, La Gleize, and the End

12/30/07

Peiper was once again forced to try to find another route to the west.  He was successful in getting some of his SPWs across smaller bridges, but his tanks could not cross the winter-swollen Lienne creek.  He wasn't ready to give up: if he turned back north toward the village of Stoumont, there was another bridge beyond that town that crossed the Ambleve.

Peiper consolidated his forces at La Gleize during the night of 18 December, and on the 19th he set out for Stoumont.  There were American forces defending the town and Peiper lost a Panther tank, but the other Panthers pressed on.

Entering Stoumont from the east.  On 19 December 1944 there was a burning Panther on the road here.   (author's photo)

The lead Panthers continued through Stoumont and took the road toward the train station, beyond where they hoped to find another bridge over the Ambleve intact.  However, as they passed the station they ran into a strong American force of 16 tanks and tank destroyers.  The outnumbered Panthers didn't have much of a chance; three were quickly knocked out and the rest withdrew.  For all practical purposes, this was the farthest advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper.

The three knocked out Panthers were photographed after the war; the Stoumont railway station is just out of view in the left distance.    (December 1944 Museum, La Gleize)

This monument marks the farthest advance of the Kampfgruppe on the road beyond Stoumont where the Panthers were knocked out. It is one of a series of monuments erected by the Belgian Touring Club to mark the farthest German advances during the Battle of the Bulge. It says, "Here the invader was stopped, winter 1944-45."    (author's photo)

Map of the final battle area of Kampfgruppe Peiper.  The route labeled N633 from La Gleize to Stoumont on this modern map was the N33 in 1944.  (Microsoft MapPoint via Expedia.com)

Strong American forces were moving into the area, and Peiper was now surrounded, with insufficient fuel to take him any farther.  He held Stoumont for a couple of days, with fierce fighting raging in and around the St. Edouard Preventorium (a large building on the west side of town).  The Germans fortified the building and called it the "Festung Sankt Edward" (Saint Edward's Fortress), but were eventually forced out.  They withdrew from Cheneux as well, and Peiper concentrated all his forces at La Gleize.

The St. Edouard Preventorium in Stoumont.  (author's photo)

During the defense of La Gleize Peiper had his headquarters in the basement of this house.   (author's photo)

Despite battering by American tanks and artillery, Peiper's forces held on.  Tigers and Panthers made a valiant defense of the Werimont farm on the southern edge of La Gleize, until accurate American fire knocked out several of the tanks.

The typical hilly terrain in the area of the Ardennes through which Peiper fought.  The buildings on the hill at center are the Werimont farm, and La Gleize can be seen in the right distance.  (author's photo)

Peiper finally pulled out of La Gleize on Christmas Eve, abandoning his equipment.  For his valiant attempt to reach the Meuse he received the Swords to his Knights Cross, and was promoted to SS-Standartenführer (colonel).  He surrendered to the Americans with the rest of the 1st SS Panzer Division at the end of the war.  He was quickly labeled a war criminal, and was tried for his reported involvement in the Malmedy Massacre.  He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in fact Peiper served only 11 years.  He at first tried to remain in Germany, but lost a couple of jobs when his "war criminal" background became too well known.  He and his wife moved to a small village in France where he made a living as a translator.  There on 14 July 1976 he was murdered and his house burned by persons who were never identified, but were thought to be French Communists.  Peiper had died as he had lived: a fighter; his rifle and pistol were at hand beside his burned corpse.  He was buried in the family plot at Schondorf am Ammersee in Bavaria.

The end of the trail of Kampfgruppe Peiper - Peiper's grave in Bavaria.  Horst and Hasso were his two brothers who died during the war, Charlotte and Woldemar were his mother and father, and his wife Sigurd was buried in the plot at her death in 1979.  (author's photo) 

Peiper's battlefields still yield the relics of war.  The shrapnel (probably American artillery shrapnel) and steel SS belt buckle were recovered at La Gleize.  The .30 caliber American rifle bullet was "eyeballed" in a crack between cobblestones in the main town square of Stavelot in 1994.  Incredible as it seems, it had laid there for 50 years!  (author's photo)

All text copyright 2005-2008 Gregory A. Walden. All rights reserved; material from this website may only be republished with the author’s permission.