Blocking Kampfgruppe Peiper : the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Battle of the Bulge

424 Pages·2015·18.72 MB·English

by  van Lunteren

Published in the United States of America and Great Britain in 2015 by
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS
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Copyright 2015 © Frank van Lunteren
ISBN 978-1-61200-313-9
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-314-6
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Former 2nd Lt. Robert E. Bramson, F/504
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1 Camp Sissonne: Sissonne, France, November 15–December 15, 1944
2 A Serious Breakthrough: Werbomont and Rahier, Belgium, December 16–19,
1944
3 The Road to Cheneux: Cheneux, Belgium, December 20, 1944
4 The Battle of Cheneux: Cheneux, Belgium, December 20, 1944
5 The Capture of Cheneux: Cheneux and Monceau, Belgium, December 20–21,
1944
6 The End of Kampfgruppe Peiper: Cheneux and Trois Ponts, Belgium, December
22–24, 1944
7 Entrapment and Endurance: Bra-sur-Lienne, En Floret, Belgium, December 25–
26, 1944
8 Breaking Up the German Assault: Bra-sur-Lienne, Bergifaz, Belgium, December
26–31, 1944
9 Striking Back: Belgium, January 1–6, 1945
10 Victory at a High Price: Farnières, Mont and Rochelinval, January 7, 1945
11 Twin Towns: Petit Halleux and Grand Halleux, Belgium, January 8–11, 1945
12 Recuperation: Remouchamps, Belgium, January 12–24, 1945
13 Advance by Attrition: Hunnange and Herresbach, Belgium, January 25–29,
1945
14 Decimation at Manderfeld: Holzheim, Eimerscheid and Manderfeld, Belgium,
January 30–31, 1945
15 The Battle for the Mertesrott Heights: Mertesrott Heights, Germany, February
2, 1945
16 Breaching the Siegfried Line: Mertesrott Heights, Germany, February 2, 1945
17 From One Forest to Another: Huertgen Forest, Germany, February 3–21, 1945
POSTSCRIPT: United States, January 1946–January 2015
APPENDIX A: Distinguished Service Cross Recipients
APPENDIX B: Prisoners of War Captured in the Battle of the Bulge
APPENDIX C: B Company Replacements at Cheneux, December 22, 1944
APPENDIX D: C Company Replacements at Cheneux, December 22, 1944
APPENDIX E: Order of Battle for the Battle of the Bulge, December 18, 1944
APPENDIX F: Order of Battle for the Battle of the Bulge, January 5, 1945
APPENDIX G: Order of Battle for the Battle of the Bulge, January 26, 1945
APPENDIX H: Order of Battle for the 551st Parachute Battalion, January 7, 1945
APPENDIX I: The Prisoner of War Experience of 2nd Lieutenant Harry Rollins
NOTES
CONTRIBUTING VETERANS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
MAPS
December 16–24, 1944: Operation Wacht am Rhein
December 20, 1944: Cheneux
December 20–21, 1944: Battles of Cheneux and Monceau
December 26, 1944: Battle of Floret—Morning
December 26, 1944: Battle of Floret—Afternoon
December 26–27, 1944: 9th SS-Panzer Division Attacks
January 7, 1945: 551st PIB Attack at Rochelinval
January 7–8, 1945: Decimation of German 62nd Volksgrenadier Division
January 28–30, 1945: Capture of Herresbach and Eimerscheid
January 30, 1945: Company A Charges at Manderfeld
February 2, 1945: Breaching the Siegfried Line
February 9–18, 1945: Huertgen Forest
Dedicated to all the officers and men who served in the 504th Regimental Combat
Team in World War II. Their sacrifices will not be forgotten.
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, Moving in marches upon
the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, To the end, to the end,
they remain.
—Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen (1914)
“There is very heavy fighting going on there now between American
paratroops and German SS-men.”
—BBC reporter Robert Barr at Cheneux, December 21, 1944
“Our casualty rates, including those of my platoon, were high, not only
because of combat injuries but also because of the brutal weather
conditions.”
—2nd Lt. Robert E. Bramson, F Company
“Began wondering if this Siegfried Line wasn’t just a big hoax. We changed
our minds fast—all hell broke loose.”
—2nd Lt. Charles E. Zastrow, E Company, Letter to his parents, February 10, 1945
FOREWORD
Iserved in F Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of
the 82nd Airborne Division, briefly in Holland and subsequently in Belgium, until I was
wounded on February 2, 1945. The 82nd to this day is considered a very famous
division. I was proud to have served in such a fine unit, and especially one led by
General Gavin, an aggressive leader who was often seen up with the forward units.
I believe the successful and necessary use of airborne troops in infantry ground
operations in Belgium for an extensive period, though lightly armed and equipped and
under very adverse conditions, further fostered the unmatched reputation of the 82nd
Airborne. At that time few, if any, units had as much front-line duty as the 82nd, having
fought in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy and in Holland.
In this second volume Frank van Lunteren’s very exhaustive research describes the
504th operations during the Battle of the Bulge, leading up to the breaching of the
Siegfried Line. As I was a young paratroop officer rather low in the chain of command,
van Lunteren’s research in essence has given me information about the regiment’s
operations through a different set of eyes than my own. My knowledge, on the other
hand, was at most times limited only to what I was able to hear or observe. Conditions
during this period were often physically difficult due to the nature of the terrain, the
extreme cold, and at times the deep snow. Our casualty rates, including those of my
platoon, were high not only because of combat injuries but also because of the brutal
weather conditions. For example, the morning I was wounded I had to be carried off the
Mertesrott Heights by just-captured German soldiers, under guard, as no rescue vehicles
were able to penetrate the hilly forest trails due to the difficult weather.
After the victorious breaching of the Siegfried Line on the German–Belgian border,
the regiment and the division’s other units continued successfully into Germany, where
they subsequently served as the occupation troops in Berlin. Upon returning to the
United States, the 82nd was given the honor of leading the gala Victory Parade in New
York City—a very proud moment.
Second Lieutenant Robert E. Bramson
F Company, 504 PIR, 1944–1945
INTRODUCTION
The Ardennes Campaign, popularly known as “the Battle of the Bulge,” is probably the
sole military campaign fought by the U.S. Army in World War II that is characterized
by defeat followed by ultimate victory after weeks of fighting in extremely adverse
weather. Both Malmédy and Bastogne are iconic geographical names that trigger
memories of the Malmédy Massacre by Kampfgruppe Peiper, and the “Battered
Bastards of Bastogne,” whose defense of the town earned the 101st Airborne Division
collectively a Presidential Unit Citation in March 1945. But these places, along with the
Elsenborn Ridge, Skyline Drive, Lanzerath, and the so-called “twin towns” of Krinkelt
and Rocherath are only a few of the many important battle sites in the Belgian
Ardennes. Nor was Kampfgruppe Peiper first and foremost defeated at Trois Ponts by
the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 291st Combat Engineer Battalion. As
the late Clay Blair wrote in the outstanding Ridgway’s Paratroopers , the most
important defeat occurred “at Stoumont and La Gleize, [where] Peiper’s kampfgruppe
was blocked and under heavy attack from the north by Hobb’s 30th Infantry Division,
supported by Rose’s CCB [Combat Command B] and, from the southwest, by Tucker’s
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.” ¹
Historians have well covered the actions of the 30th Infantry Division and the 3rd
Armored Division led by Rose, but the heroic stand of the 504th Parachute Infantry
Regiment against the 9th SS-Panzer Division between Bra-sur-Liennes and Les
Villettes is little known, as is the brave, successful counterattack by the 1st and 3rd
battalions staged from Rahier on elements from Kampfgruppe Peiper at Cheneux and
Monceau. Historians who have viewed these battles as an unimportant sideshow have
limited their research to other books about the 82nd Airborne Division, the division’s
official After Action Reports, and Capt. Thomas Helgeson’s dramatic “Narrative of
Action of the First Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry at Cheneux, Belgium.” Blocking
Kampfgruppe Peiper is the first examination to draw extensively on Morning Reports
and S-2 and S-3 Journals, and incorporates much new material from written and oral
interviews I personally conducted with numerous 504th veterans who participated in the
Ardennes Campaign. I believe the story that emerges from this new research
significantly clarifies and expands our knowledge of the course of the war in the Bulge,
and demonstrates that the actions of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment—which
include breaching one of the most difficult sections of the Siegfried Line—have
unjustly been long overlooked.
It is my over-all aim as an historian to provide, as much as possible, an equal amount
of information on each campaign fought by the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
Blocking Kampfgruppe Peiper introduces replacements to the regiment as they join it,
and presents new background material on the disbanded units and other pools from