Posted on 12/21/2014 4:44:30 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
A couple of days after the vicious battle for La Gleize, in which Peiper's 6th kampfgruppe was finally eradicated, the American tank recovery teams came into the shattered village to claim the wreckage of the German armor. The local innkeeper's wife, Jenny Geenan, offered the Americans a bottle of cognac for one of the Tiger tanks in order to keep it in place as a memorial.
It's still there today if you visit La Gleize.
Interesting. Henkster, do you have a map of this stuff? I thought Bastogne, not St. Vith, was the key here.
??? You didn't like those scenes of German M-48 panzers rampaging across the Ardennes Desert?
lol...
I’d like to be in on that discussion. Guess we’ll have plenty of time to do that.
The December 43 attack involved the better part of XLVIII and XXIV Panzer Corps, and was most of the mobile striking power on the southern half of the German front. It made some progress in hard fighting, but by then the Germans were too weak to do more than gain a hard fought local success against a much larger Soviet opponent. It may well have been the memory of this operation that helped influence Hitler to launch his decisive attack in the west.
I’ll see what I can find.
Short Version:
St.Vith was a key road junction for the 6th SS Panzer Army advance. Between the Americans holding the Elsenborn Ridge and St. Vith the Germans had no where to go.
Due to the terrain in the Ardennes the Battle of the Bulge was as much a fight for roads and crossroads as anything else.
Bastonge was key to the 5th Panzer Army and the German failure to capture it in a timely manner meant the 5th Panzer Army abilty to maneuver was severely restricted.
Plus Bastonge had “Nuts” :-)
Regards
akfa6 ;>}
Yes, all those elements are appealing to me. For several years, I wasn’t a regular on the thread, but I would notice it occasionally and usually comment on something in the ads.
Cute story!
The units holding St. Vith are one of the oddest grab-bag assortments I’ve seen, often not even in each other’s chain of command, but somehow it worked. Having 7th Armored, a veteran division with good leaders, centering them seems to have been a key. The 82nd sure provided needed shoring too.
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
Yes, we've seen what a hard slog the Allied fall/winter offensive has been. Now, the Germans have come out of their defenses and are playing in the open. The German casualties will not be hugely larger than ours but they can't replace them and will have lost their strategic reserve in the West.
It would have been a better use of Skorzeny's infiltrators to have them drive the road net looking for First Army HQ and its supply dumps. A study of a road map would lead to some pretty good guesses where the main supply dump might be.
More important for the Nazis was the loss of material and ammunition. The German Army lacked firepower more than manpower at the end.
King Tiger
The whole thing would have been better aimed at the Soviets but Hitler was convinced that the US was weak-willed and would throw in the towel if pressed.
I suppose he is grasping at delusions. Loss of the war does not mean just loss of power for Hitler and his key henchmen, it means death.
There will be a noticeable lessening in the intensity in German resistance in the west starting around the end of January. The were stoked for this offensive, and when it failed, there was nothing left. No soldiers, no weapons, no supplies, no morale.
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