Battle of the Bulge

The 117th were at Warden, Germany, just across the border from Kerkrade.

On the morning of the 18th, they were in combat with the 1st SS Panzer Division at Stavelot.

 

There was some re-enactment that my son went to at Bastogne. Done every year.

 

Nope, this was the event at Clervaux / Luxembourg. CEBA = "Cercle d' Études sur la Bataille des Ardennes" Circle of Studies on the Battle of the Bulge the "Mars" and "Aces" re-enactors groups from the Netherlands, "Fronthistoriska Föreningen" from Sweden, the "IG Fallschirmpioniere" from Germany as well as several other groups of re-enactors from all over Europe, organised three days of memorial activities in Clervaux.

http://www.ceba.lu

http://www.voorwaartsmars.com/

http://www.preservinghistory.net/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fronthistoriska-F%C3%B6reningen/283108345042480

http://www.ig-fallschirmpioniere.de/index.php

 

More pics:

 

They apparently had a great time. Nice black and white pics to make them lool even better

 

Link to a video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iTcPGvvagE&feature=c4-overview&list=UUKBGt6VmZCgeof8Bnk2obQg

 

Some more pics from our re-enactment event.

http://www.lieler.net/photos/clervaux-remembrance-day-2013-photos

http://www.lieler.net/photos/clervaux-remembrance-day-2013-photos-maggy-parries.html

 

I've been corresponding with a very pleasant older gentleman in Stavelot. Jean-Marie was five years old on December 18th, 1944, when Stavelot became the epicenter of the Battle of the Bulge. His family was sheltered in the cellar of their home on Rue Haute Rivage, directly opposite the Lemaire house where King Tiger 105 became trapped in the rubble.

At various times during that long day German soldiers also entered the cellar. I have no doubt that some of his memories are crystal clear - the things we see at that age remain with us. But other things must have been put together afterwards, in conversations with his family and others.

Some very unpleasant men first entered, which he identifies as the 3rd company of Schnellgruppe Knittel, under a Walter Leidreiter. There was indeed a company under a Hans-Martin Leidreiter (close enough) and they were one of the groups who crossed the bridge on foot during the fighting on the afternoon of the 18th. These men ejected the family from the cellar for some time, where they huddled in the adjoining courtyard while mortar and artillery rounds fell around them. This courtyard was a few feet below street level, and thus offered some cover from the falling rounds and small arms fire. Then, Leidreiter changed his mind and allowed them back into the cellar, but shoved most of the family into a tiny potato crib in the rear.

At this point, Jean-Marie's father was taken at gunpoint through the other floors of the house and made to enter each room first, in search of American soldiers. The idea, apparently, is that if the Americans didn't shoot him when the door was kicked open, Leidreiter's men will shoot him in the back. There are no Americans, but on the kitchen floor is an American helmet which Jean-Marie had found and has been playing with. The Germans are more interested in looting the cupboards for food, so while they do that, Jean-Marie's father quietly pushes it under the cooker with his foot. Perhaps by "cooker" he means one of those old gas grills that used to be found in kitchens on both sides of the Atlantic - I'm not sure...

All of the family are now back in the cellar while the fighting continues on the street outside. Tanks and other vehicles occasionally rumble past. He brings up one memory which I've heard in Dutch civilian accounts - the sound of German vs American boots. German boots made a heavy clumping sound on the cobbles, but the rubber-soled American boots are very quiet, so even in the cellar they can tell the difference between American and German soldiers as groups move past the house.

At some point, they hear the crash of King Tiger 105 back into the Lemaire house across the street. And a few minutes later, the men from this vehicle enter the cellar. 105 is the Company Commanders tank, a man named Jurgen Wessel. Wessel is a much kinder man than Leidreiter (Jean-Marie describes Wessel as "gracious") and tensions ease. He allows the family out of the cramped potato bin and offers the men his cigarettes. Jean-Marie's mother is Flemish and can converse somewhat with the Germans, though she had been afraid to speak until Wessel had arrived. Two of Wessel's men are wounded. One is "scalped" and the other, a very young man named Hans Neuman, has an awful wound to his abdomen which Jean-Marie remembers vividly to this day. He is alternately screaming and crying and passing out. His mother whispers that this young man will die. She shows Wessel where their drinking water is and otherwise aids him to treat the young man with the stomach wound.

The Americans are closing in now, so the largest soldier picks up Neuman and both the tankers and the Knittel group leave the cellar.
That night (perhaps from the upper floor), they see some hungry Americans taking food from the houses across the street, and surmising that the fighting has swept past their neighborhood, they also flee to look for food and safety.

It's an interesting account. It's clear from his original narrative (I've condensed events) that he thinks the two wounded tankers were injured inside King Tiger 105 and then removed from the tank already wounded, but of course that panzer was entirely intact and only disabled because it was stuck in the rubble. Possibly, Neuman and the other unnamed tanker with the head wound were hit after they exited the tank in the fierce street-fight outside. It is also possible that these two wounded men were from one of the other King Tigers of Wessel's company - at least one was burning at the bridge at the foot of the street. Wessel's Tiger was the last in line and he may have picked up survivors from that vehicle.

If anyone can shed any light on this, I'd be obliged!

 

King Tiger 105.

 

I asked Jean-Marie if he was certain that Hans Neuman had been injured in King Tiger 105 and he responded with a very specific answer, and a good photo (below). 105 was hit on the gun mantle by a bazooka. That damage is not apparent on other pix, but is clear on the photo Jean-Marie sent me.
A few seconds after the bazooka round hit, perhaps when the tank struck the building, the gunner fired his 88 in reflex (jerked the lanyard or pulled the trigger or whatever sets off the gun) and Neuman had jumped from his position and was "pinched" across the abdomen by the recoil of the gun mechanism.

View attachment 20442

 

Jean-Marie sent me the final installment of his adventures in Stavelot in December of 1944.

As above, I've done my best to clean up the google translate mess into understandable English. Can anyone imagine what he means by "faum" in the sentence about arriving at his aunt's house? Google doesn't recognize the word and so perhaps it's a local idiom of some kind? Faum?

He also sent me two drawings made at the time by his future father-in-law, an architect with drafting skills who recorded the scene before and after King Tiger 105 was removed from the street.

 

Great story about the civilians in the Rue Haut Rivage! I wouldn't have thought that any of Wessel's crew was wounded, though it would be quite possible to be wounded by the recoil of the main gun if a crewman was out of his position and near the breech. Wessel took at least one of his crewmen, radio operator SS-Uscha Fritz Belbe, with him in the tank that he took to la Gleize.

Best,
Greg

 

I´ve researched Knittel and his Kampfgruppe for close to two decades and exchanged a lot of information with Leidreiter upto a few weeks before his death in 2007.

The main problem with the above story about Leidreiter in the Rue Haute Rivage is that he wasn´t with his company that afternoon. At noon he accompanied Knittel when the latter crossed Stavelot with a small group and drove to La Gleize to meet with Peiper. At approx. 15.00 hrs his company tried to cross the Stavelot Bridge on foot. In absence of Leidreiter it was SS-Ustuf. Gieseke who led the company (probably just half the company, with the other platoon still in la Vaulx Richard under SS-Ustuf. Haschberger). Gieseke and his men took shelter in the houses near the bridge when the American fighter-bombers attacked. At the same time Leidreiter was taking cover with Knittel and Peiper in a bunker near Cheneux. The air attack lasted for several hours after which Gieseke and his men got stuck at the bridge, unable to cross due to infantry fire from Americans positioned in the hospital in Stavelot. Knittel and Leidreiter returned to Stavelot after the air attack but arrived after dark. Leidreiter asked Coblenz (cdr 2nd company) to lent him two SPWs armed with 20mm guns for an attempt to support Gieseke at the bridge but then figured it was to dangerous to enter Stavelot in the dark with open-topped AFVs. As a result Gieseke and his men never managed to cross the bridge and remained on the Eastern Bank of the river for the rest of the offensive. Since Leidreiter no longer had a company to command, he stayed with Knittel as an adjutant.

 

I would 'salute' this, but I've reached my quota for the day! If not Leidreiter's men, who was fighting in the streets of Stavelot on the afternoon of 18 December? Did Peiper leave some panzergrenadiers in town to cover the armor? Or perhaps the Tiger II Battalion (SS 501) had its own accompanying troops?

 

Well, given the fact that the platoon from 3rd Co led by Gieseke was at the bridge that afternoon and took cover in the houses near the bridge when the American airforce attacked the marching column of the LSSAH, my estimated guess is that the men who entered the house at the Rue Haute Rivage were indeed from Leidreiters company but Leidreiter himself was not present. The "officer" could have been Gieseke or an NCO (not sure if the civilians in the house could distinguish between a Waffen-SS officer and an NCO), who, with his men, was forced to enter the house to take cover not knowing what other dangers awaited them there. Note that scattered GI´s, mostly from C Co, 202nd Engineers, who did not manage to escape the town when Peiper made his breakthrough, where still hiding all over Stavelot. Using human shields, though despicable, is understandable: an Eastern Front mentality from the cdr and nco´s combined with genuine fear with the privates. Most (if not all) of them where teenage recruits with only six weeks basic training before their transfer to the SS-PzAA1 in October.

 

Oh, I misunderstood your earlier post to mean that Gieseke was stuck on the East Bank.

There may have been some 202nd GI's still hiding in town, but by late morning two companies of the 117th had entered.

View attachment 21331 .

 

True, but the 117th and their support units occupied the northern half of the town upto the market square (Place du Marché) but did not dare to enter the bottom. After dark Knittel ordered the advance guard of his battle group to move on to La Gleize and tasked Wägner with his heavy company to deal with the Americans on the square. At 20.00 hrs a "Stummel" and a truck entered the square and were KO´d by Sherman B-15 (sergeant Kirksey, B Co, 743rd TB). A second Stummel quickly turned and fled. After that it was a stalemate with 117th not daring to progress further south into Stavelot and the SS not trying to come up to the northern part. At 22.00 hrs Wägner and his men also moved out to La Gleize.

To continue about the Rue Haute Rivage: the last elements of KG Peiper crossed Stavelot at 11.00 hrs (with only some slow Tigers like 105, 132 and 133 still on the eastern bank of the river). Then the American airforce attacked for the first time. After this attack, Knittel ordered his 2nd Co cdr, Ostuf. Coblenz, to prepare his le. SPW Co to cross the bridge and the town as advance guard. While Coblenz made his Co ready for this task, Knittel and Leidreiter crossed the bridge and the town and drove to La Gleize in search of Peiper for a tactical meeting. At 13.00 hrs 2nd Co crossed the bridge and the town on foot walking besided their vehicles. The Co reported rifle fire from several windows, blaming civilians but possibly stragglers from 202nd Engineers. 2nd Co reached the western edge of the town and waited there. Next Gieseke and his men from 3rd Co approached the bridge but at 15.00 hrs, just as they were crossing it a second air attack struck the marching column of the LSSAH. Some men, who had just crossed the bridge, took shelter in the Rue Haute Rivage, the main body of the 3rd Co however took shelter in houses on the eastern bank of the river. During this attack the 117th IR occupied the northern half of the town.At 15.30 hrs Knittel and Leidreiter left Cheneux and headed back to Stavelot. It was getting dark when they reached Coblenz who was still waiting at the western edge of the town and had set his men to work to level a bomb crater in the road. Coblenz later stated that at this point Knittel had a civilian shot on suspicion of spying. Leidreiter asked Coblenz for two le. SPWs with 2cm guns for an attempt to support the crossing of Gieseke but by the time he was ready to go it was to dark. The Schwimmwagen of 3rd Co were too vulnerable to attempt the crossing in the line of fire of the American infantry in the Stavelot hospital but covered by darkness Wägners heavy Co did, in time for its attempt to counter the 117th in the square. During the rest of the evening and night various units of Knittels battlegroup did cross but the main body of the 3rd Co stayed on the eastern bank and were later assigned to Kampfgruppe Sandig.