What's the real story on Joachim Peiper?

Just finished reading The Devil's Advocate by Michael Reynolds and have read sections of Patrick Agte's Joachim Peiper (photos here are great and several that I have never seen in other WWII books). Description of Peiper's escape and fording bitter cold, freezing river and getting back to Wanne after Battle of Bulge has failed is unbelievable. However, there are a lot of contrasts in the two books- is this due to Reynolds being ex-British military and critic of Peiper and Agte, German author and apparent apologetic of Peiper, or what is the real story with Peiper????

 

Peiper ( along with such things as Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Britain, Market-Garden and the StG44 ) has to be one of this Forum's most-discussed topics. Search 'Peiper' on the Forum and you will find many previous discussions, including one quite recently......

 

Thanks Martin....I did a search and read the threads....so it seems there is no straight forward answer to this character and I'm not alone in recognizing the incronguencies between Agte and Reynolds!!

 

The thing that has always puzzled me is how tenaciously and diehard the Germans and SS were in 1944 and 1945 after any reasonably thinking soldier must have realized that the war was lost...It is kind of the same thing we saw in the American Civil War in the later 2 years, 1864 and 1865. Clearly the Confederates could not win the war yet they fought tenaciously and relentlessly right up until the end when there was a negotiated surrender but you have to wonder what motivates individuals to persist in a "lost cause" when the writing is clearly on the wall so to speak. The Confederates fought and died right till the end for their cause, right or wrong, and it seems like the Germans did the same. Maybe values, virtues, and honor, loyalty, and dedication meant more to that generation than it does to this generation...this is certainly true when comparing men of the Victorian and Civil War eras to those of today. What do you think was the driving force that kept the Germans and SS fighting to the last man so to speak? Terror, fear of reprisal and revenge on family, allegiance to their lost cause, fear of execution upon capture or surrender as was the rule on the Eastern front from what I've read....???