Pics : Bulge Battleground - Where the 82nd fought the Waffen-SS

There are now many museums and memorials in the Ardennes and very worthwhile they are. Yet somehow I always like to find somewhere 'real', where perhaps I can feel the atmosphere. Over 60 years after the fighting, that's not so easy.

So whenever I stay in the Ardennes, I scour my Bulge books to see what happened near where I'm staying. My auberge last week was in Wanne, battle HQ of the 1st SS Panzer Division - but you'd never know it today. But close reading of Michael Reynolds' 'The Devil's Adjutant - Jochen Peiper' gave me a couple of leads.

An early-morning foray gave me a little set of photos of what Reynolds describes as 'an American disaster'. The Germans desperately needed to throw vehicles across one of two rivers - the Salm and the Ambleve - to reinforce KG Peiper, trapped at La Gleize. KG Hansen arrived at Wanne on the evening of 20th December ( after having 'starred' in the famous photo-shoot at Poteau ) , reporting to SS-Oberfuhrer Mohnke at Wanne Chateau. They were ordered to seize the bridges at Trois Ponts and Petit Spai.

The 82nd Airborne were holding Trois Ponts - a strong position behind the Salm - but had put their entire E Company and a single 57mm gun over the bridge and up the hill into the woods to block the road from Wanne. Contact was made on the evening of the 20th, two German halftracks being knocked out by bazooka fire and mines. Hansen decided to attack at first light on the 21st, using his 3rd Battalion SS-Panzergrenadiers to clear E Coy 2/505 Airborne from the woods, with his 1st SS-Panzer-Grenadier Battalion and 1st Company Jagdpanzers crossing the Petit-Spai bridge. Ten 2nd SS Anti-Tank Company Jagdpanzers would cross at Trois Ponts.

Scene set for battle.

As I drove down the lane toward the woods, evidence of the Leibstandarte's passing could be seen : -



And this is a German's-eye view of the battle site. Straddling the road were Lt Walas' 2nd Platoon while ahead and to the right were six bazooka teams. Lt. Bailey's 1st Platoon were dug-in to the left of the road and Lt Wurtlich's 57mm was hidden around the bend in the distance.



Here's a view back the other way ( I'd turned the car around ) - to the left and doubling back is the tiny track to the Petit Spai bridge which the Jagdpanzer IVs would take...




The Panzergrenadiers atatcked with four Mk IV tanks ; the 82nd had no chance.....

 

And here's the view from the American side, downhill around the corner. Lt Wurtlich's 57mm got off three shots against the MkIVs from here before being hit, killing the Lieutenant and his crew. Their bodies remained here with their gun until January. Retreating fast in his Jeep down this road, Lt Col Ben Vandervoort colelcted a 9mm round in the shoulder.



I started to walk the woods in search of evidence, and just to the left ( or South ) of the road found a line of foxholes : -





Several yards in front of the foxholes, the forest floor is pock-marked with small craters, evidence of the accurate 81mm mortar fire put down by Lt John Cooper's mortar platoon to cover their comrades....



Time to 're-enact' in one of the foxholes, reflecting on the heavy losses ( including Lt Walas ) taken by the 82nd as these very positions were overrun, and thinking of the hail of machinegun fire from the four MkIVs and halftracks on the road...



E Company alone lost 35 men here. But overall, the Germans lost. The Salm bridge at Trois Ponts was blown as the Americans retreated back into the town, and the Petit Spai bridge collapsed under the weight of the first Jagdpanzer IV to try to cross.

KG Peiper was not relieved.

 

Excellent post, MB, thanks for posting the pics. :S!

 

Good work and fine pics, Martin!

 

I really enjoyed using Reynolds' description and my imagination to bring what would look like just another piece of Ardennes woodland to life.....

 

Always good to see an expert at work Martin , great stuff !!

 

A fantastic post, as usual, Martin.

Your photos are very atmospheric. Did you find any relics from the battle?

Looks like you had good weather too. Hopefully it will be just as favourable in Normandy when I'm there at the end of the month.

 

I had no time to do any 'digging', John.....yes, the best weather I've ever had in the Ardennes. Sitting outside the auberge in shirtsleeves after 9 o'clock at night drinking cold beer ....




But the sharp-eyed may even notice in that transquil picture a vestige of WWII....




( The bullet-mark next to the front door... )

 

Great post Martin, and your photos really 'set' the scene!

 

one can only imagine the carnage for both sides Martin. good to see the forest has revitalized itself something that happens when God and nature takes due course.

wonder if the folk(s) have seen the before pics posted in books elsewhere ? of course having a lovely restaurant situated so is a pleasure at the end of a long day's activities..........

 

Nice docu Martin, on your 3rd picture. That trail to the left... got stuck with my car overthere, 2 years ago.

This cards, in my possession, most likely got wounded overthere, and died at the H.V.Pl. at Montenau.




Kind regards,
Nick

 

Thanks for the great pics and descriptive commentary. And thank you for risking certain laundry expense by jumping into the foxhole. That was a great picture. I also liked the last pic with the bullet-mark near the front door. Nicely done!

 

I'll bet, Nick....wasn't going to risk mine ! As with nearly all European battlefields, I was amazed at how 'small' it all looks when you actually get there after having read the books ( where it all seems 'large' in your imagination ). I really couldn't imagine a Waffen-SS armoured column advancing down that track....but they did....

 

Very much like this kind of research - the bullet holes in the gable, though, could also stem from the later fighting in the area in January 1945 - when the area was recaptured by the Americans?

 

True - but they're on the wrong side of the building. When the Americans advanced through this area, the Waffen-SS were long gone. As you drive downhill following the German line of advance, nearly every building shows evidence of where the Panzer tank machine-gunners 'sprayed' the windows as they approached.

 

Hi Martin,

Nice post. Especially as I lived there for the last three years, only moved across the border into Germany in January. Where you parked you car is only a few yards from a friend of my wife! I drove up and down that road everyday!
I was told that the old people said the road was lined with dead soldiers. And in the garden of a house nearby a skull was found only a few years ago.

David
A Brit behind the Siegfried line (used to live near Trois Ponts).