Kamfgruppe Peiper stranded, Ligneuville

At exactly this location, the vanguard of Kamfgruppe Peiper got stuck in a swampy area near this small river “Ru de Fagnes.”

The vanguard is part of the 1st SS Panzer Divsion “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler”. This Kamfgruppe consists of about 800 vehicles and 4,000 soldiers. At this then swampy area, the vanguard drives into a jam. This brings the entire Kamfgruppe riding behind them to a halt. If anything is what cannot be used during this attack it is standstill. The assault groups must advance on a stalled timetable to the Meuse River, and from there to Antwerp.

Time is of the essence. Because they get stuck here, the follow troops decide to turn right via the main road toward Baugnez. Arriving around 1 p.m., the newly advance guard encountered a convoy of the 285th US Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB) at the Baugnez intersection. They were on their way from Malmedy to Sankt-Vith to support the 7th Armoured Division in observing from where the shelling on their positions was coming from.

At the intersection of Baugnez, the convoy is surprised by the Kamfgruppe Peiper. Only lightly armed, they are no match for the heavily armed 1st SS Panzer Divsion “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler.” After a short battle, the 285th FAOB surrenders. The captured American soldiers are driven together in a meadow.

At some point the soldiers of the 1st SS Panzer Division begin firing on the American POWs. After some time, when all the American soldiers have been shot, SS soldiers walk past the victims to see if there are any survivors. They pretend to come to offer help. However as soon as an American soldier gives a sign of life, he is shot at close range through the head or heart.

Unwritten orders on the eve of the Ardennes offensive indicated that there was no time or space to take prisoners. Who gave the order at the time at Baugnez remains unclear. The SS hardened on the Eastern Front, again had no fellow eyes. There was no time and space to transport and care for the prisoners to the hinterland given the impending end of NAZI Germany.

Finally, the Kamfgruppe Peiper continued its way toward Ligneuville, where again 8 American soldiers were killed in cold blood, near Hotel Du Moulin, after being captured.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski