![]() Poised on the opposite bank of the Amblève River, Peiper forced his way across the river and rolled past Stavelot, never fully securing the town, determined to make his way out of the Amblève Valley and across the Meuse. Delayed by roads not suitable for tanks and the stout defense of locations such as Lanzerath, Ligneuville, and Stavelot, Peiper and his Kampfgruppe nevertheless achieved many of their objectives by December 18, 1944. In the initial days of the offensive, Kampfgruppe Peiper rolled through the Ardennes like a slow-moving train. Named after its commanding officer, Jochen Peiper, Kampfgruppe Peiper was the most powerful force in the entire German offensive in the north. The spearhead of the spearhead, so to speak, was a unit that would become synonymous with the Ardennes offensive, Kampfgruppe Peiper. Equipped with a vast array of armored vehicles from tanks to mobile flak vehicles, the 1st SS was a formidable foe for any unit opposing them. A battle-hardened unit, the “ Leibstandarte” was filled with both young, green troops, and combat veterans in almost equal number. The 1st SS Panzer Division “ Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” was to be the spearhead of the assault in the north. It was thought that Hitler’s elite SS units would be the ones to carry the Germans to victory and force the western allies to the negotiating table. The powerful Waffen SS Panzer Divisions, “ Leibstandarte” and “Hitler Jugend” were expected to burst through the American lines along what would be called the “Northern Shoulder” and blast their way to the port of Antwerp. There sat the heaviest and, at least theoretically, the most lethal striking forces of the offensive. When the Germans launched their last major offensive on the western front, Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein, the heaviest portion of their initial assault force lay in the northern sector of the offensive. ![]()
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