The Leibstandarte Division

The Leibstandarte Division was divided into three large kampfgruppen, centred on the panzer regiment and its two panzergrenadier regiments, and a "fast group" based on the division's reconnaissance battalion. Hitlerjugend was organized in the same way. The most powerful kampfgruppe was Joachim Peiper's, which had all the Leibstandarte's tanks, its King Tigers, a panzergrenadier battalion carried in armoured halftracks, and a battalion of army howitzers. All told, he had more than 5000 men, 117 tanks, 149 halftracks, 24 artillery pieces, 40 anti-aircraft guns, and more than 500 other vehicles. It was the Leibstandarte's lead unit, and the success of the offensive would depend on its progress.

The atrocious road network meant that each division was allocated no more than two Rollbahns each, so their kampfgruppen were lined up behind one another waiting for the lead troops to blast open a way forward. With little room for manoeuvre off-road, the lead kampfgruppe was effectively reduced to relying on the handful of tanks it could place at its head. Behind Peiper's kampfgruppe were nose-to-tail columns of tanks and trucks.

Although the Germans had amassed more than 17 million litres (3.73 million UK gallons) of fuel to support the offensive, the jammed road network meant the troops at the front of the convoys could not rely on refuelling tankers getting through to them. So Peiper and his colleagues in the lead kampfgruppe were ordered to seize US petrol dumps to maintain the pace of their advance.

A slow advance

The fog, rain and low cloud that shrouded the Ardennes provided cover from the Allied fighter-bombers that had paralyzed German panzer columns in Normandy in the summer. On the freezing night of 15 December, the Leibstandarte moved into its forward assembly areas behind the sector of front held by the 12th Volksgrenadier and 3rd Parachute Divisions. The Hitlerjugend was waiting a few kilometres to the north, behind the 277th Volksgrenadier Division.

The 12th and 3rd Divisions' attacks quickly stalled in the face of very determined, but poorly coordinated, American resistance. They were supposed to have captured the town of Losheim and its key road junction in a couple of hours, to allow Peiper's tanks to roar into action as dawn broke. Minefields held up the attack, and the two divisions were still fighting their way through American positions in the early afternoon. When a breach was opened, it was found a key bridge was blocked and a temporary one had to be built by army engineers. It was not until well after dark that his column got into Losheim, where Peiper was dismayed to find the commander of the lead parachute regiment had allowed his men to go to sleep. The determined Waffen-SS officer "took" the paratroopers under his command and they were soon loaded onto the back of his King Tigers, which pressed on into the night.

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