Small groups of combat engineers, antitank gunners, and infantry bought vital hours when they blew bridges and set roadblocks across Peiper’s path, hindering his advance. Ike agreed, and within hours the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were on their way from camps in France to the Ardennes.īut getting these reinforcements into position would take time, a precious commodity. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, for release of the Theater Reserve. Hodges then appealed to General Dwight D. He first contacted the Ninth Army, which promised the 30th Division then refitting near Aachen. Codename “Daredevil”Įven as Kampfgruppe Peiper rampaged westward toward Liege, Hodges looked for help to defeat it. There, on December 17, some 80 American soldiers were ruthlessly gunned down after surrendering to Peiper’s troops. Jochen Peiper, this powerful force was headed for the crossroads city of Liege, first stop toward its ultimate objective of Antwerp and the Belgian coast.Īmid reports of mass surrenders on the front lines and English-speaking German commandos terrorizing the First Army rear area, Hodges’s staff began hearing rumors of a massacre involving Kampfgruppe Peiper at Baugnez, near Malmedy. This was Kampfgruppe Peiper, the spearhead of the German 1st SS Panzer Division. One marauding enemy column particularly worried General Hodges. While some frontline units stubbornly held their ground, others simply disappeared-annihilated by the Nazi juggernaut. All across the Ardennes Forest, American forces were reeling from a surprise German counterattack that struck on the morning of December 16, 1944. First Army, looked up from his maps and saw chaos everywhere.
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