Look Mom, No Tanks!

After being isolated for 7 days, out of fuel and low on ammunition, Peiper was finally given permission to breakout from his beleaguered position at La Gleize. Leaving a rear guard to demolish the remaining tanks and vehicles (numbering nearly …

1944-12-24

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After being isolated for 7 days, out of fuel and low on ammunition, Peiper was finally given permission to breakout from his beleaguered position at La Gleize. Leaving a rear guard to demolish the remaining tanks and vehicles (numbering nearly 100), Peiper and some 800 survivors set off in the dead of night to find a way back to friendly lines. Marching in single file they crossed the Ambleve River and up into the rugged hills above Trois Ponts. Somewhere out in the dark, the newly arrived 456th PFAB of the 82nd Airborne division was blocking their path.

Bastogne, Belgium

The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the densely wooded Ardennes highlands converged on Bastogne, just a few miles away from the border with neighboring Luxembourg, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. The siege was from 20 to 27 December, until the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton's Third Army.

Wikipedia: Siege of Bastogne

German

Americans