Panthers in the Mist

Early on the morning of 20 December, Task Force Jordan of Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division, had set out from Theux. Its destination was the German defenses at Stoumont, some ten miles to the south. As its point vehicles, proceeding down the main road, attempted to exit …

1944-12-21

KGP03

Early on the morning of 20 December, Task Force Jordan of Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division, had set out from Theux. Its destination was the German defenses at Stoumont, some ten miles to the south. As its point vehicles, proceeding down the main road, attempted to exit the rocky pass just north of the town they were ambushed by well-camouflaged, hull-down Panthers which quickly knocked out two U.S. tanks. As no off-road deployment was possible, the task force halted for the night and hunted for alternative routes through the forest. On the 21st, Task Force Jordan's orders were to attack, in conjunction with the depleted 3/119th Infantry, toward Rouli once the sanatorium had been recaptured by the 1/119th. The latter got off to a late start, and, despite the fact that the sanatorium was still in German hands, the task force and 3/119th advanced shortly after noon -- this time using the narrow farm trails meandering southward through the wooded hills.

Stoumont, Belgium

The Malmedy massacre was a war crime committed by members of Kampfgruppe Peiper, a German Waffen-SS unit led by Joachim Peiper and part of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, at Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium, on December 17, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. Eighty-four American prisoners of war were massacred by their German captors. The prisoners were assembled in a field and shot with machine guns; those still alive were killed by close-range shots to the head.

American

German

Scenario Type = Standard