American Glider Troops at the Battle of the Bulge
U.S. glider troops fought tenaciously to hold the crossroads town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.
Here s What You Need to Know: Marvie is a quiet town nestled in the Ardennes region of southern Belgium. A farming village with a population of several hundred people, history has almost forgotten the town, but on one day in December 1944, Marvie lay astride a road that led to another town Bastogne. If the German panzergrenadiers and tanks had overrun the glider infantrymen who defended Marvie, they might have taken Bastogne, and the history of the Battle of Bulge would have been radically different.
Hitler s Bodyguards Tried to Take Bastogne and Failed
The division had been ordered to fight through unsuitable terrain, starved of essential supplies, and denied the air support this type of operation demanded.
The story of Hitler’s Bodyguard, the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte (LAH), in the battle for Bastogne does not begin until after the siege of that city had been raised by the U.S. 4th Armored Division, part of General George Patton’s Third Army, on December 26, 1944. By then the American Bastogne salient posed such a threat to the flank and rear of German Army Group B that it could no longer be ignored in fact, by then Bastogne was becoming the center of gravity of the whole Battle of the Bulge.
The True Story of a Nazi Officer s Bloody Blitz Through Belgium
While Joachim Peiper’s destruction can be measured by the casualties on both sides and the number of tanks and vehicles destroyed, there is no metric to measure the pain and misery inflicted, only anecdotal evidence.
Here s What You Need to Know: During the Battle of the Bulge, German SS Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper led the most powerful armored unit in the campaign’s deepest penetration but all for naught.
As the Belgian town of La Gleize burned to the ground around him, 29-year-old SS Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper remained calm in his headquarters, listening to reports and issuing orders. Outside, his outnumbered tanks, exchanged fire with American armor.