Get in Touch

E-mail us at: info@relivehistory44-45.com

Call us at: +31-6-2329-8299 (Ronald Stassen)

logo

Northern Shoulder

We offer this Northern Shoulder Tour which takes you through the area were For the Battle of The Bulge, Hitler needed three armies. The one in the North is the Sixth Panzer Army. The heaviest point of the three German armies was in this sector and it was here where Waffen-SS troops were added to Sepp Dietrich's troops. The success of the complete plan was resting on three pillars namely weather, surprise, and speed. Dietrich had Schutzstaffel troops and top units under Peiper, Hansen, Knittel and others. Friedrich von der Heydte would also jump near rollbahn A in the North and set-up a roadblock. As the North was the area were the main attack would develop Dietrich asl had schwere panzerabteilungen and King Tigers with him. Two known operations were added as Operation Stosser Hawk in English and Greiff which was called Griffin in English. The 6th Panzer Armee under command of Josef Sepp Dietrich attacked towards the Meuse river and then on to the port of Antwerp was the plan.




In this are new units without combat experience were situated as the 99th Infantry Division and the 106th Infantry Division. But also experienced units as the 1st infantry Division, the 2nd Infantry Division. As these units were the first situated along the German border these took heavy beatings and many were taken POW. However these men fought a vicious battle and new to stop the German attack. On the 20th of December the order came for the German Armee to move the main attack from the North to the middle/South of the Ardennes so towards the Bastogne sector.

An example of an itinerary below:


Losheimergraben:

At Losheimergraben we will visit the dragon teeth of the Westwall (Siegfried Line). This dragon's teeth barrier in German Höckerlinie was built under order of the Aachen-Saar-Programm 1939.

We will also visit the 99th infantry Division monument erected in honor of the 1st Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment and attached units of the 99th Division, whose valor and heroic action at this location on Dec 16, 1944, was recognized by award of the Presidential Unit Citation. The fateful position of the 394th would bring against it the main effort of the 1st Schutzstaffel Panzer Corps and, indeed, that of the Sixth Panzer Army.


Lanzerath:

We will talk about the heroic actions of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division. On the first morning of the Germans' advance this 18 man unit along with four forward artillery observers held off an entire German battalion of more than 500 men for more than 14 hours, killing or wounding 92, and significantly delayed the German advance, Kampf gruppe Peiper, in a vital sector of the northern front. Every single member of the platoon was much later decorated, making it one of the most decorated platoons in all of World War II.


Eyewitness Adolf Schür in Lanzerath, 
2nd from left, front row. Photo from about 1936.
(C) Mike Smeets

Meyerode:

By the morning of 17 December, the Germans had captured Schoenberg and controlled the bridge across the river to St. Vith. The Service Battery tried to displace to St. Vith through the village and were hit by heavy German armored and small arms fire. Many were killed and those that remained were captured. As the men were being herded to the rear, the column was attacked by an American aircraft. Eleven men from the 333rd escaped into the woods. They marched in a north-west direction seeking the American lines. At about 3 p.m. they approached the first house in the nine-house hamlet of Wereth. The house was owned by Mathias Langer and his family.


Baugnez:

Just after noon on Sunday, December 17, 1944, Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion came under fire from Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Baugnez crossroads. They subsequently surrendered and between around 1415 hours, as the entire group stood prisoner in the field, machine-gun fire cut them down where they stood.


Ligneuville:

After leaving Baugnez the spearhead of Kampfgruppe Peiper arrived at Engelsdorf as the Germans, however this is Ligneuville. Arrived at Ligneuville. Here we will talk In memory of the eight American prisoners of the 9th Armored Division who were shot about 200 meters west of Hotel du Moulin by the advanced guard; the eight men  were murdered by two men of Kampfgruppe Peiper.

​

La Vaulx Richard

Here on 17th of December 1944 twelve US Soldiers of Company A-Company, 27th Infantry Battalion, 9th Armored Division and three civilians of this hamlet were cowardly slaughtered by a nazi horde belonging to Kampfgruppe Knittel. There is a monument to commemorate them, erected on the exact place where their bodies were found.



Stavelot:

Here we will discuss the Tiger II with turret number 222 of Schwere SS Panzer-Abteilung 501, which was abandoned just south of the bridge over the Amblève. arrived at Ligneuville. Here we will talk In memory of the eight American prisoners of the 9th Armored Division who were shot about 200 meters west of Hotel du Moulin by the advanced guard; the eight men 



Trois-Ponts:

Trois Ponts (three bridges) was important for the two bridges, one of the Salm river and one of the Ambleve river, the third would be the railroad bridge over the Ambleve. At Trois Ponts we will discuss the actions of C/51st Combat Engineers battalion, the fight on the high grounds by Easy company and F company 505th PIR and the heroic actions of 1st LT Jake Wertich who chose to stay behind and firing the 57th mm gun and CPL Stokes Taylor who provided machine gun fire to keep the advancing German infantry of Kampfgruppe Knittel’s spearhead at bay. Both men were killed during these actions.


La Gleize:

At La Gleize we will visit the massive Konigs Tiger II or in English the Kings Tiger with turret number 213 who was disabled at Werimont farm and under command of Schutzstaffel Obersturmführer Helmut Dollinger. Another King Tiger at the Werimont farm was the one with turret number 221 under Schutzstaffel Untersturm-führer Georg Hantusch. Fifteen US tanks coming from Roanne were taken under fire by the Tigers but both missed. After the Americans opened fire and from Tiger 213 the front was blown off blown off of the, Tiger 221 also got severely hit and both tank crews had to bail out. Madame Jenny Geenen-Dewez traded the tank in July 1945 from the American troops that where clearing the village for a bottle of Cognac.


Stoumont:

Here we will discuss the fighting between Kampfgruppe Peiper and elements of the 30th Infantry Division. An American probe from the north, by TF Jordan 3rd Armored Division, had already been repulsed. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 119th Infantry Regiment 30th Infantry Division belatedly received some armored support and prepared to make their move.

 

And others places are also possible.


Share by: