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Emirates. Fly Better. And

2:11

that is, to see this thing

2:13

go to the end. Meanwhile in

2:15

the art then, the Americans have

2:17

recaptured the initiative, moving step by

2:20

step back over the lost ground.

2:22

Oberst Piper is a very

2:24

arrogant, typical SS man, thoroughly

2:27

imbued with the Nancy philosophy.

2:29

He is very proud of

2:31

his regiment and division, and

2:34

is inclined to make

2:36

derogatory remarks about other

2:38

units. Did you honestly expect

2:40

to reach the Murs River

2:42

in one day? If our

2:44

own infantry had broken through

2:46

by 0700 as originally planned,

2:49

my answer is yes. I think we

2:51

might have reached the Murs in fun

2:53

day. Well, those were extracts from the introduction

2:56

to foreign military study, East Inte Ten,

2:58

and then their subsequent interview notes with

3:00

Obest Piper, after the war, about Camp

3:02

Grapper Piper's efforts in the Battle of

3:04

the Bulge. Welcome to their ways of

3:06

making you talk with Me, Murray, and

3:08

Jason, of course. That was like being

3:11

a fly on the wall, wasn't in

3:13

Jim. Yeah, yeah, it was really. I

3:15

mean, they're extraordinary these, these foreign military

3:17

studies. Yeah yeah and the ones with

3:19

Piper are fantastic is that there's a

3:21

series of them and it's really fantastic

3:23

because they start off with a translator

3:26

speaking in German and then halfway through

3:28

he corrects them in perfect English. So

3:30

there's no I didn't say it's exactly

3:32

like that. Absolutely brilliant. Piper's a bugger

3:34

that's what we're going to discover. Well

3:36

yes I mean it's interesting you know

3:38

here we are on episode 5 of

3:41

our Battle of the Bold series and

3:43

we're going to dedicate this entire episode

3:45

to the exploits. of Camp Groupa Piper. And

3:47

it's kind of, you know, we've been

3:49

sort of discussing how to how to

3:51

present this story because there are all

3:53

these different numbers, you know, divisions with

3:55

numbers and whether they'd be German or

3:57

American and it can get kind of

3:59

confusing. when you're just telling the story

4:01

rather than showing the story. Yes. And

4:04

I think the way to do it

4:06

is to do it slightly episodically and

4:08

see the Battle of the Bold. Yes,

4:10

it's one big battle, but it's also

4:12

a series of different battles. Yeah. All

4:14

kinds of wrapped up in the same

4:16

thing. So I think that's the approach

4:19

we've kind of rather taken. Well, and

4:21

that is how the Germans have decided

4:23

to fight it by breaking people up

4:25

into these camphorppers. from A through to

4:27

E, actually sort of tell that story

4:29

in themselves, don't they? So, yeah. Absolutely,

4:32

but Camp Group of Piper is one

4:34

of the main frosts in the first

4:36

SS Pansa court. He's a commander of

4:38

the lead Pansa regiment of the first

4:40

SS Pansa division Adolf Hitler Liebstandata. And

4:42

as we've already discussed, Septitrix, he's the

4:44

commander of the Pansa army. His plan

4:47

is to use the Volts Grenadier divisions

4:49

for the break-in. And then his Pansa

4:51

regiments beefed into battle groups for the

4:53

charge to the Murs. The Commander of

4:55

the Pans Regiment is the Commander of

4:57

the Battle Group. or the particular panzer

5:00

company is, or battalion is the commander

5:02

of the battle group, and they're given

5:04

additional troops, so artillery, aircraft, artillery, anti-tank,

5:06

artillery, and also panzegren ideas, of course.

5:08

So what this means is a huge

5:10

amount of vehicles. It's not just your

5:12

panzers, it's not just your king tigers

5:15

and your pamphers and what have you.

5:17

It's also infantry in half-tracks, and trucks

5:19

and all the rest of it. Anyway,

5:21

so who is overstone Van Fyor, Joekim

5:23

Piper? one of the sort of famous

5:25

jaunty-hatted Nazi fathers. Well he thinks of

5:28

the best looking isn't he? Let's face

5:30

it. I mean well I don't know

5:32

you always say this I'm I'm quite

5:34

happy to say I can't tell if

5:36

he's good looking at it Jim. No

5:38

but I see his jaunty hat and

5:40

I just think. Well I see his

5:43

skull and crossbones. Well I see his

5:45

reputation and I think you know you

5:47

might be a handsome devil but the

5:49

emphasis is on the devil bit rather

5:51

than that. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

5:53

yeah yeah. Anyway. B that is May

5:56

he's 29 years old and he's got

5:58

he's got a very interesting career really

6:00

because he comes from a you know

6:02

a pretty right-wing family let's face it

6:04

he's joined the SS at a pretty

6:06

early stage he's very international socialism he's

6:08

also been himless adjutant he took a

6:11

little bit of time off in the

6:13

summer of 1940 to go and fight

6:15

with with the first Waffin SS Panza

6:17

division yeah did pretty well went back

6:19

to being himless adjutant then went off

6:21

and commanded troops in the eastern troops

6:24

in the eastern front rose up to

6:26

be a pretty young regimental command I

6:28

mean, there's not many people that age

6:30

are an overstone ban fura, which is

6:32

a kernel. Yes, I... You see, what

6:34

must it have been like if you're

6:37

in... if Himmler's adjutant turns up and

6:39

he's been posted to you as an

6:41

officer, do you think, well, he only

6:43

got that job because of his connections?

6:45

For Piper, it must have been always,

6:47

he's always having to prove himself, surely,

6:49

because he's, he has turned up. He's

6:52

not worked his way through the his

6:54

way through the ranks of the ranks

6:56

of the ranks of the ranks. having

6:58

come from head office as it were.

7:00

It must be a peculiar position to

7:02

be in, right? It's got lots to

7:05

prove, right? That's what I'm saying. Yeah,

7:07

and he's from a sort of middle

7:09

class background as well. Yeah, but he's

7:11

got an older brother who's had mental

7:13

illness and attempted suicide and never really

7:15

recovers and actually has died in of

7:17

TB eventually in 1942. Gosh. He's a

7:20

younger brother called Horsed, who's also joined

7:22

the SS and Tote and caught the

7:24

bander, and died in a never really

7:26

properly explained accident in Poland in 1941.

7:28

Right. Piper gained a sort of growing

7:30

reputation reputation on the Eastern front for

7:33

being kind of very inspiring, very inspiringiring.

7:35

fearless, you know, obviously courageous, you know,

7:37

all the guys love him, all that

7:39

kind of stuff. But he's also orders

7:41

the entire, the destruction of the entire

7:43

village of Krasnaya Poliana in a kind

7:45

of revenge killing by Russian partisans. Yeah.

7:48

And his unit becomes known as the

7:50

blowtorch battalion because of his paunch for

7:52

searching Russian villages. So he's got all

7:54

the gongs, he's got on cross, second

7:56

class, cross of gold, night's cross, did

7:58

very well, did very well at... Normandy,

8:01

he suffers a nervous breakdown. Yeah. And

8:03

he's relieved of his command on the

8:05

second of August. and he's hospitalised from

8:07

September to October. So he's not his

8:09

monitoring operator and lootage. And then he

8:11

rejoins First SS Pansa Regiment as its

8:13

commander again in October 1945. It's really,

8:16

really odd. I mean... But isn't that

8:18

interesting though? If you're a Lancet, if

8:20

you're... If you're a Lancet, if you're...

8:22

If you're a lancerary soldier, you don't

8:24

get a hospitalised, you don't get time

8:26

off. You could interpret this. This is

8:29

a sort of Nazi prince. where they're

8:31

losing, why else would he have a

8:33

nervous breakdown? He's shown all the zeal

8:35

and application in the Nazi manner up

8:37

to this point and they're losing, you

8:39

know, and because he's a knob, you

8:41

know, because he's well connected, he gets

8:44

to be hospitalized if he has a

8:46

nervous breakdown. He isn't told like an

8:48

ordinary German soldier, there's no such thing

8:50

as combat fatigue, mate, go back to

8:52

work. Yes, and it's a nervous breakdown,

8:54

not combat fatigue. Well, yes, of course.

8:57

But you, what's a difference? One A.S.

8:59

soldier said of him, Piper was the

9:01

most dynamic man I ever met. He

9:03

just got things done. Yeah. You get

9:05

this image I have of him, of

9:07

having this kind of sort of slightly

9:09

manic energy. Yeah. He's virulently national socialist.

9:12

He's got this great reputation. He's damned

9:14

if anyone's going to tarnish it. He

9:16

knows what's expected of him, extreme violence

9:18

and cruelty and pushing his men on.

9:20

I mean, he's sort of, he's the

9:22

fewer a prince at large, isn't he,

9:25

as an SS officer. Yeah, exactly. cruelty

9:27

and extreme violence are bundled in to

9:29

wherever he goes basically. And yeah it's

9:31

amazing because you know he is very

9:33

young and when you look at pictures

9:35

of him at his post-war trial by

9:38

which time he's 31 or something yeah

9:40

he still looks pretty baby-faced really in

9:42

the big scheme of things and you

9:44

kind of it's hard to you know

9:46

you look at sort of derlanger for

9:48

example I mean he looks like a

9:50

total yes he looks like a villain

9:53

and a bastard yeah But Piper doesn't,

9:55

I mean, you know, looks mean nothing,

9:57

do they? They sort of do in

9:59

your mind's eye, that's a way. Well,

10:01

I don't know, anyway, I think the

10:03

thing is, we can judge the book

10:06

by the cover, we can also read

10:08

the contents of the book in the

10:10

case of your compiper and be quite

10:12

a bald bite. I mean, it's little

10:14

wonder he's been given this campfire because

10:16

as you say, he's reputation, he's just

10:18

extremely well connected, you know, and... Dietrich

10:21

is SS through and through, so you're

10:23

going to give the point of the

10:25

spear in this particular part of the

10:27

Ardennes offensive. You're going to give a

10:29

job like this to Jocken Piper. Yes.

10:31

Because you'll get it done. Whatever it

10:34

is, whatever it is, whatever it is

10:36

you want, you know. He's out of

10:38

hospital, he's back on form, he's a

10:40

man you want. He's a man you

10:42

want. He's a man you want. He's

10:44

a man, he want. Yeah. He's out

10:46

of the man. He's a man. He's

10:49

a man. Unofficially, he gets wind of

10:51

the ardent offensive four, five days before

10:53

it happens, but not before that. And

10:55

that's when Bregardafira Fritz Kramer, who we've

10:57

already mentioned is a chief of staff

10:59

of six Pansarami, and who in the

11:02

eyes of many is the real kind

11:04

of brains behind it, rather than Septidetric.

11:06

He's a bit of a kind of,

11:08

you know, not the sharpest tour in

11:10

the shed. And Kramer asked him his

11:12

thoughts about an attack through the attack

11:14

for the... even to try to push

11:17

shoes. Hypothetically you understand. Anyway, Kramer wants

11:19

to know whether whether a pan's regiment

11:21

could travel 80 kilometers through the night.

11:23

Yeah, 50 miles. And Piper says, you

11:25

know, I don't want to give you

11:27

an answer straightway, sir. You know, let

11:30

me let me test it out. So

11:32

he takes a pamphlet and runs it

11:34

from Euskirka to Blakenheim, which is in

11:36

the Eiffel region, but obviously on the

11:38

German side of the border. And he

11:40

concludes that it is definitely possible, but

11:42

you need a free road. Right, okay.

11:45

And you need a decent road. You

11:47

need a decent road and you need

11:49

no other traffic on it. That's a

11:51

no then, isn't it? If we're honest.

11:53

But I mean, the thing is, is...

11:55

So much of this plan relies on

11:58

a free road and no opposition, doesn't

12:00

it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Completely relies on

12:02

it. Anyway, his regiment, his Pansa regiment

12:04

leaves the Minden area at 7 p.m.

12:06

on the 13th and then they have

12:08

to kind of get their assembly area

12:11

on the, you know, in the Eiffel

12:13

at around. the morning of the 14th

12:15

of December when they do so in

12:17

thick form. The Piper says the whole

12:19

thing was to be announced to the

12:21

troops only when they fell in immediately

12:23

required to departure. It was complete blackout

12:26

during the night and radio silence. See

12:28

it's interesting isn't it? Because this is

12:30

why they offer such surprise when the

12:32

battle begins. But that also makes organizing

12:34

very very difficult. Organizing in fog with

12:36

radio silence. That's really really hard in

12:39

winter. in winter so that we have

12:41

16 hours of darkness. So yes sure

12:43

it offers them tactical advantage but it's

12:45

a pain in the ass for them.

12:47

Yeah I mean he knows what he's

12:49

doing though Piper that's the one of

12:51

the things about him right he does

12:54

know what he's doing. Yeah yeah he

12:56

does have what he's doing and that

12:58

day this is only the 14th of

13:00

December this is two days before it

13:02

starts. He's called to Tondorf and the

13:04

command post of the first SS Panzer

13:07

division. where the commanding officer over fjura

13:09

Vilhelmunca briefs him and other commanders on

13:11

the entire plan and this is when

13:13

Piper learns that he's going to be

13:15

actually part of a battle group is

13:17

so he's given an additional engineer battalion

13:19

an additional battalion of core artillery of

13:22

150 millimeter and 210 millimeter houses which

13:24

are big boys which are big big

13:26

big big guns yeah big guns you

13:28

know you're not pulling those with horses

13:30

you're pulling those with big track panomags

13:32

and all the rest of it All

13:35

together, Piper's got 4,800 troops, 800 vehicles,

13:37

including 117 Pansas, 149 Half Tracks, 24

13:39

artillery pieces and 30 anti-aircraft weapons. Right.

13:41

And it's now going to be called

13:43

Camp Groupa Piper. He's got Pansafores, Pamphers

13:45

and Tiger Two's. And he's also got

13:47

attached in one of these ludicrous Scorzani

13:50

units from the 150 Pansa. brigade, you

13:52

know, in their Sherman tanks or whatever,

13:54

which is 500-member. They're sort of tabbed

13:56

onto the back. Yeah. And not really

13:58

doing it, you know. And the plan

14:00

is for him to kind of go

14:03

up the Los Angeles garban, which we

14:05

mentioned when we were talking about Lieutenant

14:07

Bouck. Bouck, yeah. And he's given a

14:09

very, very prescribed route, and he says

14:11

to his superiors, these roads were not

14:13

for tanks, but for bicycles, but they

14:15

would not even discuss it. They said

14:18

it was the furious order that I

14:20

should take this order that I should

14:22

take this route. So, that's what they

14:24

do. I mean, Piper's very dismissive of

14:26

the scourzani units he gets, he gets,

14:28

he might as well have stayed at home because

14:31

they were never near the head of the column where they

14:33

had planned to be. Yeah, it all feels like this has

14:35

been, he's got the whiff of a kind of sort of,

14:37

hey, hey guys, here's an idea, what about this, what about

14:39

this? You know, and what we could get the scourzades, you

14:41

lot, and we could give them, and put them a jeeps,

14:43

how cool, how cool is, how cool is, how cool is,

14:45

how cool is, how cool is, how cool is, how cool

14:47

is, how cool is, how cool, how cool, how cool, how

14:49

cool, how cool, how cool, how cool, how cool, how cool,

14:51

how cool, how cool, how cool, how cool, how cool, how

14:53

cool, and, and, how cool, and, how cool, how cool, how

14:55

cool, how cool, the reality is. But also he took that

14:58

the one panther he did the distance overnight with one panther

15:00

hoping for a clear road. He's got

15:02

800 vehicles. He's not going to be,

15:04

I can tell you he's not going

15:06

to be able to do that. It's

15:08

just impossible. And also it's all very

15:10

well, again the issue here is it's

15:12

all very well doing this in secrecy,

15:14

but organizing a formation like that two

15:16

days notice and having extra things bolted

15:18

on. You've got to be very very

15:20

confident that your... headquarters works and

15:22

that everyone knows what they're doing right you've

15:24

got to be super confident that everyone's seeing

15:26

from the same him sheet or this will

15:29

not work this is well and you also

15:31

need to make sure that when you start

15:33

you're in prime position yeah guess how long

15:35

their March order is 15 miles yeah there

15:37

we are you know 800 vehicles that's 15

15:39

miles that's how long that is it's got

15:41

two train loans of fuel have been promised,

15:44

but lo and behold they don't reach them.

15:46

Ah, okay. You know, thanks to REF bombing

15:48

and... Well, and they're supposed to... Yeah, and

15:50

they're supposed to take captured fuel, sort of

15:52

Japanese... Well, they say, well, you know, our train

15:54

notes have gone up, so you can just capture

15:57

some fuel instead, so they'll give them maps, which

15:59

shows US fuel... dumps at Bullionnier and Stavalo. But you

16:01

know, will they still be there? Will the Americans have torsed them?

16:03

Will the Americans have moved them? Are they accurate? Are they even

16:05

there? And are there others and all that? They just don't know,

16:07

do they? They're whistling really. Anyway, on the night of the 15th,

16:09

16th, so this is the launch of Herbst Nibel, Piper moves his

16:11

men up to Wood, north of the town of Statkill, was there

16:13

still not right at the front line right at the front line

16:15

at the front line at the front line, right at the front

16:17

line, right at the front line, right at the front line, right

16:19

at the front line, right at the front line, right at the

16:21

front line, because they're, right at the front line, right at the

16:23

front line, because they're, right at the front line, because they're, right

16:25

at the front line, because they're, right at the front line, right

16:27

at the front line, right at the and it is a night

16:29

fashionable regiment that get held up by bulk.

16:32

Balk, yeah, to great slaughter. So they're

16:34

behind them, so already they've got vehicles

16:36

and men and etc, in front of

16:38

them, you know, it's not going to

16:40

be straightforward. Anyway, he waits in the

16:42

woods near Stadkill which is... Not a

16:44

million miles away from Lanzerat, which is

16:46

a village where Bauk was on the

16:48

hill above Lanzerat, was where Bauk was.

16:50

I went in the woods most of

16:52

the day until 4 p.m. when he's

16:54

given the nod to get moving at

16:56

long last. After an hour, they reached

16:58

a blown-out bridge. Piper tells his tanks

17:00

and half tracks to drive down the

17:03

depression up the other side, but as

17:05

advanced beyond the blown bridge, the leading

17:07

Panthers then hit mine. Two of those are

17:09

brewed up immediately brewed up immediately. are

17:11

two Panthers which were thought of as

17:13

battering rounds were lost for the rest

17:16

of the deployment without having made any

17:18

contact with the enemy. Well there it

17:20

is. It's possible with a free road,

17:22

three anti-tank mines or however many, a

17:25

handful of anti-tank mines and the whole

17:27

thing's gone wrong really. And there's this

17:29

amazing encounter in the cafe Stoltson at

17:32

Lansavat which is now a disco or

17:34

a nightclub isn't it? It's absolutely amazing

17:36

it is. Yeah, the same building. You

17:38

know, by this point, he's absolutely expecting, because

17:41

he knows the huge pressures on him. He

17:43

knows that, you know, everyone's looking at him

17:45

to be one of the main strike forces

17:47

of this attack. And here he is in

17:49

the kind of early hours of the 17th

17:51

December, and he's barely moved. He certainly hasn't

17:53

crossed kind of the enemy lines at this

17:55

point. And so he gets there storms of

17:57

the Cafes Dawson and says to the Colonel.

18:00

Hoffman who's the commander of the 9th Balchmeriega

18:02

Regiment gets one earth of you stopped. You

18:04

know, Piper's a Lieutenant Colonel, it will be

18:06

an SS1, and Hoffman is a full colonel.

18:08

So Hoffman outranks him. It's pretty, it's coordinate.

18:11

Yeah, yeah. Well, and Piper grabs a map

18:13

and using two bare and it pins it

18:15

to the wall. But Bauke is witnessing this,

18:17

isn't he? Because he's being held prisoner there.

18:20

So Lieutenant Lail Jay Bauke sees this whole

18:22

encounter. She's having, yeah. He absolutely blows a

18:24

gasket. Yeah. And he discovers that the Falshi

18:26

Miega haven't wrecked the area ahead of them.

18:29

I mean, they don't know what they're doing,

18:31

because they're crap. Because they're not very well

18:33

trained. Yeah. And he's getting the pervertin in,

18:35

in, in order to keep going, of course.

18:38

Yeah. This is never a really good sign.

18:40

It doesn't do any wonders for your mental

18:42

health, it has to be said. And they

18:44

can't move that night, so he's reorganising and

18:47

trying to start again, basically. He's got to

18:49

start again the following day, hasn't he? Yeah,

18:51

he's moved up from his start position 15

18:53

miles, so that's 18 hours behind schedule, so

18:56

that's not great. So anyway, off they go,

18:58

they head off in the following morning, you

19:00

know, the early hours of the 17thaga troops

19:02

riding on... Well, others clear the woods either

19:05

side and this is your absolute classic road

19:07

through forest of pines. You know, and there's

19:09

pictures of Tiger Two's doing this exact route

19:11

from Piper's Camp Groupon. With Fauce, Yea, Geronim,

19:13

yeah. Exactly. They reach Honsfeld within a half

19:16

hour of leading Landsraff. You go up the

19:18

hill out of Landsra out, you turn a

19:20

let, turn left through the woods, handshills on

19:22

the other side. You know, it's a couple

19:25

of miles, it's nothing more than that. The

19:27

spearhead then hurries on through the village of

19:29

Hansfeld while follow-up troops shoot at windows. There's

19:31

a handful of kind of echelon Americans there

19:34

aren't there? Yes. And troops that have been

19:36

pulled back, they return fire, they're clearly outnumbered

19:38

so they soon surrender. A number of prisoners

19:40

are rounded up as a shop. There's those

19:43

kind of instances where there's a sarge the

19:45

Germans are here, stopped kidding around, looks out

19:47

window, sees half track full of Germans. There's

19:49

that stuff going on. It's an LRC place,

19:52

London communication place. They're expecting a that day,

19:54

you know, an entertainment visit, aren't they? Yes.

19:56

Isn't it Marlene Dietrich? It's Marlene Dietrich. It's

19:58

been cancelled, to be fair. But they shoot

20:01

19 Americans in Hansfeld. Pans of Grenadiers then

20:03

loop the houses and Piper details a number

20:05

of the Faucienbega to stay behind. Yeah. Delamericans,

20:07

stripped, boots taken off, all that kind of

20:10

stuff. I mean, this was standard fair for

20:12

enemy troops that are a bit under resource

20:14

themselves. Two days later, I mean, terrible, terrible

20:16

episode and this is done by the Fauciennega

20:19

rather than the, I think, rather than Piper's

20:21

men. They demand a guide from the locals

20:23

in Honsfeld. and an adult volunteers but instead

20:25

they choose a kind of very good-looking 16-year-old

20:27

girl called Erna Collis. She goes off of

20:30

them and never seen later until five months

20:32

later her body's found in a foxhole riddle

20:34

bullets. Yeah, so these are dehumanized tough people.

20:36

Piper then makes the decision to leave most

20:39

of his trucks in Hansfeld because already the

20:41

roads are getting churned up and of course

20:43

that going to when you've got 68 ton.

20:45

Tiger Two's. Well, and he's trying to get

20:48

the next place as quickly as he can,

20:50

Bulligan, where as far as on his map,

20:52

there's fuel. So he thinks there's a fuel

20:54

dump at Bullingham. And on his way there,

20:57

he bumps into a column of American trucks

20:59

heading south. So the Americans, because it's nightfall,

21:01

no one knows who anyone is, the lead

21:03

SS car flashes a red torch, the truck

21:06

stop, the American surrender, at Siegfried, and surrender

21:08

position. I shot at them with my pistol

21:10

for two or three rounds. They shoot some

21:12

of the surrendering men, which becomes a motif

21:15

really as we go forward with Piper's progress.

21:17

There's an airfield there, a spotter, artillery spotter

21:19

airfield, and they destroy 12 aircraft. light aircraft.

21:21

So I think a couple get out and

21:24

those air crew, they're so bored in the

21:26

Ardennes before this happens, they're shooting wild boar

21:28

from those light aircrafts for sport. And they

21:30

do fight, they find an abandoned army camp

21:32

and they find Jerry Kansan rations. But even

21:35

then, the Americans are still sniping from buildings,

21:37

they're brewing up the odd tank with a

21:39

bazooka. It's still friction. two platoon leaders are

21:41

killed yeah you know it's it's so he's

21:44

getting you know he's he's being attributed both

21:46

mechanically and and in terms of action yeah

21:48

the spearhead then becomes disorientated heads north not

21:50

west out of the town so that's a

21:53

that's a cockup and they then have to

21:55

kind of pans us once more on the

21:57

lead then they have to kind of realize

21:59

that they've gone wrong you know because it

22:02

could run into an anti American anti anti

22:04

anti anti anti anti anti tank gun but

22:06

we did that a couple of a couple

22:08

of times and we had Google Maps And

22:11

that's what you meet everywhere. And they have

22:13

pretty bad out of date. Michelin maps and

22:15

stuff. We managed to do that using Google

22:17

Maps. Because that's the nature of the place.

22:20

It's lots of lanes. You come to a

22:22

crossroads suddenly. Basically, one goes up the ridge,

22:24

the other goes along the bottom, and that's

22:26

what you meet everywhere. Endless and small settlements.

22:29

So you'd be forgiven for thinking you're in

22:31

one village rather than another. Not knowing one.

22:33

All that's completely. They bumped into a Belgian,

22:35

an old Belgian man, he's wearing a Nazi

22:38

on band. He held them down and tells

22:40

them where the American fuel dump is. They've

22:42

now got, you know, hundreds of POW, so

22:44

they're then put to kind of the work

22:46

to refueling. It's now about 9am on the

22:49

17th. So just point out, they are still

22:51

a day behind at this point. Yes. But

22:53

refueled and reorientated, they then head west, they

22:55

sweep on through the villages of domain and

22:58

Chopin and Odomval, of Theremont, and on the

23:00

way they overrun Company B of the 245th

23:02

Engineer Battalion. The Panzers twist and turn deliberately

23:04

to over the Foxholes to crush those in

23:07

them. You know, so these are guys who

23:09

absolutely have kind of learnt the hard tricks

23:11

and hard knocks on... on the

23:13

Eastern Front. Interestingly, not

23:16

far away, just to

23:18

the north is a

23:20

completely different battle where

23:22

the 12SS is about

23:25

to come in, because

23:27

the big red one

23:29

is coming down towards

23:31

Bootcombeck. And the threats

23:34

to Piper is that

23:36

as his spearhead moves

23:38

on, he's going to

23:40

be cut out from

23:43

his trucks, which are

23:45

still back at Honsfeld

23:47

and Bullingham. He's all

23:49

flank at the moment,

23:51

isn't he? That's the

23:54

point. He's offering flanks

23:56

both sides, isn't he?

23:58

Yeah. And anyway, he's

24:00

now moving towards, he's

24:03

south of Malmady, heading

24:05

towards the town of

24:07

Stavolo. And there's quite

24:09

a lot of confusion

24:12

at this point, and

24:14

quite a lot of

24:16

troops are on the

24:18

move. And there's a

24:21

small little settlement at

24:23

Bonnez, which is like

24:25

a crossroads, a sort

24:27

of confluence of roads

24:30

come into it, one

24:32

from the West, one

24:34

from the East, one

24:36

from the North, one

24:39

from the South, they're

24:41

all kind of hurdling

24:43

into this one little

24:45

crossroads village. And one

24:48

of them is a

24:50

column of US trucks,

24:52

just transporting the Field

24:55

Artillery Observation Battalion. Yeah. And they're coming

24:57

from that road, which is heading from

24:59

the West. And just as they're heading

25:01

over the crossroads, the Americans call it

25:03

the five points, the lead panthers are

25:06

approaching from, well, actually approaching directly from

25:08

the South. And there's that road that

25:10

comes in from the, comes down the

25:12

hill, doesn't it, from the East. So

25:14

the Americans are coming from the opposite

25:16

direction. And there's a road that then

25:18

joins that road as it comes down

25:20

the hill, which is coming directly from

25:22

the South. It's actually ultimately coming from

25:24

the kind of the South East. And

25:26

it's on that road that the leading

25:28

panzers are there. And it's slightly raised,

25:30

isn't it? You've got a kind of

25:32

wood on your left hand side. And

25:34

the interesting about the Bonnez crossroads is

25:36

it kind of, it's like a plug

25:39

in a sink, isn't it? Yeah, kind

25:41

of, everything kind of runs down into

25:43

the crossroads. And so from there, the

25:45

leading panthers in Piper's Battle Group can

25:47

see the American trucks, you know, carrying

25:49

the 285 field artillery observation battalion heading

25:51

from the West. And they open fire.

25:53

And at this point, it's around 12

25:55

.45pm on the 17th of December. Well,

25:57

let's take a break there. And we'll

25:59

come back to I think what is one of

26:01

the most notorious incidents of the

26:03

Battle of the Bulge. Certainly the

26:06

thing that seals Jock and Piper's

26:08

reputation. Although, I think we've made

26:10

it pretty clear, what kind of

26:13

reputation he deserves anyway. We'll

26:15

see you in a moment. Daredevil

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claim. 1245,

28:00

there's mayhem on the road coming

28:02

in towards Bonaise from the west.

28:04

Basically a column of people being

28:06

reorganised has run into the Campgropa

28:08

Piper spear essentially, so it's backstage

28:10

moving about by the Americans as,

28:12

because these trucks are in there

28:14

are no position or conditions to

28:16

defend themselves, are they? They're LOC

28:19

people essentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and

28:21

they're in soft skins, you know,

28:23

trucks. Yeah, so... Yeah, trucks veering

28:25

off the road, men running, other

28:27

surrendering, you know, maybe a half

28:29

dozen trucks destroyed. The prisoners are swiftly

28:31

gathered and they're led to a field

28:33

by the crossroads. So if you're looking

28:35

at the crossroads, the road heading north,

28:38

they've come in from the road heading

28:40

from the west. and they are

28:42

in a bit of the field which

28:44

is in the southwest corner of this

28:46

crossroads. They're quickly rounded up the American

28:49

POUs. Piper gets onto the panther commanded

28:51

by Venna Perchkin says stop firing because

28:53

he wants the trucks because he's abandoned

28:55

his trucks isn't he? So he wants

28:58

the lorries. The fact that there's people

29:00

in him by the by. The lead

29:02

Panthers turned south down the... Yeah, so

29:05

they've come up from the south. They've

29:07

then turned left onto the main road

29:09

running down the hill from the

29:11

east. And then at the crossroads

29:13

they've turned left again on the

29:16

road that's sort of heading south

29:18

towards Linneville. Basically, like to sort

29:20

of corral the POW stopped running

29:22

away. So like a sheepdog really

29:24

with a flock, trying to keep

29:26

them under control. And Piper, trying

29:28

to keep them under control. And

29:31

Piper calls out from his tank.

29:33

It's a long fade to temporarily,

29:35

boys! Yes, exactly. And off he

29:37

goes. Yeah. You know, so he's on,

29:39

he's with the spearhead, he's the

29:41

commander, and of course, that's... So

29:44

you've survivors of B batteries, around

29:46

90 of them, and 11 men

29:49

from the 32nd Armid Reki Company,

29:51

who assembled in the field just

29:53

the south of five points, which

29:56

slopes up to a wood, which

29:58

slopes up to a... engineer battalion

30:00

comes down the hill from Malmody because

30:03

Malmody is a you know a few

30:05

miles to the north of the five

30:07

points yeah and so they come down

30:09

they halt behind several stopped ambulances they're

30:11

fired on by the Germans five men

30:13

managed to get away four further trucks

30:15

arrive but then managed to kind of

30:17

hastily scarper backwards so this means at

30:19

2 p.m there's 113 POWs in this

30:22

field yeah and at 215 shooting start

30:24

some of pipers men open fire And

30:26

after this, they then go into the

30:28

field and they finish off the wounded

30:30

with rifle butts, single shots. And this

30:32

is evidenced by burn marks on, you

30:34

know, on the men who've been shot

30:36

at very close range. Yeah. By half

30:39

past two, the shootings ended, the murder

30:41

has stopped. And around three, so it's

30:43

all within an hour, isn't it? Sixty-one

30:45

more POU who is still alive. They

30:47

try to escape, 15 more shot in

30:49

that, and then three more die later.

30:51

But Piper's not there when it happens,

30:53

but it is his men. It is

30:55

his style of his outfit. It's the

30:58

manner to which they become accustomed to

31:00

fight war, but it's 84 of the

31:02

113 are killed, and they strip of

31:04

their boots and their watches. They also

31:06

set fire to the cafe nearby, and

31:08

the Belgian owner comes out of the

31:10

cafe delighted to see the Germans, and

31:12

is then killed anyway. There's a killing

31:14

spree going on, isn't there? and the

31:17

Americans discover the dead immediately. Yeah, because

31:19

they're just left there. I mean, Michael

31:21

Reynolds, who's a former general, has written

31:23

about this, wrote a book called The

31:25

Devils Adjutant, and he is not justifying

31:27

this by any stretch of the imagination,

31:29

but he does point out that massacres

31:31

of people who are in a hurry

31:33

of prisoners is as old as the

31:36

hills. And when you are in a

31:38

rush and you've got no time to

31:40

coroll them and, you know, pressures on

31:42

to just keep going and keep going,

31:44

what do with these people with these

31:46

people. by American troops in the 45th

31:48

infantry division in Sicily for example. You

31:50

know so it's hardly unique. No. But

31:53

as you point out... you know, messages

31:55

about the massacre reach US First Army

31:57

headquarters owned by 450 p.m. I know

31:59

within, I mean that's amazing within two

32:01

hours of it happening basically. This is

32:03

a thing that the American, the Americas

32:05

then leap on as a piece of

32:07

news, don't they, to tell their soldiers

32:09

that, you know, what's amazing, it goes

32:12

past all the senses. It's in the

32:14

American newspapers the following day, back home.

32:16

It's absolutely extraordinary. And they used, you

32:18

know, you can see that the US

32:20

Army leaps leaps leaps leaps on it

32:22

and goes, this is what's what's what's

32:24

coming. you need to stand and fight

32:26

and word gets round immediately that this

32:28

has happened and we see this in

32:31

Normandy as well you know the Canadians

32:33

when prisoners are killed word gets around

32:35

very very very quickly and it you

32:37

know it breaks the rule isn't it

32:39

you do as you would be done

32:41

by you you would like to be

32:43

taken prisoner in the event of your

32:45

defeat so you take the other side

32:47

prisoner it reciprocity breaks down well it

32:50

is yeah it's such a good word

32:52

yeah it's exactly what it is so

32:54

he is so he pushes what it

32:56

is so he pusheses on so he's

32:58

on and the next place hypers trying

33:00

to get to get to get to

33:02

stave his Yep, but you go through

33:04

Longville. Do you remember you go, we

33:07

went down that valley, you go down

33:09

the, down a valley and you sort

33:11

of turn right through the trees and

33:13

there's Longville at the bottom and they

33:15

run into some Shermans. They lose a

33:17

number of fans are for. And it's

33:19

one of those roads that wriggles along

33:21

the side of the valley hill just

33:23

up from the river so it can't

33:26

be flooded and you twist and turn

33:28

and you wriggle you wriggle your way

33:30

down. Yes, they run into a pick

33:32

a picket to a picket. And Stavlo

33:34

is a picket. And Stavlo is on

33:36

a picket. P-O-W-S at Longville. It is

33:38

the light motif. They get to Stavillos.

33:40

Stavillos on the Oblev River. There's a

33:42

bridge there. The Americans aren't really holding

33:45

it in any particular strength. The bridge

33:47

is supposedly ready to be blown. But

33:49

I mean, it's just amazing this, this

33:51

single American soldier coming out and saying,

33:53

hold to the... to the lead tank

33:55

in Piper's formation. I mean, the gut,

33:57

the nerve of the guy. Yeah, he

33:59

fires back with a rifle and in

34:02

his testimony he gives to the Germans

34:04

afterwards in his foreign military studies, he

34:06

says, you know, we got, we got

34:08

attacked and it was quite, it was

34:10

obvious. heavily held and I pulled back

34:12

for the night. It's a terrible lie.

34:14

You know, Stavlow was not heavily held.

34:16

You know, the effects of the Puritan

34:18

had obviously started to wear off. And

34:21

you know, he was absolutely knackered. He

34:23

just desperately needed him. I mean, he

34:25

hadn't slept for three nights or something.

34:27

But he does. And the bottom line

34:29

is that Stavlow is not heavily held.

34:31

And Stavlow is a lovely little town,

34:33

isn't it? We stayed there. medieval sort

34:35

of wool town or something that's what

34:37

it kind of feels like it's got

34:40

that kind of vibe huge great kind

34:42

of monasteries in there isn't there and

34:44

sort of that's right posing buildings and

34:46

stuff I mean it's a really really

34:48

pretty place but anyway he doesn't go

34:50

in So what he decides to do

34:52

is attack the following morning on the

34:54

18th of December. So so far they've

34:56

traveled 36 miles, they're halfway to the

34:59

Murs and they've still got a long

35:01

way to get to Antwerp. So what

35:03

he does do is that morning on

35:05

the 18th he sends off some of

35:07

his panzers to see whether there's another

35:09

way to cross the river Amblev at

35:11

Tuaup, which is actually double-out of rivers.

35:13

going through Duaupon. And at the same

35:16

time the kind of northern part of

35:18

that is being, you know, the first

35:20

infantry division starting to arrive and, you

35:22

know, strengthening up on the northern front.

35:24

So he's got a quite a narrow

35:26

little corridor in which he can go

35:28

through. Can't go through to the north.

35:30

That shut to him. So he's got

35:32

to go on this basically, this direction.

35:35

If you sort of think of the

35:37

bulge draw a kind of rough line

35:39

north-south and you think of these various

35:41

thrust heading kind of narrow little corridors.

35:43

his room for maneuver is pretty tight.

35:45

It's got to be east-west and it's

35:47

got to be within this sort of

35:49

10 mile stretch really. And obviously in

35:51

the Arden with its windy rivers and

35:54

its kind of hills and narrow roads

35:56

that's quite limiting. Well that's the thing

35:58

when you go there is you can,

36:00

is it breaks down into these small

36:02

hops and each hobby may... You can

36:04

see why he's paused as well. How

36:06

long is he's lying? We said he's

36:08

older and much, he's 15 miles long.

36:11

You can see why you might stop

36:13

rather than spread yourself even further. Well,

36:15

yes, because the thing is, I mean,

36:17

you know, again, in The Minister Piper

36:19

on that night, he doesn't know what's

36:21

in the town. No. And Americans come

36:23

out, you know, the bridge is clearly

36:25

kind of ready for explosion. You know,

36:27

his men are nackered, he's nackered. It's

36:30

only his spearhead that's spearhead that's arrived.

36:32

you know this and as you say

36:34

the 15 miles gets longer and longer

36:36

and longer and it goes from being

36:38

a 15 mile march order to well

36:40

probably best part of 25 by this

36:42

point yeah exactly you know what he

36:44

doesn't he can't afford to do is

36:46

have any reverses so you know he

36:49

thinks it's better to kind of wait

36:51

for his its better to kind of

36:53

wait it's better to kind of wait

36:55

for his men to catch his men

36:57

to catch up and attack in strength

36:59

the following morning which he does and

37:01

to be fair he does it at

37:03

a couple of the But overnight, of

37:05

course, Stavlow has been reinforced by the

37:08

Americans. There's a company of the 526

37:10

armored infantry battalion, which is one of

37:12

these, you know, so where you have

37:14

the US armored division, you have three

37:16

tank battalions and you have three armored

37:18

infantry battalions. And these are, these are

37:20

rather like the Pans of Grenandiers, they're

37:22

infantry in half tracks, with a bit

37:25

more kind of machine guns to call

37:27

upon, etc. And six powders, 57 millim

37:29

tank guns. So I think the initial

37:31

encounter where the lead path comes down.

37:33

and he's hit by a 57mm gun,

37:35

it's damaged, it's not too many damage

37:37

to pant the fires back and literally

37:39

runs over the gun. That's still typical

37:41

friction, it's the typical friction that the

37:44

Germans are encountering, but that's not supposed

37:46

to have happened, that's not meant to

37:48

be going on. We talked in the,

37:50

you know, first or second episode, Hitler's

37:52

assuming that the Americans aren't going to

37:54

be able to rede because Eisenhower is

37:56

going to have to ask permission, which

37:58

that's not what's what's happened at all.

38:00

They've thrown everything at it. holding up

38:03

that panther even though not completely successfully

38:05

it's enough yeah and this is the

38:07

any delay is delay wrecks the whole

38:09

thing. And the town then turns into

38:11

sort of proper like the fighting in

38:13

Stavillow is this sort of, they're slugging

38:15

it out. It's not easy, it's not

38:17

simple, pipers being held up. And at

38:20

the same time, there is an enormous

38:22

fuel dump at Franca shop not far

38:24

away. 120,000! Very close to the spa

38:26

race. Yes, exactly, yes, because you're in

38:28

that neck of the woods. And the

38:30

hotel we stayed in in in Stavillow,

38:32

had lots of Grand Prix stuff, didn't

38:34

it. There's 124,000 gallons at Francaissezt that

38:36

they haven't, that they don't know about,

38:39

they don't know about, and then the

38:41

Americans set fire to it. I mean,

38:43

that's quite something, isn't it? Yeah, so

38:45

it's a hell of a lot, and

38:47

the Americans just set it on fire.

38:49

So, you know, that's that. They can

38:51

afford them to be, be taught. Anyway,

38:53

so there's these three bridges at Tuaupon,

38:55

one of the Amblev, two over the

38:58

river, two over the riversauvtev, over the

39:00

river Zalm, and, and you know, Stavlo

39:02

battle is still, battle is still fighting,

39:04

battle is still fighting. while the lead

39:06

panzers of Camp Group of Piper have

39:08

been head onto Trauban, Trauban, Trauban is

39:10

probably about three, four miles, three miles,

39:12

something like that, kind of further west

39:14

from Stavalo, and again it's a kind

39:17

of little winding road down the valley

39:19

that takes you there. All three bridges

39:21

have been prepared for demolitions, so there's

39:23

a 57mm gun, knocks out the lead

39:25

panzer at 1145am, so remember the start

39:27

of the Stavalo battles at 4am, so

39:29

it's quite a long time after. This

39:31

gun is quickly destroyed, but then one

39:34

of the wounded gunners escapes and manages

39:36

to warn his fellow engineers that the

39:38

juries are on their way. And then

39:40

all three bridges are blown, so that's

39:42

no good for Piper. So, and they

39:44

haven't got any bridging equipment because that's

39:46

miles behind. Well, Piper says those for

39:48

dumped engineers, you know, he's, he knows

39:50

that, that really is, he's done then,

39:53

isn't he? He's cooked. He's cut really

39:55

but he's still going on so he's

39:57

like okay well let's just push north

39:59

and see what happens if you go

40:01

north they then turn north but again

40:03

the path is blocked by mines lead

40:05

tank fires into them detonate some drives

40:07

on It's all a bit manic, isn't

40:09

it? It's all a bit frantic. The

40:12

main column is heading to La Glaze.

40:14

They've reached a village. Then a bridge

40:16

over the amblev is found at Chena,

40:18

which is a tidal village on a

40:20

sort of like, it's on a, it's

40:22

on a, it's on a bluff, isn't

40:24

it? It's got, you know, one side

40:26

of it, it's got a sort of

40:29

steep escarpment dropping down to Little Valley.

40:31

But then in the afternoon the weather

40:33

clears, the weather clears, and the weather

40:35

clears, and the column, and the column

40:37

is hit by fighter clears, and the

40:39

column is hit by fighter clears, by

40:41

fighter bombers, two, two, two, two, two,

40:43

two, two, several, several, several, several, several,

40:45

several, several, several, several, several, several, several,

40:48

several, several, several, several, several, several, several,

40:50

U.S. observation aircraft also spot the bulk

40:52

of K.G. pipe a column and obviously

40:54

report that back. By dusk, the road

40:56

is cleared, but fuel is now extremely

40:58

low. The column presses on to the

41:00

key town of Werbermoor, but as they

41:02

approach the river Lien, the lead tiger

41:04

too spots U.S. engineers marrying the bridge.

41:07

King Tiger fires first, scattering the engineers,

41:09

but one man rushes back to the

41:11

detonator and blows the bridge. So they're

41:13

still 26 miles shorter than hers. And

41:15

that route has now been blocked to

41:17

them as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

41:19

it's all going pretty badly wrong at

41:21

this point. And meanwhile, of course, there

41:23

are these other SS Ross because south

41:26

of Piper's Camp Group and Hansen, under

41:28

Stern Van Fier and Max Hansen, their

41:30

main role is to provide flank protection

41:32

for KG Piper. Yeah. And then behind

41:34

them is Camphrupton and Knittle. Canittle is

41:36

one of the famous images of the

41:38

Battle of Bald, isn't he? There's a

41:40

photograph of him on his spin bargain.

41:43

Yes, with a cigar and the kind

41:45

of jaunty cap. Exactly. Yes, giving it

41:47

the jaunty cap bad guy. The Kaiser

41:49

Barak crossroads, which is now an enlightened

41:51

industrial estate. Yes, exactly. It's one of

41:53

those opportunities to visit the battlefield that

41:55

has changed completely. Camp Cooper Hansen, they

41:57

also have blood on their hands. On

41:59

the 17th of December, they pick up

42:02

11. black soldiers from the 333rd Field

42:04

Artillery Battalion. Most of these guys have

42:06

been captured, but 11 escape and are

42:08

hiding in the village. Hansen's men catch

42:10

them, lead them out, made them run

42:12

ahead of the... Schfinvagen and then they'd

42:14

start to run them down, they're baying

42:16

at them and beat all 11 of

42:18

these men to death. found over a

42:21

month later. This is the fingerprint of

42:23

these campcropper is that they're murdering prisoners

42:25

and I know what you said earlier

42:27

Jim but that just the element of

42:29

cruelty of chasing them down. Yeah that

42:31

starts completely vindictive. The sense you get

42:33

from that is they've captured and they've

42:35

released them well not released but they're

42:38

saying okay we'll march down the road

42:40

and then they just sort of chase

42:42

them and knock them over into their

42:44

hedge it's sort of like sports almost.

42:46

Yeah brutal violent racist sport. Then you've

42:48

got the 14th cavalry cavalry cavalry group

42:50

which you've Those of you who are

42:52

listening to the earlier episodes will remember

42:54

was the small reconnaissance group that's in

42:57

the Lohsheim Gap. They've pulled back to

42:59

a little place called Potho, a tiny

43:01

village. But the 106th division is obviously

43:03

needing reinforcement. So part of this is

43:05

the seventh armor division is pushing forward.

43:07

And you've got elements of the 18th

43:09

cavalry, troop C of the 32nd cavalry

43:11

and a platoon of towed guns from

43:13

the 820 of tank destroyer. So he's

43:16

a towed tank destroyers rather than tracked

43:18

tank tank tank destroyers. All in task

43:20

force made. under Major J.L. Mays. And

43:22

they are moving kind of eastwards and

43:24

they come round a corner just a

43:26

little bit to the east of Potto

43:28

and they run straight into the spearhead

43:30

of Camp Group and Hansen and the

43:32

lead tank and Armacara set on fire

43:35

and they block the road. Task Force

43:37

Mays pasty pulls back towards the crossroads

43:39

at Potto. But this is where that

43:41

famous footage... of mean-looking Waffin SS types.

43:43

Smoking American cigarettes. Burning vehicles. It was

43:45

later captured by the Americans in turn.

43:47

But that's where those still photographs and

43:49

the film photographs come from of that.

43:52

But actually Hansen is then pulled back

43:54

out of that and it's left to

43:56

the ninth SS to continue that particular

43:58

battle. And that's really in a way

44:00

an extension of the Sambit battle which

44:02

we'll talk about in the next episode.

44:04

But while all this is going on,

44:06

you know the bottom line is resistance

44:08

is stiffening. A battalion of the U.

44:11

30th Infantry Division has reached Davalo and

44:13

is attacking and retaking the town. So

44:15

Piper had been expecting the third Fauchramiega

44:17

division to mop up behind and secure

44:19

the thrust, but he just hadn't got

44:21

there. Yeah, they haven't shown up. So

44:23

what's happened is he's got his spearhead

44:25

and it's been cut off. He's now

44:27

isolated. By the morning of the 19th

44:30

of December, Stavolo is entirely back in

44:32

US hands, and Camp Groupa Piper is

44:34

completely cut off. So the whole thing

44:36

is beginning to unravel. And you can

44:38

see that Piper's getting really really frantic.

44:40

He tries a different route from La

44:42

Glaze. He goes to the little town

44:44

of Stoumont. That 19th of December, troops

44:47

of the 119th Infantry Regiment, part of

44:49

the 30th Division, also reached Stoumont. So

44:51

the whole of the division is sort

44:53

of basically coming down from the north

44:55

to kind of intercept. And so with

44:57

every passing hour, a camp group of

44:59

Piper is just hitting more and more.

45:01

resistance and opposition and he's now only

45:03

got 19 Panthers six pans of fours

45:06

and six-king Tigers which is you know

45:08

what's that 31 tanks out of a

45:10

hundred and seventy yeah 86 tanks knocked

45:12

out conked out bogged down or out

45:14

of fuel he's no longer a combat

45:16

effective no but but you know you're

45:18

extremely motivated SS guy full of speed

45:20

sort of him and women's speed yeah

45:22

what you know but you know all

45:25

the time more reinforcements on the way

45:27

so they're coming up now against a

45:29

the 743rd tank battalion, the 740th tank

45:31

battalion. You know, it's amazing, the 740

45:33

of his hurry there is only just

45:35

arrived in Belgium, but they take some

45:37

British Sherman's, you know, the British hand

45:39

over their Sherman's that they've got, some

45:41

DD's plus a couple of Jacksons, which

45:44

is these M36, 90mm tank destroyers. And

45:46

they hurry towards Stoumon. Americans counter-attacked towards

45:48

Stoumon railway railway railway station in fog

45:50

that afternoon of the 19th. Fierce fighting

45:52

fighting. This is mainly around some Edward

45:54

sanatorium rest of the of the town

45:56

which is still there. 260 locals hiding

45:58

in the cell is I mean it's

46:01

all desperate stuff. The M46 Jackson knocks

46:03

out a panther which was blocking the

46:05

road. Two further Panthers destroyed the fighting

46:07

and Piper just caught... get beyond Tarnion.

46:09

Fuel is an ongoing issue. He's worried

46:11

about his rear being too stretched out

46:13

so he just holds. I mean he's

46:15

just he's gone 50 miles but he

46:17

needs to go 80 in total to

46:20

reach the merge so he's just not

46:22

getting anywhere. The rest of the road

46:24

west of the road west of Stoumon

46:26

is the furthest they're going to get.

46:28

The rest of the road west of

46:30

Stoumon is the furthest they're going to

46:32

get. They've been blocked at his problems.

46:34

He's being a tritted at a wild

46:36

rate. He's running out of fuel. He's

46:39

running out of fuel. it's disconnected from

46:41

the rest of his tray. Let's say

46:43

he's got, you know, he's got to

46:45

go another 30 miles against the most.

46:47

Let's say he gets there with his

46:49

two Panthers and his shrimp bargain. At

46:51

the rate he's going to end up

46:53

with, what's he going to do? And

46:55

then what? And then what? Exactly. It's

46:58

absolutely nonsense. But meanwhile, not only is

47:00

the 30th infantry arrived and various tank

47:02

battalions, so too. Has General Gavin? Yes,

47:04

here to redeem himself. Oh, thank goodness.

47:06

He can't have a series about Gavin

47:08

coming into it. Anyway, he's got his,

47:10

he's got his CP at Warburmall and

47:12

he's sent forward, you know, those great

47:15

lads, the five hundred and four parachute

47:17

imagery regiment. You know, these are the

47:19

originals. They're the kind of hardest meanest

47:21

toughest. They've been there in North Africa,

47:23

they've been there at Salerno, Anzio. They've

47:25

been there at Market Garden, they've crossed

47:27

the river while, you know, they're absolute

47:29

legends, and they end up having this

47:31

massive fight at Sheno, which was the

47:34

one bridge that was still intact on

47:36

the 20th and the 21st, and this

47:38

is written up in those devils in

47:40

baggy pants by Ross Carter, that absolutely

47:42

brilliant book. And I just can't recommend

47:44

that enough, it's fantastic. Shall we do

47:46

the Ross Carter quote? Why not? Our

47:48

men strung out unevenly through the wires.

47:50

had nearly reached midfield and were beginning

47:53

to climb another fence when it happened.

47:55

Suddenly thousands of traceablets, uncannily but beautiful

47:57

despite their lethal purpose, arched and criss-crossed

47:59

above us. Their flickering flames turned the

48:01

night in the day and men in

48:03

the targets. The air was filled with

48:05

the yellow glow of hissing 20mm

48:07

cannon shells, the spotter of machine

48:10

guns, and the roar of exploding

48:12

mortar shells dumped on our comrades

48:14

just behind us. Pretty vivid, we were

48:16

there weren't we standing on that field

48:18

just beneath Shinner? Well you look up

48:20

that bluff there you think well no

48:23

one's going up there in a hurry.

48:25

Well it's interesting because he's coming up

48:27

against some Pansa Grenadiers and against a

48:30

Luftwaffe Light Flack unit which has got

48:32

these half tracks with canons on them.

48:34

Incredibly effective anti-personnel weapon. Oh yeah. Absolutely.

48:37

By this point, you know, so while

48:39

the battle is going on for Shennow

48:41

on the 20th and 21st of December,

48:44

Camp Group of Kneittle is told to

48:46

reinforce Stavalo, as is Hansen the following

48:48

down the 21st of December, but by

48:50

this point, you know, it's over. Yeah,

48:52

they can do nothing. They're, you know,

48:54

they're against a town which is now

48:56

very kind of fiercely held. And

48:58

by the end of the 21st,

49:00

you know, you know, Piper's stuck.

49:02

basically at La Glaze. He's completely

49:04

surrounded. He's got the 82nd airborne

49:07

in front of him. He's got

49:09

the 30th infantry division plus sundry

49:11

tank units behind him. There's no

49:13

way out. On the 22nd of

49:15

December, Piper's only got 1,500 troops

49:17

left. Two-thirds have gone. And 13 pamphers,

49:19

six pans of fours and six king

49:21

tigers. I mean, in a way, there

49:23

is... He's down at 25 tanks. But

49:25

there's fighting all day in the America that's

49:27

pressing him, but in a way they don't

49:29

need to do anything now. They've contained him.

49:32

As long as you hold him there, you

49:34

can shell him or starve him out. It's

49:36

over the battle of the bulge is seen

49:38

as principally the siege at Bastoyne. The hundred

49:40

and first are surrounded with it with support,

49:42

you know, in the popular imagination. If

49:44

it's seen as anything, right? Yeah,

49:47

here we have at the

49:49

same time. the reverse situation

49:51

for the Germans and they've

49:53

completely got themselves in this

49:55

mess. No one to blame

49:57

but themselves for this. It's

49:59

quite extraordinary. December is just them at

50:01

La Glaze being pounded all day. I mean

50:03

there's one single long term. 150, it's going

50:05

to be a long time. 200 rounds. It

50:07

just absolutely hammers it. And you know we

50:09

were up there in La Glaze where that

50:11

King Tiger is in the kind of town

50:13

square and this is a place of narrow

50:15

roads and winding streets and you know it's

50:17

no place for heavy armour at all is

50:19

it? I mean it just just really isn't.

50:21

Two PM. Piper finally faces the music doesn't

50:23

the music doesn't two o'amper for permission to

50:25

break out that night. and there's 800 guys

50:28

still fit enough to do it. They leave

50:30

the wounded behind, they disable their vehicles and

50:32

they melt away into the night. Yeah, at

50:34

2am on the 24th on Christmas Eve, they

50:36

walk, they have to walk through the night

50:38

about 20 kilometers, well it's like 12 miles

50:40

to safety to reach German lines, which they

50:42

do on... Christmas Day and 770 make it.

50:44

That's all that's left, Piper included. And on

50:46

the 25th of December, Christmas Day, Camp Group

50:48

of Conittle is finally pulled out and that's

50:50

the last troops pulled back from the Stavlow

50:52

area. So by Christmas, the whole area is

50:54

back in US hands. So by Christmas day,

50:56

the whole Six Pansar Army Frost, the main

50:58

one, has totally failed. But of course, there

51:00

is plenty more going on for the South.

51:03

where Fifth Pansar army are causing major consternation

51:05

amongst the allies, and of course a change

51:07

of command, and we'll be looking at that

51:09

epic, the defence of San Vit, in the

51:11

next episode. But what this is, is, you

51:13

know, and I think what's interesting is you

51:15

inevitably end up telling this, is the story

51:17

of Camp Crippa Piper and centering them. But

51:19

what this actually is, is the story of

51:21

incredible American improvisation, reaction, all hands to the

51:23

pump, you know, those engineers blowing those bridges,

51:25

defending those bridges, hanging on the guy, the

51:27

single guy crawling back and blowing that bridge.

51:29

Piper's trying to do this on will alone.

51:31

And what he's coming up against is American

51:33

grit. And that the grit is grinding the

51:35

will down as it were. Yeah, that's absolutely

51:37

spot on. Spot on. Right. Well, thanks

51:40

for listening, everyone. We'll

51:42

be back with with the Southern

51:44

Thrust, you know, know, we we

51:46

may even end up

51:48

talking about at some

51:50

point. I don't know, I

51:52

know, know. Some have actually avoided

51:54

should far. it so far.

51:56

to forward to that

51:58

in episode 7. These episodes, episodes,

52:00

of course, are all

52:02

together officer our We have Ways

52:04

Channel. You can join You can

52:06

join the Ways You

52:08

can join us at

52:10

We Have Ways September. We've

52:12

12th and about September. We've

52:15

been talking about exciting,

52:17

and it's all very

52:19

exciting, actually. What's coming

52:21

together, isn't it, Jim? Jim.

52:23

you bet. bet. Yeah, you bet.

52:25

bet. bet. Okay, thanks for

52:27

listening, everyone. everyone. Cheerio and Chaucy

52:29

Chauce. Chauce Chauce.