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How 140 U.S. Engineers Stopped Peiper’s Panzer Spearhead at Trois-Ponts

WW2 Tales USA

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December 1944. Around 140 American combat engineers stood directly in the path of Joachim Peiper’s powerful German armored spearhead during the Battle of the Bulge. Outnumbered and armed with little more than bazookas, machine guns and a single 57-mm anti-tank gun, they could never defeat the panzers head-on. Instead, the engineers destroyed the vital bridges at Trois-Ponts, used trucks, gunfire and deception to make their tiny force appear much larger, and forced Kampfgruppe Peiper to lose the one thing the German offensive could not afford - momentum. This is the remarkable story of how a handful of U.S. engineers turned geography, explosives and psychological warfare into weapons against one of Germany’s most dangerous armored formations.

Sources:

https://www.publications.usace.army.m...

https://history.army.mil/portals/143/...

https://www.army.mil/article/15949/ba...

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war...

#WW2 #WorldWar2 #BattleOfTheBulge #TroisPonts #KampfgruppePeiper #USArmy #CombatEngineers #MilitaryHistory #WWIIHistory #Ardennes

9 Comments

@sharonwhiteley6510 10 days ago

Peiper was already behind schedule after being held up at Lanzerath by LT Bouck (one of the youngest LTs in the Army) along with his group of 18 plus 4 forward artillery observers. It's estimated that the actions of those few men held Peiper up from his schedule between 12-18 hours.
It took 35 years for LT Bouck's team to become the most highly decorated unit of their size in the US Army.

If you don't know about LT Bouck and his men at Lanzerath, I HIGHLY recommend you actually research what they accomplished.

@sharonwhiteley6510 10 days ago

The combat engineers knew Peiper needed bridges. They literally raced from bridge to set it up to blow. Yet they would wait for the 1st tank to be on the bridge before setting it off. If you do it too early, it would allow Peiper to plan too far in advance. Peiper was being forced to smaller roads/tracks/bridges which slowed him down even more.
At one point the engineers heard Peiper screaming across a blown bridge. DIESE ERDAMMTEN PIONIERE !! Or, THOSE DAMNED ENGINEERS !!!!!
Peiper was cursing the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion.

@GlennAndersen-k6v 4 days ago

The American engineers were critically aided by an independent Norwegian unit. These things are known in Norway, but hardly ever talked about in America.

@sharonwhiteley6510 10 days ago

Besides Peiper HAD to take intact Allied fuel depots. The ENTIRE German plan was based on this requirement.

@ww2_blueprint 8 days ago

Thats creazy

@PaulWerdel-p1m 8 days ago

This attack would have never worked. Once the weather got better, airplanes by the thousands would have annihilated them!

@michaelomeara4954 9 days ago

Our colors NEVER RUN!!!!!

@leeenfield4900 8 days ago

Too bad this video sounds very much like a comic book circa 1960 describing an actual event. Basic story is there. Obscured by over simplifaction and mindless repitition. Thumbs down.

@truehistory1940 8 days ago

The most fascinating part of this story is that 140 lightly armed engineers did not try to destroy Kampfgruppe Peiper's tanks, they attacked the one thing the entire spearhead depended on: momentum. By blowing the bridge and creating the illusion of a much larger American force, they bought enough time for Allied reinforcements to arrive and turned overwhelming German firepower into a stalled column.