WARGAMESOSD

Bitter Woods

 

SS Panzer- Korps Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler


The Allied order of Battle card


The Axis Order of Battle card


Waffen SS unit is Joachim Peiper

The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. The offensive was called Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Translated as Operation The Guard on the Rhine or Operation "Watch on the Rhine.") by the German armed forces. The “bulge” was the initial incursion the Germans put into the Allies’ line of advance, as seen in maps presented in contemporary newspapers.[13][14]

Wacht am Rhein
Operation Wacht am Rhein was the final major offensive and last gamble Hitler was to make. Wilhelm Mohnke, now in command of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, was to lead his formation as the spearhead of the entire operation in the Ardennes. Attached to the I SS Panzer Corps, the LSSAH, one of the most elite and highly trained units in the entire German military. However, the divisions high casualties had forced it to take in a large number of inexperienced replacements to add to the core of battle-hardened and experienced veterans. The crisis in the Reich meant that the LSSAH had dangerously low amounts of fuel for the vehicles in the upcoming campaign. On 16 December 1944 the operation began, with Mohnke designating his best colonel, Standartenführer Joachim Peiper, and his regiment to lead the push to Antwerp.

In the north, the main armored spearhead of the Sixth SS Panzer Army was Kampfgruppe Peiper, consisting of 4,800 men and 600 vehicles of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler under the command of Joachim Peiper. Its vehicles included PzKw IV, Ausf.H, PzKw V Ausf.G, and PzKw VI.

Bypassing the Elsenborn ridge, at 07:00 on 17 December, they seized a U.S. fuel depot at Büllingen, where they paused to refuel before continuing westward. At 12:30, near the hamlet of Baugnez, on the height halfway between the town of Malmedy and Ligneuville, they encountered a convoy of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, U.S. 7th Armored Division. After a brief battle the Americans surrendered



Joachim Peiper (1915 - 1976) During the autumn the German forces had to counter the attempts of the Western Allies to cross the Westwall while Hitler was looking for an opportunity to seize the initiative on the Western Front. The result was the Operation Wacht am Rhein. In a desperate attempt to defeat the Allies on the Western Front, the German armies were to break through the US lines in the Ardennes, to cross the River Meuse and take Antwerp cutting the Allied forces in two.

The main role in the breakthrough was devoted to the 6th Panzer Army under the command of Sepp Dietrich. He would have to pierce the American lines between Aachen and the Schnee Eifel and seize bridges on the Meuse on both sides of Liège. Within the 6th Panzer Army a mobile striking role was assigned to the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler under the command of SS-Oberführer Wilhelm Mohnke. The division was split into four Kampfgruppe with Peiper commanding the most substantial which included all the armored sections of the division. His duty was to break through the U.S. lines along an rollbahn B through Spa, Belgium and to take bridges on the Meuse between Liège and Huy.


SS Panzer divisions at start of play


6th Panzer Army HQ


Peiper to south of main army

The 6th Panzer Army with Sepp Dietrich

Peiper assists Panzer Lehr

Bastogne goes out of supply

One of the two fuel depots used as part of the optional rules

The fuel depot at Surèe
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