ϟϟ-Kampfgruppe Hansen: The Ambush at Poteau

Leibstandarte SS Panzergrenadiers during the Ardennes Offensive

SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 1 on the road to Poteau

Leibstandarte SS Panzergrenadiers after the Ambush at Poteau

Early in the morning on December 18 1944 an American convoy of the 14th Cavalry Group was ambushed by SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen. With help from the heavy fog Hansen achieved complete surprise and forced the allies to abandon their vehicles and pull back to the town of Poteau. A couple of Waffen-SS war correspondents who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack, took some staged and posed shots for the benefit of the Deutsche Wochenschau that have gone down in documentary history. The shots showing SS-Panzergrenadiers and men dressed in Luftwaffe gear, most likely transferred former Luftwaffe personnel still in their LW uniforms or paratroopers from 3.Fallschirmjäger-Division, loitering around the U.S. wreckage along the road to Poteau. They pass burning and wreckedout M3 half-tracks, M8 armoured cars, jeeps and M5 Stuart light tanks. The destroyed M8 Greyhound scout car belonged to the U.S. Army Task Force Mayes, composed of elements of the 14th Cavalry Group and 820th Tank Destroyer Battalion, that was completely annihilated by SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen. Over the years many scholars and historians have attempted to identify the soldiers in these screenshots. The only point of agreement seems to be that they belonged to the attacking force of SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen and or elements of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel, who showed up at the scene shortly after the famous clash. The film is taken near Poteau on 6.Panzer-Armee's front on the northern shoulder of the Bulge on the Poteau and Recht road on December 18 1944. The clips come from a captured SS-PK film that is believed to have been shot by SS-Kriegsberichter Max Büschel's cameraman SS-Unterscharführer Schäfer. His dispatch rider was captured by the Americans the following day carrying the undeveloped film. Credit: Timo R. Worst, AHF inter alia. Footage: U.S. War Department Film. FU.