ϟϟ-Sturmbannführer der Waffen-SS Knittel (Schnelle Gruppe Knittel)

1.SS-Panzerdivision Leibstandarte SS at the Kaiserbaracke road junction

Schnelle Gruppe Knittel

Schnelle Gruppe Knittel

SS-Obersturmführer Leidreiter and SS-Sturmbannführer Knittel

Shots at the Kaiserbaracke road junction between St. Vith and Malmedy showing a Steyr troop-carrier turning right towards Recht, a massive Panzerkampfwagen Königstiger from schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501 rolling up at the crossroads carrying heavily-armed paratroopers from 3.Fallschirmjäger-Division relaxing and smoking cigarettes en route to Stavelot in the Ambleve valley, a Sd Kfz 251 halftrack APC turning right for Recht, two junior SS officers most likely from SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 1 strolling past several Sd Kfz 250 halftracks and conferring over a map on the bonnet of their Schwimmwagen Amphibious Scout Car, enjoying captured cigars with their driver. The men in these famous images are captioned as members of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel's reconnaissance unit on the southern route of the German counter-attack in the Ardennes. Bottom clip: SS-Sturmbannführer Gustav Knittel consult a map with his adjutant and company commander SS-Obersturmführer Hans-Martin Leidreiter at the small hamlet of La Vaulx-Richard, south east of Stavelot on December 18 1944. Leidreiter, a veteran since 1938, showed great bravery in the eastern front and was awarded both the German Cross in Gold and the Close Combat Clasp in Silver. After the war he became an assistant teacher and rose to the position of deputy leader of the Agricultural- and Silviculture School in Titisee-Neustadt. Gustav Knittel himself was one of only 98 German soldiers that received both the Knight's Cross and the Close-Combat Clasp in Gold. Document contains a false confession, saying he ordered the killing of American prisoners of war near Petit-Spai. Knittel claimed after his trial that the interrogations included psychological torture and that he was physically abused by his guards. He hoped that he could show during his trial that the killings he confessed to never happened. Knittel intended to use the war diaries of the American units which had opposed his Schnelle Gruppe Knittel during the offensive to prove that no Americans were killed at the date and location he gave in his confession. But during the Malmedy massacre trial his defence lawyers did not get permission to use these war diaries and following his self-incriminating confession he was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 16 1946. In May 1948 the War Crimes Review Board rejected the claim that irregularities had occurred during the trial against Knittel but his sentence was reduced to 12 years imprisonment. Knittel was released from Landsberg Prison in 1953. Credit: Timo R. Worst and AHF. The clips comes from a captured SS-Propagandakompanie film taken on December 18 1944. The images are credited to SS-Kriegsberichter Max Büschel and newsreel filmer SS-Unterscharführer Schäfer. Schäfer's dispatch rider was taken prisoner by the Americans the very next day along with their undeveloped films. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

ϟϟ-Kampfgruppe Peiper: Malmedy Massacre at the Crossroads of Baugnez

Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords holder Joachim Peiper

Wounded SS-Panzergrenadier taken POW by the Americans

U.S. 526th Armored Inf. Bn. at Rue de la Gare in Malmedy

U.S. 3060th QM GR Company at the Baugnez field

During the Ardennes Offensive at least 71 American POWs were killed near Malmedy on December 17 1944. It appears that the shooting started when some of the POWs made an attempt to escape. According to the story that was pieced together by the survivors, the over 4,000-strong SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper were carrying some 30 captured Americans on their vehicles at the time they got to the crossroads of Baugnez near Malmedy. At the crossroads, they caught up with soldiers of the U.S. 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. A five-minute battle ensued in which at least 50 Americans were killed. SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper's men then quickly rounded up those who had surrendered and ordered them to wait in a field until German troops, who were following, could take charge of them. After leaving behind a few young men to guard them, Peiper and his vanguard pulled away and continued towards Ligneuville. Legend has it that Peiper, who had an excellent command of the English language, passed the scene and called out to the American POWs: It's a long way to Tipperary. What followed is subject to debate. At a certain point, some of the POWs in the rear part of the group gave the impression that they were about to flee. At the Malmedy massacre trial, U.S. Lieutenant Virgil Lary was able to identify Georg Fleps, a SS-Sturmmann from Romania, who allegedly fired the first two shots with his pistol. Several guards later testified that a few of the POWs had recovered their previously discarded weapons and that warning shots had been fired in the air when they tried to make a run for it, and there is evidence to support this theory. In October 1945, one of the survivors, in a sworn statement countersigned by one of the chief prosecuting officers, Lieutenant Raphael Schumacker, said that it started in response to a specific escape attempt; this in turn caused a commotion in the field. This movement, and the fact that at least one and probably two POWs had by then escaped from the field, only exacerbated the situation. Panic ensued and guards began firing upon the POWs with their machine guns. Some 50 Americans survived the incident, either by fleeing into the woods or pretending to be dead. According to the testimony of three survivors, all those fallen who showed signs of life were afterwards killed by close-range shots. The autopsies showed that 41 of the victims had been shot in the head. In summary, it can be said that there is no evidence to support the idea of a premeditated massacre–particularly in view of the fact that over half the Americans in the field survived the main shooting. Even if this theory is accepted, however, it does not excuse the administration of coup de grâce shots by the Germans who entered the field. The Malmedy incident led to considerable retaliation against German POWs. Few Waffen-SS men came to be taken prisoner by units such as the U.S. 3rd Armored Division. An example is the written Order 27 from the headquarters of the 328th U.S. Army Infantry Regiment, dated December 21 1944: No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoner but will be shot on sight. A possible example of a related large massacre against Germans is the Chenogne massacre, where some 80 German soldiers and combat medics of the Führerbegleitbrigade and 3.Panzergrenadier-Division were shot and machine-gunned after having surrendered to soldiers of the U.S. 11th Armored Division. At the Saar river the U.S. 90th Infantry troops murdered Waffen-SS POWs in such a systematic manner that HQ had to issue express orders to take Waffen-SS men alive so as to be able to obtain information from them. The death toll in the Malmedy Massacre has never been established with certainty; various accounts put it somewhere between 70 and 100. Today there are 84 names on the memorial at the Baugnez crossroads. When the monument was rebuilt in 1962 there were 71 names to be read. Since then the list of victims has been extended to include some fallen soldiers found within a radius of 18 kilometers from the meadow up to four months after the incident. For further reading, see the Malmedy Massacre Trial. Sources, among others: Malmedy Massacre Investigation: Report of the Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, 81st Congress, European Theater Historical Interrogations [ETHINT] Series, Malmedy Massacre and Trial: Bachelor Thesis by Prokop Seifert and military historian Major General Michael Reynolds. Top image: a studio portrait of Jochen Peiper made in connection with the award of the Swords to his Knight's Cross on Jan. 11 1945. Seen in the picture is also the Close Combat Clasp in Silver and just visible on the right sleeve the Tank Destruction Badge. Credit: Julia Kotterias. c. Bundesarchiv. Second image: all seems lost for a wounded soldier left behind. This young SS soldier was photographed in the Ardennes on Dec. 16 1944 by U.S. photographer John Florea. LIFE photo archive. Third image: on Dec. 17 1944, part of the U.S. 526th Armored Infantry Battalion was ordered to Malmedy with a tank destroyer battalion attached to take up defensive positions to delay Peiper's Kampfgruppe. As they entered Malmedy, the G.I.'s heard the church bells playing Yankee Doodle Dandy to warn the Germans. Credit: Richard James Molloy. USASC. Bottom image: U.S. Quartermaster Corps personnel check for identification on the 71 bodies found at the Baugnez crossroads on Jan. 14 and 15 1945. Credit: Facundo Filipe. USASC.

Highly-decorated Officer Joachim Peiper Sentenced to Death by Hanging

Jochen Peiper on the witness stand during the Malmedy massacre trial

Jochen Peiper when receiving his death sentence by hanging

Mistreated German prisoners of war in American custody

Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords holder Joachim Peiper was sentenced to death by hanging and accepted the decision stoically. He waited every day for five years for execution while in solitary confinement. However, he was not executed because U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy from Wisconsin proved the courts perfidy. This did not help those men who had been killed before the inquiry ever began. After eleven years of custody Peiper was released as the last of his comrades in December 1956. No formal investigations or prosecutions were ever made concerning American and British abuse and massacres of German POWs (due to lack of political will or other practical and political reasons). Allied Forces committed similar atrocities both before and after the Malmedy massacre. According to American historian Professor Stephen Edward Ambrose, who interviewed around 1,000 U.S. combat veterans, roughly 30 percent told him they had seen U.S. troops kill German prisoners of war. U.S. Army Major-General Raymond Hufft admitted when reflected on the war crimes he authorized: If the Germans had won, I would have been on trial instead of them. General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, describes the mind-set of the Allies in his wartime diaries. The following quote is from January 4 1945: also murdered 50 odd German med. I hope we can conceal this. The typed transcript "cleans it up" a bit: There were also some unfortunate incidents in the shooting of prisoners. (I hope we can conceal this). Top clip: Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Burton L. Ellis with former Waffen-SS officer Joachim Peiper on the witness stand on June 21 1946. Middle clip: Joachim Peiper when sentenced to death by the American Military Tribunal on July 16 1946. Screenshots: U.S. NARA, Archive No: 111 ADC 5965. Bottom image: weariness and defeat etch the faces of a line of German POWs in a prison camp of the U.S. 3rd Army in 1945. According to the original cutline the men belonged to Waffen-SS units taking part in the Battle of the Bulge and therefore suspected of having shot U.S. POWs in Malmedy. U.S. NARA.

Der letzte Gefallene – Last of the Fallen

Jochen Peiper

Headstone of the Peiper Family

After eleven years in Allied custody, Joachim Peiper decided to relocate in France with his family. He was released as the last of his comrades in December 1956. With the help of former French prisoner of war Mr. Gauthier, he managed to buy a watermill in Traves in the Haute-Saône department in eastern France in 1957. Jochen Peiper had a house built there for his family in 1960, high up on the bank of the river Saône. The house was like a military fort – surrounded by bushes and was not seen from the street. He and his family lived there quite peacefully for over sixteen years when Paul Cacheux, member of the French communist party, recognized him. This resulted in a hate-campaign openly directed by the communist party. Flyers showing Jochen Peiper as a war criminal and Nazi were distributed all over Traves. He decided to send his beloved wife and daughter to their family in Germany. Jochen Peiper was convinced he would be unable to protect his family adequately in case of an attack. Fearing his neighbor and friend, the former Leibstandarte officer SS-Obersturmbannführer Erwin Ketelhut, would shoot at any attacker caused him to refuse his friend's offer to spend the nights at his house. At 23:30 Jochen Peiper shot in the air trying to intimidate the intruders. What happened afterwards can only be told by the culprits. The winner of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper's charred and asphyxiated corpse was found in his burned down house on July 14 1976, the Bastille Day in France. He died at about 01:00. The perpetrators were never identified, but were suspected to be French communists. Jochen Peiper is buried alongside his wife Sigurd at Friedhof Schondorf am Ammersee. Left image: post-war photography of Jochen Peiper taken by the Wiking veteran Benno Müller in 1957. Private collection, with permission. Right image: photo by Osamu Suzuki. PD.