The Bridge at Cheneux WTO (id:#56125)

Avalon Hill (HASL 2 - Kampfgruppe Peiper I ID: KGP CG II)   [next]   [previous]

Cheneux, Belgium 1944-12-20 (38 others)

Overview:

Although Peiper’s attempt on the 18th to exit the Ambléve valley via Cheneux had been stopped by the “damned engineers” near Habiémont, the German commander decided to hold Cheneux as a bridgehead across the river. To this end he ordered it garrisoned, mainly by elements of FlaK-Sturm Abteilung 84. Even as this was being done, the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division was moving east to plug the gap in the American defenses between the 30th Infantry and 7th Armored Divisions. When scouts from the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, already warned by civilians that the Germans were in Cheneux, approached the western outskirts of the village on the morning of the 20th, they spotted a woman standing between two houses. Her warning gestures clearly indicated that her house was occupied by Germans; having also spotted two flakwagens and a machine gun position near Boutet’s house, the scouts withdrew to report. Consequently, the paratroopers of B and C Companies were ordered to move up from Rahier. In the meantime the German bridgehead was reinforced by the last elements of KG Peiper to reach La Gleize before the Americans shut the door completely in the Trois-Ponts area: Battalion II of SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 2, which arrived on foot with only the supplies and equipment its men could carry. As Company B neared Cheneux, it was met by a wall of fire from automatic weapons. Both paratroop companies then deployed in the dense mist and advanced, supported by a captured German halftrack mounting a 75mm howitzer.

Defender: German (SS) (Bataillon II, SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 2 and FlaK-Sturm Abteilung 84)  

Errata (source)