Battle Of The Bulge: Then & Now - STAVELOT
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2023
- Stavelot in Belgium would see heavy fighting during the Battle of The Bulge in WW2.
Kampfgruppe Peiper and his King Tigers would fight the US Army through the streets of Stavelot in a desperate battle for control of the city.
Follow me as I find Then and Now photos from Stavelot and provide the context of the images all on location!
#ww2 #thenandnow #battleofthebulge #ardennes #stavelot #kingtiger #tiger2 #tigertank #tankbattle #ww2tanks #wwiihistory #wwii #thenandnowchallenge
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I was in Stavelot Saturday night with some mates, I knew about Joachim Peiper but not the battle. Thank you for this great upload, it helped join the dots for me.
Fantastic! It’s a great place isn’t it. Did you manage to get to La Gleize and Stoumont as well?
Captain Kent (1st Battalion, 117th, 30th ID) wrote an account of storming into the town at mid-day on the 18th with two platoons from Company A and two platoons from Company B just as the tail end of Peiper's battle group was crossing the bridge and passing through. Kent held the square (where the photo of the dead German SS man was taken) and sent two other platoons under a Lt. Murray toward the bridge with bazookas and rifle grenades. Murray's platoons were on the streets on either side of Rue Haute Rivage taking pot shots at the King Tigers. It was a bazooka hit on the gun mantlet from one of those men that ended King Tiger 105. Murray's men ended up in the buildings overlooking the bridge and stopped anyone else from crossing. He was later reinforced by the heavy MGs from D Company. What is not covered in the vid was that though most of Peiper's armor got through, all of his beans, bullets and gas (and additional armor like King 222) never were able to cross. All of Peiper's armor was running on fumes and thus he was forced to lager at La Gleize and get crushed over the next few days. My father was a mortar observer from Company D and was with Murray dragging an SRC-300 radio all the way to the bridge to call in 81mm mortar strikes on the bridge and beyond. My notes say the heavy mortars were emplaced along Rue de Parfondruy, but I don't think they could have been there on the west side of town on that first day. I think they must have been on the north side of town along the Malmedy Road on the first day and only shifted to the west on the following day when the town was totally secured. If those platoons under Kent had not arrived when they did and Peiper's supply column had gotten through the battle of the bulge would be a very different thing. Peiper could have turned north along several roads or just smashed back through Stavelot to rejoin the 5th Panzer Armee. There was little to stop those King Tigers and Panthers in those first couple of days.
The dead German in your first photo is actually a soldier from Schnelle Gruppe Knittel. A victim of the skirmish between elements from Knittel's heavy company and elements from 117/A and Shermans from 743/B which took place at the Place du Marché (today the Place Saint Remacle) shortly after 20.00 in the evening of the 18th.
The same tree.. that just gets me that the same piece of life has survived as we quickly lose all those that survived this war. Keep it up. You are doing a great historical service. I only wish I could take these walks with you
It’s incredible isn’t it, when you see what remains after all these years!
One day I hope to be able to offer tours so watch this space and thank you for watching!
Yep, doing a fine job
When I was a child, I lived for 5 years in Parfondruy, a small village northwest of Stavelot. The stories about the massacres, I have often heard them. In 1967, there were still survivors. Excellent report.
Thank you! I know the name of the village (probably noticed the name on road signs in the area). It’s a beautiful region of Belgium.
Thank you for taking the time to watch!
Tiger 222 was hit by multiple shots. It had 5 hits to its frontal armour, all of which bounced off, 1 hit to the gun recoil tube. And 3 hits to its side armour which also bounced off. Before the M10 got 2 shots into the engine which disabled the Tiger. The crew survived.
The Tiger was engaged by M4 Shermans from the 743rd tank battalion and M10 tank destroyers.
Never get tired of the then and now photos, keep them coming
Thank you! Next weeks episode is Falaise Then and Now 😃
This year in December back to the Ardennes again. Re-visited La Gleize again with this town
Nice! Here’s so much history in such a small area isn’t there!
one thing pleased me that the tree, as a witness to these battles, did not die, and is still alive
It’s amazing isn’t it that it’s still standing all these years later!
The shot of the bridge at the end really moved me. On December 19th 1944, A co. 117th infantry regiment of the 30th infantry division engaged SS and fallschirmjager units over the Stavelot bridge. A person from my small town named Will Holleran was killed during that fighting and it was crazy to see the bridge even if it was just in a video. Great job and thanks for showing us the battle of Stavelot.
Oh wow! Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for sharing that story of Will Holleran. I hope you’re able to visit Stavelot as it’s a great town to walk around, and the whole area is crammed with incredible stories from the fighting there. Thanks for watching!
That was some awesome then & now pictures of Stavelot! A Big Thumbs up!
Thanks Steve it’s much appreciated. I’ve got another from La Gleize lined for the next few weeks after Malmedy, the last B24 to crash in Germany plus a couple of others!
Indeed!
I'll be watching for them.
It must be really cool to actually be there and compare then to now. Thanks again for your efforts in sharing these with us.
The two Tiger commanders mentioned in the video, Wessel and Sowa, were both present at the famous Battle of Villers Bocage in June 1944. The well known Michael Wittman took over Sowa's tank because his own had suffered mechanical problems on the way to the town. Wessel also didn't actually fight in the battle as he had been sent to make contact with the Panzer Lehr Division.
Great! Ardennes offensive is one of my favorite WW II topic to study. Awesome to see the images then/ now at the various sites of battle.
Glad you enjoyed it Rick! Like you I’m fascinated by the Ardennes counter-attack and always enjoy visiting the sites there, and I’m always amazed at how either side could fight in such awful weather conditions!
Awesome Mate! All the way from the U.S.! Keep it up! 👍🏻
Thanks mate! It’s appreciated! I think I’ve got another couple Then and Now from the Ardennes lined up for the next few weeks😃
great research, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
That tree "still standing there" bit absolutely beautiful, though I prefer the tree as it's now
Incredible isn’t it!
WW2 Wayfinder thank you for sharing !!!
You’re most welcome! Thank you for watching!!
All my life watching the dead german foto..and there it is the place..amazing work..!
Sir, I have an idea you might like. As you edit your footage to construct your videos, consider to adding a CGI image in a semi-see through/ghost image showing the tanks placement as when the original image was taken during the war. I’ve never seen WWII history videos do this but maybe you could try? You can also use this technique with buildings, bridges and terrain. So the ghost image should appear to be still as you walk around the site discussing what happened on that location. It would present viewers with a clear understanding of exactly where it was. And later on as you developed skills and confidence in adding CGI images, you can add in some minor animation to show sequence of events that were fought on the location you’re standing in and could explain how each event unfolded. Viewers like myself enjoy military history because we can picture everything that impacted each side that we can connect with. The cold over there is brutal, not to mention how cold it was during the battles! I know how a Soldier feels when he’s pinned down or surrounded, being trapped affects the mind very hard so it took them a lot of self discipline to not loose control of their emotions which would quickly spread to other Soldiers.
As always, we’ll done video sir.
Sadly I'm not that clever but its a great idea.
The spot where the Tiger 222 was taken out is a great place to watch LBL bike race. That area has a huge amount of history.
Didn’t realise that! It’s a stunning area though isn’t it if you catch it on a good day and without the low cloud and fog!
@@WW2Wayfinder Yes the area has its own micro climate. It can rain for and hours sun out an hour and repeat 5-6 times a day. Only a clear day its really nice. I have spent a lot of time all over that area on a bicycle. My favorite place on earth.
beautiful also this video, simply great!!!
Thank you!
You pick some great music for your backing.
Thank you! All from Epidemic Sounds, so independent artists which is nice!
Excellent!
Thank you Michael!
Good stuff👍
Thank you!
Amazing work as always mate 🤙🏻
Thanks mate, busy plan the next lot for Normandy now!
Nice video with nice shots! I was in Stavelot a few years ago and it’s interesting to read how kampfgruppe Peiper came from the small road on the steep hill. How they had to cross the bridge and fight through the town. The devastating circumstances the civilians of Stavelot where in. Did you find the Legaye house just outside Stavelot direction Trois Ponts? There is a very sad picture taken of a GI looking at a little girls body in front of the house where a massacre on civilians took place.
I know the photo you mean, although I struggle to look at it given the brutality and sadness it shows. There’s an excellent book about KG Knittel and their atrocities in Stavelot. A difficult read but thoroughly researched.
@@WW2Wayfinder very sad indeed. The gruesome fate of many Belgian civilians during the battle is also described in book by Peter Schrijvers. Thanks for mentioning book Knittel. Wasn’t he also trialed at the Dachau trial?
It's nice to see they've painted the half track and redone all the hardstanding around it, it looked very sad when I was there in 2008
It’s really nice now, especially with the wartime photos on the relevant buildings.
Great job as always, thanks for sharing!
Not a problem! Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing the detail of knowledge shown by you and also found in the comments! So much has been researched, let us never forget..
Thank you!
Good work👍
Thank you!
Thank you for all your time and effort. Your videos are amazing. Thanks!
Thank you so much for your support! It genuinely means a lot to me and it all goes back into helping me provide this content! Thanks again!!
Great channel
Thank you so much!
Love watching these....fascinating..
Thank you!
Just found your channel today and it didn't take me long to hit subscribe!! Great videos presented so well. Great job! My thanks. All the best from Canada.
Thank you so much! Welcome to the channel and hope you enjoy my work. Next year I’ll be featuring a lot more of Canadas efforts on and after D-Day as what those young men achieved is incredible and doesn’t get the attention they rightly deserve so keep an eye out for that!
Thanks again!
it's great to watch your then en now video's, must bin a lot of work to find all these locations!! thank you very much for doing this !!
It’s great fun tracking them down, and sometimes it a a real piece of detective work to find them! Thank you so much for watching!
@@WW2Wayfinder when your ever in the scheldt region! a lot of Canadian wo2 traces here! always welcome!
That halftrack is well looked after.
It’s stunning, and the wider memorial is really nice too. Also the photos around the town of the knocked out Tigers is cool to see, so hopefully the actions there won’t be forgotten!
will you be doing Houffalize?
I had planned to but sadly ran out of time. I did finally get to see the restored a Panther finally but that was it. I’ll have to take a look on the next trip!
I live in the area and friday i was in Meyerode where a PaK 40 is standing. Regards from near St. Vith. Near Cherain there is a Fh18 standing. If you are here, you can visit me and i will show you some interesting subjects.
Thank you for that offer that’s very kind! I’ll be back in December hopefully so need to start planning for it!
Keep tracking down those king tigers-might be nice to say how they got knocked by the enemy as well?
Maybe rewatch it buddy as he does tell ya how they go taken out!
Thanks Simon!
Are you going to Stoumont?
My episode from two weeks ago (I think) covered Stoumont. If you have a look in my Battle of the Bulge playlist you should see it there 😃
Excellent job. You even showed the marker where Peiper was stopped. @@WW2Wayfinder
Great video again, i remember passing trough that town on my motorcycle
Thank you! It’s a beautiful town isn’t it?! Hard to think of the fighting that took place there when you see the place today.
I love thw way the towns remember ww2. The only thing my grandkids know of ww2 is what ive taught them. They havent been taught about it in school and they are in highschool. Very sad
It’s great to see the local communities who were affected by the war continuing to acknowledge it! Thank you for watching!