Much of the route that s. SS-Pz.Abt. 501 and the rest of the elements of Kampfgruppe Peiper took on their drive toward the Meuse can still be followed today.
Peiper ran into problems soon after he started on 16 December. Still in Germany just before the border with Belgium, his route crossed a bridge, which had been blown during the German retreat in September 1944 and hadn't yet been repaired by the engineers. Peiper simply bypassed the blown bridge through the area . It was the first of many delays.
During the night of 16 December and early morning of 17 December the Kampfgruppe passed through several small Belgian villages, meeting slight resistance from scattered American forces. Part of Peiper's assigned route consisted of trails that were little more than dirt tracks
Peiper was trying to reach the main N23 highway that crossed the Ambleve River in Ligneuville and carried on to the west. As his lead element left the small village of Thirimont they took the direct route to the west. Unfortunately, this route dwindled to a farm road which led to a creek with no bridge. The armored vehicles could not cross the muddy bottomland, and the lead element turned around and headed north on another road toward Malmedy. The change of route would have drastic consequences for Peiper and many of his men.
As the lead elements turned north, their intent was to reach the "Five Points" crossroads at Baugnez just south of Malmedy, and there to turn south and west on the N23 highway toward Ligneuville. As the first tanks approached Baugnez, they could look across the fields to the highway they intended to take, and saw that a column of American trucks was moving along that highway. This was a section of Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. SS-Obersturmführer Werner Sternebeck ordered his tanks to open fire on the Americans. The lightly-armed GIs abandoned their vehicles and fled to ditches along the sides of the road. Sternebeck's tanks pressed on through the crossroads.
What happened next will probably never be fully known, but the event will forever be called the Malmedy Massacre. The Americans in the ditches surrendered and were herded together in a field to the west of the road. No German units could be spared to properly guard the prisoners, and as one of the parts of the Kampfgruppe passed the prisoners, the Germans opened fire. Perhaps they thought the prisoners were trying to escape, perhaps they thought they were still armed, perhaps they were young and trigger-happy. Some Germans even went into the field and shot anyone they thought was still alive. Later some of the living Americans tried to make a run for it, and some of them were killed by Germans still in the area. When the firing finally ceased, some 80 American prisoners of war were dead at the Baugnez Crossroads.
The main body of the Kampfgruppe continued down the N23 road to Ligneuville (which the Germans called Engelsdorf). Peiper thought there was a major American headquarters there, and wanted to capture it. Peiper's advance did surprise an American brigadier-general, who escaped with his lunch still on the table at the Hotel du Moulin. Other Americans were captured, and some of the prisoners again ran afoul of Peiper's soldiers; eight of them were killed later that evening
As afternoon darkened into evening on 17 December, Peiper continued his advance past Ligneuville toward Stavelot, the first city in his path. Progress was reduced to a crawl along the steep and winding road, and it was dark by the time his lead elements approached Stavelot. The road winds along a steep hill down into Stavelot, and at a narrow point the first tank encountered mines laid in the road by a squad of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion. Peiper decided to halt for the night.
Early on the morning of 18 December Peiper advanced on Stavelot. He was probably surprised to find the bridge over the Ambleve still intact, and after a slight pause his tanks poured across it. Several American units defended Stavelot, but the Germans were able to gain the main road west.
Once out of Stavelot the Kampfgruppe continued along the relatively good N23 highway to Trois Ponts. There Peiper intended to recross the Ambleve river, then cross the Salm river, then continue on good roads toward his objective. But as the name says, there were three bridges in the city, and he would have to find two of them intact
American forces had a 57mm antitank gun positioned near the underpasses. It was quickly dispatched by Peiper's lead tanks, but it bought just enough time for US engineers to blow the Ambleve river bridge, almost literally in Peiper's face. This forced another change of direction; Peiper now had to turn north and follow narrow roads through the valleys and hills until he could find another way to cross the Ambleve and again reach the main N23 highway.
Just beyond the railroad underpasses the N33 highway turned north. Peiper ordered his tanks to take that route, and about noon they passed through the tiny hilltop village of La Gleize. Little could Peiper know that he would soon be surrounded and fighting for his life in that village.
Peiper's column was delayed by air attacks, and it was dark by the time his tanks wound their way down the hill toward the bridge over the Lienne creek. Another squad of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion had beaten him there and prepared the wooden Neufmolin bridge for demolition, and blew it when the Germans were about 100 meters away. This is the location where Peiper is said to have cried in frustration, "The damned engineers! The damned engineers!"
Peiper was once again forced to try to find another route to the west. He was successful in getting some of his SPWs across smaller bridges, but his tanks could not cross the winter-swollen Lienne creek. He wasn't ready to give up: if he turned back north toward the village of Stoumont, there was another bridge beyond that town that crossed the Ambleve.
Peiper consolidated his forces at La Gleize during the night of 18 December, and on the 19th he set out for Stoumont. There were American forces defending the town and Peiper lost a Panther tank, but the other Panthers pressed on.
The lead Panthers continued through Stoumont and took the road toward the train station, beyond where they hoped to find another bridge over the Ambleve intact. However, as they passed the station they ran into a strong American force of 16 tanks and tank destroyers. The outnumbered Panthers didn't have much of a chance; three were quickly knocked out and the rest withdrew. For all practical purposes, this was the farthest advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper.
Strong American forces were moving into the area, and Peiper was now surrounded, with insufficient fuel to take him any farther. He held Stoumont for a couple of days, with fierce fighting raging in and around the St. Edouard Preventorium (a large building on the west side of town). The Germans fortified the building and called it the "Festung Sankt Edward" (Saint Edward's Fortress), but were eventually forced out. They withdrew from Cheneux as well, and Peiper concentrated all his forces at La Gleize.
Despite battering by American tanks and artillery, Peiper's forces held on. Tigers and Panthers made a valiant defense of the Werimont farm on the southern edge of La Gleize, until accurate American fire knocked out several of the tanks.
Peiper finally pulled out of La Gleize on Christmas Eve, abandoning his equipment. For his valiant attempt to reach the Meuse he received the Swords to his Knights Cross, and was promoted to SS-Standartenführer (colonel). He surrendered to the Americans with the rest of the 1st SS Panzer Division at the end of the war. He was quickly labeled a war criminal, and was tried for his reported involvement in the Malmedy Massacre. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in fact Peiper served only 11 years. He at first tried to remain in Germany, but lost a couple of jobs when his "war criminal" background became too well known. He and his wife moved to a small village in France where he made a living as a translator. There on 14 July 1976 he was murdered and his house burned by persons who were never identified, but were thought to be French Communists. Peiper had died as he had lived: a fighter; his rifle and pistol were at hand beside his burned corpse. He was buried in the family plot at Schondorf am Ammersee in Bavaria
