The story of Kampfgruppe Peiper is one of the most dramatic armored odysseys of World War II, a Waffen-SS thrust that punched through American lines in the Belgian Ardennes and drove deep toward the Meuse River. The unit set out on December 16, 1944, with roughly 105 tanks at its disposal. What became of those tanks is a story of destruction, capture, and, remarkably, survival—because two of them still exist today, and both can be seen by the public. In December 1944, the Ardennes Forest was considered a quiet sector of the American front line, thinly held by around 30,000 exhausted or inexperienced troops.
Few realized Hitler was about to launch his final offensive in the west, an audacious push through the rugged Belgian countryside. US forces resisted fiercely but were gradually pushed back, and in one encirclement action more than 7,000 Americans were taken prisoner. Leading the German attack in the northern sector was Kampfgruppe Peiper, part of the 1st SS Panzer Division, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Commanded by SS Colonel Joachim Peiper, the battle group was tasked with surging ahead of the German 6th Panzer Army and seizing bridges across the Meuse River.
Success there would open good tank country and allow the full weight of German armor to advance on Hitler’s objective: the Belgian port of Antwerp, the Allies’ most important supply center on the western front. Its capture could have starved British and American armies of supplies and halted their advance on Germany. Peiper crossed into Belgium on December 16 with a powerful force. His heaviest weapons were 25 King Tigers—Tiger II tanks—forming SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 501.
He also had 40 Panthers and 40 Panzer IVs, plus around 5,000 men, including Panzergrenadiers traveling in armored half-tracks. After a delayed start, Kampfgruppe Peiper captured a US fuel dump at Honsofeld and continued toward the village of Malmedy. There, units of the 1st SS Panzer Division shot and killed more than 80 American prisoners of war before moving on, an atrocity that became known as the Malmedy massacre. Peiper himself and the bulk of his force had already left the area when the shootings occurred.
The spearheads rushed toward Trois-Ponts, a village with three vital bridges. On December 18, Peiper met stiff resistance at Stavelot and left a blocking force behind while he advanced the main body toward Trois-Ponts. Upon arrival, however, the Germans discovered that US Army engineers had already blown up the bridges over the River Amblève and were defending the sector strongly. Searching for another route, Peiper moved on to La Gleize.
By the afternoon of December 19, his tank strength had fallen to 19 Panthers, six Panzer IVs, and six King Tigers. The other 86 tanks had broken down, been knocked out, bogged down in mud, or become lost in the chaotic battle. Nevertheless, Peiper attacked the village of Stoumont before the Americans could organize proper defenses, and his assault managed to overrun or push out the US forces there. Later that day, American armor arrived, knocked out three Panthers, and stopped Peiper’s advance beyond Stoumont.
By late December 19, Peiper’s force was trapped around La Gleize, about 45 kilometers from Liège and still 65 kilometers from the Meuse at Huy, his original target. Fuel and ammunition were running low. The six King Tigers that had reached La Gleize formed the backbone of his defenses while other German battle groups desperately tried to reach him. Peiper positioned King Tigers 213 and 221 near the village church, their powerful 88-millimeter guns covering the approaches from the east.
King Tiger 332 was placed southeast of La Gleize. The German command organized a Luftwaffe airdrop of fuel and ammunition, but the three Junkers Ju 52s that attempted the drop were off target, and about 90 percent of the supplies landed in American lines. On December 22, King Tigers 213 and 221 engaged US Sherman tanks at a range of about 2,000 yards, scoring many hits and knocking out several Shermans. But American tanks concentrated their fire on the two heavy German tanks.
King Tiger 213 had the first third of its gun barrel blown off, while King Tiger 221, commanded by SS-Untersturmführer Hans Fusch, suffered damage to its reversing gear. Both were subsequently abandoned by their crews. Surrounded by American tanks and infantry and pounded by constant artillery, Peiper repeatedly asked for permission to break out. Permission finally came at 2:00 p.
m. on December 23. He abandoned all his tanks and vehicles and escaped on foot with his remaining 800 fit men toward German lines some 20 miles away. US troops entered La Gleize on December 24.
They found only German wounded, 107 captured American GIs, and the wreckage of German tanks and vehicles littering the area. Those vehicles were largely left where they stood until the summer of 1945, when cleanup crews arrived to haul them away. Most were taken to collection points for scrapping. King Tiger 213, parked on a narrow road beside the church, was difficult to move and became the last tank tackled by the engineers.
As it was being towed away, a local café owner ran out and bought the tank from the recovery crew for a good bottle of cognac. She believed the King Tiger should remain in the village as a memorial to the battle. In 1951, its broken gun barrel was replaced with one taken from a knocked-out Panther. The tank was then dragged to its current position outside the local war museum, and in 1975 it was overhauled and repainted.
It remains the last Kampfgruppe Peiper tank still in the Ardennes. But it is not the last Kampfgruppe Peiper tank in existence. That distinction belongs to King Tiger 332. It was captured by a tank crew from the US 740th Tank Battalion late in the fighting around La Gleize, when they stumbled upon it sitting in the dark in a snowy forest firebreak.
The German crew did not react to the approaching Sherman. The American tank commander ordered a star shell fired directly above the King Tiger, and the effect caused the German crew to bail out—possibly awakened by the light and believing their tank had been hit and was on fire. Three crewmen were gunned down by machine gun fire, one was wounded and captured, and one escaped. The King Tiger was found to be in perfect running order.
Some of the Americans got it moving, and its capture was reported up the chain of command. The tank ran out of fuel near the village of Coo, and First Army headquarters ordered it recovered and sent to the United States for study. An ordnance company sent to retrieve it faced serious difficulties, because the flatbed trailer normally used to carry Sherman tanks was far too small for the enormous King Tiger. They managed to load it, but the strain on the trailer’s tires was heavy.
Taken to Spa, Belgium, King Tiger 332 was put aboard a train and shipped to Antwerp. In that way, a Kampfgruppe Peiper Panzer did reach Hitler’s great objective—though under circumstances no one had planned. After arriving in the United States, King Tiger 332 was sent to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, where it sat outdoors for 40 years. It was eventually restored and today is displayed at the National Armor and Cavalry Museum at Fort Moore, Georgia.
Whether it is wise to leave a tank as rare as a King Tiger exposed to the elements for 81 years, as has happened with King Tiger 213 at La Gleize, remains a subject of debate. Externally, that tank appears well cared for. That two of Peiper’s tanks have survived more than eight decades, both quite by chance, and remain visible to the public, is a remarkable piece of living history.