Joachim Peiper

5-0-duce · #1 (**permalink**) July 1st, 2004, 06:05 AM

What's the story on Joachim Peiper? i've heard several but i dont know what to believe. Can anyone give me a straight forward answer? thanks

Martin Bull · #2 (**permalink**) July 1st, 2004, 07:02 AM

Which particular aspect of his life or career ?

Stevin · #3 (**permalink**) July 1st, 2004, 07:52 AM

And is there a straight forward answer?

TheRedBaron · #4 (**permalink**) July 1st, 2004, 09:06 AM

No. Certainly no straight answer were this character is involved...

5-0-duce · #5 (**permalink**) July 2nd, 2004, 06:21 AM

just i've heard about him tourching villages and what not and i was also told once that some resistance killed one of his officers and he killed everyone in a village, but eh thats just what ive been told i would like to know whats true and whats not

Major Destruction · #6 (**permalink**) July 8th, 2004, 02:13 AM

Quote from "A Time for Trumpets"

He personally led a night attack on the village of Pekartschina...........and burned the village to the ground- other units of the Division called Pieper's SS-Panzergrenadiers the Blowtorch Battalion. In one drive, the panzer Regiment under Pieper's command claimed 2500 Russians killed and only 3 captured.

As Pieper himself later recalled ..............he was nearly certain that it was expressly stated that prisoners of war must be shot where local conditions of combat should so require it. Pieper made no mention of this to his commanders for they "were all experienced officers to whom this was obvious"

You can read more of the alledged murder of American soldiers in the Ardennes.

Deep Web Diver · #7 (**permalink**) July 8th, 2004, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Major Destruction:
Quote from "A Time for Trumpets"

"A Time for Trumpets" by Charles MacDonald is a fine book. MacDonald was both an Army historian and a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. Another good work by MacDonald is "Company Commander," his post-war book on his experiences as a company commander during the last year of the war.

Quote:

Originally posted by Major Destruction:
You can read more of the alledged murder of American soldiers in the Ardennes.

What do you mean by 'alleged murder'?

[ 08. July 2004, 12:17 AM: Message edited by: Deep Web Diver ]

Deep Web Diver · #8 (**permalink**) July 8th, 2004, 05:54 AM

US Army Center of Military History

<a href="http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_cont.htm" target="_blank">THE ARDENNES: BATTLE OF THE BULGE
by Hugh M. Cole</a>

CHAPTER XI: The 1st SS Panzer Division's Dash Westward, and Operation Greif

Quote:

"It was between noon and one o'clock of 17 December, on the road between Modersheid and Ligneuville, that the German advance guard ran into an American truck convoy moving south from Malmedy. This was ill-fated Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. The convoy was shot up and the advance guard rolled on, leaving the troops to the rear to deal with the Americans who had taken to the woods and ditches. About two hours after, or so the dazed survivors later recalled, the Americans who had been rounded up were marched into a field where, at a signal, they were shot down by machine gun and pistol fire. A few escaped by feigning death, but the wounded who moved or screamed were sought out and shot through the head. At least eighty-six Americans were massacred here. This was not the first killing of unarmed prisoners chargeable to Kampfgruppe Peiper on 17 December. Irrefutable evidence shows that nineteen unarmed Americans were shot down at Honsfeld and fifty at Bullingen. ... But the Malmedy massacre and the other murders of 17 December did not complete the list chargeable to Peiper and the troops of the 1st SS Panzer Division. By 20 December Peiper's command had murdered approximately 350 American prisoners of war and at least 100 unarmed Belgian civilians, this total derived from killings at twelve different locations along Peiper's line of march.

So far as can be determined the Peiper killings represent the only organized and directed murder of prisoners of war by either side during the Ardennes battle."

[ 08. July 2004, 03:00 AM: Message edited by: Deep Web Diver ]