Ardennes 1944: Hitler's Last Gamble

by Antony Beevor

anti-tank guns and a platoon of towed tank destroyers. He was still positioning his men and guns when they were surprised by two Panther tanks and a company of panzergrenadiers, charging around the hillside on the road to the bridge over the Amblève. The first Panther was hit and caught fire, but it had built up such momentum that it smashed into the anti-tank barrier erected across the road. The second Panther pushed on and occupied the bridge in Stavelot, to be followed rapidly by the panzergrenadiers. The Americans did not have time to blow up the bridge. Solis’s force was driven back into the town. Peiper’s men alleged, without any justification, that Belgian civilians fired on them and they proceeded to shoot twenty-three of them, including women. After heavy fighting throughout the morning, Solis’s small force had to withdraw a little way up the road to Francorchamps and Spa. The main American fuel dump at Francorchamps had not been marked on Peiper’s map, and he decided to carry on west along the valley of the Amblève. In any case, General Lee’s Communications Zone troops had succeeded in evacuating the bulk of the fuel supplies potentially within Peiper’s grasp. Between 17 and 19 December, American supply troops removed more than 3 million gallons of fuel from the Spa–Stavelot area. The biggest Allied loss was