Peiper’s Charge

Peiper’s Charge: Running the Gauntlet in the Ardennes with Mike Haught In December 1944, Hitler launched his last great offensives against the western Allies. The largest was Wacht Am Rhein, or Watch on the Rhine, and would be forever known to American historians as the Battle of the Bulge. The goal was simple, punch through to the Meuse River, then take Antwerp to encircle four Allied armies. This would hopefully force the Allies to the negotiating table and end the war on favourable terms for Germany.

Devil's Charge The Germans had been in retreat since the Allied breakout from Normandy, finally settling into defensive lines on their frontier as Autumn turned into Winter. In early December 1944 it seemed, to the Americans facing them in the Ardennes forests of Belgium and Luxembourg, unlikely that the Germans would attack. Learn more about Devil's Charge here...

To accomplish the offensive, Hitler gave the most critical task to his most trusted unit: the 1. Liebstandarte SS-Panzerdivision, which in turn gave its most important objective to its best panzer regiment led by SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Jochen Peiper. Peiper’s epic drive is detailed below on the maps.

To recreate Peiper’s daring march to the Meuse, we’ve put together a scenario. The format is a gauntlet scenario where the German player starts the game with a seriously huge task force and tries to make it to the end of a long table through roadblocks and demolished bridges. The American player has a series of small forces to spring on the Germans.

The scenario is designed to be played along three tables which represents the path Peiper took in the cold winter of December 1944. It begins at Lanzerath, where the heroic stand of 18 men and four artillery observers from Lieutenant Lyle Bouck’s Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon held up the entire 3. Fallschirmjägerdivision for 20 hours.

Only the arrival of Peiper put the offensive back on the road. This is where our story and scenario begins. It ends at Targnon and Habiémont. These small villages mark where Peiper’s last obstacles stood before his goal along the Meuse. Securing these points would mean that the Germans had nearly unfettered access to the Meuse. The Americans knew this and poured everything they could into Stoumont and Cheneux. This was the defining moment for both sides of the fight. ~ Mike.

Peiper’s Charge Scenario The quintessential image we all see in our minds when someone mentions the Battle of the Bulge is that of a line of King Tigers with Fallschirmjäger troops riding atop and Jochen Peiper pushing them forward with words of ‘encouragement’. With the release of Devil’s Charge it is now possible to refight this epic story with this epic scenario! Download a PDF version of the Peiper's Charge scenario here...