Electric Bison

The southernmost route contributing to Dietrich’s Sixth SS Panzer Army’s attack led to the Ambleve River system flowing away from the German border through Stavelot, Belgium. This route seemed ready-made for flinging a deeply penetrating spear through the thinly stretched U.S. defensive line. Chosen to execute the task, Joachim Peiper, once personal adjutant to SS Chief Himmler, gave his name to t...

Now that we have covered Manteuffel’s attack against the U.S 106th Infantry Division sector in front of St. Vith, using Lucht’s Corps, we turn to his attack against the U.S. 28th Infantry (“Keystone”) Division sector a bit south, beginning at the intersection of the Belgium, German and Luxembourg border to Gemund. Here, in an area of forested hills and low mountains, Manteuffel faced more difficul...

Saint Vith, much like the next place picked to dig a line in hopes of stopping a forest fire, must be seen in its unique context. Because the place is a crossroads town, the divisions in General Lucht’s 66th Corps of Manteuffel’s Fifth Panzer Army fully intended to capture and control those intersections. Not only a town was at stake, but the timetable for the German offensive. In this sector the...

Seven miles south of Hofen, near the German villages of Hollerath and Hellenthal, lay two additional pre-designated attack routes, or “Rollbahns” A and B, for the German assault to open the northern shoulder. These routes were directed against the Twin Villages of Krinkelt-Rocherath, three miles across the border into Belgium through the Krinkelt Forest, or “Krinkerwald.” Secondary German attacks...

On December 19, General Dietrich shifted the 12th SS Panzer Division south to attack Dom Butgenbach in order to avoid the Elsenborn defenses and open Rollbahn C, the main road from Bullengen to Malmedy in the west. This was to be another significant battle. Dom Butgenbach sat astride the Malmedy route and was by now occupied by the veteran U.S. 1st Infantry Division’s 26th Infantry Regiment. The s...

Credit must go to U.S. Fifth Corps Commander, General Leonard Gerow, who was in charge of the northern sector. On day one of the surprise offensive when everyone was reeling, he and the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division Commander, General Walter Robertson quickly came up with the defensive plan based on Elsenborn Ridge high ground, getting the 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions up there quickly into prepare...

It is time to examine in detail the eleven critical junctures of the battle, starting with the most northern fight along the original line of attack, Hofen the northern hinge. The first essential fight involved a dangerous avenue over and around Elsenborn Ridge, along the extreme northern shoulder of the German offensive. The attackers placed priority on swinging open the northern shoulder of defe...

The places where lessons were taught, and at least learned for a time, are on a lattice of little rivers, interwoven by tiny roads and bridges in their distinct valleys mixed like fingers clasped, or the askew headwaters valleys of Montana. Instead of the Big Hole or the Bitter Root Rivers adding eventually to the waters of the Missouri and Columbia, the comparatively sized Meuse and Moselle add t...

There were many sad points along our journey, places where we saw the brutal nature of war. At Honsfeld, Belgium, we passed through the intersection where Kampfgruppe, or Battle Group, Peiper rolled over the bodies of defending U.S. engineers, whose remains were then photographed by German cameramen. In the photos, three dead American soldiers lie on the road, and German soldiers mull over their b...

At the beginning of World War II there were only three regiments of Waffen, or Weapon, SS. By the Battle of the Bulge there were thirty-eight divisions. Of these, seven were German SS Panzer Divisions. If a stake needed to be driven through the heart of the police state called Nazi Germany, the point of that stake must have to penetrate through the battle-hardened shell of Hitler’s SS Panzer units...

A True story about American character lies buried under two feet of snow along the borders of Germany with Belgium and Luxembourg. The “cooled blood” of sacrifice under that snow is our American blood. In January 2017, two of us, friends from Helena, Montana, drove east from Brussels, Belgium to uncover the complex battlefield remembered in the kitchens of our childhood as the Battle of the Bulge,...

Hitler’s plan for Operation “Herbstnebel,” or “Autumn Mist,” the final code name for the Ardennes offensive, involved a massive surprise attack on December 16, 1944, along a sixty-mile front stretching south from Monschau, Germany to Echternach, Luxembourg. The initial 270,000 German troops, comprising three new German armies, assigned to the task included four SS Panzer (armor) and three Panzergr...

My friend Randy LeCocq and I, John Driscoll, are two U.S. Army veterans living in Helena, Montana. We chose to study some of the key engagements during the Battle of the Bulge because together they comprised the largest land battle ever participated in by the United States, creating a wealth of folklore associated with that intensified period of brutal combat. The lore of the big battle included t...

I love hearing people’s stories. I’ve interviewed underground miners, rope men, electric railroaders, waitresses and smokejumpers and they’re entertaining as can be. But for and before this Christmas I want spend the next 20 episodes of the Electric Bison telling a true Christmas story from 80 years ago. Though the story lasted from December 16 to January 28, I’ll report it as a trip that my good...

In an after election review I told the Democratic Party that there should have been opportunities made for every candidate to participate in debates with primary opponents. In the general the party should have enforced a requirement for debates between candidates. In my case my opponent refused both times to debate. Now that I’ve had a chance to listen to and understand podcasts, I see that they p...