then and now Peiper in France

[bikenav]

Friday France some may know something of the battles around Normandy in June 1944 just after the D-day landings, many have likely visited some of beaches. These are then and now pictures I toke in 2024 on the way back from the 80th anniversary. Kampfgruppe Peiper & the 1st SS Leibstandarte Division (an infamous war criminal) and his tiger tanks on the way to those battles. interestingly he survived the war and after a spell in jail after his death sentence commuted he made his home in France, but in 1976 he died in a mysterious fire at his home his guns and empty bullet casings found around his body. the French police failed to work out what had happened, ooh yes the telephone wires had been cut. Rough Justice?



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I’ve embedded the pictures, hopefully making them easier to view.

Richard

 

[the woodster]

Definitely murdered.

 

[Wapping]

It would be nice if you could identify the spot shown in your ‘Theb and now’ picture on Google maps.

Thanks.

 

[HxH]

Very interesting, Google map location would be helpful, really like these "Then and Now" photographs.

My father fought in the Ardennes and at the Battle of the Bulge, in his Sherman Tank fitted with a Bulldozer blade. In one of winters coldest and worst snow storms.



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I’ve embedded the pictures, hopefully making them easier to view.

Richard

 

[bikenav]

I have got the location but not at hand so a little patience. there are a series of pics at that location and i had never seen a modern pic linked to it i had a good idea of his general route and it toke a while to find but before I got round to it someone else beat me to it. I have got a few others, it adds a little interest whilst tramping about. thanks for the interest.

 

[Wapping]

Probably a picture from the same event:

 

[John R Clark]

Is this the division that the Resistance put carborundum in the bearings of the transporters putting them out of acton; slowing their advance north ?

 

[Boxerboy55]

Malmedy massacre. Courtesy of Mr Peiper.

Baugnez 44 museum very close to the junction where the US squad bumped into Peiper's armoured column.

I have visited.

Google is your friend.

 

[John R Clark]

Malmedy massacre. Courtesy of Mr Peiper.

Baugnez 44 museum very close to the junction where the US squad bumped into Peiper's armoured column.

I have visited.

Google is your friend.

Thank you.
I was thinking of the Das Reich of Oradour sur Glane infamy..

 

[Larry Langford]

Malmedy massacre. Courtesy of Mr Peiper.

Baugnez 44 museum very close to the junction where the US squad bumped into Peiper's armoured column.

I have visited.

Google is your friend.

In the above Mark Felton videos at some point it is alluded to the fact that Piper wasn't actually at the Malmedy massacre, but that it was his subordinates that went with it. And this is why they decided to let him off after a short prison stay, to foster better relations with our new allies the Germans, in the new cold conflict with the soviet union ...
But I'm not defending him, He wasn't a particularly good commander, sourcing Mark Felton again. By the time they mustered the top SS divisions in the west in normandy, these divisions had been rebuilt at least a couple of times and were only shadows of the former. this was due to senseless aggression by certain commanders in previous campaigns, mainly in russia ...

 

[Boxerboy55]

Thank you.
I was thinking of the Das Reich of Oradour sur Glane infamy..

Another place worth a visit. If you like war type history.

 

[john_aero]

There is a lad on FB who does same as you, he holds up a WWII pic in front of a camera showing you the streets today and manages get the photo inline with old building etc. its very cool

I want to go to Oradour Sur Glen might try this summer on my trip. One person who did go said it left him unsettled for a while similar to the camps

 

[Burridge01]

Another place worth a visit. If you like war type history.

Went there 2 years ago,a truly awful place with a terrible story.One of the few(and I've done a hell of a lot)where I found a corner and sat for half hour and thought you absolute bastards.And then to read how the village gave back its Croix de Guerre after the Germans were as good as forgiven is shocking.Very sad place to visit.

I went round to the church and just couldn't take any photo's of it.

 

[Wapping]

It is very sobering to know that Russia was left hundreds and more of villages like this and worse.

 

[KMD]

I too found Oradour sur Glane a moving experience. A sense of disbelief follows you around the village. Difficult to comprehend what occurred there.