Photos above left to right:

Aerial photo Malmedy / Malmedy Massacre looking SE down the road to Ligneuville / Massacre Field  Photo taken in January 1945

Photos below left to right: Massacre Field today as well as the Memorial site at the Baugnez Crossroad. The photo on top right, shows the field in which most of the US P.O.W were laying.

Photos below:

This helmet belonged to Major Elmer Schmierer. He was the operation officer of the 393^rd Infantry Regiment, 99^th Infantry Division. His command post was in Krinkelt were heavy fighting took place

Photos above Then and Now:

Top right: Tiger "222" of SS-Oberscharführer Kurt Sowa made it to Stavelot but there it was lost to schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501 just at the southern end of the Amblève bridge while supporting Kampfgruppe Sandig on December 19 1944. The photo has been taken 20.12.44 in Stavelot.

Top left: Since late afternoon of that day, infantry of the 117th Regiment, assisted by a platoon of tank destroyers from the 843rd TF Battalion, had battled for the center of the town, and around 8 P.M German vehicles in the market place were hit by tank destroyers not fifty meters away from the main road to Trois-Pont. That night, Monday 18 Decembre, Stavelot was back in American hands. German tenure had been tenuous and brief..... only the dead remainded.

Bottom photo: Stavelot church then and now

Once out of Stavelot the Peiper drove along the relatively good N23 highway to Trois Ponts. There Peiper intended to recross the Ambleve river, then cross the Salm river, then continue on good roads toward his objective. But as the name says, there were three bridges in the city, and he would have to find two of them intact.

The Ferme Antoine (Antoine farm) on the N23 between Stavelot and Trois Ponts. KG Peiper passed this way on the morning of 18 December, and later the farmhouse would serve as the headquarters of the LSSAH armored reconnaissance battalion.(text Greg Walden)

Even 64 years after the battle, bullet holes are still visible.

Approaching Stoumont the leading Panther from 2. Kompanie received a direct hit outside the clapboarded house "La Maison Robinson" on the left. Its only survivor SS-Rottenführer Heinz Hofmann. Alert to danger, head outside the turret cupola for better all round view in spite of the risk, the commander of the following Panther presses on. The Robinson house today can be seen in the then and now photos above (top left photo on the left)

Top right photo:

The battle of the Robinson house. A group pf Fallschirmjaeger set up a machine gun alongside the hedge. Suddenly SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Pötschke, Ritterkreuz dangling from his neck, spots an unfired Panzerfaust and turns to retrieve it. Today, a Police station is built on the former fighting ground in front of the house

Peiper was once again forced to try to find another route to the west. He was successful in getting some of his SPWs across smaller bridges, but his tanks could not cross the winter swollen Lienne creek. Peiper was not ready to quit: if he turned back north toward the village of Stoumont, there was another bridge beyond that town that crossed the Ambleve. Peiper consolidated his forces at La Gleize during the night of 18 December, and on the 19th he set out for Stoumont. There were US forces defending the town and Peiper lost a Panther tank.

The Americans launched no strong attacks on 23 December, but continued their intense artillery fire. German tank fuel and ammunition were exhausted. Peiper, unable to advance further and knowing that he would get no relief, had begun the day before requesting permission from 1. SS-Panzerdivision to withdraw. Radio contact was sporadic, and the answers Peiper received convinced him that the division did not realize the severity of his situation.
As the situation of Peipers men was getting worse on December 23rd, and after having been under artillery fire for more than 15 hours, (estimations states that the 30th Infantry Division’s artillery poured over 57,000 shells into the area), Peiper finally received permission to break out of La Gleize and move to link up with his division. The remaining 800 soldiers of the Kampfgruppe moved out on foot at 2:00 am on 24 December and slipped successfully through the American lines.

With them were the officers and men of s. SS-Pz.Abt. 501 who had fought in La Gleize. The wounded who could not walk were left behind in the village under the care of SS-Obersturmführer Dr. Dittmann and his SS medics. Also left behind was a small defensive covering force, which had the mission of wrecking the remaining operational tanks and heavy weapons after the Kampfgruppe departed. For the next day and a half Peiper led his men along a circuitous route through the woods which he hoped would avoid enemy patrols and bring him to the German positions east of the Salm River. After several brushes with the enemy Peipers survivors crossed the Salm and reached the lines of the 1st SS-Panzerdivision. The battle was lost!
Peiper leaves 135 armoured vehicles in La Gleize including SS-Obersturmführer Dollinger’s Tiger 213 , still visible in the center of the village

The end of the Royal Tiger story is worth telling: abandoned by Peiper near La Gleize's place, on the night of December 24th 1944, it was used as a target by the American soldiers who tried, in vain, to go through its 185mm front armoured plate with a bazooka. Pulled by the US cleaning crew to be sent to recycling, it almost served as raw material for the Meuse valley steelworks, if one La Gleize resident didn't exchange it to the GIs for... a bottle of Cognac!
In the 70s, with the help of Gérard Grégoire, a slow but meticulous restauration gave the 213 its original look. The 88mm canon (left useless by the Germans before they left), cut right before the front plate, was replaced by a 75mm Panther canon that was used as a neighborhood farm roof pillar ! The lateral 10mm armoured plates were renovated, as well as the exhaust system. The camouflage painting was made according to pictures of that era. The interior, partially destroyed by the explosive charges placed by the SS engineers, was protected against rust with a durable coating and the exits were sealed to prevent pillage. (December 1944 Museum, La Gleize).

I have been told that once again the Königstiger will get another restauration soon.

During a symposium organized in La Gleize in 1994, and devoted to the Battle of the Bulge, and led by professor Francis Balace, Belgian, German and French historians have analysed the reasons for the German defeat and concluded that it was to the north that the battle was lost by the German's senior staff.

In fact, it was the northern axe that was the keystone's offensive element: by failing in La Gleize, it was the whole northern attack line that was cut... And to quote a famous historian line: "if the Americans won the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, the Germans lost it in La Gleize." Two black and white photos below courtesy La Gleize Museum