Comments on KampfGruppe Peiper (KGP) Mini Campaign

By Warren Peterson

I was asked to prepare a few remarks in retrospect on the KGP Mini Campaign. Visitors to the MEGA website unfamiliar with the campaign can view the Game Log reports starting with April 6, 2002 (Terry insert link here).

During the campaign I played (commanded) SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper's forces. Consequently, my comments will be from his perspective and limited to the battles in the table top campaign. Comparisons with actual history will be left to the reader. The forces at my disposal were in most instances quantitatively and qualitatively superior to anything fielded by the Americans. After all my job was to attack!

Without going into too much detail or re-hashing old Game Log reports let me summarize my thoughts as follows:

Stavelot: The control of this town, which was part of several campaign battles, was to have far reaching effects on KGP's spearhead. While the initial assault to capture the town was successful the forces left behind (a security company) to protect this important supply junction (with its critical bridge over the Ambleve River) were inadequate. This resulted in further delays as KGP was required to dispatch additional forces to the rear to deal with American counterattacks.

Stoumont: Finally at this stage of the campaign I have the Americans on the run. However, the varying visibility conditions created problems in identifying and neutralizing targets. Loses were not in surmountable, but it cost KGP more than I would of liked.

Stoumont Station: The approach to this battle was more coordinated and I think the results were much more pleasing. With a steel wall to our front composed of King Tigers and Panthers we could advance in a more relentless fashion against the Americans. With KGP's overwhelming superiority in tanks it was just a slow methodical process to grind down the Americans. However, our advance was not without losses.

Taragon: A new approach to taking these bazooka-infested towns is to reduce them to rubble. The use of flame thrower equipped half-tracks with HE firing tanks appears to be a winning combination.

Other observations on the campaign: