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Now & Then.. Ardennes Iconic Image Journey..

Article about: Many thanks for your time and effort Luckystrike , this is an awesome thread many injoyable times , cheers Raymond

  1. #181

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    Quote by LUCKYSTRIKE View Post
    This selection of pictures have taken me a little longer to prepare due to the number of them. But I feel it's justified due to the personal actions carried out during this battle, no less than 6 Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to US troops fighting in the villages. This hard won action also created enough delay in the Northern sector advance to ensure that the German Ardennes Offensive was ultimately doomed to failure.

    The Twin Villages Rocherath-Krinkelt

    Both villages share the same main street with Rocherath to the North and Krinkelt with the Church the South. Both German routes of advance Rollbahn A & B emerge from the forest to the East of the villages with A running into a cross road in the centre of Rocherath and B skirting the southern edge of Krinkelt and continuing on toward Wirtzfeld.
    The actions that took place in these two villages are to complicated to try to record here however if you're interested I'd recommend you get the book 'The Battle East of ELSENBORN and the twin villages' by Wiliam.C.C.Cavanagh.

    Around 12KM North of Rocherath lies the crossroads of Wahlerscheid, just before the German Offensive began the US 2nd Division had just captured this costly objective made up of deep trenches and 5 concrete bunkers guarding a cross road on the International Highway. This action named the area Heartbreak Crossroads.
    From the 16/12/44 a brave one sided battle was fought at the edge of the woods to the east of the villages by troops of 99th Infantry Division US 393rd Infantry facing the overwhelming forces of I. SS Panzer Corps.
    Ultimately they fell back into the villages and set up defensive positions. They had to hold to enable the 2nd US Inf Div to disengage at the Wahlerscheid crossroad and fall back into and then retreat through the villages or they would have been cut off. This was successfully achieved, they were then told to hold to enable the 2nd US Inf Div to fall back to the Elsenborn Ridge and dig in. The 99th were then able to fall back on this position.
    The villages were abandoned after 4 hard days often hand to hand fighting, sometimes US and German troops occupied adjacent buildings. At the close of this action US forces had destroyed no less than 111 German Panzers, assault guns and armoured vehicles.

    Picture 1 was taken looking to the East along Rollbahn A the I.SS Panzer-Korps advanced toward us. The US troops were dug in along this road in fox holes (still there) to the right and left. The next four pictures show then and now of Rollbahn A as it entered Rocherath just before the cross roads with the main street. The next set show Panzers knocked out in th Village heading South down the main street toward Krinkelt.
    LUCKYSTRIKE
    I wonder how many of the guys that now live in these houses know the story that follows the place. I wish I could see their faces when they could see such Now and Then pictures!!!

  2. #182

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    Quote by rudeerude View Post
    The tiny village of Tondorf with its narrow streets.Enjoy
    Attachment 99586
    Fantastic, it's some thing I've always wanted to see, King Tiger going thru' Tondorf in colour

  3. #183

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    Great thread, many thanks. Travelled in the very same area way back when but the pictures are now all lost, alas.

  4. #184

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    I wonder what Tondorf looks like today (winter) when it snows

  5. #185

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    Great thread, I am hoping to visit the Ardennes before Christmas this year...

  6. #186
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    Thanks for sharing these pictures with us.

    Isn't it amazing to see that some buildings never changed over the years...or just a little...I love to see more of these comparison pictures

    harti

  7. #187
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    Great thread Lucky.

    Thank you,
    Hummel

  8. #188

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    I could look at the pictures of the King Tigers going through "Tondorf" all day long..

    The "Then & Now" comparisons are excellent and a pleasure to look at.

    Also, finding out where they ended up, smashed and burnt in the coming days.. brings the reality of war, home.
    Last edited by The Devil's Bank; 01-15-2017 at 11:38 PM.

  9. #189

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    Quote by LUCKYSTRIKE View Post
    https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/attachments/after-battle/56555d1254519898-now-then-ardennes-iconic-image-journey-10.jpg
    https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/attac...journey-12.jpg
    Luckystrike
    Quote by stewfoxy View Post
    Also worth noting in the last sequence is the fallschirmjaeger extreme left of the group on the Tiger II. Isn't that a Sten he's holding? Wonder how he acquired that?
    Quote by Adrian Stevenson View Post
    Yes, it is indeed a Sten MKII. No doubt picked up in previous actions against British or Commonwealth forces.

    This is a superb thread

    Cheers, Ade.
    Apologies for pitching in on a thread so long after it was started! But, having been watching (a lot of) Forgotten Weapons & other such channels, I thought I would highlight that the Wehrmacht actually officially issued Stens (as the MP749 (e) for a MkII I believe), having captured them in large numbers!

    It is also just possible that the pictured weapon is a "Gerät Potsdam" which was a German manufactured Sten copy - apparently for clandestine operations, which (IIRC) aspects of the Ardennes campaign might have been considered to be.

    For interest, there was another Sten variant (MP3008) issued by Germany as a substitute / last ditch weapon around 1944/45... but its not one of those since the magazine housing was switched to a vertical position on that design.

    Again, what a great thread

    EDIT: Sorry PanzerJaeger44 & Adrian Stevenson, somehow I initially missed the page when you posted on the subject of German Sten 'copies'!

  10. #190
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    I also Guide Battle of the Bulge Tours and will be there for the 75th Anniversary in Bastogne in December , new panzers in the Ardennes Tour next year ....
    The gates of hell were opened and we accepted the invitation to enter" 26/880 Lance Sgt, Edward Dyke. 26th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers , ( 3rd Tyneside Irish )

    1st July 1916

    Thought shall be the harder , heart the keener,
    Courage the greater as our strength faileth.
    Here lies our leader ,in the dust of his greatness.
    Who leaves him now , be damned forever.
    We who are old now shall not leave this Battle,
    But lie at his feet , in the dust with our leader

    House Carles at the Battle of Hastings

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