​​Battle of Stavelot​

​​On the night of 17 December 1944, the advance of the German soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper stopped. From the high ground where they stood, their lead elements observed convoys of American vehicles on the road ahead in Stavelot. They decided not to advance onwards to the town that night, as the numbers of American troops were not known.

​A few hundred yards up the hill, on the road leading to the bridge in Stavelot, a small number of American soldiers from the 99th Infantry Division had setup a roadblock. It was essential for the German soldiers to seize this bridge to cross the River Ambleve. They were now well behind schedule with the advance towards the River Meuse and beyond.

​On 18 December at dawn, the German soldiers fired up the engines of the tanks and progressed down the hill towards the bridge at Stavelot. The first roadblock and line of defence was quickly overcome by the vanguard, the leaders of the advance. The lead Panther tank had come down the hill and crashed through the American roadblock. The defenders had managed to knock it out, but it had crashed into two US Sherman tanks. The follow up Panther tank had then come down and quickly seized the bridge. The American soldiers battling to hold back the advance around the bridge eventually fell back.

​The German attackers turned west through Stavelot and headed towards Trois-Ponts, looking to exploit the quickest route to Huy and a crossing over the River Meuse.

​Over the 18 and 19 December the American troops continued to try to retake Stavelot. Jochiem Peiper, who led the German soldiers, battled to keep a supply route open to his bridgehead. To the east of Stavelot the American forces tried to cut the route off and recapture or destroy the bridge. To the west, the German troops remained on the offensive.

​During the several days that the SS troops were in Stavelot, civilians were murdered in several massacres, which included children. A memorial to the civilians can be found by the bridge.