While the bulk of Kampfgruppe Peiper turned left at the junction of N632 with the road from Honsfeld, a small group of tanks and halftracks turned right and downhill in the direction of Wirtzfeld. Just prior to this a mixed bag of American vehicles tried to escape from Büllingen via Wirtzfeld to Elsenborn. Sergeant Roger D. Phillips and other men from the 2nd Platoon, Company C, 254th Engineer Combat Battalion, marched this same route and upon turning left at this bend, started uphill out of town behind the fleeing vehicles. As they did so, the approaching German armour began firing shells past the engineers at the American vehicles hitting a weapons carrier and setting it alight before it reached the top of the hill. Phillips and his buddies hastily left the road in a field off to the right as machine-gunners on enemy halftracks took them under fire. With no possibility of concealment, Phillips' platoon leader, a lieutenant named Anderson, ordered his men to throw down their weapons and surrender. Panzergrenadiers marched the engineers back down to Büllingen and assembled them atop the Railroad Bridge.

ArdennesBattle for the BulgeBüllingenNormandiePeiperVadVarVem