Peipers Route at the battle for the bulge

Lieutenant Jack Varner to block this road into town. Varner positioned his men along the hedgerow across the field immediately off to your left. In their role as bazooka team, Sergeant Grant Yager along with Privates Arthur Romaker and Santos Maldanado took up position behind a small rise in the ground which then existed on the spot today occupied by the thatched roofed house off to your front left. Private Bernard Pappel Jr., a 50-calibre machine gunner. placed his machine gun in the hedge to your front where the road splits left and right. Sergeant Yager well recalls that winter's morning 56 years ago: <br />
'About 07:00, on Sunday 17 December, Staff Sergeant Zoller, our ammumtion sergeant, had us set up what he said was to be a roadblock out of town. Besides our carbines, we carried a number of grenades, one bazooka and a number of bazooka rockets. About 07.30, while the three of us were off to the side of the road, a German tank came over the hill following the road into Büllingen. In just a minute or two, a second tank came over the hill, by which time I'd decided I could fire the weapon without sights just by aiming alongside the barrel. When it was directly in front of US, at about 100 feet, I fired the bazooka. The round hit somewhere on the side and the tank turned part way around in the road. As the crewmen left the disabled tank, I fired my carbine hitting the first two but as I went to shoot a third, my carbine failed. <br />
I'By this time, the rest of the column had come to a halt directiy in front of us, only a hundred feet distant. The front vehicle was a halftrack loaded with Panzergrenadiers, this is the group that took us prisoner. At ths time we noticed one of our men, Bernard Pappel, had been wounded and was lying near the side of the road where he had been manning a 30-caliber machine gun. The German soldiers that were there allowed Romaker, Maldanado and myself to give Pappel first aid, using our first aid kits and sulphur powder. A German officer, in a

35 / 292

Lieutenant Jack Varner to block this road into town. Varner positioned his men along the hedgerow across the field immediately off to your left. In their role as bazooka team, Sergeant Grant Yager along with Privates Arthur Romaker and Santos Maldanado took up position behind a small rise in the ground which then existed on the spot today occupied by the thatched roofed house off to your front left. Private Bernard Pappel Jr., a 50-calibre machine gunner. placed his machine gun in the hedge to your front where the road splits left and right. Sergeant Yager well recalls that winter's morning 56 years ago:
'About 07:00, on Sunday 17 December, Staff Sergeant Zoller, our ammumtion sergeant, had us set up what he said was to be a roadblock out of town. Besides our carbines, we carried a number of grenades, one bazooka and a number of bazooka rockets. About 07.30, while the three of us were off to the side of the road, a German tank came over the hill following the road into Büllingen. In just a minute or two, a second tank came over the hill, by which time I'd decided I could fire the weapon without sights just by aiming alongside the barrel. When it was directly in front of US, at about 100 feet, I fired the bazooka. The round hit somewhere on the side and the tank turned part way around in the road. As the crewmen left the disabled tank, I fired my carbine hitting the first two but as I went to shoot a third, my carbine failed.
I'By this time, the rest of the column had come to a halt directiy in front of us, only a hundred feet distant. The front vehicle was a halftrack loaded with Panzergrenadiers, this is the group that took us prisoner. At ths time we noticed one of our men, Bernard Pappel, had been wounded and was lying near the side of the road where he had been manning a 30-caliber machine gun. The German soldiers that were there allowed Romaker, Maldanado and myself to give Pappel first aid, using our first aid kits and sulphur powder. A German officer, in a

Ardennes Battle for the Bulge Büllingen Normandie Peiper Vad Var Vem

E-pic

Peipers Route at the battle for the bulge