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00:00The weather has made it impossible for the Allied air power to take to the skies over
00:07the Arctic.
00:08We have an American infantry unit here and guns have opened up on us.
00:09And just ahead of us on the crossroads, I can see a barricade near the French border.
00:20Field reports say German tanks have battered into Bastogne and swept along the way.
00:25And American troops on the road here are coming on to fire.
00:32Not only had the German army escaped us in France and stalled our plans, but it had managed,
00:37in defense of its homeland, to mount a new gigantic counter-offensive.
00:40The tide of battle has turned, slowly but inexorably, against those who sought to destroy
00:54civilizations.
01:24For almost five years, Hitler has dominated the brutal Second World War.
01:34His armies have ruthlessly conquered and enslaved the lives of more than 200 million people.
01:43But in June of 1944, with the Allied landing in Normandy, followed by their extraordinary
01:49sweep across Europe, Hitler's great war machine is being destroyed.
01:58He must watch as the Allies retake France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, all the while
02:04smashing his armies and moving closer to the motherland.
02:14But fate will hand Hitler one last chance to save his beloved Germany.
02:38After months of meat-grinder fighting, the extraordinary Allied advances into Europe
02:44have dangerously overstretched their supply lines and exhausted the fighting men.
02:51Under strength and in desperate need of time to regroup, the massive Allied armies grind
02:57to a halt.
03:03In contrast to the attrition of soldiers slugging it out in daily death matches, is the vast
03:09complex of support groups working behind the front lines.
03:17A more colorful group could not be found than the combat engineers.
03:30The squad members of these small 12, 13-man squads were primarily trained in construction
03:37and only very lightly trained in combat skills, such as the operation of machine guns and
03:44rifles and small unit tactics.
03:47They didn't spend much time on that at all.
03:52Young Colonel David Pergrin, commanding the 291st, has less than 200 men.
03:59Smart and fiercely independent, Pergrin's outfit, while young in age and inexperienced
04:04in warfare, are experts in the dangerous job of explosives and demolition.
04:10They called us the Bastard Battalion.
04:15We were floaters.
04:16We were just attached to any outfit.
04:21We were all stuck together, worked together, and fought together.
04:32As delays in the resupply stretch into December, a thick fog, typical of the season, settles
04:39in over the battlefield.
04:45In nearby Snedderton-Heath Airfield, Allied air reconnaissance flights, critical to the
04:50battlefield, are canceled as weather continues to worsen.
04:55Entrenched, exhausted, and without aerial reconnaissance, the Allied front lines have
05:03become virtually blind and increasingly vulnerable.
05:12But just beyond the edge of their front lines, masked by the thick December fog, is a growing
05:19menace, more treacherous than any of them could have imagined.
05:36Hitler, defiant and resilient to the end, seizes the opportunity that a slowing Allied
05:42front provides.
05:44He initiates a daring plan to turn the tide of the war back in his favor with a stunning
05:51new offensive that will take the Allies completely by surprise.
05:59With utmost secrecy and cloaked in the thick December fog, Hitler has positioned an incredible
06:05quarter of a million troops and 4,000 tanks directly in front of his enemies.
06:12He will launch them in a surprise attack against the weakened Allied front in an effort to
06:18push them back and open an uncontested avenue through which the lead assault unit, under
06:24Lieutenant Colonel Joachim Peiper, will race to capture the critical Allied supply port
06:29at Antwerp.
06:32This move will trap four complete Allied armies behind the new German front, robbing the Allies
06:38of precious war supplies and stalling disastrously and indefinitely the Western Allied advance.
06:48Confident the shocking victory will paralyze the demoralized Western Allies and split them
06:54from their Russian counterparts, he will gain precious time necessary to rebuild his decimated
06:59troops and create larger, more powerful weapons that can then be used to defeat the Russians,
07:06now void of Allied support.
07:09The date of the attack is set for Saturday, December 16th.
07:14It will place the small squad of the 291st Engineers directly in the kill zone.
07:33We thought the war was over.
07:38And they had the guys running sawmills.
07:44And what the idea was, the war was over, they're going to build barracks for the Army of Occupation,
07:50which would be coming after the war was over.
07:54You could watch the Germans on the other, over in the other field, milling around.
08:00They weren't worried about us.
08:03They had the guys scattered all along the line.
08:05They didn't have any defense up there.
08:08They too thought the war was over.
08:11But then we found out it wasn't.
08:13Get over here, take cover!
08:15Incoming!
08:17Outside!
08:19Help!
08:21Help me!
08:23Somebody help me, please!
08:25Help!
08:28Help!
08:44December the 16th, Battle of the Bulge started.
08:50We knew something was going to happen, but we didn't know for sure what it would be.
08:58We sat there shivering, waiting, waiting, looking, and just waiting for something to happen.
09:09Railroad guns fired two shells in the top.
09:17Lieutenant Wallace came in and said, the Germans are coming our way.
09:23Make sure that you have the right equipment and that you have the mines with you.
09:38As planned, Hitler's surprise attack quickly overwhelms the thinly held American lines
09:44that fight hard but are pushed back with great losses.
09:48To the south, German units tie down Patton's 3rd Army
09:52and Montgomery's British forces to the north.
09:57They create a bulge in the American line for Piper and his race towards Antwerp.
10:03The only thing that stands in his way are the 291st Engineers.
10:09291st, they got their orders to move in to Malmedy.
10:17Everybody else had moved out.
10:19I dare say there wasn't over a hundred of us guys,
10:23and we were spoke to, hold the city, hold the city,
10:28and we were told to go to Malmedy.
10:32I dare say there wasn't over a hundred of us guys,
10:36and we were spoke to, hold the city, protect the city, at all costs.
10:50We set up our roadblocks, laid our minefields.
10:56We didn't have no ammunition to speak of.
11:00We were just very, very little.
11:02Everybody had their M1s, and we had three machine guns for each company.
11:09I'm not sure how many bazookas we had, maybe a half a dozen.
11:14We took everything we had and set up our roadblocks, defended the city.
11:20We knew that we were up, I guess, a massive part of the Germans,
11:25but we didn't know how many, because we didn't know where they were coming from,
11:28how many troops they had.
11:30We knew they had tanks and so forth, you know.
11:33It was always dangerous.
11:38Pergrin and his small band of engineers, less than 150 men,
11:43have no idea that the spearhead of Hitler's large army
11:48and no idea that the spearhead of Hitler's last hope for Germany,
11:52Lieutenant Colonel Joaquin Piper's 4,500 SS troops and 90 tanks,
11:57are headed directly towards them.
12:04We never say, oh, we can't do it, let's get out of here.
12:06No one took off.
12:13We always stayed with the outfit, from the beginning to the end.
12:18Outmanned and outgunned, the engineers are about to enter the realm of legends
12:24in one of the greatest David versus Goliath fights of World War II.
12:48The field reports say German tanks have battered into Bastogne
12:52and swept down to within 20 feet.
12:54This indicates that if the Germans are moving at even half their announced speed
12:58of a mile an hour, they may by now have reached France itself.
13:06As the Battle of the Bold rages,
13:09the tip of the German spear, Piper's battle group,
13:12is racing to reach the River Meuse,
13:16the halfway point to his goal of Antwerp within 24 hours.
13:31Hitler has made his instructions to Piper clear.
13:35Be ruthless in your pursuit,
13:38take no prisoners,
13:40and bring me Antwerp.
13:46With the weather continuing to hamper Allied air forces from lifting off,
13:51the German armoured spearhead has attacked Antwerp.
13:58This report indicates the Americans have bombed
14:00both Bastogne and Babylon in Belgium
14:03after two time-saving battles.
14:07This report is officially alarming.
14:12The report is plain and clear as to how large the force was,
14:16but they are recruiting casualties.
14:19We know what the Germans have planned.
14:22We know what the Allies have planned.
14:37With communications in shambles,
14:40the 291st Combat Engineers are secluded and out of touch.
14:48The tiny unit is unaware that the deadly tip
14:51of Hitler's enormous force is already at their doorstep.
14:59We could hear shots,
15:01but we didn't know what was going on.
15:07Colonel Perkin, he went up there
15:10to check out, see what it was.
15:37And he found three survivors.
15:41That was really when we found out what had happened.
15:52When I first got there,
15:57it was just a whole field full of dead Americans.
16:07As he had at Honsfeld,
16:10Piper, in search of gas and supplies for his massive force,
16:14overwhelmed an American observation battalion
16:17and slaughtered them.
16:26These Japanese were out picking up
16:29the American guys that were killed.
16:32And they were taking them
16:35and throwing them in the back of a truck
16:38and just piling them up to get them out of there.
16:41And that didn't seem quite right.
16:49Sorry.
16:57So I went down there and I says,
17:00OK, which one of you want to get shot first?
17:04What do you mean you get shot?
17:07I says, that's an American G.I.
17:11You handle him the way you try.
17:22But it was a terrible thing, all them G.I.'s.
17:27This war must be waged.
17:30It is being waged with the greatest
17:33and most persistent intensity.
17:41Everything we are, everything we have is at stake.
17:46Everything we are and have will be given.
17:52We have no question of the ultimate victory.
17:55We have no question of the cost.
17:58Our losses will be heavy.
18:01But we and our allies will go on fighting together
18:04to ultimate total victory.
18:07Our losses will be heavy.
18:10But we and our allies will go on fighting together
18:13to ultimate total victory.
18:29The Malmedy massacre has shown the engineers firsthand
18:33the terror their enemy is willing to unleash.
18:38Pergrin is at a crossroads.
18:41His 291st engineers are a support unit,
18:44not a combat unit.
18:47And they are certainly no match in manpower or firepower
18:50against the thousands of SS troops
18:53and hundreds of German tanks.
18:56But unwilling to do nothing,
18:59Pergrin realizes that fate has handed his 291st
19:02one critical asset.
19:08Geography.
19:11The terrain between Piper and Antwerp
19:14is cut by an extensive network of rivers and streams.
19:17Driven by necessity to capture
19:20large fuel depots en route to Antwerp,
19:23Piper must cross those rivers and streams.
19:26And to do so, he will need intact bridges.
19:31And that will be his Achilles heel.
19:35So begins one of the great
19:38cat-and-mouse games of World War II.
19:41The 291st, on their own initiative,
19:44form a seemingly impossible plan.
19:49Pergrin, guessing at Piper's route,
19:52breaks up his 291st into small squads
19:56and sends them racing ahead of Piper's speeding armor
19:59to mine and then blow those critical bridges
20:02to smithereens in the hopes that it will delay Piper
20:05long enough for the major Allied armies
20:08to catch up and annihilate his massive force
20:11before they can reach Antwerp.
20:19What Pergrin did was take the bull by the horns,
20:24sending people to bridge sites.
20:28He did that on his own authority.
20:32He was never ordered to assume
20:35any sort of a combat position.
20:38But at that time, he had really turned this unit
20:42into a combat unit, not a support unit.
20:47We knew it was critical that we had to stop the Germans' advance.
20:52We took all our mines that we had on there,
20:56took our ammunition, took our rifles,
20:59and each squad leader said,
21:01OK, you have this position, that position, that position.
21:08You see a column of tanks coming down the road,
21:12and that makes you leery, because what do we do?
21:16We can't do nothing.
21:18All we've got is a couple of BARs.
21:21Pergrin, having dispatched his men throughout the Ardennes,
21:25has kept most of his unit in defensive positions around Malmedy,
21:29where he believes Peiper will first make contact.
21:39As the men of the 291st brace themselves
21:42for what will surely be a death match,
21:46Peiper has instead turned south towards Stavelo,
21:50not Malmedy, and Pergrin's dug-in positions.
21:55Pergrin is shocked.
21:58He became very alarmed because he had just placed
22:02an engineer squad at Stavelot,
22:06a major crossing point at the Embliff River.
22:13So the 291st has exactly one engineer squad
22:17under Sergeant Chuck Hensel,
22:19just beginning to rig Stavelo's bridge for demolition.
22:23As Peiper's 4,500-man juggernaut
22:26close in on their first and most crucial bridge crossing towards Antwerp,
22:30Hensel's squad is waiting,
22:33all 13 of them.
22:53On the afternoon of December 17,
22:56Joachim Peiper and his massive battle group
22:59are racing towards the small hamlet of Stavelo
23:02and the bridge over the Embliff,
23:04critical to his capture of Antwerp by tomorrow evening.
23:10With some 4,500 SS troops and 90 tanks,
23:14he would be little concerned if he knew
23:16that the only thing that stood between his panzers and Antwerp
23:19were just 13 men from the 291st.
23:26But, as Peiper will soon learn,
23:28they're not just any men.
23:36In Stavelo, racing to finish the rigging of the bridge
23:39over the Embliff for destruction
23:41are Chuck Hensel and his 12-man squad.
23:45Outmanned and outgunned,
23:47they understand that Peiper must not cross at Stavelo,
23:52no matter the cost.
23:58I just can't tell you how great my squad was.
24:03When you live and eat for three years
24:07with 12 men like I did,
24:12you get to know them.
24:15And wasn't anything that we ever got asked to do
24:19that we couldn't do.
24:23One great bunch of men.
24:38He sent out one scout,
24:40Private First Class Bernie Goldstein,
24:44to warn of any approaching German forces
24:48coming up from the south.
25:03Later on that night,
25:05Goldstein, by himself,
25:07armed only with an M1 rifle,
25:10was out front when he heard
25:12the rumble of tanks
25:14coming down the road towards Stavmont.
25:19He stepped out into the road,
25:21into the darkness,
25:23looked at the looming tank
25:25and commanded this 90-tank convoy
25:30of German troops to halt.
25:34The German column stopped.
25:38He's in here. He's in here.
25:40He's in here.
25:43Goldstein immediately runs to the rear,
25:47just in front of a bazooka team.
26:08Halt!
26:19There was a 20-minute delay
26:21before they heard much of anything
26:23other than the idling of the tanks.
26:31Then they heard the tanks beginning to back up.
26:38Piper made a decision
26:41that since he didn't know
26:43what was at Stavmont,
26:46he decided that he would take that on
26:49in the morning in daylight
26:52and not attack at night.
26:58They all turned around and went back.
27:01If they had known what we had,
27:04they would have come right through.
27:17In the morning, an armored unit
27:19led by Major Paul Solis
27:21arrives and takes charge of the town.
27:26Believing that Piper's group
27:29Believing that Piper's goal
27:31was never Stavelot,
27:33but instead a major American fuel dump
27:35just up the road,
27:37he quickly sends the bulk of his force
27:39across the river to defend the fuel depot.
27:44Thinking the town is safe,
27:46Solis does not allow the engineers
27:48to blow the bridge at Stavelot.
27:51He keeps the bridge intact
27:53for his roadblock force to return.
27:58The engineers, having rigged the bridge
28:01for a destruction of that bridge,
28:04is not given instructions to blow it.
28:10But Solis has made a grave error
28:12in not blowing the bridge.
28:15Piper, as planned, strikes like a cobra.
28:29Go! Go! Go!
28:35Go!
28:58Go!
29:16Spared by Solis' decision not to blow the bridge,
29:19Piper crosses over the dynamite-laden structure
29:22and speeds on towards Antwerp.
29:29Go! Go!
29:47For the engineers,
29:49they have lost their first battle
29:51in their life-and-death sprint with Piper.
29:54They now realize that if they are to stop him,
29:57they'll have to be even bolder.
30:01And with time running out,
30:04that's exactly what they plan to do.
30:28Over here!
30:31As the Battle of the Bulge moves into its second day,
30:35a deadly game of cat-and-mouse has begun
30:38between Piper's battle group,
30:40racing towards Antwerp,
30:42and Pergrin's 291st engineers
30:45hell-bent on stopping them.
30:48They had to find an easy way to get to Antwerp.
30:52We had to anticipate where they would be
30:54so we could blow up bridges and leave mines.
30:57As they came forward, we had to anticipate their every move.
31:03This became a tactical game of speed
31:07and who can get there first.
31:12Piper had to rush as quick as he could
31:15to get to the next bridge
31:17before Pergrin got there.
31:20If they destroyed those bridges,
31:23his mission would be severely jeopardized.
31:36Colonel Pergrin, guessing at Piper's route,
31:39sends two small squads towards the town of Three Bridges
31:43in the hopes that they can mine the bridges for destruction
31:46before a possible crossing by Piper.
31:50If Pergrin has guessed correctly,
31:52his tiny squads will be the only resistance
31:55standing in the way of Piper.
31:59Outmanned and outgunned,
32:01they will face the full brunt of Piper's ruthless SS troops,
32:06who have to date been unstoppable.
32:14On the morning of the 18th,
32:16there is no more guessing as to Piper's route.
32:20Pergrin was right.
32:22At 11 a.m., the first of Piper's 90 tanks
32:26entered the town of Three Bridges.
32:33You'd be sitting there
32:35like waiting for a field call to go through the post.
32:43You're waiting for the right time
32:45for the tank to get there
32:48and hope your charge is wired right
32:51and it's going to blow okay.
32:56As the lead tank moves towards the engineers' first roadblock,
33:00they unleash an anti-tank round...
33:05that knocks it off its tracks.
33:15The panzer returns fire and scores a direct hit,
33:19destroying the anti-tank gun and killing his crew.
33:35I watched the tank get on top of a bridge.
33:39We waited till he was crossing.
33:42We blew the bridge.
33:46Explosion!
33:53Abruptly, right in Piper's face,
33:56the main bridge over the Omblève
33:59disappears in a fountain of rubble and dust.
34:10Piper still had an ace in the hole.
34:14Earlier, he had sent an infantry unit
34:17a mile south of Three Bridges.
34:20If you crossed there,
34:22you could get behind the Three Bridges area.
34:32German officers came forward to inspect the bridge.
34:38What they didn't realize,
34:40there was a sergeant from the 291st
34:44in the bushes with a detonator in his hand.
34:56The sound of the Somme River bridge going up in smoke
34:59echoes across the mile to Piper and his SS troops.
35:05With hopes for a crossing at either bridge now destroyed,
35:08an angered Piper is heard to say,
35:10We maten engineers, those damned engineers.
35:18Piper thought they'd go right through,
35:20right through Antwerp, you know, without any hesitation.
35:24He thought that we would be easy capture,
35:27but our small outfit, we held them back some.
35:34They just thought, that's great, we got that done.
35:38Because he was always worried about what was coming next.
35:42Well, I got through that, am I going to get through the next one?
35:50For the engineers, there is little time to savor their victory.
35:57Piper is still rampaging towards Antwerp.
36:02The engineers must once again guess at his plans,
36:06then fight against the brutal weather, terrible roads,
36:09and pitiful communications to stay ahead of him.
36:17But surprise is no longer on their side.
36:21Piper, vengeful and brutal, will make sure the next time they meet,
36:26the engineers will pay with their lives.
36:37A few days later.
36:52As the battle continues to rage,
36:55there can be no doubt that our allies and we have paid a heavy price.
37:00The loss of lives and jobs,
37:02the toughest job has been performed by the average,
37:06easy-going, hard-fighting young American
37:10who carries the weight of battle on his own shoulders.
37:14It is to him that we and all future generations of Americans
37:18must pay grateful tribute.
37:22While Pergrin and his men of the 291st
37:25have successfully prevented Piper's battle group
37:28from crossing the Implaud and Somme rivers,
37:31Piper is still relentless in his pursuit of Antwerp.
37:40With time running out, Pergrin gambles everything
37:43on what he believes will be Piper's next move.
37:47If he is guessed wrong,
37:49they will have missed their last chance to stop him.
37:54Pergrin sends Staff Sergeant Edwin Pig
37:57and his eight-man squad racing to the Lien Creek Bridge,
38:01where he believes Piper will try to cross.
38:04Fighting bad weather and poor roads,
38:07Pig will need nothing short of a miracle to win the race with Piper.
38:12He gets it.
38:15As the long Piper column desperately races towards Antwerp,
38:19the thick cloud cover finally clears just enough
38:23for a couple of daring P-47 Thunderbolt fighters
38:26flying at less than 100 feet
38:29to deliver the miracle the 200-man squad has been waiting for.
38:35Pergrin and his men of the 291st
38:37have successfully prevented Piper's battle group
38:40from crossing the Implaud and Somme rivers,
38:43the miracle the 291st was hoping for.
39:02The daring raiders are only able to destroy three of Piper's tanks,
39:06but the bombing has discombobulated the armada,
39:09causing a critical delay in their race to the Lien Creek Bridge.
39:25Pig's nine-man squad from the 291st
39:28finish mining the bridge and wait.
39:34Just five short months ago,
39:36they had been behind the front lines as a support unit.
39:40Now they stand guard over a frozen bridge
39:43as the only force between Hitler's march of tyranny and Allied victory.
40:06To preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization,
40:13and to set free a suffering humanity,
40:17we demonstrate...
40:20Come on, Frank.
40:35At 10 a.m. on December 18th,
40:38just as Pergrin had predicted,
40:40Piper's battle group arrives at Lien Creek.
40:44Beyond this final bridge
40:46lay open the roads to the Meuse and his prize of Antwerp.
41:17Piper can only stare helplessly
41:19as his planned capture of Antwerp
41:22goes up in flames and splinters.
41:27At this time, after the Lien Creek action,
41:30Piper actually had nowhere to go.
41:33There was no way he was going to reach the Meuse River.
41:41Piper turns his force back towards Germany to escape,
41:44but it is too late.
41:47The engineers have given Patton and Montgomery's armies
41:50the critical time they needed to catch, and now annihilate,
41:54Piper's fleeing force.
42:14In the few days since the 291st had come across
42:17the frozen corpses of murdered American soldiers at Malmedy,
42:22they had stood in the way of everything evil and one.
42:29They did it with tiny numbers, puny weapons, and gigantic hearts.
42:35The stubbornness of the German army
42:37and the unwavering resolve of the American people
42:41The stubborn defenders of Bastogne
42:43got most of the headlines after they were rescued
42:46by the big hero generals.
42:49But as much as anyone,
42:51it was a ragtag handful of combat engineers
42:54who saved the Bulge
42:57and denied Hitler his victory and tainted peace.
43:10But we had something to do with it.
43:13I wouldn't have wanted to be in any other outfit.
43:20We were the most highly decorated combat engineers
43:25in the European theater.
43:28We didn't know that until 60 years later.
43:33We had done our job for the service of our country.
43:41I wouldn't tell anybody that it was the best outfit in the army.
43:51No one complained. No one was scared.
43:54We knew what our job was to be done.
43:56We knew that we had to defeat the Germans.
43:58We knew that the sooner we defeat them, the sooner we get home.
44:28To be continued
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