Then and Now

 

Merlsheid chapel, Belgium

The photo on the right was taken by a German Kriegsberichter later to be captured by the Americans. This is Merlsheid Chapel. As you can see on the left hand picture the Chapel pretty much looks the same in May 2007.

























































The Kübelwagen on the top right black and white picture most likely belong to either 1.SS Panzer Division or 3.Fallschirm-Jäger Division. Regardless they were part of Kampgruppe Peiper along Rollbahn D towards Lanzerath. This was also the route of schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501. This unit had to take its 76 tons Kingtigers along the small muddy tracks of 1944. Merlsheid Chapel is passed at 2 min 8 sec on the video below.


Latitud 50°20'58.60"N

Longitud 6°21'8.28"O

The YouTube video above show the first 11 kilometers of Kampgruppe Peiper trust along Rollbahn D towards Lanzerath. The video is played in High-Speed to illustrate the length.














The picture on the right show American prisoners of war from 99th Division captured during the first two days of the battle, 16-17 December 1944. Many did not even make it to the prisoncamps, many more perished in the camps.


The house on the left is passed after 2 min and 24 sec in the video above.