​​Battle of Ligneuville​

​​Kampfgruppe Peiper and their officer, Jochiem Peiper, had been made aware of the US command post. Peiper saw the opportunity to obtain vital documents that may have details of American forces’ positions. With this in mind, they moved towards ​Ligneuville​ village. However, unbeknown to Peiper, Brigadier General W ‘Big Ed’ Timberlake, who led the US troops, had been warned of the German advance from the Malmedy area and had several hours to destroy all vital documents to prevent their capture. Timberlake even had time to take lunch in the Hotel du Moulin before withdrawing from the area.

​At around 15:00, the lead German Panzer tanks rolled into the village. By that time, only a small number of American troops remained, including two Sherman tanks of the 9th Armoured Division. Werner Sternebeck, a German SS-Obersturmbanfuhrer, stopped his tank outside the Hotel du Moulin and entered. He was informed that the American soldiers had just left.

​At that moment, he heard gun fire out in the street. Sternebeck exited the hotel to see the lead Panther tank on fire. It had been knocked out by a US Sherman tank and the limited number of American soldiers who had taken defensive positions at the top of a small nearby hill.

​A second Panther tank was then hit by fire from the Sherman tank. It is said that Peiper was present in the village at that time, and that he witnessed this and saw his friend, a tank commander, bail out of the second tank. Peiper is said to have then dismounted from his tank himself and obtained a Panzerfaust (anti-tank weapon) to try to knock out the Sherman tank.

​By now, a German King Tiger tank had entered the village and targeted the Sherman tank, which was knocked out, as was the second Sherman tank.

​The remaining American soldiers were quickly rounded up and bought down into the village by the German soldiers. 22 were taken as prisoners of war, and eight of these were taken to one side, by the hotel, and murdered.