Gustav Knittel

In March 1942 he was appointed as the company commander of the armored halftrack company in the Reconnaissance Battalion LSSAH.[2] Knittel led this company during the Third Battle of Kharkov and distinguished himself between 2 and 4 February 1943. On 2 February 1943 he received orders to lead an ad hoc battlegroup and move behind enemy lines to cover the retreat of the 298 Infantry Division.[2] He made contact with this division in Shevchenkove, was cut off by the advancing Red Army but fought his way back to the German lines with his battlegroup and a group of Wehrmacht soldiers.[1][2] When the reconnaissance battalion of LSSAH was encircled in Alexejewka, Knittel led one of the counterattacks against the Red Army on 13 February.[1][2] On 15 February Meyer and Wünsche wanted to reach the German lines held by Fritz Witt. Knittel with his company was sent to Bereka to reconnoitre the planned route.[1] He found Bereka occupied by the Red Army and he was wounded in the following attack.[5] The next day the combined battlegroup of Meyer and Wünsche reached Yefremivka.[1]

Ukrainian sources, including surviving witness Ivan Kiselev, who was 14 at the time of the massacre, described the killings at the villages of Yefremovka and Semyonovka on 17 February 1943. On 12 February the LSSAH occupied the two villages, where retreating Soviet Army forces had wounded two SS troops. In retaliation, five days later LSSAH troops killed 872 men, women and children. Some 240 of these were burned alive in the church of Yefremovka.[6] Knittel could not have participated in the massacre: the casualty reports of the Aufklärungsabteilung 'LSSAH'[5] and his medical records kept by the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) show that due to the bullet wound in his thigh incurred in front of Bereka on 15 February he was hospitalized in Krasnohrad on 16 February 1943 and was transferred to a field hospital in Poltava on 18 February.

Divisional commander Wilhelm Mohnke ordered Knittel to return to the Leibstandarte. On 13 December 1944 he arrived at the divisional headquarters near Euskirchen where he asked Mohnke to grant Emil Wawrzinek the command of the 1st SS reconnaissance Battalion LSSAH.[7] Wawrzinek had led the battalion since its return from France and had rebuilt it during the past months. But the next day Mohnke insisted that Knittel lead the reinforced battalion that would become Schnelle Gruppe (fast group) Knittel.[7]

Kampfgruppe Knittel's troops on the road to Stavelot to support Peiper

That same day, 14 December, Knittel was briefed about the upcoming Operation Wacht am Rhein, the German attempt to break through the American lines and cut the allied forces in two. With the Leibstandarte as spearhead of the 6th Panzer Army of Sepp Dietrich Schnelle Gruppe Knittel was to follow the battlegroups of Joachim Peiper and Max Hansen, then use its speed to capture a bridge across the Meuse River south of Liège enabling the Leibstandarte to move toward Antwerp. On 15 December Knittel was further briefed at the headquarters of Hermann Prieß, the commanding officer of the 1st SS-Panzerkorps.[7][8] During this briefing Otto Skorzeny was introduced and the details of Operation Greif were revealed.[7] After this meeting Knittel drove to the command post of his battalion in Glaadt to pass the orders and specifics on to his company commanders.[7]

The offensive started the next day, 16 December 1944. Initially Knittel advanced quickly, following in the wake of Peiper and Hansen without enemy contact, through Hallschlag, Manderfeld, Holzheim, Honsfeld, Heppenbach, Amel and Born.[8] On 17 December a scouting party of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel murdered eleven African-American soldiers of the 333rd Artillery Battalion in Wéreth.[1]

On 18 December it became clear that Peiper made the best progress and Mohnke ordered Knittel to follow that battlegroup.[8] After a short meeting with Hansen in Recht, Knittel moved to Stavelot. After leaving instructions for his company commanders he crossed the Amblève River bridge in Stavelot at noon to contact Peiper in La Gleize. Elements of his battlegroup followed during the afternoon and early evening but the American 30th Infantry Division recaptured the northern part of the town, blocking the advance route of the rest of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel and the battlegroup of Rudolf Sandig.[8] The next day, 19 December, Mohnke ordered Knittel and the elements of his fast group that did manage to reach La Gleize back to Stavelot to recapture the town and open the advance route which was also essential in supplying battlegroup Peiper with fuel and ammunition.[8] Knittel set up his command post in the Antoine Farm west of Stavelot. The counterattack he deployed failed and that day members of his battalion murdered civilians in Trois-Ponts, Parfondruy, Renardmont and Stavelot.[9][1] That evening, the Americans demolished the bridge in Stavelot.[8]

Increased pressure from American forces stalled the advance of the Leibstandarte and continued attempts from Knittel and Sandig to recapture Stavelot failed while Peiper had come to a halt in La Gleize.[8] The elements of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel on the western bank of the Amblève River were trapped between Stavelot, Coo and Trois-Ponts. On 20 December US Taskforce Lovelady from 3rd Armored Division attacked Knittel's positions from the direction of Trois-Ponts but was halted by a King Tiger tank and some anti-tank guns positioned near Petit-Spai.[8] That evening elements from the 82nd Airborne Division moved in on the positions near Petit-Spai and cut off the road to Wanne. On 21 December elements of the 3rd Armored Division pushed Schnelle Gruppe Knittel out of its positions in Ster, but elements of Kampfgruppe Hansen had reached Petit-Spai during the night, and their counterattack pushed the 82nd Airborne Division back to Trois-Ponts.[8] On 22 December a major attack from the 30th Infantry Division threw Knittel's men out of their positions at the western edge of Stavelot.[8]

It had become clear that the Meuse River could not be reached and Peiper decided on 23 December to abandon his vehicles and retreat through the woods to escape capture. He left La Gleize with the remaining men. 36 hours later he reached the German lines at Petit-Spai and then Wanne.[8] In the early morning of 25 December Knittel cleared his positions on the western bank of the Amblève River and withdrew his men to Wanne.[8] There the Leibstandarte regrouped before moving to the Bastogne area. The Ardennes Offensive ended for Knittel when airplanes from the American 9th Tactical Airforce bombed his command post near Vielsalm on 31 December 1944. He was hospitalized in Germany with serious concussion.[1]