Editing Malmedy massacre (section)

=== Military ===
The objective of the Third Reich's [[Battle of the Bulge|Ardennes Counteroffensive]] (Battle of the Bulge, 16 Dec. 1944 – 25 Jan. 1945) was for the [[6th Panzer Army|6th SS Panzer Army]], commanded by SS General [[Sepp Dietrich]], to penetrate the Allied front between the towns of [[Monschau]] and Losheimergraben (a cross-border village shared by the municipalities of [[Hellenthal]] and [[Büllingen]]), then cross the River [[Meuse]], and afterwards assault and capture the city of [[Antwerp]].<ref name="cole">{{cite book |series=United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations |title=The Ardennes |first=Hugh M. |last=Cole |publisher=[[Office of the Chief of Military History]] |location=Washington, D.C. |year=1965 |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_5.htm |chapter=Chapter V: The Sixth Panzer Army Attack |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-date=7 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100807183545/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_5.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="MacDonald">{{cite book |first=Charles |last=MacDonald |year=1984 |title=A Time For Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge |url=https://archive.org/details/timefortrumpetsu00macd |url-access=registration |publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=0-553-34226-6}}</ref>{{rp|5}}

For their part of the Ardennes counter-attack, the {{lang|de|Kampfgruppe Peiper}} was the [[armored spearhead]] of the left wing of the 6th SS Panzer Army, under the command of {{lang|de|SS-Obersturmbannführer}} [[Joachim Peiper]]. After the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} infantry had breached the U.S. lines, Peiper was to advance his tanks and armored vehicles on the road to Ligneuville and travel through the towns of [[Stavelot]], [[Trois-Ponts]], and Werbomont in order to reach and seize the bridges over the River Meuse that are in the vicinity of the city of [[Huy]].<ref name="cole"/>{{rp|260+}}<ref name="MacDonald"/><ref name="Engels">{{cite book|title=Ardennes 1944–1945, Guide du champ de bataille |language=fr |editor-first=Émile |editor-last=Engels |location=Racine, Bruxelles |year=1994}}</ref> Because the strategy of the Ardennes Counteroffensive had reserved the roads with the strongest [[roadway]] for the bulk traffic of the tanks of the [[SS Division Leibstandarte|1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler]], the convoys of {{lang|de|Kampfgruppe Peiper}} traveled secondary roads with weak roadways that proved unsuitable for the weights of armored military vehicles, such as [[Tiger II]] tanks.<ref name="cole"/><ref name="MacDonald"/><ref name="Engels"/>