German face of The battle of Bulge.

 


Famous picture of Waffen-SS soldier: Walter Ambrusch, during the Battle of the Bulge. The desperation on his face has come to symbolize the state of Germany's exhausted military in 1945.

A young soldier from the 1st SS Panzer Division carrying ammunition boxes forward during the Battle of the Bulge after the men had ambushed and completely destroyed the US Army 14th Cavalry Group on the road between Poteau and Recht, Belgium, 18 December, 1944.

Ambush at Poteau – Battle of the Bulge, December the 18th 1944.  MG42 Machine Gunner possibly belonging to the 2.Kompanie/1.SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment/LSSAH, Kampfgruppe Hansen at Poteauer Strasse, Belgium. 

Early in the morning an American convoy of the 14th Cavalry Group was ambushed by SS Kampfgruppe “Hansen” . 

With help from the heavy fog 'Hansen' achieved complete surprise and forced the allies to abandon their vehicles and pull back to the town of Poteau to set up a hasty defence perimeter.  

Many have tried to identify the face in this most famous wartime photo , it has been claimed that it is not a 'Walter Ambrusch' but more than likely to be 'Hans Tragarsky' who survived the war and died on the 7th January 2011. 

He was 23 when this photo was taken and all that he recalled about that day was that his unit ambushed a convoy of American armour & soft skinned vehicles and, after the fight was over, they took food, weapons and cigarettes from the US wreckage. 

Cameramen from the "Propagandakompanie" came by, stopped and asked if they could take pictures.... nothing spectacular, another skirmish, another day.  

The images found their way into US hands (from a captured cameraman as a newsreel shows us) so at least we can see the cine images for ourselves to get a feel for what may have transpired.

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