Peiper’s situation does not merely become critical, it is hopeless. His force has shrunk to less than 1500 men. The number of his tanks is still impressive but they are only usable statically due to the dramatic lack of fuel and ammunition. All German efforts to take Stavelot and to bring reinforcements in have failed. Desperately, the Germans even try to float half-filled petrol cans down the river Ambleve to La Gleize. And the American pressure increases by the hour.
The KG (Combat Group) Peiper attempts a last thrust with a Tiger and two Panzer Mk. IV tanks on Friday 22 December. But in an enormous artillery barrage all three are put out of action within few minutes. Artillery is now of even greater importance in the last act of the drama. Here is only one example: the artillery of the 30th U.S. Division fires 57,275 rounds within the six days of the battle!
During the evening of 22 December Peiper requests permission from his division commander Mohnke to break out from La Gleize. At 1400hrs on the following day this request is granted. In a meeting with his officers the strategy of the escape is worked out. A reconnaissance patrol is sent out to find a gap in the American ring around the village. They find one about 1,500 metres from La Gleize at a railway tunnel beside which a wooden bridge crosses the river Ambleve. Since the destruction of the equipment could draw the attention of the U.S. forces to the planned outbreak the blowing up of the tanks is cancelled. Some slightly wounded receive the order to stay behind and to sabotage the remaining panzers only after the departure of the main body. All major casualties stay behind in the care of SS army doctor Willi Dittmann. The retreat of the remaining 800 men of task force Peiper starts on Sunday morning between 0200hrs and 0300hrs. A rearguard as well as about 200 major casualties and 170 captured GIs stay behind.
The American attack on La Gleize begins at 0630hrs. It quickly becomes obvious that only a few SS soldiers have stayed behind in the church to offer resistance. This is broken by heavy artillery fire. The place is in American hands by 1000hrs. Six King Tigers, thirteen Panthers, six Panzer Mk. IV tanks and 46 APCs SPWs fall destroyed into their hands, furthermore three Pumas, six 15 cm guns four 2 cm flak and twelve other vehicles. The survivors of the 1st SS Panzer Division must draw up on the market place. Some of them attract notice as they wear some brand-new U.S. boots and woollen trousers. These must be immediately taken off and the SS soldiers are forced to run barefoot, a reaction to the Malmedy massacre which infuriates the GIs.
Meanwhile, Peiper is fully aware of the hardship and danger waiting for him and his 800 men. Fortunately, the 82nd Airborne Division that mauled him badly in Cheneux, is withdrawn by order of Major General Matthew Ridgway, commander of the 18. Airborne Corps. He wants to straighten his front line. With them is a Belgian taken prisoner in La Gleize, Yvan Hakin who functions as a scout, as well as Major Hal McCown of the 119. US Infantry Regiment taken prisoner on December 21. McCown is very impressed by Peiper. He spent several hours with him during the night of December 21-22. He learns a lot about Peiper’s world of ideas and his unshakeable confidence in the German victory. He is perplexed by the fact that such an apparently personable man should be such a convinced Nazi.
The 800 men, under Peiper’s leadership and heavily laden with weapons, equipment and rations make their tortuous way via streams and valleys, and over hills and mountains heading south. Then they reach the top of Mont St. Victor. Peiper sees that the bridge at Coo Cascade is blown up by the Americans. The march to the south must therefore be continued during the night. The day is spent hiding up under the cover of undergrowth so as not to be discovered by U.S. spotter planes which are searching the area. The group reaches the small village of Bergeval on the morning of 25 December. Here they turn east and approach the river Salm, which at that time of year is a raging torrent.
There they encounter Captain McPheeters's company from 505th Parachute Regiment, 82nd Airborne Divsion. A short, sharp fight develops which is decided by Peiper’s men. Meanwhile, Hal McCown manages to escape from the group.
Now Peiper’s men make a last attempt to get over the last obstacle, the river Salm. They look for a ford and the taller, stronger amongst the SS men go and stand in the river to be able to help their weaker comrades across. No one can stand this icy cold water longer than a minute, however, without being relieved. Seven hundred and seventy survivors of Task Force Peiper reach the German lines at Wanne on 26 December. Only 30 do not survive this forced march of 20 km length over extremely difficult terrain in exactly 36 hours.
Jochen Peiper is decorated by Hitler with the Swords to the Knight's Cross on 4 February but no reference to his further use is made The British author Maj Gen (Retd.) Michael Reynolds refers in his impressive J. P. biography to a medical report dated 30th January 1945 in which SS doctor Dr. Sickel certifies Peiper has suffered a commotio cerebri. This is a Latin technical term for concussion and/or in the broadest sense a nervous breakdown. Reynolds expresses the assumption that Peiper was possibly just suffering from the enormous stress of the fights and the march.
Not until February is the Leibstandarte reconstituted again after fighting at Bastogne. Peiper crops up again with his men in Hungary. Hitler has ordered the final offensive at Lake Balaton in February. This gets stuck in the bottomless mud and ends with the renewed smashing of the division. On May 8, the remains of the division and Peiper surrender to the Americans. He is arrested on August 21 and charges relating to the Malmedy massacre are read out to him on August 24.
The trial against 71 men of Task Force Peiper as well as against three generals of 6th Panzer Armee takes place in Dachau on May 16, 1946. The Malmedy Trial as it is mentioned does not go down in the annals of U.S. war-time court-martials as a glorious chapter. The mistakes in the court proceedings are too outrageous. But under the influence of holocaust and war crimes, primarily the crimes of the Waffen SS, the court after only three minutes consultation time per defendant comes to the following verdict: 43 of them, including Peiper, are sentenced to death by hanging, 22 including Sepp Dietrich, for life and the rest to 10 or 20 years in prison.
In the course of the next few years a number of hearings and discussions start in the USA about the manner of the trial and its verdicts. Gradually, the sentences are commuted. Dietrich is released in1955, Peiper leaves Landsberg on probation on December 22, 1956. Peiper, who never learned a civil profession but became during his time in prison an outstanding English language translator, tries to establish himself in civil life. His probation officer and personnel officer at Porsche, Alfred de Maight, provides him with his first job. Ferry Porsche later wants to take him into his management team which, however, faces difficulties with the trade unions. He then becomes a coach for VW (car giant Volkswagen) sales managers later.
In 1968 charges against him and another two former SS members are brought relating to the murder of Italian civilians. The charge is dropped due to lack of evidence. Peiper and his wife decide to move to France where they build a house at Traves in the Hautes Saone region a year later. At this time he starts to translate military and historical books for the Motor Buch Verlag in Stuttgart and also to work as a freelance writer under the nom de plume Reiner Buschmann. But even in France his past eventually catches up with him.
On June 21, 1976 the first flyers pop up in Traves: "SS war criminal Peiper is living among us citizens of Trave". Additional flyers demand his expulsion. The daily newspaper L 'Humanite' also participates in this witch-hunt which is soon picked up by further French and international newspapers. Peiper must have had a premonition of what to expect because in a last letter to his wife which he never gave her and about which she only learned after his death, he speaks about the unavoidable. On July 13, Jochen Peiper receives letters and telephone calls that warn him that his house and dogs would burn. Peiper's house actually burns down on July 14, at one a.m. Later, the police report states that molotov cocktails are responsible. But the intensive search for the perpetrators remains unsuccessful. Jochen Peiper is dead.