Sites and places

Chateaux Froidcour

At the start of the battle of the Ardennes this building was the home of 291st Engineer Combat Battalion (Company C), later it was captured by Kampfguppe Peiper on the way to Stoumont.

Peiper used the Chateaux as staging area for attacks on the Stoumont village and later as prison for American prisoners of war and as hospital for both American and German wounded. Despite this (and the red cross flags made out of bed sheets on the roofs) seventeen American missiles hit the building in this period , harming no one. One of the turrets of the castle was knocked of by this, but the caste nowadays seems restored to its original form.

Quite horrible events have taken place in the castle when German and captured American medics (there were no real medical units on this side of the river) had to operate and amputate the wounded of both sides without any medical supplies or anesthetics by candlelight without electricity.

Peiper later withdrew unnoticed from the Chateaux to La Gleize, taking only his walking wounded, leaving the severely wounded with an NCO and two American medics.

The Chateaux is now privatly owned and not open for exhibition. The roads and orchards depicted on the ASL maps are still there and the Chateaux has a fantastic view over the valley with Cheneux and the Cheneux bridges in the distance (lead elemets from Kampfgruppe Peiper have actually fired with Panther tanks on supposed American troops from the caste grounds down on to the Cheneux bridge).

Chateaux Froidcour as seen from N33 road (Stoumont-La Gleize) in 2003.

 

 

 

Chateaux Froidcour in 1944.

 

 

 

Chateux Froidcour as seen from inner courtyard (Hex F45) in 2003.