King Tigers of sSSPzAbt 501 in the Ardennes Offensive – Part 1

Jochen Peiper has always been a typical icon of the Wehraboo movement, or if you prefer, the myths of the clean Wehrmacht, or the aestheticization of the SS, or the Übertiger quality. Although he symbolizes a fanatical representative of the Nazi worldview, his fame, built around the combat operations under his command during the Battle of the Bulge, made him a star for fans of Germany—much like Wittmann, Skorzeny, Meyer, Guderian, Rommel, and others.

Yet his military career, while meteoric, was based on nepotism rather than tactical and strategic skills. He was a war criminal whose units demonstrably committed a whole series of atrocities. Paradoxically, awareness of his war crimes is mainly associated with the Malmedy and Stavelot massacres. For the former, he was convicted based on circumstantial evidence, mostly due to his undeniable command responsibility. However, the massacres of civilians around Stavelot were caused by a completely different part of the LSSAH. Peiper, who spent most of his career fighting in the East at the head of a torching Panzergrenadier regiment, ultimately fell in combat against the "Reds"—French communists came to lynch him at his home (in France). Only his charred torso was found, positively identified by dental records.

The Ardennes Offensive, immensely popular in the US, then elevated Peiper to the peak of "admiration," along with the most visible part of his Kampfgruppe: the 501st sSSPz.Abt. The aestheticization and admiration of German armor make the King Tiger a strong object of interest. Videos filmed by the Leibstandarte war correspondent immortalized KG Peiper, even though most of the footage generally known from the wartime American newsreel "The Enemy Strikes" actually features KG Hansen and SG Knittel. The unit schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 501 (501st SS Heavy Tank Battalion), under the command of SS-Obersturmbannführer Heinz von Westernhagen, was theoretically supposed to have 45 tanks. 34 new, 11 givent to the 501st by 506th sPzAbt. It was meant to be both the hammer and the anvil of the German advance, which was to unfold toward Antwerp after breaking through the American lines. That this was total nonsense, you will read below.

Kaiserbarracke Crossroads. 

Visual

First, let's talk about what the tanks looked like. First of all, they did not have Zimmerit. Secondly, the vast majority of them did not feature the Balkenkreuz (bar cross), and most did not even carry the battalion insignia. The only markings were tactical numbers, most likely in the following colors:

• HQ (Staff): Numbers likely ochre yellow with a white or grey outline.
• 1st Company: Numbers likely yellow or orange with a white or grey trim.
• 2nd Company: Numbers likely red, possibly black with a white outline.
• 3rd Company: Numbers likely blue with a yellow trim.

They were camouflaged in the classic light-and-shadow scheme (Licht- und Schattentarnung), known in English-speaking countries as "Ambush." This consisted of irregular patches of RAL 7028 (Dunkelgelb / Dark Yellow), RAL 6003 (Olivgrün / Olive Green), and RAL 8017 (Rotbraun / Red-Brown)—with brown patches and dots. At the end of 1944, a slightly darker version, Dunkelgelb Variant 2, was used, and crucially, it was no longer applied as a base coat. Instead, the camouflage patches were painted directly onto the factory red anti-rust primer, which later led to Rotbraun being omitted entirely.

Tanks coming straight from Henschel production were most likely camouflaged at the factory using brushes rather than spray guns, including the dots designed to break up the silhouette. How the 11 Tigers originaly from the 506th Battalion looked remains a matter of speculation. However, photos reveal that some tanks were painted by hand while others were sprayed, with new tanks from the initial deliveries being visibly hand-painted. Detailed paint schemes and breakdowns of individual tanks can be found in the book Tigers in the Ardennes: The 501st Heavy SS Tank Battalion in the Battle of the Bulge by Gregory A. Walden.

The Model

In 1/56 scale (28mm), setting aside 3D prints, we have three models on the market. Two are offered by Rubicon Models and one by Warlord. I won't bother with Warlord at all. Firstly, it has Zimmerit, and it is so terrible that I would avoid the model like the plague, even if it were the only King Tiger on the market. I don't know which designer thought it was a good idea to make Zimmerit with ridges evenly protruding above the tank's surface, but seriously it doesn’t work. Secondly, it simply lags behind in quality.

That leaves Rubicon. At 32EUR for what it offers, it's an absolute steal. The King Tiger features a full interior, engine, photo-etched parts, and magnets—this is nothing for beginner modelers or someone who considers a Games Workshop Land Raider to be the pinnacle of modeling. It is simply a kit that a plastic modeler will appreciate. Trust me, I have quite a bit of experience with both, and the difference between what Tamiya or Academy sells and Games Workshop, Warlord, or Rubicon is vast. But you also want wargaming tanks to survive being slid across the table and going "pew pew." Personally, I don't own Rubicon's King Tiger because it's a project for the distant costly future, if ever. I have the 1/35 scale from Dragon 😉 and the 1/72 scale from Trumpeter. Dragon's instructions offer a much better, detailed view of the approximate layout of the camo fields on the tanks. Link leads to Scalemates. 

But back to Rubicon. For me, this tank slightly oversteps what you actually want from a wargaming vehicle. Since part of the tracks consists of individual links (much like Esci models from the early nineties) and it includes many fragile components, you need to think ahead carefully about how to handle the assembly. It's important to mention—Rubicon uses ABS plastic, so you need plastic cement for ABS. Regular solvent glues, like Revell Contacta, will not work. For the photo-etched parts, you mainly need patience and superglue. After that, it's down to your skill.

As for the color schemes, the manual is one big tragedy, though it is at least saved by the decals. Right in the instructions, there is Yellow 222 commanded by SS uscha Kurt Sowa, where one digit overlaps the Balkenkreuz. This is strange because it doesn't align with what we know about the other tanks. Tank 222 was not only one of the few to have sprayed rather than brushed camouflage, but on all illustrations, it has a bright number without an outline, and in some photos, the Balkenkreuz peeks out underneath, almost invisible. However, the distribution of the camo fields in the manual is abysmal, and the dots of the Ambush scheme are entirely missing.

On the bright side, the decal sheet offers a sufficient quantity of tactical numbers and even the letter "G," which only appears on Kalinowski's 008. Insignia for sSSPzAbt 501, which are based on the Leibstandarte emblems, are also available. It is interesting that Rubicon would make such a complex kit only to completely ruin it with the painting guide.

Deployment

Known Tanks during Battle of the Bulge and Siege of Bastogne. EN Version will be uploaded later

Personally, I don't believe the battalion actually had 45 tanks at the start of the offensive. It is more likely that some were delivered during the battle (those later captured from KG Möbius) during the siege of Bastogne (see Robert Lamoš: Tigre v Ardenách). The fact that we can only photographically document 14 tanks in the actual battle between Tondorf and La Gleize—though we know of a few others from the oral accounts of veterans—supports this conclusion from the cited article.

Nevertheless, Gregory Walden's book and titles like SS Panzer Battalion 501: Tigers in the Ardennes (Hugues Wenkin, Christian Dujardin) and Tigers in Combat (Wolfgang Schneider) state that the battalion truly had 45 tanks and all were delivered on time. If so, then a combat readiness rate of roughly 40% is truly dismal. It's worth noting that while the sSSPzAbt had experience with King Tigers in France, they received these new tanks in late November and early December. Many of the crews were new or inexperienced, and the unit had not even conducted target practice.

This was one of the critical pieces in the puzzle of the deployment fiasco for these heavy beasts. The King Tiger was a technologically excellent tank—from the chassis up. The drivetrain, however, was garbage, especially the severely under-engineered gearbox. The engine overheated, had unbelievable fuel consumption, and ran on petrol. The tank required expert driving, asphalt roads or perfectly hard ground, a line of sight of at least two kilometers, flank protection, air superiority, and defensive, even if mobile, warfare. Anyone who knows the situation in the Ardennes can figure out for themselves how many of these conditions the "super-cats" actually got.

Correct.

None.

Regardless, the tanks were placed into the second echelon, not only due to their notorious mechanical issues but also because of their top speed, which conflicted with the only tactic Peiper knew—fast, aggressive, ruthless advancement. After all, that was exactly why he was given command.

In the next part, we will look at what happened to the specific known individual tanks. I have managed to put together 25 of them, but some are from the fighting around Bastogne in early January. From the actual operation of KG Peiper, we only have 14 documented in photographs.