Major Han Bouwmeester - Beginning Of The End: The Leadership Of SS Obersturmbannführer Jochen Peiper

Beginning of the End is the title of this Master in Military Art and Science (MMAS) thesis on the leadership of SS Obersturmbannfhrer Jochen Peiper. The Battle of the Bulge was indeed the turning point in Peipers life. In the years prior to this operation Peiper was heroic and a very popular German tactical commander. He became Germanys poster boy, but that changed dramatically after the Battle of the Bulge: Peiper was accused of committing war crimes at Malmdy without real hard evidence. He was sentenced to death; later changed into life imprisonment. Finally, he spent almost ten years in prison in solitary confinement. After release he was not able to make a living in Germany. He was disappointed and went to France, where he has been murdered by what is believed French communists.

It is still very sensitive to study the leadership of a Waffen-SS officer, who was sentenced to death. Many people see Peiper only as a representative of a very evil organization. I can imagine that. There is a very dark side to Peipers leadership. Nevertheless, World War II took place more than sixty years ago. The time has come to reflect on all aspects of this war; not only glorifying the actions of the Allies and stigmatizing the proceedings of the Germans as evil. Units as the Leibstandarte achieved a lot of success. There are many positive things to learn from these German units; even for todays modern armies. In the case of Jochen Peiper: Why was a twenty-nine year old Waffen-SS officer the first choice for commanding the spearhead unit during Germanys most important offensive? He must have impressed his seniors with his leadership in the period prior to the Battle of the Bulge. But, what made him such a successful leader? These interesting questions became the nucleus of my research.

I would like to thank my thesis committee, Dr. Richard Olsen (Chair), LTC John Suprin (2nd Reader) and Dr. Mike Ray (3d Reader), for their tremendous support, advice and sometimes challenging academic discussions. I would also like to thank LTC Joseph Ryan of the Combat Studies Institute for the excellent help he gave to win my War on the American English Language. Another person to thank is Mrs. Helen Davis, the secretary of the MMAS Program and a real specialist on Kate Turbanians A Manual for Writers , for all the advices she provided to make this thesis a real MMAS thesis.

Last but not least I would like to thank my family for all their support. Unbelievable how much patience my wife Joke had with me. I spent many hours behind my computer doing MMAS. Many other international officers with their families discovered the New World during the weekend holidays; we stayed at home for the MAS thesis. Joke always supported me very much: cooking, cleaning, being charming at the many international parties, running the family and entertaining the children in the weekends, because Daddy has to concentrate on the MMAS thesis in his study. And during Sunday evenings, when I had finished another chapter, Joke advised me to take some rest while she could read my crappy draft versions; making corrections and asking me nasty academic questions on black holes in the text. In return of all this, I promised my family to show all the nice places, discussed in this thesis, in the Belgian Ardennes as soon as we are back in Europe. Not doing a battlefield tour, but spending quality time with my family in a very nice surrounding.