Snowstorm of Steel:
Scenario Preview, Part Four
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
December 2025
This short chapter of Panzer Grenadier: Snowstorm of Steel is focused on three battles of one of the less-famous American divisions, the 35th “Santa Fé” Infantry Division. It’s not a bombastic name, but it doesn’t have to be. Its men fought and defeated evil.
It’s become common, here as the second quarter of the century dawns, to castigate “polarization” as the greatest of societal ills. As though the poles are both equally bad, and some accommodation must be found in the middle. And when fascism is one of the poles, that’s a serious error: there’s no compromise possible with fascism.
For many decades now, it’s been a standard convention in both popular histories and wargames (which are also popular histories in their own way) to refer to divisions of the Armed SS party militia by their stirring names, and always rendering them in the original German: Das Reich, Leibstandarte etc. Fawning over a criminal organization (as the Nürnberg court ruled).
It’s our practice to only use such names rarely and in English, taking away that gloss. And we also, where applicable, use the names given to the Allied formations that crushed fascism the last time it tried for dominion. Like “Santa Fé.”
Chapter Four
Santa Fé
The 35th Infantry Division, a National Guard formation from Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, bore the Santa Fé Cross on its divisional patch, and quickly became known as the Santa Fé Division when activated for the First World War. Called into federal service again in late 1940 and filled out with draftees from the same region, the division trained until committed to combat in July 1944, in Normandy. By December it had become a hardened and effective combat unit, but worn down by months of constant combat. When the Germans launched their offensive in the Ardennes, the 35th Infantry Division had been detailed to rest camps near Metz, France.
Nebraska Guardsmen of the
110th Medical Battalion carry their wounded out of Lutrebois, Belgium. 1 January 1945.
The Santa Fé Division returned to the line just south of Bastogne to stem the German advance, and then went over to the offensive. Though still depleted, they faced four enemy divisions (1st SS Lifeguard, Panzer Lehr, 5th Parachute and 15th Panzer Grenadier), though all of those formations were even more below their full strength.
Scenario Seventeen
South of Bastogne
30 December 1944
The Santa Fé Division had captured the key villages of Lutrebois and Villers la Bonne Eau, and along with them maps showing that the Germans planned an attack of their own using the small towns as their jumping-off points. Rather than call off their offensive, the Germans struck back to re-capture the villages and begin the planned attacks, all in one operation. Despite the clear evidence of a pending German attack, when it came in the early morning hours it took some of the American defenders by surprise.
Conclusion
Militia armor and infantry captured Villers la Bonne Eau in a confused fight, with two American companies killed or captured to the last man (the last man, Sgt. Webster Phillips, escaped under a hail of fire). But elsewhere, the Americans held and the 35th Infantry Division’s artillery deployed its new allotment of proximity-fused shells with catastrophic effects on the attacking Germans.
Notes
The Germans have a lot of force here, but it’s mostly infantry on foot. That means that the Americans can delay, while their artillery punishes the Nazis with their awesome new wonder-munitions.
Scenario Eighteen
Tree Smashing
30 December 1944
To the north of Villers la Bonne Eau, the German 167th People’s Grenadier Division spearheaded the attack on Lutrebois, but the promised SS militia armor did not arrive as scheduled – militia divisions were notorious throughout the war for poor march discipline. The Americans fought off this first attack, and later in the morning the SS militia committed its own infantry to make another attempt at the operationally important village.
Conclusion
The disjointed German attack suffered heavy losses, as fighter-bombers caught a tank column in the open. Several rattled militia tank commanders who survived the air attack veered away from the battle in the face of only rifle fire, while a half-dozen more fell prey to an ambush laid by American tanks and tank destroyers. The Nazi fanatics did manage to capture the village, but their offensive went no further in the face of what the People’s Grenadier commander Lt. Gen. Hans-Kurt Höcker called “tree smasher” shells.
Notes
This is a big scenario, but while the Nazis have numbers, the party militia and People’s Grenadiers can’t operate together. While the Americans are out-gunned, they do have their awesome artillery and their own numbers are certainly not scanty. This is going to be a huge, swirling brawl of a battle.
Scenario Nineteen
Jumping Off Point
31 December 1944
German occupation of Lutrebois narrowed the American corridor into Bastogne, and also deprived the Americans of a key jumping-off point for planned attacks of their own. The American planned more carefully than had the Germans; first the 35th Infantry Division would re-take the villages, and then forces from the 4th and 6th Armored Divisions would pass through those positions to resume the offensive against the Nazis. But first, the infantry would have to secure Lutrebois.
Conclusion
Maj. Gen. John Millikin of III Corps issued specific orders to his infantry divisions not be become entangled in fights for the villages before all of the armor arrived. That, of course, is exactly what happened. Sixth Armored Division’s columns became hopelessly entangled with those of 11th Armored Division, and the Super Sixth only arrived a day later. The American attack actually had good support for a supposedly unauthorized operation, implying that 35th Infantry Division’s staff had ignored Millikin’s directive, but they could not eject the Nazis from Lutrebois. Millikin would be relieved a few months later for repeated failures to keep his subordinate formations under control.
Notes
It’s a set-piece attack, and while the Americans have artillery support, there’s only a tiny smattering of armor (two platoons of Shermans, one of each flavor). But the Germans don’t have many weapons that can hurt and no tanks of their own at all, so the Americans should be able to make better progress than their historical counterparts.
And that’s all for Chapter Four. Next time: Chapter Five (the finale!).
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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.
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