to the severe pain in his shortened right leg (from his combat injuries in April 1941) but whether these things affected his decision-making process is not known. What is known is that his physical health affected his deployment. Mohnke was commander of the Leibstandarte'''s replacement battalion from March 1942 till May 1943. Then being "free enough from pain", SS-Obersturmbannführer Kurt Meyer talked him into taking a command with the 12th SS Panzer Division. This led to commanding the 26th SS Pz-Gren Rgt on 15 September 1943. While the 12th SS Panzer Division was fighting to keep the Falaise pocket open, in which the division suffered an estimated 40%-50% casualties, Mohnke withdrew his Kampfgruppe (Battle Group) east of the river Dives. As the situation in Normandy deteriorated for Germany and the front was pushed back to the Seine, Mohnke was one of the few to lead organized resistance on the western bank in order to protect the river crossings there. Afterwards, Mohnke was awarded the Knight's Cross on 11 July 1944. He led this Kampfgruppe until 31 August, when he replaced the badly wounded Theodor Wisch as commander of the Leibstandarte (LSSAH). Battle of the Bulge Operation Watch on the Rhine, followed by Operation Nordwind were the final major offensives and last gambles Hitler made on the Western Front. The plan was for an armored push through the American lines, all the way to Antwerp to split the western Allies forces and buy the Germans time. Mohnke's SS Division Leibstandarte, attached to the I SS Panzer Corps, was the spearhead of the operation in the Ardennes. The fuel crisis in Nazi Germany meant that the LSSAH had insufficient amounts of fuel for the vehicles. On 16 December 1944 the operation began, with SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper's Kampfgruppe leading the push to the Meuse. By 0700 on 17 December 1944, Peiper's Kampfgruppe had seized the American fuel dump at Büllingen. At 1330 that same day, at a crossroads near Malmedy, men from Peiper's LSSAH formation shot and killed at least 68 United States POWs, in what became known as the Malmedy massacre. By the evening of 17 December, the leading element of the LSSAH was engaged with the 99th US Division at Stavelot. Mohnke's division was behind schedule by at least 36 hours by the end of the second day. The retreating U.S. troops blew up important bridges and fuel dumps that Mohnke