At the crossroads leading into the small Walloonian village of Celles, on the edge of the Ardennes, sits a German Panther tank that was knocked out during the battle.
This tank represents the furthest extent of the German advance during the battle.
So the story goes, on the night of the 23rd/24th December 1944, an armoured column from Kampfgruppe von Cochenhausen (from the 2nd Panzer Division) approached the crossroads as part of their drive towards the town of Dinant which lay on the vital river Meuse.
As the column approached the crossroads, the lead Panther struck a mine and was disabled.
A local woman called Marthe Monrique, who owned the cafe at the crossroads, heard the explosion and turned on a light.
Upon seeing the light, a German officer questioned Marthe, and thinking quickly, Marthe lied, telling the officer that the Americans had mined the entire length of the road leading to Dinant.
In reality, Marthe had no idea if the Americans had actually mined the road, but her bluff convinced the German officer, and he ordered the armoured column to halt.
Of course, there were many other factors which caused the German column to halt its advance, such as their rapidly-dwindling supplies of fuel, combined with the fact that they facing increasingly stiff Allied resistance…but Marthe’s actions became the stuff of legends and after the war locals referred to her as “The Woman who stopped the German tanks” .
The tank lay abandoned at the side of the road until Marthe herself acquired the tank in 1948. She promptly installed it on the terrace outside of her cafe, which was then fittingly renamed “Le Tank”.
So it goes.