The Malmedy massacre on December 19th 1944.

20-06-2017

gestapo

In the last German offensive of World War II, three German Armies conducted a surprise attack along a 50 miles front in the Ardennes beginning on December 15th 1944, and quickly overtook thin U.S.lines

On the second day of the ‘Battle of the Bulge,’ a truck convoy of Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion  was intercepted southeast of Malmedy by a regiment of the 1st SS Panzer Division of the Leibstandarte-SS , under the command of 29 year old SS Standartenführer Jochen Peiper.  His troops had earned the nickname “Blowtorch Battalion” after burning their way across Russia and had also been responsible for slaughtering civilians in two separate villages.

Bill Merriken  was a member of Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion in 1944, many of whom died in the ”Malmedy Massacre.

Upon sighting the trucks, the Panzer tanks opened fire and destroyed the lead vehicles. This brought the convoy to a halt while the deadly accurate tank fire continued. The outgunned Americans abandoned their vehicles and surrendered. 

The captured U.S. soldiers were herded into a nearby field. An SS tank commander then ordered an SS private to shoot into the prisoners, setting off a wild killing spree as the SS opened fire with machine guns and pistols on the unarmed, terrified POWs.

Survivors were killed by a pistol shot to the head, in some cases by English speaking SS who walked among the victims asking if anyone was injured or needed help. Those who responded were shot. A total of 81 Americans were killed in the single worst atrocity against U.S. troops during World War II in Europe. 

After the SS troops moved on, three survivors encountered a U.S. Army Colonel stationed at Malmedy and reported the massacre. News quickly spread among U.S. troops that “Germans are shooting POWs.” As a result, the troops became determined to hold the lines against the German advance until reinforcements could arrive. General Dwight Eisenhower was informed of the massacre. War correspondents in the area also spread the news.

By January of 1945, the combined efforts of the Allied armies drove the Germans back to their original starting positions in the Battle of the Bulge. U.S. troops then reached the sight of the massacre, now buried under two feet of winter snow.

Mine detectors were used to locate the 81 bodies, which had rested undisturbed since the day of the shootings and by now had frozen into grotesque positions. Forty one of the bodies were found to have been shot in the head. As each body was uncovered it was numbered, as seen in this photo

While the U.S. medical teams performed this grim task, columns of German POWs being led by Americans passed by, with the bodies in plain view, however, no act of vengeance was taken.

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, 74 former SS men, including Jochen Peiper and SS Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, were tried by a U.S. Military Tribunal for War Crimes concerning the massacre.

    In the photograph left, General Sepp Dietrich is No. 11; he was sentenced to death by hanging. Next to him is Prisoner No. 33, General Fritz Krämer, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prisoner No. 45 is General Hermann Priess who was sentenced to life in prison, but his sentence was commuted to 20 years. No. 42 is Joachim “Jochen” Peiper who was sentenced to death by hanging.

The two month trial began May 16, 1946, in a courthouse at Dachau. But controversy soon arose. The defense team raised allegations of mistreatment including physical abuse by the U.S. Army and cited the use of mock trials in obtaining SS confessions as improper. The defense also complained that the court’s legal expert, a Jew, constantly ruled in favor of the prosecution.

The trial included testimony by a survivor of the massacre who was able to point out the SS man that actually fired the first shot, SS Lt. Heinz Tomhardt

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On July 11, 1946, the Judges returned a verdict after two and a half hours of deliberation. All of the SS were found guilty as charged. Forty three, including Peiper, were sentenced to death, and 22, including Dietrich, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The others got long prison terms.

They were taken to Landsberg Prison, the same prison where Hitler had served time following the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.  By the early 1950s, following years of accusations, denials, investigations, controversy, and political turmoil, the final remaining death sentences were commuted and release of all of the convicted SS men began.

In December of 1956, the last prisoner, Peiper, was released from Landsberg. He eventually settled in eastern France. On July 14, 1976, Bastille Day in France, Peiper was killed when a fire of mysterious origin destroyed his home. Firefighters responding to the blaze found their water hoses had been cut.