NEXT WEDNESDAY MARKS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF one of the worst atrocities committed against American troops in the Second World War – the Malmedy Massacre.
On Dec. 17, 1944, elements of the 1st SS Panzer Division’s Kampfgruppe Peiper netted more than 120 American prisoners after punching through the Allied lines in the opening 24 hours of Hitler’s famous Ardennes Offensive. Unwilling slow his column’s advance, a 29-year-old German colonel named Joachim Peiper ordered his men assemble the captives at a crossroads just outside the Belgian village of Malmedy. Shortly after 1 p.m., the German troops opened fire. A total of 84 GIs from the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion were mowed down in a hail of machinegun fire. At least 43 of the prisoners played dead or fled into the nearby woods. Over the next three days, Peiper’s men murdered 250 additional POWs as well as 100 civilians. In one incident, eleven African American soldiers captured at Wereth were mutilated before being gunned down. News of the atrocities infuriated the Allies. Over the next two weeks, GIs retaliated against German troops as the Americans fought to retake the lost territory. In one New Year’s Day incident, U.S. infantrymen slaughtered 60 surrendering Wehrmacht soldiers at Chenogne in southern Belgium.
