Malmedy massacre
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The Malmedy massacre refers to a war crime in which unarmed American prisoners of war were executed by their captors. The crime was committed on December 17, 1944 by Kampfgruppe Peiper (part of the 1st SS Panzer Division), a German ad hoc combat unit, during the Battle of the Bulge. This atrocity, as well as others committed by the same unit the same day and the next days, was the subject of a trial by the Dachau International Military Tribunal in 1946.
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[edit] Context
Within the framework of plans developed by Hitler for what was going to become known as the Battle of the Bulge, the principal aim of breaking through allied lines had been given to the 6th SS Panzer Army under the command of the General Sepp Dietrich. He was supposed to break the allied front between Monschau and Losheimergraben, cross the Meuse River and subsequently capture Antwerp. Kampfgruppe Peiper composed of armoured and motorized elements was the spearhead of the left wing of the 6th SS Panzer Army. Once the infantry had breached the American lines, Peiper’s role consisted of advancing via Ligneuville, Stavelot, Trois-Ponts and Werbomont and seize and secure the Meuse bridges around Huy.
The best roads were reserved for the bulk of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. It was intended that Peiper use secondary roads, that proved to be unsuitable for heavy armoured vehicles such as the Tiger II tanks attached to the Kampfgruppe.
The success of the whole operation was highly dependent on the swift capture of the bridges over the river Meuse. This required a rapid advance through US positions, circumventing any points of resistance whenever possible. Another factor that Peiper had to consider was the shortage of gasoline: the fuel resources of the Reich had been greatly reduced since the fall of Romania[1].
[edit] Break out and first massacres
Right from the start, German operations on the northern front did not go smoothly because of obstinate resistance by American troops. Peiper had hoped to be able to exploit an opening as early as the morning of December 16 - the first day of the offensive. In reality, he had to wait in massive traffic jams behind the front while the German infantry, which was supposed to open a breach in the US lines, waited for him to arrive. It was only around daybreak on December 17, after moving his Kampfgruppe into the frontline that he succeeded to break out in the direction of Honsfeld, where elements of his force would cold-bloodedly kill several dozens of American POWs.
After capturing Honsfeld, Peiper left his assigned route for several kilometers to seize a small gasoline depot in Büllingen, where another massacre of American prisoners would later be reported.
At this point, Peiper was in the enemy's rear. If he had advanced from Büllingen towards Elsenborn in the North he could have trapped two US divisions (i.e. the 2nd and the 99th Infantry Divisions). However, Peiper decided to head back to his assigned route and capture Ligneuville, passing by Mödersheid, Schoppen, Ondenval and Thirimont.
This move was difficult due to the nature of the terrain and the poor quality of the available roads. Eventually, at the exit of the small village of Thirimont the spearhead was unable to take the direct road in the direction of Ligneuville. As a result, he was forced to turn away from his planned route once again. Rather than turn to the left after the Thirimont exit, the spearhead veered right and advanced towards the crossroads of Baugnez which is equidistant between Malmedy, Ligneuville and Waimes.
[edit] Massacre at Baugnez
Between noon and 1 p.m. the German spearhead approached the crossroads. Meanwhile an American convoy of around thirty vehicles, primarily made up of elements of the American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB), was crossing the crossroads and turning right in the direction of Ligneuville in order to reach Sankt Vith where it was ordered to join the 7th Armoured Division, to which it was attached and which was dispatched there to reinforce the defence of the city.
The spearhead of Peiper’s group spotted the American convoy and opened fire, immobilizing the first and last vehicles of the column, forcing it to stop. With only rifles and other small arms to defend themselves, the Americans were forced to surrender.
While the German column continued on its road towards Ligneuville, the American prisoners were dispatched to a field along the road, where they were joined by others captured by the SS earlier in the day. The majority of the testimonies later collected from the survivors state that approximately 120 men were gathered in the field. For reasons which still remain unclear today, the Germans suddenly opened fire on their prisoners with machine-guns. Some Germans later claimed that some prisoners had tried to escape, others alleged that while left alone in the meadow the prisoners had somehow recovered their previously discarded weapons and fired on the German troops which continued their progression in the direction of Ligneuville.
Apparently no record of an order given by an SS officer to shoot the prisoners exists. However, some survivors testified that they had heard an order given to kill all the prisoners: Macht alle kaputt! [4]
As soon as the Germans opened fire, the Americans panicked. Although some tried to flee, the vast majority were gunned down where they stood. A few tried to find shelter in a cafe located at the crossroads. However, the Germans set fire to the building and shot any who tried to escape from the flames. Some of those in the field had dropped to the ground and feigned death when the shooting started. However, SS troops walked among the groups of bodies checking for signs of life. Any who were found to be alive were promptly shot through the head.
Much later, a few survivors, though wounded or shocked, emerged from their hiding places and managed to make their way back through the lines to nearby Malmedy, where American troops were defending the town. Among the soldiers who escaped was actor Charles Durning.[2] Eventually, 43 survivors managed to find refuge in the allied lines. Testimony made by the survivors was collected during the hours following the massacre. All the survivors' accounts were similar and corroborated each another, even though they had had no opportunity to discuss the events and agree to the story.
The first survivors of the massacre were picked up by a patrol from the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion around 2.30 p.m. the same day. The inspector general of the First Army learned of the shootings three or four hours later. By the late evening of the 17th, rumors that the enemy was killing prisoners had reached the forward American divisions[3].
As a result one US unit issued orders that, "No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoners but will be shot on sight."[4][5] In this atmosphere there are claims that American forces killed German prisoners in retaliation, e.g. in the "Chenogne massacre" on January 1, 1945.
Since the Baugnez crossroads had been a no man's land until the allied counter-offensive, it was not until January 14, 1945 that US forces were able to reach the massacre site and perform a criminal investigation. The frozen, snow-covered bodies of the various victims were photographed in situ, then removed from the scene for formal identification and post mortem examinations. The examinations were detailed and exacting. The intention was that the evidence gathered would be used as part of the prosecution case against the culprits.
The autopsies of the bodies revealed that at least twenty of the killed soldiers had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head inflicted at very close range. These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. An additional 20 showed evidence of small calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder burn residue. Another 10 had fatal crushing or blunt trauma injuries most likely from a rifle butt. Moreover, the majority of the bodies were found in a very small area, which suggested that the victims had been gathered together just before they were killed.[6]
[edit] Peiper moves on
The bloody odyssey of the Kampfgruppe Peiper was not over yet. Some soldiers belonging to this unit killed at least eight other American prisoners in Ligneuville[5].
New massacres of American POWs were also reported in Stavelot, Cheneux, La Gleize and Stoumont on December 18, 19 and 20. Furthermore Peiper's men were the authors of massacres of 100 Belgian civilians, including many women and children, in the area between Stavelot and Trois-Ponts.
American engineer troops finally managed to block Peiper's advance in the narrow Amblève River valley by blowing up the local bridges. Additional US reinforcements succeeded in surrounding the Kampfgruppe in Stoumont and la Gleize. Peiper and 800 of his men eventually managed to escape this encirclement by marching through the nearby woods and abandoning all their heavy equipment. If he had by-passed the Amblève bridges, Peiper could have gained higher ground and access to practicable roads to the Meuse.
[edit] Aftermath and trial
American forces recaptured the site where the killings took place on January 13, 1945. The cold weather conditions and low winter temperatures had preserved the scene well. The bodies were recovered on January 14 and January 15, 1945. The memorial at Baugnez bears the names of the murdered soldiers.
The size of the massacre, which apparently is the only one perpetrated on such a scale against American troops in Europe during World War II, caused a furor at the time. However, the number of victims was quite low when compared to other atrocities perpetrated by the Germans.
In addition to the effect the event had on American combatants in Europe, it seems that news of the massacre also had a great impact in the United States. This explains why the supposed culprits were deferred to the Dachau International Military Tribunal, which were held from May to June 1946, after the war.
In what would thereafter be known by the name of "Malmedy massacre trial", and which concerned in fact all of the war crimes attributed to Kampfgruppe Peiper for the battle of the Bulge, the highest defendant in rank was General Sepp Dietrich, commander of the 6th SS Panzer Army to which Peiper’s unit belonged. Joachim Peiper and his principal subordinates appeared among the defendants. More than 70 people were tried by the Tribunal and the Court pronounced 43 death sentences, none of which were carried out, and 22 life prison sentences. Eight other of the accused were condemned to shorter prison sentences.
However, as from the verdict, the way the court had functioned was disputed, first in Germany, then later in the United States. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court which was unable to make a decision. The case then came under scrutiny of a sub-Committee of the Senate of the United States. A young Senator of Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy (who would later become famous as the founder of McCarthyism), used it as an opportunity to raise his political profile. Therefore, he came to the defense of the convicted men by stating that that the Court had not given them a fair trial.
This drew attention to the trial and some of the judicial irregularities which had occurred during the interrogations preceding the trial itself. However even before the United States Senate took interest in this case, most of the death sentences had already been commuted due to a revision of the trial carried out by the US Army[7]. The other life sentences were commuted within the next few years. All the convicted war criminals were released during the 1950s, the last one to leave the prison being Peiper in December 1956.
The turmoil which followed the Malmedy trials and the early release of the condemned is often used by revisionists and denialists as an example of biased post-war justice applied at the discretion of the winner. On that basis they also questioned the conclusions of the Nuremberg trials, which according to their theories allowed the creation of the holocaust hoax.
The massacre was dramatized in two films - the Battle of the Bulge (1966) and Saints and Soldiers (2004).
[edit] References
- ^ UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, The European Theater of Operations, THE ARDENNES: BATTLE OF THE BULGE, by Hugh M. Cole - OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1965 - [1]
- ^ Baron, Scott (January 2007). They Also Served: June 6, 1944: The Longest Day. G.I. Jobs website. G.I. Jobs Online. Retrieved on January 8, 2007. “Durning was present for the Battle of the Bulge, the German counter-offensive in December 1944. Taken prisoner, he was among the very few troops who escaped being massacred by Gen. Pieper’s 1st Liebstandart Adolph Hitler, an elite SS Panzer unit at Malmedy. He escaped with two others, and returned to find the remainder murdered. (spelling errors and term elite in the source)”
- ^ UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, The European Theater of Operations, THE ARDENNES: BATTLE OF THE BULGE, by Hugh M. Cole - OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1965 - [2]
- ^ Cole, Hugh M. (1965). "Chapter XI. The 1st SS Panzer Division's Dash Westward, and Operation Greif", The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge (in English). Washington, D.C., USA: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 261-264. LCCN 65-60001. Retrieved on June 3, 2006. This book is an official US military history of the Battle of the Bulge. Footnote 5 on page 264 reads, Thus Fragmentary Order 27. issued by Headquarters, 328th Infantry, on 21 December for the attack scheduled the following day says: "No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoners but will be shot on sight."
- ^ Scrapbookpages (2006). Malmedy Massacre Trial. Dachau Trials. scrapbookpages.com. Retrieved on June 3, 2006. A website with photographs and histories of many places and people related to the Holocaust. No date listed on the web page, so 2006 is inferred.
- ^ Glass, Lt Col Scott T. (1998-11-22). Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy. C.R.I.B.A website. C.R.I.B.A (Centre de Recherches et d'Informations sur la Bataille des Ardennes). Retrieved on March 22, 2007. This article includes a diagram showing where bodies were discovered.
- ^ Review and recommendation of the deputy judge advocate for war crimes, 20 octobre 1947, [3]
[edit] External links
- Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy – Lessons Learned From A Historic Tragedy, by Major Scott T. Glass. Quartermaster Professional Bulletin, Autumn 1997
- Battle of the Bulge on the Web, Malmedy Massacre resources
- Massacre at Malmédy During the Battle of the Bulge (reprint of an article in World War II [2003] by M. Reynolds)
