Malmedy, Belgium -- In a snow covered field three miles from this town lie the bodies
of 100 or more American soldiers - prisoners of war who were murdered by the Germans
on the first day of Marshal Karl von Rundstedt's counter-offensive along the Western Front.
Their frozen corpses may still be where they fell; with "some of the bodies lying across other
bodies," as German PWs later described the scene. We do not know whether the Nazis even
extended them a decent burial. for the region is still in enemy hands. But we do know the details
of the massacre carried out in open violation of the Geneva Convention.
Early in the afternoon of 17th December 1944, a convoy of Battery B of a Field Artillery observation
battalion was moving along three miles south of Malmedy on the road leading to St. Vith
about 300 yards beyond the crossroad of the cut-off to St.Vith, the convoy was hit by enemy
rifleman, machinegunners and mortarmen hidden in the surrounding woods. All the Americans
vehicles halted immediately.
The men jumped off and took cover in the ditches lining both sides of the road. Several minutes
later they were flushed out from their hiding places by Tiger Tanks from a German armoured
column which lumbered along the ditches spraying machine-gun fire. Other tanks quickly
knocked out some 24 American trucks and other vehicles. Armed with only small weapons,
the Americans were taken prisoner.
The Germans had earlier captured some other Americans, among them five MPs, two ambulance
drivers, a mess sergeant, several medical members of an armoured reconnaissance outfit.
All the prisoners - there were about 150 - were herded up the road where they were searched
and stripped of their pocketbooks, watches, gloves, cigarettes and weapons. There captors
ordered them to line up in a snow cover field !!south of the crossroads.
While the Americans were lining up, an enemy half-track mounting an 88 gun tried to swing
around to cover them but couldn't. Instead the Germans parked tanks at either end of the field,
the prisoners. Just then a German command car drew up. The German officer in the car stood up,
took deliberate aim with a pistol at an American medical officer in the front rank of the
prisoners and fired. As the medical officer fell, the German fired again and another American
dropped.
Immediately two tanks at the end of the field opened up with their machine guns on the
defenseless prisoners, some of them noncombatant Medical Corps men with medic brassards
and Red Cross - marked helmets. All of the prisoners in the field were standing with
their hands raised over their heads.
When the massacre started, the unwounded dropped to the ground along with those who had
been shot. Flat on their stomachs with their faces pushed into the snow and mud, the Americans
were raked by machine - gun and small-arms fire from a column of tanks which had begun to
move along the road 25 yards away. Each of the 25 to 50 Tiger Tanks and half-tracks took
its turn firing on the prostrate group.
One tank and several German soldiers were left behind to finish off those who had not been killed.
killed. The Nazi guards walked among the American soldiers shooting those who were groaning
in agony. They kicked others in the faces to see if they were really dead or just faking. Those
who moved were shot in the head.
One American medic got up to bandage the wounds of a seriously injured man from his own
company-aid unit. The Nazis permitted him to finish the work, shot both him and the patient.
Fortunately the guards were not too thorough in their search for American who were
not pretending to be dead. Several of the prisoners had not been wounded at all and
others were only slightly wounded. About an hour after the armoured column left, several
survivors -including some of the wounded - decided to make a break for freedom. Fifteen
men made the first attempt. While the guards were some distance away they jumped up and ran
north along the road to Malmedy amid machine gun fire from their surprised guards. At the
crossroads they were fired on by another machine-gun crew stationed there. This frightened
12 of the escapees to take cover in a nearby house while the other three continued to the woods.
The house was a death trap for the 12 Americans. Closing in on their victims, the Germans
set up a machine gun in front of the building which they then set on fire. As the Americans
tried to escape through the door and windows of the blazing building, they were mowed down.
All died there, buried beneath the falling walls.
The three who had continued running hid in the woods until dark, then made their escape.
After the first break, several other prisoners made similar attempts. Some succeeded in getting
back to the American lines while others were killed. Most of the successful breaks were
made after dark. Some of the wounded did not make the attempt until midnight, after lying in
snow for 11 hours or longer.
Or the approximately 150 American prisoners rounded up as human targets for the Nazi
marksmen, only 43 are definitely known to have escaped the German. slaughter, and more
than three-quarters of these were wounded. Only 25 men of Battery B's roster of 138 have been
reported safe.
There may be others but this is improbable, as the area is still in German hands.
As is customery in all atrocity cases, the Inspector General's Department of the Army made
an immediate investigation to determine the authenticity of the stories told by the survivors. Five
wounded soldiers were interviewed less than 12 hours after their ordeal when the details were
still fresh in their minds. Thirty-two men were found to coincide in all except minor details. The
Inspector General's Department has released some of the survivors statements with the
guarantees that they are an essentially correct account of want happened on 17th December in the
snow-covered field 13 miles south of Malmedy. Questioning of German prisoners later verified
most of the story told by the Americans.
Here is the testimony of Theodore Jay Paducah, as recorded and certified by the Inspector
General's Department: "Battery B of a Field Artillery observation battalion was in a convoy
going south from Malmedy. They stopped the convoy at 1330 when mortar fire was heard. We
got out of the trucks and jumped in a ditch beside the vehicles. Then some men took off when
they saw they were being captured. They (the Germans) took watches gloves and cigarettes from
prisoners, then put us inside a fence. Tanks passed for 15 minutes.
Everything was all right until a command car turned the corner. At that time an officer in the
command car fired a shot with his pistol at medical officer who was one yard to my left.
Then he fired another shot to my right. At that time a tank following the command car opened
fire on approximately 175 men inside the fence.
We all fell and lay as still as we could. Every tank that passed from then on would fire into
the group laying there. At one time they came around with pistols and fired at every officer
that had bars showing. An officer put mud on his helmet to cover his bars.
The tanks stopped passing about 1445, at 1500 someone said : 'Let's go.' At that time 15
men got up and started to run north from where we were lying on the other side of the road.
Twelve of the men ran into a house (at the north-western part of the crossroads) and three of us
kept going.
There was a machine gun at the crossroads plus four Germans. When we got in back of the
house they couldn't fire the machine gun at us. They burned the house down into which the 12 men ran.
When the three of us were in back of the house we played dead again because a German
in a black uniform came around with a pistol, looking us over. We lay there until dark when
we rolled to a hedgerow where we weren't under observation. Laying there was a staff sergeant
from -- Division, shot in the arm. We started to walk but stayed 200 to 300 yards from the main
road. In about a quarter of a mile we met a medic who was shot in the foot and also a fellow from
my outfit. Four of us came into Malmedy."
A first lieutenant who was wounded and therefore must remain unidentified was the only
Battery B officer available for questioning by the Inspector General's Department. Here is the summary:
"We made a turn to the right of the crossroads to head to St. Vith. We got about 300 yards
down the road and at that time artillery, mortar and small-fire opened up on our echelon.
The fire seemed to come from the east and southeast. Some of the men got out on the road with
their hands up. They told me a (German) tank was coming down the road. Naturally, small arms
was all we had. We put our hands up and they approached.
One of the Officers in the tank stuck his head out and was going to shook me, but I changed my
position and started to shoot at the captain instead. He missed both times. I jumped into a
ditch which was nearby.
At this time about three or four tanks came down the road. They told us to take off to the
rear of the column and questioned some of the men about watches jewelery and such things. My
medical corporal requested permission to give first aid to the wounded was refused.
While we were in the field an officer shot into those of us who were not wounded. We fell
to the ground and lay there motionless while they continued to shoot into the crowd. It was
withering fire. I was wounded twice in the foot while lying on the field. Apparently satisfied that
group left. Then after a while more German soldiers came up the road. As they passed the field
they took pot shots at us. We were lying in the field about an hour or hour and a half. Then
we made a break for it. I found shelter in a barn.
No man in our group tried to make a break before we were first fired upon. We had our arms
over our heads. None of us had any weapons while in the field."
One member of a Field Artillery unit, T-5 Warren R. Schmitt, escaped the massacre by
crawling into a small stream and covering himself with grass and mud. After his convoy was
stopped, Schmitt jumped into a ditch along with his battery mates. But as motar and machine-gun
fire increased, he sought shelter in a stream only one foot deep. He reached this stream, 40
feet from the road, by crawling on his stomach. Estimating that the Germans had 40 Tiger Tanks,
Schmitt said in a sworn statement:
"They stopped our convoy, and men in black uniforms dismounted and began rounding up
prisoners. I submerged myself in the stream and covered myself with grass and mud so that I
wasn't captured. All during this time I was laying in a stream and playing dead. I don't know
whether they saw me or not. For about an hour after they first started firing into the group of
prisoners all of the tanks that passed fired into them. Forty half-tracks that passed fired also.
The testimony of the German PWs captured after the massacre has substantiated the account
of these atrocities given by the Americans who escaped. Here is an extract
of the testimony given by one German prisoner of the 1st Panzer Division:
"On 17th December 1944 at around 3:30p.m., I saw approximately 50 dead
American soldiers lying in a field near an intersection where paved roads radiated in three
directions. This point was near Malmedy and between two or three kilometers from Stavelot.
The bodies were between 30 and 40 metres from the road and were lying indiscriminately on the
ground. In some instances the bodies were lying across each other. There was a burning house at
the intersection and a barn and a shed. I also saw a line of disabled Jeeps and trucks on the
road near this house. I did not stop at the scene, but continued on with my organization."
Questioning of the German PWs together with the description of SS uniforms and insignia supplied
by Americans, has convinced First Army officials that members of the SS Panzer Division are
responsible for this atrocity at Malmedy.
Most of the Germans in the particular company involved are believed to have been
killed in the recent battle against Americans forces in eastern Belgium.
One German prisoner, a member of the 1st SS Panzer Division, but not of the particular outfit
that carried out the massacre, when asked if the appearance of the bodies had made any
impression on him, replied: "It was such an unusual sight. I thought it was murder." Another
German, told of the killing by fellow prisoners, said: "I have no idea why this was done, There
are people among us who find joy in such atricities."
