On December 17, 1944, the deadliest mass execution of US soldiers during WWII occurred at the Baugnez crossroads, near Malmédy Belgium, in what became known as the Malmédy Massacre.
The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler’s last desperate attempt to split the Allied lines and prevent the defeat of the German Army and the capture of Berlin. This desperation was felt amongst German soldiers and the Waffen SS, as they became notorious for atrocious actions and war crimes during the Battle of the Bulge. The US Army’s Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion was traveling from Schevenhutte to St. Vith, Belgium. Around 1 pm, the leading elements of Kampfgruppe Peiper, a Waffen SS unit commanded by Joachim Peiper, observed the American convoy moving south at the Baugnez crossroads. The jeeps, weapons carriers, and 2 1/2-ton trucks of the American convoy were an inviting target and came under fire from the lead Panzerkampfwagen (PzKw.) Mk. IV tanks. The lightly armed Americans quickly surrendered to the German tank force.
As Kampfgruppe Peiper continued to move west, 113 American prisoners were captured and gathered in a field near the crossroad. Unexpectedly, the Kampfgruppe Peiper opened machine-gun fire on the American prisoners, killing them where they stood. The SS troops even walked among the bodies shooting anyone who appeared alive. 84 American servicemen were killed in what became known as the Malmedy Massacre, but despite the efforts of the Germans, a number of POWs survived by playing dead and escaped to Malmedy, which was still in American hands. The bodies of those who died at the Baugnez crossroads lay in what was to become a no man’s land until January 14, 1945.
Peiper’s unit stood accused of killing other Allied prisoners and Belgian civilians during the course of the Ardennes offensive. In May 1946, Peiper and 72 members of his Kampfgruppe stood trial for war crimes before a US Military court at the former concentration camp Dachau. Over the course of two months, the Malmedy Massacre trial was well publicized as the US Army sought justice for those who died during the massacre. Several survivors of the massacre testified at the trial, alongside Belgian civilians who witnessed the atrocities. The prosecution argued that the murders were premeditated and came from orders delivered by Hitler encouraging the Waffen SS to instill fear and terror in the Allies, while the defense maintained that the killings occurred in the heat of battle. Upon the conclusion of the trial, the verdict was issued on July 16, 1946. Forty-three of the defendants, including Peiper, were sentenced to death by hanging, 22 to life imprisonment, and the rest to between 10 and 20 years imprisonment. None of the death sentences were ever carried out and all of the prisoners were released by December 1956. Sadly, the last casualty of the Malmédy Massacre was justice.
Sources:
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Holocaust Encyclopedia: The Malmedy Massacre
- Ed Lengel, The Malmedy Massacre
- Kim Guise, Justice After the 1944 Malmedy Massacre
- American Legion, Malmedy Massacre Memorial