13/01/1945 The U.S. First Army attack the Germans between Stavelot and Malmady. I was not aware of the Chenogne massacre listed last in this chronology. Info from http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html THE MALMÉDY MASSACRE (December 17, 1944) During the Ardennes Offensive (Battle of the Bulge) the Combat Group of the 1st SS Panzer Division, led by SS Major Joachim Peiper, was approaching the crossroads at Baugnes near the town of Malmédy. There they encountered a company of US troops (Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion) from the US 7th Armoured Division. Realizing that the odds were hopeless, the company's commander, Lt. Virgil Lary, decided to surrender. After being searched by the SS, the prisoners were marched into a field adjacent to the Cafe Bodarwé. The SS troops moved on except for two Mark IV tanks Nos. 731 and 732, left behind to guard the GIs. A couple of GIs tried to flee to the nearest woods and an order was given to fire. SS Private Georg Fleps of tank 731 drew his pistol and fired at Lary's driver who fell dead in the snow. The machine guns of both tanks then opened fire on the prisoners. Many of the GIs took to their heels and headed for the woods. Incredibly, 43 GIs survived, but 84 of their comrades lay dead in the field, being slowly covered with a blanket of snow. No attempt was made to recover the bodies until the area was retaken by the 30th Infantry Division on January 14, 1945, when men from the 291st Engineers used metal detectors to locate the bodies buried in the snow. (The US troops in the area were issued with an order that for the next week no SS prisoners were to be taken) At the end of the war, Peiper, and 73 other suspects (arrested for other atrocities committed during the offensive) were brought to trial. When the trial ended on July 16, 1946, forty three of the defendants were sentenced to death, twenty two to life imprisonment, two to twenty years, one for fifteen years and five to ten years. Peiper and Fleps were among those sentenced to death, but after a series of reviews the sentences were reduced to terms in prison. On December 22, 1956, SS Sturmbannführer Peiper was released. He settled in the small village of Traves in northern France in 1972 and four years later, on the eve of Bastille Day, he was murdered and his house burned down by a French communist group. His charred body was recovered from the ruins and transferred to the family grave in Schondorf, near Landsberg in Bavaria. Most of the remains of the murdered GIs were eventually shipped back to the US for private burial but twenty-one still lie buried in the American Military Cemetery at Henri-Chappelle, about forty kilometers north of Malmédy. View attachment 1471 View attachment 1472 View attachment 1475 ATROCITY AT STAVELOT (On December 18) The day after the massacre at Malmédy, the same SS unit of Kampfgruppe Peiper, systematically executed 130 Belgian civilians in the village of Stavelot. Charged with sheltering American soldiers, 67 men, 47 women and 23 children were brutally executed. BANDE (Christmas Eve, 1944) On September 5, 1944, a unit of Belgian marquis attacked a German unit, killing three soldiers. Two days later the American troops arrived in the area and the Germans retreated. Three months later, during the Ardennes Offensive, the village of Bande was retaken. On Christmas Eve, a unit of the German SD (Sicherheitsdienst) set about arresting all men in the village. They were questioned about the events of September 5, then lined up in front of the local cafe. One by one, they were led to an open door and as they entered a shot rang out. An SD man, positioned just inside the door, fired point blank into the victims neck, and with a kick sent the body hurtling into the open cellar. After twenty had been killed this way, it was the turn of 21 year old Leon Praile who decided to make a run for it. With bullets flying around him, he escaped into the woods. Meantime the executions continued until all 34 men had been killed. On January 10, 1945, the village of Bande was liberated by British troops and the massacre was discovered. A Belgian War Crimes Court was set up in December 1944. One man, a German speaking Swiss national by the name of Ernst Haldiman, was identified as being a member of the execution squad. He had joined the SS in France on November 15, 1942 and in 1944 his unit was integrated with other SD units, into No. 8 SS Commando for Special Duties. Haldiman was picked up in Switzerland after the war and brought to trial before a Swiss Army Court. On April 28, 1948, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He was released on parole on June 27, 1960, the only member of the SS Commando unit that has been brought to trial. CHENOGNE (January 1, 1945) In the village of Chenogne, a unit of the US 11th Armoured Division had captured around sixty German soldiers. Marched to behind a small hill, out of sight of enemy troops still holding the woods beyond the village, the prisoners were subjected to a volley of machine-gun fire. On this cold and frosty first day of 1945, the GIs were showing no mercy for their unfortunate prisoners as they crumpled to the ground, shot dead in cold blood. With memories of the Malmédy massacre still fresh in their minds, killing had become impersonal, revenge was now uppermost in their minds.
Not too sure what point you're making spidge, other than the report of a massacre by Americans? As you say, following Malmedy there may have been a 'no prisoners' order, either formally issued or understood by common consent. Do you know if there was a formal written order? However, to trot out the hackneyed old phase again, "History is written by the winners", so who wants to write about the bad, incompetent, cowardly or shameful things the winners did? Malmedy receives the coverage because it was Americans writing about Americans being killed. A fair bet most who know something of Malmedy will know nothing about the atrocities towards the population of that area. Peiper himself is a special case, and while so much attention was focussed on Malmedy the Allies, for a number of reasons, chose to ignore and discount the numerous other murders per his order committed just about everywhere his 'Blowtorch' unit went. Though the politicians chose to release him, he was slaughtered by the people on behalf of the people. No.9
Hi No9, Firstly there is certainly no agenda. As the original topic states it was just a "On this Day" occurence for the start of the attack by the Americans. As I am not a walking Funk & Wagnells I was cross checking the date and come across the Chenogne massacre. I was stating that I was not aware of a massacre by this name however in part it may have been included in the movie the "Battle of the Bulge". (Anyone confirm? - Numbers of survivors did not match) To ensure that I was even handed and for those who were also not aware, I put the lead up events to this event first. With respect to the "order" to take no SS prisoners, I have read that this was so, however I have not seen an original order and doubt if there ever was one. After this massacre (US Troops) it would not have been difficult for orders from up high to be carried out by their fellow soldiers whether orally or on paper. Retribution by the allies (leaving out the Soviets) was not unusual however there was not an intention of cleansing as with the Germans (SS) and the Japanese who demanded total subserviance from the areas that they invaded. Aussie troops in New Guinea commenced this practice when Japanese prisoners would explode grenades amongst them after capture. Not common however it did exist. A soldier brother of a New Zealand coastwatcher who was beheaded on Tarawa mowed down Japanese prisoners as retribution. This other one is possibly an example of the Aussies not prepared to have a sadistic murderer of their sons "set free" so to speak and spend time in a Japanese prison. THE PARIT SULONG MASSACRE. In January,1942, a company of Australian and Indian soldiers were captured by the Japanese and interned in a large wooden building at Parit Sulong in Malayasia. Late in the afternoon of January 22, 1942, they were ordered to assemble at the rear of a row of damaged shops nearby.The wounded were carried by those able to walk, the pretext being the promise of medical treatment and food. While waiting at the assembly point, either sitting or lying prone, three machine guns, concealed in the back rooms of the wrecked shops, started their deadly chatter, their concentrated fire chopping flesh and limbs to pieces. A number of prisoners whose bodies showed signs of life, had to be bayoneted. In order to dispose of the bodies, which totaled 161, the row of shops was blown up and the debris bulldozed into a heap on top of which the corpses were placed. Sixty gallons of gasoline was splashed on the bodies and then a flaming torch was thrown on the pile. Just before midnight, the debris of the nine shops had burned into a pile of grey ash two feet high, the 161 bodies totally incinerated. The perpetrator of this foul crime was Lt-Gen.Takuma Nishimura who later faced trial before an Australian Military Court. Nishimura was previously convicted of massacres in Singapore and sentenced to life imprisonment by a British Military Tribunal on April 2, 1947. After serving four years of his sentence, he was being transferred to Tokyo to serve out the rest of his sentence and while the ship stopped temporarily at Hong Kong he was siezed by the Australian military police and taken to Manus Island where his second trial was held. He was found guilty and hanged on June 11, 1951. Regards Geoff
Hello spidge, thank you for the clarification. I didn't mean to imply there was any agenda to the post, I didn't appreciate it was along the lines of what happened 'on the day' in that area. Regarding any orders not to take SS prisoners, I bet no one looked for the under-arm tattoo before shooting. Thank you for the very interesting piece on Parit Sulong and Nishimura. I know some go on about appreciating Japanese culture, however, the Japanese never seem to give a damn about anyone else's. I really miss those original APF Popeye cartoons. No.9
