The Malmédy Massacre
In the morning of December 17, 1944 from 6.00 until 9.00 AM, B Battery of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion closed their installation at Schevenhütte, Germany to go to their new position in Luxembourg. They departed in convoy about 9.00 AM and stopped for lunch at 11.45 AM just north of Malmédy, Belgium. After passing through Malmédy they moved south toward Ligneuville and St. Vith, Belgium. They passed the crossroads village known as Baugnez, approximately 12.45 to 1.00 PM ... At that point they encountered the lead panzers of "Kampfgruppe Peiper" ...
At 1.30 PM the Germans began assembling their prisoners in an open field approximately sixty to eighty yards from the crossroads on the westside of road N23. There would be 111 Prisoners of War in the total group.
In the next few minutes one of the most horrible scenes of the entire war unfolded ... A German officer was standing in a SPW on the left, he raised his pistol and took a slow deliberate aim and then fired at the group. The Germans in the two SPW's started yelling and firing machine guns at the prisoners ...
