Malmedy Massacre Monument
at Baugnez - 2005
Numbered bodies
Survivors at the site of the Malmedy Massacre who returned in 1945
Print of a drawing by US Army artist Sgt. Howard Brodie. Sketched after Sgt. Brodie interviewed some of the survivors soon after the massacre. Signed and sent to Will Cavanagh by Mr Brodie. (Courtesy of Howard Brodie)
In his book “A Time for Trumpets” the late Charles B. Macdonald said the following about this infamous war crime:
“Those who survived the first deadly fusillade flung themselves to the ground, burying their faces in the mud and trying to burrow under the bodies around them. The firing continued, the machine guns raking back and forth across the prostate forms. There were screams, groans, cries of agony”
To the American G.I. of late 1944 this lonely road junction in eastern Belgium was known as “Five Points.” Today it is known by many as the site of the Malmedy Massacre and to better informed individuals it is known by its actual name the Baugnez crossroads. On 17th December 1944, a column of American vehicles from the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion traveling from Malmedy in the direction of St. Vith ran into the armored spearhead of Hitler’s final great winter attack of the war. Known forever as the Battle of the Bulge, the soldiers of the Leibstandarte Adolph Hitler’s 1st SS Panzer Regiment were tasked with slicing quickly through the Ardennes to reach the Meuse River and eventually the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Hardened by a savage war in Russia, the men of the Kampfgruppe Peiper-- as the spearhead tank unit was known-- were the leading element in the military operation. Hitler personally admired its dashing commander, 29 year old Obersturmbannfuhrer Jochen Peiper. As Heinrich Himmler’s adjutant and the epitomy of the hard-driving Waffen SS commander, Peiper was personally chosen to lead Hitler’s prime panzer spearhead. With success, as he had often done in Russia, Peiper was to propel his troops to victory and dramatically alter the situation in the West. Before the attack, he was closely advised to let nothing slow their rapid advance.
Corporal Gene Garrett, one of the 46 men who survived the massacre, recorded his memories of that infamous day. In his recording he took pride in saying that in his opinion, the 285th was probably one of the best trained such battalions in the United States Army. He went on to state that he and his buddies were not trained in hand to hand close combat. If captured, they expected to be treated according to the Geneva Convention. This was not to be. In what has become known as the Malmedy Massacre, 84 men from Battery B were brutally murdered at the side of the road.
This incident was by no means unique as Kampfgruppe Peiper drove on towards the mighty Meuse River. After the war, U.S. War Crimes Investigators and the Belgian authorities documented numerous war crimes against both civilian and soldiers in other places through which the Kampfgruppe passed including Honsfeld, Büllingen, Stavelot, Parfondruy and Trois Ponts.
Almost some 63 years later, local people remember those fast-fading events of December 1944. Two enterprising individuals, Fabien and Mathieu Steffens seeking to preserve history, have decided to open the Baugnez 44 Historical Center to commemorate events in the region’s turbulent past. This museum will house an important collection of historical items and artifacts many of which are unique in nature. It will also house documentation and photographs signed by many of the battle’s participants and preserve an important segment of history for future generations.
Read the statement of one of the Malmedy Massacre survivor's Ted Paluch who will be our guest on the tour.