Malmedy & Chenogne - A Tale of Two Ardennes Massacres

[Music] during the battle of the bulge in 1944-45 several terrible massacres occurred the worst was that committed by ss panzer troops that has come to be known as the malmeday massacre but there was a little-known revenge killing perpetrated by american troops that was the subject of a cover-up and for which no punishments were ever applied that atrocity was called the shanon massacre the aim of the ardenne offensive was for two german panzer armies the fifth and sixth to tear a hole in the americans thinly held front lines that ran through the mountainous and forested arden region of belgium and luxembourg reached the mers river and then break out into good tank country beyond and reach and recapture the inland port of antwerp a major allied supply base if successful operation vachtam rein or watch on the rhine would see the us and british armies cut in two and many u.s divisions destroyed or badly mauled and the allied supply situation completely disrupted the leading breakthrough force in the vanguard of the sixth ss panzer army was kumpf grouper piper a heavily reinforced armored battle group with panther mark iv and king tiger tanks and panzer grenadiers tasked with finding a route forward to the mers river and on to antwerp named for its commanding officer ss oberstambanfura jorkan piper a highly professional and highly decorated panzer leader the kampf grouper's objective was the mers bridges at hoy the bulk of piper's force came from the first ss punsa division leibstandatta ss adolf hitler the elite of the ss the advance was difficult involving several battles with rearguard us forces appalling secondary roads in bad weather and delays to piper's carefully worked out timetable that bred frustration in him and his officers as kampf grouper piper advanced it committed atrocities after capturing hansfeld on the 17th of december 1944 piper deviated from his line of march to capture a u.s fuel dump at bulingen here some lss ah soldiers cold-bloodedly shot a dozen recently captured americans moving on the kampf grouper spread out over many miles passed through tiramore village then deviated towards the crossroads at bonnet as piper's vanguard arrived it found a u.s convoy of about 30 vehicles from b battery 285th field artillery observation battalion moving over the crossroads the ss opened fire after some sporadic resistance most of the americans surrendered moving on piper detached a small unit of punsa grenadiers to guard the americans who numbered about 120 men herded into a snowy field under guard something happened though it has never been properly established as to what caused german troops to open fire some witnesses and historians maintained that an order was given to cold-bloodedly kill the pows while others suggest that young and inexperienced ss grenadiers opened fire when some americans tried to escape either way some americans were gunned down where they stood others shot as they ran away and some who feigned death were later killed by ss men who walked among the bodies shooting any who showed signs of life 43 americans survived some being hidden by belgian civilians the final death toll has been concluded as 84 american pows shot down at bonae and because of its proximity to the town of malmeday the event was known thereafter as the malmeday massacre the u.s command was quick to learn of the massacre indeed they knew the basics of what had occurred three to four hours after the events though the bodies were deep behind enemy lines and would remain so until mid-january 1945. very quickly news of the massacre was circulating unofficially among u.s units then fighting hard to try and stop the german advance such was the fury that the massacre engendered among gis that some officers took it upon themselves to order their men to take no ss prisoners alive they were instead to commit war crimes as illegal as those already committed by some of piper's men in fact the malmeday massacre engendered a series of revenge massacres and individual killings by u.s soldiers that lasted well into 1945 before higher command took measures to stop the practice and then cover up the crimes that had been committed one of the most notorious examples was the american execution of 80 german soldiers at chenon belgium on new year's day 1945. by now the german offensive had stalled and the allied fight back was recapturing lost ground and exacting a fearful toll on german units and the snow-covered ardennes company b u.s 21st armored infantry battalion party the 11th armored division had captured members of two german units the first were soldiers at the fuhrer big light brigada an elite army unit that ordinarily provided guards at hitler's headquarters particularly the wolf's lair on the eastern front the second were some members of the third panzer grenadier division neither groups of prisoners were waffen-ss they were all regular army and had been nowhere near malmeday at the time of the massacre it is interesting to note that some u.s witnesses at chenon later said that they had no knowledge of the malmeday massacre but that it had become official policy not to take german prisoners seemingly any german prisoners alive such actions by u.s troops though understandable in light of the rumors circulating in the front lines concerning malmoday were counterproductive to the allied cause the war was framed as a simple battle between good embodied in the allies and evil embodied in the germans and japanese the allies would lose the moral high ground if it was shown that american troops had behaved like the ss again the allies comb the crannies for the nazis left behind covering the enemy withdrawal and once again from the rubble comes the victims of reich lebensram as before sympathetic allied soldiers help them theirs are the faces of tragedy american medical troops abiding by the laws of the geneva convention attend enemy wounded with the same care they give allied casualties all along the western front the first victim was a german combat medic his helmet and uniform clearly marking his non-combatant status who was shot down as he approached the 21st armored infantry battalion troops carrying a white flag american witnesses all said that orders had been issued to take no prisoners and recalled how pows were herded down a hill out of sight of any witnesses particularly german troops still fighting in the area the germans were lined up in two groups then the americans set up browning 30 caliber machine guns shortly after an order was given and the germans were mown down the massacre didn't sit well with some witnesses including staff sergeant john w fage of b company who wrote quote we were committing the same crimes we were now accusing the japs and germans of doing unquote regarding the killing of ss prisoners a u.s army investigation showed that this was widespread indeed a few days before the shanon massacre the u.s 90th infantry division had received an explicit order from core headquarters to stop systematically killing sspows as they were needed alive for questioning and the military intelligence they might divulge so what was done about the malmeday and shinon massacres when general george s patton learned of what had occurred at chenon and elsewhere his comment in his diary was quote i hope we can conceal this unquote that is exactly what happened such allied massacres were ordinarily covered up indeed no prosecutions were ever made into the 21st armored infantry battalion and the behaviour of some members of b company at chenon when general dwight d eisenhower the supreme allied commander heard about shinon he was angry and ordered a full investigation by the 11th armored division the 21st armored infantry battalion's parent unit the 11th dragged its feet until after ve day and in reply to eisenhower's demands responded that quote it's too late the war is over the units are disbanded unquote regarding the massacre at malmo day this was given full publicity by the americans after the war the victims bodies were recovered from the field in january to february 1945 and forensically examined the malmeday massacre trial was then convened in germany in 1946 jorkan piper and his subordinate officers were placed on trial for their lives of his battalion felt in hansfeld i talked to talbot personally and some of his men about one kilometer west of hansfeld company and about one company which had forgotten to dismount from our tanks drove with us through a stumo and the glaze the trial was dogged however by accusations of manufactured evidence and brutality towards defendants including confessions taken under duress 43 germans were sentenced to death though these sentences were never carried out and another 22 received life imprisonment all were released by 1956 the last being piper himself to date no one has ever been charged with the channon massacre which was successfully brushed under the carpet as indeed general patton had hoped it would have been german war crimes have rightly been confronted the offenders in many cases punished and the crimes themselves widely publicized the same cannot be said of criminal acts committed by some in the allied forces thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 723,595

Rating: 4.9187374 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of the Bulge, Malmedy, Chenogne, Mark Felton, Jochen Pieper, Ardennes

Id: ny7yudLPweM

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 16 2021