NARRATOR: Now, where is it? 42 years. Has it been that long? Funny how time slips away. Back in those days, you wondered
if you would even make it another day. And now-- But in there,
time stands still, and the past is as clear and
vivid as it was 42 years ago. Those years were filled with
much excitement and challenge for us and the
achievements we made will be something of which
we'll always be proud of. It was a time when despite
all our differences we came together as a nation. One people united
in a common cause. The country pulled
together like never before. Even so, life seemed
much simpler back then, and yet, it was a period in
history, such as we pray to God the world will never see again. America was at peace and
it seemed a happy time for most of us, but it
wasn't to last long. The world was falling
down all around us, and in Europe a
specter had risen. It was a specter that
would overshadow us all and ultimately change the
face of the world forever. [music playing] NARRATOR: We could never
have imagined the magnitude of events that we would
find ourselves caught up in such a short time
later half a world away. For those of us in
the 291st, the story really began in June of 1944. The Allied invasion force set
off the shore of Normandy, France, and in the predawn
hours of June 6th with the hope of the free world resting
on her fighting men, the issue was decided. The going was tough. The US 1st, 4th, and 29th
divisions, Canadian 3rd and the British 3rd
and 50th divisions made the initial assault
and anchored the bridgehead. While we waited back
in England for orders to move into the Normandy
area, the rest of the world waited for news of the outcome. NEWSCASTER: The Atlantic
wall has been penetrated. There after the first assault,
the Allies clung precariously to a few beaches, but now
they have a solid foothold on fortress Europa. Men and material are poured
onto the newly won beachheads with every favorable tide
and on some unfavorable ones. The Allied command has announced
that the battle of the beaches is complete. The tremendous offensive
was bitterly contested. The Nazis knew that each passing
hour diminished their chances of throwing the Allies
back into the sea, but the American, British,
and Canadian troops pressed forward firmly
onto the soil of France. NARRATOR: On June 22nd, we
assembled and left Southampton, arriving at our embarkation
point on June 24th. We set about loading
the men and equipment onto the ships for the short
50 mile run to the Normandy beachhead. Arriving at Omaha
Beach on D plus 18, we unloaded and prepared
to move inland in support of the invasion force,
which had become bogged down in the hedgerow country
of the Norman farmlands. These hedgerows
were earthen walls that were used as
barriers between farms, and they served
the Germans well as effective defensive obstacles. We were attached
to the first army and were soon moved into the
Mortain area in close support of the 30th Infantry Division. Germans counterattacked seven
times in the Mortain hills in an attempt to check
the Allied break out of the Normandy bridgehead area. The 1st army drove the Germans
back to the Falaise Gap where many of them escaped. Most, but not all. We bagged a good number. They'd always come running out
yelling "Kamaraden, Kamaraden, nicht schiessen,
nicht schiessen!" the 291st continue to
support 1st army in the drive across France, constructed
bridges across the Seine river below Paris and at Marche. In August, we
drove into Belgium. We bivouacked first at
Bastogne, then moved on to build bridges in
Luxembourg at Ettelbruck, and Salmchateau,
Malmedy, and Trois Ponts. These were mostly bailey
and timber trestle bridges. We then moved out of Bastogne
into the Ardennes sector of Belgium. In an area called
the Hawkeye Woods, we set up a tent encampment
for all the letter companies. Moving into October, the 291st
continued to maintain a road net right up to the Siegfried
Line east of Malmedy, in the Losheim Gap area. We were operating sawmills,
repairing bridge timber and lumber for the Army's
winterization program. When November rolled in,
weather turned colder than a-- well, anyway, it
got pretty cold. We moved out of the tents
into Belgian buildings. A Company was located
at Werbomont, B Company at Malmedy, and C Company got
the luxury suite, taking over Froidcour Castle at L'Eglise. Looked like things were going to
be pretty cushy for the winter. The war was going our way. Seemed the Germans couldn't
do anything to stop us. We smashed through
every obstacle they placed in our way. Prisoners were surrendering
by the thousands. And Hitler's Third Reich
was being rolled back into Germany itself. Germany was on the run. We felt victory was at hand. It was like a boxer
in a prize fight who had his opponent on the ropes. We felt confident. We were driving forward
at an unbelievable pace. Nothing could stop us. The German will
to fight was gone. Germany would surrender any day. That would be the
end of Nazi Germany. The war would be over any day. We'd all be going home for
Christmas, any day now. But then something happened. [dramatic music] [singing] We were caught flat footed,
completely by surprise. It was the morning
of December 16, 1944. The German Army had
launched a counteroffensive unprecedented in the war. Three German Army groups
smashed a hole in our line along a 16-mile front. The American units in
the area were cut off, bypassed, and otherwise overrun. We were in full retreat. Things looked bad, very bad. The Germans captured large
amounts of men and materiel and we're driving towards their
objective, the port of Antwerp. Their strategy was to
advance towards Antwerp and split the
Allied army in two. With such an advantage,
Germany would be in an enviable
position of negotiating for a conditional
surrender from the Allies. Well, so much for
the big picture. We in the 291st didn't know
much about what was going on around us that day. Our Colonel, Dave
Pergrin, the CO, was the one who kept
tabs on everything. He stayed in touch
with group headquarters and pretty much knew what
was going on at all times. He was an excellent
officer, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
at the ripe old age of 26. And what was important to us was
that he had a genuine concern for the men. What we did know was this-- that the area in our front was
defended by the 106th Division, the 99th Infantry Division,
and the 14th Cavalry Group. They were mostly new
troops, having just arrived in the Ardennes
area from the good old USA. The first we became aware that
something was going on that day was when one of our
officers, Captain Conlon, reported heavy shells
falling in his vicinity at Malneti, Belgium. These shells were fired by
28-centimeter railway guns with a range of about 15 miles. They were firing at us from
about 14 miles' distance. Colonel Pergrin picked up
his driver, Corporal Adept, and immediately left for
Malmedy to assess the situation. Upon his arrival, he found
Captain Conlon repairing damage to the town and learned that
several civilians of combat medics were killed
in the shelling. From that point on, things
really began to happen. On the morning of the
17th, Lieutenant Ray, a platoon commander
in company B, was on a road patrol heading
out of Malmedy in the direction of the Siegfried line. Coming over a hill near
B tgenbach, Germany, about a mile and a half
from the German border, he sighted American planes
dive bombing something on the ground. As the smoke began to clear,
he saw a tremendous German tank column approaching
down Route N32. He reported immediately to his
company commander, who in turn reported it to Colonel Pergrin,
back at his headquarters in Haute-Bodeux. At once, Colonel Pergrin
selected a small staff consisting of an S3, Major
Lamb, Lieutenant Stack, the assistant S3, Lieutenant
Jenks, and assistant S2, Captain Lloyd Sheets, Liaison
Officer, and the Assistant Supply Officer, Lieutenant Self. They set out for Malmedy. While heading east
en route to Malmedy, they passed an American column
of the 7th Armored Division heading west, away
from the breakthrough. Colonel Pergrin had
decided on a plan to defend Malmedy from the
advancing German column. However, upon
reaching Malmedy, he found that all the other
American units had withdrawn from the area. B Company of the 291st
was the only unit left defending the town. Notwithstanding, we immediately
set about constructing 15 roadblocks. Time was short. And everyone moved
quickly and efficiently. Bridges were prepared
for demolition. We worked feverishly to
accomplish the task at hand. Every man knew the
importance of preventing this overwhelming enemy
armored column from breaking through Malmedy and into the
vital road net beyond the town. Should the Germans do so,
they would quickly overrun other American units
in the rear area, cut off the 291st itself,
and reach their objective at the Meuse River. If they succeeded, the
entire American position on the northern shoulder
of the breakthrough would be jeopardized. We were in trouble, big trouble. And some of us thought that
maybe we should pull out too. After all, what could 150 men
do to stop an armored column with all the
supporting infantry? At that point, the
Colonel said no. We were going to stay and defend
this position at all cost. And so we did. Each roadblock had a
13-man squad to defend it. We were armed with rifles
and some machine guns. The heaviest weapon we had
to stop a German tank was the 2.37-millimeter bazooka. This was like using
spitballs to stop a bull. But if he got lucky,
there was a good chance of knocking a track off a tank. And these German Panther
tanks were brutes-- 45 tons, 5 inches of
armor, and mounted with 75-millimeter guns. The German force which broke
through into the Ardennes was under the overall command of
General Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. He was a seasoned veteran,
having already fought in France, Poland, and Russia. At his command,
three Panzer Armies. The column approaching us was an
element of the 6th Panzer Army, commanded by SS
General Sepp Dietrich. Under his command,
six Panzer divisions. Dietrich was one of
Hitler's oldest comrades and his personal bodyguard in
the early street brawling days of the Nazi party. He was a former commander of
the first SS Panzer division, liebstandarte Adolf
Hitler, Hitler's bodyguard. Under Dietrich, and
spearheading the assault in the northern area, was
the First Panzer Division, a Kampfgruppe of which was
commanded by Colonel Joachim Peiper. At 32 years old, Peiper
was also a veteran of combat in France and Russia. He was an efficient, yet
ruthless soldier, a classic SS officer. In Russia, he earned the name
of Blowtorch Peiper because of his ruthless tactics. He burned villages and homes,
killing soldiers and civilians alike. Such was the reputation
of the Waffen SS. And it was well known
in the American ranks. Now his Kampfgruppe,
or battle group, was heading our way towards
Baugnez, or Five Points, as it was called. The column was 15 miles long
and consisted of Panther tanks, Tiger tanks, half tracks, mobile
guns, 88s, 150-millimeters, and close to 8,000
armored infantry. Despite the
overwhelming odds, we were determined to
stand and stop it. At about a quarter to 12:00 on
the afternoon of December 17, a column of battery. B of the 285th Field Observation
Battalion came into Malmedy and was personally
stopped by Colonel Pergrin outside his command post on
the outskirts of the east end of town. At the head of the column was
a Jeep with a Captain Mills and Lieutenant Virgil Larry. Colonel Pergrin advised them
that our patrols had spotted the German column less than
two miles to our front. But Captain Mills had
apparently received orders not to vary from
his assigned route. They were anxious to move to
the support of the 7th Armored Division at St. Vith. So Captain Mills
and Lieutenant Larry made the decision to
move ahead to Five Points and then swing south
toward St. Vith. At 12:30 PM, the
column moved out. We set about strengthening
our defenses and roadblocks for the expected attack. About an hour and
a half later, we heard firing in the vicinity of
our roadblock at the east end. We all stopped in our tracks. You could have cut the
tension with a knife. In came that old
familiar sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. Someone was getting pasted. [gunfire] The roadblock was manned
by Lieutenant Colbeck and Sergeant DeShaw
of Company B. DeShaw reported by radio that
he had heard firing in the vicinity of Five Points. Colonel Pergrin and the
Communications Sergeant, Bill Crickenberger, grabbed a
submachine gun, got in a Jeep, and headed out in the
direction of the firing. On reaching the
roadblock, Sergeant DeShaw reported that the
firing had stopped. But he didn't advise
going any further. The shooting, it sounded
like tanks, 88s, and machine pistols. The Colonel and
Sergeant Crickenberger moved out about 3/4 of a
mile from the roadblock, parked the Jeep, and
proceeded on foot up a rise toward the tree line. As they neared
the line of trees, three guys came
running towards them. They were badly beaten,
and all appeared wounded. Sergeant Crickenberger raised
his machine gun to fire, but was stopped by the Colonel. They were able to
corral the men, but couldn't make sense out
of what they were saying. Back at the command
post, Colonel Pergrin got their names. They were Kenny Ahrens, Mike
Sharenko, and Albert Valenzi, all members of Company B, 285th
Field Observation Battalion. They belonged to the column
which passed through Malmedy a short time ago. After their wounds
had been dressed, and they had eaten
some hot chow, we were able to get the whole
story from Sergeant Ahrens. I threw my gun on the ground-- NARRATOR: And the
story was this. --and put my hands in the air. NARRATOR: As their column
approached the Five Points area, and as they turned south
into the road to St. Vith, they received fire from a German
tank column approaching from the opposite direction on
the road from Géromont. Eventually, they jumped
out of their vehicles and hit a ditch, which ran
along the side of the road. When the firing had
ceased, Lieutenant Larry raised his arms and indicated
that he was surrendering himself and his
command to the Germans. There was nothing
else he could do in the face of such opposition. Many of the men were wounded. Colonel Peiper
approached the scene, gave orders to his officers to
hurry the column along and not waste time with prisoners. He then swung south
toward Ligneville in order to engage the
14th Cavalry group. With this accomplished, there
would be nothing between him and his objective,
the Meuse River. After probing our
defenses, Peiper had decided to bypass
Malmedy, believing that it was too heavily defended. The forward section of
the column then moved out, and the next section came
up on the prisoners, who had been herded into
a field near the road. [speaking german] [machine guns firing] When the machine
guns stopped, I heard-- heard all my buddies
dying, hollering. Fella from Drytown, where
you're gonna come and view, Charlie Haines was
laying right side of me. As soon as he hit the ground,
and they opened up, he said, I'm hit, Jim. He said, can you help me? I said, lay still
if you can, Charlie. I heard him gargle and die. And they fired a pistol, and
it went through my right knee. I don't know whether
they were deliberately firing at me or at him. I'm more inclined to believe it
was him, because part of-- part of his body must have
been laying across my leg, and probably held the leg
down, because I didn't move. I didn't moaned,
didn't do nothing. Then I heard somebody
say, let's make or break, and learned later it was Jimmy. I didn't know who it was, but
anyway, let's make or break. So, well, I-- you know,
I had to do something. So I made an attempt. I got up. I said this, I don't know. I hollered, let's go, you guys. And I took off running
out across the men. And these three
krauts look around. Oh. Well, they heard me, and they
hollered, halt, Americans, halt, halt, halt! I hauled ass and I'm jumping out
over the top of these bodies. And they got down
on this machine gun, and she starts sawing. They were between my
legs-- "jing, jing." So I might have run 100 feet,
and I took a big tumble. NARRATOR: Of the approximately
150 members of B Company, 285th Field
Observation Battalion who were captured and brought
into that field, only 44 men survived. During the next 12 hours, we
were able to rescue 26 men, and Colonel Pergrin
interviewed 17. At 4:30 PM on the
afternoon of the 17th, Colonel Pergrin
radioed first army and informed them of the
German position and the fact that SS troops had gunned
down unarmed prisoners of war. This news was reported to
General Hodges, commander of 1st US army. He in turn reported it
to Eisenhower in Paris. Hodges also reported the fact
that we were still hanging on by our fingernails
with only 150 men. Eisenhower advised him to take
the 30th Infantry Division, commanded by General
Leland Hobbs, and move them from the Aachen
area down towards Malmedy. As a further precaution,
he notified General Gavin of the 82nd Airborne
at Reims, France, to move up into
the Werbomont area, where it was anticipated that
Peiper's column might proceed. Colonel Pergrin quickly
got into communication with battalion headquarters
at Haute-Bodeux, requesting them to send
Company C from La Gleize. They were instructed to leave
a squad at Stavelot en route to Malmedy in order to
prepare a roadblock there, just in case the armored
column swung around to the west to attack us from the rear. Battalion was also requested
to send us Company A's machine guns and bazookas and to
have A Company act in reserve in the event we were able
to stop the armored column at Malmedy and Stavelot. Company A then moved Lieutenant
Bucky Walters's platoon into Trois-Ponts. With help from the C Company
of the 51st Engineers, they prepared the bridges
there for demolition. Now, about this time, we
started to become keenly aware of another little scheme
the Germans were employing to very good use. A select group of
English-speaking German commandos dressed
in American uniforms were infiltrating our lines and
getting into our rear areas. They were all
experts in sabotage. They cut phone lines and
disrupted communications. Dressed as military police,
they misdirected traffic, changed road signs, or
otherwise caused a great number of our men to be diverted from
areas where they were urgently needed. Mass confusion and mistrust
were the order of the day. Many an unsuspecting GI fell
victim to their treachery. This special group was under
the command of SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny, another
Hitler favorite. A daring commando, he was no
stranger to calculated risk. At Hitler's personal
command, he rescued Mussolini from his mountaintop
prison in 1944. Now he headed this
special operation, appropriately called
Operation Greif. And these guys were
damn good, too. You couldn't trust
anyone you didn't know. Everyone was checked and double
checked at the roadblocks. How many home runs did
Babe Ruth hit in '37? Who was Bud Abbott's partner? What was the
capital of Nebraska? If you didn't know, your
troubles were only beginning. They even went so far as to
paint their tanks with American marking. But we soon wised up. Communications were
finally restored. Lost men got back on
track and the enemy tanks discovered and knocked out. But for those Greif
commandos unfortunate enough to be captured, justice was
dealt swiftly and severely. Fire! [gun shots] NARRATOR: It was dark
and overcast at 5:30 on the evening of the 17th
when Captain Moyer on his way to Malmedy dropped off
Sergeant Haenszel with a squad at Stavelot. They moved across
the Ambleve River and up the hill, where
they prepared a roadblock. Private Bernie Goldstein
was put out on point. In the meantime,
Captain Moyer cautiously moved into Malmedy
with two platoons and was set up on
the defensive line. We now had 180 men in
Malmedy, one squad in Stavelot and the platoon in Trois-Ponts. After he massacred the soldiers
of the 285th FOB at Baugnez, Peiper swung his Kampfgruppe
south towards Ligneuville. At Ligneuville, he was attacked
by three American tanks of the 9th Armored Division,
which were easily knocked out. Now Peiper and his
column ran free and clear on a winding back road. He headed towards Stavelot
in order to get back on the route heading west. This would enable him to
break out on the Meuse River and capture the bridges there. It would also enable the
6th Panzer army to break through our own 1st Army. DAVID E. PERGRIN: On the
evening of December 17, shortly before dusk, Sergeant
Haenszel and his 13 men set up a hasty roadblock
south of the railroad bridge at Stavelot, Belgium. Haenszel set up a
machine gun, a bazooka, and a set of daisy chain mines. The men were all
equipped with rifles. Shortly thereafter, at 6:30
PM, the men in Haenszel's squad heard the approach of
Colonel Joachim Peiper's armored column. NARRATOR: The time was
around 6:30 at night. In the darkness, the lead
tanks of Peiper's column approached Stavelot
very cautiously, as they didn't know what to
expect from the defenses there. The tanks crawled forward
at a snail's pace. Out in that darkness,
on the point, was Private Bernie Goldstein,
native of Brooklyn, New York. He heard the armored infantry
riding on the lead tank, speaking German. In his nervousness
and excitement, Private Bernie Goldstein,
armed only with a 30 caliber M1 rifle, yelled out his challenge. Halt. The tanks stopped. There is silence for a second,
and then all hell broke loose. [gunfire] At the same time Goldstein
yelled "halt," Sergeant Haenszel moved up the bazooka. Even though they
couldn't see anything, they fired at the sound. With luck on their side, they
knocked one of the tracks off the lead tank, causing it
to pivot and block the road. This gave Goldstein a chance to
make his way back to the squad. The rest of the German column
then backed up the hill, not wanting to chance a
blind attack on what they now believed to be a
heavily fortified town. Now, at that moment, there
was nothing between Peiper and his objective 25 miles
away but one roadblock defended by 14 men. Unaware of this fact,
Peiper delayed his attack for 12 hours. This allowed for two
very significant things to happen in the meantime. First, General Hodges was
able to dig up some help for the 291st at Malmedy. At 11:00 PM on the 17th,
the 99th Norwegian Battalion came into Malmedy
with 900 infantry. And let me tell you, we were
never so glad to see anyone in our lives. In with these guys came
some anti-tank guns and armored infantry. Things became a little snafu
in the beginning, though. It seemed that none of the
Norwegians spoke English. So when they came
up on the roadblock, we naturally assumed that they
were some of Skorzeny's men dressed in American uniforms-- you know, the Greif guys again. But their CO, Colonel
Hansen, convinced our men on the outpost
that they were OK. And in they came. Secondly, Colonel Bill
Carter, the 1st Army engineer, had done some digging
of his own and had sent one armored infantry
company and a company of anti-tank guns
to Stavelot to help Sergeant Haenszel and his men. In addition to that,
Colonel Anderson had sent one company
of the 202nd Engineers into Stavelot as
well with orders to prepare the bridge
for demolition. If we couldn't beat
these guys now, at least we could slow them
up until we could beat them. At about 8:30 in the morning,
Peiper made his attack on the defenses of Stavelot. Fighting was furious. [gunfire] The carnage lasted
for two hours. The attack was so sudden that
the men of the 202nd Engineers didn't get a chance to blow the
bridge before they were forced out of there. Peiper crossed the
bridge, then headed west towards Trois-Ponts. As they reached the outskirts
of the town at 11:30 AM, on the morning of December
18, the 51st Engineers blew the two bridges over
the Somme and Ambleve rivers to the north right in his face. With some of Peiper's men
already on the bridge, Lieutenant Walters
of A Company 291st, with Sergeant Miller
on the detonator, blew the bridge to the
south over the Somme River. Peiper was then in
serious trouble. With the blowing of the
bridges at Trois-Ponts, his column was forced north in
the direction of the Ambleve River Valley. All the delays we had
caused him up to this point were beginning to
take their toll. He was well behind his
timetable in the assault. Not only was Peiper
in trouble, but he was becoming desperate as well. As he entered the
village of La Gleize, he added more brutality
to his reputation and invoked his blowtorch
tactics, used so mercilessly in Russia. He massacred innocent civilians
and blasted their houses and surrounding buildings. It was a horror
beyond description. [solemn music] Peiper continued into Cheneux
and crossed the bridge there. Directly along the route
to the Meuse River, Peiper had to cross the
bridge at Lienne Creek. In anticipation of this, Colonel
Pergrin's S3, Major Lamp, ordered Lieutenant Edelstein
and his platoon of Company A to prepare the bridge
for demolition. The bridge was 180 feet long. It had been blown by
the Germans once before, during their retreat
into the Siegfried Line. The 291st had rebuilt it
as a timber trestle bridge, and now we prepared
to destroy it again. At just 3:30 in the
afternoon of the 18th, the bridge was prepared with
2,500 pounds of explosive and defended by Lieutenant
Edelstein and 22 men. At 4:15, a group of civilians on
bicycles approached the bridge and warned Edelstein's men that
the Germans were approaching. The men were instructed
not to blow the bridge until the lead tank was on it. An emergency charge
was prepared in case the first one didn't go off. So Sergeant Chapin on the
explosive device and the guard shelter for the bridge
held off the explosion. He didn't have long to wait. Within minutes, Peiper's
tanks approached the position. As the lead tank moved onto
the bridge, Chapin let it go. [explosion] The bridge disappeared in
a geyser of timber, dirt, and rocks. The second charge
wasn't necessary. Since the surrounding
area was very swampy, there was no opportunity
for heavy armor to cross or ford the creek. He then tried to get a
couple of small half-tracks across the bridge at Forges. And we were ready
for that move, too. Sergeant Billington
and Johnny Rondonel of Lieutenant
Edelstein's platoon pulled daisy chain
mines across the roads as the half-tracks approached. And up they went. [explosion] Peiper was stopped cold. Lienne Creek marked the
furthest penetration of his armored column during
the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, when Peiper was
asked what he thought when we stopped him at Lienne Creek,
he said, "All I could do was pound my knee and
scream, the damned engineers. The damned engineers!" And so was born the name of
which we will forever be proud, the "damned engineers." Back in Malmedy, we
awaited the attack that everyone knew was coming. We had been further reinforced
by another battalion of infantry. This was the second battalion
of the 120th regiment of the 30th Infantry Division. At this time, we had one full
company in line as infantry. On our left flank with the
99th Norwegian battalion, and on our right was the
120th Infantry Regiment. Early in the morning of the 21st
of December, it began to snow. Colonel Otto Skorzeny and the
second prong of the 6th Panzer army moved into position
to attack Malmedy. His force consisted of 5,000 men
and about 120 armored vehicles. Mixed in with his command
were units of the Waffen SS, and it had been SS units which
were involved at Five Points. With the memory of Baugnez
and the massacre still very fresh in our minds,
we knew that any attack would be all out. We waited. Then at about 5:30 AM, they
hit the tripwires and the mines out in front of our position. As they attacked, they yelled,
you yanks can go home now. Here we come! Well, we gave them
our answer to that. [gunfire] The infantry piled up out of the
fields in front of our defense on the railroad embankment. They were persistent
in their attack. [gunfire] At the western
end of Malmedy, we had to blow the railroad bridge,
which spanned the highway. We used daisy chain mines
and bazookas against tanks. We knocked out five of them, and
things were getting very hot. The outcome hung in the balance. In the Western end of Malmedy
was a paper mill, and around this mill, the battle
raged for five hours. Events seesawed back and forth. It was wholesale destruction
on a grand scale. [dramatic music] [gunfire] [explosion] By 11:30 AM, the
Germans withdrew, leaving the field littered
with equipment and dead. The following day, we had
to blow the railroad viaduct in the Warche River Bridge. Skorzeny's tanks were
beginning to penetrate there. Of the 5,000 Germans that
went into the attack, less than 2,000 came out. We had held. Men of the 291st,
the 30th division, and the 99th Norwegians
had all done their jobs. Malmedy was still
in Allied hands. On the 23rd of December,
Malmedy was under attack again. Only this time, it was
from our own Air Force. You'd think after all we've
been through that we were due for a break. No such luck. The top brass evidently thought
that there was no way we could have held Malmedy. By now, they figured, it
must be in German hands. So around 4:00 PM on the 23rd,
this flight of American bombers flew over. As we watched in horror,
they salvoed their load right over the town of Malmedy. The death and destruction
were terrible. There were many soldiers
of the 30th Division as well as civilians
buried in the attack. Colonel Pergrin's staff car
was knocked out as well. We immediately pulled
some of our guys off the defensive perimeter to
rescue the trapped civilians and to curb the fires which
threatened the whole town. We moved the dead which had
been recovered from the debris and placed them
in the schoolyard. The 291st medics had
their hands full. They were not only busy
with injured civilians and American soldiers, but
also with the wounded Germans. There was many a person
that day who will forever be indebted to the
efforts of those medics. On December 24, Christmas
Eve, our present was a second shellacking
from our own guys again. While Colonel Pergrin, Captain
Conlon, Captain Moyer, and two noncoms were digging out a
30th Division kitchen, which had been buried, the
bombs fell again. [explosions] They had just broken through to
the men trapped in the kitchen, and the whole group
was buried again. For the next three hours,
we worked to get our men out of the debris. Colonel Pergrin was wounded
but stayed on duty after he and Captain Moyer were
dug out of the debris by T3 McGee using an air
hammer and a compressor. Captain Conlon had
been badly wounded and had to be evacuated. We were successful in rescuing
the rest of the trapped men and the original rescue party. On Christmas Day, 1944, the
bombing had finally stopped. At last, we had a chance to
fully realize the magnitude of what we had accomplished. Peiper had been stopped and had
retreated back into Germany. Skorzeny had been defeated. And Malmedy still
stood fast in its role as guardian of the vital
road map to our rear. During the counterattack
to push Skorzeny back, the real horror of the massacre
at Baugnez was uncovered. As we reach the Five
Point crossroads, we came upon the wreckage of
the 285th FOB column, which had passed through
Malmedy on the 17th. We into the field described
by our three survivors and began to uncover the
bodies of the massacre victims. 2 feet of snow had fallen, and
we needed to use mine detectors to locate all the men. The mine detectors located
the metal on the bodies under the snow, and
we'd uncover them. It was a gruesome task. Sergeant Melton and
his men of C Company set about the grisly job. The men had been frozen
into grotesque positions, just as they had fallen. While we went about our work,
a column of captured Germans was being moved to the
rear along the road bordering the fields. Everything fell silent. And as we looked at the
Germans, the same thought must have been going
through all our heads. The grave registration
people identified the bodies with a number. It seemed everywhere we looked,
there were frozen bodies with numbers. It was a scene never
to be forgotten. I know I never will. I'll never forget that
picture of Colonel Pergrin and his staff as they
toasted the success of our defensive efforts, and
the fact that our own Air Force had finally stopped bombing us. In the center was Colonel
Pergrin, on the right Captain Moyer, and on the left
Lieutenant Stack, Fitzpatrick, and Lieutenant Don Davis. Lieutenants Colbeck and Ray,
Captain Cayman the medic, and Captain Lloyd Sheets,
the liaison officer. You know, there were a lot of
other guys in the outfit who unflinchingly did their job
every day under the worst conditions imaginable. But this day was a
great day for us all. [celebratory music] Well, after Belgium,
it wasn't long before we moved
into Germany itself. But before that, we had made
the attack in the same week with the 30th Division
and thence the assault of the Siegfried Line
into the Losheim Gap with the 82nd Airborne Division. We built a 180 foot
Bailey bridge under fire at Lanzerath for their army. Our next mission was to
assault the Ruhr River with the 78th division
at the formidable dams. We bridged the Rhine River
at Remagen in March of '45. We raced along the autobahn on
the assault of the Ruhr pocket. We bridged the Danube and
attacked into the redoubt area. And on May 8, 1945, Germany
surrendered unconditionally. It was VE Day, and the world
felt like a better place to live. We'd all be going
home soon, and it was a blessing we
had looked forward to for a long, long time. One last note. Peiper survived the war, but
he was not to escape justice. In May of 1946, 74 man
of his Kampfgruppe, including Peiper himself,
were tried in a military court for the massacre at Malmedy. Fittingly enough, the trial was
held at the notorious Dachau concentration camp. Court will come to order. Aid, abet, and participate
in the killing, shooting, ill treatment, abuse, and
torture of members of the armed forces of the United
States of America, then at war with the
then-German Reich, who were then and there
surrendered and unarmed prisoners of war in the custody
of the then-German Reich. The exact names and
numbers of such persons being unknown, but
aggregating several hundred and unarmed Allied civilian
nationals, the exact names and numbers of such
questions being unknown. NARRATOR: Number 42 was
SS Colonel Joachim Peiper. Well, how close were you to
these people that were firing from the windows? INTERPRETER: [speaking german] JOACHIM PEIPER:
[speaking german] INTERPRETER: I was driving
right past these houses underneath the windows. JOACHIM PEIPER:
[speaking german] INTERPRETER: I had to get
my head down several times. JOACHIM PEIPER:
[speaking german] INTERPRETER: And I saw
these people shoot. PROSECUTOR: Did
you see the people? [speaking german] - [speaking german].
- Yes. PROSECUTOR: How
were they dressed? [speaking german] [speaking german] These were people which one
could see only for an instant. They usually wore civilian
headgear and a civilian jacket. But of course, I can't
give any details. PROSECUTOR: Did you see any
80-year-old women firing at you from the windows
there in B llingen? [speaking german] [speaking german] In those short moments,
I had no occasion to determine the age
of the persons firing. PROSECUTOR: Well, did you see
only one-year-old babies firing at you from the
windows in B llingen? [speaking german] [speaking german] No, not even in Russia did
I see any one-year-old babies firing. NARRATOR: The trial
lasted for two months and included testimony
from survivors and from investigators who
had visited the Baugnez site and recreated the events
leading up to the massacre. MAN: --side of the house. NARRATOR: Lieutenant Virgil
Larry identified the man who had fired the first shot. I could, yeah. PROSECUTOR: Will you take a
look at the defendant seated on your left and see if the
German who fired the two first shots at the
prisoners of war at the crossroads there at
Baugnez, Belgium, on 17, December 1944 is present? [speaking german] This is the man that
fired the first two pistol shots into the American
prisoner of war. INTERPRETER: [speaking german] PROSECUTOR: What
number is he wearing? INTERPRETER: [speaking german] Number 14. NARRATOR: When the
trial ended on July 16, 43 death sentences
were handed down. Peiper's was one of them. JUDGE: Peiper. The court in closed session,
at least 2/3 of the members present, and the vote
was taken concurring, sentences you to death
by hanging at such a time and place as our
authority may direct. INTERPRETER: [speaking german] NARRATOR: Ironically, the
democratic system, which Peiper had fought so hard to
destroy during World War II, was the same system which
commuted his sentence and eventually released him
from prison in December 1956. On July 14, 1976, Joachim
Peiper was found murdered in his home in Eastern France. In his own blowtorch
fashion, the house was set ablaze and Peiper's
body burned beyond recognition. For the crime, no person
was ever brought to trial. [ominous music] We live in the greatest
country in the world, made great by people and
government who put the highest value on the most basic
concept, the concept that each individual's
right to freedom comes from a higher
authority than here on Earth, and that that freedom is a
precious commodity that must be preserved for all
people at any cost. And it doesn't come
cheaply, either. Rather, it has cost the
lifeblood of many men throughout history, who have
fought and died to preserve it. You know, in this age and
time, when so much is taken for granted, it's
our responsibility to pass down to our children
and to our children's children the legacy of our freedom, in
the hope that these symbols may serve to remind future
generations of its cost. When I think how far we've
come as a nation and a people, I believe that despite all
the hardship and sacrifice we endured during those trying
times, it was worth it all. CHILD: Is everything
all right, grandaddy? Yes, Dylan. Everything is all right. Everything is all right. Wow. Gee, thanks, granddaddy. Hey, mom! [music playing]
