Malmedy Massacre

The Malmédy Massacre and the Battle of the Bulge

Malmédy is an attractive and prosperous town situated in eastern Belgium, 15 miles from the German border. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Operation Greif: Assassinate Eisenhower?

On the morning of Monday, December 18, 1944, a mixed group of white MPs and black American service troops stood guard on the little bridge at Aywaille in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Massacre At Malmédy

The surrender did not begin well. As First Lieutenant Virgil Lary stood in the road next to a snow-covered field just south of Malmédy, Belgium with his hands raised, one of the German tankers poked his head out of the hatch and fired twice at him with his pistol. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Joachim Peiper’s Bloody Blitz Through Belgium

As the Belgian town of La Gleize burned to the ground around him, 29-year-old SS Lt. Col. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Was Justice Served After the Malmedy Massacre?

It was a dismal day, Sunday, December 17, 1944, just hours after the Germans had broken through the thinly held American lines in the Ardennes Forest along rugged terrain of the Western Front. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Liberating the Camps

BACKSTORY: The final months of World War II in the European Theater were a harrowing and desperate time for the soldiers who fought there. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Voices of the Bulge, Part II

In the first installment, a large German force made a surprise counteroffensive against American positons along the Belgian-German border—an operation that became known in the West as “the Battle of the Bulge.” Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Deaths in WWII: Casualties, and the Graves Registration Units

The very nature of war means that some participants will be killed and others will be wounded, and some estimate the deaths in WWII to be around 85 million. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Taking Down a German Fighter By Hand at the Battle of the Bulge

Private Harry Cruse and the men of the 83th Armored Field Artillery Battalion were waiting for a march order in the snow-swept town of Langlire when they heard an approaching German fighter plane. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper’s Grisly Death After the Battle of the Bulge

One of the foremost German characters in the Battle of the Bulge was Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Joachim Peiper, the notorious Waffen-SS commander of the strongest armored Kampfgruppe (KG) of the 1st SS Panzer Division, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Daredevil Tankers Turn the Tide at the Bulge

“Peiper must be stopped!”

Lieutenant General Courtney M. Hodges, commanding the U.S. First Army, looked up from his maps and saw chaos everywhere. Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Behind Enemy Lines: Escape at the Bulge

The sound of German artillery shells shrieking overhead from across the Siegfried Line was not the wakeup call Technical Sergeant Robert Walter of 3rd Platoon, L Company, 3rd Battalion, 393rd Infantry Regiment expected to receive on the morning of December 16, 1944.  Read more

Malmedy Massacre

Touring the Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge lasted an entire month, and was fought over almost the entire Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and half of Belgium, yet finding all of the battlefields and historic sights is a bit more difficult than locating the D-day beaches. Read more