Chenogne Massacre in the Ardennes - a Covered-up American War Crime

Adolescent soldiers of the Waffen-SS captured by the Americans

German POWs herded at gunpoint by their American captors

Chenogne Massacre: a Covered-up U.S. War Crime

The Ardennes offensive, or the Battle of the Bulge, in December 1944 is best known for the killing, in the town of Malmedy, of around 80 American soldiers. However, the full story should include, too, the killings of German soldiers by American soldiers. ‘I hope we can conceal this,’ General George Patton wrote about murders of German prisoners that have been airbrushed out of U.S. accounts of the ‘Battle of the Bulge’. The massacre of approximately 80 unarmed German POWs in Chenogne on January 1 1945 was carried out by perpetrators from Company B, U.S. 21st Armored Infantry Battalion of the U.S. 11th Armored Division. The victims were members of the Führerbegleitbrigade and 3.Panzergrenadier-Division. This massacre is often explained as a retaliation for the Malmedy massacre committed by elements of SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper on December 17 1944. What seriously undermines this argument is that the American soldiers Max Cohen, Steve Bugden, Frank Hartzell and Staff sergeant John W. Fague, who were, by all accounts, bystanders to the incident, also pointed out they had no knowledge of the Malmedy massacre at that time. The massacre site at Malmedy was behind German lines until January 14 1945. Unlike what happened in Malmedy, the massacre at Chenogne was planned. A German medic who attempted to surrender is said to have been the first victim. He carried a white flag and American soldiers were positioned in a semi circle around him when they shot him dead. All of the soldiers who witnessed the incident remembered the order not to take any prisoners. They even described how the Americans herded their German prisoners down a hill to avoid potential witnesses. There were still German scouts outside of town. The facts indicate that the American mass murder in Chenogne was well organized and carried out in cold blood, while the German massacre in Malmedy occurred in the heat of the moment. In difference to the American victims in Malmedy, the German victims in Chenogne knew what would soon befall them. The events were covered up at the time and the American soldiers who committed the massacre at Chenogne were never held accountable. There were no trials for the Americans, no prosecutions, and certainly no death sentences. The former Prosecutor at the Nürnberg trials Ben Ferencz told the reporter Chris Harland-Dunaway in 2018 when asked why the Americans escaped justice: I would never investigate American war crimes, I was hired to investigate German war crimes. Upon acquainting himself with the declassified reports about the killings in Chenogne, he said: Well, it smells to me like a cover up, of course. Okay, does that surprise you? It doesn't surprise me. Scores of German soldiers were executed according to American combat reports. Some surrendering Germans came within metres of American patrols before they opened fire. Others were taken into the forest, out of sight of locals, and killed. These reports are not trying to hide anything. It was the official historians later who left out what happened. One painful reality is how long a political lie can survive, even after having been disproved. Since the 1940s and still today, many historians and scholars continue to justify Allied war crimes as mistakes or retaliations. Credit: American reporter Christopher Harland-Dunaway, Irish journalist Mark Hennessy and British military historian Antony Beevor. For further reading, see what justice looked like for the Malmedy massacre. The photos are not related to the context of the article. Top image: SS youngsters surrenders to the U.S. Seventh Army at Schillersdorf on Jan. 1 1945. Credit: Mateusz Pietruszkiewicz. U.S. Army Signal Corps. Middle image: German POWs herded at gunpoint in the Ardennes around New Year 1945. U.S. photographer John Florea. LIFE photo archive. Bottom image: Private First Class Frank Vukasin of the U.S. 331st Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division near Houffalize north-east of Chenogne on Jan. 15 1945. Credit: Facundo Filipe. U.S. National Archives. Fair use.