In December, 1944, an SS Panzer brigade led by Colonel Joachim Peiper broke through the US lines in front of the Losheim Gap, leading into the Ardennes forest in northern Belgium, and made a beeline toward any infrastructure where they could find and capture gasoline. Their disruptive tactic had worked effectively for them in Russia, where the enemy lines tended to break down at least long enough for them to get re-supplied.
The American Army that they faced-despite being green or completely worn down-proved far more resilient then most of the Russians they had fought (who were consistantly terrified of fully-supplied panzergrenadiers), and closed the breech behind Pieper. Thus cut off, Peiper engaged in ANOTHER practice that had been common in Russia, machine-gunning 100 US POWS at the village of Malmedy, simply to avoid having to detail resources to watch them.
Pieper's SS brigade was eventually destroyed, and the "Malmedy massacre" become the top news story of the Battle of the Bulge.*
A few days later Third Army attacked the southern flank of the "Bulge" to open the road to the junction village of Bastogne. They faced no SS units in this operation, fighting instead against the best surviving units of the old German regular Army. The Third Army's commanders made SURE that the Malmedy story was fresh in the minds of every soldier, and it is estimated that around 300 surrendering Germans were shot as they gave up.
Any domestic proposal for Franklin Roosevelt or George Marshall to apologize to the German people would have likely brought the proposer immediate incarceration for the duration of the war.
In MANY ways, America was a much SMARTER nation in 1944...
* One irony: It is my understanding that Pieper was arrested and charged after the war-but was never convicted... |
