Posted on 05/27/2022 11:59:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Harold Billow, 99, the last known survivor of a World War II POW massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, will be laid to rest Thursday in Pennsylvania.
Billow, who died May 17, was attached to the Army’s 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when his unit surrendered and he was taken prisoner by Waffen SS soldiers as German forces launched an offensive in Belgium to try to change the war’s tide in December 1944.
According to various accounts, the Germans opened fire on the unarmed prisoners in a field, killing more than 80 in what came to be known as the Malmedy Massacre.
(Excerpt) Read more at kob.com ...
RIP.
Good old SS. 1st SS Division recently returned from the eastern front where murder of prisoners was common.
Rest in Peace Harold Billow.
Hand salute.
RIP Sir.
Not so many left now. I’m sorry they had to see what their grandchildren and great-grandchildren have come to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufmcubp2szg
Turned out bad for them as word of the massacre got out the GI's would just shoot them on sight. Officers just looked the other way.
More common than you know. My Dad (Normandy veteran) told me that Americans also killed prisoners. My Uncle, also a veteran of France and Germany, confirmed it.
As a veteran of Vietnam myself I can't say I ever saw a prisoner being killed but there were certainly stories of it going around among the troops. To those who have not been there it would do well to remember the old saying -
"War is hell...but COMBAT is a M**********R"
You really have no idea.
43 Germans were sentenced to death for Malmedy, but irregularities in the trial (including some credible claims of torture) vitiated the trial, and all had their sentences commuted. The last was released in 1954.
Lots of things happen in the fog of war that are eternally lost to the mist time.
There’s a memorial inside a highway rest stop in Georgia (I-75?) commemorating all Georgia’s war dead and POW’s. There were quite a few (thousands I think) POW’s from WWII unaccounted for.
The logic of the massacre was coldly practical - the plan depended upon speed and the armored spearheads felt they could not afford the time to process prisoners.
I’m not sure anyone received the punishment for it the act deserved.
Was there a movie made about this ???
My Explorer troop leader had been a tank company commander during WWII. He said after the word of the Malmady massacre reached their unit, they took no German prisoners for about a month. Then word came down through the back door to knock that s**t off. Take prisoners, we need the information that they provide us. From then on, they would take German’s prisoners if they offered to surrender.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardenne_Abbey_massacre
Surrendering in combat is always hazardous. Surrendering as an individual soldier is never a good idea because front line troops are typically under orders to get somewhere fast and they don't need to be slowed down by a prisoner.
YouTube,
https://youtu.be/ozb6b8T4J5Y
It was briefly mentioned in one of the episodes of Band of Brothers.
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