Trois Ponts Crossroads, Belgium
December 17, 1944
It emerged later a number of American prisoners of war were shot dead by German troops in what has become known as the Malmedy massacre on 17 December 1944. Up to 86 were killed - a number of others escaped by playing dead or running for their lives.
The soldiers who escaped passed on the details of the massacre and when the news reached General Eisenhower he is said to have released it to the American press.
The bodies were left where they fell and were preserved in the snow. When the Americans recaptured Malmedy on 13 January their first task was to identify and bury the dead. Many had fatal gunshot wounds to the head confirming they had not died in combat.
Several German officers were convicted at the so-called Dachau trials in May 1946 for the atrocities committed at Malmedy. Some, including the officer in charge SS Standartenführer Jochen Peiper of the 1st SS Panzer Division were sentenced to death but their sentences were later commuted.
