On 17 December 1944, the 1st SS Panzer Division, commanded by Joachim Peiper, was heading west from Büllingen, Belgium. This movement was part of the general German advance during the Battle of the Bulge. At the same time, a US convoy of thirty vehicles and nearly 140 men of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion was heading south from Hürtgen Forest toward Ligneuville. The two forces converged just before noon at the crossroads hamlet of Baugnez, 4 kilometers south of Malmedy. SS soldiers immediately began firing upon the US troops, who panicked. Those who did not escape, including medical personnel, quickly surrendered. After being searched and relieved of their personal possessions, the US soldiers were lined up in eight rows in a field at the crossroads. Survivors of the atrocity recalled that a group of approximately 120 U.S. prisoners of war stood in the farmer's field when the SS soldiers fired machine guns at the grouped Americans.


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