Quartermaster Corp - Malmedy

Discussion in 'The Lounge Bar' started by spidge, Nov 19, 2006.

  1. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    This Week In Quartermaster History 15-21 January

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    <table border="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="50%"><table border="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td bordercolor="#996633" colspan="2" width="100%">[​IMG]
    </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" width="100%">Quote of the Week: "I am not giving you orders to shoot prisoners of war, but you are all well-trained SS soldiers."
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    </td> <td width="66%"> SS Company Commander </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
    Serious Atrocity
    A survey of the 72 autopsies and photographs of remains on file indicate at least 20 had potentially fatal gunshot wounds to the head inflicted at very close range in addition to wounds from automatic weapons. Most head wounds showed powder burns on the remains' skin. An additional 20 showed evidence of small caliber gunshot wounds to the head without powder burn residue. Another 10 had fatal crushing or blunt trauma injuries, most likely from a German rifle butt. This easily confirmed US suspicions that a serious atrocity actually did occur.
    Only a couple of the personal effects registers or autopsy records mention the remains having identification tags. As thorough as the effects search and autopsy records are, it can be assumed that the massacred soldiers were not wearing their identification tags at the time of death. These identification tags, very similar to the ones in present use and presumably readily available, should have been worn. Why the soldiers in the Malmedy Massacre did not have identification tags is not known.
    This made recovery of personal effects associated with each remains critical to identification. Effects most valuable for identification purposes included pay books, wallets, rank insignia, small Bibles and religious tracts, rings, watches and personal letters found on or under the remains. Despite the almost complete absence of identification tags worn on the remains, 3060th Quartermaster soldiers identified all the remains with certainty equal to that expected of modern mortuary affairs operations: 100 percent.
    After processing, identification and autopsy, each remains received a tagged mattress cover as a burial shroud. Several times daily during the recovery operation, trucks evacuated the processed remains to a US military cemetery servicing units operating in the Malmedy area of Belgium. Freezing cold and quick evacuation made refrigeration facilities unnecessary.
    Commemoration
    For US soldiers killed at Baugnez, their initial resting place after processing would be a temporary theater cemetery at Henri-Chappelle, Belgium, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Malmedy. (The site eventually became a permanent US cemetery for nearly 8,000 war dead.) Once buried, they waited until the end of the war for next-of-kin decisions to either leave them in Europe or bring them back to the US for final burial. Many families chose to bring the soldiers home for interment, but 21 victims of the Malmedy Massacre still rest at Henri-Chappelle.
     

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