| Bodies of U.S. officers and soldiers slained by the Nazis after capture near Malmedy, Belgium on December 17, 1944. The farmer’s field lay behind Nazi lines until January 13, 1945; recovery of the bodies was delayed until then. The forensic investigation documented the gunshot wounds for the war crimes prosecutions of the enemy officers and soldiers who killed American prisoners of war. 20 of the 84 corpses of the murdered prisoners had gunpowder burn residue on the head, indicating a coup de grâce gunshot to the head: a wound not sustained in self-defense. The corpses of 20 soldiers showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head, without the residue of a gunpowder burn; other POW corpses had 1 wound to the head, either in the temple or behind an ear; and 10 corpses showed fatal blunt trauma head injuries, in which blows by a rifle butt fractured the skull. These head wounds were in addition to the bullet wounds made by the machine guns. Most of the prisoners’ corpses were recovered from a small area in the farmer’s field, indicating that the Germans grouped the Americans together to shoot them. The inspector general of the 1st Army learned of the Malmedy massacre approximately 4 hours after the fact; by evening time, rumors that the Waffen-SS were summarily executing American prisoners of war had been communicated to the rank and file soldiers of the United States Army in Europe. Unofficial orders spread to not take any SS men prisoner. American soldiers of the 11th Armored Division later summarily executed 80 Wehrmacht prisoners of war in the Chenogne massacre on January 1, 1945. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0321.jpg |
| Image Size | 827.81 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2590 x 2886 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 2, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Malmedy |
| State or Province | Wallonia |
| Country | Belgium |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-74596 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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