Wereth

AlexAmerling · Post by **AlexAmerling** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 8:24 am

Ive recently learned of a massacre of 11 african american gis at Wereth by men of the Kampfgruppe Hansen. does anyone know any good sites to get more info on this?

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:44 am

Not Hansen, those Afro-American soldiers were murdered by men of KG Knittel (3./SS-PzAA1 LSSAH).

joefraser · Post by **joefraser** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:38 pm

hi timo,
here is a link to a site, though it does say in this that it was commited by kamfgruppe hansen.
Regards
Joefraser

http://www.wereth.org/

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:38 pm

Yes, but they're wrong. One Schwimmwagen. It was a scouting party from 3. Kompanie, SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 1 LSSAH (KG Knittel). No doubt about it.

Tom Houlihan · Post by **Tom Houlihan** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:43 pm

Joe, don't argue with Timo about PzAA-1!

You won't win!

joefraser · Post by **joefraser** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:52 pm

hi timo,
I haven't a clue I was just pointing out what the site said, and just trying to help with the question. However, if they are wrong (and it looks like a quite official site) then it just goes to show that you can't believe all that you read.
regards
Joefraser

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 2:32 pm

The murderers are usually given as members of Kampfgruppe Hansen because it was their Rollbahn and this Kampfgruppe drove through the hamlet from that morning until the early afternoon. Because of that it would make perfect sense that anybody killed by the SS was a victim of Hansen's men.

But the story is a bit more complicated. The Leibstandarte had two main Kampfgruppen - Peiper to the north and Hansen to the south. The had to advance as fast as possible. Peiper was closing in on Stavelot and Hansen on Poteau. The third Kampfgruppe - Sandig - was to support them when needed. The Schnelle Gruppe (fast group) Knittel was held in reserve behind the main Kampfgruppen until either Peiper or Hansen had established a breaktrough towards the Meuse River. In that case Knittel had to overtake the spearhead, avoid enemy contact and seize one or more bridges across the river.

In the afternoon of December 17, the first elements of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel reached the village of Born. Because Knittel didn't know which route he would have to take the next day - to Poteau to follow Hansen or to Stavelot to follow Peiper - he ordered the commander of his 3rd company to scout the possible routes and the commander of his 2nd company to scout the left flank towards Sankt Vith. The Schwimmwagen equipped 3rd company send out several scout parties and it was one of these groups - four men in a Schwimmwagen - which reached Wéreth shortly after nightfall. The Afro-American soldiers had reached the Langer farm in Wéreth around 16.00 hrs and were still there when the small SS group arrived. Maria Martes pointed out the Americans to the Schwimmwagen crew, who then surrendered to the SS, were taken away as prisoners and massacred because the four SS soldiers were on a scouting mission and could not guard them. Which is off course a warcrime.

My sources are several members of the 3./SS-PzAA1 LSSAH - including their commanding officer. Hope this helps.

kingtiger88 · Post by **kingtiger88** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:47 pm

Timo......what happened to the SS soldiers who commited this crime......any convictions later?

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:54 pm

No, nobody looked at KG Knittel to find the murderers and to date their names are unknown.

bulge · Post by **bulge** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:37 pm

Well Timo,

Looks you found the men who murdered the 11 Black Artillery men! I have send the info to the USA, because they still look for it, strange that they couldn't find the info you have, but you will be 'famous' soon!

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:50 pm

It depends on where they looked for it Hans. "Famous"? I don't feel any urge to be famous.

bulge · Post by **bulge** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:13 pm

Timo,

see my PM, to make you famous wasn't my intention, but they really could use your help in this, because I'm asked during the last few ceremonies to find out who did it, and I honosut couldn't tell them for sure, who it was, but they wanted to 'have' a unit and so they put Hansen on it.

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:37 pm

I will see what I can do for them. See my reply to your pm.

AlexAmerling · Post by **AlexAmerling** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:06 pm

oh ok. so it was KG Knittel?

TimoWr · Post by **TimoWr** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:53 am

AlexAmerling wrote:oh ok. so it was KG Knittel?

TimoWr wrote:Yes, but they're wrong. One Schwimmwagen. It was a scouting party from 3. Kompanie, SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 1 LSSAH (KG Knittel). No doubt about it.