Jimmie Lee Leatherwood was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, the second son after Fate Leatherwood. (Fate died in Aug 2005 and was a member of Wesson Chapel church. There were four other siblings after Jimmie but they may have different last names.) Jimmie's wife was named Ester (or Esther) Mae. Jim enlisted from Texas, ranked Private First Class in the U.S. Army's all-black 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, serving in Liege, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge (a.k.a. the Ardennes Offensive) towards the end of WWII.
Jimmie Leatherwood's name is listed on the Veteran's Memorial in the center of Pontotoc. Jimmie had a daughter, called Jimmie Mae, still living and a grandson named Steve Leatherwood. They were said to reside in Tupelo.
Also commemorated here Wereth 11 Memorial Site
Paraphrased from an article in "Tulsa World" newspaper:
"It was on the second day of the Battle of the Bulge when he and 10 other black soldiers, faced with an onslaught of Germany's 1st SS Panzer Division, became separated from their unit and found their way to the home of Mathius and Maria Langer (a friendly Belgian family) at Wereth, a small farming village in southeastern Belgium."
"The couple took the shivering soldiers into their home and were preparing to feed them when Nazi SS troops arrived after being alerted by a German sympathizer. The 11, now prisoners of war, had their helmets and rifles taken, were forced outside and were made to sit on an cold, wet, icy road for two hours until dark before they were marched nearly 800 meters out of town, into a frozen field, where they were butchered by troops bent on amusing themselves with the agony of others. The 11 soldiers were brutally murdered and their bodies dumped in a roadside ditch. This atrocity is know as the Wereth Massacre or the Wereth 11. Their bodies, covered by ensuing snowstorms, remained at that spot for two months until villagers notified the U.S. Army about the massacre."
"The 11 were buried in temporary graves in Europe until 1947, when their families were contacted about permanent burial options... Seven of the dead are buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Liege, Belguim. The others were returned to the United States for burial."
"Earlier that day, 10 miles northwest of Wereth, at a crossroad near Malmedy, the most infamous massacre during the Battle of the Bulge occurred. More than 80 U.S. troops were captured by the same Nazi division and executed in an open field."
"But unlike at Malmedy, where the American troops were gunned down, the "Wereth 11," as they have come to be known, were maimed and tortured to death. An autopsy report on the 11 is ghastly: broken legs and arms, jaws shattered, fingers severed, bayonet wounds to the face and body and bullet wounds designed to inflict anguish rather than death."
"Unlike at Malmedy, where those responsible were brought to justice, the Germans who perpetrated the horror at Wereth were never found. The U.S. military investigated the Wereth killings but filed away its investigation in 1948. The file remained buried for five decades."
Contributor:
SBR
Jimmie Leatherwood's name is listed on the Veteran's Memorial in the center of Pontotoc. Jimmie had a daughter, called Jimmie Mae, still living and a grandson named Steve Leatherwood. They were said to reside in Tupelo.
Also commemorated here Wereth 11 Memorial Site
Paraphrased from an article in "Tulsa World" newspaper:
"It was on the second day of the Battle of the Bulge when he and 10 other black soldiers, faced with an onslaught of Germany's 1st SS Panzer Division, became separated from their unit and found their way to the home of Mathius and Maria Langer (a friendly Belgian family) at Wereth, a small farming village in southeastern Belgium."
"The couple took the shivering soldiers into their home and were preparing to feed them when Nazi SS troops arrived after being alerted by a German sympathizer. The 11, now prisoners of war, had their helmets and rifles taken, were forced outside and were made to sit on an cold, wet, icy road for two hours until dark before they were marched nearly 800 meters out of town, into a frozen field, where they were butchered by troops bent on amusing themselves with the agony of others. The 11 soldiers were brutally murdered and their bodies dumped in a roadside ditch. This atrocity is know as the Wereth Massacre or the Wereth 11. Their bodies, covered by ensuing snowstorms, remained at that spot for two months until villagers notified the U.S. Army about the massacre."
"The 11 were buried in temporary graves in Europe until 1947, when their families were contacted about permanent burial options... Seven of the dead are buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Liege, Belguim. The others were returned to the United States for burial."
"Earlier that day, 10 miles northwest of Wereth, at a crossroad near Malmedy, the most infamous massacre during the Battle of the Bulge occurred. More than 80 U.S. troops were captured by the same Nazi division and executed in an open field."
"But unlike at Malmedy, where the American troops were gunned down, the "Wereth 11," as they have come to be known, were maimed and tortured to death. An autopsy report on the 11 is ghastly: broken legs and arms, jaws shattered, fingers severed, bayonet wounds to the face and body and bullet wounds designed to inflict anguish rather than death."
"Unlike at Malmedy, where those responsible were brought to justice, the Germans who perpetrated the horror at Wereth were never found. The U.S. military investigated the Wereth killings but filed away its investigation in 1948. The file remained buried for five decades."
Contributor:
SBR
Jimmie Lee Leatherwood was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, the second son after Fate Leatherwood. (Fate died in Aug 2005 and was a member of Wesson Chapel church. There were four other siblings after Jimmie but they may have different last names.) Jimmie's wife was named Ester (or Esther) Mae. Jim enlisted from Texas, ranked Private First Class in the U.S. Army's all-black 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, serving in Liege, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge (a.k.a. the Ardennes Offensive) towards the end of WWII.
Jimmie Leatherwood's name is listed on the Veteran's Memorial in the center of Pontotoc. Jimmie had a daughter, called Jimmie Mae, still living and a grandson named Steve Leatherwood. They were said to reside in Tupelo.
Also commemorated here Wereth 11 Memorial Site
Paraphrased from an article in "Tulsa World" newspaper:
"It was on the second day of the Battle of the Bulge when he and 10 other black soldiers, faced with an onslaught of Germany's 1st SS Panzer Division, became separated from their unit and found their way to the home of Mathius and Maria Langer (a friendly Belgian family) at Wereth, a small farming village in southeastern Belgium."
"The couple took the shivering soldiers into their home and were preparing to feed them when Nazi SS troops arrived after being alerted by a German sympathizer. The 11, now prisoners of war, had their helmets and rifles taken, were forced outside and were made to sit on an cold, wet, icy road for two hours until dark before they were marched nearly 800 meters out of town, into a frozen field, where they were butchered by troops bent on amusing themselves with the agony of others. The 11 soldiers were brutally murdered and their bodies dumped in a roadside ditch. This atrocity is know as the Wereth Massacre or the Wereth 11. Their bodies, covered by ensuing snowstorms, remained at that spot for two months until villagers notified the U.S. Army about the massacre."
"The 11 were buried in temporary graves in Europe until 1947, when their families were contacted about permanent burial options... Seven of the dead are buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Liege, Belguim. The others were returned to the United States for burial."
"Earlier that day, 10 miles northwest of Wereth, at a crossroad near Malmedy, the most infamous massacre during the Battle of the Bulge occurred. More than 80 U.S. troops were captured by the same Nazi division and executed in an open field."
"But unlike at Malmedy, where the American troops were gunned down, the "Wereth 11," as they have come to be known, were maimed and tortured to death. An autopsy report on the 11 is ghastly: broken legs and arms, jaws shattered, fingers severed, bayonet wounds to the face and body and bullet wounds designed to inflict anguish rather than death."
"Unlike at Malmedy, where those responsible were brought to justice, the Germans who perpetrated the horror at Wereth were never found. The U.S. military investigated the Wereth killings but filed away its investigation in 1948. The file remained buried for five decades."
Contributor:
SBR
Jimmie Leatherwood's name is listed on the Veteran's Memorial in the center of Pontotoc. Jimmie had a daughter, called Jimmie Mae, still living and a grandson named Steve Leatherwood. They were said to reside in Tupelo.
Also commemorated here Wereth 11 Memorial Site
Paraphrased from an article in "Tulsa World" newspaper:
"It was on the second day of the Battle of the Bulge when he and 10 other black soldiers, faced with an onslaught of Germany's 1st SS Panzer Division, became separated from their unit and found their way to the home of Mathius and Maria Langer (a friendly Belgian family) at Wereth, a small farming village in southeastern Belgium."
"The couple took the shivering soldiers into their home and were preparing to feed them when Nazi SS troops arrived after being alerted by a German sympathizer. The 11, now prisoners of war, had their helmets and rifles taken, were forced outside and were made to sit on an cold, wet, icy road for two hours until dark before they were marched nearly 800 meters out of town, into a frozen field, where they were butchered by troops bent on amusing themselves with the agony of others. The 11 soldiers were brutally murdered and their bodies dumped in a roadside ditch. This atrocity is know as the Wereth Massacre or the Wereth 11. Their bodies, covered by ensuing snowstorms, remained at that spot for two months until villagers notified the U.S. Army about the massacre."
"The 11 were buried in temporary graves in Europe until 1947, when their families were contacted about permanent burial options... Seven of the dead are buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Liege, Belguim. The others were returned to the United States for burial."
"Earlier that day, 10 miles northwest of Wereth, at a crossroad near Malmedy, the most infamous massacre during the Battle of the Bulge occurred. More than 80 U.S. troops were captured by the same Nazi division and executed in an open field."
"But unlike at Malmedy, where the American troops were gunned down, the "Wereth 11," as they have come to be known, were maimed and tortured to death. An autopsy report on the 11 is ghastly: broken legs and arms, jaws shattered, fingers severed, bayonet wounds to the face and body and bullet wounds designed to inflict anguish rather than death."
"Unlike at Malmedy, where those responsible were brought to justice, the Germans who perpetrated the horror at Wereth were never found. The U.S. military investigated the Wereth killings but filed away its investigation in 1948. The file remained buried for five decades."
Contributor:
SBR
Inscription
Private First Class (PFC), Battery C, 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, U.S. Army, World War II
Gravesite Details
Army Serial Number 34481753
Family Members
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