Entered the service from Virginia.
-------------------------
Murdered as a part of the Malmedy Massacre.
Sunday, December 17,1944, PFC Warren Davis from Bedford, Virginia was driving a truck for Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when he and 114 other soldiers met up with Waffen-SS troops of Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium.
The American pistols and rifles were no match for the German tanks and machine guns, so they surrendered.
The 285th was an outfit whose job was to spot enemy artillery emplacements and transmit their location to other US units. It had seen relatively little frontline duty and was filled with green replacements.
Out of the 115 prisoners, 84 were killed by the German troops. Some escaped, some hid, some pretended to be dead. The German soldiers waded through the field of bodies to make sure that anyone who was still living was shot or rifle butted in the head.
Because the Baugnez crossroads had been in no-man's-land until the Allied counter-offensive, it was not until January 14, 1945, that U.S. forces reached the massacre site and conducted an investigation.
The frozen, snow-covered bodies were photographed where they lay, then removed from the scene for identification and detailed examinations. The aim was gathering evidence to be used as part of the prosecution of the apparent war crime. Seventy-two bodies were found in the field on January 14 and 15, 1945. Twelve more, lying farther from the pasture, were found between February 7 (PFC Warren Davis among them) and April 15, 1945.
The autopsies revealed that at least twenty of the victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted at very close range. These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. Another 20 showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder-burn residue; ten had fatal crushing or blunt-trauma injuries, most likely from rifle butts. Some bodies showed only one wound, in the temple or behind the ear. Most of the bodies were found in a very small area, suggesting the victims had been gathered together just before they were killed.
Warren was born February 12, 1922 in Bedford, Virginia, a small town that had already lost 19 of their sons on D-Day.
Many of his family still live there, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, one of which lives in the very same house Warren grew up in.
Through the efforts of family and friends, both here in the US and in the Netherlands, in 2017 we were able to start "Operation Home Soil", where dirt from the very house Warren grew up in was sent to our fantastic friends, Nico and Jolanda Leers of Limburg, Netherlands. On December 23rd, they were able to put the soil on and around Warren's grave at the Henri Chapelle American War Cemetery in Belgium where he is buried in Plot C, Row 10, Grave 59, along with 17 other victims of the Malmedy Massacre.
Contributor: usafdo (48612389)
-------------------------
Murdered as a part of the Malmedy Massacre.
Sunday, December 17,1944, PFC Warren Davis from Bedford, Virginia was driving a truck for Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when he and 114 other soldiers met up with Waffen-SS troops of Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium.
The American pistols and rifles were no match for the German tanks and machine guns, so they surrendered.
The 285th was an outfit whose job was to spot enemy artillery emplacements and transmit their location to other US units. It had seen relatively little frontline duty and was filled with green replacements.
Out of the 115 prisoners, 84 were killed by the German troops. Some escaped, some hid, some pretended to be dead. The German soldiers waded through the field of bodies to make sure that anyone who was still living was shot or rifle butted in the head.
Because the Baugnez crossroads had been in no-man's-land until the Allied counter-offensive, it was not until January 14, 1945, that U.S. forces reached the massacre site and conducted an investigation.
The frozen, snow-covered bodies were photographed where they lay, then removed from the scene for identification and detailed examinations. The aim was gathering evidence to be used as part of the prosecution of the apparent war crime. Seventy-two bodies were found in the field on January 14 and 15, 1945. Twelve more, lying farther from the pasture, were found between February 7 (PFC Warren Davis among them) and April 15, 1945.
The autopsies revealed that at least twenty of the victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted at very close range. These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. Another 20 showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder-burn residue; ten had fatal crushing or blunt-trauma injuries, most likely from rifle butts. Some bodies showed only one wound, in the temple or behind the ear. Most of the bodies were found in a very small area, suggesting the victims had been gathered together just before they were killed.
Warren was born February 12, 1922 in Bedford, Virginia, a small town that had already lost 19 of their sons on D-Day.
Many of his family still live there, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, one of which lives in the very same house Warren grew up in.
Through the efforts of family and friends, both here in the US and in the Netherlands, in 2017 we were able to start "Operation Home Soil", where dirt from the very house Warren grew up in was sent to our fantastic friends, Nico and Jolanda Leers of Limburg, Netherlands. On December 23rd, they were able to put the soil on and around Warren's grave at the Henri Chapelle American War Cemetery in Belgium where he is buried in Plot C, Row 10, Grave 59, along with 17 other victims of the Malmedy Massacre.
Contributor: usafdo (48612389)
Entered the service from Virginia.
-------------------------
Murdered as a part of the Malmedy Massacre.
Sunday, December 17,1944, PFC Warren Davis from Bedford, Virginia was driving a truck for Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when he and 114 other soldiers met up with Waffen-SS troops of Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium.
The American pistols and rifles were no match for the German tanks and machine guns, so they surrendered.
The 285th was an outfit whose job was to spot enemy artillery emplacements and transmit their location to other US units. It had seen relatively little frontline duty and was filled with green replacements.
Out of the 115 prisoners, 84 were killed by the German troops. Some escaped, some hid, some pretended to be dead. The German soldiers waded through the field of bodies to make sure that anyone who was still living was shot or rifle butted in the head.
Because the Baugnez crossroads had been in no-man's-land until the Allied counter-offensive, it was not until January 14, 1945, that U.S. forces reached the massacre site and conducted an investigation.
The frozen, snow-covered bodies were photographed where they lay, then removed from the scene for identification and detailed examinations. The aim was gathering evidence to be used as part of the prosecution of the apparent war crime. Seventy-two bodies were found in the field on January 14 and 15, 1945. Twelve more, lying farther from the pasture, were found between February 7 (PFC Warren Davis among them) and April 15, 1945.
The autopsies revealed that at least twenty of the victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted at very close range. These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. Another 20 showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder-burn residue; ten had fatal crushing or blunt-trauma injuries, most likely from rifle butts. Some bodies showed only one wound, in the temple or behind the ear. Most of the bodies were found in a very small area, suggesting the victims had been gathered together just before they were killed.
Warren was born February 12, 1922 in Bedford, Virginia, a small town that had already lost 19 of their sons on D-Day.
Many of his family still live there, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, one of which lives in the very same house Warren grew up in.
Through the efforts of family and friends, both here in the US and in the Netherlands, in 2017 we were able to start "Operation Home Soil", where dirt from the very house Warren grew up in was sent to our fantastic friends, Nico and Jolanda Leers of Limburg, Netherlands. On December 23rd, they were able to put the soil on and around Warren's grave at the Henri Chapelle American War Cemetery in Belgium where he is buried in Plot C, Row 10, Grave 59, along with 17 other victims of the Malmedy Massacre.
Contributor: usafdo (48612389)
-------------------------
Murdered as a part of the Malmedy Massacre.
Sunday, December 17,1944, PFC Warren Davis from Bedford, Virginia was driving a truck for Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when he and 114 other soldiers met up with Waffen-SS troops of Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium.
The American pistols and rifles were no match for the German tanks and machine guns, so they surrendered.
The 285th was an outfit whose job was to spot enemy artillery emplacements and transmit their location to other US units. It had seen relatively little frontline duty and was filled with green replacements.
Out of the 115 prisoners, 84 were killed by the German troops. Some escaped, some hid, some pretended to be dead. The German soldiers waded through the field of bodies to make sure that anyone who was still living was shot or rifle butted in the head.
Because the Baugnez crossroads had been in no-man's-land until the Allied counter-offensive, it was not until January 14, 1945, that U.S. forces reached the massacre site and conducted an investigation.
The frozen, snow-covered bodies were photographed where they lay, then removed from the scene for identification and detailed examinations. The aim was gathering evidence to be used as part of the prosecution of the apparent war crime. Seventy-two bodies were found in the field on January 14 and 15, 1945. Twelve more, lying farther from the pasture, were found between February 7 (PFC Warren Davis among them) and April 15, 1945.
The autopsies revealed that at least twenty of the victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted at very close range. These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. Another 20 showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder-burn residue; ten had fatal crushing or blunt-trauma injuries, most likely from rifle butts. Some bodies showed only one wound, in the temple or behind the ear. Most of the bodies were found in a very small area, suggesting the victims had been gathered together just before they were killed.
Warren was born February 12, 1922 in Bedford, Virginia, a small town that had already lost 19 of their sons on D-Day.
Many of his family still live there, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, one of which lives in the very same house Warren grew up in.
Through the efforts of family and friends, both here in the US and in the Netherlands, in 2017 we were able to start "Operation Home Soil", where dirt from the very house Warren grew up in was sent to our fantastic friends, Nico and Jolanda Leers of Limburg, Netherlands. On December 23rd, they were able to put the soil on and around Warren's grave at the Henri Chapelle American War Cemetery in Belgium where he is buried in Plot C, Row 10, Grave 59, along with 17 other victims of the Malmedy Massacre.
Contributor: usafdo (48612389)
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