American officers from the Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion had heard of the German invasion and were advised by Lieutenant-Colonel Pergrin of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion to move their troops by a different route to avoid them but the officers decided to follow original orders and continued as planned.
This journey took them to the "Baugnez Crossroads" near the town of Malmedy; before they reached the crossroads they were outgunned and … mehrcaptured by the Germans. 113 men survived the battle; they were rounded up, put in a field and shot. When the Germans had finished shooting they went round the field checking the men were dead. Amazingly some men survived hidden under corpses. Because of circumstances neither the Americans or Germans could claim this field as their land and it wasn't until January 14th 1945 that 71 bodies were found buried in the snow. weniger