Heitmann en Cash

At this location died T4 Cecile CASH and T5 Raymond HEITMANN of the 197th Anti Aircraft Artillery Battalion on December 17, 1944.

They were traveling in a jeep and at the Baugnez crossing they drove straight toward Waimes. The column of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion drove behind them and at the crossroads turned right toward Ligneuville to reach Sankt Vith.

At the crossroads they encountered the vanguard of Kamfpgruppe Peiper, which was on its way to the Meuse River and eventually the ports of Antwerp.

In the fighting that broke out, the jeep drove into the ditch. T5 Heitmann was killed in this fighting. T4 Cash was probably wounded here. Later when the Kampfgruppe Peiper in the adjacent field started shooting 81 captured American soldiers of mainly the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion from their armored vehicles and then executed all survivors with a shot through the head, T4 Cash was also shot through the head.

The survivors of the 1st shooting who were still alive mostly betrayed themselves because in the cold weather their breath caused visible condensation. There was also the illusion that the wounded would be helped. The SS walked past the wounded and anyone who gave a sign of life after calling out that they were coming to help them was still shot through the head.

Both soldiers are commemorated on the monument opposite.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski
• -Het bloedbad van Malmedy, Danny S. Parker
• -The Malmedy Massacre, John M. Bauserman