Editing Malmedy massacre (section)

== Massacre at Baugnez crossroads ==
[[File:Malmedy LCCN2004661783.jpg|thumb|right|A 1945 depiction of the massacre of G.I.s in a farmer’s field, by war artist [[Howard Brodie]]]]
[[File:Malmedy Massacre.jpg|thumb|right|In January 1945, a U.S. soldier views corpses of 84 executed U.S. POWs]]
On 17 December 1944, between noon and 1:00&nbsp;p.m., {{lang|de|Kampfgruppe Peiper}} approached the Baugnez crossroads, two miles southeast of the city of Malmedy, Belgium. Meanwhile, a U.S. Army convoy of thirty vehicles, from B Battery of the [[285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion]], was negotiating the crossroads, and then turning right, towards Ligneuville and [[St. Vith]], in order to join the [[US 7th Armored Division]].<ref name="MacDonald"/><ref name="Reynolds"/> The Germans saw the US convoy first, and the spearhead unit of {{lang|de|Kampfgruppe Peiper}} fired upon and destroyed the first and last vehicles, immobilizing the convoy and halting the American advance.<ref name="Reynolds"/> Out-numbered and out-gunned, those soldiers of the 285th Field Artillery surrendered to the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}}.<ref name="cole"/><ref name="MacDonald"/>

After that brief battle with the American convoy, the tanks and armored vehicles of the {{lang|de|Kampfgruppe Peiper}} convoy continued westward to Ligneuville. At the Baugnez crossroads, the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} infantry assembled the just-surrendered U.S. POWs in a farmer's field, and added them to another group of U.S. POWs who had been captured earlier that day. The prisoners of war who survived the massacre at Malmedy said that a group of approximately 120 U.S. POWs stood in the farmer's field when the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} fired machine guns at them.<ref name="cole"/><ref name="MacDonald"/> Panicked by the machine gun fire, some POWs fled, but the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} soldiers shot and killed most of the remaining POWs where they stood. Some G.I.s dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead.<ref name="MacDonald"/> After machine-gunning the group of POWs, the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} soldiers walked amongst the POW corpses, searching for wounded survivors to kill with a ''coup de grâce'' gunshot to the head.<ref name="MacDonald"/><ref name="Reynolds"/> Some of the fleeing POWs ran to and hid in a café at the Baugnez crossroads. The {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} then set the café afire, and killed every U.S. POW who escaped the burning building.<ref name="MacDonald"/>

===Responsibility===
There is dispute over which {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} officer ordered the killing of U.S. POWs at Malmedy. Peiper, who had already left the Baugnez crossroads where the massacre occurred, and the commander of the 1st Panzer Battalion, [[Werner Poetschke]], are both considered most likely responsible. After the end of the war, Poetschke was identified by various persons involved and eyewitnesses as the officer directly responsible for the initiative and for giving the order to subaltern officers to execute the American prisoners near the Baugnez crossroads. Whether or not Peiper himself gave the actual order, in addition to his [[command responsibility]], he was responsible for creating the unit’s prevailing culture, in which caring for prisoners of war was a burden to be avoided.<ref name="Parker"/>