Wereth 11

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December 17, 1944
On this day, 11 Black soldiers of the all-Black 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, having surrendered to the German 1st SS Panzer Division, were brutally beaten, tortured, and executed in Wereth, Belgium.

After their unit was overrun during the Battle of the Bulge, 11 men escaped into the woods, hoping to make their way back to American lines. Exhausted and freezing, they sought shelter at the home of Mathias Langer in the small hamlet of Wereth. The Langer family welcomed them, offering food and safety. But the village was divided, three of its nine families still remained loyal to Germany after the region had been annexed by Belgium following World War I.

One of the neighbors betrayed the Americans by informing SS troops of their presence. The soldiers were captured without resistance and marched to a nearby field. There, the men of the 333rd endured brutal beatings and torture before being executed. Their bodies were left in the field, exposed to the winter elements, until they were finally recovered in February 1945.

The atrocity remained largely forgotten for decades, but today, we honor the courage and sacrifice of the Wereth 11, who gave their lives in the cause of freedom during one of the darkest chapters of World War II.
 

· Curtis Adams – Private (Medic) – South Carolina 

·Mager Bradley – Corporal – Mississippi 

·George Davis – Private First Class – Alabama 

·Thomas J. Forte – Staff Sergeant – Mississippi 

·Robert Green – Private (or Technical Corporal) – Georgia 

·James L. Leatherwood – Private First Class – Mississippi 

·Nathanial Moss – Private – Texas 

·George W. Moten – Private First Class – Texas 

·William Edward Pritchett – Technician (Fourth Grade / Technical Sergeant) – Alabama 

·James A. Stewart – Technician Fourth Grade – West Virginia 

·Due W. Turner – Private First Class – Arkansas

May we never forget the Wereth 11