My uncle Charlie was a machine gun crew leader in Patton's Army, wounded in France (and he met Patton in a field hospital). Although he received a number of medals and citations, he told me that the most significant thing he did in the war was disobeying a direct order to shoot German prisoners. He told the lieutenant who gave the order that he and his crew would not do it, and told the lieutenant to "move along". The LT backed down. Heroism has many forms, and my uncle Charlie was one of my heroes.
@Bilo Bath I think the decision of the man on the ground is paramount and should be respected. Looks like he was a professional soldier and a humane human-being.
Good for him! I think it takes exceptional strength of character to maintain one's humanity in the face of great inhumanity. It also takes great courage to resist, whether that be against an enemy occupier or an LT.
I saw an interview with an American medic driving an Ambulance that was stopped by several Germans. They looked in back and seeing all the wounded on stretchers waved him on. After going to the aid station the medic picked up several cartons of cigarettes drove back to the point he was stopped at and handed them to the German soldier. Humanity in the midst of insanity.
There is a similar story in Ambrose's books Citizen Soldiers, happened in Normandy during the German retreat. The driver got lost and drove into a German position, and was diverted back to American lines. He then returned and dropped a crate which the Germans were suspicious of being booby-trapped. Turned out to be cigarettes.
If you look at the resources it takes to care for wounded soldiers, it's better to make your enemy use his resources to care for the wounded rather than killing them or taking them prisoner yourself. Doubtful it was purely for compassion of their enemy.
Mr Felton - thank you for this episode. My father fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was at Chenogue on the day of the massacre. A good friend of his protested the battalion commanders order to shoot a group of German prisoners where upon the officer in question told him (my fathers friend) to back off or else. My father persuaded his friend to back off. The prisoners were led away and shot. This incident is also documented in the companion book to Ken Burns - The War (pgs 331, 332). It is a story I heard from my father as I grew up, along with other fragments about his war experiences. To me, its one more example of the horrors of war and how no one emerges "clean." And its reason why i have always tried to respect those who wear the uniform and serve and sacrifice.
Having a reputation of taking no prisoners makes it very difficult to get your enemy to surrender. If they perceive they will be killed anyway, they will fight to the death, yours or theirs. On the other hand, if you are known to treat pows well, they will be much more likely to surrender. War is a messy business at best. There's no reason to make it worse than necessary.
I would imagine it is very easy to become vengeful when tragedies like Malmedy occur and you are involved in a life or death struggle. I am not judging what those involved did, it was 80 years ago and I wasn't there, so I haven't the right. What I do think is, that two wrongs don't make a right. The Allied command analysis of it was spot on. Under the circumstances, there was no way any Allied service men were going to be investigated for their actions. The Malmedy incident certainly seemed to produce a counter productive result for the German forces, stiffening American resistance. I would imagine the Allied command and subsequent policy makers knew they were compromised themselves by the actions of American units similar response in the fact that the Germans on trial were eventually released. That's the thing with war crimes, the truth will always out.
@@JuergenGDB history is written by the victors. The reason for the lack of back up in this instance is because the Allies covered it up. Life especially at war isn't black and white. No good against evil, just evil and lesser evil. Its mornic to believe that the Allies never committed any warcrimes whatsoever. War is cruel in its nature. I'm not hating on the Allied forces, in fact I am grateful for them cause nowadays we experience freedom and liberty. God only knows what life could be if the Axis won.
“History is written by the victors.” Maybe in Hitler or Stalin styles dictatorship, but otherwise…this simply isn’t true. Each side just believes whatever they want to be either righteous or the victim - look at how WW2 is treated in Japan. Or compare the number of YT docs on civilian bombings in WW2 by country. You will find dozens on how the allies were wrong to bomb German civilian cities, and few on how the Germans were wrong to spend years bombing and starving civilian populations in Poland, London, Holland, France, Russia, etc. So much for “written by the victor.”
One of the best researchers in Military history anywhere let alone TH-cam. This guy really shows how history is more histories and more grey than black & white. Great great content!!
My close friend's father was involved in the Battle of the Bulge and was in an overrun unit. We were all sitting around one evening and the war came up as a topic of discussion. He described the harrowing experiences of the battle and living on the run and hiding from the Germans. He ended the the story by saying "After Malmedy, we didn't take no prisoners".
My step uncle was a paratrooper in Germany. I was 12 yo when the war ended. About a year after he visited us and told "me" war stories of some of his deeds. He said, they were to take no prisoners and rapidly move on... and how our guys had to kill young Germans soldiers giving up..." and move on." I was impressed and sensed he felt bad, as he described these actions. He a lot told of sexual "things" our men did (not exactly rape... that occurred out of fear or in exchange for food, etc). Overall, thereafter, in life, I viewed Hollywood versions a bit more realistically. I think he was about 18 years old when in Germany. "Manuelito" died in the Phoenix VA hospital in 1988. We are Mexican-Americans and very proud of our veterans in all wars. We don't get much notice in Hollywood or books.... but know that "we" have "our" heroes everywhere "our" great nation needs 🇺🇸 us. God
@@meteor2012able I'm a German (heritage) American who wants to thank Mexican-Americans for their contributions to making our nation great! God bless the USA and God Bless Mexico! My nephew went to Mexico on business for two months, turned into two years. Came back married to a wonderful Mexican woman, they now have six kids. Some stories have good endings.
Dad said they did not take prisoners who had SS metals on. They would take prisoners especially young people, civilians and young soldiers. My second hand information might be wrong although he was on Omaha Bench on D-Day Point du Hoc, he was at St. Vith then Ohrdruf and onward The video sounds very accurate and possibly all accurate. At St. Vith some of the African American soldiers had there eyes chopped out. It made the. American soldiers 'nuts" and changed the thoughts of soldiers in the brutal cold in what he would say was the forest of hurt.
@@antiantifa886 Check out the My Lai massacre of more than 500 babies, toddlers, children, girls/young women, mothers, grannies and old men. First, many [all?] females above baby age were raped.
At that stage of the war most Wehrmacht elite units began to remove the sleeve insignia from their uniforms for fear of being misidentified as SS by vengeful allied units and shot on surrender. I recall a passage in the book 'The Forgotten Solider' by Guy Sajer states as much.
I also heard an interview of a soldier who’s unit liberated a concentration camp where the allied soldiers looked the other way when able-bodied Jews were allowed to beat some of the guards to death.
My dad told me the same thing. Jewish soldiers did not want to be taken prisoner by an SS unit and especially at the end of the war SS troops either couldn't surrender or were given very rough treatment
@@jacqueline6475 German panzer troops wore deaths head insignia on their collars very often they where mistaken for SS troops. I don't know of any other elite units that had such insignia.
@@jacqueline6475 Usually any unit with a name not a number, IE Führer Begleit Division, Großdeutschland, Hermann Göring Division. they typically had unit names sewn onto the left sleeve of their uniforms to denote the 'elite' nature of the unit. The book goes into greater depth as to what makes an elite unit in 1941.
Your unflinching look at the facts is so refreshing. Your productions are so well produced and edited, they should serve as an example for any documentarian.
Unflinching to whom? Because we have been fed lies and misinformation since the end of the war about allied atrocities that have been hidden? This is not even scratching the surface, but I am glad one mainstream western historian is actually making an attempt to report history somewhat more truthfully than in the past.
@@yuppy1967 Of course we are fed lies,lol. That's what they are for. Think about this, about 100 years before, (just after the U.S. civil war into the early 20th century) America had no problems exterminating Native American Tribes left, right and center. It was thier "Manifest Destiny" after all. This is the way Hitler looked at the "East". Considering the Russian "Slav Bolshevik Pestilence" as primitives like the Apache, or Lacota tribes of the American West. I do not condone the Nazis or Hitler in anyway. But it goes to your point that some get punished, and others do not, even if the crime committed by the two is the same
Let's be honest this is the fun side of history. I bet you wouldn't have devoted so much time to videos about British social policy in the 1930s. And other such interesting material.
@@mesolithicman164 idk about fun but interesting yes. Truthfully I recently found out about the British pathe and have spent a fair amount of time watching those videos but social policy hasn't come up yet
@@jeremiahputnam8598 Most boys and men are fascinated by war, that's what I meant by fun. Reading documents regarding taxation and educational policy less exciting than seeing the SS blowing up a tank.
Wow! To see the footage of actual Peiper's testimony... that's just unprecedented. I wonder how much video material there are we've never been able to see. That's more valuable than gold. Thank you, dr. Felton.
The entire Nuremburg War Crimes was filmed ,but all the average citizen is exposed to is sound bites of disruptive defendants,and the Judges in a loud microphone admonishing them to remain silent or they'll be removed,In the eyes of many legal experts ,the defense was unable to call witnessess,to question accusers.kept in conditions of prolonged torture.
The actual reason in seventy years there has been 100x the exposure to the OJ trial, than the Nuremberg trial is because it was so terribly conducted.After the rush for Death sentences,a few years later a US Senatorial Commitee returned and commuted some of the more blatant travesties of justice.The media hyped Malmedy Massacre was big on the list,The second time around many of the prosecuting witnesses seem to recant the details,and implied they had orders.Others conceded to the use of threats of extradition to USSR,loss of food ration cards,and of course physical,beatings of genitals,and rape to defendants families.
And who was evil? The most typical answer is Hitler "because he killed so many people" despite the truth/reality being far different (of who's to blame).
@@DutchGuyMike they were all evil. GB and US wanted the war as much as germany, maybe even more. so did the soviets, well... maaaybe they didn't really wanted the war, but they knew it was comming
The soldier with his legs crossed translating made a mistake. Here's what Peiper said, "Ich weiss nichts." / I know nothing. And this was before Hogan's Heros was even an idea.
One Canadian soldier said openly that if they had 1 or 2 prisoners they got rid of them, they didn't want to leave their friends fighting in the front to take care of those guys.
What's the definition of a massacre? Shooting 5, 10, 20 or 50 captured troops? My dad knew a polish soldier fighting with the British troops and the killing of German prisoners was widespread.
I read an account of a Danish SS captain who surrendered his unit to Canadians in north Germany but they behaved like assholes. So at night they stole fuel from the Canadians and drove off to find an English officer to surrender to. He said that many SS he meet after the war did not want to surrender to Canadians because they had a reputation. On the other hand I read of a German solider captured on D-Day saying the Canadians where respectful and professional, so who can really know
@@flak509 Canadians didn't take a lot of SS prisoners during the Normandy Campaign. Context About 50-80 Canadian POW's were discovered at several locations with range gunshot wounds to the back of the head. Indicating that they were executed. Canadian were engaged in a"To the death" fight against the 12th SS during this time. Once the word got out, the Canadians did the same things mentioned in this video. The higher ups, all the way up to rumored Prime Minster King, also found out. And explicit orders were quickly issued to put a stop to the killings. Atleast 100 12th SS POWs were shot in Normandy alone.
In a documentary I saw on TV a long time ago, a British soldier was being interviewed. He said they came across a group of four or five British soldiers whose hands had been tied with barbed wire and had been shot. They were the crew of a Crocodile tank ... the inference was that the Germans soldiers didn't like people who used flamethrowers on them.
My father served in the 95th Infantry. He didn't talk much about it, but one thing he said was "After Malmedy, the order came down to take no prisoners. And we didn't."
@@geerowr.6666 yeah. It wasn’t the translator in this video but it was a female translator who got stuck a few times and Peiper helped her finish her sentence in English!
Thank you for also covering the Chenogne massacre and the fact nobody was prosecuted for it. Up until now I only knew of the Malmedy one in the Ardennes...
there are no rules in war.. you kill our POWs, we kill yours....an eye for an eye....you treat POWs well...we do the same. The one who starts it always gets the worse punishment as in life, there are no equal exchanges in that regard
@@barryrims9098 i understand if your fighting for your life and expect to die then other lives have little value, i understand that. However many of these atrocities happen under different circumstances ...in the Biscari incidence both defendants testified that their general had sanctioned the killing of prisoners ....patton should have been cashiered and sent home in disgrace. Please spare me the " heat of battle " or " a eye for a eye "...i think rather...... it's a matter of TRAINING, DISCIPLINE and MORAL FIBRE
@@samsungtap4183 War isn't a game where you start on equal moral footing...Your training is to kill the enemy to win the war....nothing else matters...the winners punish the losers. There are no such things as atrocities in war, it's war, which is already an atrocity to begin with
This is the first I've heard of a "revenge massacre" at Chenogne during the Battle of The Bulge - but I must confess to not being surprised. In war there is innocent blood on the hands of the troops on BOTH sides in the conflict.
This unfortunately is common in long drawn out conflicts. The American Civil War eroded into a bloody slugfest as well. The longer these conflicts go the more it erodes soldiers moral bases. And you become truly numb to all the death and destruction swirling about you. Well done as always!
My grandfather was an American front line combatant in the Ardennes for most of the operation. When I was a teenager I was talking with him about the battle. We got on the subject of German prisoners and the SS. He told me they treated regular army prisoners very well. Then of course I asked about the SS. He got very quiet and paused for a few seconds. With a very far away look in his eyes he said very quietly "We didn't take SS prisoners". I will never forget that look and the way he said it. Honestly it scared me at the time.
@@shutup2751 potentially yes. It is still debated whether that man is actually Hans Tragarsky because of variety of different people have been suggested over the years but hes the most likely person, because his unit was in the general area and a man came forward long after the war saying it was him. He was born in roughly 1921 or perhaps early 1922, so hes about 23 or 24 in this picture. Its believed he joined the SS at age 17 in 1938-39 and fought in Greece and the Eastern front before he was transferred to the west in France where this picture was taken. The guy claiming to be him survived the war and died in 2011. The picture was taken by a German propaganda photographer.
Watched your last Ardennes massacre video. It’s very intriguing to hear about these stories and you explain them with a lot of detail. Can’t wait to hear about this one. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Dr. Felton for making sure that no one ever forgets the atrocities of war. If we allow some to be remembered and others forgotten then we will never learn from our mistakes. Bravo, Sir!
@@kjragg1099 every army at some point has instigated total war.Churchill droped bombs on german civilian targets to take the heat off fighter squadrons..those brittish civilians now took the wrath of the luftwafa..can of worms...
@@stephensanderson6386 are you just spouting stuff like a crazy man hoping someone’s going to listen? What the hell are you talking about and what relevance does it have to anything on this video?
Good video as always. This reminds me of a story i was once told from a British tank crew member. He told me when his unit arrived in Caen, the streets were lined with German soldiers hanging from lamp posts. He said hes never forgotten it. Thanks Mark.
This shows what we see in WWII Films are just one part of the story. The Allies can never take the moral high ground. The Germans were not the only villains.
@@footballnick2 Yep and that’s war, this is exactly why countries and their leaders should do everything in their power to avoid it. It’s terrible for everyone.
@@footballnick2 if you'd asked most German soldiers who they'd rather have surrendered too you can guarantee most would have picked the Western Allies over the Soviets.
If they're killing any syrvivors among the bodies, that's either a terrible cover up or standing orders. Interestingly enough, in 1940, the SS also shot British POWs during the drive on Dunkirk. And those weren't isolated incidents either.
Interestingly enough, one of the first things I was told after I joined my Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance unit (in the 70s) was that we had been ordered to shoot German POWs rather than hold up our advance after D Day. The fact that we did this - and the fact that I later learned many of these German soldiers were 15 and 16 year old kids - doesn’t exactly shower us in glory.
@@danklauss6117 - Probably that Waffen-SS unit called the Hitlerjurgend. Their brutality against Canadian soldiers in Normandy were the infamous stuff of legends. Though, After D-Day could mean just about any time. Perhaps Volksstrum, that is the right spelling?, in Germany. By which time, the Germans were at a very vengeful Allied Military's mercy and there was increasing little to spare for them.
I find it facinating that i, as a german, am made well aware of the horrors in Malmedy in school. But i never even heard of Chenogne. Not a single footnote in any german history books. While i fully support the teaching of the horrors commited by the nazies to prevent them from happening again, I am truly dissapointed in the one sided teaching. "History is written by the winners" Edit: For all the Friends that tell me how many german autrocities i might not heard of: You do not get the point!! These 2 events are linked together, and you cannot teach one without distorting the complete picture.
It was a common policy for SS pows to be shot out of hand by allied soldiers as their infamous treatment of prisoners was so well known and i can confirm that orders went out to stop these shootings especially of officers as my father as a german speaker was involved with questioning them for intelligence in 1944/45.
"Blowtorch" Pieper so named for his habit of ordering his troops in Russia to burn down everything in their path with flame throwers. A nasty customer. After many travels he ended up in France where he and his house were burned to ashes by French patriots who remembered who he had been.
Its on youtube is some amazing HD black and white -the bizarre thing is the very bored young lady translator who does not know military terms I was amazed -Im sorry I have tried to find it again
If a 97 year old former camp guard can be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, then any surviving veterans involved in the incident at Chenogne should be held to account. Patton already established a pattern of behaviour towards enemy combatants by his beliefs and attitude towards them during the campaign for Sicily, in particular the massacre in cold blood of German and Italian POWs at the hands of the Americans at Biscari. The use of POWs as human shields by the Allies during the Normandy Campaign should be looked at in depth as well. I would like to see Mark Felton do stories on both of these as well.
I am reminded of the naivete of many WW2 veterans when confronted by the Academy Award-winning move "Saving Private Ryan," in which there is a scene in which in which two GIs gun down several surrendering German soldiers on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach. The line from one of the GIs is "I wonder what 'bitte, bitte' means?" The vets were outraged that such an accusation of violations was ever made. War is hell and to expect Geneva Conventions behavior when a man is fighting for his life is a noble asperation but, in reality, must often fall far short in practice. Excellent presentation, doctor.
btw... my favorite plane of WW2 is the PZL 37. Poland fought brave agaist two enemies. And later was sold to one of them. No more brother war. All the best from Berlin. Niech żyje Polska. Niech żyją Niemcy.
Mark: High quality content, as always. It seems to me that both sides messed up and stiffened resistance. Any time you commit to taking no prisoners, you pay the price in your own blood because the enemy will fight you to the death instead of surrendering. But whenever you mess up, you can always make sure you are still on the right side of history, because you'll be writing it if you win.
Makes you wonder about the soldiers who lived the last 60 or 70 years of their lives knowing the details of these (and other) massacres, but chose to take their stories to their grave.
Thank you for presenting truthful and unbiased history. This is a perfect example of when fighting monsters it’s easy to become a monster yourself. War dehumanizes men on all sides.
A fair question should be ....who is the monster here ........???? Who knows about the attemps from the German side for a peacefull solution between Poland and Germany ???? Who knows who pushed the Poland Government to refuse the terms so that the WWII could be started ...??? ....Who knows about the real reasons of the WWI which leadfs to the WWII ????.Just an unimportant information.......
@@karlwagner932 A "Peaceful solution" that involved handing over significant land to Germany, i.e. totally unacceptable to Poland (as Hitler well knew); it was a sham designed to precipitate invasion (which was triggered by Germans pretending to defend against a Polish incursion).
Napoleon lost two wars & was banished twice. His account of it all though [a losers account] became the dominant narrative. History is sometimes written by the losers as well... despite the illogical'ness of that.
Erzähl doch keinen Blödsinn hier. "Winners write history," Nein, tun sie nicht. Jedenfalls nicht nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg. Die Sieger des zweiten Weltkrieges British Commonwealth, Sowjetunion und Vereinigte Staaten konnten politisch unterschiedlicher kaum sein. Ein künstliches und dazu gemeinsames Narrativ zu schaffen, und das am Vorabend des "Kalten Krieges ist somit unmöglich. Du kannst die Geschichte noch so sehr leugnen, Hitler wollte den Krieg, er bekam ihn und verlor ihn. Es gibt keinen Grund, das heute zu relativieren oder zu leugnen. Und wenn man es doch tut, geht man den Heuchlern auf den Leim, die ihre Lügengeschichten zur Aufrechterhaltung ihrer rechten Ideologie hinausposaunten oder schlicht, um ihren Kopf aus der Schlinge von Nürnberg zu ziehen. Und Menschen wie du sind so dumm und fallen auf diesen Schwachsinn auch noch herein.
@@ULTRA_2112 A refreshing and in your face reply to moral relativism seeking to rehabilitate the nazis culpability in WW2. Thank you for being honest unlike many replies I have read here
@@ULTRA_2112 winners write history? Then why has so many "history" books bring completely debunked to death. Why was Germany declared war on TWICE IN TWENTY YEARS. Millions are learning to truth about past wars and how the world runs, especially international finance.
That has too of been the best explanation, and detailed account of the incident, I have ever heard, or even read of it! Thank you Mark Felton so much. WR,🇨🇦🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇸🤔🤔🤓🤓👏👏💯💯 It was also totally unbiased, as history should be told.
It’s peculiar to know that when it comes to war, everybody pretends to stand on the good side and wants bravely fight the bad side, but everything ends up miserably in being everybody on the bad side.
My father was right outside-4 miles- of Malmedy. He remembered the reaction of the gi's as different than what you're saying Mark. He said most of GIs didn't believe it at first. Then he said the attitude changed for the first time in the war in his experience. Said the attitude became grim and several soldiers displayed battle fatigue symptoms while others prepared for kill at all costs. He said they got NO orders except the comment that there could be no surrender unless you're willing to be shot- it was a fight to the death. AND HE SAID THAT THEY DID TAKE PRISONERS.
Perhaps they did. As was not uncommon, they were probably told by their officers to take the prisoners a few miles behind the front and be back in 15 minutes. (The prisoners would then be executed shortly behind the front line.) I have spoken with several veterans who even bragged about their war crimes, believing that it served the Germans right.
Scott Dunham Wallace PhD, Both sides did take prisoners. Kampfgruppe Peiper took hundreds of prisoners and treated most of them very well. same as hundreds of members of LAH surrendered to Americian forces and were treated properly, when you read the accounts of veterans they confirm this.
I’ve been to Malmedy, and followed the entire route taken by Peiper’s force. The site near Malmedy is a haunted place, an empty field with a small monument alongside the same farm buildings as were there in 1944. By all accounts, Peiper was not aware of the murders at the time. However, ambiguity over the killings remain. The SS troops assigned to Peiper were fresh from the Russian front where atrocities like this were common, if not standard practice, and Peiper himself later obfuscated about similar atrocities. After release from prison he worked for both Porsche and Volkswagen before moving to France, were he was murdered and his home burned by French communists in 1976.
@@nickie2011 Peiper was released in 1956 and moved to France where the next year his home was firebombed with him inside,he was foolish to emigrate to France where the people have long memories and it was most SS ambition to surrender to the British and Americans but NOT to the French and Russians.
@@nickie2011 No, the ‘disappearance’ conspiracy has been debunked by multiple investigations. Peiper died in the early hours of 14 July 1976. In the weeks prior Peiper had been ‘outed’ as a former SS officer, and the area near his house defaced with swastikas, SS symbols and Peiper’s name. He wrote to several former Nazi’s expressing fears for his safety and he armed himself with several weapons including a shotgun loaned by his neighbour and confidant former Leibstandarte artillery captain Erwin Ketelhut. When Peiper’s body was discovered after the fire there was ample evidence he had used his weapons to defend himself. Ketelhut identified Peiper’s body and personal papers, including Peiper’s last letter to his wife, were found and his watch was also found on his body. The following day an anti-nazi revenge group calling themselves The Avengers claimed responsibility for his death. His body was subsequently subject an autopsy at the University of Munich, where it was discovered that the body had been mutilated after the fire. Later, Peiper’s body was buried at Schondorf am Ammersee in Bavaria, along with those of his father, mother, and two brothers.
Why? Why in the name of god did he go back to France.....He could have also moved to some lost village in the USSR, the outcome would have been the same. Perhaps, deep inside, he wanted to get punished.....
War is not romantic. It's an unimaginable fight for survival. To believe one side (the victors) always play by the rules while the other (the defeated) does not, is pure propaganda. Well done for recognising this.
@@jeffduncan9140 true, but its something that people don't talk about often and the truth must be highlighted on the evil barbarity of the Soviets and SS
@@Daniel-ms9ks Shouldn't be forgotten though that the main reason the Red Army committed so many atrocities against Germans was because the very same and worse had been done to their own people.
@@revanofkorriban1505 maybe, but that does not excuse the Soviets in any way, they were purely evil, and the Soviets were very cruel even before the second world war, just look at what they did in Ukraine with the Holomodor massacre or the slaughter they did in Poland in 1939-40 and many many more
@@Ndlanding um no. You obviously don’t understand what I was trying to say. Growing up in the US I watched a lot of ww2 documentaries, some of the narrators had English accents. It brings me back to those times growing up. Not sure why you got so defensive over something like that but ok.
@@Ndlanding I just explained to you why I said what I said. I’m NOT surprised, like at all. why would I be. Stop assuming. Now I simply don’t understand what your problem is over this, maybe miscommunication. Whatever it is, it’s not worth wasting anymore time over this, bye.
As an American, what those few did to those germans was disgraceful and embarassing for all of us. I wish a man with Pattons reputation would have persued a trial, rather than covering it up. Unacceptable. So glad Mark has the respect for history and tells the truth. Glad I know this happened, rather than not.
Given what the Nazis did in that war, I have no sympathy. What about the millions murdered in death camps? What about Russian prisoners? The Nazis were out to enslave or exterminate anyone they thought was "inferior.'
so sad, I think War crimes regardless of who committed them are evil and atrocious, good video Mark PS, I have learned more history from you than I ever did in my 4 years of highschool
My dad served in Western Europe in the Canadian expeditionary force. He never talked about his time over there. He did confess to me before his death on the killing of a Hitler youth on an unnamed bridge.
Speaking of war crimes . . . France and Britain went to war against Germany on behalf of Poland. But what about the simultaneous Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 (?) And what happened to Poland in the end (?) Complete nonsense . . .
They were only obliged to declare war on Germany not the Soviets. To what happend to Poland after the war. Blame Stalin. Its not like the Western Allies could just ask Stalin nicely to leave Poland alone.
@@stc3145 And yet they sat on the border and did nothing. Scratch that, they fought and promptly got kicked out of Norway and eventually mainland Europe
You're right they should've just declared war on Stalin and maybe none of us commenting today would even be alive as a result 🙄 But for real let's just be thankful it worked out for most of us. BTW the whole thing with Poland and the Non-aggression Pact was way more complicated than most outrage history geeks give it credit for.
@@gerhardswihla1099 reminds me of Saddam Hussein. Except no one needed to give him an excuse while he was gassing people because no one really knew or cared who he was until Desert Storm. At least from your typical American perspective. I'm not so sure Stalin was any more of a despot than any other historical arsonist or he just had the most population to deal with. Definitely a man who will define evil in the 20th century for centuries to come either way. Your point is cliche when compared with all the other autocrats we've supported or flat out installed. Especially when considering the context of what was going on at the time.
Good that you find the cold facts of history and inform us about what happened from both sides, with no "taking side" . You tell history as it should be told
We did have our black stains. I wasn't there and cannot claim to know the stress and thought process, but their is no honor in killing prisoners who have surrendered.
So very true, recent research by two german academics they concluded that there was 45k rapes of german women by the allies in WW2 some were murdered too.
Just curious to know: How did intelligence get back to the allies so quickly about the massacre at Malmedy? You mention 4 hours. This seems remarkably quick unless we're talking scouts, espionnage, plane monitoring, etc. Very interested to hear this little detail!
Alot of the US soldiers were running away from the Germans in the initial fighting. I imagine some must of seen the massacre or the aftermath and passed it on when they got to their own lines. It could of been a rumour that passed around and just happened to be true.
The 291st Combat Engineers, they were outside of Malmedy when Pieper hit. The fun part is there seems to be nothing on TH-cam about the damned engineers, even though they literally stopped Peiper's run by blowing at least 3 bridges. The only thing I have seen is from Against The Odds, which sucks.
My uncle Charlie was a machine gun crew leader in Patton's Army, wounded in France (and he met Patton in a field hospital). Although he received a number of medals and citations, he told me that the most significant thing he did in the war was disobeying a direct order to shoot German prisoners. He told the lieutenant who gave the order that he and his crew would not do it, and told the lieutenant to "move along". The LT backed down. Heroism has many forms, and my uncle Charlie was one of my heroes.
Good on him. That took real courage.
@Bilo Bath
I think the decision of the man on the ground is paramount and should be respected. Looks like he was a professional soldier and a humane human-being.
Good for him! I think it takes exceptional strength of character to maintain one's humanity in the face of great inhumanity. It also takes great courage to resist, whether that be against an enemy occupier or an LT.
@Bilo Bath GOOD thing you weren't there! Murder is murder when you don't follow the rules of war!
Brave and honest man indeed. Propably his decision saved him later in life from guilt.
I saw an interview with an American medic driving an Ambulance that was stopped by several Germans. They looked in back and seeing all the wounded on stretchers waved him on. After going to the aid station the medic picked up several cartons of cigarettes drove back to the point he was stopped at and handed them to the German soldier. Humanity in the midst of insanity.
lovely story
There is a similar story in Ambrose's books Citizen Soldiers, happened in Normandy during the German retreat. The driver got lost and drove into a German position, and was diverted back to American lines. He then returned and dropped a crate which the Germans were suspicious of being booby-trapped. Turned out to be cigarettes.
If you look at the resources it takes to care for wounded soldiers, it's better to make your enemy use his resources to care for the wounded rather than killing them or taking them prisoner yourself. Doubtful it was purely for compassion of their enemy.
That´s a good movie...
@@goldleader6074 Very good. One of the main reasons for the US/NATO to adopt the 5.56 was for the very reason you stated. 7.62 was too deadly
Mr Felton - thank you for this episode. My father fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was at Chenogue on the day of the massacre. A good friend of his protested the battalion commanders order to shoot a group of German prisoners where upon the officer in question told him (my fathers friend) to back off or else. My father persuaded his friend to back off. The prisoners were led away and shot. This incident is also documented in the companion book to Ken Burns - The War (pgs 331, 332). It is a story I heard from my father as I grew up, along with other fragments about his war experiences. To me, its one more example of the horrors of war and how no one emerges "clean." And its reason why i have always tried to respect those who wear the uniform and serve and sacrifice.
Having a reputation of taking no prisoners makes it very difficult to get your enemy to surrender. If they perceive they will be killed anyway, they will fight to the death, yours or theirs. On the other hand, if you are known to treat pows well, they will be much more likely to surrender.
War is a messy business at best. There's no reason to make it worse than necessary.
The SS didn't tend to surrender so ....they had it coming
I have never been a soldier. No clue. Humaness...I understand!
Seriously, America had alot of POW camps in the middle of America! In Atlanta, Nebraska, they never lost a POW!
@@julianshepherd2038 amen!
I would imagine it is very easy to become vengeful when tragedies like Malmedy occur and you are involved in a life or death struggle. I am not judging what those involved did, it was 80 years ago and I wasn't there, so I haven't the right. What I do think is, that two wrongs don't make a right. The Allied command analysis of it was spot on. Under the circumstances, there was no way any Allied service men were going to be investigated for their actions. The Malmedy incident certainly seemed to produce a counter productive result for the German forces, stiffening American resistance. I would imagine the Allied command and subsequent policy makers knew they were compromised themselves by the actions of American units similar response in the fact that the Germans on trial were eventually released. That's the thing with war crimes, the truth will always out.
this is how history should be recounted; complete, objectively and impartially. Great work as always, Mark
maybe but again a lot of what Mark discussed is not backed up anywhere... it is mere conjecture.
@@JuergenGDB history is written by the victors. The reason for the lack of back up in this instance is because the Allies covered it up. Life especially at war isn't black and white. No good against evil, just evil and lesser evil. Its mornic to believe that the Allies never committed any warcrimes whatsoever. War is cruel in its nature.
I'm not hating on the Allied forces, in fact I am grateful for them cause nowadays we experience freedom and liberty. God only knows what life could be if the Axis won.
Of course unless it involves the Japanese, according to Mark
“History is written by the victors.” Maybe in Hitler or Stalin styles dictatorship, but otherwise…this simply isn’t true. Each side just believes whatever they want to be either righteous or the victim - look at how WW2 is treated in Japan. Or compare the number of YT docs on civilian bombings in WW2 by country. You will find dozens on how the allies were wrong to bomb German civilian cities, and few on how the Germans were wrong to spend years bombing and starving civilian populations in Poland, London, Holland, France, Russia, etc. So much for “written by the victor.”
@@Itried20takennames yeah there’s quite a bit of literature and research on various allied war crimes throughout the war.
One of the best researchers in Military history anywhere let alone TH-cam. This guy really shows how history is more histories and more grey than black & white. Great great content!!
I really enjoy history. Your commentary and look at these events is wonderful.
Mark the 120 old veteran, been everywhere, filmed everything
legend
Comment of the year
Guess he is that immortal camera man
My close friend's father was involved in the Battle of the Bulge and was in an overrun unit. We were all sitting around one evening and the war came up as a topic of discussion. He described the harrowing experiences of the battle and living on the run and hiding from the Germans. He ended the the story by saying "After Malmedy, we didn't take no prisoners".
My step uncle was a paratrooper in Germany. I was 12 yo when the war ended. About a year after he visited us and told "me" war stories of some of his deeds. He said, they were to take no prisoners and rapidly move on... and how our guys had to kill young Germans soldiers giving up..." and move on." I was impressed and sensed he felt bad, as he described these actions. He a lot told of sexual "things" our men did (not exactly rape... that occurred out of fear or in exchange for food, etc).
Overall, thereafter, in life, I viewed Hollywood versions a bit more realistically.
I think he was about 18 years old when in Germany. "Manuelito" died in the Phoenix VA hospital in 1988.
We are Mexican-Americans and very proud of our veterans in all wars. We don't get much notice in Hollywood or books.... but know that "we" have "our" heroes everywhere "our" great nation needs 🇺🇸 us.
God
Germans turned into fanatics once war was brought upon their soil.
@@meteor2012able I'm a German (heritage) American who wants to thank Mexican-Americans for their contributions to making our nation great! God bless the USA and God Bless Mexico! My nephew went to Mexico on business for two months, turned into two years. Came back married to a wonderful Mexican woman, they now have six kids. Some stories have good endings.
Dad said they did not take prisoners who had SS metals on. They would take prisoners especially young people, civilians and young soldiers. My second hand information might be wrong although he was on Omaha Bench on D-Day Point du Hoc, he was at St. Vith then Ohrdruf and onward The video sounds very accurate and possibly all accurate. At St. Vith some of the African American soldiers had there eyes chopped out. It made the. American soldiers 'nuts" and changed the thoughts of soldiers in the brutal cold in what he would say was the forest of hurt.
@@antiantifa886 Check out the My Lai massacre of more than 500 babies, toddlers, children, girls/young women, mothers, grannies and old men. First, many [all?] females above baby age were raped.
At that stage of the war most Wehrmacht elite units began to remove the sleeve insignia from their uniforms for fear of being misidentified as SS by vengeful allied units and shot on surrender. I recall a passage in the book 'The Forgotten Solider' by Guy Sajer states as much.
I also heard an interview of a soldier who’s unit liberated a concentration camp where the allied soldiers looked the other way when able-bodied Jews were allowed to beat some of the guards to death.
What elite units..?
My dad told me the same thing. Jewish soldiers did not want to be taken prisoner by an SS unit and especially at the end of the war SS troops either couldn't surrender or were given very rough treatment
@@jacqueline6475 German panzer troops wore deaths head insignia on their collars very often they where mistaken for SS troops. I don't know of any other elite units that had such insignia.
@@jacqueline6475 Usually any unit with a name not a number, IE Führer Begleit Division, Großdeutschland, Hermann Göring Division. they typically had unit names sewn onto the left sleeve of their uniforms to denote the 'elite' nature of the unit. The book goes into greater depth as to what makes an elite unit in 1941.
Your unflinching look at the facts is so refreshing. Your productions are so well produced and edited, they should serve as an example for any documentarian.
Unflinching to whom? Because we have been fed lies and misinformation since the end of the war about allied atrocities that have been hidden? This is not even scratching the surface, but I am glad one mainstream western historian is actually making an attempt to report history somewhat more truthfully than in the past.
@@yuppy1967 Of course we are fed lies,lol. That's what they are for. Think about this, about 100 years before, (just after the U.S. civil war into the early 20th century) America had no problems exterminating Native American Tribes left, right and center. It was thier "Manifest Destiny" after all. This is the way Hitler looked at the "East". Considering the Russian "Slav Bolshevik Pestilence" as primitives like the Apache, or Lacota tribes of the American West. I do not condone the Nazis or Hitler in anyway. But it goes to your point that some get punished, and others do not, even if the crime committed by the two is the same
@@styx4947 I agree. Also, there is the old adage, to the victor goes the spoils and the narrative.
Amen brother!
This man is a nazi apologist and homocaunst denier. Ignore him
It is so refreshing to see unbiased history. Our education system teaches a very pretty picture of the war, it needs to be more like this!
@@circusbrains the state of Arizona has one of the worst education systems in the US unfortunately, that's where I went to school.
I've learned more in a year of watching your channel than in the 25 years before finding this treasure of a channel
Let's be honest this is the fun side of history. I bet you wouldn't have devoted so much time to videos about British social policy in the 1930s. And other such interesting material.
@@mesolithicman164 Interesting for British people...
@@mesolithicman164 idk about fun but interesting yes. Truthfully I recently found out about the British pathe and have spent a fair amount of time watching those videos but social policy hasn't come up yet
@@lisandrochavez7169
No it's not, believe me.
@@jeremiahputnam8598
Most boys and men are fascinated by war, that's what I meant by fun. Reading documents regarding taxation and educational policy less exciting than seeing the SS blowing up a tank.
I see Mark Felton, I click.
And thumbs Up!
@@stefanmolnapor910 Without hesitation!
Wow! To see the footage of actual Peiper's testimony... that's just unprecedented. I wonder how much video material there are we've never been able to see. That's more valuable than gold.
Thank you, dr. Felton.
It's on TH-cam.
You could have searched it yourself on YT. It is available for a long time.
The entire Nuremburg War Crimes was filmed ,but all the average citizen is exposed to is sound bites of disruptive defendants,and the Judges in a loud microphone admonishing them to remain silent or they'll be removed,In the eyes of many legal experts ,the defense was unable to call witnessess,to question accusers.kept in conditions of prolonged torture.
The actual reason in seventy years there has been 100x the exposure to the OJ trial, than the Nuremberg trial is because it was so terribly conducted.After the rush for Death sentences,a few years later a US Senatorial Commitee returned and commuted some of the more blatant travesties of justice.The media hyped Malmedy Massacre was big on the list,The second time around many of the prosecuting witnesses seem to recant the details,and implied they had orders.Others conceded to the use of threats of extradition to USSR,loss of food ration cards,and of course physical,beatings of genitals,and rape to defendants families.
@@jameswallis6093 also this sham saw blame for the Katyn Massacre placed upon the Germans.
Brilliant as always - what would history be without Mark Felton!
Text instead of audio/video
Aliens building pyramids, probably.
The same. You just wouldnt know about it 😂
Not in a very good place, that's for sure, LoL
told accurately lol
"the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being" Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
And who was evil? The most typical answer is Hitler "because he killed so many people" despite the truth/reality being far different (of who's to blame).
Jeremiah 17:9 KJV: 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
@@DutchGuyMike they were all evil.
GB and US wanted the war as much as germany, maybe even more.
so did the soviets, well... maaaybe they didn't really wanted the war, but they knew it was comming
Theres no such thing as 'Personality Traits' is how others put it.
@@DutchGuyMike Good and evil doesn’t exist. Made up human concepts. It’s just people acting and reacting.
Simply one of the best history channels on TH-cam!
Thanks for that small clip of Peiper's trial, I had never heard him speak before, it was fascinating.
The soldier with his legs crossed translating made a mistake. Here's what Peiper said, "Ich weiss nichts." / I know nothing. And this was before Hogan's Heros was even an idea.
you should look for the full peipers testimony from the Nuremberg trials
especially about the massacre..
One Canadian soldier said openly that if they had 1 or 2 prisoners they got rid of them, they didn't want to leave their friends fighting in the front to take care of those guys.
A retired P-47 pilot said it was USAAF policy to shoot Luftwaffe pilots in their parachutes as well. There's never any shortage of crimes in war.
What's the definition of a massacre? Shooting 5, 10, 20 or 50 captured troops? My dad knew a polish soldier fighting with the British troops and the killing of German prisoners was widespread.
I read an account of a Danish SS captain who surrendered his unit to Canadians in north Germany but they behaved like assholes. So at night they stole fuel from the Canadians and drove off to find an English officer to surrender to. He said that many SS he meet after the war did not want to surrender to Canadians because they had a reputation. On the other hand I read of a German solider captured on D-Day saying the Canadians where respectful and professional, so who can really know
@@flak509 Canadians didn't take a lot of SS prisoners during the Normandy Campaign.
Context
About 50-80 Canadian POW's were discovered at several locations with range gunshot wounds to the back of the head. Indicating that they were executed. Canadian were engaged in a"To the death" fight against the 12th SS during this time. Once the word got out, the Canadians did the same things mentioned in this video. The higher ups, all the way up to rumored Prime Minster King, also found out. And explicit orders were quickly issued to put a stop to the killings. Atleast 100 12th SS POWs were shot in Normandy alone.
In a documentary I saw on TV a long time ago, a British soldier was being interviewed. He said they came across a group of four or five British soldiers whose hands had been tied with barbed wire and had been shot. They were the crew of a Crocodile tank ... the inference was that the Germans soldiers didn't like people who used flamethrowers on them.
My father served in the 95th Infantry. He didn't talk much about it, but one thing he said was "After Malmedy, the order came down to take no prisoners. And we didn't."
Absolutely great footage of Peiper testifying and the translator.
Quite funny how he actually spoke great English and corrected some of the translators during the trial lol.
@@kjragg1099 Really 😂. Come to think of most of the Nazis spoke great English.
@@geerowr.6666 yeah. It wasn’t the translator in this video but it was a female translator who got stuck a few times and Peiper helped her finish her sentence in English!
@@kjragg1099 Is that video here on TH-cam?
I found it! He was so unbothered by it all. Simply toying with everyone.
Thank you for also covering the Chenogne massacre and the fact nobody was prosecuted for it. Up until now I only knew of the Malmedy one in the Ardennes...
Biscari massacre Sicily
the 1st massacre is always the TRUTH
there are no rules in war.. you kill our POWs, we kill yours....an eye for an eye....you treat POWs well...we do the same. The one who starts it always gets the worse punishment as in life, there are no equal exchanges in that regard
@@barryrims9098 i understand if your fighting for your life and expect to die then other lives have little value, i understand that. However many of these atrocities happen under different circumstances ...in the Biscari incidence both defendants testified that their general had sanctioned the killing of prisoners ....patton should have been cashiered and sent home in disgrace. Please spare me the " heat of battle " or " a eye for a eye "...i think rather...... it's a matter of TRAINING, DISCIPLINE and MORAL FIBRE
@@samsungtap4183 War isn't a game where you start on equal moral footing...Your training is to kill the enemy to win the war....nothing else matters...the winners punish the losers. There are no such things as atrocities in war, it's war, which is already an atrocity to begin with
How absolutely refreshing to watch a clear and unbiased documentary. Thank you!
The 'real' History Channel right here.
This is the first I've heard of a "revenge massacre" at Chenogne during the Battle of The Bulge - but I must confess to not being surprised. In war there is innocent blood on the hands of the troops on BOTH sides in the conflict.
I knew it happened, I didn't know the extent
Then both sides are as bad as each other in this respect. Accountability for both would be good, but the winner writes the history books.
@@thomascolbert2687 bs alllied propaganda bro. You dont need to be so butthurt to comment that lie in every comment section.
@@elviadarkgrape2859 OH, it's "propoganda"🙄 Okay...
Haha, "Innocent blood"
These stories clearly shown how easily evil could spread among everyone. Thanks Mark for taking this out from beneath the carpet.
A very balanced presentation of events, accounting for stories from both sides. Your final statement makes for a compelling argument.
As a historian I can only applaud you for the lucid and accessible presentation of your work.
As a lover of English, I can only applaud you, Tim, for NOT saying "an historian".
@@bowrudder899 an istorian
;-)
Another brilliant video Mark, you have the courage to give a balanced view.
I love how mark takes specific events and goes deep in them. My favourite history channel by a mile!
Why Mile If you can Go light Year? 😂 Seriously its a good Channel i can agree with you 👌
🇺🇸🏴☠️🇺🇸🔥🗽🔥🇨🇦🏴☠️🇺🇸
Anyone who brings a photo of Lord Stanley’s Cup to the conversation gets a thumbs up 👍
Red Wingnut for life!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🥅🗽🥅🇨🇦🇺🇸
This unfortunately is common in long drawn out conflicts. The American Civil War eroded into a bloody slugfest as well. The longer these conflicts go the more it erodes soldiers moral bases. And you become truly numb to all the death and destruction swirling about you. Well done as always!
Exactly brother
That's actually quite a good example.
the Nazis had no moral base,
Alas, 'tis too true.
@@gregnz1 it was because they were Protestants
Thanks for educating me more. Can't get enough of your content.
Thanks!
My grandfather was an American front line combatant in the Ardennes for most of the operation.
When I was a teenager I was talking with him about the battle. We got on the subject of German prisoners and the SS.
He told me they treated regular army prisoners very well. Then of course I asked about the SS. He got very quiet and paused for a few seconds. With a very far away look in his eyes he said very quietly "We didn't take SS prisoners".
I will never forget that look and the way he said it. Honestly it scared me at the time.
that image of the german soldier with the cigarette in his mouth is so iconic, still all these years on one of the most iconic photos of the war
His name is Hans Tragarsky
@@JosephStalin1941 thank you i was never aware of his name, a eastern european conscript in the ss ? tragarsky doesn't sound german
@@shutup2751 potentially yes. It is still debated whether that man is actually Hans Tragarsky because of variety of different people have been suggested over the years but hes the most likely person, because his unit was in the general area and a man came forward long after the war saying it was him. He was born in roughly 1921 or perhaps early 1922, so hes about 23 or 24 in this picture. Its believed he joined the SS at age 17 in 1938-39 and fought in Greece and the Eastern front before he was transferred to the west in France where this picture was taken. The guy claiming to be him survived the war and died in 2011. The picture was taken by a German propaganda photographer.
Dragon models captured his likeness in 1/6 scale many years ago along with other figures based on soldiers shown in this footage.
Does anyone know who the German soldier driving the amphibious jeep, smoking the cigar, in the film footage of German forces at the crossroads is?
Victor writes the history . Fabulous episode again!!
Watched your last Ardennes massacre video. It’s very intriguing to hear about these stories and you explain them with a lot of detail. Can’t wait to hear about this one. Keep up the good work!
"The first casualty of war is truth."
It can be difficult to learn the truth, but it is better that way.
@@MW-bi1pi War has always been inevitable albeit guns blazing or through words and thoughts. It is never pretty.
Thanks Dr. Felton for making sure that no one ever forgets the atrocities of war. If we allow some to be remembered and others forgotten then we will never learn from our mistakes. Bravo, Sir!
Fighting yourself is bigger than fighting the enemy. While you fight, you need to keep the monster within in check.
@@Joshua_N-A - Agreed!
When you think you know everything about WWll...Then you meet Dr. Felton.
A can of Worms...
You never heard of the malmedy massacre? Damn. There’s some great footage of the trial here on TH-cam
@@kjragg1099 every army at some point has instigated total war.Churchill droped bombs on german civilian targets to take the heat off fighter squadrons..those brittish civilians now took the wrath of the luftwafa..can of worms...
@@stephensanderson6386 are you just spouting stuff like a crazy man hoping someone’s going to listen? What the hell are you talking about and what relevance does it have to anything on this video?
@@kjragg1099 yes.and in my defence its all a big can of worms..
Good video as always. This reminds me of a story i was once told from a British tank crew member. He told me when his unit arrived in Caen, the streets were lined with German soldiers hanging from lamp posts. He said hes never forgotten it. Thanks Mark.
Most tragic,that that happened in Germany and Austria too--But they were hanged by their own Military police!----Thousands!
GET SOME
This shows what we see in WWII Films are just one part of the story. The Allies can never take the moral high ground. The Germans were not the only villains.
One I know of the other I dont. This is why I love Mark Felton's videos.
Yeah, that's because the West obscures it in order to appear so good.
@@footballnick2 Yep and that’s war, this is exactly why countries and their leaders should do everything in their power to avoid it. It’s terrible for everyone.
@@footballnick2 if you'd asked most German soldiers who they'd rather have surrendered too you can guarantee most would have picked the Western Allies over the Soviets.
If they're killing any syrvivors among the bodies, that's either a terrible cover up or standing orders.
Interestingly enough, in 1940, the SS also shot British POWs during the drive on Dunkirk. And those weren't isolated incidents either.
Le Paradis was one of those massacres...
Interestingly enough, one of the first things I was told after I joined my Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance unit (in the 70s) was that we had been ordered to shoot German POWs rather than hold up our advance after D Day. The fact that we did this - and the fact that I later learned many of these German soldiers were 15 and 16 year old kids - doesn’t exactly shower us in glory.
@@danklauss6117 - Probably that Waffen-SS unit called the Hitlerjurgend.
Their brutality against Canadian soldiers in Normandy were the infamous stuff of legends.
Though, After D-Day could mean just about any time. Perhaps Volksstrum, that is the right spelling?, in Germany.
By which time, the Germans were at a very vengeful Allied Military's mercy and there was increasing little to spare for them.
@@FLJBeliever1776 Folkstorm Volkssturm wie Sturmgewehr - old man and kids - one legged soldiers one arm one eye ! Volkssturm ! Joke of Hitlers
@@markusbuelow7871 - Indeed.
Your presentations of these events are absolutely stellar. It's a bit of a lost art. Thank you for the well researched & incredibly delivered content.
Hello everyone! It always gets me excited. Whenever I see a Mark Felton video.
Always delivering in terms of Quality! Thank you Mark!!
I find it facinating that i, as a german, am made well aware of the horrors in Malmedy in school. But i never even heard of Chenogne. Not a single footnote in any german history books. While i fully support the teaching of the horrors commited by the nazies to prevent them from happening again, I am truly dissapointed in the one sided teaching. "History is written by the winners"
Edit: For all the Friends that tell me how many german autrocities i might not heard of: You do not get the point!! These 2 events are linked together, and you cannot teach one without distorting the complete picture.
Well said and unfortunately the 'winners ' of WW1 help create the situation that caused WW2 🙄
Nobody is ever a winner especially when seeking revenge.
I'm absolutely certain there were lots of massacres perpetrated by the Germans that you were never taught about either.
Bet there is lots of German ones as well billy kid
It was a common policy for SS pows to be shot out of hand by allied soldiers as their infamous treatment of prisoners was so well known and i can confirm that orders went out to stop these shootings especially of officers as my father as a german speaker was involved with questioning them for intelligence in 1944/45.
Yes they got rid of the nazis but then the yanks took their place war criminals don't exist in the so called free world they just all live in the USA
Where on this planet did you dig up actual film footage of Pieper's trial? You never cease to amaze.
"Blowtorch" Pieper so named for his habit of ordering his troops in Russia to burn down everything in their path with flame throwers. A nasty customer. After many travels he ended up in France where he and his house were burned to ashes by French patriots who remembered who he had been.
Its on youtube is some amazing HD black and white -the bizarre thing is the very bored young lady translator who does not know military terms I was amazed -Im sorry I have tried to find it again
@@Ronbo1948 He only burned down two villages, because partisans from these villages murdered everyone in a German field hospital.
@@andyz.5431 - ‘He only burned down two villages’ - Oh well that’s alright then. (Slaps hand to forehead in disbelief)
@@AtheistOrphan He burns down one village or burns down one hundred ... he crossed the line when he burned down one.
If a 97 year old former camp guard can be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, then any surviving veterans involved in the incident at Chenogne should be held to account. Patton already established a pattern of behaviour towards enemy combatants by his beliefs and attitude towards them during the campaign for Sicily, in particular the massacre in cold blood of German and Italian POWs at the hands of the Americans at Biscari. The use of POWs as human shields by the Allies during the Normandy Campaign should be looked at in depth as well. I would like to see Mark Felton do stories on both of these as well.
That was very interesting. I've always said that when the victor writes the history, there are parts that are polished over.
Superb Mark. As always!
It does remind me of that saying:- "History is written by the victors".
A saying that is completely incorrect :p
Heard about these several times in little detail always good to know more
I am reminded of the naivete of many WW2 veterans when confronted by the Academy Award-winning move "Saving Private Ryan," in which there is a scene in which in which two GIs gun down several surrendering German soldiers on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach. The line from one of the GIs is "I wonder what 'bitte, bitte' means?" The vets were outraged that such an accusation of violations was ever made. War is hell and to expect Geneva Conventions behavior when a man is fighting for his life is a noble asperation but, in reality, must often fall far short in practice. Excellent presentation, doctor.
You can make a video about the battle of Wizna were around 700 polish soldiers held a force of over 40.000 Germans with tank and Planes for 3 days
Baptised in fire, 40:1!!!
btw... my favorite plane of WW2 is the PZL 37. Poland fought brave agaist two enemies. And later was sold to one of them. No more brother war. All the best from Berlin. Niech żyje Polska. Niech żyją Niemcy.
@ Its literly a historical fact. It takes 2 seconds to search on the battle of Wizna
@@nyancat4292 Exacly💪
@@neinnein9306 🇵🇱🤝🇩🇪
Omg thank you! I wanted to know about the Chenogne Massacre, and i even asked for it on this channel. Thank you so much Docter Felton!
This is a first class channel. Its much better than most TV documentaries.
Mark: High quality content, as always. It seems to me that both sides messed up and stiffened resistance. Any time you commit to taking no prisoners, you pay the price in your own blood because the enemy will fight you to the death instead of surrendering. But whenever you mess up, you can always make sure you are still on the right side of history, because you'll be writing it if you win.
‘The massacre didn’t sit well with some’, you don’t say.
Makes you wonder about the soldiers who lived the last 60 or 70 years of their lives knowing the details of these (and other) massacres, but chose to take their stories to their grave.
@@1970Phoenix in every war/conflict ever....
@@1970Phoenix As Rudolf Hoess said: "We were just obeying orders."
And yet now days if you were to report a war crime you are labeled a snitch and get death threats like veterans in Iraq.
@@1970Phoenix Its their way of coping, not speaking or thinking about it. This us why you have to be careful about what you ask a vet
Thankyou Mark. Excellent Video as always
Thank you for presenting truthful and unbiased history.
This is a perfect example of when fighting monsters it’s easy to become a monster yourself.
War dehumanizes men on all sides.
A fair question should be ....who is the monster here ........???? Who knows about the attemps from the German side for a peacefull solution between Poland and Germany ???? Who knows who pushed the Poland Government to refuse the terms so that the WWII could be started ...??? ....Who knows about the real reasons of the WWI which leadfs to the WWII ????.Just an unimportant information.......
@@karlwagner932 A "Peaceful solution" that involved handing over significant land to Germany, i.e. totally unacceptable to Poland (as Hitler well knew); it was a sham designed to precipitate invasion (which was triggered by Germans pretending to defend against a Polish incursion).
Winners write history, thx Mark for explaining both sides. Greetings from Germany.
Napoleon lost two wars & was banished twice. His account of it all though [a losers account] became the dominant narrative.
History is sometimes written by the losers as well... despite the illogical'ness of that.
Erzähl doch keinen Blödsinn hier.
"Winners write history,"
Nein, tun sie nicht. Jedenfalls nicht nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg.
Die Sieger des zweiten Weltkrieges British Commonwealth, Sowjetunion und Vereinigte Staaten konnten politisch unterschiedlicher kaum sein.
Ein künstliches und dazu gemeinsames Narrativ zu schaffen, und das am Vorabend des "Kalten Krieges ist somit unmöglich.
Du kannst die Geschichte noch so sehr leugnen, Hitler wollte den Krieg, er bekam ihn und verlor ihn.
Es gibt keinen Grund, das heute zu relativieren oder zu leugnen.
Und wenn man es doch tut, geht man den Heuchlern auf den Leim, die ihre Lügengeschichten zur Aufrechterhaltung ihrer rechten Ideologie hinausposaunten oder schlicht, um ihren Kopf aus der Schlinge von Nürnberg zu ziehen.
Und Menschen wie du sind so dumm und fallen auf diesen Schwachsinn auch noch herein.
@@ULTRA_2112 Katyn, Chenogne. Different sides same lies.
@@ULTRA_2112 A refreshing and in your face reply to moral relativism seeking to rehabilitate the nazis culpability in WW2. Thank you for being honest unlike many replies I have read here
@@ULTRA_2112 winners write history? Then why has so many "history" books bring completely debunked to death. Why was Germany declared war on TWICE IN TWENTY YEARS. Millions are learning to truth about past wars and how the world runs, especially international finance.
Thanks
That has too of been the best explanation, and detailed account of the incident, I have ever heard, or even read of it! Thank you Mark Felton so much. WR,🇨🇦🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇸🤔🤔🤓🤓👏👏💯💯
It was also totally unbiased, as history should be told.
Let's face it. Everybody knows Malmedy. Nobody knows Chenogne.
The winner is always right.
Yup, the main Spoil of War is that the winner gets to write the Official History of said war.
Excellent work, Mark....once again!
It’s peculiar to know that when it comes to war, everybody pretends to stand on the good side and wants bravely fight the bad side, but everything ends up miserably in being everybody on the bad side.
Bewinged words.
It's rare that there is a "good" and a "bad" side. The nazis were bad, but so was the russians. And the americans during the Vietnam war in the 70's.
The whole idea of good and bad in war is silly, to the men on the ground. Its win or lose, live or die. War is Grey, never black and white.
Isn't it crazy how the 'bad guys' have never won a war in all of human history?
In Western Europe, it is quite clear that the Germans were very much the ""bad side". To argue otherwise is verging on excusing Nazism.
“I hope we can conceal this”
I only heard about this today c/o Dr Felton
Joachim Peiper did 12 years in prison and lived until 1976.
During the war he saw action in Poland, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium and Hungary
Your videos are the best and intresting Mark! Keep up the good work
My father was right outside-4 miles- of Malmedy. He remembered the reaction of the gi's as different than what you're saying Mark. He said most of GIs didn't believe it at first. Then he said the attitude changed for the first time in the war in his experience. Said the attitude became grim and several soldiers displayed battle fatigue symptoms while others prepared for kill at all costs. He said they got NO orders except the comment that there could be no surrender unless you're willing to be shot- it was a fight to the death. AND HE SAID THAT THEY DID TAKE PRISONERS.
@@willibrordusa.vanderweide2962 ?
@@willibrordusa.vanderweide2962 Your opinion doesn't matter.
Perhaps they did. As was not uncommon, they were probably told by their officers to take the prisoners a few miles behind the front and be back in 15 minutes. (The prisoners would then be executed shortly behind the front line.) I have spoken with several veterans who even bragged about their war crimes, believing that it served the Germans right.
Scott Dunham Wallace PhD, Both sides did take prisoners. Kampfgruppe Peiper took hundreds of prisoners and treated most of them very well. same as hundreds of members of LAH surrendered to Americian forces and were treated properly, when you read the accounts of veterans they confirm this.
Another brilliant item Mark. Thanks.
Mark Felton Productions: what the History Channel should have been!
The depth on information from this man is a treasure to all mankind. God bless Mark Felton for preserving this history.
This is history, not propaganda! Thanks a lot for your great work!
I’ve been to Malmedy, and followed the entire route taken by Peiper’s force. The site near Malmedy is a haunted place, an empty field with a small monument alongside the same farm buildings as were there in 1944. By all accounts, Peiper was not aware of the murders at the time. However, ambiguity over the killings remain. The SS troops assigned to Peiper were fresh from the Russian front where atrocities like this were common, if not standard practice, and Peiper himself later obfuscated about similar atrocities. After release from prison he worked for both Porsche and Volkswagen before moving to France, were he was murdered and his home burned by French communists in 1976.
He was not "murderd"... he disappeared. By his own choice.
@@nickie2011 Peiper was released in 1956 and moved to France where the next year his home was firebombed with him inside,he was foolish to emigrate to France where the people have long memories and it was most SS ambition to surrender to the British and Americans but NOT to the French and Russians.
@@nickie2011 No, the ‘disappearance’ conspiracy has been debunked by multiple investigations. Peiper died in the early hours of 14 July 1976. In the weeks prior Peiper had been ‘outed’ as a former SS officer, and the area near his house defaced with swastikas, SS symbols and Peiper’s name. He wrote to several former Nazi’s expressing fears for his safety and he armed himself with several weapons including a shotgun loaned by his neighbour and confidant former Leibstandarte artillery captain Erwin Ketelhut. When Peiper’s body was discovered after the fire there was ample evidence he had used his weapons to defend himself. Ketelhut identified Peiper’s body and personal papers, including Peiper’s last letter to his wife, were found and his watch was also found on his body. The following day an anti-nazi revenge group calling themselves The Avengers claimed responsibility for his death. His body was subsequently subject an autopsy at the University of Munich, where it was discovered that the body had been mutilated after the fire. Later, Peiper’s body was buried at Schondorf am Ammersee in Bavaria, along with those of his father, mother, and two brothers.
Why? Why in the name of god did he go back to France.....He could have also moved to some lost village in the USSR, the outcome would have been the same. Perhaps, deep inside, he wanted to get punished.....
@@jorgebarriosmur Why are you making it out to seem like it was his fault that he was murdered by communists?
Hi Mark! Hope it was a good start to the week for ya!
War is not romantic. It's an unimaginable fight for survival. To believe one side (the victors) always play by the rules while the other (the defeated) does not, is pure propaganda. Well done for recognising this.
Another beautifully presented piece of history, Mark. Jolly good show!
I think it would be interesting if Mark Felton make some videos about the atrocities on the Eastern front on both sides
Daniel Eldred, those would probably be some fairly lengthy videos. So much to choose from.
@@jeffduncan9140 true, but its something that people don't talk about often and the truth must be highlighted on the evil barbarity of the Soviets and SS
@@Daniel-ms9ks indeed
@@Daniel-ms9ks Shouldn't be forgotten though that the main reason the Red Army committed so many atrocities against Germans was because the very same and worse had been done to their own people.
@@revanofkorriban1505 maybe, but that does not excuse the Soviets in any way, they were purely evil, and the Soviets were very cruel even before the second world war, just look at what they did in Ukraine with the Holomodor massacre or the slaughter they did in Poland in 1939-40 and many many more
Brilliant as usual. thank you Mark.
I’ve been really enjoying this channel lately. Even his British voice goes perfect with this content.
What do you mean "even"? Would you prefer, say, a Japanese accent?
@@Ndlanding um no. You obviously don’t understand what I was trying to say. Growing up in the US I watched a lot of ww2 documentaries, some of the narrators had English accents. It brings me back to those times growing up.
Not sure why you got so defensive over something like that but ok.
@@hackcult3738 I simply can't see why you would be surprised that a British voice would go well with an article about WW2.
@@Ndlanding I just explained to you why I said what I said. I’m NOT surprised, like at all. why would I be. Stop assuming. Now I simply don’t understand what your problem is over this, maybe miscommunication. Whatever it is, it’s not worth wasting anymore time over this, bye.
@@hackcult3738 Yeah.
Thank you Doktor Felton. I really appreciate your work and your interesting videos :)
Excellent work mark ..very concise
As an American, what those few did to those germans was disgraceful and embarassing for all of us. I wish a man with Pattons reputation would have persued a trial, rather than covering it up. Unacceptable. So glad Mark has the respect for history and tells the truth. Glad I know this happened, rather than not.
Given what the Nazis did in that war, I have no sympathy. What about the millions murdered in death camps? What about Russian prisoners? The Nazis were out to enslave or exterminate anyone they thought was "inferior.'
so sad, I think War crimes regardless of who committed them are evil and atrocious, good video Mark
PS, I have learned more history from you than I ever did in my 4 years of highschool
@C De essentially
Nobody can hide anything from the amazing Mark Felton
My dad served in Western Europe in the Canadian expeditionary force. He never talked about his time over there. He did confess to me before his death on the killing of a Hitler youth on an unnamed bridge.
Speaking of war crimes . . . France and Britain went to war against Germany on behalf of Poland. But what about the simultaneous Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 (?) And what happened to Poland in the end (?) Complete nonsense . . .
They were only obliged to declare war on Germany not the Soviets. To what happend to Poland after the war. Blame Stalin. Its not like the Western Allies could just ask Stalin nicely to leave Poland alone.
Stalin became good old uncle Joe for the western allies, so he wasn't able to do any wrongdoing.
@@stc3145 And yet they sat on the border and did nothing. Scratch that, they fought and promptly got kicked out of Norway and eventually mainland Europe
You're right they should've just declared war on Stalin and maybe none of us commenting today would even be alive as a result 🙄
But for real let's just be thankful it worked out for most of us.
BTW the whole thing with Poland and the Non-aggression Pact was way more complicated than most outrage history geeks give it credit for.
@@gerhardswihla1099 reminds me of Saddam Hussein. Except no one needed to give him an excuse while he was gassing people because no one really knew or cared who he was until Desert Storm. At least from your typical American perspective. I'm not so sure Stalin was any more of a despot than any other historical arsonist or he just had the most population to deal with. Definitely a man who will define evil in the 20th century for centuries to come either way. Your point is cliche when compared with all the other autocrats we've supported or flat out installed. Especially when considering the context of what was going on at the time.
Thank you Mark, as a student of WW2 I greatly appreciate your videos.
I can’t even begin to imagine how the war could’ve messed up the soldier’s minds… on both sides.
@@MW-bi1pi He was a very strong man then
dude, that was west front.
it was disneyland compared to eastfront...
Again excellent work Mr Felton .!!
Another high end video. Thank you, Mark; DOL
Imagine not being subscribed to Mark Felton Productions...
I would be getting subscribed
As always, another excellent historical document. Thank you , sir.
Good that you find the cold facts of history and inform us about what happened from both sides, with no "taking side" . You tell history as it should be told
We did have our black stains. I wasn't there and cannot claim to know the stress and thought process, but their is no honor in killing prisoners who have surrendered.
@@ColonelHoganStalag13 So, you'd shoot an unarmed man in the back just cause he's striving for freedom?
When victors write a war's history, and they always do, certain unpalatable aspects are often glossed over or go unreported, entirely. Such was WWII.
It happens everyday not just during war.
As it has always beeb
been
So very true, recent research by two german academics they concluded that there was 45k rapes of german women by the allies in WW2 some were murdered too.
then it becomes his story , aye !
Thanks to Mark Felton´s TH-cam-channel, I now have a much better insight, of what was going on during ww2.
Just curious to know: How did intelligence get back to the allies so quickly about the massacre at Malmedy? You mention 4 hours. This seems remarkably quick unless we're talking scouts, espionnage, plane monitoring, etc. Very interested to hear this little detail!
Alot of the US soldiers were running away from the Germans in the initial fighting. I imagine some must of seen the massacre or the aftermath and passed it on when they got to their own lines.
It could of been a rumour that passed around and just happened to be true.
Civilians also some are still alive
The 291st Combat Engineers, they were outside of Malmedy when Pieper hit. The fun part is there seems to be nothing on TH-cam about the damned engineers, even though they literally stopped Peiper's run by blowing at least 3 bridges. The only thing I have seen is from Against The Odds, which sucks.
Civilians saw the massacre. They could have related it through telephone.