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[[File:Malmedy Massacre.jpg|thumb|right|The corpses of the U.S. soldiers murdered by the Waffen-SS in the Malmedy massacre were covered and preserved with snow until Allied forces recaptured the area in January 1945.]]
The U.S. soldiers who survived the Malmedy massacre said that on 17 December 1944, in the vicinity of Baugnez, the armored advance of the Waffen-SS ''Kampfgruppe Peiper'' surprised approximately 120 U.S. Army soldiers from the [[285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion]] (FAOB) who surrendered after a brief battle.<ref name="cole">{{cite book| series = United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations| title = The Ardennes| first = Hugh M.| last = Cole| publisher = Office of the Chief of Military History| location = Washington, D.C.| year = 1965
The SS machine gun fire alerted and panicked the U.S. Army POWs; some soldiers fled the killing field, other soldiers were killed where they stood; and other soldiers ran to and hid in a café at the Baugnez crossroads, which the Waffen-SS soldiers set afire, and then shot dead every U.S. soldier who tried to escape the burning building.<ref name="MacDonald"/> Meanwhile, at the killing field, the Waffen-SS soldiers walked among the American corpses to find and kill any G.I. pretending to be dead.<ref name="MacDonald"/><ref name="Reynolds"/> Among the 84 murdered soldiers, many corpses had head-shot wounds consistent with a massacre rather than with wounds suffered in self-defense or with wounds suffered while escaping summary execution by machine gun.<ref name="Glass">{{cite web|url=http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps1786/malmedy.html |title=Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy — Lessons Learned From a Historic Tragedy|first=MAJ Scott T. |last=Glass}}</ref>
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