THE WERETH 11

  The 333^rd Field Artillery Battalion was an African-American (“colored”) unit that landed at Utah Beach in July, 1944. It was commanded by Lt. Col. Harmon Kelsey. Kelsey was not happy with the assignment and was sure the unit would never see combat because it was incompetent blacks. He was wrong on both counts. It first saw combat in Normandy when it was tasked with destroying a church steeple that was being used to snipe at 82^nd Airborne paratroopers and for artillery spotting. The men got to work, chanting their unit song – “Stand Back! Ready! Rommel count your men! Fire! Rommel, how many men you got now?”  Within minutes the steeple was destroyed, along with the Germans in it. The unit gradually  gained a reputation for being quicker and more accurate than white artillery units. In the siege of Brest, it fired 1,500 rounds in one day. An article in Yank magazine made the unit famous in the American army. It ended up being assigned to Troy Middleton’s VIII Corps. In the Ardennes, it was located near Schonberg in support of the 2^nd and 106^th Divisions. When the Battle of the Bulge began, Schonberg fell on Dec. 17, 1944. Most of the battalion was taken prisoner. 11 men escaped into the countryside. They tried to make it to American lines. They ended up knocking on the door of the Langer family. The Langers were anti-German in a small community that was mainly pro-German. They were hiding two Belgians escaping German conscription. Unfortunately, one of their neighbors ratted them out and Germans from the 1^st SS Panzer Division arrived and the Americans were take without a fight. They were led to a field where they were tortured, mutilated, and murdered. They were treated much worse than the white soldiers executed at Malmedy.  The culprits were never brought to justice.