Plomium France

[jim armstroong]

 

Got a few moments so I thought I'd post this FYI:-

 

 

Was getting some data for someone else and I came up

with this data which is the type we try so hard to forget

even after 63+ years but it just won't go away!!

 

On September 1st, 1944 before the retreating SS left the

area of Plomion, France, they murdered townsfolk including

many innocent women and children, burning down houses

with incendiary grenades. Sadistic evidence was everywhere.

Plomion is almost on the France-Belgium border in the vicinity

of Hirson. The SS unit was not identified.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

F. Y. I.

 

Data on the Plomion Massacre:-

 

951st Field Artillery Battalion with 9th ID - (the first US Corps

to reach Belgium.)

 

The day before (August 31), German SS troops executed 14

males of all ages in Plomion.

 

Later on the morning of September 2, we started to leave this

position. A young Frenchman about my age came up to my jeep

with his World War I rifle. He lived in Plomion and had escaped

from the SS troops before the massacre. He begged me to take

him with us to help in the war, but there was no way we could

take a civilian. He was a very brave man and would have been

worth his weight in gold. He was one of the few male survivors

of Plomion.

 

In April 1996, Lt. Russell Kelch and I went back to Plomiom, France.

We were able to get the complete story of the Plomion tragedy from

two kindergarten teachers taking children on a walk. The teachers

knew of this event and showed us a document about the massacre.

The German SS were looking for someone who had taken a shot

at them, and when the SS couldn't find the sniper, they ransacked

and burned the village. When the villagers wouldn't turn anyone

over, the SS arrested 14 men and boys who had not fled the

village. The 14 were beaten and executed.

 

A monument has been erected in the meadow where this

atrocity occurred. As we stood looking at the monument, Lt.

Kelch said, "You know, there were times in my life when I

wondered if this really took place or if it was all a dream.

That's why I never spoke of it much." I replied, "And now

we know it really happened."

 

Originally published in 951st Battalion FA Newsletter, Fire Mission

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A monument was erected in the meadow to commemorate this

atrocity. Haven't been able to find a picture of if but the inscription

reads as follows;

Quote "Ce monument a été élevé vers 1950 sur les plans du

sculpteur R. Antoine et de l' architecte R. Cabet. Les 14 stèles

s' élèvent à l' endroit même où sont tombés, lors de la débacle

allemande du 31 août 1944, quatorze plomionnais victimes d'une

ultime riposte".end Quote

 

(MY Free Translation = This monument was erected circa 1950

using the plans of Sculptor R. Antoine and Architect R.. Cabet.

The bas relief was erected on the same spot where they fell at

the time of the German Massacre of August 31,1944,

14 Plomion people ,victims of an ultimate retaliation).

 

These memories just won't go away!! Reason #3 for absence!!

 

 

Sgtleo

[Dogdaddy]

Dirty, rotten, lowlife bastards!

[Sgtleo]

Dirty, rotten, lowlife bastards!

 

 

 

 

Dogdaddy:-

Since you got so mad at the Plonium story I decided to give you

some more to chew on

 

I have listed a number of SS atrocities that happened in Belgium

and France. There were many others in Greece,Holland and even

in Germany. I can find no sympathy for men like SS Col Peiper regardless

of whether he was physically present or not. Not all these were

performed by Peiper's men but rather others as well!!

 

With Command - Responsibility accompanies it!!

 

BELGIUM:-

 

BANDE (Christmas Eve, 1944)-34 men killed.

 

THE MALMÉDY MASSACRE (December 17, 1944) 84 of their comrades

lay dead

 

ATROCITY AT STAVELOT Kampfgruppe Peiper, systematically executed

130 Belgian civilians

 

THE WERETH KILLINGS (December 17, 1944) eleven slain black soldiers.

 

France

 

THE NORMANDY MASSACRES (June, 1944) SS soldiers brandishing their

machine pistols opened fire killing thirty five men.

 

On the 7th and 8th of June, in the grounds of the Abbaye Ardenne, the

headquarters of SS Brigadefuhrer Kurt Meyer’s 25th Panzer Grenadiers,

twenty of the Canadians were shot.

 

June 8, twenty six Canadians were shot at the Chateau d’Audrie

 

After the war, investigations established that separate atrocities were

committed in 31 different incidents involving 134 Canadians, 3 British

and 1 American

 

LE PARADIS (Pas-de-Calais, May 26, 1940

A company of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, trapped in a cowshed,

surrendered to the 2nd Infantry Regiment, SS 'Totenkopf' (Death's Head).

When the 99 prisoners were in position, two machine guns opened fire

killing 97 of them.

 

WORMHOUDT ATROCITY (Pas-de-Calais, May 27/28 , 1940 The day after

the Le Paradis massacre, around 100 men of the 2nd Royal Warwickshire

Regiment, the Cheshire Regiment and the Royal Artillery, were taken

prisoner by the No 7 Company, 2nd Battalion of the SS Leibstandarte

Adolf Hitler.

The prisoners were marched across fields to a nearby farm and there

confined in a barn with not enough room for the wounded to lie down.

There the massacre began. About five stick grenades were lobbed in

amongst the defenceless prisoners who died in agony as shrapnel tore

into their flesh. When the last grenade had been thrown, those still

standing were then ordered outside, five at a time, there to be mown

down under a hail of bullets from the rifles of the executioners.

 

ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE (Central France, June 10, 1944)452 women and

children in the local church were then suffocated by smoke grenades

lobbed in through the windows and shrapnel grenades

 

THE TULLE MURDERS (Near Limoges, Central France, June 9, 1944) the

SS murdered 99 men in the town of Tulle

 

ASCQ (Near Lille, April 2, 1944) Altogether 70 men were shot beside the

railway line and another 16 killed in the village itself.

 

OUTRAGE AT IZIEU (Central France, April 6, 1944) The Gestapo, led by the

regional head, Klaus Barbie, entered the home and forcibly removed the

forty four children and their seven supervisors, throwing the crying and

terrified children on to the trucks like sacks of potatoes. All were transported

to the collection centre at Drancy outside Paris where they were put on the

first available train to 'points east'.

 

FRAYSSINET (Near Tulle, Central France, May 21, 1944) fifteen hostages

were taken and executed. These hostages were all young males from

one child families.

 

SAULX VALLEY ATROCITIES (August 29, 1944)

Robert-Espagne All males were then rounded up (49 in number). Three

machine-guns, firing in unison, sent their deadly stream of bullets into the

helpless group. In the village of Couvonges, 26 men were killed and 54

out of the 60 houses were burned to the ground. The village of Beurey-sur-Saulx

was also targeted by the SS and seven inhabitants met their deaths, the

church and houses put to the torch.

 

In Mogeville, three people died as a result of the SS retaliation. Similar

atrocities were also carried out almost simultaneously in the villages of

Sermaize-les-Bains, (thirteen died), Cheminon and Tremout-sur-Saulx by

the SS 3rd Panzer-Grenadier Division.

 

I know of NO Documented actions such as these by the Allies. Isolated

instances could and did happen I agree.

 

Sgtleo

[Walt's Daughter]

Hello Sarge:

 

Nice to hear from you. While all this may not be very pleasant, we all need to be reminded from time to time of the atrocities that occured during the war. Yes, I AM glad you added,

 

I know of NO Documented actions such as these by the Allies. Isolated

instances could and did happen I agree.

 

because sure enough someone is going to jump in and say, hey wait a minute I know of... Those people are always out there. I always try to point out to those people that we are not here to make things equal. We don't have to go point for point about everything in life. That's like a little kid crying, "Well Johnnie did it too!"

 

And no, the Americans, the British and the rest of our allies did not make it a case in point to do such things. No orders ever came down from HQ that said, "Round up those women and children and off 'em"! If someone wants to point out an isolated incident, don't waste our time. Right Sarge, right Dogdaddy?

 

I am sure that you and many other WWII vets, are carrying horrible memories, and for that I am so sorry. I have had small things happen to me, and it's hard enough when they come flashing back, but I cannot imagine going through months and/or years of war, and have those memories surfacing.

[Dogdaddy]

I would like to echo that last paragraph in M's post and maybe add a little something to it. One of the reasons I have admired the WWII Veterans for my entire life is that in spite off the horrible memories these men brought back home--- they got right back into the mainstream and raised decent families while returning to work or learning new job skills. Getting back to the subject of atrocities and the SS......I have never in my 55 years heard of even one case of women and children being intentionally killed by American GI's during WWII....not one. *

 

 

Dogdaddy

 

 

* and I wouldn't believe it if I did!

[roque_riojas]

Thanks Sgtleo for all the above info. I sure didn't know this. If it came out in the

"Stars and Stripes", I never saw it, we never got copies of it where I was at. Roque

[206thmpco]

Ditto Marion & Dogdaddy. In doing research about my Dad, I once came across

a website with letter after letter from people in Italy & France looking for WWII

American GIs and their families to thank them. Some of the letters were incredibly

touching about GIs who shared their food & saved families from starving & so many other stories.

 

Moral relativism is choking our country. The idea that every culture & belief & behavior

has equally value is obscene. American children are being taught this nonsense every day.

"Everybody wins & gets a trophy! , War is always bad...we mustn't make any judgements,

there is no right & wrong etc etc". It's extremely dangerous because we'll end up with

people who can't think, and are incapable of discernment and people who have no moral compass.

 

Nazism was EVIL. Period. Founded on evil premises, it results could only be evil (as the world would discover). It had to be stopped, and thank God that we had the GOOD men to do it!

 

mary ann

[Sgtleo]

 

Thank you for the commentary and the understanding!!!

 

Roque I believe it was purposely kept low key to prevent any

escalation by the Krauts(and if one doesn't like the word Krauts

tough stuff) if they found out how much it bothered us they

might have escalted their actions.

 

As some of you know, I was with Intel for a while and what some

of the SS Troopers did bordered on the Satanic for me especially with

the women and girls that had no part in the war except they lived

there at that time. This is a "Don't ask me because I won't tell you"!!

 

The SS Totenkopf (Death Head)Troopers and the Abwehr had

interrogation methods that I don't even want to think about today.

 

I know of one case where an elderly man walked out the front door of his

house when he heard a commotion and was shot right between the eyes

for being too inquisitive and when his wife asked why they grabbed her and

put her on a train to one of the camps.

 

Sgtleo

[roque_riojas]

 

Thank you for the commentary and the understanding!!!

 

Roque I believe it was purposely kept low key to prevent any

escalation by the Krauts(and if one doesn't like the word Krauts

tough stuff) if they found out how much it bothered us they

might have escalted their actions.

 

As some of you know, I was with Intel for a while and what some

of the SS Troopers did bordered on the Satanic for me especially with

the women and girls that had no part in the war except they lived

there at that time. This is a "Don't ask me because I won't tell you"!!

 

The SS Totenkopf (Death Head)Troopers and the Abwehr had

interrogation methods that I don't even want to think about today.

 

I know of one case where an elderly man walked out the front door of his

house when he heard a commotion and was shot right between the eyes

for being too inquisitive and when his wife asked why they grabbed her and

put her on a train to one of the camps.

 

Sgtleo

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROGER THAT ,SGTLEO----Roque

[Dogdaddy]

Yesterday I watched a 2-DVD documentary called "Voices of Hitler's Army", where they interviewed German veterans of all branches of military service during WWII. When it came to the section about the Waffen-SS, it was the same old song of "I didn't know about any of those things" and "even my children don't like me, but things were different then." So I guess we should stop saying all these mean things about the poor, misunderstood men of LAH, Das Reich, und Der Totenkopf Division. All these horrible stories we've read were just made up by the Allies, right Sarge? In fairness the the majority of Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe veterans I listened to expressed some sadness and regret for getting caught up in Hitler's lies, and except for the language reminded me of average men of any nation, and I'll leave it at that.

 

 

Dogdaddy