The Massacre of the 333rd: Black Soldiers Executed in the Snow

December 17, 1944. Wereth, Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge had just begun.

While the world remembers the Malmedy Massacre — where 84 American POWs were executed by SS troops on December 17, 1944 — almost no one knows what happened eleven miles away, in a tiny Belgian village called Wereth, to eleven Black soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion.

Their story was buried for decades. It deserves to be told.

Who Were the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion?

The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was an all-Black unit — one of thousands of segregated units serving in a war fought, in part, against a regime built on racial supremacy. They operated 155mm howitzers, the heavy artillery that softened enemy positions before infantry advances. They were trained, disciplined, and battle-hardened by the time the Germans launched their massive surprise offensive through the Ardennes Forest on December 16, 1944.

When the German assault began, the 333rd was stationed near St. Vith, Belgium — directly in the path of the German breakthrough. Overwhelmed and outgunned, the unit was overrun. Most soldiers scattered into the frozen Belgian countryside, trying to survive.

Eleven men found refuge.

The Village of Wereth

The eleven soldiers — cold, exhausted, and separated from their unit — stumbled into the tiny village of Wereth, Belgium. A local farmer named Mathieu Langer took them in, offering food and shelter at enormous personal risk. Nazi collaborators in the village reported their location to German SS troops.

The SS came.

The eleven soldiers were captured and marched into a field. What happened next was not combat. It was execution.

The eleven men of the 333rd murdered at Wereth:

• Pvt. George Davis Jr.
• Pvt. Thomas Forte
• Cpl. Mager Bradley
• Pvt. James Leatherwood
• Pvt. Nathaniel Moss
• Pvt. George Motten
• T/4 William Pritchett
• Pvt. James Stewart
• Pvt. Due Turner
• Pvt. Robert Price
• Cpl. Georgie Shomo

Their bodies were found after the battle. Forensic evidence showed they had been tortured before being killed — broken limbs, bayonet wounds, and gunshots at close range. They were not killed in combat. They were murdered as prisoners of war.

Buried Twice — Once in Snow, Once in History

The Army investigated. The investigation went nowhere. The perpetrators were never identified or prosecuted. The Malmedy Massacre received international attention, war crimes trials, and decades of historical documentation. The Wereth Massacre received silence.

For nearly 50 years, the eleven men of the 333rd were forgotten — not just by history books, but by the U.S. government that sent them to war.

It wasn't until the 1990s that a Belgian civil engineer named Herman Langer — son of the farmer who sheltered the soldiers — began campaigning to memorialize the men. In 2001, a small memorial was erected in Wereth. In 2004, the story finally began reaching American audiences through documentary filmmaker Robert Child.

The U.S. Army did not formally acknowledge the massacre for decades.

Why This Story Matters

The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion served a country that treated them as second-class citizens. They trained in segregated facilities. They were passed over for promotions given freely to white soldiers. They fought under officers who sometimes doubted their capability — despite consistent battlefield performance that proved otherwise.

And when eleven of them were captured, tortured, and executed by the enemy, America looked away.

The Battle of the Bulge is one of the most documented battles in American military history. Over 75,000 books, films, documentaries, and articles cover it. The Wereth Massacre appears in almost none of them.

That is not an accident. That is erasure.

Honoring the 333rd

At Black Soldiers, we believe that honoring military history means honoring all of it — including the parts that make us uncomfortable, the parts that were deliberately hidden, and the parts that reveal how much further we still have to go.

The eleven men of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion died in service to a nation still deciding whether they deserved to be full citizens. They deserve to be remembered by name, in full, without footnotes.

Honor the eleven men of the 333rd — shop our Wereth 11 Tribute Shirt and carry their story with you.

Also explore our World War II Collection — apparel, prints, and decals honoring the Black soldiers who fought, sacrificed, and were too often forgotten.

⭐ Share this story. The 333rd waited 50 years to be remembered. They shouldn't have to wait any longer.