Title: Providing official recognition of the massacre of 11 African-American soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion of the United States Army who had been captured in Wereth, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge on December 17, 1944.
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Recognizes the dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the United States of the 11 African-American soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army who were massacred in Wereth, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge on December 17, 1944.
Calls on the Senate Armed Services Committee to correct the omission of such massacre in the 1949 report of its subcommittee and appropriately recognize the Wereth 11.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 43 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 43

 Providing official recognition of the massacre of 11 African-American 
 soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion of the United States 
Army who had been captured in Wereth, Belgium, during the Battle of the 
                      Bulge on December 17, 1944.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 4, 2017

    Mr. McKinley (for himself and Mr. Rush) submitted the following 
  concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Providing official recognition of the massacre of 11 African-American 
 soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion of the United States 
Army who had been captured in Wereth, Belgium, during the Battle of the 
                      Bulge on December 17, 1944.

Whereas, during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium in December 1944, the 333rd 
        Field Artillery Battalion, an African-American unit, was among the units 
        of the United States Army overrun in the initial German attack;
Whereas eleven soldiers from different batteries of the 333rd Field Artillery 
        Battalion escaped capture and tried to return to the American lines;
Whereas the eleven soldiers were Curtis Adams of South Carolina, Mager Bradley 
        of Mississippi, George Davis, Jr., of Alabama, Thomas Forte of 
        Mississippi, Robert Green of Georgia, James Leatherwood of Mississippi, 
        Nathaniel Moss of Texas, George Motten of Texas, William Pritchett of 
        Alabama, James Stewart of West Virginia, and Due Turner of Arkansas;
Whereas, despite the bitter cold and snow, the soldiers walked 10 miles to the 
        town of Wereth, Belgium, where they received shelter at the farmhouse of 
        Mathias Langer, a resident of Wereth;
Whereas the eleven soldiers were captured by a German patrol composed of SS 
        soldiers, who, after dark, marched the unarmed Americans to a nearby 
        field and brutally massacred them;
Whereas, in 1949, a subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services of the 
        Senate conducted an investigation in connection with massacres and other 
        atrocities committed by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge;
Whereas the report of the subcommittee identified 12 locations at which American 
        Prisoners of War, Belgian civilians, or both were murdered during the 
        Battle of the Bulge;
Whereas the massacre of the 11 African-American soldiers of the 333rd Field 
        Artillery Battalion in Wereth was omitted from the report, and the 
        occurrence of this massacre remains unknown to the vast majority of 
        Americans; and
Whereas, in 2004, a permanent monument was dedicated in Wereth to the 11 
        African-American soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion who 
        lost their lives in Wereth during the Battle of the Bulge to defeat 
        fascism and defend freedom: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) officially recognizes the dedicated service and 
        ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the United States of the 11 
        African-American soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery 
        Battalion of the United States Army who were massacred in 
        Wereth, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge on December 17, 
        1944; and
            (2) calls on the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate 
        to correct the omission in the 1949 report of its subcommittee 
        and appropriately recognize the sacrifice and massacre of the 
        Wereth 11.
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