333rd Field Artillery Battalion (United States)

The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was a racially segregated United States Army unit of African-American troops during World War II.

Memorial to the Wereth 11

The unit landed at Normandy in early July 1944 and saw continuous combat as corps artillery throughout the summer. In October 1944, it was sent to Schoenberg, Belgium, as part of the U.S. VIII Corps. At the onset of the Battle of the Bulge on 17 December 1944, the unit was overrun by German troops. While most of the 333rd FA Battalion withdrew west towards Bastogne, in advance of the German assault, Service and C Batteries remained behind to cover the advance of the 106th Infantry Division. The unit suffered heavy casualties, and 11 men of the 333rd were massacred near the Belgian hamlet of Wereth.

After the war, the battalion was deactivated and reactivated during various Army reorganizations.

World War I and interwar period

The 333rd Field Artillery Regiment was formed on 5 August 1917 and assigned to the 161st Field Artillery Brigade, 86th Division. The regiment was sent to France but did not see action. In January and February 1919, the regiment returned to the United States and was demobilized at Camp Grant, Illinois. It was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 13 September 1929, assigned to the 86th Division, and allotted to the Sixth Corps Area.

On 5 October 1929, it was relieved from assignment to the 86th Division and assigned to the XVI Corps. The entire regiment was initiated at Chicago, Illinois, in December 1930. The primary ROTC "feeder school" was the University of Chicago, and the regiment usually conducted summer training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. It was inactivated by relief of Reserve personnel on 2 October 1937.[1]

World War II

As was typical of segregated units in World War II, white officers commanded black enlisted men. On 5 August 1942, the 333rd Field Artillery Regiment was activated as a colored (segregated) unit at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, and assigned to the U.S. Third Army. As part of an Army-wide artillery reorganization, on 10 March 1943, the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery became those of the 333rd Field Artillery Group, the 1st Battalion became the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, and the 2nd Battalion became the 969th Field Artillery Battalion.[2]

The unit landed at Normandy in early July 1944. The unit was sent to Brittany, where it participated in the siege of Brest in August and September, then battled across Northern France before arriving in the Ardennes sector as part of the corps artillery of the U.S. VIII Corps.

Ardennes Offensive
Honor guard for the Wereth 11 in 2007.

The unit arrived in the small village of Schoenberg near St. Vith, Belgium, in October. The Service battery was situated west of the Our River while howitzer Batteries A, B, and C were located on the east side of the river to support Army VII Corps.[3] The 333rd Field Artillery Group and the 969th were equipped with 155mm howitzers, and the 771st Field Artillery Battalion was equipped with 4.5-inch guns. They initially supported the 2nd Infantry Division and its replacement, the 106th Infantry Division.

At the onset of the Battle of the Bulge, the unit was about 11 miles (18 km) behind the front lines. In the early morning hours of 16 December, German artillery began shelling the Schonberg area. By the afternoon, there were reports of rapid German infantry and armored progress. The 333rd FAB was ordered to displace further west but the 106th Infantry Division artillery commander requested that C Battery and Service Battery remain in position to support the 14th Cavalry Regiment and 106th Division.[3]

By the morning of 17 December, the Germans had captured Schoenberg and controlled the bridge across the river that connected to St. Vith. The Service Battery tried to displace to St. Vith through the village and were hit by heavy German armored and small arms fire. Many were killed and those that remained were captured. As the men were being herded to the rear, the column was attacked by an American aircraft.

Wereth 11 Massacre

50°20′55.14″N 6°13′55.37″E

See also: Malmedy massacre

During the ensuing confusion, 11 men escaped into the woods. They were by this time on the east side of the river and forced to sneak their way overland in a northwest direction, hoping they would reach American lines. At about 3 p.m., they approached the first house in the nine-house hamlet of Wereth, Belgium, owned by Mathias Langer. A friend of the Langers was also present.[3] Langer offered them shelter.[4] The area they were in had been part of Germany for hundreds of years, until it was annexed by Belgium after World War I, and three of the nine families in the village were known to be still loyal to Germany. The wife of a German soldier who lived in Wereth told members of the notorious 1st SS Division that black American soldiers were hiding in her village. The SS troops quickly moved to capture the Americans, who surrendered without resistance. The SS men then marched their prisoners to a nearby field, where they were beaten, tortured, and finally shot.[4]

The frozen bodies of the victims were discovered six weeks later, when the Allies re-captured the area. The SS troops had battered the black soldiers' faces, broken their legs with rifle butts, cut off fingers, stabbed some with bayonets, and had shot at least one soldier while he was bandaging a comrade's wounds.[3]

The survivors of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion were ordered to Bastogne, where they were incorporated into the 969th Field Artillery Battalion. Both battalions had provided fire support for the 101st Airborne Division during the Siege of Bastogne, for which they received the Presidential Unit Citation, the Army's highest unit award.[5]

Because it had been overrun, the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion suffered more casualties during the Battle of the Bulge than any other artillery unit in the VIII Corps. Six officers (including the commander) and 222 enlisted men had been either killed or become prisoners of war. The 333rd Field Artillery Group subsequently served in the Central Europe campaign to the end of the war, while the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion took part in the Rhineland Campaign.

Names

The troops killed were:

Rank Name From Service number Buried Awards
Staff Sergeant (Mess sergeant)Forte, Thomas J.Jackson, Mississippi 34046992Henri-Chapelle plot C, row 11, grave 55.Purple Heart
Technician Fourth GradePritchett, William EdwardCamden, Alabama34552760McCaskill Cemetery, Wilcox County, AlabamaPurple Heart
Technician Fourth GradeStewart, James AubreyPiedmont, West Virginia35744547Henri-Chapelle, plot C, row 11, grave 2Purple Heart
CorporalBradley, MagerBolivar County, Mississippi34046336Fort Gibson National Cemetery, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, plot 6, 0, 2698-EPurple Heart
Private First ClassDavis, GeorgeJefferson County, Alabama34553436Henri-Chapelle, plot D, row 10, grave 61Purple Heart
Private First ClassLeatherwood, James LeePontotoc, Mississippi34481753 College Hill Cemetery, Pontotoc County, Mississippi, Plot C Row 9 Grave 57Purple Heart
Private First ClassMoten, George WashingtonHopkins County, Texas38304695Henri-Chapelle, plot E, row 10, grave 29Purple Heart
Private First ClassTurner, Due WilliamEmerson, Arkansas38383369Henri-Chapelle, plot F, row 5, grave 9Purple Heart
Private (medic)Adams, CurtisSouth Carolina34511454Henri-Chapelle, plot C, row 11, grave 41Purple Heart
Technician Fifth GradeGreen, Robert LeroyUpson County, Georgia34552457 Highland Park Cemetery, Highland Hills, Ohio, Section 3, Lot 3, Tier 24, Grave 22Purple Heart
PrivateMoss, NathanielLongview, Texas38040062Henri-Chapelle, plot F, row 10, grave 8Purple Heart

Memorials

On 11 September 1994, Hermann Langer, son of farmer Mattias Langer who had attempted to help the soldiers, erected a small stone cross to remember the 11 murdered men. On 23 May 2004, a new memorial was built on the site of the executions and was dedicated to the 11 troops as well as all the African-American soldiers who had fought in the European theater. It is believed to be the only memorial specifically dedicated to African-American soldiers of World War II in Europe.[6]

In 2006, members of the Worcester, Massachusetts, chapter of Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge dedicated what is probably the first memorial to the Wereth 11 on United States soil. It was dedicated at the Winchendon Veterans' Memorial Cemetery on 20 August. [7]

In 2016, a memorial was erected in Miller Park, Bloomington, IL. Each soldier is named.

After World War II

The 333rd FA Battalion was inactivated 10 June 1945 in Germany, while the 333rd FA Group was inactivated at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, on 30 December 1945.[8] Both the 333rd and 969th FA Battalions were later reactivated, although further reorganizations ensued, with the 333rd FA Battalion renumbered as the 446th FA Battalion. On 1 July 1959, the 333rd FA Group was reactivated as the 333rd Artillery Regiment with the 446th and 969th FA Battalions subordinated to it.

On 1 September 1971, the regiment was retitled the 333rd Field Artillery Regiment. Four target acquisition batteries of the 333rd Field Artillery served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.[9] Today, there is only one target acquisition battery in the Army that still bears the number of the 333rd Field Artillery: F TAB, 333rd FAR is stationed at Camp Casey, Korea, as part of the 210th Field Artillery Brigade.

References
  1. Clay, Steven E. (2010). U.S. Army Order of Battle 1919–1941. 2. Fort Leavenworth: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 860.
  2. "4th Battalion, 333rd Field Artillery".
  3. "Wereth 11 History". U.S. Memorial WERETH. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  4. Jim Michaels (8 November 2013). "Emerging from history: Massacre of 11 black soldiers. USA Today". Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  5. "Lineage and Honors Battery F 333d Field Artillery Regiment". Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  6. "WERETH Home". Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  7. "Wereth 11: They Felt Safe, That Night Would Turn Out to be Their Last, 1st SS Pulled up Outside". War History Online.
  8. Shelby Stanton, World War II Order of Battle, New York: Galahad Books, 1991
  9. "333rd Field Artillery Regiment", desertstorm1991.com, archived from the original on 19 July 2014
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