333rd Artillery Battalion (United States)
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The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was a racially segregated United States Army unit of
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
troops during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The unit landed at
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
in early July 1944 and saw continuous combat as corps
artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
throughout the summer. In October 1944, it was sent to Schoenberg,
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, as part of the
U.S. VIII Corps The U.S. VIII Corps was a corps of the United States Army that saw service during various times over a fifty-year period during the 20th century. The VIII Corps was organized 26–29 November 1918 in the Regular Army in France and demobilized on ...
. At the onset of the
Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...
on 17 December 1944, the unit was overrun by German troops. While most of the 333rd FA Battalion withdrew west towards
Bastogne Bastogne (; nl, Bastenaken, ; german: Bastnach/Bastenach; lb, Baaschtnech) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: 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
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. 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,
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. It was reconstituted in the
Organized Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 2020, ...
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
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, in December 1930. The primary ROTC "feeder school" was the
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, and the regiment usually conducted summer training at
Camp McCoy Fort McCoy is a United States Army installation on between Sparta and Tomah, Wisconsin, in Monroe County. In 1909, there were two separate camps named Camp Emory Upton and Camp Robinson; in 1926, these camps were joined together to form Camp M ...
,
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. It was inactivated by relief of Reserve personnel on 2 October 1937.


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
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,
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, and assigned to the
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. As part of an Army-wide artillery reorganization, on 10 March 1943, the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery of the 333rd became that 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. The unit landed at
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
in early July 1944. The unit was sent to
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, where it participated in the siege of Brest in August and September, then battled across Northern
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before arriving in the
Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...
sector as part of the corps artillery of the U.S. VIII Corps.


Ardennes Offensive

The unit arrived in the small village of Schönberg, near
St. Vith St. Vith (german: Sankt Vith ; french: Saint-Vith ; lb, Sankt Väit ; wa, Sint-Vit) is a city and municipality of East Belgium located in the Walloon province of Liège. It was named after Saint Vitus. On January 1, 2006, St. Vith had a total ...
,
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, in October. The Service Battery was situated west of the Our River while Batteries A, B, and C were located on the east side of the river to support the
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. The 333rd Field Artillery Group and the 969th were equipped with
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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 behind the front lines. In the early morning hours of 16 December, German artillery began shelling the Schönberg area. By the afternoon, there were reports of rapid German infantry and armored progress. The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was ordered to displace further west, but the 106th Infantry Division artillery commander requested that Battery C and Service Battery remain in position to support the 14th Cavalry Regiment and 106th Division. By the morning of 17 December, the Germans had captured Schönberg and controlled the bridge across the river that connected to St. Vith. Service Battery tried to displace to St. Vith through the village, and was hit by heavy German armored vehicle and small arms fire. Many men 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. By the end of the day, the battalion had only five howitzers left, the rest having been abandoned in the retreat. The survivors of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion were ordered to
Bastogne Bastogne (; nl, Bastenaken, ; german: Bastnach/Bastenach; lb, Baaschtnech) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Bastogne, ...
, where they were incorporated into the 969th Field Artillery Battalion. Both battalions had provided fire support for the
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during the
Siege of Bastogne The siege of Bastogne () was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. In order to r ...
, for which they received the Presidential Unit Citation, the Army's highest unit award.


Wereth 11 Massacre

During the ensuing confusion, 11 men escaped into the woods. They were by this time on the east side of the river, and had to sneak their way overland in a northwesterly direction, hoping they would reach American lines. At about 3 p.m., they approached the first house in the nine-house hamlet of
Wereth Amel (; french: Amblève, ) is a Belgian municipality in the Walloon province of Liège, and is part of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (german: Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens). On January 1, 2013, the municipality of Amel had ...
, Belgium, owned by Mathias Langer. A friend of the Langers was also present. Langer offered them shelter. 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
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deployed in the area 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. As
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, the American soldiers should have been protected under the terms of the
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, of which Germany was a signatory. Therefore, this maltreatment followed by
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was a war crime. 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 some of their fingers, stabbed some with bayonets, and had shot at least one soldier while he was bandaging a comrade's wounds.


Names

The troops killed were:


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. In 2006, members of the
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, chapter of Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge dedicated the first memorial to the Wereth 11 on United States soil. It was dedicated at the Winchendon Veterans' Memorial Cemetery on 20 August. In 2016, a memorial was erected in Miller Park,
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. Each soldier is named.


End of the war

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 8th Corps, Eighth Corps, or VIII Corps may refer to: * VIII Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French army during the Napoleonic Wars * VIII Army Corps (German Confederation) * VIII Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Ar ...
. Six officers, including the battalion commander, and 222 enlisted men had been either killed or become prisoners of war. Nine howitzers, thirty-four trucks, and twelve weapons carriers were lost. The 286 men that remained in the battalion were mostly reassigned to the 578th and 969th Field Artillery Battalions. The battalion was originally scheduled to be disbanded because of the heavy losses it had suffered and the difficulty in obtaining replacements, but in the interim, the few men remaining in the skeleton battalion performed guard and labor duties. Sufficient replacements did not arrive to reconstitute the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion until April 1945. The 333rd Field Artillery Group served in the
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and
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campaign to the end of the war.


After World War II

The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was inactivated on 10 June 1945 in Germany, while the 333rd Field Artillery Group was inactivated at
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,
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, on 30 December 1945. Both the 333rd and 969th Field Artillery Battalions were later reactivated, although further reorganizations ensued, with the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion renumbered as the 446th Field Artillery Battalion. On 1 July 1959, the 333rd Field Artillery Group was reactivated as the 333rd Field Artillery Regiment, with the 446th and 969th Field Artillery 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
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in 1991. 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

{{reflist


External links


Wereth.org, an organization set up to remember the Wereth 11

Stars & Stripes account of memorial

Narrow Escapes of World War II: The Black Battalion Holds the Line, documentary series episode on the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion

The Wereth Eleven, documentary film on the Wereth 11 massacre





www.defense.gov


* ttp://www.abmc.gov/search/wwii_unit_detail.php American Battle Monuments Commission World War II crimes Battle of the Bulge African-American history of the United States military Field artillery battalions of the United States Army