In the days after the D-Day landings, there was a huge amount of slaughter and execution
committed by the Allies and also the German Army.
The Allies admitted later that following the landings they were not in the business of
taking prisoners of war, being focussed on making a foothold back in Europe and pushing
the Germans back.
But the Germans would commit many war crimes as the Allied soldiers fell into their captivity.
They executed dozens of Canadian soldiers in the headquarters of German generals, and
more were shot in the graveyard of the Ardennes Abbey.
But there were many skirmishes and battles fought around Normandy in the days after,
and one of these was the Battle of Granges, which saw American paratroopers of the US
82nd Airborne Division fighting in Granges against the 17th SS Panzergrenadiers.
But after the fierce fighting, the Germans would regain the village but no one could
have anticipated the executions that they would carry out against the American soldiers.
Join us today as we look at the executions of the American soldiers slaughtered by the
German Army, to support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
Before the Normandy landings began on the 6th June 1944, there were planeloads of Allied
paratroopers who were parachuted into France behind enemy lines under the cover of darkness.
At around 2am, 12 aircraft filled with American paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion of the
507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who were part of the 82nd Airborne Division were dropped.
They landed in the marshland south of Carentan which would become a key stronghold in Normandy,
but they were meant to be dropped around 18 mines northwest at a place designated as drop
zone T, close to Amfreville, however they got close to the village of Granges.
This was the most missed drop of the American airborne units on D-Day and because of this,
the men who landed were in severe danger.
8 hours later, 25 paratroopers led by Captain Leroy Brummitt had got together in the village.
But then two hours later more paratroopers joined and these were led by Major Charles
D Johnson.
But the soldiers were very far behind enemy lines, and as they were miles from their drop
zone the decision was made for the Americans to dig in, and to stay where they landed and
they were to wait for the advancing American soldiers.
They began to dig in and secure defensive positions, and they did have a number of mortars
around the cemetery which were place, and a group of soldiers was also sent to climb
the church bell tower and to keep a look out for German soldiers.
The lookout position was great, and the observer could see miles of roads and paths leading
to the village, but then a command post was set up at the boy’s school in Graignes.
They continued to dig in and more misdropped Americans arrived in the village, and as the
day progressed a group of 182 Americans had gathered.
But the village mayor that morning woke up and he co-operated with the Americans and
he later tried to rouse as many supplies as possible.
The paratroopers were fed, and the French knew that this was treason and would result
in executions if the Germans found out they were collaborating with the Americans.
The women of Graignes began to cook all day to provide meals to the Americans, and children
also helped to gather equipment to make a secure perimeter.
However after a few days, trouble was on the horizon.
In the afternoon of the 10th June, a mechanised infantry patrol came towards a defensive position,
and some of the Americans allowed the patrol to get close, and they then opened fire and
killed four soldiers.
When they searched the bodies, they found that this was a recon battalion and was part
of an armoured division, meaning that it was possible that there was a panzer division
nearby.
But on the Sunday everything was quiet, and there was even a church service, but this
was interrupted by a woman who ran in screaming, ‘The Germans are coming, save yourselves.’
After this, there was a first assault, but the Germans could not get close.
Then the Germans around 2pm started bombarding Graignes by mortar fire, and an assault was
launched by infantry who tried to flank the village.
But the attackers moved quickly and the perimeter was almost breached.
But the movement of forces allowed the line to be held, and the supporting fire held off
the advancing infantry, but the mortar fire did lead to heavy losses.
They managed to kill dozens of Germans who were caught in the machine gun fire defending
the village, but then in the evenings German heavy artillery could be heard.
Two 88mm guns opened up on the village from a few kms away, and this killed Major Johnson,
and the observation post in the bell tower was destroyed.
This meant that the Americans could not effectively use their mortars, but the Germans then pushed
that night into Graignes and there were just a few pockets of resistance and many Americans
ran out of bullets.
But then the order was given by Captain Brummitt for the Americans to pair up and try to get
to Carentan or Saint Mere Elise.
The 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division had been conducting the last assault on Graignes, and
when they attacked they had 2000 men, meaning the Germans had 10 soldiers to one American.
The Paratroopers did kill 100 Germans and wounded 200 more, but after the village fell,
the 17th SS men went into the church and they found the aid station.
Captain Abraham Sophian was a battalion surgeon who had paratrooper who had landed in, and
he then surrendered the building to the SS men by waving a white flag, and the SS men
then forced the captain and his two medics and helpers along with 14 wounded Americans
to stand up against the wall.
These were now technically classed as prisoners of war, and they should have been treated
as this and protected under the Geneva Convention.
They should have been processed and then sent to a prisoner of war camp, but what came next
showed the horror of the SS.
The wounded Americans were split into two and were slaughtered.
One group of five men was taken to the edge of a pond which was found close by, and the
SS men then stabbed them with their bayonets before then dumping their remains in the water.
The other group of 9 men were taken into a field around 4kms to the south near to a village,
and they were then told to dig a pit and kneel down.
Then an executioner went behind each of the American men and put a bullet through their
head, and pushed their bodies into the grave they had dug.
Captain Sophian and the two medics were also slaughtered, meaning that the SS men executed
17 American men in the war crime.
But they would not stop there.
They then rounded up the French civilians who they thought had helped the Americans
and 44 villagers were gathered and interrogated.
SS men then dragged two priests and they were then shot next to their rectory, and they
then slaughtered a woman and an old woman in their beds, and they ransacked the village.
Two days later they burned the village and burned the bodies of the French priests and
women they had slaughtered.
The blaze destroyed 66 homes and as well as most of the other buildings.
The bravery of those Americans inside the village of Graignes was remarkable, as they
actually stopped the advance of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadiers getting to the strategic
position of Carentan before the 101st Airborne Division.
But in the horror, the Americans had lost 32 men, and 17 of these were executed.
The loses they inflicted on the Germans was substaitial with over 100 dead, and around
200 wounded, but 26 French civilians were also executed in the reprisals.
The war crime showed how brutal and horrific the SS could be and how they had no consideration
for the lives of prisoners.
They were outraged at the losses that were sustained on their part and decided to slaughter
the innocent and also the wounded in a brazen act of evil.
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