[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H8362-H8363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 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

  Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Committee on Armed Services be discharged from further 
consideration of House Concurrent Resolution 43, and ask for its 
immediate consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Georgia?
  There was no objection.
  The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 43

       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.

  The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

[[Page H8363]]

  

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