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07/03/02 By
GENE OWENS You've heard of the
Tuskegee Airmen. You may have heard of the Red Ball Express and the 761st
Tank Battalion.
But have you heard of the
Wereth 11? Probably not. The Tuskegee Airmen were
the crack fighter pilots who escorted American bombers during the North
Africa and Italian campaigns. The Red Ball Express trucked vital fuel to Gen.
George Patton's forces as they raced toward the Rhine. The 761st Tank
Battalion gave fierce battle to the Germans during 183 continuous days of
combat. They had one thing in
common with the Wereth 11: All consisted of black Americans. The Wereth 11 died Dec.
17, 1944, in a brutal massacre in a snowy pasture in the Ardennes Forest of
Belgium. Dr. Norman Lichtenfeld, an orthopedic surgeon from Mobile, num bers
them among "the invisible soldiers." He has started a fund to help
make sure they're remembered. At least one of them --
Pfc. George Davis -- was from Alabama. Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Forte was from
Mississippi. Both now lie buried in the large American cemetery at
Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Technician 4th Class James A. Stewart of West
Virginia, Pfc. Due W. Turner of Arkansas and Pvt. Curtis Adams of South
Carolina lie there, too. The names of the others
as they appear on the monument are Nathanial Moos, George W. Mootton, Bradley
Mager, Robert Green, W. M. Pritchet and Jim Leathewood. Another list,
provided by Lichtenfeld's guide from Belgium, has slightly different
spellings: "Mooten" instead of "Mootton," "Bradlely
Meagler" instead of "Bradley Mager," "Pucket" instead
of "Pritchet," and "Leatherwood" instead of "Leathewood."
Lichtenfeld has heard
that one of them is buried in Wilcox County, but he isn't sure who he is or
where he lies. The men were part of the
333rd Field Artillery Battalion, servicing the 155 mm howitzers pounding the
Nazis from 10 miles behind the front lines in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium.
When the Germans launched
the furious counterattack now known as the Battle of the Bulge, the men found
themselves enveloped by Nazi troops. Unable to move their heavy artillery
pieces, they fled through the woods during one of the bitterest winters of
the century. The cold, hungry soldiers
sought haven in Wereth, a tiny cluster of farm houses not big enough to be
called a village. The family of Mathius Langer gave them shelter for the
night, but a German sympathizer saw them and tipped off the SS. Next day, the SS marched
the Americans up a small cow path and into the corner of a pasture. There the
Nazis brutalized and murdered them. Their bodies were soon covered with snow.
They remained there until the spring thaw. After the war, Langer
erected a small wooden cross in memory of the murdered GIs. Later, the family
replaced it with a modest granite marker bearing an inscription in German. The
English translation: "Here were murdered on Dec. 17, 1944, 11 U.S.
soldiers." Lichtenfeld learned of
the incident when he went to Belgium in 1994 with his father, Sy Lichtenfeld,
for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. The elder Lichtenfeld
was captured in the Ardennes Forest on Dec. 19 and remained a prisoner until
the following April. On their anniversary
excursion, the Lichtenfelds engaged the services of Adda and Willi Rikken,
members of a Belgian organization that guides visitors to sites in the
Ardennes. The Rikkens took them to the scene of the massacre. The monument erected by
the Langer family stands on the site of the massacre. The people of Wereth
want to purchase the small piece of land on which the marker stands and to
erect a more visible monument. The Wereth 11 probably
volunteered for combat toward the end of the war, when the Army eased its
poli cy of confining blacks to menial support roles, said Lichtenfeld, who
has become a World War II buff. The number of blacks volunteering for combat
exceeded the demand, he said. Why did the SS murder the
Wereth 11? "Maybe it was
because they were American or maybe because these men were black or perhaps
simply because the SS unit could murder at will," Lichtenfeld said.
"We will never know." He has been back to the
Ardennes five times since 1994. The foxholes are still there, now filled in
with leaves. Artifacts of war still lie just beneath the soil. Many have
found their way into the surgeon's home. An old rifle and an ammunition box
containing a belt of .30-caliber machine-gun bullets are among his favorites.
He even bought an authentic 1945 Army Jeep, which he has immaculately
restored. Lichtenfeld said Belgian
citizens "adopt" graves of individual soldiers and keep them decorated
and maintained. Adda Rikken has adopted several, including the graves of
James Stewart and William Robinson -- an Alabamian from another unit. The Rikkens have spent
some of their own money in efforts to perpetuate the monument on the site of
the massacre. Lichtenfeld hopes to raise at least $1,000 more. Those wishing to
contribute may send checks to the U.S. Wereth Memorial Fund, BankTrust Inc.,
P.O. Box 3067, Mobile AL 36652 or in care of Lichtenfeld's office at 6791
Airport Boulevard, Mobile AL 36608. (Readers may write Gene
Owens at the Mobile Register, P.O. Box 2488, Mobile AL 36652-2488, call him
at 219-5652 or eحail him at gowens@mobileregister.com)
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