• Malmedy massacre

Date of birth:

May 7th, 1919 (Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States of America)

Date of death:

December 17th, 1944 (Baugnez, Belgium)

Buried on:

American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle
Plot: D. Row: 7. Grave: 41.

Service number:

31015229

Nationality:

American

Sergeant Alfred W.(Williams) Kinsman was born on 7 May 1919 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the United States of America. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred O. Kinsman and lived at 6 South Maple Ave, and he had one brother. In 1936 Alfred graduated from Haverhill High School. He then attended Webb Institute, in New York City, and Boston University from which he graduated in 1940. On 11 February 1941 Kinsman joined the US Army at the age of 21. He was assigned to a coast artillery unit at Fort McKinley, Maine. He went through training at the gunnery school at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and took a specialized course at M. I. T.. Alfred married with Mrs. Elizabeth Kinsman, and lived at 25 Lamoille Ave. in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
In August 1944, Sergeant Kinsman was shipped overseas to Europe, and transferred to the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. This unit saw action in ‘the Battle of the Bulge’ in the Ardennes, Belgium. The units main mission was to locate the enemy artillery position using the “sound and flash” technique (sound ranging and flash spotting). On 17 December 1944, members of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion were traveling from Aachen, Germany to the Ardennes in Belgium, when 120 of them were captured by Joachim Peiper’s 1st SS Panzer Division at Baugnez. They were lined up in a nearby field and mowed down with machine gun fire in what became known as the Malmedy massacre. Sergeant Kinsman was 1 of the 84 POW’s to be murdered in the massacre, at the age of 25. He is buried in the Henri-Chappelle American Cemetery, Plot D, Row 7, grave 41, Hombourg, Belgium. Posthumously he was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, Purple Heart Medal, World War Two Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign.

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• Photo 1: Findagrave/Andy
• Photo 2: Findagrave.com (Public Domain)
• - KINSMAN ALFRED W. , 31015229 Malmedy massacre 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion KIA Killed in Action December 17, 1944 – Haverhill Massachusetts – WorldWarTwoVeterans.com
  - Kinsman Alfred W.
  - Alfred W. Kinsman | American Battle Monuments Commission
  - SGT Alfred Williams Kinsman (1919-1944) - Find a Grave-gedenkplek
  

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