• Malmedy massacre

Date of birth:

July 4th, 1923 (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the United States of America)

Date of death:

December 17th, 1944 (Baugnez, Belgium)

Buried on:

American War Graves Calvary Cemetery
Plot: 60. 

Service number:

35069577

Nationality:

American

Private Walter J. (Joseph) Perkowski was born on 4 July 1923 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the United States of America. At this moment there is no information about his youth nor where and when he joined the US Army. It is known that when he was 18 years of age, he worked at the Ferro Foundry Machine Shop in Cleveland and lived on 6404 Fullerton Ave.

It is certain that in 1944 Walter served as Private in Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion in the Ardennes, Belgium. 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. Private Walter J. Perkowski was 1 of the 84 POW’s to be murdered in the massacre, at the age of 21. In spring 1945, his remains were found near Baugnez after the thaw kicked in. He is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in section 60. 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.

Do you have more information about this person? Inform us!

• Photo 1: Findagrave.com (Public Domain)
• Photo 2: Findagrave.com (Public Domain)
• - Perkowski Walter J.
  - History | AMEDD Center of History & Heritage
  - 4Fourth Evacuation Hospital Orderlies Carry Malmedy Victim on Stretcher – The World War II Multimedia Database
  - Opferliste Massaker Baugnez - WW1 World War Tours WW2
  - 285 Field Artillery Observation Battalion 90 soldiers executed
  - PVT Walter Joseph Perkowski (1923-1944) - Find a Grave-gedenkplek
  

Helaas geen map gevonden.