On 19 September 1944, tanks, infantry and engineers of Combat Command "R" (Reserve) attacked the town of Sillegny, France, in multiple attacks, starting before dawn. They attacked from the woods about a mile to the west. Though they temporarily took the town, the open ground between the woods and the town, some of which was heavily mined, provided no cover. German artillery and mortars hitting the open ground prevented the men in the town to withdraw or reinforcments to reach them. Behind the artillery, German troops retook the town and captured all of the GIs in the town, about 37 of them, from 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, including the Headquarters Company commanding officer.

38 AIB lost 4 COs this day - three killed (CO Lt Col Rosebro, XO Maj Curtice Rankin, S-3 Maj Thomas Wells) and one wounded. The Battalion ceased to exist as an effective fighting force. No officers above Captain remained at the end of the day. Thus the After Action Report at the end of the month was written by a replacement S-3 Officer who was not there in the combat on 19 Sep.

The 2017 testimony of a German officer that he oversaw the execution and burial of 10 captured GIs raises the question of who those men were.

This web page and the associated web pages gather evidence of the events of the day and of the casualties, toward determining the identity of the executed prisoners of war -- all to achieve a fuller understanding of what happened than has ever appeared in any account.

I began developing these web pages in July 2017, with the intention of posting them September 2017 on the 73rd anniversary of the events. Unfortunately, health problems cut that effort short, and while I have done a few minor updates now in order to post these pages on the 74th anniversary, there is still much incomplete in a partial state of development. But I do not want my own limitations to delay the posting of these pages yet another year. So I am posting them in the state that they are. -- Wesley Johnston, 7th Armored Division Association Historian & Webmaster

This section is very much in flux, changing as new source information is added to the separate pages. This section brings together all of the information into an understanding of the events of the day.

The details of those who died, either killed in action or mortally wounded 19 Sep 1944, are on the Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) page. See also the Sillegny Recoveries web page, which includes recoveries from Sillegny for those killed or mortally wounded on all days of the combat.

In his May 2017 testimony (see Personal Accounts), WWII German officer Alexander Fuchs stated that his men encircled a house in Sillegny in which about 20 Americans were then captured. Because Americans in 5th Infantry Division further north had reportedly executed German prisoners, he was orderd to execute the Americans. He ordered his men to do shoot the Americans in the head and then put the bodies of the Americans in a trench nearby and cover the bodies with soil (apparently just enough to cover the bodies and not to fill in the trench). An American officer was captured, but he was apparently taken elsewhere for interrogation and not executed.

Is there evidence in the records that supports this? Can the executed Americans be identified?

The most relevant records are the Morning Reports, the Individual Deceased Personnel Files of the men lost, and the After Action Reports. The key things to look for are

1. whether a large group of men were captured
2. the nature of wounds of the men who died and were recovered (i.e. were they shot in the head?)
3. whether the men who may have had such wounds were recovered together

One thing that is clear is that there are only four men lost 19 Sep 1944 not yet accounted, two of whom were definitely not captured and executed. So there is no undiscovered mass burial of GIs lost 19 Sep 1944.

Capture of a Large Group

The Germans did capture a large group of 7th Armored Division men. (Keep in mind that this entire combat was entirely of one combat command of 7AD and no other units.) Captain Samuel McAdams, the commanding officer of Headquarters Company, 38th Armored Infantry Battalion was the senior officer captured. In fact, had he not been in the surrounded town, Capt. McAdams would have been the acting Battalion commander, since the CO (Lt Col. William Rosebro), XO (Maj Curtice Rankin) and S-3 Officer (Maj. Thomas Wells) who had each been commanding in their turn had been killed during the day, so that McAdams was the senior officer on the line that day.

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Nature of Wounds

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