WAR MURDERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 166, 19 July 1946, Page 5

WAR MURDERS

43 GERMANS TO DIE DACHAU, July 16. The American military court sento death by hanging 43 Gerr man officers and men for the murder of American prisoners and Belgian civilians during the Battle of the Bulge at Christmas, 1944. Twenty-two others, including General Sepp Dietrich, were sentenced to life imprisonment and the remaining right were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 t 0 years’ imprisonment . The only high-ranking officer among those sentenced to death is Colonel Joachim Peiper, who is described as the daredevil commander of “Task Force Peiper,” which was an armoured division having its own First SS Panzer Regiment. It was his men who participated in the massacre of unarmed American prisoners at Melmedy. Colonel Peiper laughed when a photographer’s Hash-bulb exploded in his face as the sentence was announced. Those sentenced to death asked to be shot instead of being hanged, and the Court announced that a recommendation to that efiect would be made to General McNarney. Some women wept as the sentence.' were read out. / The courtroom was crowded. About three-fourths of those present were (German civilians and the remainder were American soldiers. Lieut. - General Hermann Piiess. commander of the Ist. SS Panzer Corps, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. and Fritz Kraemer, chief-n,-staff of General Dietrich’s 6th, Army, to 10 years' imprison-