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name
ADAMS, Curtis - Date of
birth
9 November 1920 -
Age
24 - Place of
birth
Anderson, South Carolina -
Hometown
Anderson County, South Carolina
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
34511454 -
Rank
Private -
Function
Medical Aidman -
Unit
C Battery,
333rd Field Artillery Battalion
-
Awards
Purple Heart
Death
-
Status
Killed in Action - Date of
death
17 December 1944 - Place of
death
Hauptstrasse in Wereth, Belgium
Wereth near Amel, Belgium
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle
| Plot | Row | Grave |
|---|---|---|
| C | 11 | 41 |
Immediate family
-
Members
Cyrus Adams (father)
Maggie (Haygood) Adams (mother)
Catherine (Tucker) Adams (wife)
Jesse Adams (son)
More information
Pvt Curtis Adams was a farmer. He enlisted at Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina on 28 October 1942.He was captured by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge in the town of Wereth, Belgium on December 17, 1944. He, along with 10 other prisoners, had their helmets and rifles taken, were forced to sit on the cold and wet ground until dark and eventually made to run nearly 800 meters out of town, chased by a vehicle driven by the German soldiers. They then were brutally murdered and their bodies dumped in a roadside ditch. This atrocity is know as the Wereth Massacre or the Wereth 11.
An autopsy report on the 11 is ghastly: broken legs and arms, jaws shattered, fingers severed, bayonet wounds to the face and body and bullet wounds designed to inflict anguish rather than death.
Since 2004 there is a memorial at the site were these soldiers were murdered.
The complete story of the massacre can be found here: http://www.wereth.org
Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.footnote.com, www.ancestry.com - Headstone and Interment Record, www.findagrave.com - John Bauer
Photo source: Jac Engels, www.wereth.org