#western front

An old "car cemetery" dating back to World War II in Chatillon, Ardennes Forest, Belgium, Europe

"The gun in this block house was now silenced by our machine guns so we moved on again. Walked right up to the place and a couple of men went to the entrance where the gun crew was found all huddled up inside.

They had evidently been wounded and killed by our fire. No time was lost here however and our men fired point blank into the group. There was a noise as though pigs were being killed. They squealed and made guttural noises which gave place to groans after which all was silent. The bodies were all thrown in a heap outside the block house to make sure all were dead. There were five of them altogether.

It was a good thing this hornets nest had been cleaned out so easily. Nearly all were young men. It is an impossibility to leave wounded germans [sic] behind us because they are so treacherous. They all have to be killed. Too often after an advance, our men have been shot in the back by the wounded they left on the field. Now to obviate such a thing, we have what is called a ‘mopping up party’.

This consists of a small number of troops and they despatch any of the enemy who might have been passed over in the first rush. Sometimes in our hurry we leave a wounded man and then the duty of the mopping up party is to finish him. Their work would be light today for we are determined to kill every German we come across."