Memorial

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John Cobbler worked for the American Furniture Co.

He enlisted in Roanoke, Virginia on 13 January 1943.

He was one of the victims of the Malmedy massacre on 17 December 1944 when German SS soldiers of the 1st Panzer Division captured over 100 American soldiers at Baugnez Crossroads outside Malmédy, Belgium, on 17 December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge and, under orders to take no prisoners, placed them in an open field and then machine gunned them. When the machine guns stopped, the SS went through the field where some victims were still alive and systematically finished them off with pistols at short range leaving 84 soldiers dead when they had finished. Fortunately, when the machine guns first started shooting, a number of soldiers ran and some managed to escape and tell the story of how the Germans had treated the others who had not survived.

John Cobbler survived the massacre and was evacuated to the 44th Evacuation Hospital in Malmédy, where he died a day later.

Because he wasn't killed during the massacre itself, his name was initially not mentioned on the monument on the opposite side of the road but this error was later corrected.