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Personal info

Full name
MOTEN, George Washington
Date of birth
20 June 1922
Age
22
Place of birth
Hopkins County, Texas
Hometown
Hopkins County, Texas

Military service

Service number
38304695
Rank
Private First Class
Function
unknown
Unit
333rd Field Artillery Battalion,
C Battery
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
17 December 1944
Place of death
Hauptstrasse in Wereth, Belgium
Wereth, Belgium

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle
Plot Row Grave
E 10 29

Immediate family

Members
Robert Moten (father)
Arvella Moten (mother)
Quinnie Moten (brother)
Andrew Moten (brother)
Robbie L. Moten (sister)
Lummie Moten (sister)
Esther L. Moten (sister)
Hazel Moten (sister)
Robert L. Moten (brother)

More information

Pfc George W. Moten was a farmer. He enlisted in Tyler, Texas on 3 December 1942.

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, Carla Mans, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.footnote.com, www.ancestry.com - U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men / 1930/1940 Census

Photo source: Jac Engels