James Aubrey Stewart

James Aubrey Stewart

Public Domain

Quick Facts

Significance:

World War Two Buffalo Soldier

Place of Birth:

Piedmont, West Virginia

Date of Birth:

September 6, 1906

Place of Death:

Wereth, Belgium

Date of Death:

December 17, 1945

Place of Burial:

Hombourg, Belgium

Cemetery Name:

Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery

James Aubrey Stewart was born on September 6, 1906, to James H. and Emma B. Stewart in Piedmont, West Virginia. He was the youngest of six children. His family called him by his middle name due to sharing a first name with his father. After graduating from high school, he went to work alongside his father at the Luke Paper Mill. He also played semi-professional baseball with a local all-Black Piedmont Colored Giants. For almost 20 years he was a standout pitcher for the team. They played other all-Black semi-pro teams in the area.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor Americans mobilized for war. Stewart was no different. On December 7, 1942, at the age of 36, Stewart volunteered for the army. He was inducted at Clarksburg, West Virginia. He completed training at Camp Gruber in Oklahoma and later transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma with Battery C, 333rd Field Artillery Battalion. The 333rd was a segregated all African American unit with white officers. They were equipped with the M1 155mm (millimeter) howitzer. This was a versatile truck-drawn artillery weapon used by the army until the Vietnam War.

The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion arrived in England in February 1944. While there they continued to train. On June 29, 1944 Stewart and the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion landed on Utah Beach in France. They moved inland and saw action in Normandy and Brittany, where they participated in the siege of Brest. By October 1944, the 333rd were battle tested and positioned in Schonberg, Belgium, near St. Vith, where they were serving in support of the 106th Infantry Division.

On December 7, 1944 Stewart wrote what became his last letter home to his father. In the letter Stewart talked about how cold the weather was and how extremely slow the mail was. He also recently went to a USO show featuring Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich was a famous singer and actress who performed in USO tours in Algeria, Italy, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and later Germany. Stewart commented that he had a good time at the show.

On December 16, 1944 the Germans launched a massive offensive in the Ardennes Forest known as the Battle of the Bulge. The primary German objectives were to deny further use of the Belgian Port of Antwerp to the Allies and to split the Allied lines, which could have allowed the Germans to encircle and destroy the Allied forces. The battle lasted five weeks until January 28, 1945. By the end the Germans were repulsed at a high cost to American soldiers. The Americans suffered 89,000 casualties, including about 19,000 killed. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II.

Stewart along with Battery C, 333rd Field Artillery were in support of the 106th Infantry Division. They took the brunt of the initial German attack and held their position for 24 hours. They were initially outnumbered 10 to 1. The Germans overran the 333rd’s positions. Most of the men were brutally killed while trying to surrender or tried to retreat in the face of the German onslaught. Stewart along with ten other men of Battery C escaped as the German’s overran their position.

The eleven men traveled throughout the area in rain and deep snow trying to find their comrades or other Allied units. They were unsuccessful at finding other American troops, but they did find some friendly faces in the town of Wereth, Belgium. The men came to the home of Mathias and Maria Langer. Under cover of darkness, the family took the soldiers into their home, offering them cups of hot coffee and freshly baked bread. For a moment, they felt safe. But that night would turn out to be their last. Not long after they had arrived at the Langers, a patrol from the First Schutzstaffel known as the SS pulled up outside. An informant in the small village had spotted the unit and alerted the Nazis. Outnumbered the eleven African American soldiers, including Stewart, had no choice but to surrender.

That was the last time anyone saw Stewart and the others alive. They were led 900 hundred yards away into a cow pasture and were executed by the Nazis. Stewart’s family received a message that their son was missing in action. However, he was killed the night of December 17, 1945. The eleven men’s bodies were not found until February 1945 when the snow melted enough to exposure their bodies.

When a patrol from the 99th Infantry Division came to the scene, what they saw was horrific. The men had not just been killed but were also tortured. It was a scene so gruesome that one US Army photographer on the scene became physically ill.  From that day forward the eleven African Americans were known as the “Wereth 11.” After the war the United States government investigated numerous war crimes committed by the Nazis. However, the “Wereth 11” were not included. Many historians believe it was brushed aside due to all the men being Black and from a segregated unit.

James Aubrey Stewart was eventually buried in Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium. Stewart was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, and the Bronze Star.

Fifty years after the massacre Herman Langer, the son of Mathias and Maria Langer, placed a cross in the pasture where the eleven bodies had been murdered honoring the eleven men from the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion. In 2017 that the United States and West Virginia Governments fully recognized the “Wereth 11” for their ultimate sacrifice.  More than 70 years after his death, James Aubrey Stewart of Piedmont, West Virginia, was honored and recognized for his service.