Manchuria Yeremenko He fought out of Ukraine in 1943–1944, then led 2nd Ukrainian Front across Rumania and into the Balkans His troops drove to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague in the first months of 1945 He held successively more important Red Army posts after the war, rising to Minister of Defense from 1957 to 1967 MALMÉDY MASSACRE (DECEMBER 17, 1944) The most famous of several massacres of American prisoners of war by Waffen-SS men during the Ardennes offensive There were several dozen survivors of this calculated machine-gunning who fled into a nearby forest They later bore witness against the SS perpetrators who left 86 unarmed prisoners dead in the Belgian snow A controversial postwar trial of some of the SS-men involved was held at Dachau The commanding officer, Colonel Joachim Peiper, and 42 of his men were sentenced to death by a U.S military tribunal, but none were executed Sepp Dietrich and 22 other SS-men were sentenced to life, but all were released by 1956 Dietrich served less than 10 years See also Biscari massacres MALTA From 1940 to 1943 this island fortress and its naval and air base stood against repeated Regia Aeronautica and then Luftwaffe bombing attack, while under constant threat of Axis invasion The Italians wanted to invade Malta because they saw it playing the same strategic role the British did: as key to control of the central Mediterranean Adolf Hitler balked at the thought of an invasion, recalling severe casualties his Fallschirmjäger suffered in taking Crete He was additionally wary of the Royal Navy’s ability to intercept any invasion convoy He therefore canceled a proposed HERCULES invasion plan, and Malta survived to play a vital role in disruption of Axis sea supply lines to North Africa during the later desert campaigns and fighting in Tunisia in 1943 Malta was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, but its increasingly sophisticated air defenses inflicted a high toll on inadequate German and Italian bombers Malta was used by the Allies as a base for launching invasions of Sicily and Italy and bombing the Balkans The population was collectively awarded a decoration for valor after the war MAMAEV KURGAN See Stalingrad, Battle of MANCHUKUO “Land of the Manchus.” See Manchuria; Pu Yi MANCHURIA As the Japanese Army withdrew from Siberia in 1922 it armed Zhang Zuolin, the “Old Marshal.” He was a local Chinese warlord and opiumeater who controlled most of the three provinces of Manchuria In early 1927 Zhang informed the Japanese that he would no longer permit their exclusive investment or allow Japanese settlers into Manchuria In secret, Zhang hoped to take over all China himself He advanced that dream by prematurely occupying 699