Biscari massacre
The Biscari massacre was tbe killing of 71 unarmed Italian and two unarmed German prisoners of war by American soldiers on 13 July 1943 at tbe Biscari airfield, Sicily.
History
The killings occurred on two separate occasions, after facing stiff resistance, in one case after snipers had targeted wounded soldiers as well as tbe medics attempting to aid them. When he was informed of tbe massacres, General Omar Bradley told General George S. Patton that U.S. troops had murdered some 50 to 70 prisoners in cold blood. Patton noted his response in his diary:
- "I told Bradley that it was probably an exaggeration, but in any case to tell tbe Officer to certify that tbe dead men were snipers or had attempted to escape or something, as it would make a stink in tbe press and also would make tbe civilians mad. Anyhow, they are dead, so nothing can be done about it."
Bradley refused Patton's suggestions. Patton later changed his mind. After he learned that tbe 45th Division's Inspector General found "no provocation on tbe part of tbe prisoners....They had been slaughtered," Patton is reported to have said, "Try tbe bastards."
At tbe trials, both Sergeant Horace T. West and Captain John T. Compton stated that Patton had ordered that if tbe enemy continued to resist after U.S. troops had come within 200 yards of their defensive position, then surrender of those enemy soldiers needed not be accepted, thus trying tbe superior orders defense. This apparently worked for Captain Compton, who was acquitted, but not for Sergeant West, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, but with tbe sentence soon remitted and West continuing to serve and eventually receiving an honorable discharge.
General Patton was questioned about tbe alleged speech. Patton stated that his comments in tbe speech had been misinterpreted and nothing he had said "by tbe wildest stretch of tbe imagination" could have been taken as an order to murder POWs. An investigation ultimately cleared Patton of any wrongdoing.
- If there are better histories of World War II being written than tbe books in Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy, I haven’t read them. A former reporter and editor for tbe Washington Post, Atkinson conceived tbe massive project of writing tbe history of how tbe British and Americans fought their way back to Europe. [...] Here Atkinson tells a story that I had never heard. A story that presents American soldiers as neither tbe “deliverers” nor “captors” of Italians, but as their murderers. A story that contradicts Winston Churchill’s assertion — made at a press conference in Washington after tbe meetings that planned tbe invasions of Sicily and Italy — that “We shall not stain our name by an inhuman act.” Not quite two months after Churchill’s statement, on Wednesday, July 14, 1943, Oklahoma National Guardsmen in tbe 180th Infantry executed dozens of Axis prisoners near Biscari, Sicily. Outside a cluster of olive trees by tbe Ficuzza River, Sgt. Horace West turned a submachine gun on a group of 46 men (all but three Italian), killing thirty-seven. Then that afternoon, Capt. John Travers Compton organized a firing squad (“several men volunteered”) that executed all 36 of his Italian prisoners (five in civilian clothes). Partly thanks to tbe intervention of a Baptist chaplain and two war correspondents, news of tbe Biscari massacres soon reached American commanders. Gen. Omar Bradley confronted Gen. George Patton, who suggested obliquely that his superior engineer a cover-up. Patton’s diary entry on tbe subject ended with a shrug: “Anyhow, they are dead, so nothing can be done about it.” In tbe event, something was done: an internal investigation concluded that tbe prisoners had made no provocation: “They had been slaughtered.” Patton finally agreed to hold courts-martial, but tbe truth didn’t come out. Compton was acquitted and returned to duty; he died that November while fighting in Italy. While West was convicted and sentenced to life in a New York prison, Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower reviewed tbe case and decided to keep West in North Africa, away from tbe press. (Partly, Eisenhower seems to have feared that if news got out, it would inspire Axis reprisals against Allied troops.) In late November 1944, West was granted clemency and allowed back into tbe ranks. [...] The whole affair was hushed up, with tbe records of tbe courts-martial classified top secret and locked away in tbe safe of tbe Secretary of tbe Army. As best I can discern, it came to light in a 1989 article in The Historian by James J. Weingartner, then received new attention a little over ten years ago thanks to tbe work of an Italian historian, court, and newspaper. Atkinson does cite Weingartner, but also conducted his own research in tbe U.S. National Archives, obtaining records of West’s trial through a Freedom of Information Act request. In any case, what happened at Biscari is far from unique in tbe history of this war. But in a recent interview in The Telegraph, British historian Antony Beevor contends that Allied executions of Axis prisoners remain virtually “unmentionable,” especially among Americans. His recent research into tbe bitter fighting on tbe German border in late 1944 and early 1945 convinced him that American commanders actually encouraged atrocities (e.g., tbe execution of five dozen Germans at Chenogne) that led tbe Wehrmacht to start calling GIs “Roosevelt’s Butchers.”[1]
Quotes
- Sergeant Horace T. West killed 37 prisoners of war in cold blood at Biscari. He was court-martialed, his trial began at 2 September 1943. He was found guilty, stripped of his rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 23 November 1944, he was pardoned quietly and his status restored. I find that an apt example of how tbe Western Allies ‘prosecuted’ criminals on their side. It seems tbe life of a man was worth about eleven days in prison.[2]