Biscari massacres

Biscari massacres. In two separate incidents during the Sicilian campaign of July– August 1943, 76 German and Italian prisoners-of-war were shot by US troops of the 45th Division's 180th Regiment near Biscari airfield. The army commander, Lt-General Patton, directed the men's corps commander, Lt-General Bradley, to tell ‘the officer responsible for the shootings to certify that the dead men were snipers or had attempted to escape or something’. Bradley refused and as a result of the first incident, in which 34 Italians and 2 Germans were shot, Sergeant Horace West was charged with their murder. West admitted he had shot most of the prisoners himself believing, following a pre-invasion speech by Patton, that he was obeying orders. In the second incident, when 40 Italian prisoners were shot, the accused, Captain John Compton, also of the 180th Regiment, quoted Patton's speech, too, and said that he thought he was carrying out the orders of a superior officer. He was acquitted and was killed in action shortly afterwards. West was sentenced to life imprisonment, but a year later, after Compton was acquitted, this was commuted and he returned to the army as a private.

As one account has pointed out ( I. Sayer and D. Botting, Hitler's Last General, London, 1989, p. 358), if the US officers commanding the men involved in these atrocities had received the same treatment as those German officers found guilty after the war of the Malmédy massacre, their sentences would have been as follows: Patton—life imprisonment; Bradley—ten years; the regimental commander, Colonel E. Cookson—death.