The Biscari Massacre, U.S. War Crime (World War II)

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during the invasion of Sicily two soldiers of the 180th Infantry Regiment 45th Infantry Division were held responsible for the murder of 71 Italians and two German prisoners of war on July 10 1943 troops of Lieutenant General Patton's 7th army and troops from the British Eighth Army under general Montgomery landed on the Italian island of Sicily for soldiers of the one hundred and eightieth Infantry Regiment this was the first engagement ever this unit was formed out of National Guard units from Colorado Oklahoma New Mexico and Arizona these men were the only green division participating in the invasion aware of their lack of combat experience Lieutenant General Patton decided to give them a little spur a July night the day before the invasion Patton held a speech in which he urged soldiers to be merciless when we land against the enemy don't forget to hit him and hit him hard when we meet the enemy we will kill him we'll show him no mercy he has killed thousands of your comrades and he must die if your company officers in leading your men against the enemy find him shooting at you and when you get within 200 yards of him he wishes to surrender oh no that bat will die you will kill him stick it between the third and fourth ribs Lieutenant General Patton later stated that he wanted to turn these unskilled young boys into killing machines so that they could bear the difficulties of combat better he probably had no idea what kind of problem his speech would later cause even though the first days of the invasion showed only weak resistance of access units soldiers of the 180th Infantry Regiment performed poorly it was obvious at that point that the campaign would be difficult for the men battle fatigue from constant combat was setting in it was their misfortune that they were ordered to capture the muscari airport it turned out that the mission would be complicated for the inexperienced unit they suffered heavy casualties from the enemy's artillery mortar and sniper fire the enemy snipers were especially effective from concealed positions this fierce resistance frustrated the American soldiers so much that they took their anger out on those who surrendered the first powa incident happened at the operational zone of the a company as the company was pushing towards the airport they managed to capture 45 Italian and three German soldiers Maj Roger Denham from the 1st battalion ordered sergeant Horace T West 33 years old to take these prisoners down the road where they would be held for questioning the POWs had been told to take their shoes off in order to prevent them from escaping sergeant West don't pay the order and March the prisoners in the company and a few other soldiers after they went a mile down the road sergeant West set aside several prisoners and sent them to the intelligence officer arrest he ordered to line up he then took a Thompson submachine gun from one of his soldiers and sprayed all the prison with gunfire after he emptied the entire magazine he reloaded and shot lying down prisoners at point-blank range in the chest 35 Italian and two German soldiers were killed the following day the chaplain Lieutenant Colonel William eqing discovered the bodies and reported it to his senior officers the second incident took place on the other side of the airport three hours later over there C Company was being torn apart by more fire and snipers once they managed to secure the position from which they were being sniped at the American soldiers captured 35 to 40 Italian soldiers who had surrendered some dressed in civilian clothing an interpreter asked them if they were acting as snipers but got no response company commander Captain John Compton believing that they were responsible for the sniper fire ordered his men to shoot them on the spot eleven of his soldiers obeyed the order and lined up the captured Italians some of the prisoners who realized what was going to happen started to run at which moment the American soldiers opened fire all of the Italian prisoners of war were killed it didn't take long for Lieutenant General Omar Bradley commander of the 2nd corps to which the 180th Regiment belonged to find out about both incidents he reported it to Lieutenant General Patton who dismissed the accusations as an exaggeration he also suggested the whole thing to be covered up so it wouldn't disturb the press Bradley however insisted on conducting the investigation and that both West and Compton should be tried for murder Patton eventually gave in and both were arrested and put on trial in the trial both men pleaded not guilty since as they stated they were acting under Lieutenant General Patton's orders given during a speech before the invasion however such a defense was not applicable in both cases sergeant West was accused of executing prisoners of war who had already surrendered and that he did it in cold blood it was pointed out that he had taken another magazine to shoot them again for his crime sergeant West was sentenced to life imprisonment his good service was the only thing that saved his life the investigations ended abruptly in 1944 at the fear that the incident might have leaked to the US public and the fear of repercussions on u.s. POWs in access hands on the 23rd of November 1944 West was released from prison and reactivated to the rank of private after the war he was honorably discharged and captain Compton on the other hand was acquitted and resigned to another unit he was killed in action on November 8th 1943 the trial only dealt with two cases that totaled almost 80 victims the exact number of those killed is unknown as other incidents at muscari were not brought to court both records of the trial were classified as secret and kept far from the eyes of the public for years you [Music] you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 3,954,206

Rating: 4.9034314 out of 5

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, The Biscari Massacre, WW2, italy, sicily, crime, prisoners of war, pow, General Patton, green division, speech, Biscari Airport, POW incident, Sergeant Horace T. West, allied, Captain John Compton, General Omar Bradley, thompson

Id: BY6Ld-8cZEM

Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Drabbestplayer]

Why do people act like war crimes done by the allies are a thing No one knew about? And the victors didn't write history the Nazis did for the Eastern Front.

[u/resurrected_kitten]

Despite my low opinion of Simple History the video itself is more tone deaf and insensitive than Wehrby.

However there are some gems in the comments.

[u/DeaththeEternal]

Only two of the 73 victims were German, the rest were Italians. I find the coverup of the incident and the precursor to the takes on My Lai and Haditha more revealing than the massacre itself. Soldiers massacre prisoners in wartime, what the Germans in WWII did was make that official policy and reward people for doing it.

[u/CommunistPenis]

There was nothing in this video that seemed wehraboo at all.

It was just a video about an massacre and how it started.

[u/SnapshillBot]

Snapshots:

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