45th Infantry Division in Sicily - The Biscari and Comiso Massacres

Allied Generals Bernard Montgomery and George Patton - Op. Husky

Italian soldiers captured in Sicily by U.S. 36th Engineer Brigade

Italian POWs clearing up bomb debris in Allied-bombed Sicily

The invasion of Sicily on July 10 1943 was the catalyst for the downfall of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Immediately after landing in Sicily, massacres of civilians by Oklahoma's U.S. 45th Infantry Division Thunderbird, were reported; one happened in Vittoria, where 12 Italians were killed in cold blood, including the mayor of Acate Giuseppe Mangano, and his 17-year-old son Valerio, who was killed by a bayonet stabbed in his face. During the capture of the Biscari airfield in Santo Pietro on July 14 1943, troops of U.S. 180th IR of the 45th ID brutally murdered 71 Italian and two German POWs in what has been known as the Biscari massacre. Gen. George Patton noted his response in his diary: ...tell the Officer to certify that the dead men were snipers or had attempted to escape or something, as it would make a stink in the press... Anyhow, they are dead, so nothing can be done about it. Col. Forrest E. Cookson, testified that Patton had stated that if the enemy continued to resist after U.S. troops had come within 180 meters of their defensive position, surrender of those enemy soldiers need not be accepted. The problems with that defense were that the prisoners had already surrendered, and the surrender had been accepted. Sgt. Horace T. West, who machine-gunned 37 shirtless and shoeless POWs, continued to serve and received an honorable discharge after the war. West died age 84 on Sept. 24 1994 in Arizona. Capt. John T. Compton, who ordered the killings of another 36 POWs, was transferred to the U.S. 179th ID and KIA on Nov. 8 1943 at Cassino. The names of the murdered Italian infantry and airmen are known. German Olympic long-jumper Carl Luz Long, notable for winning Silver in the Olympics of 1936, also died on July 14 1943 following his capture at the Biscari airfield. Long went down in history for the handshake with winner Jesse Owens. Two more atrocities took place at Comiso airfield. The massacres of Comiso were witnessed and denounced by British war correspondent Alexander Clifford. Clifford reported that 60 Italians, captured in the first lines, were unloaded from a truck and machine-gunned. A few minutes later, the same scene was repeated with a bunch of German POWs: 50 of them were killed. The records and associated reports were classified secret and stored at the Pentagon. The U.S. Army generally failed to hold the massacres’ perpetrators accountable for their crimes due to its desire to keep details of the atrocities secret. Credit: hist. Rick Atkinson, hist. Fabrizio Carloni, Sen. Andrea Augello, Rev.Prof. William Bosch and Prof.em. James J. Weingartner. Top image: U.K. Gen. Bernard Montgomery and U.S. Lt. Gen. George Patton during the planning period of the Allied invasion of Sicily 1943. Credit: Paul Kerestes. PD. Middle image: Italian POWs captured by U.S. 36th Engr.Bde. July 1943. Credit: Andrea Moretti. FU. Bottom image: Italian POWs clean up the city of Palermo after the Allied invasion. Palermo was heavily bombed by both the British RAF and the American USAAF. Civilian casualties from the air raids amounted to 2,123 dead and several thousand wounded. Photo by U.S. photog. Levon F. West. U.S. LOC.