[1][2] It refers to two incidents in which U.S. soldiers were involved in killing 71 unarmed Italian and 2 German prisoners-of-war at the Regia Aeronautica's 504 air base in Santo Pietro, a small village near Caltagirone, southern Sicily, Italy on 14 July 1943.
Immediately after landing, the US units headed for the airports located in the southern part of the island, and some massacres of civilians were reported; one happened in Vittoria, where 12 Italians died, including Giuseppe Mangano, podestà (mayor) of Acate, and his seventeen-year-old son Valerio, who was killed by a bayonet stabbed in his face.
[4] The 180th Infantry Regiment performed so poorly in the first 48 hours of the landing that Major General Troy H. Middleton considered relieving its commander.
[6][7][8] On 14 July 1943, soldiers with the U.S. 180th Infantry Regiment were facing stiff enemy resistance near the Santo Pietro airfield, and by 10:00, they had taken a number of prisoners, including 45 Italians and 3 Germans.
[9] After Sergeant West, with several other U.S. soldiers assisting him, had marched the POWs about a mile, he halted the group and directed that eight or nine of them be separated from the rest and taken to the regimental intelligence officer (the S-2) for questioning.
Investigators later learned that after West had emptied the Thompson into the group of POWs, he "stopped to reload, then walked among the men in their pooling blood and fired a single round into the hearts of those still moving.
He reported the event to his senior officers, who at first dismissed it because of the bad press if it were to go public; however, after some convincing, they agreed to go to court for murder.
[12] As commander of C Company, 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, Captain John T. Compton landed south of the Acate River amidst sporadic mortar and small arms fire.
Pursuing his first objective, he pushed his company towards Highway 115, joined with some 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers, and attacked several German positions.
From a concealed position in a nearby draw, the snipers targeted wounded American soldiers as well as the medics attempting to aid them.
"[19] The U.S. Army charged Sergeant Horace T. West for "willfully, deliberately, feloniously, [and] unlawfully" killing 37 prisoners of war in the first incident.
Brown testified that West had borrowed the Thompson and an additional magazine of 30 rounds and had appeared to act in cold blood.
[21] The second defense raised by West's counsel was that he was simply following the orders of his commanding general, who he testified had announced prior to the invasion of Sicily that prisoners should be taken only under limited circumstances.
The court-martial panel found West guilty of premeditated murder, stripped him of his rank, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
[24] On reviewing West's record of trial, Eisenhower decided to "give the man a chance" after he had "served enough of his life sentence to demonstrate that he could be returned to active duty".
He also pleaded not guilty, and relying upon the respondeat superior legal doctrine, also defended his actions by claiming that he was merely following orders of his commanding general given in a speech to the officers in his division.
On 23 October 1943 the court martial panel acquitted him, but the Judge Advocate's review of the trial declared that in his opinion, Compton's actions had been unlawful.