‘This Is Orders’: The Santo Pietro Massacres and the Failure of American Military Justice

Abstract

On 14 July 1943, soldiers of the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment brutally murdered more than 70 German and Italian prisoners of war in two separate incidents in the vicinity of the Santo Pietro Airfield near the village of Santo Pietro di Caltagirone, Sicily. These killings, erroneously known as the ‘Biscari Massacre,’ stand as some of the most brutal atrocities committed by American forces in Europe during the Second World War. Despite this, the US Army generally failed to hold the massacres’ perpetrators accountable for their crimes due to the US Military's desire to keep details of the atrocities secret. Of the roughly two dozen soldiers who directly participated in the killings, only two-faced indictment under the 92nd Article of War. Of these, only one suffered punishment. That said, the War Department released the convicted war criminal a mere 14 months into his life sentence due to a potential public relations crisis in relation to issues of command responsibility. In the end, the US Army refused to accept responsibility for the atrocities and actively protected those culpable at the highest levels.