- #AXIS HISTORY FORUM RECORDS ARCHIVE#
- #AXIS HISTORY FORUM RECORDS FULL#
- #AXIS HISTORY FORUM RECORDS TRIAL#
100 yards away, the selection took place: for unclear reasons, the younger ones (about ten) were taken over by the S2 intelligence office and escorted to a nearby place. Stripped of their shirts and shoes, the Italian soldiers move in two paired rows.
Michael Silecchia and Privates Amerigo Bosso, William Pastore, Herman Redda, Jerry Browne and Ewald Wilhelm, also joined by Sgt. West, ordering him to escort them to the rear echelon for the customary questioning. Roger Denman, who led the assault, handed 46 prisoners over to Sgt.
#AXIS HISTORY FORUM RECORDS FULL#
troops overcome the resistance of the 153° Machine Gunners Battalion, full of redrafted soldiers from Northern Italy: chiefly Brescians and Venetians. Many were his fellow citizens, coming from the city of Wagner in Oklahoma.Īt Biscari airfield, U.S. From the landing up until the seizure of the airfield, West saw 15 of his men die. In the hours following the landings he witnessed rapes perpetrated by «Italian-speaking US soldiers», captured five Italian soldiers and escorted them to the rearguard, and killed an enemy in a hand-to-hand combat.Īfter occupying the town of Biscari, Alpha Company headed toward the airfield. West, born in Barron Fork (OK) on December 13, 1909, married with two children, at the time had already served in the Colorado and Oklahoma National Guard. 180° Regiment advanced inland along Road 115, nicknamed “Adolph’s Lane”. Their landing took place in a climate of great confusion in the zone of Scoglitti. Devens, that received their baptism of fire in Sicily. Troy Middleton: a unit formed by recruits from Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado, trained at Ft. To get stained with the crime were the soldiers of A Company, 180° Infantry Rgt., part of 45° Division led by Gen.
#AXIS HISTORY FORUM RECORDS TRIAL#
And the exact dynamics of the fact emerges from the trial records. Crossing the elements, the solution of the enigma came out: the Brescian soldiers fell victim to the atrocity perpetrated by Sgt. Here two atrocities with ascertained culprits, but unknown victims there, the list of the victims of a massacre whose author was unknown. One was acquitted, the other was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the sentence was later reduced. West (colored, or maybe Native American).
#AXIS HISTORY FORUM RECORDS ARCHIVE#
From the cross-checking of these and archive papers a sensational fact emerged: already in 1943, US justice dealt with two slaughters of POWs committed on Jnear the Biscari-Santo Pietro airfield.
These days, the Carabinieri have interrogated relatives of both victims and survivors, re-doing the puzzle of memories. Among them, Brescians Luigi Ghiroldi (Darfo), Attilio Bonariva (Lozio), Leone Pontara (Concesio), Battista Piardi (Pezzaze), Gottardo Toninelli and Petro Vaccari (Brescia), Mario Zani (Iseo), while fellow soldiers Santo Monteverdi (Carpendolo) and Celestino Brescianini (Pertica Alta) survived the slaughter. The testimony of a survivor, Virginio de Roit, the research carried out by the Italian local newspaper Bresciaoggi last summer, the enquiry started by the military court in Padua, the work of Sicilian historian Gianfranco Ciriacono provided the tesserae to clear up the truth about the massacre which took place on Jnear the Biscari airport, in which 37 Italian soldiers were killed. From the mist of oblivion and «politically correctness» surfaces – after sixty years – the blood of the vanquished (Italians and Germans). Usually described as a joyride, the liberation of Sicily was in fact real war, with gruesome episodes, massacres of civilians and soldiers, and heavy casualties on both sides. Italian justice and historical research hold hands for once and together they write a page of truth on the atrocities which followed the Allied landings in Sicily from July 10, 1943. Killer of Italian soldiers identified Sergeant who shot dead 37 in cold blood was trialled in the USA Posted 08 December 2004 by Gian 61 years later, the effort of a historian and the inquiry of a military court uncover truth on the 1943 Biscari massacre
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