old, to take that group of prisoners "to the rear, off the road, where they would not be conspicuous, and hold them for questioning." The POWs were without shoes and shirts, which was a common practice to discourage escape attempts. 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. West then took the remaining POWs "off the road, lined them up, and borrowed a Thompson submachine gun" from the company first sergeant (the senior NCO in the Company). When the First Sergeant asked West what he wanted it for, West responded that he was going to "kill the sons of bitches." West then told the soldiers guarding the POWs to "turn around if you don't want to see it." He then killed the POWs by shooting them with the submachine gun. When the bodies were discovered thirty minutes later, it was noted that each POW had been shot through the heart, which indicated that it had been close range. 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." The next day, the 37 bodies caught the attention of a chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel William E. King. 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. Compton incident 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. Compton did not sleep during the first three days of the invasion. He was simply "too excited to sleep." On the fourth day, he managed about an hour and a half of sleep before the attack on the Biscari airfield. Around 23:00, C Company set off and reached the airfield around 1100 on 14 July 1943. Immediately they began to