After the capture of Biscari airfield on 14 July , American soldiers from the 180th Regimental Combat Team of the 45th Division murdered 74 Italian and two German prisoners of war in two massacres at Biscari airfield on 14 July 1943 . Sergeant Horace T. West and Captain John T. Compton were charged with a war crime ; West was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and stripped of his rank but was released back to active service in November 1944 as a private , and honorably discharged at the end of his service . Compton was charged with killing 40 prisoners in his charge but was acquitted and transferred to another regiment , where he died in November 1943 in the fighting in Italy
two massacres at Biscari airfield
Biscari massacre
Allied invasion of Sicily