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Salina, Utah POW massacre

Utah prisoner of war massacre
Salina Utah POW camp.gif
Location Salina, Utah, United States
Coordinates 38°57′28″N 111°50′52″W / 38.95767°N 111.84777°W / 38.95767; -111.84777Coordinates: 38°57′28″N 111°50′52″W / 38.95767°N 111.84777°W / 38.95767; -111.84777
Date July 8, 1945
12:00 midnight (MST)
Target German prisoners of war
Attack type
Mass murder, POW massacre
Weapons .30 caliber M1917 Browning machine gun
Deaths 9
Non-fatal injuries
20
Perpetrator Clarence V. Bertucci

The Utah prisoner of war massacre (headlined by Time as Midnight Massacre) occurred just after midnight on July 8, 1945, when an American soldier, Private Clarence V. Bertucci, killed nine German prisoners of war and wounded twenty others at a camp in Salina, Utah. It is remembered for being "the worst massacre at a POW camp in U.S. history," and the ensuing conviction of Bertucci made him one of only three American soldiers prosecuted during World War II for killing Axis prisoners. It was also notable for having occurred two months after the German surrender and the end of the war in Europe.

During World War II, Utah was home to some 15,000 Italian and German prisoners that were distributed across several camps. Camp Salina was a small, temporary branch camp that was occupied from 1944 to 1945 by about 250 Germans, most of whom were from Erwin Rommel's Afrikakorps. It was a simple complex; forty-three tents with wooden floors, an officer's quarters, and three guard towers around the perimeter. Unlike many other American prison camps, which were built in isolated areas, Camp Salina was located within the small town of Salina, at the eastern end of Main Street. The Germans had been sent there to help with the harvest, and, according to Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune, they were well-behaved and friendly to the locals.

Private Bertucci was born in New Orleans in 1921. He dropped out of school in the sixth grade, and then joined the United States Army in 1940. After five years of service, including one tour to England with an artillery unit, Bertucci seemed to be incapable of being promoted and also had a "discipline problem." According to later testimony, he was unsatisfied with his tour and said that he felt "cheated" out of his chance to kill Germans. He was also quoted as saying, "Someday I will get my Germans; I will get my turn." Apart from overtly expressing his hatred of Germans, Bertucci did not show any indications of what he was planning on doing in the days before the massacre.


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Wikipedia

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