Midnight Massacre (1945)
1945 CE.
Shown on the map at 38.958°, -111.848°.
The Utah prisoner of war massacre (headlined by Time as the Midnight Massacre) took place after the end of World War II in Europe at midnight on July 8, 1945, at a prisoner-of-war camp for German and Italian soldiers in Salina, Utah, United States. Nine German prisoners of war were murdered and nineteen prisoners were wounded by American private Clarence V. Bertucci, who was on guard duty in the camp. After a night out, Bertucci returned to camp around midnight to assume his night duty at the guard tower. Bertucci subsequently loaded the .30-caliber M1917 Browning machine gun on the tower and fired at the tents of the sleeping prisoners. After the massacre, he revealed his motivation was that, "he had hated Germans, so he had killed Germans." Six Germans were immediately killed, two died in Salina's hospital, one died in an army hospital, and nineteen were wounded. The victims were buried with full military honors at the Fort Douglas Cemetery. The wounded prisoners were repatriated to Germany after they were healthy enough to travel. After the massacre, Bertucci was taken into custody with minimal resistance.
Text from the Wikipedia article 1945 Utah prisoner of war massacre, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.