Ironically, while committing war crimes, the American soldiers here likely unknowingly killed some war criminals.

One of the two units targeted in this massacre, the 3rd Infantry Division

Members of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division deployed in southern and central Italy from September 1943 to August 1944 were involved in a number of war crimes against civilians there. The first excesses against the civilian population occurred during and after the Naples uprising by Panzer Battalion 103. In October, five hostages were hanged in Cassino in response to an attack on the battalion. In the same month, members of the 29th Grenadier Regiment (mot.) were responsible for the Caiazzo massacre , in which innocent women and children were also killed. According to Carlo Gentile , in the vicinity of Caiazzo north of Naplesabout 60 civilians killed by members of the Grenadier Regiment (mot.). In the summer of 1944, the same regiment was used to fight gangs in Tuscany in the Grosseto area. At the end of July 1944, in response to a partisan attack , 29 civilians were shot near Empoli and another 13 in mid-August in San Piero a Ponti near Florence . Gentile estimates that members of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division killed around 200 civilians in Italy between September 1943 and August 1944. The project financed by the German Federal Government and managed by a commission of historians came to similar conclusionsAtlante degli Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia (German Atlas of Nazi and Fascist Massacres in Italy). [7] [8]

After the division was transferred to France, members of the division continued to commit war crimes. At the end of August 1944 in the Saulx valley near Robert-Espagne , Beurey-sur-Saulx and other neighboring communities, 86 civilians were killed by members of the 29th Grenadier Regiment (mot.). [9]