On the morning of March 26, 1944, fifteen American soldiers were led to a remote spot near Punta Bianca, south of La Spezia on the Italian coast. They were lined up before a firing squad and executed. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave, carefully concealed to hide what had been done. The order that sent them to their deaths had come down through the German chain of command, and the man at the center of it was General Anton Dostler, commander of the 75th Army Corps.
He had relayed Hitler’s Commando Order, which demanded the immediate execution of captured commandos. Just over a year later, Dostler would stand before a military tribunal, where the defense of “I was only following orders” would fail to save him. In the spring of 1944, the Allies were preparing for the invasion of Europe. As part of those broader preparations, a small team of fifteen American soldiers was sent on a high-risk mission behind enemy lines in Italy.
The men were carefully selected, all of Italian-American descent or fluent in Italian, and trained for sabotage and covert operations. Their objective was Operation Ginny II: the destruction of a crucial railway tunnel near La Spezia, a strategic port city on the Italian coast. La Spezia held major importance because of its large naval base and its role as a key supply hub for German forces. The railway tunnel was a vital link in the German supply chain, funneling resources and reinforcements to troops in central Italy.
Severing it would weaken German defensive capabilities and ease the Allied advance northward. The team was led by Lieutenant Paul Trafficante, whose family came from a nearby village, and included Sergeant Leilo Velli, an explosives expert who carried childhood memories of the region. They trained intensively in sabotage, hand-to-hand combat, and covert operations. On March 22, 1944, two PT boats carried the team from Bastia in Corsica.
The soldiers wore standard U. S. Army field uniforms and carried no civilian clothing. They approached the coast near Framura under cover of choppy waters and an overcast sky, but the risk of discovery remained.
The landing was treacherous. Once ashore, the soldiers gathered their equipment and began moving inland through the rugged Ligurian coast, where steep cliffs and dense vegetation slowed their progress. As dawn approached, Lieutenant Trafficante made the difficult decision to find shelter and wait for the next night to complete the mission. The men found a secluded cave where they could rest and regroup, hoping to avoid detection.
Later that day, a patrol made up of Italian fascist militia and German soldiers stumbled upon their hiding place. The element of surprise was lost instantly. Within moments, the Americans were overwhelmed and captured. They were taken to a nearby German command post, fully aware of the gravity of their situation.
They were behind enemy lines, carrying explosives, and now prisoners of the Germans. Anton Dostler’s military career had begun long before the rise of Nazi Germany. Born in Munich in 1891, he joined the Bavarian Army as a cadet in 1910 and served with distinction during World War I. By 1918, he had reached the rank of captain and earned several decorations, including both classes of the Iron Cross and the Bavarian Military Merit Order.
After the war, he continued his service in the Reichswehr, the 100,000-man army permitted under the Treaty of Versailles. In 1924, he transferred to military intelligence, broadening his understanding of strategic operations. When Hitler rose to power in 1933, Dostler navigated the transformation of the armed forces, and by 1938 he held significant responsibility within the military hierarchy. During World War II, Dostler served as chief of staff of the Seventh Army, and in 1941 he commanded the 57th Infantry Division during the invasion of the Soviet Union.
It was a dark chapter in his career, as his unit cooperated with the Einsatzgruppen in mass killings on the Eastern Front. In January 1944, he was appointed commander of the 75th Army Corps in Italy, tasked with defending the Venetian coast and conducting anti-partisan operations. The Italian campaign had turned dramatically after Italy’s armistice in September 1943. German forces faced both the advancing Allies and the constant threat of Italian partisans.
Dostler was responsible for the defense of the Ligurian coast, caught between the harsh realities of a losing war and the Nazi regime’s demands for unwavering loyalty. When the fifteen American soldiers were captured, German intelligence officers interrogated them. The information they gathered set in motion a chain of events that would test the limits of military obedience and international law. Dostler contacted his superior, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the commanding general of all German forces in Italy, to ask how to proceed with the prisoners.
Kesselring’s response was swift and unambiguous: execute the commandos. Dostler sent a telegram to the 135th Fortress Brigade relaying Kesselring’s order under the authority of Hitler’s Commando Order of 1942. That directive required the immediate execution of all captured enemy commandos, whether in uniform or civilian clothing. Although designed to deter special operations, it blatantly violated the 1929 Geneva Convention, which protected prisoners of war.
Colonel Kurt Almers, commander of the 135th Fortress Brigade, received the execution order and immediately recognized its moral and legal implications. Carrying out the execution of uniformed prisoners of war would directly violate the Geneva Convention. Almers made several attempts to delay or prevent the execution, placing multiple phone calls to Dostler seeking clarification. Despite Almers’ efforts to intervene, Dostler reaffirmed the execution order by telegram, leaving no room for further debate.
On the morning of March 26, 1944, the fifteen American soldiers were taken to Punta Bianca. There they faced the firing squad. The execution was carried out, and their bodies were buried in a mass grave, carefully camouflaged. Dostler was later taken prisoner by the United States Army.
The discovery of the executed American commandos near La Spezia sent shock waves through Allied ranks, and Dostler was charged with war crimes. A military tribunal convened at the Royal Palace in Caserta, the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander, on October 8, 1945. For the first time, a high-ranking German officer stood accused of war crimes related to the execution of prisoners of war. The charges were severe: ordering the summary execution of fifteen American soldiers in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Dostler’s defense pursued a strategy long considered solid in military circles. He argued that he had merely relayed orders from his superior, Field Marshal Kesselring. The prosecution presented an incriminating case. They carefully laid out the events leading to the execution, highlighting Dostler’s role in reaffirming the order despite objections from subordinates.
The 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare permitted the execution of spies and saboteurs disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms, but it explicitly prohibited the execution of soldiers captured in their own army’s uniforms. That was precisely the case with the fifteen American commandos. They should have been recognized as prisoners of war rather than treated as spies. By enforcing the execution order, Dostler had violated this fundamental principle.
The tribunal found Dostler guilty of war crimes. The ruling stated that his plea of superior orders failed because, in ordering the execution, he had acted on his own, outside the Führer’s order. The ruling struck at the heart of the superior orders defense, establishing that the chain of command was not a shield against accountability for war crimes. General Anton Dostler was sentenced to death by firing squad.
On December 1, 1945, the execution was carried out. It was photographed in black and white, with still and movie cameras present. Among the Nazi war criminals executed by the U. S.
military, Dostler was one of only two who faced a firing squad instead of the gallows. The Dostler trial marked a turning point in the history of warfare and international law. It set a crucial precedent for the Nuremberg trials that followed, establishing that individuals could be held accountable for their actions during wartime regardless of their position in the military hierarchy.
That principle would later be codified in the Nuremberg principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fundamentally altering the landscape of international justice.