Richard Müller
On July 16, 1943, Generalleutnant Richard Müller, commander of the 211th Infantry Division, was killed in action northeast of Orel, Russia. (Quiet Flows the Rhine, German General Officer Casualties in World War II)
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Dual gallows at Landsberg Military Prison. Master Sergeant Woods seemed to always use the left gallows.
On July 16, 1944, Justus Gerstenberg murdered an American airman, who had just surrendered and was a prisoner of war; a tribunal in Ludwigsburg met and convicted him in January 1946. John Woods hanged Gerstenberg at Landsberg Prison on September 12, 1946. Private Joseph Malta served as Woods’ assistant; Lieutenant Stanley Tilles served as the officer in charge. A photograph of the event shows it was sunny and good weather; there were approximately thirty American soldiers present. The trap door dropped at 8:00 a.m. Prior to the execution, Woods had modified the trap door with a latch that prevented it from springing backward and striking the falling condemned man and that modification appeared to work on this morning, although Joseph Malta later said a German had designed the latch. (American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods, The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg)
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A special bomb proves successful at a test at Los Alamos, New Mexico. That occurs on July 16, 1945 – while PFC Mac MacLean was home on furlough – but almost no one knows about it, just as current President of the United States, Harry Truman, who knew nothing about the project when he was the Vice President. But everyone will soon. (Dying Hard: Company B, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division in World War II)