Munich  - A German witness at one of the last Second World War atrocities trials described Wednesday how he rounded up village men in Italy, but claimed that he had only learned days later they had been massacred.

The former soldier, 83, pleaded "gaps in my memory" during his testimony to the Munich war-crimes trial of his unit's former commander, 90. The lieutenant is accused of 14 murders in the Tuscan village of Falzano in 1944.

The officer allegedly ordered his company of Battalion 818 of the German Army mountain combat engineers to carry out the reprisal after partisans killed two of the unit's men in the village.

The former soldier in the company said they were told to "comb" the area and detain any men they found.

"I thought they were going to be interrogated," he said, adding he only heard days later they were killed.

At key points in the testimony, the witness became vague, or said he could no longer remember.

"I don't believe you," replied the presiding judge, Manfred Goetzl, several times.

Asked if he had met after the War with the accused former lieutenant, the witness said "I've not much contact with him." Asked if the lieutenant ordered the roundup, he said, "I don't know."

He said someone had told him to release an Italian man who had previously invited the German soldiers to a meal, and he had been rebuked later for doing this, but did "not get into any real trouble" for letting the Italian go.

Asked if it was the lieutenant who had rebuked him, he said he did not know any more.

"You always seem to forget when you don't like the question," said judge Goetzl.

An Italian court sentenced the 90-year-old in absentia to life imprisonment in 2006. Germany is trying the former lieutenant anew because it does not extradite its own citizens.

While the man has been named in international media, German media have not generally published his name because of defamation rules.

The prosecution says the combat engineers first shot dead three men and a woman, then locked village men inside a Falzano house and dynamited it, killing 10. The trial continues on Thursday. (dpa)