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Captain L.C. Giovanni Nebbia
Captain L.C. Giovanni Nebbia Over the past several months, I have exchanged a number of e-mails with Annelisa Nebbia, whose father, Captain L.C. Giovanni Nebbia, was involved in the Adriatic coast...
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I.S.9 Agent Spartaco Perini
Spartaco Perini enters the Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno on the day of the Allied liberation of the city, June 18, 1944 Late last month I received from Pietro Perini, the son of...
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I.S.9 Captain Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello
Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Many of the stories on this site concerning the protection of escaped POWs describe the brave actions of the contadini, the poor farmers of central Italy. But people from...
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Soldiers of the Strange Night
For author Robert A. Newton, publication earlier this year of a 360-page book entitled Soldiers of the Strange Night marked the culmination of many years of dedicated research. Robert’s experience was...
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P.G. 59 Prisoner Arthur Page
I am pleased to have added today a new name, British Sergeant Arthur Page, to the master Prisoner List on this site. Information on Arthur was sent to me by researcher Janet Kinrade Dethick. She wrote:...
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Vaccarezza Family—P.G. 52 Escapees Protected
Farm building on a remote property owned by the Italian couple Gaetano and Maria Vaccarezza, where five escapees from P.G. 52 were sheltered I received a note last month from Frank Vaccarezza. Frank...
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“Operazione Nebbia”
Giovanni Nebbia’s partisan identification card, issued in 1950 by the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia, or National Association of the Italian Partisans, acknowledges his involvement with...
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A Rescue Mission Gone Awry
Giovanni Nebbia with the football team he organized at his Marine School (Scuola di Avviamento Marinaro). The photo was taken in the year they won a championship. December 3, 1940. In 2005, at a...
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Story of Joseph E. Pojawis Shared
Detail of Joe Pojawis’ military identification card, issued in July 1942 before his overseas departure I received a note this past week from Wally McCollum of Maryland. Wally has a family connection...
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On the Trail of L/Sgt John Henry Jewell
Lance Sergeant John Henry Jewell, Service Number 5495162, of the Royal Hampshire Regiment I received a note a few days ago from Jackie Keenan of the village of Whittlesford in Cambridge, England. She...
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Brian Sims—A Tribute
Brian Sims oversaw the dedication of this memorial plaque and a commemorative tree planted in the National Memorial Arboretum several years ago. My first connection with researcher Brian Sims was on...
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Parisse Leoni—Italian Protector
I received a note from Michelle Leoni Hazelton of Monongahela, Pennsylvania, this week. She referenced the name of her great grandfather, Orlando Leoni, in the “Clifford Houben’s Address List” post on...
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Robert E. Dulac—Fyrtle Myrtle Crash Survivor
Researcher Janet Dethick kindly shared information she discovered concerning Robert Dulac, one of the survivors of the crash of the American B-24 bomber known as the Fyrtle Myrtle on July 16, 1943. See...
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Robert Dulac—Rescued by a Child
Michele Potenza was 13 years old when he witnessed the downing of an American bomber from the skies over his village of Pietragalla, Italy. It was a memory impressed in his mind for life (see “Lost...
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“Don Carlo”—The Unknown Hero
I.S.9 agent, partisan leader, and Catholic priest Don Domenico Orlandini “Don Carlo” in the uniform of a military chaplain of the Italian Army, 1945 Several posts on this site concern Italians who,...
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Carl Leroy Good—Captured by the Enemy
At left, Carl with twins Ron and Don, the last-born of his and his wife Nadine’s six children; right, Carl at home on the family farm I first heard from Crystal Aceves in February 2010, when she...
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Monument to Valiant Rescuers
I recently exchanged several e-mails with Luigi Donfrancesco, who lives in Rome. His uncle, Andrea Scattini, was an Italian I.S.9 agent during the war. I.S.9 was a sub-organization of special Allied...
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Andrea Scattini—Youthful I.S.9 Agent
Portrait of Andrea Scattini by Federico Spoltore, Lanciano, February 14, 1944 As a young man and a medical student, Andrea Scattini was enrolled in the Medical Corps of the Italian Army and assigned...
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Ermanno Finocchi to “Carlo” Orlandini
First page of a two-page letter from Ermanno Finocchi to Don Domenico “Carlo” Orlandini Last week, Luigi Donfrancesco sent me an English translation he made of a letter I.S.9 agent Ermanno Finocchi...
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Honor Recommended for Mario Mottes
First page of a letter from Major Luigi Stipa recommending that I.S.9 agent Mario Mottes be posthumously awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor (Medaglia d’Argento al Valore Militare) In...
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