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Old 14th April 2018, 13:23
RSwank RSwank is offline
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Re: Watch recovered from 1944 C-47 crash

Since the original date on the Fox News story was 2013, I wondered what had happened since then. I found this link from 2017:

Original Italian:
https://www.ilmessaggero.it/umbria/d...o-3399387.html

Google translate of the story:

PERUGIA - From Texas to the top of Mount Tezio to pay tribute to the great-uncle soldier of the US Army, 73 years after his death. It was called JJ jr. Mc Neill, captain and co-pilot of the crew of the American C-47 who during the Second World War, January 12, 1944 at 22, rushed a short distance from the Cross of the Pieve. In the impact, the lives of five other US soldiers died, remembered in a commemorative plate placed next to a cross. They have been posted there by those who have long worked with dedication to reconstruct the history of the event, even managing to recover artifacts that have remained hidden over the years. Like a Longiness watch, returned to the soldier's family. This is also the reason why Tuesday 28 November Bennie Frances Perhaps with her daughter Phillis she reached the summit of Mount Tezio, where she wanted to leave two flags, one from Texas and one from the United States, next to the plaque where since 2013 we remember the soldiers who lost their lives in the impact. One was his great-uncle, owner of the clock recovered thanks to the commitment of Glauco Mencaroni, one of the people who, together with Silvano Marti, a great fan of historical aeronautics and Mauro Bifani, author of a book on the subject, mobilized to get to the Tuesday. An important moment of a journey that began in 2011, when Glauco interviewed two impact witnesses, Pietro Piattellini and Cesare Ercolanelli, set out on the trail of the American plane. The memories put in a row pushed the will to reconstruct the story, arriving at the identification of the point of the incident where they were identified some small metal remains that helped to pull a thread of clear memory. The C-47 was on a mission that evening in January '44. The crew had recently unloaded six English parades from the second Sas department, in an area between Castel Rigone and Colpiccione. A sabotage mission had begun, codenamed "Pomegranate", with destination the Sant'Egidio airport that was occupied by the Germans. The American aircraft, however, did not return to the base: in the crash they lost their lives in addition to Captain McNeill, the pilot Colonel Raymond A. Nowotny, Captain Joseph L. Nocentini, Captain John Jr. Piatak, Sergeant Ross A. Holmes and Sergeant Saul Singer.
In front of the plaque commemorating the sacrifice of those soldiers Bennie wanted to arrive despite the difficulty in covering the paths of Mount Tezio. There he left his homage and, with his daughter (who had already been there two years ago) and the guardians of the history of the plane, he posed for a photo that will remain as a testimony of facts rediscovered after years. The names of those who made everything possible were engraved in a tile given in homage to the family of Captain McNeill, who was given the watch found with painstaking research. Research that has also allowed to reconstruct the story of another plane fallen a short distance, right under the Cross of the Pieve. He was a Junkers Ju.52 German who crashed after losing a wing for the impact with the mountain on February 13, 1941. Another page of the history of Tezio witness of war, today guarded and made known thanks to the commitment of volunteer enthusiasts and the Monti del Tezio cultural association (among others there was also Paolo Cicuti). To them the graces of the soldier's family: "It was a great pleasure to be here and to have met you".
Thursday 30 November 2017 -
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