Italian man hopes to return watch of fallen American

[HS Cult Leader]

Italian man hopes to return watch of fallen American WWII soldier to relatives

By Jana Winter, Perry Chiaramonte
Published January 13, 2013

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One man is hoping time is on his side as he seeks to return a watch that belonged to a WWII pilot whose plane went down in the mountains of Italy nearly 70 years ago.
Retiree Glauco Mencaroni, who lives in the central Italian region of Umbria, had heard ever since he was a child about a U.S. Douglas C-47 transport plane with six crewmen aboard that had crashed over nearby Monte Tezio, and he had always dreamed of locating the wreckage. With scant information and motivated by an admiration for the American soldiers who died helping his countrymen, he searched the area where surviving witnesses and local lore had put the plane crash.
“I searched the site for two months to find the exact spot,” Mencaroni told FoxNews.com through a translator. “Because was on the side of a mountain, it is a difficult place to reach. I went twice a week for about four months to the spot."
During his trips to the site, Mencaroni used a metal detector to hunt for wreckage from the plane, which went down in 1944. Six months ago, the detector signaled an interesting find - the cover of a military-issued Longines wristwatch. It was a thrilling, yet somber, event, he said.
“It was a bittersweet feeling," Mencaroni recalled. "On one hand, I was overwhelmed with the excitement of finding something I knew about since I was a kid. But I never imagined that I would find something. On the other hand, I was sad. This was a place where people lost their lives doing something heroic.”


Mencaroni eventually found the rest of the watch, which he now he hopes to return to relatives of Col. Raymond Alvin Nowotny, the pilot to whom the watch likely belonged.
“Maybe the news of the watch will reach a family member and someone will have an interest in recovering the pieces," he said. "That is our hope.”
The watch and a flashlight were the only personal effects found at the wreckage site. Allied forces at the time had recovered the bodies of the servicemen killed in the crash, which left them and the plane severely burnt.
Mencaroni has committed much of his time and passion to discovering the wreckage and has even erected a cross at the site to mark the servicemen’s ultimate sacrifice.
“The six Americans died while doing this," he said. "We must commemorate their lives.”
Mencaroni, along with others visited the site on Saturday to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the crash, which came after the American crew had air-dropped British troops near Lake Trasimeno, where they were sent to sabotage German war planes.
After making the drop, the plane was heading back to an air base in southern Italy when it encountered bad weather and went down.

[Tom Doyers]

That's a nice story for a change.

[BethsZygote]

Ill be damned if ima let some slope get his greasy hands on ya birthright

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

I gotta go read up a little bit more about WWII. Weren't the Italians a part of the Axis?

I guess the whole country wasn't?

[Vashier]

I gotta go read up a little bit more about WWII. Weren't the Italians a part of the Axis?

I guess the whole country wasn't?

Yes they were but remember what they did to Mussolini after?

[cheezedbyfate]

I gotta go read up a little bit more about WWII. Weren't the Italians a part of the Axis?

I guess the whole country wasn't?

the eyetyes are a fickle people

[Chimney Portions]

Very cool.

[Chimney Portions]

I gotta go read up a little bit more about WWII. Weren't the Italians a part of the Axis?

I guess the whole country wasn't?

Many Sicilians wanted America to make Sicily the 49th state. There were tons of anti-Fascist Italians.

[aquadog]

They did Mussolini and hung him upside down so that people could throw rocks at him...so not all Italians were happy with him by the end of the war.

[rilagent]

I gotta go read up a little bit more about WWII. Weren't the Italians a part of the Axis?

I guess the whole country wasn't?

The government, not necessarily the people, was Fascist - more in the line of Franco in Spain (and later Pinochet in Chile) - but nothing like the psychopathic Nazi's and they didn't have the Versailles Treaty of WWI to recover from.

In the early days of Hitler's victories, before the English looked like they were able to stand tall, it looked like the war would be over quickly and Mussolini decided he wanted a some of the spoils so he thought he'd be smart and offer his services to Hitler in what he thought was the closing act. Boy was he wrong...

[FSFN]

Yes they were but remember what they did to Mussolini after?

Italy joined Allied forces once they hung Mussolini in 1943.

[LobsterTails]

Italian man hopes to return watch of fallen American WWII soldier to relatives

By Jana Winter, Perry Chiaramonte
Published January 13, 2013

• 

One man is hoping time is on his side as he seeks to return a watch that belonged to a WWII pilot whose plane went down in the mountains of Italy nearly 70 years ago.
Retiree Glauco Mencaroni, who lives in the central Italian region of Umbria, had heard ever since he was a child about a U.S. Douglas C-47 transport plane with six crewmen aboard that had crashed over nearby Monte Tezio, and he had always dreamed of locating the wreckage. With scant information and motivated by an admiration for the American soldiers who died helping his countrymen, he searched the area where surviving witnesses and local lore had put the plane crash.
“I searched the site for two months to find the exact spot,” Mencaroni told FoxNews.com through a translator. “Because was on the side of a mountain, it is a difficult place to reach. I went twice a week for about four months to the spot."
During his trips to the site, Mencaroni used a metal detector to hunt for wreckage from the plane, which went down in 1944. Six months ago, the detector signaled an interesting find - the cover of a military-issued Longines wristwatch. It was a thrilling, yet somber, event, he said.
“It was a bittersweet feeling," Mencaroni recalled. "On one hand, I was overwhelmed with the excitement of finding something I knew about since I was a kid. But I never imagined that I would find something. On the other hand, I was sad. This was a place where people lost their lives doing something heroic.”


Mencaroni eventually found the rest of the watch, which he now he hopes to return to relatives of Col. Raymond Alvin Nowotny, the pilot to whom the watch likely belonged.
“Maybe the news of the watch will reach a family member and someone will have an interest in recovering the pieces," he said. "That is our hope.”
The watch and a flashlight were the only personal effects found at the wreckage site. Allied forces at the time had recovered the bodies of the servicemen killed in the crash, which left them and the plane severely burnt.
Mencaroni has committed much of his time and passion to discovering the wreckage and has even erected a cross at the site to mark the servicemen’s ultimate sacrifice.
“The six Americans died while doing this," he said. "We must commemorate their lives.”
Mencaroni, along with others visited the site on Saturday to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the crash, which came after the American crew had air-dropped British troops near Lake Trasimeno, where they were sent to sabotage German war planes.
After making the drop, the plane was heading back to an air base in southern Italy when it encountered bad weather and went down.

Silly old cunt, who would want that piece of shit broken watch. Just save everyone's time and through it in the garbage.

[SouthernListen]

Italy joined Allied forces once they hung Mussolini in 1943.

Actually a bit before. In '43 when we invaded Sicily the King had Mussolini arrested. He was later rescued by German Paratroop/special forces types in gliders in a daring mountainside attack. They flew him off the side of the mountain in a light 2 man observation plane not rated for the weight and it barely made it into the sky. He was later captured and strung up by partisans later in the war.

Some Italian troops were interned or imprisioned by the Germans and their weapons taken, others continued fighting on in a rump Fascist state nominally under Mussolini, others melted away, and yet others joined the Allies. Their heart was never really in the war and they lacked the economic power and resources to be much of an asset to the Germans anyway. Mussolini only joined the war in '40 to grab spoils from an already nearly defeated France.