MONTEBUONO HONORS 8 US SOLDIERS THAT WERE MURDERED BY THE NAZIS

Italian mountain village holds a memorial for eight American POW servicemen who were executed by the Nazis during the Second World War on the 75th anniversary of their deaths

By Lauren Fruen

Daily Mail
April 14, 2019

An Italian village has commemorated eight US servicemen shot and killed during the Second World War on the 75th anniversary of their deaths.

The prisoners of war had been on the run for more than two months before they were shot overlooking Montebuono.

Now the residents of that area have come together to honor the men and unveil a new plaque.

ABC News reports how more than 20 cars took around 80 people, including NATO representatives from the U.S., U.K. and Canada to the event Saturday.

A local band played the national anthem of both the United States and Italy and wreaths were laid.

The eight US servicemen had escaped after their unmarked German prisoner of war train had been bombed by U.S. B-52s in January 1944.

More than 1,000 allied forces were on the train as it crossed the Allerona Bridge in central Italy and was hit. Between 200 to 600 are thought to have died.

As hundreds more were taken to hospital there were also a large number of POWs that escaped, including the men eventually killed.

Historian Jane Kinrade Dethick told ABC: 'Some were captured that day, some were captured after a week, some were captured after three months and some were never captured.'

There is still not much know about about the circumstances of how they were caught but an American airman, whose plane had been shot down, did meet the group three weeks earlier.

The eight have been named as PVT Robert C Carnathan, PFC Charles Dyda, PVT Woodrow W Thomas, CPL Paul H Valdez, PFC Ben J Espinosa, PFC George W Kerr, PVT Clarence E Moody and PVT Robert J Rankl.

Kinrade Dethick added: 'They gave him their names and addresses and military numbers and when he joined up with Allied troops he told them about the eight.

'All we know is that they were woken up one morning and killed, shot dead by the German military police who had the task of rounding up deserters from the Italian army, partisans and escaped prisoners of war.

'Why they didn't arrest them and take them to their command, which is what normally happened, we do not know because there was nobody else there to tell us.

'They didn't leave us any written records.'

The men may have been exposed by someone who told the Germans they were hiding there or they may have fallen into a trap.

Locals say they remember hearing the shots and their parents giving the men bread and food. They honor the men each year with the annual pilgrimage.

Nello Lucchetti, now 88, was just 13-years-old when he says he remember seeing the men's dead bodies.

British veteran Harry Schindler, 97, said we are indebted to the 'thousands of young men who died when they came to Italy to remove a regime'.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An Italian village honors US war dead while here in the US, Generation Xers and Millennials know little if anything about WW2 and could care less that more than 400,000 US servicemen gave their lives so that these ungrateful Americans can enjoy the life they lead.