Posted on 03/02/2008 6:58:37 AM PST by Ravnagora
For five weeks Anthony Orsini's family thought he was dead. Killed in action fighting the Nazis.
The Woodbridge man was one of more than 500 U.S. airmen shot down behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia in 1944 while bombing oil fields in Romania. Watched over by Serbian Chetnik guerrillas who hid them in local villager's attics, cellars and barns, the group was rescued by Allied forces in a daring top-secret airlift mission.
"Operation Halyard," considered by some military historians as the single largest evacuation from Axis-occupied Europe, normally would have made bold front-page headlines and been featured in movie house newsreels. But the U.S. State Department put a gag order on it all, not wanting to draw attention to the mission because of political wrangling.
The soft-spoken, well-dressed Jersey City native remembers vividly what happened and recounted his tale to Gregory Freeman, who wrote, "The Forgotten 500," a book now bringing renewed awareness to the rescue and Orsini, who is basking in the attention.
"I can't believe this excitement is happening 63 years after the fact," said the 85-year-old Orsini, one of only a handful of survivors who is now getting a chance to see his story told.
For the rest of Orsini's story, please go to
http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1203941708300030.xml&coll=1&thispage=1
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
So many inspiring stories came out of that war.
“one of more than 500 U.S. airmen shot down behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia in 1944 while bombing oil fields in Romania. Watched over by Serbian Chetnik guerrillas who hid them in local villager’s attics, cellars and barns,”
Indeed, a story we should all know about. And for this, the USA (Clinton) bombed the Serbian Christians into extinction and then we (BUSH) honor their invaders (albanians)by dignifying the invasion as a sovereign muslim nation.
There has been something sinister going on in our government in relation to Serbia since at least WWII.
One of my friends was a B24 pilot who was also shot down over the oil fields.
He escaped through Italy.
He said they were all briefed to avoid at all costs being "captured" by the Serbs as they would be tortured.
He told me several years ago, as this story proves, that the Serbs risked their lives and those of their families to save US aircrews.
I wonder what has been wrong in our government for well over 3 generations to cause this dislike and lying about the Serbs?
I remember reading an account by one of the Tuskegee airmen who had been shot down over occupied Yugoslavia. He hid out with friendly Serbs for several weeks until a pickup could be arranged.
They kept rubbing his skin to see if the black would come off. He thought it was hilarious. They meant no harm, of course, they had just never seen a black man in person and they weren’t sure from movies and magazines if it was real.
My daughter’s Father-in-law, T/Sgt E-5 Harvey Miller was shot down. He was a radioman/gunner. The whole B-24 Crew bailed out and got together on the ground. Yugo’s hid them for 5 days but the Gemans had a big search going on for them. The crew walked out to a road and gave themselves up. He spent the rest of the war as a POW in Germany. He was set free by a Brit Armor Unit in 1945. His son has all his papers and gear as well as a rifle that he was given by the Brits at the time of his release so that the former POW’s could to protect themslves from the hard core Germans that were still fighting in the area.
T/Sgt Harvey Miller was a true hero of the “Greatest Generation”!
Communist fellow travelers and pro German attitudes!
“I wonder what has been wrong in our government for well over 3 generations to cause this dislike and lying about the Serbs?”
The reason for destroying a culture and driving them from their lands is always the same....they have something someone wants. This isn’t the first time our government leaders have done this, and it won’t be the last. For instance in the the war of 1812, the Cherokee fought with the US against the Creek who aligned with England. One of them saved the life of Andrew Jackson. Land was taken from the Creek, of course and when Jackson became president he took land from the Cherokee as well.
I think Senator Joe McCarthy had a line on that.
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