World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Chambersburg

World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Chambersburg PDF Author: Flavio G. Conti and Alan R. Perry
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 146712723X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
During World War II, the US government interned more than 1,200 captured Italian soldiers at the Letterkenny Army Ordnance Depot located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. These troops collaborated with the United States in a collective effort to defeat the Axis powers. They formed the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion, and their work consisted mainly of stocking and shipping materials--ammunition, military vehicles, weapons, and machinery parts--to the war fronts in the European and Pacific theaters of operation. For entertainment, the soldiers formed an orchestra and band and for sport, several different company soccer teams. As a sign of their faith, they built a chapel and bell tower, which are still used today. Many POWs forged deep friendships with Americans, and after the war, a few married their sweethearts and returned to live in the United States. Today, warm relations still continue between children and grandchildren of the POWs and the wider Chambersburg community.

World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Chambersburg

World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Chambersburg PDF Author: Flavio G. Conti and Alan R. Perry
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 146712723X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
During World War II, the US government interned more than 1,200 captured Italian soldiers at the Letterkenny Army Ordnance Depot located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. These troops collaborated with the United States in a collective effort to defeat the Axis powers. They formed the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion, and their work consisted mainly of stocking and shipping materials--ammunition, military vehicles, weapons, and machinery parts--to the war fronts in the European and Pacific theaters of operation. For entertainment, the soldiers formed an orchestra and band and for sport, several different company soccer teams. As a sign of their faith, they built a chapel and bell tower, which are still used today. Many POWs forged deep friendships with Americans, and after the war, a few married their sweethearts and returned to live in the United States. Today, warm relations still continue between children and grandchildren of the POWs and the wider Chambersburg community.

World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Chambersburg

World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Chambersburg PDF Author: Flavio G. Conti
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Library Editions
ISBN: 9781540226792
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
During World War II, the US government interned more than 1,200 captured Italian soldiers at the Letterkenny Army Ordnance Depot located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. These troops collaborated with the United States in a collective effort to defeat the Axis powers. They formed the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion, and their work consisted mainly of stocking and shipping materials--ammunition, military vehicles, weapons, and machinery parts--to the war fronts in the European and Pacific theaters of operation. For entertainment, the soldiers formed an orchestra and band and for sport, several different company soccer teams. As a sign of their faith, they built a chapel and bell tower, which are still used today. Many POWs forged deep friendships with Americans, and after the war, a few married their sweethearts and returned to live in the United States. Today, warm relations still continue between children and grandchildren of the POWs and the wider Chambersburg community.

Italian Prisoners of War in Pennsylvania

Italian Prisoners of War in Pennsylvania PDF Author: Flavio G. Conti
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611479983
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
During World War II 51,000 Italian prisoners of war were detained in the United States. When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, most of these soldiers agreed to swear allegiance to the United States and to collaborate in the fight against Germany. At the Letterkenny Army Depot, located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, more than 1,200 Italian soldiers were detained as co-operators. They arrived in May 1944 to form the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion and remained until October 1945. As detainees, the soldiers helped to order, stock, repair, and ship military goods, munitions and equipment to the Pacific and European Theaters of war. Through such labor, they lent their collective energy to the massive home front endeavor to defeat the Axis Powers. The prisoners also helped to construct the depot itself, building roads, sidewalks, and fences, along with individual buildings such as an assembly hall, amphitheater, swimming pool, and a chapel and bell tower. The latter of these two constructions still exist, and together with the assembly hall, bear eloquent testimony to the Italian POW experience. For their work the Italian co-operators received a very modest, regular salary, and they experienced more freedom than regular POWs. In their spare time, they often had liberty to leave the post in groups that American soldiers chaperoned. Additionally, they frequently received or visited large entourages of Italian Americans from the Mid-Atlantic region who were eager to comfort their erstwhile countrymen. The story of these Italian soldiers detained at Letterkenny has never before been told. Now, however, oral histories from surviving POWs, memoirs generously donated by family members of ex-prisoners, and the rich information newly available from archival material in Italy, aided by material found in the U.S., have made it possible to reconstruct this experience in full. All of this historical documentation has also allowed the authors to tell fascinating individual stories from the moment when many POWs were captured to their return to Italy and beyond. More than seventy years since the end of World War II, family members of ex-POWs in both the United States and Italy still enjoy the positive legacy of this encounter.

Italians of Northeastern Pennsylvania

Italians of Northeastern Pennsylvania PDF Author: Stephanie Longo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439615861
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Every Labor Day weekend, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Courthouse Square in Scranton for the largest ethnic festival in northeastern Pennsylvania: La Festa Italiana. The Italians of Pennsylvania have been proudly celebrating their heritage since their arrival in this country with traditional festivals, including La Corsa dei Ceri in Jessup and Dunmore's procession in honor of St. Rocco. Using vintage and contemporary photographs, Italians of Northeastern Pennsylvania shows how the Italian immigrants to this area, some of whom arrived with little more than the clothes on their back, became well-respected community leaders. Through hard work and dedication, they have made northeastern Pennsylvania into an area fiercely loyal to Italian traditions.

The Italian American Experience

The Italian American Experience PDF Author: Salvatore J. LaGumina
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135583331
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 733

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Book Description
First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Orkney's Italian Chapel

Orkney's Italian Chapel PDF Author: Philip Paris
Publisher: Black & White Publishing
ISBN: 1845026144
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Orkney's Italian Chapel was built by Italian POWs held on the island during the Second World War. In the sixty-five years since it was built it has become an enduring symbol of peace and hope around the world. The story of who built the chapel and how it came into existence and survived against all the odds is both fascinating and inspiring. Author Philip Paris's extensive research into the creation of the Italian Chapel has uncovered many new facts, and this comprehensive new book is the definitive account of the chapel and those who built it. It is a book that has waited to be written for sixty-five years.

World War II Sites in the United States

World War II Sites in the United States PDF Author: Richard E. Osborne
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This is two books in one; a directory listing the descriptions of hundreds of WW II Sites in the United States and a tour guide on how to find and visit them. Listed are army camps - air fields - naval air stations - naval bases - Marine Corps bases - warships on display - enemy aircraft and submarine attack sites on American territory - Japanese bombing balloon attack and recovery sites - coastal defenses - military hospitals - prisoner of war camps - internment camps for enemy aliens - relocation camps of ethnic Japanese - birth places and homes of prominent WW II personalities - atomic bomb sites - spy landing sites and sabotage targets - arsenals - ordnance plants - shipyards - military depots... and MUCH MORE...

Controlling Sex in Captivity

Controlling Sex in Captivity PDF Author: Matthias Reiss
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350060631
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Controlling Sex in Captivity is the first book to examine the nature, extent and impact of the sexual activities of Axis prisoners of war in the United States during the Second World War. Historians have so far interpreted the interactions between captors and captives in America as the beginning of the post-war friendship between the United States, Germany and Italy. Matthias Reiss argues that this paradigm is too simplistic. Widespread fraternisation also led to sexual relationships which created significant negative publicity, and some Axis POWs got caught up in the U.S. Army's new campaign against homosexuals. By focusing on the fight against fraternisation and same-sex activities, this study treads new ground. It stresses that contact between captors and captives was often loaded with conflict and influenced by perceptions of gender and race. It highlights the transnational impact of fraternisation and argues that the prisoners' sojourn in the United States also influenced American society by fuelling a growing concern about social disintegration and sexual deviancy, which eventually triggered a conservative backlash after the war.

America, History and Life

America, History and Life PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 894

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Book Description
Provides historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes information abstracted from over 2,000 journals published worldwide.

Slavery & the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania

Slavery & the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania PDF Author: Cooper H Wingert
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625857322
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
This in-depth history examines how a stronghold of slavery in Pennsylvania became a central hub for the abolitionist cause. Much like the rest of the nation, South Central Pennsylvania has a fraught history of struggle over slavery. The institution lingered locally for more than fifty years, even as it went virtually extinct everywhere else within Pennsylvania. Gradually, abolitionist views prevailed as the region became an important destination for enslaved people escaping the south. The Appalachian Mountains and the Susquehanna River provided natural cover for fugitive, causing an influx of travel along the Underground Railroad. Locals like William Wright and James McAllister assisted these runaways while publicly advocating to abolish slavery. In this expert study, historian Cooper Wingert reveals the struggles between slavery and abolition in South Central Pennsylvania.