At War – Page 10 – World War 2 History Short Stories

In Memory Of … Flavio Terenzoni

Flavio Terenzoni with Maria Cecchini. *Photograph S. R. O’Konski Collection.*

On August 17, 1944, Italian partisans killed 16 German soldiers who had been in the area of San Terenzo, Italy, requisitioning food from the local populace. The Germans ordered civilian reprisals which were carried out by the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division between August 17 and August 19, 1944. One hundred and fifty-nine Italian civilian men, women, and children from the San Terenzo Monti, Bardine, and Valla area were killed.*

In 2012 I went on a tour, “World War II in the Mediterranean: The Italian and French Campaigns,” which was sponsored by the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. One of the locales we visited was the San Terenzo area of Tuscany.

At the Historical Museum Massacre of San Terenzo and Bardine, we saw pictures on the wall of many of the victims. I was drawn to the picture of a baby named Flavio Terenzoni. His happy, laughing face, before tragedy struck, touched my heart. Flavio died on August 19, 1944, as did Maria Cecchini, the young woman in the picture with him. Flavio would have been two years old on August 28, 1944.

While we were at the museum, Italians from the local area joined us and shared the stories of what happened. They worried that the world would forget about the tragedy that occurred there.

For this story, I chose Flavio Terenzoni to represent all the lives and innocence lost as seen in the “pictures on the wall.”

To the people of San Terenzo, your story has not been forgotten.

Another WWII story from this part of Italy:

The United States (US) 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed mostly of second generation Japanese Americans, fought along the Gothic Line in the area of Colle Musatello, a ridge near San Terenzo. One of the officers in that unit was Lieutenant Daniel Inouye. He was seriously wounded in the battle for the ridge and lost his right arm. For his extraordinary heroism on April 21, 1945, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).

In 1963 Daniel Inouye became a US Senator from Hawaii.

Senator Inouye’s award of the DSC was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

*SS Major Walter Reder of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division was tried for war crimes in an Italian military court in Bologna, Italy, and sentenced to life in prison in 1951. He was released in 1985.

The number of Germans and Italian civilians killed may vary depending on different accounts of the incident.

S. R. O’Konski, Author

World War 2 History Short Stories

Website: ww2history.org

Great Lakes Shipbuilding in WWII: And the Tale of FP-344

FP-344 In Kewaunee Harbor — FP-344 in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, harbor circa 1944. *Photograph Naval History and Heritage Command.*

The North American Great Lakes were an area of strategic importance in the United States (US) during WWII. Iron ore needed to be transported to steel making plants along the Great Lakes. Shipyards on the shores of the Great Lakes built military vessels. Types of ships built were cargo ships, tugboats, submarines, and other vessels.

After ships were launched in the Great Lakes, they made their way down to Chicago (Illinois), transited the Chicago Drainage Canal, traveled through other waterways connecting with the Mississippi River, and sailed south to the Gulf of Mexico where they were placed in service.

The US Coast Guard was assigned duty on the Great Lakes to guard against sabotage and to keep shipping lanes open. Duties included manning lookout stations which monitored shipping lanes, patrolling harbors, and guarding bridges, docks, and ships. The most powerful “designated” icebreaker of the time, the United States Ship (USS) Mackinaw, kept ice out of shipping channels in winter months.

Kewaunee (Wisconsin) Shipbuilding and Engineering on the shore of Lake Michigan was one of the shipbuilding locations during WWII. The company, founded in 1941, received a government contract to build military ships. Eighty vessels, cargo ships and tugboats, were built between 1941 and 1946. The shipyard employed 400 workers. One of the workers was my father, Stanley “Jocko” O’Konski.

It is at Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering that the tale of Freight and Passenger (FP)-344 begins. FP-344 was a cargo ship, built originally for the US Army, launched in April 1944, and survived WWII. By 1967, then a US Navy ship, it was refitted for intelligence gathering and sent to the Pacific.

The US Navy had changed the name of FP-344 to the USS Pueblo. The ship was captured by North Korea January 23, 1968, and the action is known in history as the Pueblo incident. During the capture of the ship, a sailor, Duane Hodges, was killed. The remaining 82 crew members were held in North Korea until December 23, 1968, when they were released after US and North Korean negotiations.

The USS Pueblo is still in North Korea. The US Navy has never decommissioned the ship.

Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering continues today as Kewaunee Fabrications.

An area of interest, although not addressed in this post, is the history of the US Lighthouse Service. Founded in 1910, it was merged with the US Coast Guard in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as WWII became imminent.

S. R. O’Konski, Author

World War 2 History Short Stories

Website: ww2history.org

Compassion and Remembrance

Holly with Pattie and neighborhood boy Bucky — “Holly” with Pattie and neighborhood boy, Bucky. *Photograph courtesy of P. Sumner.*

Holloway “Holly” Sumner’s granddaughter, Pattie, has a warm memory of him welcoming her to his home with outstretched arms, wearing a red Hawaiian shirt, holding a Lucky Strike cigarette between his fingers, and singing to her, “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.” He was very special to her. She did not know as a little girl how special he was to other people also.

Holly Sumner was a longtime resident of Chula Vista, California. At one time he was Deputy City Marshall, Assistant Fire Chief, and owned the first Ford and Caterpillar dealerships.

In the 1940s Holly owned an insurance business and had clients who were Japanese Americans. When he learned they were going to be relocated to internment camps, Holly went to them with an offer.* If they would sell him their property for $1, he would sell it back to them for $1 when they came back after the war.

WWII ended, and Holly kept his word. Holloway Sumner died in 1971.

Holly had a son, Walter Holloway Sumner. Walter was a WWII B-17 pilot with the 306^th Bomb Group based in Thurleigh, England. He was Pattie’s father.

When Walter died in 1975, Pattie and her family held a memorial service for him. At a point during the service, Pattie turned around and noticed about eight Japanese Americans among the mourners. She came to find out that they were family members of those Japanese Americans her grandfather had helped during WWII. They attended his son’s memorial service out of a still held respect for the Sumner family. Holly’s compassion in a time of war was long remembered.

Story as told to me by Pattie Sumner. Story and family photograph posted with her permission.

My uncle, Adrian O’Konski, was the navigator on the Walter Sumner crew.

The Holloway Sumner home is designated a historic site by the City of Chula Vista, California.

* President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order (EO) 9066 on February 19, 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The EO, “Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas,” was the basis for the development of civilian internment camps in the US during WWII. Japanese Americans and some civilians of German and Italian descent were relocated to these camps.

S. R. O’Konski, Author

World War 2 History Short Stories

Website: ww2history.org