Name:
Micheal A Croccia
Rank:
Station Sergeant
Serial Number:
14061930
Unit:
96th Bomber Squadron, 2nd Bomber Group
Date of Death:
1944-03-19
State:
Tennessee
Cemetery:
Florence American Cemetery, Impruneta (Florence), Italy
Plot:
D
Row:
9
Grave:
43
Decoration:
Air Medal with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters
Comments:
Michael Croccia was from Tennessee. On March 19, 1944, he was a crewmember (Gunner) of a B-17F “Dark Eyes” (41-24405) flying out of Amendola, Italy on a bombing mission to Klagenfurt, Austria with the 96th Bomber Squadron, 2nd Bomber Group, 5th Bomber Wing, 15th Air Force. On the return trip, the formation was attacked by enemy fighters. “Dark Eyes was attacked by 2 fighters and shot down after being hit by rockets. Eight of the crew were killed to include Croccia and two parachuted to safety but were captured and spent the rest of the war as POWs. The town of Andraž nad Polzelo in Slovenia, where the bomber crashed, remember the crew of Dark Eyes with a memorial dedicated in 2017.