Hank” Sciaroni was bonr on Spetber 18, 1923 in Stockton, Calironia He served as the Navigator on Paul on B-24 Jenny Ann during WW2.
B-24 “Jenny Ann” (41-28768) of the 747th Bomber Squadron, 456th Bomber Group, 15th Air Force departed Storna Airfield (Foggia, Italy) on October 20, 1944 on a mission to bomb the airfield in Bad Aibling, Germany. On the return flight, due to maintenance problems, the plan made a controlled emergency landing on a Po Delta Barrier Island. The B-24 Commander, 1LT Dickie spit the crew into three groups in order to best evade the enemy. One group, with the help of local Italian citizen fisherman were able to escape and evade capture. The local group was lead by the “Cicolani”, Achille Siveiro.
After the war, Roberto Rosselini, the famous Italian movie director, directed the movie “Paisan” or “Paisa” which depicted life as a partisan in Italy during the war; one part of the movie the Italian citizens who helped the crew were included as movie extras to included “Cicolani”.
In 2014, 2LT Sciaroni and the three Italian citizens, Giovani Achille Siviero “Cicolani” e di Francesco e Sergio Mantovani, were honored as heroes in the US Congress. The memorial was dedicated on November 7, 2021 in the town of Porto Tolle.
The Crew of B-24 “Jenny Ann” included:
1st LT David J. Dickie, Pilot, POW
2nd LT Paul J. Delecour, Co-Pilot -POW
2nd LT Richard H. Sciaroni, Navigator - Escaped
2nd LT Woodrow W. O’Brien, Bombardier, - POW
Sgt James S. Pentecost, Engineer/Gunner – POW
Sgt. Leonard C. Menton, Radio Operator/Gunner – Escaped
Sgt Albert J. Doerwald, Gunner – Escaped
Sgt. Olin B. Houghton, Gunner – Escaped
Sgt Chester W. Nowak, Gunner – Captured
Sgt Carroll D. Presnell, Gunner – Captured

Reference: Missing Aircraft Report (MACR): 9213

A memorial in Porto Tolle, Italy remembers the crew and the Italians who assisted them.
FROM The Mercury News August 12, 2016:
SAN CARLOS — In the fall of 1944, Air Force Lt. Hank Sciaroni spent nearly two weeks dodging Nazis behind enemy lines after his B-24 Liberator bomber crash-landed on a beach roughly 25 miles south of Venice, Italy. Seventy years later, the World War II veteran still thinks about the three Italians who risked their lives to protect him and three of his men. Sciaroni was awarded a Bronze Star for leading his men to safety, but he’s long been bothered that the fishermen never received any formal recognition. The San Carlos resident decided to contact the office of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and the congresswoman agreed to honor the Italians’ bravery this week by reading a brief account into the Congressional Record. “Without the three Italians, there was not a chance to come out — no hope,” said Sciaroni, 91. “Those Germans were looking for us, and came damn close to catching us.” Sciaroni’s B-24 took off on Oct. 20, 1944, from an Allied air base in southern Italy to make a bombing run in Germany. The plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and began leaking fuel on the way back. With the engines failing, Sciaroni, the navigator, directed the pilot to land on a sandy beach near the mouth of the Po River, territory the Allies had yet to take from the Nazis and Italian fascists. After the bomber skidded to a halt, the 10-man crew scrambled out and headed for cover. The men split into three groups, two of which were quickly captured. The third, led by Sciaroni, was able to make its way into the Po River delta. Sciaroni knew some Italian from his parents, who grew up in southern Switzerland, and he’d studied the language in high school. The lieutenant and three sergeants — Leonard Meton, Olin Houghton and Al Doerwald — found a fisherman who agreed to help them. That man, Giovanni Silviero, and two others — Francesco Montevani and his 17-year-old son, Sergio — kept the Americans hidden and fed over the next 10 days. With the Germans searching the vast marsh by boat, the Americans spent most of their days and nights lying in towering tule patches, shivering in the late October rain. The Italians hated the Germans, and took satisfaction in outwitting them. They shared what little food they had with the Americans, mostly eels and dry bread. One night, Silviero even wedged Sciaroni’s frostbitten feet in his armpits to keep them warm.
At nightfall on Nov. 1, 1944, Silviero and the Americans stole out of the marsh in a 14-foot rowboat equipped with a small sail and pointed the bow south, with Sciaroni holding a crude compass. By late the following afternoon, they had made it more than 50 miles down the coast, buffeted by rough seas that almost sank the boat. Silviero rowed most of the way standing up, Sciarano recalled, as was customary for fishermen in the Po River delta. “Honestly,” Sciaroni said, “I don’t know how the hell we made it — the wind, the rain, the boat swamping.” They reached shore at Cesenatico, a small port town controlled by Allied forces. The Americans were taken to a hospital, but Silviero was not allowed to accompany them. Sciaroni never saw Silviero or the other two Italians again. But he later learned the strapping fisherman had made it home safely when Silviero made a brief appearance in Roberto Rossillini’s 1946 film, “Paisan.” The other six members of Sciaroni’s crew also made it home alive after the Nazis were defeated in 1945. As Sciaroni got older and lived a full life — marrying Dorris, his wife of 65 years; having two children and three grandchildren; and working as a farm adviser for UC Cooperative Extension — his appreciation for the fishermen grew. “I could never thank them enough,” Sciaroni said. “They gave me my life and my future.” That gratitude will soon get a small but meaningful seal of approval in the nation’s capital. In a statement, Eshoo said Sciaroni represents “the collective courage” of American soldiers during World War II. “This week in the U.S. House of Representatives, I will pay tribute to Hank Sciaroni and the Italians who assisted him,” Eshoo said. “This tribute, placed in the Congressional Record, will become a part of the official history of our country.”