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Felice D'alessandro - Military Photograph and Censored Envelope

According to his father Salvatore's letter to Vittoria d'Alessandro of 17 May 1945, Felice returned to Italy on 10 May 1945. Timeline:

Death of Giuseppe Antonio di Renzo, the husband of Maria Vittoria d'Alessandro and godfather of Felice's father Salvatore, in Camden, New Jersey: 22 January 1943.
Felice returns to Italy: 10 May 1945. He is about 24 years old.
The Kingdom of Italy and the United States of America are at war with one another from 11 December 1941 to 3 September 1943.
More than 50,000 Italians are held as Prisoners of War in the United States. In his letter Salvatore mentions Maria Vittoria's having gone to see Felice when Felice was in America. (Giovanni Valente visited his niece's husband Francesco DiRenzo in Detroit when Francesco was a prisoner of war there.)
On 29 April the German forces in Italy sign the terms of surrender: all fighting in Italy is to cease on 2 May 1945.
On 7 May a representative of the German High Command signs the act of unconditional surrender, although 8 May is called "Victory in Europe" or "VE" day.
Felice dies in December 1945.

Photograph of Felice D'alessandro, 30 KB

Felice's Royal Italian Army insignia: two stripes indicate either a "Corporal Major" or a "Sergeant Major". A single stripe would be a "Corporal" or a "Sergeant". The color of the insignia is red for corporals, yellow for sergeants; otherwise the arm patches appear identical.

Felice's descendants in Italy have preserved Felice's identity tags from when he was held as a prisoner of war in America. They are inscribed:

D'ALESSANDRO, F
8WI-14195 T44    B
                 C

Envelope dorso, 22 KB

Envelope verso, 14 KB

[ENVELOPE]

MRS PASQUALINA YACOVELLI
311 ROYDEN ST.
CAMDEN
N.J.
U.S.A.

[POSTMARK]

Gambatesa
Campobasso
?6 6 45

[STAMP (PURPLE INK)]

Military Censorship Civil Mails
0412

[TAPE ALONG EDGE OF THE LEFT-HAND BORDER OF ENVELOPE]

VERIFICATO PER CENSURA

[BACK OF THE ENVELOPE (Return Address)]

AL SIGNOR D'ALESSANDRO FELICE
GAMBATESA
CAMPOBASSO

The URL of this Web page: https://www.roangelo.net/iacovelli/feliceDA.html
Last revised: 15 August 2010 : 2010-08-15 by Robert [Wesley] Angelo.

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