First (?) US POW in Europe

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Andy H
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First (?) US POW in Europe

#1

Post by Andy H » 18 Jan 2016, 18:15

Hi

On November 23rd 1941 Major Michael Buckley was captured whilst part of a US Observation group that was looking at
the British Army as a whole during the Crusader offensive in Africa and the debut of the M3 tank onto the battlefield.

Given the US's neutrality at this stage of the war, was Buckley treated as a POW and what happened to him once he was
captured and later in life?

Regards

Andy H

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Prosper Vandenbroucke
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Re: First (?) US POW in Europe

#2

Post by Prosper Vandenbroucke » 18 Jan 2016, 19:28

Hi Andy,
Col. Michael Buckley Jr died on August 17, 2006 at the Mercy Care Center in Oakland at the age of 104
Have a look over here:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santac ... d=18976284
Best regards from Belgium
Prosper :wink:


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Andy H
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Re: First (?) US POW in Europe

#3

Post by Andy H » 25 Jan 2016, 19:29

Hi Prosper

Thank you for your post.
Nothing wrong with your English btw, its a lot better than my Flemish or Walloon I suspect

Regards

Andy H

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Prosper Vandenbroucke
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Re: First (?) US POW in Europe

#4

Post by Prosper Vandenbroucke » 25 Jan 2016, 19:32

All pleasure was mine
Best regards
Prosper :wink:

popehandy
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Re: First (?) US POW in Europe

#5

Post by popehandy » 29 May 2017, 18:30

Hi Andy,

Col. Buckley was my grandfather. He explained to the family that when he was captured, he had expected to be released as he was an unarmed observer, and the U.S. was not in the war at that time. However, the Germans who captured him asserted that he was the ally of their enemy, so therefore he was the enemy also.

I don't recall at what point he was moved to a barracks outside of Rome (for the majority of his captivity), but he did tell me that when the soldiers there informed him of Pearl Harbor, he didn't believe it - he thought that they were making it up. Even so, he told me on many occasions that he was treated well. They didn't have enough to eat, but neither did the guards. On Christmas morning, they wished him a Merry Christmas.

Meanwhile, since this was Italy, there was Mass every Sunday. At the time, services were in Latin and the missal, or prayer book, had Latin on one side and the local language on the other. He got a missal in Latin and Italian, and asked the priest if he could please have one in Latin and English. The priest got his identity, told someone at the Vatican, the Vatican called the archbishop in San Francisco (Abp. McGuckun, who knew him from a stint at West Point as Chaplain while my grandfather was there and served as an altar boy for him). Archbishop McGucken then called my grandmother in San Jose, where she had just gone through Christmas with 4 kids - not knowing where he was, or if he was dead or alive. The person involved in getting word from Rome to San Francisco was Monsignor O'Flaherty. If you ever saw the movie "The Scarlet and the Black", it was about the same priest.

When my grandfather was released, he had about 24 hours before he could leave for his ship back to the states. The generous Monsignor O'Flaherty showed him around Rome in the interim. (My granddad always loved Italy and returned many decades later with my grandmother on a fun tour.) Msgr O'Flaherty was quite a hero on many levels.

Harold Denny, a New York Times journalist, was there in Libya at the same time and also captured. He wrote a book after his release entitled "Behind Both Lines", and he mentions my granddad quite a bit. You can buy that book used on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Behind-lines-Har ... B0007JJBTU

After my grandfather died, I asked him about the whole POW experience and if he'd ever been given the POW medal. "What would I do with it? I'd just stick it in a drawer." He discouraged me from pursuing it, but I reached out to a wonderful POW organization in DC, and a lovely former POW made it his mission to expedite getting that medal to my grandfather. He received it in 2002 and died 4 years later at the age of 104.

Best regards,
Mary Pope-Handy
Los Gatos, CA
Attachments
Col Buckley receives POW medal.JPG
Col Buckley receives POW medal in 2002
POWCertificateBuckley.jpg
POW certificate

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Manuferey
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Re: First (?) US POW in Europe

#6

Post by Manuferey » 01 Jun 2017, 03:11

Mary,

Thank you very much for sharing your grandfather story on this Memorial Day.

Emmanuel

HMan
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Re: First (?) US POW in Europe

#7

Post by HMan » 02 Aug 2017, 02:25

Is there a typo in the POW certificate? It mentions "American Embassy in Italy on May 12, 1942".
Wasn't Italy at war with the US then - Wouldn't embassy be closed?

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