J a Castagno

Dance of the Red Panel J a Castagno

After the U. S. and British navies mistakenly shot down over twenty of their planes during the invasion of Sicily, the surviving paratroopers of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment languish, awaiting orders, at a Sicilian airfield. Their devastating losses forced Allied commanders to rethink the concept of airborne assaults. Staff Sergeant Tony DeMarco was bored and angry. The fate of his family in the mountains outside Salerno weighed heavy on his mind. In mid-September 1943, the call came. The war in Italy wasn't going well, reinforcements were needed. The paratroopers of the 504 would jump into battle, but the increasing strength of the Germans needed to be stopped. Hours before their drop, hardnosed Sergeant DeMarco volunteered to join Italian partisans in an attempt to cut the main German supply line. Little did he realize his resistance fighter contact would be a brave twenty one year old, deadly with a German Luger pistol.