Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Technician 5th Grade (T-5)

Unit:

Company A, 2761st Special Reconnaissance Battalion, Office of Strategic Services (OSS), U.S. Government

Awarded on:

July 28th, 1945

"For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Company A, 2761st Special Reconnaissance Battalion (Separate), Office of Strategic Services, in action against enemy forces on 28 February 1945 and on 16 March 1945, in Northern Italy. Volunteering for hazardous duty, while fully aware that it was the announced policy of the Germans to execute anyone found working with the partisans behind their lines, Technician Fifth Grade Fabrega parachuted into the vicinity of Belluno, Italy, on 27 December 1944, and worked and fought with the partisans in that area until captured by the enemy on 6 March 1945. On the morning of 26 February, the section, with an additional small force of partisans, were surrounded and isolated on a mountain top by Germans and Fascists numbering in excess of one thousand. One position defended by a light machine gun and an automatic rifle was under fire from two Italian heavy machine guns. It became necessary to move ammunition to another position for other weapons but not until Technician Fifth Grade Fabrega moved the light machine gun forward to a new position and engaged in a fire duel lasting about three minutes which eliminated the two enemy positions, did this become possible. Technician Fifth Grade Fabrega engaged in this action with utter disregard for his own safety, although he was implored by the partisans to withdraw. By his heroic deed he secured one complete flank for the remainder of the action which lasted till after darkness set in and resulted in the enemy's fleeing, leaving about 130 dead and wounded behind. During the day, Technician Fifth Grade Fabrega personally accounted for 5 enemy dead and an unknown number of wounded. On the morning of 6 March, the section was again surrounded by a large enemy force, and in an attempt to escape, Technician Fifth Grade Fabrega was captured near Trichiona, about 20 kilometers southwest of Belluno. He was taken to SS headquarters in Belluno for interrogation, but despite ten days of starving, severe beating and torture by application of electrical charges to his ears, hands and feet, he revealed nothing about the work and location of his section. On 6 March, he was taken by automobile from Belluno to a prison camp in Bolzano for what he was told for further questioning and torture and possibly execution. When Brunico, the driver, who besides being the chauffeur of the SS commander in Belluno, also acted as a spy for the Americans mission and on numerous occasions had furnished valuable intelligence items and forewarning of impending raids, tried to persuade Technician Fifth Grade Fabrega to escape with him to the partisans, but this he refused because he realized the importance for the American mission to retain the services of a spy in the SS command in Belluno. He extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy, his repeated disregard for his own personal safety, and his unselfish action in refusing to escape when facing further torture and possible death, in order to further the aims of the mission to which he belonged, is in keeping with the highest traditions of the Armed Forces of the United States."

Headquarters, U.S. Army-Mediterranean Theater of Operations, General Orders No. 145