[garandgal]

The 34th ID is a National Guard division from Iowa and Minnesota.

Thanks for the link to the book. My Grandma's brother was with the 34th; he spent the last two years of the war as a "guest" in Germany after being captured at Anzio. We have some newspaper articles from when he returned (he described the camp, guards, etc.), the original "MIA" telegram, and some photos from N. Africa.

I think I will pick up the book for some additional stories.

[68skylark]

That book is amazing. When I started reading it I wasn't that interested in the topic, but I think it's the best history book I've ever read, and I've been through it three times now.

If you have a family connection with those events, I can recommend it even more.

The Ernie Pyle book called "Here is Your War" also covers the campaigns in N. Africa and Sicily.

[AnAmericanMother]

My dad was with the 34th ID also - even though he was a Georgia boy and the unit was originally Iowa, mostly. They wound up with all sorts of people from all over as the war progressed.

Dad's unit was the 109th Combat Engineer Bn. He was at Anzio (but didn't go in w/ the first wave), then they went up the Italian mountains in the winter of 43-44.