Posted on 06/05/2014 9:35:27 AM PDT by rktman
Battles such as Anzio, Salerno, and Monte Cassino would be burned into the history books. The fighting cost some 300,000 American and British casualties and would not cease until the formal end of WWII in May of 1945. Pictured, British troops scramble through the rubble in Catania, August 1943.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Thank you. Will go looking now to see if I can spot my Dad.
Uh, I hope he stands out real well cause there’s lots of folks in the picures. :>}
Amazing photos.
Nope. Couldn’t see him.
Not too much concern for collateral damage back then. Kind of a different thought process then too. If you made the people suffer enough, maybe they would demand an end to the fighting. Atrocities? All over the place by today’s ROE.
I read that in May 1945 the Germans still had 1 million troops in the mountains of northern Italy. Eisenhower’s worst nightmare was that Hitler would leave Berlin and make his last stand in the Alps.
IF you were, or, still are, into historical board wargaming you might like this.
http://www.multimanpublishing.com/tabid/59/ProductID/83/Default.aspx
I don’t work for the company, but, I did help the designer get the game started many years ago. Just want to see it published at this point.
I heard that Gen Mark Clark was warned don’t go to Texas because one of the Divisions he slaughter was a Texas National Guard Divisions.
Clark was a lousy General....
The Rapido crossing. General Walker who had taken part in the battle of the Marne in WWI warned Clark he was making a major mistake but Clark went ahead anyway. Clark was a vain, self promoting, order disobeying idiot.
My late father SLOGGED from Sicily to Munich with the 45th ID (Thunderbirds) and had disdain for the authors and historians who made it seem that the ground war in Europe started at Normandy. He made 4 amphibious landings at Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and South France so he knew the problems of getting off of the beaches. He had NO DISRESPECT for his fellow military who did fight at Normandy, it was just the idea that they were the ones who won the war that he was fighting for almost a year earlier that irritated him.
The Division began the war as a Texas National Guard division. It was reorganized and participated in the advance on Rome and the invasion of southern France. By the end of the War it had a distinguished record but had suffered more casualties than any other Army division.
That is an ironically fitting way to describe today. In fact, 70 years ago today America learned that Allied troops had entered Rome, but nobody remembers that because tomorrow was D-Day.
The historians get a LOT wrong. A lot of folks have no clue as to what was going on at the “southern” front. The battle of Monte Casino is a good example of heroic actions but there are so many other ones of equal heroic acts, it’s hard to keep track. I respect all those troops on both sides of the globe during WWII. Heck, I respect most of those who have served. Others, are contemptable. One from Idaho comes to mind currently.
See if you find my dad too. He was about 9 years old and under the bombs.
War is hell.
LOL! They're not the only ones, either. My late Dad was in that campaign, built a bridge over a specific river slogged on. Twenty years later he was at Command and General Staff College and they had a bridging exercise and lo and behold! - same river. He's chuckling to himself and proudly laid out how they did it...only to be told by the instructor that it was the wrong answer because it was impossible to build a bridge there. After they peeled Dad off the ceiling he brought in a divisional history with maps and layeth the smack down...
I served in the 36th Infantry Division and attended one of the reunions of the WWII guys, I didn’t have a lot of time to stay there but the couple of hours I did get, was fascinating.
Here is some trivia about the 36th, they originated the Windtalkers.
World War I
“”In France during World War I, the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, had a company of Indians who spoke 26 languages and dialects. Two Indian officers were selected to supervise a communications system staffed by 18 Choctaw. The team transmitted messages relating to troop movements and their own tactical plans in their native tongue. Soldiers from other tribes, including the Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Osage and Yankton Sioux also were enlisted to communicate as code talkers. Previous to their arrival in France, the Germans had broken every American code used, resulting in the deaths of many Soldiers. However, the Germans never broke the Indians’ “code,” and these Soldiers became affectionately known as “code talkers.”
World War II
During World War II, the Army used Indians in its signal communications operations in both the European and Pacific theaters of operations. Student code talkers were instructed in basic military communications techniques. The code talkers then developed their own words for military terms that never existed in their own native tongue. For instance, the world for “colonel” was translated to “silver eagle,” “fighter plane” became “hummingbird,” “minesweeper” became “beaver,” “half-track” became “race track,” and “pyrotechnic” became “fancy fire.”
The Army and Marine Corps used a group of 24 Navajo code talkers in the Pacific Theater, who fought in the many bloody island campaigns. In North Africa, eight Soldiers from the Meskwaki tribe in Iowa served as code talkers in the 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Division. In Europe, the 4th Signal Company, 4th Infantry Division, was assigned 17 Comanche code talkers. From the D-Day landings at Normandy in June 1944, to the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge, they kept the lines of communications secure.
Soldiers from other tribes, including the Kiowa, Winnebago, Chippewa, Creek, Seminole, Hopi, Lakota, Dakota, Menominee, Oneida, Pawnee, Sac, Fox and Choctaw served during the war. Some were killed and wounded and at least one was taken prisoner. As a testament to their professionalism, the enemy was never able to break the code talkers’ communications.””
OUCH! Take that ya young whipper snapper. LOL! I hate it when something that’s actually been done is discounted by some clueless twit that wasn’t there as not “doable”. I like it when the back up is there and the clueless twit is summarily put in his/her place.
Fascinating! Thanks for the post!
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