Have you all seen this 6 minute video of 1944 Anzio beachhead on youtube?

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SURE BROUGHT BACK SOME HELLISH MEMORIES. B.T D. T. '44, rocky squirrel

"Mr. Squirrel", none of us can even BEGIN to imagine what Anzio was like! Just WATCHING the part of the video with that craft coming into shore, rocking back & forth, made me feel seasick - and that's absolutely NOTHING compared to what you guys went through!

salute to you brave guys who endured it!

mary ann

WE GOT SEASICK DURING THE TWO DAYS OF TRAINING ON THE LCIS'

I THINK OUR PLATOON ALL UPCHUCKED AND THE DAMNED NAVY JUST

LOOKED DOWN WHERE WE WERE AND JUST LAUGHED. WE DID TOO

CAUSE THEY HAD TO CLEAN IT UP. ROCKY

From CMH's Anzio history:

"At the end of January, the security of the beachhead was threatened by ammunition & labor shortages. For a time, the Corps' most valuable counterbattery weapon (the 155-mm howitzer) had to be limited to 25 rounds per gun per day, but gradually the supplies of ammunition were replenished and reserves built up. The beachhead needed many civilian laborers to clean up debris and to dig in dump areas. Soon after the landing the bulk (about 22,000) of the civilian population were evacuated from the beachhead..."

(HOW did VI Corps "evacuate" twenty two thousand civilians? where did they put them all?)

"To alleviate the labor shortage Italian workers were recruited in Naples and brought to Anzio. At first a port battalion was stationed at the beachhead to unload Liberty ships. About March 1 a new practice was adopted of placing a port company on board each Liberty ship at Naples, and having it return with the vessel to Naples..."

(And this last sentence is amusing): "The opportunity for a quick departure from the dangerous Anzio area was an incentive to rapid unloading."

I'll just BET it WAS! I'm sure ALL our guys would've welcomed "a quick departure from the dangerous Anzio area"!!

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I've been shot at once for a grand total of about 45 minutes. The guys at the other end of the two-way rifle range were typical insurgent types - that is they shot at us with (presumably) with AK-47's at about 500 Meters away (about 200 M beyond accuracy with someone who has been trained well) - and probably held over there heads as they ducked behind the dirt birm they were behind as well. Regardless of the circumstances, things like that grab your attention and raises the "pucker factor."

I can't imagine being in Anzio for as long as you guys were, facing Wehrmacht troops (who could shoot well, I understand) with artillery and tanks, and knowing that if you could break out that only meant more Germans to fight. So my cover is off to you gentlemen.

While are talking about it, here was one of the high points of the campaign - when Rocky and Moose captured a kraut Col, his mistress and butler!

YAHOOOOO !!! Moose got the dame, poor old Rocky got some kraut nuts.....

Captain, you are now a MAJOR....

YAHOOOOO !!! Moose got the dame, poor old Rocky got some kraut nuts.....

 

Captain, you are now a MAJOR....

HUH! SQUIRREL JUST ASKED WITH A SNEER,----WHERE'S YOURS??

Captain, you are now a MAJOR....

I must have been frocked because I haven't seen any pay raise yet!!

That was a great film, and there was a lot of footage I hadn't seen before. Excellent. I will have to write to him and see if he can copy the footage for me for use in the documentary.

I will have quite a bit of footage myself from the ETO, but it will be a while before I can share it with y'all. I have to first convert about a dozen VHS tapes to DVD, then convert that for use on the web/documentary. A laborious process to say the least, but one which will be well worth it.

I just love the image of Rocky and gang. A real classic!