• Anzio – February – May 1944
One year over seas, shot craps and helped around van. Went to bed near midnight. 1:47 A.M. Mac, Cling, Gordon and Plateo tent had direct hit. God Awful. Every one is below ground. Jerrie dive bomb attact, Smitty was killed, the strain is getting us all. 6 in ten hours slept underground Put vans antena in order. Worked all day on fox hole with heavy roof. What with air-raids, a God awful day. We have found our religion Jittery as can be. Five air raids tonight. Cold blooded valdes! “will” sure gets our nerves. Finished putting up foxhole. Rain and war = hell on earth. Our beds are solid mud. Read a little must write. Cling & Gordon have 50-50 chance Jerry gives our hospitals hell. Rain forced foxhole bathed shaved and caught hell from will hews is same.
Battle chow is poor. Wrote a few letters. Am drinking too damn much coffee. Fixed Krumrines radio, everybody lives below ground. Haggard mostly looking crew Jerry over all night. Clark’s tunnell bombed. Ops block nocked out. Tommy came back from hospital. Cling died this morning. I sent his things to his sister. Jerrie over all night. New vans came in. Lots of mail can’t anser my mail. Got west gun today. Jerry nuisance raids are unnerving. Dick and I put stove in foxhole. Wrote letters. Days are fairly quiet. Few raids &”will” break monotiny. Wrote long letter home. Nights are hell. Jerry sends everything he can fly at night. Hope sis waits for marriage. Sure miss Cling. We try to sleep during day. Our bombers gave Jerrie front lines hell. Cold day. Officers complimented us on the way we are standing up under fire. Wrote Helen long letter.
Fair day. We scored heavily against Luftwaffe. P.38 knocked down my tunnel. Moved locker to my van. Cozys locker was looted. Ate last of candy bars. Read “with malice toward some”. Rained last night. Everything from water to bombes. My 90 m.m. friend is really giving my nerves hell. Expecting paratroops-were ready (we keep telling ourselves) Norman went to front. Night fighters. Dark clouds so low you can feel them. We are smashing heavy counter offensive. Thank God for our air-superiority. Night of hell. Thought for sure Lord had drew my number.
Night-fighter (82nd) are to damn close to front. Nerve wracking day. With artillary shelling us another casultie. Monitoring all night. Few B-17’s today. Can say we are at Anzio. Pure unadulterated hell! Shelled all day bombed all night. An ammo dump went up 500 yards from us. Concussion ruined our fox hole. Put the Ops Block out of commison. Cozy and Dick began new hole. I reinforced mine. Am true christain. Got our mess tent. Air cover gives Jerry hell. Have stove and electric lights in my hole. Rained during the night. Rained all night and day. Kept Jerry planes away “Willie” had a field day. Don’t go far from fox holes. Dick and I had lengthy discussion on religion. Read book of Mormon. Can’t put much work in unless it’s from a fox hole. Air raids + shelling all day. I started a new fox hole for myself. Received mail tonight. Relieving men who feel stress to much. I Love Helen’s picture. Egg and Dick had it waiting for me. Shelled all night. Scared thought they had us.
What craters those shells make! Worked like hell to finish fox hole. No soap. Three of us slept in Eggs hole what a night lost 5 men from bomb. Still digging and ducking have roof left to put on new hole. Cpt spoke to each individual. “Good work” but what a price. Bombed out of commison again. Worked hard to finish my fox hole. “Willie” tried his damndest to stop me. Rain and heavy sky all day. Wrote letter home. Dog tired “will” really initiated first night in foxhole. “Reccies” report large “Jerry” tank forces North East of us. Put more dirt on fox hole. 3 hour bomb raid tonight. “China 34″ lost navigator afraid to leave fox holes. (Since 1944 was a leap year the last entry was for February 29)
March 1-7-Rain & more rain fox hole leaks a little. Patched it up. Have midnight snack Dick usually comes in Dick is mighty fine boy. Grows on one. Have comfortable hole, lights, telephone, radio and stove. Ants are bad. 800 bombers were over and hit front.—a few letters, prayer is daily deed. Up until 2AM working on bad power line. Jerry came over at 4:30AM did a little laundry, cut fire wood Rainy day, willie still sings, news sounds better. More rain and shells. I’ll take bombings. Chow is poor so is anzio predicument. Wish we could get a push started miserable. A little sun lots of threatening clouds and cold. Another close miss from willie. Play pinochle and sweat out air raids. Running low on coffee, cream and sugar.
March 8-14-New replacements came up from headquarters. Gordon died in hospital Mac is getting better. Fruit cake and chocalet from home. Wish we had tons of it. Slept quite a bit. We are actually getting used to shelling. Had a taste of cherry brandy. Hair cut first in three months. Dennis is on cassino front. Mail situation is bad news. Puts us in precarious position reading an awful lot. Lots of religion area looks like ground hog city. Beautiful day. Flew medium and fighter bomber sorties. Did some laundry until noon slept all after noon. Terrific air raid. Dark cloudy day. Drizzlying rain. Up all night. Slept all day. Quite an artillery duel near us. Played pinochle and worked all night. Worked all night. Air raid & shells all night. Bathed and cleaned up and slept all day. Willie worked all day. 88’s too. Sun shone for change clantz new buddy. Played pinochle and read and worked all night. Slept most of the day chow is better. Krummerive (sp) is mess officer. Strung barb wire against paratroop.
March 15-21-Rained to beat hell. Cassino was wiped out. We made small push hellva big artillery barrage. They sure tie a mans guts up played pinochle Egg and I always loose. Because of intense air raids and shelling at nights, we have reversed our lifes and sleep during the day, when we have air cover. We work at nights. Jerry always bombs us fifteen minutes before breakfast. It really tears one our of a sound sleep. Cassino front has finally begun to move. Hope they hurry. 30+ M.E.’s and F.W.’s paid us a morning call. Our patrols and A.A. were waiting for them, we lost one plane. Bomb hit our mess tent. Damn those Jerries. They ruined breakfast. New mess tent again. Slept most of the day. Read and wrote quite a bit. Air raid of course. Our night fighters and A.A. give them damn good show. Shelling continues
March 22-27-French toast and Dago Jam for Breakfast. Beautiful day. Layed around in sun and read. Played volleyball this evening. Pretty good mail call. Rain again keep underground an awful lot. Not a tree around that hasnt been hit with sharpnel. Bombings come once a night and about every morning. Reporters were injured in latest bombing. Have lost an awfull lot of weight. Chow has been pretty good. 5-1 rations. Still playing pinochle. Wrote Mac, still in hospital. Worked most of night. Helped Dick get load of wood. Have motion picture tent up. Hope Jerry lets us enjor the movies. Played some volleyball. Day was nice. Capt. Jordan presented me with citation awarded by General Hawkins. Guess they haven’t forgotten me yet. Egg received big box of chocolate bars. Tasted good. Still playing pinochle. Dick and cozy still win. Hope to get softball team when beach head becomes safe. Shelling drove us out of movie. Air raid caught us on volley court.
March 28-31- New personnel arrived to release some of us. Glad to get off beachhead. My 66th day. Saw air burst. Narrowly missed being hit by shrapnel. Had a beer ration. Left Ops #2 for rest camp. Rode greek LST. Left harbor in time to miss shelling. And air raid. Infantry going home. All smiles. Hash on boat played a little poker. Docked above Naples 82nd truck picked us up . In time for darn good chow. HQ’s live like kings. Treat us swell. Enjoyed E.M.C. entered ping pong tournament. Was paid at headquarters. Still enjoying ourselves. Getting our laundry done. And preparing to enjoy passes.. Still jittery. (End of March 1944)
(Diary states, brief outline of next twelve days)
Major furnished transportation for Egg, Coz + 2 to go to Sorrento. Ran across Zahr & Quasada & gals. Stayed in private home. Ate good meals. Pop and everyone glad to see us. Taking pictures all the time. Vesuvius has covered everything with dust and grime. Went to St. Agata. St. Agata was closest thing to being able to call home. As is possible over here. All people are glad to see us. Everyone asks us to dinner. Lots of oranges, nuts and best of wines. Irish guards treat us swell when they find out about us. Enjoyed guards sgt’s club. Coz and I walked down the old path and visisted friends we knew. Said fair wells and returned to Hqs via ambulance. Tired and dirty. Cleared up and went to Capri. Beautiful island. Rode funny “furnicolare” up Mt. wonderfull hotels bath, tubs maid and waiter service.
Red Cross in Villa Valentino, most beautiful villa ive ever seen. Owner is in Rome. Theatres, stage shows, snack bars everything and anything is at our disposal. Prices for extra food wines and souveniers are terribly high. We did little sight seeing. More content to spend time at Red Cross and our hotels. Lots of American bars. Every one as usual has been or is going to America. Pups and kittens at red cross were most enjoyable. Was to have left today but boat was to small to accomodate all of us. We weren’t sory in the least. Finally got back to HQ’s. Must go back to Anzio tomorrow. Am more tired than when we left the beachhead. American LST coming back. Egg & I worked in kitchen. Good food. Was glad to ge back. 20 + Jerries and shelling & night raid was home coming.
(April 13–1944) Kenny and boys left for Hq’s and rest. Had to relate all experiences and rumors to every one. Rumor is By August we will be out of this war theatre. Quiet nite. Had good breakfast, bathed and took some pictures. Ity boy is doing our laundry. Beautiful day played softball, volleyball. Slept alone and sweat out big raid. We are all taking it easy. Shelling still continues. Few air raids. Chow is good. Do an awful lot of reading and sleeping. Have friend “dago” boy to do our laundry. Getting limbered up for softball by swatting flies. Ackk-Ack boys ar doing a thriving business on a distillery they have set up. Still playing volleyball. Still sleeping. Read nearly all for noon. A little rain before chow. Lots of shelling Caught up on my letters. Got combat jacket at salvage. The month of April is speedily passing. It leaves us wondering why were left on the beach head. Well at least we give Jerry good target practice. Mother nature is at her prettiest stage. But I have a terrible tooth ache. Was taken to 38th and then 15th evac hospitals where I had a formentioned tooth removed. It was an absessed one.
Food is definitely better. I’m on soup and coffee for a couple of days. Lots of sunshine which we really enjoy. Our air traffic has been light. Jerry gave us a four hour raid tonight. His artillary has also been giving us hell. Had two 280mm shells land in area last night. Like to blew us out of our fox holes. One motor knocked out by a falling tree. Skies are clouding up. Good weather is two good to last. Rain gives Jerry artillery chance to fire without being observed. Back to muddy foxholes. Rain by the tons. My fox hole has rain water six inches deep and back up clear under neath my bed. mail has been fair. Volleyball is still going strong. Must write “clings” sister soon something has to break soon. Weather has been fair of late. A little wind has been blowing my laundry has never come back guess the family has been moved back to Naples. Shelling and bombing has slackened considerably. I know we are moving in enormous quantities of material. Guess jerry is doing the same. Dick and boys left for rest camp. (End of April 1944)
(May 1944 1-10) The GI’s have picked up some good looking Italian horses. Everyone enjoys horseback riding. Shells hit our area again. Men all OK but some equipment was damaged. Fellows are getting a pool on the western invasion. I have the 12th day. A little early I think. Egg and I have organized a vollyball league. 14 teams It keeps us from going stark mad and is quite a bit of fun. Jerry however is not above breaking up a few games. Our night work has been much easier of late. Mail is coming in good. It certainly means an awful lot. My dago laundry boy finally came back Had to sort my own laundry out. Hell I had to wash clothes Heard from home that my commendation was printed. Also heard Etsel was missing. Dear God, please let him be safe as a prisoner. I hate this business. Weather is still nice but it has threatened to rain. Volleyball league is till going great. Lots of rumors about our outfit and the England invasion.
(May 11-20)
Speck Wilson came up. He is Col Mcnown’s driver. Col is to be our new C.O. Hope “grubstake” becomes an independent organization. We are preparing for a visit from General Barcus our new wing C. O. We hear that he is rugged and very G.I. Capt Erikson informed us that something big is coming up. Every precaution is being taken to prevent any leakage of information. Legaus and Sampsil flew back with Barr. Rest of the boys will be in the next few days. Things have been terribly quiet the past few days. Only artillery fire is at nights. No raids for five or six days. Our patrols really keep highway six swept up. Our new controllers are far from good. It rather lets our good name down. Night fighters average about I per night. Day patrols get their jerries in groups. About once every week. Cassino has been occupied. Hope they soon reach us. Worried about Dennis. Spec is back with stuff from Naples. He sure crossed up. Has begun to rain. Loved the letters I got from Helen today. Spicy little cuss. No mail from home. Weather cleared up. We’ve sent a half track out to advanced VI corp HG and CP Lt. Wright is doing control work. Dive bombing and straffing duty.
(May 21-31)
We’ve had new emergency air strips put over the beachhead. Big show is about ready up here. They’ve started already on the Cassino, Garta fronts. Vollyball League is still going strong. Heavy bomber formations over all day. Many may day calls! (May 23) It broke this morning. Biggest artillery barrage since El Arndine (sp). We have complete air supremecy . Thousands of Jerry M.T.’s loaded and empty. We caught on evacuation roads. Thousands of prisoners are being taken, But, not without our own losses. 3rd Division and 1st armored are suffering the worst. Big General (Clark, Alexander, Barcus, etc) conference at airport this morning. We are no longer a beach head. Happy days. Haven’t seen Jerry kites for days. Our shelling has almost ceased. Still rolling on. More equipment lost by Jerry than at “Cape Bon” We will move to Lake Albano as soon as it is taken. HG’s will move up here. Haven’t had time to bury dead on either side. Along with mules and horses stench is terrible. Thank God it will never happen in America. Vollyball league play off’s are turning out OK were sleeping above ground first time in five months. Attended special memorial services at Anzio Military Cemetery as Representative from Earls Sqdn. General Clark speaker of Day.