WWII Battle of San Pietro

[Jettie]

My 2nd cousin, a Darby's Ranger, PFC, was killed in this battle on 30 November, 1943. A few years ago, I was searching for info on the Rangers and stumbled across ShadowSpear. The admin was kind enough to let me join the site as a poor relation of sorts.
So, as Remembrance Day just passed, I've again been going through what meagre papers and info I have on my cuz Dwight. Letters from The War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, to my Gran (her sis Minnie, Dwight's mother, died soon after his birth), info from the Dept of the Army and the US Embassies in London and Rome from the 1990s when I started searching for info. Every office I contacted then was so professional, punctual and gracious. But, besides his unit and gravesite info, they were unable to provide much info -- his service records were lost with about 15,999,999 others in the St Louis warehouse fire in 1973 (think that place & date are correct).
...
By the grace of God, a rental car the size of a chickadee's tit and the help of a gendarme (hey, you try to figure out the road signs in Italia), I made it to the cemetery at Anzio-Nettuno to visit my cousin's grave. And all the others. Almost 8,000. Most of them were just kids. I wept. I still do.
So, I found this movie on the battle and thought some of the history buffs here would appreciate. I did a forum search to ensure I am not being a copykitten.

http://archive.org/details/battle_of_san_pietro

 

[Red Flag 1]

Thanks for posting this Jettie. I applaude your sustained effort to visit your cousin Dwight's grave site; and the graves his fallen brothers-in-arms. I'll bet your rental said "Fiat", somewhere . The movie is most informative. It is amazing what soldiers went through to liberate Europe. The scope of planning that was needed is just amazing, all the attention diverting battles to facilitate D-Day. None of those encounters were minor, especially for the soldiers, and citizens involved.

Thanks again, Jettie; so glad you are here.

RF 1

 

[Jettie]

Thanks for posting this Jettie. I applaude your sustained effort to visit your cousin Dwight's grave site; and the graves his fallen brothers-in-arms. I'll bet your rental said "Fiat", somewhere . The movie is most informative. It is amazing what soldiers went through to liberate Europe. The scope of planning that was needed is just amazing, all the attention diverting battles to facilitate D-Day. None of those encounters were minor, especially for the soldiers, and citizens involved.

Thanks again, Jettie; so glad you are here.

RF 1

Thanks for your comments, Red Flag. :) That cemetery has a huge mural with troop movements, but beyond my realm of comprehension so the movie helped. Maps don't shown the terrain to me, and driving through there, some is pretty mountainous. And dam cold weather in the winter, I heard.
I try to do what I can now for the vets and local Legion; it's good to remember the Fallen but the living are more important right now.
I'm trying to get records on my Da, who was in the RC Navy in WWII -- that's like breaking into Ft Knox: Canucks still have those records sealed. My folks divorced when I was a toddler and only met him a few times when I was in my 20s; he never talked about the war when I did meet him. I did find a wonderful book about the Cdn/US naval activities in the North Atlantic in WWII: "On The Triangle Run" by James B Lamb (Macmillan of Canada, Totem Books, 1986). I think I understand now why Da wouldn't talk about the war. Still, some lovely anecdotes in there. Anyway, I digress.
As for that rental car, it might have had a Fiat decal stuck over a rusted Russian Prada logo. :)