Veterans History Project: June 2017

Our Country was in a bind with Japan attacking us on the West Coast and Germany on the East, so it should come as no surprise that women were being trained to shoot machine guns as 95 year old Ruth Walzer testifies below (video missing)

Female Russian Soldier During World War II (circa 1940)

(Actually, the U. S. was training women to shoot machine guns at start of WW2. I interviewed fiesty 96 Y.O. Ruth who was upset, when after a year of training to shoot 40 and 60 mm. machine guns, she heard the generals decided not to use women in combat.)
Most of the 800,000 women who served in the Soviet Armed Forces during WWII were medical staff, but some — like this young woman who seems all too happy to be taking aim at some Nazis — served as gunners, pilots, and snipers. The next time someone tells you to shoot like a girl, show them this.
Actually, the U. S. was training women to shoot machine guns at start of WW2. I interviewed fiesty 96 Y.O. Ruth who was upset, when after a year of training to shoot 40 and 60 mm. machine guns, she heard the generals decided not to use women in combat.

Ron Alexander Anzio Dday in Italy WW2, quite a bloodbath and I did not know much about it until interviewing Capt. Sonny Morrison!

Shel Kent Glad to hear you have recovered. Here's a site with details of how the military made a mess out of that activity. I like this site which supplies coverage you may not find at others but exactly for that reason you need your truth filters on while reading. I wonder is your review close to whats in this review. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Anzio

Battle of Anzio - Wikipedia

The Battle of Anzio[2] was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22,…

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

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Ron Alexander Interestingly, the British Division was Dunkirk survivors The Americans were vets. of Tunisia and Sicily. In both the doc. and movie, the jeep made it quickly unharmed to Rome, so if Gen. Lucas would have kept his men moving after easy virtually unopposed beach landing, they could have captured Rome. Instead after setting up beachhead, he sent 2 battalions of Rangers out to reconnoiter the situation. The Nazis had rebounded by then and ambushed the Rangers killing many of them and took many POWs who they used to dig in their positions. The Germans planned to make this another Dunkirk, but Naval artillary and B24 bombers kept them at bay.

The Battle of Anzio^[2] was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944–with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle–to June 5, 1944, with the capture of Rome. The operation was opposed by German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno. The operation was initially commanded by Major General John P. Lucas, of the U.S. Army, commanding U.S. VI Corps with the intention being to outflank German forces at the Winter Line and enable an attack on Rome.

The success of an amphibious landing at that location, in a basin consisting substantially of reclaimed marshland and surrounded by mountains, depended on the element of surprise and the swiftness with which the invaders could build up strength and move inland relative to the reaction time and strength of the defenders. Any delay could result in the occupation of the mountains by the defenders and the consequent entrapment of the invaders. Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, commander of the U.S. Fifth Army, understood that risk, but Clark did not pass on his appreciation of the situation to his subordinate,^{[citation needed]} Lucas, who preferred to take time to entrench against an expected counterattack. The initial landing achieved complete surprise with no opposition and a jeep patrol even made it as far as the outskirts of Rome. However, Lucas, who had little confidence in the operation as planned, failed to capitalize on the element of surprise and delaying his advance until he judged his position was sufficiently consolidated and he had sufficient strength.

While Lucas consolidated, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the German commander in the Italian theatre, moved every unit he could spare into a defensive ring around the beachhead. His artillery units had a clear view of every Allied position. The Germans also stopped the drainage pumps and flooded the reclaimed marsh with salt water, planning to entrap the Allies and destroy them by epidemic. For weeks a rain of shells fell on the beach, the marsh, the harbour, and on anything else observable from the hills, with little distinction between forward and rear positions.

After a month of heavy but inconclusive fighting, Lucas was relieved and sent home. His replacement was Major General Lucian K. Truscott, who had previously commanded the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. The Allies broke out in May. But, instead of striking inland to cut lines of communication of the German Tenth Army's units fighting at Monte Cassino, Truscott, on Clark's orders, reluctantly turned his forces north-west towards Rome, which was captured on June 4, 1944. As a result, the forces of the German Tenth Army fighting at Cassino were able to withdraw and rejoin the rest of Kesselring's forces north of Rome, regroup, and make a fighting withdrawal to his next major prepared defensive position on the Gothic Line.