Memorial

Written Memorial Day, May 30, 2011 by Francis Graves

The Third Infantry Division in which I served in WW II, accompanied by two other American and one British Division, made an amphibious landing at Anzio, Italy, on January 22, 1944. It was an ‘end-around’ regarding the Germans who had tenaciously held fast on the Casino line anchored on Monte Casino north of Naples. The hope was that the allied sudden presence in their rear would cause them to withdraw from their defensive positions, but that did not happen. Not only did they not withdraw, but they quickly surrounded our forces on the Anzio Beachhead with enough strength to prevent us from moving inland.

The Beachhead became a very dangerous place with the German forces trying to force us back into the sea and us fighting to stay dry. That situation lasted four long cold, miserable months. Our Division alone sustained over six thousand battle casualties. It was not until May 22^nd that we were able to break through the German defenses.

I was a lieutenant in “C” Battery of the 39^th Field Artillery Battalion rotating as the artillery forward observer with my friend and counterpart, Lieutenant Barnard Klang, in supporting the Third Battalion of the 15^th Infantry Regiment. I was scheduled to be forward with the infantry in the break out attack on May 22^nd, but had been temporarily assigned to a provisional machine gun battalion the Division had organized to help support the break out effort.

One hundred 50 caliber machine guns (all Division owned) were organized into four batteries of twenty-five guns each. I commanded one of those units and our mission was to employ those weapons, which have a very long range, as we would artillery in interdictory fire missions against enemy strong points. Each gun had to be emplaced along the banks of a canal and accurately located by survey to enable us to aim them accurately at the various targets assigned to us.

We worked at it nights and laid low during the daylight hours to be sure the enemy, which had observation posts in the hills surrounding the beachhead, would not see what we were about. That made for slow work and it took us a better part of a week prior to breakout day to complete the task.

D-day finally arrived and the attack proceeded on schedule and after a very long day of hard fighting was successful. German resistance was fierce but in the end, they were driven back and a significant allied victory was achieved. Our Machine Gun Battalion fired tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and the Third of the 15^th, supported by my friend Barney Klang, who had taken my scheduled rotation, achieved its objective after a costly engagement.

But Barney died that day. He was killed in action doing his duty.

(Published in Ashland Daily Press under “Memorial to a Fallen Soldier” on June 2, 2011.)