Tag Archives: anzio

Devil’s Brigade Loadout

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How about this great photo spread from 80 years ago.

Forcemen of the “Devil’s Brigade,” the U.S.-Canadian First Special Service Force— Sergeant Charles Shepard (6-2), Lieutenant Henry H. Rayner (5-2 &1-2), Private First Class James A. Jones (5-2 & 6-2)– preparing to go on an evening patrol in the Anzio beachhead, Italy, ca. 20-27 April 1944. Note the boot-blacked faces and hands and M1 Thompsons with lots of mags, always useful in breaking contact on a night patrol.

Photo by Lieut. C.E. Nye / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-183862 (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3378968)

Most of these men were also captured in the below image from the same photographer, including a very rare M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun (LMG). Also note the propensity of rubber helmet bands, sans camo netting, and the use of what is often termed hand-painted “OSS camouflage” on the shells.

(L-R): Pvt Dan Lemaire (5-2 & 6-2), Pfc Richard Stealey (6-2), Sgt Charles Shepard (6-2), Lt H.H. Raynor (5-2 & 1-2), Pfc James A. Jones (5-2 & 6-2), Forcemen of 5-2, First Special Service Force, preparing to go on an evening patrol in the Anzio beachhead, Operation Shingle, (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3378967)

A third image from this group, showing a platoon brief before setting off, has had the Devil’s Brigade arrowhead patches scrubbed by a censor.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3396066)

More LAC FSSF images are here.

Seperated by 9,000 miles: 66 & 77

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80 years ago.

Two Gator (LST Mk 2) sister ships, built almost side-by-side in the same yard in Indiana (Jeffboat), were hard at work on opposite sides of the globe in two very different campaigns in the same week.

USS LST-66 disembarking troops while beached at Red Beach #2, Tanah Merah Bay, Dutch New Guinea (Hollandia Operation), 23 April 1944. (US National Archives Identifier 205584995, Local Identifier 26-G-2184, U.S. Coast Guard Photo # 2184. by Coast Guard photographer Struges)

USS LST-77 lands Fifth Army M-4 Sherman medium tanks on the Anzio Waterfront, Italy, on 27 April 1944. National Archives SC 189668

USS LST-66, under the command of LT. Howard E. White, USCGR, had been built by the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine Co., Jeffersonville, Indiana between August 1942 and April 1943. Sailing for the Pacific, she joined LST Flotilla Eleven where she landed troops and equipment during the Bismarck Archipelago operation (Cape Gloucester, Admiralty Islands), Eastern New Guinea (Saidor), Hollandia, Western New Guinea (Toem-Wakde-Sarmi, Biak, Noemfoor, Cape Sanaspoor, Morotai), Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, and Balikpapan, earning eight battle stars and the Navy Unit Commendation. Decommissioned, on 26 March 1946 and struck soon after, she was sold for scrap in 1948.

USS LST-77, under the command of LT(jg) Anothy Kohout Jr., USNR, had been built by the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine Co., Jeffersonville, Indiana between February and July 1943. She sailed to Europe and fought off German attacks as part of the hard-luck Convoy UGS-37, landed troops and equipment at Anzio, and participated in the Dragoon Landings in Southern France– delivering troops to Grande Beach on 24 August 1944 and St Tropez the following week. Loaned to the Royal Navy in December 1944, she was sailed around the Adriatic as a part of the 11th Flotilla, carrying troops, partisans, and civilians until October 1945 when handed back over to the USN. She was stricken from the NVR in 1946 and sold the following year for scrap, having earned two battle stars.

Echohawk

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The 45th Infantry (“Thunderbird”) Division Museum in Oklahoma recently shared a gripping series of combat drawings by Brummett Echohawk.

An unofficial war artist, Echohawk was a Pawnee, Kit-Kahaki (warrior band) and “saw the elephant” firsthand as an infantryman with the 45th’s 179th Infantry Regiment, earning the Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart (3), after enlisting in the Oklahoma National Guard in 1940 at age 18.

His outfit was filled with depression-era cowboys, farmers, and more than a thousand Native Americans– recently brought back into the attention of many due to the recent Liberator series on Netflix– with Echohawk and William Lasley, a Potawatomie, leading a successful charge at Anzio Beach to take the “Factory” which insured that the Allied toe-hold at Anzio Beach was secure.

A number of his drawings made it into wartime publications.

The Thunderbirds suffered 26,449 casualties in 230 days of combat across Europe, some 187.7 percent of its authorized strength.

As for Echohawk, he went on to become a well-recognized artist specializing in Western and Native themes and is well-exhibited at the Gilcrease Museum and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center.

Trail of Tears, by Brummett Echohawk, black, and whitewash, 1957 via the Gilcrest

SGT Echohawk passed at age 83 in 2006 and is buried in Pawnee’s Highland Cemetery.

For more information, visit the Echohawk Project and pick up his books, including Drawing Fire: A Pawnee, Artist, and Thunderbird in World War II.

Four Hours from Sicily to Dachau

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For those looking to get a little war movie fix over the coming holidays, I suggest you check out The Liberator on Netflix. Based on Alex Kershaw’s excellent 2012 book of the same name, it covers the real-life “500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau” traveled by (later Brig Gen.) Felix L. Sparks.

Sparks, who enlisted during the Depression to make sure he was fed, was first a company and later a battalion commander in the 45th (Thunderbird) Infantry Division’s 157th Infantry Regiment— drawn literally from “Cowboys and Indians.”

“Troops of the 45th Division march thru Caltanissetta, Sicily. 157th Infantry, Company L. [old] Signal Corps Photo # MM-LCE-7-18-43-P2-11-6.” 7/18/1943. Photographer: Klein. Via NARA 111-SC-176493

Notably, the unit saw the elephant– and by all accounts was trampled flat by it– at Anzio, then went on to duke it out against crack SS mountain troops (the dreaded Black Edelweiss of 6. SS-Gebirgs-Division “Nord”) in the frozen hell of Reipertswiller, before playing a key part in the taking of Aschaffenburg in the face of downright wasteful and fanatical resistance in the last days of the war. Famously, the unit was also involved in the controversial death of unarmed SS troops at Dachau during its liberation.

The four-part series is filmed in a new CGI hybrid Trisoscope technique which looks vaguely similar to what A Scanner Darkly was produced in a few years back and an upgrade to the woefully underappreciated Heavy Metal and circa 1978 version of Lord of the Rings.

Now don’t write off The Liberator as a “cartoon,” as the technique is on point and allows for an easy and more accurate (ironically) portrayal of period places and equipment– especially tanks, and aircraft– that is just not possible in live-action films (admit it, you cringe a little bit every time you see the Russian T-34/85s mocked up like Tiger Is in Kelly’s Heroes).

How about that mortar data plate?

While not Band of Brothers, and Sparks is not Dick Winters, The Liberator is a good retelling of a story that is oft forgotten. There are way worse ways to waste four hours.

Navy’s modern Jolly Roger

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160704-N-NU281-142 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 4, 2016) The guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio (CG 68) transits the Atlantic Ocean alongside aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), not pictured. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is on an 8-month combat deployment in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Justin R. Pacheco/Released)

160704-N-NU281-142 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 4, 2016) The guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio (CG 68) transits the Atlantic Ocean alongside aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), not pictured. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is on an 8-month combat deployment in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Justin R. Pacheco/Released)

Note the distinctive Anzio Beach head flag flown by the cruiser and authorized by the Navy:

anziohead

At first glance, the ANZIO Beach Head flag strikes one as a colorful, almost pirate-esque decoration. However, there is a much greater meaning to this symbol. In examining the flag, we see the representation of ship and aircraft that symbolize that massive loss of these American, British, and Canadian assets of war.

The skull represents Adolf Hitler’s personal guarantee to “turn the Anzio beach head into ‘death’s head'”

The red reminds us of the massive carnage of the battle that claimed the lives of over 28,000 Allied servicemen.

The blue represents the ocean, from which the assault was launched.

The line between the 2 colors exhibits the “Gustav Line” that divided Italy from Nazi control.

From the Germans:

anzio cisternia propaganda poster