Posted on 12/20/2006 5:22:46 PM PST by cold666pack
Can someone with military knowledge tell me what this title tells them?
"34th Signal Company Chronicle: Cassino and Its Abbey"
I know the author served in the 34th Infantry Division of the US Army, bur from this title, is it safe to assume he fought in Germany where there is an Abbey of Monte Cassino?
Not knowledgable about this type of terminology at all, and would be very grateful for some insight, so as to not make stupid mistakes when writing about it.
He said that Clark could never go to Texas, he would have been hanged to the nearest tree.
The 442nd may have been there, but I think Sen. Inouye was wounded later in the war.
Back in Italy, the 442nd was assaulting a heavily defended hill in the closing months of the war when Lieutenant Inouye was hit in his abdomen by a bullet which came out his back, barely missing his spine. He continued to lead the platoon and advanced alone against a machine gun nest which had his men pinned down. He tossed two hand grenades with devastating effect before his right arm was shattered by a German rifle grenade at close range. Inouye threw his last grenade with his left hand, attacked with a submachine gun and was finally knocked down the hill by a bullet in the leg.The source is here.Dan Inouye spent 20 months in Army hospitals after losing his right arm. On May 27, 1947, he was honorably discharged and returned home as a Captain with a Distinguished Service Cross (the second highest award for military valor), Bronze Star, Purple Heart with cluster and 12 other medals and citations.
His Distinguished Service Cross was recently upgraded to a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for military valor. He received that medal from the President of the United States on June 21, 2000.
Sen. Bob Dole basically had his arm and shoulder shot away at the same time in Italy.
Have fun!
go here http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/romar/72-20.htm
and here http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.05844/enlarge?ID=pm0042001&page=1
Air photos graphically depict the destruction of the abbey of Monte Cassino in southwestern Italy. Monte Cassino was the target of several concentrated Allied air strikes and assaults in the early months of 1944.
From the National Archives here http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/lae/images/LE282L9.jpg and http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/lae/images/LE282L10.jpg
and here http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/naples/72-17.htm
and here http://www.army.mil/cmh/books/wwii/11-9/6-3.htm
34th Signal Initially South Dakota NG http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/STB/STB1BrigadeCombatTeam34InfantryDivision.htm
European Theater of Operations
On February 10, 1941, the 109th Engineer Regiment, 109th Quartermaster Regiment, and the 34th Signal Company, were called into active service, and assembled with the 34th Division at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. The 34th Division which contained the South Dakota units set sail for Ireland on January 14, 1942. The 1st Battalion, 109th Quartermaster and Company A, 109th Engineers were part of this movement, and the first soldier to disembark in Ireland, was a soldier from Pierre named Baer Schliussmann. The 34th Division landed in Oran, North Africa in January, 1943. They participated in the North Africa Campaign, the Italian Campaign and the occupation of Northern Italy after May of 1945.
The oldest monastery in continuous use in Europe. Walter Miller, a navigator on that raid, wrote A Canticle for Leibowitz, the original "atom doom" s.f. novel, partly in penance for his role in the event.
Yes, that was just one of his bad decisions.
Undoubtably, Clark was getting a lot of pressure from his superiors to take the Gustav line, so in all fairness, it probably was not all his fault. He was in a very inferior tactical position. Clark was a vain man, however, and a darling of the presscorps. He wanted desperately to win a big victory at Cassino. So he used the old WWI French tactic of "let's charge the machine guns until we're all dead".
See:
The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps "HermannGöring" (FranzKurowski). Hard cover, small format (6"x9"), 504 pages, 157 photographs, 37 maps and 27 documents/orders of battle.
This book covers the entire history of the HG unit from its inception as Polizei-Regiment "Wecke" to its formation as a Parachute Panzerkorps. This elite unit fought in France (1940), Russia (1941/42), Tunisia, Sicily, Italy (Anzio and Monte Cassino), Poland (1944) and East Prussia. This is the first combat history of this formation. Price $50 USD / $62 CDN.
I linked the wikipedia feature about "Monte Cassino" to a feature I did to explain what is necessary to defeat the various sectarian militias in Iraq. It aint pleasant ! But then thats war. You crush opposition.
http://www.theusmat.com/
My father was in the Army Signal Corps, and at Monte Cassino. Luckily, he survived, and made it to Naples. Got a photo of him in his Army uniform, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background belching black smoke.
I'd recommend "Monte Cassino: The Hardest-Fought Battle of World War II" by Matthew Parker. The section about General Clark and the Rapido River is horrifying.
From the National Guard Association.
"34th Signal Company, Oregon Boost Museum Inventory"
"With the members of the World War II-era 34th Signal Company dwindling, the company's association recently donated their entire collection of historic artifacts to the National Guard Memorial Museum.
They are leaving to the National Guard Educational Foundation (NGEF) an "invaluable gift to future generations," says Jason Hall, NGEF director.
The 34th Signal Company was part of the Guard's 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division, which spent more time in combat than other U.S. infantry division in World War II.
During the Allied advance into Africa and Italy, the 34th Signal Company's wiremen and radio operators maintained contact between the division headquarters in the rear and those at the front.
They laid 2,019 miles of wire from January to July 1944, and installed 40 switchboards, (one of which they donated to the museum). This work alone brought the total teletype traffic to 453,707 groups at the time.
Wiremen of the 34th Signal Company overcame especially adverse conditions on the march to Monte Cassino, Italy, connecting units by laying 160 miles of wire over rugged terrain, dodging friendly vehicle traffic movement and enemy fire.
On Dec. 9, 1944, the company received a meritorious service plaque, now also part of the museum collection for its exploits from January to July 1944
Don Smith of Watertown, S.D., coordinated the donation for the museum, working with the remaining veterans of the 34th Signal Company to collect and pack the items for transport.
Items include uniforms, documents, a photo album from the Italian campaign, field phones, a field switch-board and other items related to the company.
The museum also recently received several artifacts from the Oregon Military Museum.
Of note is an M1898 Mills cartridge belt used during the Philippine Insurrection, which began in the late 19th century.
The 2nd Oregon was heavily engaged in the Philippines. In the conflict's first year, three 2nd Oregon members earned the Medal of Honor.
Also included in the donation is a haversack used by a member of Company F, 3rd Oregon Infantry Regiment in either the Mexican Border Mobilization or World War I."
The "34th Signal Company Chronicle: Cassino and Its Abbey"
most probably, historically details the unit's activities and casualties during the 34th. Infantry Division's valiant but unsuccessful attempts at storming the Abbey on the crest of Monte Cassino and the village of Cassino below
the Abbey.
Some further information on the unit and the Italian campaign can be found at:-
http://custermen.com/ItalyWW2/Units/Division34.html
Your book may have historical significance,check with the Signal Corps Museum.
http://www.gordon.army.mil/ocos/Museum/
and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.
http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/museum.htm
Where the papers of Major General Charles Wolcott Ryder, Commanding Officer of the 34th Infantry
Division and IX Corps during World War II are on display.
Interestingly, Eisenhower was the 34th. POTUS.
The Church and Abby was atop the highest mountain in the area giving them full view of the terrain around them. My dad said that they thought that the Germans were using it to recon.
The Pole eventually took Casino I believe.
Very very helpful, thanks for explaining in lay terms. Very grateful.
is he still around?
No, unfortunately he died a few years ago. He never discussed the grim details. He'd only mention it if we kids were watching a TV documentary about WWII in Europe. He was also in southern France for a while.
You may be right, I ony meant it was a type like Capra did then, didn't sound like his voice like on the WHY WE FIGHT SERIES, but same format
great stuff, but clearly American Propaganda!
Close, except it wasn't Cassino but another hill town, San Pietro. Here's more on Huston's wartime films:
"By 1943," Mackenzie wrote in the New York Times in 2000, "when Huston went to Italy for 'The Battle of San Pietro,' he had stopped identifying with the home front and started identifying with the men he was filming."Huston's movie told of a Texas infantry regiment's attempt to liberate the hill town of San Pietro from a well-bunkered enemy who exacted a terrible toll of American casualties. Huston screened the movie for U.S. Army brass and recalled: "I remember the ranking officer rising around a third of the way through and leaving the theater. And when he was gone, the next-ranking officer rose and he left. And so they went, one after the other, until I was alone in the room."
"San Pietro" was briefly suppressed by the Army, until Gen. George C. Marshall saw it and decided it would benefit soldiers going into combat to have a realistic idea of what was in store for them.
Huston's third and last war documentary, "Let There Be Light," was actually shot after the war was over, in a military hospital on Long Island. His assignment, Mackenzie said, "was to create a sympathetic documentary on the military's rehabilitation of the 'psychoneurotic soldier,' to educate civilians and help ease the soldiers' re-entry into society."
But so devastating was the portrayal of the "casualties of the spirit," as Huston described them, that when the director attempted to screen it at the Museum of Modern Art in 1946, it was seized by military police and kept under wraps until 1980, when at the insistence of Vice President Walter Mondale it was finally declassified.
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