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Episode Two: “When Things Get Tough”
January 1943 - December 1943
To liberate German-occupied Europe, the Allies
started by invading Africa
in November 1942, fighting the Germans in French Morocco, Algeria,
and Tunisia. As the German and Italian armies retreated eastward,
the Allies gained a launching pad for their invasion of Sicily
and then Italy. By September
1943, the U.S. Fifth Army had landed at Salerno,
just south of Naples, and after initial heavy resistance, the Americans
moved inland to join British forces.
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Assault
wave, Salerno. Allied troops pour ashore at Salerno, wading
through the surf under heavy machine gun and shell fire from hidden
enemy positions back of the beaches. Prints and Photographs Division,
Library of Congress. |
| Africa
-- Tunisia |
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"They invited all of the troops—American British,
French—to march in full uniform."
Isabelle
V. Cook's story |
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"Yesterday
German planes bombed the rear command post hitting two fellows
in headquarters company."
Ralph
B. DeForest's story |
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"I avoided looking at the dead GI that I passed on the
way to the slit trench."
Edgar
Norman Henry's story |
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"And
the Germans wired back, 'Do you realize you're gassing us?'"
George
R. Scanlon's story |
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"There was rumor that we were going home but General
Terry Allen made a speech..."
Monfrey
H. Wilson's story |
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| Italy
-- Sicily and Salerno |
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"I'm proud of one thing ... I didn't lose any lives."
Joseph
Stephen Acsai's story
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"It's
hard to work on a piece of equipment when you're being shot
at."
George
David Harris' story
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"You're happy you're home, but you're sad for your brother
and your friends that you left over there ..."
Raymond
E. Kellogg's story
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"On
my 16th mission, May 11th, 1943, my luck almost ran out. Catania,
Sicily, was the target."
Jarman G. Kennard's story |
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"...he
said, ‘Lieutenant, we don't make mistakes.’ And
I said, ‘Thank you, sir.’"
William
Robinson Wilson's story |
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The
Library of Congress
Veterans History Project
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