ARMY IN ACTION

the enemy had come far and fast reaching out to conquer a world but his split screen offensives were a thing of the past the United States Army was by now very much in the war with combat experience divisions in North Africa the jungle covered islands of the Pacific the Aleutians where they had wiped out the Japanese on at two now the blooded veterans of the North African campaign had landed on Sicily and the drive for the Italian mainland billions more were training in the United States we were well on the road to the ultimate Victor you Oh in 1940 our army numbered a little more than a quarter of a million men three years later in 1943 it numbered almost seven million and would continue to grow to 8 million but numbers alone do not make an efficient fighting force capable of winning the final victory an undisciplined and unequipped rabble even though the Causby just never won a war against a trained and well disciplined well armed and well led force thanks to the intensive training program under general Lesley McNair commander of army ground forces American soldiers had never before been as well trained and equipped to fight as were our soldiers in World War two certainly the veterans of the North African campaign learned that intensive training pays off and now they were continuing to prove it in Sicily our drive across Sicily was aimed at the key port of Messina just across the narrow straits which separates Sicily from the toe of the Italian mainland the Germans fought stubbornly utilizing every defensive advantage offered by the rugged terrain Italian port has offered little resistance patterns seventh American army attacked from one side while general Montgomery's eight british army pressed forward from the other citizen soldier GI Joe had fought and defeated the best the Nazi had to offer in North Africa and had taken the enemy's measure now he was a veteran who had growing confidence in himself and in his leadership he was a soldier whether he knew it or not he was adding new glory to the traditions of the American fighting man and at wars outcome the word defeat had never been written on the scrolls of that fine tradition in many areas there was nothing more than a rut or I road so units of the 7th army did a little amphibious leap frogging along the coast in their push for Mussina while our 7th army pushed the Nazis across Sicily in faraway New Guinea the 500 third parachute infantry regiment made an airdrop at nadzia while American and Australian ground forces continued to press forward our growing air power made a daylight raid on military objectives in the heart of Italy with 500 bombers on Sicily's North Coast patents seven captured Palermo and drove on eastward toward Messina in the air 177 American b-24 bombers raided the oil refineries and blow st in Romania with 300 tons of explosives the initiative no longer belong to the Nazi fascist axis in the air or on the ground you the ruthless drive for world conquest had been stopped all the way around the earth from North Africa to the Pacific where US army troops and Marines captured the moon de airfield on the island of New Georgia on the same day our troops took moonda Soviet forces smashed German defenses in central Russia key military targets on the Italian mainland were being mauled by our Air Force our ground forces were also hitting the enemy with devastating power the crushing defeat suffered by the axis and North Africa and patterns advance toward the Straits of Messina for psychological poison to a badly shaken fascist regime the once triumphant Caesar guard who had looked like this at the height of his power when his fascist legions had slaughtered and conquered Ethiopian tribesmen who fought with spears and ancient guns now looked like this Mussolini had led his people through a nightmare of military disasters his arrogant dictatorship had come to an end retributive justice was close at hand the king of Italy ordered marshal pietro Badoglio to organize a new government and conduct secret negotiations for surrender a separate peace by Italy was the last thing Hitler won the collapse of Mussolini and his fascist regime brought additional German forces pouring into Italy from fighting a lie the Nazi was now the unwelcome intruder who would wage his battles of fierce resistance on Italian soil bringing further ruin and suffering to an exhausted and war sick people on the seventeenth of august 1943 38 days after the invasion began patents 7th army took Messina and all Sicily was in allied hands as well as 100,000 Italian prisoners most of the Nazis had escaped to the mainland across the Straits of Messina 11 days after the fall of Sicily allied headquarters in the Pacific announced the end of all Japanese resistance on new Georgia island General MacArthur's forces were starting on the road back we had already begun our island hopping in the central Solomon's but the battle for nazi-held Italy was only beginning on the third of sep tember two british divisions crossed the Straits of Messina to land on the toe of the Italian boot six days later american forces struck the beach and so 30 miles south of Naples they met stiff enemy resistance and four days after the landings the hurriedly reinforced enemy launched a strong counter-attack pouring in some of its best troops you for a time our foothold was precarious but supported by a concentration of combined firepower from aircraft stable guns and artillery the Allies held the beachhead the heavy pounding by land sea and air was too much for the Nazis they fell back as our own forces pushed on toward naples by then italy had surrendered unconditionally was officially out of the war October first 1943 elements of General Mark Clark stiff army entered the city of Naples they were greeted not as conquerors but as liberate the citizens of Naples knew that we and our allies were the only hope of driving the Germans from their homeland here as elsewhere a new problem confronted our invasion forces how to provide government for the civilian population years of fascism had promised plenty but delivered only strike and hunger unless such centers of hungry population along a route of advanced are well controlled the advance is hampered communications breakdown supply channels clogged up in Naples the Allies met the challenge and ported chaos the Naples water supply presented another challenge to be aligned forces this problem was also mastered military government was a necessity one which also had a direct influence on post-war rehabilitation throughout Europe following the fall of Naples we expected our advance to continue it did but only for a brief period the mountainous regions of central Italy provided the Germans with a number of natural defense lines these together with the closing end of the Italian winter virtually stopped our forces in their tracks scarcely 80 miles from Rome while our fighting men in Italy were faced with a veritable stalemate an entirely different kind of war was going on in the faraway Pacific where Allied forces landed on mono and sterling islands and a campaign launched to drive the Japanese from who can be we invaded the Gilbert Islands the 2nd Marine Division took Corolla after seventy six hours of bloody fighting heavy casualties were suffered but the Japanese were wiped out elements of the Army's 27th Infantry Division took maker and the neighboring at all our army air corps was engaged in massive bombing of the industrial heart of Germany devastating Nazi plants and marshalling yards but the Nazis Gotterdammerung the twilight of the gods had yet to come the bitterest of large-scale battles had yet to be fought and some of these were soon to come on the Italian front where strong defensive positions were held by a tough and stubborn enemy that and the weather had bogged down our advance it was winter 1943 the stage was set for the chiro Terran Punk's Roosevelt and Churchill met with Chiang kai-shek at Cairo even at the moment fighting was most intense in Italy high-level master plans continued to be made for the invasion of France and for other allied operations throughout the world at Cairo Fox centered on the relation of European operations to the war in the Pacific from Cairo Roosevelt and Churchill flew to Tehran where for the first time during the war they met with marshal Stalin dictator of soviet russia the Allied leaders fail to agree on everything but one thing they did agree upon was that the invasion of Normandy in southern France must and would take place sometime during the following summer of nineteen forty four for some time there had been doubt as to who would command overlord the invasion of Normandy Roosevelt on route home from Tehran stopped opportunists to see General Eisenhower and to tell him that he was to command Overlord the grand design for victory in europe was now completed but so far as the Allies and Italy were concerned france and the cross-channel invasion were a long way off it was to be a tragically long letter of hard fighting in it there was the battle for Monte Cassino to bypass the mountainous terrain holding up our advance in southern Italy our forces made an amphibious landing at Anzio only 35 miles south of Rome heavy Nazi resistance stalled of the breakout from the beaches finally we blasted our way out of the pocket the landings at Anzio convinced Hitler that we were launching an all-out campaign in Italy he rushed eight more divisions to reinforce his army in Italy and the stalemate was resumed in total war there is no easy road to victory and we had entered world war two unprepared for global war of such unprecedented magnitude against aggressors who numbered they're trained combat divisions by the hundreds it was two long years from Pearl Harbor to the winter stalemate in Italy during those two years lack of time had been our most immediate and worst enemy precious time we had needed in which repair while two great oceans protected our shores and the embattled British were fighting a delaying action on to the death three times in the last 50 years aggressors have underestimated our capability and our will to fight our military weakness and our isolationist attitude at the time invited the aggressor to launch his grandiose designs for conquest today the world has shrunk until in travel time the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are no more than large lakes our coastlines and our inland cities are vulnerable to attack we are a member of a family of freedom-loving nations and if that family is not to be annihilated we have the responsibility of maintaining the moral resolve and military strength to protect ourselves and those others with whom we have the common goal of the preservation of liberty and freedom