70th Anzio

My great uncle was wounded at Anzio...The 2nd of 3 times he was wounded throughout the war.
 
brinktk said:
My great uncle was wounded at Anzio...The 2nd of 3 times he was wounded throughout the war.
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All my family missed Anzio they were too busy blowing up bits of Monte Casino and stealing the road wheels off German tanks (you may need to be a Kiwi to understand that comment).
:)

However second lieutenant Eric Fletcher Waters was killed there apparently and his son wrote a song about it.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9b9UhFe6Eg"]Pink Floyd - When The Tigers Broke Free (Original) - YouTube[/ame]

Anzio was an unfortunate campaign fought during a period when the Allies believed that Germany was finished as such it was poorly planned and lead, it has become one of the forgotten battles of WW2 which is a great disservice to those on both sides who fought it.
 
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brinktk said:
My great uncle was wounded at Anzio...The 2nd of 3 times he was wounded throughout the war.
Click to expand...

My uncle Charlie served in North Africa right from the start including El Alamein, Tunisia then Sicily, into Italy finally finishing up in Austria, he never got a scratch. He remembered all too well his mates falling around him. His most horrific memory was of a bullet striking his entrenching tool bouncing off and killing his best mate. Luck of the draw.
 
BritinAfrica said:
My uncle Charlie served in North Africa right from the start including El Alamein, Tunisia then Sicily, into Italy finally finishing up in Austria, he never got a scratch. He remembered all too well his mates falling around him. His most horrific memory was of a bullet striking his entrenching tool bouncing off and killing his best mate. Luck of the draw.
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My uncles story starts him in North Africa as well... where he fought from Kasserine, into Sicily, up the boot until he was pulled to land at Anzio, then pulled from there to land in Southern France, fought his way through France hitting into the Saar...then pulled from the Saar to reinforce the Bulge. He ended up in Munich at the end of the war where he met and courted his future wife he would remain married to for almost 50 years until his death in 1995.

He was a forward observer and had 11 lieutenants shot out from under him throughout the duration of the war...It's a miracle he survived.

What's even more astounding was that his brother, my other great uncle, served in the 1st Infantry Division as an infantryman in the very same regiment that I just came from. He missed North Africa but landed at Sicily, then Normandy on Omaha, through Northern France, at Aachen and into the Hurgten forest, then to the Bulge, then to the Siegfried line... He never got a scratch...

Both were tough old bastards and I have some of my fondest childhood memories spending time with them in their twilight years. I just wish I could have known them better.
 
My uncle Charlie was an amazing man I spent most of my time between him and my Granddad. When he was in his 60's three thugs tried to mug him, he flattened one with a single punch, slammed one against a wall and knocked him out, the third ran away. They were tough old buggers without a doubt.
 
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