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Two Concurrent Accounts of 535 Combat Days in Italy from the Allied Invasion to Surrender of the German Army
出版Independently Published, 2019-04-03
主題History / United States / 20th Century
ISBN10925044789781092504478
URLhttp://books.google.com.hk/books?id=Lm4wxQEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋First-person descriptions of battles and movements in Italy by members of the 631st Field Artillery Battalion during 1943 - 1945. The primary narrator went into the Army, just out of university, as a 22 year old Private. He came out as a Captain and Commander of 175 men of C Company with the materiel to support the transport, maintenance and firing of three howitzers. Along the way he encounters General Patton and French, British, Moroccan, Italian and other military forces. Their longest engagements were at the beginning of their campaign and at the end. Lieutenant Miller, later Captain, describes several encounters; including a one-on-one exchange with General Patton, Monks in a monastery, the daughters of an Italian Count, surrendering Germans, a company of German Women (as in U. S. WACS), an army of Czech conscripts, a French infantry unit, and others you will discover in these pages.Accompanying Miller's memoir is a pamphlet that chronicles the journey of the Battalion from Sicily to the end near the Austrian border. Captain Miller supplied his draft to me along with the Battalion History. A Battalion History Team was assigned to the task when the fighting ended, they tended to write of day-to-day skirmish events. Miller was mentioned prominently in the unit history. He was given the nickname, "Blood and Guts Miller". To accomplish their purpose the three Battalion Gun Battery's were always operating near to the front close behind the infantry, so as to be within firing range of German positions. Traveling as a unit, they took fire from German artillery, small arms and strafing planes bombing their positions.The WWII military population was made up of young men snatched up from their home life, given rapid training and sent to the fight. Miller shares insights about the varied backgrounds of his comrades. He was almost surprised that by virtue of his education, he so quickly became an officer, then realizing that to survive he had to immediately adapt to new and strange demands on his ingenuity. Nothing in his age 22, civilian experiences prepared him for what he had to do. It was the same for most of the men/boys with him.The men of this war generation were, by my estimate, generally aged 19 to under 30. Most have died by now. Miller died at age 97 in 2017. We kept up our contact until he said he was losing his memory, and his emails finally stopped. I believe there are uncountable, worthy stories that the participants of those places in that era could have shared that are now lost. I believe preservation is important when one as interesting as this one falls into our possession. Hence, this short volume.An aside to this story is the wounding of 2nd Lieutenant Robert Dole. The Army was removing the remnants of Germans around Lake Garda and Bologna. It was there at that time, April 14, 1945 near the town of Castel D'Aino that Lt.Dole of the 10th Mountain Infantry Division (mentioned by Miller) was severely wounded costing him the lifetime loss of use of his right arm, and leaving him with a functionally diminished left arm. The almost fatal wounds from machine gun fire happened just 18 days before the cease-fire for the Italian campaign with the surrender of the Germans in Italy. Robert Dole became the only U.S. Senator to have run for both President and Vice President of the United States.