“When we first landed at Anzio, I thought we would be in Rome in 3 days the resistance was so light, but the Germans brought in their half-tracks with the anti-aircraft guns on them. Wow did that halt us. I know there was a 504 platoon captured in a ditch by one of those half-tracks. I remember getting shot at by the Germans with a 20mm shells from those guns. It was scary as hell. We got up to the Mussolini Canal and were stuck there for a long time. I don’t remember any showers, soap, toothpaste, or anything but K rations.

Something funny happened at Anzio that I will never forget. There was another farm boy from Palmyra Missouri whose name was Bill Rothweiler. I’ll tell you I’d rather have them Midwest farm kids by my side than anyone when we were in battle. This guy Bill his father was of German decent. I seen him shoots at the Germans with dead aim, yet he was such a kind fellow. I had seen him on Anzio go out under artillery fire to milk a cow. Now this cow was beyond our barbed wire in no mans land. I asked him why he did that (I was watching him do it). He said that they hadn’t been milked in weeks and they were crying because it hurts them when they are not milked. He could not bear to see an animal suffering. He snuck out in broad daylight in the open and milked that cow.

We didn’t get any amenities at Anzio. Except this one day, our cooks cut up a dead cow and sent a bunch of hamburgers (cooked) to our company and guy from another platoon took all the ones that were meant for my platoon and I went to him and called him everything in the book, wow, that was a mistake as he was bigger and tougher than me. We got into a helluva fight. Sorry to say I got the worst of it until someone stopped us, but I am not sorry I called him everything. He was a no good S.O.B. for doing that. After about 6 weeks, they gave our Company A rest for 5 days back from the front about a half-mile or so, we stayed in an abandoned house and the next day went out looking for food something besides K rations. There were eight of us. We came across an abandoned farmhouse and it had a pig in the sty. About that time, an Old Italian man came up out of a cellar, and since I knew some Italian by this time, I asked him if he would sell us the pig. He wasn’t dumb. He said, “Well if I don't sell it to you, you would take it anyway”. I took a collection up and we gave him about $32.00 in Italian Lira (U.S. Gov. issued). Harper from Texas went over and shot the pig in the head. Fay Steger from Iowa (another farm boy) went over and stuck the pig in the neck to bleed it out. We got a long pole and tied the pig to it and headed back to our Old Italian house. There Steger and us tied up the pig by his hind legs and Steger skinned it like a rabbit. We wanted to start eating it, but Steger said, “No because you’ll get sick; you have to let it chill over night, but you can eat the liver.” Wow, did we eat and enjoy liver that night. The next day we started early in the morning. We shared it with our entire 2nd platoon. And in about two or three days, there was not much left of that pig.

I wrote home and told my mother about that incident. She was born on a farm in Italy and they tell me she split a gut laughing over that story. After the war she made me tell her that story over a dozen times. While we were at this farmhouse, there was another abandoned one across the road and in the hills beyond our lines the Germans had a big railroad gun that was called the “Anzio Express”, that they would only bring out at night, or else our aircraft would spot it. While we were on the Mussolini Canal, we used to hear its shell whooooooosh over our heads. Sounded like a house going thru the air. Well when we were back at the Italian house one night, we heard a big noise and when we got up in the morning we looked across the road and that other Italian house was in rubbles. Geez, if it would have landed in the one we were in, bang there goes the whole platoon.

Great interview. Fascinating stuff.

I am happy to know Fred Baldino and that I am one of his friends. He is a real war hero. He 81 years old and still going strong.

I love this stuff! I enjoy talking to older people they are filled with fasinating history!
Keep it coming.

Great stuff. Baldy's book is next!!

It was a thrill meeting Fred and Frank last summer.

Thanks Phil!! I am working now on a book about A Company, which will include Fred's story as well. It was great to see you again last September!

Frank

Frank - Let me know when your book is published. I want to place the first order!!

Phil - I will do that!

Frank