Notes about March, 1945

I have been incredibly busy scanning a lot of pictures, and haven't had an opportunity to post my notes about March, 1945 yet.  My hopes are to post my notes later this evening.  I will say that there are a lot of documents (pictures, medals, etc.) that complement the month of March very nicely.

I will make sure to post these and my historical analysis shortly.

UPDATE

The month of March is very sparse in terms of content, and somewhat not surprisingly also creates a few mysteries.  There are a few people mentioned, and I want to make sure information about them is made clear first.

1) On March 1, 1945, Vernon writes "Golden went home on furlough today."  I can only assume this is reference to fellow 757th Tanker, Solomon B. Golden.  He is pictured in my post here .  He is fifth from the left in the second row of men.

2) Vernon seemed to be receiving pictures and information from a harem of women back home.  A few things to keep in mind are that at this point he was an unmarried single man, and was 26 years old - only a year older than I at the time of writing this.  He didn't meet Veronica until after the war, so there is nothing uncouth about receiving pictures of single women while defending his country abroad.  That being said, he makes received a picture of Dolores Campbell on March 17.  In April, which I might have not posted to the site yet, he also makes reference to "D. Spiltz," "Lucille H.," and "Dee."  D. Spiltz and "Dee" may be the same person, and I believe "Lucille H." is a relative - his illegible writing might say "Lucille Hoschette."  Anyway, I've included some pictures of women that were among his collection, and might be one of or all three of these women:

Inscription on back is typed and reads "--ME--"

3) Vernon saw the movie, "And the Angels Sing" with Dorothy Lamour.  Information about the film can be found at the Internet Movie Database, and a poster is below:

4) And aside from the somewhat hilarious importance he placed on receiving his beer rations, the month of March was pretty non-eventful.  That should not deceive anyone as to the critical importance of this month, and the months to come.  First, I'm somewhat surprised that he makes no reference to it, but there's a picture in his collection of a medal being pinned to his chest, and the inscription on the back reads "March 18, 45.  The picture is about 1"x1" in size, and is of very low quality.  I tried my best to digitally enhance it:

Second, toward the end of the month he becomes active with the assault platoon, and specifically makes mention of the fact that he joined up with the 85th Division.  The reason for my 3-day delay in writing this post, is because I have been doing extensive background research about the nature of the Italian Front in the first few months of 1945, and there is some exciting history to share.

From his journal, it appears that the first quarter of 1945 was a relatively leisurely time for the men of the 757th.  They had time to go to church, catch movies, gripe about beer rations, and would periodically go active with the assault platoons, only to go on rest to places like Florence afterward.  During these months of the war, the allies were strategically fortifying their positions and maintaining an actively defensive role, in preparation for the largest assault yet to take place in Italy.

Preparations had largely begun as early as December, 1943, when the 85th Infantry was placed on alert status, to prepare for enemy attacks.  Historical accounts this time point to a general malaise combined with high anticipation.  The only first-hand account I have from Vernon's time here comes to me through my father.  Todd Peil spent quite a bit of time speaking with Vernon about his war record, while Vernon was still alive.  He described his time in Italy as "muddy and boring,"  and quite frequently began whatever story he was about to tell about his time abroad with the words, "did I mention how muddy and miserable it was?"  Indeed, a history of the 85th division describes the region as "...nearly barren, the growth sparse and puny.  The hills crowding the valley were wasted with erosion, cut and furrowed with innumerable rains, and in this season, when they were not covered by snow, the sides of the hills were steep, sliding fields of mud.  In this waste country few people could make a living..."

A picture from Lone Sentry offers this depiction of mud removal efforts:

In this mud-soaked miserable countryside, the men of the 757th were ordered to hold their ground and nothing more.  Vernon's accounts of intermittent shells coming in correspond to the first-hand accounts of the 85th:

On either side the detection of movement of any of the opposing troops called forth machine gun and mortar fire.  Both sides were obliged to lie low.  The enemy, however, was not apparently able to spend much artillery to harass us or to interdict our movement...The enemy had to be content with an average of hardly more than 50 rounds a day.

So if we combine the independent history with Vernon's first-hand account, we get a picture of what his life was like.  In the mud and rain-soaked winter and spring of 45, Vernon was holding a defensive position - a strategy that periodically involved his battalion being shelled.  This relatively bleak picture might explain why he wrote so enthusiastically about seeing movies, receiving pictures of girls, and his beer rations.

The last thing I'd like to point out before we move into April is that while the first three months of '45 depict a general malaise, things are about to get much more eventful.  I would even say exciting, but it's important to remember that this was a real conflict, and while Vernon made it out of the war without so much as an injury, the campaign these men were about to embark upon resulted in many lives lost.  I want all veterans, and family of those who served who might read this to understand that while this may be exciting for me to unearth this family history, I am by no means interested in glossing over the human cost of this campaign, and have the utmost of respect for those who gave their lives to our country.

On that note, I look forward to publishing the next month's worth of journal entries!

UPDATE

When I posted this I forgot to mention that the picture of Vernon in the "Vernon" tab to the top was taken this month.  It's inscribed with the date March 7, 1945, so it must have been taken while he was at rest in Florence.