Twisted Bombshell: 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion

THE GREATEST GENERATION OPERATION DRAGOON AUGUST 15, 1944

THE UNKNOWN HEROES OF THE 451sT AAA AUTOMATIC WEAPONS (AW) BATTALION

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

The blessings of fate allowed me to write the book that my grandfather himself wanted to do. Through the publication of his story, I have been introduced to others who want to tell their family member’s story. This is the story of the unknown heroes of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion of World War II. This book is in loving memory of Joanie Petersen’s father and her hero Donald Jay Rogers. May his memory and the memory of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion “Sky Slayers” live on forever in our hearts, in our minds, and in our history. They were the Greatest Generation and will never be replaced.

- Daniel Ramey

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

The Uniform

CHAPTER 2

The Beginning

CHAPTER 3

The 5th Army

CHAPTER 4

Donald’s Memoirs

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

CHAPTER 5

40 mm Bofors

CHAPTER 6

Operation Dragoon

CHAPTER 7

Anzio Express

CHAPTER 8

The Return Home

PHOTO GALLERY

451st AAA (AW) Battalion

EPILOGUE

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

THIS IS THE STORY OF AN UNKNOWN HERO. THIS IS THE STORY OF DONALD JAY ROGERS WHO WAS JUST ONE OF THOUSANDS OF BRAVE MEN JUST LIKE HIM.

PREFACE

My grandfather was the greatest man I have ever known. He was also the greatest loss I have ever had to endure. He passed away from leukemia when I was eleven and the hole in my heart has never healed. Even now, thirty one years later, I cherish every single memory I have of him. His name was Paul Joseph Guiton.

When I was young, my grandfather would always have me sit with him and watch black and white World War II documentaries. He would always emphasize to me how important they were and the history involved. As I got older, he would tell me bits and pieces why he made me sit and watch those

documentaries, but he never dove into the details. He would mention once in a while that he was in the Army and he drove truck. He told me that he was in Europe during the war and that was about the extent of it. I would see some items from his military locker from time to time like his uniform and some old black and white photos while in Europe.

It wasn’t until I started to research his true history in the military that it all started to make sense and come to light. As a matter of fact, the more I dug into his history, the more I found. The more I found, the more I was amazed by the details. It was like following a rabbit down the rabbit hole. The deeper I went, the more his story took twists and turns. The more it twisted and turned, the more I got lost in

one of the biggest and best history lessons of my life.

You see in the end, I found out that my grandfather was a bonafide war hero. In every sense of the word, he was a man that did more in his lifetime than most of us could do in multiple lifetimes. I was able to publish the book that he always wanted to do but never found the time. I was able to share his story and the story of those who fought alongside him.

As more people have read my grandfather’s story, they have come forward with their own desire to know what their loved ones did during the war and to honor their memory. They have shared with me similar fond memories of growing up with their fathers and grandfathers and the brave women who loved them and supported them, not really knowing

the extent of what they did during World War II. Little did they know, they were also unknown heroes. In honoring their memories and their heroic deeds, it has now become my mission to research, explore, and share what I have found and collected.

This is the story of another unknown hero. This is the story of my good friend Joanie Petersen’s father, and her hero Donald Jay Rogers, who served in the 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion of World War II.

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THE MISSION NOW IS TO REMEMBER THEIR LIVES AND TO HONOR THEM FOREVER.

Two years ago, I took the time to explore my grandfather’s history in World War II. To make a long story short, I had no idea the rabbit hole that it would lead me down.

In the end, I found out that my grandfather was a bonafide war hero, and not only that, but it sparked a lot of my friends to ask me to help them research their family’s history. The best part of publishing the first book was that we were able to present it to the last surviving member of my grandfather’s Company. To see the smile on his face was priceless. He unfortuantely passed away not more than a year later.

Shortly after, I had a friend come forward who wanted me to write a book about a man he was visiting weekly in a nursing home. He was a man who deserved more honor than we could ever provide. I obliged and fate continued to push me in the direction that I knew I was meant to go. I was able to finish the second book and with a room full of love and his wife by his side, the man passed away the day my friend gave him his copy of the book written about his life during World War II. That was truly a hard pill to swallow. Right before our eyes, we were watching

the last of the Greatest Generation disappearing from this world forever.

I knew that I wanted to do a third book for another friend of mine about his grandfather, but I won’t kid you, I just

couldn’t get it started like I did the previous times. It is really hard to relive the memories of these honorable men who gave everything.

However, my mission was and still is perfectly clear. It is not to just write their story. The mission is to remember their lives and to honor them forever.

So I started the third book out in a very similar way as the previous two. Completely random for the most part but sparked by a set of fateful events to the trained eye, which I have started to acquire. Dough Smith, a good friend of mine, called me over to his house one day and told me he had some things for me that he knew I would take good care of. Not knowing what he was offering to pass on to me, I was intrigued. Before I knew it, I was sitting at his kitchen table and he was piling various documents, photos, awards, medals, and even family military heirlooms on the table before me. Most of which belonged to his grandfather. Just like the loving relationship that I had with my own grandfather, Doug shared the same childhood experiences. His grandfather was his hero. To top it off, his grandfather was his inspiration

for both Doug and Doug’s father to serve in the military. Doug’s father served in Vietnam and Doug ultimately served in the Gulf War. They were a family of military legacy.

So knowing that and knowing how much these items meant to Doug and his family, I spent two years doing the research and ultimately finished the third book. In a nutshell, Doug’s grandfather was active in a part of World War II that I knew absolutely nothing about - the Pacific Campaign. I learned that his grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Horace D. Worley, was an inspiration to his family and his community. A true American hero. He received the Bronze Star for his services in the Medical Corps throughout the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

He started his military career in the 76th Field Artillery and was one of the last original “Buffalo Soldiers” of the 2D Cavalry Division prior to being absorbed into the 7th Infantry Division. He was activated to serve in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Deployed to the Aleutian Islands, the Marshall Islands, Leyte, and under Operation Iceberg during the Allied Forces invasion of Okinawa, Japan, he provided essential medical services and aide to military soldiers and civilian casualties alike. Honoring his medical oath, he served and protected all human life, regardless of circumstance.

Lieutenant Colonel Horace D. Worley survived World War II and served in the United States Army actively for over 24 years. He retired with substantial awards and recognitions including the Bronze Star, Distinctive Unit Badge, American Defense Services Medal, National Defense Services Medal, Army Occupation Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and Philippine Liberation Ribbon.

I was able to finish the third book and donate Horace D. Worley’s military items to a local museum to be preserved and on display forever, honoring his service and sacrifice. In finishing

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the third book, I found myself itching to keep my mission going. More of my friends came forward and wanted to learn more about their own relatives that served.

Just like my previous books, the research always starts with the uniform and any photographs that have been passed down through the family. During one of our trips to Lake Erie, Pennsylvania to see our friends Joanie and Pete Petersen, Joanie approached me with a pile of family photo albums. She simply said,

“You should look at these. You will find them interesting.” And within seconds of opening the first photo album, I was thrown into another research adventure and the fourth book was now underway!

Joanie’s father served in World War II in the 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion and was a part of the invasion of Italy, known as Operation Dragoon. Once I started to read about Operation Dragoon, I found myself getting sucked into another adventure. I literally had no idea that Operation Dragoon occurred and I knew nothing about the history lesson I was about to receive. It was time to chase that rabbit down another rabbit hole!

Joanie’s father didn’t just take some photos, he documented just about every step of his journey through all of his campaigns. He even had some rare photos that I am pretty sure have never been released to the public of the infamous German Railway Gun the “Anzio Express.”

From looking at discharge papers and his patches and photos that were in the albums, I determined that Donald Jay Rogers was a Private First Class (PFC) and received the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal for the Naples/Foggia, Anzio, Rome/Arno, Southern France, Ardenne/Alsace, and Rhineland/Central Europe Campaigns of World War II.

As I dug deeper, I discovered that Donald Jay Rogers was deployed to North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany. He served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 and he not only participated in the invasion of Southern France and the invasion of Italy during Operation Dragoon, but he also liberated the historical cities of Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and Paris, witnessed the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, crossed the Rhine River into Germany, and aided in locating and destroying the infamous German Railway Gun, the “Anzio Express” that he took photos of!

I could not wait to share with Joanie what I had discovered! So without further ado, let me take you on this adventure and let me tell you all about Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion of World War II.

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ALSO SERVED AS A PRISONER OF WAR CAMP...

The 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion was formed on August 1, 1942 at Camp Stewart, Georgia as a Seperate Coast Artillery Battalion. They departed for North Africa on March 5, 1943 from the New York Port of Embarkation, landed in North Africa on March 18, 1943, landed in Italy on September 16, 1943, landed in France on August 15, 1944, and returned home on November 6, 1945 to the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation. They were disbanded on November 6, 1945 at Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia.

The irony about those locations is that both my grandfather and Doug’s grandfather were both at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia and the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, as I’m sure were most of the soldiers leaving and returning to the United States during World War II.

Some interesting facts about Camp Stewart, Georgia is that it not only was a training site but also served as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. It was also used as a staging area for postal units and as a Cook and Bakers School. Camp Stewart was established in 1940 as an anti-aircraft artillery training center. It trained soldiers for duty in Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Pacific. The camp provided well-trained soldiers for the D-Day invasion.

In 1943, Camp Stewart held German and Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa. The prisoners were used as labor for base operations, construction projects, and for area farmers.

In the photo albums that Joanie let me flip through, there were two envelopes containing letters that Joanie’s father Donald Jay Rogers sent to her mother during the war. One was especially interesting because he wrote it directly after leaving Camp Stewart, Georgia and while on a ship on his way to North Africa. Obviously for secrecy, the name of the ship was removed from the letter but the contents were very interesting to read in that they provided some detail of the voyage and how difficult life could be at sea for all of these soldiers being deployed.

The letter reads as follows:

March 1943

Dear Mary,

You won’t get this letter for quite some time. When you do get it you’ll be able to read of part of my experiences of a week at sea. That is where I am writing this letter and at the end of each day I’ll try to write a little and tell you as much as I am able of what has happened during the day.

We left camp on Thursday at about 6:45 p.m. After two or three hours by train we arrived at the ferry. We sat on the ferry for a while waiting for the rest of the men with us to get aboard. Finally we got started and traveling another half hour we arrived at our boat. It’s not a very large ship. It was a luxury, coastal liner before the war and is unsafe for North Atlantic travel. Its name was formerly the --------- but has been painted over. As far as I know there is nothing in the space usually reserved for the ships name.

Crawling on board with our full pack, bed roll, rifle, and one barracks bag we put in compartment main line on the after part of the deck. The compartments now used to house the men so to speak were formerly used as storage space so you can imagine the type of place it is. From what I have learned this ship has already made eleven such runs but this is the first time it has been in a convoy. It’s supposed to be the fastest ship in this convoy and has a top speed of about 22 knots per hour. It is easily capable of outrunning submarines, thank God.

We pulled out of the harbor about 4:30 but I was sleeping so I didn’t get a look of New York from

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the harbor. I was tired from the days work I had put in so when we were assigned bunks I went to bed.

I awoke at about 8:30 and after putting on my field jacket and life belt went up on deck. I felt swell until about 10:00 a.m. when I started getting dizzy. I went to my quarters and vomited everything that was in me and went to bed. I slept till about 4:30 p.m. and not feeling too bad went on deck. After eating an orange given to me by the First Sergeant I felt pretty good. Several of the men were feeling low so we went to bed about 7:30 p.m.

I awoke this morning about 6:00 a.m. and after washing as fast I could went on deck. The sun had not yet arisen so I had my first opportunity to watch a sunrise at sea. Not much different from some we have watched on land except the redness seemed to go sooner.

wouldn’t swear to it. At first we had a small blimp on our tail for observation purposes but it left during the afternoon of the first day out. We have between 12 and 15 hundred men on board. Quite a few men don’t you think? Till the next installment I’ll say so long and I love you more than ever.

Well darling, to continue this letter at sea I’ll say that since I wrote last three days have passed. We have been at sea five days now.

Today we have had a boat drill and a little lecture from the ship’s Chaplain. I have been on deck nearly all day watching the two British Aircraft Carriers we have in the convoy. We also have several U.S. Destroyers with us and I believe a Sub Chaser but I

Saturday evening I was called to the ship’s Chaplain’s office and asked to play Taps at a funeral to be held Sunday at noon. Naturally I said yes. After all my job is bugling here in this battery and I guess I’m the only one who has a bugle with them.

After I left the Chaplain I stood on deck with one of my friends and watched the mysteries of the deep blue. It’s really nice to watch the lights in the water at night. Just the stars were out and even the foam appeared as a reflection of some lights which is quite impossible as no lights are visible at any place on the ship at night. All our night traveling is done in total blackout.

About 8:45 p.m. my friend and I went down to the dining hall and had a sandwich and a cup of coffee. After our little snack, as it might be called, we retired for the night.

I arose about 8:30 a.m. Sunday and after shaving and washing as best I could, all we have for washing purposes is salt water, went to breakfast. After breakfast I went on deck until I was called by the Chaplain.

Under the direction of the piano player I have mentioned in my earlier letters a darky sax player and myself played for two religious services. At 12:00 the funeral services were held for the Captain who died in the Staten Island Hospital. His body was cremated and it was the ashes that were buried at sea. There was the rifle salute and prayer following the history of the sailor and then Taps. It was quite an impressive ceremony.

Sunday night I was on guard from 6:00 p.m. till 10:00 p.m. then went to the dining room and got a sandwich. From the dining room I retired for the night till 5:30 a.m. At this time I was awakened for my last time at guard, from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. About the only enjoyment I had while on guard was the very pleasing harmony of three colored boys. They really could sing.

Monday afternoon some of the men who had instruments or could play some kind of instrument got together for a little practice and the same evening played while the men were singing. It was really a lot of fun. This lasted for about an hour. At 9:00 p.m. we had another jam session in the recreation room.

I left the recreation room about 10:30 p.m. and went on deck and watched the lights in the water and did quite a lot of thinking. Someday I’ll tell you what I was thinking about.

This brings me up to date and so far today nothing has happened. Tonight we are having another jam session. So far we have a trombone, one guitar, two clarinets, one sax, two trumpets, and a piano. Also a violin. We have a flute player on board but as yet he hasn’t appeared at any of our sessions with his instrument.

I could write much more but I don’t think it would be adviseable. In my first letter after we reach port

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I’ll have a lot to tell you but probably it won’t all be news to you. I think I can guarantee that it won’t all be news to you but so far you seem to express joy instead of contempt at what I have said so I’ll continue to say them till you get tired of listening to them. Till next time darling don’t forget me. I’ll always think about you. Do you?

Two more days have gone by and still nothing of very much interest has happened. We continue to have our little jam sessions each night.

Last night we had an arranged program for the officers with about a half hour of rest we put on the same show for the enlisted men.

Wednesday being Ash Wednesday three services were held as well as the regular jam session.

Today is Friday, March 12. Up on deck the men are setting up our .50 caliber machine guns. Why is quite evident. At the present time we are about half way across the Atlantic.

We have been at sea one week today. Under ordinary circumstances we would be almost to our destination but because of the danger of enemy submarines and other things happening in the convoy we have had to do a lot of zig zagging.

Darling you’ll never know what a happy man I’m going to be when we land again. Danger or not I’ve

had about all of this ocean water that I can take. A week at sea doesn’t sound like a very long time out when you are going away from your loved one you get awfully tired of the water and long to be back on good fertile U.S. soil again.

It’s been so long since I have heard your voice and held you close to me that I hardly dare say what might happen when I again get the chance to hold you.

Well, since this concludes one week at sea I’ll close this narrative and start again tomorrow on another week. Until I see you again and am able to deliver a letter personally don’t forget that I’m always yours.

- “Don”

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THE 5TH ARMY

CHAPTER 3

“BAPTISM

BY FIRE”...

As mentioned earlier, Donald Jay Rogers served in the 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion of World War II and was merged into the 5th Army. While doing my research, I came across a website dedicated to the 5th Army and their history is pretty unique in that the 5th Army was a very multi-ethnic command. In the article, it discussed their “Baptism by Fire” during World War II and it gives a good idea of what Donald Jay Rogers went through and witnessed while deployed. The article reads as follows.

What is now called U.S. Army North started life as the Fifth Army on December 1, 1942 in Oujda, French Morocco. Originally constituted of Army units that participated in Operation TORCH, the invasion of North Africa, it was the first of the seven field armies the United States organized during World War II.

On December 12, 1942, the new Fifth Army was assigned to the multi-national Allied Force North Africa, and Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark wad designated its commanding general. At General Clark’s direction, at one minute after midnight, Zulu Time, January 5, 1943, the Fifth Army became an active unit.

In North Africa, Fifth Army helped civil authorities

maintain law and order in French Morocco and westerm Algeria, and organized, equiped and trained French forces in the area, no longer under Fascist control.

However, Fifth Army’s primary mission was to prepare itself for the amphibious invasion of Italy. On September 9, 1943, Fifth Army landed an invasion force on a 20-mile strectch of beach south of Salerno, Italy, becoming the first American force to invade mainland Europe. At the time of the invasion, Fifth Army included the British X Corps, and the U.S. 36th, 45th and 82nd Divisions. This baptism by fire is celebrated as Fifth Army’s Unit Day.

With the objective of capturing Rome, Fifth Army pushed northward from Salerno through Naples to the German line anchored on the town of Cassino. The French Expeditionary Corps, including Moroccan and Algerian divisions, joined Fifth Army, doubling its strength. After four costly assaults known as the Battles of Monte Cassino, the Fifth Army continued onward toward Rome, linking up on the way with other Fifth Army units that had fought their way out of the coastal town of Anzio.

Fifth Army entered Rome on June 4, 1944, becoming the first allied force to liberate a European capitol from Fascist control, although it did not capture the German forces that had held the city.

Two days later, the Normandy Invasion was launched. In support of that, one of Fifth Army’s corps and the French Expeditionary Corps were withdrawn to participate in the invasion of southern France. To take their place, the 20,000-man Brazilian Expeditionary Force joined the Fifth Army.

Germans and Fascist Italians retreated north, turning and holding their ground at the Arno River. The pursuing Fifth Army reached the Arno on July 18 and finally crossed it on September 2.

Now into their second winter in Italy, the Fifth Army got a new commander. General Clark assumed command of the 15th Army Group, composed of the Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army. Lieutenant General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr. became Fifth Army’s commanding general on December 16, 1944, and served in that

position to the end of the war.

By this time, Fifth Army had become a truly multi-ethnic command. Besides the Brazilians, there were British and French units whose members including New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, Gurkhas, Jews and Arabs from the British Mandate in Palestine, South Africans, Rhodesians, Moroccans, Algerians and Sub-Saharan Africans. In smaller units were exiled forces from Poland, Greece, Czechoslovakia and anti-fascist Italians. From the United States itself came the segregated 92d “Buffalo” Division and the Japanese-American 442d Regimental Combat Team.

General Truscott led this multi-national Fifth Army out of its winter deadlock across the Italian Apennines and across the Po River valley. By the end of April, Fifth Army had reached the foothills of the Alps and had captured the cities of Bologna, Vicenza and Verona.

On April 29, American and British units entered Venice, and German representatives started negoations for surrender.

The battle for Italy came to an end on May 2, 1945, with the unconditional surrender of the German forces in Italy and the linkup between the Fifth Army and Seventh Army in the Brenner Pass.

From September 9, 1943 to May 2, 1945, Fifth Army endured 602 days of steady battlefield combat. This fighting resulted in 188,546 casualties among the 27 divisions and 7 corps that composed the Fifth Army. Fifth Army tied down at least 16 of Hitler’s divisions and took 212,112 of his men prisoner.

Following Victory in Europe, May 8, 1945, Fifth Army’s units were assigned away and the Headquarters became non-operational on September 9 – two years to the day after the landing at Salerno. Fifth Army was inactivated on October 22, 1945 at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts.

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While doing my research, I also came across a DECLASSIFIED book discussing the 5th Army and the original plans for the Invasion of Italy. Some of the excerpts reads as follows.

In addition to providing a well organized, well equipped, and mobile striking force, fully trained in amphibious operations, General Clark was charged with the preparation of plans for and the execution of special operations under directives issued by the Commander-in-Chief, Allied Force. The first mission given Fifth Army was announced prior to its activation.

On December 24, 1942, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower notified the Commanding Generals of Twelfth Air Force, the Center Task Force, the Western Task Force, and the Northern Task Force that Fifth Army would be activated at an early date with General Clark commanding and that these forces would come under his command in the preparation of plans for the occupation of Spanish Morocco in event of Spanish hostility or if Spain should fail to resist German invasion.

The plan provided for the Center Task Force from the southern Mediterranean coast to launch an overland operation to capture Melilla, the Western Task Force to conduct an overland operation from the Port Lyautey area to capture Tangier, and the North -

ern Task Force by an amphibious operation to occupy the International Zone which bordered the Strait of Gibraltar on the south. This operation was known as Backbone II. Backbone I was the name which had been given to an operation having the same objective, planned prior to the Allied landings in North Africa on November 8, 1942.

The limited forces available for the carrying out of Backbone Il were a matter of much concern to General Clark during the first part of 1943. The situation was much relieved after the visit of General Orgaz to Fifth Army Headquarters in Oujda early in June, where parades and demonstrations involving the use of paratroopers and air force units were staged.

Another excerpt from the book discussed plans to drive the Germans out of Rome and reads as follows.

In April General Alexander informed Fifth and Eighth Armies of his future intentions. These outline plans of AAI served as a basis for further preparation by the armies and for the issuance of the army attack orders. Operation Order No. 1 of AAI, which gave the final plan, was not published until May 5.

The intention of General Alexander, as stated in this order, was:

to destroy the right wing of the German Tenth Army; to drive what remains of it and the German Fourteenth Army north of Rome; and to pursue the enemy to the Rimini-Pisa line inflicting the maximum losses on him in the process.

In other words the German forces between Cassino and the sea were to be smashed and all enemy units swept back over 200 miles. Execution of this intention would free Rome, which had by now become a symbol of Allied success or failure in Italy, would

give us additional air bases closer to the heart of Germany, and would be another step in the Allied mission in Italy to destroy the German forces before them. During the months of May through July these plans were carried out by Fifth and Eighth Armies substantially as ordered.

For the drive on Rome General Alexander directed a simultaneous attack by both armies on the southern front. Initially Eighth Army was to break through the enemy’s positions into the Liri Valley; Fifth Army would capture the Ausonia Defile.

Though this plan was very similar to the strategy of the January drive such a concentration of forces represented a new departure in AAI plans.

And one final excerpt that I found interesting discussed the ultimate capture of Rome by the Allied Forces and reads as follows.

At dusk on May 30, the Fifth Army drive on Rome appeared to have stalled.

The 1st Armored Division and the 45th Division had fought bitterly but unsuccessfully along the Albano road throughout the day.

The 34th Division had been stopped below Lanuvio on the 29th; to its right the 36th Division, encircling Velle-tri on the south and east, found the town an enemy stronghold. On the extreme right flank of the beachhead, now held by II Corps, the 85th Division was just coming up to reinforce the 3d Division below Valmontone. In this zone our troops had remained on the defensive since May 27.

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Nonetheless, the over-all situation of Fifth Army was favorable. Our troops in the Lepini Mountains were moving north against slight rearguard actions. The 88th Division was being relieved for movement directly to the Il Corps zone; the FEC might be expected to come up on the right flank in two or three days.

In the Liti Valley the enemy forces retreating before Eighth Army were moving generally in the direction of Avezzano, away from the scene of battle at Colli Laziali.

The Germans before Fifth Army were ever more weary, ever fewer; and we could count with some certainty on the fact that they could not be reinforced. When the FEC and the 88th Division arrived, we would have a sufficient superiority to crush the enemy completely.

Actually, movements were in progress at dark on May 30 which made our capture of Rome a matter of the immediate future. These movements were being executed by the 36th Division: the unit which had secured the initial beachhead of Fifth Army at Salerno long months ago was now to cap its record by making the final breakthrough at Colli Laziali.

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CHAPTER 4 DONALD , S MEMOIRS

DONALD , S MEMOIRS

CHAPTER 4

TO READ ABOUT HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS INCREDIBLE.

The absolute best accounts of someone’s experiences deployed during World War II, or during any military campaign for that matter, is an individual’s story in their own writing. You can’t beat that!

As I was finishing this past chapter giving you a general overview of Donald Jay Rogers’ travels, his daughter Joanie emailed me and said that she found his old memoirs that he wrote shortly after the war. She requested that I add them to this publication and without hesitation, I obliged. To hear from Donald himself and to read about his personal experience is incredible. So let’s get on with the adventure and let Donald tell you everything that has happened thus far and what he will experience firsthand with the rest of the men of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion.

Donald Jay Roger’s Memoirs:

In October, I received my draft notice. I reported as requested and after the physical we were sworn in. We were told that we could take two weeks before reporting and I took the time. It was just as well that I did take it as I saw no one from home until I was released from the Army after the war was over. Sorry, I met a cousin in Naples on our first stay there.

I reported to Fort Niagara in November and drew my equipment. Two days later the group boarded a train for we knew not where. We made a stop in Washington D.C. then went on to our destination which became Camp Stewart in Georgia. The Sergeant in charge of the group had a brother in the Marine camp that he wanted to see. That was the reason we were being pushed to our destination. We became an antiaircraft battalion, which was used for low flying aircraft protection. We were equipped with 40mm Bofors and .50 caliber water cooled machine guns. Our first two weeks were spent in outdoor classes. Soon after we settled down I had another attack of acute bronchitis. While I was in the hospital, I asked mom to send my trumpet. The day of my departure from the hospital the battery went on a forced nine-mile march with full field pack. After the march we returned to the rifle range and were ordered to remove shoes and socks. After a foot inspection of all marchers our commanding officer brought us to attention, then he announced that he would be proud to lead the outfit into combat. The only soldier that didn’t keep up was too short to keep up. The soldier who didn’t keep up became

our Jeep driver and there was nothing he couldn’t do with it. Our life in the barracks was dull, I began to play my trumpet. Shortly after I started playing my trumpet the men began to sing along with the music. This went on for several nights until the Staff Sergeant in charge of our barracks told me the Captain wanted to see me. As it was long after chow and there were no activities I was just a little puzzled. When I entered his office, the Captain asked if I knew bugle calls. I had been the bugler for the boy scout troop I was with so I said yes. Any of the calls I didn’t know I could learn. The next morning, I played reveille, the morning call. Contrary to common knowledge the bugler is not the most hated man in the Army. Our battery was so tired of hearing police whistles for formations that any other type of noise was a very welcome sound. The battery now started me in bugle practice all day. Some time later the battalion started a class with a man from each battery of the battalion. The battalion consisted of four gun batteries and a headquarters battery.

We met every morning after chow and practiced till noon. Back in the afternoon. During our time in bu -

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gle school there was no military training except the bugle calls that we were now practicing. No kitchen police, no guard duty, no marching. After about a week of this routine the camp started a school in association with the post band and we were sent there for our practice. There were four of us and after the morning of practice we went for chow. When we returned to the post school, three of our team were instructors. The lone member that didn’t make it would never be a bugler. This was our routine until the battalion shipped out. I was attempting to become a member of the band but we got march orders before that could happen. Soon after we got march orders I became battery clerk with all the headaches that went with it.

The battalion with all equipment was loaded on a

train and we moved to a camp in New Jersey. On the journey, the train stopped in Washington. While there one of our members met his wife. She worked as a secretary and had access to our troop movement. Of course, this information was supposed to be confidential. When we arrived in the camp we started the personal equipment check. Check and recheck every piece of equipment that had been issued. What was missing was replaced before we shipped out. Every man had to have in his duffle bag or back pack with every piece of equipment he had been issued on day one of reporting for duty. This operation continued for about three days. Finally, the battalion was given orders to board the ship. Our ship was the SS John Ericsson. We shipped out of New York Harbor on Sunday morning, March 4, about seven o’clock.

This trip gave me a chance to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Shortly after sailing, my Serjeant informed me I had been selected to play Taps for an old sea Captain who wanted to be buried at sea. That occasion was one which I will never forget. Also on the first day I had a touch of sea sickness. It

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didn’t last long with the help of my Sergeant and other Battery C office people from our outfit. I have been lucky I guess but it seems every time something comes up of so called importance I could rely on my Sergeant to get me involved. I knew at least two others on the ship with the same capability.

Occasionally you might hear someone say that you sailed on “a banana boat’. It just happens that the ship we sailed on had been a banana boat between New York and Bermuda. The ship also carried passengers on its trips back and forth.

We had a captain who became impatient with our speed crossing the Atlantic Ocean toward Africa. The ship had the capability to outrun the submarines and we were sailing surrounded by sixteen troop ships of all types at what he called a snail pace. I

do not remember how many days we were sailing.

During our trip we ran into some bad weather.

When I went on deck to look at the storm it appeared that the aircraft carrier close to our ship was going to hit our ship. Of course, it didn’t because the distance between us was more than it appeared to be. The aircraft carrier was being used to transport planes to Africa. Finally, we entered the port of Casablanca. We learned that our equipment had been sunk around the Straits of Gibraltar so we were assigned temporarily to port guard duty in Casablanca’s port. This consisted of walking the docks and keeping the local people away from all the supplies that were there. Only one event occurred. That was the act of one of the guards who kept telling a local to stay away from the supplies. After several attempts with no response he fired a shot from his .45 caliber submachine gun. For that attempt, he was removed from port duty while we remained in Casablanca. After approximately a month we went by convoy to Oran where we stayed another month. Time was passed before it was realized. While we were in Oran we acquired our quipment, and pre -

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pared for our call to duty. Also, while in Oran I lost my stripes while trying to be a good guy. Now I was shifted between gun crew number six and the office. My best friend took over the clerks job while I continued the bugle calls.

When I became bothered enough I complained about it. This brought the clerk to my position on the gun crew. The Seargent of the crew told the clerk that he had better fill my shoes or he would empty his. I had made friends with the gun crew in a very short time. Finally, I was assigned to the communications group.

Our first invasion was at the Salerno landing in southern Italy. Our duty was one of guarding bridges, gun emplacements and whatever needed our type of duty. One of our assignments was protecting a no

fly zone. Three aircraft on returning from their assignment flew through our no fly zone but one didn’t quite make it. When we arrived at the Volturno River we were assigned antiaircraft 155 long toms. a battalion of Asian infantry and a group of Ethiopian soldiers. One of the long tom officers asked for a pair of German officer boots from the Ethiopian soldiers that were going on patrol that night. He got his boots when the soldiers returned. The Ethiopian soldiers only used machetes for weapons. The only problem was that the feet were still in them. Just before we were reassigned the long toms began shelling Monte Cassino. The Monte Cassino was an Italian shrine that the Germans had occupied.

We were sent to the outskirts of Naples in southern Italy at the base of Mount Vesuvius. The village was called Torre Annunciata. While here, we were billeted in one of the family homes at the base of Mount Vesuvius. It was a quiet village which looked out to the isle of Capri. A beautiful view to look at every day. I carried my trumpet all through the war.

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Whenever we had a break in activities, I played my trumpet.

One day after I had been playing, the girl next door sent a message over asking me to come over with my trumpet. We developed quite a friendship for the rest of our stay. Her brother was in the Italian Air Force and her father was a professor in the University of Naples. Her mother was semi invalid and the girl, Lucia, was very attentive toward her. One day, with Lucia and her friends I spent the day on the beach. That was the only time that her mother was not with her.

While here, I took in any sights available. One of the most impressive was the church of Pompeii. It is probably one of the most beautiful churches in the world. Everything was gold. There were five vestibules around the center. I was lucky enough to

see all five occupied at the same time with wedding services. I also took in the history of Pompeii and was amazed to see the markings on the store fronts indicating the type of business that was located there, even the ladies of the evening. I also made several trips to the top of Mount Vesuvius. After we acquired our new equipment, we went to the invasion of Anzio, between Rome and the Monte Cassino sites. The depth of the area was only about seven miles deep.

The idea behind this invasion was by occupying the area, we kept some of the German troops from leaving to reinforce troops in other areas. We could set our clock to one of the German activities. Every day about three o’clock in the morning, they flew over our defense area and dropped anti-personnel bombs. More of a nuisance than anything else but it put me out in the open to repair our communications.

While in Africa, I became communication personnel. While out repairing telephone lines, after one of the three o’clock drops, I stumbled over dead bodies

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and the odor stayed with me for almost a week. Ocasionally an officer picked a soldier to have R and R, rest and relaxation. This was a period behind the lines to be free of military activity. Needless to say you would not be far from the front but it meant a time to relax. I was fortunate to be chosen for one of these times. The real front-line soldiers were also given this time, the trouble was they were only sent back to our line of defense. Most of them couldn’t wait to return to duty.

The Germans had a railroad gun which they used a little. We named it the “Anzio Express.” We always said you could hear it coming for five minutes and going for five minutes. I don’t remember if it did any damage. For the most part, we lived under ground. It started as a foxhole but turned into a dugout

with a layer of dirt over everything else in its construction. This was necessary because of the three o’clock flight every day. We had a single physical casualty while on Anzio beachhead and one mental case. Both were caused by the same incident. Our batallion commander was killed by stepping on a anti-personnel bomb.

When the orders came to push out, all hell broke loose. The antiaircraft guns went to a horizontal position and began firing at the German positions. When we started moving over the covered target area there was not more than three square feet of turf that had not been hit. We found that some of those who had been shooting at us were not more that fourteen or fifteen years old. We found the Anzio Express gun that was left behind when they pulled out. It was two freight cars long and had about a twelve inch bore. The Germans were retreating fast and continued to retreat while we attempted to catch up. They were at Tarquinia when we were re -

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Once more we returned to Naples for new equipment. This time our water cooled fifty caliber machine guns were replaced with air cooled quad fifties on a trailer. With this new equipment, we went to southern France. We were assigned port guard duty for the harbor at Toulon, France. Our battery headquarters was billeted in one of the French homes. It had a bar which we called the Paradise Club. When we had off duty time two of my friends and I toured the city. Even in a war area a rest time was had by everyone for a time to relax and get some sleep maybe. Cantaloupes were a nickel a piece and I enjoyed them often. This seemingly peaceful time didn’t last very long. Our battalion leader was a gung-ho Major. We were again reassigned. This move meant a con

guns were no match for the German 88s, however we dug in to serve as anti-tank guns.

The first chance I had I took a hot tub bath. What a great feeling to be once again, really clean. We were assigned to the ninth air defense group. Our original mission here was to shoot down buzz bombs. A buzz bomb is a bomb with a jet engine mounted on top. When the jet stopped, the bomb fell with no apparent target for destruction. When the power stopped, the bomb dropped straight down. They were more annoying than destructive but that mission was changed to the anti-tank mission. I don’t remember any damage that was caused by the buzz bombs. One morning I was rolled out of bed when one came down near the house we were in. My part of this operation was as an airplane spotter in a town called Plainview, just outside of Liege. We were billeted in a very nice family home. The big attraction here was their little girl, Arlette. While on duty one day I viewed the first of the jet planes to be used in the European area. Unfortunately, it was a German version. The attempt to regain ground by the Germans only lasted as long as the bad weather. As

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soon as the sun came out the Air Force went to work. During the rough weather, some of our forces had been trapped in Bastogne and for awhile there were some very tense feelings.

Our paratroopers held their ground despite the German attacks. It was related that on one of the Germans call to surrender that the officer in charge answered “nuts.” Soon after the Von Rundstedt’s attack was repulsed, we began to move. This move put our troops inside the German territory with the expected increase in home-land fighting. A part of the seventh army branch of our forces saved part of the Riemeagan bridge and we had troops across the river into main land Germany. The big bombers continued to hit their targets day and night with their bombs and the German army was clearly low

on supplies as pictured by the debris left along the roads we traveled. The tanks of general Patton continued to roll deeper into Germany getting closer to Berlin every day.

Before he could enter Berlin, General Patton received orders to stop forward motion. When the war was declared over the different areas of torture came to light. What they displayed of the workings of Hitler’s troops was not the sort of thing most people want to look at.

After the official war ending, our batallion was sent to Karlsruhe. Here we were assigned to railroad police between Frankfurt and Stutgardtt. While here I visited the theater which housed the passion players. This assignment lasted until our debarkation orders arrived. Then we were sent to Camp Lucky Strike for lay over. When the day of embarkation arrived it was cancelled due to chlorantine at the port and we were rerouted to Marseille in southern France. We arrived at Camp Patrick Henry on November 7th.

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A couple days later we went to Fort Dix in New Jersey. After turning in all our issued equipment, we were discharged.

My discharge was dated November 12. My first stop after leaving the camp was a diner in Trenton where I got my first cup of real black coffee. I’m still drinking it black. Our discharge dollar was $100.00 per month for three months.

And that was the end of Donald’s memoirs about the war. His memoirs explained a lot of the photographs found in all of the albums that his daughter Joanie let me flip through. Luckily, Donald and his wife wrote a brief description under each photograph. The photographs with the descriptions really helped to confirm my research and to provide a detailed summary of the experiences of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion. Now for the best part. Let us talk about the 40mm Bofors, Operation Dragoon, and the “Anzio Express.”

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40MM BOFORS

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BY 1939, NINETEEN COUNTRIES WERE PRODUCING THEIR OWN LICENSED VERSIONS OF THE 40MM BOFORS GUN.

So what exactly did Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA

Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion use to shoot down German aircraft? Well their main gun was the 40mm Bofor (British version) a.k.a. the M1 (American version). On www.museumofamericanarmor.com, a brief article posted by Matthew S. Ziesel on June 13, 2020 described the 40mm Bofors perfectly. It reads as follows.

Perhaps one of the most ubiquitous weapons systems of the Second World War, the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun was used on all sides of the conflict. Developed in the 1930s by AB Bofors of Sweden, it was sold commercially to various armies and navies of the world. By 1939, nineteen countries were producing their own licenced versions of the gun.

In U.S. service, the Bofors is often associated with its use in the Navy, with American vessels from P.T. Boats sporting at least one 40mm gun all the way up to the Iowa-class Battleships with eighty barrels. The U.S. Army also utilized the gun extensively.

After acquiring a British model Bofors for testing in December 1940, the gun was standardized as the 40mm

Automatic Gun M1 in May 1941. This replaced the relatively new 37mm Gun M1 as the standard medium caliber anti-aircraft weapon of the Army. AA Regiments were split into two Battalions; Gun Battalions using the 90mm Gun M1 or Automatic Weapons Battalions.

The Automatic Weapons Battalions had four batteries with eight of the 40mm Automatic Gun M1s and M45 .50 Quadmount allocated to each. The 40mm guns usually had a crew of seven: a Squad Leader, Gunner, Assistant Gunner, two Loaders and two Ammunition Bearers.

In his memoirs, Donald Jay Rogers identified being assigned various weapon systems including different versions of the 40mm anit-aircraft guns, quad .50 caliber gun systems, and 155 long toms. All of which are very intersting to read about, after all, they all pack a major punch in every way. Since their main gun was the 40mm, we will stick with that. Here is a more detailed description of the the use of the 40mm by the United States during World War II. The article was published by www.navweapons. com and reads as follows.

Probably the best automatic cannon anti-aircraft weapon

of World War II, Bofors guns of this type remained in service long after the war ended. This weapon was used on almost every major USA and UK warship of World War II and was a very potent AA gun.

The US Army was also interested in this weapon and tested a single air-cooled model in 1937. In 1940 the Chrysler Corporation agreed to begin manufacturing air-cooled guns utilizing British blueprints. The USN acquired many of these air-cooled guns during the war, although the quantity used was far less than that of the water-cooled guns.

The US Navy had a good deal of pre-war interest in this weapon and BuOrd purchased a sample of an water-cooled twin version from Bofors in early 1940. Bofors instead sent an air-cooled version and this arrived in New York from Sweden on 28 August 1940. During the same month, the Dutch escort vessel van Kinsber-

gen demonstrated these weapons and their Hazemeyer control system to USN observers in a test off Trinidad. The observers were not impressed by the control system, but were favorably impressed by the guns themselves. BuOrd formally obtained Swedish licenses in June 1941, although some manufacturing had actually started prior to that time. Terms of the license included a $500,000 payment for the manufacturing rights plus $100,000 for two Bofors engineers to help set up production. The two engineers were never sent, so as a result this $100,000 was not paid. Bofors delivered a complete set of metric drawings as part of their end of this contract.

It should be noted that the US Army and Navy considered the original Bofors Model 1936 design to be completely unsuitable for the mass production techniques required for the vast number of guns needed to equip the anti-aircraft batteries and ships of the US military.

First, the Swedish guns were designed using metric measurement units, a system all but unknown in the USA at that time. Worse still, the dimensioning on the Swedish drawings often did not match the actual measurements taken of the weapons. Secondly, the Swedish guns required a great deal of hand work in order to make the finished weapon. For example, Swedish blueprints had many notes on them such as “file to fit at assembly” and “drill to fit at assembly,” all of which took much production time in order to implement - there is a story that one USA production engineer remarked that the Bofors gun had been designed so as to eliminate the unemployment problems of the Great Depression. Third, the Swedish mountings were manually worked, while the USN required power-worked mountings in order to attain the fast elevation and training speeds necessary to engage modern aircraft. Fourth, the Swedish twin gun mounting supplied to the USA for evaluation was air-cooled, limiting its ability to fire long bursts, a necessity for most naval AA engagements. Finally, the USN rejected the Swedish ammunition design as it was not boresafe, the fuze was found to be too sensitive for normal shipboard use and its overall design was determined to be unsuitable for mass production.

US manufacturers made radical changes to the Swedish design in order to minimize these problems and as a result the guns and mountings produced in the USA bore little resemblance to their Swedish ancestors. For example, all but the earliest US guns were built to English measurement units rather than to metric units. To give one additional example of the design differences made for USA produced weapons; the Chrysler Corporation redesigned ten components to suit mass production techniques and this was claimed to have saved

40MM BOFORS

some 7,500,000 pounds (3,402,000 kg) of material and 1,896,750 man hours during a year’s production, as well as freeing up 30 machine tools for the production of other components.

One firm rule adopted early in the redesign process was that any new Allied munition for these weapons needed to be completely interchangeable with existing designs. This allowed ammunition produced by any American or British ordnance manufacturer to be used with any weapon produced by either country, thus greatly simplifying the logistics problems of a world-wide war. In accordance with this rule, the USA originally adopted the British fuze design with the understanding that both the US Army

and Navy “would be free to substitute components of proven reliability which would speed production.” The fuze designed and produced in Britain was adopted as an interim measure by the USA, but this was considered to be of an unsafe design and unsuitable for mass production techniques. Fortunately, this fuze was almost immediately replaced by one designed by R.L. Graumann of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. This fuze was simple in design and “ideally suited to mass production.” Designated as the Mark 27, this new fuze was found to be 99.9 percent efficient in ballistic acceptance tests, a record not equaled by any other fuze of the time. Both the US Army and the British adopted this fuze for their own production lines. The USN estimated that the adoption of the Mark 27 saved some $250,000,000 during the war. Overall, the USA spent over $700,000,000 on 40

mm ammunition.

The first USN pilot twin was completed in January 1942 and the first quad in April 1942. The first shipboard quad installation was on the gunnery-training ship (ex-battleship) USS Wyoming (AG-17) on 22 June 1942, and the first twin installation was on the destroyer USS Coghlan (DD-606) on 1 July 1942. The USA started a massive production program for these weapons and a monthly production rate of 1,600 Army guns and 135 Navy twin-barrel guns was achieved by December 1942. Production continued to ramp up in the following year, so much so that the Army found that they had more guns than they could field and production of air-cooled single guns fell from a peak of 13,485 in 1943 to 1,500 guns in 1944 and then halted with no guns for the Army being produced during the last year of the war.

However, the needs of equipping Navy ships were not fully met until well into 1944. By that time, the pre-war 1.1” gun had been almost totally replaced by Bofors guns.

During 1944, 6,644 single mountings and approximately 3,650 twin and 750 quad mountings were produced with production still ramping up with at least 796 single, 3,020 twin and 800 quad mountings being manufactured in 1945 until the end of the war halted production. To illustrate how many of these weapons were required by the USN, note that out of the more than 400 destroyers built for the USN between 1934 and 1946, only the four destroyers of the pre-war Gridley class (DD-380) and those destroyers sunk early in the war did not receive at least some Bofors guns.

Part of this increasing demand was the late war program of replacing 20 mm Oerlikon guns with the Bofors 40 mm guns, as the smaller weapon was found to be ineffective against Japanese Kamikazes. However, by early 1945, even the Bofors was determined to be inadequate

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against suicide attacks. As a result, a crash program was started late in the war to develop a new rapid fire 3”/50 (7.62 cm) gun to replace the Bofors. It should be noted here that although the Bofors gun was probably the best anti-aircraft automatic cannon of World War II, the USN considered it to be a front-line weapon for only six years.

As the USN decommissioned and transferred ships to other nations following the end of World War II, ex-US Bofors guns saw service under many flags with some still in active use as late as 2013.

Early versions of the Bofors twin mounting used friction-coupled drives, which quickly wore out on naval ships due to salt contamination. Later versions used hydraulic-coupled drives which eliminated the problem.

single-shot or automatic mode via a selector switch on the side of the slide.

The development of the Mark 51 director system gave the USA weapons greatly improved accuracy. For example, half of all Japanese aircraft shot down between 1 October 1944 and 1 February 1945 were credited to the Bofors/Mark 51 combination.

The USN 40 mm/56.3 Mark 1 and 40 mm/56.3 Mark 2 Bofors guns were both water-cooled and were used for all twin and quad mountings. The Mark 1 was a left-hand weapon while the Mark 2 was a right-hand weapon. Except for the barrel assemblies, the components were not interchangeable. These weapons could be fired in

The 40 mm/56.3 M1 was an air-cooled version originally produced for the US Army. The barrel assemblies for the M1 were interchangeable with those of British and Canadian produced air-cooled weapons. All USN single mountings used a modified version of the Army M1 gun.

German forces captured many Bofors guns during 1939 - 1941 and most of these were either sold back to Sweden in exchange for raw materials or placed into storage. However, after the defeat of France in 1940, Germany had so many captured guns that it was decided to adopt

them into the armed forces and they were then designated as the 4 cm/56 Flak 28.

Earlier in 1940, the German invasion of Norway had halted production at the Waffenfabrik Kongsberg facility just as their first four Bofors guns were nearing completion.

Waffenfabrik Kongsberg had obtained a license from Bofors in July 1937 but took years to set up a production line. The production line sat idle for a few months following the surrender but then restarted under German control. Repair of damaged captured guns and production of new ammunition was also started at this facility. Most of the new guns were sent to the Kriegsmarine where they were used on the cruisers Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen and on Schnellbootes. From 1941 onwards the Hungarian firm of MAVAG, which had also obtained a pre-war license from Bofors, produced Bofors guns for Germany as well as their own armed forces. By July 1941 the Kriegsmarine had 247 guns in service and by March 1942 the Luftwaffe had 615 guns in service.

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To sum up the 40mm Bofors ant-aircraft gun, it was widely used for its extreme speed and precision. The Bofors 40mm had a rate of fire of 120–160 rounds per minute per barrel.

Due to its proven capabilities, the United States expanded their use from the Army to the Navy and all ships were being equipped with 40mm Bofors to assist in the Pacific Campaign.

It was highly effective against Japanese kamikazes in 1944–45. Between October 1, 1944 and February 1, 1945, half of all aircraft shot down by Navy surface ships were attributed to the Bofors 40mm.

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OPERATION DRAGOON

CHAPTER 6

THESE LANDINGS HAD BEEN INTENDED TO TAKE PLACE AT THE SAME TIME AS THE NORMANDY LANDINGS...

The next two chapters were an absolute delight to complete while doing the research on Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion. Starting with Operation Dragoon, I followed that rabbit down a rabbit hole of epic proportions when it comes to learning about a major operation in World War II that I have literally never heard of before.

So what exactly was Operation Dragoon? Well in a nutshell, Operation Dragoon was a set of simultaneous amphibious landings by three U.S. infantry divisions followed by four Free French divisions along the Mediterranean coast of France. The main landings were preceded by nighttime paratroop drops and commando beach landings. This was carried out on August 15, 1944.

Originally called Operation Anvil, these landings had been intended to take place at the same time as the Normandy landings of Operation Overlord, commonly called D-Day, but were postponed because the necessary shipping was committed to the Normandy operation.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill strenuously ob-

jected to the invasion of Southern France, strongly preferring an operation in the Adriatic Sea. The American high command, however, particularly commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, insisted on opening a port on the Southern French coast even after the lodgment in Normandy was obtained.

The ports of Normandy were overwhelmed handling the cargo to support the Overlord invasion forces and another high-capacity port closer to the German frontier was vital if more men and supplies were to be delivered to the continent. Additionally, the high command of the French Liberation Army pushed for a landing on the coast of Provence that would include the large numbers of Free French troops that were being trained. Churchill finally relented only five days before the date set for the landings.

In the Alpha and Delta areas, Allied air assault and naval bombardment had either destroyed the German gun emplacements or driven their crews to abandon them. Only in the Camel zone did the landing forces experience any serious resistance.

The Americans considered Operation Dragoon a success. It enabled them to liberate most of Southern France in just four weeks while inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces (although a substantial part of the best German units were able to escape), and the ports of Marseilles and Toulon were soon in operation.

Looking through Donald Jay Rogers’ photo albums, it was evident that the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion was in Southern France, Marseilles, Toulon, and just about every single location that I have researched thus far. It is amazing to do the research and then look at actual photographs, taken during the events, by the soldiers themselves. To see from their eyes is priceless.

To dig deeper into the full depth of Operation Dragoon, I found a great article published by Bruce Malone on the website www.militaryhistoryonline.com that was titled “France’s Forgotten D-Day: Operation Dragoon and the Invasion of Southern France.” It is very informative and reads as follows.

The United States Seventh Army’s invasion of the southern coast of France on 15 August 1944 is one of the least celebrated Allied combat operations of the Second World War. In the end, Operation Dragoon (originally named Operation Anvil) proved to be one of the most important Allied campaigns, yet it remains one of the most controversial Allied strategic decisions. The

American decision to launch Operation Dragoon against strenuous British objections changed the Anglo-American Allied relationship for the duration of the war, as the United States, long the leader in materiel production and numbers of soldiers, assumed the role of strategic senior partner. From start to finish and long afterwards, Allied leaders hotly debated the merits of this campaign and its results. Supporters of the invasion, mostly American, point out its vital assistance to the campaign in northern France, while its detractors, mostly British, find fault for its negative influence on the difficult fight in Italy.

Often lost in these arguments are the actual results of this remarkable campaign. Despite contentious disagreements between American and British strategic planners and frustrations in joint planning and combined operations, Operation Anvil/Dragoon was a stunning success. Contrary to the predictions of many Allied leaders, especially British, this operation had no negative effect on the Italian Campaign, yet it increased Allied logistical capabilities and severely degraded the German Army Group G, altering the course of the fight for the Allies in northwestern Europe during the Second World War.

From its inception, Allied leaders hotly debated the merits of an amphibious attack through southern France and up the Rhône Valley. The Americans wanted to concentrate on building up forces for an invasion directly across the English Channel with the goal of a direct strike into the heart of Germany, while the British preferred to wear down Germany with attacks on the periphery before launching the cross-channel invasion. Since launching an invasion across the English Channel was logistically im-

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possible until Spring 1944 at the earliest, the Allied strategic planners reached a series of compromises not entirely satisfactory to each side. Operation Anvil/Dragoon represented one of these Anglo-American compromises.

At the Trident Conference in Washington D.C. in May 1943, the American planners presented their proposal to mount an amphibious landing on the southern coast of France. The Allies completed operations in North Africa (Operation Torch) by this time and were preparing to launch Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. In Washington, the American and British planners began looking for potential operational objectives for the future. The Trident Conference established Operation Overlord, the invasion of northern France, as the primary invasion route into northwestern Europe. The Mediterranean would become a subsidiary theater to northern France.

Soon after the end of the Sicily operations in August 1943, Churchill, Roosevelt, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff met in Quebec for the “Quadrant” Conference. At this conference, the Allied leaders disagreed over the planned future campaigns following the invasion of northern France across the English Channel. The British wanted all of the excess amphibious lift not needed for Overlord used in the Mediterranean, meaning Italy, with the hope of convincing the Americans to cross over to the Adriatic Sea.

Plans in place called for a small landing in southern France designed as a diversionary attack to assist Operation Overlord by siphoning off or holding enemy strength in the center and south of France. At this preliminary stage, Operation Anvil was nothing more than a reinforced, one-division diversionary assault.

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At the Quadrant Conference, American planners proposed upgrading the southern landings to a larger assault, which would provide continued assistance to Operation Overlord, make immediate use of the reconstituted French Army in the Mediterranean, and conveniently for the Americans, discount any British proposals for operations in the Adriatic or Aegean Seas.

General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, desired to apply the fullest possible weight of Allied power against the enemy, and the cancellation of Operation Anvil meant that five American and seven French divisions would remain idle in the Mediterranean. The United States Joint Chiefs of Staff put their full support behind Operation Anvil, tentatively scheduled before, during, or after Overlord. American staff planners believed that a successful southern France attack would most likely depend on Overlord to draw German strength from the south, and the advance up the Rhône Valley would force the German Army to defend all of the approaches to their country from Switzerland to the North Sea. Conversely, American planners reasoned that Anvil would have a similar effect on Overlord. An invasion through southern France, or even a threat of a strong assault in the south, forced the Germans to maintain as many as ten to twelve divisions away from Normandy, including the 9th and 11th Panzer Divisions. At this time,

the Joint Chiefs of Staff viewed Anvil and Overlord as similar operations in terms of the number of divisions and the ultimate objectives. The more optimistic American planners even considered the possibility that Allied forces might encircle the German Nineteenth Army and portions of Army Group G, which would probably have ended the European war much earlier than May 1945.

Ultimately, on August 15, 1944, a vast Allied fleet stood off the coast of France. In the dark hours of the morning, thousands of American and British airborne troops landed inland in the Argens river valley around the town of La Motte, to secure the main road leading towards the north, link up with the French Resistance, and prevent German reinforcements from going to the landing beaches.

Preceded by a massive naval bombardment and commando raids on specific enemy batteries and coastal defenses, three American infantry divisions started landing at 08:00 on beaches near St. Tropez, St. Raphael, and Cavalaire.

On 16 August, the first of an eventual 260,000 soldiers from the French ‘Army B’ under General de Lattre de Tassigny were ferried ashore. More than half were North African and African native soldiers; the rest were a mix of Free French exiles from France itself, former Vichy forces from North Africa, and French colonists. Over 5,000 of the French personnel who took part in Operation Dragoon were women, who volunteered as clerks, typists, radio operators, translators, ambulance crews, and more.

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Most of the American infantry and armor were sent northwest up the Rhone river valley to cut off the German retreat, while the airborne task force was sent east towards Italy, liberating town by town in what was dubbed the “Champagne Campaign.” Meanwhile, the French divisions were tasked with liberating the civilian port of Marseille and France’s huge navy base at Toulon. Despite pockets of fierce German resistance, often to the death, both were re-taken by August 28 and the ports soon put back in working order to supply the Allied armies as they moved on Germany.

The first Liberty transport ships started off-loading on September 15, and within a few weeks Marseille and Toulon were bringing in more supplies than all the Normandy ports combined.

Operation Dragoon met far less resistance than Overlord (D-Day) in Normandy two months earlier, where Field Marshall Rommel had more than twice as many divisions and nearly all the available German armor in France. Allied losses on the beach landing sites on the first day of Dragoon were just 95 killed and 185 wounded, compared with almost 4500 Allied soldiers killed on D-Day.

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ONE SUCH CONDUIT OF MASS DESTRUCTION THAT WAS RUMORED WAS THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF WHAT WAS CALLED A RAILWAY GUN.

Germany, without a doubt, was a superpower in military history and was often on the forefront of innovation, especially in building conduits of mass destruction. Not only did they develop some of the first successful tanks, submarines, aircraft, and various machine guns, they were rumored to have been constantly building, experimenting, and developing just about anything that would give them an edge over their enemy and to help them reach their ultimate goal of world domination.

One such conduit of mass destruction that was rumored was their development of what was called a Railway Gun. The idea was to build the largest gun possible in order to shoot the farthest distance possible, but also make it easily mobile. They wanted to be able to change its location for secrecy and also for efficiency in hitting various targets throughout the European Campaign. So the Germans had a great idea - why not combine a giant cannon with a railway car? One that was able to be moved with minimal effort and one that was able to be hidden with minimal effort. Well, the Germans succeeded and their creation was dubbed the “Anzio Express.”

By far, the highlight of my research on Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion was discovering photos of the “Anzio Express” taken by Donald himself. They were stashed away in the photo albums that his daughter Joanie let me flip through on that fateful day she started my journey on creating this book. I was absolutely blown away to see them and I couldn’t wait to find out how in the world he even had them! Even better, to read his memoirs and to hear in his own words confirmation that they helped find and destroy the “Anzio Express” was mind blowing! To me, that is rockstar status and I’m not sure the gravity of which is fully understood by those who do not know much about World War II or the evolution of military combat weapons. The “Anzio Express” was a modern marvel and quite possibly, one of the greatest inventions to ever come from Hitler’s regime.

I found some interesting articles on the “Anzio Express” and the more I researched, the more it made me leap for joy to tell Joanie that her father really did do some amazing things when he was in World War II. Let’s get on with this final history lesson and let me explain exactly what the “Anzio Express” was and how it got its name.

The best description that I found regarding the “Anzio Express” was an article on the website samilitaryhistory. org and reads as follows.

What was the “Anzio Express” a.k.a “Anzio Annie” and

what made her so famous? Anzio Annie was just one of the 21 K5 E guns built in Germany by Krupp Steel, the traditional supplier of heavy guns to Germany. Through the years, Krupp acquired a reputation for building famous guns, such as Big Bertha, Heavy Gustav, and the Paris Gun.

Anzio Annie’s vital statistics were quite impressive. Caliber was 280 mm, barrel length was 21.5 m, overall length was 41.2 m, mass in action was 218 tons, mass of HE shell was 260 kg, muzzle velocity was 1 128m/s (Mach 3.3),

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maximum range was 63 km with HE shell and 151 km with the special Peenemunde arrow shell, breech was a horizontal sliding block, rate of fire was 15 rounds per hour, and traverse was 2 degrees.

Her 218 ton mass was spread by means of a huge rectangular box girder holding the gun trunnions and supported over two railcars, with twelve axles in total, giving exceptionally clean and slender lines to this gun.

The real Anzio Annie saga started in January 1944, when the Allies landed at the Italian port of Anzio in order to short circuit the deadlock at Cassino, where German resistance had stopped the march to Rome. Under US General Mark Clark, with General John Lucas as local commander, 35,000 troops landed at Anzio beach, increasing to 50,000 by Day Four. It was an easy landing, with negligible losses and minor opposition.

Mark Clark was a West Pointer and a First World War infantry veteran. During the Second World War, he showed great skill in handling troops of mixed nationalities, was energetic, ambitious and strong-willed, but even he found Anzio a tough nut to crack. Opposing him were 10,000 quite unprepared Germans under General Albert Kesselring, with General Eberhard von Mackensen as local commander, who quickly reinforced his troop numbers to 60,000 men. Between the wars, Kesselring, a First World War artillery veteran, transferred to the Luftwaffe, and showed himself to be a resolute and skilful defensive commander, nearly defeating the Allied effort in Italy,

and bringing the invasion to a standstill at Cassino, which precipitated the Anzio landing.

With two Grand Masters at the chessboard, the deadly game was ready to begin. From then on, every move was followed by a carefully considered countermove, with each player striving for the masterstroke that would give him a decisive advantage. One of the first moves made by Kesselring was to send two railway guns to Anzio. An opportunity was missed when the Allies fired on, but failed to intercept, a train of railway guns moving through the morning haze on the Naples-Rome line.

It was to cost them dearly. British intelligence actually predicted no more than light gun emplacements with

maximum size of 88mm to oppose the landings, and railway guns were not considered. Due to excellent German security, Allied intelligence remained largely ignorant of the existence of these railway guns.

The first German guns to shell the landings were those from a captured 280mm French battery now commanded by Captain Borcherds, who used ‘shoot and scoot’ tactics to escape the usual aerial retaliation that followed a bombardment.

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The Strategy: By then, two KSE batteries (ie two guns), named Leopold and Robert, had arrived from Rome and the game began in earnest. Col Frederik Filzinger was put in command of the railway guns, and he worked out a strategy to bombard the Allies to the point of withdrawal. Railway guns have the disadvantage that camouflage and concealment are difficult, but, at Anzio, the solution presented itself in the form of a tunnel at the right place and the right range. Not even the most ingenious of experts could have invented a better hideout for a railway gun than in a tunnel. From there, it could run out and open fire and, as the inevitable aerial and artillery retaliation followed, run back to its retreat. Safe from observation and bombardment, it was the ideal hideaway.

The tunnel that Filzinger decided on was on the Ciampino-Frascati branch line, approximately 12km from Rome, and 30km from the Anzio beachhead. It was an ideal position for long-range interdiction, well within Annie’s range, but outside the range of Allied artillery.

The US 155mm Long Tom, the top of the Allied range, could only reach 23km, still 7km short of touching Annie.

Filzinger appointed Capt Borcherds, a First World War artillery veteran, as the on-site commander of the two teams of K5 batteries, with Sergeant Sauerbier as one of the bombardiers. (Borcherds died in 1984, aged 93.)

A gun train consisted of six special railcars, one for the crew, a kitchen car, an air-conditioned munitions car for

keeping the powder at a constant temperature of 10°C, a maintenance car, an anti-aircraft gun car, and, of course, the gun itself, all powered by a diesel locomotive. Two such trains were used, with the less important cars, like the kitchen and maintenance car, placed near the tunnel entrance to minimize damage in case of a raid. Diglycol was used as powder, three bags of powder per round, and this and the shell were pushed out on a cart and lifted by crane to the gun platform. A special loading pole with grooves was used to ensure correct engagement of the twelve splines on the shell into the barrel rifling.

The last bag of powder was enclosed in a brass case to ensure obturation. As much as possible of this was done in the tunnel. Usually only one gun fired, the other staying in the tunnel, but at times both guns were in action. For air defense, each gun train had two 4-barrel 20mm AA guns and one 88mm AA gun.

The next step was to create systems of deception in order

to render detection of the guns, from the air or otherwise, as difficult as possible. To this end, Filzinger had a number of dummy guns built in wood and iron, painted like the real thing, and covered with camouflage netting. The dummies were dispersed at railway yards in the vicinity. To confuse the spotting of muzzle blast, flash simulators were erected at various sites as well as at the dummy gun sites. These simulators were fired to coincide with Annie’s shots. As we shall see, these efforts proved to be highly successful.

This addressed the basic problem faced by any artillery

battery operating in the open. Once the smoke, sound, or flash of a gun is spotted, a retaliatory bombardment will surely follow. To escape this, the battery would have to move to a new position, requiring setting up and range-taking all over again.

Annie’s hideout obviated all this. When the gun was ready, with the target position worked out beforehand, it was pushed out of the tunnel by a diesel locomotive into the rail yard, quickly sighted, and fired. Traverse was achieved by using curved rail tracks, apart from the inherent 2° traverse. Reloading was done at the double. At night, the

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muzzle flash was 30 to 40 metres long, and could be seen for many miles. To reduce detection, Deuneberger salts were added to the charge to reduce muzzle flash to just a thin, pencil-like, flame.

First shot was a special ranging shell, raising a massive black smoke plume to make it easily visible. An observation post would radio the fall of shot and corrections were made on this.

Eventually, only 45 seconds were needed to report the fall of each shell to the gunners. After firing six to eight rounds, requiring some four to seven minutes per round, the gun was pushed back into the safety of the tunnel. Important maintenance work could then be done.

Soon the heavy and bitter taste of the German genius and artillery expert - Krupp Steel - would be felt. With the beachhead only 30km away, it was the classic irresistible force meeting an immovable object, as both sides strove for the advantage. Suddenly the Allies realised, the hard way, that the railway gun was far from being obsolete.

Annie’s targets presented themselves as ammunition dumps, gasoline dumps, ships in harbour, troop concentrations, supply dumps, and harbor installations.

On 5 February 1944, thirteen days after the landing, the gun known as Robert opened fire first, landing fifteen rounds on the beachhead. The effect was stunning, since no artillery fire of such magnitude had been expected from that direction. The Allies actually thought there was only one K5 gun, and quickly dubbed it ‘Anzio Annie’. It would also become known as ‘Whistling Willie’ or ‘Anzio Express’, the latter name no doubt due to the shell sounding like an express train as it roared overhead. The immediate reaction of the those on the beachhead was to locate the position of the gun in order to take it out.

On 16 February, Robert and Leopold fired fifty rounds and repeated requests to silence the guns were followed by fighter-bomber attacks with 500kg bombs landing on suspected positions. Due to the safety of the tunnel, however, only minor damage was suffered.

What followed for the next three months was a cat and mouse game in deadly earnest, the mouse running to its hole when the cat approached. Well, it was some cat, and some mouse! Allied losses due to Annie were adding up. On 18 February, she destroyed a harbor utility vessel and damaged a destroyer and a freighter. This forced the supply ships 5km out to sea to avoid being sunk. The British cruiser, Mauritius, was ordered to take

The landing force did not have the immediate opportunity to disperse these; being on a beach, space was limited and there was no place to hide. Thus, Annie could virtually pick and choose her targets. A prime objective was to force supply ships to anchor further away from the beachhead, thus obstructing and delaying the delivery of supplies, since barges and ferries had to be used, creating even more targets. Observation posts kept Annie continuously informed of possible targets.

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Ciampino rail yard under shells, but she would not take the risk and, with her 24km range, could not take out Annie in any case.

On March 9, using air reconnaissance photographs, Annie fired eight shells at night and took out a fuel dump, causing a massive fire that lasted for three days, setting back the Allied effort for more than a month. Thus the game of hide and seek continued for almost three months, without the ‘Annies’ suffering any damage at all.

By then, Allied reconnaissance planes had noticed two ‘Annie’ guns at Ciampino rail yard, covered with camouflage netting, and an attack by eight P-40 planes carrying 250kg bombs followed. The aircraft reported direct hits on two guns and the destruction of the rail link Borcherds heard over the radio that he was probably dead and his guns destroyed. It sounded good, but in fact the Annies were safely in the tunnel and the attack had merely destroyed two wood and iron dummy guns. It was the way that dummies worked! After the attack, Annie fired four rounds to show that she was alive and well, and the next day sank a liberty ship to emphasise this.

Clark was exasperated. Annie’s threat was also psychological, and the troops lived in constant fear of the next shell from Annie. The scream, ‘Here comes Annie’, sent the GIs running for cover.

The shell’s passage was compared to a freight train passing overhead and blasting a hole big enough to swallow a Jeep. It paralysed the thought and actions of the men.

Once, the glint from an officer’s white map board drew fire from Annie and the story went around amongst GIs that you could not even talk to each other without Annie chipping in.

Veterans said that Annie was as timely as a Swiss watch. General Mark Clark, in his memoirs, mentions the harrowing sound of the shells as they roared overhead, causing him many sleepless nights.

General Lucas then launched a strike force to cut the German supply routes and at the same time take out Annie. It was a disastrous failure, with only six men of the attacking force of 767 returning, the rest being lost or captured.

The Germans responded with a counterattack in strength, hoping to drive the Allies off the beach, but due to massive bomber attacks from Cassino, supported by artillery and broadsides from two cruisers, the attack petered out and the beachhead held, even if precariously at times. The Allies were actually being driven back, if only meter by meter, and the ghastly spectre of an ignominious withdrawal actually loomed at times, but they held on. The Germans knew this and exploited the discomfiture of the Allies by dropping a special pamphlet behind their lines.

The two Annies could not really stop the Allies, but this might just have been possible with, say, six. At one stage, things really looked bad for the Allies and General Lucas, who showed signs of despondency, was replaced by General Truscott in an attempt to instil more stamina.

The tunnel puzzle remained unsolved and more air photos were requested in order to pinpoint Annie’s position. This effort was seriously hampered by the German flash simulators and other deception measures.

The Annies’ performance depended, of course, on regular ammunition supply and every day three rail trucks with shells and powder arrived from La Spezia. At times, the rate of firing was curtailed by the lack of ammunition, giving the Allies some much-needed breathing space.

The notches on Robert and Leopold’s barrels grew in number as the guns picked off more targets, concentrating on ammunition dumps. On one day alone, they destroyed 182 tons of ammunition; on another, 353 tons of ammunition; and on yet another, they took out 233 tons of ammunition and 5,000 gallons of petrol and sank an LCT in the harbor. They once engaged and severely damaged a destroyer and a freighter at a range of 50km. In one month alone, the two Annies took out 1,500 tons of badly needed ammunition, but by then their hits on ships had been reduced, since these targets anchored 10km out at sea, keeping them out of the Annies’ range.

On one day in particular, Borcherds fired 72 shells, the pinnacle of the Annies’ bombardment achievement and, by the end of April 1944, they had fired 5,523 shells onto the beach. Some fragments of an Annie shell were recovered and identified by a British officer as the type of shell

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fired on Dover, either 280mm or 350mm. By then, no dud rounds had been salvaged.

It is impossible to determine the extent of the damage or casualties caused by the Annie guns, but certainly it was enormous. Their objective was not the troops as such, but ammunition dumps, fuel dumps, vehicles, ships, and harbor installations. Unfortunately, the exact count of the number of these taken out by the Annies is not available. However, the disruption of the beachhead organisation and logistics, and the discomfort and fear induced in the troops, were some of the nonmeasurable objectives. On 2 May, the Annies fired eighteen shells on shipping, 10 to 12km out at sea, but they did not succeed in sinking any.

The operation of both Annie guns was often slowed down due to ammunition shortages. At one stage, the Annies suffered a severe shell shortage due to the bombing by Allied aircraft of the shell factory at La Spezia. Their inventory, at one stage, was down to a mere thirteen rounds. This resulted in a silence of 21 days in April 1944, much appreciated by the men on the beach.

The Americans introduced the Black Dragon gun, which had almost the range of their Long Tom, but with a heavier 160kg shell. They also had two 200mm guns, with supercharged ammunition, that could have reached Annie, but again the effort was hampered by lack of knowledge of her exact position. The Long Toms pounded her suspected positions, one battery firing 3,240 shells in one day. More reconnaissance flights were requested when it

became obvious that the Annies were still not being destroyed, despite many claims to the contrary. Eventually, a dud shell was excavated and examined, so at least the caliber of Annie became known, but this information did not make much of a difference.

Raiding parties were sent forward in an attempt to take out the Annies. Operation Ginny was launched to destroy rail connections between Genoa and La Spezia, thus hoping to stop supplies from reaching the Annies’ sector. The first raid, scheduled for 27 February, was aborted and the second was cornered within days and the raiders captured.

By then it was suspected that the guns could be in caves - but where? It remains a mystery why Allied intelligence, aided by local informers, was still unable to discover the Annies’ position.

Eventually, almost by chance, fighter planes discovered the Annies’ lair when panicking men fled into the tunnel. The game was up.

The suspicious tunnel was raided, with fighter-bombers dropping heavy bombs, and the French cruiser, Emile Bertin, firing 350 rounds in three days at the hideout. With both guns way back in the tunnel, however, only the forward-placed kitchen cars were damaged. From the gunners’ point of view this was, of course, a serious matter as it interfered with their meals. On 13 May 1944, the Allies broke through at Cassino, and advanced towards Rome. With the hideout discovered, and with the increas-

ing Allied aerial and ground strength, Filzinger decided to remove the guns. As in chess, the endgame was now being played, and he either had to evacuate or lose the guns.

On 18 May, Leopold and Robert fired their last sixteen rounds and then escaped after dark along the coastal rail route into the rail yard in Civitavecchia, in preparation for evacuation towards Rome. The net was closing, however, and escape became impossible. With a heavy heart, Sergeant Sauerbier decided to destroy the guns that had served him so well. Time was running short, with the Allies advancing, and he only managed to blow up the breech blocks and elevation generators before he himself escaped towards Rome. In a way, this was fortunate for posterity, for both guns were thus saved for future generations to admire.

Three days after Sauerbier had spiked the guns, there followed the first successful raid on them. Their entire train was bombed in Civitavecchia yard, the locomotives and the cars overturned, and the guns damaged. The Anzio Express had made its last run. General Truscott, unaware of this development, had already decided on a masterstroke to take out the guns with massive aerial bombardment of the tunnel. Two days after the capture of the guns, bombers with 5,000kg Tallboy bombs blasted the tunnel, one bomb penetrating the tunnel roof through 25m of earth before exploding. The tunnel was now useless and the hideout destroyed, but the guns were gone. Leopold and Robert were already in Allied hands, and soldiers climbed on them like children with a new plaything, or like big game hunters who had bagged two rogue elephants.

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Officers of all ranks flocked to the yard, and everybody started picking off souvenirs until guards were posted. Only then was it realised that there had been two guns, and not one Anzio Annie as everybody had thought.

The cost in men had been terrible. The Anzio landings left behind 20,900 Allied, and 10,300 German, casualties - another example of defense having the edge in this type of warfare. Fortunately for posterity, the Americans decided not to destroy the guns as they had done with Heavy Gustav, but to send them to the USA for evaluation. In fact, Leopold and Robert are the only remaining K5 E guns in the world. They signify the end of the era of the railway gun - the last of the dinosaurs. But only Leopold emigrated to America. Robert stayed in Europe and is now on permanent exhibition at the Atlantic Wall Museum at Cap Griz Nez in France, installed next to the Batterie Siegfried gun emplacement. Leopold arrived in Taranto some months later and, by means of a crane and a barge, was loaded on to the liberty ship, Robert A Livingstone. On 6 July 1944, she docked in New York and, in September the same year, Leopold arrived at Aberdeen Artillery Proving Ground, where, today, it remains on permanent display. It is a fitting resting place for one of the most famous guns in the world.

Thus ended the Anzio Annie saga. It was a classic example of how two guns of excellent design, well positioned, well served, and well camouflaged, held an army to ransom for more than three months, and almost succeeded

in getting the better of it. Second World War veterans on both sides, maybe for different reasons, will always remember Anzio Annie.

As far as my research, that was one of the best descriptions of the “Anzio Express” aka “Anzio Annie” and one that included a colorful narrative that backed up the photographs that Donald Jay Rogers took of this infamous invention. The evidence of its final location being moved to a rail yard and the tunnel hide out ultimately being destroyed lays proof that the photographs are of the actual “Anzio Annie” and not some decoy.

Just like the article discussed, Donald Jay Rogers and other soldiers of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion did indeed fact climb all over their prize like “big game hunters who had bagged two rogue elephants” (Annie actually being made up of the two guns Leopold and Robert). Their photographs prove that. For an anti-aircraft battalion to bag such a prize is like winning the lottery!

Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion just made legendary status. After Anzio, the 5th Army entered Rome on June 4, 1944, becoming the first Allied force to liberate a European capitol from Fascist control. They went on to fight their way through Italy, eventually linking up with the U.S. Seventh Army near the Austrian-Italian border and ultimately invaded Germany. Little did they know that in less than a year, Germany would surrender and World War II would finally be over.

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CHAPTER 7

THE RETURN HOME

THE RETURN HOME

CHAPTER 8

MY WIFE AND GIRLS WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO ME.

On November 6, 1945 Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion returned home to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia aboard the ship called the Oneida Victory. They turned in their issued equipment and were then shipped to Fort Dix in New Jersey. On November 12, 1945, Donald Jay Rogers was officially discharged from his honorable service and sacrifice.

Throughout my research and in keeping track of all the notes that Donald and his wife made in the photo albums that their daughter Joanie let me flip through, I have come up with a list of the majority of places that Donald Jay Rogers and the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion traveled while on their deployment. They did a lot and definitely saw a lot. Much more than most of us ever will or could ever imagine.

They traveled to North Africa (Casablanca, Oran), Central Europe, France (Alsace, Rheims, Toulon, Marseille, Paris), Italy (Naples, Foggia, Anzio, Rome, Arno, Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii, Bagnoli), Belgium (Ardennes, Liege), and

Germany (Siegfried Line, Rhineland, Ettlingen, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Durlach, Oberammergau, Heidelberg, Karlsuhe).

Toward the end of his life, Donald Jay Rogers wrote his memoirs about World War II and life after the military. His final pages read as follows.

I married my sweetheart, Louise (Mary), as soon as I got home from the war. We moved to Long Island, New York. We both got jobs, Louise in nursing and I did some carpentry work.

During those years, we had two daughters - Janet and Joan. Our family was complete. I had my own business building homes and after several years I got my Associate’s Degree and then my Bachelor’s Degree. I got a job at Grumman Aerospace in a white collar position and eventually helped them design the LEM lunar module.

Years later, I joined the VFW and even made Commander for a few years. It was great being able to rehash my war experiences with guys that were over there too. I also

loved photography and even had my own black room to develop some of my pictures. I still kept busy with some carpentry work, building some furniture and even adding things to our house.

I was raised in a large family, with old fashioned values. So my wife and girls are the most important things to me. It is for them that I have put my life experiences down on paper.

On July 10, 2022, about one hour before his 100th birthday, Donald Jay Rogers passed away peacefully with family members by his side. Joanie, his daughter, has always been proud to tell people that her dad was part of

the Greatest Generation and did his part during World War II.

Without her keeping his photo albums and memoirs and dropping them in my lap one day to look through, this book definitely would not have been possible. It was quite the research project and yet again, a great adventure!

This book is in loving memory of Donald Jay Rogers and to all of the soldiers of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion. May they rest in the most blissful of peace, that they all have fully earned and deserve.

451ST AAA (AW) BATTALION

PHOTO GALLERY

451ST AAA (AW) BATTALION

PHOTO GALLERY

451ST AAA (AW) BATTALION

PHOTO GALLERY

451ST AAA (AW) BATTALION

PHOTO GALLERY

EPILOGUE

HE WAS ACTIVATED TO SERVE AMONGST FELLOW SOLDIERS OF THE GREATEST GENERATION...

The blessings of fate allowed me to write the book that my grandfather himself wanted to do. Through the publication of his story, I have been introduced to others who want to tell their family member’s story. This is the story of the unknown heroes of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion of World War II. This book is in loving memory of Joanie Petersen’s father and her hero Donald Jay Rogers. May his memory and the memory of the 451st AAA (AW) Battalion “Sky Slayers” live on forever in our hearts, in our minds, and in our history. They were the Greatest Generation and will never be replaced.

Private First Class (PFC) Donald Jay Rogers was an inspiration to his family and his community. A true American hero, he received the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal for the Naples/Foggia, Anzio, Rome/Arno, Southern France, Ardenne/Alsace, and Rhineland/ Central Europe Campaigns of World War II.

He started his military career in the 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion, Battery C and was absorbed into the 5th Army during the invasion of Italy for Operation Dragoon. He was activated to serve amongst fellow soldiers of the Greatest Generation in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Deployed to North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany, PFC Donald Jay Rogers survived World War II and served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945. He participated in the invasion of Southern France, invasion of Italy during Operation Dragoon, liberated the historical cities of Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and Paris, witnessed the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, crossed the Rhine River into Germany, and aided in locating and destroying the infamous German Railway Gun, the “Anzio Express.”

He was a loving family man and lived a long and full life after returning home from his service.

This book is in loving memory of Donald Jay Rogers.

Special thanks to Joanie Petersen for your collection of photographs and keepsakes. This project is a true testament of the love that you have for your father Donald Jay Rogers. He would be very proud of you and I would bet that the soldiers of the entire 451st AAA (AW) Battalion are all smiling down on you. God bless you my friend.

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

TWISTED BOMBSHELL