Apologies if this has been posted before, but if you have never watched, please do so whenever you get a chance. San Pietro - Reel 1 San Pietro - Reel 2 San Pietro - Reel 3 Mike
good afternoon mikky.08:april.2013.07:04pm.re:sanpietro-reel 2(1944)I have just watched reel.2 of your collection.it must have been hell on earth.it was all those lives for a crapp of a hill,you have say it,they were bloody heroes.they just never made it home.i feel a great respect for those men.thank you for posting.all the best.bernard85
Hi Mikky I have visited San Pietro many times, was there last year only to find that you now have to pay to walk around the village, where once you could stroll around at your leasure, now you have to have a guide, so to me its not the same.I first went there in 1994 and every year since but I think I will give it a miss this year. I do believe that the Texas 36th Div has never fogiven Mark Clark for the slaughter they experienced there and at San Angelo just further on. rotherfiled
Mike. And rightly so. Mark Clark butchered 36 US Inf Div at both these locations. Ironically, they rescued his reputation when he switched from Op BUFFALO to Op TURTLE in an attempt to get to Rome quicker and then promptly came up against the implacable wall of the German Army. It was only the brilliant and Divisional operation to climb Monte Artemisio at night and unlock the Caesar Line that saved the day. In appreciation, Clark sacked Fred Walker the Commanding General very soon after. The man was a menace. Regards FdeP
if anyone is keen to see Mark Clark in action, you might be "interested" in this..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsDFZGbuTws
Richard Don't really need to see Mark Clark in any kind of action as we had enough of him at the time with his idiocy at Salerno - San Pietro and Anzio - his ego was the reason we had to fight for the Gothic Line and lose 14,000 KIA's THEN he was given both armies to play with - but fortunately we had McCreery to save his bacon at the Argenta Gap........to finish off the campaign......then he was sent to Korea.....not surprising they didn't win that either.... Frank - it was No 1 Special Brigade that climbed Artemiso - to save the day- Clark wasn't fit to tie Walkers boot laces - Walker was very good - so he had to go - the bde was a mix of US and Canadian Commando types... Cheers
BBC radio 4 audio drama... on air (later today) then on BBC Sounds... BBC Radio 4 - Ambler, The Battle of San Pietro The Battle of San Pietro Ambler By Nick Perry In 1944, British spy novelist Eric Ambler and Hollywood film director John Huston were paired up to make a film to support the Allied war effort. Neither Huston nor Ambler had made a documentary before; they were used to writing the script then shooting and now they were going to shoot before writing. They agreed that there would be no staging, no re-enactment, nothing fake or artificial in their production. But the ethics of both men were tested by the reality of crafting a story in a war zone. John Huston . . . Elliot Cowan Eric Ambler . . . Joseph Kloska Jules Buck . . . Joseph Ayre Colonel Gillette . . . Nathan Osgood The Interviewer . . . Lorelei King David MacDonald . . . Christopher Harper General Harrison . . . Kenny Blyth Elsie . . . Helen Clapp Director . . . Sasha Yevtushenko
Caught the last 20 minutes of it this afternoon . Will have to catch up with the rest on iPlayer tomorrow. To be honest I didn't know much about the battle or film.
For those who are new to the subject, San Pietro was one of the series of engagements which together made up the Battle of the Mignano Gap. Some British members are doubtless familiar with the terrible struggle of X Corps for Monte Camino. The Camino hillmass complex formed the southern wall of the gap, while Monte Sammucro and the Appenine footills beyond it formed the northern wall. Monte Lungo lay in the center of the gap, with the village of San Pietro Infine just to the north of Lungo on the southern slope of Sammucro. In December of '43 the US 36th Infantry Division launched a series of unsuccessful and very costly attacks on San Pietro. At the same time, US 3rd Infantry Division, an Italian brigade, and X Corps were having little more success against the other parts of the gap. San Pietro finally fell when the higher ground around it was captured, Monte Sammucro by the 36th and the Camino hillmass complex by X Corps and the 1st Special Service Force. The battle left the 36th so exhausted and depleted as to be of doubtful offensive value. It should probably have been withdrawn to rest and rebuild before being committed again, but as we know Clark chose to send the 36th into another costly assault on the Rapido. The maps and photos attached give you the picture. Huston's film of the battle has been extravagantly and to some extent justly praised, but Rick Atkinson says that Huston faked or re-staged at least some of it.
For all those that have a interest in this fine Division, then I would strongly advise in buying a copy of the book below. A copy should still be able to buy at a decent price. Here are some of the pages that I scanned some time ago. Its a shame that I did not scan it all. Page Viii makes interesting reading about the General Mark Toss... Clarke. I'm sure they have a memorial that is north of M. Trocchio, in the village of La Pieta? minden1759 will confirm this. I did take a photo of it, but it did not turn-out well. If anyone requires Chapter III. THE BATTLE FOR SAN PIETRO, then start a PM with me & I will send on. Regards Stu.
Stu. The 36 US Inf Div memorial is in the village square in Sant Angelo. It is cut from Texan pink marble and matches the one at Paestum where they landed on 9 Sep 43. Regards Frank
I did not take a close up of the engraving. M.Trocchio is in the background to the left. Its the best of the two. Stu.