I have only one picture. Looks like a piece of paper on his pot,directions maybe. the only

thing different is he is wearing a regular belt instead of a cartridge belt. BUT HE LOOKS

LIKE A LEAN MEAN MACHINE. ROQUE

I also noticed that the pistol belt,holster and shoulder strap were leather

not the regular web belt type with extra "mag" pouch(s).

Trying to figure time and location of photo was hard as he is wearing the

old canvas leggings and I don't know when you guys in Italy got issued

the combat boots - if that is Italy.

We didn't get combat boots until everybody in Paris had them and Gen.

Patton sent word back that we were to get them ASAP or he would send

some of his men back to "requisition" them - Verstanden!! SOBs in the REC

units had the Bed Rolls(F**T Sacks) before we had them because it must

have been cold in those hotels and other billets back there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sgtleo

We got our combat boots in No. Africa. Damn airabs would try to steal them and also the

mattress covers. They would cut two holes on each side and WEAR THEM LIKE PANTS!!!!! Roque

I believe that type of holster belt/ shoulder strap was standard issue to MP noncoms & officers as they didnt need the combat type cartrige belts. Hazzarding a guess here... that belt was probly worn on garrison or town guard duty, the pic might have been taken in Rome or near Naples during the rest/training phase just before the southern france invasion.

Larry

Roque, Sgt Leo, and Larry, thanks for the info!

I'm a nincompoop, but you've probably figured that out by now!

and screwed up putting the other photo on.

Here it is. Anzio??? somwhere it Italy?

Roque - I'll have to find one of my Dad's letters from N. Africa

where he writes home: "this place is overrun with Arabs stealing everything!!".

Sgt Leo - I don't know when Dad got his combat boots. The Salerno

pictures show him still in leggings from N. Africa. In

France, he still had the lightweight uniform everybody was issued

for N Africa/ Italy. I guess the Army couldn't keep up with it's

Campaigns. Maybe nobody understood that it gets COLD in Italy

in the mountains in winter and COLD COLD COLD in France!

I have a photo of my father on christmas day 1944 and looks like

he's got a couple of homemade scarfs wrapped around his neck.

I think he was in Alsace.

206th: Army tried to feed us well but most of the time it was K, C rations and D bars. Hot chow kitchens were

rare treats. Food scroungers we were when possible. Eggs and chickens and a occasional pig was fair game.

We burned up a lot of calories most days also. When you see a fat G.I. you know damn right well he wasnt

a combat soldier.

Roque, Sgt Leo, and Larry, thanks for the info!

 

I'm a nincompoop, but you've probably figured that out by now!

and screwed up putting the other photo on.

 

Here it is. Anzio??? somwhere it Italy?

 

Roque - I'll have to find one of my Dad's letters from N. Africa

where he writes home: "this place is overrun with Arabs stealing everything!!".

 

Sgt Leo - I don't know when Dad got his combat boots. The Salerno

pictures show him still in leggings from N. Africa. In

France, he still had the lightweight uniform everybody was issued

for N Africa/ Italy. I guess the Army couldn't keep up with it's

Campaigns. Maybe nobody understood that it gets COLD in Italy

in the mountains in winter and COLD COLD COLD in France!

I have a photo of my father on christmas day 1944 and looks like

he's got a couple of homemade scarfs wrapped around his neck.

I think he was in Alsace.

Clean shirt at Anzio !!! He was right about the Arabs. Anzio was between

Rome and Cassino. Saw the town of Cassino but never got to the top where

the Monastary is. Roque

3rdinf, what could you get from home? anything? My Dad got cookies once

(or at least he TOLD his mother that he got em).

His mother was Irish and used to make the traditional fruitcake

at Christmas (I think it took about a month to make). Dad LOVED it (yuck!)!

In one of his letters, he writes that he had some SS Pierce Fruitcake

that someone sent to his buddy. He was so enthused, you'd think it

was a steak.

I hate that "postcard photo" he sent to his mother (what was he thinking?!!)

He looks like he belongs in a hospital or like somebody who'se been in a POW camp.

BTW - the general that I heard my Dad speak highly

of, was the 3rd's Lucien Truscott.

206thmp

General Lucien Truscott was the commanding General of the CRACK 3rd Inf. Divn.

If you have the book ""DOGFACES WHO SMILED THROUGH TEARS"" page 445.

went ashore at Anzio with an attached Artillery Bn. from the 45th Inf. Divn.

Most of all the 1st,, 3rd,, and4th Ranger Bns. called Darby's Rangers of the

34th Divn. READ PAGE 445 OF THE BOOK. Roque

Thanks Roque! Don't have that book, GOTTA get it.

Dad said Truscott really cared about his men and he was

a soldier not a politician - more interested in getting the job done

than showing off.

m2

206thMPCo

Up above I asked Roque about the Combat Boots and he said he got

his in Africa. I wasn't ever in Italy so I didn't know what they did.

Talk about cold ask j3rd. The winter of '44 was one of the coldest in the

records and fighting in the Bulge was awful. If you took your boots off

they would freeze and you might never be able to get them back on. I

remember one instance where we got into a cellar where we could have

a fire but I had to have another guy unbutton my the "liberated" overcoat

I had on and with the web belt I had to be helped with that.

No debating your statements but I never saw a "Sam Brown" belt (as we called

them) like that for in all the time I was in. Everybody wore the Web Belts where

I was even the Brass and the AB troopers when I was TDY with them.

Sgtleo

Marion's note: Quote deleted...

Sgtleo in Italy, you didn't miss much. Winter of '44, UPin the mountains, no comment.

WE ALL SUFFFERED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. Roque

206mp: Yes, I recieved packages from home. Cookies were usually crumbled and a bit stale but great. One surprise I go was from my aunt. Package with a big loaf of home made bread. Bread was stale but found it had ben cut open, the center cut out and a pint bottle of Old Granddad Bourbon inside. From somewhere she found out this secret of safe shipment. What a safe way to pack it. Did we all enjoy this!!

We got our combat boots in No. Africa. Damn airabs would try to steal them and also the

mattress covers. They would cut two holes on each side and WEAR THEM LIKE PANTS!!!!! Roque

Roque..

Did you ever get a chance to sell any of the Matress covers? I think they kept the farm in Michigan going for about a year. They started running out of matress covers andstarted cutting them in half.I think those deals with the Arabs got pretty dangerous and they had to keep a .45 handy. They either ran out of matresses or got shipped to Italy.

The other stori I heard was about the Casbarrs.

Chris