36th Infantry Division - Road to Rome 2

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Salerno was a fierce baptism of fire for the 36th. The small landing boats bucked the surf, grounded on the beach. Men charged ashore, cut paths through mine fields and barbed wire. An enemy outpost marked them with machine gun tracers. Krauts were waiting - waiting with 88s on the ridges, with tanks on the flats.

The landing barely had been accomplished when the Germans launched their first armored attack. On the right flank, Nazis barreled through to the beaches, where 3rd Bn., 141st, in a bloody man-to-tank action, threw them back. For this action, the battalion received the first Presidential Citation awarded a 36th unit.

On the left flank, two more armored spearheads slashed at the lines. One assault nearly reached the division CP. A hastily-unlimbered 105, firing point-blank into the formation, destroyed five of 13 tanks. The others fled. A self-propelled 75 and a 37 stood off a second attack. Bazooka teams held the flanks. The original landings had withstood every counter-blow the enemy could muster.

Altavilla was taken, the forces in it trapped and scattered. But the Germans regrouped and punched their way back into the town. When an attack to retake the town by seizing vital Hill 424 failed, the division pulled back its defense along the rim of the landing area.

Every man who could be spared from field ranges, typewriters and trucks was in the line Sept. 13. Striking hard far to the left, the Germans had breached the Sele-Calore corridor. U.S. paratroop units were dropped along the defense perimeter, rushed into position before the enemy could exploit his tactical advantage.

Guts, firepowr and teamwork decided the battle of Salerno that day. T-Patchers sealed off the Nazis along little La Cosa creek and drove off the lumbering panzers. Covered by naval and land guns, doughs rolled the enemy back into the hills. Altavilla was retaken.

Four 36th Div. men won the Congressional Medal of Honor at Salerno. T/Sgt. Charles E. “Commando” Kelly, Pittsburgh, held off the Germans alone by throwing mortar shells when there were no more grenades. On Hill 424, Pvt. William Crawford, Pueblo, Colo., grenaded several machine gun nests, captured another machine gun position and fought the enemy until he was captured. Lt. Arnold Bjorklund, Seattle, Wash., grabbed an enemy rifle, destroyed two German