My fathers favorite story that my 2 nephews filmed and taped I watched again tonight, I remember almost the entire story but watching it made me realized its a " living history " that I have and showed some of it to my own kids and grandkids.
It is June 5th and my father is in General Clarks 5th Army and they just captured Rome , My father is a lieutenant assigned with {AMG)allied Military Government. He was in charge of 15-20 US Soldiers and as the Germans retreated southern Italian cities they had captured and held they were retreating town by town. My father would enter Italian villages and small cities and establish a government under Allied forces. From Naples on the Germans were retreating . My father who born in Italy but came over to the US when he was 5. He graduated Manhattan College in 1936 and his degree was Italian and Spanish . He was teaching Italian and Spanish at Teddy Roosevelt HS in the Bronx when the war broke out. He enlisted and went to officers training school and became a AMG officer. He married my mother in 1941 and 3 days later was on a ship to North Africa. He was in the 5th Army and became part of a group of Americans assigned to AMG. He spoke Fluent Italian and had no dialect.Anyway Its in June 5th the day before D-day. He after being in Sicily and Naples with AMG General Clark disobeyed Eisenhower's orders and captured Rome The Germans retreated and left Rome with a battle . Clark was ordered to skip Rome and go after and trap the German Army. By disobeying those orders the entire German Army escaped being surrounded and retreated North.
Clark and his 5th Army marches into Rome and captures the city . He is like the 1st conquering Army to capture Rome since Attila the Hun . My father says they enter the city and 1,000 of Italians are welcoming the allied forces. My father says at the Nord Roma Hotel a 1st class hotel near the train station. It is June 5th that day. My father gets up early that morning and goes down stairs to get a cappopuncinno coffee. He see's another officer at the hotel and is informed the allied forces have landed in Normandy . Its D-day. Everyone knew D-day was coming . It wasn't a surprise . Stalin had been asking for the US and England to open another front . Where they landed was the secret. So many think like my father that Clark wanted to capture Rome before the invasion . But the timing was off. The capture of Rome was big news but like Studs Turkel the great writer said about Clark.. " headlines for a day back pages for a life time " The Atlantic wall had been penetrated and the invasion in France made the capture of Rome seemed less insignificant . So many today are remembering D-Day and the Normandy beaches but the day before Rome was captured. My father never left Rome and was reassigned to investigate the the massacre of 300 Italians a few months before the US captured Rome and than later on an Investigation on Pius X11 and what role he played with the Germans when they occupied Rome. When the war was over he stayed in Rome for 6 months continuing his investigating . Will continue later on about my dad. Sorry this is kinda boring but watching the TV and seeing some of the news high lites of Normandy today had me thinking back ..
It is June 5th and my father is in General Clarks 5th Army and they just captured Rome , My father is a lieutenant assigned with {AMG)allied Military Government. He was in charge of 15-20 US Soldiers and as the Germans retreated southern Italian cities they had captured and held they were retreating town by town. My father would enter Italian villages and small cities and establish a government under Allied forces. From Naples on the Germans were retreating . My father who born in Italy but came over to the US when he was 5. He graduated Manhattan College in 1936 and his degree was Italian and Spanish . He was teaching Italian and Spanish at Teddy Roosevelt HS in the Bronx when the war broke out. He enlisted and went to officers training school and became a AMG officer. He married my mother in 1941 and 3 days later was on a ship to North Africa. He was in the 5th Army and became part of a group of Americans assigned to AMG. He spoke Fluent Italian and had no dialect.Anyway Its in June 5th the day before D-day. He after being in Sicily and Naples with AMG General Clark disobeyed Eisenhower's orders and captured Rome The Germans retreated and left Rome with a battle . Clark was ordered to skip Rome and go after and trap the German Army. By disobeying those orders the entire German Army escaped being surrounded and retreated North.
Clark and his 5th Army marches into Rome and captures the city . He is like the 1st conquering Army to capture Rome since Attila the Hun . My father says they enter the city and 1,000 of Italians are welcoming the allied forces. My father says at the Nord Roma Hotel a 1st class hotel near the train station. It is June 5th that day. My father gets up early that morning and goes down stairs to get a cappopuncinno coffee. He see's another officer at the hotel and is informed the allied forces have landed in Normandy . Its D-day. Everyone knew D-day was coming . It wasn't a surprise . Stalin had been asking for the US and England to open another front . Where they landed was the secret. So many think like my father that Clark wanted to capture Rome before the invasion . But the timing was off. The capture of Rome was big news but like Studs Turkel the great writer said about Clark.. " headlines for a day back pages for a life time " The Atlantic wall had been penetrated and the invasion in France made the capture of Rome seemed less insignificant . So many today are remembering D-Day and the Normandy beaches but the day before Rome was captured. My father never left Rome and was reassigned to investigate the the massacre of 300 Italians a few months before the US captured Rome and than later on an Investigation on Pius X11 and what role he played with the Germans when they occupied Rome. When the war was over he stayed in Rome for 6 months continuing his investigating . Will continue later on about my dad. Sorry this is kinda boring but watching the TV and seeing some of the news high lites of Normandy today had me thinking back ..
