The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1944-12-14
Durant Boys In
33Sih Regiment

With the Fifth Army Gtaly)-pfe.
Warnie. L. Ivy, machine gunner and PVT
Joseph c. Gunter, son of Mrs. Nellie b.
Cunter, lot Depot ST., are fighting in
italy with the 33Sth Infantry Regiment
which has been credited with killing and
wounding many hundreds of Germans
and taking nearly 700 prisoners in four
weeks of cold, bitter fighting in ths
Gothic Line
They are called the "old timerss.
these men and officers of the 33Sth.
part of the S5th "Custer" Division in
Lieutenant General Mark W. Clarhs
Fifth Army.
They are veterans of bloody Solae-
ciano Ridge and the Gustav Line, Forn-
ia, the Gaeta Peninsula and RomsA
They are now standing at the approach
es to the Pc Valley, a long haul frs1
Minturno where the regiment entered
the lines on last April 81. $50
"Marchons"-Let US march! is tAa
regimental motto. Nobody marehsa
through the Gothic Line but the 33atA
got through. e-"; 80 ''' 10 s''
The LIST Battalion led in the capture
of Mount Altuzzo. 5000 feet of "straigAA
up" rock, key to vital II Giogo Pass.
major objective Of the s5th DivisioDA
This same unit staged IN amphibioss
landing to occupy Sperlonga above
Gaets last May. '7f1t5 v -'ta
q +.
Earlier, company in the End Battali-
ion seized strategic position in the
Gustav Line and held it against des-
perate German battalion for three days.
This feat was almost duplicated by the
same company in attacking Mount
zanobi above Firenzuela and holding
the peak all day against four Jerry
counterattacks, including two with
tanks which fired directly into the GPs
foxholes.
The End Battalion, one of the first
Allied units to enter Rome, defeated
elements of the Germans crack 4th
Paratroop Division in the II Giego Pass
drive.
4 nc Oiu tlHlcES u tue OOCIu law
won three Distinguished Service Cross
es, 35 Silver Stars and more than zoo
Bronze Stars.
Activated at Camp Shelby, Mississippi
in May, 1912, the 338th arrived at Cas-
ablanca, French Morocco on January Z,
1914 and after intensive training in
North Africa came to Italy with the
85th Division late in March. The regi-
ment jumped off at Solacciano on May
IL at the start of the historic Fifth
Army offensive in Italy. After helping
TO breach the Gustav Line, the 338th
captured Formia on May Is. The am
phibious trick at Sperlonga followed,
then the End and 3rd Battalions took
Mount Nero. The entire regiment adj
vanced northward to capture Seize and
later relieved elements of tie 3rd
"Marne" Division at Corr.
At Lariano, the 33Sth attacked the
Velletri-V almontone Line, the last de-
tense line before Rome, held by the
Hermann Goering Division, and after
three-day' offensive by the 1st and
ora ballaiioHs, I-e NAILS WitHofe"' iHs
3rd joined another regiment in the S5th
and advanced into the Alban Hills while
the End moved into Rome.
After the regiment was relieved
north of Rome in June, Colonel Will
liam H. Mikkelson, a West Pointer from
Chicago, Illinois, who had commanded
the Bird Battalion all the way in ite
Rome drive, was made regimental COM
mander.
After a week, the unit was reorgan.
lied and in mid-September took over
the main effort of the S5th, which in
turn had been assigned an important
mission in the Fifth Army's leading
corps in the Gothic Line operation.