The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1945-01-04
Durunt Boys In
338th Regiment

Win tHe rlItH ARMY kltalyJ-f1c
Warnie L. Ivy, machine gunner and Pvt
Joseph c. Gunter, son of Mrs. Nellie B.
Gunter, 107 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 the
Gothic Line.
They are called the "old timers,
these men and officers of the 338th
part Of the S5th "Custer' Division in
Lieutenant General Mark w. Clark's
Fifth Army.
They are veterans of bloody Solac.
ciano Ridge and the Gustav Line, Form.
ia. the Gaeta Peninsula and Rome
They are now standing at the approach.
es to the Pc Valley, long haul from
Minturno where the regiment entered
the lines on last April 81.
"Marchons"-Let US march! is the
regimental motto. Nobody marched
through the Gothic Line but the 338th
got through.
The 1st Battalion led in the capture
of Mount Altuzzo, 5000 feet of straight
up" rock, key to vital II Giogo Pass
major objective of the 85th Division
This same unit staged an amphibious
landing to occupy Sperlonga above
Gaeta last May.
Earlier, company in the End Battali-
ion seized a 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 CTS
foxholes.
The End Battalion, one of the first
Allied units to enter Rome, defeated
elements of the Germans crack 4tb
Paratroop Division in the II Giego Pass
drive.
The "old timers" of the 338th have
won three Distinguished Service Cross
es, 35 Silver Stars and more than 200
Bronze Stars.
Activated at Camp Shelby, Mississippi
in May, 1912, the 33sth arrived at Cas-
ablanca, French Morocco on January T.
1914 and after intensive training in
North Africa came to Italy with the
S5th Division late in March. The regi-
ment jumped off at Solacciano on May
II at the start of the historic Fifth
Army offensive in Italy. After helping
to breach the Gustav Line, the S3sth
captured Formia on May Is. The am
phibious trick at Sperlonga followed
then the End and 3rd Battalions tool
Mount Nero. The entire regiment ad
vanced northward to capture Seize anc
later relieved elements of the 3rt
Marine" Division at Corr.
At Lariano, the 33Sth attacked tn,
Velletri- Line, the last de
tense line before Rome, held by tn,
Hermann Goering Division, and afte
three-day offensive by the LIST ane
3rd Battalions, the Nazis withdrew. Thu
Bird Joined another regiment in the S5tl
and advanced into the Alban Hills while
he End moved into Rome.
After the regiment was relieved
north of Rome in June, Colonel Viii
liam H. Mikkelson, West Pointer from
Chicago, Illinois, who had commanded
he 3rd Battalion all the way in its
Rome drive, was made regimental com.
| nander.
After a week, the unit was reorgan-
lied and in mid-September took over
the main effort Of the 85th, which in
turn had been assigned an important
mission in the Fifth Army's leading
| eorps in the Gothic Line operation.