The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1945-05-24
Sd((o in War
80 Months

Last Friday Pfc. Sill Sacco paid
the Western News office a very
pleasant call. Mr.. Sacco is a form
er printer with The News, and
while very modest in relating his
war experiences, was prevailed up
on to give the following informa-
ton.
During his 80 months of overseas
service Sill served with the 3rd In
fantry Division, AID (RainboW) In
fantry Division and the antiair-
craft artillery. Back in the United
States, with his wife and heir 20
months old son, David, the family
is visiting Mrs Sacco's parents, Mr..
and Mrs. Leonard Olson, and other
Libby relatives and friends. The
soldier remarked:
I'm the infantry we learn to re-
spect each other. The officers re-
spect the men, and the men have
confidence and resnect in their
leaders. When we live together,
fight together and die together, we
make real team, one that can't be
beaten"
Sacco is a veteran Of the Moroc-
can, Tunisian, Sicilian, Italian,
Southern France and German cam
paigns. He saw his first action as a
member Of the Sd Infantry Divi-
sion, which set high record for
combat performance at Anzio and
elsewhere on the Mediterranean
front. He was a rifleman in the
line in the 3rd Division, and after
transfer to the Rainbow, became a
Browning automatic rifleman Pre-
viously he had service in the anti
aircraft artillery. He wears the
combat Infantryman Badge award
ed him for exemplary conduct in
action.
'The toughest fighting, so far as
l am concerned" he said, was last
winter in Alsace. The weather was
horribly cold, snowy and wet, and
the enemy was plenty sharp.
II was just lucky, but sometimes
/ felt my luck was being stretched.
The closest / ever came to becom-
ing casualty was shortly before
the Seventh Army cracked the Ger
man line. Two platoons of us were
riding into a German-held town on
the backs Of tanks Suddenly the
Krauts started firing at us with
machine guns from high ground
near the town.
Those bullets were SO close |
could feel them. I think the Krauts
were nervous because they never
got the range quite right--always
just few inches over our heads /
laid my BAR across the turret of the
tank / was riding, and blazed away.
The enemy stopped firing and we
went on. I en- feel those hot slugs
flying over my head yeti"
Speaking of the Casino campaign
Private Sacco remarked.
THE city of Casino was reduced
to pile of rubbish, and the famous
old abbey which gained so much
notoriety when the Americans
shelled the Krauts from it, was en-
tirely wrecked-but it had to be;
American lives are more precious
than sentiment Rome was the
most interesting city / saw in Eu-
rope and it suffered the least de-
struction of any large foreign city
visited in the war section.
"Of all the interesting places in
Rome, st. Peters Cathedral with
its marvellous paintings, its statuary
and magnificent architecture was
the high spot to me. Reports of the
starving condition Of the Italian
populace were not exaggerated. 1t
was not at all unusual to see starv-
ing children lying along the streets
begging; and they would fight each
other for possession of the garbage
from our camps. In France, on the
contrary, everybody seemed sleek
and well fed"
Sacco was one of two from his
company to be awarded an Ameri-
can furlough on account of their
service record His last two weeks
with the Rainbow" Division were
spent in Germany across the Rhine,