Currently Browsing: This Week in Marne History
February 10-16
Sunday, 10 February 2008
More from This Week in Marne History
Heroism at Anzio by 2LT Kasper
Sixty-four years ago, in February 1944, began what the 3ID’s historian in World War II called “the most crucial month the 3d Infantry Division experienced since it began fighting in World War II.” The reason was the fighting at the Anzio beachhead, where the 3ID had landed the pervious month. On 16 February 1944 the German forces staged a counterattack, which threatened to push the division and the other allied forces back into the sea. At this perilous time 2LT Carl J. Kasper performed actions of such heroism that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
The situation of the 3ID on 16 February was extremely difficult—and the troops knew it. “There was no place to go if the Germans broke through our lines…In front of us was the enemy, behind us the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was a long swim back to Naples.” The beachhead encompassed a little more than 100 square miles, at its greatest extent about ten miles deep and fifteen miles wide with the twin towns of Anzio and Nettuno anchoring the southwest corner. The 3ID had landed south of the latter town. By 31 January reinforcements from seven German divisions had prevented the 3ID from capturing Cisterna di Littoria, an important town straddling Highway 7, the ancient Appian Way south from Rome. The enemy armor continued to build up for the next two weeks and the counterattack began on 16 February.
On that day Second Lieutenant Carl J. Kasper of the 41st FA Battalion was acting as a forward observer with the 30th Infantry, under the greatest artillery concentration that the Anzio beachhead had yet seen. During the morning’s attack Kasper ordered an artillery fire adjustment that would cause the artillery fire to hit his own position. T/5 Jack McDurman, a radioman with him in the house serving as the observation post, reported that someone in fire direction must have pointed out that that was his own position. Kasper’s reply was, “I know—fire on me.” He then set fire to his map and personal papers and told his men to destroy the radio. As soon as the radio was put out of commission, he told them to leave. They did. The last time McDurman saw Lt. Kasper he shooting his pistol out the front door of the house at a group of enemy soldiers who had gotten within fifteen yards of the house. As McDurman reached a ditch about fifty yards behind the house, he turned and saw at least eight artillery shells hit the house directly, so that only one wall was left standing. Kasper himself was listed as “Missing in Action”. Later it was learned that he had been captured by the forces that had overrun his position. As his citation later stated, however, “the massed artillery fire, adjusted by Lieutenant Kasper, caused the enemy thrust to lose its momentum, preventing a breakthrough.”
The 3ID would suffer through 67 days of continuous front-line action before being relieved on 28 March, but the actions of courageous men like 2LT Kasper ensured that the final result of the Anzio campaign would be victory for the Allied forces.
