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143rd Infantry Regiment, US Army
15th Aug 1944 Assault Launched
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Want to know more about 143rd Infantry Regiment, US Army? There are:0 items tagged 143rd Infantry Regiment, US Army available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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CPl. Charles William Dreier 143rd Infantry Regt. Charles William Breier was my father. He served with the US forces 143rd Infantry and was a POW in several stalags, ending up in 3b. He knew Angelo Spinelli, a US forces photographer and my mother and I spoke to Angelo several times. In fact, in one of Angelo's publications after the war, my mother saw my father in one of his pictures. This picture confirmed my father was a POW. During the war he was classified, Missing in action presumed dead. So, mom had a difficult time getting some of his benefits. This picture and several others were undeniable. If you have Angelo's book, my dad is the piano player.
My dad was obviously a brave man. But he was also a humble, modest man. So, he never told me much, but we think he was recruited to be a ranger. He was in some of the most bloody battles in Northern Africa, and southern Italy. He was captured outside of Rome, after the battle of Anzio, which was one of the bloodiest battles. Luckily he somehow survived, and I do remember him telling me, there was hardly anyone left, the beach was a pool of corpses and blood. He spearheaded his boat and the landing, telling everyone to take off their heavy arms and backpacks. The water was dangerously rough and deep. He saw they would be unable to make it ashore if they kept their gear on them.
After Anzio, he was captured outside of Rome. Thereafter little is known, and he was marched to stalag4 so before stalag 3b, which he was freed from. However, he did not sit still. He escaped three times, recaptured and returned to solitary and god knows what else. One escape was aided by the. French resistance but again he was again captured. I think all these escapes happened before 3b. From what I can see, he was 97 lbs when he came home, so he was pretty emaciated and suffering from jaundice.
I wish he was here so I could ask him many questions. He came home and immediately went to work, with no support from our government. I was born in 1947' so I was the love child. I have a silver box where he carved all the stalags he was in. I am thinking about donating it to the pow museum in Andersonville, when I finally get there.
I try to visit him once a year, but the cemetery is very far from where I live. That makes me sad, because it's less often as I get older and have my own issues. I still miss him, he was taken. Far to early for me. But I know he is playing his piano in heaven.
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John Henry Felosi 36th Div. 143rd Infantry My grandfather was held at Stalag 344 (8b) in 1944/45. Below is some information on him. I am looking for help in gathering information and if anyone might have known him.
John Henery Felosi
US Army Private
143rd Infantry, 36 Division
#16415159
Gefangenennummer 36248
Gepruft
Kriegsgefangenenpast
Lager-Bezeichnung
M-Stammlager 344
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Sgt. James Delameter Bates 143rd Infantry Regiment  Sgt James Bates left North Africa in early September 1943 and landed on the beaches at Salerno, Italy on the morning of 9th September. Over the next few days they fought their way inland. On 11th September the 143rd was ordered to an area between the Sele and Calore Rivers and encountered heavy resistance. On the night of the 12th German tanks surrounded the area and on the morning of the 13th began pounding the 143rd.
Dad's company was pinned down in a trench. The machine gunners on the German tanks shot into the dirt piled in front of the trench, knocking the dirt in on them and slowly burying them alive. There was nothing they could do but surrender. Dad removed the bolt from his machine gun and threw it away so the Germans could not use it, and as the Germans rounded up the prisoners, dad slipped into the communications tent and disabled the decoder.
After several days travel, Dad arrived at Stalag IIIB in Furstenberg, Germany where he spent the remainder of the war. His recollection of his time there was limited, but he remembered always being hungry and miserably cold in the winter.
The usual meal was a small piece of bread and rutabaga soup, which consisted of mostly water with a few rutabagas thrown in for flavor. Dad recalled one on the men receiving a package from home which contained a set of sheets. The men boiled the sheets and drank the water off them for the starch. In one letter to my mother he says that they had an unusually good soup on Sunday with some meat in it because one of the horses had died.
Cigarettes were a big commodity and could be used to bribe guards for various items. Dad once told me that he bribed a guard to let him out to go to a nearby town. Once there, he bought a full suit of clothes from a tailor for a few cigarettes. He didn't try to escape because he was so far inside Germany he didn't believe he would make it out.
Sgt. James Bates survived the POW camp and came home. He passed away at age 76 in 1987.
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Pte. Joseph N. Bocchino 1st Btn. Coy A. 143rd Infantry Regiment My father, Joseph Bocchino, was captured in Italy in January 1944 at the Rapido river crossing. He was transferred to Stalag 2B shortly thereafter. He spent 13 months there working on commando Stolp in the fields. In February 1945 they were removed from Stalag 2B and marched to Munich where they were liberated in April 1945.
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Pvt. Jimmie S. Hill Coy L. 142nd Infantry Regiment  Private Jimmie S. Hill, Jr was my uncle. He served in the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Texas Infantry Division, 5th US Army. He was in the 3rd Platoon of Company L. He landed on Salerno beach on September 9, 1943. He landed in the first wave on Red Beach on the extreme left of assault.
After securing their landing site, his platoon was directed to proceed to the Sele River to secure the bridge. The squad proceeded towards the bridge. Since they were lightly armed, they had to take cover as German tanks drove down the road. When they were within 200 yards of the bridge, their group held up. PFC Orby Ledbetter and one other soldier was sent to scout out the bridge. The Germans had machine guns around the bridge. Further up the road was a tank battalion hidden under a group of 40-foot high trees. Beyond the Sele River was another battalion of tank and half-tracks. Before they could report back to their lieutenant, a column of 17 tanks and 32 half-tracks over-ran them and their company. They were taken captive about 7:00pm.
After spending the night in the area, they were trucked to Naples and put on a train. They were carried to Northern Italy without any stops or any food. Once they stopped, the Germans gave them some food and Pvt Jimmie Hill ate some apples that made him sick. Upon arrival at Stalag IIB, Pvt. Hill was placed in the infirmary. When he recovered, he discovered that the rest of his platoon was moved to another POW Camp but Pvt. Hill remained at Stalag IIb.
In 1945, when the Germans moved them on the Death March, Pvt. Hill managed to jump off the trail and hide in the shadows. He was rescued by some local Poles. He survived the war and returned home. He eventually married and had 7 children.
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