From: SGM PANTANO (TRUKS1@msn.com)
Date: Mon Jan 16 2006 - 18:05:25 PST
WILLE DUCHOU..Senior Master Sergeant- Luft Falshirmjaeger..was at the Abbey
as it was being bombed.. He said he was there with several other
Falshirjaeger and a couple of Infantry guys.. They got drunk in the lower
levels with the Monks.. Later - when the British came up --WILLE was hit in
the face with shrapnel from a British grenade.. WILLE lived here in
Colorado.. His son Roy lives here. I am good friends with Roy..Knew WILLE
well..have a great picture of him in uniform.. He passed --was losing his
sight near the end --from the British shrapnel still in his head... He told
me there was no Unit there in the Abbey -- just a few guys sort of lost...
WILLE was with the BLUE COMET Division..
Gene
> 1944 Allies make their move on Cassino, Italy
>
>
> On this day, Operation Panther, the Allied invasion of Cassino, in central
> Italy, is launched. The ancient town of Cassino, near the Rapido River,
> was
> a strategic point in the German Gustav Line, a defensive front across
> central Italy and based at the Rapido, Garigliano, and Sangro rivers.
> Taking
> Cassino would mean a breach in the German line and their inevitable
> retreat
> farther north. Although the campaign to take Cassino commenced in
> January,
> the town was not safely in Allied hands until May. The campaign caused
> considerable destruction, including the bombing of the ancient Benedictine
> abbey Monte Cassino, which took the lives of a bishop and several monks.
>
> Everette
>
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