re: #255 BeenHereAwhile

My father who served on T-AP-183, Henry Gibbins, (army troop ship) at Oran, North Africa, Mediterranean, & Pacific theatre, said the Anzio campaign was the worst he had ever seen during the war.

It was during the Italian campaign, after disembarking US soldiers, the ship was tasked with bringing German & Italian POWs back to the US.

As he told it, the Germans were disinclined to follow ship rules and regulations for POWs, so the ship’s command placed the Italian POWs in charge of the German POWs.

Subsequently things kinda worked themselves out among the POWs on board.

FIL took armor (M3) ashore at Oran, then Sicily, then Anzio. He had that kind of luck. He had no trouble visiting us in Seoul though he was in the first tank unit to break out of Pusan. (There’s that luck again.) He refused to come stay with us in Italy.