From my Dad's story on how his friend George died near Anzio, Italy…

On March 8th, 1944, we went on a night patrol. Our mission was to seize a large stucco farmhouse about 1/2 mile in front of our lines. We had platoon strength, and we were to take prisoners and booby trap the house and then withdraw.

As we got to within 300 or 400 yards, we were fired upon by rifle and machine gun fire, and shortly after, by artillery fire. Two of the squads had orders to withdraw, but the order never got to us. We were the forward squad and were pinned down. Before we realized what had happened, the enemy moved around behind us. When we ran out of ammunition, most of the squad was either killed or wounded. I received a wound to the forehead from a machine gun blast. My friend, who was 3 or 4 feet away, was hit from the same blast and was killed instantly.

George Ciglarich