100th Infantry Battalion (United States) - Anzio, Rome, and The 442

Anzio, Rome, and The 442

Following Monte Cassino, the 100th received rest from its efforts in battle in would receive two waves of reinforcements from the 442nd but the rest soon ended as they were deployed at the Anzio beachhead on 26 March 1944. The allies held a beachhead that spanned 15 miles (24 km) inland going a few miles inland and was held strong for it was a stalemate between the Germans and the Allies. The battlefield at Anzio was very similar to battlefields in World War I as there was a large stretch of land between both opposing forces declared as "No Man's Land" and both sides didn't go on a large-scale offensive. It was a stalemate between the two as both sides only did battle at night. During the day, soldiers slept. It would take the fall of Monte Cassino to finally end the stalemate that lasted until 17 May 1944. It was decided that 23 May would be the "breakout day" for the allies as they would take to the offensive and drive the Germans north but there was a problem; there was no idea of kind of opposition they would face. During the stalemate at Anzio, not a single prisoner was taken, that is until the 100th was ordered to do so. Lieutenant Young-Oak Kim, a Korean American born in Los Angeles, California, and Nisei PFC Irving Akahoshi from the 100th volunteered to get the job done. After a two-hour and quarter of a mile crawl, two German soldiers awoke to the taste of metal in their mouths from the barrel of a gun and eventually made the crawl back to the Allied lines. After gaining the information they needed, it was time to push forward to Rome. Stronghold after stronghold fell to the Allies and it was Lanuvio, the final German stronghold, that fell to the 100th Infantry Battalion.

"We had been sitting and living in foxholes at Anzio some 63 days. Then the big push out and the capture of Rome. They (100th Battalion) wiped out the last heavy German resistance we met some 12 miles south of Rome and then it was practically a walk into the city."

Rome was in the grasp of the 100th but instead of walking into Rome as heroes, they were ordered to stay at the roadside on 4, 10 June kilometers from Rome and watched other troops march on by. They never saw Rome. Instead, the 100th was taken 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Rome to Civitavecchia and met up with the battle-eager 442nd Regimental Combat Team. On 11 June 1944, the 100th was attached to the newly arrived 442nd but because of their exemplary efforts during the war and the long and hard-fought battles they were a part of, they were allowed to keep their original designation, giving the newly formed all-Nisei fighting unit the name 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team under the 34th Division. The 100th's story as a single unit may have ended but the 100th's story still continued through the journey of the 442nd and the battles they would end up fighting.