by Duke Doering
On June 5, 1944 American and allied Soldiers, many from the South Dakota National Guard, liberated Rome, which had been under German control. This was one of the most important victories for the Allies since the United States entered World War II in 1941, and the South Dakota National Guard units were part of the victory.
However, the recognition and press clippings only lasted one day, as the next day was June 6, 1944 and the D-Day Invasion in France. The world press moved from Rome to the D-Day Invasion in France and immediately it was the major media highlight of World War II, and remains that way to this day.
The American troops moved into Rome the day before D-Day after removing the German Army and regained the capitol. The 109th Engineer Battalion, 34th Signal Company and 34th Quartermaster Company, all South Dakota National Guard units were a part of the liberation celebration. These units had landed on the Italian shore just South of Salerno on September 21, 1943.
In a broadcast to the nation, on June 5, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt told Americans that, with the fall of Rome, the first of the Axis capitals “is now in our hands, one up, two to go.”
Italy had been one of the Axis countries but since the Italian capitulation in September of 1943, it had been occupied by the Germans who experienced their share of wars brutality. The scenes in Rome on June 5, 1944 were that of a liberated nation. The people of Rome filled the streets to welcome the Americans. A city-wide celebration began. Shops were closed and crowds took to the streets, cheering, waving, tossing flowers, climbing on American vehicles and celebrating.
Pope Pius appeared on the balcony of Saint Peter’s and spoke to the thousands of Italians who had gathered in St. Peter’s Square. He said: “In recent days, we trembled for the fate of the city. Today we rejoiced because, thanks to the joint goodwill of both sides, Rome has been saved from the horrors of war.”
On the day Rome fell, that great American Army numbered eight million soldiers, a fivefold increase from the day the United States declared war, December 8, 1941. This 1944 Army included 1,200 generals, and nearly 500,000 lieutenants. Half of the United States Army had not yet deployed overseas, as the entire South Dakota National Guard had years earlier. Eric Larrabee wrote in his book, COMMANDER IN CHIEF, “The U.S. military already had demonstrated that it could wage global war in several far flung theaters simultaneously, a thought that had seemed outlandish in 1942”.
The fall of Rome did not end the war for the South Dakota National Guard units. The 34th Infantry Division, which included the South Dakota National Guard units, still had nearly a year of fighting left as they travelled up the boot of Italy. They had nearly reached the border of France when the war ended. By April 25, 1945 the Italian Partisans’ Committee of Liberation declared a general uprising. As April came to an end, Army Group C, of the German forces in Italy, retreating on all fronts and having lost most of its fighting strength, was left with little option but surrender. General von Vietinghoff signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the German armies in Italy on April 29th, formally bringing hostilities to an end on May 2, 1945.
