Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
9:43 | The leaders picked the spot and the soldiers paid the price. Jack Simpson recalls the withering fire for weeks on end at Anzio, where poking your head up from your foxhole meant that the target was now you.
Keywords : Jack Simpson Oran Africa Naples Italy Anzio Churchill Gustav Line rope ladder foxhole German field glasses plane strafe bomb flare tracer bullet shrapnel 105mm howitzer tank gunner cannon 50 cal machine gun shell FO forward observer target phosphorus mortar Anzio Annie
Jack Simpson went from high school to the FBI, but his 1A draft classification was holding back his career. He decided to just get it over with and enlist. He soon found himself hurried up and waiting in North Africa as troops massed for the invasion of Axis-held Italy.
Jack Simpson paints the scene as he experienced it at Anzio, hunkered down and looking up at the Alban Hills. When the Allies prevailed and pushed into Rome, the residents were ecstatic and generous.
After Anzio and Rome, Jack Simpson entered Southern France and, at that point, it became a chase. The Nazis were in full retreat and the 45th was right behind them. There was delight on the faces of the French as they showered the Americans with gifts and hospitality, and there was puzzlement on the faces of the Americans when they saw an incredibly fast German plane with no propeller.
Apparently, they were short of Lieutenants one day so they made Pfc Jack Simpson a Forward Observer. He slipped into a village behind enemy lines and called in the targets for the gunners. It was the scariest thing he ever did.
Two strong memories are recalled by Jack Simpson, coming face to face with General George S. Patton while he reviewed the troops after the war, and coming face to face with brutality and horror as he entered the Dachau concentration camp.
Rotation home after the war was based on points and Jack Simpson had them, having seen a lot of action starting with Anzio. He became a Special Agent with the FBI and then achieved a singular status as a Peace Officer in Georgia.
Jack Simpson reads a passage from his book, "Hay...But Not In The Barn," based on his experiences as a howitzer gunner at the Battle of Anzio.
