The Rome-Arno Campaign is the name
assigned to the Allied fighting in Italy from January through August 1944.
The photograph above is from the United States Government Printing Office
publication (CMH Pub 72-20), John K. Ruppert arrived in Casablanca, Morocco in early March of 1944. From there, troops were transported by boxcar to Oran, Algeria. From Algeria, another ship carried the American soldiers to Naples, Italy where John was assigned to Company C, 168th Infantry Regiment of the 34th Infantry Division. Once in Italy, John's regimen headed
to Anzio beachhead on flat bottom infantry boats by night. Much of the worst
of the fighting prior to this time had been at Cassino, a mountain-top abbey
where the Germans were thought to be dug in. The battles for Monte Cassino
were fierce. Allied Forces (American, British and Australian) sustained many
casualties. The 168th infantry is mentioned as one of the regiments making
up the 34th division of the Fifth Army which attacked Monte Cassino in February
1944. In exactly which areas and which conflicts John K. Ruppert participated are not known. He did see battle however before the Allied Forces liberated many mountainside villages and headed toward Rome in May. Fortunately, he was not wounded, however as the Rome-Arno Campaign booklet describes ...
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