November 11, 1943: Floyd Lindstrom

foreign [Music] it always feels ironic to tell a story of war that occurred on November 11th because after at least at one point November 11th was thought to be the end of the war to end all wars but of course working back an even more brutal form on November 11 1943 the Allies were fighting a desperate bloody but relatively forgotten campaign in the mountains of Italy it is history that deserves to be remembered Floyd Lindstrom had what might be described as a difficult early life growing up in a home for the poor in Colorado Springs Colorado he never met his father a superintendent at the home described it as a place where children learn to help one another they look out for the other fellow she described Ploy as a good all-around boy who was ready to smile and good looking but it was clear that it was made of stout stuff it was an eagle scout and graduated from high school in 1931. a doctor who was a family friend said of him he was a wonderful boy not a weak Link in his makeup he became a truck driver for a local grocery store driving for 11 years Herbert Summers his employer told a local newspaper that Floyd was absolutely Dependable in his 11 years of driving not a fender of the trucks that he drove was scratched he was engaged to be married but his fiance died suddenly of a heart attack in February 1942 Floyd enlisted in the U.S army on June 22 1942 a day after his 30th birthday his service record shows that his civilian occupation was listed as semi-skilled warehousing store keeping handling loading unloading and related occupations he was sent to Camp Roberts in central California to train built in 1940 Camp Roberts was one of the largest training camps of the second world war trending troops for the Infantry and field artillery a number of recruits from Colorado trained at Camp Roberts in the summer of 1942 including Joe Martinez who would be awarded a medal of honor for leading an assault during the 1943 Battle of ATU and Robert Maxwell who would be a recipient of both the Silver Star and the Medal of Honor for actions in Italy and France it was a time of Heroes Lindstrom was assigned to company h of the second Battalion of the seventh Infantry Regiment part of the U.S third infantry division trained as a machine gunner on the m1919 Browning 30 caliber medium machine gun part of the company weapon section in being assigned to the 7th Infantry Regiment Lindstrom was certain to be thrown into the fight the seventh Infantry Regiment has participated in more campaigns than any other Regiment of the US Army in fact the regimental nickname The Cotton balers references the regiment's participation in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans in the 2010 documentary about the regiment called American courage American Carnage military historian John C McManus describes the third infantry division as the kind of division that got results and so it was the kind of division that generals consistently threw into the most difficult situations and the most intense combat and the most amphibious invasions noting that the third infantry division took the most casualties of any U.S Infantry Division of the second world war he says I would argue that within the third division the seventh Infantry Regiment was often the go-to regiment that always seemed to take the lead that always seemed to get the quote honor of leading the way into the most difficult situations the seventh had been among the lead units in Operation Torch the invasion of French Morocco in November 1942 although Lindstrom did not join the regiment until after the invasion in occupation duties in Morocco the division came under the command of Major General Lucian Truscott who McManus says believe that training needed to be intense the mid did so much marching that it became known as the Truscott trot the training would have been difficult for any Soldier but possibly more so for Lindstrom somewhat older than the average Soldier but mantis explains this was a young man's game if you're over 30 it was tough to keep up especially in the heat in North Africa but trescott's intense training was for a reason the general knew what was coming next for the men of the third infantry division and the seventh Infantry Regiment Truscott was training them for amphibious invasion the first of those would come in July with the Allied invasion of Sicily Lindstrom and the seventh faced intense fighting in the capture of the city of agricento it was in that fighting on July 12th that lindstrom's unit came under Air Attack according to his metal citation his section was traveling by trucks to establish machine gun outposts when the Convoy was attacked by four enemy planes as the column stopped and dispersed Lindstrom noticed that one of the drivers had in the rush failed to set the brake on his truck carrying a heavy machine gun an ammunition the truck started rolling and thenstrom noticed a fellow soldier that had laid down to avoid the air attack in the truck's path and apparently unaware of the danger the citation notes leaving his place of safety and with complete disregard for the plane's strafing and bombing directly overhead private Lindstrom ran to the truck and guided it into a bank not only had he placed himself at risk to save the life of a comrade but in stopping the truck he had prevented it from Rolling off a steep slope saving the equipment in the truck the citation notes enabled the section to successfully complete its mission for his action Lindstrom was awarded the Silver Star United States third highest military decoration for heroism but the seventh would see much more action the Allied invasion of Italy would result in brutal fighting Italy provides exceptional terrain for defense and the Allies face the succession of well-prepared defensive lines in his 1981 book The Italian campaign Robert Wallace writes gun positions and command posts were blasted into Solid Rock of the mountains their approaches guarded by barbed wire booby traps and mines machine gun emplacements cited to provide interlocking fields of fire were shielded on the top and sides by armor plate at night the temperature fell well below freezing rain sleet and fog shrouded the mountains sometimes when the fog momentarily lifted allies and German patrols found themselves within just a few yards of each other and fell into Savage hand-to-hand combat more than once their ammunition gone they threw rocks at each other McManus explains the difficulties faced by the seventh regiment so what is it like for the cotton Baler soldiers it's just a slow incremental slog up the Italian boot that fall of 43. Hilltop to Hilltop Mountain Top to Mountaintop sometimes fighting it out with the axis soldiers in the mountains by hand and with rocks at times if you get wounded it's a very difficult deal because there may or may not be able to get you out of there to get you down off the mountain instead of a single battle the Italian campaign was a difficult slog or advances in battles Blended together in the Public's mind the third division was now operating as part of the Allied Fifth Army under General Mark Clark in early November the Allies were assaulting the Bernard line defended by the German 10th Army the succession of villages was flanked by high mountains teeming with German defensive positions Wallace writes in the west the Bernard line was developed in depth and bulwark by some formidably fortified mountains whose names Montella defensa Monta Camino montelugo montesumurkro would have become Familiar evocators of Anguish to the allies but those mountains protected the minjano Gap the best route to casino and the entrance to the Leary Valley which in turn was the best route for the Allied Advance on Rome while relatively forgotten compared to the January 1944 battle of Monte casino to follow the battle of the mignano Gap was a tale of Woe for the Allied Fifth Army Lieutenant Warren Freeman Atwood of the British Grenadier guards tasked with assaulting Monte Camino described the obstacle the Camino messif is a huge block of mountains standing Guardian at the end of the notorious Leary Valley it is Sinister to behold even on the brightest day but on a dull rainy day when the clouds hit the topmost Peaks it looks like death if death can be thus portrayed the seventh have been sent to take Monte La defensive the so-called left-handed Gate Post of the Camino messif little detail is known about the fight British Army veteran and Military historian Alex brobley wrote in his 1995 book countdown to casino the Battle of mignano Gap the luckless men of the seventh regiment had been unable to find a way up montelia defense his Clips trapped at the bottom they had taken the terrible beating the enemy had spanned out a reference to a German heavy machine gun and mortared them at will the regiment was withdrawn from Monte Le defenso on 10 November it lost two officers an 89 ranks killed or died of wounds 19 officers and 519 ranks wounded with an unrecorded number of officers have been suffering from exposure and trench feet no detailed account of this action exists well we don't know much about lindstrom's experience and the assault that had gone on between November 8th to 10th we have a detailed description of what he did on November 11th Veterans Day men of the 109th Panzer Grenadier regiment attempted a counter-attack to take a position called montelungo they fought a desperate hand-to-hand action against men of the 30th Infantry Regiment they climbed up the Eastern slopes and the company e so hard that it broke rights bubbly the enemy had a clear run to the summit barred by only one man private Floyd Lindstrom and his Browning heavy machine gun PFC Sam Rohan of Youngstown Ohio was part of lindstrom's machine gun team he related the events of that day reported later in the Baltimore Evening Sun they can dress it up with pretty words but just the facts beat for themselves our company tried to take the top of the hill but fell short and came under heavy fire and counter-attack Floyd's machine gun was left alone in the front while our rifle platoons fell back lindstrom's award citation described the odds private first class Lindstrom saw that his small section was alone and outnumbered five to one yet he immediately deployed the few remaining men into position and opened fire with his single gun Rohan said that at first the Germans thought it was a cinch and they called out American soldiers surrender you are surrounded and Floyd Lindstrom the Colorado truck driver gave a rather salty response go to hell Floyd's single 30 caliber machine gun was now defending his company's Retreat and attempting to hold the summit cut off from the rest Rohan explains 40 Germans came after us Floyd to get a clear Field of Fire picked up the gun for between two rocks and carried it Forward about 15 yards to the cover of a narrow ledge we were catching blazes all the time from German artillery mortars machine guns grenades and rifles Floyd had deployed to within just 10 yards of machine guns attacking them Rohan says Floyd dueled for a while with a German machine gun just 10 yards away behind a boulder but apparently Lindstrom couldn't get to the gun crew because of the Boulder and Rohan said the first chance he got he jumped up and charged the Kraut position Lindstrom was now attacking a German machine gun carrying nothing but his Colt 45 pistol I saw their bullets dust the ground by his feet he landed on two Gunners while firing from his hip western style he killed both and carried their gun downhill to Sergeant Nicholas alfier his platoon Commander realizing that as one machine gun was facing two German ones he changed the odds took one of theirs still under intense fire he ran back to the former German position and retrieved two boxes of ammunition Rohan said with two machine guns working on them the other Germans retired for his actions Lindstrom was recommended for the Medal of Honor the American military's highest decoration the award citation reads his spectacular performance completely broke up the German counter-attack private first class Lindstrom demonstrated aggressive spirit and complete fearlessness in the face of almost certain death almost being the operative word despite the enemy centering fire on him with machine gun machine pistols and grenades Floyd Lindstrom the Chico California record noted escaped without a scratch some news reports claim that lindstrom's action allowed the capture of Monte Camino and that might be an overstatement but it was also only a small victory behind the burner line laid the Gustav lined The Fifth Army was exhausted and winter had come to the Italian mountains lindstrom's award was approved on April 20th 1944 and awarded to his mother Anna Lindstrom by Major General Terry Allen commander of the 104th division in Colorado Springs on April 27th his was the 76th Medal of Honor and fourth to a Coloradan awarded during the second World War the Colorado Springs Gazette writes gray-haired dressed in a checkered Print House dress she fussed with the lap of her dress and said nervously Floyd is such a good boy he never drinks or smokes but there was a Paul over the ceremony well he had survived his November 11th actions without a scratch by the time that the award was being presented to his mother Floyd Lindstrom was officially listed as missing in action the Allies had decided to try and flank the German defenses in the third infantry division that participated in yet another amphibious Landing in January at a place called anzio The Landing had gone well but the Germans quickly built a defensive line around the beachhead and once again the men of the seventh Infantry Regiment were caught in the bloody Close Quarters fighting of the Italian campaign but Floyd Lindstrom didn't have to be among them the Baltimore Sun report said he was high on the rotation list in January and could have had the detail of guarding baggage in Naples he's already been recommended for the Medal of Honor and he knew his courage wouldn't be doubted if he stayed behind but he chose not to telling his Commander I'd rather go with my boys on the landing on February 3rd his machine gun was once again defending against another German counter-attack Sergeant alfier told the son he was going between our positions near cisterna February 3rd at about 5 30 PM there was Heavy Artillery action one shell exploited near Floyd while he at first had been officially listed as missing his mother had said during the awards of ceremony I can't hardly stand not knowing what has happened to him he had in fact died in that artillery attack the concussion killed him said Sergeant alfier we felt awfully bad about losing him he had more nerve than any man we knew newspapers initially called Lindstrom a one-man Army a turn that was also used to apply to other Heroes of the second world war and usually applied to people like Lindstrom who had defeated a large enemy Force virtually single-handedly the Army officially changed his status from missing in action to killed in action on June 6th which was coincidentally the date of the D-Day Landings that shifted The public's attention away from these still bloody battles that were being fought in Italy initially his remains were entered there in Italy but in 1948 his remains were returned to the United States and he was buried next to his mother in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs there is a road Lindstrom drive that is named after him in Colorado Springs but even heroes are forgotten quickly a 2011 edition of the Colorado Springs Daily Gazette notes that he died childless and there's no close family nearby to visit his grave Colonel Mark Mame of nearby Fort Carson wandered aloud in a Veterans Day ceremony how many children at an elementary school that is on Lindstrom Drive knew who Floyd Lindstrom was probably not he speculated but in 2014 a Department of Veteran Affairs Clinic in Colorado Springs was named in his honor Keith lemie an army veteran who had spurred the movement to have the center named after him said I'm just so glad that they honored him they pulled his name from the Dustbin I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on the historyguideguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo and if you'd like more episodes of Forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 103,564

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: Tvb81uj6Z3c

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2022