Page 27 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021- Online Magazine

arMY
WWii

by German Field Marshall Albert Kesselring. Running Infantry! A
horizontally across Italy, it was the last major line while later,
of defense during the German’s fighting retreat in I began
Northern Italy. visiting and
speaking
Donop said, “We were on the move to the Apennines. with the
Climbing higher into the mountains, we saw frozen German
German soldiers on the side of the trail. Many troops
times, German machine gun fire hit the ground in and found
front of us. You could see the sparks and dirt fly up out that
everywhere. Artillery shells, both ours and theirs, they were
were flying overhead and exploding day and night. a lot like
Trying to dig a fox hole in a crater was like trying to us. They
dig through concrete. had been
drafted
“On two different occasions, German soldiers threw just as we
potato mashers (hand grenades) in my foxhole. were. Many of them did not like Hitler or the war. We
Fortunately, they did not go off. They were made by shared photos of each other’s families.”
Polish prisoners, who often would not put fuses in
them so they wouldn’t explode. I wouldn’t be here to With numerous small towns being liberated and
tell the story if they did.” thousands of German units capitulating, a surrender
was signed at the Royal Palace of Caserta on April
The fighting continued into April 1945 when the 28th. By the end of the war, the 34th had endured the
34th Infantry was part of the final assault (Operation longest combat tour of duty in WWII Europe with
Grapeshot) on the Germans in Northern Italy. They over 500 days. They fought in five campaigns and
finally broke through into the Po Valley on April suffered 16,421 casualties. The unit was awarded 11
14th and began cutting off escape routes into Austria Medals of Honor and 15,000 Purple Hearts.
and Switzerland. As the Germans’ supplies ran out,
their 75th Nolan stayed in Italy as part of the Army of
Army Corps Occupation. They sometimes lived in pup tents and
(Wehrmacht), sometimes in converted buildings – in towns like
consisting of Ivrea, Saluzzo, and Tarvisio. “We got two different
approximately trips to Switzerland where I learned to ski. I made
40,000 men, many trips to Austria where I enjoyed speaking
surrendered German. We finally shipped out of Leghorn in June of
to the 34th 1946. For 20 months, I had been overseas.” Corporal
Infantry Donop was discharged at Fort Sam Houston on July
near Milan. 3, 1946. “Mom and Dad picked me up, and we went
In a twist of home to the ranch.”
irony, Nolan
said, “The A pretty, local girl named Helen Luckenbach (the
34th German town Luckenbach was named after her Uncle
Infantry (part Albert) spotted Nolan through the bank window
of the 75th where she worked and told a girlfriend that she
Army Corps) was “going to marry that tall, handsome cowboy.”
surrendered to Nolan and Helen married on August 22, 1948. In
the 34th U.S. 1953, they opened the Donop Feed Store which was

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