This Week in Guard History

May 22, 1944: Anzio, Italy - Allied forces, including elements of the National Guard's 34th, 36th and 45th divisions, begin their final push to break out after the Nazis h[e]ld them just south of Rome for four months.

The original intent was to land behind the German Gustav Line, which ran across Italy about 100 miles south of Rome, and capture Rome before the Nazis could react.

But poor leadership slowed the Allied advance allowing the enemy to seal them at the Anzio beachhead with constant shelling and aerial bombardment. After four months and thousands of casualties, the Allies made some headway by May 25, and they completed the breakout May 31. On June 5, the Allies enter a liberated Rome.

Japan war leaders turned spies

This is a very difficult article for me to write. I was not alive, I do not know that much about it; but that is not what makes it difficult. I have avoided history most of life because I could not bear the pain, the suffering, the hatred, the loss, to achieve a victory that was never promised.

I am referring to the Bataan Death March, for one. This is one of the items discovered since the CIA has disclosed that the Japanese have been spying on everyone during the war. I would be surprised if they had not! I just hope they were a lot better at it than they are nowadays.

CNN has written an article titled, "CIA files: Japanese war leaders spied in Cold War." Here is a sample:

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March.

And then he became a U.S. spy.

Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War.

If that link is no longer available, try this one.

Sources: CNN, Baldie: Maj. Richard M. Gordon (USA Ret.)