Black and white photos below found in a shoebox at the very top of the closet while evacuating for a hurricane after my father had passed away. He was in the 3rd ID in WWII and went to Africa and Europe and landed at Anzio Beach, Italy. There were over 4,000 US casualties in that battle. In Anzio there are 3 museums there, a statue and an American cemetery"
. There are still helmets and guns washing up on the beach.
The military cemetary Anzio Italy
The Anzio Museum
So I decided to retrace these photos and go to Anzio and The Eagles' Nest in Germany!
Atop the Kehlstein Peak in the Bavarian Alps
Anzio today
To get to the Eagle's Nest you have to take a bus up the winding mountain road with no guardrails.
There is an old movie called To Hell and Back starring WWII hero Audi Murphy. He was in the 3rd infantry division with my father who went to the premiere. On his enlistment papers my father put down his occupation as actor although he was not, he worked at the GE plant. But I guess he always wanted to be an actor. He was a firefighter. But when he retired to Myrtle Beach he actually signed with an agent and did some commercials, was in the prison movie Chain Gang, the comedy Chasers, and played the Blacksmith in a PBS mini-series Roanoke!