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He went four months without a shower or change of clothes at Anzio, he suffered a shrapnel wound from a mortar shell, almost froze in the Vosges Mountains and saw the ultimate inhumanity of man at Dachau Concentration Camp. These are the varied World War II experiences of Jack Hitesman of South Williamsport.

Hitesman was graduated from Muncy High School in 1938 and after graduation worked first at the Weis Food Market in Muncy and later for Robinson Manufacturing, also in Muncy.

He was drafted and went into the Army in 1943 and did his basic training at Camp Wheeler and following Basic Training was assigned to the 180th Regiment of the 45th Division, which was a division made up of National Guard troops from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado. It was known as the “Thunderbird Division.”

“We sailed for Europe and it took us 28 days, as we zig-zagged to dodge German U-boats,” Hitesman told Webb Weekly. “They landed us at Sicily, where an invasion had just taken place and the fighting was still going on. We fought there and were then landed on the Italian mainland and fought our way up the boot.”

Hitesman and his comrades were then landed at Anzio in February 1944 as part of a plan to get around the Germans and accelerate the drive to liberate Rome. So much for plans.

What followed was what Hitesman described as the “worst four months” he ever spent in his life.

“Some of the bitterest fighting that took place anywhere in World War II took place at Anzio and unfortunately I was in the middle of it,” Hitesman said. “We had a couple of observers from the Russian Army in our area and they told us that it was the worst and bitterest fighting that they had ever seen.”

The Italian Campaign, particularly Anzio, was punctuated with some or the worst, miserable, cold, rainy weather that U.S. infantrymen would see during the war.

“I can’t begin to describe to you how horrible and miserable it was for those four months,” Hitesman said. “We went without a change of clothes, a shower and hot food. Now they complain if they don’t get that stuff after two weeks. It’s funny the Army higher-ups were always telling how important it was for us to change our socks so we wouldn’t get trench foot but they never provided us with any new socks, so we wore the same socks for months at a time and lot of guys did get trench foot and some frostbite.”

During the Anzio battle Hitesman was wounded.

“A mortar shell hit nearby and a piece of shrapnel from it entered my leg,” Hitesman said. “I was knocked to the ground and felt this burning sensation in my leg. There weren’t many medics around so I had to make my way to an aid station and a doctor pulled the piece of shrapnel from my leg and put some sulfa powder into the wound and sent me on my way and I was back in the line again.”

Not long after his wounding he had the experience that would earn him the Bronze Star for gallantry.

“Mussolini had built these very large drainage ditches to drain the swamps in the area near Anzio and they were large enough for the Germans to make into strong, fortified points,” Hitesman said. “Myself and several other guys were taking fire from one of these big ditches and I managed to get up on top of one of them and looked down and saw about 25 German troops cowering there. It was really scary, we were all startled by each other’s presence and for some reason all of them decided to surrender to me and for that I was given a Bronze Star.”

Hitesman’s 45th Division and other Allied units finally broke out of the Anzio area by late May and were on the road to Rome and helped in its liberation.

“I was in Rome doing some rest and recreation about June 7 or 8 when we heard about the Normandy invasion,” Hitesman said. “I remember a lot of guys saying, ‘it’s about time.’ I think too many people think that World War II in Europe only began for Americans when we landed at Normandy and forget all the brave and good guys who fought and fell in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.”

Hitesman and his fellow 45th Division soldiers were then refitted and redeployed to participate in the invasion of southern France on August 15 and landed at Ste. Maxime.

“Our landings were basically unopposed but as we went up the Rhone Valley, heading up to Alssace-Lorraine the resistance became fiercer,” Hitesman said. “This culminated with an intense battle at Epinal on September 24. “Right after that we entered the Vosges Mountains and winter came early that year and it was extremely cold and temperatures would eventually dip to about 20 or 30 below zero. We lost a lot of guys to frostbite because we didn’t have the right winter clothing or boots. We had these shoe-paks that made our feet sweat and of course the sweat would then freeze and we would get the frostbite, somehow I didn’t get frostbite.”

Hitesman and his unit kept fighting near the German frontier for months and finally crossed the Rhine River, near Worms, in March 1945. They worked their way south liberating towns along the way such as Nuremburg.

On April 27 Hitesman saw first hand evidence of the vicious Nazi “Final Solution” when his unit liberated the notorious Dachau Concentration Camp.”

“I don’t want anyone to ever try and tell me that there was no Holocaust,” he said. “I saw evidence of it with my own eyes at Dachau. There were all these piles of dead bodies and all of these starving and emaciated people coming up to us. I wasn’t at the camp very long — maybe about six hours but I saw plenty and I saw things I never want to see again.”

Hitesman participated in the liberation of Munich on April 30 and it was there that he found out that the war was over a few days later.

“I had almost enough points to go home, so I did occupation duty at Munich until about September and then was sent home and mustered out,” HItesman said.

During his service in World War II he earned the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the coveted Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Good Conduct Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

He returned to Muncy and eventually became a loan officer for the Northern Central Bank. His wife died several years ago.

His nephew donated some of his uniforms and assorted paraphernalia from his service time to the Muncy Historical Society where it is now displayed at their museum.

“I think what my war experience taught me was the fragility of life,” Hitesman reflected. “I saw kids who were 18 years old whose lives were just getting started lose their lives. It was a great tragedy to see that. I hope that people realize that the freedom that we all enjoy has been purchased at a high price in blood and the lives of boys who never wanted to die.”

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