Forums

Hi Everyone,

The attached picture shows a memento that was among my father's WWII things. It says Anzio and 1040 within a horseshoe. As you can see, its almost the size of his Seahorse patch. Would anybody out there know what this object symbolizes? I can only guess that it might have something to do with a horse race or horseshoe throwing contest on the Anzio beachhead.

Thanks,

Peanuts

Hmmm, that's the first time I've seen anything like that. Let's ask our 36th vet friends!

I sent this post to everyone on our 36th Email List. Now we await a response.

Sorry, have never heard about that one. Maybe John Fallon will come up with an answer for he,r as he and you Marion are the historians of the 36th. Carl

Thanks Carl. This looks to be a unique item. Maybe something struck by a member of the unit? Let's see where this goes.

Answers from some on our list....

Although I do collect souvenirs from the Italian campaign, I have never seen this one.

Is it heavy ? From the picture it looks like a paperwight. Could it be made out of schrapnel ?

 

Otherwise that wheel with wings could be a european symbol for army drivers or army railroad.

 

Im, wondering if it may be something commemorative which could have been bought in Anzio after the war.

 

As for the horseshoe, there was some rodeo going on at Anzio, there are even some pictures. Im pretty sure

the horseshoe games also took place.

 

However, this item does not really looks like it is linked to the US Army in Italy.

 

I tried googling anzio 1040 with several different combinations and didnt find anything interesting.

 

Gilles

I know they didn't have a race track at Anzio and the object certainly could not have been made there. I am going to check out some things. But who is peanuts? Should he/she be on our mailing list?

I wrote back to John and said, this is Sandy Lapp and she is on our mailing list. I should have stated that in the first place.

Interesting feedback from Gilles. I've only seen this memento in the photo, which my sister sent. Next phone call, I will ask her what kind of material it's made of. There are tales of GIs staging races with horses from nearby farms. "The Great Stake Race at Anzio Downs" by David Wagner, 39th Combat Engineer, is here: http://www.6thcorpsc...DavidWagner.htm. And the attached photo is from a rodeo on the beachhead.

Sandy: I was just going to list the story b David, and you had already done so. GREAT! It's one of my very favorite tales of humor from the war.

Speaking of horses and tales, here's a tall Seahorse tale called the "Legend of the Bit & Reins."

Legend of the Bit & Reins.pdf

Wow, can't believe I had never read that one before. The title however, did sound familiar. I wonder if I had filed that away with the many docs I have and forgot to read it. What a hoot!