WW1 US Soldiers in Italy

[NavyFCO]

All:

I have recently started collecting WW1 US Army militaria after 20 years of collecting WW2.

Part of what really fascinated me about this time period was my lack of knowledge about the War. This became particularly evident when I was walking through Trieste, Italy one night and saw several memorials to WW1 US Army troops! I never knew that WW1 US troops had been in Italy!

I have since become interested in the 332nd Infantry Regiment, which spent it's war in Italy and across the Adriatic in what is now Croatia and the surrouding areas.

However, in my research thus far, I have yet to find what unit was actually in Trieste. No histories of the 332nd mention them being in Trieste.

Does anyone know if the 332nd ended up in Trieste (or at least passed through)? If not, does anyone know who might have been there to garner the memorials that are still there?

Thanks!

Dave

[Andwwils]

Trieste would have been an ideal location for the base hospital (which would have been a center of operations for the vast number of US ambulance sections attached to the 332nd) that was maintained by the US during the Italian Campaign. There is (or was) a railway line through Trieste to the Adriatic back during the war, so the 332nd *may* have arrived in Italy there in July of 1918, but I can't be sure. A special (and quite rare) campaign clasp for the WWI Victory Medal was issued for members of the 332nd, the "Vittorio-Veneto" clasp. Hope this helps a little.

All:

I have recently started collecting WW1 US Army militaria after 20 years of collecting WW2.

Part of what really fascinated me about this time period was my lack of knowledge about the War. This became particularly evident when I was walking through Trieste, Italy one night and saw several memorials to WW1 US Army troops! I never knew that WW1 US troops had been in Italy!

I have since become interested in the 332nd Infantry Regiment, which spent it's war in Italy and across the Adriatic in what is now Croatia and the surrouding areas.

However, in my research thus far, I have yet to find what unit was actually in Trieste. No histories of the 332nd mention them being in Trieste.

Does anyone know if the 332nd ended up in Trieste (or at least passed through)? If not, does anyone know who might have been there to garner the memorials that are still there?

Thanks!

Dave

[Dave Danner]

Trieste would have been an ideal location for the base hospital (which would have been a center of operations for the vast number of US ambulance sections attached to the 332nd) that was maintained by the US during the Italian Campaign. There is (or was) a railway line through Trieste to the Adriatic back during the war, so the 332nd *may* have arrived in Italy there in July of 1918, but I can't be sure. A special (and quite rare) campaign clasp for the WWI Victory Medal was issued for members of the 332nd, the "Vittorio-Veneto" clasp. Hope this helps a little.

Trieste was in Austria-Hungary. It was not occupied by Allied forces until after the Armistice, and then became part of Italy's World War I spoils.

After the Armistice, the 1st and 3rd Battalions, 332nd Infantry were stationed in Gorizia, the province immediately to the northwest of Trieste. In late November, the 1st Battalion returned to Treviso, north of Venice. The 3rd Battalion went to Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) on the other side of the Istrian peninsula from Trieste.

The 2nd Battalion was sent much further south, to what is now Montenegro, in the region around Kotor Bay and in the then-Montenegrin capital Cetinje. Kotor Bay was the site of an Austro-Hungarian naval base and a scene of fighting between the Montenegrins (on the Allied side) and the Austro-Hungarians. It became part of the spoils of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

U.S. forces were withdrawn in early 1919, returning via Genoa and Marseilles to the U.S.

There is some discussion of the 332nd in Italy here, from which I got the deployments above and to which I've added some context. The article doesn't mention it, but given the deployments to the north, east and far southeast of Trieste, the city might have served as an administrative center for the regiment and supporting U.S. forces from November 1918 to March 1919.