What it meant to be Italian Waffen Grenadier Soldiers of the SS who fought in Monte Cassino Italy

It is said the U.S. military had a difficult time fighting the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division in Italy because of the mountain warfare and woodland warfare in the Forrest of Monte Cassino region of Italy.

To all readers this post is for those who know there military history of the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
Please share you're thoughts on what being a soldier to the Waffen SS meant to ones personal acheivment. I find my self obsessed with the 29th Waffen division due to the reason that my grandpapa served in that division.

 

Wiki says they were at Anzio not Cassino.

 

No Waffen SS saw action at Monte Cassino.

 

According to Lamb War in Italy, the SS recruited men from the Italian army in italy and from the 600,000 in labour camps in Germany. Italian PW faced with the choice of how they would serve the Germans. With weapons as SS soldiers or police or as part of the Nazi industrial labour force. The Germans recruited around 13,000 SS men from labour camps of which around half deserted when they reached italy. The men from Bolzano were offered the choice of serving in the Germany Army or SS Police. Many of the men ambushed at the Via Rasella in Rome were from that region. SS men were supposed to be ex facists. They served under German officers. Wore Italian uniforms with German shoulder straps. Pay and rations were better in the SS than the other options.

Mussolini's RSI also recruited soldiers for its army. Lamb claims that unemployment and access to rations were the main motivations for recruitment. At the armistice in September 1943 some Italian army units chose to fight alongside the Germans against the allies. These included the Folgore and MAS marines, which also fought at Anzio. SS Italia went into the line on 17th March after the German offensives ended, but fought well against the allied breakout from Anzio and in the withdrawal north of Rome. In the summer of 1944 they were deployed in Lombardy and probably took part in anti-partisan operations. This was a dirty war and the Italian SS were heavily implicated in atrocities including rape, collective punishment executions.

The wikipedia entry on anti partisan operations in Italy says

So what being a soldier to the Waffen SS meant to ones personal achievement is.......... probably implicated in war crimes. According to Lamb, there were around 100,000 members of the Italian SS. Do you know where your grandfather served. Did he serve at Anzio?

Unless you want people to draw conclusions about your own politics, I'd advise caution about voicing enthusiasm for the Italia SS, even if your Opa war Sturmführer bei der SS 卐 Landser - Opa war Sturmführer bei der SS 卐

 

Once again, two sides to every story, and the whole picture is blurry.

 

ithi

I was born in Saint Santinos Medical hospital in Monte Cassino so I always assumed my grandpa had fought in Monte Cassino because that's where the Division once had ceremonial SS rituals in the Testaraza Air Hanger.

 

The Division? No, not the division, that was not formed until February, 1945.

Posiibly one of the earlier iterations;
SS-Ausbildungsstab Italien
Or
Italienische SS-Freiwilligen-Legion

 

Thanks for the Intel.
Do you know if there were any Italian penal battalions in German Military or Italian military.