Corporal Stanley K. Knutson

Knutson spent his basic at Fort Snelling in Minnesota before getting assigned as a 57mm Anti-Tank gun crewman in the Anti-Tank Company of the 363rd Infantry Regiment being raised from the 91st Infantry Division, a west coast National Guard outfit. The division left for the European Theater in the spring of 1944 and spent some time training in Africa before the regiments were split up for individual combat training under divisions already in Italy. For Knutson and the 363rd, this was the 34th ID in July where they first fought German forces near Riparabella and Mount Vaso. The going was rough and the terrain was worse, foreshadowing the coming struggles of the mountain campaigns they would fight as a united division.

Only July 12th, 1944 the division entered combat for the first time as a complete unit in the fight for the Arno River. Supporting the 34th Division, Knutson and the 91st got a good taste of combat amongst the rocky mountain terrain lining the river. The Anti-Tank company of the 363rd especially earned its stripes while repelling 12 enemy tanks near Chianni which sought to push back the regiment on its very first day. The fight continued on for several more days as the men truly learned the meaning of the word “slogged” in the slow but sure advance to the objective. Finally, after 7 days, the river was captured and the high ground was under US control.

​

The 91st was successful throughout its first month in combat and spent the early fall training and reequipping for the mountain combat they would soon face on their own with the withdrawal of the 3rd, 36th, and 45th Divisions to Southern France. Crushing the Gothic Line, conquering the fortifications of Monticelli, and countless other unnamed hills, the “Powder River” division pushed onward. A particularly interesting anecdote about the AT Company comes about the period after the capture of the Futa Pass in early October. According to the 363rd unit history, the antitank company arguably had it worst when it came to mobilization and movement. Unlike other companies of the regiment who could suffer through heavy knapsacks, the antitank crews had to lug their weapons with them through the pouring rain and up the rocky slopes. As such, the company often received help from the other infantry units as German armor was still a serious threat and encountered often enough to warrant the protection. The passage describes how engineers began a climb by blasting and shoveling roads to get the weapons up a hill. Knutson and his fellow crewmen then had to tie the guns to whatever was available be it mules, oxen, bulldozers, jeeps trucks, or hand-drawn winches. In the horrendous terrain of northern Italy, the most effective and reliable transport tended to be the pack animals found amongst the Italian countryside. The history recalls bulldozers, trucks, and all other sorts of vehicles being abandoned in the roadside mud in favor of these old-fashioned beasts of burden.