1st LT Carl Robert Hood “Bob” was Killed in Action while with the 4th Ranger BN E Co on this day 22 January 1944 in the Anzio Landings.
LT Bob Hood was born in Placentia, CA on 7 September 1922. He was the son of Carl Byrd Hood & Marbye Selena Curtis. The Hoods moved to Chino, CA in 1928. Bob and his 4 siblings grew up and were educated in the Chino schools. Bob graduated from Chino High as an well liked honor student and an outstanding football player. During his Sophomore year Bob and his team won the area Championship in football. He participated in many other school sports. In Bob’s last year of high school he also worked with his dad, Carl as a machinist at M. D. Young Mfg Co. He also joined the National Guard Unit Co F 185th Infantry in Pomona, CA. When WWII broke out he went into training at Camp Obispo and rose to the rank of Sergeant. Just before shipping overseas, Bob was accepted into Officer Candidate School and assigned to the Ordinance branch at Aberdeen Proving Ground where he graduated as a 2nd LT in August of 1942. The ORD was not adventurous enough for Bob, so when he went overseas and was in the replacement system Co A 7th BN he volunteered for Ranger service. He was transferred into the 1st Ranger BN HQ Co on 2 May 1943. When the 4th Rangers were just organizing he was transferred into 4th HQ Co and on 4 June 1943 he became a platoon leader in E Co. During the invasion of Gela, Sicily he was awarded the Silver Star Medal for his bravery despite being wounded.
Bob was promoted to 1st LT on 9 October 1943. He also became the Commanding Officer of 4/E twice, once when Captain Leilyn M Young was out for a month in August and during the Venafro and December operations when LT Orin E Taylor was wounded. Bob participated in the Anzio Landing and he was KIA on the first day of the operation 22 January 1944. It appears he was in the area of a railway bridge crossing when they were engaged in a fight with the enemy and LT Hood was Killed in Action. He was laid to rest in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial. He was survived by his parents and 4 siblings, Mary, Dorothy, Clifford and David Hood. I have corresponded with David’s son Mark Hood. Mark has become very interested in the rest of his uncle’s story and he has joined the official Descendants of WWII Rangers and is sharing all that has been found with his Dad and his father’s living siblings. They are very proud of Bob’s service. They have never forgotten his sacrifice.

LETTER WRITTEN BY LT BOB HOOD ABOUT SICILY

Letter from Bob – Date unknown – Sicilian Campaign

As you know I stopped writing at Algiers on July 1st when we boarded boats for Sicily. Our Company was on a British Commando Raider – a nifty little job with 8 LCA’s aboard. We cruised around the Med. Sea and experienced one air raid from Jerry & saw two of his planes shot down on or about July 9 the sea became very rough and Lt. Hood became very sick. We were to make the Landing at 0345 AM July 10 & at 2:45 I was feeding the fishes. About 1 hr out we from the landing we saw huge fires start from shore. Results from a terrific bombing and ack ack was all over the sky. Search lights were playing around over the sea & we were afraid we had been discovered. One of them hit our boat & it would lite up but they couldn’t see us for the rough weather. There were 4 big search lights on our sector of the beach, which by the way was the center of US Operations & where the hardest fighting and toughest landing any US troop have ever made took place. We boarded our landing craft or LCA at 1:30 & we could hardly see the boat next to us as we were lowered into the water. Up until that time the men were happy & quite a bit of joking & horseplay & taken place, but the minute the order Man Your Boats came over the loud speaker every one was quiet and did a lot of thinking about what was going to happen. We knew we were going to land under fire & we were wondering how close we could get before being discovered by Gerry & Itye & if we would ever get by the beach if it was mined. I became quite seasick while going in as we boarded the LCA 5 miles out. We finally got into formation & started in along with our escort vessels.

At 3:15 we were finally discovered & all hell broke loose. There was a big fort at one end of town & large coastal batteries were there. Along with quite a few pill boxes along the beach. My boat was to land alongside a big pier & along with 10 men I was to go to the end of the pier & remove all resistance & setup some guide lights for other troops coming in. We were sweating out machine guns etc. at the end of the pier.

Up to this time the Capt & I were standing up in our boat watching the fireworks when all of a sudden a Salvo from the fort covered our boat. Shells were landing within 10 ft of our boat and spraying us with water, one went across our bow & from then on we stayed low & watched through the slits of the armored sloted doors. We passed one boat that was sinking, but even though you could hear the men screaming & hollering we couldn’t turn around, because if we did we would have been hit. We finally saw the waves breaking on the beach from about 200 yds out. When all of a sudden our boat stopped & we had hit a sand bar. We had been afraid of this all along. The doors went down and over the front of the boat we went into the water, how deep it was we didn’t know. Iin the boat beside us where the other half of our company was, it was over their heads. I was the 1st one out & I wondered how deep it was & it turned out to be about 3 ft deep. We headed for shore & town as we were landing in a town of about 40,000 pop. The heavy guns were only firing occasionally & the machine guns sputtered every now & then. I finally made out the 1st building my platoon was to take & we head for it. We finally were within two steps of the beach, was it mined or wasn’t it. There were 3 explosions to my right where one of the company’s hit a mine field. The beach was mined , but we had to cross it so we sorta said a prayer & started out. The first 3 or four steps I walked across & then all of a sudden the search lights came on & they were shining on us & we had to make a dash for it mines or no mines, so away we went. It seemed as if we would never get across the beach, but our section wasn’t mined, or so it seemed to us - however the next morning we found out that it was mined but the heavy seas had washed sand around the mines and they wouldn’t work. About 25 yds from the edge of town we went into our street fighting formation to take the first town. As soon as I heard from the sect ldrs. I gave the command to take the house & into the house we went - & there was nothing there.

It was then that we finally realized we were across the beach & safe for a minute & I checked up & we had no one killed. So our first phase was ended, but then we had to take the town. I didn’t have to go on the pier because the “Ityes” had mined it & blew it just as we came in. It was lucky to because we would have been blown up with it if we had went down the pier.

I found the Capt to my right & he passed the order down to move into the town & we were to take the center of town & town square. We moved into town just as dawn started to break at around 4:50. It was still dark & you could see about 25 yds ahead of you. All of a sudden a M.G. let loose & we hit the road and a sect of Rangers opened fire & stopped it. We knew something was up but what we couldn’t tell. We started up the street again & we passed the m.g. & gunner & he wouldn’t fire on us again we could tell. We finally got to the edge of the square and took it. We were fired on two or 3 times with mg but no harm. It was then about 5:30 and you could see quite well. The Colonel came along & myself & my platoon went with him down to the fort where quite a little scrap was going on.

On the way we ran into a hotel in which Germans had a command post & we decided to try & take it. So around the corner I went when they opened up on us. After we fired a few shots back every thing was quiet again & we dashed across the st & tried to breakdown the door. We finally blew the door with two pds of TNT & went in. We came out with about 50 “Itye” prisoners rounded up & started on our way again. By the time we got to the fort everything was quiet again and we ate breakfast & looked around. The “Itye” had stopped fighting in town by that time. It seems as he never did fight to a finish but would surrender. Nothing else much interesting happened on the return & we went back to the square & into a building & all of a sudden the message came that a tank attack was on the way. So we rushed upstairs and into a room which turned out to be the living room of the Mayor of the town & we took up positions by the window. 25 or 30 M IV tanks were supposed to be n the way to town. All of a sudden around the corner came the tanks only it was 1 little “Itye” tank and he didn’t do any harm at all. After a few minutes the tank was “finished”. It was then about 1:00 in the afternoon and nothing much was happening  except an occasional Jerry plane overhead.

I got the Order to report to Hdqtrs of the task force & it was there I learned I was to go on a reconnassance about 5 miles in front of our own lines. 1 officer, 1 peep driver & 1 enlisted man was to go with me. So we got our maps out found the spot we were to go to & made our plans. We were to find out what was out there, the number of men, kind of guns etc for a specific reason – “Military Secret”. We finally got started at 1:30 and we went to our front lines and found the road. We were on a small hill & the road went across a plain of about 2 ½ miles up a little rise & down onto another plane of about 1 ½ miles so we knew we would be under observation all of the way & we didn’t like it a little but away we went. I was in the front with the driver manning the Machine Gun & the other 2 in the rear. We had information that the bridges had been mined so we would have to stop at each bridge & look it over. Anyway down the road we started & at each bridge we came to I got out & looked it over. We felt fairly safe until we got to the rise in the middle of the plain. We finally reached it where we stopped for about 5 minutes & watched through field glasses up ahead where we thought the enemy might be. The road finally ran in between to hills & there were 2 or 3 houses on each side of the road & 3 haystacks on the right side. But no movement could be seen. So we started out again only this time more cautious, because we knew we were being watched by Jerry & there was a house about 1 ½ up the road where it went between the two hills & we finally decided to go to that house. There were 3 bridges between us & the house & every time I got out to inspect the bridge I expected all hell to break loose but still nothing happened & all 4 of us knew there was something up. You could just feel it & although I wasn’t shaking I was plenty worried but so were the other 3. We had just passed the last bridge & were within 400 yds of the house & we saw the trick. Barbed wire entanglements were in a little dip that ran through the valley & we knew it meant enemy positions so there was only 1 thing to do make a dash for the house. We were sure they would fire on us any minute, we weren’t talking at this time but our thoughts were the same. So we drove for the house plenty fast & just as we got to it a head poked out the door. I shot at him with my pistol & jumped out of the car & ran for the door because we had to get in the house. Just as I got to the door a hand grenade dropped from the 2nd story window & I was close enough to it so it could only hit me in the leg & darn it, it hit me in the right leg. I got in the house and started cleaning out the bottom floor. We got about 30 prisoners & then I decided to go to the top floor & I started up the stairway when they through a grenade down the stairs and it went off in my face. Well I couldn’t go upstairs & I couldn’t go outside because at about that time they opened up on us from the houses on the hills with machine guns & the hay stacks turned out to be pill boxes. Well I got an “Itye” & put him in front of me & we started up the stairs again & they threw another grenade & knocked him down so I finally ran up the stairs & threw a concussion grenade in the door & that stopped them for awhile. I still couldn’t get out of the house the windows had iron bars.

I told the driver to turn our car around & they shot him in the head & shot our car. We had to leave in a hurry so I told the other Lt to start crawling down the edge of the road & I ran out the door & I guess Lady Luck was with me because I didn’t get hit. I ran over to the driver, saw I couldn’t help him, grabbed his guns & started crawling for home. They fired at us for about a mile with machine guns & mortars but they didn’t hit us.  We finally got up & started to walk, because I couldn’t run with my leg.We walked the 5 miles in nothing flat though. Then they gave me some morphine & I went to sleep & that was the end of the 1st day. I don’t know if I got a Silver Star or not.

Love Bob

LETTER WRITTEN BY LT BOB HOOD ABOUT HIS TIME IN ITALY BEFORE HIS DEATH

Letter from Bob to Dad – Date and Place Unknown

Dear Dad,

Got your airmail letter of Sept. – almost 3 months later. Sometimes it really takes mail a long time to reach us once in a while. I was in the hospital for a week, just got out- In Sicily I didn’t go, because there weren’t any to many available the first day on the Island. Anyway I had been caught in an artillery barrage & I really (thought) that my time was up. Stayed there all afternoon with Herman’s boys not over 200 yards away. I feel big as a molehill but I guess I wasn’t they didn’t see me I guess. I had 88’s landing within 20 ft of me, one or two a little closer. They blew my helmet about 20 ft but I didn’t go after it. I had to wait about 5 ½ hrs for darkness. The most of the Co had pulled back for the night. It got dark about 5:30 and I had to crawl about 300 yards to get behind a little knoll, I started crawling backwards for about 50 yards & then I got up & crawled on my knees for about 100 ft & I ran into a small Gerry Patrol. I thought they were german’s but I wasn’t sure. I had an M1 rifle & pistol & 5 grenades, & I didn’t know for sure how many of them there were– 5 or 6 I guess. Anyway I hollered out are you American & no one answered, but the wind was blowing hard. I threw a fragmentation grenade & ran like hell for about 100 yards. I could see black objects moving to get around me, so I threw the grenade to keep them down. I threw another grenade & ran over the top of the hill. I(t) was light out & I ran down into some trees. Was going away from our camp into Herman territory all the time, but I didn’t have much choice. I saw someone coming over the hill & they were chasing me so I took out. I threw grenades at them every once in a while & fired up all my amo. When it was gone I took the out of the gun and threw them both away. I had only went about ½ mile farther when I ran into another patrol coming from the other direction. There were about 12 men in it. I was caught in between them so I climbed a tree & hid there for about 1 ½ hrs before I got down & went back to our area. It still wasn’t as bad as in Sicily at Gela when we crawled 1 ½ miles under machine gun fire, there were 4 of us & we captured 30 out of about 200 or 250 of the enemy. That was where I got my Silver Star and Purple Heart. Did I ever tell you about it. If not let me know & I’ll tell you about our landing at Gela.

You said something about starting up a shop after the war in the Northern part of the state. Dad machinery won’t be cheap after the war. Production will be just as great after the war as now. You haven’t seen these countries or you would realize it. Towns are completely ruined. In Berserte at Africa, there is(n’t) a building that hasn’t been hit. Paleermo, Marasalla and Tapania in Sicily are the same. The machinery was all blown up. It’ll take 20 yrs to build Italy up to anything like it was before.

You mentioned some of the farmers wanted you to start at Chino again. Well that might be a good idea. You know everyone there & you wouldn’t have to start over. I will probably have 1500 or 2000 bucks saved by then & we could get started. Then later we could try the north & if it didn’t work out we would always have something to fall back on. Things at home will be al lot different than after the last war. Over here you can see the reasons why, but the people at home don’t realize there is a war going on. You read about it & see it in pictures, but you can’t begin to realize it. Everyone in the States says they are doing their part, by buying war bonds, but all the war bonds in the world can’t make up for just one shot at you.

I think that I am through with the combat. I have bad feet now so I pretty sure that the(y) are gong to reclassify me & in a way I don’t care. Two invasions is enough. I may try to get home if I get reclassified, but don’t expect it.

Well I guess that will be all for now.

Your Son

Bob