Veterans column: Pfc. Jackson gets to work in Italy with "American Lions"

Once the parades were over in Italy for Pfc. George Jackson and the rest of the 332nd Infantry Regiment, it was time to get to work.

The Italians referred to the regiment as the ‘American Lions’ because the men’s shoulder sleeve insignia featured the winged lion of St. Mark with one paw resting on an open Bible. However, General Pershing had another name for them, the ‘Propaganda Regiment.’ Pershing wanted the armies of Austria-Hungary to believe that more than one regiment of U.S. troops had come to help the Italians.

In October 1918, the 332nd moved to Treviso, behind the Piave River. Immediately marches began each morning in order to deceive the enemy. Colonel Wallace, who commanded the 332nd is quoted in the book, American Lions by Robert and Rebecca Dalessandro, “To give our training a final touch, and as we learned later, to deceive the Austrian Intelligence, every day for the last 10 days, each company would start out from Treviso for a hike of 10 to 15 Kms (6-9 miles) and back by a different road. Each day we would change our uniform slightly, one-day campaign hats, another helmets, another overseas caps etc. For ten days the roads of this part of northern Italy were covered by marching Americans and Austrian Air Intelligence reported over 100,000 Americans on the Italian Front, when there was only one regiment of 4,000.”

The long hikes were not popular with the soldiers. Private Blank of the 332nd wrote after the fifth day of hikes, “another hike longest yet, we are getting a good screwing.”

The enemy didn’t ignore the Americans during this time. On October 22, five days into the hikes they launched an air raid on what they supposed were the infantry positions of this vast army, no Americans were hurt.

On October 24, the offensive known as Vittorio-Veneto began. As Jackson and his comrades pushed north, the Austrian Army retreated. November 1 through 3 were remembered as days of fighting and advancing until the 332nd reached the Tagliamento River, the first Infantry soldiers to arrive. From there they continued their push onward until the Austrians asked for an Armistice to take effect at 3:00 p.m. on November 4. The war in Italy was over.

The 332nd was kept in Austria as a peacekeeping force until March 29, 1919, when they boarded the SS Duca d’Aosta bound for New York. Finally, the words of a song they sang were coming true.

We want to wake up in Ohio,
In that dear old Buckeye State,
Where our folk are yearning,
For our returning,
From the land of war and hate.

We knocked the hell out of the Kaiser,
And the old Hin-den-burg line,
And we’ll all come back a singing,
To the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

George returned to his wife in Newark. In 1920 they welcomed their son Sergei Jackson Sr. to the family. The 70-year-old, Russian born ‘American Lion’, Pfc. George C. Jackson died on February 20, 1963. He is buried at Weston Cemetery in Rensselaer, Indiana.

Doug Stout is the Veterans Project Coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org.