Alfred Gini
Alfred Gini of Pennsauken, NJ.
Rank: Technician Fourth Class, U.S. Army
Serial Number: 32483305
Unit: 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division
Entered service from: New Jersey
Died:
Technician Fourth Class Alfred Gini was the son of Joseph and Ida Gini, who had come to America in 1911 from Italy with their son Tony. Once in America, Eugene, Charles, Alfred, and sister Ida were born. In 1930 the family lived on Hoffman Avenue, near Marlton Pike (present-day State Highway 70) in what was then Delaware Township, NJ. The family moved to Pennsauken in the 1930s, settling on Beacon Avenue, not far from the Highland Fire Company on Marlton Pike.
Alfred Gini worked for the RCA-Victor Company in Camden prior to being inducted into the United States Army. He was assigned to the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. The Division did Arctic training in Northern Michigan.
The 2nd Infantry Division crossed the North Atlantic to Ireland in October 1943, and was stationed at Armagh near the Irish Free State border. The division trained for seven months in night operations, small unit tactics, and extensive Ranger training.
Selected for the Normandy D-Day landings, the Division went to England in late May of 1944. The Division landed in France on Omaha Beach and saw much combat in the fighting in Normandy. By the third day of combat in F Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment, only 1 of the 6 officers and about 100 of the 187 enlisted men were still in the field.
After the Normandy Campaign, the 23rd fought in the Battle for Brest, a French fortified city, seaport, and German submarine base. Many more casualties were sustained in the siege.
The 23rd Infantry bore the brunt of German attacks in the Elsenborn area during the December 1944 Ardennes offensive — the Battle of the Bulge. While holding defensively at Elsenborn Ridge (the northern corner of the Bulge), the 23rd fought the enemy troops in fierce hand-to-hand battles. The Division received this commendation from Lieutenant General Hodges, commander of the First United States Army, on December 20, 1944: “What the 2nd Infantry Division has done in the last 4 days will live forever in the history of the United States Army.”
During the period of January 13–23, 1945, while attached to the First Division, the 23rd Regimental Combat Team spearheaded a drive that broke enemy resistance in the vital Ondenval–Iveldingen Pass to clear the way for armored thrusts into St. Vith, Belgium, under some of the most severe climatic conditions of the war. The enemy forces, the 8th Regiment and 3rd Panzer Division, were decimated.
Technician Fourth Class Alfred Gini was killed in action during this fighting, on January 18, 1945.