John Shirley was an eyewitness to my Uncles’ death on the Anzio Beachhead

On Fri, Dec 5, 2025 at 11:51 AM Cal Alexander :

Dear Sir,

I was recently reading some history of the Anzio Battles May 23-24, 1944. I have an interest in this battle as an Uncle of mine was killed there. I saw in the footnotes a reference to John Shirley’s book which I immediately purchased on Amazon.

When I received the book a few days ago I started reading it. As it turns out John was an eyewitness to my Uncles death. My Uncle Cecil Gale Alexander (Uncle Gale as we call him) was Sgt over the 3rd Platoon of Company I which John was assigned to.

I was amazed to read his story of the first day of the battle on May 23rd. He describes in great detail the events leading up to the death of my dear uncle on pages 17-18. We had known that Gale was killed by a land mine but didn’t have much detail of what happened during that day. Gale was a highly decorated soldier having served in North Africa, Sicily and Southern Italy before being deployed to the Anzio Beachhead.

My Grandmother sent four sons to Europe during WWII. Gale served in WWII along with my dad and two of his other brothers. Gale was killed in action and one other brother wounded in France and again in Germany. Gale’s body was returned to the United States in 1948 and reburied in Vernal, Utah at the Maeser Fairview Cemetery. We honored the brothers a few years ago with a memorial commemorating their service and the 75th anniversary of Gale’s death. I regret not having found John’s story prior to his passing. What a great opportunity it would have been to discuss with him his experiences in Anzio and relationship with Gale and the events leading up to his death.

Mr Shirley took over leadership of my Uncles Platoon after the liberation of Rome. It was wonderful reading his story through the remainder of the war and what would have been my Uncles path as well had he not been killed in Anzio.

I see that someone is still maintaining Mr Shirley’s web site. It’s a great tribute to him and the men of the 15th Infantry to remember their legacy. Attached below is a photo of the Alexander Brothers.

Gale is pictured second from the left along with his three brothers who served in WWII and one brother who served in Korea. I would be interested in any other information that Mr Shirley may have documented regarding the Anzio breakout.

The photo left to right is William (Bill) Alexander, Cecil Gale Alexander, Jack Alexander (my dad), Bert Alexander (Korean War) and George Bonner Alexander.

Best Regards - Cal Alexander