In Memory Of2LT Thomas W. Wigle

After graduating, Wigle enrolled at Michigan State University to study music. After just two years, he became so well-known for his aptitude that he was awarded a scholarship to further advance his skills at the Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg, Austria. When he returned to America, he became a music teacher at schools in Oroville, Chicago, and Detroit before joining the Kansas City Philharmonic. His professional experience put him at the symphonic level, and he helped compose several symphonies, including Western Saga.

After the events of Pearl Harbor, Wigle felt compelled to help defend our country and enlisted in the Army. As the military was quickly expanding, infantry units were in dire need of capable officers. Being an educated man and having entered service voluntarily, he truly fit the bill. After basic training, Wigle attended Officer Candidate School. Upon completing OCS, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and assigned as the commander of a rifle platoon in Company K, 135th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, famously nicknamed the "Red Bulls."

Wigle and his men were deployed to Italy to reinforce Allied troops who were locked in combat at the Anzio Beachhead. For weeks, they maintained defensive positions under constant artillery, mortar, machine gun, and sniper fire, but managed to hold the line. Toward the end of May, Company K was in rough shape and running dangerously low on everything. Wigle did everything he could to keep the men's spirits up, which was a full-time job. Their medical supplies were used up providing aid to almost half of the men who had been seriously wounded or killed. They were forced to eat cold C-Rations because any flame they might use to cook their food was a bullseye for mortars and snipers. Even the glowing embers of a cigarette could draw fire. But the thing they needed most was ammunition. They had to maintain extremely strict fire control, only shooting at what they could hit. Wigle and his men were so low that during enemy assaults, they sometimes had to use bayonets to fight them off.

It seemed like all hope had been lost, but a large group of reinforcements arrived and brought the supplies they so desperately needed. With a large force of fresh soldiers, it was time for what remained of Company K to move inland as part of Operation Diadem, the Allied breakout from the Anzio Beachhead. Wigle's unit marched northeast through well-defended, landmine-laden farmlands, vineyards, and small villages, battling a seemingly endless combination of enemy armor, artillery, infantry, paratroopers, and SS troops, all ready to give their lives for "The Fatherland." The Red Bulls never faltered and, against all odds, crushed German forces in Cisterna, Velletri, and the Alban Hills. Ten days later, on June 4, 1944, Wigle and his men arrived in Rome and liberated the capital city, which had been under Third Reich occupation for nine months.

However, there was no time to rest. The Nazis were now in full retreat, and the Red Bulls were sent to continue driving them north back into Germany. During the push, Wigle's platoon advanced through the Monte Frassino area of northern Tuscany when a large group of Panzergrenadiers and paratroopers opened fire from elevated fortifications. A ruthless torrent of mortar, machine gun, and sniper fire created a wall of lead and shrapnel, forcing the men to take cover wherever they could. Recognizing that these positions had to be neutralized to save more American lives, he knew the stronghold had to be eliminated.
After two failed attempts, Wigle led a small team in a frontal assault. Armed with an M1 Carbine, a 1911 pistol, and as many grenades as his body could carry, he scaled three terrace walls, firing at snipers from two additional positions and tossing grenades into enemy foxholes along the way, allowing his men to advance. Wigle then climbed down, charged into a house, and opened fire at unsuspecting troops until they fled out the back door. He was then joined by his platoon and rushed two more houses where the Germans had scurried off to. Wigle and his men began clearing the houses room by room using a combination of small arms fire and hand-to-hand combat.

He then saw several enemy soldiers run to hide in the cellar. Wigle stood at the top of the stairs and shouted in German for the cowering paratroopers to surrender, but they opened fire, and he was struck several times. Knowing he was not going to survive his wounds, he ordered his men to stay back and begged for a grenade so he could throw it down the stairs and take out the remaining threat, but his men defied his orders and pulled him away. The trapped enemy realized that continuing to fight would be a fatal decision and surrendered. Wigle passed away shortly after, but not before witnessing his platoon finish clearing the area and taking 36 Germans prisoner after the stronghold fell.

Like so many service members who fell in battle overseas in WWII, he was buried in a temporary graveyard until he was brought back to America on March 4, 1949, and laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Today, the headstone that adorns his achievement of the most prestigious decoration our country can bestow can be seen in Section 34, Grave 3307.

For his service, Wigle earned a Purple Heart and the Medal of Honor. Rest easy, Hero! Til Valhalla, Brother!