Hometown hero: Export veteran spent eight months as a prisoner of war during World War II

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series about Westmoreland County residents who have been honored as Hometown Heroes. The program honors local military and non-military heroes by displaying photos on decorative banners in area communities.

Theodore Lattanzio 1924-2001, Export

At most other times in history, Export native Ted Lattanzio would probably have been glad to visit the part of Italy — Anzio, south of Rome — that was also part of his surname.

But in February 1944, Anzio was near an area held by the German army, and Lattanzio’s 3rd Division in the U.S. Army was preparing to take the Germans by surprise.

Lattanzio grew up in Export, the son of Italian immigrants Sabatino and Angela Savera Lattanzio. His father worked in the town’s coal mines.

Drafted at 19 years old, Lattanzio underwent basic training at Camp Croft in South Carolina.

“He ended up being sent first to Casablanca, then to Tunisia and on to Anzio,” said his son, also named Ted, of Clinton, Pa.

The trip to Anzio was meant to skirt the German defenses north of Naples, referred to as “The Winter Line.”

On May 11, 1944, Allied forces that had landed at Anzio and Casino attacked, and, on May 23, the German army was driven out of “The Winter Line” and forced into retreat.

German resistance stiffened as the Allies pushed north into France, encountering heavy fighting into December 1944, when Lattanzio was captured by German forces two days before Christmas.

Found hiding under a house, Lattanzio was taken prisoner and sent to the German town of Musberg and prison camp Stalag 7A, where he would remain for eight months until the end of the war in the fall of 1945.

“One of the men he ran into after being freed had been the best man at his wedding in 1943,” Lattanzio said.

Lattanzio said his father didn’t talk about the war much, but he can recall the reverence his father had after coming home, during Memorial Day services for fellow soldiers.

“Back then, it was a big deal to go to the military services they had,” he said.

“That’s what I remember the most.”