4. Luke Kline Began His Combat Career in North Africa
In late 1942, American and British forces invaded French North Africa as part of Operation Torch. It was in North Africa, in 1943, that a 19-year-old GI named Luke Kenneth Kline got his first taste of combat. After the last Axis forced surrendered in Tunisia that spring, Kline’s unit was sent to Italy, where he served for the remainder of WWII. In the war’s final days, Kline’s unit was in the vicinity of where Italian partisans caught and executed Mussolini.
Il Duce’s corpse, and that of his mistress, Clara Petacci, were first displayed in the street, where Kline got to see them, before the partisans took them to Milan. There, Mussolini and his mistress were publicly displayed, hanging upside down, dangling by their ankles from meat hooks. Kline was demobilized after the war ended, but his return to civilian life did not last long, and he reenlisted in the Army in 1947.
