to the south angelo american forces were moving relentlessly up the italian peninsula. to the west, allied armies having advanced through france and the low countries now gather add long the borders of western germany. >> good old m-1 rifle. semi-automatic, breach loaded. seems a lot heavier than it did 20 years ago. my name is john shaw. i was with the 84th infantry division as a buck private during world war ii. i was one of these astp boys, 3,000 shipped down to the 84th division in april before we went overseas, 1944. and we were trained hard and sent overseas in september and were in england for a while. then we caught the red ball express and then before we knew it, we were right on the edge of the line, ready to go into combat. we were, all of us kind of wondering what things were going to be like. we could see the shells going off. we could hear them. and we were all sort of nervous, but i don't think anyone was really fully conscious and aware of what was going to happen. >> the men of the 48th division had managed to penetrate the enemy lines a few hundred yar