Torch, Husky, Overlord — and a soldier from Monongahela

This story is part of Mon Valley Sons of World War II, a series about our sons who lost their lives in service to our country during the war.

By JOHN J. TURANIN
For the MVI

The date was June 20, 1944. Monongahela’s Marshall Dallo, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army infantry, had departed the shores of the United States 28 months earlier to fight in World War II.

Lt. Dallo’s baptism of fire came during his first five months in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. His next three months were part of Operation Husky, the allied invasion of Sicily, which was followed by seven months in England preparing for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France.

Lt. Dallo’s next 17 days were spent fighting in Operation Overlord in Normandy, France. They were his last.

The Dallo family

Marshall John Dallo was born Feb. 27, 1914, to John and Palmira (née Norini) Dallo in Gallatin, Pa. John and Palmira married in 1903 while living in Herminie, Pa. Like many Italian immigrants of the early 1900s, John worked as a coal miner while Palmira managed the Dallo family household.

John Dallo, born Giovanni, was from the town of Sospirolo in Belluno, Veneto, Italy. His surname was also spelled in public records as D’Allo and D’All’o. He immigrated to the United States in 1901.

Palmira immigrated to the U.S. from Strambino, Torino, Piemonte, Italy in 1901. A family member recounts that Palmira was first married to a man in Italy with the surname of Muglitti, or Mugliatti, or Gindotti, who passed away. Her brother-in-law living in West Newton, sponsored her immigration in 1901. Palmira subsequently met and married John Dallo.

Marshall was the fifth and final child and the only son born to John and Palmira. Mary was first to arrive (1905), followed by Adalena (“Lena,” 1907), Emma Elizabeth (1908) and Matilda (“Tillie,” 1911).

Marshall was known by his Italian given name Marcello, but everyone fondly called him “Chello.” In 1910, the family was living in the coal processing town of Cokeburg, but moved to Gallatin by 1914. Palmira eventually lost her hearing, but that would not stop her from raising her family well.

Tragedy struck their father twice. In September 1914, he was kicked in the head by a horse while hitching it to a wagon at the coal mine. The blow was severe, requiring the removal of part of his skull. Five months later, in February 1915, John tripped while at the Commercial Hotel in Monongahela, falling down a flight of stairs and striking his head. A few hours later, he passed away in his hotel room. The attending physician determined that the 1914 incident made John a high risk for another serious head injury.

Palmira, as a newly widowed deaf mother, was faced with the challenge of raising children whose ages spanned from 1 to 10. She decided to place two middle children, Lena and Emma, in the Mooseheart orphanage outside of Chicago in July 1915. Mooseheart was established by the Loyal Order of Moose fraternal organization as a temporary respite to keep families together during difficult times.

The family moved to nearby Forward Township, and the oldest child, Mary, would stay at home and help her mother raise the two youngest children.

In 1925, the family was reunited and by 1930, they were living at 729 Main St. in Monongahela. Mary had married and they moved in with her mother along with Lena and Emma (now teachers), Tillie, and 16-year-old Marshall, now at Monongahela High School.

Chello as a teen

Sports played a major role in Chello’s life as a teenager. At age 15, he played basketball for the Christian Juniors. He was a golf caddy at Monongahela Valley Country Club and played in the caddies’ tournament in 1930.

Chello made the high school football team as a third-string center and earned the starting role the following season. He was enrolled in the Commercial academic track and was a member of the Commercial Club.

He played on the football team all three seasons of high school, and graduated in 1933. Chello tried his hand at boxing in 1936, albeit unsuccessfully when his first match was stopped after his jaw was cut.

Chello went to work as a clerk and later a butcher in the grocery store of his brother-in-law, Ralph Affinito, Lena’s husband. He gave tennis a try and competed in a local singles and doubles tournament. Chello also worked at Citizens Garage for a time in 1938.

By 1940, Chello was living with the family of his sister Lena Affinito and their mother while working at Ralph’s market.

Global war is brewing

The citizens of Mon City monitored the burgeoning wars overseas. Germany had long been executing the “Third Reich” political-military strategy of its Fuhrer Adolph Hitler. They entered alliances with the like-minded leaders of Italy and Japan.

By the end of 1940, Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, France, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Pursuing its own empire-building aspirations, Italy expanded into Ethiopia, Albania and was invading France by 1940. Japan had assumed control over Korea from the Soviets in 1905, but by 1940, Japan had invaded China and French Indochina.

Chello registered for the U.S. armed forces draft on its first day, Oct. 16, 1940, as a 5’11”, 175-pound 26-year-old with blonde hair and blue eyes.

With trouble brewing overseas, Chello was notified by the local draft board in January 1941 that he was about to be called up. So he joined the Pennsylvania National Guard on Feb. 3, 1941, with Monongahela’s Company A, 110th Infantry Regiment. In anticipation of the U.S. joining the war overseas, the 110th Regiment was about to be federalized, or incorporated into the U.S. Army, which occurred Feb. 17. Private Marshall Dallo was off to train as an infantryman.

U.S. enters World War II

Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on U.S. military bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. The U.S. declared war on Japan, and as an ally of the Japanese Empire, Germany declared war on the U.S..

By then, Dallo had been promoted to the rank of sergeant. That same month, he and his fiance Christine Hoosac shared the vows of marriage. But he had to quickly return to Army training.

Sgt. Dallo was stationed at Camp Livingston, La., by September 1942 with Company E of the 110th Regiment. He was briefly disabled by an advanced case of poison ivy exposure.

Sgt. Dallo was recognized for strong leadership skills and was accepted into Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga., arriving there by November. In January 1943, he graduated with a commission as 2nd lieutenant. Dallo was quickly transferred to the nearby Camp Wheeler Infantry Replacement Training Center to await deployment overseas.

On Feb. 19, 1943, 2nd Lt. Dallo left Camp Wheeler for his port of embarkation, likely New York City. He was heading overseas and into combat.

Dallo arrives in North Africa

By April 1943, 2nd Lt. Dallo had arrived in Algeria, North Africa, near Souk Arras just west of the border with Tunisia. He joined an existing unit, Company G of the 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. There he met 1st Lt. John Stelle and they soon became fast friends.

Back in November 1942, the 47th Regiment had landed at Morocco as part of Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. The 47th, known as the “Raiders,” continued across North Africa to drive the German armies from that continent.

Later that month, Lt. Dallo was fighting with the 47th in Tebessa, Algeria, and by May 7, the 9th Infantry Division had achieved its combat objectives and its mission in North Africa was a success. Lt. Dallo had survived his first weeks of combat in Algeria and Tunisia.

The division spent the next three months resting and training for its next mission: Operation Husky, the invasion of Axis-held Sicily.

Lt. Dallo and the 47th Regiment landed at Palermo, Sicily Aug. 1, 1943. The division fought across the island, and by the end of the month, Sicily was declared fully occupied by the Allies. The next two months were devoted to rest, recreation and more training. In November, they would board ships bound for England to prepare for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France.

By mid-December 1943, Lt. Dallo and Company G of the 47th Regiment had arrived at Alresford, Hampshire, in the south of England, where they were stationed for further training through March 1944.

The 9th Infantry Division in Operation Overlord

On June 6, 1944, the invasion of France commenced with the allied landings on the beaches of Normandy. The 9th Division was set to join the invasion forces on D-Day plus 4, or June 10.

The 9th began moving its troops and equipment to Southampton and Weymouth, England on June 3. They loaded their 47 Liberty ships and their amphibious ships: eight LSTs (landing ship tanks) and 12 LCTs (landing craft tanks).

The division sailed for France June 7 and began debarking on the now-secure Utah Beach June 10. Lt. Dallo and the 47th Regiment arrived June 12. By the evening of June 13, the entire 9th Division had unloaded and was ready to move into combat.

The 9th Division was assigned the objective to trap the defending German troops on the adjacent Cotentin peninsula. The 9th was to move west from Utah Beach and join the 90th Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne Division on the peninsula. They were to fight across the Cotentin toward the Prairies Marecageuses marshland to form their sector of the planned entrapment of the German forces.

The division moved out June 14. Lt. Dallo and the 47th Regiment was held in reserve to conduct patrols near Gourbesville and await further orders. It would not be long. Orders came, and they were to enter the fray the very next day.

On June 15, the 47th jumped off at 1300 hours and joined with the 60th Regiment, which had been stopped by a German counterattack near Reigneville. The reinforcement by the 47th succeeded in pushing back the enemy by 2000 hours, and they spent the rest of the night on vigorous patrols near the Douve River.

The 47th got an early start (0530 hours) June 16, reaching Hautteville- Bocage by 1620 hours amid stiff resistance by the enemy. They dug in overnight to provide a defensive position facing north to protect the division’s right flank.

On June 17, the 47th moved southwest to occupy points near Saint- Saveur-le-Vicomte. Units of the 47th deployed westward, and together with other units of the 9th Division succeeded in establishing a fortified line across the Cotentin Peninsula.

This bottled up the defending German troops northward and prevented reinforcements from reaching them from the south.

Lt. Dallo was getting his fair share of combat experience. There was much more to come.

On June 18, the trapped 77th German Infantry Division counterattacked down a main road in a column. Ninth Division Artillery pummeled the head of the column and walked its shells up the 5-mile road, congested with fleeing German troops and vehicles. The effect was devastating.

Two more German counterattacks were attempted that day, unsuccessfully. Lt. Dallo and the 47th Regiment arrived at the western seaside town of Portbail, completing the peninsula-cutting line. The 47th was relieved by a regiment of the 90th Division, and they prepared to pull back to reserve status. But the next day, they were ordered to move to Crosville-sur-Douve in preparation for attacking June 20.

The 47th stepped forward aggressively June 20, attacking in columns of battalions. They were headed northeast toward Hanneville along the Germans’ western defensive perimeter of Cherbourg. Their advance was met with German heavy artillery, mortar and small-arms fire, preventing the 47th from reaching its objective. The 47th Regiment halted somewhere 5-8 miles west of Cherbourg.

During the fighting of June 20, Lt. Marshall Dallo was struck and killed by shrapnel from an exploding shell. The precise location and circumstance regarding his loss are undetermined. But later, his friend Lt. Stelle shared with his family that Lt. Dallo’s death was instant and he did not suffer.

Lt. Dallo’s family was informed of his loss 17 days later. Christine Dallo’s loss was compounded when she learned that her brother, Private Joseph Hoosac, was killed in action in Luxembourg in January 1945.

Marshall ‘Chello’ Dallo remembered

2Lt. Marshall J. Dallo was initially buried at the American Military Cemetery at Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France, on June 22, 1944. Lt. Dallo was eventually transported back to Mon City for final burial at Monongahela Cemetery in May 1949 under the federal government’s Return of the War Dead program. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

On Sept.13, 1944, Mon City’s Daily Herald Newspaper printed a letter home from a fellow townsman who knew Marshall Dallo: U.S. Navy’s Construction Mechanic 1st Class Charlie H. Boback. He shares: “… Also received word of the death of Marshall Dallo. I believe he was the best loved fellow in Monongahela. I am sure that his death will be avenged, but that will not bring him back. He had done his duty to his country and to his God. He is happy now, he’s going home to God, and I’m sure that God Almighty will have a place for him. Please give Mrs. Dallo my sympathy in her hour of sorrow and need.”

Another letter was published in the same newspaper on Jan. 17, 1945, from 1st Lt. John Stelle to Christine Dallo: “… I don’t have the words in my vocabulary to tell you how much we all thought of him. He and I joined the Ninth Division at the same time and were together all the way through. I have never met a finer friend or better Buddie than he was. Marsh didn’t suffer before he left. It was very instant ….”

Lt Stelle had filmed a 16mm movie of them while in England, which he sent to Christine.

The author is grateful for the kind assistance and information shared by Lt. Dallo’s grandniece, Sarah Jack.

John J. Turanin is a retired Western Pennsylvanian and grandson of the Mon Valley. His new book, “Tin Men Steel Soldiers: The price paid in World War II by a Pennsylvania mill town: True stories of the lives and losses of 82 men,” is about Monessen, Pa.

John is one of hundreds of volunteers with the nonprofit organization Stories Behind The Stars who are writing memorial stories for every one of the 421,000 U.S. service members and 31,000 Pennsylvanians who lost their lives during World War II. Those interested in joining the effort are encouraged to visit www.StoriesBehindTheStars. org.