Italy
October
22, 1943
I am
getting your mail, I am safe, but have no time to write now. All our
mutual friends that I have contact with are fine also.
November
5, 1943
Every
thing over here is topsy turvy. The people usually retire to some
point behind the German lines, and as we advance they come back through
the lines during the lulls and trudge along the roads back to their
homes. The women carry big loads on their heads, some packages about
four feet in diameter of household goods and it often takes two strong
men to lift the load on to a woman’s head. Once the load is
there she will go down the road with it as though it was no load at
all, slushing along the road in her bare feet feeling with her toes
for a grip in the slippery mud, while her old man comes along behind
carrying a slightly smaller bundle. The parade goes on for ever.
When
they arrive finally to their former home they frequently find it is
not there. They then start digging among the rocks and stones for
clothing and other valuables, which they load on top of the already
over-loaded woman and trudge on to other places hoping to find a cousin
or aunt to take them in. I have seen eight families in a two or three
room house.
The houses
over here are mostly built of stone. The stone is soft and light and
can be cut easily with a knife. The stone is shaped and the houses
look solid as rock, and are just that, but not all the rock is solid.
I watched a man cutting a new door in his house through a two foot
stone wall, and he had the entire job finished in little less than
a day. These houses furnish little protection against air raids or
artillery and the people are at the mercy of who ever is shooting
at the moment.
You would
think that they would be scared of guns and things, but the biggest
problem we have is chasing the kids out of the barrels before we fire
the guns. They are very curious and watch every thing we do.
They
are real industrious too, watching them work you would think they
make their living taking in washing. I had one do some work for me
once and he said he wanted a dollar. The interpreter said that is
to much, you only get 20 cent a day, he said "Yes but Americans
should pay American's scale."
The price
on everything goes up as soon as we move into the neighborhood. I
went down to price a pair of rubbers, they were $6.00 but they did
not have my size. I went back the next day and they were $10.00 and
the third time I went in that store they had my size but were $18.00
but I did not take them at such a price.
November
24, 1943
I sent
a box of things packed in a "German Teller Mine Case", for
all the families for Christmas, and hope it arrives safely. This mine
case contains one teller mine; the Germans ship them to the field,
plant the mine, then throw the case away and we collect lots of them
for suitcases and other carrying equipment.
I am
hoping when we do return home we don't go by way of the Pacific, which
is not very pacific at this time. After we get Germany beat down to
size, I hope to come home and find you on the dock in New York Harbor.
There are just two ladies I want to see, the Statue of Liberty, and
YOU, both holding a torch for me.
Yesterday
evening we got a Chaplain assigned to us, he is the first Chaplain
we have seen in two months. In anticipation of his arrival we started
a many sided argument on religion, and the argument lasted for six
hours. The Chaplain arrived this morning and we started heckling him,
but he seems like a nice sort of fellow.
December
27, 1943
The olive
groves at this time of year are beautiful. The leaves look silvery
against the dark sky of early evening and thick among the leaves are
the dark olives waiting to be picked.
Olive
oil is a staple of the diet of the Italians, and they are going to
need every olive because I understand the Germans are destroying the
crops further north. It seems peculiar to see olive trees being picked
in plain sight of snow capped mountains, but the scenery here is as
varied as California, except there is no desert, decidedly no desert.
Rain I guess is a lot more noticeable when you are living out of doors.
January
1, 1944
Breakfast
is getting to be my favorite meal. It is much better than it used
to be. We have cereal nearly every morning, and I am getting so I
like canned milk on it, and it is the only kind of milk we get, and
so seldom that it is quite a treat. Of course there is always the
G. I., coffee. I often wonder where they get the stuff. Our mess sergeant
brags that he can get more coffee out of 100 pounds than any one else,
and that when he is through the grounds are white. I don't doubt him,
but at least it is warm and black.
He really
did himself proud today, and I want you to remember the recipe. Take
14 turkeys, 100 loaves of bread, 2 pounds kitchen bouquet, parboil
the turkeys, mix the bread and bouquet together, moisten with water
the turkeys were boiled in, stuff them and bake. This serves 240 hungry
persons and I mean it is really good.
We had
a visitor from another unit who called the mess boy out to ask how
he made our toast. The mess boy said "take five gallons of milk,
vanilla and flour". The visitor asked how much flour and vanilla,
he replied "Be damned if I know."
January
7, 1944
The second
week of January and colder than it has any right to be. It is not
the enemy that worries us or makes war hell, but the weather. Oh,
how I hate cold weather. This will make my second winter under canvas
and with nothing but body heat. Yesterday it was so cold I decided
to change to woolen underwear. I went to a delousing station where
they have one of those portable shower baths, really one of the most
wonderful things that the Government has provided for the comfort
of the soldier, and got stripped down to the skin in a heated tent,
soaped and showered for about twenty minutes, in a heated trailer,
with hot running water, then they gave me clean underwear that had
been treated with an evil smelling disinfectant and I left to come
home feeling kinda funny in my first pair of long handled underwear.
I was really not as much warmer as I expected, in fact I felt colder.
Everybody makes insinuating remarks about it being no wonder I felt
cooler because I had doubtless removed a thicker layer of dirt than
I had added in wool.
The only
thing interesting that has happened I can tell about - I got a five
day pass, stayed at an expensive hotel, dressed in dress uniforms
and enjoyed some real champagne. You only get one of those passes
in about two years and I was glad to get mine.
January
23, 1944
We have
had an UNUSUAL amount of activity for some time now, that I can't
tell you about.
Some
time back I was billeted for official purposes in a house. It was
really a very interesting assignment from beginning to end. In the
first place when I went to make arrangements for the billet I took
an interpreter along. My Italian has to much French to depend on it.
The home had troops, and an old Italian with his wife and four children
living on the second floor. All the children were girls, and the family
had only three rooms. We selected the room the four girls slept in
because it was larger, and he moved them into their bedroom. They
turned out to be nice friendly people, but we could never talk to
them much. We never did learn to talk much, but the kids picked up
a few American expressions.
One of
the boys taught one of the girls 5 words, "shut up and get out".
One day a boy came in with some laundry and she said "shut up
and get out", the poor G. I., turned kinda red and said "I
will pay you a dollar to do the laundry” and she repeated the
sentence. The old man could not figure why the boys stopped bringing
their laundry.
Before
we moved out more relatives moved in and it was 12 women and still
the one man for the head of the house. The women do all the work,
one when moving in carried a bureau on her head. The old man asked
if our boys would mind setting it upstairs, and it took three of them
to carry it.
One night
some shells landed close to the house. The old man was scared to death,
but the girls were just interested. Of course the old man had been
through the last war.
January
30, 1944
Today
is my birthday and I am fine and alive and as happy as could be so
far from home. I even had a rare sense of humor, other peoples humor.
The boys in survey center have amused themselves today by cutting
out pictures from magazines and pasting them together so as to give
an effect never intended by the original painter or photographer.
The prize to my estimation is from a picture of a beautiful girl strolling
down Park Avenue with a large dog. The large dog is now sporting the
head of a soldier, while the girl also carried a large silver spoon
in her other hand.
The food
is getting better, I hope that means that shipping is getting more
plentiful, and so on because it is shipping that will win the war.
If we could get about twenty percent of the army out of the states
into Germany the war would soon be over.
February
10, 1944
It has
rained for two days straight and the road through our area is standing,
or running about one foot of water, while all the trenches, and gun
pits are level full of water. Luckily I am sleeping in the office
right now, so have a dry bed. This is the worse stretch of weather
that we have had this winter, and I am hoping it marks the end of
winter and the beginning of spring rains, the sooner they come, the
quicker we will have summer.
February
20, 1944
The other
day the Colonel was out to visit one of our units, and he went so
far forward he was in sight or about a mile out of a town that is
still held by the enemy. He was sure that he must have passed the
unit that he was looking for so he stopped to ask a soldier if he
knew the whereabouts of this unit. The soldier replied "Well,
No. I don't know where it is, you see they always live in the rear
area, and I never know where any of the combat units are." The
Colonel thought that was quite a joke on himself because he thought
that he was already too far forward.
It has
been pretty dry around here for quite a while. I guess the spring
rains will be along shortly, but right now its cold and dry. I could
stand a little more heat, no rain though.
The other
day I was visiting a French outfit, and just as I reached for my third
piece of beef steak the French Colonel asked how I liked the beef
steak. I says Tray Bone. Everybody laughed and I thought they were
laughing because the way I pronounced it, but after we were through
the interpreter said they were laughing because the beef steak was
the remains of a pack mule that had been killed the day before during
a shelling. Most delicious steak what ever it was.
February
24, 1944
One day
four of us were riding all day in a car. In preparation for the trip
we had bought one hundred eggs and boiled 72 of them, and the raw
ones we scrambled for lunch. It was an outstanding day. This was some
time back and the price of eggs have gone to 15 cent a piece now or
45 cent each at a restaurant.
You remember
the fellow in our unit who talked to much, and the Major was always
saying so, every conversation between him and the Major would finish
with the statement "you talk too much." The other day the
Major got a letter from him that had been censored. The only thing
left was the salutation and the signature. The salutation was "its
the boy who talked too much", and his name. Everything else had
been cut out and that was underscored. We sure will kid him about
it when we see him.
March
16, 1944
The key
that I sent to Patricia Christmas, was from the dungeon of the Fort
at Messina, beyond that there is no particular interest, but I liked
it when I found it, and thought it a nice keep sake.
March
24, 1944
Recently
I had the pleasure of taking part in and preparing a recording for
a broadcast from B. B. C. I doubt if you hear it because it was intended
for consumption in South Africa, and will doubtless be broadcast before
you get this letter. In fact I doubt if I get to hear it myself, as
I don't know for sure when it is to be played, and we have no radio
on which I can listen continuously. I thought my voice was fairly
good, but my spacing was poor.
I have
checked up and find that I can tell you that I took part in landing
in SICILY, that after that I took part in landing the British on ITALY,
crossing the MESSINA STRAIT. Then I took part in the landing at SALERNO,
and the crossing of the VOLTURNE and have been in the battle of CASSINO
up to the last date that I am permitted to tell about. As you can
see that puts me in the Seventh Army, British First Army and Fifth
Army, and that is all I can tell at present.
April
11, 1944
Easter
Sunday, Lieutenant and myself received written invitation to attend
a festival to mark the end of Lent; the invitation was from our landlord.
I dressed up in my best dress uniform hoping to outshine every one
else but in the end we were all dressed alike and I must say we sure
looked pretty from our usual dress.
It was
really pitiful the way they tried to entertain us with the little
they had. The meal was in six courses but three of the courses were
for the guests only, and we were among the invited guests. The first
course was macaroni and corned beef, second ham and mashed potatoes.
They were mashed with butter grapes and something else, were delicious.
3rd course roast lamb, 4th native cheese from goats milk, 5th fruits
and the 6th was pie. It was all good and I was able to talk to the
older Italian people very well for the evening.
May
31, 1944
I have
been fairly well, but just feel worn out. The Dr. said it was a combination
of spring fever, natural ornerynous aggravated by overwork and that
there was nothing he could do about it until the C. O. authorized
some more rest trips. In the meantime, I really have not been working
any harder I guess than in the drive in Africa, and the one in Sicily,
but for some reason it gets me worse.
Of course
I have been gone for some time from the billet that I was bragging
about. It was sure nice. Almost like being at home, but you can't
fight a war that way. The Germans keep running from us and it keeps
us running to catch them. I have not had my suitcase with me for a
long time, we are moving so fast.
As we
move along I am carefully watching the fruit trees. When we started
the grapes were just little bunches, they are getting much bigger
now and we have found some ripe mulberries and the ripe figs are not
bad.
June
5, 1944
THE RADIO
IS BOOMING INVASION NEWS, for some time now and excitement is gradually
boiling up in me so that I can hardly collect my thoughts. I have
moved out under the shade of a tree from the excitement to get a letter
off to you dear.
One of
my boys was out riding when he decided he was getting too close to
the front, and was not quite sure where he was. He looked back and
saw a Jeep following him with a full Colonel in it, so decided he
must be back quite a ways yet, and rode on for a few more miles, and
still did not see anything familiar or any friendly troops, however
when he looked back the Colonel was still there. Finally he decided
best find out where he was, so he stopped the Colonel, and asked him
if he knew where the line were. The Colonel was quite angry "Don't
you know where you are going? I have been following you!", they
both turned around and came back at top speed.
Of course
things happen some times, our kitchen truck got lost from the convoy
one day, while we were 50 miles from a certain town we were supposed
to take. When we got back in camp he claimed to have gotten to within
sight of the town before he knew he was on the wrong road. He brought
a road sign back to prove it saying 3 K. to T--- to prove his story.
The kitchen truck is our biggest headache. On the last move I put
it well forward in the convoy so it would not get into trouble. We
were stopped about three miles from our area by a runner with the
news that they were shelling the road pretty bad about half way in,
so we would leave that point at one minute intervals, and maintain
15 miles an hour through the shelled portion of the road. The kitchen
truck proceeded to upset its trailer through the shelled portion of
the road, and no one knew at the despatching end and we kept dispatching
vehicles every minute and the line up on the road stopped all through
the danger area while the kitchen personnel got themselves out of
the ditch and going again. I was just a little scared at being lined
up right in the shelling section, but nobody got hurt.
June 12, 1944
To give you as much of an idea as I legally can about
where I was during the fall of Rome, I was with the French. You will
have to read the newspaper for the rest of it. Anyhow Rome fell, and
of course we were all very anxious to see the city. Some wanted to
see it because of its old historical appeal, just simple tourists
you know. Some wanted to see it to see if the immediate objective
was worth the fight, some got drunk and some said they wanted to see
the girls. But what ever the reason those who did not want to go to
Rome were rather rare individuals. The civilians had to be protected
from the ravages of even a friendly army, so naturally there were
restrictions and you had to wait your turn. Finally my day came. Two
of us and his driver got one of the leaves entitling us to be absent
from our unit for a period of eight hours and to enter the city of
Rome. First we went to St. Peters Cathedral. As we entered the building
we met a Chaplain who was at one time in our unit, and he told us
that the Pope would see us for a few minutes. At that time he was
holding mass in the north wing of the Cathedral.
The Pope took us in and there were about 200 of us
and after a short wait he spoke. First in French and then in English.
I was really thrilled to be there and see the traditional old Swiss
guards in all their feudal splendor. They wore uniforms which I believe
had red base with blue and gold streamers about three inches wide
so arranged as to almost cover them from head to foot. They were armed
with an ancient battle axe and spear combination and the officers
carried short swords. Their drill I believe was ancient German, and
the commands were given in a language that I could not understand,
but I was told it was Swiss. When he, the Pope, finished speaking
he had a cardinal give each of us a rosary and a picture of the Pope.
From there I took the tourist view of the Cathedral,
going all through the place, even in the dome. I found my knowledge
of Italian very useful and I saw many of the beauties. An Italian
gentlemen showed me some of the ancient sights and from the dome he
pointed out many places of interest. After having gone through St.
Paul’s Cathedral in London, I was extremely anxious to see through
the one in Rome.
Then
we hired a guide and went to see an old historical building, which
I gathered from his explanation was one of the castles of the Pope.
It has a protected walkway from the Vatican and special rooms for
the Pope. They told us it has not been used in over 300 years or more.
Old boxes that used to be used for storage of the gold of the church,
and a museum of weapons that were used for defense of the castle and
its surroundings was covered by a net. The older weapons were rather
ingenious. Old spear slingers with boots of steel, rock slingers and
cross bows of steel, early gunpowder cannon that used rocks instead
of steel cannon balls like now.
From there to view some of the ancient ruins. We saw
Cicero's forum and the Coliseum where presumably the old gladiator
fights took place between prisoners and beasts. It was said that a
prisoner who lived through it was set free.
While at the Coliseum we met some Italian civilians
who knew a place to get good meals, so we had dinner with them. They
told us quite a few interesting things about civilian life during
the war. For one thing they had not had macaroni for a period of four
months till that day because it was scarce and expensive. They also
said the fall of Rome had caused prices of food and clothing to drop
about three fourths of its former value. It cost a person about 1000
lire a day to get enough to eat, and a lot of other information that
sounded exaggerated.
I am hoping to go back to Rome on a longer pass, but
if we keep driving forward at this pace, I probably will never see
it again. Besides a soldier should learn never to look back because
there are larger cities, such as Berlin, ahead.
June 22, 1944
Were you ever scared? I should not write like this,
but fear is a terrible thing, and no man knows how when or why it
will strike him. You lay in camp, and watch a town to your rear being
literally blown off the map. You look over the hill and see the results
of a cold scientific job of road interdiction where they can see the
road and shoot at every vehicle that goes over the road. Then it is
your turn. You have got to go down that road and do a job of work.
You talk to yourself "It takes a direct hit to stop you and they
have not scored one yet today." Yeah! Some of them were mighty
close, suppose a fragment gets the driver, and you would look mighty
pretty at the bottom of that cliff. Away you go. You get past the
observed stretch, on up front but under cover. It sure feels good
to know they can't see you, and fortunately he has not got the ammunition
to spray the country side. An occasional shell hasn't got but about
one chance in ten thousand to get to you, then you finish the work.
The debate starts again, shall I go back along the road the way I
came up and run the gauntlet again, or try to work along a trail that
you have heard of through the mountains and maybe get lost. Maybe
get into a pocket of snipers that they haven't cleaned out yet, or
should you wait until dark when the observation won't be so good.
Common sense wins because you don't want to miss supper and back you
go along the road. Some how you feel safer on the way back, because
you are going away from the guns.
June 30, 1944
We are going through a beautiful country now. It looks
like a rich country and I only hope that there is as much fruit and
things where we are going as there is here. I sit and look at the
cherries, which are not ripe and wish that they were ready to eat,
and the peaches, and apples, grapes and all the other good things
that are grown here, but nothing is ripe yet, maybe from the fruit
standpoint we made the drive to early.
The people
here are more like the people back home, more so than we have run
into yet, or am I just getting use to them. Most of the well-to-do
people have regular mansions which have usually a small cape in connection
with them. Living quarters are usually on the second floor even in
the most palatial houses and the ground floor is given over to all
stock. The place where I am quartered now is really palatial. It hasn’t
been hurt any by the war. The windows have luxurious curtains and
the beds have inner-spring mattresses. It is seldom that we stay more
than one night at a place, but we are trying to hang on here as long
as possible.
July
7, 1944
One Officer had a funny thing happen to him. He thought
his wife knew that he would not want any clothing, and certainly no
cottons. So he wrote a request out, thinking she would catch on and
send him some whisky. The package arrived and we were all hanging
around like wolves waiting for him to open the package, and it turned
out to be Cotton Clothing.
July
21, 1944
I don't think its permissible to discuss the developments
in Germany but it is the thing that is uppermost in all our minds.
Of course you have read it in the papers and know as much about it
as I do. I am hoping that it is the beginning of the end, but I am
afraid to really let my hopes get up. It would be really wonderful
if I could be home by Christmas.
A few night ago an Officer who used to be in our outfit,
and is now in one of the higher headquarters paid us a visit. He brought
a W. A. C. Lt., with him, and we had a very interesting evening. He
had promised her that we would tell some outstanding war stories being
combat troops and so on, ones with a lot of harrowing experiences
to relate, and we tried to do our best. Of course all were sitting
around with eyes popping out while the pretty Lt. sat primly on our
only chair, and waiting to hear our war stories. Unfortunately I can't
repeat them, maybe soon in person.
We are just now commencing to see a little of the
things that the magazines would lead you to believe we get a lot of
- e. g., red cross girls with doughnuts and U. S. O. shows and such
like. I had come to the conclusion they were only stories, but some
came very close here recently and we are to be served next time. The
war is looking up.
July
26, 1944
Since writing you last nothing outstanding has happened
except the Negro U. S. O., came by here. It was just fair considering
the stage and all. They had a tap dance, singer, few musicians, and
some jokes.
Tonight I stopped on my way home to do some business
with another outfit. This was about an hour’s ride from home,
and when I got there they were having ice cream, and fried chicken
for supper so I got an invitation and stayed. Patting myself on the
back about the good fortune that I had such grand eats, because fried
chicken is really something I never expected to see until I got home,
and I had not seen any ice cream since I left Sicily. When I got home
I was just there in time to receive the good-byes and thanks and so
on from two trucks of Red Cross girls who had brought doughnuts and
coffee to the boys in my absence. They have really gotten around in
the last few days, but I have been in the service here a long time
before I saw one of them.
August
11, 1944
The Officers club here is a rather nice homey place.
It is run by the British in an old Italian night club, and frequently
mostly French Officers including the nurses. Then there is English
language mostly but a sprinkling of all the Allied Nations drop in
there. However the waiters and the floor show is Italian, and one
of the girls sings with chewing gum in her mouth all the time. Her
male partner has a real loud voice and he doesn't sing into the mike,
but she does and he still drowns her out.
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