I went into combat as a Mess Sgt..
We landed south of Naples, Italy, the fighting had just passed through there. It was really destroyed. There was no damage anything like that, in North Africa. There would be tall buildings that had their top floors shot off and you couldn’t tell how tall they had been.
Sometimes there was shelling night and day and there was no way that you could talk over the noise. Other times they would ‘lay down a barrage’ at night so that troops couldn’t move. You found some kind of ’cubby hole,’ even if you couldn’t sleep.
Sometimes a hot battle would be out in heavy timber and the trees would be splintered. There would be big craters and some of the craters would be leveled. When a bomb hit close, the safest thing to do, was to jump in that crater. I have wrote letters home, from a foxhole. I used a red flashlight that wouldn’t be seen. Guys that had been in battle a long time, they got ‘battle hardened’ and looked forward to a ‘push’.
North of Naples the Germans started to run out of fuel, that saved the lives of many American soldiers. In places they were dragging their tanks into position, with oxen. Then they would get more fuel, for a while.
I was watching from a second floor as our dive bombers ‘come in’ across the street. A boy about 10, he run out of the building, with one arm gone.
I have dived for cover, more than once, being strafed by our own airplanes.
I was as afraid of ‘friendly fire’, as the enemy fire.
The Germans had fortified that big Catholic Cathedral that was up on the hill in Casino, Italy. That gave them a big advantage over us. The US 36th Division was trying to move on north. As they started along the valley, around the bottom of the hill, they were shot to pieces, from the Cathedral above. The 36th division was 'setting ducks'.
There were orders from Washington, "Don't fire on that Cathedral". Finally, against the first orders, our dive bombers blew that church all to pieces. Our troops jumped up and down and shouted. It was leveled--all except for one little outhouse, that I could see. It was a way out by itself.
We fought on further north---
Moving north through Italy, sometimes there would be an agreement. and a place would be declared an ‘open city’. The people would stay there, and there would be no fighting. The buildings in that city would not be destroyed. No one wanted the towns destroyed , like Naples had been.
We moved a lot, and stayed at the safest place we could find.
A NICE HOME One time we moved into a nice home, and stayed a few days. The owners had fled the fighting. I found a fine set of silverware hidden in the house. It was mine, and I was going to bring it home. The family come back while we were there. The old lady was crying because her silverware was missing. I set it out where she could find it. She sure was happy. They ‘took a shine’ to me. I think that they guessed that I was the one that brought it back. There was a big family, one of the women was a school teacher. They gave me their picture and insisted that I leave one of Louise and Benny. I always thought about writing to them.
The Germans had stripped the country of food. The Italians hid food to survive. As the battle lines moved forward, American soldiers would take a metal rod and punch it down around homes. Sometimes they would find a hollow place, down in the dirt. They would dig and find a keg or barrel of wine. Sometimes they would find a cellar that had been covered over with dirt. It might have wine, cheese or dried home-made sausage in it. It would be the best that we ever tasted. I liked the sausage so well, that I still search for it in grocery stores. Benny, Tommy and Richard have always liked “that ‘black meat’ that Daddy likes to buy.”
We were coming up to Rome and going so fast that I thought the war would soon be over.