In spite of the long trip, when our unit approached thr apartment house in which we were to use as our home, I was overjoyed. The setting reminded me of San Francisco. Luxury apartments with a gorgeous view atop of the slopes, overlooking the Frisco waterfront This is what was presented to us, a lovely apartment overlooking the Bay of Naples abd in the exclusive area named Vomero. The fact that this area was subject to enemy air raids did not trouble us………………….We moved in, 2 GIs to an apartment. I was with a friend, Johnson, a Brooklyn resident. We settled in, took showers and crawled into bed, with instructions to be ready for roll call in the early morning, to be held outside the building facing the front entrance. There was no large assembly room available. ….. .. It seemed strange assembling on a public street for roll-call. But there we were lined up, 24 of us in front of the house. The Sgt. in charge stood elevated on the front step and called out our names and we responded with ” Here. Here,” We were amused at the spectacle, while the neighbors who were on their way to work would pause and watch this Army perfrormance. We were all amused and interested. We watching the Italians and they watching our procedure…………………….After roll-call and the breakfast that followed, we were told the we were free for the balance of the day, due to the fact that our equipment had not arrived and we had nothing scheduled.
Archive for November, 2008
Tunis to Italy, 1944
You can not imagine the task that our officers had to plan a move of a million men and all the equipment. It really took a long time and our journey was tedious and uncomfortable. Fortunately, we were not the foot soldiers, who carried their luggage and firearms with them and loaded aboard LST’s. We moved with our equipment, earthmovers, cranes, trucks, etc. All back-up supplies and personnel to aid them in their war efforts. It took us two weeks to get aboard the ship and land in Sicily. We slept on the ground, wherever we could while awaiting to board the ship. We ate canned food and fought off the flies that were attracted to the smell of our food. I’m not complaining because I realized that our combatant soldiers were going through much greater difficulties and danger. I’m only preparing you for my personal history during this move through Sicily and Italy. My tales of the past year in North Africa seemed to convey that I was a tourist and was on some sort of pleasurable vacation. It wasn’t always pleasurable. We worked in all sorts of weather, rain or shine, cold or steamy hot, doing our engineering jobs, which was not only printing photos or intelligence, but also buildings barracks, laying our air strips, doing camouflage workfor troops stationed close to combat zones,etc.
In Sicily I sufferedfrom boils and was hospitalized in a field hospital on Mount Olivia , while my 904th division moved on to Palermo. I was there for several days awaiting a Surgeon, who looked at my hand, which had swelled up and diagnosed it as Cellulitis, acute. He was a young doctor, who made trips to field hospitals, a surgeon. He put me at ease and was very comforting. He asked me where I was from.” New York”, I said . ” That’s where I studied and practiced, at Bellevue Hospital” So, we got off well. He assured me that it was a simple operation. He froze my hand with a spray and I lost all feeling when he cut through to remove the cyst. I was fine and felt no pain. My stay in this outdoor, tented hospital was about one week. I rejoined the Eng. group in Palermo, where they were awaiting a ship to sail into Italy. This next move was into the boot of Italy. We landed in Taranto and drove through the city and were greeted by the Italian populace with cheers of welcome and flag waving. It was a wonderful experience.
We continued on towards Foggia by truck convoy and at Foggia we turned left, over a mountain and on the road to Naples. This was a long journey and preparations must have been made by advance officers , who scouted out accomodations for our troops. My particular unit, which consisted of about twenty individuals, was placed in a building in a swanky section of Naples, Vomero, that overlooked the Bay. We were overjoyed, but when we learned that beneath our floor, there was a British Aerial Attack Battalion with weapons located on balconies beneath us, we were concerned. However, it all turned out well. There were no attacks during our stay and we enjoyed visiting and schmoozing with them, although it was difficult to understand their Cockney accent.
Italy, (continued) 1944
Naples did not suffer from warfare. The Nazis entrenched themselves in Rome and across from East to West and were able to hold off any attempts by our armies to advance further. Our forces were at an impasse. Gen. Eaker moved his headquarters to Caserta. This was several miles north of Naples, where the King of Italy maintained a summer palace. It was near here that our General built his Airport and his headquarters. Hindsight has aided me into understanding why we were so busy with building up our forces in Italy. We were actively moving the entire No. African armies into south Italy for the purpose of drawing German armies into this area. I cannot forget the sight of our airplanes flying out of our MAAF airports one early morning to bomb the Monte Cassino Church buildings which blocked the movement of our troops. It overlooked the road to Rome. Reports indicated that 1,000 bombers were sent out to bomb the fortress, but it failed to achieve results. What it did achieve was to draw german armies from northern France and help the June 6th invasion to land successfully in Normandy. I have a lasting memory of witnessing the bombers flying aloft on their mission. The noise was deafening and the skies were darkened by the constant movement of squandrons of bombers.
