Naples '44 Read Free Page B

buildings in Avellino itself, from which, unable to disentangle themselvesfrom their gear in time, they had fallen to their deaths. Men such as this survivor are bitterly critical of their leadership.
    In the afternoon another cautious excursion a mile or two up to the Battipaglia road. Shortly after crossing the Sele bridge, I saw a number of the German tanks which had almost reached us on the night of the 14th, and had been put out of action by the naval shelling. Several of these lay near, or in tremendous craters. In one case the trapped crew had been broiled in such a way that a puddle of fat had spread from under the tank, and this was quilted with brilliant flies of all descriptions and colours.
September 20
    We finally got through by jeep to Salerno, but found a battle still going on in the outskirts of the town. German mortar bombs were exploding in the middle of a small square only a hundred yards from Security Headquarters. Here I saw an ugly sight: a British officer interrogating an Italian civilian, and repeatedly hitting him about the head with a chair; treatment which the Italian, his face a mask of blood, suffered with stoicism. At the end of the interrogation, which had not been considered successful, the officer called in a private of the Hampshires and asked him in a pleasant, conversational sort of manner, ‘Would you like to take this man away, and shoot him?’ The private’s reply was to spit on his hands, and say, ‘I don’t mind if I do, sir.’ The most revolting episode I have seen since joining the forces.
September 21
    Having spent all night patrolling the streets of Salerno on the watch for German infiltrators, there was a meeting with Captain Cartwright, his face covered with plaster. The Captain told us that much as he regretted to say that our presence at Paestum served no purpose of any kind, the Section was still officially attached to HQ, American Fifth Army, and a token presence there was essential, so that five of us, including myself, would have to drag ourselves back. Thus, under compulsion, we returned to the lotos-eating life of the beachhead at Paestum. Here we studied the strange bright grasshoppers, we bird-watched, read a little poetry,practised our Italian on fugitive soldiers, studied again the details of the temples, and sometimes strolled to the sea’s edge to watch the great parade of ships, and their magnificent and awful retaliation of fire against the few FW 190s which teased and plagued them with their attacks.
    This evening for the first time since the landing we were allowed at last to contribute to the war effort. Someone at Army Headquarters reported suspiciously-flashing lights at night in the village of Castello Castelluccia, and someone else remembered the presence of Intelligence personnel in the camp, so we were sent up to make a stealthy Indian approach through the darkness and catch the supposed spy who was presumed to be signalling to the enemy in the hills. We surrounded the village, waited for the light to begin its flashing and then moved in, only to capture a man with a torch on his way to the single outside latrine, used by the entire village.
September 28
    Admitted to the American 16th Evacuation Hospital at Paestum with malaria – possibly a recurrence but more likely a re-infection. I was informed by the doctor that the marshes here are still malarial, and the mosquitoes believed to have put paid to the thriving Greek colony of antiquity, as active as ever. Most of the patients have battle wounds, and from several of these I received confirmation of the story I found so hard to believe, that American combat units were ordered by their officers to beat to death Germans who attempted to surrender to them. These men seem very naïve and childlike, but some of them are beginning to question the ethics of this order. One man who surrendered to a German tank crew was simply stripped of his weapons and turned loose because he