Sunteți pe pagina 1din 5

-T

PA R ]- H R E E
::

Ttahl
It was rumored that we were going to move, but of course,the " moving "
rumor is standard in our repertoire.This " rumor " insisted that were moving;
to ltaly, and sure enough. the morning of December 9, it was confirmed.
We were scheduled to leave El Aouina at 8: 00 a. m. so with the usually
orderly 3l2th manner we got started about l0:00 a. m., surprisingly fast
moving, considering past performances.On truck convoy, wo passedthrough
Tunis and Mateur and by mid - afternoon after much tiresome re - routing
and detouring reached Bizefie, our former port of entry and now our port
of embarkation. Ships were not ready for us, so we were taken outside Bizerte
to a newly d,rg turnip field and told to bivouac for the night, Tents were
hastily erected; the necessary eighteen inch by ten feet excavations and
king size fox holes were dug. It is well it was not necessary to use these
fox holes for during the night some were nristakenfor the afore- mentioned
18 inch by 10 footers. After noon C raticlns on December t0 we received
orders to break camp and tnove to the docks. As usual it began to rain as
soon as our tents were packed and all of our equipment was lying exposed
to the elements. We arrived at the docks, late afternoon, boarded British
's. The boats stayed at dock tlrat night,
manned LST's and American LCI
but about mid-morning of the lt th, hoisted anchor and joined a convoy
inthelrarborattdsai1edoutintlreMediterran€antowarc1Sici|y.

Inasmuch as the ouffit had broken up into small groups and assigned
to various boats the boys enjoyecl varied experiences during the crossing.

2 7 4
r-
The vay-age,b;e-ganon the,-morning."of ,D*eqqsbei11 _andunder an ovelc-qqJ
rkt, we staried,otT=intothe.Mediterraneai. The trip was made without in-
cident, but there are little things about it we will all remember. The gang
that rode the LCI' s can tell you it was quite an experience." Sitting one out "
in the cold darkness while the spray splashed playfully about their ankles.
Trying to keep a messkit steady on a dancing deck was quite a trick, too,
especiallyif one wasn't inclined to be a goorl sailor. The first d^y out was
quite choppy as we ploughed across the open sea, but we were off the coast
of Sicily the next d^y and the going from therein wasn't too bad.

We caught sight of the Volcano, Stromboli that night, it's red glow
standing out in bold relief against the dark background of terra firnra. The
Isle of Capri greeted us the next morning. That much storied isle was a
disappointmentto a lot of us. Perhapsit was just the wrong tirne of year
foi it to be appreciated,for its barrennessdid little to spur our imaginations.
We passeclthtbugh th'b straits between the isle and the rnainland ind no\M
had a better view of Naples, nestled at the base ,of VbsuVius,' one of the
world,soldest.and'.mosttalkedofvoIc|.o,..]:.

:
' . .
. . . - I
- .

It looked peagefulenough then, r,vith a lvipp of srnoke curling ,laiily


upward frop its crest. Little: did we think that just a short time l"ier r th;
giant would spout for{h again. Naples harbor had certainl;r gone to :war.
' '
Sunken ships, bombed out do,ck installations and water ,front buildings
caught our ,eya, as,,,ourconvqy slowly picked its way toward the lanJing.
It was a mid - afternoon, December 13, when we finally ,sei,,foot an lancl.
As wq were assembling ours-elvesand qur equipment a couple of familiar
fac,espregegted thenrsg.lo.g.Kloeckler, Amodeo, Collins and Broughton, four
of out boys who had left up for DS in North Africa, ,rrl/ere
, the lirst to make
us.feel a bit mor.q:at,home in our new.temporaly station. After a few min-
of h,andshakingan{, getting th'-elowdown from them, we were bunclled
utes *truCt
'into
t'again off Io ooi n"w tgmpora,ryabode. No one'knew. what
"oA
to expect and'when,it on",point enrouie,we stoppecl,our heartssank.'A1ong
the side of the road was a staging are^. It was flat, wet and muddy, and
for the moment r,vehad visions of two man tents slowly being sucked under
that muddy goo, but that was not to':'be,',thei
case,,We.continued on to Ba-
gnoli,'where we were quartered,for a little ,over.a week a,t,,Costenzo:'Ciano

28
College. The college boasted a very moCern series of buildings, but in ther
present condition were quite airy. Most of us were reminded of the songr
,, I dream' t I dwelled in rnarble halls " after the first night there. We cer-
tainly did - literally, and marble is certainly not the ideal bed. Our diet for
the inost of that week was C rations, urost of the time cold. After a few
clays our cooks rigged up fires outside and heated them for us hot or
cold the;r were still C rations and many a meal of Spaghettiand beef was
downed outside of camp in Bagnoli. We weren't in camp long before we
were given a " fatherly talk " from Lt. Swedberg. He had been. on DS in
Italy for soffre time before us and consequentlyhad learnedthe ropes.Vino,
senoritas,and correct bargaining for store items were the leading topics for
discussion.Sonre of us took his advice.

We had little to do around the college.A little guard duty, or perhaps


a d^y of sorne detail, so we had quite a bit of time of visit Naples and
Pompeii. In Naples, we found that Italy was the sarne as Africa with ro-
quests for ,' Chung gunr ", cigarettesancl candy. The only dillerence was
o'Bon Bon. "
that candy was called " carameli" or " chocolat" instead of
,. Mangiare" 'o
lfood; ancl Senoritas" were more frequently suggested it
seemed.Ljke typical American tourists, most of wanclered about Naples in
searchof souvenirs to senclhome. Pretty soon the topic of conversation in
the evenings was the swell deals sonre of the fellows had made with the
local merchants (most of our clealsweren' t any bargains we later found) .
Many trinkets, such as necklaces.canreos,rinss and other noveities were
displayed. Naples is ^ f.airly large city and has quite ? I'ew very modern
buiidings. We were lucky to h.avea good sized Red Cross in one of them
and it supplied us rvith a touch of horne lry clisplayng a huge Xmas tree in
its main halt. Some of the fellows went to the San Carlo Opera House for
an afternoon of music The trip from Naples to Bagnoli was made on what
we fondly terrned the Bagnoli Express The excitement that is found on
tlrese *Eyetye" trains is terrific and we always hacl a lot of laughsadding
to the general din and confusion.

Pompeii promiseclto be an interestingplace to some of us and so we


made a point of visiting it. We weren' t disappointedat all, either. With a
guidc we toured the ruins of Ancient Pompeii and found them to be in a

2c)
remarkable state of preservationin the City of Pompeii just outside the site
of the 1uins, there is a Roman Catholic Church that we are glad we clidn't
miss seeing. The interior of it is done for the most part in nrarble.Columns
of matched marble line the hallways, the blending of the grain a picture,
of perfection. Over the altar there is a painting of the Ave Maria with
actual cliamonds set into the halo and necklace. A gold organ graced a
balcony toward the rear of the hall and the inside of the dome was
covered r,vith an angelic nrural that must have taken months to do. This'
was one sight in our travels that will rernain in our memories for a long
time. It is needlessto say that true to the spirit of the 312th, skulls "found"
in the ruins at Pompeii began to adorn some of the boudoirs back at the
college.

We left Naples on f)ecember 22nd. True to fclrm it was raining and to


make things worse sorne of the trucks were without cover. Seven o'clock
that morning our rugged trip began. tt was miserable, but clespiteour great
cliscornfort,we Were rewarded by the sight of some gorgeous scenery.
The winding mountain roads took us through hamJets,perched precariously
on the edges of sheer clitTs,and from our high vantage points we could
see the country - side for miles around, rich in vineyards and orchards of-
olive trees. When we stopped for chow that evening. fires were started as
soon as we could get ofT the trucks. We were a cold bunch of Gl' s. Some
of the fellows who were lucky enough to be in the coveredtrucks, changed
into dty clothing. All of us on the open ones found ourbarracks bags
soaked, so could only t y to dty ourselveswithout toasting near the fires.
The rain stoppedand our cooks were really on the bearn, so it witsn't too
long before we had a good hot meal stowed awa)r. We felt a little rnore
tike living then Shr:rtly afterward we started ofTagarn anclcontinued steadily
until about four thirty the next morning. We had arrivecl at our new afi
base in Gioja del Colle. '[he whole outfit slept as best it could on the
trucks till sun - up, when we had breakfastand prepared to set up camp.
It was rough erecting six man tents (which temporafily housed twelve to
fifteen of us) in the mud, but it was finally accornplished.The next doy we
started to work with a vengeancehauling rocks to build pathways in the
'l'he
mud. By Christnras Fve the atea was tairly liveable. first boost our
morale was given, haprpenedthat night when a weapons carrier was backed
'l-his
up to the mess tent loaded with Xmas packages. was followed by a

30
swell turkey dinner ancl a flock of letters,

Now we hacl a job tlo, and for' the time being it tracln't much to do
with aircrafr. Living conditions had to be inrproved ancl roadways were
needed in the hangar area. It wasn't too long before hand rnatJe 'l
stoves
were provided for us, and followed shortly by local frames. he area
began to shape up nicely. Next came the days on the rock pile, or pick
and shovel work at the hangars. We began to think we werea " Repair
Depot Outfit " but along came another break which eased our griping. We
won the toss this time ancl moved into 4 school in town. Our comfortable
dty' rooms, a place to hang our clothes mess hall in the same building,
plunrbing in the latrines it was heaven to us our first building
after months pup tents, shacks and improvisations. With the arrival of the
B-24's, shovelswere discarded and tool kits opened, Skilled men worked at
their own jobs the 3l2th was putting ships in the air again.

This isn' t the end of the story for the 312th. There are pages yet to
be written. We'll be in there plugging with the hope that our next an-
niversary will find us back in the " old country'" our good ole USA.

R"agmoncl rWlanning
-'-...*.*..F--,*r
f::-::> ';''' 'Swry,l
lillnf -
I i . i lI : 1 . -i"i.1
i,'K'
t::i::',,
:!.1,i."'
,1

-31 -

S-ar putea să vă placă și