• Italy the Mainland – September – January 1944
September 29, 1943: Muddy, wet and cold-but happy! Next time we sail it will be a defiant move. Played cards all day. Sun shone all day. We were fascinated last night by flashes of gun fire. Had fresh meat twice for meals today. Some of our boys are on Isle of Capri.
September 30, 1943: some of the fellows went to town. I pulled guard from 2 to 6 pm. It seemed like an awfull long day. Jerry came over with a recon flight. Like to have scared me to death when our ack-ack cut loose. Boys say nothing of interest in town. Still full of the stench of bodies buried under debre. We are in an orchard of walnuts, oranges grapefruit tangareens. Heard from aunt Lily that sis was ill. Wish I could hear from home.
October 1, 1943: Boys took of for town again. We bought some apples and some wine for a couple handfuls of candy. Cozy, Eg and I played cards all afternoon. Played ball in forenoon. Nights are surprisingly chilly. I get two or three letters a day. Miller came in about two am with a Phillipiano Buck with him. Naples fell so guess we will move up to the front soon. Still can’t write that we are in Italy. Chow is poor. Hope we get back to Ops # 2 soon. I hope we et to see Naples.
Sept. 2-3-4-5-6- (he wrote sept but meant October), 1943: we are all packed and ready to leave. But the front is changing so fast we can’t keep up with it in our operations. Some of the fellows over to the air field have finally got one of the Jerry planes up. It is an ME-109. it is painted silver. It is very disturbing to have a Jerry plane suddenly come screaming over. At one time we saw a cub curtiss cammando, spitfire, me-109, P-38 in the air at same time. We were all on guard the other night. Cozy guarded latrine and I the pig pen. We got some good cognac. Was paid the 6th. Lots of games of chance are around. Mail is coming in from every where but home. Had an air raid and some guard threatened to shoot the majors light out if he didn’t put it out. We heard from the 1st.Sgt. that as new replacements come in we will be sent back to the states at the rate of 10% per month. But I would like to sty for the final show now. “Fik” can be had for chocolate. But that is the only thing they will give it for. We have some Italian soldiers doing K.P. for us. Nell is a wave. Boys are doing a lot of gambling. We played softball against another 82nd team. We had an awfull lot of fun. I have never seen so much rain. It rains all the time. We had steak for supper. Boronus brought the meat wagon around. It was pretty good. We all went back for seconds. Chocolate is as good as money around here. The rain is slowing the front down an awfull lot. Guess that is why we have not moved.
October 7, 1943: More rain. Can’t see how mud of France 17-18 could be worse than this Italian mud. Boys are just laying around gambling to pass time. Poker sessions in our tent every night. Mud has stopped the front, so we will probably move up soon.
October 8, 1943: Still more rain. Headquarters is finally moveing. We loaded part of tech supply out this morning. Colored Q.M. Co brought in 14 trucks to finish moveing headquarters Boronus brought fresh meat wagon around again. It was fair. Egg didn’t give a damn for it-much to our amusement.
October 9, 1943: Headquarters finished moveing today. We move to 64th wing tomorrow. We packed up so we can move in a hurry. Our kitchen is feeding now and food has improved immensley.
October 10, 1943: Moved to 64th. More rain. Had brake trouble with Egg and Dicks van. We pitched our tent in cow pasture. Some of the fellows live in cow barn. It used to be a pretty dairy. 88’s sort of knocked hell out of it. We have radio, lights in our tent. Played 6 handed pinochle.
October 11, 1943: We are all sweating out bad colds. Played softball to pass time. Chow is good. I received stationary from Helen. Still no mail from home. Still have lot of rain.
October 12, 1943: Six and eight handed pinochle is the latest 82nd fad. We move tomorrow. Bridge will be fixed by 9PM today. Captain said we will be first and only G.I.’s at our new location. We have new C.O.
October 13, 1943: On the road again. Wonderfull sights. Great Jerry camauflaug work. Salerno is ruined. Lots of good looking girls. They are not timid or shy. We set up at Sagata Monestary of Deserta. Cold and raining. Vesuveius is beautifull.
October 14, 1943: Put antennas on top of monastery. Egg and I raised heck with weather clock. My cold is awfull. More rain and fog. We live in pyramidals. Everyone else lives in buildings down town. Ride to and fro to chow. Monastery is an orphanage.
October 15, 1943: Sent into Sorrento for a watch. Seems good to be back on the air. Tom and I went into town-threw a pretty nice one. Good liquors are available. Miller pulled my night shift.
October 16, 1943: Water detail is rugged. Saw 14 inch coast gun. Attempted to ans my mail. Got watch. Cold day. Large convoys are always in sight. Had kids clean our van. Visited monastery. Padre’s go for cigarettes.
October 17, 1943: Chow is darn good. Cozy and Cling went to town. Did OK. I bought a carved box. Ity’s are handy at woodwork. Played ball with Ity kids. Played pinochle. Cozy came home lit.
October 18, 1943: Went on sick call. Doc wants to make me a “clip-Dick”.. didn’t go to town. Received pack of papers from home. Helped Engwall with motion picture. Miller entertained V.H.F. crew at a party.
October 19, 1943: My “Penos” is still getting worse. Doc went to Naples. A cold foggy day. Vesuvions is certainly beautifull. Boys certainly love Sorrento. “Engy” and I showed film again at Villa.
October 20, 1943: Still no “Penos” relief. Rash. Engy, Val and I went to Sorrento. Bought a few souviners, drank a bottle of Marcles and ate cookies. Ate a 50 cent bar. Came back and had Doc cut a cist of my Penos. No antisetic.
October 21, 1943: talk about sore. I can hardly walk. Lay in bed most of the day at 6:30 PM Jerry started bombing Naples. Last ¾ of an hour. What a sight but what death. Flares lit up everything.
October 22, 1943: Took things easy. Doctoring myself. Had a nice sunshiny day. Boys came back from Capri. McHenry and miller drank wine with Padra and had him play “Beer Barrel Poka” on church organ. Had a little mail.
October 23, 1943: I went to Sorrento. Bought quite a few articles. Prices are terribly high. War hasn’t hit this part of Italy. People are dressed well. Many speak English. Large tourist center. Another big raid on Naples.
October 24, 1943: Nights are quite cold. All the people attend church around here. Hap hamburgers for supper. Dick and I had a little cognac and vermouth. Met two girls from Naples. They were bombed out. Quite a jag on got.
October 25, 1943: Boy do I feel lousy. Bad cold and my penos is still sore. Worked all day to make up for Cozart working all night. Played 4 handed pinochle all evening.
October 26, 1943: Weather is cold, cloudy and raining. Worked 2nd shift. Sent clothes to Laundry. Weather is certainly delaying our front. Started working four channels per night. Bull session in A.C. Van.
October 27, 1943: Rained like all heck. What a beautiful sight when sun broke through. My penos is healing slow but sure. Worked from 11-2 at night. Ans my mail I received today. Rained all night.
October 28, 1943: Cozy-Egg-Cling went to Pompei. I and Mac worked all day. Cold and misty. Played a little pinochle. Boys weren’ over enthusiastic about Pompei. Egg got some nice souveniers.
October 29, 1943: Three girls from Sorrento visited Tom. Ones husband is in America. Gratefull for food, candy and cigarettes. Boys pooled $7.00 for girl. She was glad to get what we have her.
October 30, 1943: Rest of fellows went to Pompei. Sent a few things home. “Engy” and I showed film at E.M. Billet. J.U. 88 (lost or crazy) was over mess hall at 500 ft. our flights couldn’t get him.
October 31, 1943: Fair day. Some rain. Weather is keeping all our planes grounded. Received our pay and lots of mail. Folks know I am in Italy. Wish I could see sis in all her “fineary”.
November 1, 1943: Picked up projector at officers mess. Engwall and I bought several things to send home. Played poker in afternoon. My things are ready to go home. Came night and inevitable crap game. I am $65.00 richer. Big Naples raid, largest yet.
November 2. 1943:slept until 11 O’clock. Kids make big problem at mess. Dick took some pictures. My penos is about well. Worked in afternoon. Wrote a letter home. Went to work at 4 am for night shift.
November 3, 1943: Nights are cold as hell. Cleaned up to go to town. Friends came up from Sorrento. Brought some fish up. We had dinner, champagne and a movie-white cargo. Tom and I had nice time.
November 4, 1943: worked midnight shift. Cozy and I went to Sorrento. Bought several things for our families. Had best beefsteak I’ve had in years. We drove truck both ways. Sorrento is the best town yet.
November 5, 1943: Sent some things back to states. Cleaned up. Sent laundry. Profesied Naples raid. Damn big one. Received letters from Helen and Andy. The pictures were wonderfull. Gee, Helen is beautifull.
November 6, 1943: Slept late. Worked midday shift. Got a shave. Moved hospital ship to our side of gulf. Had pepper game. Saw “ITY” about foot locked. Weather is cold but no frost. Bombline is moveing more rapid.
November 7, 1943: Opened van. Played pepper gave OK about foot locker. Slept in afternoon. Rained like hell. Big convoy came in. rain kept Jerry away. Big storm at night nearly tore tent down.
November 8, 1943: Nearly washed us away last night. Dick and I went to town. Rained all day. Drank some wine and got some pictures. Had a beefsteak dinner, the best since leaving the states. Worked till ten.
November 9, 1943: Opened van. Played pepper. Storm clouds and cold windy all day. Bought some good wine for 60cents a quart. Also some good fresh goats cheese. Got out PX rations. Shot an awfull lot of bull.
November 10, 1943: Slept through breakfast, cold wind from Capri. Friends came up from Sorrento. Tom and I took them home. Cling brought quite a surprise down to tent. Egg had quite a time. Got foot locker yesterday.
November 11, 1943: Cozy, Val and I went to town. Saw Tom’s friends. Had an awfull big feed at $3.00 per. Consumed an awfull lot of cognac and white wine. Cozy really went on bat. Found taxi gas black market affair.
November 12, 1943: Sick, I wish I could die. Va. And Cozy feel same way. Cold miserable day. Drew Q.M. issue. Taxi driver came back at five. We fixed him and his Panzer unit up. Egg received two of his xmas packages. Candy!
November 13, 1943: Tom, Haines and I went to home in town. Had swell time. Best is none to good. Danced, ate and drank wine. A.M. got ruling practically puts town of limits. Dam English, got handles chains for our foot lockers.
November 14, 1943: Feel terribly bad. Cold, cold rainy day. Cozys birthday. Doc can’t help my cold much. Bronchits cough. Cozy, Egg hae been receiving packages. I work till 2 am. Had some mail. Lots of talk about move into Gaeta.
November 15, 1943: Cold is still bad. Worked my shift as usual. Also, night shift. Received lotion from Helen. More rain and cold. Pinochle is only diversion. Read Capt. Blood. Extremely bad cough tonight.
November 16, 1943: more rain. Slept at dispensary under Drs. Orders. Cleaned up and sent clothes to laundry. Rain had kept Jerry away, but also slowed the fron down. Received candy from Helen.
November 17, 1943: really feel tough. Went to Naples with Doc. Naples impressed me as being large and old fashioned in appearnce. Hospitals are being swamped. Saw municiple airport and famed “Via Roma”.
November 18, 1943: Doc kept me at dispensary until noon. More rain and cold. Lots of mist. Lots of rumors about us getting relief. Big turkey feed with all the trimmings for supper. Had milky way! (he underlined it)
November 21, 1943: Mac worked all night. Cozy and I all day. Some bad heads this morning. Sent xmas cards. Rained all day. Every “dago” goes to church. Took some cognac to Lt. Kings quarters. Guess we won’t get to go home.
November 22, 1943: slept until 10:30/ bathed and cleaned up. Sun is shinning nice. Tom had “dago” letter. Wrote Helen and mom. Sending some pictures. Shot lot of bull in R.2. Val is great character.
November 23, 1943: More rain. Wrote to Waine, Aunt Hazel and Nate sending pictures. Cold as heck. Keep to vans and stoved tent. Saw picture Marx Bros. At circus. Miller and I stayed up all night. Shot bull with Lt. Cumbine.
November 24, 1943: “Coz” woke me saying Toms friends were here “solo”. Had nice time with a drinking party. Cold and stormy as hell. Lots of mail. Egg ad I received five packages xmas from Helen, J.L Kraft and Coz review old times.
November 25, 2943: Thanksgiving. Slept two-thirds of day. Cold rainy foggy miserable day. Only highlight was big turkey supper. All the trimmings, plus all we could eat. Cozy played for officers. Is completely black outside at 4:30. We got 1 Jerry bomber at 20,000 over Naples at 2PM. R bailed into drink. Came back at night 50 strong. Biggest raid yet, Jimmy got it tonight, torn all to hell. Ask Mac to write his mom and sweetheart. The bastards!
November 26, 1943: Opened Rec#2. cleaned up remaking my bed with clean sheets. Boy what a fort-sack! Cozy and Egg took in E.M. dance. I worked till ten. Had letter from sis. Wish everybody would write more often.
November 27, 1943: New mem came up from H.Q.’s. entered papers for permanent flying duty. Nice day. Slept in afternoon. Cozy and I couldn’t sleep. Had rat trouble Sat up till 2AM playing pinochle. Drank coffee.
November 28, 1943: Missed breakfast. New men learn F.O.ing quickluy. Sunday brings all “Ity’s” to town. 100 African Wellingtons hit Jerry Air base. Made van rounds, shot bull. Poor chow to day.
November 29, 1943: terrible “oranges” (weather) Bud flew his A-36 into mt. Don’t know why we fly in this soupy weather. Busy D.F. day. Lots of mail, good steak for chow. More rain.
November 30, 1943: Opened Rec#2. Oranges are still bad. Slept from 9 to 11AM. Have a new toast fad. Cozy and I play an awfull lot of pinochle. Naples shipping averages 20 ships per day. Butterfingers at 4 AM.
December 1, 1943: Slept late. Worked 9 to noon. Paid at noon. Val, Cozy, Zujus, Miller and I threw one in memory of Jimmy. Didn’t get to bed until midnight. Sun shone again today for change.
December 2, 1943: Toms friends came up from Sorren to trade shifts with Cozy. Had E. M. dance. I worked all night. Had midnight snack with Tyler and Lt. Mcluir. Got some mail.
December 3, 1943: More rain and cold. C.O. says “no dice” on my doing any more army flying. Wrote several letters. Worked 3 to 6 PM. Had good steak for supper. Dennis letter came back. Saw show.
December 4, 1943: Fair day. Cold but no rain. Front is moveing again. Bought PX rations. My day of. Cozy and I had “old board” today. Played poker and shot dice until 2 AM. Won $35.
December 5, 1943: Opened Rec. #2. Dick and I went to town. Saw show “I married a witch”. Walked up to Sorrento by way of Mt. Train. What a hike. We worked all night. Sun shone nice today.
December 6, 1943: Egg and Cozy went to town. Met two nice girls. I wrote some letters and sent a $75.00 money order home. Had a good bath. Saw double feature with Engwalls machine.
December 7, 1943: Egg, Cozy and I met 3 girls in Sorrento. Took them to dinner at Pops. Our taxi broke down. Managed to get back for chicken dinner and party with Lt. Cumbrine.
December 8, 1943: Bad headache. Toms friends liked to have threw me from frying pan to fire. Wrote several letters Rec. two xmas cards. Letters from Helen, Doris, Hazel. Worked until midnight.
December 9, 1943: Bombs and shells keep up a constant thunder. Worked double shift to be of Sunday. Had turkey for supper. Val and Cozy went to town. Saw show. Most famous saying “I like you”.
December 10, 1943: Opened Rec. Val and I went down to bar to get ready for dance. Cognac had no affect. Had good dance. Rained. Took Cozy-Vals friends home early. Cozy really went on but had to put him to bed.
December 11, 1943: Receive little mail. Worked 2nd shift. Beautifull day. Ocean sights are beautifull .had good steak for dinner. Worked until midnight. Wrote several letters. Rec’d a few.
December 12, 1943: Rained in forenoon. Lt. K. Cozy and I went to town. Had grand meal. Drank a little wine. Pop’s prices came up. Had quite a time in villa. Came back to S. Agata. Had good cup coffee went to bed.
December 13, 1943: Slept till 11:30. took some pictures. Helped Egg fix stove. Worked in afternoon. Wrote Beez letter. Had birthday card from aunt Hazel. Rumor of getting Wacs for xmas dance. We hope.
December 14, 1943: My day off. Made most of it by sleeping reading and writing. Saw good picture “stranger in town” Egg took boys to town. Rats steal everything they can pack of. Nice sunshiny day.
December 15, 1943: Opened Van. Took bath cleaned up. Cozy, Egg and I went to Pops. Had grand meal. Saw show Seven daughters at Pi-ano. Lots of air activity. Something big is up wrote Nell.
December 16, 1943: Days are like spring back home. Boy what this sunshine doesn’t do to Italy. Chow is poar. But we had steak for supper. Mail situation is bad.
December 17, 1943: Dance tonight. I worked alnight. Had package from Bill and Erma. Pictures came out good. Bill finds Tina a pain in neck. He and Miller were liquored up.
December 18, 1943: Have bad cough. Doc worked me over. 1 out of 25 St. walking women in Naples are free of disease. Beats me how the guys can chase around. Had good shave and hair cut.
December 19, 1943: Slept late. Drew clothing issue. Egg and Cozy went to Sorrento for dinner. I wrote several letters . had nice xmas package from kids in California. Played ping pong.
December 20, 1943: Opened Rec. went back to bed until noon. Rec film from Helen. Getting lots of xmas packages with good eats in them. Saw show. Good Technicolor short of war in N.A. rained like all hell!
December 21, 1943: What stinking chow. Played ping pong all afternoon. Drew P.X. rations. Received quite a bit of mail. Rained hard all day. Stove works fine. Coz and I wrote letters and shot bull in tent.
December 22, 1943: Slept late. Norman is in hospital. Worked 12 to 3. rained all day. Had Pck. From kids in Pocy. Wrote several letters stove makes tent quite injoyable. Flying is impossible. Can’t fly, can’t fight.
December 23, 1943 Bought a quart of champagne (unknown to Egg and Cozy) for xmas eve. I’ve never seen such rain. It pours down. Worked 2 to 6. same shift tonight. Had some swell sugar reports. Good pork chops for supper.
December 24, 1943: Bathed and cleaned up. Bought the boys some cognac-with 190 alcohol. Doesn’t seem like Christmas eve. VHF men threw big one in Tommys tent. Lots of songs and cut ups.
December 25, 1943: Slept late. Dick and I got started about 3 PM. Lovely dinner. Officers and E.M. mingled freely. Chow in officers mess. One big dance for all. Everybody full of xmas cheer.
December 26, 1943: Spent the day recuperating. Chow is poar. Had a little mail. Reconstructed events of past two days. Rained all day xmas. Italian funerals are short and quite odd.
December 27, 1943: Tina (Cozys pal) stayed all night. Hell of a wind has started. Cozy, Egg went to town. Wind is cold-ruined our tent. We had to sleep in Rec. Vans.
December 28, 1943: Spent horrible night. Had nice letter from sis. Wind still blowing worked all day getting a new tent up. Chow is poar. Feel half sick, cold, wet.
December 29, 1943: Slept till 9:30-had “short arm” had good quart apple cider. Got shave and hair cut from tony. Legans is getting pretty chicken. Roast beef for supper. Egg and I put stove in tent. Took good bath.
December 30, 1943: A slow day for me. Meals were bad. A cold wind blew from sea. Cozy, Egg and I went to “Pops” for ravioli, no mail! Have new years invitation to dinner. Wish it would snow!
December 31, 1943: Rained all day. Tent leaks like a sieve. Dick helped us put another one over it. Saw the new year in with a qt. Of champagne. Bubs crew threw quite a party. Poar old Cozy.
January 1, 1944: Had wonderfull 6 course dinner at Pops. 13 year old champgne. Cold day. Dance a flop. Wish I could call mom again and Helen. Worked from midnight until 6 AM.
January 2, 1944: Slept until 3 PM. Cleaned up and worked 3 to 6 in the afternoon. Chow is poar. Heard big Xmas command performance. Shot bull with gang in Toms transmitter.
January 3, 1944. Paid at 9AM. Quite a crap game. Chow was poar to eat. My day of. Played 500 rummy in orderly room. Saw show “Ladies Day”
January 4. 1944: good pancakes for breakfast. Pulled 1st shift. Cold wind and rain all day. Good raost pork for supper. Worked night shift and played poker in Rec#2.
January 5, 1944: Sunshine took some pictures. Saw Alan Ladd “Lucky Jordan” A-36’s, P-40’s dished out lot of hell today. Cozy, Egg and I talked of post war plans.
January 6, 1944: Such a cold miserable wind. Weather can change in half an hour. Those poar inft. Boys. Hope Russians soon break this deadlock up.
January 7, 1944: Freezes ice at nights. Up all night last night. Slept most of day. Val moves his tent. Gave Krumerine his pictures. Some Lt.
January 8, 1944: Lat pictures were terrible. Tom tired to get me and Tess together. Don’t want anything to do with Dago women. Clair, Dick and I played Pinochle.
January 9, 1944: Rain again today. Wrote Nell a letter. V-mail from home Dec 27. chow is poar. Saw show “holy matrimony”. Played ping pong doubles. Teena was with Cozy again.
January 10, 1944: Rather a cold day. “Dago’s” are stealing us blind. Eggs school buddy dropped in. Happy reunion. Played a little poker. Worked 9-12 midnight. Glen stayed all night.
January 11, 1944: Rose at 10 AM. John worked my shift while we went to Pops. Had good ravioli and roast beef. Played 500 rummy at orderly room. English soldier impersonateing American officer.
End of this section: Anzio starts on the 12th and runs through May 31st and already sent out to family.
William Russell Hinckley wrote a diary through the war. Most of it is in his small five year diary he kept. For some reason he wrote from January 12 to February 4 1944 on stationary. I do not know why but suspect that it is because he was in on the landing at Anzio and they did not want papers on them to give the enemy clues on anything they had done so he wrote this on stationary and then retrieved his diary later. I follow his spelling, most notable is that he spelled off as of. This section runs through May 31, 1944.
Dear Diary,
Here it is Jan. 12. Eggy’s friend left this morning. St. Agata is still thriving due to American Soldier trade. I played 500 Rummy in the orderly room until 4:30AM Had just crawled into bed, when Egg woke us. We are going back to Headquarters.
January 13:
Am early to breakfast and loaf until noon. Close down at noon and “tare down & load up”. Just three months ago to the day, that we arrived here. We have all become attached to the place. Cpt called a meeting and told us that we are invasion bound. A “grubstake show” How right his words of warning turned out to be.
January 14. V.H.F. moved a day ahead of schedule. A long grueling ride back the sorrento peninsula to the main land. Past beautiful villas and vacation camps. Over much bombed roads and by destroyed factories. Vesusvious slips by our right as we pull into naples.
I detest Naples, dirty! And of oh! So ancient design. It smells! We climb the hills behind Naples pass the municipal airfield (now a bomber and fighter base) and pull into headquarters.
For Cozy and I, it is a quick meal, a fast ride to 2691S. H.W. and the beginning of a long ride back to St. Agata. Steering gear trouble put us into a tank trap. Two hours delay and we are on our way. A rough ride and an awful tragic accident in castlemore. A Englishman and our truck. We handed the Englishman over to an M.D.S. station and went on to Sorrento. Here we paid our last visit to Pop, Had our last good meal.
Went on to St. Agata all the plotters and Officers were throwing on last one. Reported to Capt. Weizel and helped Cozy drink a quart of champagne. Morning came awful early and we took of again. This time on top of moody Howards truck. Had a qt. To keep from freezing to death.
Lots of traffic, big show coming soon. Went from stageing area to chow at 64th fighter wing. Saw Spec, simmons, west and boys. Just got back to hdqts when Val asked for two men to drive a ration truck in D-Day. Miller and I volunteered. We threw our stuff into the 2 ½ tonner, and took of for Ops # 2 again. Their we loaded our rations and gasoline and went to Kings Forest in Naples. Where we spent the first night. Next day was spent in water proofing our truck. We are hauling rations so we eat good.
Dark and cold as heck in forest. All invasion stuff is being water proofed here. Three nights and two days we spent in this restricted area. My guess is it will come of the 22nd of Jan. Bright and early we pulled out and headed for the docks. Our truck is running like a “maytag” since the water prooffing. How in the hell we will hit the “drink” and pull to shore beats me. We loaded on an English manned L.S.T. #62. First thing to do is steal, I mean “moonlight requisition” all the rations we can.
Our beds are in the back of our truck. Our LST is the cleanest English ship I have ever been on, chow is fair. But the yankee boat next to us is really putting out the chow. We were supposedly restricted to the boat. But we stood on shore in front of it, just because we hated to leave shore. Three nights were spent on board while the ship was in dock. By now we are all filthy and with out showers or clean clothes we present a mangy looking crew.
We have divided forces, so if are ship is lost we will not loose the whole outfit. 20% of us are going in D-Day. The rest will come in D-five. Anchor is hoisted, and we pull out of a much bombed harbor, heavy with allied shipping.
We travel north and west along the mainland, passing between Ischia (sp) and the mainland. We come into a cove not fifteen miles above Naples that is heavy with invasion ships making the appointed rendevous. Native “dagoes” were fast to row along side our boat and sell everything from nuts & apples to liquers.
The invasion shipping all piled in, in the next two days. Crap games and all kinds of card games run twenty hours a day. Little is said about the show, except for a few scattered guesses. Most talk is of home and regular G.I. stuff.
We pull out the 21st tension is keyed up to the boats speed. Pretty high at last come the briefing, just below Rome at the towns of Anzio and Nettuno. Beaches are bad. English 1st division above, rangers take the towns, American 3rd division below. Intelligence shows two “jerry” divisions in Rome vicinity with twenty or thirty tanks within two days he can bring as many more men from Northern Italy.
Object, to aid and assist in the capture of Rome.
Now we sweat out H-Hour- (spmJan-22) which is tomorrow. Lots of time is spent going over maps showing routes to our rendevous point. We go in D-Day. Joe, Capt Jordan and I have f.m. set up on ships top deck by two. One of the blackest nights Ive seen. Show starts on time, no sound, just brilliant flashes of the naval bombardment. Our radio net keeps an hourly watch. About 5 pm reports begin to drift in. All landings successful, operations going forward as arranged. First eight waves ashore, before meeting opposition. Rangers take both towns in twenty minutes, complete surprise.
Dawn finds us a couple miles off shore, with nothing but shipping as far as we can see. As we continue toward shore we taste our first action. One Jer. 88 st looks to easy. We anchor about 500 yards off shore an LCI burns on the beach, victims of a mine. Ten minutes later a large yankee mine sweep hits another and sinks in three minutes. Seven men saved as if this were a signal all hell broke loose from then on. God Jerry made it miserable but we were lucky. Eight bombs fell within a radius of 50 yards to us. I have never felt so helpless. What a barrage our ack-ack puts up. Sure I was scared. Scared to death. We unloaded onto our L.C.T. and hit the beach. I have never been so thankful for land.
Water came above our running boards. We stalled on the beach just at deep dusk. An engineer “cat” pulled us out to the road. Black as ive ever seen it and us trying to find the meeting place. We dewater proofed at an M.P. station three trucks of our unit spent the night not 100 yards from the beach. All night long 88’s pounding away at us. From then until D-5 it was hell and more hell. We got into operations Hink cooking and seat out evening artillary and planes. Cozy, egg and bunch came in D-4 most intensified raid, Hospital ships sunk and burning ammunition dumps and boats (large and small) going sky high. Dog fights all the hell that makes a war.
Have seen no civilians in five days. Concussions from shells and bombs are terrific. Lord it’s rugged sweating them out especially “whistling willie”. We move to new location in big beautiful park of Anzio. Bare Dago boy came to Dr. with holes in his head the size of quarters. Beach head hasn’t changed size in days. Fighting is very intensive. We lived in Jerry “mortor” house lots of machine gun nests, old tanks, etc, lying around.
Danger from falling shrapnel is high. Lots of near misses and holes in tents. Our pyrimidal is comfortable but not as safe as our fox holes. Ive dug so many lately and lived under ground so damn long I begin to look like a mole.
(The stationary diary ends here and takes up in his small diary.)