A Reprieve and a Little R&R
My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 10
Naples suffers bombing by all sides
After many weeks on the front lines, Audie Murphy and his squad are given a reprieve.
“Crawling with filth and sodden with weariness we are pulled out of the lines in mid-November. The Valley is clear of the enemy. Mount Lungo has fallen. From its heights we can see Cassino. The war drags north, it’s roar receding in the distance. Already burial squads scurry like ants over its slopes, seeking the bodies of men to whom the last order of “Forward” has been given.
“As we struggle on foot down a shell-torn road, we become giddy at the prospect of living. Despite the lateness of the year, it is a pleasant sunny day. A light breeze whispers in the trees; the earth is solid and friendly.
“The clump of our boots is like stirring music. Our veins swell to the rhythm; and we regard one another with foolish, affectionate grins. It is as simple as that. An order comes through; and you are handed back life on a platter.”
The squad is moved to a camp with tents and two squares a day. The orders are to participate in amphibious training at a beachhead near Naples.
“Discipline tightens. Night and day we spend hours executing new tactics against a supposed enemy. In full battle gear we wade to our hips in sea water and crawl through the marshes on our bellies. Our clothes are crusted with mud and salt…”
None of the troops know what the training will lead to. Rumors fly. Are they being prepared for an assault on southern France, to be sent to England for a cross-channel D-Day, for assault on some new beachhead? The dogface soldiers are always strangers to the plan.
“The men are in a dark mood. They are certain we are being prepared for slaughter. Tempers snap and fists fly at old comrades at little provocation.”
Murphy’s squad gets overnight passes to Naples.
Poor Naples. The city endures relentless bombing raids from 1940 into 1944. While under German control, the Allies bombard it continuously — first the French, then the British, and finally American bombers. Italy surrenders to the Allies on September 8, 1943, but the Germans refuse to relinquish their hold, murdering civilians and those who resist the ongoing occupation.
Then, the citizens of Naples rise up against the Nazi forces. They successfully disrupt German plans to deport Neapolitans en masse to work camps, destroy the city, and block the Allies from securing a strategic foothold. A spontaneous insurrection erupts, and despite limited weapons and organization, the Neapolitans force the German troops to retreat just before Allied forces arrive.
This dramatic rebellion is later depicted in Nanni Loy’s 1962 film “The Four Days of Naples”, which earns Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Film and Best Screenplay.
Even after Naples falls to British and American forces on October 1, 1943, the bombing continues. The Germans respond with a scorched-earth campaign, destroying communication and transportation networks, water and power grids, and mining buildings. They burn the state archives of Naples and the national library, sink ships in the harbor, and leave devastation in their wake. Within a week of its capture, however, the Allies manage to reopen the port, restoring vital access to the city.
On the night that Murphy and his squad rest and recreate in Naples, there is an air raid. Murphy doesn’t drink or smoke, but his men get drunk, and one gets rolled by a hooker, returning to camp without his coat, gear and money. Murphy is set up with a date, but he sleeps through it and the air raid as well.
“The pendulum swings with a loud tick-tock. The clock’s hands stand at three. A sprinkle of chimes spills over Naples. Slanting, yellow light from a winter sun crawls up the sides of the buildings. It is January.”
Quotes are from Audie Murphy’s autobiography, “To Hell and Back”
From Life Magazine October 18, 1943
“Last week Italy’s autumn rain was soaking the plain of Campania. It dripped on the date and peach trees, on vineyards heavy with unharvested grapes, and on the rich bottom lands north of Naples. It trickled down the necks of British and American soldiers slogging across the marshes toward the Volturno river and chilled the Germans, dug into foxholes across the river, in the shadow of Mount Massico. Somewhere in that area in the rain, the Germans would try to halt the relentless Allied advance. If they failed, the road to Rome would be open.
Behind the lines, Naples, slowly and painfully returned to normal. But the wounds of battle would not be healed for many months. The city was still practically without water, gas or electricity. In one terrible explosion on October 7, more than 100 civilians were killed when a delayed-action German mine destroyed the post office. Hungry, homeless children wandered the streets, and there was no medicine in the hospitals. German demolition squads have made a shambles of the waterfront. Shops were looted, the telephone building blown up, the University fired, and the tourist hotels ruined by Nazi troops before their retreat.”
Ch. 11: https://medium.com/@tradeswomn/loose-lips-sink-ships-a763bdd73065
