Africa: Across the Mighty Ocean

Map of the Allied movement through North Africa, Sicily, Italy and southern France

On about October 10 we were confined to Camp Pickett and told we would be leaving the area but nobody had the slightest idea where or when. All vehicles were waterproofed and readied for an amphibious landing but no one was impressed as me because they had just finished a practice landing only a week before I arrived. I was trying to make friends but it was difficult many of the men were regular Army or were in the first draft and had been in the Army almost two years. I was considered a raw recruit and the lowest man on the pole and few people wanted to be seen talking to me.

I am not the most social person anyway so it was partly my fault. My moral could have been better but I wasn't bitter about it I was sure that we would soon be going to war and I knew I could prove myself there. On about October 15, 1942 we boarded a train to travel about 70 miles to the port of embarkation in Norfolk, Virginia. We arrived at the port and everyone was struggling with all their gear. We were called aboard the ship by name and checked off a list. Then we struggled up the gangplank with two full bags and a pack along with our rifle .

The ship we were boarding was the "Charles Caroll" it was a new ship and was run by a new Coast Guard crew. We were all new at the things we were about to encounter. After a couple days of loading trucks, tanks and artillery on board we put out to sea. The fourth day out, it was my birthday and I was on my way to war It wasn't the happiest of birthdays but I imagine there were many other men that had birthdays on their way to war.

I was a couple years younger than most of the other men and considerably more naive about some things. I didn't use fowl language that the others had become accustomed to using. They all thought I was queer so I had to cultivate the use of filthy language. Ernie Pyle, the famous war correspondent, said the infantry man used the filthiest language of any branch of the service. He justified it as to the fact that they lived so close to death and such a miserable existence.

On our third day at sea our orders were opened and we learned our destination. We were headed for Casablanca in North Africa. We were told that resistance was expected to be light but we were not told we would be fighting the French. This was the largest convoy to cross the ocean and go into combat. There were 850 ships in the but the most I could see and count was about 35, the rest were over the horizon and couldn't be seen. Each ship carried the mix of a combat unit so if one ship went down it wouldn't take out all the artillery or all armor. We had a little bit of everything. Each morning when I went to breakfast I would count all the ships to see if any had been sunk during the night. Fortunately I always counted the same number and this helped my morale. It meant the enemy still hadn't discovered us.

We spent two weeks zig-zaging our way over the three thousand miles to the Mediterranean Sea. Time went by slowly, I spent most of my waking hours sitting on the fantail, nobody passed by this area so the sergeants couldn't find me to put me on some stupid detail. I spent my time there reading paperback novels. I think I read about six books during the whole trip. There were many poker games going on in the evening but my total worth was only about two dollars and fifty cents. I got night watch a couple of times where we stood with the sailors. Most of the time it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face let alone a submarine periscope trailing though the water. I always ended up with eye strain from staring into the dark. After four hours I was always ready for a hot cup of coffee in the galley before going to bed.

One day my platoon leader passed out hand books that told about the customs and habits of the north African natives. These we all read thoroughly and discussed as a group. A few days later the lieutenant brought out on deck what we were told was a secret weapon it was called a Bazooka. It was a shoulder held rocket launcher that fired a rocket with a shaped charge. The shaped charge we found out later would punch a hole through three inches of armor plate. The first person to fire it, fired at a box thrown overboard. He fired with his back to us and as he turned around we saw his face was streaked with blood from the back blast of the rocket. He was taken to the ship's hospital, it wasn't serious but we learned that whoever was going to fire this weapon needed facial protection so we wore a gas mask. Later models corrected the problem so protection was not needed.

About four days before landing there was a terrible storm. It lasted almost three days. The waves came over the bow of the ship and the water ran off the fantail but I didn't give up my secret hiding place. I just adjusted to a higher elevation and continued to read paperbacks. During the storm the sailors had a daily job of going below deck to tie down equipment that had broken loose. I was glad I didn't have to help them. It looked to me to be a very dangerous job and I was happy it was left for the sailors. Of course none of them wanted to go with us soldiers when we left the ship. On the November 8, 1942 at about two o'clock in the morning the ship dropped anchor, the Higgins boats or LCIs (landing craft Infantry) were lowered into the water. The anti-tank platoon's jeeps and 37mm guns were loaded before the troops went over the side.

Fedala: Operation Torch

There were still eight foot waves leftover from the storm that were rocking the boats. It was so dark, I don't know how the sailors got that heavy equipment loaded without putting a hole in the bottom of the boats. I couldn't see how or what was being done all I could do was take care of myself. I went over the side about 4 AM. it was still dark and I climbed down the cargo net with much difficulty as it was my first time. Everyone else had practiced during maneuvers. I dropped into the bottom of the boat with a sound thud. I checked myself all over but there wasn't even a bruise. After the rest of the squad dropped into the boat we pulled away from the side of the ship and went in circles as the rest of the boats were loaded.

Third Division Assault on Fedala November 1942.

While we waited for the other two ant-tank squads the battleships started shelling the beach and other targets. When all the boats were our three boats headed for the beach and dry land as shells screamed overhead. As soon as the LCI turned toward shore and the boat picked up speed the tops of the waves came in on us. We couldn't have gotten wetter if we had walked ashore. About fifteen minutes from shore an enemy shore battery opened up but fortunately they were firing at the ships out at sea. Our ships returned fire and must have hit their ammo supply because there was a huge explosion and a mushroom cloud then all was quiet.

After the shore battery was silenced our LCI picked up speed. I guess the coxswain thought the battle had been won but we still had yet to hit the shore and we certainly didn't know what awaited us. I imagined that we would be facing machine guns and maybe never get out of the boat. All that thinking came to an end when the boat came to a stop on the sandy beach. The ramp came down instantly and I ran through knee deep water and continued to run until I hit dry sand. Then I realized that we weren't drawing any fire.

I felt kind of silly when I stood up to watch the jeep and anti-tank gun coming out of the boat. They seemed to do just fine until the jeep hit the loose sand where it promptly got stuck.

We were about two miles north of Fedala, Morocco. While we were unloading the jeep to make it lighter an airplane came over and strafed the beach. I think I was the only one to fire back and as the airplane flew away I realized that neither one of us had done any good with the shooting. We continued to unload the jeep and then pushed it up over the beach dunes to solid ground. Then we had to go back and carry the heavy boxes of ammunition up the lose sand. This whole operation took about 45 minutes. As we were loading the last few things into the jeep artillery rounds started to fall around us as if somebody didn't want us around. They fired about ten rounds at us until they redirected at some more landing craft coming in.

As we moved out to our objective I saw one LCI take a direct hit and sink in about ten seconds. I said a nasty word and asked the person nearest me if he saw the same thing. He said he did but there was nothing we could do so we continued on our way. A few minutes later a train was coming across in front of us, we stopped uncoupled our anti-tank gun, brought it into action ready to put a round though the boiler. Fortunately for them D Company was just ahead of us and stopped the train before we did the damage. They claimed the honors of capturing several high ranking officers, both French and German.

My anti-tank squad pulled around the stopped train and continued to our objective. We were now out in front but there was no resistance and D Company occupied their time taking prisoners. We reached our objective about 8:00 AM. It took another hour to dig our gun emplacement, the first one ever in a combat situation. We were ready to blast anything coming up the coastal road. As the day progressed I dug my foxhole and lined the bottom with some cane poles that were growing near by. About 1400 this guy John Kovacick from D Company came by. I didn't know him but he hit me up for some money because he said he knew where he could get some wine. I gave him all I had, $2.50 and he left. He came back twenty minutes later with two bottles he purchased from a local farmer.

He offered me a drink. It tasted refreshing but was well watered. Around 1630 we heard a large explosion out toward the ocean. Within three minutes there were two more and later we found out that a German sub had sunk three of our transport ships. As the sun went down we all started to get chilled because our clothes were still quite wet from the landing and our officers hadn't learned that it would have been much more comfortable to have worn woolen clothing. After this landing we always wore wool even in the middle of summer. I stood guard on the anti-tank gun until 2400 then I laid down in my foxhole to go to sleep.

I was so cold that I just laid there and shivered the rest of the night. On day two, Lieutenant Shultz and I took a jeep and went to reconnoiter the area. We drove through B Company and came on to one of their outposts where two men that had been stabbed with bayonets. One was dead and the other still alive. We got the live one into the jeep and took him back to the aid station. These were the only combat casualties I saw on the African landing.

On the third day after landing the French capitulated and our war was over with the French on Nov. 11, 1942. This same day in 1917 incidentally was Armistice Day in WWI. That is why I will never forget it.

A Land of Flies and Dysentery

On the fourth day after landing we ate another breakfast of cold C Rations. We then pulled our AT gun out of the position that we dug for it three days earlier. We loaded all our extra gear on the jeep and started hiking down the road. The farthest I had ever walked at one stretch, in my life was maybe four or five miles. On this particular day we walked about twelve miles — five miles in the morning, because we got a late start, and then about seven in the afternoon. By the time we stopped I was double dog tired. Our bivouac area was just off the side of the road.

That night it rained, so I got under the gun cover which kept me dry on top, but I was sleeping in a slight depression and when I awoke in the morning I was lying in about two inches of water. I was so stiff and sore from the previous day's hike that I could only shuffle around like a little old man and no way could I walk like a conquering warrior. More cold C Rations were consumed for breakfast, and we started hiking again. I very definitely thought I was going die in this war without having the enemy ever firing a shot at me. After going only about two miles, about 30 trucks came up and stopped by our marching column. The column stopped and a couple minutes latter we got orders to board the trucks. God these were the most beautiful Army trucks in the whole world.

Rabat, Morocco

Nobody knew it but those trucks kept me from dying on the side of the road. They took us about 30 miles down the road to the city of Rabat, the capitol of Morocco we were taken to the city park outside of town.

We offloaded and found ourselves in a eucalyptus grove with a citrus grove a block away on one side and an airport about a thousand yards away on the other. We pitched our pup tents in the shade of the tall trees. The kitchen was set up and we had our first hot meal in about six days. For the moment everything was very pleasant.

The climate was still very mild with 80 degree days and 60 degree nights. In the morning the wealthy French ladies would ride through the area on their blooded steeds and look down on the soldiers camped in their park as so much garbage littering the area. There were many French land owners that lived on huge plantations. They used Arab labor to work the plantations and were exploiting them to the extreme. While the plantation owners lived in huge homes and owned three or more cars, the Arab workers lived in hovels usually behind the barn.

I also saw rich Arabs exploiting the poor everywhere I looked I saw poverty while the wealthy farmers lived in luxury while their fields were tilled to perfection by animals and cheap peasant labor. I didn't like the Arabs because they would lie, cheat and deceive you whenever possible. They could never be trusted but no one living on this earth needed to be exploited as they were.

After we were in Rabat about four days General Patton came by to give us a little speech. We all gathered in the grandstand at a near by racetrack. We were all sitting when his command car drove onto the track. As he entered we came to attention he said "at ease" and ordered us to be seated. Then he proceeded to speak, we all expected some praise for our landing in North Africa instead we were thoroughly reamed out. He told us we were the worst and sorriest excuse for soldiers he had ever seen. As I look back on the whole operation, it is true that compared to later operations it was really bad. We lost so many LCIs on the landing that higher command was thinking about not using them again. The problem was that the Navy didn't know how to operate the boats. They had always been operated by the Army before. The Navy coxswains were not running the boats far enough up on the beach so the boat would turn sideways in the surf and then the large waves would turn the boat over.

A day after we were chewed out by the General Patton, I was picked to go to the city and guard the Arab section and not let any GIs enter that part of the city. I think somebody goofed because I was there all day without any relief. The Arab police that I was working with were polite enough to invite me to have lunch with them. It was a large vegetable salad, in a huge bowl. Everyone sat around the bowl and reached in with their unwashed hands and ate. They also broke off hunks of bread from a large round loaf. I ate sparingly trying to avoid where they were eating from It was a wonder that I didn't get dysentery.

I was finally relieved about 5:00 so I went to a French restaurant to eat because I was told that I wouldn't get picked up to go back to camp until 8 o'clock. I looked around town for a short time until hunger overtook me and I started to look for a place to eat. It was about 5:30 when I went in this place that looked fairly decent. I went in and found I was the only one in the restaurant, because the French eat around 8 or 9.

The waiter showed me to a booth. I took off my helmet and put it on the floor and I placed my rifle against the side of the booth. The waiter came with a menu that was all in French. I asked the waiter to recommend the specialty and waited. I was first served a half a liter of wine and French bread. After about a half an hour the entree arrived. It turned out to be half a grilled chicken, served with fresh garden peas and a salad and I was very surprised that it was very good. As I was finishing my dinner the normal clientele started to arrive.

Algerian Francs 1942

The women were wearing long evening gowns and the men were dressed in tuxedos. They looked at me like I was an old goat that came in from the barn yard and was occupying the booth. The waiter brought my bill which came to about a dollar seventy-five and I left a fifty cent tip and got out of there before all the daggers coming my way did any damage. The French in North Africa were not in favor of the American Army being there at all because the rich farmers were all making high profits selling products to Germany.

I knew they had some hardships because they were burning alcohol in their three- and four-year-old Citeron automobiles and they weren't getting gasoline or new cars. Most trucks and buses were using charcoal burners, what I mean is they had charcoal converters to create a gas that would burn in the engines. I also don't think our military thought very highly of the French military. We could never trust them to hold up their end with the Arab infantry. The Arabs only joined the army to get food and clothing.

Oujda

Most of them were just ignorant peasants. Our stay in the city of Rabat was short lived. We were there only about three weeks when we moved to Oujda, a dirty filthy Arab town about 15 kilometers east of the Algerian border. The First Battalion was given guard duty on an airfield about five miles from town. I never did go to town on leave as many people did. I passed through the town maybe five or six times but the lepers begging on the streets completely turned off all my switches. The weeks rolled by as we guarded the airport from airborne invasion. We also sent out patrols along the Spanish Moroccan border.

Patrols were made up of four or five jeeps with four men per jeep. We were very heavily armed with land mines, 50 and 30 caliber machineguns, hand grenades and enough rations and water for five days along with two or three radios. I went on a couple of these patrols and it was fun just being out rambling over the countryside and occasionally visiting old French Foreign Legion outposts. It brought back old memories of reading Beau Gest.

While at the airbase we saw many changes. When we first arrived the French crews were flying old World War One type, triplane bombers our flyers were all flying P40s and even they were getting old. These were given to the French pilots and they went crazy with them because they were always doing aerobatics that our pilots were forbidden to do. Our air crews got P39s for only a couple weeks until we found out they wouldn't pull out of a vertical dive, so they were also given to the French.

The Oujda Airfield was not the nicest place in the world to be while we were there I got a good case of dysentery just before Christmas and was in the infirmary until after New Year's eating sulfa and bismuth.

It snowed a couple days before New Year's so I was glad to be inside. We also had to put up with several windstorms that made things very unpleasant by blowing pea gravel though the air. Everyone wore safety glasses during these storms and everyone was happy when they were over. About the middle of February General Truscott, our Third Division commander who had assisted the failed British raid on Dieppe as a U.S. military observer started a training schedule based on the British commando training. He wanted the third to be as much like the commandos as possible.

During this training period that went on for a good three months, 1,000 men were transferred to rear echelon units and some were even sent back to the U.S. To get to this point in conditioning we spent long hours running obstacle courses. We also did many 35 mile hikes. Another little gem we had to endure was to do five miles in an hour or less before breakfast. This was done each and every day that we didn't do a 35 miler. We also had to do 12 miles in three hours, the normal distance for troop movement is two and a half miles per hour. Our goal was to do 35 miles in ten hours. This was done with combat packs, rifles, and ammunition.

When men that couldn't take this training dropped out we needed replacements to fill the vacancies. Audie Murphy, the famous Congressional Medal of Honor winner, was one of these replacements. We also had many days of live ammo practices to get the men used to close artillery and mortar support. Mortar shells were dropped within 200 to 300 feet of the troops as they moved forward. My platoon practiced with German land and magnetic mines. We fired our anti-tank guns at moving targets, played around blowing things up using primer cord and shaped charges and in general just having a good time. It was fun and we learned a lot.

This training went on for almost three months and by the later part of April we were in the best condition and were ready for the real test. All this time we had lived in pup tents which brought out the American ingenuity. The pup tent is made by fastening two shelter halves together each person had only half a pup tent so you always had to team up with another person. The other party had better be someone you could get along with very well because you lived so close.

One way we separated our beds was to dig a trench between the two so you could sit up with your feet in the trench. This trench was about six feet long, 14 inches wide, and about 20 inches deep. Then the trench was lined with card board from ration boxes, also ration boxes were flattened and used to keep the dampness from coming up from the ground where you slept. Then straw filled mattress covers were put on that so it wasn't too bad to sleep on. Each soldier had to dig up all this material on their own, which reminded me of a bunch of sparrows at nesting time.

Material was gathered to build a front with a door also tables were made to hold small items like a book and a bottle for a candleholder. Other things the men made were windmill washing machines: a propeller-powered a plunger in a gallon can which would hold ones underwear. If you wanted to wash your sox you had to wait until the underwear was finished, but they usually did a good job. It was true that we were living under very primitive conditions and doing a lot of training and physical conditioning but it seemed like we were doing nothing to end the war.

All winter we sat guarding the Spanish Moroccan border while the 1st, 9th and 34th divisions did all the fighting during the winter of 1942-43 with all the mud, rain and even a little snow. About 1,500 men from the 15th and 7th Infantry Regiments volunteered to go with the divisions on the front. They wouldn't take anyone from the 30th Infantry because we were supposed to be also guarding General Patton's Seventh Army headquarters. He needed to be well-guarded because he and his staff were planning the invasion of Sicily.

He wanted the Third Division and all the rest of his army to be the best-trained invasion force in the world. While guarding the airport and patrolling the Spanish Moroccan border and keeping up our training schedule, several things happened to the Air Force unit that was stationed there. When we first arrived, they were flying P40s. These were replaced by the P39 Air Cobras. The Cobras were supposed to be better tank busters because they had a 37mm cannon that fired through the propeller shaft. The planes were a little faster than the old P40s but they didn't fly very well. The pilots tried them out shortly after they arrived and found out they would not pull out of a vertical dive. We lost two pilots one afternoon trying to prove that it was not case.

A very short time later both the P40s and P39's were given to the French Air Force. They were still flying WWI triplanes, the best airplanes they had were a few old Curtis P38s purchased from America before the Germans invaded France. Our Air Force then got the new A20s. The A20 was a twin engine attack bomber with a crew of two. The pilots liked them because they were not only fast but they had a much greater range. The French pilots went nuts with their new toys. They used the water tower at the base as a racing pylon, they also did slow rolls over the air field. Our pilots were forbidden such antics. Because the French pilots were so crazy and flew with such abandon, they were a danger to our people.

Another thing that happened before we left the airport was when a paratroop regiment came over the field to practice a low level drop. They flew over 2-300 feet and tumbled out of their C47s. Three were killed and about 20 had broken legs and other injuries, it was just too damn low. Needless to say it brought our ambulances and medical crews into action. I honestly believe the paratroops lost more people to jumping errors than they did to exposure to enemy fire.

The airborne troops had their screw-ups later in Sicily and then in the D-day operations across the English Channel and even later in the Market Garden jump in Holland. All of these operations needed better planning. One of the few places the jump forces did well was in southern France. The paratroopers were excellent fighters but, like the Marines, they were always light in armament. You can't always win with just rifles and machineguns. You sometimes need heavy artillery, large explosives and even napalm at times. Enough on my thoughts about paratroopers.

In the latter part of February 1943 we moved from the airport and into the mountains south of Oujda about five miles from town. We stayed there about two months as our training intensified. During all this training, I finally learned how to hike. One of the things I did was get a pair of shoes about a half size larger and I would wear two pairs of socks. It got to the point where the 35-mile hike was just as easy as a 20-mile hike. These long marches certainly paid off later.

While at this latest campsite we were visited by both General Patton and General Truscott. They flew in separate Piper Cubs. Both planes landed on a dirt road by our kitchen tent. As they inspected the area, they saw the slit trenches everyone had in their tents. General Patton told us we looked well-prepared for an attack. Both generals stayed for lunch and left shortly after to inspect other units.

Sometimes after returning from jeep patrols, the men would do a little hunting. One time they came back with a wild pig they had killed. It was a sow and they brought back its two little piglets just a few days old. Someone went to town and got some rubber nipples and bottles and we fed the little pigs for two months. Sergeant Partridge fed them as they got older and they followed him everywhere like he was their mother. We called him Mother Partridge.

It was very entertaining to see the sergeant walk through the company area with the two little pigs tight on his heels making little grunting sounds as they went. The reason we kept the pigs as mascots was because our regimental crest is topped with a boars' head. When we left the area they were sent to the regimental headquarters and nobody ever saw them again. I think they were butchered for the Colonel's mess.

The last week in April 1943 we left the Oujda area. We were loaded in to cattle cars that had never been cleaned. They all had three inches of hard, dried, petrified manure on the floors. We were on the train for about two and a half days and traveled through the Atlas Mountains. It was beautiful country and cold at night but we all lived through it and arrived in Algiers on the third day.

We moved to an area about ten miles from town. Camp was set up in a flood plain where we just stayed overnight but it was scorpion city. I never saw so many scorpions. The pesky little critters were all over the place. The holes they lived in were so close together you couldn't take a step without stepping on at least one. Needless to say we used a lot of DDT powder where we made our beds to sleep for the night. Only one person that I know of got stung because he took his trousers off to sleep and one of them got in his pants leg. When he put them on in the morning the scorpion stung him six times as it crawled up his leg.

We moved out by motor convoy the next day. I rode in a jeep with Lieutenant Shultz. We had about 500 more miles to go to get to the front. I rode in the jeep for three days. Two of those days it was terribly cold and raining. We finally disembarked in a cork grove where the nearest city was Bone. The 30th Regiment stayed here for two more weeks while the 15th and 7th regiments went to the front to help round up 250,000 prisoners that were left behind. For this the Third Division got another battle star on our campaign ribbon.

Shortly after our arrival in the cork grove I was ordered to clean our anti-tank gun. It was real dirty after our long travels. I worked on it for three hours. After I had finished, Sergeant Trembly had a jeep driver hook up the gun and take it to the motor pool and get the tires blown up to pressure. The road to the motor pool was dusty and when the gun came back it was completely covered with a new coat of dust. Sergeant Trembly told me to clean the gun again and I told him to go jump in the lake. He said I had refused to carry out an order and sent me to company headquarters to see First Sergeant Johnstone.

Johnstone was reluctant to take care of the problem and said I would have to talk to Captain Wilson our company commander. I waited in the first sergeant's tent for Captain Wilson who finally made an appearance about 20 minutes later. I told him what had happened and that I did disobey an order but that I thought the sergeant was not fair when there were other men sitting around doing nothing. As we talked we found out we shared the same hometown of Seattle. We talked a little bit about home, and when it was all over he asked me if I would carry a B.A.R. I said I would be glad to as long as I didn't have to clean the anti-tank gun again. I was promoted to Pfc because all B.A.R. men were Pfc's. I got a $4.50 a month raise in pay and I no longer had to clean the stupid little gun. The B.A.R. or Browning Automatic Rifle was developed during WWI but it was still a terrific weapon, many Congressional Medals of Honor were won with it. This rifle could spit out bullets at the rate of 500 rounds a minute at the top end, 250 at medium speed and it was semi-automatic. The biggest problem was it weighed 20 pounds and on top of that, the operator had to carry 200 rounds of ammo loaded in clips that totaled another 20 pounds. That was a total of 40 pounds before I put my pack on.

Browning Automatic Rifle

Very few people in their right mind would volunteer to carry the greatest rifle used by the infantry during WWII. I was told that during WWI the average length of a B.A.R. man's life in combat was three minutes. This didn't bother me because I only carried enough ammo to fire for only a half a minute. As long as I thought that way I would always be safe. It was probably a dumb way to think but latter in combat my theory seemed to be right.

While camped in the cork grove I had to go to the city of Constantine. I had to get new dogtags made at the station hospital there because I didn't have my blood type on the old ones. Constantine was the old city of Carthage that was about 3,000 years old. The city impressed me very much. As the jeep driver and I approached we crossed an ancient bridge over a 300-foot chasm. The walls that surrounded the city were built right on the edge of the chasm. I supposed it was done to stop invaders from approaching from that direction.

When we crossed the bridge and went through the old portal that probably a million camels and drivers had passed through over the thousands of years it was like stepping back in time. I was very moved by what I was seeing. These people were stuck in time and had not changed in centuries. I went to the Army hospital and had my blood typed and printed on a new set of dogtags which all took about an hour. I got back into the Jeep and left antiquity behind and felt much enriched for the experience. After 50 years I still haven't forgotten.

A few days latter the Chaplain took the whole battalion to see some Roman ruins that were also very old. There we found an old amphitheater where the residents watched the lions lunch on the slaves that weren't useful any more and also watched gladiators beat each other to death. There was also a Roman bath that was still well preserved. The Chaplain lectured us and said the place was known as the temple of the penis worshipers. I thought those people must have had a lot of fun in that old Roman bath. Much of the place was grown over with brambles. However if you had any imagination at all you could see that they probably had a very good life. The artesian well was still running and could have furnished the water for the bath and there could have been much more water left over for farming and livestock.

Charles O. Beardslee |  Prelude |  Signing Up |  Africa |  Sicily |  Italy |  Anzio | 
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