First of July 1944. ROME ITALY. Before writing this segment of my memoirs I had come upon a letter that I had written to the Swift Current Sun, a Saskatchewan city newspaper.
This letter was from somewhere in Italy July 6th 1944. My mother who was a Sun subscriber saved the clipping of my letter to the Sun and gave me the clipping when I returned from overseas. The clipping has yellowed with age and the author of that letter has aged a bit too. The letter outlined my trip to Rome first Of July 1944. I will remember the letter, and if I ever put these memoirs in book form would include the complete letter {coming soon}. We left our rest area and drove from Capua to Rome in the back of lorries, a distance of just over a hundred miles. Looking back it did not seem a long trip as we were driving through the area we had fought over not too many weeks before.
This time no one was shooting at us and we traveled along Hwy #6 over bridges built and maintained by the army engineers. The debris of war had really not been cleaned up. Burnt out tanks and vehicles still littered the countryside.
The Italian peasant was hard at work filling in gun pits, slit trenches, and shell holes. War could come and go but the peasant had a family to feed and clothe, houses to rebuild but most of all get the ground ready so he could plant his crop. We had to admire the tenacity of these hard working souls. The saddest part of making this trip to Rome was that so many temporary cemeteries were scattered along the route. Contained in those cemeteries were our comrades that had fought so hard and bravely and who would never get to Rome. That was the only sad part of this trip.
Entering Rome, we were amazed that the war had seemingly by-passed the city with only a few bomb or shell craters on the out skirts. Well Rome was a sight. I think the first thing we saw from the back of the moving lorries was the sight of the most gorgeous signorinas. Well the waves and cheers echoed along our route as we were all in an upbeat frame of mind. Rome here we come.
Everyone was thinking that Rome was blessed with beautiful girls but would we meet any? Right away our three days looked like too short a time even as we drove into the city. The sights and sounds of Rome will have to wait until the next segment.