Chapter 37: Oct 1943 Allies Enter Naples Italy

“When I went into the Army, I made up my mind that I was putting myself at the Army’s disposal. I believe in the war. That doesn’t mean I believe in the Army. I don’t believe in any army. You don’t expect justice out of an army, if you’re a sensible, grown-up human being, you only expect victory. And if it comes to that, our Army is probably the most just one that ever existed ... I expected the Army to be corrupt, inefficient, cruel, wasteful, and it turned out to be all those things, just like all armies, only much less so than I thought before I got into it. It is much less corrupt, for example, than the German Army. Good for us. The victory we win will not be as good as it might be, if it was a different kind of army, but it will be the best kind of victory we can expect in this day and age, and I’m thankful for it.”

― Irwin Shaw, The Young Lions

My last visit to beautiful Naples was when I almost drowned in the Bay of Naples determined to take shore leave off a Landing Ship Dock as part of a Marine Amphibious Unit moving around the Mediterranean keeping the cold war from getting heated up unexpectedly.

I remember how it felt jumping into the LST bouncing in the monster waves like a cork let out of a bottle and flung into the dark, dangerous waters. Just when I didn’t think things could get any worse, I had to hang onto my wallet surrounded by numerous youngsters all looking to fleece the American sheep before they had a chance to spend their money the old fashioned way in a brothel or a bar with watered down booze. I was determined not to lose my wallet because it was like a rifle never to be separated from my central core without incurring serious mayhem. Not that I was planning to visit the houses of ill repute or drink myself silly before noon. I had more a nice plate of pasta and some regular old red house wine to wash it down on my mind or at least that was what I did my best to convince my conscience of my sincerity in the matter.

I did my best to imagine Naples on a wartime footing with civilians running as fast as they possibly could to get inside a bunker when the shells started falling all around them. It would rather like jumping from the frying pan of peacetime into the chaos of hell burning brightly below in a wartime environment. I gave up without much resolve knowing it was far beyond my brain limitations to process the difference.

September of 1943 was at a time when the Allies were still celebrating their victories in North Africa with the defeat of Rommel’s forces and were jubilant over their liberation of the island of Sicily from the disinterested Italian forces and the more motivated German troops that gave up ground begrudgingly to the advances of Montgomery and Patton slowly squeezing them off the island.

The allies were desperate to reduce the pressure on shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and followed Churchill’s lead in perceiving the Italians to be ripe for turning over to their side in this topsy-turvy war the Italian people never wanted in the first place.

In fact, there was a nasty uprising of the Italian residents of Naples against the German troops occupying the city just before the main invasion. Shortly after, General Eisenhower announced that the Badoglio Proclamation by the Italian government meant that Italy had unconditionally surrendered to the Allies causing the Italian units to cease fire and most Italian ships and planes sailed and flew to allied positions to surrender. The German forces in Italy under General Rommel were waiting for this expected development and immediately implemented his plan to disarm the Italian units and to occupy their important defensive positions with German troops.

At this point in the war, it is important to note that the Italian populace was primarily anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi and looked at the American troops as liberators and not occupiers like the troops of the Third Reich. Unlike the Germans or the other allies, the Americans had a fair share of Italian speaking Americans with parental roots in Italy. The people could easily distinguish the difference between the American soldiers and the Germans and knew instinctively they were truly liberated at last from the yoke of war.

The allied strategy was brilliant and it worked well in sealing off the southern flank of Europe in a way would prevent the Fuhrer from reinforcing his losing armies in the East or to bolster fortress Europe at a later date. It was the perfect precursor to the final assault on Normandy beaches the following year. It would be foolish to deny that the Germans fought bravely and well in Italy as they slowly retreated north. The fact was that they still had rather good lines of supply and communication and at that time control of the air was still a tossup on any given day.

There was still more of a competitive spirit between the allied forces as to which units were placed on which routes or given more support than others whilst the Germans had the advantage of a central command with complete obedience. This difference was reflected in the tactical moves along the way and usually the overwhelming firepower of the allies won the day.

Of course, the responsibility of feeding and tending to the Italian civilian populace fell primarily to the Americans because the other allies were still relying on American supplies crossing the Atlantic Ocean to supply the troops in the field. In effect, their success was so great that they had unintentionally freed up the German troops from occupation duties in their surrendered territory and it was a pattern that was repeated throughout Europe as the allies gained back land taken by the Third Reich.

I was a bit surprised that even the French radio broadcasts of the war’s progress in the south contained fairly accurate accounts of the successes of the allies in freeing Italy from the grip of Nazi influence. Of course, the propaganda bureau in Berlin made certain the copy being read over the air blamed the entire affair on the duplicity of their former ally, Mussolini and the lack of fighting skills on the part of the Italian Army. The French were fairly mute in the face of the accusations because they had their own sins to reflect on with the establishment of the Vichy State in most of European French territory. I noticed there was no discussion on the radio of the status of the predicament faced by the French overseas empire when decisions had to be made between the followers of Petain and those French that showed allegiance to De Gaulle and the Free French State.