1 Overview, Final Weeks of War in Europe, V-E Day May 8. 1945  2. AFS in Germany, Horrors of Holocaust Bergen-Belsen, April-July 1945  3. My Transfer to AFS/GHQ CMF. Naples, April-July 1945  4. Home at last via London, Montreal. Boston, July-August 1945 Japanese Surrender August 15. 1945  5. Hands Across the Sea, Stormy Passage Joyous Reunion. Christmas 1945

In Italy, the Alexander-Harding strategy of the "one-two punch" was carried out by the 5th and the 8th Armies in an heroic attempt to break the German Gothic Line in August and September, 1944. It reached to the brink of the plains of the PO but could not break through. General Leese's goal to celebrate victory in Venice was denied, as reported briefly in Part VIII above.

The Germans as at the Gustav Line resisted with desperation until the Allied advance stalled in the heavy rains and snows of the mountains just as victory seemed at hand. The diversion to France of reserves critically needed in Italy, had made a vital difference. This diversion had been strongly opposed by General Clark to the highest levels, Eisenhower, Marshall. Gianni Rocca in his recent account ( p.241, L'Italia Invasa 1943-1945, Mondadori 1998 ) refers to the "grave error ... of having devitalized the Italian front in favor of the useless landings in southern France" (translation mine). The Allied advance through France into Germany was first priority, justifying in August 1944 the diversion of those seven or so divisions taken from Italy.

In the final two chapters of his book, Rocca presents a dramatic account of the bloody and costly fighting by 5th Army assisted by 13th Corps (UK) in September and October 1944. Rocca quoted at times from the diary of General Clark. Helped by 8th Army's assault up the Adriatic coast since late August, Clark's mission was to break through one or two of the passes through the mountains leading directly to Bologna on the plains of the Po. With massive air and artillery support, this offensive kicked off September 12, 1944 advancing through two of the passes to within about 15 miles of Bologna, Kesselring in retreat. The Partisan Brigade was important in the mountains.

Clark was hoping to link up with 8th Army which was advancing on the west up the via Emilia, with possibility of breakthrough to the Alps then advance into Austria and Germany from the south to hasten final victory. His hopes were high at one point, but it was not to be. Kesselring managed to hold as heavy rains began in earnest in late September followed by snow and ice in the mountains, rivers turned to torrents, fields and roads into seas of mud. Nevertheless, the attack continued into October, with several mountains taken but at great cost and under impossible conditions.

On October 27 Clark, with troops exhausted and discouraged, called a halt to hold for the winter. In those few weeks since September 12 5th Army and 13th Corps had taken 17,000 casualties killed, wounded, missing.

Most of the mountain barrier had been passed, and with good weather in the spring the Po plains and the key cities of Bologna, Milan, Turin, Genoa, Venice could no longer be held by the Germans and Fascists.

By November 13, according to Rocca, General Harold Alexander notified the Partisans throughout the north by radio that supply by air would have to be suspended, and that they should conserve their munitions and supplies and await future plans and developments. It would be a truly difficult and bitter winter for the Resistance, by now well organized and active throughout the north.

Nevertheless, on the Adriatic front 8th Army, with the Partisans in action, continued to push onto the east reaches of the wide Po plains by early December, as reported in Part VIII above. This front froze to a halt along the Senio River where the Germans held along a line only about two miles beyond Faenza. Bologna was only 25 miles northwest from Faenza up the Via Emilia.

There were also setbacks for the Allies on other fronts prolonging the war through another bitter winter. In late September Montgomery's paratroop assault at Arnhem in Holland, in an effort to turn the Rhine barrier to Germany, was thwarted by German attack. Stiff German resistance also held up the advancing Soviets along the Danube and in Prussia. And between December 18, 1944 to January 18, 1945 the German Panzers had launched their surprise counter-offensive into the Ardennes, the notorious and bloody "Battle of the Bulge."

With the coming of good weather in the spring in Italy and elsewhere the Germans, hard-pressed on all fronts, could not hold on much longer. At the Rhine, Remagen was reached and the Rhine crossed March 7, 1945. On the east the Soviets had pushed through Poland into Germany. The Anglo-American Allies from the west and the Soviets from the east had already occupied all of Germany by April 25, 1945, meeting at the Elbe River which was the line of demarcation between Western and Eastern "Zones" agreed upon at the Yalta Conference the previous February.

In Italy, the 5th and 8th Armies prepared to launch the final offensive of the War in Italy. George Rock's The History of the American Field Service 1920-1955, tells the story and the AFS part in it in his Chapter XII, "Victory I ... Italy." The plan was for 8th Army on the Adriatic side to advance across the river and canal barriers and marshes of the eastern plains of the Po from the Faenza-Ravenna line onto Bologna. This would in turn help divert the German forces from the passes at the 5th Army front, then both armies would converge, at Bologna to trap the German forces between them. Following the massive initial attack by 8th Army from the Adriatic side (beginning April 9) 5th Army did in fact break out of the mountains April 16; both armies occupied Bologna April 22.

After its long enforced winter "rest" with opportunity for build up, 8th Army was a formidable force composed of Polish Corps, 10th Corps, 5th Corps., with 13 Corps in the mountains plus 100,000 Italian troops in five divisions; also a Jewish Brigade. The New Zealand and 8th Indian Divisions as well as 56th and 78th UK, all "good friends" well known to AFS and first-class fighting troops, were engaged for the initial attack.

The front extended some 20 miles from the foothills south of Faenza and the Via Emilia to Lago Comaccio beyond Ravenna to the north with the broad plains of the Po stretching to the west beyond and bisected by the Po coming down from the Alps. Bologna on the Via Emilia was only 25 miles due northwest.

Along the front there was marshy ground crisscrossed by tributaries of the Po as well as canals. The Germans had done what they could to fortify these natural barriers during the winter. The terrain, plus the constantly moving front, made postings, action and evacuations difficult for AFS in addition to the hard fighting at the outset. The Drivers, however, were by now "old hands" and took it in stride. All 130 of 485 Company ambulances were engaged, most of them in forward work with as many as one-third at the most advanced RAP's. George Rock wrote that "The AFS was committed in this battle as it had seldom been before."

Announced by massed artillery barrage as well as waves of bombers overhead, the spring offensive began at sunset April 9, 1945. In the opening days the fighting to cross the series of river barriers was intense with many casualties on both sides; Polish Corps for example with almost 2,000. By good fortune, there were no AFS Drivers killed in action, although some were wounded and ambulances hit.

After Bologna was taken April 22, British and American forces crossed the Po the next day. George Rock wrote that "enemy resistance crumbled" and "the retreat turned into a rout." Gianni Rocca reported that the Allied troops "found cities and towns already liberated by the Partisan insurrection." It was the Partisans who captured and executed the fleeing Mussolini to hang his body upside down in the principal Square of Milan together with that of his mistress. It was a horribly brutal but cleansing action of uncontrolled reaction against the years of devastation and atrocity committed on the entire Italian nation by the Fascist unholy alliance with the Nazis.

On April 30th Milan and Genoa were taken by the Americans, and Venice by the British. On May 2 the German command in Italy surrendered unconditionally. The New Zealand Division entered Trieste the next day, and 6th Armored Division .(UK) continued on into Austria together with B Platoon ambulances. These were moments so long anticipated and so dearly bought. George Rock noted that "after waiting all winter, the Allies had completed the Italian campaign in less than a month."

The campaign in Germany ended almost to the day of the German surrender in Italy. Hitler shot himself in his bunker on the last day of April 1945. The "Thousand Year Reich" proclaimed proudly in 1933, ended twelve years later having brought unmitigated atrocities and devastation to much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East. On May 2, after intense street-to-street fighting the Soviet forces completed the occupation of Berlin where Field Marshal Zhukov received the unconditional surrender documents signed by the Nazi leaders of what was left of the German forces.

Celebrations erupted in the United States May 7; however, President Truman delayed the official announcement of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day until May 8 to coordinate with announcements in London and Moscow. This was greeted with paroxysms of joy throughout the United States; the joy was more muted in Europe considering the agonies endured for almost six years of war. Peoples and nations also turned to the future with renewed hope for just and lasting peace. President Roosevelt's initial concentration on defeat of Nazi Germany had been vindicated.

United States casualties numbered 139,498 killed in action, 72,374 missing, and over 400,000 wounded --- and the war against Japan was continuing in the Pacific, the India-Burma and China theaters. There were estimates at one point of a million US casualties to occupy Japan.

These data are grim, much more so those of the Soviet Union with eight million military deaths and seven million civilian. Germany lost more than six million dead, Poland also six million, 20 percent of its prewar population. For AFS, with as many as 800 or so in the field at a given time in most theaters during the period 1939-1945 had lost 36 killed in action and 68 wounded; there were also 13 AFS POW.

It will be remembered that 567 Company, with Lt. Col. Fred Hoeing in command, left the Adriatic in late March under secret orders for transfer to Germany, leaving 485 Company in north Italy for the final offensive; there was also a small AFS unit with French forces. AFS/GHQ CMF was still in Naples. These units, and New York Headquarters USA all faced a new set of problems: repatriation and demobilization. Meanwhile the war against Japan continued. AFS was heavily engaged with British Army forces having a large unit on the India-Burma front since 1943.

Arrangements were made by AFS/HQ New York to transship the newer 567 ambulances to the India-Burma theater overseas from Antwerp and England. By late summer 1945 AFS/HQ managed to secure discharge from military service obligation for AFS personnel using the "point system" applied to those of the armed forces.

The end of the war in Italy found the four Platoons of 485 at or near the front lines in Austria where 6th Armored Division followed by 56 and 78 UK had advanced. Company HQ was at Tercento, northeast Italy not far from Austria. There was some thought at first that AFS/GHQ would move north from Naples, but this was not to be. Much repatriation would be by ship from Naples, or even Taranto farther south.

There had been significant change at Naples GHQ. In February 1945 Col. Ralph Richmond returned to the United States. It is not possible to sufficiently praise Col. Richmond's contribution to AFS in World War II, going back to those first difficult days when he had led ME Unit 1 to Cairo to organize and command AFS Mideast and then on to Italy and CMF with such honor and skill. He had augmented respect for AFS on all sides, and he had been a caring friend and inspiration for each one of us.

Col. Richmond had been more than Director-General Galatti's right hand for AFS throughout World War II, and had also served AFS in World War 1.

When Col. Richmond's replacement Lt. Col. Fred Hoeing left in late March to lead 567 Company into Germany, Moor Bill Perry took over Command of AFS GHQ in Italy, with Major John Nettleton his Adjutant. Bill. (ME Unit 5) and John (ME Unit 1) were in one respect "opposites." Bill was full of life, energy and charm, a Virginia gentleman through and through. John was steady, sure, self-effacing, rock-solid New England. Both were generous, committed to service and to AFS; they were among our most versatile officers, rising through the ranks to command in the field and fittingly of AFS CMF in the final months of the war. In July Bill left for the States to lead a repatriation group through England. John postponed his repatriation to complete the myriad tasks of closing down AFS CMF, eventually leaving Naples October 6, 1945.

Only those of 567 Company with at least six months to go on their contracts were selected for the transfer to Germany in March. As for me, it was Bill who brought me down to GHQ Naples in April as secretary in that office pending my own repatriation, and it was John who loaned Licia and me temporary use of his apartment to get started in Naples --- as reported below Section 3 of this Part IX.

After the German surrender in north Italy May 2, there was considerable evacuation work for AFS ambulances before AFS could be released, considering the thousands of troops pending repatriation. It was not until June 30 that all four Platoons of 485 were brought together at Company HQ in north Italy; popular Major Ward Chamberlin had taken over as Company Commander. General McCreery, 8th Army Commanding Officer, reviewed the Company on July 3. Many of us had been with his troops when he commanded the "desert rats" of 13th Corps in Tunisia as well as in battles of the long advance in Italy. The General was unstinting in his praise of AFS and 485 Company, according to his words "No unit has a more distinguished record than yours" as reported by George Rock.

There were two principal options for most Drivers, either repatriation for those with early ending enlistments, or to sign on for a year's enlistment for India-Burma; also a few qualified for release from AFS to accept relief work in Europe. Almost half of those remaining, 152, opted for India-Burma. On US Independence Day July 4, 485 Company formed in long convoy to drive down to the Naples area and GHQ. Led by Major Chamberlin, the India-Burma contingent sailed from Taranto on July 16.

Fittingly on July 13 at AFS HQ Caserta, as reported by George Rock, "Major Perry had the honor to be presented with a flag autographed by Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander in an ... impressive ceremony ... at AFHQ." It was the Field Marshal's own Union Jack. He paid heartfelt tribute to AFS saying "you and I have served together ... from Alamein to Austria ... We'll always remember you."

Director-General Galatti had tried ever since the Normandy landings and before to secure AFS participation in the massive Allied invasion of France and the direct advance into Germany which followed. With the top secret transfer of 567 Company from Italy into Germany following General McCreery's review at Company HQ March 21, he had at last succeeded, but almost too late. It became a race for the Company to traverse by sea and land almost 1,000 miles for postings before the war in Europe would end and Germany surrender. As the Company prepared to leave, the Allied advance into the German heartland had accelerated to 20 or more miles a day.

The transfer by sea and by land of a Company of some 120 ambulances plus support vehicles is of itself a major undertaking. The Company convoy left Company HQ on March 25 winding through and over the mountains heading southwest via Florence, destination the port city of Leghorn. Embarkation by LST's began on April 10 with a two-day crossing reaching Marseilles April 12. Company destination on reaching France was the 21st Army Group, the northern armies, with Headquarters in Brussels and commanded by Sir Bernard Law Montgomery now Field Marshal, but still "Monty" to his troops --- and AFS. The Army Group included British and Canadian units, "old and good friends" of AFS. Fittingly two of our "Lucky 13," Lt. Chan Keller in command and Art Ecclestone his NCO, now led C Platoon on its final mission.

On the night of April 12 the news of the sudden death of President Roosevelt had been received by the first contingent of Company Drivers to disembark. It was shocking and unbelievable. Bigger than life, "FDR" had dominated the American and world stage for more than twelve years. By the force of his personality and leadership he had brought America through the great depression. Right from the start of World War II in 1939 when Germany attacked Poland he had sustained Great Britain, then also the Soviet Union against the unprecedented onslaught by the Nazi aggressors abetted by the blind isolationism of his own countrymen.

After Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 he had rallied the idealism of American youth, the skill of American military command and the productivity of the American economy to make America the "Arsenal of Democracy." This achievement, and his unflagging leadership of the Allies with Winston Churchill and a reluctant Joseph Stalin had made the difference for the soon to be victory over Germany and Japan:

On the brink of this victory it was cruel injustice that he had been denied the crowning achievement of his incredible life which has placed him in the first rank of American Presidents. Through it all he was loved at home and abroad. Tom Hale, who had landed at Marseilles in the second group of LST's to dock, reported when driving through Marseilles (in his The Cauldron, p. 89) that "every window and door were already draped in black and FDR's picture hung with black cloth ... People standing in groups with tears running down their cheeks."

I was in Naples as the news of the President's death had been broadcast. I remember walking to Headquarters feeling shock and unbelief and with tears in my eyes. Others of my fellow Americans of various army commands on leave or posted in Naples passing by were equally distressed. There were even more tears in the eyes of the Italians for whom "FDR" had become a father figure and a symbol of hope.

Although President Roosevelt's death was tragedy writ large, the peaceful and immediate transition of Harry Truman to the world's greatest elective office, President of the United States of America, was a powerful demonstration to the world of Constitutional Democracy at its best. Equally significant, and within two months of Roosevelt's death, it was President Truman who presided at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco April 25 to June 26, 1945 where delegates of 50 nations signed the Charter of the United Nations on June 26. It was Franklin Roosevelt, remembering Woodrow Wilson, who had named the new world organization the United Nations at the "Declaration by United Nations" with 26 nations at Washington in January 1942. More than any other world leader he had determined that the United Nations organization would be established after World War II with the United States strongly committed to it.

Before reaching 21st Army Group to the north 567 Company would drive some 700 miles up the Rhone valley then northeast through France on into Belgium, Holland and to the German frontier. The route followed was called "Goldflake" with staging areas and signs along the way; it had been established for the Franco-American 7th Army under General Patch, code-named "Operation Dragoon" landing August 15, 1944. It will be remembered that seven divisions had been taken from Italy for this diversion despite the strong objections of General Clark. In retrospect (as explained in Part VIII above). Clark's opposition had been valid but to no avail.

Considering the distance and the difficulties of such a passage, the convoy made good time and reached the Belgium border in six days, pausing for rest April 19 at the staging area near Ghent. Tom Hale reported southern France untouched and in spring bloom with cheering people as they drove by, some throwing blossoms.

By April 22 Lt.-Col. Fred Hoeing, Commanding the Company, had established his HQ at Brussels which was GHQ for the 21st Army Group, and the Platoons proceeded at first to comfortable billets at a former convent school across the border into Holland. From here postings fanned out over a wide area of 80 or so miles from the coast east to Nijmegen near the German border and across the Rhine into Germany.

Platoon A received the only forward posts, 20 RAP's and ADS's with Marines and Commandos in northeast Holland. Here there was some scattered German resistance, but fighting had generally ceased. All other postings of the Platoons were with CCS's and General Hospitals.

B and C Platoons had been assigned to the Canadian First and the British Second Divisions respectively. En route to its postings, C Platoon had been first of the Platoons to cross the Rhine into Germany at the President Roosevelt bridge, an enormous Bailey Bridge put up by the Engineers at Wesel in the Ruhr valley. They reached the 84 British General Hospital April 25 at Sulingen about 30 miles south of Bremen; they also worked at the Diepholz Air Evacuation Center nearby where there had been a Luftwaffe field. This was April 26, only a week before the initial German surrender at Berlin May 2.

In reporting on these final weeks in Germany, both Tom Hale's Cauldron, and George Rock's' History... give graphic eye-witness accounts up to the German surrender and also for a month or so after the formal declaration of V-E Day May 8.

The Company and Platoons had in fact arrived in time for useful work with Army units. Evacuations had been heavy for a few days and over long distances overland or from the airfield. As the fighting ceased an unexpected challenge faced AFS, justifying the transfer to Germany from Italy. This involved German concentration and prison camps, a number of them close by. Soon instead of battle casualties the liberated victims of these camps more dead than alive became patients of AFS.

In the final days of the war Germany was in chaos with only local military government authority to check anarchy. Devastation was worse than in Italy. Civilians and even soldiers seeking to surrender wandered aimlessly in the streets, sullen, downcast. it was an atmosphere of death and defeat.

The concentration camps and POW camps in this area had been liberated by British Army units in mid to late April. There were freed Belgium, Dutch, and French prisoners as well as German political prisoners; also freed British and American POW's. There were not enough ambulances to carry them to the Base Hospitals and from there to air evacuations; soon trucks were needed and there were truck loads.

All were in terrible condition; the worst like living corpses barely able to talk or even take food. Those who could told of slave labor, torture, forced marches, starvation rations, epidemics of disease, accelerating rates of death in the final months while the Nazi psychopaths who manned the camps lived in luxury.

In Africa and even in Italy all of us had made a distinction in our minds between the Nazis and the German people and the regular army soldiers. All of us including Germans were in some ways victims of a dictatorship that had gotten out of hand in Germany and wrecked such havoc upon the world. Indeed, quite a few ranking German officers on several occasions had lost their lives in vain attempts to rid Germany and the world of Hitler. One of these was Erwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox" who had fought a clean war in Africa against us with honor and bravery.

Once the fellows reached Germany it was different The atrocities were so widespread, so blatant, so indescribable, and must have been known. As the first waves of such cruelly broken humanity became a flood, so did hatred for the Germans in the hearts and minds of all of those of AFS who witnessed it at first hand.

The last Platoon to receive orders was D Platoon; these were most extraordinary and more than justified the last minute diversion of the Company from Italy in the closing weeks of war in Germany. On 26 April the entire Platoon (in all about 32 ambulances including reserves) was ordered to report to 9 British General Hospital. There they were loaded with blankets, stretchers, and about half the staff of the Hospital --- nurses, called "sisters," orderlies, doctors. They then headed east for the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp which was located outside the small town of Belsen 75 miles southeast of Bremen. It took two days to reach it.

On May 2 Whit Bell's Section of C Platoon (five cars, seven Drivers) joined D Platoon at the camp; seven fellows of C Platoon came in later as stretcher- bearers. The camp had been liberated by the British Army's 15th Scottish Regiment on April 17. Whit's carefully compiled statistics on the atrocity, and his detailed reporting were graphic and heart-wrenching in the extreme.

The other four Sections of C Platoon fanned out for work in large areas radiating from the Platoon's HQ and base at Sulingen then Diepholtz nearby, both about 30 miles south of Bremen. At Diepholtz billets were located at a former beer-hall and movie theater. C Platoon HQ then moved into an 8th Century Convent at Bassum nearer Bremen and Hamburg. The work to evacuate the rear echelon CCS's and Base hospitals of British 2nd Army to which the Platoon had been assigned was important but routine, and it was heavy up to V-E Day May 8, when the flow of patients reduced. Victory celebrations had been muted as the Drivers were still engaged.

When at Hamburg after the war and when evacuations had slackened, eight of the fellows of two C Platoon Sections led by CO Chan Keller secured permits to visit nearby Denmark. They piled into two ambulances in a traditional AFS ambassadorial and tourism foray into that gallant and beleaguered land. They encountered streams and convoys of German troops heading south to surrender, stopping to ask directions of surprised German MP's. They were in fact the first Allied vehicles to enter Denmark, beating the first British army troops, the 11th Armored Division, by several days. In Denmark, they were welcomed by the smiling Danes.

Whit Bell's Section, and all Sections of D Platoon, faced the unimaginable horrors of Bergen-Belsen. It was one of the concentration camps established by the fiendish Nazi psychopaths to carry out their "final solution" upon the Jews initially of Germany, then from throughout the Nazi conquest. Six million in all were killed before this most heinous of atrocities could be stopped by our advancing armies.

There were 65,000 at the camp when the troops arrived, half of them dead and the rest dying. Only about 20% could be saved. Conditions at the camp found by the entering troops were beyond description or imagination. There was the overpowering stench of filth and death, with dead bodies everywhere unburied, some actually stuck to the barely living bodies where they lay hardly able to move. All the living were starving, clothed in rags or scraps of blankets or nothing, all diseased with typhus, dysentery, tuberculosis and covered with lice.

They were found in unheated single-story wooden barracks, with straw pallets on boards and shelves for beds, or the dead out on the grounds where discarded. These drab huts marched row on row in an area of several acres surrounded by barbed wire in woods isolated from the town. There were more than a thousand packed into each hut with families separated and sexes segregated in a camp that had housed more than 60,000 men, women, children at a time. There were Poles, Russians, Dutch, Czechs, Belgians, French, Italians as well as Germans and others; the Nazis had been thorough in their exterminations.

At the center of the complex were the gas chamber and crematorium. As the Allied armies approached, there were horror stories of prisoners still living hurled into the flames of the crematorium by the German guards.

In the last month of the war 10,000 had died from starvation, epidemics of disease, as well as the gas chambers --- up to 2,000 a day when German records had closed. Towards the end there had been cannibalism to compound the horror.

The German guards, headed by commandant Karl Kramer the "Beast of Belsen" with Irma Greese the "Bitch of Belsen" of the sadistic SS who was second in command lived in luxurious apartments with other staff at one end of the compound. Both and many others were found guilty of war crimes and hung.

So incensed were the liberating troops that they had put the guards as well as local residents of the town to work for the initial task of disposing of the 30,060 dead bodies. Mass graves were dug by hand, and the bodies just skin and bones dragged onto trucks to be dumped on each other in contorted shapes.

Until desperately needed medical and other supplies and facilities could be flown in, those who could clutched at the first-arriving soldiers to seek food and water pleading for them to at least save the children. A girl of 15 had become a scarecrow scarce able to talk or comprehend, with the appearance of old age and a shrunken body of a child of five. Tom Hale, one of those to have "worked there a few days" has given a most graphic and heart-wrenching account of the Belsen camp in the concluding pages of his The Cauldron --- 1943-1945.

As soon as possible, the British flew in two base hospitals. A "human laundry" was established with many tables, manned by 130 German nurses brought in by the AFS ambulances. Stretcher bearers brought the bodies here for bath, hair cut, dusting with louse powder, wrapping in clean blankets and from evacuation by AFS to the hospitals for care by the British sisters and doctors.

With most of the ambulances at the camp, and having brought stretchers and blankets as well as the medical staff, AFS Drivers performed these evacuations as well as some of the stretcher-bearing duty. Whit Bell's C Platoon Section of five ambulances recorded carrying 2,245 patients in 14 days, most on stretchers; similar numbers would have been logged by each of the five Sections of D Platoon.

Those whose lives had been saved by these desperate measures had been so traumatized, disoriented and torn from their loved ones that they would require more assistance such as by Red Cross and other humanitarian agencies. On May 21, as reported by George Rock, the work at Belsen was finished and the entire camp burned to the ground, leaving behind a commemorative monument and tablet to those whose lives had been taken and those who had served there.

AFS Drivers at Belsen felt uniquely rewarded by what they had done. Driver T.O. Cole had written "the feeling that we are useful, a feeling we have never felt so strongly before and probably never will again ... sometimes these people who have never had an ounce of kindness in years... break out in sobs and weeping at the slightest kindness. Still others are too torn to react at all...."

One of the grim statistics of death at Belsen would become much more than statistic. A little girl from Holland, whose meticulously kept diary was miraculously recovered by her father Otto the one remaining member of her family after the war, had died in Bergen-Belsen less than two months before V-E Day. Her unknown body must have been one of those committed to the mass graves.

Her diary, as much as any other record of the Holocaust, documented for the entire world the most heinous of atrocities ever committed by alleged members of our human race in the history of our "dominion" over the works of our Creator's hands. But it also recorded the supremacy of the human spirit, of sacrifice, and of unquenchable love for life even against cruelty and injustice beyond description. It was also the most compelling personal account of the Holocaust.

This little girl was Anne Frank, whose life was horribly ended when she was 15.

The last person to see Anne Frank alive was nurse Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper of the Dutch resistance also taken by the Gestapo August 4, 1944 when the secret annex of the Frank family had been betrayed.

She and the Franks had been shipped to Nazi deportation camp in Holland, then to Auschwitz; finally Anne with her sister Margot to Bergen-Belsen in the cold chill of early winter 1944. Brandes-Brilleslijper also at Belsen, had found Anne in mid-March 1945 wrapped only in a blanket having discarded her lice-infested clothes; she was "beyond tears."

Neither Anne nor Margot terribly ill, could resist the typhus epidemic at the camp in the last half of March. When the prisoner nurse returned to look for them a few days later, both were gone.

Anne's diary was kept in a red-and-white notebook given to her by her parents on her 13th birthday June 12, 1942. The family had hidden for more than two years in a secret annex above what had been Otto Frank's shop and house in Amsterdam, now restored and maintained by the Anne Frank Foundation. Anne had written her diary each day with the hope for future publication, giving the eight characters hiding in the annex pseudonyms as in a novel and calling her "book" at first "The Secret Annex." She could glimpse the sky only as a dwindling patch of blue when a shaft of light pierced a crack in the blacked-out window frame of their dark haven, stirring the dust.

The Nazis killed over 100,000 Dutch Jews. Anne's mother Edith did not survive Auschwitz, only her father Otto of all the family survived to find the papers including Anne's diary still scattered in the annex where the Gestapo had left them.

Miraculously Anne had written "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical ... yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart." Her diary is also filled with evidences of "terror and tension ... as if I were about to explode." All that remains of Anne is this diary, "evidence of her ferocious appetite for life."

It is unthinkable that this life, any such life, could have been so horribly crushed by members of our humankind just because, only because, she happened to have been born through no "fault" of her own into a Jewish family.

Those Nazi psychopaths who had done such things, led by a paranoid Austrian dropout named Adolph Hitler, had mesmerized and commandeered Germany to their evil will and brought the world to its knees in alliance at first with the calculating Soviets then with the militant armed forces of imperialist Japan. Such beings as these, personification of evil incarnate, can not claim membership in our common humanity. Even the basest of beasts do not so savage members of their own species.

All the surviving Nazi perpetrators were brought to justice at Nurenberg after the war. The sum of their crimes has been in turn codified into one universal crime named "Genocide" --any attempt by any nation to exterminate an entire "race" or ethnic community. It has been ratified by all nations as a crime against humanity.

As I write, we have reached the final weeks of our 20th Century, the most war-driven century of history. The overriding lesson of this history has been time and again that acts of aggression committing crimes against humanity by power-mad dictators must be stopped as soon as possible by collective action of the free world.

Given this lesson, emphatically by the example of World War II, it is a supreme irony that in the last decade of our century massacres of Genocide called "ethnic cleansing" were initiated in 1992 upon nationalities in the Balkans by the dictator of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic. Thousands of shallow graves of innocent men women and children massacred by the Serbs in Bosnia, then Kosovo are mute testimony of this.

In this aggression the viable multiracial multi-religious community of the region, Bosnia and Herzegovina and its glorious capital city of Sarajevo was virtually destroyed. Sarajevo had hosted the winter Olympics in 1984. Now graves cover playing fields where the world's best athletes had competed. It was Milosevic who had equipped the troops in Bosnia of the psychotic leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic, then his own Yugoslav army and paramilitary units in Kosovo to carry out the horrors of ethnic cleansing in the region. These two and their "lieutenants" have been indicted war criminals by the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague

In Bosnia, it took the NATO Alliance led by the United States to force the comprehensive Dayton Peace Accord Agreement of 1995 upon Milosevic. This Accord is being reinforced and implemented by a NATO-led stabilization force under authority of United Nations Security Council resolutions and sanctions. The Accord is complex, will take time, but there has been progress. NATO and the United Nations must continue to enforce it.

Thwarted in Bosnia, Milosevic unleashed his armed and paramilitary forces upon the Islamic people of Kosovo in a tidal wave of murder, rape, house-burnings, driving out 800,000 Kosovars as refugees. It took 72 days and nights of pounding of Serbia from the air by NATO with United States in the lead to force Milosevic to withdraw under the terms of the Kosovo Accords signed June 4, 1999. A NATO-led force of 50,000 peace-keepers has been committed to Kosovo under authority of the United Nations Security Council to keep the peace and enable reconstruction. Serbia, its infrastructure reduced to rubble, its peoples plunged into despair and in total international isolation can not heal until Milosovic is deposed and brought to justice.

Action by the international community in Bosnia and Kosovo came too late to prevent massacres, but it came. It was based upon a principle writ into law adhered to unanimously by all 19 NATO members, by the European Community, by the United Nations--- war crimes, crimes against humanity, Genocide, aggression by dictatorships will not be tolerated. Better late than never, this overriding lesson of history burned into our souls by the Nazi atrocities basically vindicated. Nevertheless, gross human rights violations continue to plague our planet, and must be contained.

At Bergen-Belsen so staggering was the need that the liberating troops could do little at first. It became a desperate race to organize an enormous effort to save the survivors on the brink of death, and bury the thousands of horribly infected bodies. As it was there had been 600 deaths a day before the work could be done through May 21 when the last patients had been evacuated and the camp burned to the ground. In all of this AFS had played a major, indeed indispensable role.

The duty of our AFS fellows at Bergen-Belsen, performed heroically and with the plaudits of commanding British Officers, more than justified Director-General's vision for an AFS presence in Germany, but it was not what had been expected or could have been anticipated. Nevertheless, none of them, angels of mercy with their indispensable versatile ambulances, could ever forget this experience, which had given to them a new sense of worth and service.

On May 23 the Commanding Officer of the 11th LFA at Belsen, issued an order to thank all those who had worked at Belsen including of course AFS for "achieving the impossible ... you have worked for a month ... inside huts where the majority of internees were suffering from the most virulent diseases known to man. You have had to deal with mass hysteria... you have acted without hesitation as undertakers ... Life can never be the same again for those who have worked in the concentration camp."

Some work continued for all Platoons through May. This involved evacuations to Canadian, British, even German military hospitals and principally to help evacuate these hospitals to airfields and other points for repatriation of patients. There were also transportation provided for civilians and displaced persons destined for Bremen and other cities in the region.

Headquarters staff at Brussels joined in enthusiastic celebrations of V-E Day in Brussels on May 8. There had been little mood to celebrate for those at Belsen, equally so at other locations where the Drivers were still on assignments. Gradually through May all the posts closed down and 567 Company disbanded on May 27.

Lt. Col. Fed Hoeing, overall commander of the AFS action in Germany with his Headquarters at Brussels, now had responsibility for some 250 AFS Drivers coming in from terminated posts. While he and his staff were concluding arrangements for repatriation, transfer to AFS India-Burma, or for work with relief agencies in Europe, leaves were arranged for Paris and alternatively for England.

Although there was still uncertainty as to the US draft and point systems as regards demobilization for AFS, most of those who had completed their enlistments opted to return home. Fred managed to secure the first repatriations from Antwerp on June 12 and all the rest of these by mid-July. On July 10, the 95 who had signed on for India-Burma sailed from Liverpool England. Those few who had opted for and secured positions with relief agencies for work in Europe were released for these positions.

Col. Hoeing after three and a half years of service overseas, beginning with ME Unit 1, was at last free to go home. His long service was recognized by our British friends with whom so many of us had served, conferring upon him a second Order of the British Empire (of a higher rank). He would continue to serve AFS after the war.

There was not one of us, at least to my knowledge, who had not known, loved and enjoyed a personal bond or so with Fred. Tall, angular, his eyes and his smile sparkled. I will always remember his quips, his keen wit, his unusual warmth, and his all-embracing spirit.

In late July, the Brussels office was closed and the last group went to London for shipping home. A short but significant chapter in the history of the American Field Service during World War II in the final weeks on the German front was over.

It will be remembered, as recounted above, that our entire AFS 567 Company left Company HQ north Italy by convoy on March 25, 1945 for the port city of Leghorn, and from Leghorn by LST reaching Marseilles France April 12. Their destination was the 21st British Army Group of the northern armies, Germany, for postings in the final weeks of the war. Lt-Col Fred Hoeing was in command.

At this stage in the final weeks of the war, most of our "Lucky 13" of C Platoon had returned to the States or were no longer with the Platoon. Two of us now led our C Platoon on its final portentous mission to Germany. One, Chan Keller had taken over from Bob Blair as Platoon Lieutenant, Commanding Officer, January 1945 with his second in command NCO Art Ecclestone. It was Art on his motorcycle who led C Platoon across the Rhine April 24, the first AFS unit to enter Germany.

We had boarded HMS Aquitania together that dark night at New York harbor September 21, 1942 and had been together through a seeming eternity of challenges.

Only those of us with enlistment time remaining of more than six months were taken, and I was not one of these having just completed two and one-half years overseas with AFS. Instead, thanks to Major Bill Perry then Commanding Officer AFS/GHQ Naples, I was ordered to Naples to serve as secretary for Bill and Headquarters. Although I missed out on the German assignment, service in Naples was a lucky break for me. Licia and I would be together at long last, and on into July when I was released to return home. After several agonizing false starts, Licia finally secured passage to America December 1945.

And there could not have been finer city for us than Naples, so beautiful that the boast of the ebullient Neapolitans is "see Naples and die." In short, there is no place worth seeing or knowing after a visit to Naples and with reason. The vivacious city clusters along the sweep of shore and bursts over the steep hillsides of one of the most spectacular bays on earth.

From the residential heights of the Vomero one can see, across the sparkling ample bay crisscrossed with ships of all kinds, the storied Island of Ischia to the north and the even more famed Island of Capri standing tall across the entrance to the Bay on the south separated by a narrow strait from Sorrento. As today's cruise ships enter the Bay of Naples the ship's band will play the haunting Neapolitan "Return to Sorrento" (Retorna A Sorrento ) representative of the treasures of song created by these music-loving people. Lording over it all broods the peak of Vesuvius, shattered in the huge eruption 79 AD that buried two fun-loving cities of the early Empire, Herculaneum in mud and Pompeii in ashes. And in December 1943 another eruption sent a huge dark cloud into the skies while bright flames were visible at night at its base as if the mountain had been jealous of the explosions of war.

Fought over and bombed following the landings by Mark Clark's 5th Army commencing September 9, 1943 at Salerno only 25 miles down the coast, Naples had been liberated from the guns of war for more than 18 months, serving as the principal Allied port of entry and base for men and materiel in the never-ending battles for Italy. Its port facilities turned to rubble by German demolition had been restored by the army engineers and in record time. It was a busy place, a beehive of activity, with the scars of war already healing. Produce from the farms now came into the market, stores were being opened, but prices were high. Once more the acclaimed restaurants were filled, this time with soldiers and civilians. There was a colorful, vibrant tide of humanity day and night on the Via Roma, principal north-south thoroughfare in the center of town.

On March 28, 1945 while mail was still subject to censor, I wrote that I was a good "four days" nearer home, indeed I was "located at the very source where all comes and goes" and that I had "left the Field for all time." I added that I was much closer to "civilized life" and "comforts" than I had been for the past two years and more.

The above was probably as good a description of a general headquarters in a city such as Naples as one could get past the censors. For my good fortune, I was "most indebted" to Bill Perry, AFS Commanding Officer in Italy who had offered the job to me. I could not of course mention in my letters home the circumstances of the then secret move of my former Platoon and Company to Germany.

My principal task was secretary for Bill and also for Major John Nettleton, GHQ Adjudant, but there were other responsibilities. There was a weekly "Newsletter" to prepare and run off for the Field and also New York, making ends meet with a temperamental mimeograph machine that sometimes leaked ink all over me. There were also numerous office typing and filing jobs.

It would be a busy time for me, and I would be one of the last able to leave as GHQ began to close down in mid-July. Following V-E Day on May 8 GHQ faced challenges of a different sort: the demobilization or transfers of the men of 485 Company still in the field plus supporting staffs, as well as disposition of ambulances and other materiel. For a time there was a frantic exchange of communications with AFS New York, AFHQ Caserta, and the London War Office on the complex demobilization procedures involving AFS "volunteers" who had served with the various Allied Army commands.

The fact that AFS units were posted with British armed forces in India-Burma enabled most of the fellows remaining Italy and Germany to continue with AFS and avoid induction were they to return home. As reported above, 95 sailed from Liverpool July 9. Another 152 would embark from Taranto Italy July 15. The newer 567 ambulances were intended for India-Burma.

The unexpected Japanese surrender August 15, 1945 intercepted these missions at sea; however, by then Mr. Galatti had achieved miracles enabling AFS Drivers to qualify for discharge under the same point system as the armed forces.

There was no problem of discharge for those of AFS not subject to the draft, but demands on shipping became even more acute after the German surrender. Some fellows opted to sign on with relief agencies in Europe. I was able to continue with AFS subject to Draft Board approval for home-leave by which time discharge for AFS after the war could have been worked out. If not, there was India-Burma. I had hoped that Licia would have left for USA before me.

There was no immediate reaction to our frantic requests for clarification. Fellows waiting at the AFS Club Naples became impatient,. We knew Mr. Galatti would work it out. I was involved in all of this. Most interesting was helping to prepare and send the various dispatches and signals to Director-General Galatti on this problem and the constant flow of more routine communication. Being so close to the specifics increased my appreciation of our "D-G". He was indeed the dynamo that kept us going in far flung continents and assignments with the Allied armies ever since World War II began. In a letter home March 28 I had written:

He seems to have done the job of a score of men with all with genuine enthusiasm and human interest that does not flag because he is so distant from us. I shall enjoy this closer contact to him, and will remember our walk together last spring down the moon-lit streets of "my" city {Lanciano) when he came on his visit to us from New York.

With his accustomed energy and skill and his unusual rapport with the top-ranking military and civilian personnel in Washington and London, he eventually obtained in early August approval of discharge "points" for AFS as well as an I-G classification for AFS as "veterans of an Allied Army." For those still subject to the draft this would bypass induction into the Army in order to quality for discharge based upon points.

A novel experience for me was the busy office telephone on my desk at my elbow which rang frequently. I had forgotten that such things existed, or could have been restored before the war ended. This helped liaison and contact with military and government authorities in Naples, AFHQ Caserta outside Naples, Rome.

Col. Richmond had moved AFS/GHQ from Cairo to Naples beginning November 9, 1943. By then the Germans had been driven to their "winter" or Gustav Line midway between Naples and Rome, although there was still some bombing of Naples. The Headquarters complex was situated in the fashionable Vomero residential district on the heights above the city. It was composed of requisitioned apartments and villas; there were also facilities for garaging, workshops, storage.

The office itself occupied two stories of a villa, the Villa Doria, with billets at a "white house down a lane from the office." In time, a total of 10 additional apartments or flats were requisitioned to handle all the traffic. The office replaced the Naples Liaison Office.

Not far from HQ was the AFS Club cum Rest Home, inaugurated by Lt. Gerry Paine, who had done the same thing in Cairo. It was a huge ornate villa of several stories, something of an architectural hybrid of Renaissance and Rococo dubbed by some as imitation "Medici Villa." It served a vital function for men arriving and departing, men on leave, and the convalescents from the Naples base hospitals with as many as 30 at a time. It was a godsend for me in December 1943 after a month at the British First General. I remembered Gerry presiding at dinner served in style on a large ornate table under the tinted blue ceiling; imitation marble busts looked down from the walls. The meals were delicious, prepared by skilled chef and staff recruited by Gerry. Lt. Frank Marler, CM 44, was Club Manager in late 1945.

While at GHQ Naples I took meals with the fellows at headquarters. The cost of living was too much for frequent meals at home on my AFS allowance, in addition to paying rent. Licia and I had to manage on a budget of $50 a week.

The fellows at GHQ were good to be with and with whom I could share experiences going back to our days on the desert. Most had come over on early Mideast Units with extensive service in the field. John Nettleton had been ME Unit 1, Bill Perry ME Unit 5, Ham Goff and Jack Hobbs both ME Unit 4. Jack had been our C Platoon Lieutenant from Tripoli through the Sangro and beyond, and had returned following recovery from his wounds.

Another friend of desert days, Walt Brethauer ME Unit 19, was now Lieutenant Transport Officer at GHQ assisted by Dave Hodgdon, Unit ME 13. Dave, a Bostonian like me had also the good fortune to marry an attractive Italian girl Rosaria Flores. Rosaria was a trained architect and member of a fine family of Naples. After the war, our two families visited in the greater Boston area when our kids were small. Dave and Rosaria left Boston for faculty positions at the University of Oregon, Eugene.

Two recent arrivals were Lt. Frank Marler (CM Unit 44), who had taken over at the Naples Club, and "Pappy" Hursey (CM 87). Pappy had been with C Platoon.

George Collins of our "Lucky 13" was still at GHQ to train the new men. I wrote that "I shall feel less like a fish out of water" thanks to George. Of the seven of us of our C Platoon "Lucky 13" who had been together at my wedding almost one year before, George and I were the only ones remaining in Italy. We two, plus Chan and Art in Germany, were the only ones now overseas with AFS. We missed our fellows of "Lucky 13", and we missed being with the Platoon which by now had become an extension of "Lucky 13" solidarity.

We of AFS regardless of our varied Platoon or HQ postings all shared a special pride in AFS. However there could be no bonds in AFS any closer than those formed between us of "Lucky 13." We had been together initially during those forty days and nights at sea (September-October 1942); then our months together in the Middle East, the Western Desert, the Battle for Tunisia, Tripoli. These bonds now embraced all of us of C Platoon, 567 Company. They were strengthened at Termoli, Trigno-Sangro, Pollutri, San Vito-Ortona, Cassino, Lanciano and into north Italy.

Some of us had been killed, more wounded, many incapacitated by dysentery, malaria, the periodic onslaughts of hepatitis. The heart-aches we experienced, and our relative "isolation" at the Adriatic front during most of these campaigns, only strengthened our bonds more.

George and I sorely missed our "brothers" of C Platoon. On April 24 I wrote a long letter addressed to "Giuseppi, Arturo et al" (Chan, Art, the Platoon), that "Giorgio, Licia and I were the last elements of 'C' in these parts," and that "Licia and I had moved the 'C Platoon Rome Liaison Office' down here about two weeks ago and housed it at first in John Nettleton's spacious apartment complete with magnificent view --- and hot bath!" I added that after this the "Liaison Office of Gruppo C had to move to more modest quarters." I reported that "Giorgio, Licia and I paid a visit to the Pollutri-Gals who of course did not know that you had deserted them. The very idea of this will break the Vecchio's heart ... We discussed old times, and the gals took out a picture with Skip, Dunc, and John Leinbach very much in evidence studying Italian."

I noted in my letter that "in my present job I am very near the heart-beats of AFS ... and that the red-tape involved here is really sumpin'... but without the chance of having my bed tipped over in the morning by Giuseppi [Chan]."

Letters came in from Jay Nierenberg and John Leinbach back home in the States. Chan and Art replied to my letter from Germany. We learned that the Company had arrived almost too late for postings with only a few in forward areas, but that Whit Bell's Section had done heroic duty under the most horrible of conditions at Bergen-Belsen taking out more than 1,700 stretcher cases a week. Chan and the others were able to complete their evacuations and return to the States in early July.

Our exile from the Platoon was broken a bit when Tom Hale came through from his home-leave in time to join the Platoon embarking for Germany; also Paul Morris. Tom reported that Bob Blair was not well and was homesick for the Platoon. Sterling Grumman ("Stalino") came down from Rome to return to graduate school at Yale staying for several days at the AFS Club where he invited Licia and me for dinner. I

While in Rome Sterling had met a marvelous Italian girl, Rosina, and truly loved her; Licia had also met her. Although he never confessed, Licia and I believed he intended to return for her after the war but never did, perhaps because of family difficulties. He was not as fortunate as I. I know he never forgot Rosina.

In these and other "Lucky 13" and Platoon communications, even when separated by thousands of miles, there was one theme: we would keep together for reunions after the war, with the first one planned for "Fox-Hall" Hyannis Port, USA. This in fact happened Labor Day weekend 1945 ("Epilogue," Front Matter pp. 39-41) and there would be many more to follow.

While I was getting started at GHQ Naples, Licia had remained for a few days at Vittorio's villa #11 Belotti-Bon and our former "C Platoon Liaison Office Rome," to be with Mother Sargiacomo who had come from Lanciano for Easter Sunday late March. I had managed to talk with her by phone thanks to fellow Driver Clarence Reynolds and the American Red Cross Club. She was busy making "very cakes" for Easter Dinner for which Vittorio had somehow obtained lamb, a feat unheard of in those days. Sterling ("Stalino") still in Rome would join the Sargiacomo family group which included younger brother Filippo studying engineering at the University.

Licia's brother Vittorio Sargiacomo was one of the finest men I would ever know, and the respect and love I already felt for him increased. On March 28 1 wrote "I have found a real brother as well as a wonderful wife." I had written "He has done some very brave and wonderful things to restore law and order in Rome ... he has helped to apprehend the worst black-market gang and in recent weeks restrained a violent mob in Rome." Italy's reconstruction was impressive, but the tasks facing a nation so mauled by years of total war upon all of its lands were staggering. The restoration of law and order was basic.

Vittorio had been promoted to Captain in the elite Carabinieri. So devoted was he to the well-being of his mother, brothers and sisters that he had turned down an excellent offer of promotion to Florence to maintain his villa in Rome, home for most of the family until their own bombed out home in Lanciano could be rebuilt.

AFHQ ran a daily round-trip bus between Rome and Naples and there was other army traffic of all kinds. Walt Brethauer, Transport Officer at our AFS GHQ, also made monthly round-trips. In short, there was ample Naples-Rome transport for Licia, and for me when I could get away and at almost any time. An enterprising bus line had opened between Rome and Lanciano over the mountains. During Licia's return visit to Lanciano in May this bus broke down four times; the trip took 12 hours!

Although I did not make it for the family Easter dinner, I made it to Rome on or about April 8 with Wait Brethauer to pick up Licia and her things for Naples; also for the chance to see Mother Ida whom I adored. I found her in better health, no longer the war-exhausted woman of the previous winter and spring. Licia would be able to make other visits thanks to Walter.

While in Rome this time we completed the formalities for Licia's passport, which Vittorio would pick up and hold for her next visit.

During Licia's absence in Rome, I had begun apartment hunting with an assist from Mac Long (ME Unit 36) who ran the HQ billets, but without success in crowded and expensive Naples. John Nettleton's kindness came to the rescue for the next two weeks, and we would also have time to find a suitable place.

John was away from Naples on leave, and had turned over his apartment to us in a spectacular location on the hillside where the Vomero district looks out on the Bay and down over the city below. To reach this district by car access roads take a series of hair-pin turns from the splendid avenue, Via Caracciola, that circled the harbor shoreline. Built along these winding roads up the heights are impressive apartment buildings of traditional marble and stone, some in pastel tints. John's apartment house was one of these.

Driving up or down a steep winding road was difficult; walking up even more so. Instead, there were a series of the famed inclined railcars, the Funiculare, between the heights and Via Roma and other city centers below. These are acclaimed in one of the best loved of the many Neapolitan songs. In describing the apartment, I was ecstatic, calling it "a dream palace." I wrote on May 8:

... not only dining room, but two huge bed rooms, bath (with hot water), kitchen (with plenty of gas), a large and tasteful living room (with radio ... which is now going), hall with piano ... but the physical luxuries are just half of ft. Out of the huge panes of glass, or from the balcony, one sees a view which is noted as one of the most beautiful the world has to offer. The sun pours in the room all day, and so Licia is resting and taking the sun while I am at the office.

Reference to the sun over Naples reminds one of another of those universally adored songs of Napoli, "O Sole Mio.." Italy's current reigning tenor, Luciano Pavarotti loves singing these songs more than any other --- and he is from Modena in the north.

It was a far cry from a slit trench in the mud or sand, with bombs or shells for company, or a bed-roll in an ambulance under similar circumstance --- or even the comparative luxury of a stretcher propped up on some jerry-cans in a Company HQ. As for the hot bath, there is no finer invention on earth, or perhaps even in heaven.

Licia and I now prepared for the first time in our married life for "house-keeping." My "little wife" made the most of our good fortune, first of all by purchases in the local market for choice ingredients for a Saturday evening dinner-party, to be followed by a Sunday tea --- all in our "dream palace." Major Bill Perry, GHQ Commanding Officer was guest of honor for dinner, to include George Collins, "Pappy" Hursey and Frank Marler. Walt Brethauer, Ham Goff, Jack Hobbs, Mac Long, Dave Hodgdon would come for Sunday tea and cakes --- Licia's now famed "very cakes" of C Platoon Rome Liaison Office renown.

For dinner she put together one of Mother Ida's specialties and my own favorite, a timpallo (drum) --- a sort of baked pie of layers of home-made pasta-sheets filled with peas, tiny meat-balls, mushrooms, cheeses, egg slices etc. bathed in her spaghetti sauce, with potato chips and sausage slices dipped in egg and bread crumbs followed by one of her chocolate cakes. Finding some of these items sorely taxed our very limited AFS allowance, but it was more than worth it for a delightful evening. Bill contributed a bottle of cognac. After dinner we retired to "our" living room for pleasant small talk and reminiscence going back to early days of AFS and the Western Desert. Bill had been Adjutant to Col. Richmond at Cairo.

George and Frank had been delayed at a Gili performance of La Boheme at the San Carlo, and had to settle for warmed-up helpings. Licia carried on in English as well as Italian, her English improving.

Evenings in our luxury "digs" we began to emulate an old married couple as we sat quietly in the comfort of the living room, reading, studying English, also writing letters. Licia was writing to my Mother in English, and tried to imagine the laughter some of her phrases would provoke. They also corresponded in Italian, in which my Mother was fluent.

By now, there was considerable correspondence between the Edwards and Sargiacomo families. We remembered birthdays and anniversaries. There were many shortages in Italy of the essentials, and my Mother kept packages coming for Licia and others of the family---toiletries of all kinds, clothing, shoes, vitamins, foods that could be sent. Licia was truly touched. Both Mother Ida and Vittorio wrote glowing letters to my Mother and family (May 25) to acknowledge their kindness and love and to reciprocate with theirs, they wrote how certain they were of Licia's future happiness in America.

Another aspect of married life was apartment hunting. Thanks to Rosaria Hodgdon we met an attractive couple, Elena and Augusto Mazzetti with an apartment just a short walk from HQ. They offered us a room with kitchen privileges for the unheard of cost of twenty dollars per week, the going rate was at least forty. It didn't take long or us to become good friends. Elena would set fresh roses for us on a table in our room, and when Licia tried to pay the rent she declined. Thanks to Walt Brethauer and his staff car we invited them to join with us on week-end picnics to the beautiful beaches. Elena missed Licia during Licia's visits to Rome and Lanciano, and Licia could find friendship and safe haven with Elena and Augusto when coming down from Rome after I was forced to leave Naples ahead of her. Years later they retired to a lovely villa on Capri where we visited them with our three small children in 1959.

Our room with the Mazzettis was a short walk from Headquarters. I left each morning at 7:30 for work, and took most of my meals at HQ considering the high costs of purchases at the markets, and my meager AFS allowance. My "little wife" thus far at least had not captured the proverbial "rich American." Our budget was $50 a month.

The assignment to Naples was a godsend for us in so many ways, and had ended for a time our long separation. It also facilitated the complicated procedures for Licia to qualify for and be assigned travel orders for shipping to the United States Army as a "war bride" the costs of which if on an army ship were covered by our "Uncle Sam." As the war ended and thousands of soldiers required repatriation, getting on a ship proved even more difficult than we had imagined although I continued to hope that Licia would leave ahead of me.

As a married man now, with a wife in Italy under the chaotic conditions of war, I had new responsibilities. I would not, for example, take home-leave while Licia remained in Italy. On the other hand, I had written in a letter that "as long as I have been married over here I have never let that fact interfere with my obligation to the Field Service." Licia understood this as well; neither I nor she expected or requested special favors. Both of us had been at risk in Lanciano on more than one occasion. I reported to the Platoon from AMG for the advance into the north starting in late June 1944 and participated in the long but relatively routine evacuations in July. After our early August marriage during a lull in the fighting, I had returned for a time to a first-line post in late August and early September in the attack on the Gothic Line.

My assignments as 567 Company Clerk in the north, and then as GHQ secretary in the final weeks of the war were a welcome "break" for me, and for us both. I welcomed these assignments respectively by Company Commander Bert Payne, and AFS GHQ Commander Bill Perry, but I do not believe they had been made on account of my marriage. Although I was at Company HQ during those final five months in the north of Italy there had been little action as the lines became frozen. My fellows of "Lucky 13" and C Platoon and I were pretty much "in the same boat," and I had visited with the Platoon in my liaison capacity for the Company.

Licia and I did our best to complete her departure formalities in April to take advantage of available shipping; a few wives had begun to leave. When in Rome April 8 we had taken care of the Italian passport. On May 2, the same date the news came in on the radio of the German surrender in north Italy, I had written about the time-consuming process we had gone through in the paper-work for Licia's departure. In this Mr. Harold Granata, Vice-Consul at the American Consulate had been most helpful.

Today Licia and I made the rounds down town once more, equipped with pictures and a medical certificate for Mr. Granata. This added to the other documents of which I told you before enabled him finally to write a letter to the army authority requesting "travel orders" for Licia. Without these orders, she can not get a visa from the Consulate. We also had to go to two other offices in parts of town to fill out a paper. concerning security, which had to be sent in with Mr. Granata's letter.

On May 11 Licia's travel orders came through, and our hopes were high for a June departure. I took her up to Rome May 17 and she left Rome early the next morning to return to Lanciano for the first time since November. It was to be a happy reunion with sisters and brothers; also her many friends --- Vera and Maria of the Refugee Center days, Elita Lotti, others. There were also the sad farewells for a dear person about to embark to an unknown land thousands of miles across the seas.

Licia retrieved two trunk loads of her things "to stick in the hold of the steamer." These were linens, sheets, towels, bed-spreads, napkins, tea-sets and so forth by the score that she herself had designed, hand-decorated, and sewed all of them incredibly beautiful. The numbers, such as 142 napkins, ten tablecloths, 20 sheets were staggering. More, she had risked shell-fire to bury and otherwise hide them, and again to recover them before more shell-fire could destroy or looters take. It was a treasure-trove which she shared with others of our family in the States. And my pride in my "little-wife" also doubled. There was not anything beyond her capacity to sew or knit, including huge hand-made quilts she designed and made for her granddaughters.

There was in May 1945 a bus service of sorts over the mountains between Rome and Lanciano, and the route took her right past "our" honeymoon villa never to be forgotten. The bus broke down four times on the way back, a journey that required 12 hours! Today air-conditioned "pullmans" cover the distance twice daily in two hours one way zooming through the mountains and over the deep valleys thanks to 13 tunnels and as many lofty viaducts. I always hold my breath, but the drivers are expert.

Thanks to the daily army transport, I was able to meet her in Rome June 6 to bring her and those priceless trunks to Naples. Arriving in Rome at one in the morning, I had managed to come in at Belotti-Bon through a window. Next morning, at our always joyful reunions, Vittorio and Filippo thought it had been a dream!

By June 8, back in our little home on the Vomero, we busily filled out the customs declarations, and it must have taken pages! It really looked like our ship had come in. and I had written to Mother and family to welcome my "little wife" ahead of me; she was "back from her wanderings and as far as we now know will be sailing the end of the month."

However, even more momentous events than ours had taken place the previous month, such as the surrender of the Germans in Italy and at Berlin May 2, with V-E Day announced by Truman and Churchill in coordination with Stalin on May 8, 1945. By mid June Naples was flooded with GIs and Tommies preempting available shipping. On June 24 I wrote that the "Army authorities have changed their minds (which often happens) and no wives are getting off on ships." I added "Licia is still number 19 in the priority list down at the port and the ship they have in mind is now scheduled to leave in August."

Licia's departure promised for June had been denied in this way, and the intended sailing for August would have a similar fate. These were two of what would become a succession of violated promises and dashed hopes in the following months with Licia repeatedly denied sailings until December. I was also becoming more frantic at each "false alarm." Had it not been for Vittorio standing by we would have been desperate indeed. I went to Washington in September to take action on her behalf.

As is written in a popular British Army ballad "they say there's a troop ship just leaving Bombay {or where-ever}, bound for old Blighty {or USA} shore, heavily laden with time-expired men bound for the land they adore." The troop ships out of Naples were indeed "heavily laden" that summer, as the "time-expired" men came through by the thousands. We Drivers had serenaded each other to the words of this ballad many times as the longing for home became more than we could bear. In some dark days we feared we would never embrace home and our loved ones there again.

In this way V-E day had come and gone. It meant an even greater flow of communications for us involving AFS New York, AFS Caserta, our remaining Liaison Offices and men still in the field. Instead, however, the grim problems of actions in war were replaced by the issues of demobilization. None of us doubted that Mr. Galatti would pull another "rabbit out of the hat" to qualify AFS "veterans" under the Army's point system for discharge for those of us subject to our Draft Boards.

For us at the HQ "office" who had waited so long for the end of the endless years of war, V-E Day was almost anticlimax. I had written that "I never expected to be pounding a typewriter on V-E Day." I added that in the process I had "tried to absorb the policies, procedures, directives since the formation of AFS in this war."

Undeterred by false starts the "American family" kept the flow of packages coming, making up for the shortage of almost everything. I had written to Mother (June 29) that "it seems that one or two packages have come in every week for the past month." I added that "the biggest excitement of the week was the arrival of your package for the Mazzettis." Augusto opened it on the dining room table, and he and Elena were delighted to find a cornucopia of items "difficult or impossible to find in these parts" however simple or basic. The items included "tooth-brushes, band-aides, ribbons, shoe-laces, comb, fruit-cakes, toilet articles, soap..." Elena loved the homemade toll-house cookies in the package; we had shared some of ours before. A more difficult "order" successfully filled by Mother had been shoes urgently need by Filippo; I had also requested that she or Dad find and send along my track shoes.

Nearby our residence and GHQ was the Vomero stadium with 400 meter cinder track, The Athletic Committee, Armed Forces Headquarters Zone, announced a series of meets open to the many Allied troops (American and Commonwealth) stationed in the AFHQ Zone or waiting assignments to troop ships. There were regional trials in June, with winners selected for the Zone-wide meet Sunday July 1.

When in Tripoli during our Summer of '43 I had trained on the track there and competed on the medical team in the Corps championships won by our team. There had been eight teams in all. Jack Lester (AFS) and I scored 16 of our team's 26 points; the other points by "Kiwi" friends of the NZ hospital unit. I won the 200, 100 and the long jump. As a result another nickname was added to my nickname of "Fox". Dunc Murphy when on home-leave in March 1944 sent a personal note on my behalf to Mother, noting that at Tripoli he used to jog with "Fox as Charlie is called," and that the C Platoon fellows also had bestowed upon me the title "world's fastest human."

Back in Naples it was a short walk to the Vomero Stadium from our room, and I began to work out three or tour evenings a week to prepare for the track meets. Had Mother sent my spiked shoes I could not have used them as we were required to run in sneakers, and the track was quite slow.

In a qualifying British Amy Zone meet held at the stadium on Sunday June 23 I won the 100 dash and the 220 hurdles ( we were limited to two events). I also ran a quarter-mile leg on our Zone 1 relay team which placed second. As a result, I had qualified to compete in the 100 meter dash and 200 meter hurdles at the 56 Area Armed Forces Allied Track and Field Championships at the Vomero Stadium July 1, 1945. 1 was listed as American Field Service attached British Army, one of a total of 69 British Commonwealth trackmen, plus a large number of American men.

Licia joined the crowd at the Stadium to cheer me on, as the band of the Royal Ulster Rifles played throughout the day. The competition was keen, and the times fairly good in spite of wearing sneakers on a slow track --- and all of us hardly in the best of condition considering what we had been through. I won the 200 meter hurdles, and placed third in the 100 meter dash. As a result, I was one of 15 British and 13 American trackmen who had qualified to compete at the meeting of the entire CMF "theater" scheduled for July 21 in Florence. By then, however, I was no longer in Italy. Dad and I had both run track at Bowdoin, and I had written to him about these meets.

On June 24, 1945 (just after the qualifying track meet) I was 26 years old. It was a difficult time for Licia and me, as her promised June sailing had been postponed. When her preparations to depart for America had been done, trunks marked, passport and travel orders in hand, a ship promised, goodbyes said and arrival in America anticipated --- when we had gone through all of this --- the Army had "changed its mind" and "no wives were getting off on ships." As for me, AFS GHQ was winding down and I would have my own orders to leave Italy in July with Licia left behind. I had written in a letter home "it is a rather trying situation especially since it looks as if I shall be coming to you in August ... I do not want to leave before Licia does, but I may have to."

However, for my "little wife" it was the birthday of her "husband" and she would let nothing mar her celebration of it.

She made not one but two of her delicious chocolate "very cakes" each with candies: one for me, and one to remember my twin Betty. Betty and I had never been separated on our birthday until the war got in the way. This was Licia's way bringing us together, and she knew how close we twins were to each other. After they had met and known each other, she and Betty would become as close as true sisters could be.

Licia had planned a little birthday party. Her cake for me was a chocolate layer cake with "Happi Birthday" written on it; she had "also prepared a sort of iced fruit-cup, strawberries etc. and all of it washed down with some very good Marsalla." Thanks to our landlord and lady, the Mazzettis, we were able to invite a few friends to join with us and with them in the Mazzetti's apartment (our room being a bit too small). Waft Brethauer, Frank Marler, and Gene Hammond (ME Unit 16) joined in the toasts. Licia had written to Mother about the occasion in her rather quaint but charming English:

Yesterday was the Birthday of Charles we have thought very much of Betty and you who on this day gave life to this my bad husband !! I have made the cakes for this day --- only so I can take all the heart of my husband !! Days ago I have received the boxes, in these boxes were many things for me, two pair of shoes, two shirts for women, puddings, fruit-cake etc. all was perfect and useful There was the gift for my Mother, it was very very beautiful and will make happy my mother ... I have found here many letters of yours and all are full of love for me. I have enjoyed to read them and I have wished to be near you for give you a loving hug.

Also in June, Licia and I had enjoyed another festive evening. While in Naples we had been invited to dinner at the home of Signor Bianchi, representative of P. Pastene Company in Italy. Bianchi had managed to locate me thanks to Mr. Granata at the Consulate. My grandfather Peter, Mother's father, had established the Company, and my uncle Charles Pastene (for whom I am named) had been President before the war. His headquarters were in Boston, with branches in New York and Montreal as well as Naples and Genoa in Italy

When convalescing in Naples December 1943, I had located the Bianchi town house, only to find it in rubble from the bombing. The Bianchis and their three small children had escaped the bombings by going in the country, and had returned to Naples and a different town house. Italy had not as yet sufficiently recovered for export-import to resume. Bianchi told me there was no olive-oil to bottle nor any tomatoes to can even it the glass or tin had been available. But he was in hopes to start up "business" soon. We Americans love Italian foods and wines, among the tastiest and most nutritious of foods world-wide. After the war, these would become once more one of the principal exports to America from Italy in response to American demand.

Italy would in fact stage a remarkable recovery under its post-war Constitution for a Democratic Republic. So much so that today as I write Italy is one of the "G-7" --- the seven leading industrial developed nations of our world. In annual meetings, these countries strongly influence and direct world financial, economic and trade policies.

Italy owes its recovery to the genius and resilience of the Italian people and their commitment to democracy. This was proven in one of the most critical elections in Europe in the immediate post-war period. Palmiro Togliatti, an Italian Marxist, had been sent by Stalin to Italy where he had organized the largest Communist party in Western Europe. Seeking power Togliatti and his party were defeated in the crucial 1948 elections by the respected statesman Alcide de Gasped and the Christian Democrats, a vital turning point at the start of Soviet induced "cold war." The Italian Communists never did form a government, although they provided effective and honest administrations for some of Italy's largest cities. They would become more social democrat than revolutionary Marxist.

Italy's and Europe's remarkable recovery was also shaped by one of our greatest Presidents, Harry S. Truman, as witness the Truman Doctrine in 1947, the Marshall Plan in 1948. He was in command in those crucial post-war days when the future of the free world was hostage once again to a mad Dictator Joseph Stalin, and he made as critical and difficult a cluster of decisions as any President. For this he had the wisdom to appoint three of the greatest Americans ever to assist a President in the conduct our foreign affairs: George Catlett Marshall, Dean Gooderham Acheson, George Frost Kennan. They were all, in the words of Kennan's autobiography Present at the Creation.

Bianchi had been devoted to my uncle Charles, who we kids called "Larlie." With no children of his own, our uncle had been as a second father for us.

Our evening with the Bianchis, elders and children, was delightful . We shared in hopes for the reconstruction of Italy and ever stronger Italo-USA relations. After a delicious meal, Bianchi and I reminisced between ourselves and for our wives about happy memories we had of my uncle, I as a boy and he as a young man. Bianchi had come to Boston, and my uncle was a frequent visitor to Italy in those days of the great transatlantic liners. My uncle had not lived to see me off to the war.

Bianchi remembered that one time in Naples during a formal dinner party a letter from us kids had been delivered and that our uncle "had stopped everything to read the quaint scratchings we must have made to laugh with delight at each little incident of our lives of which we would tell him." Bianchi also recalled his own visits to Boston, of my uncle's love for sports and fishing, and of how he Bianchi had also known my Dad and Mother back then.

On other occasions, we had good times with Walt Brethauer on Saturdays or Sundays, driving to beaches or points of interest. As Transport Officer, Walt had access to a car. In late June it was getting hot., and Walt invited us and the Mazzettis to join him and a friend to one of the most beautiful beaches on the north side of the Bay of Naples for swimming and a picnic. I had written about this (June 29) "it was very refreshing... The beach was between two high rock bluffs, and looked out squarely on Ischia. Licia keeps wondering if America is as beautiful as certain parts of Italy --- I think she will like Cape Cod." This was the last of our trips to the beach.

The advent of July 1945 marked two months since the German surrender ending the war in Europe, and three months since Licia had joined me in Naples. At AFS GHQ office work was slowing, and repatriations had been taking place as fast as ships became available. The point system for discharge of those subject to draft had been articulated. With the help of good AFS friends in high places in Washington and London Mr. Galatti would in fact succeed in bringing AFS on board, together with the coveted I-G classification for dischargees which would prevent induction of AFS Drivers before being able to apply for discharge from the Draft.

In the north 485 Company had completed the heavy flow of postwar evacuations, and after review and honors by 8th Army Commander General McReery (a good friend of AFS) the Company convoyed down to Naples and from there 152 men left on July 14 for Taranto and a ship for India-Burma. They were led by popular Major Ward Chamberlin, also a good friend. Another 50 or so joined those waiting repatriation at the AFS Club or at other billets in Naples.

There were now three groups in Naples as reported by George Rock: "those few still waiting for repatriation, those waiting for releases to other jobs in Europe, and those of us finishing off the affairs of AFS in the Mediterranean theatre." These latter included our Liaison Offices in Italy as well as our Naples GHQ.

By July, there were fewer ships available for repatriation from Naples. AFS arranged for a trial group to leave by train on July 16 for England, with embarkation from there. Major Perry followed to assist the group when in England and work out dependable methods for the rest of us including transshipments through England.

Fittingly Major John Nettleton, ME Unit 1, who had done just about everything else an AFS Volunteer- Driver-Officer could do, replaced Bill Perry as Commanding Officer, AFS GHQ, Central Mediterranean Forces Naples.

I had written (the June 29 letter) that I would be "one of the last to leave ... I am to be ready to leave for the States (via the UK) on July 15 ... I plan to stop work the end of this week, and will have two weeks off to make arrangements etc. (I haven't had a real leave since my two-year enlistment leave ended last fall."

Up until now, we hoped Licia would leave ahead of me. This had fallen through when in June "the army had changed its mind ... no wives were getting off..." But she had been promised a ship for early August and we were counting on this:

I hope that Licia will embark for the States while I am passing through England, and that her faster ship and more direct route will get her to the States the same time as me! I will write to you [Mother] more of the arrangements we will make with the Red Cross etc. for the days she must remain in Naples.

I had written (June 29) that "I hoped to be able to see Alex Turner and his family while passing through England." We had both been exchanging letters since Tunisia and Enfidaville (April 1943) and would continue to do so as long as Alex lived.

As regards the "points system" for discharge I felt I had earned more than enough provided the authorizations came through for Draft Boards to include AFS Drivers under the system. On counting my "points" I had explained:

My points total to: 2 yrs and 8 months overseas to 12 May or 64 points. Counting American Army fashion 5 points for battle-star in Tunisia, and 15 points for three battle-stars in Italy or 84 points in all. (I believe the total necessary for discharge is to be lowered to 80 by War Dept. in July). Counting British Campaign ribbon style: five for Africa star, five for Italy Star, and five for the 1939-45 Star (these last two have recently been announced, and the Ass. Military Attache, Major Williams is at present in London angling for these for the AFS). Add another five for the 8th Army clasp and this also makes 84 points. Of course the Navy and Marines don't recognize this, and they can always get you! Looks like the Far East for this chicken!

I was one of the last to leave probably in the third week of July, but I do not recall the exact date. My service record states July 21. I was one of those taking the train to London with shipping from Liverpool --- the method tried and tested by Major Perry who had established transit facilities for us in London.

There was still some work to be done at GHQ to release civilian employees, close down billets and relinquish office buildings, sell off office machines and furnishings, The remaining vehicles and ambulances, which had seen better days, were donated to American Relief for Europe the newer ambulances having been shipped to India-Burma. The process took several months

Finally on October 6, 1945 John Nettleton faithful to the end, who had stayed on to take care of all of this, closed the office and prepared to sail for home with, as George Rock wrote " a battle-scarred ambulance for the Richmond museum."

Part Nine, continued
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