Chapter 6 Naples (I)

Fragments of Chapter 6 about Naples

My first contact with the great city of Naples came somewhere near its very heart, the contact a few muffled voices in the gloomy dark sometime after midnight. The words were Italian. The voices came from faces in barely discernible bodies huddled beside dark buildings. My jeep came to a halt at a street crossing. There was silence.

Then, "Americano?"

"Si."

The bodies came to the side of the jeep. We spoke no Italian, they little English, but enough was exchanged to learn that the few remaining Germans had left the city early in the morning. In their leaving the Germans had heaped upon their former ally a burden of senseless destruction and heartless hunger.

In Naples I saw a famous city rise from the valley of the shadow of death. I walked into buildings where late the Fascisti strutted. Some of the arrogance of the conqueror either rubbed off on me or came out from within me. In this spectacular city with a traditionally famous harbor, then full of sunken Italian ships, in this vigorous and bawdy city whose roofs of pastel red, blue, and orange are a rainbow in the sun, I learned about life.

One night there was an air raid and an Italian cyclone-torpedo bomb was parachuted down during the night. It landed on our roof but failed to detonate. The next morning we vacated the building while three British officers came to remove the fuse. Minutes passed and nothing happened. The bomb, which I had gone up to see during the morning, was as round as a man and six feet long.

More minutes passed. The fuse was apparently not yielding to skilled hands. We moved about restlessly on the streets. There were the usual jokes about Limeys mixed in with the inefficiency of Italian machinery, to which was added the probable anger of the Nazi who had dropped the dud. Suddenly there was a horrendous blast. The street shook with the shock of the explosion. All that was ever seen again of the three British officers were pieces of dark, dirty flesh that got mixed with the rubbish in the filthy streets of Naples.