Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 March 1944 — Page 2
FIGHT RAGES IN CASSINO RUINS
Fanatical Nai Gunners! Creep Back Into Blasted Town.
(Continued From Page One)
destruction of Cassino as the opening broadside in a concerted allied offensive all across the Italian front. Official photographs showed that only a few jagged walls remained standing in Cassino today. The only building not demolished was a four-story hotel, the top two stories of which had been crushed by a direct bomb hit. Lt. Gen. Ira C. Baker, command-
watched the bombing. from a nearby observation post, along with Gen. Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander, Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, and Lt. Gen, Jacob L. Devers. “Today we fumigated Cassino,” he said, “and I am most hopeful that when the smoke of today’s battle clears away we shall find more worthy occupants installed with litfle loss to our men” How thoroughly Eaker's bombers had done the job, however, re= mained to be tested by the attacking allied ground forces. The Nazis still were putting up stiff resistance today for the ruins of Cassino and their defense positions above the town. The allies were reported in control of part of the town as ‘well as a section along the Via Casilina to the north. Not a singlé allied plane was lost in yesterday's attack on Cassino, but six aircraft were downed in a series of smaller raids on Viareggio harbor, Follonica and San Bene-
er of the Mediterranean air forces,
detto.
(Continued From Page One)
the air attack mounted. The sky was filled with the noise of engines and the deadly crash of bombs. Here came a wing of heavies, Flying Forts and Liberators. Almost on their tails more mediums moved in, Mitchells, and Martin Maurauders. P-38s and Thunderbolts flitted along their aerial outskirts,
Artillery Starts
‘At noon the sharp bombing stopped, but that was just the signal for our artillery to begin: Battery after battery found its voice and spoke with deafening authority as steel shells whistled from our hillsides across the broad green plain to their mark. In a jeep piloted by Pvt. Paul
CAMPFIR
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| bounced behind a British lorry loadled with cabbages to an advance ob|servation post in a hillside olive
| the target.
| easier to see—was more clearly ob- | served than the action at Cassino
| sector of the front and the Ger-
‘smoke like flaming swords.
Latoski, Auburn, Mich., our party
grove, 5000 yards as the crow flies— although no intelligént crow would be seen in that vicinity today—from
What we had was a ringside seat on the far edge of hell. It is quite possible that no battle in history— even back in Napoleon’s time, when fighting was more compact and
today. As we fought our way to the front through heavy traffic, alternately through dust and mud the color! and consistency of melted choco- | late bars, bombers came in high be- ' hind us, settled down steady™ on the ‘bomb run, dumped their loads and
rthen swept off in wide arcs, frst to] | the south and then to the north,
making U-turns for home. Flak | poked up at them feebly (it would | {not seem feeble on the receiving |end, of course), seemingly from the | southern corner of Cassino, If there | was any fighter opposition it was | not visible from where we watched | the battle. Key of German Line From our clump of olive trees! whose leaves shone like dusty silver| |in the sun, Cassino lay almost due | west. It is the key point en this|
mans have held onto it almost with their fingernails against repeated attacks, Americans edged in from the northeast after .bitter" fighting and occupied approximately onethird of the place on Feb. 2, but the Germans stuck to the remainder of their positions. Just a month ago to the day, American. heavies blitzed the abbey standing on top of Monte Cassino, 1500 feet above the town. This was an attempt to drive the enemy from the monastery which they had unashamedly used as an observation post commanding a superlative view of the whole surrounding countryside. But they set! up their observation posts in rubble and stayed on. Then the weather closed in. Today gave Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark’s 5th army and Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker's air force the break they had been waiting grimly and patiently for. As the communique revealed today, operations called for a “largescale air effort” for 31% hours against Cassino proper as part of a co-ordinated plan, with ground forces whose artillery, both British and American, took up the pounding of the German positions at noon. Then the infantry,.supported by tanks, pressed forward, exerting “maximum pressure” on the foe, Smoke Gushes Skyward That is how it looked on paper. Here is how it unfolded before our eyes: Smoke gushed skyward from the first bombs of those Mitchells in| great gray blossoms, temporarily] smudging the view of snow-capped Monte Cairo, rising 5100 feet in the] northwest backbround. That gray was an ugly deathly color, resembling nothing so much as liquid squid squirts in a marine battle, Explosions lashed up through the Then channeled by bleak stony moun-| tains on both south and north, the sound of the blast hit us as if some
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'smoke was beginning to crawl up
{ giant, standing astride the towns | had scooped the noise up in his bare hands and pitched it back across the valley. Starting at 10 o'clock I counted nearly 200 bombers in 20 minutes, bearing toward the target, with vapor trails streaming behind. Visibility, which was crystal clear at first, was becoming hazy now. A group of B-17s came in and geysers lept perpendicularly around the railroad station. Behind it on the south edge of Monastery hill, you could see the Rapido valley stretching, a peaceful picture with a clean cumulus cloud floating high above. | That scene will change soon enough
At 11:46 a pack of Marauders It looked as if they had the target on a hairline. Now
that desolate jagged hill toward the monastery itself and the whole | area was covered with grime as if | somebody had dumped a cement | factory on At.
Nazi Artillery Answers | |
German artillery started up and planted white plumes along high{way 6, winding out below us to- | ward Cassino. Their fire just then was brief. ‘ Through the battle thus far had {stood La Rocca, a ruined castle on la rock jutting out from the north | side of the main monastery hill and |itself an observation post. Suddenly’ it was drenched with black | smoke and flame. The weather began to clear again as a warm breeze brushed -the clouds away. Chalky lines of buildings lay under a maelstrom. of explosions in the center of the town. Back of the station highway 6, emerged again, rolling on into the Aurunci mountains. German traffic moves east toward the front on ‘that side. Allied traffic moves west toward the front on ours, over the same road.
ished. A headquarters announce-
1400 tons—ever unioaded on one square mile of earth in a tactical alr raid. Throbbing Drum of Sound
But now the whole world became a throbbing drum of sound. Our artillery barrage began. “To make those krauts keep their heads down and allow our infantry units and tanks to move in,” one officer said. Under our feet a Newfoundland guncrew was sweating with a British 25-pound artillery piece that cracked the line like a triphammer every time it fired. Pvt. Joe Day, bombardier of St. Johns, admitted that it was a little different from cod fishing off the banks.
In such an unreal world the little reality of the living is drowned in sensations of fear and awe. You see a spectacle but your mind cannot quite track through the thunder. You munch a cracker and cheese, as dry as sawdust, and wash it down with something unidentifiable out of somebody's canteen. The sun feels bright and friendly beating down on. the back of your field jacket.
- THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES __ 'l Had Ringside Seat at the Far Edge of Hell’ Says Eyewitness at Record Cassino Attack
. N » ¥ a cauldron of sound flies one lonely lark, fluttering past the naked branches of oak trees in tragic bewilderment. From the hills and from the valleys the guns thunder on. Now the process is reversed and you can catéh the. slamming noise before you see the bursts of explosives yonder across the plain,
Only the Dead Sleep
You wonder fleetingly what sort of ungodly bedlam the center of Cassino is like, how the Huns are taking it. There will be no easy sleep for the men camped out on the hillside and in the gulleys of this sector tonight. No easy sleep except for the man who fell today. Now, without any particular reason there flashes to your mind a brand new white signboard, painted with red letters which you saw on a building en route to the front. It said in English, “Catholic mass Sunday and Wednesday, 6:30 p. m.” You have to stand with your mouth open like a fish to let your eardryms do a little compensation action. Through the din William
like a whisper. “I thought Hollywood overdid sort of thing.”
We cannot tell the outcome of the action. We cannot see more from here. This story is just one fragment in a crazy, stirring mosaic of war, - On the short way back from our olive grove, while the guns are still going strong, you see units ridiculously playing volleyball. An Italian girl in a red blouse steps carefully through the ruts of the road, balancing a wicker basket of laundry on her head, Over the edge of the hill an Italian peasant is spading his garden. Back at headquarters a fresh sign on the bulletin board says that tonight's movie is “Lady Takes a Chance,” with Jean Arthur,
RETURN TO BATTLE AREA PEARL HARBOR, March 16 (U. P.).—Adm, Chester W, Nimitz and Lt. Gen. Robert C, Richardson Jr., commander of the Hawaiian department, were back at their Pacific headquarters today following a ser-
(Continued From Page One)
Roosevelt was agreeable to Roosevelt visiting the children ‘at all reasonable times and hours. Mrs, Roosevelt's attorney, Robert K. Hanger, said that he would send Col. Roosevelt waiver of contest pa-{ g pers for his signature, The petition charged “the defend-
ant, disregarding the solemnity of his marriage vow and his obligation to treat the plantiff with kindness and attention, about a year prior to their said separation, com« menced a course of unkind, harsh and tyrannical conduct toward the plaintiff which continued with very slight intermission until the plaintiff finally separated from the defendant on or about Oct. 1, 1943.”
Visited Family in August.
Col. Roosevelt last visited his Dutch Branch home near Ft. Worth last August, while on leave from the North African theater. Mrs. Roosevelt declined to make a statement, referring all inquiries to Hanger, Texas law provides a divorce suit
Then, through fire and smoke and
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THURSDAY,
ELLIOTT HIOSEVELTS Range explained. WIFE ASKS DIVORCE:
WF >
(HELLS ww som sion ervivinm
obtained her in Reno.
Call Him Individualistio
Roosevelt's first marriage lasted only 18 months and at the time
8-months-old son. Elliott, described as the most ne dividualistic of the President's sons,
owned and operated a large ranch in Texas. Prior to his entrance
outbreak of the war, he had served
as vice president of an airline, aviation editor for a n
The Roosevelts have three chile dren, Chandler, 9; Anthony, 7, and ‘David, 2.
WALES STRIKERS RETURN
CARDIFF, Wales, March 16 (U, P.) ~The South Wales miners fede
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: y 2
Assists in |
Market 0 Gasolil
+ (Continued F
But the counte outsmarted them some coupons, th
- parts of which he
ed by OPA. Bogus gasoline lated in all larg ond of the.most tion setups to aj scene since the
stamps, but Chi pramary fistriby
eh Assi {ce Chief James Washington tod: of coupon coun was its second m tion, the protec dent being No. cated that staff Indianapolis of wide-scale pros this area. So far, OPA | preme authority tion of coupon “and unless the mented by addi Spears that th with se pe. in advis _ Shad Polier, I secret service appealed from for funds with dence against b “No other agency in the break down co funds to buy es National sec
outcropping of personnel short ally impossible’ . wide black ms complained. “We have o for the 91 cou district. We} selves too thin in this racket.”
CITY HALI FACE E
City hall dep were prepared quisitors,” the engineering fir conference sch Representati: company said 8 large varie in all city de
tempt to leam holder does a
posed to do. Administrati been turning a * the impending sification surve slice a sizab patronage list ————
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