Monte Cassino by Matthew Parker

Author:Matthew Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780385513395
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2004-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR

THE THIRD BATTLE

I only know what we see from our worm's eye view, and our segment consists only of tired and dirty soldiers who are alive and don't want to die; of long darkened convoys in the middle of the night; of shocked, silent men wandering back down the hill from battle; of mess queues and atabrine tablets and the smell of cordite and foxholes and burning tanks and Italian women washing and the rustle of high-flown shells; of jeeps and ammunition dumps and hard rations and olive trees and blown bridges and dead mules and hospital tents and shirt collars greasy black from weeks of wearing; and of laughter too and anger and wine and lovely flowers and constant cussing. All these it is composed of: and of graves and graves and graves.

—ERNIE PYLE, CASSINO, MARCH 1944

What I saw took me back across twenty-eight years, when I experienced the same loneliness crossing the battlefield of the Somme.

—FRIDOLIN VON SENGER UND ETTERLIN

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