The Long March on Rome: The Forgotten War (Forgotten Aspects of World War Two) by Charles Whiting

Author:Charles Whiting [Whiting, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2023-07-29T22:00:00+00:00

That Christmas Eve, as Churchill conducted his ‘sickbed conference’, Eisenhower and his private entourage were cruising around that pre-war haven of luxury and escapism, the Isle of Capri. Eisenhower spotted a large white villa and asked, ‘Whose is that?’

‘Yours, sir,’ someone replied.

Pointing to an even larger one, ‘And that?’

‘That one belongs to General Spaatz.’

Eisenhower exploded. ‘Damn it, that’s not my villa! And that’s not General Spaatz’s villa! None of those will belong to any general as long as I’m boss around here. This is supposed to be a rest center for combat men, not a playground for the brass!’[213]

The Capri story was a good one and was quickly ‘leaked’ to his men fighting for their lives in the mud.

That evening Eisenhower, Kay Summersby, his ‘chauffeuse’, and the rest of the crowd celebrated in a hunting lodge which had once belonged to Italy’s Prince Umberto. Suddenly the party was alerted by a cry from Eisenhower’s orderly, Mickey, ‘There’s a rat in the General’s bathroom!’

The General’s dog, Telek, had sniffed out a rat which now sat on its hind legs on the toilet seat.

‘I can handle this,’ Eisenhower said, grabbing for his glasses and his .45. He fired and missed. The rat jumped up and clung to a pipe. Eisenhower fired again and got part of the rat’s tail. He finally tumbled him on his third shot, but the rat was still alive. Finally a sergeant brained the creature with a log, while, as Kay Summersby records, ‘the rest of us bent over with laughter.’[214]

‘Great marksmanship, Chief,’ Lieutenant Commander Butcher congratulated Eisenhower. ‘Just what we’d expect from the Supreme Commander.’[215]

The next morning they set off to spend Christmas in Africa, travelling in Eisenhower’s brand new B-17, ‘fantastically luxurious, like a Claridge’s in the sky’ as Kay Summersby described it.

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