Warburg in Rome by James Carroll

Author:James Carroll
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (www.hmhco.com)

David Warburg had never seen a more beautiful sight: a dozen American Navy vessels, all at anchor across the great horseshoe bay, rhythmically keeping time with its tidal undulations, bows alike in nosing westward in the wind. The ships were already forming the line that would define their convoy, warships posted between troop and cargo ships, all strung out like knots in a rope. So aligned, and with luck, they would traverse the Mediterranean, slip through Gibraltar, and cross the Atlantic.

The sight was beautiful for being framed by Mount Vesuvius to the east and the cliff-hung peninsula of Sorrento to the south. A dozen mammoth cranes defined the harbor foreground, structures of renewal. Naples, formerly the site of an Axis submarine base, had been the most heavily bombed city in Italy, perhaps Europe. But that was months ago, and now the port was the active center of Allied supply and reinforcement. In addition to the forming-up convoy out in the bay, dozens of other ships, closer in, vied for channels and pier space. On shore, trucks and personnel carriers lined up for their brief shots at the quayside, to take on crates and squads of freshly arrived, gawking yardbirds. Sacks of grain, cartons of canned goods, pallets loaded with K rations, as well as machinery, weapons, racks of shells, raw materials, supplies of every kind—a cornucopia of American production. And, in the faces of its fresh legions of boys, a display of American determination, disciplined by fear. The meaning of such undefeated resolve was more apparent than ever at this crowded place of debarkation: the port of Naples was a snapshot of the coming victory.

But most pointedly, there was beauty in what Warburg beheld because one of those distant convoy vessels soon to weigh anchor was the USS Henry Gibbons, a troopship carrying, in its aft holds, a thousand wounded GIs and, forward, 982 guests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, most of whom, before the ship had left the pier three hours before, Warburg had personally welcomed on board.

The refugees were brought to the port of Naples by Army trucks from four different camps in the environs of Rome. Before their arrival, Warburg had boarded the ship to inspect the cramped quarters—low-ceilinged, divided by rows of multitiered bunks—where they would spend the next three weeks. There was almost no space for stowing personal possessions, but, alas, that lack would burden few of these passengers.

With Sergeant Rossini and others of his operation, Warburg had taped to the bulkheads translated copies of President Roosevelt’s message to Congress dated June 12, 1944:

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