Things Yon Can't Forget
Gladnick, Sergeant Robert
Things Yon Can't Forget By Sergeant Robert Gladnick THE Nasi elivialeae remaining here ia Italy, taking advantage of the defensive terrain, are still resisting with unabated fury. I can well...
...To my inquiry as to the meaning of it all, (me of the men volunteered to tell us the story...
...Small units were better...
...If the Communists claim they are in charge, it's just s esse of typicsl CP...
...The number tortured offered mute evidence of their lack of success...
...The war may or may not end this year, but for the men who have to fight until it's won—with many a tough battle ahead—we have no illusions about the future...
...Yes, it's all over but the fighting...
...A few days ago, while we were scrapping for a river town, as if out of nowhere in the dsrk-ness a band as ragged and rsgged ss you'd ever see—aimed in trae Hollywood guerrilla fashion— slipped into ear lines...
...If the fire from it is too strong, the air fame appear* jo th* form «f dive bomber., a type tost make, the formsjly dreaded Stgkss a Joke...
...And just then a group of Italians ran up to us...
...As their band expanded, they split up into smaller groups—to evade attention and for operative reasons...
...The group I met was Slavonic, and 1 listened with quite a bit of envy to their battle stories...
...Fust Ihey tortured them long and systematically to force out of them some information about the hideout of the Partisans...
...The opposite ridge that just a few moments ago was part of a peaceful landscape becomes an inferno...
...Jerry, as a rule, goes after the big bait, the big tanks and infantry units...
...The Partisans are different...
...A new phenomenon is developing on the Italian front, the appearance ef Partisan and Patriot hands...
...Another lad and I grsbhed her, but it was like holding on to an infuriated she-wolf...
...As soon as this ridge is stormed, the reeee gees en probing the next one.' It's Just one ridge after tke other...
...My ncrt tank had a bit of mechanical trouble and, together with the fitters from the mobile workshop, I wss trying to figure out Uie source of it...
...My scope as a soldier is limited to a series of hotly fought battles raging over certain topographical features, usually a vine-covered ridge that has long rusted in oblivion and which, after the battle has passed, will again settle down to oblivion except for a plot of ground surmounted by a cross marking a spot which will be forever Canads...
...They remained in a prison ramp until last September and at the time of the annistire made off to the hills, first collecting arms from their former prison guards...
...Tanks begin to fire on the opposite ridge, and the artillery, which up to now ha* been silent or hss been sending its Are into the enemy's rear, brings its weight of steel to bear...
...But for a reason which 1 have not been able to learn, the ex-prisoners of war preferred to operate independently of the Italians, excepting when using them as guides...
...The rugged Italian peasants would not talk...
...They work like a phantom force...
...As for the Italian Communist Party, it'a a story ia itself...
...The road to victory will be marked by many a grave of a dear comrade if not by my own...
...This particulsr bsnd was s Slavonic group...
...Shrapnel and smoke make visibility practically nil...
...Then Jerry, after taking a kit of shellacking in aa area, moves away to a new fortified section...
...The Russisns inquired of me: "Chto takaye'FSS...
...But even hard-hearted as we've become and inured to suffering, I was recently pitched into the midst of a scene which wss too much for me...
...LaST year these scenes used to move me almost t* tear*—to see old women and young children wandering dazedly in search of the ruins which were their homes...
...The speed of your recce tank is your only salvation...
...And when you hear the sorrowful cry of,a mother or wife, you just stand there, inarticulate, itupified with anger...
...Up to now they had been hiding from the Germans...
...We regular soldiers lack the advantage of surprise which the Partisans have...
...XhERE'S very little politics among the Partisans...
...I am talking about this because the newspapers, the radio broadcasters and all those who don't have to do the fighting are already acting as though it were all over...
...The only reason they wanted the ('artisans to report in was that all arms and armed men had to be checked...
...And tkt latt battle ran be ]u»t as bloody a* tke fuel So tell those blokes back home to put away their festive regalia and stick to hard facts...
...He can always be thrown eat later as s Trotskyit* if he doeaa't toe the line...
...The Germans came to the village and grabbed all the men they could lay their hands on...
...Some of them, you could see, were mutilated by burns in the flesh...
...She dragged both of us right down into the pit Before we could recover ourselves, she grabbed the mutilated body of her Luigi, snd no animal or human could have let out a more agonized moan or scream as she clasped it to her, kissing the head, the feet, the whole body...
...I then reassured him by explaining that the FSS was a far cry from the GPU or NKUD...
...One old peasant woman recognized the corpse of her son...
...i've seen a lot in my day, hut that was too much...
...Luck can't hold out forever...
...By the time my informant had finished his tale the women began to arrive...
...They wore German machine-gun belts aa crea* straps, were armed with Italian and Germaa rMee as 'well aa Sten guns—proving that British plane* have been supplying them with arms, keeping contact and probably giving direction...
...When one recognized the body of a husband or son, it was all that we could do to prevent her from throwing herself into the pit...
...methods of grabbing all the credit...
...I can well testify to that...
...You should have seen his radiant face take on a hangdog look anil heard him mumble: "Noo, already here...
...1 want to relate an interesting incident that passed between myself and the two Russian naval officers...
...You drive s tsnk over s stretch of ground that for all you can see is just a peacful bit of Tuscany . . . a mile . . . two miles . . . you're the recce...
...Both had been wounded in action with the Black Sea Fleet and were in a hospital in Voronezh when the Italians entered and made them prisoners...
...As for the Italians, you meet priest-colonels of the Italian Army as well as student Communists...
...The women cried and wailed...
...As in the case of the ex-prisoners of war, it's all a matter of staying out of Naxi hands and killing a few in the process...
...After a terrific pasting, ? infantry launches its attack, closely supported by th* pointblank fire ef the* tanks...
...Wherever we go, it'* like putting your head in the lion's mouth—artillery, mortars, anti-tank guns— in general, an assorted array of lethal weapons faces us...
...All I can say after reading most ef the literstare snd manifestos is thst it is the only psrty in Itsly today that is absolutely devoid of a social program...
...Then the unmistakable, sharp bark of an 88...
...It said more to me bikiiiI personal freedom than any long-drawn-out polemic on the Soviet system...
...I don't believe any centralised political body controls the Italian Partisans...
...Pules and Kussisns...
...Others had had members lopped off- here a hand, there a foot or an ear...
...I can understand Italian, but all 1 could make out was they wanted us to go with them We followed up a wooded hill, and when we hail almost reached the top, the Italian who was leading stood still and pointed down...
...So,- in a white hest of fury, the Germans murdered the whole lot of them and threw their bodies practically nude into this huge pit...
...But that was a mournful phrase: "Already here...
...The driver had been killed and the truck set on fire...
...Before our arrival, a German army truck had been ambushed by Partisans near the village...
...But what ran we do to restore s house, to bring back a dead mother from the ruins, or a father who has been dragged away by the Germans into slavery...
...In a matter of momenta the battle is over, and they fade awsy...
...And we can't retreat or go around...
...Two of the Russians were red naval officers...
...I caught up with him and looked down into a huge open pit...
...Sometimes on the field of battle, when a good friend gets it, you go mad for a moment...
...We must push right through...
...Hell Ss being thrown both ways...
...You dash back—if you're lucky...
...With the exception of two Scotch ex-prisoners of war, the group ronsisted of Yugoslav*, ( in to...
...There is a ridge in front of you...
...A few times I crawled back and left my wagon behind, a burning wreck...
...You go down into a vslley snd then start ascending the opposite slope...
...This mean* a dusty move of mile*— with the usual unchanging scene, bombed villages sad hundreds of refugees trundling back to their home...
...1 turned to the Red navyman and said: "FSS means GPU...
...In the hills the Russians met other Allied prisoners of war ami formed a hand...
...But then you realise it's war...
...You weave snd bob snd start hesding back toward your own ridge...
...to the actual fighting, how can 1 give you a picture of it...
...The Partisans recruited not only among Allied ex-prisoners of war but among the Italians as well...
...What 1 saw turned my stomach About fifty male bodies lay there in various grotesque positions of death...
...The Partisans had instructions to report to the Field Security Service upon reaching Our lines...
...Behind you deployed come the large tanks with infantry swarming all around...
...Today it has become an everyday occurrence Maybe the civilians who meet us think us hardened and rrnel soldiers, indifferent to their plight...
...They learn that a German convoy is coming through, and while the Nazi drivers dream of their Frauleins in the Reich, the Partisans draw a bead on them...
...What is this FSS...
...The few Italian groups I have run across call themselves 'Patriot Bands and generally had a Scotchman or a South Africsn in charge or acting as liaison...
...But when you see a bunch of civilians murdered, it'i different, more painfully tragic...
...Its sim Is power snd it is trimming its ssils in thst direction even if it hss to make Umber to a member of its central committee...
...If any control or direction does exist, it is generally in the form of a British liaison officer from Allied Headquarters...
...I thought for a moment how to explain the meaning of the organization, and it dawned on me that the nearest Soviet equivalent (I say this with all due apology to the FSS, for whose services I have great respect") was the GPU...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 37
