Christmas of 1944 marked the arrival in Italy of the first elements of the 10^th Mountain Division. The men of the 86^th Mountain Infantry Regiment noted the holiday for its drab and disjointed passing, as well as for their first impressions of war-torn Italy. The 86^th Regiment boarded the SS Argentina on December 10, 1944 in Newport News, Virginia. After a two week voyage, uneventful aside from a storm early in the journey that caused widespread sea-sickness, the convoy containing the Argentina approached its destination: Naples, Italy.

     It was during the afternoon of December twenty-third that they sailed past the Island of Capri and into the Bay of Naples. The Argentina anchored in the bay, and the men were told that they would disembark in the morning.  The ship had brought all the ingredients necessary to prepare a Christmas dinner for the troops if they should be at sea when the holidays came. The cooks made the Christmas dinner early, and so the men ate their turkey and trimmings off the Italian coast. The regimental band played the last evening deck concert of the voyage in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

Captain Everett Bailey of L Company sat down that evening to write one last homesick letter to his wife from the Argentina;

     Dearest Lovely,

The spirit of Christmas is evident even here on board ship. Many Christmas Carols, memories of where people were last year at this time, and limited quantities of Christmas cheer are contributing factors.

It is a beautiful moonlit night, and I have just returned from the great outdoors refreshed by the sea breeze and filled with beautiful memories and love for you. Everyone has high morale, and if it wasn’t for that ever deep longing for your physical presence and wondering where you are, what you are doing, are you in good health, are you in trouble; life would be nothing but a carefree superficial existence for me. Gosh but it is lonely at night without you. Perhaps when we leave the ship and sheets it will wear off. How I wish we could be together tonight my darling, just the two of us hand in hand underneath the stars walking along a quiet road breathing the clean cold air of Vermont.

Before I forget – If anything serious happens, you can contact me simply by going through any Red Cross Chapter, I can reply through the same channels.

     Goodnight my dearest lovely,

                                                            Ev

Christmas Eve, 1944:

     The weather was cold and overcast in the morning, with periodic showers of rain. The men ate breakfast in the ship’s galley, and then went up on deck. The Argentina was to be the first ship in the convoy to unload its cargo, and the men strained to see Naples Harbor as the liner maneuvered toward shore. Before the Allies captured Naples the previous year, the Germans had tried to destroy the port. They scuttled ships in the approaches in an effort to block access to the harbor, but the Allies quickly cleared paths through the wreckage in order to make use of Naples as a base of supply. The Argentina was led through this obstacle-course of sunken ships, their rusted superstructures protruding above the waterline and emerging from the mist like ghosts.  As the port came into view, the men could see that the warehouses and buildings along the shore were in ruins. There was a considerable amount of damage from Allied bombing raids conducted the previous year.

     Most of the Italian civilians they saw were living in abject poverty. While fighting for the Axis, the war had crippled the Italian economy. Italy joined the Allies in September of 1943, and from that time was under German occupation. As the Germans were forced to retreat northward, they looted the countryside and food became scarce. The Po River Valley was the breadbasket of Italy, and it was still firmly under German control. The men of the 86^th Mountain Infantry would get a thorough lesson in Italian poverty, and it began even before the Argentina reached the dock. Small boats approached the ship, rowed by Italian men with one or two children sitting at the front of each of the boats, waving their arms and making motions for the troops to toss things down to them. The soldiers lining the railings began to throw cigarettes, candy and even coins down to the children below. The kids dove out of the boats to collect the items that landed in the water, and soon proved very adept at this. They dove under the waves and seemed always to resurface holding their quarry. The troops began throwing items further and further away to test the skill of the young divers, and cheered at their aquatic dexterity.

     After the Argentina docked, the process of unloading the troops took several hours. The men stepped off the gangplank onto Italian soil, were checked off of a list, and were given a doughnut by female Red Cross workers. They were directed to climb into a waiting line of army trucks on the street parallel to the pier. The trucks drove through the bombed out streets of Naples. Everything in the city appeared neglected, dirty and grey. The streets were completely devoid of automobiles. The disheveled civilians moved about, and the troops noticed that all of them were skinny. There seemed to be an overabundance of children, many of them apparently homeless.

     The truck convoy drove twenty-five miles northeast to the town of Bagnoli, where the men were dropped off near a group of abandoned buildings that were being used as a staging area. Nobody could agree what the buildings had originally been. Some thought it was an orphanage, others believed it was a college. In any event, the buildings were never finished and some had suffered bomb damage. They had been used as barracks by the Germans, and now the Allies made use of them also.  The dingy, dirty and damaged buildings had no furnishings and no heat, electricity or running water. The large windows contained no glass, and so the temperature inside was the same as that outside; cold and damp. The floors were made of polished marble.

     The troops were told that this would be their home for the next two weeks. They would do some training, acquire supplies, and then the 85^th and 87^th Mountain Infantry Regiments, still en route from the US, would meet them there. After some further training, the 10^th Mountain Division would move to the front as one unit.

     Pfc. Horton Durfee recalled that,

     “After a welcome warm supper served outdoors, Chuck Guder and I decided to do a little exploring. We headed out the way we had arrived earlier that day…We hadn’t gone far when a dirty, ragged and undernourished boy of about twelve materialized beside us. “Cigarettes, Meester?” the child asked. I didn’t have any, nor did Chuck. The boy didn’t believe us – didn’t all Americans smoke? We finally convinced him we didn’t have any cigarettes, but he tagged along with us anyway. Before long he was joined by two or three other youngsters, equally dirty and undernourished, who begged us for cigarettes, candy, anything we might have. Obviously we were not the first American soldiers who had been there, and these poor children must have eked out their survival on any offerings the Americans might give them.”

     Durfee and Guder returned to their makeshift barracks, and they and the rest of the regiment spent a chilly and uncomfortable night trying to sleep without any bedding on the marble floors.

Christmas, 1944:

     Christmas morning dawned cold in Bagnoli. The men of the 86^th found themselves surrounded by poverty. Italian locals arrived to collect the leftovers from breakfast, saving even the coffee grounds. Cigarette butts were picked up by children as soon as they hit the sidewalk. Soldiers were approached in alleys by Italian boys, who were eager to broker a deal for money or cigarettes in exchange for some time alone with their sisters. Some young ladies did the selling themselves. Cigarettes could fetch two dollars a pack, and the girls used cigarettes as the primary medium of exchange. A rumor spread that one enterprising young woman left the camp in the morning with seventeen packs of cigarettes. Another rumor went around that the Italians were selling liquor to the troops that was laced with gasoline. This rumor quickly grew to include several unconfirmed fatalities. Nothing was ever substantiated.

     A depressed Pfc. Stuart Abbott wrote home to his family,

This is the most un-Christmas-y Christmas I have ever known. Only the tree here in the Red Cross Service Club to remind you of it. They are singing carols someplace in the building now. Is grandmother in town? Have you any snow? How are you feeling these days dad?

     It didn’t feel much like Christmas until the first shipment of mail arrived from home. With censorship finally lifted as to their destination, Captain Everett Bailey wrote to his wife.

Italy is the place, not so sunny and not very much singing. We are very comfortable, and happy. This is more than I can say for the civilian population. This morning a little, barefoot boy of about six got half of my breakfast spam wrapped up in a slice of bread. (My feet were cold with heavy socks on.) He backed off a pace with a big smile on his face and said the Italian equivalent to “Thank you” and hoisted me a smart salute. The Red Cross is doing all they can, but there are armies that of course have to be supplied. I thank God that you and David [their infant son] are in the US. A lot of Italians are of course working for us here, but most of them can never have known a real job. They work in spurts and starts and never seem to accomplish anything. If any population ever needed peace and return to normalcy, they do. This morning a cook in the company cut a piece of fat from some beef in trimming it. It fell on the ground and two grown men fought for it. Finally one of them scooped it up and went tearing away. The effects of war on the land are grim enough, but on its people it is unbelievable until seen.

Mail came today, but I didn’t get any. I know you are writing, but until my change of address card arrived in Florida, of course you couldn’t know where to write directly. I shall have a personal interest in every mail call from now on and can’t wait for your letters to catch up. Maybe later I will be able to write about what we have seen in the way of points of interest, but for the present all I can say is Italy.

Children line up to receive the leftovers of a meal from men of the 10th Mountain Division. The children in this photograph, taken in Vidiciatico in February 1945, were from the countryside and were better clothed and fed than their counterparts in Naples. (Denver Public Library)

     Just after noon orders arrived that cut their stay at Bagnoli short. Information came in slowly. It seemed that the US 92^nd Infantry Division, in the mountains to the north, had been routed. Three German divisions were said to be breaking through the gap in the allied lines, and there was no one to stop them from pushing all the way to Rome. The 86^th Mountain Infantry was to move to the front as rapidly as possible, departing first thing the next morning. There they would join Task Force 45, an organization of various miscellaneous units, and stop the German attack. As it happened, the attack was over well before their arrival.

     In the evening, a Christmas dinner was served. The troops went down the chow line with their mess kits, and the men manning each station proffered generous portions of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, cranberries, and all the trimmings. By the time they reached the end of the serving line their mess kits were piled full. Finally, a man cut a slice off of a brick of vanilla ice cream and plopped it right on top of the heap of food in their tin.

     When the meal was over, the men approached the row of garbage pails and metal garbage cans filled with hot soapy water used for washing their mess kits. There they found ragged Italian children waiting with cups, bowls and buckets. The troops scraped any food they had left directly into the children’s containers. This became a common occurrence throughout their time in Italy. The men began to take extra food that they knew they would not eat, like a cookie or a piece of bread, to give to one of the children when they were finished. Capt. Bailey recounted later that the barefoot children’s chapped and cracking feet left bloody footprints in the snow.

     It was not until December 30 that a Red Cross Christmas package arrived, containing a variety of goods to be divided among the men. Pfc. Horton Durfee recalled that he,

     “Spied a pipe and some tobacco among the contents and wanted them more than anything else. So did Curt Kreiser, our platoon sergeant. But I told Curt it was my birthday (true) and that should be reason enough why I should get the pipe (false – very selfish of me). Curt could very well have pulled his rank, but he didn’t and instead graciously made me a present of the pipe. I promptly loaded it with tobacco and fired it up. It was awful. I pretended that I enjoyed smoking that pipe, but I didn’t, and as soon as I could get away with it, I ditched the thing someplace and never smoked it again. Curt, if he noticed, never said a word.”

This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86^th Regiment, 10^th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.

Sources:

Abbott, Stuart E. Letters to Family, 1944-1945. Stuart E. Abbott Papers, TMD50, 10th Mountain Division Collection, The Denver Public Library.

Bailey, Everett C. Letters to Doris Bailey, 1942-1945. Bailey Papers. Author’s collection.

Brower, David. Remount Blue: The Combat Story of the Third Battalion, 86th Mountain Infantry, 10^th Mountain Division. Unpublished Manuscript, c. 1948. Digitized   version edited and made available through the Denver Public Library by Barbara Imbrie, 2005.

Carlson, Bob. A History of L Company, 86^th Mountain Infantry. Self-published Manuscript, 2000.

Durfee, Horton K. World War II Memoirs of Horton K Durfee 1943-1946. Self-published, 1998.

Krear, H. Robert. The Journal of a US Army Mountain Trooper in World War II. Estes Park,   CO: Desktop Publishing by Jan Bishop, 1993.

Moore-McCormack.com. SS Argentina. Accessed September 29, 2013. http://moore-mccormack.com/SS-Argentina-1938/SS-Argentina-1938-War-1.htm.  

Wellborn, Charles. History of the 86^th Mountain Infantry Regiment in Italy. Edited by Barbara Imbrie in 2004. Denver, CO: Bradford-Robinson Printing Co.,1945.