Evening star., 1943-11-09


uncensored stories telling of ,Dhat
actually is happening in Ger
man-occupied Italy. The series
,DGs Dritten especially for the
Associated Press by Gunnar d.
Kumlien, chief correspondent in
Rome for the Stockholm neDs-
paper Tidningen, 1Dho traueled
BY truck, train and airpldne to
Stockholm Dith the StoryJ
BY GUNNAR d. KUMLIEN.
| Copyright. 1943, The Associated Press)
STOCKHOLM, Nov. 9.-Thou-
sands of American, British and In
dian war prisoners who escaped after
the Italian armistice now are max
ing their way southwark from Rome
to meet the Allied armies as they
near the capital.
They are part of "the ghost army
which is adding immeasurably to
German problems in Occupied Italy
In the wild Abruzzi Mountains
south of Rome the most mixed, cos
mopOlitan army which this war has
seen roams almost at wall 1t con-
sists of masses of italian officers and
soldiers who prefer to hide in the
forest as guerrillas to being drafted
into an Italian army which the
Germans are trying to recruit, and
thousands of Indian prisoners of
war, once interned in camp near
Avezzano, 80 miles east of Rome;
American, British. Canadian and
Australian prisoners.
Live in Caves and HutS.
The presence of these hostile
bands is forcing the Germans to
stick to the highways, not daring
to penetrate the bush-covered noun
tain slopes.
The ghost army lives in earthen
caves and in huts made of sticks
For the most part the soldiers have
no weapons, but they support the
Italians in sabotage whenever they
can. Italian peasants recognize
members of the army and provide
them food. The black bearded Sikhs
and blond Englishmen, in return,
help the peasants dig potatoes, hew
flrewood and load it on donkeys.
Seldom do the italians betray the
hideouts despite the fact the Ger
mans have offered 20 pounds ster
ling $500 per prisoner.
A few days before I left Rome I
had an urgent errand in small
Abruzzian village. so miles southeast
of Rome. My only chance of get
ting there was to pay taxi driver
well and buy the gasoline on tine
black market at so lire per liter.
Signs of Fighting.
Along the road to the village we
saw signs of fighting between the
Germans and Italians at the time
of the armistice, and here and there
were damaged Italian tanks which
the Germans were attempting to
repair. We also saw German Army
cars which had been damaged by
Italian antitank guns. The cars
were stripped of everything usable,
especially the tires, which are worth
$3.50 each.
The only traffic on the road was
German staff and armored cars,
The village was crowded with
evacuees from Rome and German
soldiers recently defeated at Salerno
and Naples I was told that the
first night after the Germans ar
rived two of them were shot from
ambush by inhabitants of the vii
lage, who now are living in constant
fear of Nazi reprisals. But the only
Germans I saw were too tired and
exhausted to think of reprisals.
They sat in the sunshine, doing
and cleaning their rifles.
s Give Candy to Children.
Some even distributed German
candy to children. Mothers told
me they at first forbade the chill
dren to accept anything from the
Germans because they feared the
candy was poisoned. When the
Germans understood this they os-
tentatiouslv nibbled the sweets be-
fore handing them to the children.
I went directly to German off,
Ger who had commandeered a home
where some of my friends in Rome
had intended to live. I was sur
prised by the fact he received me
very amiably. He assured me that
his soldiers probably would not stay
long in the village. l was struck by
the civilian official" air with which
he received me, instead of the usual
abrupt military behavior of German
officers. especially when they are in
the field.
But there was reaSon-the COM
mander was Austrian, As were most
of the soldiers.
Tell your friends who are going
to live here that they need not fear
the Americans when they come he
said. The Americans are gentle
men and very decent people. We
can assure you that after fighting
against them as soldiers we learned
to respect them as soldiers"