The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-23

Ortona has suffered greatly from
day and night Smelling by our artil-
lery and from NaI sabotage, but Its
ruins are unimpressive compared
with the path of fire, death and de-
struction along which 1 drove to
reach the embattled town.
The last lap into Ortona is known
to the Eighth as the Road of Five
Graves" because few hundred
yards beyond the red-tiled roofs Of
the villas on the cliffs overlooking
the Adriatic. a British Serman tank
lies split wide open by a mine, and
beside 1t on the right hand side Of
the road there are five fresh graves
headed by new wooden crosses.
Someone stopped to sprinkle a few
handfuls of wild flowers, plucked
from the valley, on the graves OF
those five Britons who helped make
the entry into Ortona possible.
1t was an all-day fight between
the British tanks and the German
Panzers before the latter retreated.
leaving the wreckage of many of
their Mark Tvs at the wayside. The
number of those shattered Mark
Tvs - which the NaIs hail as Sec
ond only to their giant Tiger tanks
indicates that the boys in that
Sherman took more than their
share of enemy lives before they
were blasted into oblivion by an un-
lucky roll of the tread.
Wrecked Tanks
AS we rolled along the road We
saw one after another of the wreck
ed German tanks among the torn
vineyards. toppled into gulleys at
the roadside or sitting inmobile.
Their 10-foot gun barrels looked
clumsy and unreal-Still menacing
even though their thunder had been
silenced
Montgomery's men might well
have called it the road of one hun
dred and one graves, instead of five,
ebcause many Britons and Germans
sleep beneath the blackened ORCH
ards and the heaps of rubble whose
grotesque timbers proclaim that
they once were farmhouses.
The dead lie along the edges Of
the road, behind the hedges and be-
sides the streams along the last
mile strip Of highway leading from
San Vito Orsogna crossroad to Or
tona.
1t Is a death haunted mile of
blood stained desolation betokening
the nature of the battle that was
fought across this once peaceful
Landscape. The human dead lie
huddled beside dead cattle. Humans
and animals alike persisted in the
tremendous barrage that swept out
the Germans.
Dead Animals
The sheep lie dead in fiocks
where they were moved down in
the field across which the troops
fought so furiously. At the exact
spot on the crossroads where road
sign once stood, there now Is dead
mule. coated with gray slime kicked
up by the passing traffic his legs
sticking stiffly into the air.
The farmhOuses convey a mute
message of death. Their maws rip
ped open by shells and mortars re-
VEGA ohC4ClOAl 4AtSI1Olo, Will
furniture and floors pounded to
splinters, linen torn and plaster
crumbling.
There is ruin on every side.
The trees along the ridges have
been clipped to stumps by the ar
tillery. HaystackS are blackened
cinders. A German self-propelled
gun lies on its side scorched by
flames that no doubt made it a
fiery tomb for its operators.
The Vineyards are scared and
pocked by gaping craters. And all |
along the road there are twisted |
wrecks of cannon, broken rifles, dis
carded helmets, cartridges and |
shellcases shining brightly - and
those burned tanks.
Ortona has been won, but both |
sides have paid q heavy price.