The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-09-07
Ruin FoHows Highroads
BY ANNE o'HARE MCCORMICK

BY ANNE O'HARE MCCORMICK
ROME.-As surprising as finding Florence
still battle-ground much worse damaged than
reports indicated are spectacular evidences Of
the devastating struggle waged for the coun.
part of Italy where the enemy made the quick
est retreat, and no accounts published at the
time prepared one for the panorama Of de-
struction left in the wake of what was sup
posed to be a comparatively easy battle. This
lovely countryside, background for the great
est paintings of the Renaissance, today frames
scenes of ruin.s
This correspondent has Just returned from
500-nile motor trip over two main highways
connecting Rome with Florence. On the en-
tire way not more than four or five bridges
are left standing, even over culvertS. We en-
countered not a single public conveyance Of
any kind-bus, train, tram or oldfashioned
diligence. There is steady flow Of military
traffic feeding the new offensive, but across
all central Italy nothing else moves except
an occasional peasant cart or team OF white
oxen. The landscape is queerly lifeless and
stagnant. A cow or flock Of sheep is as
rare as an undamaged town.
| The journey was a grim illustration of a
phenomenon which puzzles military observers
here. The Battle of France is nearly over
after two months fighting wherein the Ger
mans made no determined stand after Nor
mandy and on the key roads to Paris. They
have retreated all summer before the Rus
SLAMS and are in full flight in the Balkans,
evidently aiming to save, as much as they
can of their army before the final debacle.
Yet for fourteen months they have fought
stubbornly for every mile of Italian territory.
In the present big push the Allies have
preached the Gothic Line and are driving
from both coasts to the Pc Valley. Still the
Germans continue to cling obstinatey to the
last toehold in Florence, and to put up last
ditch resistance to every attack on their posi-
tons. Italy, in fact is the only front whereon
they are seriously fighting
The landscape between here and Florence,
while ravaged less than the region south of
Rome, tells the same grim story of the unique
extent of Italys devastation. This land OF
all mems past is fantastic battlefield from
any viewpoint, military, historic and artistic,
and not least because the peninsula is so
densely populated and the towns planted so
close together that destruction causes dispos-
session and social disintegration on an almost
manageable scale.
| The landscape also shows clearly that this
war is on and for roads. Motorized warfare
has moved the fighting away from fields,
woods and trenches onto highways. This is
particularly noticeable in a country OF famous
hill towns built in the Middle Ages to be in
accessible and secure from attack They are
far from roads and therefore, in the modern
struggle for communication lines, enjoy again
measure of their ancient safety.
| Perugia, Assist and Spello, for instance, are
almost unchanged by bombs that pounded
roads over which we pursued the Germans.
In Orvieto the bright polychrome facade OF
the cathedral is unscarred. Only two stray
bombs hit the town on its high rock, causing
unimportant damage. But the settlement Quilt
around the railway station and the crossroads
on the plain below are smashed to pieces
long train lies in. fragments beside the
blasted track.
We lunched one day at Montefiascone, an
other hardly damaged hill town-but on Amer
lean war rations spiced with fresh tomatoes
from the banks of Lake Bolsena, for the 1tal'
ians are too strictly rationed themselves to
be able to feed passing strangers. Inc Famous
local wine is available, however, though not
in it's former strength, and for little while,
gazing on the incompatible view OF lake,
Ftruscan plain and blue-veiled Umbrian noun.
tains, we were in the old Italy again.
The outskirts of Siena are badly battered
but the town itself is unframed, thanks to
the restraint of the French genera VINO com,
manded the siege. Filled with soldiers and
modern war gear Siena stands curiously aloot
in it's medieval elegance. Only two OF San
| Girnignanos IS towers are nlcKed. Even Arez-
TO- scene of heavy and persistent bombing, Is
not the complete ruin first reports suggested
While the lower city, Juncton OF man north
and south railway lines is pretty thoroughly
DESTROYED the bonbers carefully spared most
of the upper town. Three or four churches
of minor artistic importance are gone, but
Petrarch and vasari would still recognize the
town The chief treasures are saved-the Pi
ero della Francesca frescoes IN the Francis
can church, San Domenico; Piazza Grande,
with law courts, choir and the tower of Santa
Maria della Pieve.
i With these notable exceptions the road tr
Florence is a trail of destruction.-New York
Times.
A --N
. France faces the prospect OF flaming
rebirth the opportunity of taking again in the
world the place that she ever held-that is to
saw. in the ranks of the greatest.-Gen. Charles
de Gaulle.