The Wilmington morning star., 1944-04-07
By ERNIE PYLE

HEAD FORCES IN ITALY,-Cby
Enthusiastically everybody
on the Anzio beachhead VINO is
back of the outer defense line has
his home under ground. We CORE
spondents don! have, but that S
merely because we haven't got any
sense. Also. it could possibly be
because we're lazy.
At any rate, this beachhead is
so dug up that an underground
cross-section of it would look like
a honeycon,b. Even tanks and
Jeeps are two-thirds buried for pro-
lection.
The soldiers dugouts are made
by digging a square or rectangu-
lar hole about shoulder deep, then
roofing it with boards and logs,
piling earth on top of that, and
fcigg ing- a. french out from it with
steps teadiag up.
Digging is extremely easy here,
for the soil is almost pure sand.
Two men can dig a hole big
enough for their home in an hour.
Two or three hours more, if they
have the timbers ready, is enough
to finish the simpler type of dug
out.
It's pleasant TO, dig in sand, but
it has its disadvantages. The sides
cave in easilv. Now and then a
man is buried IN his dugout. Even
the conclusion from our own big
guns will start The walls of dug
out to sliding in.
The average dugout houses two
men. It's Just big enough for their
blanket rolls, and you have to
stoop when you get into it.
A tank ccew always digs in just
a few feet from the tank, for which
they also dig a hole. The boys then
run wires from their tank battery
into their dugout, for electric
lights. They have straw on the
floor, and shelter halves hung at
the entrance.
Most of the men sleep on the
ground, while most of the officers
have cots But it's not bad Sleep
ing on the ground in dugout,
for you keep both warm and dry.
Some dugouts have board walls
to keep the sand from caving in.
Others use the more primitive
method of log supports in each
corner with sh Ell ter halves
stretched between them to hold
back the sand.
1t takes a lot of lumber to shore
up all those thousands of dugouts.
The boys -rstle up anything they
can find out of old buildings. The
two most coveted pieces of equip
ment from deserted houses are
wooden doors and wall mirrors.
The doors are used fo- dugout cell
ings, and it's poor dugout in
deed that hasn't got a fancy mir
ror on the wall
From the basic twoman dugout,
which is usually bare except for
shelf, a mirror and some pin-up
girls, these underground homes
zun on up t. the fantastic in elabo-
rateness.
One of the best I've seen was
built by Lieut.. Edward jacques of
2730 Colchester Street, Cleveland
Heights, O.. and his driver, Pvt.
Russell Lusher of Marion, Ind.
They have wooden floor, shelves
and nails on the wall for every
item, a writing desk with table
lamp, a washstand with big mir
ror, porcelain lampshades with lit
tie Dutch girls painted on them
and best of all hidden on a shelf
l noticed two fresh eggs.
But the finest dugout I've seen
belongs to four officers of a tank
company. This dugout is as big
as the aver age living room back
home. You can stand up in it, and
ii has rough wooden floor. It
has a drawing table in the center,
and numerous chairs. The four Of
flce1s sleep or cots around the
walls.
Books and magazines and pipes
and pictures are scattered on ia
bles all over the place, just like
home. They have a radio, and on
the table is sign listing the bets
OF various people on when the in
vasion of Western Europe will
come.
The officers brew hot tea N