The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-01-10

belled NeaponCau
A donkeys Jingle
along under loads
Of straw or IN
front Of carts. All mA1,- ''l1'''a
glass Is gone from A~Si"1
the great arcade, and from domes
large Orders hang like Imp spag-
hetti. But such things have not
diminished the numbers of sidewalk
yermouth drinkers. White-belted,
plume- hated Neapolitan policemen
direct the new traffic from their
same old stands. The opera ran
throughout the war hereabouts, and
its running now. You can't buy a
seat for the next three weeks. The
program tonight is Tosca.
BUSINESS IS BRISK
Stores you'd expect to be empty
are not empty at all; they're doing
a ONCE business with the AL
Ned military-issued lire which are
flowing into town. Prices are high
because, as In Spain, this part OF
italy Is in q stage Of currency IN
fiation rather than a period Of ac-
tllal cumulative scarcity such as is
commonly believed at home.
Unreal as this may sound, there
Is not even an actual shortage Of
food. The real bottleneck is high
prices due to currency abuse,
plus poor transportation. And
even then, except for bread - in
which there Is a severe but tenn
porary shortage - the city people
are the only ones who are really
! hit. Pigs, cattle and sheep are in
the fields and the crops have
. been good.
Along with power stations,
! sewage plants and gas mains, the
Germans exiting from Naples
! blew up telephone exchanges, clip
ped wires and connected BOBBY traps
to telephone lines in some build
ings 90 that they would explode
! Whenever the lines were re-electri-
. fied. But with miraculous ingenuity
! and speed, crack telephone men Of
the q. s. Army Signal Corps are re-
J weaving this shattered system line
by line. They already have install
! ed Q separate, safe, inter Army tele-
phone system connecting apartment
! house billets, warehouses, air fields
and transport bureaus throughout
J this great city.
They are gradually expanding
Z this separate system into the
italian maze, and Neapolitans
! soon viii possess . telephone
service such as they never dreamed
lof before-just as they already are
seeing more money than they ever
saw before in their lives.
! AMAZED BY TRAFFIC
The trafdc amaZes all Neapoh-
s tans, what with the ceaseless
stream Of giant American trucks,
llorries, ambulances, motorcycle
squadrons, field kitchens. squad
cars and everything else that
America has put on wheels. With
J al this passing through from
dawn 70 dusk-timed to reach the
Hines In the north at night - 1t is
nearly impossible for Italians
IEhemseIves, who always walk in
the streets, to navigate through
their own famous Via Roma, the
I Naples end Of the road to Rome
The Germans never showed them
such volume as this and the Ital-
ians cannot believe that there Is
anything more to come.
But the meaning Of all this
seems lost to the people here.
For them. the war Is over and
! ehsy make It annoyingly clear
that they do not care who fights
who from here on. That fact
59trikes you on all sides.
Az you drive north toward the
Eront through village after vii
lags. 20 bomb-shattered and ar
tilleFy- blasted that their close
. packed stone houses are a mass of
rocky ruins, this disconcerting
apathy Of the italian people still
shows itself In every way as it
does IN the city Of Naples.
Yet the fight Is fresh In their
own back yards. Every mile I
covered - through Aversa, Ca
serta, Capua and beyond the fork
through Teano and Carinola -
was prepared for defense by the
Germans long ago. Roman ma
mpngy bridges, aqueducts. walls
qaaA bastions, undisturbed for
@@eo pears, were made into Ger
Daa strong points, against which
MaazEtcans fought their way for
ward yard by yard.
1RmGED vOLTURNO
Bloodiest and most strategically
vital was the crossing Of the
WoItuFno. There the high, arched,
Roman bridge is In ruins, its back
broken and lying in the stream.
Beside the bases Of the Roman
arches our engineers built a pom
loon bridge, where you'd think no
men could build anything and
ntiiI live under the fire Of the
Hxe6 German guns.
Yet right at this spot, along
ne banks, the Italians already
are blowing with oxen, furrow-
fng through the fresh tank tracks
a the biood-enriched earth. They
also are selling their oranges
wnluuts and cognac to Americans
IN the march. These things no