The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1945-12-06


Gothic Line in Italy gave the weary
men of the 337th Infantry Reg, 85th
(Custer division of the Fifth Army
one of the biggest laughs of cam
paign undistinguished by humor, ac-
cording to Major Henry Triesler,
who fought with his regiment from
Menturno, in Southern Italy, to the
foothills of the Alps, and so has
reason to know.
"You don't" says Major Triesler,
fight battles in the clean cut fash
ion suggested by newspaper ac-
counts. You don't start today and
finish tomorrow, that is. Smashing
through the Gothic Line was very
rough indeed and a slow drag-it
took week and was fought in
3000-ft. hills against heavily pre-
pared positions located on command
ing ground"
Just before the 337th broke
through at Futa Pass they were con-
fronted with barbed wire a humid
red feet wide, strung in band after
band close to the ground and des-
igned to catch the legs and ankles.
It took heavy artillery fire and
bangalore torpedoes to clear the way
for the foot soldiers.
Major Triesler landed with his
regiment in North Africa early in
1914 and, after several months of
amphibious training, they landed at
Naples and entered combat on the
Casino Menturno Line. From that
point they fought on from mountain
to mountain on the long road to
Rome, breaking through both the
Gothic and Hitler lines and earning
thereby the distinction of being the
first American regiment to enter
Rome.
The Germans were strongest at
Menturno where Major Triesler's
green troops suffered tremendous
casualties-in his regiment alone 800
men were killed or wounded in "a
hours.
Rome, when our troops arrived,
was untouched, except for the rail-
road yards which we had bombed.
The normal population is around
100000, but there was a crowd of
100000 on hand to greet the lib
Grating Americans with food, wine,
flowers and kisses. Major Triesler
reports the population as being we'll
dressed and apparently well-fed-
which was the case in all of the
Italian cities that he visited. Naples
and Leghorn (Laverna) were very
hard hit by bombing but the people
seemed reasonably prosperous.
Southern Italy, in contrast, was
incredibly poor. There are no in
dustries there and conditions are
primitive to degree. Major Tries
Ter reports that it was not unusual
to see the desperately hungry ma
tives cutting up and carrying away
as food the bloated, foul-smelling
and long-dead horses left behind by
the retreating Germans.
The Germans, contrary to popular
impression, used horses extensively
in Italy and the peninsula was
strewn with their equine dead. There
were no great motorized units of
the Wehrmacht, such as those that
swept over France and the LowIands,
in Italy.
1t was the day after We day that
the 337th reached Rome. The tired
regiment settled down for breather
in an historic old underground
coastal garrison, Fl. Trianfolli. Then
they joined the rest of the division
in the outdoor sport of chasing the
Germans a hundred miles north of
the Italian capital, after which they
were sent back to a rest area at
Lido di Roma-where they swan
and relaxed-after the daily eight
hours training was completed.
Boston, where the Lowells speak
only to the Cabots and the Cabots
speak only to God" has nothing on
Italy, according to the Major, who
says that the contempt of Romans
for Neopolitans is exceeded only by
the enormous scorn of Florence for
the rest of Italy. The British Eighth
Army had captured Florence when
our troops arrived and it was there
that typical German piece of sense
less destruction was encountered. Of
the IS bridges crossing the historic
Arno in Florence the Germans had
destroyed IL, leaving intact the
famed Ponte Vecchio but bombing
to complete rubble everything sur
rounding that bridge including
such important military detectives"
as churches, art galleries and ca
thedrals. The bridge was, of course,
effectively blocked, but British and
Americans were puzzled by this