March 2- March 30--Heavy rain and mud is real bad. Shells coming in. Chopped down some trees and sawed up a lot of wood. Artillery fire and shells coming in.
On March 6, we got shelled real hard. One man was killed and two injured in "B" Battery. There is now fresh snow in the mountains. On March 7, I climbed up to the Observation Point (OP) and helped direct the artillery fire. I did the cooking, and slept in a cave with water dripping on the blankets. Didn't get much sleep that night.
On March 8, I directed fire and knocked down three houses near the railroad tracks outside of Cassino. We shelled a whole town, and knocked many buildings down. Sat in the OP from 7 p.m. to midnight and directed artillery fire on towns and buildings in the Liri Valley. Saw a German truck burn on Highway Number 6, and watched German traffic 20 miles away through an Infantry 20-power telescope.
We got shelled from 10 p.m. on, and listened to machine gun and rifle fire echo in the streets of Cassino. Watched the Rapido River, and went to bed in a cave at midnight. Lots of shells hit outside the cave at 3 a.m., and due to the shelling, wet blankets and bed bugs, I didn't get much sleep.
On March 10, went back down the mountain to our section, took a bath, and shaved in cold water. We all got a Bronze Star for our campaign ribbon. On the 12th, went to a church service, and washed my clothes in my helmet. While eating supper, a shell hit near our kitchen and a piece of shrapnel just missed me and hit the ground a few feet away.
On March 15, the big push started at 9 a.m. From 9-noon, 600 American bombers came over. By mistake, the planes dropped three bunches of bombs behind our lines. I saw the bombs fall, and I ran in the opposite direction as fast as I could. All hell broke loose, and over 100 American soldiers were killed. As the planes kept coming over us, we stayed in our foxholes because we couldn't even trust our own planes any longer. But the American bombers finally flattened Cassino. One American dive bomber dived on Cassino and never pulled out of the dive, crashing into Cassino buildings. Over 100 additional bombers came over this afternoon, and our Chaplain's tent burned down.
Personal Letter Home from Robert to His Family: "Italy, March 5, 1944--Today I got to a nice church service. A service up here at the Front is very different from a service in your own home church. As we sat there on some stones on the side of a mountain and listened to the Chaplain, our own artillery fire made so much noise that we could hardly hear him. Then we heard the whistle of enemy shells coming in. Under such conditions, one is drawn so much closer to God. Lots of Love and Kisses from your son, Robert".
Personal Letter Home from Robert to His Family: "Italy, March 5, 1944--Today I got to a nice church service. A service up here at the Front is very different from a service in your own home church. As we sat there on some stones on the side of a mountain and listened to the Chaplain, our own artillery fire made so much noise that we could hardly hear him. Then we heard the whistle of enemy shells coming in. Under such conditions, one is drawn so much closer to God. Lots of Love and Kisses from your son, Robert".
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