WWII Diary of Chick Bruns – 70 Years Ago

Knocked out American Tank

Well here we are out ahead of everything again. The infantry is fighting in the hills just ahead of us. We can hear machine guns and motor fire plain. Just so they don’t lob any over this way. Thank God that we have the best artillery. It has rained most of the day the company is out picking up mines and working on by passes. Shells landed not far from us so we had to dig fox holes. The artillery is really laying down a barrage. We have not crossed the river yet as the Jerries are putting up heavy resistance.

It rained again last night and we can’t move this morning at the Germans are still shelling the hill ahead of us. Today is the first day we can write letters since we have been in Italy. They are bombing the hell out of our artillery and I hope they don’t come over here. They didn’t but we began to sweat them out. The sun came out and began to dry things up a little. Move again. We packed up and left our bivouac in 15 minutes. We are now just outside of Caserta the town was just taken this morning. It is raining again so we hurried and put our tent up.

Postcard – Mount Vesuvius

Our infantry really pushed the Gerries last night. They closed in on all sides and they retreated about twenty miles. We passed Mount Vesuvius this morning you could see the smoke rolling out of the top of it. It is a volcano. I could not take a picture as it was cloudy the Jerries are shelling a hill about 1/2 mile from us. we pitched our tent made some apple sauce and fried some spuds. We had no grease so we used lamb oil. It didn’t taste so bad but it was better than “C” ration.

We moved again this morning. As the Germans move back we move forward. We went about 5 more miles and the Germans aren’t more than 3 miles from us. We were working on a by pass and the people were bringing us wine by the gallons. We stayed there all night again.

Joe Watters

Boy did it rain last night; we were running around in mud up to our knees. The trucks are all stuck and have to be winched out. Finally we got all of the trucks out and took off for our new area. We went about 5 miles more and that was all. The Germans were shelling about 200 yards from us. We stayed there all day and that night I was on guard.

You never get to go to church so Sundays are just the same as any other day. It rained all night again. We were up at 5:00 AM and left at about 7 AM. We moved way on the other side of Avellino, on the move a man gave us a bottle of champagne for a half a pack of Raleigh cigarettes. It was sure good. We moved up with in shooting distance of the Germans. Towslee and I pitched our tents. We had no sooner pitched our tents when we loaded up and took off again. We moved about 10 miles and were the only troops in that area. It looks like a storm so I had better get my tent pitched.

Boy did it rain last night. We kept pretty dry though. We have one tent pitched over the other. We had to order our Winter clothing today so I was kept busy all day. It rained off and on all day. We are to move again tomorrow.

Avellino, Italy

Well we are moving again today. We were to move at 6:00 AM this morning but here it is 2PM and we are still sitting here. We left at 4:30 PM and arrived this side of Avellino. The people are friendly and give you wine, apples, and nuts. Pitched our tent and went to bed at7:00 PM.

We left for a new area this morning our infantry is pushing ahead steady so we more just about everyday. We traveled about 32km. We pulled into an area at the foot of high mountain. The fog was so heavy that you couldn’t hardly see anything. It is cold and damp. The sun came out and then it was swell. I was busy in the supply all day as I was by myself. Went to bed early.

Jerome Alexander

Rain it did to, all night long and how it did flow. Trees were blew down all around us. My tent pegs puled out and my tent came down. I pulled it up by hand till it stopped raining and then went out to fix it. The truck wouldn’t start this morning and not only that all of the by passes have been washed out. Maybe we will move this afternoon. We played cards until time to go. We fried some potatoes and cooked up a few “U” ration I took off. The roads are very crowded and traveling is slow. We left about 10:30. 10 miles in 11 hours. Pretty good. The roads were just jammed.