The sun was out today and halfway dried up. We are to leave today to a new bivouac area. Tanks have been going by all day long. There is a plane out a head so they expect a tank battle. The traffic is so heavy that we will stay here tonight. It looks a lot like it will rain. The clouds are very dark and low.
Boy did it rain last night. I have been in a lot of hard rain but nothing like this. It rained all night long and up until noon today. Tents were washed away and just about everyone’s sleeping bag was wet this morning. We are in mud knee deep and to top it off a plane tried strafing through the clouds this morning. I have never seen such a mess.
The company moved out today and left us behind. We are to stay until they come back for us. Played a little cards that’s about all. It’s been a cloudy and rained a little all day. The rainy season will start soon and then things will be bad. We do our own cooking and it is sure a mess. We have a 5 in 1 ration. That’s not bad though. It has been trying to rain all day so I suppose it will keep it up all night.
Norris Butts
We not only have to worry about enemy artillery but are own artillery are having their shells timed wrong and they are breaking just over our heads. One hunk of shrapnel hit about 10 feet from me. You could hear the other pieces humming all over. Not much else happened.
Ray Schladwieler
We were strafed this morning by six Jerry planes. I made a dive behind a bank of dirt. I could see the tracers firing from their guns. Watched a dog fight. Also heard that two of the planes that strafed us were shot down. The rest of the day it was quiet.
Jerome Alexander
We are going to move this morning. We are bivouac just out side of Acerno. As usual the artillery is shelling over the top of us. One place we found here was where a German got hit by a 155mm, and it flew him all over the place. We found pieces of him even hanging up in the tree. We buried what was left. Our jeep and ton and half got hit or rather ran over a land mine. Also couple of fellows got it by an 88mm. So now we have about 4 fellows in the hospital and 6 badly shaken up. Went to bed early.
The platoons are working out now. Maybe I’ll go up with one of them. We had some work to do so I didn’t go. The artillery has been shelling behind us all day. Some shrapnel hit in the area. The navy shelled the enemy all night and the air corp bombs them all day. I don’t see how they stand it. We may move tonight. Listened to the radio and went to bed.
We left the first thing this morning to a new bivouac. We had just pulled in when over came the Jerries and bombed the road. We stayed hear till after dinner. We then moved up to the front. Everyone respects the 3rd Division and are glad they are here. We are high up in the mountain and out ahead of the artillery. We can’t seem to sleep unless we have the artillery firing over us. We are still about 5 miles from the Germans. We are going to stay here tonight.
Bombs on the Beach at Salerno
We sighted land about day break. We prepared to land about 10:30 AM the supply got off the boat at 11:00 AM. We moved up to our bivouac at 12:30 PM. We saw a lot of German tanks that were destroyed. They were to have had some rugged fighting. We are near an air field and the P-51’s keep coming in and taking off with their bombs. We are going to stay hear all night. Had a small bombing raid. I am on guard tonight and the companies has to work. The mosquitoes are terrible.
Here it is Sunday morning and were still here. We left for Salerno, Italy at 1:00 PM. The sea is calm and there are about 35 boats with us. We also have some Italian boats as escorts. The trip is very calm as is the sea.
