This is the recounting and the diary of my life - Marino Mattei

13.

I returned to my company not expecting that on the following morning I would see the moment when I would be leaving. Things were becoming more and more serious. The Russians had begun their attack on all fronts. It was calm only where my regiment was stationed. But every moment things were changing and we too were expecting to be attacked. It was not possible that we were the only ones that would be spared.

In Russia night fell very early. At 3:00 it was already dark. The day passed relatively smoothly. Before night came, as usual, Aldo, myself and the two other soldiers from Barga and Garfagnana were together. From our location we could see where the war was raging [in the village mentioned in part 12]. It looked like the end of the world. We were thinking of Fredo [also part 12] and we already thought he was dead. In that area there was an inferno and a constant rumble and the whole village seemed to be consumed in flames. As always, we would remember times gone by and, perhaps out of despair, we began to sing. We remained outside until nighttime. We continued to talk about the great times we'd had in the past and sing songs - all the old songs. At a certain point Aldo put his hands in his hair and said "Beautiful times, where have you gone?" We continued talking. Aldo was very scared and he said, "I am too afraid and I don't think I'm going to make it if things don't change."

I, like everyone else, was very frightened but there was little we could do. We could only face what was going to happen and pray that God would protect us. Night came and before I went to sleep I said goodbye to everyone because I'd be leaving early in the morning and I would not be seeing them again [see part 12]. I felt sorry for all of them but especially for Aldo because I could see that he was so desperate and his morale was so low. I tried to console him but seeing the situation, it was not easy finding words of comfort.

The night passed quickly and without surprises. At daybreak I departed with all my equipment and I went to the infirmary. Everything was ready. I said goodbye to the nurse thanking him for helping me and he told me that if I returned home to go by his house and send his greetings to his mother in Ghivizzano. He also told me that Fredo [see part 12] had been wounded and he'd been sent back. I was loaded onto the ambulance with the other wounded and they took us behind the lines to a small encampment hospital. The cold was unbearable; 45 degrees below zero [Celsius]. Somedays it even reached 48 below. There wasn't much snow but there was a storm of dust that blew all around us as well as a lot of ice. The ambulance was a small enclosure held above a sled pulled by two horses.

The Russians continued to bomb us. Even at the small hospital, planes would fly by every day and night and not give us any peace. We'd left the front on the twenty-fourth, Christmas Eve, and I remained at that hospital until December 30. Anew, on the morning of December 31, I and many others were loaded onto an ambulance and taken to another, much larger, hospital. The trip was a great deal longer than the first one. We travelled approximately 20 kilometers. I was happy because I was distancing myself from the front. The Russian bomber planes accompanied us for the entire journey and every once in while they would drop bombs close by us. Everything went well and we arrived at about 2:00 p.m. They sent us to bed after we had something to eat and even there, occasionally, the Russians would unload a bomb around us.

At daybreak I got up, I washed as best I could because there was not much water. The lieutenant chaplain was preparing to say Mass. It was New Year's Day, 1943. As he was saying Mass two air fighters - one Russian, one German - began to battle each other above the hospital. It felt like an earthquake. It seemed like the hospital was going to tumble down at any moment. After a few minutes of fighting the Russian plane was hit and crashed very close to the hospital. Due to the crash and the fear of what had occurred the chaplain who'd been saying Mass had jumped under the table that had been acting as the altar. After the air fight ended the chaplain said Mass quickly. They gave us something to eat and since it was the first of the year the food was better than usual.

As soon as we finished eating we boarded another ambulance and we departed for another hospital. Until this point I had not seen any of the wounded. We traveled all day and we arrived when it was almost night. The ambulance was the same sled pulled by two horses. We arrived in a town that was not very large. In this town there was a kind of clearing and sorting station and a huge building that served as a hospital in which there were doctors for every ailment. As I said, we arrived at night to mass confusion. The Russians had penetrated our lines and there were soldiers who were going towards the front and those that were returning from the front. Tanks, every type of armored truck; it seemed like the end of the world.

As soon as I arrived I was taken to the makeshift hospital. I was dying of cold, the temperature was at the same 45-50 below zero. I was led into a large room filled with the wounded; there were hundreds. Some were without legs, some without arms. It was torturous and a massacre - a frightening scene. Some were screaming, some were dying, everyone was asking for help but no one came to their assistance. My ear was in the same condition and the Russian fighter planes were not relenting. Every once in a while a bomb would drop by us but all went well. As God wanted it, the night passed.

In the morning at about 10:00 I was called for my examination and this is what was to decide my fate; return to Italy or be sent back to the front lines. Along with me they called two others who also had a similar ailment. They took us to a professor's [doctor's] office - a professor as mean as a beast. As soon as we entered the office he said "I hope you are truly ill because if you are not it would be better if you were not examined. Return to the front because they need soldiers there." I wanted to be examined last and I did not think he would conclude that I was ill. My ear no longer hurt. It just oozed a little material [he is unspecific here, presumably blood or pus], but not a great deal. He examined the first soldier and sent him back as a rebel [meaning sent him back as having faked his injury] and with the second he did the same. Due to this I lost all hope. I entered the office and he began his examination and I saw immediately that he had found something. He continued to look me over with his instruments. He then medicated my ear and said "Of the three, you are the only one I found that actually has an ailment." He sent me back among all the others and told me that they would prepare the documents and on this same day, "we will send you back to another hospital to begin your full recovery and from there, without a doubt, you will be sent back to Italy."

Continue reading  >>>


© 2009 by Maurice Mattei
All rights reserved.