Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [89]
The Major said: “Didn’t you have any trouble on the Siebel barge? Do you speak German?”
Nicolo said: “Giorgio spoke a little German, but anyhow we got in with an engineer unit they were apparently trying to save, and they just herded them on the ferry and us with them, and no questions asked. “
Major Joppolo said: “Were you attacked on the way across?”
“We came by night. It was only a ten-hour trip. The Germans got quite a bit across by night without being attacked.”
Captain Purvis said: “Major, you going to sit here jabbering dago with these people all afternoon? How about cutting me in on this pretty little squiff here?”
The Major said: “He’s telling a story, Captain.”
The Captain said: “My pants aren’t hot for him, the hell with him, what I want to know is, where you been hiding this little piece?”
Major Joppolo ignored the Captain and the Captain took some more wine.
Nicolo said: “The ironic thing was that the Siebel barge landed us just down the beach from Adano here.” Tina said: “Why didn’t you come home? Why couldn’t he have come home to me then?”
Nicolo said: “But the whole point of our coming across was so we could fight again. We turned ourselves in to a division in the hills just this side of Vicinamare, it was General Abbadessa’s division. Tunisia fell just then and so we were congratulated for getting away and they made us both sergeants. Giorgio was wonderful in those days before Sicily was attacked. Most of the soldiers were for faking resistance and surrendering, but Giorgio used to talk about the anguish Italy had had for so long, and he told about Garibaldi and Mazzini and Cavour, and when men said that Italy was beaten, he brought up Britain after Dunkirk. I remember one night a glib one was arguing with him and said that Fascism was evil and so why fight for it, and Giorgio said: `If Fascism is evil, why haven’t you been fighting against it for twenty-one years?”‘
The Major said: “Was Giorgio a Fascist?”
Tina turned angrily and said: “He certainly was not.” Nicolo said: “No, that’s the funny part of it. He was in jail a lot here in Adano for nothing in particular except being against the Fascists. And yet in 1940 when Mussolini put us i.^. the war, he was one of the first to go.”
Tina said: “But what happened?”
Nicolo said: “I was getting to that. The troops fought badly at the coast, as you know, and fell back on Marenisseta. It was the night of the fourteenth of July. Word came that the Americans were going to hit us the next morning. We were bivouacked in the grounds of a villa just east of the town, and as soon as the news came about the attack, most of the troops went crazy. A bunch of them went into the villa and broke into the cellar and brought out some wine.”
When Captain Purvis heard the word vino, he said: “Hurrah for vino! That’s one word of Italian I sure can understand. Say Major, what’s the word that we begin with f? I’d like to know if this little dolly understands it.”
Major Joppolo ignored the Captain. Niccolo said: “The men began drinking the wine, they said they were going to be captured in the morning, the war was over for them, why shouldn’t they have a good time? About twenty of them got very drunk, and they began throwing bottles against the wall of the house. Giorgio got furious and said he was going to stop them. I tried to tell him not to try, because the men were much too drunk to listen to reason.”
Major Joppolo began to suspect what happened