Saturday, December 21, 2024

On This Day Italy 21 December 1943 - a local view!

 On This Day

21 December 1943

Antonio Lepone writes:

Without gifts and without dinners, between bombs and pain.

It is Christmas 1943, among the ruins, pains and hopes.   The fighting is fierce along the Gustav Line which cuts the Aurunca area in two.  The centres of Sud Ponti are half-empty, the families going to the nearby countryside and hills to escape shell fire and air raids.  It is not a time for dinners and gifts, but an attempt is made to remember the religious event with the hope of  an early peace.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception of Scauri.   At the end of the Mass of Mezanotte, celebrated by Dom Stephen, the unmistakable notes of “Silent Night” are heard in the small church of SELVACAVA not far from Spigno Saturnia, proposed by a group of Polish soldiers, stationed in the area, united with the faithful present, desiring to overcome the selfishness of war.

Tomorrow: On This Day 22 December 1943, 1 York and Lancaster Regiment

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