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215 6 ITALY May–December 1945 When the Germans surrendered, the 442nd was scattered all over northern Italy. They assembled near Brescia at the Ghedi airport, where they processed 80,000 German prisoners of war. After the 442nd was relieved by the Eighty-eighth Infantry, they were sent to Leghorn, where they guarded POWs and supplies. —dianne bridgman Near Ghedi, Italy 19 May 1945 The 442d does get around, doesn’t it? We’re hell and gone from where I last wrote you in Cuneo. You ask “what are we doing up here?”— wait awhile and I’ll tell you. . . . Before going any further get hold of a map of northern Italy and follow us on this long trip. We headed north from Cuneo, I, the Lt Herman and Higgins driving in the front and in the rear were Ike, Takeshita, and T. Masuda. We were following G Co and catching all the dust, but luckily most of the way we had good roads. We pulled through Torino, a big city, quite damaged as we got an unsatisfactory view in the darkness of late evening. Night fell and we pushed right along with the proper stops for natural desires 216 chapter 6 and such. The night was not cold and I kept awake to keep Buck company . It would have been impossible to sleep anyway. I remember one stop where we stayed an hour when the trucks gassed up and we opened rations and Tsuka and I played on the mandolin and guitar till we got the go signal. Dawn found us on the outskirts of Milano, a big city that we could see only in the distance. We turned up, went through Bergano and into Brescia. The sun was up above the horizon now and we drove down through Ghedi, to this our destination, in the hot morning sun about nine o’clock. This destination is a huge open field which evidently was once an airfield with its surrounding areas. The whole regiment is lined up here, right in order down the line all on this one side of the road. It took us all day working in the now hot sun to set up our tents and the aid station just as they wanted it. It was then we found out what the regiment is doing here. We’ve the unenviable job of processing the thousands and thousands of Jerries that surrendered in northern Italy. The huge field opposite us is used for that purpose. Convoy after of convoy of Jerry vehicles roll onto that field into certain numbered spots and the men and vehicles are all subjected to inspection before being taken away. It’s a terrifically huge job and there doesn’t seem to be too much confusion . Whoever said the Jerries didn’t have vehicles didn’t know the truth—to see all these trucks, busses, trailers and sedans, etc rolling in here at all hours and continuously. There was no stop except for darkness. The way they work this setup is this, as I found out later. These groups of Jerries come in led by the captors, and park in a numbered section. They dismount and spread their stuff in neat order and teams of our men go through every bit of their equipment and personal stuff, weeding out certain things. And then comes the medical aspect of the job, the whole kit and caboodle has to be deloused and what a job that is. They’ve trained Jerry teams of two in the spraying of the DDT powder on clothing and the person. And then they move through the inspected lines of Jerries doing their stuff and after that’s over then they can pack up again into their own bivouac area somewhere close by. There are so many Jerries and vehicles that it’s unbe- lievable that a couple of weeks ago they could just as soon have killed us as not, and vice versa. Today they’re just bewildered humans. It only goes to show how time makes fools of men. That, in the brief, is the job that we’re doing here. There are a lot more complications, but no sense going into that. You can’t imagine the situation. All these Jerries and vehicles moving onto the field in clouds of dust in every portion of that huge field waiting to be processed. Even as I write this three enormous searchlights swing over the grass to give light to...

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