ERNIE had intended remaining only a few days at Anzio,
but his visit stretched out to nearly a month.

The Anzio-Nettuno beachhead had been confined by
stout German resistance to such a limited area that every inch
of it was vulnerable to the enemy artillery, to say nothing of
bombers. As Ernie put it: "The beachhead is so small that you
can stand on high ground in the middle of it and see clear around
the thing. . . . You can drive from the rear to the front in less
than half an hour, and often you find the front wider than the
rear. . . . Never have I seen a war zone so crowded. . . . If
plane goes down in No-Man's Land, more than half the troops on
the beachhead can see it fall."

The press was housed in a Nettuno waterfront building, and
here Ernie had a close call. "Most of the correspondents lived
in the part of the house down by the water," he reported,
"it being considered safer because it was lower down. But I had
been sleeping alone in a room in the top part because it was a
lighter place to work in the daytime. We called it 'Shell Alley'
up there because the Anzio-bound shells seemed to come in a
groove right past our eaves day and night. On this certain morn-
ing I had awakened early and was just lying there for a few
minutes before getting up. It was just seven and the sun was
out bright. Suddenly the anti-aircraft guns let loose. Ordinarily
I don't get out of bed during a raid, but I did get up this one morn-
ing. I was sleeping in long underwear and shirt, so I just put on

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