THE WHOREHOUSE OF THE WORLD: TALES OF WARTIME ITALY - CASABLANCA, ALGIERS AND SICILY

Invasions - Goering'sPanzers and Luftwaffe - an exploding volcano -whores and pimps - VD - the firstpenicillin - "pros" and short arm inspections - the history of syphilis -terror and romance - amateur obstetrics - hijacking a British whiskey ship -grand opera - starvation - typhus - black markets - a plague of locusts - aMoroccan orgy - Blood and Guts Patton -the AnzioBeachhead and Anzio Annie. This is the tale of a "rearechelon bastard" who was not always in the rear. He learned the tough trade ofunloading ships in Casablanca underprofessional stevedores who disliked college boys. He marveled at the amount ofstuff it took to supply an American army: tanks, jeeps and locomotives,thousands of bombs and other high explosives, cases of maps (all marked "topsecret", cases of condoms, complete hospitals, typewriters and paper clips,mules and mule shoes.In Naplesin the winter of 1943 he witnessed starvation, disease and widespread whoring,devastating air raids, the stink of poverty and widespread despair. He wonderedat the toughness of the Neapolitans, their love of opera and their skills inthievery and survival. He won a lottery for Stateside leave. Then VE day intervened and the Army changedhis orders to the Pacific! He stalled that with an emergency leave to getmarried. During the honeymoon the A-bomb was dropped and he was discharged fromthe Army in time to start medical school.