 soldiers of the press this week on zeo diary this is robert vermillion united press correspondent in italy it's my job to tell you people at home what's going on here on the beachhead at on zeo it may sound funny to start telling you what things are like with something as on war like as a wedding but it was a part of the ludicrous hodgepodge of war to those of us at the beachhead it was a very touching event if you've ever hitchhiked on a foggy highway back in the states seen a pair of headlights approaching through the darkness you get what I mean it's a mighty black business on those few square miles in italy the boy and a girl getting married in the midst of it was like seeing a couple of hundred dreams come true every one of the boys carries around a favorite dream in his pocket maybe it's a snapshot maybe a letter all those pictures and letters were rolled up into one when the wheezy old organ they managed to dig up started playing the old familiar strains just playing getting married with a battle going on has no easy business you couldn't be sure the German bombers wouldn't be over any minute you know when I was a little girl I always thought that I'd be married when the mcnolleyer came out in our backyard mother used to tell me what she'd do to grandma's wedding dress to make it do you'll be a beautiful bride honey even without the magnolia what do you mean I wouldn't trade all the magnolia an old race in the world for this why second lieutenant Jane Samson had her last assignment today in one hour it'll be second lieutenant Jane Clark the magnolias can wait what's borrowed Jane this handkerchief it's Mary's what's blue blue I've forgotten that I should have something blue shouldn't I of course you sure well I didn't do it wouldn't be right without it and don't forget it's all right come on there were two surprise raids while the bride was getting ready for the ceremony everybody dived for foxholes and then when the bombers disappeared went on with things as if nothing had happened one of the girls red cross worker had seen to everything she persuaded the boys to collect old ammunition cases where the 300 nurses and soldiers were to sit she'd even arranged for the wedding to be at 830 so the pair could be married with the minute hand on the down sweet all around us big guns were coughing and exploding keeping up their deadly chorus as our small organ began to play as the bride approached the crew daughter she looked as glowing and hopeful as if she'd been in the church at home the officers and men stood with the worn looking ammunition cases when they sat down there was a low clatter as they put their helmets at their feet I heard something about their romance they'd met two years before it can't pick it Virginia but the bride told me it wasn't love at first sight then in Sicily they met again there's a gentleman waiting to see you oh did he give his name he said he was lieutenant Clark lieutenant Clark really I'll be right now hello Jack well it certainly is a surprise to find you here I guess it is I just found out your hospital unit was shipped here well I thought I'd make another stab at sweeping you off your feet well I wish you better luck this time oh you don't understand these are orders I talked the case I was my commanding officer and he agreed it was a matter of extreme importance oh you are now a military objective well in that case maybe we better take a walk and talk they had a lot of long walks and talks and finally they applied for permission to get married when the permit came through they were both in Italy but lieutenant Clark said we're not waiting another day beachhead or no beachhead that's how the first military wedding in Italy came about that's how it happened that we were all standing there while the guns boomed all around the boy and a girl who had fallen in love in the middle of war got married dearly beloved we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the face of this company to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony which is an honorable estate instituted of God in the time of man's innocence signifying unto us it was a small isolated event in a vast battlefield but it had a lot of strength and reality in a way it was close to everyone there because there were plenty of other things at the Anzio beachhead to make your heart get sick and twist with fury there was death and destruction all around us this little beachhead wedding was life not dead it was lifting warming almost a defiant gesture in the cruel face of war we had our fill of cruelty to two nights after the wedding the Germans bombed two American hospitals on the beachhead around 10 o'clock hurling incendiary bombs on the fragile hospital tents where our wounded were being cared for when I reached the spot where the bombs had been dropped fragments were still exploding scattering burning steel through the frail canvas structure I'd hit the dirt a couple of times to keep clear of those flying bits of fire the whole hospital area was a weird hash of sound color and action bright flashes from the burning fragments below barely audible groans and sobs from hurt men the calls for litter bearers the brisk efficient handling of the wounded I made my way to the nearest tent the front had been ripped open by the explosion was dark inside I could hear the firm even voice of a nurse quieting the men the raid is over you don't have to worry everything is all right now I stepped inside and the nurse brushed past me get me some stretches and get them quick inside wounded men had jerked themselves from beds onto the floor regardless of how badly hurt they were cuts were tipped over men lay sprawled under the bedding and in the middle of the aisle some were struggling to get on their feet the nurse tried to reassure them make them comfortable until the warden and arrived one by one the men stopped moaning then the only sound came from one boy I couldn't even see it's all right everything is all right you'll be better soon the litter bearers came took out the men who were alive first the boy calling for his mother was one of the first to be picked up he was still crying out as they carried him from the tent I couldn't help asking myself one question over and over did the Germans mark the hospital as a specific target was it deliberate who knows may have been after all doesn't the first time yes no major deliberate or not done plenty of damage how bad is it well so far one wounded soldier and one ward man have been killed at least 56 others are badly injured but the death toll may be higher I don't know how many of the injured are going to live that brought the total casualties from German bombing and shelling of American hospitals on the Anzio beachhead to 37 killed 185 wounded it's hard to believe that scene was taking place where there'd been a wedding two days before but there are other things probably even harder for you back home to believe but despite the bombings there was a kind of normal community life on the Anzio beachhead commonplace things going on under fire the backdrop of war making them seem strange and unbelievable like the movie the fifth army puts on every night I've gone to a couple of them once I happened to the projection have a million hi John sounds like the boys are lapping it up yeah it's pretty good flicker lots of laughs well I can use them you're not kidding cigarette Joe no you can't smoke up yeah that's right was that sounded like a shell exploding somewhere near this building shell explodes and the guy start laughing I don't get it well because he can't see the screen right after the shell goes boom the gallon of picture turns around and says so what I'd like to tell you about one other thing that happened at Anzio I heard about it the afternoon it happened and I took down with a bunch of doughboys to watch there and the rolling surf of the Taranian sea one of our men was getting baptized dearly beloved for as much as all men are conceived and born in sin that which is born of the flesh is flesh they were in the flesh cannot please God but live in sin committing many actual transgressions our savior Christ says in battle never stopped raging all around us but there was time for a wedding and a baptism simple things that seem tremendous under fire that's what it was like at the Anzio beachhead a bizarre kaleidoscope that shifted from scenes of sordid horror to scenes of ordinary fun from scenes of pain and endurance to scenes of life and hope