Diary Entry by Louis J. Cicotello

Transcribed by David Cicotello

Last night at about ten minutes till eleven o'clock, I was awakened by a faraway blast. In a few seconds following, two more booms sounded, only nearer to the hotel. The windows rattled a little. Then the drone of the German planes faded away. (German planes are easily sensed because of their peculiar "missing" in their motors). I lay in bed and wondered what was coming next. Thru the windows at my head of the bed, I could see the quiet little park with the trees misty with moonlight. A horse drawn carriage clopped-clopped by. A pedestrian or two hurried by. A low automobile driven probably by some FFI whizzed across the little circle. It was a frosty, clear December night in Paris. More like a harvest moon night during the fall back home. A fine night for bombing.

In the hotel, the GIs started running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Those in the upstairs rooms pounded the steps to the lower rooms, hollering, questioning like a mob in blooming. . .The conduct of the fellows during a disturbance of this kind always sort of disgusts me. Many of them are over-fearful and lose their common sense a little.

Everybody left except a roommate called Mee and I. We decided to stay put. In bed.

Downstairs the commotion went on. Finally a voice called out for everybody to get back to their rooms. Again the scraping of feet climbing steps, the slamming of doors, the dwindling away of noises into quiet. As I lay in bed, outside a clop-clop of a horse carriage went by. The street lights came on again. Pedestrians began going by. The little park was again quiet in the moonlight.

In this morning's paper, it carried the story of how two planes bombed a hospital and service club nearby. Killing some, injuring some.

Actually, the Gare St. Lazare was hit with its Red Cross trains of wounded. The service club was the Red Cross service club in the station used for the giving of coffee and doughnuts to the wounded. A place where I had often gone for there the coffee and doughnuts were really good.