大象传媒

After weeks in 104 General Hospital with diphtheria I was transferred to the Convalescent Depot (known to all soldiers as the 'Muscle Factory') on 4 April. The Depot stood on a hill, not far from St. Paul's Outside the Walls After the truck had dumped me and my kit I was left gaping. Depot? This... this glittering collection of palaces? I wrote to my wife, Minna:

'This is the site of what would have been the Italian World Fair of 1942 had not more pressing commitments intervened. It is a colossal site. Millions of pounds - hundreds of millions of lire - must have been poured into this venture. The buildings are no temporary structures but palaces of reinforced concrete, brick and... marble! Never have I seen so much marble!'

I felt I had been displaced in time and deposited in the palaces of the Caesars on the Palatine - in all their original splendour. In front of one tall white pavilion were three oblong panels, their sides and bottoms fashioned from mosaics of emerald-green and gold. On either side were mosaics in black and white - allegorical scenes and incidents from mythology.

Close by, occupying an entire wall some 40 feet high, was a remarkable bas-relief with scenes from Roman history: the triumph of Titus, the victory of Constantine. Woven into the background were all the important buildings of ancient Rome. Dominating the whole area was a tower of white stone, some 140 feet high made up of six sets of arches, one above the other. In each of the ground-floor arches were statues - more than ten feet high - of poets, philosophers and statesmen. I wandered for hours around this vast half-built city, the total projected area of which, I discovered, would have reached 15 square miles.

It had its own cathedral set upon an eminence. From the layout and from some of the buildings I deduced that the aim was to reproduce the interiors of several ancient Roman palaces - marble columns, interior courts, sunken baths - all here in abundance. There were what appeared to be preliminary excavations for an amphitheatre. Another building had a splendid staircase of grey-green marble erected in a daring design that made its great weight seem slung, unsupported, in space.

Against this background of ruined splendour a few hundred sweating British soldiers went through the intricacies of Swedish drill, running, jumping and vaulting like Roman gladiators training for the arena. The incongruities... an amateur dramatic society performing Noel Coward's 'Hay Fever', film shows with raucous American sound-tracks and lectures on current affairs at 'home' which, to some of us long-serving exiles, seemed no more relevant than the statutes of the Medes and Persians.

'My routine consists of bouts of P.T. lasting about an hour. Tomorrow I expect to be re-graded (probably category "C") but the idea is to get one up to A1. I doubt if I shall reach this peak of excellence. But I am quite sure I shall not remain a "C" which would mean a troopship to U.K. My leg-muscles ae so weak that I cannot walk more than a hundred yards and I am being given foot-wriggling exercises. Later I am expected to participate in all sorts of gymnastic orgies. My room, which I share with ten sergeants, provides a view over woods and fields fresh with the green of spring. There is a good library.

'I believe the original intention was for this place to become Rome's Civic Centre after the closing of the Exhibition. It would have been a model of its kind, but... one cannot forget the miserable existence of the majority of the Italian people even before the war. This, of course, is the tradition of Rome, the parasite. Augustus built his palaces upon the sweat of peasants and slaves. Here, in this New Rome, one feels more than ever that the Old Rome doesn't change.'

The 'new intake', of which I formed part, had been marched into the film-theatre to be addressed by a Colonel, the chief Medical Officer. He grinned at us and began a speech which ran something like this:

'Well lads, here you are on a sort of holiday. You'll have a good time here. You'll be able to go to the local bars and there's plenty of drink. You'll find some local girls like the military. So have a good time lads, while you are getting fit again. Oh! There are just a couple of things you ought to know. Most of the local booze seems to be made from a mixture of methylated spirits and red ink. The locals are clever. They make it taste all right but I won't answer for what it does to your insides. The girls? Yes, some are very pretty and if you are unlucky enough to pick up something you didn't want we can fix you up. Modern medicine is marvellous. We can send you home as good as new... well, for a few months. And by that time you'll be out of the Army and we won't have to worry about you any more. You and your wives can do the worrying. But it's only fair to show you what you might pick up...'

Lights were doused and the screen began to show a variety of men in the medium and advanced stages of syphilis. No portion of the human anatomy was omitted. There was a great silence, broken by the scuffling of a few men making for the exit, followed by sounds of vomiting.

I spent much time lying on my back, lifting weights attached to a cord extended over a bar above my head. Harking back to my schooldays I failed, as I did then, to clear the vaulting horse. 'Knees bend!'; 'On the hands... down!'; 'On the spot.. run!' I still could not touch my toes but the gap gradually decreased. Later I went for runs - short at first but gradually extended. After a fortnight l began to reap the benefit. I would have to complete a Commando course before being considered for discharge.

The Commando course was less formidable than I had feared (or, perhaps, I was fitter than I suspected). Scrambling over and under obstacles, climbing barricades and crossing a stream hand-over-hand on a suspended rope, running a measured distance wearing a respirator - all these tasks timed with a stop-watch - were successfully accomplished. When I appeared for my medical check-out I preserved a neutral stance expressing no desire to stay or to go. I went.

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