e equipped the Pilar with grenades and sub conning towers for the purpose of hunting Nazi submarines. This got it recognized as an official Q-ship. Of course its unshaven crooked crew never sunk a sub, they simply spent their days fishing off the Cuban coast. Martha, who was very involved in the war, was as always quick to criticize Ernest. She accused his personal navy of fraudulent use of gasoline rations. One night, when returning form a drunken party, Hemingway had a severe car accident. He was hospitalized with serious head trauma . Martha returned from the front to see him. Instead of comforting the banged up Ernest, she simply laughed at his sad state as he lay in the hospital. In June 1944, Hemingway finally set foot in Normandy. He made his way to the front, compiling a small army of undesirables by his side. With his small guerrilla force and a few bottles of scotch Hemingway marched in to Paris on the 25th of August, five days before the city was officially freed. He proceeded, by his own authority, to liberate the Traveler's Club and the Ritz, in which he took a room as well as the bar. He was eventually awarded the Bronze Star for his part in the invasion. On another occasion, while Mary was staying with him at the Ritz, he shot a portrait of her husband. He placed the frame over the toilette in his room at the Ritz and discharged his hand gun into it. This flooded the room and several floors below it. Mary got a taste of Hemingway's madness. Yet, in 1946, they were married. The war was over and they returned happily to La Finca. Across the River and into the Trees was the fist of a fictional three part saga about earth, sea and air. It takes place in Venice. It is about an old soldier, who is no longer at war and who falls for the sweet beauty of the much younger contessa Renata. Some said that this novel had a strong Shakespearean quality, many others only saw a pathetic tale about an old man infatuate with a young lady. ...
