22nd March

The torrent of lava which had buried two thirds of Massa di Somma and San Sebastiano now appeared to be subsiding amongst the vineyards and flowering orchards above Cercola. Movement had ceased, and the clinkery mass seemed to be cooling off. After passing these towns, the flow was divided into two long prongs; the right prong came to a standstill about 300 yards from Cercola cemetery, and the left stopped at a point 1,500 yards away from the corner of Via Luca Giordana in Cercola.

The church at Massa di Somma, which was surrounded and partly crushed in the destructive embrace of the lava, marked the right flank of the flow. The height of the lava in front of the church was about 50 feet…

The fury of the eruption still continued unabated. It was estimated that the mountain was still emitting about half a million cubic yards of volcanic matter an hour.

In the afternoon, the huge flow which was blazing a trail through the forest plantings above Torre del Greco increased its rate of flow, especially in the direction of Camaldoli. Evacuation of the latter place was deemed advisable.

At 1715 hours, a great cloud of dense smoke and ash was forced upwards for thousands of feet into the air. This indicated that the explosive phase of the eruption had begun…. A gigantic cumulus of rolling, expanding smoke cloud rose above the volcano to a height of nearly twenty thousand feet. The whole mass was frequently rent by electrical discharges like lightning, and the ground shook by small seismical disturbances.

Small clinkers, which had been blown skywards for thousands of feet, began to rain down on the eastern side of the mountain….huge quantities of black dust and lapilli were being deposited over a large area.

For some amazing photographs of the 1944 Vesuvius eruption, including several of the damage done at Terzigno airfield, click here.