The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
“lack of education and mechanical skill”: Wiley, “The Training of Negro Troops,” iii, 3 (“too great a concentration of Negroes”), 7; MacGregor, 24; memo, Gibson to Porter, Aug. 6, 1945 (lowest two categories).
blacks were shunted into quartermaster companies: Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer, The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, vol. 2, 168–69; Collins, 190; Lee, 406 (only two in ten); Hargrove, vii.
the 92nd would endure trials: Dale E. Wilson, “Recipe for Failure: Major General Edward M. Almond and Preparation of the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division for Combat in World War II,” Journal of Military History, vol. 56, no. 3 (July 1992), 473; Gibran, 17, 21, 35–36 (overbearing Virginian); OH, Edward M. Almond, Nov. 16, 1953, Lee Nichols, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 005, 1–8 (“The Negro doesn’t care”).
Almond asserted that black officers lacked: In a cover note, Lucian Truscott, then commander of Fifth Army, declared himself “in entire agreement.” E. M. Almond, “Combat Effectiveness of Negro Officers and Enlisted Men,” July 2, 1945, NARA RG 165, WD, special planning div, general corr, 291.2, box 34; Wiley, “The Training of Negro Troops,” 8 (“learn slowly”).
Such obstacles and more faced the 99th: William Alexander Percy, “Jim Crow and Uncle Sam,” Journal of Military History, vol. 67, no. 3 (July 2003), 773+; http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/prewwii/ta.htm; Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.: American, 26–28, 75.
A week before the invasion of Sicily: Herman S. Wolk, “Pantelleria, 1943,” Air Force Magazine, vol. 85, no. 6, June 2002; Charles E. Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen, 85; Stanley Sandler, Segregated Skies, 46 (“proper reflexes”); Percy, “Jim Crow and Uncle Sam,” 773 (“releasing a white squadron”).
Davis, who was promoted: Lee, 450, 460; Francis, 75 (“collection of born dive bombers”); Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 294 (“fault of the whites”); Percy, “Jim Crow and Uncle Sam,” 773 (225 missions).
Then came the morning of January 27: Sandler, 56–57; Francis, 87 (“I started firing”).
After refueling in Naples: The official Army history claimed that thirteen German planes were destroyed. Davis and others claimed only twelve. Lee, 517; Davis, 104.
“Negroes are doing their bit”: John C. McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 246.
Jerryland
On Saturday afternoon, January 29: aide’s diaries, Jan. 29, 1943; Francis A. Even, “The Tenth Engineers,” ts, 1996, author’s possession, 34; author visit, Borgo Montello formerly Conca, May 7, 2004; e-mail, S. Casaldi to author, June 28, 2004; Hugh A. Scott, The Blue and White Devils, 103.
He still spoke in a raspy whisper: diary, Jan. 24, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1; CM, 312; LKT Jr. to Sarah, Jan. 25, 1943, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.
Two miles farther lay Highway 7 and Cisterna: Acts, 28:15; Trevelyan, 74; Jeff R. Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 2004, thesis, CGSC, Ft. L, 70 (five major roads); aide’s diaries, Jan. 26, 1943; CM, 312.
“Spirits are not particularly high”: G-2 periodic report No. 130, Feb. 5, 1944, VI Corps, JPL papers, MHI, box 1; attachment, G-2 periodic report No. 138, Feb. 13, 1944, VI Corps, JPL papers, MHI, box 1 (“the air roars”); “Estimate of the Situation,” 3rd ID, G-2, Jan. 29, 1944, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 2, folder 10; Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 64; Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, 399–400 (missed a turn); Verney, 69–70; CM, 313; Allen, 70.
Kesselring had planned a massive counterattack: journal, Fourteenth Army, Jan. 29, 1944, “The German Operation at Anzio,” Apr. 1946, German Military Document Section, Military Intelligence Div, WD, JPL papers, MHI, box 9; “Air Participation in Operation SHINGLE, Jan. 1–Feb. 15, 1944,” Oct. 1945, CARL, N-11614, 10, appendices K and R (foul weather obscured rail targets); Calculated, 295 (“not seriously considered”); CM, 313 (Thousands of grenadiers); Anthony J. Abati, “Cisterna di Littoria: A Brave Yet Futile Effort,” Army History, fall 1991, 13+; Lloyd Clark, Anzio, 136 (exceeded 71,000), 147; Molony V, 648 (33 battalions); note on Carraceto operations, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LHC, 8/12.
Darby’s Rangers spent the afternoon: Darby and Baumer, 157; Arnbal, 229 (“solemn, tired, and quiet”), 227 (never carried personal letters); OH, William P. Yarborough, 1975, J. R. Meese and H. P. Houser, SOOHP, MHI, 54 (“cutthroats”); Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn,” mss, March 11, 1944, Stars and Stripes, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1 (barbers stayed busy); Martin Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 97 (“Mail arrived late Saturday”); Hans Juergensen, Beachheads and Mountains, 24 (like dry bones).
Darby had been busy since dawn: AAR, “Account of Ranger Force During Period 28 January to 31 January 1944,” HQ, Ranger Force, Feb. 2, 1944, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1 (“avoiding contact”); Michael J. King, William Orlando Darby, 150–51; Jerome J. Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalion in World War II,” 1982, Ph.D. diss, Fordham University, MHI, 154; Darby and Baumer, 156 (“Jerryland”); Anthony J. Abati, “Cisterna di Littoria: A Brave Yet Futile Effort,” Army History, fall 1991, 13+; Nicholas J. Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, at Le Mole Creek Near Cisterna,” 1949, IS.
The size of the attack heartened him: King, 150–51; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 74; Arnbal, 227; “The OSS Detachment at the Anzio Beachhead,” NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 39, 1, 4 (only four enemy battalions); “The Rangers,” Life, July 2, 1944, 59+ (“shaking with patriotism”); Donald Downes, The Scarlet Thread, 150 (“finest body of troops”).
Yet the expansion of the force: Each Ranger battalion was about half the size of a regular infantry battalion, and was divided into six companies.
Too many men still bunched up: Michael J. King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II,” June 1985, CSI, 31; Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalion in World War II,” 154; Thomas M. Johnson, “The Army’s Fightingest Outfit Comes Home,” Nov. 5, 1944, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, condensed in Reader’s Digest, Dec. 1944, 51+ (muffle a canteen).
Would Truscott’s infantry quickly reinforce: After the war, the 4th Ranger Battalion commander said Darby believed that the Cisterna attack was “too risky.” OH, Roy Murray, May 21, 1948, SM, CMH, Geog Files, Italy 314.7.
No Ranger reconnaissance: David W. Hogan, Jr., Raiders or Elite Infantry?, 58, 60; Robert W. Black, Rangers in World War II, 150–51; Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry” (hedgerows); AAR, “Account of Ranger Force” Ranger Force journal, Jan. 29, 1944, 1835 hrs, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1 (“city may have considerable opposition”).
“Pistol Packin’ Mama”: James Altieri, The Spearheaders, 308–10; Darby and Baumer, 157–59; Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 40–43 (sounds difficult for German-speakers); Ranger Force journal, Jan. 30, 1944; Field Order no. 2 (red Very flares).
“Morale of men excellent”: AAR, 1st Ranger Bn, March 31, 1944, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1; Alvah H. Miller, “The Men of My Command,” n.d., in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” Fort Wayne, Ind., Aug. 2004, author’s possession, 84.
isolated farmhouse on the right side of the road: Ranger Force journal, Jan. 29, 1944; King, 152; Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 75; StoC, 391.
Barely half a mile up the Conca road: AAR, 4th Ranger Bn, Feb. 15, 1944, and “Journal of Operations,” 4th Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–31, 1944, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 4, folder 11; Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 75; OH, Roy Murray, May 21, 1948; “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” Jan. 30, 1944, Langan W. Swent papers, HIA, box 1 (white pillar of flame); Ranger Force journal, Jan. 30, 1944, 0433 hrs, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion” King, 154; Darby and Baumer, 159 (“all was not well”).
“We could
Dobson pressed ahead: Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn” Darby and Baumer, 159; Carlo D’Este, Fatal Decision, 163; author visits, May 7, 2004, Nov. 30, 2006.
A German sentry flopped: Jack Dobson, “With the Rangers at Cisterna,” Jan. 1945, told to Noland Norgaard, Associated Press, in Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 83; Black, 157; Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 41; O’Donnell, 90 (“I emptied my M-1”); memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Charles M. Shunstrom to William O. Darby, July 10, 1944, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1.
Dawn, that harsh betrayer: Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 42.
“Then it opened up on us”: Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn” Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 77; memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Shunstrom to Darby; D’Este, Fatal Decision, 165 (Dobson shot a tank commander).
Step by step the Rangers retreated: Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 37; Micky T. Romine, “My Life in Combat, and as a POW,” n.d., in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” 89–89 (“I have shot that man”); Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn” (“You could run about twenty yards”).
Rangers held in reserve: memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Shunstrom to Darby; memo, “Operation at Sisterna” [sic], Charles M. Shunstrom, n.d., “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1; Donald G. Taggart, History of Third Infantry Division in World War II, 119; Darby and Baumer, 167 (“The tracers were flying”); O’Donnell, 91 (sprayed blood); Black, 159, 164; AAR, 1st Ranger Bn, March 31, 1944.
“Them bastards is giving up”: O’Donnell, 91. Some eyewitnesses said the German armored vehicles were tanks. Testimony from James Robert Dew, May 24, 1945; Donald Richard Clark, Aug. 2, 1945; James D. Cooney, May 21, 1944, all in JAG case file, Cisterna shootings, War Crimes Office, NARA RG 153, box 536.
“we shall shoot the prisoners”: memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Shunstrom to Darby; King, 156–57; D’Este, 166.
Darby for several hours had labored: Taggart, 115; Ranger Force journal, Jan. 30, 1944, 0615 hrs (“Murray is having a hell of a time”); Anzio Beachhead, 30.
News from Truscott’s regiments: Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 61; Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry” Joseph Edgar Martin, “Memoir of World War II,” ts, 2003, author’s possession; Anzio Beachhead, 31–32. Third Division soldiers earned four more Medals of Honor at Cisterna in the May 1944 breakout battle; thus, of thirty-one such decorations awarded the division’s soldiers during World War II, more than one-quarter were for valorous acts in this one small Italian town. Nathan William White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 82; D’Este, 174, 361.
At seven A.M., the first radio dispatch: King, 156–57; D’Este, 493n.
“Some of the fellows are giving up”: Darby and Baumer, 164.
“Shoot if they come any closer”: Taggart, 115.
“They are coming into the building”: Darby and Baumer, 164–65; King, “Rangers,” 38–39 (“So long, Colonel”).
“Use your head”: Taggart, 115; Altieri, The Spearheaders, 312 (“God bless all of you”).
“Ehalt, I leave everything”: Black, 160.
“My old sergeant major”: Taggart, 115; King, 157; Altieri, The Spearheaders, 312; Darby and Baumer, 167 (“couldn’t stand the thought”).
“Situation is confused”: aide’s diaries, Jan. 30, 1944; Scott, 103–4 (“tiny, darting figures”).
Confusion and cacophony persisted: AAR, 1st Ranger Bn; AAR, 4th Ranger Bn, Feb. 15, 1944, and “Journal of Operations,” 4th Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–31, 1944, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 4, folder 11; Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 76; Darby and Baumer, 159–60; diary, Jan. 30, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1 (“Whole show is folded”).
“packing meat”: Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back, 83, 107, 121; Juergensen, Beachheads and Mountains, 18, 23; Don Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 52–53 (knocked Murphy senseless).
For a renewed push on Monday: diary, Jan. 30–31, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1; aide’s diaries, Jan. 30, 1944; AAFinWWII, vol. 3, 349; JJT, XII-9, 11, 15 (“Not a man to let a weapon sit”).
“Toffey is rolling”: Scott, 104; Taggart, 117; Anzio Beachhead, map no. 7; White, 84; Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry” (“barely existed as a fighting force”); Darby and Baumer, 167; AAR, 4th Ranger Bn, Feb. 15, 1944, and “Journal of Operations,” 4th Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–31, 1944; Murphy, 108.
The division was spent: Anzio Beachhead, 36, map no. 7; JJT, XII-16 (“fearless leadership”).
Darby drove to the bivouac: Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Fought Ahead of Everybody,” Saturday Evening Post, June 15, 1946, 50+; D’Este, 169.
Captured Rangers shuffled: film, “Liberation of Rome,” 1944, combat report no. 1, NARA RG 111, CR001; O’Donnell, 96; Romine, “My Life in Combat, and as a POW,” 88–89; memoir, Frank Mattivi, n.d., in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” 88–89 (“I am a prisoner”).
The February 1 morning report: morning report, 1st Ranger Bn, Feb. 1, 1944, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 2, folder 9; Hogan, 58; Anzio Beachhead, 30; Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 57.
An estimated 250 to 300: Estimates of Rangers killed vary widely. While scholars such as Carlo D’Este put the number as high as three hundred, a report to the Ranger Battalions Association thirty years after the battle claimed, perhaps improbably, that only a dozen died. D’Este, 169; O’Donnell, 84; Black, 165. See also King, “Rangers,” http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/King/King.asp#C.
the 4th Battalion suffered: Hogan, 58; memo, G. B. Devore, “Armored Replacements,” March 18, 1944, AGF Board, AFHQ, DTL, Ft. B (Anglo-American losses on January 30); journal, Fourteenth Army, Jan. 31, 1944, 10 (“enemy has suffered heavily”).
The hunt for scapegoats: diary, MWC, Jan. 30, 1944, Citadel, box 65; King, “Rangers,” 31; OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (until Lucas pointed out); Associated Press, March 8, 1944, cited in Marsha Henry Goff, “Reunion to Bring World War II Rangers to Lawrence,” Lawrence [Kans.] Journal-World, May 19, 2006; Hogan, 58; Ivan Peterman, “Peterman Discloses Story of Lost Rangers at Anzio Beachhead,” Apr. 15, 1944, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1; AAR, “Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation SHINGLE,” March 15, 1944, VI Corps, NARA RG 407, 206-3.0, box 3740 (“ascribed only to chance”).
The beachhead on the VI Corps right: Molony V, 676; diary, MWC, Feb. 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“consolidate your beachhead”).
Lucas invited reporters to his upstairs suite: Vaughan-Thomas, 90 (“a mighty tough fighter”); H. M. Wilson, “Report by the Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean,” 1946, part 1, 28 (more than six thousand casualties).
CHAPTER 9: THE MURDER SPACE
This World and the Next World at Strife
“indulged in his wild orgies”: Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy, 5; National Archeological Museum, Cassino; author visits, Sept. 1995, May 2004, Nov. 2006; The Tiger Triumphs, 50 (“a preacher above his congregation”); Tommaso Leccisotti, Monte Cassino, 13 (“From here is the way”).
Rounding the last bend: David Hapgood and David Richardson, Monte Cassino, 238–39; Fred Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 5; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02467b.htm (“agreeable to the Lord”); Leccisotti, 14–15, 19; “The Abbey of Montecassino,” tourist brochure, n.d. (“on a bright street”); StoC, 401; Bradford A. Evans, The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 11–12; “Monte Cassino,” The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheCompletePoeticalWorksofHenryWadsworthLongfellow/chap21.html.
The town below had first been bombe
As the evacuation concluded: StoC, 400–401; memo, “The bombing of Monte Cassino Abbey,” W.M. Harris, Sept. 2, 1949, CMH, Geog Italy, 373.11 (“allein das Gebäude”); diary, WFST, Dec. 27, 1943, CMH, Geog Italy, 373.11 (“best reserves must stand”).
“every rock-drilling machine”: Franz Kurowski, Battleground Italy, 1943–1945, 359; Leccisotti, 117; StoC, 400–401; diary, WFSt, Nov. 17, 1943 (tobacco bonuses); Böhmler, 163 (German field hospitals).
The first stray shell: Leccisotti, 118; Hapgood and Richardson, 7, 81, 100–101 (“these terrible days”).
Forty terrified women rushed: memo, “Monte Cassino Abbey,” HQ, Fifth Army, G-2, Feb. 28, 1944, in F. Jones, “The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 15 February 1944,” Oct. 14, 1949, Cabinet Historical Section, UK PRO, CAB 106/699, appendix 3, 69; StoC, 401; Fred Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 112–13 (pounded on the oak door); Leccisotti, 118 (“Insane with fear”).
The door swung open: Leccisotti, 118; Herbert Bloch, “The Bombardment of Monte Cassino,” 1973, CMH, Geog Italy, 373.11, 411.
The failure of the frontal attack: StoC, 367, 374; N. C. Phillips, Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War: Italy, vol. 1, 185 (“dejected landscape”).
The French nearly won through: “Draft Report on FEC,” n.d., SM, CMH, box 1.
“Look for the fellow wearing”: “Special Report on Attitude of U.S. Troops Toward French,” March 8, 1944, HQ, SOS, NATOUSA, NARA RG 492, 311.7, box 931; “Draft Report on FEC” (bowing back the German line); Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 43 (occupied Monte Belvedere); Ralph S. Mavrogordato, “XIV Panzer Corps Defensive Operations Along the Garigliano, Gari, and Rapido Rivers,” Nov. 1955, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R series, R-78, 57 (escarpment so vital).