The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson


  “It is ordinary men”: John Ellis, Cassino: The Hollow Victory, 65, 58 (“tearing at his brains”), 146–47 (“That calmed them”); Molony V, 627.

  Six German battalions: Ian Gooderson, Cassino 1944, 65; operations report, 3rd Algerian Div, Feb. 16, 1944, in “French Action and Pertinent Orders, Rapido-Cassino,” Fifth Army, HQ, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI (“Hill 700 has been taken”); Blaxland, 43 (sip of water); Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 533 (“Haven’t eaten or drunk”).

  “The human mechanism”: Ellis, 149; “Draft Report on FEC” StoC, 372; Molony V, 629n (a battalion each day); Blaxland, 43 (“could do no more”).

  Now the thankless task: http://www.army.mil/CMH/topics/apam/100BnWW2.htm; 201 file, Charles W. Ryder papers, DDE Lib, box 2.

  the 34th attacked north of Cassino: StoC, 371.

  The attack resumed farther north: AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf, CMH, Geog files, 370.2; StoC, 373, 377 (“Cassino heights will be captured”); OH, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Aug. 17, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C. (S-mines popping); AAR, “Attack on Cassino,” G. B. Devore, Co C, 760th Tank Bn, attached to 756th Tank Bn, in report no. 140, AFG board, Apr. 3, 1944, CARL, N-7245-G (followed the faint glow); John L. Powers, “Crossing the Rapido,” IJ, May 1945, 50+ (six-inch ruts); Kenneth Maitland Davies, To the Last Man, 122 (phosphorus); “Historical Narrative and Journal,” G-3, 34th ID, Oct. 1943–May 1944, Charles W. Ryder papers, DDE Lib, box 4; GK, Feb. 1, 1944 (“Believe we shall have Cassino”).

  Kesselring had shifted: Chester G. Starr, ed., From Salerno to the Alps, 108; StoC, 374–75 (“two boxers in the ring”); Hapgood and Richardson, 75, 133–35; “The Background of the 135th Infantry,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM; Matthew Parker, Monte Cassino, 139 (“every night the rumor”).

  In a two-acre field diced by German artillery: James A. Luttrell, “The Operations of the 168th Infantry in the Rapido River Crossing,” 1948, IS; Donald C. Landon, “The Operations of the 2nd Bn, 135th Inf in the Cassino Offensive,” 1946, IS (Six new lieutenants); Parker, 144 (sulfa powder in salt shakers); Belfrad H. Gray, Jr., “The Crossing of the Rapido River and Occupation of Positions Above Cassino by Company I, 168th Infantry,” 1947, IS; Davies, 124–25; OH, Howard Kippenberger, Feb. 4 and 12, 1947, SM, MHI (so hobbled by frozen feet).


  three efforts were made to break through: Majdalany, 85; StoC, 382–83; memoir, C. N. “Red” Morgan, 3rd Bn, 141st Inf, n.d., Texas MFM Web site, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Clifford H. Peek, Jr., ed., Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns, 47 (ricochet shell).

  “within a bare 100 meters”: Molony V, 704; Porch (attacked on too broad a front); “34th Division Casualties, Cassino Operation,” Feb. 15, 1944, MWC, corr, Citadel, box 3; censorship morale reports, Nov. 1943–June 1944, NARA RG 492, MTO AG, 311.7 (“Personally I’m glad”); GK, Feb. 10, 1944 (“Full moon”).

  “suspended by invisible wires”: Brian Harpur, The Impossible Victory, 57; Harold L. Bond, Return to Cassino, 82 (smacked the roof).

  Early on February 14: “Historical Narrative and Journal,” G-3, 34th ID; G. R. Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 284; StoC, 374 (seven hundred litter bearers); Bond, 101–3 (sawed logs); William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, act 2, scene 2; B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1 (“Thank God their mothers”); Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 116 (white shoes).

  an American detail delivered 150 corpses: OH, Paul Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, MHI, SOOHP; Nicholas M. Bozic, “36th Infantry Division, Salerno to Rome,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM (“bodies all over the hill”); Hal Reese, IG, 36th ID, “Intermission at Cassino,” n.d., Texas MFM (“It is such a tragedy”). Lt. Col. Reese was killed near Anzio three months later.

  Saddest of all: G. L. Hanssen, The Hanssens of Eastern Iowa, 32–33, 39–44, 47.

  They had been at it so long: Pyle, 127, 134–35.

  “They live and die so miserably”: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 132; OH, Harold Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, II-23; StoC, 383 (“almost mutinous”).

  Shit Corner: memoir, P. Royle, ts, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 108; Thomas Drake Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (“Halt!”); Paul Fussell, Wartime, 274–75 (“Don’t be scared”).

  The lucky ones found shelter: Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 248; C. L. Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 236 (“steam”); Martha Gellhorn, The Face of War, 131 (“perfume and gasoline”); Howard H. Peckham and Shirley A. Snyder, Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 76 (“We sit around quibbling”); Warren P. Munsell, Jr., The Story of a Regiment, 40 (Berlin Bitch); Klaus H. Huebner, A Combat Doctor’s Diary, 51 (daily passwords).

  The unlucky crouched in damp sangars: memoir, Anthony “Butch” Buccieri, 133rd Inf Regt, written by John F. Sackheim, 2001, VHP; StoC, 380; C. Richard Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” IWM, 92/1/1, 91-92 (wooden plows); Blaxland, 55; Parker, 152 (urinate, if necessary); memoir, Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 208; memo, N.P. Morrow to L. J. McNair, Jan. 28, 1944, AGF Board, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA (99,000 sets); “Operations in Italy, January 1944,” 142nd Inf Regt, MHI, 603-142, 9 (too thick for most GI boots); Samuel David Spivey, A Doughboy’s Narrative, 84 (“a life of extremes”).

  “the quartermaster must be running”: memoir, Gardiner, 214; June Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 85 (“Our meat is dead”); Ivan Dmitri, Flight to Everywhere, 145 (“no fresh milk”); Maurice R. P. Bechard, “This Is an Account of What Was to Be,” ts, n.d., 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI, 2 (“fighting the whole fucking war”); Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 142 (“cold as a corpse”).

  “disheveled, unshaven, unkempt”: J. B. Tomlinson, “Under the Banner of the Battleaxe,” ts, n.d., IWM, 80/29/1, 105, 139,144; Parker, 207; C. T. Fram, “The Littlest Victory,” ts, n.d., IWM 85/19/1, 72.

  “regular as a scythe-stroke”: Lawrence Durrell, from Sicilian Carousel, in Alcie Leccese Powers, Italy in Mind, 82; Walter Bernstein, Keep Your Head Down, 149 (“finger of God”); StoC, 380 (200,000 shells); AAR, II Corps, Jan. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 202-0.3, 15 (240mm howitzer); Peckham and Snyder, 68 (“a lot of war bonds”); Cyril Ray, Algiers to Austria, 119 (“most heavily shelled pinpoint”); Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” 16 (“pounding the soles of my feet”); N. P. Morrow, “Field Artillery Technique and Procedure,” Jan. 7, 1944, AGF observer report, file #56, NARA RG 337, box 52; N.P. Morrow, “Employment of Artillery in Italy,” FAJ, Aug. 1944, 499+; “Lessons in Combat,” 34th ID, Sept. 1944, Iowa GSM, 47 (“murder space”); “AFHQ Intelligence Notes No. 63,” June 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 47, 95-AL1-2.18 (“Wet earth”).

  learned to relieve the overpressure: Carl Rollyson, Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave, 193; Ray, 118; Spike Milligan, Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall, 255 (“Digging and swearing”); Alex Bowlby, The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby, 26 (“Keep your nut down”).

  “Enlisted men expect everything”: Douglas Allanbrook, See Naples, 180; Ben Shephard, War of Nerves, 237 (“gutful men”); “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” Apr. 14, 1944, 1st SSF, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 7 (“Use good judgment”).

  “Came across three dead G.I.s”: Maurice R. P. Bechard, “This Is an Account of What Was to Be,” ts, n.d., 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI, 2.

  Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony”: Fussell, 183; John Muirhead, Those Who Fall, 101 (“bright beads”)

  “The initial crack”: B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1.

  “You could never lose it”: memoir, P. Royle, t.s, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 106; Harpur, 65 (“That brooding monastery”).

  A new warlord arrived: Paul Freyberg, Bernard Freyberg, V.C., 458 (“torch is now thrown”).

  “I’m Freyberg”: W. G. Stevens, Freyberg, the Man, 103, 35 (“large all over”); H. Essame, “A Controversial Campaign—Italy, 1943–45,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Jan. 1968, 219+ (“shelling did everyone good”); Stevens, Freyberg, the Man, 96 (“lack of imagination”); F
reyberg, 112–13 (“St. Sebastian”), 186–87 (“diastolic murmur”); Peter Singleton-Gates, General Lord Freyberg VC, 8; obit, “Gen. Lord Freyberg, British Leader at Monte Cassino,” Washington Star, July 5, 1963 (“two wounds for every bullet”); Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords, 583 (india-rubber); Lisa Chaney, Hide-and-Seek With Angels: A Life of J. M. Barrie, 316 (“his lack of humour”).

  lined it with flowering sage: Freyberg, 51; Stevens, Freyberg, the Man, 56–57 (“fine gloves”), 60, 76 (“your turn tomorrow”).

  Even his admirers acknowledged: Freyberg, 62–63 (“wouldn’t try to think”), 118; “Operations of N.Z. Corps on the Fifth Army Front,” part I, May 1944, HQ, AAI, UK NA, CAB 106/366, 4 (a new creation).

  “clean and spritely”: E. D. Smith, The Battles for Cassino, 65; Phillips, 178–79; Majdalany, 102–3; B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1 (“crates of live chickens”).

  At first Freyberg considered: Molony V, 706–7; Battle, 193; Phillips, 222; Hapgood and Richardson, 151 (“no brains”); Howard Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier, 356 (“soviet of division commanders”). Tuker considered Freyberg “brave as a lion” but “no planner of battles and a niggler in action.” Raleigh Trevelyan, Rome ’44, 133.

  “helpless lunacy”: Bishenwar Prasad, ed., Official History of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War, 1939–1945: The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 98 (deemed Monte Cassino impregnable), 105; F. Jones, “The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 23–25; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” 1965, monograph for official history, UK NA, CAB 101/229, 7.

  “No practicable means available”: Singleton-Gates, 277.

  “Spadger still wants”: GK, Feb. 11, 1944; diary, MWC, Feb. 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“bull in a china closet”).

  “I would level the Vatican itself”: censorship morale reports, Nov. 1943–June 1944, NARA RG 492, MTO AG, 311.7.

  The Bitchhead

  Sixty miles away: beachhead census, D+10, JPL papers, MHI, box 12; Pyle, 173; Francesco Rossi and Silvano Casaldi, Those Days at Nettuno, frontispiece; Fred Sheehan, Anzio: Epic of Bravery, 102; Anzio Beachhead, 113 (empty wine barrels); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 294 (sandstone seemed to telegraph); “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., MHI, 81 (tunnel rumored to have been built by Nero); Trevelyan, 152 (“So back we go to World War I”).

  “My cost of living”: Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 179.

  “We have found our religion”: diary, William Russell Hinckley, Feb. 1944, author’s possession; “Background Material, Historical Branch G-2,” n.d., ASF, QM General, technical information branch, CMH, 000.75, 3 (punctured all fifteen ovens); Pyle, 168, 188; F.J. Lowry, “The Naval Side of the Anzio Invasion,” Proceedings, Jan. 1954, 22+ (skippers weighed anchor); Justin F. Gleichauf, Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in World War II, 293 (“brighter than Yankee Stadium”); Roberta Love Tayloe, Combat Nurse, 80 (“Anzio, my Anzio”).

  Hell’s Half-Acre: “Fifth Army Medical Service History,” Feb. 1945, CMH, 19–20, 23 (killed the VI Corps surgeon); Charles M. Wiltse, The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters, 275 (a Luftwaffe bomber); testimony, Paul Sauer, n.d., Fifth Army JAG, war crimes office, NARA RG 153, box 530 (“I’m dying”); Sheehan, 166 (treated in the same hospital).

  “God, help us”: “Fifth Army Medical Service History,” 24; Carlo D’Este, Fatal Decision, 2; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 5, 1944, in “The German Operation at Anzio,” German military document section, Military Intelligence Div, WD, MHI, JPL papers, box 9; corr, George H. Revelle, Jr., to wife, Feb. 5, 1944, author’s possession (“dog on an iceberg”); George C. Harper, “The World War II Years,” ts, 1999, 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ, 27 (“outhouse”); Pyle, 160; Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 182 (“dining room table”); David Cole, Rough Road to Rome, 199 (“Morphine”); Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 64 (“too much iron”).

  Deep holes grew deeper: diary, Robert M. Marsh, Feb. 11, 1944, 81st Armored Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113+; Ball, 295; William J. Sweet, Jr., “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, on the Anzio Beachhead,” 1947, IS (eliminate tree bursts); Munthe, 182 (“sons of the prophet”); George Forty, M4 Sherman, 67 (“can’t get used to bein’ scared”); Paul W. Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 392–93; T. Moffatt Burriss, Strike and Hold, 87 (firing at the helmets); Cole, 205 (“shooting gallery”).

  “Get moving”: Tom Roe, Anzio Beachhead, 43, 53; John Lardner, “Anzio, February 10th,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 262 (“like sunburned skin”); John Lardner, “The Show at Anzio,” in John Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 117 (“small, wet world”); GK, March 25, 1944 (Bitchhead); Donald G. Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division in World War II, 125 (“squirt of white tracer”); Lloyd Clark, Anzio, 144 (“I was alone”); George Aris, The Fifth British Division, 1939 to 1945, 210–11, 239; Cole, 198 (recalled his Virgil).

  Yanks veered to the right: Sweet, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment” Trevelyan, 222 (“Otto, Otto”); Lloyd M. Wells, From Anzio to the Alps, 83 (“Nerves became frayed”); Pyle, 194.

  Grave diggers halted their poker game: Allan Jaynes, “Mud, Misery and Messerschmitts,” ts, 1990, 45th ID Mus; “The 30 Years of Army Experience of Thomas E. Hannum,” ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ, 74; Pyle, 194; Peter Verney, Anzio 1944, 86 (“can never be as bad”).

  disrupted Mackensen’s timetable: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 3, 5, 12, 1944; AAR, 3 Inf Bde, Jan. 30–Feb 14, 1944, UK NA, CAB 106/850 (exposed salient).

  The attack fell heaviest: Sheehan, 94; Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, 96 (“dirty, ragged wave”), 101; Verney, 98 (“Germans are at the door”); D.J.L. Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 268, 275 (“never saw so many people killed”); Robley D. Evans et al., “American Armor at Anzio,” 1949, AS, Ft. K, table; AAR, “Report on Action at Campoleone,” 3 Inf Bde, Feb. 21, 1944, Philip L. E. Wood papers, LH, Wood 2/1 (438 tubes).

  “All the shells in hell”: Vaughan-Thomas, 106; StoC, 396; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 4, 1944; Anzio Beachhead, 46.

  The attack resumed on Monday evening: Anzio Beachhead, 55; Nigel Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 2, 408 (“Nothing heard of Number 1 company”), 39 (looking for breath plumes); Verney, 137, 142 (“hit in the arse”); D’Este, 222 (“eaten by pigs”).

  Aided by a captured map: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 8, 1944; David Erskin, The Scots Guards, 1919–1955, 216–17, 221 (“even more unpleasant”).

  More unpleasant yet: StoC, 396; Anzio Beachhead, 55; Vaughan-Thomas, 124; Erskin, 223 (“Where is the sea?”).

  On sleepless nights: Trevelyan, 157; author visit, May 7, 2004 (ramps for rolling barrels); Rossi and Casaldi, 159; JPL, 367 (hunched over plywood desks); Marshall, 38, 41 (maps with grease pencil markings).

  “The old Hun is getting ready”: JPL, 360, 365 (shrinking by nine thousand); James Parton, “Air Force Spoken Here,” 351 (largest air command); “Mediterranean Allied Air Forces in Operation SHINGLE, 1 Jan–18 March ’44,” 1945, CMH, 5-1 DA, 23–24 (traveled from southern France).

  “A terrible struggle all day”: JPL, 369; Rossi and Casaldi, 169 (“hermaphrodites”); msg, JPL to MWC, Feb. 9, 1944, 2040 hrs, JPL papers, MHI, box 12; Verney, 23; Molony V, 751 (high-strung engineer); OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI, 76 (“good telephone operator”); OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (“Well, I do”).

  “Complete gaff, no decision”: diary, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LH, 8/11, 8/14 (“infuriating delay”); D’Este, 221 (“Corncob Charlie”); Trevelyan, 157 (“We’ll lose the beachhead”); Molony V, 738 (“I trust you are satisfied” and “Clark might be the man to go”); Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. 7, Road to Victory, 1941–1945, 666; Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring, 488 (“superiority in chauffeurs”); Vaughan-T
homas, 111 (“a great disappointment”).

  As Mackensen tightened his grip: Anzio Beachhead, 61; Verney, 128–29; Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards, 386; diary, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LH, 8/19. (“immediate corps plan”); JPL, 370.

  He popped out of the command post: CM, 329; Vaughan-Thomas, 127; diary, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LH, 8/11, and msg, JPL to Penney, Feb. 11, 1944, 8/20 (“reinforcements are on the way”).

  A counterattack at dawn on Saturday: Molony V, 736; Sheehan, 111; Whitlock, 171 (“gray-coated infantry”).

  General Alex had long been celebrated: Sulzberger, 229–30 (red hat drew fire).

  “We wanted a breakthrough”: Vaughan-Thomas, 146 (“Were any of you at Dunkirk?”); Sheehan, 124 (“German opposite us”); Betsy Wade, ed., Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, 37 (stories were censored); “Censorship Takes Anzio,” Time, Feb. 28, 1944, 46 (“such rot”); Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty, 330.

  “I tried to stop the tirade”: Vaughan-Thomas, 147 (La Traviata).

  Lucas was left alone: JPL, 378–79 (“I failed to chase the Hun”).

  General Mackensen, the Hun himself: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 13, 1944 (Lake Nemi); author visit, Dec. 1, 2006; Fritz Meske, “The Anzio-Nettuno Bridgehead: A German Account,” Die Wehrmacht, March 8, 1944, in MR, June 1944 (“not a flash of a gun”).

  the counterattack would fling six divisions: Anzio Beachhead, 67; “German Version of the History of the Italian Campaign,” CARL, N-16671.1-3, 90; StoC, 420; Vaughan-Thomas, 156.

  “concentrated, overwhelming, ruthless”: Ralph S. Mavrogordato, “The Battle for the Anzio Beachhead,” Apr. 1958, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R-series, R-124, 11,13; Vaughan-Thomas, 156; StoC, 419 (delay their invasion).

  mask the clank of approaching panzers: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 13 and 15, 1944; Eberhard von Mackensen, “Field Fortifications Around the Anzio-Nettuno Beachhead,” 1950, MHI, FMS, #C-061, 7 (streambeds ran perpendicular); msg, Hermann Göring Div, Feb. 14, 1944, in VI Corps G-2 report no. 148, JPL papers, MHI, box 1 (“for short errands”); Sheehan, 124 (“house lights”).

 
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