The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
And what did they believe: “Extract from Monthly Sanitary Report,” Aug. 31, 1943, MWC, corr, Citadel, box 3; Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 626 (Four Freedoms); Chandler, vol. II, 1276 (“less than half”); Margaret Bourke-White, Purple Heart Valley, 73 (“I was drafted”).
Their pervasive “civilianness”: Brown, To All Hands, 224; Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 132; Lawrence D. Collins, The 56th Evac Hospital, 90; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113–23; Three Years, 389 (A single crude acronym).
Yet they held: Brown, To All Hands, 224; George Biddle, Artist at War, 123; John Sloan Brown, Draftee Division, 103 (“lick those bastards”).
The same surveys: Larrabee, 626.
“Many of the men”: George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, July 24, 1943, 50+; Muirhead, 106–7 (“could not bear the shame”).
“a gentle obsolescent breed”: Samuel Hynes, The Soldiers’ Tale, 143.
“fighting for their right to be hypocrites”: corr, George Henry Revelle, Jr., to Evelyn, July 7, 1943, author’s possession.
Across the great southern rim: Paul A. Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, 6; Hamilton H. Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 78–79; Hamilton H. Howze, “35 Years and Then Some,” ts, n.d., Howze papers, box 10, MHI, VII, 1–2 (locust swarms); Charles F. Ryan et al., “2nd Armored Division in the Sicilian Campaign,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, 57 (a hundred flatcars); Donald E. Houston, Hell on Wheels, 148 (engineer at gunpoint).
the 45th Infantry Division: “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” vol. 1, n.d., CMH, 3-2.2 AA, 90–92; Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas, 195; Cundiff, 19; Wheeler, 86 (mine detectors); Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 133 (all nineteen troop-ships); Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIII-61 (ordered to the Pacific); Emajean Jordan Buechner, Sparks, 64 (Company J); Don Robinson, News of the 45th, 52 (iced tea); Brown, To All Hands, 27, 41, 228 (“Happy Hour”).
The 45th was a National Guard division: E. J. Kahn, Jr., “Education of an Army,” New Yorker, vol. 20, no. 35, Oct. 14, 1944, 28+; Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 18–19 (“no good”); Peter R. Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 102 (“better prepared”); unit history, Ben C. Garbowski, ASEQ, 157th Inf., MHI; Frank Farner, ed., Thunderbird: 45th Infantry Division, 15 (Wolftown Guards); Whitlock, 20–21; George A. Fisher, The Story of the 180th Infantry Regiment (war dance).
Chancre Alley: Loyd J. Biss, “Three Years, Four Months and Twenty-seven Days,” ts, n.d., author’s possession, 19; Fred Sheehan, Anzio: Epic of Bravery, 48 (“provost marshal’s report”); Frank James Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 146 (brandy); Kenneth D. Williamson, “Tales of a Thunderbird,” ts, n.d., 45th ID Mus, 73, 84, 87 (scooping up dimes).
Along with the money: DDE to CG, NATOUSA SOS, June 3, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; OH, John E. Hull, 1974, SOOHP, James W. Wurman, MHI, 57 (bayonets too dull).
Three hundred and forty crow-flying miles: Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 309–10; Cherpak, ed., 188–89.
“solid forest of masts”: “Notes on PT History in Mediterranean: Letter from LCDR S. M. Barnes, commander of Motor Torpedo Squadron 15, to CDR Bulkley,” n.d., SEM, NHC, box 54, 33; memo, Bert M. Rudd, “Landing Craft and Bases,” AGF Observer, July 16, 1943, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 150, 1 (“into anchored vessels”); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 344 (“Poems are made”); Paul W. Pritchard, “Smoke Generator Operations in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operation,” Chemical Corps, n.d., CMH, 4-7.1 FA 1; Pyle, 6 (Luftwaffe raiders); Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 100 (steel hail); Nigel Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. II, 347 (“Bring up your children”).
“Florida”: OH, William Francis Powers, Aug. 1985, CEOH.
None of the namesake camps: Howard, 30, 103 (“wog wine”); AAR, 3/26th Inf, July 1–5, 1943, MRC FDM; Jean Gordon Peltier, World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, 91–92 (peppermint); AAR, “1st Embarkation Group, Eastern Base Section,” Aug. 1943, CARL, N-2763, 39–48 (German field ranges); Maxwell D. Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 48; Clifford W. Dorman, “Too Soon for Heroes,” ts, n.d., author’s possession, 57 (TNT); diary, July 7, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10 (ten young bulls).
They were in an ugly mood: T. Michael Booth and Duncan Spencer, Paratrooper: The Life of Gen. James M. Gavin, 95; AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 61 (twenty-three copies).
Congestion and confusion: AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 51; Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 159 (ammunition dump); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” July 7, 1943, HIA, box 1 (novice boat crews).
Still farther east: H. Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 99 (“gypsy camp”); Alex Bowlby, The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby, 12 (maleesh); P. Royle, ts, 1972, IWM 99/72/1, 82 (desert sores); Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 132 (“bloody fuckers”).
“Daisy, daisy”: Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 11, 21; A. W. Valentine, We Landed in Sicily and Italy: A Story of the Devons, 9 (“bathing parade”); C. Richard Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM 92/1/1, 6 (“desert campfire”); Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 162 (kilted pipers).
On July 5: David Cole, Rough Road to Rome, 15; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 8 (wigwagged); Peter Roach, The 8.15 to War, 108, 110 (“Like fat cattle”).
The Monrovia singled up: war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 6, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; Karig, 234; H. Kent Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” Proceedings, vol. 79, no. 7, July 1943, 705+ (“Have a good trip”).
Despite elaborate security: AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 50; Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 35; David Hunt, A Don at War, 193 (gabardine uniform).
As Hewitt paced: Beck, 124; The Sicilian Campaign, 157 (hospital ships).
As for the eighty thousand: “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” 27 (warehouse prices); corr, HKH to SEM, Sept. 18, 1953, SEM, NHC, box 51 (headquarters ship); OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 325; memo, “Command of Landing Arrangement HUSKY,” GK to HKH, Apr. 12, 1943, HKH, NHC, box 1 (Patton’s refusal); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 279 (“Sit down!”); Cherpak, ed., 183; OH, HKH, n.d., Julian Boit and James Riley, NHC, box 6, 2 (To celebrate).
At five P.M.: Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” 705; war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 6, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233 (sailing pattern no. 35).
Behind the bridge: corr, GSP to Bea, July 2, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 10; JPL, 34; diary, July 25, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 15 (“our weak spot”); PP, 233 (“mental fog”).
He was ready: PP, 260, 264, 270; memo, GSP, June 5, 1943, in Russell L. Moses, ASEQ, 179th Inf Regt., 45th ID, MHI (tactical adages).
“a timid man”: JPL, 24–25; Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 12–17; diary, July 1, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 3, folder 1 (whine of bullets); D. Clayton James, A Time for Giants, 225 (“a disturbing element”); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 77 (“Someday I will”).
“Battle is the most”: Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 155; diary, June 27, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 15 (“a sacred trust”).
“There is no better death”: Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 131; Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 264 (“to blood them”); Charles R. Codman, Drive, 99 (“hate builder”).
“You son of a bitch”: Albert C. Wedemeyer, SOOHP, Anthony S. Deskis, 1972–73, MHI; Wiley H. O’Mohundro, “From Mules to Missiles,” ts, n.d., MHI, 47 (“I am a chaplain”).
To a dilatory officer: John A. Heintges, SOOHP, Jack A. Pellicci, 1974, 156–59; SSt, 119 (“That temper of his”).
“What would Jackson”: Susan H. Godson, Viking of Assault, 65; Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords, 558 (pilot’s license).
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“I have no premonitions”: PP, 273; diary, May 7, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15 (“my fate”).
Patton had designed: corr, Oscar W. Koch to James A. Norell, Dec. 15, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; MWC, “General Patton,” ts, n.d., Subject Files, MWC, Citadel, box 70, 4 (“If you charge”); Taylor, 49 (“you bastards”).
From east and west: Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” 50; Dickson, War Slang, 113–33.
At last the troops learned: Brown, To All Hands, 83–86; Peterman, “U.S.S. Savannah” (anxious landlubbers); Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner, 537.
The Monrovia steamed past Bizerte: war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 7–8, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; Bernard Stambler, “Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., vol. 2, CMH, 2-3.7 AA.L, 45; Pyle, 8; “Convoy to Gaeta,” combat narrative, #210, 1944, “WWII Histories and Historical Reports,” OCNO, NHC (“must be afloat”).
Calypso’s Island
FINANCE: “Geographical Code for Operation HUSKY,” May 17, 1943, AFHQ G-2, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily, 402 (St. Paul); Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles, 34, 78–80, 153–57.
In 1530: John Gunther, D Day, 155–57; Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 15–16 (illiterate peasants).
The first of 3,340: “Malta C.G.,” AB, No. 10, 1975, 1+; Gunther, D Day, 85, 157–58; Charles A. Jellison, Besieged: The World War II Ordeal of Malta, 1940–1942, 166, 258, 178 (“Beauty was slain”).
Those not killed: Jellison, 111, 133, 167, 174n, 221, 229; Gunther, D Day, 86 (learned to live without); Jack Belden, Still Time to Die, 197 (contraceptives).
victory in North Africa: Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 532; James Leasor, The Clock with Four Hands, 255–56 (“too thin and listless”); Gunther, D Day, 43, 82 (Indian cigarettes); code, appendix 2, communication plan, MTOUSA SOS, NARA RG 492, 290/55/1-2/7-1, box 2738 (BULLDOGS).
“Everyone was on tiptoe”: William Ernest Victor Abraham, “Time Off for War,” ts, n.d., LHC, 69.
Motorcyclists with numbers: “Malta C.G.,” 1+; Charles Cruickshank, Deception in World War II, 53–54 (radio traffic); F.A.E. Crew, The Army Medical Services, vol. III, 14–15 (hospital port); HCB, July 10, 1943, DDE Lib, A-559; Michael J. McKeough and Richard Lockridge, Sgt. Mickey and General Ike, 85 (lucky coins).
“There are several rooms”: Gunther, D Day, 49–50; Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 428 (“it’ll do”).
Nine months earlier: David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 689; OH, Hastings L. Ismay, Dec. 17, 1946, FCP, MHI (“No one else”).
“incarnation of sincerity”: Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 690; Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. 1, 273 (“bits of metal”); James, 95 (“utterly fair”); Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier, 514; John Kennedy, The Business of War, 289 (“powers of expression”); Drew Middleton, Our Share of Night, 308.
“I’m a born optimist”: Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 54; Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 689 (“studious reflection”); John Gunther, Eisenhower: The Man and the Symbol, 27 (“one officer in fifty”); OH, DDE, Aug. 29, 1976, D. Clayton James, DDE Lib, OH-501, 3–6 (“I would refuse”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1165 (“at least $25,000”).
“You are fighting”: HCB, June 19, 1943, DDE Lib, A-491; Gunther, Eisenhower, 19 (“hate my enemies”); John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal, 67 (“the Almighty”).
“A coordinator”: Brian Horrocks, A Full Life, 159; Brian Harpur, The Impossible Victory, 115 (“a compromisor”); JPL, May 24, 1943 (“keep in touch”).
“solve problems through reasoning”: Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 418; Gunther, D Day, 59; David Fraser, Alanbrooke, 347 (“a grave risk”); Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 260.
The long summer twilight: Three Years, 343; Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health Status of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” n.d., Mattingly Collection, DDE Lib, box 1, 19–22, 53 (“disabling injury”); Gunther, Eisenhower, 29 (sixty or more Camels); Chandler, vol. 2, 1344 (he paid John); HCB, June 29, 1943, DDE Lib, A-508c (gas fumes).
Cigarette in hand: Michael Simpson, A Life of Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham, 161 (Tars scaled); John Howson, ts, n.d., LHC, 302 (“Every Nice Girl”); Ernle Bradford, Siege Malta, 1940–1943, 86–87 (limestone walls); Cunningham, 547 (“extremely smelly”); McKeough and Lockridge, 87 (banana cordials).
Eisenhower strode: Gunther, D Day, 53, 61; Alden Hatch, General Ike, 173 (four hundred years); Gunther, Eisenhower, 23–24.
He shrugged off: Harry L. Coles, Jr., “Participation of the 9th and 12th Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign,” AAF Historical Studies, no. 37, n.d., CMH, 56; Gunther, D Day, 80.
his red-veined face: John Winton, Cunningham, 313; Daniel C. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy, 1943–1945, 27; George Kitching, Mud and Green Fields, 147, 151 (three Canadian ships); Three Years, 349 (heard from Malta); Martin Stephen, The Fighting Admirals, 65, 77, 83 (“velvet-arsed”); Simpson, 161; Gunther, D Day, 64 (“like a bulldog’s”).
“The coast is everywhere”: “Tactical Study of the Terrain—Sicily,” AFHQ G-2, Feb. 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily 354, 1; Molony V, 13 (thirty-two beaches); L. V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 418; Ernest Samuels, ed., The Education of Henry Adams (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), 367.
An amphibious landing: Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 110.
If amphibious warfare: Garland, 54–58; Sidney L. Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” July 1945, SC Historical Project E-3, CARL, N-9425.4, 6–7 (couriers shuttled); Arthur S. Nevins, “Looking Back,” ts, n.d., A.S. Nevins papers, DDE Lib, box 1, 16 (frigid officers).
Eisenhower in March: “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report on Sicilian Campaign 1943,” 75; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” XIII-14 (“grossly exaggerating”); GS IV, 368–69 (“defeatist doctrines”); Garland, 58.53 “Let’s finish this”: OH, Francis de Guingand, March 31, 1947, G. A. Harrison, OCMH WWII, “Europe Interviews,” MHI, 2; Abraham, “Time Off for War,” 68 (“how it would suit us”).
The existing plan: Hunt, 189–90; Molony V, 22; Garland, 61 (“wooly thinking”); Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 191, 207, 217, 223, 226 (“military disaster”).
Rather than divide: diary, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Gairdner, IWM 04/271/1, 39 (a thousand francs), 36 (run by Monty); Martin Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 24; Carlo D’Este, A Genius for War, 493 (men’s latrine).
A day later: Cunningham, 532–37; Garland, 62; SSA, 20n.
“I can’t understand”: diary, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Gairdner, IWM 04/271/1, 37.
HUSKY now called: Richard Doherty, A Noble Crusade, 140; Garland, 88–91.
“Stick them in the belly”: SSt, 114; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, NSA, NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 48–49; “Trip Reports Concerning Use of Ultra in the Mediterranean Theater, 1943–1944,” NARA RG 457, SRH-031, 36; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 401–3; Peter Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra (“panoramic knowledge”); F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 1, 75, 483–86 (Hyena).
Eisenhower also knew: SSA, 35, 56; Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943, 313 (“blindfolded”); “I Reparto Riunione dal Duce del Giorno 3 Aprile 1943,” Italian Collection, item 26, OCMH, SSI, NARA RG 319, 270/19/6/3, box 243 (lightbulbs).
What Eisenhower did not know: Battle, 35.
The Combined Chiefs had approved: Richard M. Leighton, “Planning for Sicily,” Proceedings, July 1962, 90+; Garland, 67 (“Your planne
Marshall was right: Battle, 46; Garland, 89; “Outline Plan,” Force 343, May 18, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 270/19/6/3, box 242; Cochran, “Chicken or Eggs?”; Alexander S. Cochran, “Constructing a Military Coalition from Materials at Hand: The Case of Allied Force Headquarters,” paper, SMH conference, Apr. 16, 1999, 10–12 (Amphibious doctrine).
A “terrible inflexibility”: Smith, “Mediterranean Operations,” 1; Garland, 92–93.
In mid-June, Eisenhower: Three Years, 333; DDE, Crusade in Europe, 170; Davis, 425–26 (“Don’t ever do that”).
Feints and deceptions: SSA, 167; memo, C. B. Hazeltine to McClure, July 14, 1943, AFHQ Psychological Warfare Branch, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 13; The Sicilian Campaign, 8.
Verdala Palace: Three Years, 347–48, 353; DDE, Letters to Mamie, 125.
Translators, for example: DDE to GCM, May 7 and 11, June 22 and 28, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16.
“Aged Military Gentlemen”: C.R.S. Harris, Allied Administration of Italy, 1943–1945, 82; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 118; http://www.sokrates-digital.de/produktkatalog/AQ493328.php; DDE to AGWAR, June 1, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16. The abbreviation was shortened in August to AMG.
he worried about his wife: Ambrose, vol. 1, 244.
Kathleen Helen Summersby: Kay Summersby Morgan, Past Forgetting, 126, 136; finding aid, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib; Miller, 516 (Grief and strain); Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life & Times, 125.
Just please remember: DDE, Letters to Mamie, 128.
“The Horses of the Sun”
The convoys from Algeria: Karig, 235–36; SSA, 62–65; Tregaskis, 15 (abacus); war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 8–9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233 (thirteen knots).
Ships wallowed: Total tonnage included follow-on convoys. Memo, “Observations ‘HUSKY’—Joss Task Force,” July 10, 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, SOS, 290/55/1-2, 7-1, box 2736; msg, AFHQ to AGWAR, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” 3; “Orders for Operation HUSKY,” n.d., AFHQ, S.S.O. 17/3, CARL, N-14793A; msgs, DDE to AGWAR, May 28, 1943; AGWAR to AFHQ, June 10, 1943; and Office of Fiscal Director, WD, to DDE, June 17, 1943, all in NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16 (rat traps); Robert W. Komer, “Civil Affairs and Military Government in the Mediterranean Theater,” 1954, CMH, 2-3.7 AX, II-24 (occupation scrip); memo, “Medical Planning Instruction,” Force 141, March 14, 1943, A. S. Nevins papers, MHI, box 1 (condoms); “British Abbreviations and Glossary,” A. S. Nevins papers, MHI, box 1 (glossary).