The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
Half the tonnage: Mayo, 154; “Logistical History of NATOUSA/MTOUSA,” Nov. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-4, box 203, 58.
“what they thought they needed”: “Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” John T. Mason, Jr., 1970, USNI OHD, 148; AAR, 6681st Signal Pigeon Co., July 9, 1944, NARA RG 407, SG Co-6681-0.1, box 23228; msg, AGWAR to DDE, June 17, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16 (pigeons); Max Corvo, The O.S.S. in Italy, 61; “Reminiscences of Phil E. Bucklew,” 1980, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 44; memo, “Final Outline Plan, Force 343,” June 8, 1943, NARA RG 338, II Corps historical section, box 148; “Beaches of Sicily,” Strategic Engineering Study, No. 31, Nov. 1942, MHI (rumrunner); msgs, GCM to DDE, May 2 and 27, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; Blanche D.Coll et al., The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment, 455–56 (wooden crates); Nicholas, 222, 226, 234 (motorcycle courier).
Much had been learned: memo, HQ, I Armored Corps, annex 2, June 14, 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, SOS, 290/55/1-2, 7-1, box 2736; “Operating Instructions HUSKY,” vol. IV, Force 343, FO No. 1, June 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-3.17, box 201 (chart distributed to medics); memo, HQ, SOS NATOUSA, June 29, 1943, and “Graves Registration Directive,” MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, SOS, 290/55/1-2, 7-1, box 2736; memo, “Disposition of Personal Effects,” May 24, 1943, Harlan W. Hendrick, ASEQ, 1st ID, MHI.
welfare of civilians: “British Administrative History of the Italian Campaign,” appendix, 1946, NARA RG 94, E 427, 95-USF2-5.0; Komer, “Civil Affairs,” II-20 (vast stocks); “Post-HUSKY Operations, Military Government,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, 270/19/6/3, box 242 (nineteen million mouths); “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” n.d., CMH, 3-2.2 AA, vol. 1, 92 (“self-supporting”).
Kent Hewitt spent the passage: OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 314; HKH, AAR, “The Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., 107; John H. Clagett, unpublished bio of HKH, ts, n.d., NHC, 392 (“God couldn’t be”).
“sea-going bedpan”: “History of Amphibious Training Command, U.S. Atlantic Fleet,” 1951, USNAd, #145 a–c, VIII, 24; Beck et al., 118; Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” 50 (“ensign-eliminators”); author visit, LST 325, Alexandria, Va., May 28, 2005; Perret, 134 (rumrunners); Barry W. Fowle, ed., Builders and Fighters, 407; Kendall King, “LSTs: Marvelous at Fifty Plus,” Naval History, 1992 (river yards); Pyle, 157 (even in drydock).
Hewitt knew: Beck et al., 124; Mason, 273–78 (Sherman tank).
“take his chances”: “Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 149; HKH, AAR, “The Sicilian Campaign,” 44 (“illusory”); Hinsley, 86 (fourteen had been lost).
In his own cabin: PP, 275, 271 (horses of the sun); diary, GSP, July 8, 1943, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 1 (“Attack and then look”); Mason, 284 (“on their necks”).
Field Order No. 1: HQ, Force 343 (7th Army), June 20, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 242; “Seventh Army Report Summary,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 250 (“We shall win”).
“You are a great leader”: PP, 272; John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 45–46; Hirshson, 360 (“Do you kill?”); GSP to DDE, Feb. 20, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91 (“You name them”); memoir, Kenyon Joyce, ts, n.d., MHI, 345 (“colorful”).
“a question of destiny”: GSP to Bea, July 5, 1943, LOC MS Div, Chrono File, box 10.
Ernie Pyle was with them: SSA, 66; Pyle, 12 (“On fine days”); Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 267 (he rose at three A.M.).
“older and a little apart”: David Nichols, ed., Ernie’s War, 18; Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 256 (“a family Bible”); Miller, 261 (“fundamentally sad”).
“lost in the dark”: Richard Collier, Fighting Words, 140, 144, 152; Miller (“athlete’s foot”).
thirty cubic feet: Harold Larson, “Troop Transports in WWII,” ts, March 1945, CMH, 4-13. AA12, 53; Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 142; IG investigation, fall 1943, MTOUSA AG, NARA RG 492, 333.7, box 1432 (Army inspectors); Russell B. Capelle, Casablanca to the Neckar, 18 (its mystery).
They made do: Valentine, 10; George F. Hall papers, HIA, box 1 (seven times as high); AAR, 26th Inf Regt, “The Beginning of the End,” n.d., MRC FDM (hellhole); Williamson, “Tales of a Thunderbird,” 86 (“bona sera”).
They packed and unpacked: annex, Admin Order No. 1, June 14, 1943, Seventh Army, Walter J. Muller papers, HIA, box 2; chart, Wayne M. Harris, ASEQ, 157th Inf, MHI (82.02 pounds); Harold W. Thatcher, “The Development of Special Rations for the Army,” 1944, Historical Section, QM General, MHI, 4-5 (“D rations”).
“It’s interesting to see”: corr, TR to Eleanor, July 7, 8, 1943, LOC MS Div, box 10.
“Commander Houdini”: Graeme Zielinski, “Capt. Richard Steere, 92; Meteorologist for Patton,” WP, March 22, 2001, B-6; “Navy Honors D.C. Officer, Weather Expert,” WP, Dec. 7, 1943, B-9.
Summer blows: Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 74.
“flat-bottomed delight”: Collins, 200; Jack Belden, “As I Saw It,” in Albert H. Smith, Jr., The Sicily Campaign: Recollections of an Infantry Company Commander, 143 (“Mussolini wind”); memo, Bert M. Rudd, “Landing Craft and Bases,” AGF Observer, July 16, 1943, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 150, 6; Bill Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 143 (two dozen balloons); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” July 9, 1943, HIA, box 1 (helmsmen struggled); Pyle, 13.
Never had the amphibious vessels: CM, 209; Karig, 255 (“green water cascaded”); Donald J. Hunt, “USS LST 313 and Battery A, 33rd Field Artillery,” ts, 1997, MRC FDM, 46 (heavy shudder); William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, box V-14, VII-3 (“47 degrees”); Mason, 279–82 (“nothing to the right”); James Phinney Baxter III, Scientists Against Time, 77 (charms on a watch chain); Karig, 237 (Florence Nightingale).
“You probably enjoy”: What to Do Aboard the Transport, 244.
“All of us are miserable”: Samuel David Spivey, A Doughboy’s Narrative, 85; Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 81 (“First I am afraid”); John Ellis, On the Front Lines, 60 (“Bags, Vomit”); Ralph G. Martin, The G.I. War, 1941–1945, 67 (“secret shame”).
“Land of My Fathers”: Buckley, 24; Farley Mowat, And No Birds Sang, 46–50 (“green and groaning”); Francis A. Even, “The Tenth Engineers,” ts, 1996, author’s possession, 7 (African donkeys); memo, Bert M. Rudd, “Landing Craft and Bases,” AGF Observer, July 16, 1943, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 150, 6 (“Ship rolled thirty degrees”); Martha Harris, ed., “The Harris Family in World War II,” 23 (peritonitis); Steve Kluger, Yank, 105 (“walk and walk”).
“‘Is God on our side’”: Strome Galloway, A Regiment at War, 70.
“It’s goddam foolish”: Jack Belden, “As I Saw It,” in Smith, 144; “Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 145 (“first to yelp”).
On Monrovia: SSA, 68; Garland, 109 (at least four hours); Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” 705 (“get ashore”); OH, HKH, Jan. 23, 1951, Howard M. Smyth, SM, MHI.
Late on Friday afternoon: lecture, “Narrative by Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk,” Oct. 2, 1943, Pearl Harbor, NHC; Clagett, unpub bio of HKH, 392–98; Bates and Fuller, 74; Bernard Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 240–44.
“Always the vibration”: McCallum, 150; letter, John T. Dawson to family, July 9, 1943, MRC FDM.
“taking it green”: W. S. Chalmers, Full Cycle, 177; John F. Hummer, An Infantryman’s Journal, 20 (smoking lamps); war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; “Account Written by Brig. Gen. McLain,” ts, summer 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 cc2, Sicily, “45th Div Landings,” box 247, 1 (sheer cliffs).
“my communications with Washington”: Chandler, vol. 2, 1212; Crusade in Europe, 172 (“I wish I knew”).
“all the winds of heaven”: Winton, 316; McCallum, 146 (“Road to the Isles”); Cunningham, 550–51 (“solid sheets”); Francis de Guingand, Operation Victory, 289–90 (gin).
Eisenhower reviewed: Chandler, vol. II, 1247 (“the operation will proceed”), 1247
“To be perfectly honest”: Three Years, 348–49; Alan Lloyd, The Gliders, 39 (searchlight beams); Garland, 109; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 319 (lucky coins); Coles, “Participation of the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces,” 81 (vital turn).
“tell some stories”: Three Years, 350; Vincent Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 225; Abraham, “Time Off for War,” 70 (razor).
“in the lap of the gods”: Miller, 520; DDE, Letters to Mamie, 134–35. Death or Glory
Patton woke: George S. Patton, War as I Knew It, 65; combat narrative, Mitchell Jamieson, “Invasion of Sicily,” May 2, 1944, NHC, 4–5; diary, July 9, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15 (pitched overboard).
“We may feel anxious”: PP, 275–76.
He found Hewitt: Albert C. Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports!, 224; HKH, “The Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 270/19/6/3, box 242, 83 (ten knots); S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 116 (Unruffled); N.L.A. Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, 113 (“I saw hundreds”).
“a mass of flames”: Patton, 65; diary, Hobart Gay, July 9, 1943, USMA Lib, 98; Bernard Stambler, “Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., vol. 2, CMH, 2-3.7 AA.L (“All the beach”); Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 238 (“Apparently the big ships”).
The HUSKY commanders: Molony V, 55; SSA, 72, 82 (Yellow Line).
“all-or-nothing affairs”: Molony V, 67.
“You will find the Mediterranean”: John Mason Brown, To All Hands, 116; S.W.C. Pack, Operation Husky, 139 (Indonesian waiters); Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 27, 31 (Strathnaver’s E-deck); Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 39 (friction tape); Martha Harris, ed., “The Harris Family in World War II,” s.p., 1996, 20.
“the victim coast”: letter, Richard Pisciotta to father, May 18, 1944, 157th Inf, 45th ID, ASEQ, MHI; notes, Russell L. Nioses, ts, n.d., 179th Inf, 45th Div Museum (“wild Indians”); Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 268 (“breathing so hard”).
“The ship is dark”: TR to Eleanor, July 9, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.
“Land the landing force”: Susan H. Godson, Viking of Assault, 70; “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 16–17 (Winchester Castle); Three Assault Landings, 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, DTL, Ft. B, 10 (tots of rum); Farley Mowat, The Regiment, 56–57.
“The rocking of the small landing craft”: Jack Belden, “As I Saw It,” in Albert H. Smith, Jr., The Sicily Campaign: Recollections of an Infantry Company Commander, 147–49; Bernard Nalty and Truman Strobridge, “The Lucky Chase,” Sea Classics, date uncertain, 14+ (“a basso coughing”).
“Seasickness and fear”: Paul W. Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 149; Malcolm S. McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” ts, 1975, MHI, 75 (pry loose the fingers); Paul W. Brown, 164 (“Oh, Jesus”); George J. Koch, memoir, ts, n.d., 1st Reconnaissance Troop, 1st ID, ASEQ, MHI (“not meant to be sailors”); Robert W. Black, Rangers in World War II, 86 (“American Patrol”); James B. Lyle, “The Operations of Companies A and B, 1st Ranger Battalion, at Gela, Sicily,” n.d., IS, 9 (“God be with you”).
On the extreme left: admin log, LST-379, July 10, 1943, and action report, “Landing at Torre de Gaffi, Sicily, LST 379,” July 18, 1943; lecture, “Narrative by Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk,” Pearl Harbor, Oct. 2, 1943, NHC, 6 (Cleats snapped); The Sicilian Campaign, 38–39 (“Our barrage rockets”); George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, Aug. 14, 1943, 46+ (“knocking steel and fire”).
Somehow the cockleshell: “The Lucky Chase,” 14+; OH, “The Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 1970, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 139 (“steer through the water”); Intelligence Notes No. 6, July 3, 1943, HQ, 1st ID (Coca-Cola).
By two A.M.: Jack Belden, “Battle of Sicily,” Time, July 26, 1943, 27+; Donald J. Hunt, “USS LST 313 and Battery A, 33rd Field Artillery,” ts, 1997, MRC FDM, 33 (Coxswains steered); JPL, 42 (“beautiful phenomenon”).
CHAPTER 2: THE BURNING SHORE
Land of the Cyclops
Few Sicilian towns: Robert D. Kaplan, Mediterranean Winter, 132; Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily, 321; Pietro Griffo, Gela, 24, 49, 160, 211 (bald skull).
Patton planned: Edwin M. Sayer, “The Operations of Company A, 505th Parachute Infantry,” Nov. 1947, IS, 6–7; Bradley Biggs, Gavin, 19–20; William B. Breuer, Drop Zone Sicily, 2 (washed out of flight school); Malcolm Muir, Jr., ed., The Human Tradition in the World War II Era, 178–84 (“He could jump”).
His 505th Parachute Infantry: Muir, 183; Matthew B. Ridgway, Soldier, 62 (roughly one-third); William T. Ryder, “Report on American Airborne Phase of Operation HUSKY,” n.d., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 44, 16; XO diary, 1st Bn, 505th Para Inf Regt, May 17–July 9 1943, NARA RG 407, 382-Inf-(505)-0.3.0, box 12459; MBR, SOOHP, John M. Blair, 1971–72, MHI, II-55 (injuries); Clay Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 78 (fifty-three broken legs); John C. Warren, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945, 25, 28 (without airborne expertise); Ed Ruggero, Combat Jump, 110 (“para-mule”); Ryder, “Report on American Airborne Phase,” n.d., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 44, 17 (“in the bag”).
white cloth knotted on the left: Robert M. Piper, “The Operation of the 505th Parachute Infantry in the Airborne Landings on Sicily,” 1948, IS, 13; Sayer, “The Operations of Company A, 505th Parachute Infantry,” IS, 6 (baggy trousers), 8 (Benzedrine); Blair, 86–87 (honeypots).
As the first planes: Warren, 29, 33; James M. Gavin, On to Berlin, 19, 22 (prisoner-of-war tags).
The slivered moon: Garland, 117.
Nearly all found Sicily: Blair, 87; Breuer, 71 (fifteen hundred feet); Piper, “The Operation of the 505th Parachute Infantry,” 20 (before they hit the ground); OH, George Mertz, Oct. 2000, Lewis E. Johnston, “The Troop Carrier D-Day Flights,” CD-ROM, author’s possession, 146–57.
“Stand up”: Breuer, 57; Ruggero, 133–37 (“George!”); James M. Gavin, Airborne Warfare, 2.
“No one knew”: Charles E. Smith, “The American Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., CMH, Geog Sicily 314.7, 10; Ryder, “Report on American Airborne Phase,” 40; Warren, 33–36 (“prodigious overestimate”); Gavin, On to Berlin, 22 (passwords); Ridgway, 70; “Proceedings of Board of Officers Considering Airborne Operations,” Aug. 1943, AFHQ, JPL, MHI, box 11; “Airborne Operations Conference,” July 24, 1943, Algiers, MHI, D763.S5 A5 (Eight planes); David G. Fivecoat, “Against All Odds,” thesis, May 6, 1993, USMA, 19–23 (three-day casualty tally).
Certainly they wreaked havoc: Sayer, “The Operations of Company A, 505th Parachute Infantry,” 10–12; Jonathan M. Soffer, General Matthew B. Ridgway: From Progressivism to Reaganism, 1895–1993, 45 (SAFU).
“At war’s end”: corr, MBR to C. B. Hansen, April 5, 1949, CJB, box 48.
As paratroopers blundered: Garland, 99; Black, 87; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 50; Allen N. Towne, Doctor Danger Forward, 67.
The first Americans: Garland, 137; Harris, ed., 24–30 (“I’ve had it, Harry”).
Italian gunners: “History of the 26th Infantry in the Present Struggle,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1991.25, box 445, 6; “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” July 10–11, 1943, HIA, box 1, copyright Stanford University; Jack Belden, “Battle of Sicily,” 27+ (“so much blood”); John W. Baumgartner et al., The 16th Infantry, 1798–1946, 38 (“Somebody left his pack”).
a 16th Infantry rifleman: William T. Dillon, “Pearl Harbor to Normandy and Beyond,” ts, n.d., 1/16th Inf, ASEQ, MHI, 5.
Shouts and curses: Stambler, “Campaign in Sicily,” 2-3.7 AA.L; Belden, “Battle of Sicily,” 27+ (“screaming and sobbing”).
Dawn sluiced the eastern sky: Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 150; Building the Navy’s Bases in World War II, vol. II, 87; “Action Report, Co
Mines proved more galling: OH, Samuel A. D. Hunter, naval intelligence, Advance Bases Group, March 7, 1944, NHC; AAR, HKH, “The Sicilian Campaign,” 55–56; Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 130; R.L. Carmichael, Jr., “Report on Italian Campaign,” June 15, 1944,#113, Observer Reports, NARA RG 337, AGF G-2, box 55, 8 (“Everything on them goes bad”); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” July 12, 1943, HIA, box 1; The Sicilian Campaign, 83.
“The beach was a scene”: JPL, 43; “Action Report, Commander Task Unit 86.222,” July 31, 1943, NARA (Beachmasters bellowed); Sidney L. Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” July 1945, CARL, N-9425.4, 78; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation and the Conquest of Sicily,” March 1945, Monograph No. 13, ASF, Historical Program Files, NARA RG 336, box 141, 68 (athletic equipment).
Dawn also brought: memo, D.L. Madeira, Aug. 7, 1943, Destroyer Squadron 17, in action report, U.S.S. Maddox, RG 38, OCNO, WWII Actions and Operational Reports, box 1219.