The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
“A great blob”: John Mason Brown, 131.
Past the charred DUKWs: John P. Downing, “No Promotion,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1994.41.1, 218; author visit, Sept. 1996; SSA, 60–61; McCallum, 151–52 (“red-and-yellow lamps”).
Force X: David W. Hogan, Raiders or Elite Infantry?, 45; Jerome J. Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalion in World War II,” Ph.D. diss, 1982, Fordham University, MHI, 139–40 (“no record of trial”); Michael J. King, William Orlando Darby, 74; “The Rangers,” Life, July 2, 1944, 59+; Thomas M. Johnson, “The Army’s Fightingest Outfit Comes Home,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 5, 1944, in Reader’s Digest, Dec. 1944, 51+; James Altieri, The Spearheaders, 293, 247 (“Fightin’ Rangers”).
“tearing roofs off”: “History of the 26th Infantry Regiment in the Present Struggle,” ts, n.d., version provided author by Gen. Paul Gorman, 9; Altieri, The Spearheaders, 268–70; Black, 87; William O. Darby and William H. Baumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 87–89 (thunderous salvos); AAR, 1st Ranger Bn, July 10–14, 1943, “Combat Reports,” USMA micro., MP63-8, roll 1 (fifty-two Italians); SSA, 104.
On Highway 117: Garland, 152–53; diary, July 19, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15 (thermite grenade); John B. Romeiser, ed., Combat Reporter, 164 (“metal was red hot”); Altieri, Darby’s Rangers (“fled in disorder”); SSA, 104.
By late morning: Robert Daumer, “Darby’s Ranger,” Darby interview with Jack Belden, www.grunts.net.; W. S. Allgood, “Once Upon a War,” in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” Fort Wayne, Indiana, Aug. 25–30, 2004, author’s possession, 101; Ralph G. Martin, The G.I. War, 1941–1945, 71 (Thomas Paine); Romeiser, ed., 163; “Report on the First Phase of Amgot Occupation, Sicily and Region II,” July–Aug. 1943, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI, 18 (170 corpses).
Fifteen miles west: Max Corvo, The O.S.S. in Italy, 1942–1945, 69–75; Stambler, “Campaign in Sicily,” 23; Pyle, 15.
No one was more relieved: George Biddle, Artist at War, 225; OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., former aide, with author, Apr. 23, 2004, Washington, D.C.; Will Lang, “Lucian King Truscott, Jr.,” Life, Oct. 2, 1944, 97+ (polo handicap); corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah R. Truscott, Nov. 25, 1943, and Jan. 15, 1944, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6 (silver nitrate); Roger J. Spiller, ed., Dictionary of American Military Biography, 1110 (finest combat commander).
Truscott for six years had taught: Lang, “Lucian King Truscott, Jr.,” Robert H. Berlin, U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders; Hugh A. Scott, The Blue and White Devils, 66 (“passive voice”); aide’s diaries, Sept. 12, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (“What is sin?”); OH, Robert T. Frederick, Jan. 7, 1949, SM, MHI (drank too much); CM, 206 (fifty-year sentences); OH, Wilson, with author (turpentine); memo, LKT Jr., to L. J. McNair, Dec. 27, 1943, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1 (“Truscott trot”).
“Do you remember”: corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, July 7, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.
Booby traps on the docks: Pyle, 20; John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 285; Garland, 126–34; The Sicilian Campaign, 109; SSA, 86 (U.S.S. Sentinel).
Infantrymen drowned: Pyle, 17; CM, 213–14; MEB, mss, #R-127, in “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” ts, n.d., OCMH, #R-147, MHI (“self-demobilization”); memo, William W. Eagles, Jan. 17, 1951, SM, MHI (German shepherds); Norris H. Perkins, North African Odyssey, 82 (“poor Dagoes”).
Dawn revealed: Karig, 252.
“white as sharks’ teeth”: Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 23; Pyle, 22: corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, July 25, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.
Across the Gulf of Gela: lecture, “Narrative by Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk,” Oct. 2, 1943, Pearl Harbor, NHC, 6–7; Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 75; Robert L. Clifford and William J. Maddocks, “Naval Gunfire Support of the Landings in Sicily,” 1984, Monograph No. 5, MHI, 19 (white phosphorus); lecture, John F. Gallaher, U.S.S. Laub, “Naval Gunfire Support,” Oct. 29, 1943, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 170 (cruiser shells).
The first assault wave: SSA, 137; “Operations of II Corps in Sicily,” Sept. 1, 1943, NARA RG 338, 333.5, box 134 (eleventh-hour transfer); Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 259 (Punta Braccetto); Emajean Jordan Buechner, Sparks, 66–67 (grave diggers); AAR, 180th Inf Regt, July 10–Aug. 16, 1943, 45th ID Mus (“played havoc”).
Dozens of landing craft: Garland, 161; John Mason Brown, 147 (“dead man’s closet”); AAR, Amphibious Force Transport QM, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Aug. 6, 1943, in “Report on Operation Husky,” Army Observers, Amphibious Forces, MHI, 9; Claudia Levy, “Pulitzer-Winning WWII Cartoonist Bill Mauldin Dies,” Jan 23, 2003, WP, B6; Bill Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 150 (“Nobody really knows”).
“The beach was in total confusion”: William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, box V-14, VII-7 and 13; SSA, 139, 140n (court-martialed); The Sicilian Campaign, 53; Garland, 161; lecture, “Narrative by Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk,” Pearl Harbor, Oct. 2, 1943, NHC, 9–12 (bangalore torpedoes); corr, Troy H. Middleton to James A. Norell, Nov. 29, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, box 250 (“less comfortable”).
Still, as D-day drew to a close: Precise numbers are elusive because the 45th Division figures are aggregated for three days. Garland, 161n; Clifford and Maddocks, “Naval Gunfire Support,” 21.
That left the British: SSA, 152; Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles, 214; Ross Munro, “Landing Fairly Easy for Canadian Invaders,” July 12, 1943, Toronto Globe and Mail, www.warmuseum.ca.
“Some confusion”: “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 17–18, 23, 26; intel report, No. 6910, Dec. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6490 (“in no way carried out”); Daniel G. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers, 35 (“you silly bastards”).
“Down door!”: C. R. Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM, 92/1/1, 14; K. G. Oakley, “Sicily, 1943,” ts, n.d., IWM 96/22/1, 2–3; Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 14–15.
Ashore they swarmed: Richard S. Malone, A Portrait of War, 1939–1943; Pack, 97 (wild thyme); Robin Neillands, Eighth Army, 220 (makeshift jetties); George Aris, The Fifth British Division, 1939 to 1945, 115 (“Desert rats”); John Durnford-Slater, Commando, 134, 136 (“the right spirit”).
up to ten thousand casualties: Molony V, 52; C. R. Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM, 92/1/1, 44 (“We had learned”).
More than a third: Alan Wood, The Glider Soldiers, 27; SSA, 160–61.
There was the rub: Warren, 23, 26; Wood, 27; George Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 64, 67; Michael Hickey, Out of the Sky: A History of Airborne Warfare, 100.
Several dozen Horsa gliders: Hickey, 100; Blair, 76–77 (at least one hundred hours); Harry L. Coles, Jr., “Participation of the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign,” 1945, AAF Historical Studies, No. 37, 85 (barely qualified); lecture, P. L. Williams, “Airborne Operations Against Sicily,” Sept. 2, 1943, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, L-1-43, W-68, box 168, 3 (more than half were destroyed).
Pilots and passengers were doomed: Chatterton, 68; Lloyd, 39, 41 (tow ropes snapped); Tregaskis, 95; Hickey, 101 (wrong charts); Breuer, 41 (thirty men plummeted); Carlo D’Este, Bitter Victory, 233, 233n (“sorry to inform you”); “Report of Allied Force Airborne Board,” Oct. 13, 1943, AFHQ, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1 (A/B)-0.3.0 (“generally was bad”).
Ninety percent of the aircraft: Chatterton, 89; Lloyd, 41 (“a blind swarm”); “Interview with Brig. Gen. Ray A. Dunn,” Oct. 14, 1943, MHI Lib, 4–5 (“released their gliders”); Richard Thruelsen and Elliott Arnold, Mediterranean Sweep, 111; “Tactical Employment in the U.S. Army of Transport Aircraft and Gliders in World War II,” vol. 1, chapter 3, n.d., CARL, N-16464-H, 33; “Report on Airborne Operations, HUSKY,” July 24, 1943, JPL, MHI, box 11; lecture, Williams, “Airborne Operations,” 4–7 (an optical illusion); “Report of Allied Force Airborne Board” (thirty-mile front); Warren, 46 (“unsound”).
“As
Fifty-four gliders made land: By Air to Battle, 57; Wood, 217 (Horsa No. 132); Chatterton, 94.
Rather than five hundred or more: Chatterton, 87–88; Hickey, 103.
The British high command would proclaim: Geoffrey Reagan, Blue on Blue: A History of Friendly Fire, 139; memo, HQ, Fifth Army Airborne Training Center to GCM, Aug. 15, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 419, WD GS, director of plans and ops, top secret gen’l corr, 312.4-319.1, 390/37/18/3, box 14 (“practically zero”); By Air to Battle, 59 (“confusion and dismay”).
The Loss of Irrecoverable Hours
If much had gone wrong: Albert Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily: Concluding Considerations,” n.d., in “Mittelmeerkrieg,” part II, “Tunisien,” FMS #T-3 P1, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 19; MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” ts, n.d., OCMH, #147, MHI (“amphibious contrivances”).
hints of invasion: “War Diary of German Naval Command in Italy,” July 1, 1943, SEM, NHC, box 57; situation reports, OB Süd, July 1 and 7, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246; Michael Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 87–88 (fictional “Twelfth Army”).
Operation MINCEMEAT: Frank J. Stech, “Outguessed and One-Behind: The Real Story of The Man Who Never Was,” paper presented to conference, University of Wolverhampton, UK, July 2004; Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was, 11, 73–74; “Mincemeat,” in “Naval Deception,” vol. III, ADM 223/794, 442–60, UK NA; monthly log, H.M.S. Seraph, UK NA, ADM 173/18038; Roger Morgan, “The Second World War’s Best Kept Secret Revealed,” After the Battle, no. 94, 1996, 31+; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 227; “Historical Record of Deception in the War Against Germany and Italy,” vol. 2, UK NA, CAB 154/101, 385–89.
Six immobile and badly armed: Garland, 110–11; Walter Fries, “Der Kampf Um Sizilien,” ts, n.d., FMS #T-2, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 6–9; Eberhardt Rodt, “Studie über den Feldzug in Sizilien bei der 15. Pz Gren. Div, Mai–August 1943,” n.d., FMS #C-077, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 15; SSA, 69–70 (went to bed); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily” (“Italian soil”); F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 1, 84 (Spitfires); Alice Leccese Powers, Italy in Mind, 302 (D. H. Lawrence).
Little was expected: MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily: The Mission of General Guzzoni,” May 1959, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, 270/19/30-31/6-2, R-117, 38; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIV-7 (nine thousand yards); Hellmut Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering auf Sizilien vom 10–14.7.1943,” Dec. 1950, FMS, #C-087a, NARA RG 319, box 245, 13 (morning glare).
The German response: George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, n.d., NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 52; Max Ulich, “Sicilian Campaign Special Problems and Their Solutions,” March 1947, FMS, #D-004, MHI, 4 (car wreck); Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering,” 14–16 (olive groves); “War Diary of German Naval Command in Italy,” July 10, 1943 (“cleaned up”); war diary, German liaison staff, Italian 6th Army,” July 10–11, 1943, in FMS, #C-095, MHI, 25–34 (reembarked); “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglio,” Comando Supremo diary, July 11, 1943, 2100 hrs., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246 (“constantly in crisis”).
Such fairy tales: Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily,” 19–22; Kenneth Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 206 (“Germany’s savior”); Albrecht Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 27 (“less pleasing things”); Johannes Steinhof, Messerschmitts over Sicily, 27 (leather case).
“Kesselring is a colossal optimist”: GS IV, 463; Paul Deichmann, “Italian Campaign,” 1948, FMS, #T-1a, chapter 1, 29; Steinhof, 27 (raid on Marsala).
For six months he had pondered: Kesselring, Memoirs, 158; Garland, 46, 51; “Stellungnahme des verantwortlichen Oberbefehlshaber Süd zu den Betractungen des Oberst von Bonin,” n.d., in Kesselring, “Mittelmeerkrieg,” part II, “Tunisien,” FMS #T-3 P1, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 3 (strategic concept); Kesselring, “Italy as a Military Ally,” 1948, FMS, #C-015, MHI, 4–5, 9 (“easily contented”).
“pretty sugar pastry”: Kesselring, “Mittelmeerkrieg,” 69; Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily,” 19–22; Kesselring, “German Strategy During the Italian Campaign,” n.d., FMS, #B-270, MHI, 12, 29 (“mousetrap”); Frido von Senger und Etterlin, “Liaison Activities with Italian 6th Army,” 1951, FMS, #C-095, MHI, 14–15; war diary, German liaison staff, Italian 6th Army, July 10–11, 1943, in FMS, #C-095, MHI, 25–34; Paul Conrath, “Der Kampf um Sizilien,” Jan. 1951, FMS, #C-087c, NARA RG 319, box 245, 2–3 (Göring panzers); Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering,” 4–9 (nine thousand combat troops); Garland, 171n.
counterattack Gela at first light: Garland, 163; Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily,” 12–13 (“immediate advance”).
“The Romans are fleeing”: “The Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 146; Tregaskis, 29 (“twinkling walk”); Biddle, 71 (“Bald, burnt”); William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, box V-14, VII-22 (upside down); John Lardner, “Up Front with Roosevelt,” in Jack Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 127–28 (“rhythmic state”); Frederick T. McCue, ASEQ, n.d., Battery A, 171st FA Bn, 45th ID, MHI (“Get into the battle!”).
“I will always be known”: H. Paul Jeffers, In the Rough Rider’s Shadow, 152, 164, 174–75; Benjamin S. Persons, Relieved of Command, 66; Donald P. Darnell, “Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,” World War II, May 1998, 18+; Michael Pearlman, To Make Democracy Safe for America, 250 (“anti-bluff”); corr, TR to Eleanor, June 5 (“small beer”), June 12, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.
“born to combat”: Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 214; corr, Robert A. Riesman [26th Inf Regt] to author, Sept. 10, 2002 (“Keep it clear”); A. J. Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” New Yorker, part 2, May 1, 1943, 24+; author interview, Richard A. Williams, Jan. 25, 2003 (“we willingly got up”); diary, GSP, June 24, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15.
“Well, doesn’t it?”: Maxwell Hamilton, “Junior in Name Only,” Retired Officer, June 1981, 28+; Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 110–11 (“beat up every M.P.”); Samuel David Spivey, A Doughboy’s Narrative, s.p., 1995, 81–82 (“Too much vino”).
Toxic rumors: Jean Gordon Peltier, World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, 82; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” ts, n.d., MHI, 69 (hoarding Camels); “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” ts, n.d., TdA, box 5, MHI, 32 (“yellow-bellies”); Stanhope Brasfield Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” ts, 1988, MRC FDM, 150–51 (“killed trying to invade”).
By late May, when the division bivouacked: Willam E. Faust, ASEQ, divarty HHQ, 1st ID, MHI, 60; Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 103–4 (“Let us know”); memo, S. B. Mason, “Weapons,” May 17, 1943, Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM (brass knuckles); memo, “Conference Notes, 24 May 1943,” Mason papers, MRC FDM (“disheveled appearance”); “History, Mediterranean Base Section, Sept. 1942–May 1944,” CMH, 8-4 CA 1944, 35 (five P.M. curfew); Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” 69 (“lively brawls”); Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 76 (“Truckloads”); speech, Stanhope B. Mason, Apr. 24, 1976, 57th annual dinner of Officers of the First Division, NYC, in Smith, 194 (“need not salute”).
“bitched, buggered and bewildered”: speech, Mason, Apr. 24, 1976; JPL, 24–25; Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 110–11 (Eisenhower was furious), 118 (“piratical”); Benjamin S. Persons, Relieved of Command, 69; Robert John Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” thesis, 1965, Ft. L, 118 (“freebooters”).
vineyards and orchards of the Geloan plain: author visit, Sept. 1996; Garland, 165.
Through his field glasses: Ladi
Shortly before seven A.M.: “History of the 26th Infantry Regiment,” 18–19; H. R. Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 105; Garland, 166–67; Farago, 297 (“situation not so good”); Robert W. Baumer, Before Taps Sounded, s.p., 2000, 174 (“We beat their asses”); corr, TR to Eleanor, July 17, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.
In the lemon grove: Romeiser, ed., 162; “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” ts, n.d., TdA, box 5, MHI, 50 (rolling gait); Pearlman, 249–50.
Before flunking out: Gerald Astor, Terrible Terry Allen, 11–12; Thomas W. Dixon, “Terry Allen,” Army, Apr. 1978, 57+ (“loved horses”); Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” 221+.
“The soldier’s greatest nightmare”: obit, NYT, Sept. 13, 1969; Astor, 184 (“win or die”); “Allen and His Men,” Time, Aug. 9, 1943, 30+ (“It’s crazy”); Johnson, 77 (“Do your job”); corr, TdA to Mary Fran, June 6, 1943, TdA, MHI, box 2.
“Couriers dashed”: Romeiser, ed., 166; “Addendum by Major Groves, 27 Oct. 1950,” in OH, Bryce F. Denno and Melvin J. Groves, 16th Inf., Oct. 24, 1950, SM, MHI; Garland, 166–67; Smith, 21 (“let’s not wait”).
At 10:10 A.M., the 3rd Battalion: Baumgartner et al., 41; Knickerbocker, 106; Peltier, 99; “Terry Allen and the First Division,” ts, n.d., TdA, box 5, MHI, 37.
Allen climbed to the crest: Romeiser, ed., 166–67; Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1988.32, box 215 (“burning tanks and confusion”); Garland, 160; memo, George A. Taylor, Dec. 26, 1950, SM, MHI; corr, John M. Brooks to author, Oct. 19, 2003; SSA, 109–12 (LST 313); Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” 63; combat narrative, Curtis Shears, USNR, Apr. 3, 1944, NHC, 2; William S. Hutchinson, Jr., “Use of the 4.2-inch Chemical Mortar in the Invasion of Sicily,” MR, Nov. 1943, 13+ (fishing dinghies).