The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
“evil spirits seemed to come out”: Roy P. Stewart, “Raymond S. McLain, America’s Greatest Citizen Soldier,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, vol. 59, no. 1 (spring 1981), 4+; Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 265 (“fair-haired boys”); Cundiff, 92 (“thoughtless killers”).
CHAPTER 3: AN ISLAND REDOUBT
“Into Battle with Stout Hearts”
The command car purred: John Gunther, D Day, 111; Carlo D’Este, Bitter Victory, 93; L.S.B. Shapiro, They Left the Back Door Open, 42 (dry-goods shopkeeper), 68; Dick Malone, Missing from the Record, 45 (“which one is me”); Alan Moorehead, Montgomery, 36 (“mousetrap”); Farley Mowat, And No Birds Sang, 74 (“Deadly stuff”); Daniel G. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy, 1943–1945, 48 (“good plans”); J. K. Windeatt, “Very Ordinary Soldier,” ts, 1989, IWM 90/20/1, 64 (handing lighters).
If the campaign: Garland, 206–7; Molony V, 93, 106.
Montgomery presented this: Stanley P. Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 372; Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair, A General’s Story, 188; AAR, Seventh Army G-3, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 250 (“on two axes”); Alexander S. Cochran, “Constructing a Military Coalition from Materials at Hand,” paper, SMH, Apr. 16, 1999, 12 (Eisenhower declined); JPL, 78.
Baleful consequences followed: Garland, 207; Molony V, 110–11; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 84 (Bradley scrambled); Nigel Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 317 (divergent axes).
“you can’t allow him”: Bradley and Blair, 188–89; PP, 285 (“What fools”); Robert E. Coffin and Joan N. Coffin, “The Robert Edmonston Coffin–Joan Nelson Coffin Family Book,” 80–81 (“right up his ass”); GK, July 13, 1943.
“The feeling of discord”: Three Years, 321; PP, 243 (“straw man”); diary, Apr. 28, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, 166; JPL, 107; diary, Everett Hughes, June 22, 1943, David Irving Collection, micro 97276/5, MHI (“our only defeat”).
“What a headache”: Hamilton, 481; OH, Alan Moorehead, Jan. 21, 1947, FCP, MHI; Molony V, 512; OH, W. B. Smith, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI; Brian Horrocks, A Full Life, 159; W.G.F. Jackson, Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, 211 (“dance to the tune”); Brian Holden Reid, “The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945: A Reappraisal of Allied Generalship,” Journal of Strategic Studies, vol. 13, no. 1 (March 1990), 128+ (the general’s name); PP, 239 (“not quite a gentleman”).
Son of a meek Anglican: T. A. Heatchcote, The British Field Marshals, 1763–1997, 213; John Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 150 (“bad boy”); Moorhead, Montgomery, 29, 34 (“I do not want to portray him”); Michael Howard, “Leadership in the British Army in the Second World War,” in G. D. Sheffield, Leadership and Command, 106 (“not as warriors itching”); Peter Roach, The 8.15 to War, 59 (cricket metaphors); Hamilton, 300 (antipathy to cats); T.E.B. Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 36, 42 (“always being right”); Fred Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 42 (“no coughing”); Richard S. Malone, A Portrait of War, 1939–1943, 175.
In Africa: Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 292, 381n (white heather); Moorehead, Montgomery, 157 (odes); Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty, 306 (“backing into the limelight”); John Kennedy, The Business of War, 291 (“Colonel Lennox”); Shapiro, 44 (clapped and clapped); Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life and Times, 117 (“love of publicity”).
“I do not think Alex”: Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 197; Danchev, 417–18; Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick E. Morgan, “OVERLORD by the Under-Dog-in-Chief,” ts, n.d., FCP, MHI; OH, Arthur Coningham, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI (ever more cautious); Gunther, 97; Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century, 501 (“to believe in their task”); Malone, Missing from the Record, 17–18 (“Do you know why”).
“Into battle with stout hearts”: “Personal Message from the Army Commander,” July 1943, George F. Hall Papers, HIA, box 1; Brooks, ed., 255 (“We have won”).
Thousands of Axis troops in western Sicily: Walter Fries, “Der Kampf Um Sizilien,” FMS, #T-2, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 23; Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, “Die Abwehr der Achsenmächte auf Sizilien,” Allgemeine schweizerische Militär Zeitschrift, 116 Jahrang, Nr. 12, Dec. 1950, 861; Wilhelm Schmalz, “Der Kampf um Sizilien im Abschnitt der Brigade Schmalz,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245 (“to win time”); Martin Pöppel, Heaven and Hell, 126; Senger, “Liaison Activities with Italian 6th Army,” 1951, FMS, #C-095, 56 (internecine gunplay); war diary, Comando Supremo, “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglo,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246 (three-hour firefight); Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 201 (“Holy Virgin medals”).
“a hole-and-corner area”: D’Este, 349; Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 71–72 (“not tank country”); Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 469 (“the fuckin’ desert”).
Eighth Army’s attempt: “Airborne Operations Conference,” July 24, 1943, Algiers, “Material on Operation HUSKY, 1943, Allied Forces,” MHI Lib; Garland, 218–19; John C. Warren, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945, 51; “Proceeding of Board of Officers Considering Airborne Operations,” Aug. 1943, AFHQ, JPL, MHI, box 11; AAFinWWII, 454; B. H. Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 355 (German paratroopers also jumped); R. Priestly, “Volunteers,” ts, n.d., IWM, 83/24/1, 6 (“One shouted for comrades”); T.B.H. Otway, Airborne Forces, 126–30; Michael Hickey, Out of the Sky: A History of Airborne Warfare, 104–5; John Frost, A Drop Too Many, 185.
“seemed to mislay his genius”: Carver, ed., 501; Gunther, 118, 141 (“struck on the head”); S.W.C. Pack, Operation Husky, 143; Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 153 (“break the farmer’s walls”); Malone, A Portrait of War, 162 (robbed of their boots); Dancocks, 3 (dead dogs).
“The enemy is tough”: Gunther, 121–25.
“paved with bodies”: Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 37, 46 (“flies walked”); “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 43–44 (welts of dust); Peter Stainforth, Wings of Wind, 167, 171 (“moving men”).
By Sunday morning, July 18: SSA, 179; Francis De Guingand, Operation Victory, 310 (fire-resistant); “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division,” 62; Hamilton, 317; Douglas N. Wimberly, “Scottish Soldier: The Memoirs of Major General Douglas Wimberly,” vol. 2, 1979, IWM, PP/MCR/182, 178 (50,000 cigarettes); Three Years, 363, 372–73; Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 113 (“What’s the matter”); Gunther, 121 (“Both sides are tired”).
“How I Love Wars”
Patton had been sulking: Charles R. Codman, Drive, 107–8; SSt, 140 (“on our prats”).
He found General Alexander: Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War, 1939–1945, 302; Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 146–47, 154.
“Have I got to stay here?”: OH, Harold R.L.G. Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 242; A. C. Wedemeyer, “Observer’s Report,” Aug. 24 1943, AGF File No. 19.1, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, box 247, 18; Garland, 236–38; F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 90–91 (Ultra two days earlier); OH, LKT and William W. Eagles, Apr. 19, 1951, SM, MHI (“glamour of capturing Palermo”).
Alexander studied: F. W. Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, 105; Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower, 414 (“bone from the neck up”); Carver, 107 (“no ideas”); Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 16 (“Czarist Russia”); Gervasi, 517 (“just had a steam bath”).
“a born leader, not a made one”: B. H. Liddell Hart, “Extracts,” June 1946, LH 1/7/54; Hamilton, 473 (“an English country gentleman”); Frank L. Kluckhohn, “‘Attack, Attack Again’ Is Alexander’s Motto,” NYT Magazine, Aug. 8, 1943, 20+ (could not write his name); Lord Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 187; Macmillan, War Diaries, 188 (“seeing the point”); PP, 267.
Oblivious to the anguish: Jackson, 221; OH, Alexander, SM (“The hell
Off Patton’s forces went at a gallop: letter, Oscar W. Koch to James A. Norell, Dec. 15, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Pietro Arancio, Agrigento, 14 (“loveliest of mortal cities”); SSA, 175; Robert D. Kaplan, Mediterranean Winter, 123; L.V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 459; Edward B. Kitchens, Jr., “The Operations of the 3rd Ranger Infantry Battalion in the Landings at Licata,” 1949, IS, 18–24; Michael J. King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II,” June 1985, CSI, 26–27; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 53; CM, 220–21 (Darby’s Rangers assembled).
Unaware that Agrigento: William O. Darby and William H. Daumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 99; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 118 (stovepipe hats).
three safes found in an Italian naval headquarters: Some evidence suggests assistance from local mafiosi who had been contacted by U.S. Navy intelligence agents as part of a covert arrangement with Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the Sicilian-born New York crime boss then serving time in a New York prison. Rodney Campbell, The Luciano Project, 117, 126, 176–78; Patrick K. O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, 50; Max Corvo, The O.S.S. in Italy, 1942–1945, 23.
soldiers cracked them: OH, Samuel A. D. Hunter, March 7, 1944, NHC, 15–18; The Sicilian Campaign, 131.
“During the night of 17/18 July”: G-2 periodic report No. 9, July 19, 1943, Seventh Army, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247; CM, 224.
Corporal Audie Leon Murphy: Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back, 7–8; Harold B. Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 18–20, 47.
He had a slow, stooped gait: corr, Albert Lewis Pyle to Carl Swickerath, Feb. 23, 1973, ALM, box 1, 2; Don Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 57, 60 (tobacco smoke), 39; Audie Murphy, “You Do the Prayin’,” Modern Screen, Jan. 1956, 56+ (“You do the prayin’”); Murphy, To Hell and Back, 10; Simpson, 70; “Lieutenant Audie Murphy,” AB, no. 3, 1973, 28+.
“some Dago name”: William E. Faust, memoir, ts, n.d., ASEQ, 1st ID, MHI, 71; Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 105 (Fascist salute); John Hersey, “AMGOT at Work,” Life, vol. 15, no. 8, Aug. 23, 1943, 25 (“Kiss your hand!”); aide’s diaries, July 21, 1943, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (Italian saddle); George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, Aug. 14, 1943, 46+ (“One never seemed”).
Emulating Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry: AAR, HQ, 7th RCT, July 24, 1943; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIV–35 (“chalk and cattle dung”); Daniel R. Champagne, Dogface Soldiers, 29 (“are my dogs barking”); CM, 226; Garland, 246; Gordon A. Blaker, Iron Knights, 184 (“Mount up”); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 176–78 (Bradley kept a map).
From a roadcut in the ridge: corr, LKT Jr. to James A. Norell, Jan. 10, 1961, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Kaplan, 122; diary, July 23, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div., box 3, folder 1; George Biddle, Artist at War, 66, 69 (“no cat”).
Belisarius in A.D. 535: Charles Lee Lewis, “The Byzantine Invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy,” Proceedings, Nov. 1943, 1435+; msg, 1000 hrs, July 22, 1943, “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglio” corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, Aug. 25, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM, box 1, folder 6.
Hours passed: notes, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; CM, 227; Codman, 110 (“Street after street”).
“stacks full of rare books”: Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 225–26; Biddle, 67 (Goethe); Garland, 256; SSA, 188; lecture, W. A. Sullivan, Society of Military Engineers, Cincinnati, 1947, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” #445, WWII Histories and Historical Reports in the U.S. Naval History Division, NHC, 13 (Salvage teams); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 297–99, 307; Edward D. Churchill, Surgeon to Soldiers, 222 (offered to sing Verdi); OH, John A. Heintges, SOOHP, Jack A. Pellicci, 1974, MHI, 150–55 (seized two large trucks); Melvin F. Talbot, “The Logistics of the Eighth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces, Northwest African Waters,” ts, n.d., “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” #139, U.S. Naval History Division, 37; memo, “Data for Logistical Planning,” Seventh Army to CG, NATOUSA, Dec. 4, 1943, Walter J. Muller Papers, HIA, box 2.
Major General Geoff Keyes: AAR, HQ, Provisional Corps, July 15–Aug. 20, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily, 370.2; Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 78; John B. Romeiser, ed., Combat Reporter, 179 (bedsheet lashed to a fishing pole); GK, July 22, 1943.
“It is a great thrill”: PP, 297, 303, 305.
“The occupation of western Sicily”: situation report, OB Süd, July 24, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246; Garland, 255; AAR, HQ, Provisional Corps, July 15–Aug. 20, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily, 370.2; CM, 228 (“certainly like to beat Montgomery”).
“You will have guessed”: CM, 227; PP, 300.
Snaring the Head Devil
“No objective can compete”: GS IV, 498, 500, 505; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 306 (Churchill would strip British forces); Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 826 (“cut their rations again”).
“Why should we crawl”: GS IV, 503; Kennedy, 295 (“a beautiful path”); Emajean Jordan Buechner, Sparks, 95 (“gonorrhea”).
Eisenhower in May: StoC, 15, 19; AFHQ G-2, “J.I.C. Algiers Estimates on Italian Morale,” June 20, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 17C, box 242; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, dispatch, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” n.d., CMH, I-52 (“might well cause a collapse”); meeting notes, HQ Force 141, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 26-A, reel 225B, box 242 (“Germany intends to reinforce Italy”); memo, AFHQ G-3, L. W. Rooks to W. B. Smith, June 28, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-C, reel 138E, box 242 (“very mountainous”).
Success in Sicily tipped: Ed Cray, General of the Army, 406; Three Years, 460 (Charlie-Charlies); “Record of Meeting Held at La Marsa at 1430 Hrs, 17 July 1943,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-225-B (“onto the mainland”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1261; Garland, 260–61.
Vital issues remained: “Invasion of Italian Mainland: Summary of Operations Carried out by British Troops Under Command 5 U.S. Army,” n.d., CMH, Geog Ital, 370.2, 30; StoC, 17–18; minutes, item 7, “post-HUSKY Operations,” CCS, 103rd meeting, July 23, 1943; “Memorandum of the Representative of the British Chiefs of Staff,” July 24, 1943, CCS 268/8; “Memorandum by the United States Chiefs of Staff,” July 25, 1943, CCS 268/9; minutes, CCS, July 26, 1943: all in NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243.
For now, analysis: “Notes on the Air Implication of an Assault on Italian Mainland, Naples Area,” July 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 13C, box 242; David Hunt, A Don at War, 207–8; memo, “Appreciation of an Amphibious Assault Against the Naples Area,” July 24, 1943, AFHQ G-3, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 13C, box 242 (“If it is decided”); minutes, CCS, July 26, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243 (“earliest possible date”).
“I am with you”: GS IV, 501, 503.
“the head devil”: Garland, 273; Peter Neville, Mussolini, 99 (special typewriter); Rudolf Böhmler, Monte Cassino, 3 (“of syphilitic origin”); Melton S. Davis, Who Defends Rome?, 64; Paul Deichmann, “Feldzug in Italien,” ts, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250, 6 (“grab his stomach”); George Kent, “The Last Days of the Dictator Benito Mussolini,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1944, 13+; Peter Tompkins, Italy Betrayed, 19, 48 (Zodiac symbols); Gervasi, 91 (“green-eyed daughter”).
He had risen far: Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini, 5; Mark M. Boatner III, Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 384–85; Neville, 134 (wedding rings); Enno von Rintelen, “Psychological Warfare,” n.d., FMS, #B-399, MHI, 4; Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 429.
Lately the country was getting: “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” Jan. 1946, Strategic Services Unit, WD, A-63366, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.22, 16–17; Dharm Pal, The Cam
Since December 1942: Vittorio Ambrosio, the Comando Supremo chief, claimed after the war that Mussolini never overtly favored a separate peace. “Ambrosio Project #46, Events in Italy, 1 Feb.–8 Sept. 1943,” n.d., FMS, #P-058, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244; Howard McGaw Smyth, “The Command of the Italian Armed Forces in World War II,” Military Affairs, vol. 15, no. 1 (spring 1951), 38+; casualty figures, Il Momento, Aug. 2, 1952, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 704; Garland, 51 (“ridiculous position”), 242 (“sacrifice of my country”); “Memorandum of Conversation,” Feltre, July 1943, Department of State Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 379, Oct. 6, 1946, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, Sicily, box 249, 607+; “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” 21 (“white with emotion”).
Months in the planning: Lewis H. Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 194–95; minutes, item 9, “Bombing of Rome,” CCS, 99th meeting, supplementary, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243 (“It would be a tragedy”); Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 188 (“Give them hell”).
“Perfect formation”: Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 17; Tompkins, 38–39; Alessandro Portelli, The Order Has Been Carried Out, 77–78 (sons of bitches); Vincent Orange, Tedder, 223 (exclusively American).
Estimates of the dead: casualty estimates in ascending order: Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 261; Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 12; SSA, 186; Portelli, 77–78.