The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
As the orders became public: memoir, William E. Faust, ts, n.d., 1st ID artillery, ASEQ, MHI, 76; OH, Porter, 1981, Sloan, 301–2; Johnson, 112 (“sergeants weep”); “Allen and His Men,” Time, Aug. 9, 1943, 30+ (By cruel coincidence); corr, TdA to GCM, Aug. 13, 1943, and Sept. 15, 1943, GCM Lib, box 56; corr, TdA to DDE, Oct. 17, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 4; corr, TdA to Mary Fran, Aug. 10, 1943, and TdA to Sonny, Aug. 7, 1943, both in TdA, MHI, box 2; corr, TdA to E. C. Heid, Dec. 13, 1943, Marshall Collection, UTEP; Astor, 226; e-mail, Consuelo Allen (granddaughter of Terry de la Mesa Allen) to author, Dec. 5, 2002 (welcome-home party); Biddle, 92.
“mentally in a black cloud”: speech, Stanhope B. Mason, Apr. 24, 1976, 57th annual dinner, Officers of the First Division, New York City, in Smith, 196; TR, msg to 1st Div, Aug. 6, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10 (“a great grief”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” 97 (“broke down and wept”); SSt, 156; corr, TR to Eleanor, Aug. 17 and 24, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; corr, Eleanor to GCM, Feb. 7, 1944, and GCM to Eleanor, Feb. 10, 1944, GCM Lib, corr, TR, box 83.
Sharing a ride to Palermo: Capa, 84; John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, in Molony V, 855; Eleanor Butler Roosevelt, Day Before Yesterday, 449 (“the quality of fortitude”).
“In a Place Like This”
Ridge by ridge, road by road: Tregaskis, 75–76; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report on Sicilian Campaign, 1943,” 97 (retreated past Mount Etna); Carver, Harding of Petherton, 119 (“I am enjoying”); Lord Tedder, With Prejudice, 458.
But although they were moving: “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 67–69; Cyril Ray, Algiers to Austria, 67 (snipers with telescopic sights); Tregaskis, 65 (mayor of Catania); “Report on the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation, Sicily and Region II,” July–Aug. 1943, Frank J. McSherry Papers, MHI, 24 (only one in five); Buckley, 111 (“all life was evil”) 123 (Bank of Sicily).
Often enough, the Allied air force: Geoffrey Perret, Winged Victory, 211; “Report on the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation,” 24 (“rubble at Adrano”); Harry L. Coles, Jr., “Participation of the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign,” 1945, AAF Historical Studies, No. 37, 148 (“needed thirty-six hours”); Shapiro, 51 (“Troops will refrain from shooting”), 101, 105 (“God Save the King”); Ray, 68–69; R. C. Taylor, “A Pocketfull [sic] of Time,” ts, n.d., 52, and corr, to author, Aug. 11, 2003 (“Lord Nelson!”); Nicolson, 205; Buckley, 79; Tregaskis, 81–82 (dead men’s helmets).
Above them all loomed Etna: Biddle, 110; Bertarell, 481 (tinted with sulfates); Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 435–36 (“bloody Patton”).
“decided to burn the bodies in gasoline”: “Report on the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation,” 13, 27; “Report of William Russell Criss,” corr to family, July 29, 1943, 45th ID Mus (“I feel like crying”).
To exploit the flanking opportunities: James L. Packman, “The Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry, in the Amphibious Attack on Brolo,” 1949, IS, 2–7; Garland, 390–91.
Truscott, who was to provide a battalion: Hansen, “Research Draft,” SSt, CBH, MHI, 10/24–25.
“that’s ridiculous and insulting”: CM, 234–35; PP, 319 (“L’audace”).
It went badly: Garland, 393–97; Jack Belden, Still Time to Die, 274 (orange quarter moon); Romeiser, ed., 196–200 (“Night and Day”); Betsy Wade, ed., Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, 24–25 (captured in their sleep); Max Ulrich, “29th Panzer Grenadier Division, Sicily,” FMS, #D-112, MHI, 5.
Daybreak brought death: The Sicilian Campaign, 145.
“Situation still critical”: Romeiser, ed., 200–206; Garland, 403; diary, Hobart Gay, Aug. 10–11, 1943, USMA Arch; Charles R. Schrader, “Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War,” Dec. 1982, CSI, 34 (errant bombs); DSC citation, Martin Moritz, medical attachment, 2/30th Inf, Oct. 19, 1943, NARA RG 338, 7th Army awards (tried to amputate); Carlo D’Este, World War II in the Mediterranean, 73 (“Do something”).
At five P.M. Philadelphia again: The Sicilian Campaign, 146; Romeiser, ed., 205 (“last stand circle”); Donald V. Bennett, Honor Untarnished [galley], 145 (swimming westward); Belden, 284, 288.
At dawn on Thursday, August 12: Pyle, 45; Belden, 288; Romeiser, ed., 205 (“troops moving on the road”); Scott, 60 (cordite and sweat).
An open command car: Romeiser, ed., 206.
Field Marshal Kesselring had long realized: Garland, 368; Bogislaw von Bonin, “Considerations of the Italian Campaign, 1943–1944,” Feb. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 57, file 108, 8 (“valuable human material”); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” #R-145–46, MHI (message was hand carried); Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945, 374 (Hitler feared).
A devotee of Aristotle: Frido von Senger und Etterlin, Neither Fear nor Hope, 208–9; Corelli Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 381; Alex Bowlby, Countdown to Cassino, 4n; Errnst-Günther Baade, “War Diary of Fortress Commandant, Messina Strait,” July–Aug. 1943, SEM, NHC, box 52; Garland, 375–76 (five hundred guns); “The Choice of Sites for Ferry Points,” appendix, “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge, Sea Transport, Messina Strait,” SEM, NHC, box 52; Friedrich von Ruge, “The Evacuation of Sicily,” March 1948, SEM, NHC, box 50, 15 (Siebel ferries); Molony V, 166 (cached food).
Twelve thousand German supernumeraries: Molony, V, 166; Fries, “Der Kampf um Sizilien,” 29–31 (five successive defensive lines); “Directions for the Systematic Destruction of Motor Vehicles,” Feb. 1942, Supply Section, Reichminister of Aviation, Berlin, NARA RG 407, E, 47, AFHQ, 95-AL1-2.9, box 162; Steinhof, 242–43 (“yelling as they hurled”); Helmut Bergengruen, “Der Kamp der Panzerdivision ‘Herman Goering’ auf Sizilien,” Nov. 25, 1947, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245.
Italian commanders quickly got wind: S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 144; Kurowski, 178, 192, 201 (“shivering malaria patients”); Rodt, “Studie über den Feldzug in Sizilien,” 31; “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge” (screens shielded the glare); SSA, 210.
The B-17s never came: Garland, 379.
“no adequate indications”: Hinsley et al., 96–98; 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, 53; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 234–35 (“there is no plan”); T. Milne, “The Sicilian Campaign,” 1955, Air Ministry Historical Branch, UK NA, CAB 106/849, 80 (“You have no doubt”), 91 (“no evidence”).
Allied pilots had reason to fear: Garland, 376; Eduard Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars, 60, 72–73, 77; Edward B. Westermann, Flak, 293; Roskill, 147–49; Battle, 75; AAFinWWII, 472–73 (swarms of smaller Wellingtons); Vincent Orange, Coningham, 167 (only a quarter hit targets); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 252 (bombing Rome’s rail yards).
“octopus-like arms”: Dudley Pope, Flag 4, 126; Cunningham, 556 (“no effective way of stopping them”); Garland, 379; SSA, 214; Roskill, 149–50; J.F.C. Fuller, The Second World War, 1939–45, 265.
Not once did the senior Allied commanders: Pack, 166.
doctors ordered him to bed: Eisenhower’s blood pressure of 142 over 90 on Aug. 15, 1943, indicated mild hypertension; his resting pulse of 80, weight of 172 pounds, and 33-inch waist indicated a reasonably fit 52-year-old man. Chandler, vol. 2, 1329n; Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health Status of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Mattingly collection, DDE Lib, box 1; Three Years, 386–87 (“nervous temperament”).
“It is astonishing”: “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge” SSA, 214–15 (“Anglo-Saxon habits”); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” #R-145-146 (time bombs); Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 146 (Two hundred grenadiers); Molony V, 182 (cooled a wine bottle).
“The Boche have carried out”: J. K. Windeatt, “Very Ordinary Soldier,” ts, 1989, IWM, 90/20/1, 68.
“completely fit for bat
At ten A.M. on August 17: CM, 243; Garland, 416–17; Nathan William White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 40 (swapping shots); memo, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250 (“did not capture the city from us”); Tregaskis, 86–88 (bagpipes and a Scottish broadsword); Hansen, “Research Draft,” SSt, CBH papers, MHI, box 1, 16-A, S-27 (“I’ll be damned”).
Patton had a fever of 103: corr, GSP to Arvin H. Brown, Sept. 12, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27; John H. Rousch, ed., World War II Reminiscences, 64–65 (“‘DUCE’ was painted”); Tregaskis, 89 (towering white spouts); CM, 243 (“What in hell”).
“They were tired and incredibly dirty”: JPL, 122; corr, GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 18, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11, folder 5 (wounding a colonel).
Sixty percent of the city: “Reports of the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation, Sicily and Region II,” July–Aug. 1943, and “Reports of AMGOT Divisions,” part 3, document B, both in Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI; “Attain by Surprise,” ts, n.d., 30th Assault Unit history, LHC, 21 (booby-trapped door handles); Darby and Daumer, 109 (scattered skeletons); Don Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” John B. Romeiser, ed., 24 (Draftee); Mayo, 169.
three-quarters of Messina’s 200,000: “Reports of the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation” notes, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250 (mayor formally tendered).
“By 10 A.M. this morning”: Jackson, 226; PP, 324–25 (“I feel let down”).
He soon would feel worse: Three Years, 390, 393; Quentin Reynolds, By Quentin Reynolds, 296–97 (“We’re Americans first”); Garland, 429 (“sake of the American effort”).
“he can gain greater fame”: DDE diary, Aug. 1943, HCB papers, DDE Lib, A-678, 682.
“I must so seriously question”: corr, DDE to GSP, Aug. 17, 1943, Chandler, vol. 2, 1340.
“intemperate language”: JPL, 126–27; IG report, Sept. 18, 1943, NATOUSA, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91 (“embarrassment to the War Department”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1353.171 “my chagrin and grief”: corr, GSP to DDE, Aug. 29, 1943, Donald E. Currier papers, MHI; PP, 333 (“my method was wrong”); letter, GSP to Walter P. Dillingham, Aug. 18, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27 (“would not make a single change”); corr, GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 22, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11.
“suffering a little battle fatigue himself”: PP, 334, 336; Bob Hope, The Last Christmas Show, 17 (“I love my men”); Codman, 114–15; “Frances Langford Dies,” July 12, 2005, WP, B-6.
“I am sorry for this”: memo, “Gen. Patton’s Address,” n.d., GSP, LOC MS Div, box 48, folder 20; Edwin H. Randle, Ernie Pyle Comes Ashore and Other Stories, 134 (“No, General, no!”); OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-2-4 (“Georg-ie!”).
“hotter than the hinges of Hades”: corr, John M. Brooks to author, Oct. 19, 2003, 7; memorandum, “Address by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton,” Aug. 25, 1943, HQ, 1st ID, in “History of the 26th Infantry,” 97 (“Arms will not be carried”); Gerald Astor, Terrible Terry Allen, 235 (“no booing”).
“the weirdest speech ever made”: corr, Donald V. Helgeson to author, July 25, 2003; Finke, 172 (“fucking”); memoir, William E. Faust, ts, n.d., 1st ID Division Artillery, ASEQ, MHI, 79–80 (“our rejection of his presence”).
“I shall be very glad”: corr, GSP to Walter F. Dillingham, Aug. 18, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27; corr, GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 23, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11.
“damn near perfect example”: PP, 328; Battle, 77–78; Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms, 595, 603 (offensive at Kursk); Porch, 445.
American confidence: Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 174; “Training Notes from the Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., AFHQ, NARA RG 331, micro box 21, R-320-A (many lessons were learned); Betty McLain Belvin, Ray McLain and the National Guard, 72.
The butcher’s bill: Andrew J. Birtle, “Sicily,” in The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II, 1993, CMH 72-16, 25. As usual with World War II casualty statistics, no two estimates agree. See also: Garland, 417; Hanson Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 225; “Summary of Activities, MTO, 31 March 1945,” NARA RG 94, 95-USF2-0.3, box 246; “British Battle Casualties in Sicily,” Oct. 11, 1943, U.S. military attaché report, London, CMH, Geog Files, Sicily, 704.
Axis dead and wounded: Birtle, “Sicily,” 25. See also: MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” #R-145-146; Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 156; memo, HQ, SOS to CG, NA TOUSA, June 25, 1944, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, pm, records relating to prisoners, box 2246; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report on Sicilian Campaign 1943,” 98; Volkmar Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 193.
“a great success, but it was not complete”: Ruge, “The Evacuation of Sicily,” 53; Battle, 47; Baldwin, 235; Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily: Concluding Considerations of the Commander-in-Chief, South,” n.d., FMS, MS #T-3 P1, 28–29; Kesselring, “Stellungnahme des verantwortlichen Oberbefehlshabers Süd zu den Betractungen des Oberst von Bonin,” n.d., FMS, MS #T-3 P1, 3–4, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245.
HUSKY also exposed: Buckley, 147; “Proceedings of Board of Officers Considering Airborne Operations,” Aug. 1943, AFHQ, JPL, MHI, box 11 (Allies lost 42 planes); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 179 (“interservice spirit”); Porch, 449 (“Sicily demonstrated”).
“You lack clear, calm judgment”: memo, LKT Jr. to Charles R. Johnson, Aug. 23, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 11.
“a superb leader but a mediocre manager”: Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 185; Hamilton, 380 (“feeble from beginning to end”).
Half a million German soldiers: GS V, 2; Steinhof, 256 (“a turning point had come”).
“Have been in the dumps”: corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, Aug. 25, 1943, LKT, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.
“a fugitive from the law of averages”: Roger J. Spiller, “The Price of Valor,” Military History Quarterly, spring 1993, 100+; Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 45; diary, Aug. 10, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10 (“many more battles”); Breuer, 195 (“wickedness”).
“Yesterday is tomorrow”: Pyle, 58; Miller, 275–77 (“couldn’t find the Four Freedoms”); Tobin, 113 (four hundred days overseas).
“gotten fat and lazy”: JJT, VIII-27, IX-12 and 14.
“Dago red”: John P. Downing, “No Promotion,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1994.41.1, 238; Donald E. Houston, Hell on Wheels, 181 (“Migrant women”); Clay Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 114 (brothel in Trapani); T. Michael Booth and Duncan Spencer, Paratrooper: The Life of Gen. James M. Gavin, 123; Johnson, 121–22 (overpriced hankies); Francis A. Even, “The Tenth Engineers,” ts, 1996, author’s possession, 15 (bedsheet screens); Jerry Countess, “Letters from the Battlefield,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (“haven’t seen a spigot”); Robert H. Welker, “G.I. Jargon: Its Perils and Pitfalls,” Saturday Review of Literature, Oct. 1944, 7+ (“prego, Dago”).
On Sunday morning, August 29: Three Years, 401; Hamilton, 375; film, United News No. 68, 1943, NARA RG 208, UN68 (littered the beach); De Guingand, 315.
“We in our hearts know”: Bradley Biggs, Gavin; Moorehead, Eclipse, 6, 12.
CHAPTER 4: SALERNO
“Risks Must Be Calculated”
A gentle breeze: Richard Lamb, Montgomery in Europe, 1943–1945, 36; Albert F. Simpson, “Air Phase of the Italian Campaign to 1 January 1944,” June 1946, AAFRH-115, CMH, 92; Moorehead, Montgomery, 170 (“gnats on a pond”); Andrew Browne Cunningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 559 (Regatta); George Aris, The Fifth British Division, 1939–1945, 138 (five hundred guns); Moorehead, Eclipse, 20.
Just eight thousand Germans: A. G. Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” Nov. 1947, Historical Section, Canadian Army HQ, report No. 18, 9n; De Guingand, 323; G.A. Shepperd, The Italian Campaign, 1943–45, 111; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 241 (detected ample signs); Molony V, 239 (29,000 rounds).
“I think that’s all right”: Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 491–93; Moorehead, Montgomery, 170
lovebirds: Quentin Reynolds, By Quentin Reynolds, 303; Dick Malone, Missing from the Record, 53; Richard McMillan, Twenty Angels over Rome, 139; Gervasi, 491 (roasted and garnished); Moorehead, Eclipse, 22 (“Never his plan”).
sulking in his trailer: Vincent Orange, Coningham, 171; Nigel Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 406; Lamb, 32–33 (Montgomery’s protests); Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 216 (coordinate Eighth Army with Fifth Army); Charles Richardson, Send for Freddie, 135 (“daft”); OH, Francis De Guingand, March 31, 1947, G. A. Harrison, OCMH WWII Europe interviews, MHI (do what he could); De Guingand, 305; Vincent Orange, Tedder, 236 (mostly inexperienced units); OH, DDE, Feb. 16, 1949, Howard M. Smyth, SM, MHI (“wanted everything”); “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” MHI, 113.
Strategic guidance: Garland, 439–40; GS IV, 561–67, 570–71.
Clambering back into the DUKW: Moorehead, Eclipse, 23; Gervasi, 491 (“shouting, laughing”); StoC, 53; Lamb, 36–37; Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 278 (“The only person”).
The next days passed: Brooks, ed., 277; Moorehead, Eclipse, 31 (passenger carriages); H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Southern Italy, 314, 327, 337, 342, 360, 370 (scarlet petticoats); From Pachino to Ortona: The Canadian Army at War, 92.
“no German troops have been met”: Roger Parkinson, A Day’s March Nearer Home, 179; David Scott Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. 3, 130; Three Assault Landings, 1st Bn, Dorsetshire Regiment, DTL, Ft. B, 36–39 (“bag of mail”); war diary, Sept. 10, 1943, “Salerno Invasion,” German naval command, Italy, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, ONI Z-28, box 649 (“not crowding after us”).
Monty berets: Reynolds, 304–5.
On Sunday, September 5: Three Years, 407; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 363; diary, MWC, Aug. 28–29, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (thirty Fifth Army staff officers); corr, Don E. Carleton to Hal C. Pattison, Feb. 10, 1965, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3 Salerno to Cassino, box 256 (“a pursuit”).