The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
“With Thee I am unafraid”: Calculated, 182; MWC to Renie Clark, June 7, 1943, MWC, personal corr, Citadel (clovers).
“The best organizer”: Chandler, vol. 2, 1354, 1358; Des Hickey and Gus Smith, Operation Avalanche, 152 (“a film star”); George Biddle, Artist at War, 225.
“college of your choice”: OH, MWC, 1972, Forest S. Rittgers, Jr., SOOHP, MHI, 2; Martin Blumenson, Mark Clark, 11–16, 19–21, 28; obit, Charleston Evening Post, Oct. 5, 1966, in MWC, Citadel, Maureen Clark folder, box 70 (petite, lighthearted).
“destined to do something unusual”: OH, Robert J. Wood, 1973, William E. Narus, SOOHP, MHI, 3–30, 42–43; OH, MWC, Rittgers (“Don’t be an ally”).
“my headquarters to be a happy one”: Charles S. D’Orsa, “The Trials and Tribulations of an Army G-4,” MR, vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1945), 23+; Robert H. Adelman and George Walton, Rome Fell Today, ii (“study in arrogance”); William L. Allen, Anzio: Edge of Disaster, 48 (“like a halo”).
“facially best”: Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 94; Adelman and Walton, iii; Eric Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 383; MWC to Renie Clark, May 15 and 16, 1943, MWC, personal corr, Citadel; Carlo D’Este, Fatal Decision, 58; OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., Apr. 23, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; Gervasi, 496.
“if feasible, further north”: GS IV, 580–81; Battle, 109; Bernard Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 252; Robert J. Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” lecture, Army-Navy Staff College, Dec. 1944–Jan. 1946, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI, 3; memo, EJD to L. J. McNair, “Notes on Operation AVALANCHE,” Oct. 4, 1943, observer report #60, AGF G-2, NARA RG 337, box 52 (forty-five days); diary, MWC, Aug. 28–29, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; Molony V, 264; SSA, 248 (discover of minefields); A. B. Cunningham, “Operations in Connection with the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno,” Apr. 28, 1950, CMH, UH 0-1 CUN.2, 2175; S.W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 159 (advanced H-hour); StoC, 40–41 (“quite irritable”); “History of the Peninsular Base Sction,” 1944, CMH, 8-4 HA 1, 4; AAR, [U.K.] commander-in-chief, Mediterranean Station, March 8, 1945, CARL, N-11361 (aviation fuel).
Only three assault divisions: Battle, 107; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation and the Italian Campaign,” Sept. 1945, monograph #17, NARA RG 336, ASF, chief of transportation, historical program files, box 142, 21; Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 7; Charles S. D’Orsa, “The Trials and Tribulations of an Army G-4,” MR, vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1945), 23+; Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, Global Logistics and Strategy, 1943–1945, 192; StoC, 38–39; OH, MWC, Rittgers, 54–55; Calculated, 181 (“my left arm”).
Three times he asked Washington: msg, DDE to CCS, July 28 and Aug. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247 (“risks must be calculated”); AAFinWWII, 495; Lord Tedder, With Prejudice, 457–58, 460; Cunningham, “Operations in Connection with the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno” (“Woolworths”); StoC, 52; Simpson, “Air Phase,” 48, 90; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” MHI, 112 (“rather disquieting”); E. McCabe, “The Plan for the Landing at Salerno,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 44/131, 30 (could not prevent the enemy).
Ultra provided a detailed portrait: F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 106, 108; Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945, 349 (“Treachery alters”); minutes, AFHQ briefing to QUADRANT, Aug. 24, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“to the sound of the guns”); Simpson, “Air Phase,” 77; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” NSA, U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 63; “Operations Plan,” HQ, Fifth Army, Aug. 26, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, SOS, annex No. 1, G-2 plan, box 2735; OH, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, Feb. 18, 1947, FCP, MHI (whether invaders could build up).
Salerno would be a poor place: “Observations in the European Theater Including Landing Operation at Salerno,” Oct. 25, 1943, HQ, USMC, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, GB COB X-22, box 461, 3; “I.S.T.D.: ‘C’ Report on the West Coast,” June 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E47, 95-AL1-2.10, AFHQ, box 163; David Hunt, A Don at War, 211 (“finest strip of coast”); E. McCabe, “The Plan for the Landing at Salerno,” 38; “Tactical Study of the Terrain: Naples and Vicinity,” engineer appendix, AVALANCHE operational plan, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, box 118, R-123-D; “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” vol. 3, appendix G, CMH, 9-2.5 AB, 19 (“exposes this bridgehead”); OH, “Reminiscences of George C. Dyer,” 1969–1971, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 330 (“inside of a cup”).
Risks had been calculated: L.S.B. Shapiro, They Left the Back Door Open, 117 (Strange Cargo); “Masonic Information,” diaries, MWC, Citadel, box 61; John Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” Naval War College Review, summer 1975, 60+;. Simpson, “Air Phase,” 107 (sixteen convoys); Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Amalfi.”
“high hopes of being in Naples”: diary, MWC, Aug. 16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” MHI, 112 (“Boldness”); minutes, AFHQ weekly executive planning section, Aug. 3, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247 (planning to move); Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 448 (“smash them”).
“might as well be on a raft”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, MHI, 55.
Plots, Counterplots, and Cross-plots
Even as the invaders bore down: Moorehead, Eclipse, 77 (“hot rake”); Axis notes, Tarvis conference, ten A.M., Aug. 6, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244; msgs, “Former Naval Person to the President,” No. 405, Aug. 5, 1943, and J. Hull to T. T. Handy, Aug. 15, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249; Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War, 1939–1945, 317 “plots, counter-plots.”
Wary but intrigued: Macmillan, 313 (“an appalling Norfolk jacket”); Kenneth Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 145 (“desperate gunfight”); OH, George F. Kennan, Jan. 2, 1947, SM, MHI (“rattletrap Buick”).
Their Italian counterpart: Peter Tompkins, Italy Betrayed, 26; “Minutes of a conference held at the residence of H.M. Ambassador at Lisbon on August 18, 1943 [sic], at 10 p.m.,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“join the united nations”); Garland, 459; minutes, Lisbon meeting, in msg, Aug. 21, 1943, AFHQ to WD, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 10.
“We are not in a position”: “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” 116; msg, W. B. Smith to Hastings Ismay, Sept. 12, 1943, W. B. Smith papers, DDE Lib, box 7 (“my pet Wop”); memo, W. B. Smith to Whitely, Rooks, Aug. 22, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“expect bitter reprisals”).
If Rome was in no position: msg, DDE to CCS, Aug. 28, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“very anxious”); corr, Robert Murphy to FDR, Sept. 8, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244.
More amateur theatricals followed: OH, Harold Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, Geog files, II-2; Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 187; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 322.
A dreadful fate would befall Italy: Robert Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 192–93; Strong, 157 (“booted, spurred, and bemedaled”).
The telegram was sent: “Story of the Signing of the Italian Armistice,” Kenneth Strong to correspondents, in “Eisenhower Diary,” HCB, DDE Lib, A-769-770; Garland, 482–84; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 323; Strong, 158 (olive sprig).
“Today’s event must be kept secret”: msg, DDE to CCS, Sept 3, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec. files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 10.
Those plans grew more convoluted: Howard McGaw Smyth, “The Armistice at Cassible,” MR, vol. 28, nos. 6 and 7 (Sept. and Oct. 1948), 13+; Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, 70; msgs, DDE to Alexander, Sept. 1, 1943, FDR, Churchill to DDE, Sept. 2, 1943, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“stiffen Italian formations”).
“perfectly asinine”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, 54–57, 77; memo, AFHQ G-3 to W. B. Smith, Aug. 13, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, job 10A, R-13-C, in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“tactically unsound”); R. P. Eaton, 82nd Airborne chief of staff, “Contact Imminent,” ts, Dec. 26, 1943, Ralph
GIANT II: Blair, 132–33; Smyth, “The Armistice at Cassible,” 13; Garland, 488–89.
The more Ridgway heard: corr, MBR to W. B. Smith, Dec. 5, 1955, and MBR to G. Castellano, Dec. 20, 1955, CJB, MHI, box 48, chrono file Italy; corr, MBR to Hal C. Pattison, Nov. 10, 1964, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 251 (“deceiving us”); OH, W.B. Smith, May 13, 1947, Howard M. Smyth, SM, MHI (“kettles, bricks”); memo, MBR, “Development of Operation Giant,” Sept. 9, 1943, CJB, MHI, box 48, chrono file Italy (“full faith”); Matthew B. Ridgway, Soldier, 81 (“Contact will be made”).
As the sun sank: AAR, Maxwell D. Taylor and W. T. Gardiner, “Mission to Rome,” Sept 9, 1943, in Simpson, “Air Phase,” 381–86; Richard Thruelsen and Elliott Arnold, “Secret Mission to Rome,” Harper’s, Oct. 1944, 462+; Maxwell D. Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 55–57; Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 103–8; Melton S. Davis, Who Defends Rome?, 346–48.
In truth they were Italians’ guests: Mark W. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 555 (graceful Missourian); John M. Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor, 65; Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 89 (money belt); Thruelsen and Arnold, 462 (“If you get captured”).
By 8:30 P.M.: AAR, Taylor and Gardiner, “Mission,” 381–86; Thruelsen and Arnold, “Secret Mission to Rome,” 462+; Taylor, 55–57; Tregaskis, 103–8; Davis, 346–48.
The excellent crêpes: Smyth, “The Armistice at Cassibile” Taylor, 56–57 (“professional dandy”); Garland, 500; Volkmar Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 195.
Italian garrisons had been virtually immobilized: Garland, 495; Davis 353.
He passed his days playing cards: Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 465; Boatner, 23; Tompkins, 58–60 (five thousand bottles); Macmillan, The Blast of War, 330 (“I was a Fascist”).
“Castellano did not know”: Davis, 353–55; Thruelsen and Arnold, “Secret Mission,” 462 (“Your bombers have blown up”).
“GIANT TWO is impossible”: AAR, Taylor and Gardiner, “Mission to Rome,” in Simpson, “Air Phase,” 381–86; Tregaskis, 107 (“endeavoring to click our heels”).
“You will return to Allied headquarters”: Thruelsen and Arnold, “Secret Mission,” 462; Taylor, 55–57.
Eisenhower left Algiers: Michael J. McKeough and Richard Lockridge, Sgt. Mickey and General Ike, 83–84; Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 108 (“illusion of being on the march”); OH, DDE, Feb. 16, 1949, Smyth (“rather stretched out”); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 141, 147 (“creature of war”).
Smith forwarded the doleful message: Chandler, vol. 3, 1403n; msg, GCM to DDE or W. B. Smith, Sept. 8, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 10; “Unpublished Autobiography of General John E. Hull, USA (ret.),” ts, n.d., MHI (“what you would expect”).
In the small schoolhouse: OH, Lyman L. Lemnitzer, March 4, 1947, Howard M. Smyth, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6; Peter Lyon, Eisenhower: Portrait of the Hero, 241 (mouth tightened); Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. 1, 259–60 (snapped it in half); David Hunt, A Don at War, 224 (“with great violence”); OH, DDE, Feb. 16, 1949, Smyth (“revolver against his kidneys”); Chandler, vol. 3, 1402, 1403n (“I do not accept”).
“I always knew”: OH, Arthur Coningham, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI; Chandler, vol. 3, 1404.
Clearly a deviation was needed: memo, MBR, “Development of Operation Giant,” Sept. 9, 1943, CJB, MHI, box 48, chrono file Italy; L. James Binder, Lemnitzer: A Soldier for His Time, 113–14.
Sixty-two transports: OH, Lemnitzer, March 4, 1947, Smyth; Garland, 508–9;. Ridgway, 95 (“trying to reconcile myself”); Binder, 113–14 (“What message?”).
Jeeps raced about: Patrick K. O’Donnell, Beyond Valor, 66; Blair, 141 (stumbled into a tent).
“The Italian government has surrendered”: msg, DDE, Sept. 8, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 10; Garland, 509–13.
For 1,184 days: Hugh Pond, Salerno, 10; David Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 305 (“Italy’s treachery is official”).
In the hours following Badoglio’s announcement: Garland, 513; “Memorandum Concerning the Events of September 8–9–10 in Rome,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249, 3 (Telephone queries); Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 32 (fourteen of sixteen government ministers); Howard McGaw Smyth, “The Command of the Italian Armed Forces in World War II,” Military Affairs, spring 1951, 38+ (summoned a notary).
No effort was made to stop six battalions: Kühn, 196, 198; Badoglio, 81 (only escape route); Davis, 403, 407 (green Fiat); msg, F. N. Mason Macfarlane to DDE, Sept. 14, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“rather gaga”); memoir, Kenyon Joyce, ts, n.d., Kenyon Joyce papers, MHI, 322; Katz, 32; “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” Jan. 1946, Strategic Services Unit, WD, A-63366, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.22, 45 (ingesting drops); Tompkins, 271 (“change sides twice”).
German troops snared thirty generals: B. H. Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 360; “Memorandum Concerning the Events of September 8–9–10 in Rome,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249, 3 (firefights erupted); John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, But for the Grace of God, 35 (Italian snipers); Jane Scrivener, Inside Rome with the Germans, 15–16 (“The Jews are in a panic”).
Field Marshal Kesselring was disinclined to parley: Simpson, “Air Phase,” 102; Andrew Brookes, Air War over Italy, 1943–1945, 28; Albrecht Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 176; Hunt, 264; Count von Klinckowstroen, “Fighting Around Rome in September 1943,” 1947, FMS, #T-1a, MHI, 5; Pond, Salerno, 7; Kesselring, “Commentary on MS #D-301,” n.d., FMS, #D-313, MHI, 3; Garland, 526–27 (threatened to blow up Rome’s aqueducts); “Translations, Campaign in Italy,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245 (“It is finished”).
Kesselring, now viceroy: Klinckowstroen, “Fighting Around Rome,” 10–11; Albert Kesselring, “Special Report on the Events in Italy Between 25 July and 8 September 1943,” n.d., FMS, #C-013, MHI, 5 (“sheet lightning”); Kesselring, Memoirs, 177 (“card missing from the pack”); Franz Kurowski, Battleground Italy, 1943–1945, 12 (“I loved these people”).
The Stillest Shoes the World Could Boast
Unmolested and apparently undetected: StoC, 57; E. McCabe, “The Plan for the Landing at Salerno,” 10–11 (HARPSICHORD); Warren P. Munsell, Jr., The Story of a Regiment, 21; Angelo Pesce, Salerno 1943, 99 (“converted Polish liner”); Howard H. Peckham and Shirley A. Snyder, eds., Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 62 (“Whenever I tore a bun”); J. M. Huddleston, VI Corps surgeon, “Report for Colonel Carter,” n.d., in Norman Lee Baldwin papers, HIA (knotted condoms).
The usual muddles: Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 182 (sailed without weapons); Texas, 223 (white-star insignia); AAR, “Signal Reflections on the Planning and Execution of Avalanche,” Oct. 13, 1943, 10th Corps, UK NA, CAB 106/395, 7 (carrier pigeons); “Observations in the European Theater,” 2 (“military impedimenta”); Dunham, “United States Army Transportation and the Italian Campaign,” 26–27; “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” ts, n.d., U.S. Naval History Division, #139, NHC, folder 3, 34; John H. Clagett, unpublished biography, n.d., HKH, box 16, 436 (Hewitt was so incensed).
endless games of housey-housey: Hickey and Smith, 78; Eric Morris, Salerno: A Military Fiasco, 83 (boiling coffee); Norman Lewis, Naples ’44, 11 (“We know nothing”); Italian Phrase Book, U.S. War Department, 1943.
Aboard Hewitt’s flagship: http://www.nightscribe.com/Military/ww2/ancon_history_front.htm; Donald Downes, The Scarlet Thread, 140; Reynolds, 281 (“in the lion’s mouth”), 300 (“the Yale Club”); diary, MWC, Sept. 7, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (“feeling the strain”).
Some 55,000 assault troops: Calculated, 185; Hickey and Smith, 52–53 (“the most daring plan”).
“We can’t expect to achieve”: Shapiro, 122; HKH, “Action Report of the Salerno Landings, Sept.–Oct. 1943,” 1945, CMH, 130 (fifteen-minute cannonade), 142; FLW to MWC, “Conclusions Based on the Avalanche Operation,” Oct. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6818, 1; Texas, 230–31 (“may not be discovered”); OH, FLW, May 15, 1953, John G. Westover, SM, MHI; StoC, 57; target list, operation plan 7-43, annex B, appendix 1, HKH, LOC MS Div, box 8, folder 8; Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 351 (“fantastic to assume”); Merrill L. Bartlett, ed., Assault from the Sea, 268; OH, MWC, 1972–73, Forest S. Rittgers, Jr., SOOHP, MHI, 53; lecture, Don Brann, ts, n.d., in Robert J. Wood papers, MHI, 4 (Clark had sided with Walker).
Eisenhower’s armistice announcement: diary, MWC, Sept. 8, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; The Grenadier Guards, 1939–1945, 27 (officers with megaphones).
Jubilation erupted: Downes, 3; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 53 (“The Eyeties”); Hickey and Smith, 42; Travis Beard, “Turning the Tide at Salerno,” Naval History, Oct. 2003 (“The war is over”); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 328n (“Yap, yap, yap”); Pond, 16; The Grenadier Guards, 1939–1945, 27; Philip Vian, Action This Day, 117 (“Seldom in history”).
Soldiers jettisoned bandoliers: Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 13; “Reminiscences of Phil H. Bucklew,” 1980, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 64; Pond, 18 (dinner jacket); StoC, 55 (“sheer joy”); corr, Armand G. Jones to father, n.d., 155th FA, Texas MFM, 3; Robert L. Wagner, The Texas Army, 4.
“keen fighting edge”: HKH, “Action Report,” 91; Downes, 3 (“bloody fools”); Pond, 68 (“Take your ammunition”); Newton H. Fulbright, “Altavilla: A Personal Record,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 12 (“horned Comanches”); Clifford H. Peek, Jr., Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns, 15 (“Expect a hostile shore”).