The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
The blast vaporized bulkheads: Melanephy and Robinson, “Savannah at Salerno,” 2; action report, George J. Pinto to CINC, U.S. Fleet, July 19, 1943; action report, R.W. Cary, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 1, 1943; war damage report, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 14, 1943; “U.S.S. Savannah (CL 42) Bomb Damage,” War Damage Report No. 44, June 15, 1944, Bureau of Ships, Navy Dept., all in NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action and Operational Reports, box 1413.
At Pearl Harbor: Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943, 305.
Her rugged hull saved her: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 328; war log, U.S.S. Savannah, Sept. 14, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII War Diaries, box 1425 (Among the unluckiest).
A deft shifting of fuel: SSA, 283–84; Beard, “Turning the Tide at Salerno,” 34+ (sailors braced the rails); war damage report, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 14, 1943. Other accounts put the death tally at just under two hundred.
Hewitt desperately sought remedies: lecture, Richard L. Conolly, “The Landing at Salerno in World War II,” May 14, 1957, Naval Historical Foundation, 8; Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” 958; Aileen Clayton, The Enemy Is Listening, 281; Pond, 127 (electric razors); memo, “Radio-Controlled Bombs Can be Jammed” (“improve morale”); StoC, 106–7 (Fritz-X attacks in coming days).
To the relief of Ancon’s crew: Shapiro, 140; Lewis, 14 (“streaming like ants”), 19; diary, EJD, Sept. 12, 1943, HIA, box 1; StoC, 112; Morris, 240; Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 163; Downes, 16; Pond, 174.
Clark immediately drove south: Calculated, 197; aide’s diary, EJD, HIA, box 1.
Twenty-eight thousand Americans: AAR, “Historical Record,” 7–8; Salerno, 50; Molony V, 304; DDE, “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” 112.
The American right flank seemed secure: AAR, “Record of Events,” 142nd Inf, Sept. 3–20, 1943, CARL, N-6818; StoC, 108–9; Wagner, 19 (“a height of some sort”); J. Tuck Brown, “Love, War, Etc.,” ts, Jan. 1995, 132nd FA, 36th ID, ASEQ, MHI, 22–24 (“I’m a little hungry”); http://www.smu.edu/culmemorial/fellen.htm. Brown’s eyewitness account contradicts the version of Sprague’s death in Morris, 233.
“a tribulation”: Thruelsen and Arnold, 179; Salerno, 43–47; Munsell, 26 (“fired point blank”); John Embry, “My Most Interesting Experience,” ts, n.d., 160th FA Bn, 45th ID Mus, 117, 125 (plans to spike their tubes); AAR, 191st Tank Bn, n.d., AGF board reports, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-USF1-2.0 (tobacco factory would change hands).
If German forces followed the Sele: Mark W. Clark, “Salerno,” 1; Molony V, 302–3; diary, MWC, Sept. 12, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (drove to Red Beach).
“Very heavy fighting”: chronology, Sept. 11, 1943, 2025 hrs, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH; StoC, 107 (fifteen hundred Allied soldiers); Porch, 492 (Anglo-Irish cavalryman); OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (“tall, lean, and vague”); Charles Richardson, Flashback, 160 (near-whisper); Pond, 156–59, 172 (“another Dunkirk”); Nigel Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 2, 362–64; Michael Howard and John Sparrow, The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946, 153–54; Michael Howard, Captain Professor, 73 (“lost souls”).
Shaken by the sight of the British war dead: Hamilton, 416; Hickey and Smith, 183; diary, EJD, Sept. 12, 1943, HIA, box 1; “Historical Record, Headquarters, VI Corps, September 1943—The Operation AVALANCHE,” n.d., JPL, MHI, box 12, 7 (Field Orde0r No. 2); StoC, 109.
Grimy and dust-caked: diary, MWC, Sept. 12, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (“I must await further buildup”); corr, H. Alexander to DDE, Sept. 13, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 3 (“everything must be done”).
“the crowing of a cock cut the ears”: Shapiro, 145.
All tranquillity vanished at six A.M.: AAR, “Historical Record,” 8; journal, Sept. 13, 1943, 36th ID, chief of staff, SM, MHI; Salerno, 61; AAR, “Record of Events,” 142nd Inf, Sept. 3–20, 1943, CARL, N-6818. The U.S. Army official history states that the shelling came from German artillery. StoC, 113, 125.
The 3rd Battalion of the 143rd Infantry: StoC, 113–14; AAR, “Operation AVALANCHE,” 143rd Inf, Oct. 2, 1943, CARL, N-6818; memo, Fifth Army IG to MWC, Sept. 19, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 2, folder 3 (repulsed with heavy losses); Steven E. Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 179 (“getting the Germans to stand up”).
now faced mortal danger: Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 23 (“split themselves into two sections”); “Special Investigation and Interrogation Report: Operation Lightening,” 29 (“unconnected leadership”); SSA, 285–87; Pond, 171 (“dust rose in clouds”), 177 (“Lili Marlene”).
the five stout warehouses: Rosella Baretta, Tabacco, tabaccari, e tabacchine nel Salento: Vicende, storiche, economiche, e sociali, 6; Guide d’Italia, 126; Ascanio Marchini, Il Tabacco, 10, 21.
Here the full fury of the German attack: Morris, “Report on Observation Trip,” 7–8; Salerno, 63; W.H.H. Morris, Jr., “Salerno,” MR, vol. 13, no. 12 (March 1944), 5+ (“Fireworks created an appearance”); “Operation of the 45th Infantry Division in Italy,” Sept. 10–30, 1943, 45th ID Mus; memo, I. C. Avery to MWC, investigation, actions of Co. B, 2nd Chemical Bn, Sept. 20, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 2 (abandoned tubes unspiked); Salerno, 65.
“Tracers were going through my pack”: corr, Richard Pisciotta to father, May 18, 1944, 157th Inf, 45th Div, ASEQ, MHI; OH, FLW, May 15, 1953, John G. Westover, SM, MHI; journal, Sept. 13, 1943, 36th ID, chief of staff, SM, MHI; AAR, “Operation AVALANCHE,” 143rd Inf, Oct. 2, 1943, CARL, N-6818; Eddie Douglas Adkins, “A P.O.W. Diary,” ts, 1960, Texas MFM (“I will reserve a space”); Grady G. Tice, “POWs Never Forget War,” Commerce Journal, March 4, 2001, Texas MFM (Germans were atheists); Shapiro, 152 (“like furrows from a plow”); FLW to MWC, Oct. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6818; Bruce L. Barger, The Texas 36th Division, 137; Morris, “Salerno,” 5+ (fired into the backs); Wagner, 27 (“It was hell up there”), 34.
“Situation worse”: diary, 1st and 3rd Bn aid station, 179th Inf, Sept. 12–13, 1943, 45th ID Mus; AAR, 191st Tank Bn, n.d., AGF board reports, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0 (tank crew took turns); AAR, Van W. Pyland, 636th Tank Destroyer Bn, n.d., in Texas, 413 (Dead men lay on a gravel bar); Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 87 (“fighting for your ass”).
“Enemy on the run”: F. Jones, “The Campaign in Italy: The Landing at Salerno,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 44 132, 133; SSA, 287.
Then on the southwest bank: Calculated, 201; Salerno, 65–66 (Drivers, bandsmen); “Operational History of Chemical Battalions and the 4.2-inch Mortar in World War II,” part 1, 1947, CMH, 4-7.1 FB2, 56; Kleber and Birdsell, 433; Bishop et al., eds., 47; “World War II Diaries of Norman Maffei,” Sept. 14, 1943, 158th FA, 45th Div, ASEQ, MHI; Betty McLain Belvin, Ray McLain and the National Guard, 74 (nineteen rounds a minute). The two artillery battalions fired 3,600 rounds in four hours.
Three miles down Highway 18: AAR, “Historical Record,” 8–9 (terrified Italian workers); “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary Operations Carried Out by British Troops,” 18 (forty thousand gallons); Simpson, “Air Phase,” 135 (landed by instrument); Ball, 205 (“The work went on”).
“Things not too hot”: aide’s diary, Sept. 13, 1943, EJD, HIA, box 1; corr, John W. O’Daniel to Hal C. Pattison, Sept. 3, 1964, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, Salerno to Cassino, box 256; diary, EJD, Sept. 13, 1943, HIA, box 1 (“Disaster”); Calculated, 200. Clark told an interviewer in 1972 that this exchange took place face-to-face. OH, MWC, Rittgers, MHI.
“extremely critical”: diary, MWC, Sept. 13, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary Operations Carried Out by British Troops,” 9; Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 217; msg, MWC to MBR, Sept. 13, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 2.
radios crackled in the corner: CM, 255; Adleman and Walton, 71 (“How the hell would you”); FM 31-5, “Landing Operations on Hostile Shores,” WD, June 1941, MHI, 99 (“deliberate sacrifice”).
Clark would subseq
Roused from his torpor: corr, E. J. Dawley to Hal C. Pattison, Dec. 15, 1964, and Troy H. Middleton to Hal C. Pattison, Sept. 8, 1964 (questioned Clark’s fortitude), both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, Salerno to Cassino, box 255; StoC, 117; OH, Francis Reichmann, 45th Div G-2, Apr. 21, 1950, SM, box IIA1, 2 (“give me support”); Frank James Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 165 (“some hard fighting”).
“German tanks have broken through”: Shapiro, 148–49, 152; OH, William P. Yarborough, 1975, J. R. Meese and H. P. Houser, SOOHP, MHI, 39–40 (“crawling around on their hands”); Ball, 214 (“up to our necks”); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” Sept. 20, 1943, Hoover Institution Archives, box 1 (summons to Green Beach).
“I’m a Yankee Doodle”: Shapiro, 150.
“After a defensive battle lasting four days”: Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 25–26.
A Portal Won
Hewitt bitterly opposed: Mason, 327; chronology, Sept. 14, 1943, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH (“Depth of beachhead narrowing”); F. Jones, “The Campaign in Italy: The Landing at Salerno,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Studies, UK NA, CAB 44 132, 136–37; A.B. Cunningham, “Operations in Connection with the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno,” Apr. 28, 1950, London Gazette, CMH, UH 0-1, CUN.2, 2173 (“I will try to help”).
“If we withdraw”: Mason, 318, 327; OH, “Reminiscences of George C. Dyer” (“settle lower in the water”).
“intense gloom”: StoC, 124; Roskill, 179; Pond, 192–93 (“prove suicidal”).
“It just cannot be done”: Pond, 192–93 (“go and do it”); Hickey and Smith, 249 (“simply not on”); Cunningham, 569 (“stay and fight it out”).
an enormous letter “T”: MBR, “Description of Operation from Planning Phase to Execution,” n.d., CJB, MHI, Chrono File Italy, box 48; John C. Warren, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945, 62; AAR, H.M.S. Delhi, Oct. 5, 1943, in “Operation AVALANCH—Report on Northern Assault,” Royal Navy, Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837 (“monster snowflakes”); Patrick D. Mulcahy, “Airborne Activities in the Avalanche Operation,” n.d., AFHQ, Arthur Nevins papers, MHI, box 2; James M. Gavin, Airborne Warfare, 28–29; StoC, 127; Pond, 190; Ross S. Carter, Those Devils in Baggy Pants, 36 (“open season”).
Perhaps to compensate: Clark was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroics on this day.
two dozen German tanks had been destroyed: StoC, 129; Lewis, 21 (“puddle of fat”).
South of the Sele: FLW to MWC, Oct. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6818; StoC, 129 (“Nothing of interest”); Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 27; “Translation of Taped Conversation with General Hermann Balck, 12 January 1979,” Battelle Columbus Laboratories, Ohio, USAWC Lib, 14 (Frictions had accumulated); Kurowski, 59–60 (heat exhaustion); Salerno, 73 (ten thousand shells); Pond, 224 (howitzers sniped).
Berlin’s refusal to release the two tank divisions: Kesselring believed the two extra divisions could have been decisive; some historians argue they would not have arrived in time to significantly influence the battle. Kesselring, Memoirs, 183n; Battle, 119; AAR, 36th ID, “Conclusions on Avalanche,” n.d., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, box 35; Friedrich Wentzell, “The Italian Campaign from August 1943 to February 1945,” Dec. 1945, CMH, Ital 370.2, 5 (penny packets); Hamilton, “Italy, Sept.–Dec. 1943,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 101/124, 18 (exposed the attackers).
“The heavy naval artillery”: Kurowski, 125; Clagett, unpublished HKH bio, 478–79 (Hewitt ordered); Molony V, 327 (“murderous queens”); “Historical Tactical Study of Naval Gunfire at Salerno,” 43 (U.S.S. Boise); Beard, “Turning the Tide at Salerno,” 34+ (fire axes); Peek, 24 (“count your children”).
What naval shells missed: Salerno, 74; AAR, “Historical Record,” 10 (B-17s battered); “The Employment of Strategic Bombers in a Tactical Role, 1941–1951,” 1953, USAF Historical Div., no. 88, 53–54 (more than a thousand “heavy” sorties); AAFinWWII, 530–31, 535 (760 tons); Pond, 224; Hardy D. Cannon, Box Seat over Hell, 65–66 (took occasional potshots).
“almost impossible”: “Special Investigation and Interrogation Report: Operation Lightening,” 28; Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 27 (a final effort).
The somber if sketchy reports from Salerno: Lord Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 320; D’Este, Eisenhower, 319 (sand castles); Molony V, 319.
“Quelle race!”: W.G.F. Jackson, Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, 215, 282 (“Nothing every went right”); Nicolson, Alex, 37, 199 (“so serene”), 238 (“transformed it into a crusade”); Gunther, 99 (Irish flag); Michael Howard, “Leadership in the British Army in the Second World War,” in G. D. Sheffield, Leadership and Command, 109; OH, Michael Howard, May 2003, with author, Washington, D.C.; Binder, 107 (“Good chaps get killed”); Moran, 186 (“redeemed what was brutal”).
No sooner had Hewitt laid out: Binder, 116; corr, HKH to SEM, Jan. 8, 1954, SEM, NHC, box 51; OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 344–45 (“Never do”); Nicolson, Alex, 222 (“cease immediately”); Mason, 327 (“no evacuation”).
He and Hewitt found Clark: Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” 958+; Hickey and Smith, 257 (unlimbered at targets); corr, HKH to SEM, Jan. 8, 1954 (vanished for a private conversation).
My dear Clarke: B. L. Montgomery to MWC, Sept. 15, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 2.
Montgomery’s 64,000 troops: Molony V, 252; StoC, 138.
holding medals ceremonies: Such a ceremony was held on September 13; a day later, an inspection ceremony was held of the entire 1st Canadian Division, which had no contact with the enemy from September 8 to 16. From Pachino to Ortona: The Canadian Army at War, CARL, N-14352, 96; Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” 15.
In nearly two weeks only eighty-five: Patrick Howarth, My God, Soldiers, 137; Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 46 (ten combat casualties a day); “Narrative: Operations Against Italy,” Sept. 15, 1943, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (sixty-two British dead); John Lardner, “The Mayor of Futani,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 268; Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 174–85; StoC, 142 (British patrol make contact); diary, MWC, Sept. 15, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (swelled to nearly seven thousand); MWC to B. L. Montgomery, Sept. 16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 2.
“I would like you to go now”: Morris, 283; Alan Williamson, “Dawley Was Shafted,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 8–10 (no sleep at all); Binder, 117 (voice cracked); OH, Lyman Lemnitzer, Jan. 16, 1948, SM, MHI (gestured vaguely with a trembling hand).
“I do not want to interfere”: diary, MWC, Sept. 20, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64.
“I know it, Alex”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, 60–63; Morris, photo, 175 (checkered tablecloth).
“Although I am not entirely happy”: Nicolson, Alex, 220.
“No doubt you people are worried”: MWC to Renie, Sept. 15–16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, personal corr; diary, MWC, Sept. 16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64.
Hardly had the shrieking hordes: Douglas Graf Bernstorff, “Operations of the 26th Panzer Division in Italy,” 1948, FMS, #D-316, MHI, 7–8; J. Hamilton, “Italy, Sept.–Dec. 1943,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 101/124, 18–19 (never penetrated the curtain); Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 210 (“put out of action”).
This welcome news greeted Eisenhower: memo, “Major Lee,” aide-de-camp, Eisenhower Diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-783-786; msg, DDE to GCM, Sept. 13, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 13; Chandler, vol. 3, 1418 (“If things go wrong”).
“would probably be out”: Three Years, 420; Butcher entries, Sept. 15–16, 1943, Eisenhower Diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-756, A-773-74, A
If Salerno plagued him: Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 195; Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 148; Chandler, vol. 3, 1442–43, 1473 (“deepest hole”); D’Este, Eisenhower, 443 (“handsomest bald man”).
“For God’s sake, Mike”: Williamson, “Dawley Was Shafted,” 8–10. A sanitized version quotes Eisenhower as saying, “How’d you ever get the troops into such a mess?” Texas, 257.
“I really think you better take him out”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, 64; OH, FLW, May 15, 1953, John G. Westover, SM, MHI; Texas, 258 (Dawley and Clark quarreled).
“I want you to go down”: OH, R. J. Wood, 1973, Narus, 22–28; Williamson, “Dawley Was Shafted,” 8–10 (“I couldn’t work with Clark”), 12 (“for keeping his mouth shut”); diary, EJD, Sept. 20, 1943, HIA, box 1 (“Releived”); aide’s diary; corr, DDE to E. J. Dawley, Sept. 23, 1943, EJD papers, HIA, box 1 ($7 per diem).
Of four American corps commanders: Lloyd R. Fredendall and Dawley had been fired; Patton and Bradley were the other two. Geoffrey Keyes in Sicily had briefly commanded a temporary “provisional corps.”
“It makes a commander supercautious”: diary, Oct. 29 and 30, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10; corr, ENH to MWC, Sept. 29, 1943, ENH, MHI, box 3.
“complete success at Salerno”: war diary, Sept. 16, 1943, “Salerno Invasion,” German naval command, box 649; Kesselring, Memoirs, 186–87 (authorized a retreat).
plunder piled on trucks: Pond, 259; Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” 17 (“destroyed most thoroughly”); “Exploitation of Italy for the Further Conduct of the War,” Tenth Army, Sept. 22, 1943, in Steiger, appendix G (“evacuation list”).
The scorching and salting: “Fifth Army Medical History,” ts, n.d., NARA RG 112, MTO surgeon general, 390/17/8/2-3, box 6, 138; AAR, “Historical Record,” 13; Macmillan, War Diaries, 354 (92 percent of all sheep); Clifford W. Dorman, “Too Soon for Heroes,” ts, n.d., 19th Combat Engineers, author’s possession, 67 (“Rail rooters”).