The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
Civilians were crushed: Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” 34; Southern, 124 (“young girl pinned”), 44–45 (“If this be it”); Infield, 62–63; Will Lang, notebook #9, “Bari raid,” USMA Arch.
Seventeen ships had been sunk: “Report on Adequacy of Protective Measures at Bari” Karig, 277.
“Since when do American ships”: Infield, 86; “Report on the Circumstances,” etc. (H.M.S. Brindisi); D. M. Saunders, “The Bari Incident,” Proceedings, vol. 93, no. 9, Sept. 1967, 35+ (Bistra picked up thirty survivors).
“Ambulances screamed into hospital”: Southern, 52, 91; Stewart F. Alexander, “Final Report of Bari Mustard Casualties,” June 20, 1944, AFHQ, office of the surgeon, NARA RG 492, 704, box 1757 (“considerably puzzled”).
“all in pain”: memo, H. Gluck, “ophthalmic casualties resulting from air raid on Bari,” 98th General Hospital, Dec. 14, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, 290/24/27/2–4, R 235-D; corr, Stewart F. Alexander to William D. Fleming, Dec. 26, 1943, NARA RG 112, MTO surgeon general, 390/17/8/2-3, 319.1, box 6 (“No treatment”); Reminick, 115 (“big as balloons”); “Report on the Circumstances,” etc. (“dermatitis N.Y.D.”).
A Royal Navy surgeon: “Notes on Meeting Held at HQ 2 District, at 1415 Hours,” in “Report on the Circumstances,” etc.
The first mustard death: appendix G, “Medical Report,” in “Report on the Circumstances,” etc.; Southern, 89 (“that bloody bang”); Alexander, “Final Report” (Seaman Phillip H. Stone).
By noon on Friday: memo, “Casualties, Air Raid, Bari,” Dec. 8, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, 290/24/27/2-4, R 235-D; Gluck, “ophthalmic casualties” (lids forcibly pried open); Saunders, “The Bari Incident,” 35 (hundreds had inhaled).
More than a thousand Allied servicemen: memo, “Toxic Gas Burns Sustained in the Bari Harbor Catastrophe,” Dec. 27, 1943, NATOUSA, office of the surgeon, NARA RG 112, MTO surgeon general, 390/17/8/2-3, 319.1, box 6.
A comparable number of Italian civilians: No precise casualty figures were ever compiled. Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” 34; Infield, 177; Alexander, “Final Report” (at least 617 confirmed mustard casualties); Southern, 48, 125–26, 145 (“head to toe in trench graves”).
“For purposes of secrecy”: memo, “Casualties, Air Raid, Bari” George S. Bergh and Reuben F. Erickson, eds., “A History of the Twenty-sixth General Hospital,” 132 (“Damage was done”); Infield, 208 (“I will not comment”); corr, J.F.M. Whitely to J. N. Kennedy, Dec. 21, 1943, UK NA, WO 204/307.
“the wind was offshore”: Eisenhower, Crusade, 204; Infield, 207 (“enemy action”).
Declassified in 1959: Saunders, “The Bari Incident” Orange, 176; Reminick, 169; L.S. Goodman et al., “Nitrogen Mustard Therapy,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 21, 1946, 126+; John H. Lienhard, “Engines of Our Ingenuity,” no. 1190, “Mustard Gas,” University of Houston, http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1190.htm; Rebecca Holland, “Mustard Gas,” Bristol University, htttp://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/mustard/mustard.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of-_cancer_chemotherapy#The_first_efforts_.281940.E2.80.931950.29.
Thousands of refugees trudged: Bergh and Erickson, eds., “A History of the Twenty-sixth General Hospital,” 132; Infield, 235; AAFinWWII, 587 (38,000 tons of cargo).
“I see you boys are getting gassed”: Infield, 207; Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 213–17.
CHAPTER 6: WINTER
The Archangel Michael, Here and Everywhere
Since its founding: Maurizio Zambardi, San Pietro Infine, 7, 11, 15, 17; author visits, Sept. 1995, May 2004; OH, Maurizio Zambardi, May 5, 2004, with author.
a German patrol arrived: Maurizio Zambardi, Memorie di Guerra, 22–30, 33, 42; Alex Bowlby, Countdown to Cassino, 83.
San Pietro’s fate was sealed: A. G. Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” Nov. 1947, Canadian Army headquarters, historical section, No. 18, 41.
While Mark Clark paused: Bowlby, 51–52, 78, 84–85; Franz Kurowski, Battleground Italy, 1943–1945, 68–69 (sodden clumps).
For the San Pietrans: Zambardi, Memorie di Guerra, 34–39, 54–55; OH, Zambardi, May 5, 2004; Bowlby, 83–84.
“a worse plan”: CM, 286.
“critical terrain in the operation”: diary, MWC, Nov. 6, 11, 1943, Citadel, box 64; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 17 (RAINCOAT called for an attack).
Clark’s intelligence estimated: German figures indicated that Tenth Army had 142,000 troops in twelve divisions on Dec. 1, 1943. StoC, 246–47, 269 (barely three hundred yards).
“Oh, don’t worry”: OH, H. Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, II-3; StoC, 265, 270.
More than nine hundred guns: “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, DTL, Ft. B, 100; Robert H. Adleman and George Walton, The Devil’s Brigade, 123–24; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 23; Molony V, 517 (eleven tons of steel).
“only an Italian winter”: Vincent M. Lockhart, ts, n.d., 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 179 (American lumberjacks); Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 88 (“potential gangster”); “Special List of Clothing and Equipment,” Sept. 24, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 3 (codeine sulfate).
Leading the gangsters: OH, Paul D. Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI (French Quebec); mss notes, n.d., Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 8 (Son of a San Francisco doctor); obit, Robert T. Frederick, Assembly, spring 1972, 106 (sailed to Australia); Perret, 179 (bedroom slippers); corr, Oct. 20, 1943, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1 (“worthy of trust”); OH, Robert T. Frederick, Jan. 7, 1949, SM, MHI (“lacked guts”); OH, D. M. “Pat” O’Neill, n.d., Robert H. Adleman papers, HIA, box 10 (“casual indifference”).
Their barked fingers blue: Adleman and Walton, 129; Bowlby, 113 (thrown rocks); Joseph A. Springer, Black Devil Brigade, 86 (rock splinters); Robert D. Burhans, The First Special Service Force, 107 (shallow saucer).
A maddening wait: Burhans, 107, 112; Springer, 100–102 (“German was with me”), 95 (“red mist”); Adleman and Walton, 138–44.
Panzer grenadiers counterattacked: Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 24; Springer 88–90, 109–10 (“huge shotgun”); Adleman and Walton, 138; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 108–9 (white flag ruse); affidavits, 2nd Regt investigation, Robert D. Burhans papers, box 19 (“Foxhole Willie”).
“We have passed the crest”: msgs, R.T. Frederick, Dec. 5–6, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 21.
Early on Tuesday morning: Burhans, 120; StoC, 263; Molony V, 517–18 (hilltop monastery); Bowlby, 120–21 (mossy rocks); Moorehead, Eclipse, 64; Burhans, 120; msg, Frederick, Dec. 7, 1943, 1630 hrs, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 21.
Survivors hobbled: Burhans, 120; surgeon’s report, Dec. 2–9, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 19.
“feet of a dead man”: Springer, 118.
With his left flank secured: James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 65; StoC, 274; Frederick L. Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” ts, 1991, Texas MFM, 62 (“Krauts up there”).
He soon learned otherwise: Robert L. Wagner, The Texas Army, 74, 77 (“couple of lizards”); Homer Bigart, “San Pietro a Village of the Dead,” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 20, 1943, in Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 738–45; Don Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 83 (“Rufus the Loudmouth”); Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” 67, 72, 81 (“Die kommen”); Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 235 (“This is fun”).
Two miles west: Bowlby, 141; Jack Clover, ts, n.d., HQ Co., 2/143rd Inf, 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm (“skirmish lines”).
pillboxes emplaced every twenty-five yards: “The Battle for San Pietro,” AB, no. 18, 1977, 1+; Bowlby, 142–45 (fingers shot off).
Roma o morte: author visit, Monte Lungo, May 5, 2004; photos, Italian memorial and museum, Monte Lungo; Wagner, 72 (Al
trails marked with white tape: Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 8–9; John F. O’Malley, “The Operations of Company I, 143rd Infantry, South of Rome,” 1946, IS; Ernie Pyle, “One Demolished Town After Another,” Dec. 28, 1943, Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 733–34; Pyle, 100 (“Brrrr”); Betsy Wade, ed., Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, 34 (wearing packboards); Wagner, 77 (necktie); Lance Bertelsen, “Texans at San Pietro,” Discovery Magazine, University of Texas, vol. 14, no. 2 (1997), http://ftp.cc.utexas.edu/opa/pubs/discovery/disc1997v14n2/disc-sanpietro. html (“husky young men”).
“feel the presence of the enemy”: Margaret Bourke-White, Purple Heart Valley, 42, 147–48 (“lives the longest”); Pyle, 166; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113+; T. Moffatt Burriss, Strike and Hold, 65 (bunt a baseball); Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 51–52 (white phosphorus); memo, “Phosphorus Burns,” consulting surgeon, AAI, Nov. 8, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-235-D; memoir, Edward R. Feagins, ts, n.d., 143rd Inf, Texas MFM, 31; Ross S. Carter, Those Devils in Baggy Pants, 74, 81 (“don’t like this place”).
Raised in the cotton country: Michael S. Sweeney, “Appointment at Hill 1205: Ernie Pyle and Capt. Henry T. Waskow,” 1995, http://www.kwanah.com/txmilmus/36division/archives/waskow/sect1.htm; Michael L. Lanning, “Goodbye to Captain Waskow,” VFW Magazine, May 1981, 19+; Berneta Peeples, “Requiem,” Belton (Tex.) Journal, Dec. 16, 1993, reprint of 1953 article; Bob Tutt, “Young Officer Was Father Figure,” Houston Chronicle, Feb. 6, 1994, 28A.
“I guess I have always appeared”: Henry T. Waskow, “Last Will and Testament,” Temple (Tex.) Daily Telegram, reprinted, Texas MFM.
after almost a week on Sammucro: StoC, 280; Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” 102; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 51–52; Peeples, “Requiem” (“an awful spot”).
Wearing his trademark knit cap: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 133; Lee G. Miller, An Ernie Pyle Album, 90 (“Mr. God”); memoir, James R. Pritchard, 68th Armored FA bn, ts, n.d, ASEQ, MHI, 10 (filling ruts with logs).
“some inert liquid”: Douglas Allanbrook, See Naples, 123; Pyle, 107 (“They slid him”).
after returning to Fifth Army headquarters: Sweeney, “Appointment at Hill 1205.”
Riley Tidwell appeared: ibid.; OH, Riley Tidwell, March 28, 1994, Jane Purtle, Cherokee County Historical Commission, Texas MFM.
“Finally he put the hand down”: Pyle, 107; Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 297 (“I’ve lost the touch”).
Mark Clark had proposed using tanks: StoC, 277–79.
This time the attack would be filmed: Marco Pellegrinelli, La Battaglia di S. Pietro di John Huston, 7–10; Bertelsen, “Texans at San Pietro” (“triumphant entry”); Ray Wells, “Battalion Commander,” Fighting 36th Historical Quarterly, spring 1992 (“a large mower”).
loaders with asbestos gloves: John E. Krebs, To Rome and Beyond, 37; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-USF1-04, box 250, 116; “The Battle for San Pietro,” 1.
The 141st Infantry’s 2nd Battalion: Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 62; Clifford H. Peek, Jr., Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns, 31–32 (“Dead and wounded”); Wagner, 84; Bowlby, 166, 171 (“stupidest assignment”); AAR, 141st Inf, Jan. 11, 1944, Aaron W. Wyatt, Jr., ASEQ, MHI (second attack at six A.M.); corr, Thomas A. Higbie, July 15, 2003, to author (“put that damn rag away”).
Wisps of steam rose: Richard Manton, n.d., 2/141st Inf, 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Calculated, 248; diary, MWC, Dec. 16, 1943, Citadel, box 64, 287 (“What troops”); Texas, 287 (“The losses before the town”).
And then it ended: StoC, 285; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 67; “The Battle for San Pietro,” 1.
“mound of desolation”: Tom Roe, Anzio Beachhead, 37; Homer Bigart, “San Pietro a Village of the Dead,” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 20, 1943, in Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 738–45 (“gray hand hanging limply”).
“journey in Dante’s Inferno”: J. Glenn Gray, The Warriors, 59–60; Zambardi, Memorie di Guerra, 13 (140 San Pietrans). The U.S. Army official history estimated that three hundred San Pietrans died. StoC, 285.
A baby’s corpse: Daniel J. Petruzzi, My War Against the Land of My Ancestors, 147; “The Battle of San Pietro,” Combat Report No. 2, 1945, NARA RG 111, film, CR 002 (folding the hands of dead GIs); Samuel Hynes, The Soldiers’ Tale, 3 (“impenetrable silence”).
“where their bedding fell”: Wagner, 89–90; StoC, 285n.
“Ah! Sweet Mystery”: Bourke-White, 118, 126–29, 131.
“We find the country thick”: JPL, 271; StoC, 286 (“a long way off”); Bruce L. Barger, The Texas 36th Division, 144 (“heartbreaking business”).
For John Huston: Peter Maslowski, Armed with Cameras, 75, 88–93; Bertelsen, “Texans at San Pietro” A Pictorial History of the 36th “Texas” Infantry Division, no pagination (“as good a war film”).
“I was right, wasn’t I?”: Lanning, “Goodbye to Captain Waskow,” 19; Sweeney, “Appointment at Hill 1205” Miller, An Ernie Pyle Album, 92 (Pyle’s column).
“A Tank Too Big for the Village Square”
Life in exile: Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life and Times, 115 (three mattresses); memoir, “Italy,” ts, n.d., Kenyon Joyce papers, MHI, 347 (“social purposes”); corr, GSP to Arvin Harrington Brown, Oct. 22, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27; PP, 362; diary, Sept. 9, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 3.
On mild afternoons: JPL, 147–48; The Princeton Class of 1942 During World War II, 123 (quail hunting); PP, 367, 391 (language lessons); Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 364; Charles R. Codman, Drive, 135 (Wellington); George S. Patton, War As I Knew It, 74 (“a disgusting place”); Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 232 (“too big for the village square”), 262; Robert E. Coffin and Joan N. Coffin, “The Robert Edmonstron Coffin–Joan Nelson Coffin Family Book,” 96 (La Bohème).
Seventh Army was reduced to a shell: PP, 371; msg, W. B. Smith to GSP, Nov. 25, 1943, Walter Bedell Smith papers, DDE Lib, box 27 (signal battalion); diary, Dec. 2, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 4 (“strip the body”); JPL, 147–48; Stanley P. Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 416 (“dessicated”); OH, Garrison H. Davidson, Nov. 1980, John T. Greenwood, CEOH, 231 (“paper dolls”); corr, GSP to Beatrice, Nov. 7, 1943, Beatrice to GSP, Nov. 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 17, folder 20.
issued wicker baskets: Ivan Dmitri, Flight to Everywhere, 191; “Italy,” Kenyon Joyce papers, 355 (“middle of my forehead”); James H. Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, 363; Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, ts, n.d., MRC-FDM, 1988.32, box 215.
“You need have no fear”: Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 213, 215 (“pink medecin”); Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 439 (“at least sixty reporters”); PP, 359, 361.
He took little interest: Carl J. Friedrich, ed., American Experiences in Military Government in World War II, 120; Robert W. Komer, “Civil Affairs and Military Government in the Mediterranean Theater,” 1954, CMH, 2-3.7 AX, VI, 3–6 (“subsistence level”); PP, 371; Dmitri, 192 (feigned pregnancy); Malcolm S. McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” ts, 1975, MHI, 56 (Black marketeering).
Shortages plagued the island: “History of the Island Base Section, Sicily,” n.d., CMH, 8-4 FA, 14, 18 (“every possible ruse”); “Monthly Report for August 1943 on the Administration of Sicily,” n.d., AMGOT, 15th Army Group, to H. Alexander, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI (“Mafia activities”); “Reports of A
The Quaker muckraker: Dennis Showalter, Patton and Rommel, 321; Donald Coe, “Army Releases Patton Story After Denial,” Nov. 23, 1943, Boston Traveler, 1; Richard Collier, Fighting Words, 147; msg, DDE to AGWAR, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD executive files, Nov. 27, 1943, box 14; Chandler, vol. 3, 1606 (Smith in Algiers made matters worse).
Army regulations: reprinted, Army and Navy Journal, Dec. 4, 1973, 394, Orlando Ward papers, MHI; PP, 377 (fifteen hundred letters); Hirshson, 427 (Gallup poll).
“I am not so sure”: corr, GSP to Beatrice, Dec. 4 & 9, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 17; Calculated, 257; Hirshson, 433 (“family of the deceased”); diary, Dec. 25, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 4 (“live to see him die”); Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 81 (“always get in trouble”); corr, L. J. McNair to GSP, Nov. 27, 1943, and GSP to L. J. McNair, Dec. 29, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 418, director of plans and operations, box 1229; corr, GSP to D. S. Miller, Sr., Dec. 27, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 44, folder 1 (“Very few of us”).
“I doubt that I would ever”: msg, DDE to GCM, Sept. 20, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, box 13; PP, 393; D. Clayton James and Anne Sharp Wells, A Time for Giants, 230 (“should always serve”).
Deliverance came: “Log of the President’s Trip to Africa and the Middle East,” Stephen T. Early Papers, FDR Lib, box 37.
“General Patton, you will have an army”: Mark W. Clark, “General Patton,” ts, n.d., subject file, MWC, Citadel, biography folder, box 70, 3; Michael F. Reilly, Reilly of the White House, 188.
burst into sobs: Reilly, 188; William D. Leahy, I Was There, 215–16.
“My destiny is sure”: PP, 391.
A Gangster’s Battle