The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
“I had to throw dirt at it”: testimony, Clarence D. Dalton, II Corps, Jan. 25, 1944, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2.
“The attack last night was a failure”: diary, Jan. 21, 1943, FLW, HIA, box 1; Blumenson, Bloody River, 102.
“bend every effort”: StoC, 341; GK, “Statement Covering the Rapido River Operation” (staff officers with a clipboard).
“Anybody can draw lines”: diary, Jan. 21, 1944, FLW, HIA, box 1.
An Ultra intercept two nights earlier: Hinsley et al., 510–11; MEB, “Shifting of German Units Before and During Nettuno Landing,” Jan. 1956, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R-75, 26; Blaxland, 38; Ralph Bennet, “Ultra and Some Command Decisions,” in Walter Laquer, ed., The Second World War: Essays in Military and Political History, 223; StoC, 319 (“a slender thread”).
“a dead man every ten yards”: Smith, 60; Bill Hartung, ts, n.d., 143rd Inf, Texas MFM website, 36th ID Assoc, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm (“what we were walking on”).
On the division left, the 143rd Infantry: Volheim, “The Operations of the 3rd Battalion” StoC, 341, 343 (“couple of fingers shot off”); Smith, 57 (“my last old day”).
neglected to bring an air compressor: Leonard B. Gallagher, II Corps engineer, “Memo C/S,” Jan. 24, 1944, addendum, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2; Blumenson, Bloody River, 105–15 (found no survivors); AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineer Regt (“draw more of our troops over”); StoC, 351 (Some soldiers had balked).
“Fire wholeheartedly”: Wagner, 112–14. Another account quotes Chapin’s war cry as, “Fire foolhardily, men, fire foolhardily!” Smith, 53–54.
Corraled by minefields and barbed wire: The 141st Infantry bridgehead on January 22 was estimated as two hundred yards deep by six hundred yards wide. “Synopsis of 36th Inf. Div. Activity,” Jan. 24, 1944, II Corps, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2; Wagner, 114 (“May I shake hands?”).
GIs inched forward: Russell J. Darkes, “Twenty-five Years in the Military,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 28; affidavit, George G. Davis, 16th Engineer Bn, n.d., IG investigation, CMH, 370.2 (“Get out of your holes”); Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 116–17 (“pushed his body along”).
A private sobbed: Ralph G. Martin, “Rapido Fight Shapes Up as One of Toughest Yet,” Jan. 25, 1943, Stars and Stripes, 1; Gervasi, 544 (PIECES); Allan Palmer, “Casualty Survey, Cassino, Italy,” Wound Ballistics, 536–37 (“definitive treatment”).
Certainly the doctors were busy: Charles M. Wiltse, The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters, 244; Smith, 72, 74 (“Patch up these holes”).
Three hundred German artillery rounds: AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID, chronology; GK, Jan. 22, 1944 (“Something wrong”); testimony, Leonard B. Gallagher, II Corps engineer, Jan. 24, 1944, and Wade M. Green, II Corps assistant engineer, Jan. 25, 1944, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2; AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineer Regt (“Talking or coughing drew fire”); AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID, chronology (“no work being done”).
Smoke hardly helped: Kleber and Birdsell, 444–45 (complained about German smoke); testimony, Henry H. Carden, XO, 143rd Inf, IG investigation, March 1, 1944, NATOUSA, NARA RG 492, 333.5, box 1055; testimony, Kenneth F. Zitzman, II Corps signal officer, Jan. 27, 1944, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2 (only fifty yards).
“a pathetic inertia”: Blumenson, Bloody River, 116; testimony, William B. Chase, II Corps asst. G-3, Jan. 25, 1944, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2 (“The situation as I saw it”); GK, “Statement Covering the Rapido River Operation” Texas, 311–13 (“groggy”).
But Clark in a phone call: GK, Jan. 22, 1944; diary, FLW, Jan. 22, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“not going to do it anyway”); memo, William A. Walker, “Report of Interview”(“might as well call it off”).
Clark “seemed inclined to find fault”: GK, Jan. 23, 1944; diary, FLW, Jan. 22, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“I have done everything possible”); Krebs, 50 (“Too many damned Germans”).
“Tell me what happened”: diary, GK, Jan. 23, 1944; diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, HIA, box 7.
As soon as Clark and Keyes drove off: memo, W. H. Wilbur, Jan. 23, 1944, FLW, HIA, box 7; diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, HIA, box 7.
By midday on Sunday: Clifford H. Peek, Jr., ed., Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns, 39; AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID, chronology; StoC, 346; Ray Wells, “Battalion Commander” (deflected by the Parker pen); Smith, 62–63 (“I guess it’s your leg”).
swam the river with one foot blown off: Peek, ed., 39; Shelby Foote, The Civil War, vol. 2, 520 (inured to supplication); AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID (“American firing had ceased”); Bruce L. Barger, The Texas 36th Division, 170–71 (“I was never the same”).
Official medical records: Wiltse, 244n.
Some counts were a bit lower: corr, Robert P. Patterson, WD, n.d., and corr, WD, Apr. 3, 1946, in “The Rapido River Crossing,” U.S. House, 31; StoC, 346; memo, Thomas North to A. Gruenther, “Rapido Operation Action,” March 18, 1946, and attached note to Gruenther, Apr. 5, 1944, MWC, Citadel, box 39; Wagner, 121n.
Clark would accuse Walker: OH, MWC, Rittgers, 71. Redacted pages opened at author’s request.
The Germans found 430 American bodies: analysis, “Effect of Rapido Operation on German Plans and Dispositions,” n.d., MWC, Citadel, box 39; diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, HIA, box 7 (“Freuen wir uns”).
“I had 184 men”: William L. Allen, Anzio: Edge of Disaster, 39; Wagner, 92; testimony, Andrew F. Price, 26–30 (Two scarecrow battalions); AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineer Regt (“bad tangled mess”); Bowlby, 171 (“crying halt”).
Clark soon summoned Walker: Texas, 322–23,
“No, you are doing all right”: memo, William A. Walker, “Report of Interview” Texas, 322, 325 (“I am marked for relief”); OH, Adams, 1975, Monclova and Lang (“no sins of commission”).
“a series of mishaps”: StoC, 350; Calculated, 282 (“If I am to be accused”).
“Some blood had to be spilled”: StoC, 347–48; Battle, 181; Blumenson, Bloody River, 127 (failed to enlighten Walker).
“From a military standpoint”: Wagner, 227; OH, Frido von Senger u. Etterlin, Sept. 22, 1955, Philip A. Crowl, SM, MHI, 2; MEB, “Shifting of German Units Before and During Nettuno Landing,” 27; Mavrogordato, “XIV Panzer Corps Defensive Operations,” 44.
“The attack was insufficiently planned”: Charles W. Pence, “An Interview with Genfldm Albert Kesselring, Rapido River Crossing,” May 6, 1946, ETHINT 71, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1; Wallace, 113 (“this ain’t the place”); Lloyd M. Wells, From Anzio to the Alps, 50 (“untainted by association”).
“edge of mutiny”: corr, Goode to Wagner, n.d., Texas MFM; C. L. Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 231; AAR, “143rd Infantry,” Jan. 1944, ASEQ, MHI (“cannon fodder”); Blumenson, Bloody River, 142 (“faulty orders”).
That resolution would be revivied: StoC, 351; “The Rapido River Crossing,” U.S. House, Feb. 20 and March 18, 1946; Wagner, 224 (“Walker’s mental attitude”).
“Nothing was right except the courage”: Parker, 124.
“den englischen Kommandeur”: diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, box 7; Wagner, 123 (towels and iodine).
They found a few survivors: Bill Adler, ed., World War II Letters; Ray Wells, “Battalion Commander” (half his face blown away).
For three hours they gathered the dead: Texas, 318; notebook, Will Lang, n.d., USMA Arch (German photographers); Hal Boyle, quoted in Gervasi, 546 (“blow that place all to hell”).
The short peace ended: Bond, 49; AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID; Smith, 107; Sulzberger, 223 (ravenous dogs).
The Show Must Go On
Much has happened through antiquity: Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles, 197; H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Southern Italy, 275–76 (sixty trapdoors); Norman Lewis, Naples ’44, 154 (lions here refused to eat); http://www.geocities.com/lorensophia/bio.html.
the staging for SHINGLE neared co
A festive mood: Fred Sheehan, Anzio: Epic of Bravery, 35; Wells, 51 (Columns of jeeps); SSA, 333 (Italians vendors sang out); Peter Verney, Anzio 1944, 29 (Irish Guardsmen marched); Leo G. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XXII-8; F. J. Lowry, “The Naval Side of the Anzio Invasion,” Proceedings, Jan. 1954, 22+ (portable organ); diary, Robert M. Marsh, Jan. 21, 1944, 81st Armored Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI.
Bum boats swarmed: Verney, 29; diary, William Russell Hinckley, Jan. 1944, author’s possession (“dagoes were fast”); Hans Juergensen, Beachheads and Mountains, 27 (“The show must go on”).
Robert Capa arrived: Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 120; Robert W. Black, Rangers in World War II, 136 (6615th Ranger Force).
Boarding the Princess Beatrix: AAR, “Report of Actions,” 1st Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–Feb. 5, 1944, USMA, micro, MP63-8, roll 1; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 217; Verney, 26 (“love and nickel beer”).
“All that fanfare”: Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 281–82.
“no inclination to lighten burdens”: CM, 295; JPL, 305 (turnover of lieutenants); aide’s diaries, Jan. 21, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (silver nitrate).
“I have many misgivings”: JPL, 322–23.
The commander of VI Corps: JPL, 141 (iron-tipped cane), 310 (“I feel every year”); Raleigh Trevelyan, Rome ’44, 42 (“Father Christmas”); D.H.L. Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 201 (“layers of overcoats”).
Born in West Virginia: Benjamin S. Persons, Relieved of Command, 82; JPL, 2; OH, MWC, Rittgers, 66 (privately preferred).
Lucas drove a jeep: JPL, 145, 217 (“unutterable swine”); Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, 30 (“by the yard”); Allen, 46; Carver, Harding of Petherton, 125; Ball, 316 (“never seemed to want to hurt”); Nicolson, 233 (“no presence”); John Nelson, “Always a Grenadier,” ts, 1982, LHC, 38 (“our spirits sank” 4); L. James Binder, Lemnitzer, 118–20 (yellow fever).
“I think too often of my men”: JPL, 230, 295 (“led to slaughter”), 305 (“OVERLORD would be unnecessary”), 320, 322; Greenfield, ed., 254 (“desperate attack”); OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI; John S. D. Eisenhower, They Fought at Anzio: A Study in Command (forthcoming, University of Missouri Press, 2007), mss 178 (last will and testament).
Could Alexander and others have: Greenfield, ed., 256; weekly intelligence summary, No. 74, Jan. 24, 1944, AFHQ, CMH, Geog files, Italy, 370.2, 6 (“very questionable”); “Outline Plan, Operation SHINGLE,” Jan. 12, 1943, Fifth Army, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI (“lowering of morale”); Anzio Beachhead, 6–7 (no more than 31,000 Germans); memo, E. Hughes to W. B. Smith, Feb. 1, 1944, Walter Bedell Smith papers, DDE Lib, box 7 (“entertainment fund”).
Lucas beheld a different vision: “Outline Plan, SHINGLE,” Jan. 18, 1944, VI Corps, G-2, JPL papers, MHI, box 11; memo, Joseph L. Langevin, VI Corps G-2, to JPL, Jan. 4, 1944, JPL papers, MHI, box 12 (“even under favorable conditions”); JPL, 305 (“Gallipoli”).
“John, there is no one”: JPL, 305.
Under Alexander’s instructions to Clark: Greenfield, ed., 251.
“seize and secure a beachhead”: “Outline Plan, Operation SHINGLE,” Jan. 12, 1944, Fifth Army, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R 97-I, box 270; Greenfield, ed., 251–53 (Clark remained deliberately vague); diary, MWC, Jan. 9, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“feature duster”).
In a private message: JPL, 307.
“Don’t stick your neck out”: JPL, 333; OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (“goddam Rome”).
The XII Air Support Command: “Operation Plan SHINGLE,” Jan. 8, 1944, XII Air Support Command, JPL papers, MHI, box 11; “Notes by Comd 1 (Br) Division,” Jan. 2, 1944 (“advance north towards fulfillment”), and Jan. 20, 1944 (“at last talking of plans”) William R. C. Penney papers, LHC, Penney 8/2; Field Order no. 19, Jan. 15, 1944, VI Corps, NARA RG 319, OCMH, historical background files, American Forces in Action, Anzio, box 119; Nigel Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 441 (“complete nonsense”).
The British failed to disembark: AAR, “The First Division in Action,” Apr. and July 1944, Philip L. E. Wood papers, LHC, Wood 2/2; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” XXII-11 (only eleven of thirty-seven); J. W. Totten, “Anzio Artillery,” ts, 1947, CGSC, Ft. L, CARL N-2253.6, 7; SSA, 332; JPL, 321 (“I stood on the beach”).
“If this is to be a forlorn hope”: diary, MWC, Jan. 19, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“overwhelming mismanagement”); CM, 304 (“I’ve got your report”).
land of omen and divination: Livy, The War with Hannibal, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt, 89, 94.
ancient sailors’ injunction: Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 119, 120 (“more like a review”); aide’s diaries, Jan. 21, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (at 5:20 A.M.); Anzio Beachhead, 14 (Others snoozed); Robert M. Hill and Elizabeth Craig, In the Wake of War, 55; diary, Hinckley, Jan. 1944 (“Most talk is of home”).
“More training is certainly necessary”: JPL, 319, 284–85 (“Little Big Horn”).
CHAPTER 8: PERDITION
“Something’s Happening”
Only the bakers were astir: OH, Silvano Casaldi, director, Museum of the Allied Landings, Nettuno, May 7–8, 2004; e-mail, Silvano Casaldi to author, May 25, 2004; C.R.S. Harris, Allied Administration of Italy, 1943–1945, 160 (coastal exclusion zone); Francesco Rossi and Silvano Casaldi, Those Days at Nettuno, 39–41.
Dusted with flour: Rossi and Casaldi, 32–39, 44–50, 54–55; Frank M. Snowden, The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900–1962, 186.
“Keep still a moment”: Rossi and Casaldi, 44–50.
Three miles offshore: aide’s diaries, Jan. 22, 1944, LKT Jr., papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3; Charles Moran, “The Anzio-Nettuno Landings, January 1944,” n.d., SEM, NHC, box 49, 31; memo, Henry W. Noel, scout boat officer, “Report of marking of Ranger beach for SHINGLE,” Jan. 23, 1944, SEM, NHC, box 47; Anzio Beachhead, 14; JPL, 325; AAR, “Beach Landing,” May 30, 1944, PBS Branch, Military Intelligence Div, WD, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 491 (“a tremendous noise”).
Before the war: Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, 10–11; Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 527–28; L. V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 246; William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, act V, scene 6; Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Coriolanus*.html; Raleigh Trevelyan, Rome ’44, 41, 71; SSA, 335 (Fortune).
Anchoring the VI Corps left flank: AAR, “Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation SHINGLE,” March 15, 1944, VI Corps, NARA RG 407, 206-3.0, box 3740, 4; SSA, 339 (“No amount of shouting”); AAR, A. G. Young, 3rd Beach Group, March 15, 1944, UK NA, CAB 106/393, 2 (“waste of time”); Vaughan-Thomas, 3 (“half-plucked fowl”).
twelve-foot lanes were cleared: AAR, “Beach Landing,” May 30, 1944, PBS Branch, WD, Military Intelligence Div, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 491; John Lardner, “Anzio, February 10th,” The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 260–61 (sleeping in a cowshed); D.J.L. Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 216 (“very gentlemanly”).
Truscott’s 3rd Division made land: Unable to secure a license, the casino had never opened. Author visit, May 7, 2004; OH, Casaldi; William O. Darby and William H. Baumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 147; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 218 (Christmas tree); “Report on Enemy Demolitions at Anzio-Nettuno,” March 1, 1944, AFHQ, G-2, CARL, N-6961 (twenty tons of explosives); Trevelyan, 43 (Wehrmacht rustlers).
“could not believe my eyes”: JPL, 325; diary, MWC, Jan. 22, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (??
Truscott made for shore: aide’s diaries, Jan. 22, 1944; SSA, 341; StoC, 359 (blowing up bridges).
By sunrise at 7:30: “The Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation SHINGLE,” 4; Rossi and Casaldi, 101–3 (Soldiers liberated six women).
DUKWs rolled through the streets: film, “Liberation of Rome,” Combat Report No. 1, 1944, NARA RG 111, CR001; Lardner, “Anzio, February 10th,” 48; Milton Bracker, “When the Fight Means Kill or Be Killed,” NYT Magazine, May 28, 1944, 10 (“dusty, sweaty”); Vaughan-Thomas, 91 (“Move on, superman”); Don Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 100–103 (“did not miss a man”).
Success brought sightseers: diary, MWC, Jan. 22, 1944, Citadel, box 65; S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 305 (Anzio’s port).
“a chief umpire visiting”: David Erskin, The Scots Guards, 1919–1955, 201; Fitzgerald, 218 (“I am very satsified”); Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 231 (two men complimented Lucas); Vaughan-Thomas, 51 (“they concurred”).
Left alone to command his battle: The VI Corps command post formally moved ashore at two P.M. on January 23. “The Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation SHINGLE,” 6; author visit, May 7, 1944; Rossi and Casaldi, 158 (Sycamores ringed); JPL, 337 (brandy glass). By another account, the half-empty glass contained wine. Rossi and Casaldi, 158.
By midnight on D-day: daily troop strength, Jan. 22, 1944, JPL papers, MHI, box 12; “The Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation SHINGLE,” 5–6; StoC, 359 (“very hard to believe”).
White haze scarped the hills: Bertarelli, 233; Trevelyan, 41 (riding a white mule), 54.
“We knew the lights meant”: JPL, 340; Darby and Baumer, 149.
Thirty-four miles from this window: Molony V, 648; “Miscellaneous Intelligence,” Jan. 10, 1944, VI Corps, JPL papers, MHI, box 11 (BOTANY); StoC, 385.