Assignment to Hell (81 page)

50.
Kansas City Star
, datelined April 4, 1945.

51.
Letter from Hal to Frances, March 24, 1945.

52.
Ibid.

53.
Kansas City Star
, datelined April 27, 1945.

54.
Ibid., datelined May 1, 1945.

55.
Interview with Brian Rooney, May 2010.

56.
Interviews with and e-mails from Ed Boyle, Jr., 2010.

57.
Stars and Stripes
, May 8, 1945, p. 1.

58.
Kansas City Star
, datelined May 4, 1945.

59.
Article by Don Whitehead,
AP World
, Summer 1947.

60.
Kansas City Star
, datelined May 14, 1945.

EPILOGUE

A Good Age

1.
Wade, pp. 84–85; also
New York Herald Tribune
, September 2, 1945, p. 1.

2.
Ibid., p. 56; also
New York Herald Tribune
, November 15, 1944.

3.
Interviews with Colleen Sheets and Sally Sheets Wiggin, 2010–2011.

4.
Ibid.

5.
www.303rdbg.com
.

6.
www.6thbeachbat.org
.

7.
Interviews with Rigg friends Sunny Smith and Lester Trott from the Annapolis Yacht Club, April 2011.

8.
AP Boyle column, June 11, 1947.

9.
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 125.

10.
Ibid.

11.
Ibid.,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 128.

12.
Rooney
, My War
, p. 272.

13.
Interview with Andy Rooney, April 2011.

14.
Rooney,
My War
, p. xiii, foreword by Tom Brokaw.

15.
Ibid.

16.
AP telegram, January 1945, in Boyle’s papers.

17.
Boyle-Tebbel proposal, undated (but probably 1946), in Boyle’s papers.

18.
Kansas City Star
, datelined June 3, 1945.

19.
Boyle,
Help, Help!
, p. 16.

20.
New York Times
obituary of Boyle, April 1974.

21.
Arnett, p. 118.

22.
Calvin Trillin’s April 1974
New Yorker
tribute to Boyle, reprinted in the
Kansas City Star
, May 2, 1974, p. 20D.

23.
Interview with Andy Rooney, April 2011.

24.
Don Whitehead tribute to Boyle, undated (but clearly spring 1974), published as a bylined column, clip courtesy of Ed Boyle, Jr.

25.
Quoted in
New York Times
obituary of Boyle, April 1974.

26.
Trillin, April 1974
New Yorker
tribute to Boyle.

27.
Quoted in
New York Times
obituary of Boyle, April 1974.

28.
Personal correspondence in Boyle’s personal papers.

29.
Quoted in Wade, p. xvi.

30.
Ibid.

31.
Ibid, p. xxiii.

32.
Interview with Neil Sheehan, May 2011.

33.
Karen Rothmyer, “The Quiet Exit of Homer Bigart,”
American Journalism Review
, Fall 1991,
www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1543
.

34.
Ibid.

35.
Interview with Betsy Wade, March 2010.

36.
Photo caption in Wade, following p. 182.

37.
Rothmyer.

38.
Interview with Betsy Wade, March 2010.

39.
New York Times
obituary, April 17, 1991.

40.
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations
, p. 165.

41.
D-Day Plus 20 Years
, CBS News documentary, 1964.

42.
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations
, pp. 166–67.

43.
Gallez,
Château de Vouilly
, p. 24.

44.
E-mail from Alastair Layzell, August 2011.

45.
Hamill, p. 313.

46.
Interview with Pete Hamill, July 2011.

47.
Hamill, p. 310.

A-20 bombers, 1–5, 98

A-36 Invaders, 185, 189, 223, 224

Aachen, Germany, 402, 406, 408, 425

ABC News, 369

Abrams, Creighton W., Jr., 421

Abwehr
(German spy agency), 193

Acme Pictures, 292

Adams, Howard, 142, 143

Adriatic Sea, 336, 339

African-American soldiers, 354–55

Afrika Korps, 101, 104

Agrigento, Sicily, 200, 201

Air Gunner
(Rooney and Hutton), 250

Aix-en-Provence, France, 341

Akers, Mert, 89

Alabama
(Confederate raider), 86

Alban Hills, Italy, 18, 236

Albania, 227–29

Alexander, Shana, 448

Alexander, Sir Harold, 75, 82, 192, 215, 218, 220, 224, 236, 238, 239, 455

Algeria, 75, 91, 92, 112

Algiers, 101

Allen, Terry de la Mesa, 99, 195

Amblève River, 417–18

Ambrose, Stephen E., 298

America First movement, 48, 186

American Civil War, 156, 218

American forces

First Allied Airborne Army, 352–54, 380–82

First Army, 250, 267, 285, 288, 291, 292, 312, 330, 333, 345, 347, 353, 394, 410, 414, 424, 429, 434, 435

First Bomb Wing, 141–42

First Infantry Division (Big Red One), 10–11, 17, 20, 91–92, 99, 100, 105, 113, 195, 196, 198, 202, 259, 277, 304, 317–18, 325–26, 332, 333, 394–95, 440

Second Armored Division, 198, 200, 440

II Corps, 103, 104, 112, 312

Second Bomb Wing, 163

Second Infantry Division, 302, 304, 440

Third Armored Division, 408, 428, 440

Third Army, 112, 310, 311, 322, 330–32, 333, 339, 345, 346, 353, 401, 414–15, 419, 432, 434

Third Infantry Division, 195, 198, 200–2, 204, 341, 440

Third Infantry Division, Second Battalion, 177–88

Fourth Armored Division, 422

Fourth Infantry Division, 14, 15, 270–71, 304, 316, 318, 363, 372

Fifth Army, 18, 19, 219–24, 264, 335, 336

Fifth Infantry Division, 331, 440

Sixth Amphibious Naval Beach Battalion, 9

Sixth Armored Division, 432

Sixth Naval Beach Battalion, 24

Seventh Armored Division, 348, 389

Seventh Army, 177, 178, 192, 196, 202, 210, 343

VII Corps, 272, 273, 287, 311

Seventh Infantry Regiment, 179

Eighth Army Air Force, 1, 124, 126–27, 133, 135, 143, 150, 153–55, 160, 161, 164, 165, 174, 249, 315

Eighth Corps, 328

Ninth Air Force, 167, 249, 252, 279, 285, 330, 350

Ninth Armored Division, 429, 430

Ninth Infantry Division, 270–71, 286, 318, 408, 435, 440

12th Air Support Command, 222–23

12th Army Group, 288, 330, 353, 354, 362, 391, 416

Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, 179

Seventeenth Field Artillery, 37, 54, 66, 103

26th Division, 196, 197, 198

26th Regimental Combat Team, 105

28th Infantry Division, 363, 372

29th Infantry Division (Blue and Gray), 296, 298, 301–4, 304–6, 311

30th Division, 186, 315, 316, 318, 330, 412, 419

American forces (
cont.
)

Thirty-fifth Infantry Division, 302

36th Infantry Division, 214–15, 218, 222, 225, 231–33, 440

37th Tank Battalion, 421, 422

39th Regiment, 435–36

44th Bomb Group, 142

45th Infantry Division, 195, 199–202, 204–6, 222, 440

Forty-seventh Bombardment Group, 98

69th Infantry Regiment, 136

79th Infantry Division, 270–71, 290

82nd Airborne Division, 15, 197–99, 258, 271, 381, 384, 440

83rd Infantry Division, 428

Ninetieth Infantry Division, 331

91st Bomb Group, 143

101st Airborne Division, 15, 112, 258, 352, 378, 381, 383, 384, 385–88, 414, 421, 440

102nd Cavalry Group, 363

102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 298–99

113th Cavalry Group, 426

116th Infantry Regiment, 304, 305

141st Infantry Division, 214

142nd Regiment, 215

285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, 410

291st Engineer Combat Battalion, 419

303rd Bomb Group (Hell’s Angels), 2, 8, 133, 143–44, 150, 156, 248, 459

305th Bomb Group, 143

306th Bomb Group, 128, 133, 248

314th Infantry Division, 272

351st Bomb Group, 160

359th Squadron, 150, 153

366th Tactical Fighter Group, 313, 315

427th Bomb Squadron, 6, 21–22

445th Bomb Group, 162, 163

453rd Bomb Group, 163

807th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, 227–29

820th Engineer Aviation Battalion, 127

825th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 419

Darby’s Rangers, 337

Fighting 69th Division, 434

American Red Cross, 250

AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories), 205

Amsterdam, Holland, 281, 354

Andrews, Dana, 159

Anti-Semitism, 92

Antiaircraft weapons, 122, 145, 151

Antwerp, Belgium, 391, 417

Anzio beachhead, Italy, 17, 18, 218, 235–40, 442

Apennines, Italy, 218

Appian Way, Italy, 236, 237

Ardennes Forest, Belgium, 332, 401, 409–12, 416, 417, 418, 425

Area bombing, 125, 126, 155

Argentan, France, 330, 331

Arnett, Peter, 453

Arnhem, Holland, 382, 384, 385

Arnim, Jürgen von, 103

Arno River, 336

Arnold, Hap, 160, 173

Art theft, 335

Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts
, 447

Artwork, Dutch, 397

Associated Press (AP), 2, 8, 16, 17, 22, 26, 38–40, 80, 90, 94, 95, 130, 133–35, 147, 160, 177, 200–1, 230, 251, 260, 261, 266–69, 288, 292, 293, 449, 452

Astor, Lady, 249

Atlanta Constitution
, 389

Atlantic, Battle of the, 54, 56

Atlantic Wall, 271

Atlas Mountains, 103

Aubel, Belgium, 406–8

Aulock, Andreas von, 328

Auschwitz concentration camp, 445

Avranches, France, 324, 329

Axis Sally, 237

Azores, 82

B-17 Flying Fortresses, 1–6, 8–9, 21–22, 121–24, 128, 140, 141–45, 150–53, 156–59, 162–63, 166–67, 174, 175, 192, 251, 253, 315

B-24 Liberators, 124, 128, 142, 143, 145, 162, 163, 192, 251, 253, 260–61, 315

B-26 Marauders, 4, 125, 168–73, 192, 243–44, 251, 273

Baade, Paul, 302

Bad Godesberg, Germany, 434

Bagnoles de l’Orne, France, 333, 344, 346, 347

Bailey, William, 320–22

Baillie, Hugh, 56, 246–47, 254

Baine, Hubert, 435–36

Balkan Peninsula, 339

Baltimore Afro-American
, 91

Banshee
(B-17), 121–24, 145

Barbara Line, 218

Barker, John C., 157

Barneville, France, 272, 289

Barton, Raymond, 363

Bastogne, Belgium, 112, 414, 419, 421–22, 425

Bataan peninsula, 208

Battle of San Pietro, The
(documentary), 230, 234–35

Bayeux, France, 288

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), 260, 362

Bear, Paul, 395

Belden, Jack, 177, 182, 409, 410

Belfort, France, 363

Belgium, 387, 390, 391, 398, 401, 406–15, 417–20, 434, 435–37, 439

Bennett, Homer W. “Benny,” 318–19

Bernard, Lyle A., 177–82, 184–87

Bethnal Green tube station tragedy, England, 129

Bigart, Anna Schardt, 34

Bigart, Homer S., 33–34, 52, 68, 154, 158

Bigart, Homer William, 17, 27, 28, 136, 244, 247, 359, 385, 447

article on
The Duchess
mission by, 151, 153

Atlantic crossing of, 69–71

censorship and, 206–8, 218

childhood of, 34

combat missions flown by, 25, 124, 143–45, 149, 455

combat training and, 139, 140

Cronkite and, 117, 133–34, 146, 207, 455

death of, 455

on flak farms, 164–66

in France, 334, 339–44

on French Resistance, 339–42

Îles d’Hyères islands and, 334, 337–39, 442

insecurity of, 51

in Italian campaign, 18–19, 218, 221, 224, 227, 230–40, 334–36, 339, 344, 418, 442, 453, 454, 455

Japanese surrender and, 441

Kennedy assassination and, 455–56

in Korea, 452, 453

marriages of, 454

at
New York Herald Tribune
, 34–35, 50, 51, 441, 453

at
New York Times
, 453, 454

in North African campaign, 76

in Pacific Theater, 344, 442

Patton and, 112, 210

personality of, 34

physical appearance of, 34, 117, 454

postwar reunions and, 450

Pulitzer Prizes awarded to, 27, 442, 453, 454

Rooney and, 117–18, 250, 455

Shackeroo
story by, 166–67

in Sicilian campaign, 177, 180–89, 192–94, 198, 202–11, 217, 260, 442

speech impediment of, 34, 35, 118, 207, 454