The Day of Battle (118 page)

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
”).

The 36th, entering combat for the first time:
Lee Carraway Smith,
A River Swift and Deadly,
5; Steven E. Clay, mss, 16th Infantry history [
Blood and Sacrifice
], MRC-FDM, 14 (“
Deep in the Heart of Texas
”); Hickey and Smith, 56 (
Lone Star flag
).

“
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
”).

“
Gunners, man your guns
”: Shapiro, 122; Quentin Reynolds,
The Curtain Rises,
287 (“
ship will be hove to
”);
SSA
, 252; Fulbright, “Altavilla,” 2 (“
Imagination makes cowards
”); John Steinbeck,
New York Herald Tribune,
Oct. 3, 1943, in
Reporting World War II,
vol. 1, 636–37.

Just before ten
P.M.
: chronology, HKH, “Action Report,” NHC; Shapiro, 18 (“
they’re blind
”); AAR, H.M.S.
Brecon,
Sept. 22, 1943, in “Operation
AVALANCHE
—Report on Northern Assault,” Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837 (
ruby glow
);
SSA
, 253 (“
silver sea
”).

Twelve miles offshore:
Pond, 39;
Salerno: The American Operation from the Beaches to the Volturno,
14; Anthony Kimmins,
Half-Time,
204 (“
honeymoon couples
”); Fulbright, “Altavilla,” 2.

Clark stood beside Hewitt:
Reynolds,
The Curtain Rises,
288; Hickey and Smith, 82 (“
You’ll be in total command
”); Jack Maher, memoir, n.d., http://home.wi.rr.com//johnmaher (“
down a ten-story building
”).

“
tall, smiling, appearing unconcerned
”: Reynolds,
The Curtain Rises,
292–93; chronology, HKH, “Action Report,” NHC (“
Arrived at transport area
”); diary, MWC, Sept. 9, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64.

“
What’s the weather like
”:
SSA,
271; Karl Baedeker,
Southern Italy and Sicily,
167; Robert M. Coates,
South of Rome,
52; L. V. Bertarelli,
Southern Italy,
316–17 (
Salerno’s medical school
).

The latter-day town had grown:
Pond, 40–41; Morton, 303, 396 (
predatory Saracens
);
Salerno,
6.

Neither Kesselring nor his lieutenants believed:
“Special Investigation and Interrogation Report: Operation Lightening” [
sic
], March 15, 1947, Military Intelligence Service, Austria, CMH, Geog Files 370.2, 7 and 13; intelligence summary, Sunset No. 91, Aug. 30, 1943, NARA RG 457, E 9026, NSA records, box 1;
SSA
, 261; war diary, Sept. 6, 1943, “Salerno Invasion,” German naval command, box 649 (“
a strike in the direction
”);
StoC,
67; Molony V, 274; Kurowski, 107 (“
large naval force
”).

Following the capitulation announcement:
diary, Wehrmachtführungstab, OKW, Aug. 29, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245 (
invoked ACHSE
);
SSA,
261 (“
completely annihilated
”).

That German might took the form of Tenth Army: StoC
, 67, 69 (“
No mercy
”); A. Kesselring, testimony, war crimes trial, March 3, 1947, NARA RG 492, MTO, AG HQ, 000.5, box 816 (“
a spiritual burden
”); Hickey and Smith, 50; Pond, 9 (“
died as a great soldier
”).

first German unit on the Volga:
Pond, 41; Rudolf Böhmler,
Monte Cassino
, 51 (
four thousand survivors
); MEB, “16th Panzer Division at Salerno,” 1953, OCMH, R-series, NARA RG 319, E 145, R-36, 2–3 (
best-equipped division in Italy
).

Sieckenius had split his forces:
“The German Defense at the Gulf of Salerno,” Feb. 23, 1944, W.O.W.IR. #28, NHC, folder 33, 18–19, 23.

On the far right of the Allied line: StoC,
74; Harold G. Horning, “The Army Years,” ts, n.d., part 2, 155th FA, Texas MFM, 36 (“
stood up to see
”).

Bullets plumped the sea:
Belden, 292; Leo V. Bishop et al., eds.,
The Fighting Forty-fifth,
41 (“
You can’t dig foxholes
”); corr, James E. Taylor, 131st FA Bn, to Walter H. Beck, March 2, 1944, Texas MFM, 2 (“
spring rain
”); AAR, “Historical Record, Headquarters, VI Corps, September 1943,” JPL, MHI, box 12, 3; AAR, “Record of Events,” 142nd Inf, Sept. 3–20, 1943, CARL, N-6818; Chester G. Starr, ed.,
From Salerno to the Alps,
17; “Field Operations of the Medical Department in the MTOUSA,” Nov. 10, 1945, NARA RG 94, E 427, 95-USF2-26-0, 224 (“
Shells were
wopping”); Peek, 21 (“
seemed to rise completely
”); Glenn G. Clift,
A Letter from Salerno,
6–7 (“
boys were on fire
”).

On the beach, soldiers wriggled: Salerno,
21; Peek, 22 (“
a baby girl
”); Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 14; author visits, Oct. 1995, May 2004; Mayo, 178; diary, J. M. Huddleston, VI
Corps surgeon, Sept. 9, 1943, Norman Lee Baldwin papers, HIA (“
great deal of confusion
”).

The first Luftwaffe planes:
H. Kent Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,”
Proceedings,
Sept. 1953, 958+;
SSA,
261; Bill Harr,
Combat Boots,
40–41 (“
Steady, now, steady
”); Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 13 (“
someone had let them down
”); Don Whitehead, “
Beachhead Don,
” 37.

By six
A.M.
two infantry regiments:
“Amphibious Operations,” Aug.–Dec. 1943, CINC, U.S. Fleet, CMH; Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell,
The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat,
335 (
smoke pots
); Paul W. Pritchard, “Smoke Generator Operations in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operation,” n.d., Office of the Chief of the Chemical Corps, CMH, 4-7.1 FA 1, 53; Norman Hussa, “Action at Salerno,”
IJ,
vol. 53, no. 6 (Dec. 1943), 25+; John Steinbeck,
Once There Was a War,
162; “COHQ Bulletin No. Y/25,” Apr. 1944, CARL, N-6530.10; AAR,
LST 324
and
LST 363,
in “Operation
AVALANCHE
—Report on Northern Assault,” Royal Navy, Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837 (“
Ventilation fans sucked smoke
”); “Amphibious Operations,” Aug.–Dec. 1943, CINC, U.S. Fleet, CMH (
compass headings
).