The Day of Battle (123 page)

Airdromes at Foggia:
Mary H. Williams, ed.,
Chronology, 1941–1945
,
USAWWII
, 138.

Everywhere, Allied forces:
Gerhard L. Weinberg,
A World at Arms,
616–17, 636, 643; Gilbert, 455, 462–64 (“
We are still retreating
”).

“
He always wants speed
”: JPL, 165, 167.

“
Rome by Christmas
”: Strome Galloway,
A Regiment at War,
103; Chandler, vol. 3, 1485; Russell B. Capelle,
Casablanca to the Neckar,
21 (
studying German
); Ralph Bennett,
Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy,
252 (“
strength to make a front
”); Gilbert, 455 (“
as soon as the Russians
”); Robert Sherwood,
Roosevelt and Hopkins
, 764 (“
should be in Rome
”).

“Watch Where You Step and Have No Curiosity at All”

inaugural crossing in Europe: From the Volturno to the Winter Line,
53.

“
Sleep, swine
”: Audie Murphy,
To Hell and Back,
31; John A. Elterich, “Patrol Actions Prior to and During the Operation of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment,” 1948, IS, 11; Tregaskis, 169–72.

rafts borrowed from the Navy:
OH, Robert Petherick, n.d., CMH, Geog, Italy, 370.24; Orrin A. Tracy, “The Operations of the 7th Infantry, Volturno River Crossing,” 1946, IS, 14, 19; Barry W. Fowle, ed.,
Builders and Fighters,
425–27;
CM,
268–69.

“
Unfortunately I’m beginning to realize
”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, Sept. 1, 30, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6;
StoC,
197–98 (
1:55
A.M.
); “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, CMH, Geog Italy, 353, 41 (
three miles wide
).

British infantrymen struggled:
Chester G. Starr, ed.
From Salerno to the Alps,
45–46; memoir, Aidan Mark Sprot, ts, 1947, LHC, 93; “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary of Operations Carried Out by British Troops Under Command 5 U.S. Army,” n.d., CMH, 370.2, 15–16 (
six hundred yards deep
);
CM,
271; Moorehead,
Eclipse,
62.

With his left flank exposed:
aide’s diaries, Oct. 13, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3; AAR, “Report on Crossing of the River Volturno,” 36th Engineer Regt, Nov. 5, 1943, JPL, MHI, box 11; Will Lang, “Lucian King Truscott, Jr.,”
Life,
Oct. 2, 1944, 96+ (“
Have you tried it?
”).

At eleven
A.M.
the first Sherman: From the Volturno to the Winter Line,
31; Beck et al., 176; AAR, H. K. Koberstein, 10th Engineer Bn, “Engineer Phase on the Crossing of the Volturno River,” Nov. 3, 1943 (
eighty jeeps
); “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary of Operations Carried Out by British Troops,” 36 (
only 3,500 engineers
[as of early November]); Leslie W. Bailey,
Through Hell and High Water,
131; Edmund F. Ball,
Staff Officer with the Fifth Army,
232.

“
Like the earthworm
”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, Oct. 14 and 22, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.

Anglo-Americans had advanced thirty-five miles:
Albert Kesselring et al., “German Version of the History of the Italian Campaign,” CARL, N-16671.1-3, 36; Kenneth S. Davis,
Soldier of Democracy,
450 (“
masterminding
”).

Italy would break their backs:
“Narrative: Operations Against Italy,” Oct. 20, 1943, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI.

German demolitions had begun:
“Engineer History, Fifth Army,” 7, 10 (“
only five prefabricated
”), 77 (“
whole trees to bulls
”); “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters”(“
no bridge or culvert
”); diary, MWC, Nov. 1, 1943, Citadel, box 64 (
one thousand bridges
); Fowle, ed., 191 (
three thousand spans
); Beck, 178 (
eighteen feet in ten hours
).

“
new tracks across the rubble
”:
CM,
263; Ralph G. Martin,
The G.I. War, 1941–1945,
105 (“
broken bathtubs
”); “Engineers in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” 23 (
rolling mills
); Beck et al., 175 (
They used timber
).

“
It got darker
”: Don Robinson,
News of the 45th,
149; Frank Henius,
Italian Sentence Book for the Soldier,
1943 (
raining torrents
); Ronald Blythe, ed.,
Private Words,
4 (“
one may write of mist
”); Lawrence D. Collins,
The 56th Evac Hospital,
94 (“
spots on the dice
”), 121; memoir, Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 181 (
pooled in their messkits
).

“
The desert war
”:
Battle,
122; Peter Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin,
247 (“
honest color
”); Martin, 105 (“
too thick to drink
”); Albert F. Simpson, “Air Phase of the Italian Campaign to 1 January 1944,” June 1946, AAFRH, #115, CMH, 351n (
undermined air superiority
); John North, ed.,
The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945
, 117 (“
savage versatility
”); Don Woerpel,
A Hostile Sky,
140 (“
German weather
”).

Mines made it much worse:
OH, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Aug. 17, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.;
From Pachino to Ortona,
Canadian Army at War, CARL, N-14352, 104 (“
All roads
”); “German Tactics in Italy, No. 1, Salerno to Anzio,” May 28, 1944, AFHQ, G-2, CMH, Geog files, 11–12; John H. Roush, ed.,
World War II Reminiscences,
60–61 (“
I never had a moment
”); “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters” (“
Watch where you step
”).

“
you could follow our battalions
”: report, AGF Board, Dec. 5, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0; Frank Gervasi, “Battle at Cassino,”
Collier’s,
March 18, 1944, 20+;
Gerald Linderman,
The World Within War,
117 (“
nutcracker
”); Charles F. Marshall,
A Ramble Through My War,
19; Beck et al., 181; G-2 Periodic No. 28, II Corps, Aug. 9, 1943, Benjamin A. Dickson papers, MHI, box 4; report, AGF Board, Dec. 5, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0 (
two chaplains lost legs
).

“
A man’s foot
”: Klaus H. Huebner,
A Combat Doctor’s Diary,
73; OH, Richard A. Williams, Jan. 25, 2003, with author (“
they would still scream
”); Bill Mauldin,
The Brass Ring,
200; James Phinney Baxter III,
Scientists Against Time,
101–2; Fowle, ed., 164–68; Beck et al., 183; Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer,
The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services,
vol. 2, 331 (“
M dogs
”).

expedient fighting withdrawal:
Kent Roberts Greenfield, ed.,
Command Decisions,
235.

an intense debate raged:
Walter Warlimont,
Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945,
385–86; David Irving,
The Trail of the Fox,
309–10 (“
Domineering, obstinate
”).

Italy remained a comparatively minor theater:
Molony V, 381–82; Rudolf Böhmler,
Monte Cassino,
67–68 (
more vulnerable to enemy bombers
).

The Italian peninsula was narrowest:
H. Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” CMH, II-7; brochure, “Ciociaria: A Land to Experience,” n.d., Regione Lazio, 33 (
wolves and bears
); memo, A. Kesselring, Nov. 1, 1943, A. G. Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” Nov. 1947, Canadian Army hq, Ottawa, appendix L (“
impregnable system
”); Wallace, 101 (“
break their teeth
”).

changed his mind in favor of Kesselring:
Böhmler, 71; Basil Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers,
445–47; Kenneth Macksey,
Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe,
186 (“
leadership without optimism
”); Thomas R. Brooks,
The War North of Rome,
28 (“
extraordinarily brave
”).

“
I’ll take it as it comes
”: Liddell Hart, ed., 447; Greenfield, ed., 242 (“
end of withdrawals
”); Irving, 311–14 (“
hard times lie ahead
”).

Thanks to Ultra:
Ralph Bennett,
Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy,
251–53; F.H. Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War,
173–74.

“
We are committed
”: “Review of Battle Situation in Italy, 21 October 1943,” in H. Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” CMH, II-50, II-13 (“
cul-de-sac
”);
GS
V, 69 (
only eleven facing a German force
); Molony V, 474n (
Twenty inches of rain
);
StoC,
219–20 (
less than a mile a day
). The German force in Italy soon reached twenty-five divisions.

“
essential for us to retain the initiative
”: Chandler, vol. 3, 1529.

Nor did the high command: StoC,
185–87; Winston S. Churchill,
Closing the Ring,
247 (“
vindicates our strategy
”).

The prospect of waging:
Molony V, 473;
StoC,
187 (
line on a map
).

Alexander’s despondency
: W.G.F. Jackson,
Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander,
248; Gervasi, 518 (“
punch, punch, punch
”); Lord Tedder,
With Prejudice,
488 (“
ever get to Rome
”).

“
ancient truths
”: Jackson, 253; corr, B. L. Montgomery to A. F. Harding, Oct. 31, 1943, Bernard L. Montgomery collections, IWM, ancillary collections 14, file 3.

The Mountainous Hinterland

“
The road to Rome is a long one
”: JJT, XIII, 12.

among two thousand veterans transferred:
memo, LKT Jr. to MWC and CG, NATOUSA, Dec. 17, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0.

“
Life is good
”: JJT, X-1, 5; Biddle, 169, 172.

Victory Road:
Gervasi, 513; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-USF1-04, box 250, 10 (“
mountainous hinterland
”); Alice Leccese Powers,
Italy in Mind,
64 (
chimneys poking like snorkels
); McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” 65 (
Peasants keened
); Biddle, 187, 204 (“
Nothing I can do
”).

Across the cobblestones: StoC,
210, 218; Lewis, 161; Marshall, 20 (
diapered in newspapers
);
George Biddle’s War Drawings,
2 (“
The stretchers are coming
”).

Biddle sketched the tableau:
Biddle,
Artist at War,
166–67, 204, 219; Brown, 337 (
powdered water
); Lloyd M. Wells,
From Anzio to the Alps,
35 (“
Easy, boys
”).

For a few weeks, Biddle:
George Biddle, “Report from the Italian Front,”
Life,
vol. 16, no. 1 (Jan. 3, 1944), 13+;
George Biddle’s War Drawings,
2 (“
a swivel chair
”); Biddle,
Artist at War,
176 (“
killing instincts
”).

“
Bragg would look good
”: JJT, X-6, 17; Biddle,
Artist at War,
194–95;
George Biddle’s War Drawings,
3; corr, LKT Jr. to DDE, Nov. 24, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 11, folder 11 (
two other battalion commanders
).

“
climbing a ladder
”: Richard Doherty,
A Noble Crusade,
169; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, DTL, Ft. B, 113 (
dull the glint
), 48 (
mewing cats
); Arnball, 161 (
Barbasol
);
CM
, 276 (
lack of overcoats
); Bourke-White, 142 (
debated with theological intensity
).

“
I’m goddam sick and tired
”: Biddle,
Artist at War,
197, 207, 212–13.

“
Be alert and live
”: ibid., 228–30 (“
lips parted in that rictus
”), 216–20 (“
all the way into Germany
”); Biddle, “Report from the Italian Front,” 13+;
CM,
283 (“
haggard, dirty
”).

“
Just so many dead
”: Biddle,
Artist at War,
233 (“
wrestling with the dead
”), 177 (“
I wish the people at home
”); JJT, X-22 (“
my continued existence
”).

The panorama from Monte Cesima: Fifth Army at the Winter Line,
8.

“
Every step forward
”:
StoC,
231–32.

“
a steep, solid rock
”: Bowlby, 58;
The Grenadier Guards, 1939–1945
, 31 (
only German pickets
).

Three panzer grenadier counterattacks:
Michael Howard and John Sparrow,
The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946
, 167, 170 (
stripping rations
); David Erskin,
The Scots Guards, 1919–1955
, 186; Molony V, 453.