The Day of Battle (139 page)

Alexander concurred, as did Clark:
memo, A. Gruenther to I. Eaker, Apr. 5, 1944, in “The Bombardment of Cassino,” CARL, N-6058; diary, MWC, March 23, 1944, Citadel, box 65.

That calumny:
“Notes on Converation Between Commander 13 Corps and Lieut. Col. Nangle, commanding 1/9 Ghurka Rifles,” ts, May 28, 1944, in diary, General Sir Sidney Chevalier Kirkman, Jan.–Sept. 1944, LHC; Trevelyan, 207 (
paper bag holding a
carrier pigeon
); Smith, 138 (“
spot of shooing
”); Kirkman, article on 3rd and 4th Cassino, 94+.

At 8:15
P.M.
on Friday, March 24:
“Operations of N.Z. Corps,” 43–44; Molony V, 801n; Majdalany,
Cassino,
204, 209 (
keg of rum
); Smith, 138 (“
Never will I forget
”).

By late Saturday, a swastika flag:
Senger, “War Diary of the Italian Campaign,” 93; Trevelyan, 208 (“
a heavy fall of snow
”).

The New Zealand Corps disbanded at noon:
Prasad, ed., 142; Phillips, 341; Molony V, 803. During the last three weeks of March, the 1st Parachute and 15th Panzer Grenadier Divisions reported 1,800 casualties, but during the eleven-day battle for Cassino in March the German losses are estimated at roughly 1,200.

“
that valley of evil memory
”: Parton, 360; GK, March 24, 1944.

“
a persistent feeling that something, somewhere
”:
StoC,
447; Molony V, 806; Smith, 141 (“
The strongest defences in Europe
”); Phillips, 344 (“
little of that tactical originality
”).

Something
had
gone wrong:
Brian Holden Reid, “The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945:A Reappraisal of Allied Generalship,”
Journal of Strategic Studies,
March 1990, 128+; OH, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Aug. 17, 2004, author (“
unsynchronized schemes
”); OH, Robert J. Wood, March 4 and 15, 1948, SM, MHI (
probing for soft spots
); “Report on Cassino Operations,” June 5, 1944, HQ, Fifth Army, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI, 21 (
almost 600,000 artillery shells
); Phillips, 338 (“
a battle of the First World War
”).

the strategy of
“
naked attrition
”: Molony V, 806n, 835, 852 (“
a crawling monster
”); Chester G. Starr, ed.,
From Salerno to the Alps,
120 (
six hundred tanks parked
); Phillips, 339 (
never could fling more than one-tenth
); J.F.C. Fuller,
The Second World War, 1939–1945,
272; Reid, “The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” 128+; Smith, 144 (“
military sins no less
”).

“
Bombardment alone never had
”:
Calculated,
331; corr, E. N. Harmon to MWC, March 28, 1944, ENH, box 1.

“
A little later when snow goes off
”: Churchill,
Closing the Ring,
509 (“
war weighs very heavy
”); Fuller, 274 (“
presiding deity
”).

It weighed heavy on the far side:
Senger,
Neither Fear nor Hope,
219.

Dragonflies in the Sun

“
After you get whipped and humiliated
”: Parker, 69; Howard H. Peckham and Shirley A. Snyder, eds.,
Letters from Fighting Hoosiers,
vol. 2, 71 (“
a callousness to death
”); corr, 324th Service Group, n.d., censorship morale reports, NARA RG 492, MTO, AG, 311.7 (“
We get quite a kick
”).

“
One goes on fighting, killing
”: Trevelyan, 1; Sevareid, 417; John Muirhead,
Those Who Fall,
4, 122.

“
Watched an amputation last night
”: diary, John G. Wright, American Field Service driver, May 29, 1944, author’s possession, 26; Schrijvers, 77 (“
possessed by a fury
”); e-mail, David Roberts to author, May 23, 2003 (
flatulent noises
); J. Glenn Gray,
The Warriors,
139, 164 (“
help me to keep my humanity
”).

A survey of infantry divisions:
Schrijvers, 77; John B. Romeiser, ed.,
Combat Reporter,
211 (“
The more you hate
”); Wagner, 64 (“
He has no right to do this
”); Collins, 97 (
wounded German prisoners
); Trevelyan, 149 (“
sure hate their guts
”).

“
There’s no rules in this war
”: Quentin Reynolds,
The Curtain Rises,
212; “Comment Sheets,” censorship reports, NARA RG 492, MTO G-2, box 387 (“
Take No Prisoners
”).

“
three R’s—ruthless, relentless, remorseless
”: diary, Norman Lee Baldwin, Dec. 13, 1943, HIA, N. L. Baldwin papers.

“
This is a war for keeps
”: Annette Tapert, ed.,
Lines of Battle,
124.

Eager boys no longer scaled:
John Patrick Carroll-Abbing,
But for the Grace of God,
63; Daniel Lang, “Letter from Rome,”
New Yorker,
July 15, 1944 (
Allied flags flapped
); Jane Scrivener,
Inside Rome with the Germans,
26 (
Jumpy German sentries
).

“
dragonflies in the sun
”: Scrivener, 60, 134–35 (
those queued up for water
); Robert Katz,
The Battle for Rome,
205–19 (
a B-17 day
); Trevelyan, 229–30 (
Graffiti on city walls
); George F. Botjer,
Sideshow War,
103 (“
Allies, don’t worry
”).

“
Everything went
”: Scrivener, 36; Walter von Unruh, “Inspection of Italian Theater of War,” 1947, FMS, #D-016, MHI, 17 (“
Do you want work?
”); Walter Warlimont, “OKW Activities—The Italian Theater, 1 Apr.–31 Dec. 1944,” n.d., FMS, #C-099b, MHI, 13 (
Fifty thousand Italians
).

The shadows soon deepened:
Michael Burleigh,
The Third Reich,
741–42; Richard Lamb,
War in Italy, 1943–1945,
41–42 (
arrest all Jews in the city
), 55; Botjer, 100 (
son of a Stuttgart chauffeur
); Trevelyan, 62, 117 (“
intolerant, cold, vengeful
”); Alessandro Portelli,
The Order Has Been Carried Out,
85–86; Martin Gilbert,
The Second World War,
467; Katz, 71–75; Dan Kurzman,
The Race for Rome,
61; U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site, articles on Italy and Rome, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/.

Even for Romans not facing extermination:
C.R.S. Harris,
Allied Administration of Italy, 1943–1945,
170; Trevelyan, 229 (
felling trees
); Robert H. Adleman and George Walton,
Rome Fell Today,
81–82 (
neighborhoods went without power
); “Contributions of Italy Toward the Allied War Effort,” Aug. 31, 1945, OSS, MHI Lib, 38n (
infant mortality spiked
); Kurt Mälzer, “The Problem of Rome During the Fighting Near Anzio-Nettuno,” Jan. 1948, FMS, #D-314, MHI, 8 (
destruction of supply trucks
).

Prices doubled:
Botjer, 92; Katz, 283, 276 (
shot them as they faced the Tiber
); Trevelyan, 229 (
ground chickpeas
).

Blackshirts finding a film too tedious:
Botjer, 95; Scrivener, 148 (
five hundred eavesdroppers
), 152 (
priest condemned for subversion
); Trevelyan, 287; Portelli, 125.

Soon half of Rome was said to be hiding:
Lang, “Letter from Rome” Trevelyan, 97; Kurzman, 183 (
had their shoes removed
); Anthony Cave Brown,
The Last Hero,
492 (“
They pulled out the hairs
”); Riccardo Luzzatto,
Unknown War in Italy,
114 (“
Long live Italy
”).

Allied planes flying from Brindisi:
“History of Special Operations (Air) in the Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., U.K., NARA RG 94, E 427, 95-USF-2-0.3.0, 270/50/29-30/G-1, 5; Eugene Warner, “Morale Operations, Report for 16–30 April 1944,” HQ 2677th HQ Co., OSS, MO branch, NARA RG 226, OSS history office, E 99, box 25, folder 1, 1–9 (
Intended to inspirit Italian insurgents
); OSS activities, March 1944, NATOUSA, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 122; Anthony Cave Brown, ed.,
The Secret War Report of the OSS,
222 (Das Neue Deutschland).

In Rome, the OSS by March 1944:
“Italian Operations Centering on Rome,” n.d., NARA RG 226, OSS history office, E, 99, box 41; Carl J. Friedrich, ed.,
American Experiences in Military Government in World War II,
133; Patrick K. O’Donnell,
Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs,
62 (
German order of battle
).

No OSS spy in Rome was more flamboyant:
Katz, 49; http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/annual_of_bernard_shaw_studies/v024/24.1carter.html (
George Bernard Shaw
); diary, Peter Tompkins, Jan. 1944, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, 190/6/10/7, box 47, 21, 42, 49 (
a Roman prince
); “Peter Tompkins, Author,” obituary,
WP,
Feb. 1, 2007, B-6.

Favoring a blue sharkskin suit:
Katz, 144; Peter Tompkins, “The OSS and Italian Partisans in World War II,”
Studies in Intelligence,
spring 1998, http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/spring98/OSS.html (
daily radio bulletins
); Brown,
The Last Hero,
487–88, 495; “Italian Operations Centering on Rome.”

Still, it was part of the good fight:
diary, Tompkins, Feb.–March 1944, 55–58, 77, 61, 67, 70–71, 130; Brown, ed., 202; Brown,
The Last Hero,
494.

An
estimated 25,000 Italian partisans:
“Contributions of Italy Toward the Allied War Effort,” 26–27; “The Resistance Movement in German-Controlled Italy,” CCS Joint Intel
Committee, March 8, 1944, weekly summary, #61, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 326; Luzzatto, 80–82.

“
Singing at the top of our lungs
”: Katz, 204.

From the Piazza del Popolo:
diary, Tompkins, 127–28; Portelli, 134.

He was in fact a medical student:
Katz, 49–51, 57–62; Portelli, 161; author visits, May 10, 2004, Dec. 1, 2006.

As the singing troops approached:
transcript, war crimes trial of Albert Kesselring, Feb.–Apr. 1947, Venice, NARA RG 492, MTO, AG HQ, 290/53/32/5-6, 000.5, boxes 816–18; Katz, 62, 72, 224.

“
blown down by a great wind
”: Trevelyan, 213; Portelli, 136–37, 139 (“
pulp with a coat
”); Katz, 68; diary, Tompkins, 127–28 (
at least one head
); Trevelyan, 213 (
firing wildly
).

Lieutenant Colonel Kappler was enjoying:
Katz, 58–62; transcript, Kesselring trial (
thirty-two men dead
); Kurzman, 176 (“
Revenge!
”); Portelli, 142 (
water and salt
).

Late that afternoon the German high command:
transcript, Kesselring trial.

“
I am giving you now a Führer order
”: ibid.; Kenneth Macksey,
Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe,
207; Lamb, 57.

Kappler spent all night:
Katz, 101, 116–18; Lamb, 59 (
Kappler added fifteen more
); Trevelyan, 222; Portelli, 150, 175.

“
I feel the flowers growing
”: http://www.john-keats.com/biografie/chapter_viii.htm#last_days_and_death; Portelli, 7 (
tuberoses perfumed the air
); transcript, Kesseling trial (
Five sharp cracks
).

Five by five by five they staggered:
Katz, 140–42; Portelli, 28.

Relatives of the dead from the Bozen Regiment
: Botjer, 100.

A brief public statement:
Katz, 273; Lamb, 61; “Under the German Yoke,” ts, n.d., CEOH, X-39, 12–13, 16 (“
You will be avenged
”).

“
When Rome falls
”: memo, Wallace Carroll to “Bannes,” Psychological Warfare Bureau, May 31, 1944, Wallace Carroll papers, LOC, box 1, folder 6.

Not for three months:
diary, Tompkins, Jan. 19, 1944; statement, Brother Robert Pace, Oct. 1946, NARA RG 492, JAG war crimes branch, box 2046; Portelli, 191.

some Roman families received a curt note:
Portelli, 188, and jacket art from archive of the Associazione Nazionale tra le Famiglie Italiane dei Martiri.

“
I dream of the hills
”: Trevelyan, 230.

C
HAPTER
11: A K
ETTLE OF
G
RIEF

Dead Country

Fifth Army meteorologists for months:
Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller,
America’s Weather Warriors,
257, 282n; William Murray, “Naples: Variations on a Neapolitan Air,”
NYT,
Nov. 19, 2000 (
one eye open
); Tom Gidwitz, “The Hero of Vesuvius,” 2005, http://www.vesuvius.tomgidwitz.com/html/the_hero_of_vesuvius.html, chapter 7; “Activity of Vesuvius Between 1631 and 1944,” http://vulcan.fis.uniroma3.it/vesuvio/1944eng_text.html; “Vesuvioinrete, il portale del vulcano Vesuvio,” http://www.vesuvioinrete.it/e_storia.htm; Moorehead,
Eclipse,
69; memo on Vesuvius eruption, “Report of Mission,” May 5, 1944, Fifth Army, MWC corr, Citadel, box 3 (
the smoke stopped
); Spike Milligan,
Where Have All the Bullets Gone?,
20–21 (
more anxious
).

The eruption began at 4:30
P.M.
:
Susan Sontag,
The Volcano Lover,
in Alice Leccese Powers,
Italy in Mind,
288–89; Walter L. Medding, “The Road to Rome,” ts, n.d., CEOH, box X-38, 58; Alton D. Brashear,
From Lee to Bari,
203–5; Eric Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream,
367–69 (“
The risk of life
”); Norman Lewis,
Naples ’44,
104–6;
Texas,
342 (
Peasants wept
).