The Day of Battle (144 page)

“
Let’s pick some cornflowers
”: Ryder, 166.

“
What do we do now?
”: Kurzman, 215.

Vehicles crept forward, hauling boats:
newsletter, 8th Indian Division, March–Nov. 1944, Dudley Russell papers, LH, 5;
The Tiger Triumphs,
73 (
banged angle iron
).

Fire they drew, but so did the rest:
Dharm Pal,
The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945,
160–61; Ryder, 166 (“
yellow London fog
”).

Men stumped about in flame-stabbed confusion: The Tiger Triumphs,
73; Pal, 161–62; Field Marshal Lord Carver,
The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945,
184–85 (“
Oh, God, don’t let me die
”).

Twelve of sixteen Gurkha boats:
Pal, 162; Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” III-11; David Scott Daniell,
History of the East Surrey Regiment,
vol. 4, 207.

By midday, no battalion:
Gregory Blaxland,
Alexander’s Generals,
89; Robin Neillands,
Eighth Army,
291 (“
an autocratic man
”); Molony VI, 99 (“
sough and whiffle
”); Parker, 314 (“
passed ever so slowly
”).

Yet the enemy had missed:
Molony VI, 112; Kenneth Macksey,
Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe,
211; Blaxland, 95–96;
CtoA,
55.

Three bridges, dubbed Cardiff, Oxford, and Plymouth:
“Engineers in the Italian Campaign,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/575, 34–35; Pal, 165;
The Tiger Triumphs,
74–75; newsletter, 8th Indian Division, March–Nov. 1944, Dudley Russell papers, LHC.

Upstream between Sant’Angelo and Cassino town:
Daniell,
History of the East Surrey Regiment
; Beckett, 157–58 (“
Cries for help
”); Frank Mills, “Well Dressed at Cassino,” n.d., author’s possession, 3–4 (
glimpses of the abbey
).

Gurkhas twice surged into Sant’Angelo:
Molony VI, 121; Pal, 165;
The Tiger Triumphs,
75–76.

Putrefying corpses were soaked in petrol:
memoir, P. Royle, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 122–23 (“
I had no regrets
”); Connell, 191 (
wounds dressed with paper
); Blaxland, 99 (“
This is real war
”).

They pushed on:
C. N. Barclay,
History of the 16th/5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers
, 125, 126n.

“
He was thrashing and fighting
”: John Ellis,
On the Front Lines,
331.

Two secure bridgeheads merged
:
Battle,
232–33; Molony VI, 80, 123; Trevelyan, 297 (“
Flames of Jerry guns
”).

In four days Eighth Army would advance
: Trevelyan, 272; Molony VI, 128.

“
Mark Clark has laid 4–1
”: Ryder, 170.

Clark had troubles enough:
James C. Fry,
Combat Soldier,
17, 33, 43; John J. Roche, “First Squad, First Platoon,” 1983, 351st Inf, 88th ID, MHI, ASEQ, 6–7; Wyndham H. Bammer, “Operations of Company K, 339th Infantry, in the Attack on Hills 66 and 69,” 1948, IS; Douglas Allanbrook,
See Naples,
179 (“
who gets Rome?
”).

Sheaves of fire from the entrenched 94th Division:
G. K. Tanham, “Battlefield Intelligence in World War II: A Case Study of the Fifth Army Front in Italy,” Sept. 1956, Project RAND, RM-1792, CMH, 42; John J. Roche, “First Squad, First Platoon,” 1983, 351st Inf, 88th ID, MHI, ASEQ, 6 (“
noise was all of a piece
”); John Sloan Brown,
Draftee Division,
107 (
Red tracer vectors
); Eric Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream,
390.

“
a serpentine column of steam
”: Roche, “First Squad, First Platoon,” 13; Sevareid, 388.

Yet neither division moved far: CtoA,
52, 54; Chester G. Starr, ed.,
From Salerno to the Alps,
201–2; http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/2387.htm; Sidney T. Matthews, “Writing Small Unit Actions with the Fifth Army in Italy,” SM, MHI, box 2, 2 (
Frederick Schiller Faust
); Sevareid, 388 (“
stupefyingly dead
”); John E. Wallace,
The Blue Devil “Battle Mountain” Regiment in Italy,
13–18; Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” III-11.

That left Juin’s FEC:
Anthony Clayton,
Three Marshals of France,
83–85; “Draft Report on FEC,” SM, CMH, box 1; Starr, ed., 186–88.

Plunging fire greeted them:
Diana F. Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps in the Battle for Rome,” Cabinet historical section, UK NA, CAB 101/226, 13; Claude R. Hinson, “755th Tank Battalion Supporting the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division of the French Expeditionary Corps During the Advance on Rome,” 1948, IS (
singed hair and burning flesh
); George Bouille and Pierre Le Goyet,
Le Corps Expeditionnaire Française en Italie, 1943–1944,
n.d., MHI, trans. Antonio Ali Winston for author, 56–63 (
Counterattacking grenadiers
).

By midmorning on Friday, May 12:
Douglas Porch,
The Path to Victory,
556; Fred Majdalany,
Cassino,
243; Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps,” 13; Starr, ed., 267n (
casualties approached sixteen hundred
); “Draft Report on FEC” (“
considerable alarm
”); Parker, 320 (“
dead take on a waxy look
”).

Juin went forward shortly before noon:
Michael Carver, ed.,
The War Lords,
607; Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps,” 13 (
three wounded battalion commanders
); Sidney T. Matthews, “The French Drive on Rome,”
Revue historique de l’armée,
special issue, 1957, 128 (“
the wrong foot
”).

Through much of the afternoon he scrambled:
Clayton, 83–85; John Buchan, “Report on a Visit to the French Expeditionary Corps,” n.d., CMH, appendix A, 1 (“
It’s gone wrong
”); “Draft Report on FEC”
CtoA,
61; Porch, 556 (
only reserve division
); Carver, ed., 607 (“
it will go
”).

It went, spectacularly:
Butler, “The French Expeditionary,” 15; Porch, 556; Clayton, 83–85; Bouille and Le Goyet, 74–78 (
reported Monte Majo captured
); Heinrich von Vietinghoff, “71st Infantry Division in Italy,” Sept. 1948, FMS, #C-025, MHI, 7–9, 22; Hans von Greiffenberg, “Field Fortifications in Central Italy,” 1950, FMS, #C-071, MHI, 3–5, 16;
CtoA,
61 (“
Accelerate the general withdrawal
”).

By Sunday the French had advanced:
Starr, ed., 188–89; Matthews, “The French Drive on Rome,” 128–29; Molony VI, 139, 145 (“En avant!”), 140 (“
Most unpleasant
”); Bouille and Le Goyet, 78 (
worse than in Russia
); Parker, 341;
CtoA,
62; Buchan, “Report on a Visit,” appendix A, 1 (“
warfare to which we are accustomed
”).

The unpleasantries had only begun:
“Draft Report on FEC” Starr, ed., 189–92.

“
Dark men, dark night
”: Trevelyan, 271; Robert Capa,
Slightly Out of Focus,
photo, 113; Fry, 43 (“
troops of the last century
”); O’Connor, “
Mektoub,
” 119 (“
dozens of wristwatches
”); Hinson, “755th Tank Battalion,” 10 (
One unit kept a tiger
); Joe Chmiel, “Invasion of Normandy,” ts, n.d., in Matt Urban file, 60th Inf Regt, 9th ID, SOOHP, MHI (“
Smokie, smokie
”).

It was said that in Sicily:
Peter Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin,
47; OH, Robert J. Wood, 1973, William E. Narus, SOOHP, MHI, 3–42; John Steinbeck,
Once There Was a War,
168; Roberta Love Tayloe,
Combat Nurse,
77, 79, 83 (
doctors assigned numbers
); Huebner, 81 (“
sing, chatter, and howl
”); Alan Williamson, “Adviser to French Colonial Troops,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 4 (“
women, horses, and guns
”).

Up and up they climbed:
Starr, ed., 192–93; Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps,” 19 (“
sky was a changeless blue
”).

By four
P.M.
on May 15:
Starr, ed., 192–93; Molony VI, 149 (“
falling boulders
”); Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps,” 21; Buchan, “Report on a Visit,” appendix F (“
grinning savages
”).

Men and beasts had exhausted themselves:
“Draft Report on FEC.”

On the French left:
Brown, 117, 120;
CtoA,
65–68, 77; Starr, ed., 207 (
dust-churning flotilla
).

“
rushed off his feet
”: Buchan, “Report on a Visit,” 1; Matthews, “The French Drive on Rome,” 128–29 (
nearly extinct 71st Division
);
CtoA,
86 (
no more than one hundred riflemen
); Starr, ed., 210 (
terrorizing horses
); Macksey, 212 (“
One could cry
”).

All this buoyed the Allied high command:
diary, MWC, May 14, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“
very pleased
”); Carver, ed., 607 (“
We’ve got them
”).

Only Clark remained somber:
diary, MWC, May 14, 1944, Citadel, box 65;
CtoA,
77; Tanham, “Battlefield Intelligence in World War II,” 53 (
compared with two miles
);
CtoA,
71–73 (“
disciplinary action
”); Brown, 127 (
traffic snarls
).

“
I am disappointed
”: diary, MWC, May 14, 1944, Citadel, box 65; GK, May 14, 1944 (“
Called me about 6 times
”).

Even as he lashed
: Starr, ed., 226; diary, MWC, May 15, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“
effort of the Eighth Army
”).

That same Eighth Army:
Anders, 178; Terlecki, 83; Kurzman, 237; Ken Ford,
Cassino 1944,
78–79; Molony VI, 130n (“
oddments
”); Rudolf Böhmler,
Monte Cassino,
266 (“
Impossible to get wounded
”).

In danger of encirclement:
Albrecht Kesselring,
The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring,
200–205; Jean-Yves Nasse,
Green Devils,
113; Nigel Nicolson,
The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945,
vol. 2, 427; Butler, ed., “Human Interest,” 4; war diary, 1st Guards Bde, May 18, 1944, UK NA, WO 170/514 (“
Cassino is lost
”).

The struggle for the high ground:
“Operations by 2nd Polish Corps,” 40; Anders, 179 (
six-man patrol
); John H. Green, “The Battles for Cassino,”
AB,
no. 13, 1976, 1+ (
cracked church bell
); Piekalkiewicz, 181 (
Benedict’s candlelit crypt
).

Just before ten
A.M.
the lancers’:
Anders, 178; Parker, 352-53; http://www.krakowinfo.com/signal2.way; Trevelyan, 274.

At 11:30
A.M.
British signalers
: Butler, ed., “Human Interest,” 4; Nicolson, 427–28; Ryder, 169; “Operations by 2nd Polish Corps,” 41; Molony VI, 134; Smith, 172 (“
means a great deal
”).

For the first time in five months:
war diary, 1st Guards Bde, May 18, 1944; Betsy Wade, ed.,
Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart,
44–45; General Sir Sidney Chevalier Kirkman, “3rd and 4th Cassino,” Royal Artillery Historical Society,
Proceedings,
vol. 11, no. 3, Jan. 1969, 94+.

In the abbey itself, further investigation:
Trevelyan, 274; Tommaso Leccisotti,
Monte Cassino,
132–33; E. T. DeWald, “Inspection Trip to Abbey of Monte Cassino, May 27, 1944,” Henry C. Newton papers, MHI (“
a Mesopotamian tell
”).

A solitary American fighter pilot:
Parker, 357; Walter Robson,
Letters from a Soldier,
96–97.

General von Senger, freshly bemedaled:
Frido von Senger und Etterlin, “War Diary of the Italian Campaign,” 1953, FMS, #C-095b, MHI, 124; Vietinghoff, “71st Infantry Division in Italy,” 31 (
found the Gustav Line ruptured
); Molony VI, 114, 143 (“
frightful
”); Frido von Senger und Etterlin, “The Drive on Rome,” Sept. 1951, FMS, #C-097b, MHI, 11 (“
the corps had been breached
”); Neil Short,
German Defences in Italy in World War II,
9n.

“
It was left to me
”: Frido von Senger und Etterlin,
Neither Fear nor Hope,
248.

The task was formidable:
Albert Kesselring et al., “German Version of the History of the Italian Campaign,” n.d., CARL, N-16671.1-3, 216; Walter Warlimont, “OKW Activities—The Italian Theater, 1 Apr.–31 Dec. 1944,” n.d., FMS, #C-099b, MHI, 23 (
spotter planes
); F. M. Sallagar, “Operation
STRANGLE
: A Case Study of Tactical Air Interdiction,” Feb. 1972, RAND, R-851, 68 (“
unremitting Allied fighter-bomber
”); II Corps G-2, May 19, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6 (
horses had been killed
); memo, Joseph L. Langevin, VI Corps G-2, to LKT Jr., May 18, 1944, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 13, folder 4 (
59 German battalions
); John Ellis,
Brute Force,
324 (
only 405 men fit to fight
).

Italian supply-truck drivers:
journal, Fourteenth Army, May 19–22, 1944, “The German Operation at Anzio,” Apr. 1946, WD, John Lucas papers, MHI, box 9, 104; Kesselring et al, “German Version,” 127 (
barrages severed phone lines
); A. G. Steiger, “The Italian Campaign,” July 1948, historical section, Canadian Army HQ, report no. 20, MHI, 59 (“
I demand a clear picture
”); F. W. Winterbotham,
The Ultra Secret,
116.