The Day of Battle (147 page)

“
We are taking chances
”: diary, FLW, May 30, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6.

Albert Kesselring was alive:
Matthews, “Drive to Rome,” 269;
CtoA,
186; AAR, Schmalz; Kurowski,
Battleground Italy,
224 (
The 362nd
); journal, Fourteenth Army, May 31, 1944, 118 (
thirty-three tanks
).

“
Douse that cigarette
”: memoir, Harvey Reves, ts, n.d., Texas MFM.

“
No news here
”: Wagner, 161; George Kerrigan, “The Velletri Road Block,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM (
vowing to court-martial
); AAR, “Operations in Italy, May 1944,” 142nd Inf Regt, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6 (“
breathless anticipation
”).

At eleven
P.M.
, an hour late:
AAR, “Operations in Italy, May 1944,” 142nd Inf Regt, ASEQ, MHI; Bruce L. Barger,
The Texas 36th Division,
186 (“
expected to meet the enemy
”); Eric Sevareid, “On the Standards of the 36th Proudly Inscribe ‘Velletri,’”
American Legion,
in
A Pictorial History of the 36th “Texas” Infantry Division
(“
corn popping
”); OH, George Lynch, 142nd Inf, Jan. 16, 1950, SM, MHI.

The first gray wash:
AAR, “Operations in Italy, May 1944,” 142nd Inf Regt, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6; James M. Estepp, “I Left My Friend on Mt. Artemisio,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM (
tiny figures in field gray
).

Behind the column came the bulldozers:
Sevareid, 405; Fisher, “A Classic Stratagem,” 5, 14–15; corr, FLW to Gov. Coke Stevenson, July 24, 1946, FLW papers, HIA, box 3; “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., MHI, 128 (
two-man timber saws
); Barger, 189 (“
Up, up, up
”); Wagner, 171 (“
white tracing tape
”).

Through the night:
Scott, 72; AAR, 143rd Inf Regt, vol. I, June 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6 (“
crows on a telephone line
”).

Kesselring learned that the enemy:
Matthews, “Drive to Rome,” 267–71, 274–75, 287, 298 (
mounted on bicycles
);
CtoA,
185; journal, Fourteenth Army, May 31, 1944, 117.

“
cork out of a champagne bottle
”: Adleman and Walton, 17; OH, Paul D. Adams, 143rd Inf CO, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI; corr, FLW to C. Stevenson, July 24, 1946; Michael B. Anderson, “Personal History,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM (“
I measured him
”); OH, David W. Sisco, B Co., 142nd Inf, May 1950, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 5 (
filled with cognac
).

“
state of perturbation
”: Sevareid, “On the Standards of the 36th”
Texas,
377 (“
Most unbecoming
”).

Through Thursday afternoon:
Fisher, “A Classic Stratagem,” 15–17; memoir, Paul H. Duffey, 141st Inf, ts, n.d., Texas MFM (“
didn’t bother me
”);
CtoA,
200; dispatch, Wick Fowler,
Dallas Morning News,
n.d., in
A Pictorial History of the 36th “Texas” Infantry Division
(“
The town is yours
”).

“
torn wide open
”: AAR, Schmalz; Molony VI, 276; Wagner, 180 (“
Going fine
”).

Expulsion of the Barbarians

Cypress trees stood sentinel:
Harold L. Bond,
Return to Cassino,
182; Sevareid, 408 (
dead man’s boots
); Gray, 108; O’Rourke, 197 (
scratched their initials
).

“
Over each one of them
”:
Il Tempo,
June 1, 1984, from “The First Special Service Force: Participants in the Liberation of Rome,” ts, n.d., MHI, 3; James O’Neill, “Welcome to Rome,”
Yank,
June 18, 1944, 10+ (“
Is he hurt
”).

Clark took nothing for granted: CtoA,
188 (“
handsprings
”), 192 (
369,000 strong
); Starr, ed., 254; Howe, 337; msg, A. Gruenther to MWC, June 2, 1944, 2230 hrs, MWC, Citadel, box 63.

“
I’m disappointed in the 45th
”: G-2/G-3 journal, VI Corps, June 2, 1944, 1840 hrs, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6.

With casualties climbing:
Most of the damaged tanks were disabled by mines and soon repaired. Molony VI, 272, 277 (“
a combined attack
”); addendum, “Statistical Data on Italian Campaign,” in corr, E. N. Harmon to GCM, July 15, 1944, GCM Lib, box 70; Matthews, “Drive to Rome,” 411 (“
get into the act
”); “Clark’s Mother Happy,”
NYT,
June 5, 1944, 4 (“
frazzled out
”).

“
Rome is now in Allied hands
”: diary, MWC, June 2, 1944, Citadel, box 65; Churchill,
Closing the Ring,
608; Neillands, 299 (
few Tommies could be found
); Patrick Howarth,
My God, Soldiers,
165 (
Polish contingent
).

“
The attack today
”: diary, MWC, June 2, 1944, Citadel, box 65.

Valmontone was found abandoned:
Molony VI, 276; journal, 3rd ID, June 2, 1944, 0730 hrs, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 8;
CtoA
, 202, 206; Schrijvers, 123 (
Italian barbers
).

Palestrina, an ancient Etruscan town:
Karl Baedeker,
Central Italy and Rome,
482–83; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestrina.

That would be his last dispatch:
JJT, XIV-14-16; OH, Russell W. Cloer, May 26, 2005, phone interview from Tampa; Russell W. Cloer, “A Short War Story,” ts, 1998, 7th Inf Regt, 3rd ID MHI, ASEQ.

“
I am sending them home
”: memo, MWC to A. Gruenther, June 7, 1944, MWC, Citadel, box 63.

“
Perhaps he was kept overseas
”: JJT, XV-8-11, 14.

Even before the American thrust:
Warlimont, “OKW Activities,” 36.

On June 2, he advised Berlin:
Ultra intercepted these dispatches. Ralph Bennett,
Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy,
285–86; Böhmler, 285 (“
huge snake
”).

Vietinghoff himself was a casualty: CtoA,
199; Blaxland, 131.

Kesselring had earlier proposed: CtoA,
203, 206; Molony VI, 235, 281 (“
Führer decision
”); Trevelyan, 305 (
Elefante
).

The sound of gunfire:
John Patrick Carroll-Abbing,
But for the Grace of God,
106; Jane Scrivener,
Inside Rome with the Germans,
197, 187 (“
Brighter Berlin
”), 193; Lynn H. Nicholas,
The Rape of Europa,
239 (
white peacocks
); Walter L. Medding, “The Road to Rome,” ts, n.d., CEOH, box X-38, 76 (
pilfered the silverware
).

“
Germans streaming through
”: diary, Tompkins, 272; Daniel Lang, “Letter from Rome,”
New Yorker,
June 17, 1944, 65+ (
three and four abreast
); Scrivener, 195–96 (“
Wild-eyed, unshaven
”).

And in the Gestapo cells:
Kurzman, 356–57.

niggling suburban gunfights:
Molony VI, 281; Starr, ed, 263; Burhans, 242.

“
Looks as if the Boche
”: journal, VI Corps, G-3, June 3, 1944, 1305 hrs, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6; Howe, 339; Howze, 113.

“
No one is doing any work
”: msg, A. Gruenther to MWC, June 3, 1944, 1615 hrs, MWC, Citadel, box 63; intel summary #333, II Corps, June 3, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 8 (“
a rout
”); msg, MWC to corps commanders, June 3, 1944, 1642 hrs, II Corps, G-3 journal, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 8 (“
destroy the enemy
”).

Precisely who first crossed:
memos, MWC, “Initial Entry into Rome,” Aug. 31 and Nov. 16, 1944, in “Reports on Capture of Rome,” Chester G. Starr papers, HIA, box 1; dispatch, Seymour Korman,
Chicago Tribune,
June 9, 1944, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1;
CtoA,
212–16.

Traffic jams and friendly fire:
OH, Cairns, Apr. 24, 1950; Howe, 344; Sevareid, 410; Richard Collier,
Fighting Words,
157; diary, MWC, June 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (
Clark left Anzio
); Fred Sheehan,
Anzio: Epic of Bravery,
210 (“
I’m holding off the artillery
”).

As he walked with Frederick:
Clark later hung the perforated sign on his garden wall.
Calculated,
363–64; Maurine Clark,
Captain’s Bride, General’s Lady,
114.

“
one little gun stopping us
”: OH, Cairns, Apr. 24, 1950; GK, June 4, 1944.

By late Sunday the rear guards:
journal, VI Corps, G-3/G-2, June 4, 1944, 1215 hrs, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6; Howe, 345–46 (
chocolate bars
); Adleman and Walton, 210 (
bombed that too
); John J. Roche, “First Squad, First Platoon,” ts, 1983, 351st Inf Regt, 88th ID, ASEQ, MHI, 22 (“
too cluttered
”); Alton D. Brashear,
From Lee to Bari,
238 (
S.P.Q.R.
).

Howze at twilight led a tank company:
Howze, 117;
CtoA,
218; Howze, “The Rome Operation,” 19 (“
kissed me
”); AAR, 351st Inf Regt, June 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 7 (“
Vino offered
”); Howe, 346; Roche, “First Squad, First Platoon,” 22; David Hunt,
A Don at War,
259; OH, Russell Cloer, 3rd ID, Sept. 11, 2001, ROHA (
summary execution
); Charles F. Marshall,
A Ramble Through My War,
107 (“
won’t be hard to be killed
”).

Frederick set out for the Tiber:
Burhans, 244–45;
CtoA,
218-19; dispatch, Korman, June 9, 1944;
Register of Graduates,
USMA, 1989 ed., 359; Adleman and Walton, 218.

“
a complete hysteria
”: Howe, 346; Lang, “Letter from Rome,” 65+ (“
Weekend!
”); Martin Blumenson,
Mark Clark,
215–16; Sherman W. Pratt,
Autobahn to Berchtesgaden,
403 (“
Welcome to the Liberators
”); Sheehan, 213;
Il Tempo,
June 4, 1984, from “The First Special Service Force,” 3 (“
Brothers
”).

Shortly before dawn, a column:
Medding, “The Road to Rome,” 63–71; “History of the Fifth Army Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment,” June 20, 1945, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 9; Marshall, 107–8, 113 (
Artie Shaw record
); “Attain by Surprise,” ts, n.d., 30th Assault Unit, and “Inventory of Documents and Equipment Taken from the German Embassy Rome,” June 8–23, 1943, 30th Assault Unit, LHC (“
revealed nothing
”).

“
Got across thirteen bridges
”: G-2/G-3 journal, VI Corps, June 5, 1944, 0630 hrs.

“
Victory! Not for Mussolini
”: Francesco Rossi and Silvano Casaldi,
Those Days at Nettuno,
90.

The Allied victory had cost:
Molony VI, 284. U.S. estimates of German casualties were somewhat lower; also, total Allied casualties in
DIADEM
were placed at 40,205.
CtoA,
223.

Columns of weary GIs shuffled:
Scrivener, 200; Sevareid, 412; Molony VI, 282 (“
Allies are in Rome
”).

In classical Rome:
H. V. Morton,
A Traveller in Rome,
60–64; John Julius Norwich,
The Middle Sea,
33n; Brigitte Hintzen-Bohlen,
Art and Architecture: Rome and the Vatican City,
39; Georgina Masson,
The Companion Guide to Rome,
37, 44; Trevelyan, 319.

At 7:30 Clark flew from Nettuno:
diary, MWC, June 5, 1944, Citadel, box 65; Adleman and Walton, 226 (“
the hell with that
”).

Within minutes they were lost:
diary, MWC, June 5, 1944, Citadel, box 65; Kurzman, 421.

“
Well, gentlemen
”: Sevareid, 414; Adleman and Walton, 226;
CM,
379.

Then it was off to a luncheon:
OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-14; Vernon A. Walters,
Silent Missions,
108; diary, MWC, June 5, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“
the same thing
”).

“
We waded through crowds
”: GK, June 5, 1944.

“
You have made the American people
”: msg, FDR to MWC, June 6, 1944, MWC, Citadel, box 3; Harold Macmillan,
The Blast of War,
415 (“
expulsion
”); Churchill, 611 (“
the great victory
”); Blaxland, 133–37 (
turning some British officers
); Warren F. Kimball, ed.,
Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence,
vol. 3, 163.

Across the capital the celebration:
Sheehan, 215; Huebner, 97 (“
beautiful girls
”); Collier, 157 (“
habit of twenty years
”); Adleman and Walton, 219; David Cole,
Rough Road to Rome,
231 (“
had my hair cut
”).

Exhausted soldiers wrapped:
diary, Tompkins, 272; Wallace, 178 (“
slept on the street
”); Murphy, 163.

“
Every block is interesting
”: corr, George Revelle to Evelyn, June 14, 1944, author’s possession; Sevareid, 415; Cundiff, 178 (
Priests offered tours
); Trevelyan, 322 (“
Hold it, Pope
”); editorial, “The Fall of Rome,”
Life,
July 14, 1944, 38 (“
changing of the guard
”).