The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  While the chiefs went south: memo, May 11, 1943, Secret Service records, file 103-1: President Roosevelt, 1943, box 5, FDR Lib; Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History, 729 (Whittier’s ballad); Moran, 101 (“gabbled the whole poem”).

  For three days they unbent: letter, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger to John Boettiger, May 14, 1943, Boettiger Papers, box 5, FDR Lib (“picks his teeth”); Jon Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 225, 234 (“Isn’t this a beauty”).

  They had much in common: Larrabee, 13 (“loved the military side”); Maurice Matloff, “Mr. Roosevelt’s Three Wars: FDR as War Leader,” Harmon Lecture, No. 6, U.S. Air Force Academy, 1964, 6 (“diversionist tendencies”); Pogue, 316 (combat casualty figures); Meacham, 228 (“a wonderful old Tory”).

  Churchill could draw near: Larrabee, 644; OH, Stephen T. Early, June 9, 1947, MHI, OCMH, WWII, General Miscl (“wished to have things done”); Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won, 261 (“Not a tidy mind”); Larrabee, 644 (“He decides”).

  He reduced his own political philosophy: Overy, 260; Larrabee, 626 (Four Freedoms); Kimball, ed., vol. I, 337 (“same decade”); Elliott Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 130 (“on the decline”).

  America was ascendant: memo, Robert Sherwood to Harry Hopkins, May 13, 1943, H.L. Hopkins Papers, Sherwood Collection, book 7, TRIDENT, box 329, FDR Lib.

  But if Britain was on the decline: Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 316 (“great torso”); Roosevelt, 126 (sinus condition); Matloff, “Mr. Roosevelt’s Three Wars,” 4–5.

  Negotiations resumed: GS IV, 419 (“spirit of the chase”); Garland, 21 (refused to concede); FRUS, 114 (“extremely difficult”).

  It was a curious compromise: msg, WD to DDE, #278, May 26, 1943, CCS cables, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 270/19/6/3, box 243; GS IV, 432.

  The baby had been cut: Danchev, 407.

  TRIDENT had another week: diary, Henry A. Wallace, May 24, 1943, micro, FDR Lib (“We Anglo-Saxons”); Danchev (fourteen stone steps); Fraser, 346–47 (two rare bird books).

  Rarely content: FRUS, May 23, 1943; Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 439 (exhausted president); Leahy, 162; Moran, 103–4 (“a very tired man”).

  Harry Hopkins warned: Goodwin, 439 (“spoiled boy”); FRUS, 198 (“piece of baggage”); Moran, 111 (“too much for us”).

  Still, the sweep of his rhetoric: Gerald Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 234; Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. VII, 409 (“War is full of mysteries”); Times (London), May 20, 1943, 4 (“By singleness of purpose”); Grace Tully, F.D.R., My Boss, 329 (“catch phrases”).

  For the first time: Harriman and Abel, 211; Leahy, 165 (“mellow light”); FRUS, 377 (“complete meeting of minds”).

  “over-egged the pudding”: Brian Holden Reid, “The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945: A Reappraisal of Allied Generalship,” Journal of Strategic Studies, vol. 13, no. 1 (March 1990), 128+.

  “the best I could get”: Leahy, 163.

  The dispatch of Allied armies: Matloff, 76, 244.

  Perhaps the greatest achievement: André Malraux (“Let victory belong to those who made war without liking it”), quoted by Jean-Paul Sartre, Modern Times, cited in Danchev, xxvi.

  At four P.M. on Tuesday: PREM 4/72/3, UK NA.

  Roosevelt sat in the armless wheelchair: Seale, 947, 976–77 (bulletproof glass); FRUS, 211–20 (899th press conference); Times (London), May 27, 1943, 1 (“shaking the life”).

  CHAPTER 1: ACROSS THE MIDDLE SEA

  Forcing the World Back to Reason

  The sun beat down: corr, Heinz Seltmann to author, June 9, 2005 (neckties); memo, GSP, No. 57, June 17, 1943, NARA RG 338, II Corps, plans & policy file, box 146 ($25 fine).

  Algiers seethed: Eric Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 362 (merchant mariners); Paul W. Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 134–35 (“El Alamein”); Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 76 (“Sand in your shoes”); Peter Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 120 (index fingers).

  Electric streetcars: memo, DDE to E. Hughes, July 23, 1943, PP-pres, DDE Lib, box 58 (amnesty); Malcolm S. McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” ts, 1975, MHI, 31–32 (“every conceivable”); Sevareid, 361 (young Frenchmen and Hotel Aletti); F. Eugene Liggett, “No, Not Yet: Military Memoirs,” ts, n.d., ASEQ, 158th FA, 45th Div., MHI (pantaloons); “History, Mediterranean Base Section, Sept. 1942–May 1944,” CMH, 9-4 CA, 1944 (ban on prostitution).

  Above it all: “History of Allied Forces Headquarters,” CMH, 8-4 AD, vol. 2, Sept. 1945, sketch.

  Hewitt lowered his salute: “U.S. Naval Operations in the Northwestern African-Mediterranean Theater,” ts, n.d., HKH papers, box 3, NHC, 18.

  With the ceremony at an end: “History of Allied Forces Headquarters,” 243–46 (approached four thousand); “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” ts, n.d., U.S. Naval History Division, #139, folder 3, 9–10 (twelve thousand); “Notes for Meeting with Colonel Warden,” Jan. 14, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-225-B (seven undersea cables); S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, vol. III, part 1, 127 (“Carry out”).

  He was a fighting admiral: OH, Floride Hewitt Taylor to author, Apr. 12, 2005, Newport, R.I.; L.S.B. Shapiro, They Left the Back Door Open, 118 (“well-upholstered”); OH, HKH, John T. Mason, 1961, Col U OHRO, 5–6 (“Softly Now”); “Keuffel & Esser correspondence,” HKH, NHC, box 2; George Sessions Perry, “Why Don’t They Write About Hewitt?,” Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 16, 1944, 22+ (“does his barking”); OH, HKH, n.d., Julian Boit and James Riley, NHC, box 6, 1–2, 9 (soup kitchen).

  He called for his staff car: Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 233; David Williams, Liners in Battledress, 151–53 (false bow wave); Ivan H. “Cy” Peterman, “U.S.S. Savannah,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 1943, SEM, box 55, NHC; Pyle, 6–7 (Precautions against fire).

  Hewitt’s flagship: war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; Karig, 233 (ten to twenty officers); A. J. Redway, “Admiral Jerauld Wright: The Life and Recollections of the Supreme Allied Commander,” ts, 1995, NHC, 295 (fourteen hundred men); action report, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 17, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action & Operational Reports, box 1231 (200,000 rounds).

  Twenty typists: Alexander S. Cochran, “Chicken or Eggs? Operations TORCH and HUSKY and U.S. Army Amphibious Doctrine,” paper, 14th Naval History Symposium, USNA, Sept. 1999.

  Hewitt could remember: Perry, “Why Don’t They Write About Hewitt?”; OH, Floride Hewitt Taylor to author, Apr. 12, 2005.

  More than three thousand: No two lists agree on the total number of vessels in HUSKY; estimates generally range from 2,500 to 3,200. Roskill, 127; SSA, 28; HKH, AAR, “The Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., 1; “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” 20 (“the most gigantic fleet”).

  tiny fortified island of Pantelleria: Edith C. Rodgers, “The Reduction of Pantelleria and Adjacent Islands,” May 1947, AAF Historical Studies, No. 52, Air Historical Office, 40–45; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Pantelleria Operations, June 1943,” 59–60; MEB, “The Fall of Pantelleria and the Pelagian Islands,” Feb. 1959, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R-Series Manuscripts, 270/19/30-31/6-2, R-115, 24–32a; memo, “Lessons from Operations Against Pantelleria,” July 12, 1943, AFHQ, “Survey and Analysis,” Pantelleria, CMH, Geog Italy, 384.3; Solly Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 185–95.

  A map of the Mediterranean: Robert A. Hewitt, SOOHP, Earl D. Bevan, 1982, MHI, 126; Thaddeus V. Tuleja, “H. Kent Hewitt,” in Stephen Howarth, ed., Men of War, 315 (two variables).

  nine new variations of landing craft: S.W.C. Pack, Operation Husky, 44; Evelyn M. Cherpak, ed., The Memoirs of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, 181 (never been to sea); “Notes on the Planning and Assault Phases of the Sicilian Campaign,” Combined Operations HQ Bulletin No. Y/1, Oct. 1943, 4 (little was known).

  Much had been learned: Harold Larson, “Handling Army Cargo in the Second World War,” ts, 1945, CMH, 4-13.1 AA 19, 242, 250 (Schenectady Plan); H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation and the Conquest of Sicil
y,” Mongraph No. 13, March 1945, NARA RG 336, Chief of Transportation, ASF, Historical Program Files, box 141, 29 (no plans for loading); Walter B. Smith, “Mediterranean Operations,” Oct. 13, 1943, ANSCOL, L-2-43, SM-67, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, 4 (neglected to make room); HKH, AAR, “The Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., 47 (Every unit pleaded).

  Despite the risk: AAR, Amphibious Force Transport QM, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Aug. 6, 1943, in Army Observers, Amphibious Forces, MHI, 1–2; William Reginald Wheeler, ed., The Road to Victory: A History of Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation in World War II, 99; “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” 35 (no bread pans).

  gas shells: Eventually the mustard would turn up in several Sicilian ammo dumps, including a stockpile fifty miles inland at Nicosia, three weeks into the campaign. “History of Ordnance Service in the Mediterranean Theater, Nov. 1942–Nov. 1945,” CMH, 8-4 JA, 54.

  “I was frequently partisan”: “The Reminiscences of George W. Bauernschmidt,” 1969–70, USNI OHD, 160.

  A satire of censorship regulations: John Mason Brown, To All Hands, 193–94.

  One airman tried to comply: Fred Howard, Whistle While You Wait, 160; Steve Kluger, Yank, 101 (“headed for trouble”).

  More than half a million: “Summary of Activities,” analysis and control div., NATOUSA, June 1, 1944, CMH, 3; Brown, To All Hands, 7 (civilian occupations).

  “fierce world of death”: Pyle, 2.

  In the seven weeks: E. N. Harmon to GCM, Aug. 13, 1943, GCM Lib, corr, box 70 (“question of discipline”); JPL, 13–14 (“felt very sorry”); Bernard Stambler, “Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., vol. 2, CMH, 2-3.7 AA.L, 3 (“self-maiming”); corr, Joseph T. Dawson to family, May 22, 1943, 16th Inf, MRC-FDM (“self-commiseration”).

  “sense of the soldiering self”: Samuel Hynes, The Soldiers’ Tale, 151; They were young: “Age of Soldiers in Civil War, World War I and World War II,” Legislative and Policy Precedent File, 183/122, NARA RG 407, 270/49/17/7, box 34; John Muirhead, Those Who Fall, 9 (“our youth”).

  “our most democratic war”: Samuel Hynes, introduction, Reporting World War II, one-vol. abridgment, xx; The Princeton Class of 1942 During World War II; Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 223 (“men of a new profession”).

  And what did they believe: “Extract from Monthly Sanitary Report,” Aug. 31, 1943, MWC, corr, Citadel, box 3; Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 626 (Four Freedoms); Chandler, vol. II, 1276 (“less than half”); Margaret Bourke-White, Purple Heart Valley, 73 (“I was drafted”).

  Their pervasive “civilianness”: Brown, To All Hands, 224; Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 132; Lawrence D. Collins, The 56th Evac Hospital, 90; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113–23; Three Years, 389 (A single crude acronym).

  Yet they held: Brown, To All Hands, 224; George Biddle, Artist at War, 123; John Sloan Brown, Draftee Division, 103 (“lick those bastards”).

  The same surveys: Larrabee, 626.

  “Many of the men”: George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, July 24, 1943, 50+; Muirhead, 106–7 (“could not bear the shame”).

  “a gentle obsolescent breed”: Samuel Hynes, The Soldiers’ Tale, 143.

  “fighting for their right to be hypocrites”: corr, George Henry Revelle, Jr., to Evelyn, July 7, 1943, author’s possession.

  Across the great southern rim: Paul A. Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, 6; Hamilton H. Howze, A Cavalryman’s Story, 78–79; Hamilton H. Howze, “35 Years and Then Some,” ts, n.d., Howze papers, box 10, MHI, VII, 1–2 (locust swarms); Charles F. Ryan et al., “2nd Armored Division in the Sicilian Campaign,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, 57 (a hundred flatcars); Donald E. Houston, Hell on Wheels, 148 (engineer at gunpoint).

  the 45th Infantry Division: “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” vol. 1, n.d., CMH, 3-2.2 AA, 90–92; Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas, 195; Cundiff, 19; Wheeler, 86 (mine detectors); Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 133 (all nineteen troop-ships); Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIII-61 (ordered to the Pacific); Emajean Jordan Buechner, Sparks, 64 (Company J); Don Robinson, News of the 45th, 52 (iced tea); Brown, To All Hands, 27, 41, 228 (“Happy Hour”).

  The 45th was a National Guard division: E. J. Kahn, Jr., “Education of an Army,” New Yorker, vol. 20, no. 35, Oct. 14, 1944, 28+; Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 18–19 (“no good”); Peter R. Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 102 (“better prepared”); unit history, Ben C. Garbowski, ASEQ, 157th Inf., MHI; Frank Farner, ed., Thunderbird: 45th Infantry Division, 15 (Wolftown Guards); Whitlock, 20–21; George A. Fisher, The Story of the 180th Infantry Regiment (war dance).

  Chancre Alley: Loyd J. Biss, “Three Years, Four Months and Twenty-seven Days,” ts, n.d., author’s possession, 19; Fred Sheehan, Anzio: Epic of Bravery, 48 (“provost marshal’s report”); Frank James Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 146 (brandy); Kenneth D. Williamson, “Tales of a Thunderbird,” ts, n.d., 45th ID Mus, 73, 84, 87 (scooping up dimes).

  Along with the money: DDE to CG, NATOUSA SOS, June 3, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; OH, John E. Hull, 1974, SOOHP, James W. Wurman, MHI, 57 (bayonets too dull).

  Three hundred and forty crow-flying miles: Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 309–10; Cherpak, ed., 188–89.

  “solid forest of masts”: “Notes on PT History in Mediterranean: Letter from LCDR S. M. Barnes, commander of Motor Torpedo Squadron 15, to CDR Bulkley,” n.d., SEM, NHC, box 54, 33; memo, Bert M. Rudd, “Landing Craft and Bases,” AGF Observer, July 16, 1943, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 150, 1 (“into anchored vessels”); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 344 (“Poems are made”); Paul W. Pritchard, “Smoke Generator Operations in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operation,” Chemical Corps, n.d., CMH, 4-7.1 FA 1; Pyle, 6 (Luftwaffe raiders); Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 100 (steel hail); Nigel Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. II, 347 (“Bring up your children”).

  “Florida”: OH, William Francis Powers, Aug. 1985, CEOH.

  None of the namesake camps: Howard, 30, 103 (“wog wine”); AAR, 3/26th Inf, July 1–5, 1943, MRC FDM; Jean Gordon Peltier, World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, 91–92 (peppermint); AAR, “1st Embarkation Group, Eastern Base Section,” Aug. 1943, CARL, N-2763, 39–48 (German field ranges); Maxwell D. Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 48; Clifford W. Dorman, “Too Soon for Heroes,” ts, n.d., author’s possession, 57 (TNT); diary, July 7, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10 (ten young bulls).

  They were in an ugly mood: T. Michael Booth and Duncan Spencer, Paratrooper: The Life of Gen. James M. Gavin, 95; AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 61 (twenty-three copies).

  Congestion and confusion: AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 51; Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 159 (ammunition dump); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” July 7, 1943, HIA, box 1 (novice boat crews).

  Still farther east: H. Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 99 (“gypsy camp”); Alex Bowlby, The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby, 12 (maleesh); P. Royle, ts, 1972, IWM 99/72/1, 82 (desert sores); Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 132 (“bloody fuckers”).

  “Daisy, daisy”: Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 11, 21; A. W. Valentine, We Landed in Sicily and Italy: A Story of the Devons, 9 (“bathing parade”); C. Richard Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM 92/1/1, 6 (“desert campfire”); Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 162 (kilted pipers).

  On July 5: David Cole, Rough Road to Rome, 15; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 8 (wigwagged); Peter Roach, The 8.15 to War, 108, 110 (“Like fat cattle”).

  The Monrovia singled up: war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 6, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; Karig, 234; H. Kent Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” Proceedings, vol. 79, no. 7, July 1943, 705+ (“Have a good trip”).

  Despite elaborate security: AAR
, “1st Embarkation Group,” 50; Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 35; David Hunt, A Don at War, 193 (gabardine uniform).

  As Hewitt paced: Beck, 124; The Sicilian Campaign, 157 (hospital ships).

  As for the eighty thousand: “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” 27 (warehouse prices); corr, HKH to SEM, Sept. 18, 1953, SEM, NHC, box 51 (headquarters ship); OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 325; memo, “Command of Landing Arrangement HUSKY,” GK to HKH, Apr. 12, 1943, HKH, NHC, box 1 (Patton’s refusal); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 279 (“Sit down!”); Cherpak, ed., 183; OH, HKH, n.d., Julian Boit and James Riley, NHC, box 6, 2 (To celebrate).

  At five P.M.: Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” 705; war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 6, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233 (sailing pattern no. 35).

  Behind the bridge: corr, GSP to Bea, July 2, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 10; JPL, 34; diary, July 25, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 15 (“our weak spot”); PP, 233 (“mental fog”).

  He was ready: PP, 260, 264, 270; memo, GSP, June 5, 1943, in Russell L. Moses, ASEQ, 179th Inf Regt., 45th ID, MHI (tactical adages).

  “a timid man”: JPL, 24–25; Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 12–17; diary, July 1, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 3, folder 1 (whine of bullets); D. Clayton James, A Time for Giants, 225 (“a disturbing element”); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 77 (“Someday I will”).

  “Battle is the most”: Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 155; diary, June 27, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 15 (“a sacred trust”).

  “There is no better death”: Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 131; Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 264 (“to blood them”); Charles R. Codman, Drive, 99 (“hate builder”).

  “You son of a bitch”: Albert C. Wedemeyer, SOOHP, Anthony S. Deskis, 1972–73, MHI; Wiley H. O’Mohundro, “From Mules to Missiles,” ts, n.d., MHI, 47 (“I am a chaplain”).

  To a dilatory officer: John A. Heintges, SOOHP, Jack A. Pellicci, 1974, 156–59; SSt, 119 (“That temper of his”).