The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  “The Boche have carried out”: J. K. Windeatt, “Very Ordinary Soldier,” ts, 1989, IWM, 90/20/1, 68.

  “completely fit for battle”: “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge” (“employ our strength elsewhere”).

  At ten A.M. on August 17: CM, 243; Garland, 416–17; Nathan William White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 40 (swapping shots); memo, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250 (“did not capture the city from us”); Tregaskis, 86–88 (bagpipes and a Scottish broadsword); Hansen, “Research Draft,” SSt, CBH papers, MHI, box 1, 16-A, S-27 (“I’ll be damned”).

  Patton had a fever of 103: corr, GSP to Arvin H. Brown, Sept. 12, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27; John H. Rousch, ed., World War II Reminiscences, 64–65 (“‘DUCE’ was painted”); Tregaskis, 89 (towering white spouts); CM, 243 (“What in hell”).

  “They were tired and incredibly dirty”: JPL, 122; corr, GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 18, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11, folder 5 (wounding a colonel).

  Sixty percent of the city: “Reports of the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation, Sicily and Region II,” July–Aug. 1943, and “Reports of AMGOT Divisions,” part 3, document B, both in Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI; “Attain by Surprise,” ts, n.d., 30th Assault Unit history, LHC, 21 (booby-trapped door handles); Darby and Daumer, 109 (scattered skeletons); Don Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” John B. Romeiser, ed., 24 (Draftee); Mayo, 169.

  three-quarters of Messina’s 200,000: “Reports of the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation” notes, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250 (mayor formally tendered).

  “By 10 A.M. this morning”: Jackson, 226; PP, 324–25 (“I feel let down”).

  He soon would feel worse: Three Years, 390, 393; Quentin Reynolds, By Quentin Reynolds, 296–97 (“We’re Americans first”); Garland, 429 (“sake of the American effort”).

  “he can gain greater fame”: DDE diary, Aug. 1943, HCB papers, DDE Lib, A-678, 682.

  “I must so seriously question”: corr, DDE to GSP, Aug. 17, 1943, Chandler, vol. 2, 1340.

  “intemperate language”: JPL, 126–27; IG report, Sept. 18, 1943, NATOUSA, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91 (“embarrassment to the War Department”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1353.171 “my chagrin and grief”: corr, GSP to DDE, Aug. 29, 1943, Donald E. Currier papers, MHI; PP, 333 (“my method was wrong”); letter, GSP to Walter P. Dillingham, Aug. 18, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27 (“would not make a single change”); corr, GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 22, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11.

  “suffering a little battle fatigue himself”: PP, 334, 336; Bob Hope, The Last Christmas Show, 17 (“I love my men”); Codman, 114–15; “Frances Langford Dies,” July 12, 2005, WP, B-6.

  “I am sorry for this”: memo, “Gen. Patton’s Address,” n.d., GSP, LOC MS Div, box 48, folder 20; Edwin H. Randle, Ernie Pyle Comes Ashore and Other Stories, 134 (“No, General, no!”); OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-2-4 (“Georg-ie!”).

  “hotter than the hinges of Hades”: corr, John M. Brooks to author, Oct. 19, 2003, 7; memorandum, “Address by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton,” Aug. 25, 1943, HQ, 1st ID, in “History of the 26th Infantry,” 97 (“Arms will not be carried”); Gerald Astor, Terrible Terry Allen, 235 (“no booing”).

  “the weirdest speech ever made”: corr, Donald V. Helgeson to author, July 25, 2003; Finke, 172 (“fucking”); memoir, William E. Faust, ts, n.d., 1st ID Division Artillery, ASEQ, MHI, 79–80 (“our rejection of his presence”).

  “I shall be very glad”: corr, GSP to Walter F. Dillingham, Aug. 18, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27; corr, GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 23, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11.

  “damn near perfect example”: PP, 328; Battle, 77–78; Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms, 595, 603 (offensive at Kursk); Porch, 445.

  American confidence: Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 174; “Training Notes from the Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., AFHQ, NARA RG 331, micro box 21, R-320-A (many lessons were learned); Betty McLain Belvin, Ray McLain and the National Guard, 72.

  The butcher’s bill: Andrew J. Birtle, “Sicily,” in The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II, 1993, CMH 72-16, 25. As usual with World War II casualty statistics, no two estimates agree. See also: Garland, 417; Hanson Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 225; “Summary of Activities, MTO, 31 March 1945,” NARA RG 94, 95-USF2-0.3, box 246; “British Battle Casualties in Sicily,” Oct. 11, 1943, U.S. military attaché report, London, CMH, Geog Files, Sicily, 704.

  Axis dead and wounded: Birtle, “Sicily,” 25. See also: MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” #R-145-146; Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 156; memo, HQ, SOS to CG, NA TOUSA, June 25, 1944, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, pm, records relating to prisoners, box 2246; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report on Sicilian Campaign 1943,” 98; Volkmar Kühn, German Paratroops in World War II, 193.

  “a great success, but it was not complete”: Ruge, “The Evacuation of Sicily,” 53; Battle, 47; Baldwin, 235; Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily: Concluding Considerations of the Commander-in-Chief, South,” n.d., FMS, MS #T-3 P1, 28–29; Kesselring, “Stellungnahme des verantwortlichen Oberbefehlshabers Süd zu den Betractungen des Oberst von Bonin,” n.d., FMS, MS #T-3 P1, 3–4, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245.

  HUSKY also exposed: Buckley, 147; “Proceedings of Board of Officers Considering Airborne Operations,” Aug. 1943, AFHQ, JPL, MHI, box 11 (Allies lost 42 planes); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 179 (“interservice spirit”); Porch, 449 (“Sicily demonstrated”).

  “You lack clear, calm judgment”: memo, LKT Jr. to Charles R. Johnson, Aug. 23, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 11.

  “a superb leader but a mediocre manager”: Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 185; Hamilton, 380 (“feeble from beginning to end”).

  Half a million German soldiers: GS V, 2; Steinhof, 256 (“a turning point had come”).

  “Have been in the dumps”: corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, Aug. 25, 1943, LKT, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.

  “a fugitive from the law of averages”: Roger J. Spiller, “The Price of Valor,” Military History Quarterly, spring 1993, 100+; Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 45; diary, Aug. 10, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10 (“many more battles”); Breuer, 195 (“wickedness”).

  “Yesterday is tomorrow”: Pyle, 58; Miller, 275–77 (“couldn’t find the Four Freedoms”); Tobin, 113 (four hundred days overseas).

  “gotten fat and lazy”: JJT, VIII-27, IX-12 and 14.

  “Dago red”: John P. Downing, “No Promotion,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1994.41.1, 238; Donald E. Houston, Hell on Wheels, 181 (“Migrant women”); Clay Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 114 (brothel in Trapani); T. Michael Booth and Duncan Spencer, Paratrooper: The Life of Gen. James M. Gavin, 123; Johnson, 121–22 (overpriced hankies); Francis A. Even, “The Tenth Engineers,” ts, 1996, author’s possession, 15 (bedsheet screens); Jerry Countess, “Letters from the Battlefield,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (“haven’t seen a spigot”); Robert H. Welker, “G.I. Jargon: Its Perils and Pitfalls,” Saturday Review of Literature, Oct. 1944, 7+ (“prego, Dago”).

  On Sunday morning, August 29: Three Years, 401; Hamilton, 375; film, United News No. 68, 1943, NARA RG 208, UN68 (littered the beach); De Guingand, 315.

  “We in our hearts know”: Bradley Biggs, Gavin; Moorehead, Eclipse, 6, 12.

  CHAPTER 4: SALERNO

  “Risks Must Be Calculated”

  A gentle breeze: Richard Lamb, Montgomery in Europe, 1943–1945, 36; Albert F. Simpson, “Air Phase of the Italian Campaign to 1 January 1944,” June 1946, AAFRH-115, CMH, 92; Moorehead, Montgomery, 170 (“gnats on a pond”); Andrew Browne Cunningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 559 (Regatta); George Aris, The Fifth British Division, 1939–1945, 138 (five hundred guns); Moorehead, Eclipse, 20.

  Just eight thousand Germans: A. G. Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” Nov. 1947, Historical Section, Canadian Army HQ, report No. 18, 9n; De Guingand, 323; G.A. Shepperd, The Italian Campaign, 1943–45, 111; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 241 (detecte
d ample signs); Molony V, 239 (29,000 rounds).

  “I think that’s all right”: Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 491–93; Moorehead, Montgomery, 170 (“set out for a picnic”).

  lovebirds: Quentin Reynolds, By Quentin Reynolds, 303; Dick Malone, Missing from the Record, 53; Richard McMillan, Twenty Angels over Rome, 139; Gervasi, 491 (roasted and garnished); Moorehead, Eclipse, 22 (“Never his plan”).

  sulking in his trailer: Vincent Orange, Coningham, 171; Nigel Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 406; Lamb, 32–33 (Montgomery’s protests); Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 216 (coordinate Eighth Army with Fifth Army); Charles Richardson, Send for Freddie, 135 (“daft”); OH, Francis De Guingand, March 31, 1947, G. A. Harrison, OCMH WWII Europe interviews, MHI (do what he could); De Guingand, 305; Vincent Orange, Tedder, 236 (mostly inexperienced units); OH, DDE, Feb. 16, 1949, Howard M. Smyth, SM, MHI (“wanted everything”); “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” MHI, 113.

  Strategic guidance: Garland, 439–40; GS IV, 561–67, 570–71.

  Clambering back into the DUKW: Moorehead, Eclipse, 23; Gervasi, 491 (“shouting, laughing”); StoC, 53; Lamb, 36–37; Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 278 (“The only person”).

  The next days passed: Brooks, ed., 277; Moorehead, Eclipse, 31 (passenger carriages); H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Southern Italy, 314, 327, 337, 342, 360, 370 (scarlet petticoats); From Pachino to Ortona: The Canadian Army at War, 92.

  “no German troops have been met”: Roger Parkinson, A Day’s March Nearer Home, 179; David Scott Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. 3, 130; Three Assault Landings, 1st Bn, Dorsetshire Regiment, DTL, Ft. B, 36–39 (“bag of mail”); war diary, Sept. 10, 1943, “Salerno Invasion,” German naval command, Italy, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, ONI Z-28, box 649 (“not crowding after us”).

  Monty berets: Reynolds, 304–5.

  On Sunday, September 5: Three Years, 407; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 363; diary, MWC, Aug. 28–29, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (thirty Fifth Army staff officers); corr, Don E. Carleton to Hal C. Pattison, Feb. 10, 1965, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3 Salerno to Cassino, box 256 (“a pursuit”).

  “With Thee I am unafraid”: Calculated, 182; MWC to Renie Clark, June 7, 1943, MWC, personal corr, Citadel (clovers).

  “The best organizer”: Chandler, vol. 2, 1354, 1358; Des Hickey and Gus Smith, Operation Avalanche, 152 (“a film star”); George Biddle, Artist at War, 225.

  “college of your choice”: OH, MWC, 1972, Forest S. Rittgers, Jr., SOOHP, MHI, 2; Martin Blumenson, Mark Clark, 11–16, 19–21, 28; obit, Charleston Evening Post, Oct. 5, 1966, in MWC, Citadel, Maureen Clark folder, box 70 (petite, lighthearted).

  “destined to do something unusual”: OH, Robert J. Wood, 1973, William E. Narus, SOOHP, MHI, 3–30, 42–43; OH, MWC, Rittgers (“Don’t be an ally”).

  “my headquarters to be a happy one”: Charles S. D’Orsa, “The Trials and Tribulations of an Army G-4,” MR, vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1945), 23+; Robert H. Adelman and George Walton, Rome Fell Today, ii (“study in arrogance”); William L. Allen, Anzio: Edge of Disaster, 48 (“like a halo”).

  “facially best”: Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 94; Adelman and Walton, iii; Eric Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 383; MWC to Renie Clark, May 15 and 16, 1943, MWC, personal corr, Citadel; Carlo D’Este, Fatal Decision, 58; OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., Apr. 23, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; Gervasi, 496.

  “if feasible, further north”: GS IV, 580–81; Battle, 109; Bernard Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 252; Robert J. Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” lecture, Army-Navy Staff College, Dec. 1944–Jan. 1946, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI, 3; memo, EJD to L. J. McNair, “Notes on Operation AVALANCHE,” Oct. 4, 1943, observer report #60, AGF G-2, NARA RG 337, box 52 (forty-five days); diary, MWC, Aug. 28–29, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; Molony V, 264; SSA, 248 (discover of minefields); A. B. Cunningham, “Operations in Connection with the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno,” Apr. 28, 1950, CMH, UH 0-1 CUN.2, 2175; S.W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 159 (advanced H-hour); StoC, 40–41 (“quite irritable”); “History of the Peninsular Base Sction,” 1944, CMH, 8-4 HA 1, 4; AAR, [U.K.] commander-in-chief, Mediterranean Station, March 8, 1945, CARL, N-11361 (aviation fuel).

  Only three assault divisions: Battle, 107; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation and the Italian Campaign,” Sept. 1945, monograph #17, NARA RG 336, ASF, chief of transportation, historical program files, box 142, 21; Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 7; Charles S. D’Orsa, “The Trials and Tribulations of an Army G-4,” MR, vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1945), 23+; Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, Global Logistics and Strategy, 1943–1945, 192; StoC, 38–39; OH, MWC, Rittgers, 54–55; Calculated, 181 (“my left arm”).

  Three times he asked Washington: msg, DDE to CCS, July 28 and Aug. 19, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247 (“risks must be calculated”); AAFinWWII, 495; Lord Tedder, With Prejudice, 457–58, 460; Cunningham, “Operations in Connection with the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno” (“Woolworths”); StoC, 52; Simpson, “Air Phase,” 48, 90; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” MHI, 112 (“rather disquieting”); E. McCabe, “The Plan for the Landing at Salerno,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 44/131, 30 (could not prevent the enemy).

  Ultra provided a detailed portrait: F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 106, 108; Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945, 349 (“Treachery alters”); minutes, AFHQ briefing to QUADRANT, Aug. 24, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“to the sound of the guns”); Simpson, “Air Phase,” 77; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” NSA, U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 63; “Operations Plan,” HQ, Fifth Army, Aug. 26, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, SOS, annex No. 1, G-2 plan, box 2735; OH, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, Feb. 18, 1947, FCP, MHI (whether invaders could build up).

  Salerno would be a poor place: “Observations in the European Theater Including Landing Operation at Salerno,” Oct. 25, 1943, HQ, USMC, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, GB COB X-22, box 461, 3; “I.S.T.D.: ‘C’ Report on the West Coast,” June 30, 1943, NARA RG 407, E47, 95-AL1-2.10, AFHQ, box 163; David Hunt, A Don at War, 211 (“finest strip of coast”); E. McCabe, “The Plan for the Landing at Salerno,” 38; “Tactical Study of the Terrain: Naples and Vicinity,” engineer appendix, AVALANCHE operational plan, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, box 118, R-123-D; “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” vol. 3, appendix G, CMH, 9-2.5 AB, 19 (“exposes this bridgehead”); OH, “Reminiscences of George C. Dyer,” 1969–1971, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 330 (“inside of a cup”).

  Risks had been calculated: L.S.B. Shapiro, They Left the Back Door Open, 117 (Strange Cargo); “Masonic Information,” diaries, MWC, Citadel, box 61; John Clagett, “Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, U.S. Navy,” Naval War College Review, summer 1975, 60+;. Simpson, “Air Phase,” 107 (sixteen convoys); Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Amalfi.”

  “high hopes of being in Naples”: diary, MWC, Aug. 16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” MHI, 112 (“Boldness”); minutes, AFHQ weekly executive planning section, Aug. 3, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247 (planning to move); Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 448 (“smash them”).

  “might as well be on a raft”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, MHI, 55.

  Plots, Counterplots, and Cross-plots

  Even as the invaders bore down: Moorehead, Eclipse, 77 (“hot rake”); Axis notes, Tarvis conference, ten A.M., Aug. 6, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244; msgs, “Former Naval Person to the President,” No. 405, Aug. 5, 1943, and J. Hull to T. T. Handy, Aug. 15, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249; Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War, 1939–1945, 317 “plots, counter-plots.”

  Wary but intrigued: Macmillan, 313 (“an appalling Norfolk jacket”); Kenneth Strong, Intelligence
at the Top, 145 (“desperate gunfight”); OH, George F. Kennan, Jan. 2, 1947, SM, MHI (“rattletrap Buick”).

  Their Italian counterpart: Peter Tompkins, Italy Betrayed, 26; “Minutes of a conference held at the residence of H.M. Ambassador at Lisbon on August 18, 1943 [sic], at 10 p.m.,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“join the united nations”); Garland, 459; minutes, Lisbon meeting, in msg, Aug. 21, 1943, AFHQ to WD, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 10.

  “We are not in a position”: “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” 116; msg, W. B. Smith to Hastings Ismay, Sept. 12, 1943, W. B. Smith papers, DDE Lib, box 7 (“my pet Wop”); memo, W. B. Smith to Whitely, Rooks, Aug. 22, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“expect bitter reprisals”).

  If Rome was in no position: msg, DDE to CCS, Aug. 28, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“very anxious”); corr, Robert Murphy to FDR, Sept. 8, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244.

  More amateur theatricals followed: OH, Harold Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, Geog files, II-2; Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 187; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 322.

  A dreadful fate would befall Italy: Robert Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 192–93; Strong, 157 (“booted, spurred, and bemedaled”).

  The telegram was sent: “Story of the Signing of the Italian Armistice,” Kenneth Strong to correspondents, in “Eisenhower Diary,” HCB, DDE Lib, A-769-770; Garland, 482–84; Macmillan, The Blast of War, 323; Strong, 158 (olive sprig).

  “Today’s event must be kept secret”: msg, DDE to CCS, Sept 3, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec. files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 10.

  Those plans grew more convoluted: Howard McGaw Smyth, “The Armistice at Cassible,” MR, vol. 28, nos. 6 and 7 (Sept. and Oct. 1948), 13+; Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, 70; msgs, DDE to Alexander, Sept. 1, 1943, FDR, Churchill to DDE, Sept. 2, 1943, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244 (“stiffen Italian formations”).