The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  “The only Italian army”: Lamb, 87, 88–89, 104; Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich, 741–42 (“military internees”); Karl Theodor Koerner, “Rail Transportation Problems in Italy,” Apr. 1947, FMS, #D-010, MHI, 8.

  A German radio intercept: Albert Praun, “German Radio Intelligence,” March 1950, FMS, #P-038, CMH, 68; John Winton, Cunningham, 329; Hunt, 230–31 (“size of a tennis court”); Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 307; Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 7, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 248, 931 (catalogue of booty); “Under the German Yoke,” ts, n.d., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Historical Division, X-39, 1 (60,000 motor vehicles).

  The second escape: S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 188; SSA, 304–8 (“even more astonishing”).

  The third escape: “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” Jan. 1946, WD, Strategic Services Unit, A-63366, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.22, 34–35; Elizabeth Wiskemann, The Rome-Berlin Axis, 311; Otto Skorzeny, Skorzeny’s Secret Missions, 57–58; Gerald Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 249–60; “The Rescue of Mussolini,” AB, no. 22, 1978, 12+ (vacated ski resort); Bruton F. Hood, “The Gran Sasso Raid,” MR, Feb. 1959, 55+; Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini, 300 (endless carping); Benito Mussolini, My Rise and Fall, 137 (removed all sharp objects); Peter Neville, Mussolini, 177 (“one must suffer”).

  Soon enough his whereabouts leaked: O. Skorzeny and K. Radl, “The Rescue of Mussolini,” n.d., intelligence translation no. H-7563, DA, 72–93; John Toland, Adolf Hitler, 754 (badly scarred visage); “Military Campaigns,” 47 (gliders began skittering); Skorzeny, 98–99 (“the Führer has sent me”); “How Strong Is the Enemy Today?” 1944, OSS film, NARA RG 111, M2997 (Storch airplane); StoC, 539; Louis P. Lochner, ed., The Goebbels Diaries, 468–69.

  two dozen Jews: Martin Gilbert, The Second World War, 462.

  The first German time bomb: Clark, “Salerno,” 1; “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” 1944, CMH, 8-4 HA 1, vol. 2 (“The first two floors”); Robert H. Welker, A Different Drummer, 208–9.

  The blast killed and wounded: Clay Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 164; Welker, 212–14.

  Three days later, on Sunday morning: “Engineer History, Fifth Army,” 35; Blair, 164; Calculated, 218; OH, Louis Bednar, 82nd Airborne Div, Sept. 17, 2002, VHP (“sacks of burlap”); Ross S. Carter, Those Devils in Baggy Pants, 55 (“Nice work, boys”); MWC to Renie, Oct. 10, 1943, MWC, Citadel; memo, “Security of Material Bombs Explosion in Naples,” n.d., 158th Bomb Disposal, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R 367-F, box 216 (Prince of Piedmont barracks).

  “bodies overcome by the ash”: Norman Lewis, Naples ’44, 40; “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” vol. 2; “Engineers in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” n.d., UK, MHI Lib, 21; Harry L. Coles, “The Army Air Forces in Amphibious Landings in World War II,” 1953, USAF Historical Division, no. 96, 34 (“suspicious noises”).

  Fears that more hidden bombs: memo, J. G. Barney to PWB, Fifth Army, Nov. 3, 1943, C. D. Jackson papers, DDE Lib, box 1; Margaret Bourke-White, Purple Heart Valley, 29; Lewis, 43; Malcolm Muggeridge, The Infernal Grove, 229.

  “There are 57 varieties of grief”: Harry L. Coles and Albert K. Weinberg, Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors, 316; Lewis, 31, 61; “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” vol. 2; Biddle, 160; Robert L. Wagner, The Texas Army, 58; William J. Diamond, “Water Is Life,” Military Engineer, Aug. 1947, 330+; Sullivan, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” 19.

  Twenty-six thousand tons: Harris, 88; George C. S. Benson and Maurice Neufeld, “American Military Government in Italy,” in Carl J. Friedrich, ed., American Experiences in Military Government in World War II, 137–40; Gervasi, 501; Lewis, 84 (bitter jest).

  Reconstruction had begun: “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” vol. 2; Gorlinski, “Naples: Case History in Invasion,” 109; Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 572 (“army of ants”); Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 187; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation and the Italian Campaign,” ts, Sept. 1945, mono #17, NARA RG 336, ASF, historical program files, chief of transportation, box 142, 60 (only three berths); booklet, 6th Port Bn, Walter J. Muller papers, HIA, box 2 (more tonnage handled); McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” 92.

  Garbagemen sang: OH, Frank Schultz, Apr. 2002, March 2006, with author, Washington, D.C.; Lewis, 51–52 (hunchbacks); Carter, 53 (“wasn’t safe to go to town”); Warren P. Munsell, Jr., The Story of a Regiment, 40n (dropped your voice); Mina Curtiss, ed., Letters Home, 93; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 164 (Monopoly money); “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters,” Nov. 15, 1943, AGF observer report, #77, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 53 (resistant to sulfa); John F. Hummer, An Infantryman’s Journal, 37, 44; diary, William Russell Hinckley, Oct. 6, 1943, author’s possession (“‘Fik’ can be had”).

  Some soldiers behaved badly: memo, Paul Gardner to W. W. Pence, Nov. 19, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA IG, box 2014; Nicholas, 233 (“stuffed toucans”); memos, Palazzo Reale custodian, Nov. 26, Dec. 5, 1943, in draft report, IG investigation, Dec. 20, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA IG, box 2014; T. Moffatt Burriss, Strike and Hold, 57, 61 (“He drained his glass”).

  Airdromes at Foggia: Mary H. Williams, ed., Chronology, 1941–1945, USAWWII, 138.

  Everywhere, Allied forces: Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms, 616–17, 636, 643; Gilbert, 455, 462–64 (“We are still retreating”).

  “He always wants speed”: JPL, 165, 167.

  “Rome by Christmas”: Strome Galloway, A Regiment at War, 103; Chandler, vol. 3, 1485; Russell B. Capelle, Casablanca to the Neckar, 21 (studying German); Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 252 (“strength to make a front”); Gilbert, 455 (“as soon as the Russians”); Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 764 (“should be in Rome”).

  “Watch Where You Step and Have No Curiosity at All”

  inaugural crossing in Europe: From the Volturno to the Winter Line, 53.

  “Sleep, swine”: Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back, 31; John A. Elterich, “Patrol Actions Prior to and During the Operation of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment,” 1948, IS, 11; Tregaskis, 169–72.

  rafts borrowed from the Navy: OH, Robert Petherick, n.d., CMH, Geog, Italy, 370.24; Orrin A. Tracy, “The Operations of the 7th Infantry, Volturno River Crossing,” 1946, IS, 14, 19; Barry W. Fowle, ed., Builders and Fighters, 425–27; CM, 268–69.

  “Unfortunately I’m beginning to realize”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, Sept. 1, 30, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6; StoC, 197–98 (1:55 A.M.); “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, CMH, Geog Italy, 353, 41 (three miles wide).

  British infantrymen struggled: Chester G. Starr, ed. From Salerno to the Alps, 45–46; memoir, Aidan Mark Sprot, ts, 1947, LHC, 93; “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary of Operations Carried Out by British Troops Under Command 5 U.S. Army,” n.d., CMH, 370.2, 15–16 (six hundred yards deep); CM, 271; Moorehead, Eclipse, 62.

  With his left flank exposed: aide’s diaries, Oct. 13, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3; AAR, “Report on Crossing of the River Volturno,” 36th Engineer Regt, Nov. 5, 1943, JPL, MHI, box 11; Will Lang, “Lucian King Truscott, Jr.,” Life, Oct. 2, 1944, 96+ (“Have you tried it?”).

  At eleven A.M. the first Sherman: From the Volturno to the Winter Line, 31; Beck et al., 176; AAR, H. K. Koberstein, 10th Engineer Bn, “Engineer Phase on the Crossing of the Volturno River,” Nov. 3, 1943 (eighty jeeps); “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary of Operations Carried Out by British Troops,” 36 (only 3,500 engineers [as of early November]); Leslie W. Bailey, Through Hell and High Water, 131; Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 232.

  “Like the earthworm”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, Oct. 14 and 22, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.

  Anglo-Americans had advanced thirty-five miles: Albert Kesselring et al., “German Version of the History of the Italian Campaign,�
� CARL, N-16671.1-3, 36; Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 450 (“masterminding”).

  Italy would break their backs: “Narrative: Operations Against Italy,” Oct. 20, 1943, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI.

  German demolitions had begun: “Engineer History, Fifth Army,” 7, 10 (“only five prefabricated”), 77 (“whole trees to bulls”); “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters”(“no bridge or culvert”); diary, MWC, Nov. 1, 1943, Citadel, box 64 (one thousand bridges); Fowle, ed., 191 (three thousand spans); Beck, 178 (eighteen feet in ten hours).

  “new tracks across the rubble”: CM, 263; Ralph G. Martin, The G.I. War, 1941–1945, 105 (“broken bathtubs”); “Engineers in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” 23 (rolling mills); Beck et al., 175 (They used timber).

  “It got darker”: Don Robinson, News of the 45th, 149; Frank Henius, Italian Sentence Book for the Soldier, 1943 (raining torrents); Ronald Blythe, ed., Private Words, 4 (“one may write of mist”); Lawrence D. Collins, The 56th Evac Hospital, 94 (“spots on the dice”), 121; memoir, Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 181 (pooled in their messkits).

  “The desert war”: Battle, 122; Peter Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 247 (“honest color”); Martin, 105 (“too thick to drink”); Albert F. Simpson, “Air Phase of the Italian Campaign to 1 January 1944,” June 1946, AAFRH, #115, CMH, 351n (undermined air superiority); John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 117 (“savage versatility”); Don Woerpel, A Hostile Sky, 140 (“German weather”).

  Mines made it much worse: OH, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Aug. 17, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; From Pachino to Ortona, Canadian Army at War, CARL, N-14352, 104 (“All roads”); “German Tactics in Italy, No. 1, Salerno to Anzio,” May 28, 1944, AFHQ, G-2, CMH, Geog files, 11–12; John H. Roush, ed., World War II Reminiscences, 60–61 (“I never had a moment”); “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters” (“Watch where you step”).

  “you could follow our battalions”: report, AGF Board, Dec. 5, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0; Frank Gervasi, “Battle at Cassino,” Collier’s, March 18, 1944, 20+; Gerald Linderman, The World Within War, 117 (“nutcracker”); Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 19; Beck et al., 181; G-2 Periodic No. 28, II Corps, Aug. 9, 1943, Benjamin A. Dickson papers, MHI, box 4; report, AGF Board, Dec. 5, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0 (two chaplains lost legs).

  “A man’s foot”: Klaus H. Huebner, A Combat Doctor’s Diary, 73; OH, Richard A. Williams, Jan. 25, 2003, with author (“they would still scream”); Bill Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 200; James Phinney Baxter III, Scientists Against Time, 101–2; Fowle, ed., 164–68; Beck et al., 183; Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer, The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, vol. 2, 331 (“M dogs”).

  expedient fighting withdrawal: Kent Roberts Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 235.

  an intense debate raged: Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945, 385–86; David Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 309–10 (“Domineering, obstinate”).

  Italy remained a comparatively minor theater: Molony V, 381–82; Rudolf Böhmler, Monte Cassino, 67–68 (more vulnerable to enemy bombers).

  The Italian peninsula was narrowest: H. Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” CMH, II-7; brochure, “Ciociaria: A Land to Experience,” n.d., Regione Lazio, 33 (wolves and bears); memo, A. Kesselring, Nov. 1, 1943, A. G. Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” Nov. 1947, Canadian Army hq, Ottawa, appendix L (“impregnable system”); Wallace, 101 (“break their teeth”).

  changed his mind in favor of Kesselring: Böhmler, 71; Basil Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 445–47; Kenneth Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 186 (“leadership without optimism”); Thomas R. Brooks, The War North of Rome, 28 (“extraordinarily brave”).

  “I’ll take it as it comes”: Liddell Hart, ed., 447; Greenfield, ed., 242 (“end of withdrawals”); Irving, 311–14 (“hard times lie ahead”).

  Thanks to Ultra: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 251–53; F.H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 173–74.

  “We are committed”: “Review of Battle Situation in Italy, 21 October 1943,” in H. Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” CMH, II-50, II-13 (“cul-de-sac”); GS V, 69 (only eleven facing a German force); Molony V, 474n (Twenty inches of rain); StoC, 219–20 (less than a mile a day). The German force in Italy soon reached twenty-five divisions.

  “essential for us to retain the initiative”: Chandler, vol. 3, 1529.

  Nor did the high command: StoC, 185–87; Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring, 247 (“vindicates our strategy”).

  The prospect of waging: Molony V, 473; StoC, 187 (line on a map).

  Alexander’s despondency: W.G.F. Jackson, Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, 248; Gervasi, 518 (“punch, punch, punch”); Lord Tedder, With Prejudice, 488 (“ever get to Rome”).

  “ancient truths”: Jackson, 253; corr, B. L. Montgomery to A. F. Harding, Oct. 31, 1943, Bernard L. Montgomery collections, IWM, ancillary collections 14, file 3.

  The Mountainous Hinterland

  “The road to Rome is a long one”: JJT, XIII, 12.

  among two thousand veterans transferred: memo, LKT Jr. to MWC and CG, NATOUSA, Dec. 17, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0.

  “Life is good”: JJT, X-1, 5; Biddle, 169, 172.

  Victory Road: Gervasi, 513; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-USF1-04, box 250, 10 (“mountainous hinterland”); Alice Leccese Powers, Italy in Mind, 64 (chimneys poking like snorkels); McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” 65 (Peasants keened); Biddle, 187, 204 (“Nothing I can do”).

  Across the cobblestones: StoC, 210, 218; Lewis, 161; Marshall, 20 (diapered in newspapers); George Biddle’s War Drawings, 2 (“The stretchers are coming”).

  Biddle sketched the tableau: Biddle, Artist at War, 166–67, 204, 219; Brown, 337 (powdered water); Lloyd M. Wells, From Anzio to the Alps, 35 (“Easy, boys”).

  For a few weeks, Biddle: George Biddle, “Report from the Italian Front,” Life, vol. 16, no. 1 (Jan. 3, 1944), 13+; George Biddle’s War Drawings, 2 (“a swivel chair”); Biddle, Artist at War, 176 (“killing instincts”).

  “Bragg would look good”: JJT, X-6, 17; Biddle, Artist at War, 194–95; George Biddle’s War Drawings, 3; corr, LKT Jr. to DDE, Nov. 24, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 11, folder 11 (two other battalion commanders).

  “climbing a ladder”: Richard Doherty, A Noble Crusade, 169; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, DTL, Ft. B, 113 (dull the glint), 48 (mewing cats); Arnball, 161 (Barbasol); CM, 276 (lack of overcoats); Bourke-White, 142 (debated with theological intensity).

  “I’m goddam sick and tired”: Biddle, Artist at War, 197, 207, 212–13.

  “Be alert and live”: ibid., 228–30 (“lips parted in that rictus”), 216–20 (“all the way into Germany”); Biddle, “Report from the Italian Front,” 13+; CM, 283 (“haggard, dirty”).

  “Just so many dead”: Biddle, Artist at War, 233 (“wrestling with the dead”), 177 (“I wish the people at home”); JJT, X-22 (“my continued existence”).

  The panorama from Monte Cesima: Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 8.

  “Every step forward”: StoC, 231–32.

  “a steep, solid rock”: Bowlby, 58; The Grenadier Guards, 1939–1945, 31 (only German pickets).

  Three panzer grenadier counterattacks: Michael Howard and John Sparrow, The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946, 167, 170 (stripping rations); David Erskin, The Scots Guards, 1919–1955, 186; Molony V, 453.

  Too great as well for Truscott’s 3rd Division: CM, 284.

  “faces of the dead”: Murphy, 50; memo, LKT Jr. to MWC and CG, NATOUSA, Dec. 17, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0 (8,600 casualties); “Statistical Survey for the Italian Campaign, Sept. 17–Nov. 19, 1943,” 3rd ID, CARL, N-12185, (four hundred officers); Peter R. Mansoor,
The GI Offensive in Europe, 116 (70 percent of their strength); corr, LKT Jr., to W. B. Smith, Dec. 1, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 11, folder 11.

  “You are in my thoughts”: LKT Jr., to Sarah, Nov. 10 and 25, Dec. 5, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6; aide’s diaries, Nov. 10, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (thirty-five bottles of cognac).

  “The land and the weather”: Pyle, 68, 73, 78, 97; Collins, 127–28 (“No shelves”).

  “protections against crackup”: McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” 68; Spike Milligan, Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall, 37, 105, 185 (“Stretcher bearer!”).

  the Ghouls: Munsell, 37; Milligan, 186 (“loss of dirt”); Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 294 (“pig shed”); McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” 67 (Villa des Chilblains); Farley Mowat, The Regiment, 179 (“Latrines”); Wells, 61 (“Big Six”).

  “She’s been yelling like that”: Tregaskis, 181; George Kerrigan, “A Night at the Opera,” ts, n.d., Co. A, 142nd Inf, Texas MFM (“You can pray forever”).

  “You can’t believe”: The Princeton Class of 1942 During World War II, 278.

  At 9:30 A.M. on Thursday, November 11: diary, MWC, Nov. 11, 1943, Citadel, box 64; Tregaskis, 193.

  “war could be won in this theater”: diary, MWC, Nov. 4, 1943, Citadel, box 64.

  ten thousand casualties since mid-October: Starr, ed., 77; “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters” (“equivalent of two divisions”); diary, MWC, Nov. 23, 1943, Citadel, box 64 (more than three thousand dead); StoC, 226; Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 119 (“Nothing But Jerry”).

  The British had disappointed Clark: diary, MWC, Nov. 5, 1943, Citadel, box 64; OH, Robert J. Wood, March 4 and 15, 1948, SM, MHI (“Why in the hell”); corr, MWC to John Meade, Sept. 22, 1955, SM, MHI (“only ones”); Starr, ed., 53, 60.

  Few of the troops butting at the Bernhardt Line: Just as the only U.S. armor division to fight in the desert was the only one to receive no desert training, so the 34th and 36th Divisions had little mountain training. “Lessons Learned in the Battle from the Garigliano to North of Rome,” July 15, 1944, Fifth Army, training memo #12, DTL, Ft. B, 8.