The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  “We could hear mortar and artillery”: James P. O’Reilly, “A Tough Decision,” 3rd Ranger Bn, in Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 80, 159–60 (blown to pieces point-blank).

  Dobson pressed ahead: Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn” Darby and Baumer, 159; Carlo D’Este, Fatal Decision, 163; author visits, May 7, 2004, Nov. 30, 2006.

  A German sentry flopped: Jack Dobson, “With the Rangers at Cisterna,” Jan. 1945, told to Noland Norgaard, Associated Press, in Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 83; Black, 157; Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 41; O’Donnell, 90 (“I emptied my M-1”); memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Charles M. Shunstrom to William O. Darby, July 10, 1944, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1.

  Dawn, that harsh betrayer: Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 42.

  “Then it opened up on us”: Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn” Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 77; memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Shunstrom to Darby; D’Este, Fatal Decision, 165 (Dobson shot a tank commander).

  Step by step the Rangers retreated: Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 37; Micky T. Romine, “My Life in Combat, and as a POW,” n.d., in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” 89–89 (“I have shot that man”); Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn” (“You could run about twenty yards”).

  Rangers held in reserve: memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Shunstrom to Darby; memo, “Operation at Sisterna” [sic], Charles M. Shunstrom, n.d., “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1; Donald G. Taggart, History of Third Infantry Division in World War II, 119; Darby and Baumer, 167 (“The tracers were flying”); O’Donnell, 91 (sprayed blood); Black, 159, 164; AAR, 1st Ranger Bn, March 31, 1944.

  “Them bastards is giving up”: O’Donnell, 91. Some eyewitnesses said the German armored vehicles were tanks. Testimony from James Robert Dew, May 24, 1945; Donald Richard Clark, Aug. 2, 1945; James D. Cooney, May 21, 1944, all in JAG case file, Cisterna shootings, War Crimes Office, NARA RG 153, box 536.

  “we shall shoot the prisoners”: memo, “Capture of the First and Third Ranger Battalions,” Shunstrom to Darby; King, 156–57; D’Este, 166.

  Darby for several hours had labored: Taggart, 115; Ranger Force journal, Jan. 30, 1944, 0615 hrs (“Murray is having a hell of a time”); Anzio Beachhead, 30.

  News from Truscott’s regiments: Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 61; Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry” Joseph Edgar Martin, “Memoir of World War II,” ts, 2003, author’s possession; Anzio Beachhead, 31–32. Third Division soldiers earned four more Medals of Honor at Cisterna in the May 1944 breakout battle; thus, of thirty-one such decorations awarded the division’s soldiers during World War II, more than one-quarter were for valorous acts in this one small Italian town. Nathan William White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 82; D’Este, 174, 361.

  At seven A.M., the first radio dispatch: King, 156–57; D’Este, 493n.

  “Some of the fellows are giving up”: Darby and Baumer, 164.

  “Shoot if they come any closer”: Taggart, 115.

  “They are coming into the building”: Darby and Baumer, 164–65; King, “Rangers,” 38–39 (“So long, Colonel”).

  “Use your head”: Taggart, 115; Altieri, The Spearheaders, 312 (“God bless all of you”).

  “Ehalt, I leave everything”: Black, 160.

  “My old sergeant major”: Taggart, 115; King, 157; Altieri, The Spearheaders, 312; Darby and Baumer, 167 (“couldn’t stand the thought”).

  “Situation is confused”: aide’s diaries, Jan. 30, 1944; Scott, 103–4 (“tiny, darting figures”).

  Confusion and cacophony persisted: AAR, 1st Ranger Bn; AAR, 4th Ranger Bn, Feb. 15, 1944, and “Journal of Operations,” 4th Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–31, 1944, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 4, folder 11; Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 76; Darby and Baumer, 159–60; diary, Jan. 30, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1 (“Whole show is folded”).

  “packing meat”: Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back, 83, 107, 121; Juergensen, Beachheads and Mountains, 18, 23; Don Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 52–53 (knocked Murphy senseless).

  For a renewed push on Monday: diary, Jan. 30–31, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1; aide’s diaries, Jan. 30, 1944; AAFinWWII, vol. 3, 349; JJT, XII-9, 11, 15 (“Not a man to let a weapon sit”).

  “Toffey is rolling”: Scott, 104; Taggart, 117; Anzio Beachhead, map no. 7; White, 84; Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry” (“barely existed as a fighting force”); Darby and Baumer, 167; AAR, 4th Ranger Bn, Feb. 15, 1944, and “Journal of Operations,” 4th Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–31, 1944; Murphy, 108.

  The division was spent: Anzio Beachhead, 36, map no. 7; JJT, XII-16 (“fearless leadership”).

  Darby drove to the bivouac: Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Fought Ahead of Everybody,” Saturday Evening Post, June 15, 1946, 50+; D’Este, 169.

  Captured Rangers shuffled: film, “Liberation of Rome,” 1944, combat report no. 1, NARA RG 111, CR001; O’Donnell, 96; Romine, “My Life in Combat, and as a POW,” 88–89; memoir, Frank Mattivi, n.d., in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” 88–89 (“I am a prisoner”).

  The February 1 morning report: morning report, 1st Ranger Bn, Feb. 1, 1944, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 2, folder 9; Hogan, 58; Anzio Beachhead, 30; Stewart, “The Ranger Force at the Battle of Cisterna,” 57.

  An estimated 250 to 300: Estimates of Rangers killed vary widely. While scholars such as Carlo D’Este put the number as high as three hundred, a report to the Ranger Battalions Association thirty years after the battle claimed, perhaps improbably, that only a dozen died. D’Este, 169; O’Donnell, 84; Black, 165. See also King, “Rangers,” http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/King/King.asp#C.

  the 4th Battalion suffered: Hogan, 58; memo, G. B. Devore, “Armored Replacements,” March 18, 1944, AGF Board, AFHQ, DTL, Ft. B (Anglo-American losses on January 30); journal, Fourteenth Army, Jan. 31, 1944, 10 (“enemy has suffered heavily”).

  The hunt for scapegoats: diary, MWC, Jan. 30, 1944, Citadel, box 65; King, “Rangers,” 31; OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (until Lucas pointed out); Associated Press, March 8, 1944, cited in Marsha Henry Goff, “Reunion to Bring World War II Rangers to Lawrence,” Lawrence [Kans.] Journal-World, May 19, 2006; Hogan, 58; Ivan Peterman, “Peterman Discloses Story of Lost Rangers at Anzio Beachhead,” Apr. 15, 1944, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1; AAR, “Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation SHINGLE,” March 15, 1944, VI Corps, NARA RG 407, 206-3.0, box 3740 (“ascribed only to chance”).

  The beachhead on the VI Corps right: Molony V, 676; diary, MWC, Feb. 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“consolidate your beachhead”).

  Lucas invited reporters to his upstairs suite: Vaughan-Thomas, 90 (“a mighty tough fighter”); H. M. Wilson, “Report by the Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean,” 1946, part 1, 28 (more than six thousand casualties).

  CHAPTER 9: THE MURDER SPACE

  This World and the Next World at Strife

  “indulged in his wild orgies”: Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy, 5; National Archeological Museum, Cassino; author visits, Sept. 1995, May 2004, Nov. 2006; The Tiger Triumphs, 50 (“a preacher above his congregation”); Tommaso Leccisotti, Monte Cassino, 13 (“From here is the way”).

  Rounding the last bend: David Hapgood and David Richardson, Monte Cassino, 238–39; Fred Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 5; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02467b.htm (“agreeable to the Lord”); Leccisotti, 14–15, 19; “The Abbey of Montecassino,” tourist brochure, n.d. (“on a bright street”); StoC, 401; Bradford A. Evans, The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 11–12; “Monte Cassino,” The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheCompletePoeticalWorksofHenryWadsworthLongfellow/chap21.html.

  The
town below had first been bombed: Leccisotti, 112; StoC, 399; Rudolf Böhmler, Monte Cassino, 105, 107–13 (“To befoul the Abbey”); Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 220 (swag was breathtaking); Hapgood and Richardson, 35 (silk-clad reliquaries); Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 244 (fifteen crates went missing).

  As the evacuation concluded: StoC, 400–401; memo, “The bombing of Monte Cassino Abbey,” W.M. Harris, Sept. 2, 1949, CMH, Geog Italy, 373.11 (“allein das Gebäude”); diary, WFST, Dec. 27, 1943, CMH, Geog Italy, 373.11 (“best reserves must stand”).

  “every rock-drilling machine”: Franz Kurowski, Battleground Italy, 1943–1945, 359; Leccisotti, 117; StoC, 400–401; diary, WFSt, Nov. 17, 1943 (tobacco bonuses); Böhmler, 163 (German field hospitals).

  The first stray shell: Leccisotti, 118; Hapgood and Richardson, 7, 81, 100–101 (“these terrible days”).

  Forty terrified women rushed: memo, “Monte Cassino Abbey,” HQ, Fifth Army, G-2, Feb. 28, 1944, in F. Jones, “The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 15 February 1944,” Oct. 14, 1949, Cabinet Historical Section, UK PRO, CAB 106/699, appendix 3, 69; StoC, 401; Fred Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 112–13 (pounded on the oak door); Leccisotti, 118 (“Insane with fear”).

  The door swung open: Leccisotti, 118; Herbert Bloch, “The Bombardment of Monte Cassino,” 1973, CMH, Geog Italy, 373.11, 411.

  The failure of the frontal attack: StoC, 367, 374; N. C. Phillips, Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War: Italy, vol. 1, 185 (“dejected landscape”).

  The French nearly won through: “Draft Report on FEC,” n.d., SM, CMH, box 1.

  “Look for the fellow wearing”: “Special Report on Attitude of U.S. Troops Toward French,” March 8, 1944, HQ, SOS, NATOUSA, NARA RG 492, 311.7, box 931; “Draft Report on FEC” (bowing back the German line); Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 43 (occupied Monte Belvedere); Ralph S. Mavrogordato, “XIV Panzer Corps Defensive Operations Along the Garigliano, Gari, and Rapido Rivers,” Nov. 1955, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R series, R-78, 57 (escarpment so vital).

  “It is ordinary men”: John Ellis, Cassino: The Hollow Victory, 65, 58 (“tearing at his brains”), 146–47 (“That calmed them”); Molony V, 627.

  Six German battalions: Ian Gooderson, Cassino 1944, 65; operations report, 3rd Algerian Div, Feb. 16, 1944, in “French Action and Pertinent Orders, Rapido-Cassino,” Fifth Army, HQ, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI (“Hill 700 has been taken”); Blaxland, 43 (sip of water); Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 533 (“Haven’t eaten or drunk”).

  “The human mechanism”: Ellis, 149; “Draft Report on FEC” StoC, 372; Molony V, 629n (a battalion each day); Blaxland, 43 (“could do no more”).

  Now the thankless task: http://www.army.mil/CMH/topics/apam/100BnWW2.htm; 201 file, Charles W. Ryder papers, DDE Lib, box 2.

  the 34th attacked north of Cassino: StoC, 371.

  The attack resumed farther north: AAR, 2nd Bn, 168th Inf, CMH, Geog files, 370.2; StoC, 373, 377 (“Cassino heights will be captured”); OH, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Aug. 17, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C. (S-mines popping); AAR, “Attack on Cassino,” G. B. Devore, Co C, 760th Tank Bn, attached to 756th Tank Bn, in report no. 140, AFG board, Apr. 3, 1944, CARL, N-7245-G (followed the faint glow); John L. Powers, “Crossing the Rapido,” IJ, May 1945, 50+ (six-inch ruts); Kenneth Maitland Davies, To the Last Man, 122 (phosphorus); “Historical Narrative and Journal,” G-3, 34th ID, Oct. 1943–May 1944, Charles W. Ryder papers, DDE Lib, box 4; GK, Feb. 1, 1944 (“Believe we shall have Cassino”).

  Kesselring had shifted: Chester G. Starr, ed., From Salerno to the Alps, 108; StoC, 374–75 (“two boxers in the ring”); Hapgood and Richardson, 75, 133–35; “The Background of the 135th Infantry,” ts, n.d., Iowa GSM; Matthew Parker, Monte Cassino, 139 (“every night the rumor”).

  In a two-acre field diced by German artillery: James A. Luttrell, “The Operations of the 168th Infantry in the Rapido River Crossing,” 1948, IS; Donald C. Landon, “The Operations of the 2nd Bn, 135th Inf in the Cassino Offensive,” 1946, IS (Six new lieutenants); Parker, 144 (sulfa powder in salt shakers); Belfrad H. Gray, Jr., “The Crossing of the Rapido River and Occupation of Positions Above Cassino by Company I, 168th Infantry,” 1947, IS; Davies, 124–25; OH, Howard Kippenberger, Feb. 4 and 12, 1947, SM, MHI (so hobbled by frozen feet).

  three efforts were made to break through: Majdalany, 85; StoC, 382–83; memoir, C. N. “Red” Morgan, 3rd Bn, 141st Inf, n.d., Texas MFM Web site, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Clifford H. Peek, Jr., ed., Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns, 47 (ricochet shell).

  “within a bare 100 meters”: Molony V, 704; Porch (attacked on too broad a front); “34th Division Casualties, Cassino Operation,” Feb. 15, 1944, MWC, corr, Citadel, box 3; censorship morale reports, Nov. 1943–June 1944, NARA RG 492, MTO AG, 311.7 (“Personally I’m glad”); GK, Feb. 10, 1944 (“Full moon”).

  “suspended by invisible wires”: Brian Harpur, The Impossible Victory, 57; Harold L. Bond, Return to Cassino, 82 (smacked the roof).

  Early on February 14: “Historical Narrative and Journal,” G-3, 34th ID; G. R. Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 284; StoC, 374 (seven hundred litter bearers); Bond, 101–3 (sawed logs); William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, act 2, scene 2; B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1 (“Thank God their mothers”); Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 116 (white shoes).

  an American detail delivered 150 corpses: OH, Paul Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, MHI, SOOHP; Nicholas M. Bozic, “36th Infantry Division, Salerno to Rome,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM (“bodies all over the hill”); Hal Reese, IG, 36th ID, “Intermission at Cassino,” n.d., Texas MFM (“It is such a tragedy”). Lt. Col. Reese was killed near Anzio three months later.

  Saddest of all: G. L. Hanssen, The Hanssens of Eastern Iowa, 32–33, 39–44, 47.

  They had been at it so long: Pyle, 127, 134–35.

  “They live and die so miserably”: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 132; OH, Harold Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, II-23; StoC, 383 (“almost mutinous”).

  Shit Corner: memoir, P. Royle, ts, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 108; Thomas Drake Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (“Halt!”); Paul Fussell, Wartime, 274–75 (“Don’t be scared”).

  The lucky ones found shelter: Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 248; C. L. Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 236 (“steam”); Martha Gellhorn, The Face of War, 131 (“perfume and gasoline”); Howard H. Peckham and Shirley A. Snyder, Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 76 (“We sit around quibbling”); Warren P. Munsell, Jr., The Story of a Regiment, 40 (Berlin Bitch); Klaus H. Huebner, A Combat Doctor’s Diary, 51 (daily passwords).

  The unlucky crouched in damp sangars: memoir, Anthony “Butch” Buccieri, 133rd Inf Regt, written by John F. Sackheim, 2001, VHP; StoC, 380; C. Richard Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” IWM, 92/1/1, 91-92 (wooden plows); Blaxland, 55; Parker, 152 (urinate, if necessary); memoir, Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 208; memo, N.P. Morrow to L. J. McNair, Jan. 28, 1944, AGF Board, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA (99,000 sets); “Operations in Italy, January 1944,” 142nd Inf Regt, MHI, 603-142, 9 (too thick for most GI boots); Samuel David Spivey, A Doughboy’s Narrative, 84 (“a life of extremes”).

  “the quartermaster must be running”: memoir, Gardiner, 214; June Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 85 (“Our meat is dead”); Ivan Dmitri, Flight to Everywhere, 145 (“no fresh milk”); Maurice R. P. Bechard, “This Is an Account of What Was to Be,” ts, n.d., 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI, 2 (“fighting the whole fucking war”); Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 142 (“cold as a corpse”).

  “disheveled, unshaven, unkempt”: J. B. Tomlinson, “Under the Banner of the Battleaxe,” ts, n.d., IWM, 80/29/1, 105, 139,144; Parker, 207; C. T. Fram, “The Littlest Victory,” ts, n.d., IWM 85/19/1, 72.

  “regular as a scythe-stroke”: Lawrence Durrell, from Sicilian Carousel, in Alc
ie Leccese Powers, Italy in Mind, 82; Walter Bernstein, Keep Your Head Down, 149 (“finger of God”); StoC, 380 (200,000 shells); AAR, II Corps, Jan. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 202-0.3, 15 (240mm howitzer); Peckham and Snyder, 68 (“a lot of war bonds”); Cyril Ray, Algiers to Austria, 119 (“most heavily shelled pinpoint”); Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” 16 (“pounding the soles of my feet”); N. P. Morrow, “Field Artillery Technique and Procedure,” Jan. 7, 1944, AGF observer report, file #56, NARA RG 337, box 52; N.P. Morrow, “Employment of Artillery in Italy,” FAJ, Aug. 1944, 499+; “Lessons in Combat,” 34th ID, Sept. 1944, Iowa GSM, 47 (“murder space”); “AFHQ Intelligence Notes No. 63,” June 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 47, 95-AL1-2.18 (“Wet earth”).

  learned to relieve the overpressure: Carl Rollyson, Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave, 193; Ray, 118; Spike Milligan, Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall, 255 (“Digging and swearing”); Alex Bowlby, The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby, 26 (“Keep your nut down”).

  “Enlisted men expect everything”: Douglas Allanbrook, See Naples, 180; Ben Shephard, War of Nerves, 237 (“gutful men”); “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” Apr. 14, 1944, 1st SSF, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 7 (“Use good judgment”).

  “Came across three dead G.I.s”: Maurice R. P. Bechard, “This Is an Account of What Was to Be,” ts, n.d., 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI, 2.

  Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony”: Fussell, 183; John Muirhead, Those Who Fall, 101 (“bright beads”)

  “The initial crack”: B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1.

  “You could never lose it”: memoir, P. Royle, t.s, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 106; Harpur, 65 (“That brooding monastery”).