The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  A new warlord arrived: Paul Freyberg, Bernard Freyberg, V.C., 458 (“torch is now thrown”).

  “I’m Freyberg”: W. G. Stevens, Freyberg, the Man, 103, 35 (“large all over”); H. Essame, “A Controversial Campaign—Italy, 1943–45,” Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, Jan. 1968, 219+ (“shelling did everyone good”); Stevens, Freyberg, the Man, 96 (“lack of imagination”); Freyberg, 112–13 (“St. Sebastian”), 186–87 (“diastolic murmur”); Peter Singleton-Gates, General Lord Freyberg VC, 8; obit, “Gen. Lord Freyberg, British Leader at Monte Cassino,” Washington Star, July 5, 1963 (“two wounds for every bullet”); Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords, 583 (india-rubber); Lisa Chaney, Hide-and-Seek With Angels: A Life of J. M. Barrie, 316 (“his lack of humour”).

  lined it with flowering sage: Freyberg, 51; Stevens, Freyberg, the Man, 56–57 (“fine gloves”), 60, 76 (“your turn tomorrow”).

  Even his admirers acknowledged: Freyberg, 62–63 (“wouldn’t try to think”), 118; “Operations of N.Z. Corps on the Fifth Army Front,” part I, May 1944, HQ, AAI, UK NA, CAB 106/366, 4 (a new creation).

  “clean and spritely”: E. D. Smith, The Battles for Cassino, 65; Phillips, 178–79; Majdalany, 102–3; B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1 (“crates of live chickens”).

  At first Freyberg considered: Molony V, 706–7; Battle, 193; Phillips, 222; Hapgood and Richardson, 151 (“no brains”); Howard Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier, 356 (“soviet of division commanders”). Tuker considered Freyberg “brave as a lion” but “no planner of battles and a niggler in action.” Raleigh Trevelyan, Rome ’44, 133.

  “helpless lunacy”: Bishenwar Prasad, ed., Official History of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War, 1939–1945: The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 98 (deemed Monte Cassino impregnable), 105; F. Jones, “The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 23–25; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” 1965, monograph for official history, UK NA, CAB 101/229, 7.

  “No practicable means available”: Singleton-Gates, 277.

  “Spadger still wants”: GK, Feb. 11, 1944; diary, MWC, Feb. 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“bull in a china closet”).

  “I would level the Vatican itself”: censorship morale reports, Nov. 1943–June 1944, NARA RG 492, MTO AG, 311.7.

  The Bitchhead

  Sixty miles away: beachhead census, D+10, JPL papers, MHI, box 12; Pyle, 173; Francesco Rossi and Silvano Casaldi, Those Days at Nettuno, frontispiece; Fred Sheehan, Anzio: Epic of Bravery, 102; Anzio Beachhead, 113 (empty wine barrels); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 294 (sandstone seemed to telegraph); “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., MHI, 81 (tunnel rumored to have been built by Nero); Trevelyan, 152 (“So back we go to World War I”).

  “My cost of living”: Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 179.

  “We have found our religion”: diary, William Russell Hinckley, Feb. 1944, author’s possession; “Background Material, Historical Branch G-2,” n.d., ASF, QM General, technical information branch, CMH, 000.75, 3 (punctured all fifteen ovens); Pyle, 168, 188; F.J. Lowry, “The Naval Side of the Anzio Invasion,” Proceedings, Jan. 1954, 22+ (skippers weighed anchor); Justin F. Gleichauf, Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in World War II, 293 (“brighter than Yankee Stadium”); Roberta Love Tayloe, Combat Nurse, 80 (“Anzio, my Anzio”).

  Hell’s Half-Acre: “Fifth Army Medical Service History,” Feb. 1945, CMH, 19–20, 23 (killed the VI Corps surgeon); Charles M. Wiltse, The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters, 275 (a Luftwaffe bomber); testimony, Paul Sauer, n.d., Fifth Army JAG, war crimes office, NARA RG 153, box 530 (“I’m dying”); Sheehan, 166 (treated in the same hospital).

  “God, help us”: “Fifth Army Medical Service History,” 24; Carlo D’Este, Fatal Decision, 2; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 5, 1944, in “The German Operation at Anzio,” German military document section, Military Intelligence Div, WD, MHI, JPL papers, box 9; corr, George H. Revelle, Jr., to wife, Feb. 5, 1944, author’s possession (“dog on an iceberg”); George C. Harper, “The World War II Years,” ts, 1999, 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ, 27 (“outhouse”); Pyle, 160; Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 182 (“dining room table”); David Cole, Rough Road to Rome, 199 (“Morphine”); Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 64 (“too much iron”).

  Deep holes grew deeper: diary, Robert M. Marsh, Feb. 11, 1944, 81st Armored Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113+; Ball, 295; William J. Sweet, Jr., “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, on the Anzio Beachhead,” 1947, IS (eliminate tree bursts); Munthe, 182 (“sons of the prophet”); George Forty, M4 Sherman, 67 (“can’t get used to bein’ scared”); Paul W. Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 392–93; T. Moffatt Burriss, Strike and Hold, 87 (firing at the helmets); Cole, 205 (“shooting gallery”).

  “Get moving”: Tom Roe, Anzio Beachhead, 43, 53; John Lardner, “Anzio, February 10th,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 262 (“like sunburned skin”); John Lardner, “The Show at Anzio,” in John Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 117 (“small, wet world”); GK, March 25, 1944 (Bitchhead); Donald G. Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division in World War II, 125 (“squirt of white tracer”); Lloyd Clark, Anzio, 144 (“I was alone”); George Aris, The Fifth British Division, 1939 to 1945, 210–11, 239; Cole, 198 (recalled his Virgil).

  Yanks veered to the right: Sweet, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment” Trevelyan, 222 (“Otto, Otto”); Lloyd M. Wells, From Anzio to the Alps, 83 (“Nerves became frayed”); Pyle, 194.

  Grave diggers halted their poker game: Allan Jaynes, “Mud, Misery and Messerschmitts,” ts, 1990, 45th ID Mus; “The 30 Years of Army Experience of Thomas E. Hannum,” ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ, 74; Pyle, 194; Peter Verney, Anzio 1944, 86 (“can never be as bad”).

  disrupted Mackensen’s timetable: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 3, 5, 12, 1944; AAR, 3 Inf Bde, Jan. 30–Feb 14, 1944, UK NA, CAB 106/850 (exposed salient).

  The attack fell heaviest: Sheehan, 94; Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, 96 (“dirty, ragged wave”), 101; Verney, 98 (“Germans are at the door”); D.J.L. Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 268, 275 (“never saw so many people killed”); Robley D. Evans et al., “American Armor at Anzio,” 1949, AS, Ft. K, table; AAR, “Report on Action at Campoleone,” 3 Inf Bde, Feb. 21, 1944, Philip L. E. Wood papers, LH, Wood 2/1 (438 tubes).

  “All the shells in hell”: Vaughan-Thomas, 106; StoC, 396; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 4, 1944; Anzio Beachhead, 46.

  The attack resumed on Monday evening: Anzio Beachhead, 55; Nigel Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 2, 408 (“Nothing heard of Number 1 company”), 39 (looking for breath plumes); Verney, 137, 142 (“hit in the arse”); D’Este, 222 (“eaten by pigs”).

  Aided by a captured map: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 8, 1944; David Erskin, The Scots Guards, 1919–1955, 216–17, 221 (“even more unpleasant”).

  More unpleasant yet: StoC, 396; Anzio Beachhead, 55; Vaughan-Thomas, 124; Erskin, 223 (“Where is the sea?”).

  On sleepless nights: Trevelyan, 157; author visit, May 7, 2004 (ramps for rolling barrels); Rossi and Casaldi, 159; JPL, 367 (hunched over plywood desks); Marshall, 38, 41 (maps with grease pencil markings).

  “The old Hun is getting ready”: JPL, 360, 365 (shrinking by nine thousand); James Parton, “Air Force Spoken Here,” 351 (largest air command); “Mediterranean Allied Air Forces in Operation SHINGLE, 1 Jan–18 March ’44,” 1945, CMH, 5-1 DA, 23–24 (traveled from southern France).

  “A terrible struggle all day”: JPL, 369; Rossi and Casaldi, 169 (“hermaphrodites”); msg, JPL to MWC, Feb. 9, 1944, 2040 hrs, JPL papers, MHI, box 12; Verney, 23; Molony V, 751 (high-strung engineer); OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI, 76 (“good telephone operator”); OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (“Well, I do”).

  “Complete gaff, no decision”:
diary, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LH, 8/11, 8/14 (“infuriating delay”); D’Este, 221 (“Corncob Charlie”); Trevelyan, 157 (“We’ll lose the beachhead”); Molony V, 738 (“I trust you are satisfied” and “Clark might be the man to go”); Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. 7, Road to Victory, 1941–1945, 666; Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring, 488 (“superiority in chauffeurs”); Vaughan-Thomas, 111 (“a great disappointment”).

  As Mackensen tightened his grip: Anzio Beachhead, 61; Verney, 128–29; Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards, 386; diary, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LH, 8/19. (“immediate corps plan”); JPL, 370.

  He popped out of the command post: CM, 329; Vaughan-Thomas, 127; diary, William R. C. Penney, Jan. 29, 1944, LH, 8/11, and msg, JPL to Penney, Feb. 11, 1944, 8/20 (“reinforcements are on the way”).

  A counterattack at dawn on Saturday: Molony V, 736; Sheehan, 111; Whitlock, 171 (“gray-coated infantry”).

  General Alex had long been celebrated: Sulzberger, 229–30 (red hat drew fire).

  “We wanted a breakthrough”: Vaughan-Thomas, 146 (“Were any of you at Dunkirk?”); Sheehan, 124 (“German opposite us”); Betsy Wade, ed., Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, 37 (stories were censored); “Censorship Takes Anzio,” Time, Feb. 28, 1944, 46 (“such rot”); Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty, 330.

  “I tried to stop the tirade”: Vaughan-Thomas, 147 (La Traviata).

  Lucas was left alone: JPL, 378–79 (“I failed to chase the Hun”).

  General Mackensen, the Hun himself: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 13, 1944 (Lake Nemi); author visit, Dec. 1, 2006; Fritz Meske, “The Anzio-Nettuno Bridgehead: A German Account,” Die Wehrmacht, March 8, 1944, in MR, June 1944 (“not a flash of a gun”).

  the counterattack would fling six divisions: Anzio Beachhead, 67; “German Version of the History of the Italian Campaign,” CARL, N-16671.1-3, 90; StoC, 420; Vaughan-Thomas, 156.

  “concentrated, overwhelming, ruthless”: Ralph S. Mavrogordato, “The Battle for the Anzio Beachhead,” Apr. 1958, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R-series, R-124, 11,13; Vaughan-Thomas, 156; StoC, 419 (delay their invasion).

  mask the clank of approaching panzers: journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 13 and 15, 1944; Eberhard von Mackensen, “Field Fortifications Around the Anzio-Nettuno Beachhead,” 1950, MHI, FMS, #C-061, 7 (streambeds ran perpendicular); msg, Hermann Göring Div, Feb. 14, 1944, in VI Corps G-2 report no. 148, JPL papers, MHI, box 1 (“for short errands”); Sheehan, 124 (“house lights”).

  “like the rolling of a drum”: D’Este, 192; Henry Kaufman, Vertrauensmann, 20 (Birds tumbled); Whitlock, 185, 190 (“coffee grinders”).

  They were not unexpected: G-2 periodic report no. 141, Feb 16, 1944, JPL papers, MHI, box 1; G-2 weekly intelligence summary, no. 77, Feb. 12, 1944, AFHQ, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-2.6; F.H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 190–93; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 267–68; James H. Cook, Jr., “The Operations of Company I, 179th Infantry, in the Vicinity of the Factory, Anzio Beachhead,” 1949, IS (few forward units had sufficient girded); StoC, 420–21; Whitlock, 187 (“I watched the dust”); Fitzgerald, 335 (“savage, brutish”); “Defense of a Position by 2nd Battalion, 157th Infantry, 45th Division,” n.d., AGF Board, NARA RG 407, 95-USF1-2.0, box 253; Ralph E. Niffenegger, “The Operations of the 3rd Platoon, Company G, 157th Infantry, Astride the Anzio–Albano Road,” 1949, IS; Wells, 62–69; Vaughan-Thomas, 180 (“a bastard of a place”).

  Forward companies of Royal Fusilier: Sheehan, 119, 159–61; Burriss, 75 (“flock of canaries”); John Embry, “A Time to Honor,” ts, n.d., 160th FA Bn, 45th ID Mus; Ball, 308 (“Give us everything”).

  Grim as the day had been: Molony V, 745; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 16, 1944 (“Enemy resistance”); Sheehan, 159; N. P. Morrow, “Employment of Artillery in Italy,” 499; Anzio Beachhead, 90.

  fourteen howling German battalions had driven: StoC, 421; Cook, “The Operations of Company I, 179th Infantry” (“verge of panic”).

  “179th lost 1,000 men”: “Diary Notes of Gen. McLain,” Feb. 18, 1944, MHI, OCMH WWII Europe interviews; Whitlock, 227; Munsell, 55 (“tears rolled down”); Wells, 57–58 (“load my rifle”).

  Four hundred Allied gun tubes: Roe, 62; Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 284 (“count the rivets”); AAFinWWII, vol. 3, 356 (“heaviest payload”).

  Jeeps careering to the rear: Whitlock, Anzio; corr, John P. O’Malley to Yarborough, n.d., CJB, “Chrono. File: Sicily,” box 48 (“Don’t leave the phone”); R. Close-Brooks, “Anzio Beach-Head,” ts, 1946, in James Scott Elliott papers, LH, 4 (obliged to sit on the knees).

  flinging the contents over the lip: Robert A. Guenthner, “The Operations of Company F, 180th Infantry, Six Days Previous to and During the Major German Offensive,” 1948, IS; Whitlock, 199 (dull the glint); Walter Fries, “29th Panzer Grenadier Division, February 1944,” 1947, FMS, #D-141, MHI, 7–10; Edward A. Raymond, “The Caves of Anzio,” FAJ, Dec. 1944, 851+; Starr, ed., 154; Whitlock, 224 (“as small as you can”).

  “Men trickled back”: Cook, “The Operations of Company I, 179th Infantry”(“I guess you will relieve me”).

  He was right: Molony V, 745 (carving a bulge from the Allied line); D’Este, 504n (“not very attractive”).

  In the midst of the crisis: diary, MWC, Feb. 16, 1944, Citadel, box 65; Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 399 (“Iron Mike”); OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., former Truscott aide, Apr. 23, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; JPL, 386.

  a Piper Grasshopper pilot spotted 2,500 Germans: “Historical Record, Headquarters VI Corps, February 1944,” Apr. 27, 1944, LKT Jr., papers, GCM Lib, box 13, folder 2; J.W. Totten, “Anzio Artillery,” ts, 1946, CGSC, Ft. L, CARL, N-2253.6, 14; Fitzgerald, 346 (“Bits of Kraut”); William Seymour, Yours to Reason Why, 268–71 (“struggling, field-gray figures”); Embry, “A Time to Honor,” 142 (falling truck tailgates); Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards, 412 (32,000 rounds); Wiley H. O’Mohundro, “From Mules to Missiles,” ts, n.d., MHI, 55 (“turned and ran”); Verney, 174 (“Light Brigade”).

  At 9:30 P.M. a lull: R. Close-Brooks, “Anzio Beach-Head,” ts, 1946, in James Scott Elliott papers, LH, 4 (Tanks lurched forward); journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 17 and 18, 1944 (“No decisive breakthrough”).

  Lucas sensed his shifting fortunes: Molony V, 748; Vaughan-Thomas, 171–74 (cooks, drivers); George F. Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 297; William L. Allen, Anzio: Edge of Disaster, 112–13.

  Harmon woke every morning: E.N. Harmon, Combat Commander, 7, 12, 32; obit, Assembly, Dec. 1980, ENH; Register of Graduates and Former Cadets, 1989 ed., 314; OH, ONB, n.d., Kitty Buhler, MHI, 182 (“poor man’s George Patton”); OH, Hamilton H. Howze, Apr. 1973, Robert T. Reed, SOOHP, MHI, 49 (“hog on ice”); Texas, 209 (“stupidity of the high command”); corr, E. N. Harmon to JPL, Feb. 12, 1944, ENH, box 1 (“well-established plan”); Jack F. Wilhm et al., “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa,” 1950, AS, Ft. K (“enemy has his troubles”).

  “Give ’em hell!”: Whitlock, 235.

  Two hundred prisoners trotted: Howe, 299; Anzio Beachhead, 86; Fries, “29th Panzer Grenadier Division, February 1944,” 7–10; Vaughan-Thomas, 178 (“made him worried”).

  Mackensen’s troops poked: Molony V, 749; Fritz Wentzell, “The Italian Campaign from August 1943 to February 1945,” Dec. 1945, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.2, 43 (“many hounds”); journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 20, 1944 (“evacuate the wounded”); Anzio Beachhead, 91 (mustered 673 men).

  VI Corps casualties also exceeded five thousand: StoC, 424; Whitlock, 248; Lawrence D. Collins, The 56th Evac Hospital, 169 (nurses’ summer fatigues).

  “Message from Clark”: JPL, 393.

  “proved to be an old woman”: John Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 120–21; msg, DDE to GCM, Feb. 16, 1944, SM, MHI, box 2.

  “done all he could”: OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI, 77; OH, Alexander, J
an. 10–15, 1949, II-18 (“ambition was key”); diary, MWC, Feb. 22, 26, 1944, MWC papers, Citadel, box 65 (“old physically and mentally”); John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 126 (“That would be very bad”); aide’s diaries, Feb. 18, 1944, LKT Jr., Citadel, box 18, folder 3 (“four or five days”).

  At midmorning on February 22: C. Webber, “Observers’ Notes on the Italian Campaign,” June 14, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF observer reports, #112, box 55, 4; OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-10; OH, Harry O. Paxson, Nov. 1981, Herbert M. Hart, CEOH, 119–21; e-mail, Silvano Casaldi to author, Feb. 16, 2005; memo, R. W. Komer, “Report on Historical Observation in the Field,” Feb. 24, 1944, in “Report on Activities of the Historical Section, Fifth Army,” Nov. 1945, Chester G. Starr papers, HIA, box 1 (“General Officers Only”).

  “could no longer resist the pressure”: JPL, 394; CM, 328; OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., Apr. 23, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; diary, cover letter, JPL to son, Jan. 1, 1946, MHI.

  Despite persistent ailments: aide’s diaries, Feb. 11 and 14, 1944, LKT Jr., Citadel, box 18, folder 3; OH, Walter T. Kerwin, Jr., Nov. 1, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; CM, 325. Kerwin rose to four-star rank.

  “You can’t relieve a corps commander”: OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI; CM, 328; diary, MWC, Feb. 24, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“prefer to be second”).

  The new corps commander returned: diary, Don E. Carleton, Feb. 22, 1944, HIA, box 1; corr, LKT Jr., to Sarah, March 8, 1944, LKT Jr., papers, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.

  “cool, level, taciturn”: OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-10; diary, MWC, Feb. 22, 1944, MWC papers, Citadel, box 65 (72,982 casualties); MWC to Ann Clark, Feb. 27, 1944, personal corr, Citadel.

  “It is sheer nonsense”: MWC to Renie, Feb. 27, 1944, personal corr, Citadel.

  Prodded by Hitler: Anzio Beachhead, 99; corr, John W. O’Daniel to Hal C. Pattison, Sept. 3, 1964, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, box 256; Hugh A. Scott, The Blue and White Devils, 109.