The Day of Battle

by Rick Atkinson

  Darby’s Rangers spent the afternoon: Darby and Baumer, 157; Arnbal, 229 (“solemn, tired, and quiet”), 227 (never carried personal letters); OH, William P. Yarborough, 1975, J. R. Meese and H. P. Houser, SOOHP, MHI, 54 (“cutthroats”); Milton Lehman, “The Rangers Died Fighting at Dawn,” mss, March 11, 1944, Stars and Stripes, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1 (barbers stayed busy); Martin Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 97 (“Mail arrived late Saturday”); Hans Juergensen, Beachheads and Mountains, 24 (like dry bones).

  Darby had been busy since dawn: AAR, “Account of Ranger Force During Period 28 January to 31 January 1944,” HQ, Ranger Force, Feb. 2, 1944, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1 (“avoiding contact”); Michael J. King, William Orlando Darby, 150–51; Jerome J. Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalion in World War II,” 1982, Ph.D. diss, Fordham University, MHI, 154; Darby and Baumer, 156 (“Jerryland”); Anthony J. Abati, “Cisterna di Littoria: A Brave Yet Futile Effort,” Army History, fall 1991, 13+; Nicholas J. Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, at Le Mole Creek Near Cisterna,” 1949, IS.

  The size of the attack heartened him: King, 150–51; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 74; Arnbal, 227; “The OSS Detachment at the Anzio Beachhead,” NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 39, 1, 4 (only four enemy battalions); “The Rangers,” Life, July 2, 1944, 59+ (“shaking with patriotism”); Donald Downes, The Scarlet Thread, 150 (“finest body of troops”).

  Yet the expansion of the force: Each Ranger battalion was about half the size of a regular infantry battalion, and was divided into six companies.

  Too many men still bunched up: Michael J. King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II,” June 1985, CSI, 31; Haggerty, “A History of the Ranger Battalion in World War II,” 154; Thomas M. Johnson, “The Army’s Fightingest Outfit Comes Home,” Nov. 5, 1944, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, condensed in Reader’s Digest, Dec. 1944, 51+ (muffle a canteen).

  Would Truscott’s infantry quickly reinforce: After the war, the 4th Ranger Battalion commander said Darby believed that the Cisterna attack was “too risky.” OH, Roy Murray, May 21, 1948, SM, CMH, Geog Files, Italy 314.7.

  No Ranger reconnaissance: David W. Hogan, Jr., Raiders or Elite Infantry?, 58, 60; Robert W. Black, Rangers in World War II, 150–51; Grunzweig, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry” (hedgerows); AAR, “Account of Ranger Force” Ranger Force journal, Jan. 29, 1944, 1835 hrs, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1 (“city may have considerable opposition”).

  “Pistol Packin’ Mama”: James Altieri, The Spearheaders, 308–10; Darby and Baumer, 157–59; Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 40–43 (sounds difficult for German-speakers); Ranger Force journal, Jan. 30, 1944; Field Order no. 2 (red Very flares).

  “Morale of men excellent”: AAR, 1st Ranger Bn, March 31, 1944, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion,” USMA micro, MP63-8, roll 1; Alvah H. Miller, “The Men of My Command,” n.d., in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” Fort Wayne, Ind., Aug. 2004, author’s possession, 84.

  isolated farmhouse on the right side of the road: Ranger Force journal, Jan. 29, 1944; King, 152; Altieri, Darby’s Rangers, 75; StoC, 391.

  Barely half a mile up the Conca road: 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, 75; OH, Roy Murray, May 21, 1948; “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” Jan. 30, 1944, Langan W. Swent papers, HIA, box 1 (white pillar of flame); Ranger Force journal, Jan. 30, 1944, 0433 hrs, “Combat Reports, 1st Ranger Battalion” King, 154; Darby and Baumer, 159 (“all was not well”).

  “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 Occupat
ion 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”).