Oblivious to the anguish: Jackson, 221; OH, Alexander, SM (“The hell with this”); Alexander to Brooke, April 3, 1943, Alanbrooke Papers, LHC, 6/2/17 (“not professional soldiers”).
Off Patton’s forces went at a gallop: letter, Oscar W. Koch to James A. Norell, Dec. 15, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Pietro Arancio, Agrigento, 14 (“loveliest of mortal cities”); SSA, 175; Robert D. Kaplan, Mediterranean Winter, 123; L.V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 459; Edward B. Kitchens, Jr., “The Operations of the 3rd Ranger Infantry Battalion in the Landings at Licata,” 1949, IS, 18–24; Michael J. King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II,” June 1985, CSI, 26–27; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 53; CM, 220–21 (Darby’s Rangers assembled).
Unaware that Agrigento: William O. Darby and William H. Daumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 99; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 118 (stovepipe hats).
three safes found in an Italian naval headquarters: Some evidence suggests assistance from local mafiosi who had been contacted by U.S. Navy intelligence agents as part of a covert arrangement with Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the Sicilian-born New York crime boss then serving time in a New York prison. Rodney Campbell, The Luciano Project, 117, 126, 176–78; Patrick K. O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, 50; Max Corvo, The O.S.S. in Italy, 1942–1945, 23.
soldiers cracked them: OH, Samuel A. D. Hunter, March 7, 1944, NHC, 15–18; The Sicilian Campaign, 131.
“During the night of 17/18 July”: G-2 periodic report No. 9, July 19, 1943, Seventh Army, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247; CM, 224.
Corporal Audie Leon Murphy: Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back, 7–8; Harold B. Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 18–20, 47.
He had a slow, stooped gait: corr, Albert Lewis Pyle to Carl Swickerath, Feb. 23, 1973, ALM, box 1, 2; Don Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 57, 60 (tobacco smoke), 39; Audie Murphy, “You Do the Prayin’,” Modern Screen, Jan. 1956, 56+ (“You do the prayin’”); Murphy, To Hell and Back, 10; Simpson, 70; “Lieutenant Audie Murphy,” AB, no. 3, 1973, 28+.
“some Dago name”: William E. Faust, memoir, ts, n.d., ASEQ, 1st ID, MHI, 71; Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 105 (Fascist salute); John Hersey, “AMGOT at Work,” Life, vol. 15, no. 8, Aug. 23, 1943, 25 (“Kiss your hand!”); aide’s diaries, July 21, 1943, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (Italian saddle); George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, Aug. 14, 1943, 46+ (“One never seemed”).
Emulating Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry: AAR, HQ, 7th RCT, July 24, 1943; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIV–35 (“chalk and cattle dung”); Daniel R. Champagne, Dogface Soldiers, 29 (“are my dogs barking”); CM, 226; Garland, 246; Gordon A. Blaker, Iron Knights, 184 (“Mount up”); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 176–78 (Bradley kept a map).
From a roadcut in the ridge: corr, LKT Jr. to James A. Norell, Jan. 10, 1961, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Kaplan, 122; diary, July 23, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div., box 3, folder 1; George Biddle, Artist at War, 66, 69 (“no cat”).
Belisarius in A.D. 535: Charles Lee Lewis, “The Byzantine Invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy,” Proceedings, Nov. 1943, 1435+; msg, 1000 hrs, July 22, 1943, “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglio” corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, Aug. 25, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM, box 1, folder 6.
Hours passed: notes, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; CM, 227; Codman, 110 (“Street after street”).
“stacks full of rare books”: Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 225–26; Biddle, 67 (Goethe); Garland, 256; SSA, 188; lecture, W. A. Sullivan, Society of Military Engineers, Cincinnati, 1947, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” #445, WWII Histories and Historical Reports in the U.S. Naval History Division, NHC, 13 (Salvage teams); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 297–99, 307; Edward D. Churchill, Surgeon to Soldiers, 222 (offered to sing Verdi); OH, John A. Heintges, SOOHP, Jack A. Pellicci, 1974, MHI, 150–55 (seized two large trucks); Melvin F. Talbot, “The Logistics of the Eighth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces, Northwest African Waters,” ts, n.d., “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” #139, U.S. Naval History Division, 37; memo, “Data for Logistical Planning,” Seventh Army to CG, NATOUSA, Dec. 4, 1943, Walter J. Muller Papers, HIA, box 2.
Major General Geoff Keyes: AAR, HQ, Provisional Corps, July 15–Aug. 20, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily, 370.2; Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 78; John B. Romeiser, ed., Combat Reporter, 179 (bedsheet lashed to a fishing pole); GK, July 22, 1943.
“It is a great thrill”: PP, 297, 303, 305.
“The occupation of western Sicily”: situation report, OB Süd, July 24, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246; Garland, 255; AAR, HQ, Provisional Corps, July 15–Aug. 20, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily, 370.2; CM, 228 (“certainly like to beat Montgomery”).
“You will have guessed”: CM, 227; PP, 300.
Snaring the Head Devil
“No objective can compete”: GS IV, 498, 500, 505; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 306 (Churchill would strip British forces); Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 826 (“cut their rations again”).
“Why should we crawl”: GS IV, 503; Kennedy, 295 (“a beautiful path”); Emajean Jordan Buechner, Sparks, 95 (“gonorrhea”).
Eisenhower in May: StoC, 15, 19; AFHQ G-2, “J.I.C. Algiers Estimates on Italian Morale,” June 20, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 17C, box 242; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, dispatch, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” n.d., CMH, I-52 (“might well cause a collapse”); meeting notes, HQ Force 141, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 26-A, reel 225B, box 242 (“Germany intends to reinforce Italy”); memo, AFHQ G-3, L. W. Rooks to W. B. Smith, June 28, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-C, reel 138E, box 242 (“very mountainous”).
Success in Sicily tipped: Ed Cray, General of the Army, 406; Three Years, 460 (Charlie-Charlies); “Record of Meeting Held at La Marsa at 1430 Hrs, 17 July 1943,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-225-B (“onto the mainland”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1261; Garland, 260–61.
Vital issues remained: “Invasion of Italian Mainland: Summary of Operations Carried out by British Troops Under Command 5 U.S. Army,” n.d., CMH, Geog Ital, 370.2, 30; StoC, 17–18; minutes, item 7, “post-HUSKY Operations,” CCS, 103rd meeting, July 23, 1943; “Memorandum of the Representative of the British Chiefs of Staff,” July 24, 1943, CCS 268/8; “Memorandum by the United States Chiefs of Staff,” July 25, 1943, CCS 268/9; minutes, CCS, July 26, 1943: all in NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243.
For now, analysis: “Notes on the Air Implication of an Assault on Italian Mainland, Naples Area,” July 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 13C, box 242; David Hunt, A Don at War, 207–8; memo, “Appreciation of an Amphibious Assault Against the Naples Area,” July 24, 1943, AFHQ G-3, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 13C, box 242 (“If it is decided”); minutes, CCS, July 26, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243 (“earliest possible date”).
“I am with you”: GS IV, 501, 503.
“the head devil”: Garland, 273; Peter Neville, Mussolini, 99 (special typewriter); Rudolf Böhmler, Monte Cassino, 3 (“of syphilitic origin”); Melton S. Davis, Who Defends Rome?, 64; Paul Deichmann, “Feldzug in Italien,” ts, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250, 6 (“grab his stomach”); George Kent, “The Last Days of the Dictator Benito Mussolini,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1944, 13+; Peter Tompkins, Italy Betrayed, 19, 48 (Zodiac symbols); Gervasi, 91 (“green-eyed daughter”).
He had risen far: Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini, 5; Mark M. Boatner III, Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 384–85; Neville, 134 (wedding rings); Enno von Rintelen, “Psychological Warfare,” n.d., FMS, #B-399, MHI, 4; Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 429.
Lately the country was getting: “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” Jan. 1946, Strateg
ic Services Unit, WD, A-63366, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.22, 16–17; Dharm Pal, The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 3–4; Boatner, 385; Neville, 163 (thirty-two Italian divisions); R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 474 (lacked boots); Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, 48; Porch, 7; Rintelen, “The Italian Command,” 3 (Raw materials); Garland, 32; “Vortragsnotiz: Die Lage in Italien,” June 30, 1943, OKH, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 243 (“The kernel of the Italian army”); Rintelen, “The Italian Command,” 9.
Since December 1942: Vittorio Ambrosio, the Comando Supremo chief, claimed after the war that Mussolini never overtly favored a separate peace. “Ambrosio Project #46, Events in Italy, 1 Feb.–8 Sept. 1943,” n.d., FMS, #P-058, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244; Howard McGaw Smyth, “The Command of the Italian Armed Forces in World War II,” Military Affairs, vol. 15, no. 1 (spring 1951), 38+; casualty figures, Il Momento, Aug. 2, 1952, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 704; Garland, 51 (“ridiculous position”), 242 (“sacrifice of my country”); “Memorandum of Conversation,” Feltre, July 1943, Department of State Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 379, Oct. 6, 1946, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, Sicily, box 249, 607+; “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” 21 (“white with emotion”).
Months in the planning: Lewis H. Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 194–95; minutes, item 9, “Bombing of Rome,” CCS, 99th meeting, supplementary, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243 (“It would be a tragedy”); Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 188 (“Give them hell”).
“Perfect formation”: Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 17; Tompkins, 38–39; Alessandro Portelli, The Order Has Been Carried Out, 77–78 (sons of bitches); Vincent Orange, Tedder, 223 (exclusively American).
Estimates of the dead: casualty estimates in ascending order: Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 261; Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 12; SSA, 186; Portelli, 77–78.
Basilica of San Lorenzo: “Report on the Bombing of the Basilica of San Lorenzo,” Aug. 19, 1944, Allied Control Commission, Henry C. Newton Papers, MHI, box 4; Andrew Brookes, Air War over Italy, 1943–1945, 17; George F. Botjer, Sideshow War, 85–86 (holy water); “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 21 (“a common cause”).
on Sunday, July 25: F. W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship, 458; Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini, 297 (telephone intercepts); Davis, 137, 141; “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 28–29; Tompkins, 61. One account contends that Mussolini when meeting the king still wore his marshal’s uniform: Katz, 19, 21.
Rarely had the Duce faced: corr, Dino Grandi to Alexander Kirk, May 15, 1944; corr, Harold H. Tittman to A. Hull, Aug. 28, 1943; memo, Leonardo Vitetti, “Notes on the Fall of the Fascist Regime,” n.d., all in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249.
black Saharan bush shirts: Tompkins, 60; Bosworth, 495; account, Dino Grandi, June 23, 1944; memo, Edward S. Crocker to C. Hull, “Overthrow of Mussolini,” Feb. 7, 1944, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249.
Shortly before five P.M.: Deakin, 470; Katz, 21; Paul Deichmann, “Italian Campaign,” 1948, FMS, #T-1a, chapter 1, 35.
A millennium of royal inbreeding: Boatner, 588; Tompkins, 22, 32 (“taciturn and diffident”); Neville, 175 (“little sardine”); Kenyon Joyce, “Italy,” ts, n.d., Kenyon Joyce papers, MHI, 322 (twenty-eight woodcock); Katz, 21.
After a few rambling sentences: Deakin, 470; “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 28–29; Benito Mussolini, My Rise and Fall, 70–72.
Even at five feet, seven inches: Mussolini, 70–72; Tompkins, 62 (“not at all nice”).
“Duce, I have been ordered”: Davis, 141–42; “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 28–29; Mussolini, 70–72, 77; Davis, 147 (fists on his hips).
A radio bulletin at eleven P.M.: Demaree Bess, “Power Politics Succeded in Italy,” Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 30, 1943, 20+; Davis, 156 (“Citizens, wake up!”)
“One did not see a single person”: Badoglio, 46; Deakin, 475; Smith, 298 (Mussolini’s own newspaper).
“The Duce will enter history”: Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 710; Louis P. Lochner, ed., The Goebbels Diaries, 1942–1943, 437.
“Italy has had enough”: Iris Origo, War in Val D’Orcia, 47.
Fevers of an Unknown Origin
Patton had settled comfortably: John P. Marquand, “Introduction,” in Codman, xiv–xvi; PP, 303; JPL, 85 (heroic oils); Kaplan, 116 (entering a jewel); GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 2, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11 (Christ Pantocrator).
“I know I have been marked”: Fred Ayer, Jr., Before the Colors Fade, 139; Garland, 304; FDR to GSP, Aug. 4, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11 (Marquis of Mount Etna); Milton F. Perry and Barbara W. Parke, Patton and His Pistols, 66.
The fame Patton so ardently craved: Carlo D’Este, “The Slaps Heard Round the World,” MHQ, vol. 8, no. 2 (winter 1996), 64+; Beatrice to GSP, July 30, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div., box 11 (“Monty hardly figures”); “Narrative of Operation HUSKY,” n.d., Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI, box 2 (200,000); GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 11, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11 (“sixth sense”); Hirshson, 392 (“lose them”); PP, 306 (“horse race”); “Reminiscences of Charles Wellborn, Jr.,” 1971–72, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 187 (Volkswagen staff cars).
Each morning his armored cavalcade: Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” 90–91; Coffin, 91; Perry and Parke, 66; PP, 315–17 (timed his pulse); Jean Gordon Peltier, World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, 119 (“killer eyes”); Jack Pearl, Blood-and-Guts Patton, 102 (sobbing in the latrine); GSP to Beatrice, July 20, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11.
broke his swagger stick: Seymour Korman, Mutual Broadcasting reporter, quoted in IG report, NATOUSA, Sept 18, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91; PP, 296; Pearl, 100–101 (“Get back on that gun”); Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1988.32, box 215 (leg boils); OH, Heintges, 1974, Pellicci, 159 (“You son of a bitch”); Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 282n; Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 121 (“let my killers through”).
“Let’s talk about tomorrow”: Coffin, 91; Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 311; Codman, xiv–xvi; Norman Lewis, In Sicily, 1, 3, 39, 159 (cruel city).
“Wars are not won”: Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 266.
Meticulous and even finicky: “Ordnance Operations in the MTO,” Feb. 14, 1945, AGF, CMH, Geog Files, Med 353, 5-6; Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 167; Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 138; “Report of Visit to Sicily,” Aug. 16–20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E427, 95-AL1-40-0.2, box 201; memo, “P.A.D. and civil defense in Sicily,” Aug. 23, 1943, AFHQ, NARA RG 492, MTO, 290/54/25/6, 2191 (“exodus of dock workers”); JPL, 116.
“It resembles a maniac”: Churchill, Surgeon to Soldiers, 238; Charles M. Wiltse, The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters, 165, 169 (breakage); “Field Operations of the Medical Department in the MTOUSA,” Nov. 10, 1945, NARA RG 94, E427, 95-USF2-26-0, 196–97, 202 (only half the necessary number).
Sicily proved unforgiving: Albert H. Smith, Jr., The Sicily Campaign: Recollections of an Infantry Company Commander, 35; Russell B. Capelle, Casablanca to the Neckar, 22 (“Sicilian disease”); AFHQ circular #55, July 7, 1943, MTOUSA AG 444.1, box 1424 (“RNS”); Tregaskis, 239 (“Z.I.’ed”); Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 607 (“she missed out”); JPL, 64 (ink their names); Norris H. Perkins, North African Odyssey, 81 (“one complete piece”).
Surgeons operated by flashlight: Theresa Archald, G.I. Nightingale, 165; Gervasi, 473; June Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 55 (“just checking up”); J. A. Ross, Memoirs of an Army Surgeon, 148 (“cindery masses”); Dancocks, 90 (morphine).
“horrid thing called mal’aria”: admin monologues, “Operations of British, Indian and Dominion Forces in Italy,” part 5, UK NA, CAB 106/453, 4–5; Blanche D. Coll et al., The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment, 456–57; James Phinney Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 301, 306–8, 316–17 (Atab
rine); Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113+ (“Ann”); “Characteristics of Theater, Annex A,” HKH, LOC MS Div, box 8, folder 8 (highest malaria rates).
“yellow gall”: Albert E. Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 63; John Ellis, On the Front Lines, 183–84; Wiltse, 173, 214; “Operations of British, Indian and Dominion Forces in Italy,” part 5, UK NA, CAB 106/453, 4–5; “Report on Malaria in the Sicilian Campaign, 9 July to 10 Sept 1943,” AFHQ surgeon, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250 (some malaria control experts); James Stevens Simmons, “The Prevention of Malaria in the U.S. Army,” May 1944, Medical Historical Unit Collection, MHI, 2–4; A.A.C.W. Brown, “364 Days Service,” ts, 1981, IWM 81/33/1, 10 (“enjoyed it very much”).
More than a thousand soldiers: “Report on Malaria in the Sicilian Campaign” “Operations of British, Indian and Dominion Forces in Italy,” 4–6 (first case contracted in Sicily); Wiltse, 173 (ten thousand cases); Ronald Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 202 (more malaria casualties); Cowdrey, 132 (“disease record of Seventh Army”); “Characteristics of Theater,” Annex A, HKH, LOC MS Div, box 8, folder 8 (“fever of unknown origin”); Hugh A. Scott, The Blue and White Devils, 57
“a frail little fellow”: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 107–8; Pyle, 35–37.
Under such circumstances Patton arrived: memo, F.Y. Leaver, commander of 15th Evacuation Hospital, to Richard T. Arnest, II Corps surgeon, Aug. 4, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91; D’Este, “The Slaps Heard Round the World,” 64 (message from Eisenhower); diary, Aug. 3, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 2 (“smell of the dead”).
Green light filtered: James Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 113; JPL, 100.
On a stool midway through the ward: report, Perrin H. Long to NATOUSA surgeon, Aug. 16, 1943, “Mistreatment of Patients in Receiving Tents of the 15th and 93rd Evacuation Hospitals,” GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 2, appendix 125.
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