The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  Patton asked Kuhl: ibid.; PP, 330–31; JPL, 103; Farago, 326–27 (“gutless bastard”).

  His rage spent: Garland, 427; memoir, “Theodore L. Dobol, Command Sergeant Major,” ts, 1976, MRC FDM, 1991.24, box 469, 18; OH, Linwood W. Billing, former commander, Co. L., 26th Inf, Jan. 2006, Andrew Woods, MRC FDM; Arthur L. Chaitt, ed., “Taps,” Bridgehead Sentinel, vol. 30, no. 2 (summer 1971), MRC FDM, 25 (dying of a heart attack); JPL, 102.

  A week later, on August 10: 93rd Evacuation Hospital movements, Donald E. Currier papers, MHI; report, Perrin H. Long to NATOUSA surgeon, Aug. 16, 1943, “Mistreatment of Patients,” 331.

  “What’s this man talking about?”: Bess, “Report of an Investigation,” to DDE, Aug. 19, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91; memo, Donald E. Currier to Richard T. Arnest, II Corps surgeon, Aug. 12, 1943, Donald E. Currier Papers, MHI; Garland, 427–28; Henry J. Taylor, “The Patton Story: He Slapped, He Raged, He Sobbed in Anger,” Cincinnati Post, Feb. 28, 1947, 26, from MRC FDM (“makes my blood boil”).

  As he returned to his car: Bess to DDE, Aug. 19, 1943; Richard Collier, Fighting Words, 146 (“no such thing as shellshock”); SSt, 160 (“couple of malingerers”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI, box 1 (“put a little guts”).

  “inexcusable and asinine”: corr, Donald E. Currier to Fred Ayer, Jr., Aug. 14, 1964, Donald E. Currier papers, MHI.

  “Don’t tell my wife”: Kennedy, in Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 667–68; Bess to DDE, Aug. 19, 1943; SSt, 160 (“Lock it up in my safe”); corr, Paul Harkins to Garrison H. Davidson, n.d., in Garrison H. Davidson, “Grandpa Gar,” ts, 1974, USMA Arch, 85; PP, 333 (“saved his soul”).

  A Great Grief

  “What a steep hill”: Molony V, 154; letter, Joseph T. Dawson to family, July 30, 1943, MRC FDM (“fight downhill”); Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat, 593 (flamethrowers); Peltier, 105; William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, box V-14, VII-28 (cork oaks).

  “the whole damned bridge”: Pyle, 40–41; Beck, 141 (metal detectors); msg, 0030 hours, July 31, 1943, “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglio” (“Troops are tired”); Johannes Steinhof, Messerschmitts over Sicily, 237 (pneumatic drills).

  Allied air and naval superiority: “Lessons from the Sicilian Campaign,” AFHQ, training memo no. 50, Nov. 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-0.4, 7; George H. Revelle, Jr., “Under Fifth Army a Division G-4 Operates,” MR, vol. 25, no. 3 (June 1945), 49+; B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 76/254/1 (“without even a sex life”), Michael Francis Parrino, “Introduction to Pack Transport and Pack Artillery,” ts, n.d., CMH, 84–85 (“what he is to die for”); Elmer W. Norton, 1/157th Inf, ASEQ, MHI (Trouble); Darby and Daumer, 107 (Rosebud); C. W. Eineichner, “Assault on Messina,” in “2004 Reunion Program Book,” Fort Wayne, Ind., Aug. 25–30, 2004, author’s possession, 69 (War Admiral); Ralph G. Martin, The G.I. War, 1941–1945, 114 (“bite the ears”); Guy Nelson, Thunderbird, 51 (“outstanding performance”); “Training Notes from the Sicilian Campaign,” AFHQ G-3, Oct. 25, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily 353, 18; letter, John M. Brooks [former 16th Inf officer] to author, Oct. 19, 2003, 7 (“mule interpreters”).

  “Hills and then more hills”: corr, TR to Eleanor, July 23, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.

  With the British right flank still blocked: Garland, 320; Stanhope Brasfield Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” ts, 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126, 181 (ax-wielding enemy troops); Kimball Richmond, 3/16th Inf, ASEQ, MHI (wine and cheese); corr, TR to Eleanor, Oct. 11, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; Biddle, 82 (“mumbled and rumbled”).

  Each town took a toll: “Battle Casualties,” HQ, 1st ID, Aug. 1, 1943, MRC FDM; Jarvis Burns Moore, 2/16th Inf, ASEQ, MHI (“started swearing”); Time, Aug. 9, 1943, 30.

  Wagging his cane: Biddle, 75; corr, Joseph T. Dawson to family, July 30, 1943, MRC FDM (white-flag ruse); William E. Faust, 1st ID artillery, ts, n.d., ASEQ, MHI, 73 (bomb Etna’s crater); Time, Aug. 9, 1943, 30 (“shaking lice”); Martin, 76 (“paying taxes”).

  Bread trucks: “Report of the Division Quartermaster—Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., 1st ID, 11, and “Official Diary, 1st U.S. Infantry Div, Office of the Quartermaster,” July 24, 1943 entry, both in Harlan W. Hendrick, 1st ID, ASEQ, MHI (“jumping at any excuse”); Tregaskis, 37, 47; corr, Joseph T. Dawson to family, July 31, 1943, MRC FDM.

  “loss of riflemen and fatigue”: “Comments of General Patton,” Aug. 27, 1943, Palermo, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 250; V-mail, TR to Eleanor, July 22, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.

  “like ragged caps”: Romeiser, ed., Combat Reporter [mss], 212; MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” ts, n.d., OCMH, #R-144, MHI; author visit, Sept. 1996; Eberhardt Rodt, “Studie über den Feldzug in Sizilien bei der 15. Pz Gren. Div, Mai–August 1943,” n.d., FMS, #C-077, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 20–21; Garland, 325–29.

  Five miles to the west: Biddle, 76; SSt, 150 (classroom walls); Tregaskis, 51–52; Kenneth T. Downs, “Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves,” Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 17, 1946, 20+ (“stubborn as any resistance”).

  the enemy would counterattack: Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story; Garland, 325 (“lightly held”); Steven E. Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 176–77 (pare back the attack); OH, R. W. Porter, Feb. 8, 1961, Albert N. Garland, and Oscar W. Koch, Dec. 15, 1960, James A. Norell, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250 (printed photos had not yet returned); Biddle, 83 (“You give your orders”).

  “a very disagreeable job”: corr, TdA to Mary Fran, July 29, 1943, TdA papers, MHI, box 2; “Commanding General’s After Action Report,” in Smith, 125–35 (“our moral obligation”).

  He sank to his knees: radio broadcast, Quentin Reynolds, June 8, 1944, TdA papers, box 7; Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 216 (“stop worrying”).

  “Every time I have watched”: Romeiser, ed., 184.

  Coordinating the attack: ibid., 182.

  He was a big man: JJT, II-4, 9, 14–21.

  “It is very nice to read of a battle”: Another Medal of Honor was awarded for the same action near Chattanooga to Arthur MacArthur, Jr., father of Douglas MacArthur. “Medal of Honor citations,” www.army.mil/cmh/; JJT, III-14-16.

  Young Jack Toffey: JJT, VII-1, VIII-12; Will Lang, “Doughboy’s Beachhead,” Time, Feb. 7, 1944, 22; Robert W. Black, Rangers in World War II, 101 (seven thousand prisoners).

  Nine months at war: JJT, V-17-20, 24–26; VI-2, 6; VIII-19.

  The next six days: Garland, 336–37; “Commanding General’s After Action Report,” in Smith, 125–35; “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” n.d., TdA, MHI, 45 (“hell of a lot of stuff”).

  “bravest goddam soldier”: Codman, xviii; “‘Anything, Anytime, Anywhere Bar Nothing’: Remembering ‘Paddy’ Flint,” Periodical: Journal of America’s Military Past, spring 1967, 52+; “Keeping Faith,” ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 3–4 (apparent stroke); “Comments of General Patton,” ts, Aug. 27, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 250; SSt, 153; Henry Gerard Phillips, The Making of a Professional, 122; Harry A. Flint, DSC citation, NARA RG 338, ETO, 7th Army awards, box 2; OH, William C. Westmoreland, 1978, Duane G. Cameron and Raymond E. Funderburk, SOOHP, MHI, 104–5; “History of the 26th Infantry,” 100 (“spend another million”).

  “Troina’s going to be tougher”: SSt, 149; H.R. Knickerbocker, Danger Forward, 135.

  Hills were won and lost: “History of the 26th Infantry,” 95; Clay, 177 (16th Infantry was pinned down); Garland, 339; John W. Baumgartner et al., The 16th Infantry, 1798–1946, 58–59; Knickerbocker, 132–35 (chocolate).

  Progress was no better in the north: “K Company History,” 3/26th Inf, MRC FDM; “Company History,” Co. I, 26th Inf, ts, n.d., MRC FDM (Not until full dark); Knickerbocker, 136–38 (“Something is burning”), 142–43; “History of the 26th Infantry,” 99, 106, 109 (wheat straw); Romeiser, ed. (“laundry mark”), 189; Blythe Foote Finke, No Mission Too Difficult!, 150.

  At dusk on Thursday: Ga
rland, 344; James E. Kelly, ed., The Wartime Letters of John and Vicki Kelly, 54–56, 59, 70–71 (“my luck won’t hold up”); Pyle, 55; Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 201, 273 (“collapsible style”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” 106 (“damned sick of it all”).

  Terry Allen was damned sick: SSt, 151; Rodt, “Studie über den Feldzug in Sizilien,” 22, 27; MEB, Troina, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” ts, n.d., OCMH, #R-144, MHI; Biddle, 86 (hobnailed bootprints); Martin Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 124.

  “Town clear of enemy”: Baumgartner, 64; Clift Andrus, “Troina Addenda,” FAJ, March 1944, 163+ (“greatly destroyed”); Collier, 147 (“a town of horror”); Finke, 163 (“a carpet of maggots”); corr, Donald V. Helgeson to author, Oct. 8, 2003; Peter Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 85 (“Gott mit Uns”).

  “naked on shutters or stretchers”: Biddle, 89–90; Romeiser, ed., 190 (“We’ve been miserable”).

  “Troina was the toughest”: “Lessons from the Sicilian Campaign,” Nov. 20, 1943, AFHQ, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-0.4, 18; G-1 report, “Total Reported Battle Casualties for Period 1 August–20 August 1943, Inclusive, 1st Infantry Division,” MRC FDM; JJT, VIII-22.

  Two more casualties: Bryce F. Denno, “Allen and Huebner: Contrast in Command,” Army, June 1984, 62+; Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story. For other accounts, see OH, Robert W. Porter, Feb. 8, 1961, Albert N. Garland, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; OH, Robert W. Porter, 1981, John N. Sloan, SOOHP, MHI, 301–2.

  Ever the ardent hunter: OH, James D. Ford, former USMA chief chaplain, March 21, 2000, to author, Washington, D.C. (“hardest thing in war”); SSt, 154–55 (“temperamental”); corr, ONB to DDE, July 25, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 3; JPL, 90; diary, E. Hughes, July 28, 1943, micro 97276/5, David Irving collection, MHI; diary, GSP, July 29, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15.

  Neither Bradley nor Patton ever offered: corr, TdA to E. C. Heid, Dec. 13, 1943, S.L.A. Marshall Military History Collection, UTEP; corr, TR to Eleanor, Aug. 17, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; Bradley and Blair, 195 (“flubbed badly”); Albert H. Smith, Jr., “Allen and Huebner,” ts, 1999, MRC FDM, 1999.124, box 392 (“well-planned, executed”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, 14-B, S-27; Astor, 221, 228.

  As the orders became public: memoir, William E. Faust, ts, n.d., 1st ID artillery, ASEQ, MHI, 76; OH, Porter, 1981, Sloan, 301–2; Johnson, 112 (“sergeants weep”); “Allen and His Men,” Time, Aug. 9, 1943, 30+ (By cruel coincidence); corr, TdA to GCM, Aug. 13, 1943, and Sept. 15, 1943, GCM Lib, box 56; corr, TdA to DDE, Oct. 17, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 4; corr, TdA to Mary Fran, Aug. 10, 1943, and TdA to Sonny, Aug. 7, 1943, both in TdA, MHI, box 2; corr, TdA to E. C. Heid, Dec. 13, 1943, Marshall Collection, UTEP; Astor, 226; e-mail, Consuelo Allen (granddaughter of Terry de la Mesa Allen) to author, Dec. 5, 2002 (welcome-home party); Biddle, 92.

  “mentally in a black cloud”: speech, Stanhope B. Mason, Apr. 24, 1976, 57th annual dinner, Officers of the First Division, New York City, in Smith, 196; TR, msg to 1st Div, Aug. 6, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10 (“a great grief”); “History of the 26th Infantry,” 97 (“broke down and wept”); SSt, 156; corr, TR to Eleanor, Aug. 17 and 24, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; corr, Eleanor to GCM, Feb. 7, 1944, and GCM to Eleanor, Feb. 10, 1944, GCM Lib, corr, TR, box 83.

  Sharing a ride to Palermo: Capa, 84; John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, in Molony V, 855; Eleanor Butler Roosevelt, Day Before Yesterday, 449 (“the quality of fortitude”).

  “In a Place Like This”

  Ridge by ridge, road by road: Tregaskis, 75–76; “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report on Sicilian Campaign, 1943,” 97 (retreated past Mount Etna); Carver, Harding of Petherton, 119 (“I am enjoying”); Lord Tedder, With Prejudice, 458.

  But although they were moving: “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 67–69; Cyril Ray, Algiers to Austria, 67 (snipers with telescopic sights); Tregaskis, 65 (mayor of Catania); “Report on the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation, Sicily and Region II,” July–Aug. 1943, Frank J. McSherry Papers, MHI, 24 (only one in five); Buckley, 111 (“all life was evil”) 123 (Bank of Sicily).

  Often enough, the Allied air force: Geoffrey Perret, Winged Victory, 211; “Report on the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation,” 24 (“rubble at Adrano”); Harry L. Coles, Jr., “Participation of the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign,” 1945, AAF Historical Studies, No. 37, 148 (“needed thirty-six hours”); Shapiro, 51 (“Troops will refrain from shooting”), 101, 105 (“God Save the King”); Ray, 68–69; R. C. Taylor, “A Pocketfull [sic] of Time,” ts, n.d., 52, and corr, to author, Aug. 11, 2003 (“Lord Nelson!”); Nicolson, 205; Buckley, 79; Tregaskis, 81–82 (dead men’s helmets).

  Above them all loomed Etna: Biddle, 110; Bertarell, 481 (tinted with sulfates); Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 435–36 (“bloody Patton”).

  “decided to burn the bodies in gasoline”: “Report on the First Phase of AMGOT Occupation,” 13, 27; “Report of William Russell Criss,” corr to family, July 29, 1943, 45th ID Mus (“I feel like crying”).

  To exploit the flanking opportunities: James L. Packman, “The Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry, in the Amphibious Attack on Brolo,” 1949, IS, 2–7; Garland, 390–91.

  Truscott, who was to provide a battalion: Hansen, “Research Draft,” SSt, CBH, MHI, 10/24–25.

  “that’s ridiculous and insulting”: CM, 234–35; PP, 319 (“L’audace”).

  It went badly: Garland, 393–97; Jack Belden, Still Time to Die, 274 (orange quarter moon); Romeiser, ed., 196–200 (“Night and Day”); Betsy Wade, ed., Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, 24–25 (captured in their sleep); Max Ulrich, “29th Panzer Grenadier Division, Sicily,” FMS, #D-112, MHI, 5.

  Daybreak brought death: The Sicilian Campaign, 145.

  “Situation still critical”: Romeiser, ed., 200–206; Garland, 403; diary, Hobart Gay, Aug. 10–11, 1943, USMA Arch; Charles R. Schrader, “Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War,” Dec. 1982, CSI, 34 (errant bombs); DSC citation, Martin Moritz, medical attachment, 2/30th Inf, Oct. 19, 1943, NARA RG 338, 7th Army awards (tried to amputate); Carlo D’Este, World War II in the Mediterranean, 73 (“Do something”).

  At five P.M. Philadelphia again: The Sicilian Campaign, 146; Romeiser, ed., 205 (“last stand circle”); Donald V. Bennett, Honor Untarnished [galley], 145 (swimming westward); Belden, 284, 288.

  At dawn on Thursday, August 12: Pyle, 45; Belden, 288; Romeiser, ed., 205 (“troops moving on the road”); Scott, 60 (cordite and sweat).

  An open command car: Romeiser, ed., 206.

  Field Marshal Kesselring had long realized: Garland, 368; Bogislaw von Bonin, “Considerations of the Italian Campaign, 1943–1944,” Feb. 1947, SEM, NHC, box 57, file 108, 8 (“valuable human material”); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” #R-145–46, MHI (message was hand carried); Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–1945, 374 (Hitler feared).

  A devotee of Aristotle: Frido von Senger und Etterlin, Neither Fear nor Hope, 208–9; Corelli Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 381; Alex Bowlby, Countdown to Cassino, 4n; Errnst-Günther Baade, “War Diary of Fortress Commandant, Messina Strait,” July–Aug. 1943, SEM, NHC, box 52; Garland, 375–76 (five hundred guns); “The Choice of Sites for Ferry Points,” appendix, “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge, Sea Transport, Messina Strait,” SEM, NHC, box 52; Friedrich von Ruge, “The Evacuation of Sicily,” March 1948, SEM, NHC, box 50, 15 (Siebel ferries); Molony V, 166 (cached food).

  Twelve thousand German supernumeraries: Molony, V, 166; Fries, “Der Kampf um Sizilien,” 29–31 (five successive defensive lines); “Directions for the Systematic Destruction of Motor Vehicles,” Feb. 1942, Supply Section, Reichminister of Aviation, Berlin, NARA RG 407, E, 47, AFHQ, 95-AL1-2.9, box 162; Steinhof, 242–43 (“yelling as they hurled”); Helmut Bergengruen, “Der Kamp der Panzerdivision ‘Herman Goering’ auf Sizilien,” Nov. 25, 1947,
NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245.

  Italian commanders quickly got wind: S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, 144; Kurowski, 178, 192, 201 (“shivering malaria patients”); Rodt, “Studie über den Feldzug in Sizilien,” 31; “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge” (screens shielded the glare); SSA, 210.

  The B-17s never came: Garland, 379.

  “no adequate indications”: Hinsley et al., 96–98; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” U.S. Cryptologic History, Series IV, vol. 1, NSA, NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 53; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 234–35 (“there is no plan”); T. Milne, “The Sicilian Campaign,” 1955, Air Ministry Historical Branch, UK NA, CAB 106/849, 80 (“You have no doubt”), 91 (“no evidence”).

  Allied pilots had reason to fear: Garland, 376; Eduard Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars, 60, 72–73, 77; Edward B. Westermann, Flak, 293; Roskill, 147–49; Battle, 75; AAFinWWII, 472–73 (swarms of smaller Wellingtons); Vincent Orange, Coningham, 167 (only a quarter hit targets); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 252 (bombing Rome’s rail yards).

  “octopus-like arms”: Dudley Pope, Flag 4, 126; Cunningham, 556 (“no effective way of stopping them”); Garland, 379; SSA, 214; Roskill, 149–50; J.F.C. Fuller, The Second World War, 1939–45, 265.

  Not once did the senior Allied commanders: Pack, 166.

  doctors ordered him to bed: Eisenhower’s blood pressure of 142 over 90 on Aug. 15, 1943, indicated mild hypertension; his resting pulse of 80, weight of 172 pounds, and 33-inch waist indicated a reasonably fit 52-year-old man. Chandler, vol. 2, 1329n; Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health Status of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Mattingly collection, DDE Lib, box 1; Three Years, 386–87 (“nervous temperament”).

  “It is astonishing”: “War Diary of Naval Officer-in-Charge” SSA, 214–15 (“Anglo-Saxon habits”); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” #R-145-146 (time bombs); Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 146 (Two hundred grenadiers); Molony V, 182 (cooled a wine bottle).