The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  radios crackled in the corner: CM, 255; Adleman and Walton, 71 (“How the hell would you”); FM 31-5, “Landing Operations on Hostile Shores,” WD, June 1941, MHI, 99 (“deliberate sacrifice”).

  Clark would subsequently deny: corr, MWC to Hal C. Pattison, Sept. 17, 1964, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, Salerno to Cassino, box 255; MWC to mother, Oct. 6, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 3; msg, U.S.S. Biscayne, Sept. 14, 1943, 1609 hrs, MWC, Citadel, subject files, msgs, box 63 (SEALION); StoC, 117 (“headquarters afloat”); Shelby Foote, The Civil War, vol. 2, 494 (George Meade).

  Roused from his torpor: corr, E. J. Dawley to Hal C. Pattison, Dec. 15, 1964, and Troy H. Middleton to Hal C. Pattison, Sept. 8, 1964 (questioned Clark’s fortitude), both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, Salerno to Cassino, box 255; StoC, 117; OH, Francis Reichmann, 45th Div G-2, Apr. 21, 1950, SM, box IIA1, 2 (“give me support”); Frank James Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 165 (“some hard fighting”).

  “German tanks have broken through”: Shapiro, 148–49, 152; OH, William P. Yarborough, 1975, J. R. Meese and H. P. Houser, SOOHP, MHI, 39–40 (“crawling around on their hands”); Ball, 214 (“up to our necks”); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” Sept. 20, 1943, Hoover Institution Archives, box 1 (summons to Green Beach).

  “I’m a Yankee Doodle”: Shapiro, 150.

  “After a defensive battle lasting four days”: Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 25–26.

  A Portal Won

  Hewitt bitterly opposed: Mason, 327; chronology, Sept. 14, 1943, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH (“Depth of beachhead narrowing”); F. Jones, “The Campaign in Italy: The Landing at Salerno,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Studies, UK NA, CAB 44 132, 136–37; A.B. Cunningham, “Operations in Connection with the Landings in the Gulf of Salerno,” Apr. 28, 1950, London Gazette, CMH, UH 0-1, CUN.2, 2173 (“I will try to help”).

  “If we withdraw”: Mason, 318, 327; OH, “Reminiscences of George C. Dyer” (“settle lower in the water”).

  “intense gloom”: StoC, 124; Roskill, 179; Pond, 192–93 (“prove suicidal”).

  “It just cannot be done”: Pond, 192–93 (“go and do it”); Hickey and Smith, 249 (“simply not on”); Cunningham, 569 (“stay and fight it out”).

  an enormous letter “T”: MBR, “Description of Operation from Planning Phase to Execution,” n.d., CJB, MHI, Chrono File Italy, box 48; John C. Warren, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945, 62; AAR, H.M.S. Delhi, Oct. 5, 1943, in “Operation AVALANCH—Report on Northern Assault,” Royal Navy, Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837 (“monster snowflakes”); Patrick D. Mulcahy, “Airborne Activities in the Avalanche Operation,” n.d., AFHQ, Arthur Nevins papers, MHI, box 2; James M. Gavin, Airborne Warfare, 28–29; StoC, 127; Pond, 190; Ross S. Carter, Those Devils in Baggy Pants, 36 (“open season”).

  Perhaps to compensate: Clark was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroics on this day.

  two dozen German tanks had been destroyed: StoC, 129; Lewis, 21 (“puddle of fat”).

  South of the Sele: FLW to MWC, Oct. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6818; StoC, 129 (“Nothing of interest”); Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 27; “Translation of Taped Conversation with General Hermann Balck, 12 January 1979,” Battelle Columbus Laboratories, Ohio, USAWC Lib, 14 (Frictions had accumulated); Kurowski, 59–60 (heat exhaustion); Salerno, 73 (ten thousand shells); Pond, 224 (howitzers sniped).

  Berlin’s refusal to release the two tank divisions: Kesselring believed the two extra divisions could have been decisive; some historians argue they would not have arrived in time to significantly influence the battle. Kesselring, Memoirs, 183n; Battle, 119; AAR, 36th ID, “Conclusions on Avalanche,” n.d., NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, box 35; Friedrich Wentzell, “The Italian Campaign from August 1943 to February 1945,” Dec. 1945, CMH, Ital 370.2, 5 (penny packets); Hamilton, “Italy, Sept.–Dec. 1943,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 101/124, 18 (exposed the attackers).

  “The heavy naval artillery”: Kurowski, 125; Clagett, unpublished HKH bio, 478–79 (Hewitt ordered); Molony V, 327 (“murderous queens”); “Historical Tactical Study of Naval Gunfire at Salerno,” 43 (U.S.S. Boise); Beard, “Turning the Tide at Salerno,” 34+ (fire axes); Peek, 24 (“count your children”).

  What naval shells missed: Salerno, 74; AAR, “Historical Record,” 10 (B-17s battered); “The Employment of Strategic Bombers in a Tactical Role, 1941–1951,” 1953, USAF Historical Div., no. 88, 53–54 (more than a thousand “heavy” sorties); AAFinWWII, 530–31, 535 (760 tons); Pond, 224; Hardy D. Cannon, Box Seat over Hell, 65–66 (took occasional potshots).

  “almost impossible”: “Special Investigation and Interrogation Report: Operation Lightening,” 28; Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 27 (a final effort).

  The somber if sketchy reports from Salerno: Lord Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 320; D’Este, Eisenhower, 319 (sand castles); Molony V, 319.

  “Quelle race!”: W.G.F. Jackson, Alexander of Tunis as Military Commander, 215, 282 (“Nothing every went right”); Nicolson, Alex, 37, 199 (“so serene”), 238 (“transformed it into a crusade”); Gunther, 99 (Irish flag); Michael Howard, “Leadership in the British Army in the Second World War,” in G. D. Sheffield, Leadership and Command, 109; OH, Michael Howard, May 2003, with author, Washington, D.C.; Binder, 107 (“Good chaps get killed”); Moran, 186 (“redeemed what was brutal”).

  No sooner had Hewitt laid out: Binder, 116; corr, HKH to SEM, Jan. 8, 1954, SEM, NHC, box 51; OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 344–45 (“Never do”); Nicolson, Alex, 222 (“cease immediately”); Mason, 327 (“no evacuation”).

  He and Hewitt found Clark: Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” 958+; Hickey and Smith, 257 (unlimbered at targets); corr, HKH to SEM, Jan. 8, 1954 (vanished for a private conversation).

  My dear Clarke: B. L. Montgomery to MWC, Sept. 15, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 2.

  Montgomery’s 64,000 troops: Molony V, 252; StoC, 138.

  holding medals ceremonies: Such a ceremony was held on September 13; a day later, an inspection ceremony was held of the entire 1st Canadian Division, which had no contact with the enemy from September 8 to 16. From Pachino to Ortona: The Canadian Army at War, CARL, N-14352, 96; Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” 15.

  In nearly two weeks only eighty-five: Patrick Howarth, My God, Soldiers, 137; Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 46 (ten combat casualties a day); “Narrative: Operations Against Italy,” Sept. 15, 1943, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (sixty-two British dead); John Lardner, “The Mayor of Futani,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 268; Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 174–85; StoC, 142 (British patrol make contact); diary, MWC, Sept. 15, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (swelled to nearly seven thousand); MWC to B. L. Montgomery, Sept. 16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 2.

  “I would like you to go now”: Morris, 283; Alan Williamson, “Dawley Was Shafted,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 8–10 (no sleep at all); Binder, 117 (voice cracked); OH, Lyman Lemnitzer, Jan. 16, 1948, SM, MHI (gestured vaguely with a trembling hand).

  “I do not want to interfere”: diary, MWC, Sept. 20, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64.

  “I know it, Alex”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, 60–63; Morris, photo, 175 (checkered tablecloth).

  “Although I am not entirely happy”: Nicolson, Alex, 220.

  “No doubt you people are worried”: MWC to Renie, Sept. 15–16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, personal corr; diary, MWC, Sept. 16, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64.

  Hardly had the shrieking hordes: Douglas Graf Bernstorff, “Operations of the 26th Panzer Division in Italy,” 1948, FMS, #D-316, MHI, 7–8; J. Hamilton, “Italy, Sept.–Dec. 1943,” n.d., Cabinet Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 101/124, 18–19 (never penetrated the curtain); Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 210 (“put out of action”).

  This welcome news greeted Eisenhower: memo, “Major Lee,” aide-de-camp, Eisenhower Diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-783-786; msg, DDE to GCM, Sept. 13, 1943, NARA
RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 13; Chandler, vol. 3, 1418 (“If things go wrong”).

  “would probably be out”: Three Years, 420; Butcher entries, Sept. 15–16, 1943, Eisenhower Diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-756, A-773-74, A-779 (“prefer to die fighting”); Chandler, vol. 3, 1428 (“unimpressed by Dawley”); msg, MWC to DDE, Sept. 16, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 23 (“appears to go to pieces”); OH, Lemnitzer, Jan. 16, 1948 (“why in the hell”).

  If Salerno plagued him: Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 195; Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 148; Chandler, vol. 3, 1442–43, 1473 (“deepest hole”); D’Este, Eisenhower, 443 (“handsomest bald man”).

  “For God’s sake, Mike”: Williamson, “Dawley Was Shafted,” 8–10. A sanitized version quotes Eisenhower as saying, “How’d you ever get the troops into such a mess?” Texas, 257.

  “I really think you better take him out”: OH, MWC, Rittgers, 64; OH, FLW, May 15, 1953, John G. Westover, SM, MHI; Texas, 258 (Dawley and Clark quarreled).

  “I want you to go down”: OH, R. J. Wood, 1973, Narus, 22–28; Williamson, “Dawley Was Shafted,” 8–10 (“I couldn’t work with Clark”), 12 (“for keeping his mouth shut”); diary, EJD, Sept. 20, 1943, HIA, box 1 (“Releived”); aide’s diary; corr, DDE to E. J. Dawley, Sept. 23, 1943, EJD papers, HIA, box 1 ($7 per diem).

  Of four American corps commanders: Lloyd R. Fredendall and Dawley had been fired; Patton and Bradley were the other two. Geoffrey Keyes in Sicily had briefly commanded a temporary “provisional corps.”

  “It makes a commander supercautious”: diary, Oct. 29 and 30, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10; corr, ENH to MWC, Sept. 29, 1943, ENH, MHI, box 3.

  “complete success at Salerno”: war diary, Sept. 16, 1943, “Salerno Invasion,” German naval command, box 649; Kesselring, Memoirs, 186–87 (authorized a retreat).

  plunder piled on trucks: Pond, 259; Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” 17 (“destroyed most thoroughly”); “Exploitation of Italy for the Further Conduct of the War,” Tenth Army, Sept. 22, 1943, in Steiger, appendix G (“evacuation list”).

  The scorching and salting: “Fifth Army Medical History,” ts, n.d., NARA RG 112, MTO surgeon general, 390/17/8/2-3, box 6, 138; AAR, “Historical Record,” 13; Macmillan, War Diaries, 354 (92 percent of all sheep); Clifford W. Dorman, “Too Soon for Heroes,” ts, n.d., 19th Combat Engineers, author’s possession, 67 (“Rail rooters”).

  “The Tommies will have to chew”: Farley Mowat, And No Birds Sang, 155.

  “incapable of attacking”: war diary, Sept. 18, 1943, “Salerno Invasion,” German naval command, box 649, 71; Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 36a (“offensive spirit”); Ronald Lewin, Ultra Goes to War, 340 (“No more invasions”).

  Allied casualties totaled: StoC, 144; Molony V, 325. As always, precise casualty figures are difficult to tease from the record; some accounts tally higher numbers, but usually draw from a greater time period. The U.S. Navy official history, for example, reports 13,614 Allied casualites, but includes Navy figures through the end of 1943. SSA, 313.

  Total German losses: StoC, 144; Molony V, 325, 382 (126,000 casualties in Russia); D’Este, World War II in the Mediterranean, 110 (630 were killed).

  “a road upon which you may retire”: lecture, R.W.D. Woods, USN, Sept. 14, 1943, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, ANSCOL; corr, J.F.M. Whiteley to J. N. Kennedy, Sept. 22, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247 (“turn the scales”); OH, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Aug. 17, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C. (absolute authority); Nicolson, Alex, 163; DDE, “Memorandum for Personal File,” June 11, 1943, Eisenhower diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-472 (“certain of his subordinates”).

  “leadership, force, and vigor”: Berlin, 15; Blumenson, Mark Clark, 282 (Marcus Aurelius Clarkus); msg, DDE to GCM, Sept. 20, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 13.

  “Mark Clark really didn’t have”: Blair, 157.

  from two divisions on September 3: chart, growth of Allied force in Italy, n.d., SM, box 2.

  “made our acquaintance with vino”: Wagner, 58; Paschal E. Kerwin, Big Men of the Little Navy, 58 (Fascist party headquarters); Harr, 47, 55 (“Americans will pay”); Biddle, 145.

  “I covered my mouth”: O’Donnell, 168; Howard, Captain Professor, 73.

  So many civilian bodies: Peckham and Snyder, eds., 66; Earl Mansee, 36th MP Co., n.d., Texas MFM website, 36th ID Assoc., www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm (“stinch was terrible”); Whitlock, 90 (“like an eggplant”).

  A visiting general complained: Herbert E. MacCombie, “Chaplains of the Thirty-sixth Division,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 25.

  CHAPTER 5: CORPSE OF THE SIREN

  “I Give You Naples”

  British military policemen in red caps: George Biddle, Artist at War, 142; Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 175 (crooked their fingers); Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 499 (“didn’t look human”); J. A. Ross, Memoirs of an Army Surgeon, 171; Texas, 267; John Lardner, “The Mayor of Futani,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 266 (recited the brands), 269; John Steinbeck, Once There Was a War, 164 (“stinks of the classics”); Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 148 (“make ’em to last”).

  A squadron from the King’s Dragoon Guards: Molony V, 343; Matthew B. Ridgway, Soldier, 88; Leon Weckstein, Through My Eyes; Calculated, 214 (“city of ghosts”); AAR, Donald Downes to W. Donovan, OSS activities in Neapolitan campaign, Oct. 19, 1943, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 48; AAR, secret intelligence in Italy, n.d., NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 39; Malcolm S. McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” ts, 1975, MHI, 92 (Italian bodies); Donald Downes, The Scarlet Thread, 158 (“sweet heliotrope odor”); MWC, “Salerno,” AB, no. 95, 1997, 1+ (“less happy mood”).

  He was in the wrong place: James M. Gavin, On to Berlin, 73; Tregaskis, 149–52.

  “Naples has been taken”: msgs, MWC to H. Alexander, Oct. 1, 1943, and MWC to Renie, Oct. 5, 1943, diary, MWC, Citadel, box 64.

  It proved an odd gift: George F. Botjer, Sideshow War, 61 (conscripting young men); Peter Tompkins, Italy Betrayed, 260 (reign of German terror); memo, John T. Whitaker, Psychological Warfare Branch, to MWC, “Attitude of People of Naples,” Oct. 3, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 3; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 78 (as young as nine).

  An estimated three hundred locals: Botjer, 61. Allied counterintelligence put the number at 227. “Counter Intelligence Corps, Information Bulletin No. 4,” n.d., “Theater Com-Z Activities, ASF, 1944–1945,” CARL, N-5990; AAR, Downes to Donovan, Oct. 19, 1943 (two days sooner).

  “There were still Germans”: diary, Oct. 19, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10; Downes, 158 (red Italian grenades); Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 102–3; Biddle, 152–57; George Biddle, George Biddle’s War Drawings, 49.

  “the most beautiful city”: Naples with Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, 35; C.R.S. Harris, Allied Administration of Italy, 1943–1945, 85 (blew up the main aqueduct); msg, Fifth Army to AFHQ, Naples damage estimate, Oct. 13, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 63 (forty sewer lines); Building the Navy’s Bases in World War II, vol. 2, 88; “German Demolition Policy in Occupied Russia and Italy,” June 15, 1944, Ministry of Economic Warfare Intelligence Weekly, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, box 467; Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 168; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIX-11 (crashing two trains); “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., MHI, 69 (Coal stockpiles); “History of the First Special Service Force,” n.d., Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1, 52–53 (Even the stairwells).

  The opportunities for cultural atrocity: Tompkins, 276; SSA, 311 (city archives); memo, Mason Hammond and F.H.J. Maxse to F. J. McSherry, Nov. 5, 1943, “Report of AMGOT Divisions, up to Nov. 1, 1943,” part 3, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI; Downes, 159n; Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 232 (stored in Nola).

  Worse yet was the sabotage around the great port: U.S. Army engineers estimated that half the damage was from Al
lied bombs, half from German demolitionists. Beck, 167.

  Half a mile inland: Tregaskis, 158; H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Southern Italy, 230; Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles, book 12, line 199 (“high, thrilling song”); memo, Paul Gardner, damage to cultural facilities, Naples, Oct. 27, 1943, and draft report, MTOUSA IG, Dec. 20, 1943, both in NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, IG, 333.5, box 2014; Gervasi, 499 (Grand hotels); Paul W. Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 216.

  Not a single vessel: Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History,” xix–10; Joseph S. Gorlinski, “Naples: Case History in Invasion,” Military Engineer, vol. 36, no. 222 (Apr. 1944), 109+; Battle, 124; Beck, 168 (fifty-eight of sixty-one berths); “Rehabilitation of the Port of Naples,” May 1944, NARA RG 336, ASF, Historical Program Files, chief of transportation, 190/33/30/00, box 559, 4–6 (Pier F); “Logistical History of NATOUSA/MTOUSA, Nov. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, AFHQ, 95-AL1-4, box 203, 104 (pair of ninety-ton cranes); HKH, “Action Report of the Salerno Landings, Sept.–Oct. 1943,” 1945, CMH, 156–57 (seeded the harbor).

  “small, aged animals”: Brown, 219; SSA, 311; lecture, W. A. Sullivan, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” 1947, Society of Military Engineers, Cincinnati, in “World War II Histories and Historical Reports,” #445, NHC, 16 (“demolitions for revenge”); Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History,” XIX–13 (Marseilles and Cherbourg).

  equivalent of sixty-eight Liberty ships: HKH, “Action Report of the Salerno Landings, Sept.–Oct. 1943,” 1945, CMH, 156–57; Gorlinski, “Naples,” 109+.

  Twenty-nine Italian divisions: StoC, 7; F. W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship, 530; Tompkins, 229 (forged orders); David Hunt, A Don at War, 221 (“Each bomb is chipping”).

  island of Cephalonia: E. F. Fisher, “Memo for the Record,” March 28, 1973, from Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, Band III, zweiter Halbband, 1118–133, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 006; Richard Lamb, War in Italy, 1943–1945, 132–33; R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 504; Alex Bowlby, Countdown to Cassino, 7n; Lamb, 132–33 (sunk at sea); Melton S. Davis, Who Defends Rome?, 466 (“Italians are burning”).