The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  “head-on battering”: Molony V, 389; Will Lang, notebook, n.d., USMA Arch.

  Wool clothing scheduled to arrive: OH, Ralph Tate, Fifth Army G-4, Jan. 19, 1949, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 005; “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” n.d., CMH, 3-2.2 AA, vol. 1, 93 (“Shortages of tires”); Charles S. D’Orsa, “The Trials and Tribulations of an Army G-4,” MR, vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1945), 23+; “The ASF in World War II,” ts, n.d., CMH, 3-1.1A AA, vol. 4, 27 (cold-weather gear under development); memo, N.P. Morrow to L. J. McNair, Jan. 28, 1944, AGF Board, NARA RG 407, E 427, 270/50/29 (heavy combat boots); Diana Butler, “The British Soldier in Italy, Sept. 1943–June 1944,” ts, n.d., Cabinet Office, Historical Section, UK NA, CAB 101/224, 1, 5 (daily sugar ration).

  “Cold ground trauma”: Bowlby, 174; diary, MWC, Nov. 16, 1943, Citadel, box 64 (Clark was aghast); JPL, 237–39.

  Kesselring had stabilized the front: Böhmler, 89; Bowlby, 73 (two thousand casualties); StoC, 214 (“My morale”); G. R. Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 272 (“The lice are at me”); memo, 3rd ID G-2 to VI Corps, Oct. 7, 1943, captured documents, NARA RG 407, 206-2.9 (“beyond the borders”).

  Clark concluded that the time had come: StoC, 251; diary, MWC, Nov. 13, 1943, Citadel, box 64 (“hold to its present positions”); Tregaskis, 195 (“mustn’t kid ourselves”); JPL, 195 (“in better country”).

  “The Entire World Was Burning”

  U.S.S. Iowa swung on her chains: “Log of the President’s Trip to Africa and the Middle East,” Stephen T. Early papers, FDR Lib, box 37; Elliott Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 133; Chandler, vol. 3, 1590 (CARGO).

  Autumn at AFHQ: OH, Lyman Lemnitzer, Jan. 16, 1948, SM, MHI; msg, UK chiefs of staff to Joint Staff Mission, Nov. 4, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD executive files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 18 (“We are very much disturbed”); Coakley, 231 (might require postponement); Three Years, 424; Eisenhower Diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-884 (eclipsed 100,000), A-869; Chandler, vol. 3, 1529 (“little difference what happens to us”), 1555 (“a mere slugging match”).

  “The God of Justice”: Chandler, vol. 3, 1553.

  Politics and folderol: Ibid., 1504, 1535, 1611; Three Years, 423–24 (“keep the home front frightened”), 438.

  “He usually blew his top”: Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier, 565; Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 151 (“acutely uncomfortable”); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 209 (“malicious gossip”).

  “Roosevelt weather!”: Roosevelt, 133.

  “heavy maleness of the war”: Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 86; Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 473 (“president’s sons”).

  near sinking of the Iowa: Charles F. Pick, Jr., “Torpedo on the Starboard Beam,” Proceedings, Aug. 1970, 90+; war diary, U.S.S. Iowa, Nov. 1943, NARA RG 38; war diary, U.S.S. William D. Porter, Nov. 1943, NARA RG 38; deck log, U.S.S. Iowa, Nov. 1943, NARA RG 24; deck log, U.S.S. William D. Porter, Nov. 1943, NARA RG 24.

  “Tell me, Ernest”: Ernest J. King and Walter Muir Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 500–501; Sherwood, 768; William D. Leahy, I Was There, 196; Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 301.

  “damned Republican”: H. H. Arnold, Global Mission, 455. Porter would be sunk in a kamikaze attack in June 1945.

  “The war, and the peace”: Roosevelt, 133.

  The president had planned: Eisenhower, Crusade, 196; Summersby, 93–94.

  They stopped for lunch: “Log of the President’s Trip to Africa and the Middle East” Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life and Times, 124; Robert D. Kaplan, Mediterranean Winter, 81; (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cato_Minor*.html (Cato the Younger); Eisenhower, Crusade, 209 (“you had offered to bet”).

  “Eisenhower showed no signs”: Leahy, 198; Eisenhower Diary, HCB, DDE Lib, A-907; Three Years, 446; Roosevelt, 137 (a more formidable figure); Eisenhower, Crusade, 197 (“dangerous to monkey”).

  “The eternal pound, pound, pound”: Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 157–58.

  The Adriatic seaport of Bari: L. V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 385; Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily, 209 (St. Nicholas); Morton, 99–100 (smacked dead octopuses), 110–12 (comely temptress); Evelyn Waugh, The End of the Battle, 219; Karel Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” AB, no. 79 (1993), 34+ (Bambino Sports Stadium).

  “the novelty had worn off”: I. G. Greenlees, “Memoirs of an Anglo-Italian,” ts, n.d., IWM, 89/1/1, 174, 179; Buckley, 216 (silk stockings); John Muirhead, Those Who Fall, 31–32 (Palmolive soap); “Engineers in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” 20, 79 (350 tons each); George Southern, Poisonous Inferno, 26 (a thousand stevedores).

  They had much to unload: Simpson, “Air Phase,” 251; StoC, 239; Andrew Brookes, Air War over Italy, 1943–1945, 38 (five thousand tons); AAFinWWII, 564–67; James H. Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, 367–68; Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 139.

  Doolittle’s job: Simpson, “Air Phase,” 226, 365n; Brookes, 21, 38, 46; Vincent Orange, Coningham, 175.

  “I would regard it as a personal affront”: Orange, 175.

  As Coningham issued this challenge: “Manifest of John Harvey,” in “Report on the Circumstances in Which Gas Casualties Were Incurred at Bari,” March 14, 1944, NARA RG 492, MTO, chemical warfare section, 350.01, box 1747; minutes, board of officers, June 28, 1944, “adequacy of protective measures at Bari,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, 290/24/28/3, box 187, R-87 (“as safe a place”).

  No Axis chemical stockpiles: Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat, 108, 122; “Planning Instruction No. 9,” March 23, 1943, “Operating Instructions Husky,” NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-3.17, box 201; memo, DDE, “Chemical Warfare Policy,” Apr. 21, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTO, 321.011, box 1744; memo, eyes only, DDE to GCM, Aug. 21, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 270/19/6/3, box 244; memo, J. Devers to DDE, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247; memo, “Former Naval Person to the President,” No. 405, Aug. 5, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 249; POW reports, NARA RG 492, MTO, chemical warfare section, 350.09 (interrogations of prisoners); C. Reining, “IPW Report No. 9,” Nov. 8, 1943, Fifth Army HQ, NARA RG 492, MTO, chemical warfare section, 350.09 (new, egregiously potent gas); G-2 report No. 35, Oct. 11, 1943, Fifth Army HQ, NARA RG 492, MTO, chemical warfare section, 350.052, “CW Intel Miscl” (“Adolf will turn to gas”); “Enemy Capabilities for Chemical Warfare,” Military Intelligence Service, WD, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 602 (Nineteen plants in Germany).

  Twenty-eight different gases: Kleber and Birdsell, 3–5, 122; James W. Hammond, Jr., Poison Gas: The Myth Versus Reality, 16–17 (Hitler himself), 36; Glenn B. Infield, Disaster at Bari, 14–16 (“swift retaliation”); “Observations in the European Theater Including Landing Operation at Salerno,” Oct. 25, 1943, HQ, USMC, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, MC OR, box 556 (depots near Oran); Owen C. Bolstad, Dear Folks, 177 (“report any poison gas leaks”). Later investigations found little German appetite for another chemical war against Allied forces.

  more than 200,000 gas bombs: “Implementation of Theater Plans for Gas Warfare,” Aug. 18, 1043, WD; also, memos and draft memos dated Aug. 30, Sept. 7, 1943, Jan. 12, Feb. 14, March 11, July 15, 1944; memo, “Report by Assistant Chief of U.S. Chemical Warfare Service,” Oct. 27, 1943, all in NARA RG 492, MTO, chemical warfare section, 381, box 1706; Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” 34.

  How the Germans would be deterred: Kenyon Joyce, “Italy,” ts, n.d., Kenyon Joyce papers, MHI, 332; “Report on the Circumstances,” etc.; Infield, 14–16 (forward dumps at Foggia).

  Several thousand Allied servicemen: Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” 34; Infield, 93, 118; Southern, 61 (Sergeant York), 130; H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Southern Italy, 99 (Italian women drew water); Gerald Reminick, Nightmare in Bari, 95 (cribbage board).

  The first two Luftwaffe raiders: C. L. Grant, “AAF Air Defense Activities in the Mediterranean,” n.d., USAF Historical Study, No. 66, 107–8; Edw
ard B. Westermann, Flak, 21; “Report on the Operation of Radar in Operation AVALANCHE,” Dec. 31, 1943, AFHRA, 626.430-1; http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1943_4.html; Southern, 130–34 (confused Allied searchlight radar); Arnold, 475; Infield, 31; Hinsley et al., 184 (German reconnaissance interest); Eric Niderost, “Bari: The Second Pearl Harbor,” World War II Magazine, http://historynet.com/wwii/blluftwaffeadriatic/index1.html; memo, air commander-in-chief to AFHQ, Dec. 23, 1943, “Report on Adequacy of Protective Measures at Bari,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-87, box 197 (“Risks such as were accepted”); Justin F. Gleichauf, Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in World War II, 295–96 (insisted that naval gunners not fire).

  That moment soon arrived: action report, Murdoch Walker, Lyman Abbott, to CNO, March 10, 1944, NARA RG 38, OCNO, Naval Transportation Service, Armed Guard files, 370/12/31/4, box 437 (firing by earshot); Infield, 93 (“We’re taking a pasting”), 117, 122.

  Bombs severed an oil pipeline: “Report on the Circumstances,” etc.; “History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat,” n.d., U.S. Naval Administration in World War II, NHC, Command File, World War II, 166–68 (Joseph Wheeler); Infield, 55–56, 66, 141–42; msg, Alfred Bergman to supervisor, U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps, “SS John Bascom, loss of,” Feb. 23, 1944, SEM, NHC, box 58; Southern, 7; diary, L. Stevenson, IWM, P100.

  The Liberty ship Samuel J. Tilden: msg, Robert Donnelly to supervisor, U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps, “SS Samuel J. Tilden—loss of,” Feb. 2, 1944, SEM, NHC, box 58; “History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat,” 166–68; Southern, 36 (“harbor was aflame”).

  Among those burning vessels was the John Harvey: Southern, 49, 53, 62–66; minutes, investigative board, Bari raid, June 28, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-87, box 197 (Windows shattered seven miles away); Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 13; Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 277 (“the entire world was burning”).

  Civilians were crushed: Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” 34; Southern, 124 (“young girl pinned”), 44–45 (“If this be it”); Infield, 62–63; Will Lang, notebook #9, “Bari raid,” USMA Arch.

  Seventeen ships had been sunk: “Report on Adequacy of Protective Measures at Bari” Karig, 277.

  “Since when do American ships”: Infield, 86; “Report on the Circumstances,” etc. (H.M.S. Brindisi); D. M. Saunders, “The Bari Incident,” Proceedings, vol. 93, no. 9, Sept. 1967, 35+ (Bistra picked up thirty survivors).

  “Ambulances screamed into hospital”: Southern, 52, 91; Stewart F. Alexander, “Final Report of Bari Mustard Casualties,” June 20, 1944, AFHQ, office of the surgeon, NARA RG 492, 704, box 1757 (“considerably puzzled”).

  “all in pain”: memo, H. Gluck, “ophthalmic casualties resulting from air raid on Bari,” 98th General Hospital, Dec. 14, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, 290/24/27/2–4, R 235-D; corr, Stewart F. Alexander to William D. Fleming, Dec. 26, 1943, NARA RG 112, MTO surgeon general, 390/17/8/2-3, 319.1, box 6 (“No treatment”); Reminick, 115 (“big as balloons”); “Report on the Circumstances,” etc. (“dermatitis N.Y.D.”).

  A Royal Navy surgeon: “Notes on Meeting Held at HQ 2 District, at 1415 Hours,” in “Report on the Circumstances,” etc.

  The first mustard death: appendix G, “Medical Report,” in “Report on the Circumstances,” etc.; Southern, 89 (“that bloody bang”); Alexander, “Final Report” (Seaman Phillip H. Stone).

  By noon on Friday: memo, “Casualties, Air Raid, Bari,” Dec. 8, 1943, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, 290/24/27/2-4, R 235-D; Gluck, “ophthalmic casualties” (lids forcibly pried open); Saunders, “The Bari Incident,” 35 (hundreds had inhaled).

  More than a thousand Allied servicemen: memo, “Toxic Gas Burns Sustained in the Bari Harbor Catastrophe,” Dec. 27, 1943, NATOUSA, office of the surgeon, NARA RG 112, MTO surgeon general, 390/17/8/2-3, 319.1, box 6.

  A comparable number of Italian civilians: No precise casualty figures were ever compiled. Margry, “Mustard Disaster at Bari,” 34; Infield, 177; Alexander, “Final Report” (at least 617 confirmed mustard casualties); Southern, 48, 125–26, 145 (“head to toe in trench graves”).

  “For purposes of secrecy”: memo, “Casualties, Air Raid, Bari” George S. Bergh and Reuben F. Erickson, eds., “A History of the Twenty-sixth General Hospital,” 132 (“Damage was done”); Infield, 208 (“I will not comment”); corr, J.F.M. Whitely to J. N. Kennedy, Dec. 21, 1943, UK NA, WO 204/307.

  “the wind was offshore”: Eisenhower, Crusade, 204; Infield, 207 (“enemy action”).

  Declassified in 1959: Saunders, “The Bari Incident” Orange, 176; Reminick, 169; L.S. Goodman et al., “Nitrogen Mustard Therapy,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 21, 1946, 126+; John H. Lienhard, “Engines of Our Ingenuity,” no. 1190, “Mustard Gas,” University of Houston, http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1190.htm; Rebecca Holland, “Mustard Gas,” Bristol University, htttp://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/mustard/mustard.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of-_cancer_chemotherapy#The_first_efforts_.281940.E2.80.931950.29.

  Thousands of refugees trudged: Bergh and Erickson, eds., “A History of the Twenty-sixth General Hospital,” 132; Infield, 235; AAFinWWII, 587 (38,000 tons of cargo).

  “I see you boys are getting gassed”: Infield, 207; Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 213–17.

  CHAPTER 6: WINTER

  The Archangel Michael, Here and Everywhere

  Since its founding: Maurizio Zambardi, San Pietro Infine, 7, 11, 15, 17; author visits, Sept. 1995, May 2004; OH, Maurizio Zambardi, May 5, 2004, with author.

  a German patrol arrived: Maurizio Zambardi, Memorie di Guerra, 22–30, 33, 42; Alex Bowlby, Countdown to Cassino, 83.

  San Pietro’s fate was sealed: A. G. Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” Nov. 1947, Canadian Army headquarters, historical section, No. 18, 41.

  While Mark Clark paused: Bowlby, 51–52, 78, 84–85; Franz Kurowski, Battleground Italy, 1943–1945, 68–69 (sodden clumps).

  For the San Pietrans: Zambardi, Memorie di Guerra, 34–39, 54–55; OH, Zambardi, May 5, 2004; Bowlby, 83–84.

  “a worse plan”: CM, 286.

  “critical terrain in the operation”: diary, MWC, Nov. 6, 11, 1943, Citadel, box 64; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 17 (RAINCOAT called for an attack).

  Clark’s intelligence estimated: German figures indicated that Tenth Army had 142,000 troops in twelve divisions on Dec. 1, 1943. StoC, 246–47, 269 (barely three hundred yards).

  “Oh, don’t worry”: OH, H. Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, II-3; StoC, 265, 270.

  More than nine hundred guns: “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, DTL, Ft. B, 100; Robert H. Adleman and George Walton, The Devil’s Brigade, 123–24; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 23; Molony V, 517 (eleven tons of steel).

  “only an Italian winter”: Vincent M. Lockhart, ts, n.d., 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 179 (American lumberjacks); Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 88 (“potential gangster”); “Special List of Clothing and Equipment,” Sept. 24, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 3 (codeine sulfate).

  Leading the gangsters: OH, Paul D. Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI (French Quebec); mss notes, n.d., Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 8 (Son of a San Francisco doctor); obit, Robert T. Frederick, Assembly, spring 1972, 106 (sailed to Australia); Perret, 179 (bedroom slippers); corr, Oct. 20, 1943, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1 (“worthy of trust”); OH, Robert T. Frederick, Jan. 7, 1949, SM, MHI (“lacked guts”); OH, D. M. “Pat” O’Neill, n.d., Robert H. Adleman papers, HIA, box 10 (“casual indifference”).

  Their barked fingers blue: Adleman and Walton, 129; Bowlby, 113 (thrown rocks); Joseph A. Springer, Black Devil Brigade, 86 (rock splinters); Robert D. Burhans, The First Special Service Force, 107 (shallow saucer).

  A maddening wait: Burhans, 107, 112; Springer, 100–102
(“German was with me”), 95 (“red mist”); Adleman and Walton, 138–44.

  Panzer grenadiers counterattacked: Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 24; Springer 88–90, 109–10 (“huge shotgun”); Adleman and Walton, 138; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 108–9 (white flag ruse); affidavits, 2nd Regt investigation, Robert D. Burhans papers, box 19 (“Foxhole Willie”).

  “We have passed the crest”: msgs, R.T. Frederick, Dec. 5–6, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 21.

  Early on Tuesday morning: Burhans, 120; StoC, 263; Molony V, 517–18 (hilltop monastery); Bowlby, 120–21 (mossy rocks); Moorehead, Eclipse, 64; Burhans, 120; msg, Frederick, Dec. 7, 1943, 1630 hrs, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 21.

  Survivors hobbled: Burhans, 120; surgeon’s report, Dec. 2–9, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 19.

  “feet of a dead man”: Springer, 118.

  With his left flank secured: James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 65; StoC, 274; Frederick L. Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” ts, 1991, Texas MFM, 62 (“Krauts up there”).

  He soon learned otherwise: Robert L. Wagner, The Texas Army, 74, 77 (“couple of lizards”); Homer Bigart, “San Pietro a Village of the Dead,” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 20, 1943, in Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 738–45; Don Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 83 (“Rufus the Loudmouth”); Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” 67, 72, 81 (“Die kommen”); Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 235 (“This is fun”).

  Two miles west: Bowlby, 141; Jack Clover, ts, n.d., HQ Co., 2/143rd Inf, 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm (“skirmish lines”).

  pillboxes emplaced every twenty-five yards: “The Battle for San Pietro,” AB, no. 18, 1977, 1+; Bowlby, 142–45 (fingers shot off).