The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  On average, ten British soldiers: “Operations of British, Indian and Dominion Forces in Italy,” part V, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/453, 1; Diana Butler, “The British Soldier in Italy, Sept. 1943–June 1944,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 101/224, 35, 43–44; Ben Shephard, A War of Nerves, 240 (“slinkers”); memo, Maj. Gen. John Yeldham Whitfield, CG, UK 6th Div, “Battle Absentees,” Apr. 10, 1944, in James Scott Elliott papers, LHC (“matter is hushed up”).

  The U.S. Army would convict 21,000 deserters: “Military Executions,” 1994, MHI, Ref Bib; memos, MWC to II Corps and VI Corps, March 13, 1944, and Dec. 4, 1943, NARA RG 338, II Corps JAG, 250.1, box 156; “Operations of British, Indian and Dominion Forces in Italy,” 8; Morse P. Manson and Harry M. Grayson, “Why 2,776 American Soldiers in the Mediterranean Theater of Operation Were Absent Without Leave,” American Journal of Psychiatry, July 1946, 50+.

  “I feel like my nervous system”: Stephen W. Ranson, “Military Medicolegal Problems in Field Psychiatry,” Bulletin of the U.S. Army Medical Department, vol. 9, Nov. 1949, 181+; Michael D. Doubler, Closing with the Enemy, 242; Shephard, 217; memo, “Neuropsychiatric Treatment in the Combat Zone,” June 12, 1943, circular letter no. 17, NARA RG 292, records of special staff, MTOUSA surgeon, box 2551; William C. Menninger, “Psychiatry in the War,” June 1946, MHI, “professional papers,” group 1; memo, “Psychiatric Services in the U.S. Army in NATOUSA,” Dec. 31, 1943, NARA RG 292, records of special staff, MTOUSA surgeon, box 2551.

  All troops were at risk: “Casualties, Wounded and Wounds, 1946–7,” Army Field Forces, G-3, NARA RG 337, 704, 1942–1952, series 10, box 46, 11 (70 percent of the casualties); “Battle Casualties,” IJ, Sept. 1949, 18+ (“whether he will be hit”); Palmer et al., 228. Ten combat days typically equaled seventeen calendar days in Army calculations. Bruce C. Clarke, “Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” Sept. 1946, AGF HQ, NARA RG 537, E 16A, adm div subject file, 1942–1949, box 48.

  Treatment by “narcosynthesis”: “Fifth Army Medical Service History,” Feb. 1945, CMH, 52; Brashear, 352–56 (shock therapy); Charles M. Wiltse, The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters, 255; memo, Fifth Army surgeon, Oct. 2, 1944, NARA RG 292, records of special staff, MTOUSA surgeon, box 2551; Cowdrey, 148. Half of the Army’s 2,400 psychiatrists were young physicians given a three-month crash course in psychiatry; most others had worked primarily with psychotics in state hospitals. Eli Ginberg, “Logistics of the Neuropsychiatric Problem of the Army,” Feb. 1946, MHI, “professional papers,” group 1.

  All of these issues impaired Fifth Army’s: OH, MWC, Nov. 17, 1959, FCP, GCM Lib, transcript of tape 37, 25.

  of dubious military value: The U.S. Joint Chiefs in late March voiced doubt that “the capture of Rome is worth heavy engagement in Italy.” Molony VI, 9.

  a rightful and prestigious prize: OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI, 53; Kent Roberts Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 277, 280.

  But getting there quickly was paramount: OH, Robert J. Wood, Fifth Army G-3 staff, March 4, 1948, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 005, 2–3; Greenfield, ed., 277, 280.

  “I know factually”: diary, MWC, May 5, 1944, Citadel, box 65.

  “On the Eve of Great Things”

  Alexander often quoted Lord Nelson’s: Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” n.d., CMH, II-41; http://www.wtj.com/archives/nelson/1805_10b.htm; Molony VI, 95, 97 (equivalent of twenty-eight divisions); Sidney T. Matthews, “The French Drive on Rome,” Revue Historique de l’Armée, special issue, 1957, 123; CtoA, 40; Michael Carver, Harding of Petherton, Field-Marshal, 126; Battle, 203–5.

  “Between ourselves”: John Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 121; H. E. Pulliam, “Operations in Italy,” Sept. 1, 1944, AGF board, AFHQ, DTL, Ft. B, 2–3 (“on an axis generally parallel”).

  Alexander’s final order: CtoA, 40; Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, 248; Carver, 134.

  “no invidious comparison”: minutes, conference, AFHQ chief of staff and French chief of staff, May 6, 1944, CMH, Geog files, Italy 337.

  Their commander, Lieutenant General Oliver W. H. Leese: Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 21–22; GK, Apr. 4, 1944 (“ungainly bruiser”); Rowland Ryder, Oliver Leese, ix (horticultural succulents), 152–53, 168; Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 513; Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell, Tug of War, 254.

  “having a baby”: Ryder, 163, 160 (“I can work with Clark”); OH, H. Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, II-8 (“Not the pusher Clark was”); Daniel G. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy, 1943–1945, 237 (“like a whore in heat”).

  Leese’s seven infantry and three armor divisions: Molony V, 591n; Blaxland, 26 (“ardour of a boy”); Janusz Piekalkiewicz, The Battle for Cassino, 16, 102 (fought both Germans and Russians); Kurzman, 26; David Hapgood and David Richardson, Monte Cassino, 182–93.

  Anders’s two divisions were understrength: “Operations by 2nd Polish Corps Against the High Ground, Monte Cassino,” ts, June 1944, possession of Roger Cirillo, 12; John Nelson, “Always a Grenadier,” ts, 1982, LH, 44 (“We never take prisoners”); W. Anders, An Army in Exile, 170–73 (“no men to spare”).

  “The eyes of suffering France”: Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords, 604 (“invading the mountains”); CtoA, 24; Porch, 554 (retraining his forces).

  That meant scaling the Auruncis: CtoA, 30; OH, Robert J. Wood, March 4 and 15, 1948, SM, MHI; OH, Lyman Lemnitzer, Jan. 16, 1948, SM, MHI.

  Wrapped in a greatcoat: Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 557; G. K. Tanham, “Battlefield Intelligence in World War II: A Case Study of the Fifth Army Front in Italy,” Sept. 1956, Project RAND, RM-1792, CMH, iii–iv, 28 (photo reconnaissance); Diana F. Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps in the Battle for Rome,” n.d., UK NA, CAB 101/226, 3–5 (persuaded first Keyes); John Ellis, Cassino: The Hollow Victory, 47 (“They like us a lot”).

  Rather than employ the FEC: Matthews, “The French Drive on Rome,” 125–26; Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps,” 2–5.

  Clark’s admiration for Juin: memo, phone code names, March 5, 1944, Fifth Army, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI; Anthony Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 79 (surrendered one of his four stars); Carver, ed., 607 (“Radiate confidence”); CtoA, 35.

  Half a million players: Clifford W. Dorman, “Too Soon for Heroes,” ts, n.d., 19th Combat Engineers, author’s possession, 78–79 (“not to camouflage too well”); Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” III-9 (twenty undetected French battalions); Clayton, 83 (soup-bowl helmets); Butler, “The French Expeditionary Corps,” 11 (hand tools to minimize the noise); Dharm Pal, The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 158 (scattered brushwood).

  Canadian signalers in April: Mark Zuehlke, The Liri Valley, 78; “Engineers in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” ts, n.d., UK, MHI, 88 (spread garnished nets); Harold E. Miller, “G-2 Report on Italian Campaign,” June 15, 1944, NARA RG 337, AGF, observer report, #110, box 54, 10; Anthony Cave Brown, ed., The Secret War Report of the OSS, 217.

  Military traffic signs appeared: Martha Gellhorn, “Cracking the Gothic Line,” Collier’s, Oct. 28, 1944, 24+; “Operations by 2nd Polish Corps Against the High Ground, Monte Cassino,” 22–23 (seven thousand mottled sniper suits); “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” MHI, 65 (screens made of chicken wire); Dancocks, 237.

  Scouts in canvas shoes: Matthew Parker, Monte Cassino, 296; The Tiger Triumphs, 72; Neil Orpen, Victory in Italy, 28 (South African troops lay low).

  Every tree along Highway 6: “History of Ordnance Service in the Mediterranean Theater,” 77; Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 239, 250; AAR, 1621st Engineer Model Making Detachment, n.d., NARA RG 407, ENDT-1621-0.1, 270/62/12/1, box 19220 (intricate terrain replicas); Miller, “G-2 Report on Italian Campaign,” 5 (mixed ersatz inks).

  Endless supply convoys crept forward: William J. Diamond, “Water Is Life,” Military Engineer, Aug. 1947, 330+; Orpen, 33 (ho
ods wrapped in rubber pads); “Fifth Army Medical History,” 146 (clop of hooves); John Buchan, “Report on a Visit to the French Expeditionary Corps,” Canadian Army, n.d., CMH, Geog files, Italy 337, 1 (“No mules”).

  “I think of you every day”: corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, May 3, 7, 14, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.

  More than one million tons of matériel: OH, Francis Oxx, PBS CG, May 21, 1948, SM, MHI, box IIA1; “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” CMH, 9-2.5 AB, 90; Allan L. Swaim, “The Operations of the Communications Platoon Headquarters Company, 15th Infantry Regiment, on Anzio Beachhead,” 1947, IS, 16 (jeep-drawn plow); “10th Engineer Combat Battalion, Cisterna-Rome Operation,” ts, n.d., CMH, Geog files, Italy, 314.7 (stockade for five thousand prisoners).

  Patrols reclaimed small swatches: Earl M. Cooper, “The Operation of the 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry at Anzio Beachhead,” 1947, IS; msg, LKT Jr. to MWC, May 7, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6 (“one additional infantry division”); CtoA, 117 (trundled forward each night); Moore, “Memoirs—World War II,” 7–8 (“It was crowded”).

  In a letter to his old friend: corr, ENH to L. J. McNair, May 8, 1944, ENH, MHI, box 1; corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, May 11, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6 (“on the eve of great things”).

  It was precisely this issue that General Alex: Sidney T. Matthews, “Drive to Rome,” ts, 1954, MHI, 26–27, 31; CM, 369.

  The quizzical tilt: CtoA, 39 (had eyed the stretch of Highway 6); “Notes by General Alexander for Conference Held at HQ, AAI, on 2 April 1944,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 8 (cut the highway at Valmontone); Matthews, “Drive to Rome,” 29 (code-named BUFFALO); memo, AFHQ, deputy chief of staff, March 21, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-225B (might take a month); “Notes on Conference,” May 5, 1944, Fifth Army, MWC papers, Citadel, box 3 (decisive battle of annihilation); Pulliam, “Operations in Italy,” 2–3 (“thereby prevent the supply”).

  “Gen. Alex arrived this morning”: msg, LKT Jr. to MWC, May 5, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 6.

  “Alex trying to run my army”: diary, MWC, May 5, 1944, Citadel, box 65.

  “The capture of Rome is the only important”: CM, 369, Matthews, “Drive to Rome,” 31 (detour onto other routes).

  “I told him he had embarrassed me”: diary, MWC, May 8, 1944, Citadel, box 65.

  At four P.M. on Tuesday: diary, MWC, May 9, 1944, Citadel, box 65; Clark press conference, May 9, 1944, MWC, Citadel, box 63, folder 3 (“not quite up to strength”); Matthews, “The French Drive on Rome,” 122; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 279–81; F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 202.

  “Everybody throws everything they have”: “Notes on Conference,” May 5, 1944; Clark press conference, May 9, 1944 (“The more Boche we can hold”).

  He made no mention of his quarrel: In a postwar interview with the Army historian Sidney Matthews, Clark acknowledged that he “foresaw that the time might come when the shift in the axis would be desirable.” OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI, 72.

  “The attack I would like to make”: Clark press conference, May 9, 1944.

  Albert Kesselring knew nothing: Count von Klinckowstroem, “Italian Campaign,” 1947, FMS, #T-1a, chap. 10, 5, 8; Battle, 227–28; Tanham, “Battlefield Intelligence in World War II,” 33–35 (nine of twenty-two Allied regimental command posts); StoA, 211; Harold E. Miller, “G-2 Report on Italian Campaign,” 7; Robin Kay, Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War, vol. 2, Italy: From Cassino to Trieste, 16.

  A Moroccan deserter several weeks earlier: A. G. Steiger, “The Italian Campaign, 4 Jan.–4 June 1944,” July 1948, Canadian Army HQ, historical section, report #20, 33; Kesselring et al, “German Version,” 119 (May 20 or later); Bailey, “The German Situation in Italy,” 114 (did “not expect anything”); Frido von Senger und Etterlin, “War Diary of the Italian Campaign,” 1953, FMS, #C=095b, MHI, 114–16.

  If Kesselring was blind and misinformed: Kesselring et al., “German Version,” 117; Battle, 226; CtoA, 17–18, 111; Bailey, “The German Situation in Italy,” 58 (“make the enemy exhaust himself”), 67; Molony VI, 71n; Porch, 549 (82,000 held the southern front).

  “To my great pleasure, everything is quiet”: Steiger, “The Italian Campaign,” 39.

  “It was like a goodbye gift”: C. T. Framp, “The Littlest Victory,” ts, n.d., IWM, 85/19/1, 102; Beckett, 150 (conspicuously white animals); Peter Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 213, 216 (guide to Italian cities); Huebner, 61 (“Blackjack for twenty dollars”).

  “Who the hell would want to live here”: Fred Cederberg, The Long Road Home, 113; Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 228 (“a cause in its own right”); Charles Connell, Monte Cassino, 179 (“alive with rats”); Trevelyan, 273.

  A dozen miles to the southwest: Nicole Solignac O’Connor, “Mektoub: A Young Woman’s War Journal,” ts, 2002, author’s possession, 124.

  On the gunline in the rear: C. V. Clifton, “The 240mm Howitzer & the 8-inch Gun in a Mobile Situation,” June 27, 1944, CARL, N-7276, 3; Mayo, 205; Constance M. Green et al., The Ordnance Department: Planning Munitions for War, 362; N. P. Morrow, “Employment of Artillery in Italy,” FAJ, Aug. 1944, 498+; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” 91–94.

  “Busy days, nerve trying days”: JJT, XIV-3-8.

  “If Alex is a military genius”: GK, May 10, 1944; Nicolson, Alex (“Our objective is the destruction”); msg, W. Churchill to GCM, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, 390/38/2/4-5, box 18

  H-hour was fixed for eleven P.M.: CtoA, 37; Orpen, 34; The Princeton Class of 1942 During World War II, 509 (“I do not know where my son is”); Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” III-10 (“strange, impressive silence”); Michael Pearson, “Hard in the Attack: The Canadian Army in Sicily and Italy,” Sept. 1996, Ph.D. diss, Carleton University, Ottawa, 332 (“New boys with fear”).

  CHAPTER 12: THE GREAT PRIZE

  Shaking Stars from the Heavens

  The BBC pips had not finished: Matthew Parker, Monte Cassino, 309; Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” n.d., CMH, III-10 (two thousand gun pits); C. T. Framp, “The Littlest Victory,” ts, n.d., IWM, 85/19/1, 102 (“shake the very stars”).

  Men peered from their trenches: Diana F. Butler, ed., “Human Interest,” n.d., UK NA, CAB 101/346, 3–4; Klaus H. Huebner, A Combat Doctor’s Diary, 61–63, 73 (“Rome, then home”); Rowland Ryder, Oliver Leese, 165 (Nightingales had sung); David Scott Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. 3, 167 (“full of noises”).

  Gunners draped wet rags: Olgierd Terlecki, Poles in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945, 73; Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 211 (174,000 shells); Mountain Inferno, 749 (“bridge of iron”); Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. 7, 769 (“Zip”).

  At midnight on the Allied right: E. D. Smith, The Battles for Cassino, 153, 162 (“no Germans could possibly outlive”); Fred Majdalany, Cassino: Portrait of a Battle, 231.

  “Soldiers! The moment for battle”: W. Anders, An Army in Exile, 174; Raleigh Trevelyan, Rome ’44, 269, 273 (Troops surged up Snakeshead Ridge); “Operations by 2nd Polish Corps Against the High Ground, Monte Cassino,” June 1944, possession of Roger Cirillo, 26–31 (Nine German battalions).

  “Many of us had lost”: Janusz Piekalkiewicz, The Battle for Cassino, 169, 172–73; Majdalany, Cassino, 246; Anders, 175–76 (“small epics”); CtoA, 44; Dan Kurzman, The Race for Rome, 235 (“If they do not obey orders”); “Operations by 2nd Polish Corps,” 29 (of twenty engineers”); Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 164 (“how dreadful death can be”).

  At dawn, the rising sun: Charles Connell, Monte Cassino, 186 (“sitting birds”); memo, “Flamethrowers and Napalm,” July 1944, HQ, 2nd Polish Corps, NARA RG 492, MTO chemical warfare section, 470.71, box 1756; Trevelyan, 271 (“I was working on my knees”).

  Yet even Polish valor could not win: Terlecki, 75; Battle, 233; Piekal
kiewicz, 171 (“costly reconnaissance”).

  “Let’s pick some cornflowers”: Ryder, 166.

  “What do we do now?”: Kurzman, 215.

  Vehicles crept forward, hauling boats: newsletter, 8th Indian Division, March–Nov. 1944, Dudley Russell papers, LH, 5; The Tiger Triumphs, 73 (banged angle iron).

  Fire they drew, but so did the rest: Dharm Pal, The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 160–61; Ryder, 166 (“yellow London fog”).

  Men stumped about in flame-stabbed confusion: The Tiger Triumphs, 73; Pal, 161–62; Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 184–85 (“Oh, God, don’t let me die”).

  Twelve of sixteen Gurkha boats: Pal, 162; Alexander, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” III-11; David Scott Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment, vol. 4, 207.

  By midday, no battalion: Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 89; Robin Neillands, Eighth Army, 291 (“an autocratic man”); Molony VI, 99 (“sough and whiffle”); Parker, 314 (“passed ever so slowly”).

  Yet the enemy had missed: Molony VI, 112; Kenneth Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 211; Blaxland, 95–96; CtoA, 55.

  Three bridges, dubbed Cardiff, Oxford, and Plymouth: “Engineers in the Italian Campaign,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/575, 34–35; Pal, 165; The Tiger Triumphs, 74–75; newsletter, 8th Indian Division, March–Nov. 1944, Dudley Russell papers, LHC.

  Upstream between Sant’Angelo and Cassino town: Daniell, History of the East Surrey Regiment; Beckett, 157–58 (“Cries for help”); Frank Mills, “Well Dressed at Cassino,” n.d., author’s possession, 3–4 (glimpses of the abbey).

  Gurkhas twice surged into Sant’Angelo: Molony VI, 121; Pal, 165; The Tiger Triumphs, 75–76.

  Putrefying corpses were soaked in petrol: memoir, P. Royle, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 122–23 (“I had no regrets”); Connell, 191 (wounds dressed with paper); Blaxland, 99 (“This is real war”).

  They pushed on: C. N. Barclay, History of the 16th/5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers, 125, 126n.