Once again I gratefully acknowledge my debt to the hundreds of historians, memoirists, and others whose writings in the sixty years after the war will forever provide the foundation for all subsequent works of scholarship. I have again relied on the 114-volume U.S. Army in World War II, the official history known informally as the Green Series, as well as the official British History of the Second World War.
The ground speaks even when eyewitnesses no longer can, and I made several trips to the battle venues of volume two, beginning in the mid-1990s, when I served as Berlin bureau chief of The Washington Post and visited Salerno, Anzio, San Pietro, and Cassino for the first time. Other research forays included a visit to Sicily in September 1996 and extended trips to Italian battlefields in April 2004 and November 2006. For the last of these, I thank Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, and two former chiefs of Army history, Maj. Gen. (ret.) William A. Stofft and Brig. Gen. (ret.) Harold Nelson.
The core of this narrative, like its predecessor, is drawn from primary, contemporaneous sources, which range from diaries, letters, and unpublished manuscripts to official records, after-action reports, and original maps. I am again deeply grateful for the professionalism and patience of several score historians and archivists in tracking down these thousands of documents. Any error of fact or judgment is mine alone.
At the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, I thank Richard Boylan, Timothy Mulligan, Larry McDonald, and, most particularly, Timothy K. Nenninger, the chief of modern military records and former president of the Society for Military History. Virtually every page of this book bears Tim’s imprint, and I am deeply grateful for his expertise, humor, friendship, and willingness to read a portion of the manuscript.
The U.S. Army’s Military History Institute, part of the Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is among the nation’s finest archival repositories and the mother lode of Army history. For this volume, I visited MHI twenty-nine times, usually for two-or three-day stretches, and I am grateful for the hospitable professionalism of Col. Robert Dalessandro, the AHEC director, and to Conrad C. Crane, the MHI director, who read part of the manuscript. Thanks also to Richard J. Sommers, chief of patron services; Louise Arnold-Friend; Richard L. Baker; Steve Bye; Tom Hendrix; Gary Johnson; Shaun Kirkpatrick; Stanley Lanoue; Michael E. Lynch; Robert Mages; Mike Monahan; Mike Perry; Melinda Torres; and especially David A. Keough.
At the adjacent U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, where I held the Gen. Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership for the 2004–05 academic year, I thank the commandant, Maj. Gen. David H. Huntoon, Jr., and his faculty and staff, including the dean, Col. William T. Johnsen; Col. Charles D. Allen, director of leader development and my classroom copilot; and the library director, Bohdan I. Kohutiak. I am especially grateful to Tami Davis Biddle, the George C. Marshall Chair of Military Studies and a fine historian of airpower, who has been an exceptionally thoughtful and encouraging friend, and who read part of the manuscript.
Thanks also to Stephen P. Riley, executive director of the Army War College Foundation. The Omar Bradley chair is administered jointly with Dickinson College, and I appreciate the support of the president, William G. Durden, as well as Prof. Harry L. Pohlman and Col. (ret.) Jeffrey D. McCausland.
The U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., again offered a rich vein of documents and expertise. Thanks to Brig. Gen. (ret.) John Sloan Brown, the former chief of military history, and his successor, Jeffrey J. Clarke, as well as to Richard Stewart, the chief historian; Col. Gary M. Bowman; Robert K. Wright, Jr.; Mary L. Haynes; and R. Cody Phillips.
At the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, I am grateful to the director, Daniel D. Holt, for his help and hospitality, and to archivist David J. Haight. Similarly, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, I thank the director, Cynthia M. Koch, and archivists Robert Parks, Alycia Vivona, Mark Renovitch, and especially Robert Clark, who also helped to have various Secret Service records declassified.
I had the good fortune to hold a media fellowship at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, for which I thank David Brady and Mandy MacCalla. Elena S. Danielson, the now-retired director of library and archives, and Carol A. Leadenham, assistant archivist for reference, were particularly gracious in opening the institution’s extensive World War II holdings.
The ambitious Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress is a boon to historians; thanks to Eileen Simon, Sarah Rouse, W. Ralph Eubanks, and the able Eric Goldstein.
At the Citadel Archives and Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the director, Jane McCrady Yates, was extraordinarily helpful in offering access to her vast collection of Mark W. Clark’s papers, as well as to a biographical DVD, which she produced. My deep thanks also to Joanne D. Hartog, director of the library archives and special projects at the George C. Marshall Library at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, which among other treasures holds the papers of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.
Professor Mark A. Stoler of the University of Vermont, who has few peers as a scholar of twentieth-century diplomatic history, was kind enough to read and critique portions of the manuscript.
Once again I am grateful to the Robert R. McCormick Research Center at the First Division Museum in Cantigny, Illinois, for both archival excellence and professional assistance. I appreciate the help of John Votaw, the former executive director of the Cantigny First Division Foundation, and of his successor, Paul H. Herbert, as well as that of Andrew E. Woods and Eric Gillespie.
The Texas Military Forces Museum in Austin has a rich trove of material for the 36th Infantry Division. I appreciate assistance from John C. L. Scribner, the museum director and command historian, as well as Angie Rose, Bob Gates, and particularly archivist Brian Schenk.
Thanks to curator Michael E. Gonzalez and to Denise Neil-Binion at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City. I also appreciate early assistance on the 34th Infantry Division from the Iowa Gold Star Museum at Fort Dodge, with thanks to director Jerry L. Gorden and to Richard A. Moss, secretary-treasurer of the 34th Infantry Division Association.
In the special collections department at the U.S. Military Academy library, thanks to Alan Aimone, Susan Lintelmann, Sheila H. Biles, Elaine McConnell, Deborah A. McKeon-Pogue, and Suzanne Christoff. Thanks also to the former West Point history department chairman, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Robert A. Doughty, and to his successor, Col. Lance A. Betros. Thanks also to the Combined Arms Research Library at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, including the director, Edwin B. Burgess, and Col. (ret.) Lawyn C. Edwards, former director of the Combat Studies Institute. Further thanks to Ericka L. Loze-Hudson, director of the Donovan Research Library at the Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Georgia, and to the acting command historian, David S. Stieghan. At the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers History Office at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, thanks to historian Michael J. Brodhead.
I am again appreciative of encouragement and generous support from the Association of the United States Army, particularly from Gen. (ret.) Gordon R. Sullivan, the association president and former Army chief of staff; Lt. Gen. (ret.) Theodore G. Stroup, Jr.; and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas G. Rhame. Lt. Col. (ret.) Roger Cirillo, Ph.D., the association director of operational and strategic studies, once again was exceptionally generous in sharing his vast expertise and amazing personal archive.
At the Air Force Historical Research Agency, at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, I thank Charles F. O’Connell, Jr., the director, Toni Petito, Joseph D. Caver, and Robert E. Brown, Jr.
At the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., thanks to Kathleen M. Lloyd and John Hodges in operational archives, and the Navy Department Library. At the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, I appreciate the help of Evelyn Cherpak, Barbara Donnelly, Shirley Fernandes, Alice Juda, and Jamie Radke. At the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Marylan
d, I thank Paul Stillwell, director of the history division, and Ann Hassinger, as well as Fred H. Rainbow, former editor in chief of Proceedings. At the U.S. Naval Academy, thanks to Mary A. DeCredico, former chair of the history department.
Thanks to Edward C. Tracy, executive director of the Tawani Foundation and former executive director of the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, and to G. Kurt Piehler, director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. I appreciate the support and encouragement of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, including that of Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, Sam Wegner, and Bill Detweiler.
I also thank Christine Weideman and Diane E. Kaplan at the Yale University Library’s manuscripts and archives department; Lovetta Kramer, executive director of the RMS Queen Mary Foundation and Archive; Lorna Williams, library assistant in the special collections and archives at the University of Liverpool; Shaun Illingworth of the Rutgers University Oral History Archives; and the intrepid crew of LST 325, which berthed at Alexandria, Virginia, in May 2005, and is the only twenty-first-century survivor among eleven hundred LSTs built during World War II.
In the United Kingdom, I am grateful to the staff of the National Archive in Kew. At the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College in London, Kate O’Brien, Caroline Lam, and Patricia J. Methven, the director of archive services, were exceptionally helpful. Thanks also to the Department of Documents staff and trustees at the Imperial War Museum, particularly to Roderick Suddaby and Stephanie Clarke.
In Italy, thanks to Maurizio Zambardi and Lorenzo Picillo in San Pietro, and to Silvano Casaldi, director of the Museum of the Allied Landings in Nettuno. Antonio Ali Winston helped with both historical research and translations under an internship provided by the University of Chicago’s Jeff Metcalf Fellows Program. Robert Harp very ably translated several Italian documents for me.
Master cartographer Gene Thorp once again displayed uncommon skill and forbearance in drawing the maps for this volume. My close friend and agent, Rafe Sagalyn, has been there from the beginning.
The Washington Post, my professional home for nearly a quarter century, is led by several extraordinary readers of history, notably chairman Donald E. Graham, publisher Bo Jones, executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., and editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, who was generous enough to read the manuscript. I’m also grateful for the continued support and friendship of other Post colleagues, including Phil Bennett, Benjamin C. Bradlee, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Stephen C. Fehr, Susan Glasser, David Hoffman, Robert G. Kaiser, Jeff Leen, Thomas E. Ricks, Margaret Shapiro, Steve Vogel, Tom Wilkinson, Bob Woodward, and fellow scribbler David Maraniss.
Thanks also to Tom Bowers, Michael Briggs, Tom Brokaw, Robert C. Callahan, Herman Chanowitz, Alexander S. Cochran, Edward M. Coffman, Steve Coll, Maj. Gen. (ret.) E. J. Delaune, Jr., Glenn Frankel, Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, Arthur L. Funk, Paul Fussell, Arthur Hadley, Sir Max Hastings, Ken Hechler, David Kahn, Howard S. Koontz, Lewis Libby, James H. McCall, Col. H. R. McMaster, Lovern Nauss, Randy Norton, Gen. David H. Petraeus, Panthea Reid, Mark J. Reardon, David Roberts, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Robert H. Scales, Jr., Col. (ret.) Lewis “Bob” Sorley, Frank Stech, Layne A. Van Arsdale, David Von Drehle, Geoffrey D. W. Wawro, Gerhard L. Weinberg, James S. “Scott” Wheeler, and Maj. Gen. David Zabecki.
Grateful acknowledgment is made of permission to quote various materials: Stanford University, for the selected writings of Langan W. Swent; Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, for extracts from his father’s writings; Geoffrey B. Keyes, for extracts from his father’s diary; Jean Framp, for extracts from “The Littlest Victory” by Charles Framp; Jerry Countess, for extracts from his letters; John J. Toffey IV, for extracts from his manuscript, “A Game for the Young,” and from his father’s letters; John B. Romeiser, for extracts from the war diary of Don Whitehead; Paul W. Brown, for extracts from his memoir; the trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, for extracts from the papers of W.E.V. Abraham, Lord Alanbrooke, C.W. Allfrey, J. S. Elliott, S. C. Kirkman, B. H. Liddell Hart, J. N. Nelson, W.R.C. Penney, Aidan Mark Sprot, and P.L.E. Wood; Joachim Liebschner, for extracts from “Iron Cross Roads,” which has recently been published by Athena Press; Gilbert Allnutt, for extracts from “A Fusilier Remembers Italy” Mrs. J. K. Windeatt, for extracts from her late husband’s “Very Ordinary Soldier” Martin Smith, for extracts from Waltonia, the memoir of his father, Bert Smith; C. Richard Eke, for extracts from “A Game of Soldiers” the copyright holder of K. G. Oakley’s “Sicily, 1943” John H. Clagett, for extracts from his unpublished biography of H. Kent Hewitt; and the Columbia University Oral History Research Office, for extracts from a 1961 interview of H. Kent Hewitt by John T. Mason.
In instances where current copyright holders could not be located, or where permissions arrived too late to be noted in this edition, I will gladly include acknowledgments in future editions.
I am once again in the debt of John Sterling, the president and publisher of Henry Holt and Company, whose contributions as my editor and friend for five books over the past two decades may be inferred from the dedication at the front of this volume. Thanks also at Holt to Maggie Richards, Kenn Russell, Richard Rhorer, Eileen Lawrence, Claire McKinney, Emily Montjoy Belford, Chuck Thompson, and the extraordinarily capable Jolanta Benal, who, as the copy editor on both volumes of the Liberation Trilogy, has improved every page.
My children, Rush and Sarah, helped enormously with document and photo research, bibliographical organization, and the inevitable technological rescues of their Luddite father. My wife, Jane, provided all the rest, as ever.
INDEX
“The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.”
Entries in italics refer to maps. Military units are listed by nation in numerical order.
Aas, Lt. Ivar H.
Abercrombie, H.M.S.
ACHSE, Operation
Acute, H.M.S.
Adams, Henry
Adriatic front
Aeneas
Aeneid, The (Virgil)
Aeschylus
African Americans
air bases
airborne operations
AVALANCHE and
HUSKY and
HUSKY and friendly fire
Gela
LADBROOKE and
North Africa and
Primosole Bridge
proposed GIANT II, in Rome
airpower
Allied vs. German
AVALANCHE and
Cassino and
Gela and
morale problems and
Troina and
Albano
Albano, Lake
Alexander, Gen. Sir Harold R.L.G. “Alex”
aftermath of Italian campaign and
Anzio or SHINGLE and
AVALANCHE and
background of
campaign after fall of Rome and
Cassino and
Clark and
DIADEM and
HUSKY and
Italian mainland campaign and
Italian peace overtures and
Italian resistance and
leadership style of
liberation of Rome and
Monte Cassino bombing and
Rapido and
reorganization by, in spring 1944 and
winter campaign and
Allen, Mary Fran
Allen, Maj. Gen. Terry de la Mesa
Allied 15th Army Group
Allied Air Forces. See also British Royal Air Force; U.S. Army Air Forces
“Allied Bridgehead Force”
Allied Expeditionary Force
Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ)
Italian peace overture and
Allied Naval Forces
AVALA
NCHE and
HUSKY and
Almond, Maj. Gen. Edward M.
Altavilla
Amalfi
AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories)
amphibious landings
AVALANCHE
Brolo and
HUSKY
lessons of
importance of
proposed north of Naples
SHINGLE
Ancon, U.S.S.
Anders, Gen. Wl/adysl/aw
Anderson, Marian
Andrus, Brig. Gen. Clift “Mr. Chips”
Anglo-American alliance and tensions
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