The Day of Battle

by Rick Atkinson

  “a hole-and-corner area”: D’Este, 349; Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 71–72 (“not tank country”); Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 469 (“the fuckin’ desert”).

  Eighth Army’s attempt: “Airborne Operations Conference,” July 24, 1943, Algiers, “Material on Operation HUSKY, 1943, Allied Forces,” MHI Lib; Garland, 218–19; John C. Warren, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945, 51; “Proceeding of Board of Officers Considering Airborne Operations,” Aug. 1943, AFHQ, JPL, MHI, box 11; AAFinWWII, 454; B. H. Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 355 (German paratroopers also jumped); R. Priestly, “Volunteers,” ts, n.d., IWM, 83/24/1, 6 (“One shouted for comrades”); T.B.H. Otway, Airborne Forces, 126–30; Michael Hickey, Out of the Sky: A History of Airborne Warfare, 104–5; John Frost, A Drop Too Many, 185.

  “seemed to mislay his genius”: Carver, ed., 501; Gunther, 118, 141 (“struck on the head”); S.W.C. Pack, Operation Husky, 143; Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 153 (“break the farmer’s walls”); Malone, A Portrait of War, 162 (robbed of their boots); Dancocks, 3 (dead dogs).

  “The enemy is tough”: Gunther, 121–25.

  “paved with bodies”: Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 37, 46 (“flies walked”); “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 43–44 (welts of dust); Peter Stainforth, Wings of Wind, 167, 171 (“moving men”).

  By Sunday morning, July 18: SSA, 179; Francis De Guingand, Operation Victory, 310 (fire-resistant); “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division,” 62; Hamilton, 317; Douglas N. Wimberly, “Scottish Soldier: The Memoirs of Major General Douglas Wimberly,” vol. 2, 1979, IWM, PP/MCR/182, 178 (50,000 cigarettes); Three Years, 363, 372–73; Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 113 (“What’s the matter”); Gunther, 121 (“Both sides are tired”).

  “How I Love Wars”

  Patton had been sulking: Charles R. Codman, Drive, 107–8; SSt, 140 (“on our prats”).

  He found General Alexander: Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War, 1939–1945, 302; Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 146–47, 154.

  “Have I got to stay here?”: OH, Harold R.L.G. Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 242; A. C. Wedemeyer, “Observer’s Report,” Aug. 24 1943, AGF File No. 19.1, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, box 247, 18; Garland, 236–38; F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 90–91 (Ultra two days earlier); OH, LKT and William W. Eagles, Apr. 19, 1951, SM, MHI (“glamour of capturing Palermo”).

  Alexander studied: F. W. Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, 105; Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower, 414 (“bone from the neck up”); Carver, 107 (“no ideas”); Gregory Blaxland, Alexander’s Generals, 16 (“Czarist Russia”); Gervasi, 517 (“just had a steam bath”).

  “a born leader, not a made one”: B. H. Liddell Hart, “Extracts,” June 1946, LH 1/7/54; Hamilton, 473 (“an English country gentleman”); Frank L. Kluckhohn, “‘Attack, Attack Again’ Is Alexander’s Motto,” NYT Magazine, Aug. 8, 1943, 20+ (could not write his name); Lord Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 187; Macmillan, War Diaries, 188 (“seeing the point”); PP, 267.

  Oblivious to the anguish: Jackson, 221; OH, Alexander, SM (“The hell with this”); Alexander to Brooke, April 3, 1943, Alanbrooke Papers, LHC, 6/2/17 (“not professional soldiers”).

  Off Patton’s forces went at a gallop: letter, Oscar W. Koch to James A. Norell, Dec. 15, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Pietro Arancio, Agrigento, 14 (“loveliest of mortal cities”); SSA, 175; Robert D. Kaplan, Mediterranean Winter, 123; L.V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 459; Edward B. Kitchens, Jr., “The Operations of the 3rd Ranger Infantry Battalion in the Landings at Licata,” 1949, IS, 18–24; Michael J. King, “Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II,” June 1985, CSI, 26–27; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 53; CM, 220–21 (Darby’s Rangers assembled).

  Unaware that Agrigento: William O. Darby and William H. Daumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 99; Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 118 (stovepipe hats).

  three safes found in an Italian naval headquarters: Some evidence suggests assistance from local mafiosi who had been contacted by U.S. Navy intelligence agents as part of a covert arrangement with Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the Sicilian-born New York crime boss then serving time in a New York prison. Rodney Campbell, The Luciano Project, 117, 126, 176–78; Patrick K. O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, 50; Max Corvo, The O.S.S. in Italy, 1942–1945, 23.

  soldiers cracked them: OH, Samuel A. D. Hunter, March 7, 1944, NHC, 15–18; The Sicilian Campaign, 131.

  “During the night of 17/18 July”: G-2 periodic report No. 9, July 19, 1943, Seventh Army, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 247; CM, 224.

  Corporal Audie Leon Murphy: Audie Murphy, To Hell and Back, 7–8; Harold B. Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 18–20, 47.

  He had a slow, stooped gait: corr, Albert Lewis Pyle to Carl Swickerath, Feb. 23, 1973, ALM, box 1, 2; Don Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 57, 60 (tobacco smoke), 39; Audie Murphy, “You Do the Prayin’,” Modern Screen, Jan. 1956, 56+ (“You do the prayin’”); Murphy, To Hell and Back, 10; Simpson, 70; “Lieutenant Audie Murphy,” AB, no. 3, 1973, 28+.

  “some Dago name”: William E. Faust, memoir, ts, n.d., ASEQ, 1st ID, MHI, 71; Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 105 (Fascist salute); John Hersey, “AMGOT at Work,” Life, vol. 15, no. 8, Aug. 23, 1943, 25 (“Kiss your hand!”); aide’s diaries, July 21, 1943, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (Italian saddle); George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, Aug. 14, 1943, 46+ (“One never seemed”).

  Emulating Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry: AAR, HQ, 7th RCT, July 24, 1943; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIV–35 (“chalk and cattle dung”); Daniel R. Champagne, Dogface Soldiers, 29 (“are my dogs barking”); CM, 226; Garland, 246; Gordon A. Blaker, Iron Knights, 184 (“Mount up”); Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 176–78 (Bradley kept a map).

  From a roadcut in the ridge: corr, LKT Jr. to James A. Norell, Jan. 10, 1961, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Kaplan, 122; diary, July 23, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div., box 3, folder 1; George Biddle, Artist at War, 66, 69 (“no cat”).

  Belisarius in A.D. 535: Charles Lee Lewis, “The Byzantine Invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy,” Proceedings, Nov. 1943, 1435+; msg, 1000 hrs, July 22, 1943, “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglio” corr, LKT Jr. to Sarah, Aug. 25, 1943, LKT Jr., GCM, box 1, folder 6.

  Hours passed: notes, William W. Eagles to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; CM, 227; Codman, 110 (“Street after street”).

  “stacks full of rare books”: Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 225–26; Biddle, 67 (Goethe); Garland, 256; SSA, 188; lecture, W. A. Sullivan, Society of Military Engineers, Cincinnati, 1947, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” #445, WWII Histories and Historical Reports in the U.S. Naval History Division, NHC, 13 (Salvage teams); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 297–99, 307; Edward D. Churchill, Surgeon to Soldiers, 222 (offered to sing Verdi); OH, John A. Heintges, SOOHP, Jack A. Pellicci, 1974, MHI, 150–55 (seized two large trucks); Melvin F. Talbot, “The Logistics of the Eighth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces, Northwest African Waters,” ts, n.d., “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” #139, U.S. Naval History Division, 37; memo, “Data for Logistical Planning,” Seventh Army to CG, NATOUSA, Dec. 4, 1943, Walter J. Muller Papers, HIA, box 2.

  Major General Geoff Keyes: AAR, HQ, Provisional Corps, July 15–Aug. 20, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily, 370.2; Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 78; John B. Romeiser, ed., Combat Reporter, 179 (bedsheet lashed to a fishing pole); GK, July 22, 1943.

  “It is a great thrill”: PP, 297, 303, 305.

  “The occupation of western Sicily”: situation report, OB Süd, July 24, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCM
H, box 246; Garland, 255; AAR, HQ, Provisional Corps, July 15–Aug. 20, 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily, 370.2; CM, 228 (“certainly like to beat Montgomery”).

  “You will have guessed”: CM, 227; PP, 300.

  Snaring the Head Devil

  “No objective can compete”: GS IV, 498, 500, 505; John S. D. Eisenhower, Allies, 306 (Churchill would strip British forces); Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 826 (“cut their rations again”).

  “Why should we crawl”: GS IV, 503; Kennedy, 295 (“a beautiful path”); Emajean Jordan Buechner, Sparks, 95 (“gonorrhea”).

  Eisenhower in May: StoC, 15, 19; AFHQ G-2, “J.I.C. Algiers Estimates on Italian Morale,” June 20, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 17C, box 242; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, dispatch, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” n.d., CMH, I-52 (“might well cause a collapse”); meeting notes, HQ Force 141, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 26-A, reel 225B, box 242 (“Germany intends to reinforce Italy”); memo, AFHQ G-3, L. W. Rooks to W. B. Smith, June 28, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-C, reel 138E, box 242 (“very mountainous”).

  Success in Sicily tipped: Ed Cray, General of the Army, 406; Three Years, 460 (Charlie-Charlies); “Record of Meeting Held at La Marsa at 1430 Hrs, 17 July 1943,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-225-B (“onto the mainland”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1261; Garland, 260–61.

  Vital issues remained: “Invasion of Italian Mainland: Summary of Operations Carried out by British Troops Under Command 5 U.S. Army,” n.d., CMH, Geog Ital, 370.2, 30; StoC, 17–18; minutes, item 7, “post-HUSKY Operations,” CCS, 103rd meeting, July 23, 1943; “Memorandum of the Representative of the British Chiefs of Staff,” July 24, 1943, CCS 268/8; “Memorandum by the United States Chiefs of Staff,” July 25, 1943, CCS 268/9; minutes, CCS, July 26, 1943: all in NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243.

  For now, analysis: “Notes on the Air Implication of an Assault on Italian Mainland, Naples Area,” July 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 13C, box 242; David Hunt, A Don at War, 207–8; memo, “Appreciation of an Amphibious Assault Against the Naples Area,” July 24, 1943, AFHQ G-3, NARA RG 319, OCMH, from AFHQ micro, Job 10-A, reel 13C, box 242 (“If it is decided”); minutes, CCS, July 26, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243 (“earliest possible date”).

  “I am with you”: GS IV, 501, 503.

  “the head devil”: Garland, 273; Peter Neville, Mussolini, 99 (special typewriter); Rudolf Böhmler, Monte Cassino, 3 (“of syphilitic origin”); Melton S. Davis, Who Defends Rome?, 64; Paul Deichmann, “Feldzug in Italien,” ts, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250, 6 (“grab his stomach”); George Kent, “The Last Days of the Dictator Benito Mussolini,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1944, 13+; Peter Tompkins, Italy Betrayed, 19, 48 (Zodiac symbols); Gervasi, 91 (“green-eyed daughter”).

  He had risen far: Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini, 5; Mark M. Boatner III, Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 384–85; Neville, 134 (wedding rings); Enno von Rintelen, “Psychological Warfare,” n.d., FMS, #B-399, MHI, 4; Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 429.

  Lately the country was getting: “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” Jan. 1946, Strategic Services Unit, WD, A-63366, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.22, 16–17; Dharm Pal, The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 3–4; Boatner, 385; Neville, 163 (thirty-two Italian divisions); R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 474 (lacked boots); Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, 48; Porch, 7; Rintelen, “The Italian Command,” 3 (Raw materials); Garland, 32; “Vortragsnotiz: Die Lage in Italien,” June 30, 1943, OKH, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 243 (“The kernel of the Italian army”); Rintelen, “The Italian Command,” 9.

  Since December 1942: Vittorio Ambrosio, the Comando Supremo chief, claimed after the war that Mussolini never overtly favored a separate peace. “Ambrosio Project #46, Events in Italy, 1 Feb.–8 Sept. 1943,” n.d., FMS, #P-058, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244; Howard McGaw Smyth, “The Command of the Italian Armed Forces in World War II,” Military Affairs, vol. 15, no. 1 (spring 1951), 38+; casualty figures, Il Momento, Aug. 2, 1952, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 704; Garland, 51 (“ridiculous position”), 242 (“sacrifice of my country”); “Memorandum of Conversation,” Feltre, July 1943, Department of State Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 379, Oct. 6, 1946, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, Sicily, box 249, 607+; “Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” 21 (“white with emotion”).

  Months in the planning: Lewis H. Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 194–95; minutes, item 9, “Bombing of Rome,” CCS, 99th meeting, supplementary, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 243 (“It would be a tragedy”); Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 188 (“Give them hell”).

  “Perfect formation”: Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 17; Tompkins, 38–39; Alessandro Portelli, The Order Has Been Carried Out, 77–78 (sons of bitches); Vincent Orange, Tedder, 223 (exclusively American).

  Estimates of the dead: casualty estimates in ascending order: Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 261; Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome, 12; SSA, 186; Portelli, 77–78.

  Basilica of San Lorenzo: “Report on the Bombing of the Basilica of San Lorenzo,” Aug. 19, 1944, Allied Control Commission, Henry C. Newton Papers, MHI, box 4; Andrew Brookes, Air War over Italy, 1943–1945, 17; George F. Botjer, Sideshow War, 85–86 (holy water); “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 21 (“a common cause”).

  on Sunday, July 25: F. W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship, 458; Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini, 297 (telephone intercepts); Davis, 137, 141; “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 28–29; Tompkins, 61. One account contends that Mussolini when meeting the king still wore his marshal’s uniform: Katz, 19, 21.

  Rarely had the Duce faced: corr, Dino Grandi to Alexander Kirk, May 15, 1944; corr, Harold H. Tittman to A. Hull, Aug. 28, 1943; memo, Leonardo Vitetti, “Notes on the Fall of the Fascist Regime,” n.d., all in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249.

  black Saharan bush shirts: Tompkins, 60; Bosworth, 495; account, Dino Grandi, June 23, 1944; memo, Edward S. Crocker to C. Hull, “Overthrow of Mussolini,” Feb. 7, 1944, both in NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 249.

  Shortly before five P.M.: Deakin, 470; Katz, 21; Paul Deichmann, “Italian Campaign,” 1948, FMS, #T-1a, chapter 1, 35.

  A millennium of royal inbreeding: Boatner, 588; Tompkins, 22, 32 (“taciturn and diffident”); Neville, 175 (“little sardine”); Kenyon Joyce, “Italy,” ts, n.d., Kenyon Joyce papers, MHI, 322 (twenty-eight woodcock); Katz, 21.

  After a few rambling sentences: Deakin, 470; “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 28–29; Benito Mussolini, My Rise and Fall, 70–72.

  Even at five feet, seven inches: Mussolini, 70–72; Tompkins, 62 (“not at all nice”).

  “Duce, I have been ordered”: Davis, 141–42; “Military Campaigns and Political Events,” 28–29; Mussolini, 70–72, 77; Davis, 147 (fists on his hips).

  A radio bulletin at eleven P.M.: Demaree Bess, “Power Politics Succeded in Italy,” Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 30, 1943, 20+; Davis, 156 (“Citizens, wake up!”)

  “One did not see a single person”: Badoglio, 46; Deakin, 475; Smith, 298 (Mussolini’s own newspaper).

  “The Duce will enter history”: Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 710; Louis P. Lochner, ed., The Goebbels Diaries, 1942–1943, 437.

  “Italy has had enough”: Iris Origo, War in Val D’Orcia, 47.

  Fevers of an Unknown Origin

  Patton had settled comfortably: John P. Marquand, “Introduction,” in Codman, xiv–xvi; PP, 303; JPL, 85 (heroic oils); Kaplan, 116 (entering a jewel); GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 2, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11 (Christ Pantocrator).

  “I know I have been marked”: Fred Ayer, Jr., Before the Colors Fade, 139; Garland, 304; FDR to GSP, Aug. 4, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11 (Marquis of Mount Etna); Milton F. Perry and Barbara W. Parke, Patton and His Pistols, 66.

  The fame Patton so ardently craved: Carlo D’Este, “The Slaps Heard Round
the World,” MHQ, vol. 8, no. 2 (winter 1996), 64+; Beatrice to GSP, July 30, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div., box 11 (“Monty hardly figures”); “Narrative of Operation HUSKY,” n.d., Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI, box 2 (200,000); GSP to Beatrice, Aug. 11, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11 (“sixth sense”); Hirshson, 392 (“lose them”); PP, 306 (“horse race”); “Reminiscences of Charles Wellborn, Jr.,” 1971–72, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 187 (Volkswagen staff cars).

  Each morning his armored cavalcade: Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” 90–91; Coffin, 91; Perry and Parke, 66; PP, 315–17 (timed his pulse); Jean Gordon Peltier, World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, 119 (“killer eyes”); Jack Pearl, Blood-and-Guts Patton, 102 (sobbing in the latrine); GSP to Beatrice, July 20, 1943, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 11.

  broke his swagger stick: Seymour Korman, Mutual Broadcasting reporter, quoted in IG report, NATOUSA, Sept 18, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91; PP, 296; Pearl, 100–101 (“Get back on that gun”); Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1988.32, box 215 (leg boils); OH, Heintges, 1974, Pellicci, 159 (“You son of a bitch”); Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 282n; Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 121 (“let my killers through”).

  “Let’s talk about tomorrow”: Coffin, 91; Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 311; Codman, xiv–xvi; Norman Lewis, In Sicily, 1, 3, 39, 159 (cruel city).