By six A.M. two infantry regiments: “Amphibious Operations,” Aug.–Dec. 1943, CINC, U.S. Fleet, CMH; Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat, 335 (smoke pots); Paul W. Pritchard, “Smoke Generator Operations in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operation,” n.d., Office of the Chief of the Chemical Corps, CMH, 4-7.1 FA 1, 53; Norman Hussa, “Action at Salerno,” IJ, vol. 53, no. 6 (Dec. 1943), 25+; John Steinbeck, Once There Was a War, 162; “COHQ Bulletin No. Y/25,” Apr. 1944, CARL, N-6530.10; AAR, LST 324 and LST 363, in “Operation AVALANCHE—Report on Northern Assault,” Royal Navy, Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837 (“Ventilation fans sucked smoke”); “Amphibious Operations,” Aug.–Dec. 1943, CINC, U.S. Fleet, CMH (compass headings).
Still, German observers: StoC, 80; Roskill, 175; AAR, 191st Tank Bn, n.d., AGF Board Reports, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-2.0; Bishop et al., eds., 41; memoir, Aidan Mark Sprot, ts, 1947, LHC, 72 (LST officers scampered); Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 265, 268 (“jolly well shot up”).
AVALANCHE planners had hoped: R. L. Connolly, “Operations of Landing Craft in the Mediterranean,” Oct. 14, 1943, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, L-2-43, C-75, box 170; Downes, 14; SSA, 265 (pinned to the dunes); Mark W. Clark, “Salerno,” AB, No. 95, 1997, 1+; Peek, ed., 20; Wagner, 11 (“I saw riflemen swarm”).
“in a row, side by side”: Norman Lewis, Naples ’44, 12; Paul A. Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, 62 (“the stillest shoes”); Peckham and Snyder, eds., vol. 2, 63 (“wouldn’t look so bad”); Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 300 (“On what beach”).
Salvation arrived shortly after nine A.M.: Richard J. Werner, 141st Inf Regt, in FLW to MWC, Oct. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6818, 1-2; StoC, 82; “Historical Tactical Study of Naval Gunfire at Salerno,” 1948–49, Amphibious Warfare School, USMC, Quantico, Va., SEM, NHC, box 51, 25; “Amphibious Operations,” Aug.–Dec. 1943, CINC, U.S. Fleet, CMH; Shapiro, 132 (steamed within a hundred yards); action report, U.S.S. Philadelphia, Sept. 25, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action and Operational Reports, box 1318; SSA, 280 (Eleven thousand tons of naval shells).
“the cover of a Latin book”: Fred Howard, Whistle While You Wait, 167; memo, “Shore Party Organization for Amphibious Operations,” AFHQ to WD, Dec. 17, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 270/50/28/36; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-04, box 250, 12.
Near a tobacco barn at Casa Vannula: journal, 36th ID chief of staff, Sept. 9, 1943, SM, MHI; StoC, 84; corr, James E. Taylor, 131st FA Bn, to Walter H. Beck, March 2, 1944, Texas MFM, 2 (“hip-shooting”); corr, Miles A. Cowles, 36th Div artillery CO, in Texas, 409 (two hundred yards’ range); “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, CMH, Italy 353, 12; FLW to MWC, Oct. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6818, chronology; Texas, 237 (“It was thrilling”).
Dive-bombers caught the U.S.S. Nauset: http://www.ussorleck.org/Namesake.asp; SSA, 274.
But the preliminary naval bombardment: action report, LCA 403, Sept. 22, 1943, in “Operation AVALANCHE—Report on North Assault,” RN, Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837; Phil H. Bucklew, “Skipping Salvos off Salerno,” in Mason, 318; Pond, 59–61, 88 (“This way to Naples”), 91; Wallace, 58 (a piano).
By day’s end, X Corps would land: Molony V, 286; Pond, 61 (“unutterable confusion”); E. McCabe, “The Plan for the Landing at Salerno,” 190a (LST 357); AAR, HM LST 430, Sept. 12, 1943, in “Operation AVALANCHE—Report on Northern Assault,” Oct. 16, 1943, CARL, N-6837.
Beyond the beaches, the invasion unfolded: Molony V, 284; Simpson, “Air Phase,” 339n; AAR, “Operation Avalanche,” Apr. 21, 1945, Mediterranean Allied Tactical AF, CARL, N-11606, 17 (88mm shells riddled the fuselage).
The 5th Battalion of the Royal Hampshire Regiment: Daniell, 142; Morris, 108; Pond, 71; Molony V, 285.
Past Montecorvino, Tommies in khaki: Gervasi, 495; Molony V, 284, 290; The Grenadier Guards, 1939–1945, 28 (“feeling of looseness”).
“bloody great battleships”: Hickey and Smith, 178; Pond, 111–12 (“retiring pell-mell”), 114; David Erskin, The Scots Guards, 1919–1955, 170n (tomato canning plant); Clark, “Salerno,” 1.
They were not coming: “Invasion of Italian Mainland, Summary of Operations Carried Out by British Troops Under Command 5 U.S. Army,” n.d., CMH, 370.2, 7–8; Wilfred Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Oxford Book of War Poetry, 188; Daniell, 141; Pond, 77 (“We’ve got them”).
Only on the extreme left: AAR, 1st Ranger Bn, Nov. 15, 1943, USMA micro, MP63-8, R-1; morning report, 1st Ranger Bn, HQ Co, Sept. 9, 1943, Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 2, folder 8; Salerno, 19; William O. Darby and William H. Daumer, Darby’s Rangers: We Led the Way, 113–16; James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 57–58.
“an artilleryman’s dream”: Michael J. King, William Orlando Darby: A Military Biography, 115; author visit, Apr. 29, 2004; Tregaskis, 133–35 (“reminds me of Spain”); Anders Kjar Arnbal, The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers, 155 (“chestnut branches”); Richard M. Burrage, “See Naples and Die!,” ts, 1988, Texas MFM, 6 (“until hell freezes”).
Soon a battleship: Darby and Daumer, 117; Capa, 98 (firing mortar barrages through holes); Tregaskis, 135; Downes, 145 (“men and boys in rags”); memo, Donald Downes to W. Donovan, “OSS Activities in the Neapolitan Campaign, D-day to D-day plus 21,” Oct. 19, 1943, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS History Office, box 48; Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles, 181 (“white with the bones”).
Others forever remembered deep-chested Darby: Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 16–19; Downes, 142–49 (“Snow White”); Burrage, “See Naples and Die!,” 15 (San Francisco Hotel); Tregaskis, 133 (“hell of a pasting”).
“We are sitting pretty”: Shapiro, 133; Molony V, 286; Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 167 (“Corpses lay on the sand”).
“In the land of theory”: Molony V, 325.
The first hitch: Edward J. O’Neill, “Memorandum to Commanding General, VI Corps,” June 29, 1944, JPL, MHI, box 11; OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI; D. Clayton James, A Time for Giants, 140–41; Howitzer, USMA yearbook, 1910; Robert H. Berlin, U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders, 17; Edmund F. Ball, Staff Officer with the Fifth Army, 186; 201 file, EJD, HIA, box 1; OH, GCM, July 25, 1949, SM, MHI (decorated protégé); corr, EJD to Hal C. Pattison, Dec. 15, 1964, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, Salerno to Cassino, box 255 (“Don’t bite off”).
Clark’s plan to leave Dawley: O’Neill, “Memorandum,” June 29, 1944; “Historical Record, Headquarters, VI Corps,” JPL, MHI, box 12; aide’s diary, EJD, HIA, box 1; diary, EJD, Sept. 9, 1943, HIA, box 1 (“Coxswain got lost”).
With his dispersed staff in disarray: StoC, 87; CM, 253 (required radios); O’Neill, “Memorandum,” June 29, 1944 (“Confusion and disorganization”); Ball, 197 (“tennis match”).
“Just as sure as God lives”: PP, 344.
a seven-mile gap: Clark and others estimated the gap to be ten miles wide, but map positions show it was narrower. Wood, “The Landing at Salerno,” 16; StoC, 90; Hickey and Smith, 139; Calculated, 192.
“well in hand”: diary, MWC, Sept. 10, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (“Have just returned”); speech, Robert B. Hutchins, “Personal Experiences of a Regimental Commander in Italy, 1944,” in Russell L. Moses, ASEQ, 179th Inf, MHI, 4–7.
To help unite his two corps: Under pressure from AFHQ to return the transport ships to pick up more troops, Hewitt had in fact landed the 157th Infantry on the south bank of the Sele rather than the north, as Clark would have preferred. The admiral’s presumption was more annoying to Clark than tactically significant. Calculated, 195; W.H.H. Morris, Jr., “Report on Observation Trip,” n.d., DRL, IS, 9; StoC, 100–101.
The third hitch derived: Molony V, 273; Simpson, “Air Phase,” 122; Roskill, 173; “History of the Aviation Engineers in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” June 1946, AAF Engineer Command, MTO, CEOH, X-39; “Long Range Fighter Cover over Salerno Beaches,” Oct. 1943, HW, NAAF,
Monthly Operations Bulletin #6, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, box 132; “The Army Air Forces in Amphibious Landings in World War II,” July 1953, USAF Historical Div, AU, CARL, N-16372.34, 62–64; Vian, 119 (sawed nine inches); Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 305 (“Bloody nonsense”).
Using flashlights for illumination: D. E. Williams, “Air Operations—‘AVALANCHE,’” Jan. 7, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, L-3-43, W-67, box 179, 4; Simpson, “Air Phase,” 124–25, 135; Molony V, 299; StoC, 103 (“Air situation here critical”).
“Our greatest asset now”: Chandler, vol. 2, 1406.
“as soon as admin situation”: Brooks, ed., 284, 379n; Lamb, 39, 44, 47 (“holiday picnic”).
On the other side of the hill: Ralph S. Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” Dec. 1957, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, R-series mss, R-88, 13; Moorehead, Eclipse, 43 (boots in rags); StoC, 86; Matthew Cooper, The German Army, 405; Liddell Hart, 363.
Hitches plagued Vietinghoff: Eduard Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars, 98; Mavrogordato, “The Battle of Salerno,” 14–15, 36; Douglas Graf Bernstorff, “Operations of the 26th Panzer Division in Italy,” 1948, FMS, #D-316, MHI, 1-7; StoC, 98.
“Viva English!”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 43; Molony V, 293 (five divisions ringing).
Within the Anglo-American beachhead: “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” Sept. 12, 1943, HIA, box 1; “World War II Diaries of Norman Maffei,” 158th FA, 45th Div, ASEQ, MHI (“surrender of Italy hasn’t hindered”).
Fresh dead joined the older dead: chronology, Sept. 10, 1943, 1500 hrs, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH; James C. Ruddell et al., “Observers Notes on the Italian Campaign,” Dec. 5, 1943, NARA RG 337, AGF, observer reports, 190/48/30-21/00,#59, box 52; LeRoy R. Houtson, “Dead Men by Mass Production,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 2–4 (“didn’t have a mark”); Clark, “Salerno,” 1 (Triangular wooden wedges); Ball, 218; Hickey and Smith, 307 (“They’ve placed the graveyard”).
Stretcher bearers hurrying to the rear: Steinbeck, 158; medical forms from T. Nennniger, NARA, Modern Military Records; Tregaskis, 140; Charles M. Wiltse, The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters, 228 (“unusual agility”), 231, 236; Edward D. Churchill, Surgeon to Soldiers, 257; J. M. Huddleston, VI Corps surgeon, “Report for Colonel Carter,” 1943, Norman Lee Baldwin papers, HIA.
“that’s the way it is”: Tregaskis, 139; Moorehead, Eclipse, 36; Burrage, “See Naples and Die!,” 28 (“I don’t think God”).
“Our forces have captured”: Pond, 129; report, Fifth Army, Sept. 11, 1943, 0045 hrs., Robert J. Wood papers, MHI (“Combat efficiency”); chronology, Sept. 11, 1943, 0208 hrs, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH (“Am satisfied”); AAR, “Record of Events,” 142nd Inf, July 10, 1943, 1200 hrs, CARL, N-6818; StoC, 97 (“The worst is over”), 101 (ready to march north); AAR, “Historical Record, Headquarters, VI Corps,” 5–6 (odd lull).
The Moan of Lost Souls
Four German bombs had landed: action report, Ancon commanding officer to CINC, U.S. Fleet, Oct. 15, 1943, MWC papers, Citadel, box 3, folder 1; OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 347 (“sore thumb”); Howe, “American Signal Intelligence,” 61; H. Kent Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” Proceedings, Sept. 1953, 958+; OH, HKH, n.d., Julian Boit and James Riley, HKH papers, NHC, box 6, 5 (“get into the action”).
Thirty “red alerts”: Shapiro, 137 (human chains); Karig, 266; Three Years, 412 (helmsmen tried to minimize); OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 347 (slow enough to shrink her wake).
Three days into AVALANCHE: Dunham, “United States Army Transportation and Italian Campaign,” 37; “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” 36; George J. Horney, “Comments and Suggestions on the AVALANCHE Operation,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E, 427, NATOUSA, 95-USF1-0.4, box 250.
Drivers could not find their vehicles: A chemical mortar battalion arriving at Paestum on Sept. 9 did not receive its mortars until Sept. 12. Kleber and Birdsell, 433; Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 317 (cowboys and Indians); “Amphibious Operations, Aug.–Dec. 1943,” CINC, U.S. Fleet, CMH; “COHQ Bulletin No. Y/25,” Apr. 1944, CARL, N-6530.10.
Hewitt this morning had sent Admiral Cunningham: OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 373; AAFinWWII, 525–26; “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” Sept. 12, 1943, HIA, box 1 (“All are jumpy”); newsletter, U.S.S. Philadelphia, Sept. 23, 1943, WWII Ship Files, NHC (“nerve pills”).
The demand for pills spiked: Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” 958+; chronology, HKH, “Action Report,” NHC (“hogging, sagging”).
as Hewitt soon surmised: msg, HKH to A. B. Cunningham, Sept. 12, 1943, 1547 hrs., chronology, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH; http://www.vectorsite.net/twbomb3.html#m3; James P. Melanephy and John G. Robinson, Surface Warfare, vol. 6, no. 3 (March 1981), 2+; corr, D. H. Leathem to author, Jan. 20, 2003; James Phinney Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 194; William W. Downey, “Report on Simmons Project,” n.d., OSS, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS, 190/6/7/7, box 25, folder 6; memo, “Radio-Controlled Bombs Can be Jammed,” March 10, 1945, SEM, NHC, box 47.
“terrific screeching noise”: diary, MWC, Sept. 11, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64; Calculated, 196; Clark, “Salerno,” 1; action report, R. W. Cary, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 1, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, Action and Operational Reports, box 1413 (hard left rudder).
“It didn’t fall like bombs do”: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 328, 333 (“wasn’t natural”); “U.S.S. Savannah (CL 42) Bomb Damage,” War Damage Report No. 44, June 15, 1944, Bureau of Ships, Navy Dept., NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action and Operational Reports, box 1413 (twenty-two-inch hole).
“flared like a sulphur match”: Michael Stern, Into the Jaws of Death, 211; Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 328; Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” 958+; Evelyn M. Cherpak, ed., The Memoirs of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, 121 (his flagship).
The blast vaporized bulkheads: Melanephy and Robinson, “Savannah at Salerno,” 2; action report, George J. Pinto to CINC, U.S. Fleet, July 19, 1943; action report, R.W. Cary, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 1, 1943; war damage report, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 14, 1943; “U.S.S. Savannah (CL 42) Bomb Damage,” War Damage Report No. 44, June 15, 1944, Bureau of Ships, Navy Dept., all in NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII Action and Operational Reports, box 1413.
At Pearl Harbor: Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943, 305.
Her rugged hull saved her: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 328; war log, U.S.S. Savannah, Sept. 14, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII War Diaries, box 1425 (Among the unluckiest).
A deft shifting of fuel: SSA, 283–84; Beard, “Turning the Tide at Salerno,” 34+ (sailors braced the rails); war damage report, U.S.S. Savannah, Oct. 14, 1943. Other accounts put the death tally at just under two hundred.
Hewitt desperately sought remedies: lecture, Richard L. Conolly, “The Landing at Salerno in World War II,” May 14, 1957, Naval Historical Foundation, 8; Hewitt, “The Allied Navies at Salerno,” 958; Aileen Clayton, The Enemy Is Listening, 281; Pond, 127 (electric razors); memo, “Radio-Controlled Bombs Can be Jammed” (“improve morale”); StoC, 106–7 (Fritz-X attacks in coming days).
To the relief of Ancon’s crew: Shapiro, 140; Lewis, 14 (“streaming like ants”), 19; diary, EJD, Sept. 12, 1943, HIA, box 1; StoC, 112; Morris, 240; Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, 163; Downes, 16; Pond, 174.
Clark immediately drove south: Calculated, 197; aide’s diary, EJD, HIA, box 1.
Twenty-eight thousand Americans: AAR, “Historical Record,” 7–8; Salerno, 50; Molony V, 304; DDE, “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report, Italian Campaign,” 112.
The American right flank seemed secure: AAR, “Record of Events,” 142nd Inf, Sept. 3–20, 1943, CARL, N-6818; StoC, 108–9; Wagner, 19 (“a height of some sort”); J. Tuck Brown, “Love, War, Etc.,” ts, Jan. 1995, 132nd FA, 36th ID, ASEQ, MHI, 22–24 (“I’m a little hungry”); http://www.smu.edu/culmemorial/fellen.htm. Brown’s eyewitness account contradicts the version of
Sprague’s death in Morris, 233.
“a tribulation”: Thruelsen and Arnold, 179; Salerno, 43–47; Munsell, 26 (“fired point blank”); John Embry, “My Most Interesting Experience,” ts, n.d., 160th FA Bn, 45th ID Mus, 117, 125 (plans to spike their tubes); AAR, 191st Tank Bn, n.d., AGF board reports, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-USF1-2.0 (tobacco factory would change hands).
If German forces followed the Sele: Mark W. Clark, “Salerno,” 1; Molony V, 302–3; diary, MWC, Sept. 12, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (drove to Red Beach).
“Very heavy fighting”: chronology, Sept. 11, 1943, 2025 hrs, HKH, “Action Report,” CMH; StoC, 107 (fifteen hundred Allied soldiers); Porch, 492 (Anglo-Irish cavalryman); OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (“tall, lean, and vague”); Charles Richardson, Flashback, 160 (near-whisper); Pond, 156–59, 172 (“another Dunkirk”); Nigel Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 2, 362–64; Michael Howard and John Sparrow, The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946, 153–54; Michael Howard, Captain Professor, 73 (“lost souls”).
Shaken by the sight of the British war dead: Hamilton, 416; Hickey and Smith, 183; diary, EJD, Sept. 12, 1943, HIA, box 1; “Historical Record, Headquarters, VI Corps, September 1943—The Operation AVALANCHE,” n.d., JPL, MHI, box 12, 7 (Field Orde0r No. 2); StoC, 109.
Grimy and dust-caked: diary, MWC, Sept. 12, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 64 (“I must await further buildup”); corr, H. Alexander to DDE, Sept. 13, 1943, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 3 (“everything must be done”).
“the crowing of a cock cut the ears”: Shapiro, 145.
All tranquillity vanished at six A.M.: AAR, “Historical Record,” 8; journal, Sept. 13, 1943, 36th ID, chief of staff, SM, MHI; Salerno, 61; AAR, “Record of Events,” 142nd Inf, Sept. 3–20, 1943, CARL, N-6818. The U.S. Army official history states that the shelling came from German artillery. StoC, 113, 125.
The 3rd Battalion of the 143rd Infantry: StoC, 113–14; AAR, “Operation AVALANCHE,” 143rd Inf, Oct. 2, 1943, CARL, N-6818; memo, Fifth Army IG to MWC, Sept. 19, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 2, folder 3 (repulsed with heavy losses); Steven E. Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 179 (“getting the Germans to stand up”).
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