“like the rolling of a drum”: D’Este, 192; Henry Kaufman, Vertrauensmann, 20 (Birds tumbled); Whitlock, 185, 190 (“coffee grinders”).
They were not unexpected: G-2 periodic report no. 141, Feb 16, 1944, JPL papers, MHI, box 1; G-2 weekly intelligence summary, no. 77, Feb. 12, 1944, AFHQ, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-2.6; F.H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, 190–93; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 267–68; James H. Cook, Jr., “The Operations of Company I, 179th Infantry, in the Vicinity of the Factory, Anzio Beachhead,” 1949, IS (few forward units had sufficient girded); StoC, 420–21; Whitlock, 187 (“I watched the dust”); Fitzgerald, 335 (“savage, brutish”); “Defense of a Position by 2nd Battalion, 157th Infantry, 45th Division,” n.d., AGF Board, NARA RG 407, 95-USF1-2.0, box 253; Ralph E. Niffenegger, “The Operations of the 3rd Platoon, Company G, 157th Infantry, Astride the Anzio–Albano Road,” 1949, IS; Wells, 62–69; Vaughan-Thomas, 180 (“a bastard of a place”).
Forward companies of Royal Fusilier: Sheehan, 119, 159–61; Burriss, 75 (“flock of canaries”); John Embry, “A Time to Honor,” ts, n.d., 160th FA Bn, 45th ID Mus; Ball, 308 (“Give us everything”).
Grim as the day had been: Molony V, 745; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 16, 1944 (“Enemy resistance”); Sheehan, 159; N. P. Morrow, “Employment of Artillery in Italy,” 499; Anzio Beachhead, 90.
fourteen howling German battalions had driven: StoC, 421; Cook, “The Operations of Company I, 179th Infantry” (“verge of panic”).
“179th lost 1,000 men”: “Diary Notes of Gen. McLain,” Feb. 18, 1944, MHI, OCMH WWII Europe interviews; Whitlock, 227; Munsell, 55 (“tears rolled down”); Wells, 57–58 (“load my rifle”).
Four hundred Allied gun tubes: Roe, 62; Walter Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 284 (“count the rivets”); AAFinWWII, vol. 3, 356 (“heaviest payload”).
Jeeps careering to the rear: Whitlock, Anzio; corr, John P. O’Malley to Yarborough, n.d., CJB, “Chrono. File: Sicily,” box 48 (“Don’t leave the phone”); R. Close-Brooks, “Anzio Beach-Head,” ts, 1946, in James Scott Elliott papers, LH, 4 (obliged to sit on the knees).
flinging the contents over the lip: Robert A. Guenthner, “The Operations of Company F, 180th Infantry, Six Days Previous to and During the Major German Offensive,” 1948, IS; Whitlock, 199 (dull the glint); Walter Fries, “29th Panzer Grenadier Division, February 1944,” 1947, FMS, #D-141, MHI, 7–10; Edward A. Raymond, “The Caves of Anzio,” FAJ, Dec. 1944, 851+; Starr, ed., 154; Whitlock, 224 (“as small as you can”).
“Men trickled back”: Cook, “The Operations of Company I, 179th Infantry”(“I guess you will relieve me”).
He was right: Molony V, 745 (carving a bulge from the Allied line); D’Este, 504n (“not very attractive”).
In the midst of the crisis: diary, MWC, Feb. 16, 1944, Citadel, box 65; Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 399 (“Iron Mike”); OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., former Truscott aide, Apr. 23, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; JPL, 386.
a Piper Grasshopper pilot spotted 2,500 Germans: “Historical Record, Headquarters VI Corps, February 1944,” Apr. 27, 1944, LKT Jr., papers, GCM Lib, box 13, folder 2; J.W. Totten, “Anzio Artillery,” ts, 1946, CGSC, Ft. L, CARL, N-2253.6, 14; Fitzgerald, 346 (“Bits of Kraut”); William Seymour, Yours to Reason Why, 268–71 (“struggling, field-gray figures”); Embry, “A Time to Honor,” 142 (falling truck tailgates); Nicolson, The Grenadier Guards, 412 (32,000 rounds); Wiley H. O’Mohundro, “From Mules to Missiles,” ts, n.d., MHI, 55 (“turned and ran”); Verney, 174 (“Light Brigade”).
At 9:30 P.M. a lull: R. Close-Brooks, “Anzio Beach-Head,” ts, 1946, in James Scott Elliott papers, LH, 4 (Tanks lurched forward); journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 17 and 18, 1944 (“No decisive breakthrough”).
Lucas sensed his shifting fortunes: Molony V, 748; Vaughan-Thomas, 171–74 (cooks, drivers); George F. Howe, The Battle History of the 1st Armored Division, 297; William L. Allen, Anzio: Edge of Disaster, 112–13.
Harmon woke every morning: E.N. Harmon, Combat Commander, 7, 12, 32; obit, Assembly, Dec. 1980, ENH; Register of Graduates and Former Cadets, 1989 ed., 314; OH, ONB, n.d., Kitty Buhler, MHI, 182 (“poor man’s George Patton”); OH, Hamilton H. Howze, Apr. 1973, Robert T. Reed, SOOHP, MHI, 49 (“hog on ice”); Texas, 209 (“stupidity of the high command”); corr, E. N. Harmon to JPL, Feb. 12, 1944, ENH, box 1 (“well-established plan”); Jack F. Wilhm et al., “Armor in the Invasion of North Africa,” 1950, AS, Ft. K (“enemy has his troubles”).
“Give ’em hell!”: Whitlock, 235.
Two hundred prisoners trotted: Howe, 299; Anzio Beachhead, 86; Fries, “29th Panzer Grenadier Division, February 1944,” 7–10; Vaughan-Thomas, 178 (“made him worried”).
Mackensen’s troops poked: Molony V, 749; Fritz Wentzell, “The Italian Campaign from August 1943 to February 1945,” Dec. 1945, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.2, 43 (“many hounds”); journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 20, 1944 (“evacuate the wounded”); Anzio Beachhead, 91 (mustered 673 men).
VI Corps casualties also exceeded five thousand: StoC, 424; Whitlock, 248; Lawrence D. Collins, The 56th Evac Hospital, 169 (nurses’ summer fatigues).
“Message from Clark”: JPL, 393.
“proved to be an old woman”: John Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 120–21; msg, DDE to GCM, Feb. 16, 1944, SM, MHI, box 2.
“done all he could”: OH, MWC, May 10–21, 1948, SM, MHI, 77; OH, Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, II-18 (“ambition was key”); diary, MWC, Feb. 22, 26, 1944, MWC papers, Citadel, box 65 (“old physically and mentally”); John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 126 (“That would be very bad”); aide’s diaries, Feb. 18, 1944, LKT Jr., Citadel, box 18, folder 3 (“four or five days”).
At midmorning on February 22: C. Webber, “Observers’ Notes on the Italian Campaign,” June 14, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF observer reports, #112, box 55, 4; OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-10; OH, Harry O. Paxson, Nov. 1981, Herbert M. Hart, CEOH, 119–21; e-mail, Silvano Casaldi to author, Feb. 16, 2005; memo, R. W. Komer, “Report on Historical Observation in the Field,” Feb. 24, 1944, in “Report on Activities of the Historical Section, Fifth Army,” Nov. 1945, Chester G. Starr papers, HIA, box 1 (“General Officers Only”).
“could no longer resist the pressure”: JPL, 394; CM, 328; OH, James M. Wilson, Jr., Apr. 23, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; diary, cover letter, JPL to son, Jan. 1, 1946, MHI.
Despite persistent ailments: aide’s diaries, Feb. 11 and 14, 1944, LKT Jr., Citadel, box 18, folder 3; OH, Walter T. Kerwin, Jr., Nov. 1, 2004, with author, Washington, D.C.; CM, 325. Kerwin rose to four-star rank.
“You can’t relieve a corps commander”: OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI; CM, 328; diary, MWC, Feb. 24, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“prefer to be second”).
The new corps commander returned: diary, Don E. Carleton, Feb. 22, 1944, HIA, box 1; corr, LKT Jr., to Sarah, March 8, 1944, LKT Jr., papers, GCM Lib, box 1, folder 6.
“cool, level, taciturn”: OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1977, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-10; diary, MWC, Feb. 22, 1944, MWC papers, Citadel, box 65 (72,982 casualties); MWC to Ann Clark, Feb. 27, 1944, personal corr, Citadel.
“It is sheer nonsense”: MWC to Renie, Feb. 27, 1944, personal corr, Citadel.
Prodded by Hitler: Anzio Beachhead, 99; corr, John W. O’Daniel to Hal C. Pattison, Sept. 3, 1964, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, box 256; Hugh A. Scott, The Blue and White Devils, 109.
Truscott pinned a Bill Mauldin cartoon: Vaughan-Thomas, 182.
bloodiest month in the Mediterranean: “Summary of Activities,” June 1, 1944, NA TOUSA, analysis and control division, CMH; Molony V, 750; memo, H. Alexander to MWC, Feb. 26, 1944, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1 (“He is quicker”).
“Without air support”: Fritz Wentzell, “The Italian Campaign from August 1943 to February 1945,” 20–23; Parton, 356 (“flat on his back”); Molony V, 747n; J.
W. Totten, “Anzio Artillery,” 10; Walter Kühn, “The Artillery at Anzio-Nettuno,” March 1947, FMS, #D-158, CARL, N-17500.838.2, 11–15; memo, H. Alexander to MWC, Feb. 26, 1944, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1; OH, Edward J. O’Neill, June 22, 1948, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 005 (counterbattery fire in four minutes); Arthur R. Harris, “The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall,” FAJ, May–June 1938, 229; Joseph M. Kolisch, POW interrogation report, Feb. 29, 1944, no. 405, HQ, Fifth Army, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF observer report no. 93, box 53; Andrew Brookes, Air War over Italy, 1943–1945, 60 (three-quarters of all German battle casualties).
“the last year of the war”: Walter von Unruh, “Inspection of the Italian Theater of War,” 1947, FMS, #D-016, MHI, 34–35; Siegfried Westphal, “The Italian Campaign,” chap. 13, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 9 (“progressive exhaustion”).
“A turning point had been reached”: Westphal, “The Italian Campaign” A. G. Steiger, “The Italian Campaign, 4 Jan–4 June 1944,” July 1948, report no. 20, Historical Section, Canadian Army HQ, MHI Lib, 17 (“bowed down”).
German engineers trucked in: Rossi and Casaldi, 192; Daniel Lang, “Letter from Rome,” New Yorker, June 24, 1944, 52+; Roe, 73 (“successor would soon”); Fitzgerald, 321 (“an old man now”).
“Man Is Distinguished from the Beasts”
had gone missing at Anzio: Captured on Feb. 7, 1944, Paul Freyberg escaped and eventually took refuge in Vatican City. Freyberg, 465, 470–71; Trevelyan, 146; Mountain Inferno, 743 (“holding up all our lives”).
“consistent with military necessity”: StoC, 397; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” CAB 101/229, 16 (Eisenhower in turn warned); memo, 15th Army Group to MWC, Jan 10, 1944, Fifth Army, AG file no. 105-32.7, SM, MHI (“ecclesiastical centres”); “Preservation of Works of Art in Italy,” May 8, 1944, Henry C. Newton papers, MHI, box 4 (“man is distinguished”); Solly Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 211 (crew briefing packets); Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 120 (“Venus Fixers”).
Bombs had damaged forty churches: “The Damaged Neapolitan Churches,” ts, n.d., and corr, Herbert L. Matthews, NYT, to DDE, Nov. 17, 1943, in monthly report, Allied Control Commission, subcommission for monuments, fine arts and archives, July 9, 1944, both in Henry C. Newton papers, MHI, box 4; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” CAB 101/229, 18 (hit Castel Gandolfo); Wallace, 120 (“war in a museum”).
The unit ordered to capture: Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 144–45; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” CAB 101/229, 20 (“Violation of Geneva Convention”); “Monte Cassino Bombing,” Dec. 1944, HQ, Fifth Army, CMH, Geog L Italy, 373.11 (thirty machine guns); StoC, 408 (flash of field glasses); John Ezard, “Error Led to Bombing of Monte Cassino,” Guardian (U.K.), Apr. 4, 2000, 5 (“Nazis Turn Monastery”).
flew in an observation plane: OH, Ira Eaker, Feb. 1975, Hugh N. Ahmann, AFHRA, K239.0512-829, 444–47; Hapgood and Richardson, 185, 164 (“I have Catholic gunners”); North, ed., 120 (“dead tooth”); intel annex, HQ, Fifth Wing, Feb. 14, 1944, in Evans, The Bombing of Monte Cassino.
Others passionately disagreed: diary, MWC, Feb. 14, 1944, Citadel, box 65; GK, Feb. 2-5, 10, 12, 14, 1944; StoC, 405 (two thousand refugees); corr, MWC to GK, Feb. 4, 1944, NARA RG 200, “Personal-Official File,” 130/76/1/4, box 3 (“belligerent attitude”).
no better than “fifty–fifty”: Freyberg, 458; memo, A. Gruenther, “Monte Cassino Abbey Bombing,” Feb. 12, 1944, MWC, Citadel, box 3, folder 5.
“I now have five corps”: diary, MWC, Feb. 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65; memo, MWC, Feb. 13, 1944, Citadel, box 3, folder 5; StoC, 407; Calculated, 318 (“If the Germans are not”).
“Bricks and mortar”: North, ed., 121, 130 (“What are you doing”); Hapgood and Richardson, 172 (“‘they wouldn’t let me use air’”).
“due to the political daintiness”: memo, MWC, Feb. 13, 1944, Citadel, box 3, folder 5 (“unduly interfering”).
The attack would be launched quickly: Molony V, 713; Phillips, 207 (single token bomb); Hapgood and Richardson, 191 (lobbed two dozen shells); Bloch, “The Bombardment of Monte Cassino,” 403 (“Amici italiani”); StoC, 409.
A pleasant morning sun: Frido von Senger und Etterlin, Neither Fear nor Hope, 198–99, 208.
For five months: Corelli Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 375–78; “Small World,” CBS television segment, 1959, moderated by Edward R. Murrow; Hapgood and Richardson, 39 (“more French than Prussian”), 204; http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk/index.html (killed at Cambrai).
In this war he had helped capture Cherbourg: Senger, 5–6, 130, 163–67, 202; Boatner, 497–97; Frido von Senger und Etterlin, “War Diary of the Italian Campaign,” 1953, FMS, #C-095b, MHI, 40–41, 78; StoC, 407.
“The rotten thing is to keep fighting”: Hapgood and Richardson, 174.
“annihilation was only a matter of time”: Senger, “War Diary of the Italian Campaign,” 69. The British official history later accused Senger of exaggerating for effect. Molony V, 629n.
“optimism is the elixir”: Senger, Neither Fear nor Hope, 227, 198–99 (listening to evening concerts); Hapgood and Richardson, 175; http://www.movies-and-more.ch/movies/1943/103327.php (Der Weisse Traum); Barnett, ed., 381 (“Oh the loneliness”).
An officer in the 4th Indian Division: Molony V, 713; Evans, 22 (“gust upward”); Homer R. Ankrum, Dogfaces Who Smiled Through Tears, 430 (“smoke coming out of a man’s ears”).
They were the first of 250 bombers: AAFinWWII, vol. 3, 363; StoC, 411 (hundreds of artillery rounds); Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” 10 (“poplar trees”).
Soldiers on both sides of the hill: Bloch, “The Bombardment of Monte Cassino,” 407; Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” 12–13 (“Shovel it on”); Mountain Inferno, 743 (“hugging each other”); Hapgood and Richardson, 213 (“like all the other fools”); Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 560 (“Beautiful precision”).
The leaflet barrage the previous evening: StoC, 414; Böhmler, 166 (confused attempts to contact).
Abbot Diamare planned to evacuate: Majdalany, 128, 131–32 (“beseech Christ”); Leccisotti, 119–21; Hapgood and Richardson, 205, 209 (stuffed their ears).
Thirteen hundred bombs: Molony V, 713; Majdalany, 133–35; Böhmler, 169–70 (“Parents abandoned”); Leccisotti, 125 (monks forced a passage); Bloch, “The Bombardment of Monte Cassino,” 406–7 (“crazy with terror”).
No mortal would ever know how many died: Hapgood and Richardson, 211; author visit, Monte Cassino abbey museum, Oct. 1, 1995; Molony V, 713.
Alexander’s headquarters asserted: StoC, 411; “Monte Cassino Bombing,” Dec. 1944, HQ, Fifth Army, CMH, Geog L Italy, 373.11 (grenadiers searched the grounds); Phillips, 218–19; Katriel Ben Arie, Die Schlacht Bei Monte Cassino, 1944, 201 (field kitchen opened).
Not until dawn on Thursday: Majdalany, 150, 152; Hapgood and Richardson, 218.
The 4th Indian Division had expected: “Operations of N.Z. Corps on the Fifth Army Front,” 8–9; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” CAB 101/229, 14; Smith, 78; Stevens, Fourth Indian Division, 285 (two dozen Indian troops were injured); Majdalany, 142 (“They told the monks”).
Freyberg’s tactical incompetence: “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” 28; Carver, 143; Hapgood and Richardson, 153; corr, D.R.E.R. Bateman to F. Tuker, Feb. 18, 1959, IWM 72/117/1 (“far out of his depth”).
Not until Tuesday night did the attack begin: Majdalany, 144; Prasad, ed., 106–7; “Operations of N.Z. Corps on the Fifth Army Front,” 9; Molony V, 714; Stevens, 287–90; The Tiger Triumphs, 47–48 (trussed in tripwires).
But nine thousand Kiwi smoke shells: OH, Kippenberger, Feb. 4 and 12, 1947; Phillips, 237; “Operations of N.Z. Corps on the Fifth Army Front,” 15–16; Carver, 146–48 (“A star shell went up”); Prasad, ed., 111 (Of two hundred mules).
AVENGER petered out: Carver, 151; Senger, Neither Fear nor Hope, 206; Molony V, 713 (“no military advantage”); StoC, 417 (“nothing beyond destruction”).
; Military authorities pressured the OSS: Jones, “The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 15 February 1944,” 25–38; msg, Wilson to British chiefs of staff, in “Monte Cassino Bombing,” Dec. 1944, HQ, Fifth Army, CMH, Geog L Italy, 373.11 (“irrefutable evidence”); John G. Norris, “Cassino Abbey Attack Order Laid to Briton,” WP, Sept. 4, 1949, 1 (no civilian bodies); memo, psychological warfare, n.d. Wallace Carroll papers, LOC, box 1, folder 2, 12–15 (campaign to blame Germany).
A German staff car picked him up: Senger, “War Diary of the Italian Campaign,”, 83–84; “Monte Cassino Bombing,” Dec. 1944, HQ, Fifth Army, CMH, Geog L Italy, 373.11 (“Everything was done”).
Berlin overplayed its hand: Hapgood and Richardson, 172, 224; Phillips, 220; Bloch, “The Bombardment of Monte Cassino,” 386 (“everlasting shame”); J.F.C. Fuller, The Second World War, 1939–1945, 272; Brian Holden Reid, “The Italian Campaign, 1943–1945:A Reappraisal of Allied Generalship,” Journal of Strategic Studies, March 1990, 128+ (“imagination was petrified”).
“tomb of miscalculation”: Allanbrook, 175; Reid, “The Italian Campaign,” 128 (exhausted eight divisions); Phillips, 241 (“vistas of deadlock”); msg, GCM to J. L. Devers, Feb. 18, 1944, “Eyes Only, General Devers, Incoming,” NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, SGS, box 135.
Public opinion in the United States: George Gallup, “Public Would Bomb Religious Buildings,” NYT, Apr. 19, 1944, 3.
“Whenever I am offered a liqueur”: Texas, 330.
CHAPTER 10: FOUR HORSEMEN
A Fairyland of Silver and Gold
“The bay was as blue”: Donald Downes, The Scarlet Thread, 166; Frank Gervasi, The Violent Decade, 562–63; Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily, 27; Roger A. Freeman, The American Airman in Europe, 36 (“Chicken-a-shit”); Norman Lewis, Naples ’44, 93, 152, 187; obit, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F07%2F23%2Fdb2301.xml.
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) Page 103