The Day of Battle (135 page)

Read The Day of Battle Online

Authors: Rick Atkinson

Tags: #General, #Europe, #Military, #History, #bought-and-paid-for, #Non-Fiction, #War, #World War II, #World War; 1939-1945, #Campaigns, #Italy

BOOK: The Day of Battle
9.27Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Shit Corner:
memoir, P. Royle, ts, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 108; Thomas Drake Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” ts, n.d., author’s possession (“
Halt!
”); Paul Fussell,
Wartime,
274–75 (“
Don’t be scared
”).

The lucky ones found shelter:
Nigel Nicolson,
Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis,
248; C. L. Sulzberger,
A Long Row of Candles,
236 (“
steam
”); Martha Gellhorn,
The Face of War,
131 (“
perfume and gasoline
”); Howard H. Peckham and Shirley A. Snyder,
Letters from Fighting Hoosiers,
vol. 2, 76 (“
We sit around quibbling
”); Warren P. Munsell, Jr.,
The Story of a Regiment,
40 (
Berlin Bitch
); Klaus H. Huebner,
A Combat Doctor’s Diary,
51 (
daily passwords
).

The unlucky crouched in damp sangars:
memoir, Anthony “Butch” Buccieri, 133rd Inf Regt, written by John F. Sackheim, 2001, VHP;
StoC,
380; C. Richard Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” IWM, 92/1/1, 91-92 (
wooden plows
); Blaxland, 55; Parker, 152 (
urinate, if necessary
); memoir, Henry E. Gardiner, ts, n.d., USMA Arch, 208; memo, N.P. Morrow to L. J. McNair, Jan. 28, 1944, AGF Board, NARA RG 407, E 427, NATOUSA (
99,000 sets
); “Operations in Italy, January 1944,” 142nd Inf Regt, MHI, 603-142, 9 (
too thick for most GI boots
); Samuel David Spivey,
A Doughboy’s Narrative,
84 (“
a life of extremes
”).


the quartermaster must be running
”: memoir, Gardiner, 214; June Wandrey,
Bedpan Commando,
85 (“
Our meat is dead
”); Ivan Dmitri,
Flight to Everywhere,
145 (“
no fresh milk
”); Maurice R. P. Bechard, “This Is an Account of What Was to Be,” ts, n.d., 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI, 2 (“
fighting the whole fucking war
”); Neil McCallum,
Journey with a Pistol,
142 (“
cold as a corpse
”).


disheveled, unshaven, unkempt
”: J. B. Tomlinson, “Under the Banner of the Battleaxe,” ts, n.d., IWM, 80/29/1, 105, 139,144; Parker, 207; C. T. Fram, “The Littlest Victory,” ts, n.d., IWM 85/19/1, 72.


regular as a scythe-stroke
”: Lawrence Durrell, from
Sicilian Carousel,
in Alcie Leccese Powers,
Italy in Mind,
82; Walter Bernstein,
Keep Your Head Down,
149 (“
finger of God
”);
StoC,
380 (
200,000 shells
); AAR, II Corps, Jan. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 202-0.3, 15 (
240mm howitzer
); Peckham and Snyder, 68 (“
a lot of war bonds
”); Cyril Ray,
Algiers to Austria,
119 (“
most heavily shelled pinpoint
”); Durrance, “Battle for the Abbey,” 16 (“
pounding the soles of my feet
”); N. P. Morrow, “Field Artillery Technique and Procedure,” Jan. 7, 1944, AGF observer report, file #56, NARA RG 337, box 52; N.P. Morrow, “Employment of Artillery in Italy,”
FAJ,
Aug. 1944, 499+; “Lessons in Combat,” 34th ID, Sept. 1944, Iowa GSM, 47 (“
murder space
”); “AFHQ Intelligence Notes No. 63,” June 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 47, 95-AL1-2.18 (“
Wet earth
”).

learned to relieve the overpressure:
Carl Rollyson,
Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave,
193; Ray, 118; Spike Milligan,
Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall,
255 (“
Digging and swearing
”); Alex Bowlby,
The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby,
26 (“
Keep your nut down
”).


Enlisted men expect everything
”: Douglas Allanbrook,
See Naples,
180; Ben Shephard,
War of Nerves,
237 (“
gutful men
”); “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” Apr. 14, 1944, 1st SSF, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 7 (“
Use good judgment
”).


Came across three dead G.I.s
”: Maurice R. P. Bechard, “This Is an Account of What Was to Be,” ts, n.d., 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI, 2.

Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony
”: Fussell, 183; John Muirhead,
Those Who Fall,
101 (“
bright beads
”)

“The initial crack
”: B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1.


You could never lose it
”: memoir, P. Royle, t.s, 1972, IWM, 99/72/1, 106; Harpur, 65 (“
That brooding monastery
”).

A new warlord arrived:
Paul Freyberg,
Bernard Freyberg, V.C.,
458 (
“torch is now thrown
”).


I’m Freyberg
”: W. G. Stevens,
Freyberg, the Man,
103, 35 (“
large all over
”); H. Essame, “A Controversial Campaign—Italy, 1943–45,”
Army Quarterly and Defence Journal,
Jan. 1968, 219+ (“
shelling did everyone good
”); Stevens,
Freyberg, the Man,
96 (“
lack of imagination
”); Freyberg, 112–13 (“
St. Sebastian
”), 186–87 (“
diastolic murmur
”); Peter Singleton-Gates,
General Lord Freyberg VC,
8; obit, “Gen. Lord Freyberg, British Leader at Monte Cassino,”
Washington Star,
July 5, 1963 (“
two wounds for every bullet
”); Michael Carver, ed.,
The War Lords,
583 (
india-rubber
); Lisa Chaney,
Hide-and-Seek With Angels: A Life of J. M. Barrie
, 316 (“
his lack of humour
”).

lined it with flowering sage:
Freyberg, 51; Stevens,
Freyberg, the Man,
56–57 (“
fine gloves
”), 60, 76 (“
your turn tomorrow
”).

Even his admirers acknowledged:
Freyberg, 62–63 (“
wouldn’t try to think
”), 118; “Operations of N.Z. Corps on the Fifth Army Front,” part I, May 1944, HQ, AAI, UK NA, CAB 106/366, 4 (
a new creation
).


clean and spritely
”: E. D. Smith,
The Battles for Cassino,
65; Phillips, 178–79; Majdalany, 102–3; B. Smith, “Waltonia,” ts, 1981, IWM, 67/254/1 (“
crates of live chickens
”).

At first Freyberg considered:
Molony V, 706–7;
Battle,
193; Phillips, 222; Hapgood and Richardson, 151 (“
no brains
”); Howard Kippenberger,
Infantry Brigadier,
356 (“
soviet of division commanders
”). Tuker considered Freyberg “brave as a lion” but “no planner of battles and a niggler in action.” Raleigh Trevelyan,
Rome ’44,
133.


helpless lunacy
”: Bishenwar Prasad, ed.,
Official History of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War, 1939

1945: The Campaign in Italy, 1943

1945,
98 (
deemed Monte Cassino impregnable
), 105; F. Jones, “The Bombing of Monte Cassino, 23–25; “The Bombing of Cassino Abbey,” 1965, monograph for official history, UK NA, CAB 101/229, 7.


No practicable means available
”: Singleton-Gates, 277.

“Spadger still wants
”: GK, Feb. 11, 1944; diary, MWC, Feb. 4, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“
bull in a china closet
”).


I would level the Vatican itself
”: censorship morale reports, Nov. 1943–June 1944, NARA RG 492, MTO AG, 311.7.

The Bitchhead

Sixty miles away:
beachhead census, D+10, JPL papers, MHI, box 12; Pyle, 173; Francesco Rossi and Silvano Casaldi,
Those Days at Nettuno,
frontispiece; Fred Sheehan,
Anzio: Epic of Bravery,
102;
Anzio Beachhead,
113 (
empty wine barrels
); Edmund F. Ball,
Staff Officer with the Fifth Army,
294 (
sandstone seemed to telegraph
); “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., MHI, 81 (
tunnel rumored to have been built by Nero
); Trevelyan, 152 (“
So back we go to World War I
”).


My cost of living
”: Flint Whitlock,
The Rock of Anzio,
179.


We have found our religion
”: diary, William Russell Hinckley, Feb. 1944, author’s possession; “Background Material, Historical Branch G-2,” n.d., ASF, QM General, technical information branch, CMH, 000.75, 3 (
punctured all fifteen ovens
); Pyle, 168, 188; F.J. Lowry, “The Naval Side of the Anzio Invasion,”
Proceedings,
Jan. 1954, 22+ (
skippers weighed anchor
); Justin F. Gleichauf,
Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in World War II,
293 (“
brighter than Yankee Stadium
”); Roberta Love Tayloe,
Combat Nurse,
80 (“
Anzio, my Anzio
”).

Hell’s Half-Acre:
“Fifth Army Medical Service History,” Feb. 1945, CMH, 19–20, 23 (
killed the VI Corps surgeon
); Charles M. Wiltse,
The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters,
275 (
a Luftwaffe bomber
); testimony, Paul Sauer, n.d., Fifth Army JAG, war crimes office, NARA RG 153, box 530 (“
I’m dying
”); Sheehan, 166 (
treated in the same hospital
).


God, help us
”: “Fifth Army Medical Service History,” 24; Carlo D’Este,
Fatal Decision,
2; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 5, 1944, in “The German Operation at Anzio,” German military document section, Military Intelligence Div, WD, MHI, JPL papers, box 9; corr, George H. Revelle, Jr., to wife, Feb. 5, 1944, author’s possession (“
dog on an iceberg
”); George C. Harper, “The World War II Years,” ts, 1999, 16th Armored Engineer Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ, 27 (“
outhouse
”); Pyle, 160; Malcolm Munthe,
Sweet Is War,
182 (“
dining room table
”); David Cole,
Rough Road to Rome,
199 (“
Morphine
”); Charles F. Marshall,
A Ramble Through My War,
64 (“
too much iron
”).

Deep holes grew deeper:
diary, Robert M. Marsh, Feb. 11, 1944, 81st Armored Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ; Paul Dickson,
War Slang,
113+; Ball, 295; William J. Sweet, Jr., “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, on the Anzio Beachhead,” 1947, IS (
eliminate tree bursts
); Munthe, 182 (“
sons of the prophet
”); George Forty,
M4 Sherman,
67 (“
can’t get used to bein’ scared
”); Paul W. Brown,
The Whorehouse of the World,
392–93; T. Moffatt Burriss,
Strike and Hold,
87 (
firing at the helmets
); Cole, 205 (“
shooting gallery
”).


Get moving
”: Tom Roe,
Anzio Beachhead,
43, 53; John Lardner, “Anzio, February 10th,” in
The New Yorker Book of War Pieces,
262 (“
like sunburned skin
”); John Lardner, “The Show at Anzio,” in John Stenbuck, ed.,
Typewriter Battalion,
117 (“
small, wet world
”); GK, March 25, 1944 (
Bitchhead
); Donald G. Taggart, ed.,
History of the Third Infantry Division in World War II,
125 (“
squirt of white tracer
”); Lloyd Clark,
Anzio,
144 (“
I was alone
”); George Aris,
The Fifth British Division, 1939 to 1945,
210–11, 239; Cole, 198 (
recalled his Virgil
).

Yanks veered to the right:
Sweet, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment” Trevelyan, 222 (“
Otto, Otto
”); Lloyd M. Wells,
From Anzio to the Alps,
83 (“
Nerves became frayed
”); Pyle, 194.

Grave diggers halted their poker game:
Allan Jaynes, “Mud, Misery and Messerschmitts,” ts, 1990, 45th ID Mus; “The 30 Years of Army Experience of Thomas E. Hannum,” ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA Bn, 1st AD, MHI, ASEQ, 74; Pyle, 194; Peter Verney,
Anzio 1944,
86 (“
can never be as bad
”).

disrupted Mackensen’s timetable:
journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 3, 5, 12, 1944; AAR, 3 Inf Bde, Jan. 30–Feb 14, 1944, UK NA, CAB 106/850 (
exposed salient
).

The attack fell heaviest:
Sheehan, 94; Wynford Vaughan-Thomas,
Anzio,
96 (“
dirty, ragged wave
”), 101; Verney, 98 (“
Germans are at the door
”); D.J.L. Fitzgerald,
History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War,
268, 275 (“
never saw so many people killed
”); Robley D. Evans et al., “American Armor at Anzio,” 1949, AS, Ft. K, table; AAR, “Report on Action at Campoleone,” 3 Inf Bde, Feb. 21, 1944, Philip L. E. Wood papers, LH, Wood 2/1 (
438 tubes
).

“All the shells in hell
”: Vaughan-Thomas, 106;
StoC,
396; journal, Fourteenth Army, Feb. 4, 1944;
Anzio Beachhead,
46.

The attack resumed on Monday evening: Anzio Beachhead,
55; Nigel Nicolson,
The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939

1945,
vol. 2, 408 (“
Nothing heard of Number 1 company
”), 39 (
looking for breath plumes
); Verney, 137, 142 (“
hit in the arse
”); D’Este, 222 (“
eaten by pigs
”).

Other books

Unbound by Shawn Speakman
The Corner II by Richardson, Alex
Rebecca Besser by The Magic of Christmas
Angels Are For Real by Judith MacNutt
Rowan In The Oak Tree by Page, Ayla
A Designed Affair by Cheryl Barton
The Highlander's Touch by Karen Marie Moning
Your Dimension Or Mine? by Cynthia Kimball