The Day of Battle

  They were in an ugly mood: T. Michael Booth and Duncan Spencer, Paratrooper: The Life of Gen. James M. Gavin, 95; AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 61 (twenty-three copies).

  Congestion and confusion: AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 51; Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront, 159 (ammunition dump); “Personal Diary of Langan W. Swent,” July 7, 1943, HIA, box 1 (novice boat crews).

  Still farther east: H. Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 99 (“gypsy camp”); Alex Bowlby, The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby, 12 (maleesh); P. Royle, ts, 1972, IWM 99/72/1, 82 (desert sores); Neil McCallum, Journey with a Pistol, 132 (“bloody fuckers”).

  “Daisy, daisy”: Christopher Buckley, Road to Rome, 11, 21; A. W. Valentine, We Landed in Sicily and Italy: A Story of the Devons, 9 (“bathing parade”); C. Richard Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM 92/1/1, 6 (“desert campfire”); Malcolm Munthe, Sweet Is War, 162 (kilted pipers).

  On July 5: David Cole, Rough Road to Rome, 15; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 8 (wigwagged); Peter Roach, The 8.15 to War, 108, 110 (“Like fat cattle”).

  The Monrovia singled up: war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 6, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; Karig, 234; H. Kent Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” Proceedings, vol. 79, no. 7, July 1943, 705+ (“Have a good trip”).

  Despite elaborate security: AAR, “1st Embarkation Group,” 50; Oscar W. Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 35; David Hunt, A Don at War, 193 (gabardine uniform).

  As Hewitt paced: Beck, 124; The Sicilian Campaign, 157 (hospital ships).

  As for the eighty thousand: “The Administrative History of the Eighth Fleet,” 27 (warehouse prices); corr, HKH to SEM, Sept. 18, 1953, SEM, NHC, box 51 (headquarters ship); OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 325; memo, “Command of Landing Arrangement HUSKY,” GK to HKH, Apr. 12, 1943, HKH, NHC, box 1 (Patton’s refusal); John T. Mason, Jr., The Atlantic War Remembered, 279 (“Sit down!”); Cherpak, ed., 183; OH, HKH, n.d., Julian Boit and James Riley, NHC, box 6, 2 (To celebrate).

  At five P.M.: Hewitt, “Naval Aspects of the Sicilian Campaign,” 705; war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 6, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233 (sailing pattern no. 35).

  Behind the bridge: corr, GSP to Bea, July 2, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 10; JPL, 34; diary, July 25, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 15 (“our weak spot”); PP, 233 (“mental fog”).

  He was ready: PP, 260, 264, 270; memo, GSP, June 5, 1943, in Russell L. Moses, ASEQ, 179th Inf Regt., 45th ID, MHI (tactical adages).

  “a timid man”: JPL, 24–25; Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 12–17; diary, July 1, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 3, folder 1 (whine of bullets); D. Clayton James, A Time for Giants, 225 (“a disturbing element”); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 77 (“Someday I will”).

  “Battle is the most”: Harry H. Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 155; diary, June 27, 1943, GSP, LOC, box 2, folder 15 (“a sacred trust”).

  “There is no better death”: Brown, The Whorehouse of the World, 131; Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 264 (“to blood them”); Charles R. Codman, Drive, 99 (“hate builder”).

  “You son of a bitch”: Albert C. Wedemeyer, SOOHP, Anthony S. Deskis, 1972–73, MHI; Wiley H. O’Mohundro, “From Mules to Missiles,” ts, n.d., MHI, 47 (“I am a chaplain”).

  To a dilatory officer: John A. Heintges, SOOHP, Jack A. Pellicci, 1974, 156–59; SSt, 119 (“That temper of his”).

  “What would Jackson”: Susan H. Godson, Viking of Assault, 65; Michael Carver, ed., The War Lords, 558 (pilot’s license).

  “Read up on Cromwell”: Stanley P. Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 353); Ellen Birkett Morris, “The Woman Behind the Man,” The Patton Saber, newsletter, Patton Museum Foundation, fall 2002, 1 (rice powder); R. H. Patton, The Pattons, 251 (“What a man”).

  “I have no premonitions”: PP, 273; diary, May 7, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15 (“my fate”).

  Patton had designed: corr, Oscar W. Koch to James A. Norell, Dec. 15, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; MWC, “General Patton,” ts, n.d., Subject Files, MWC, Citadel, box 70, 4 (“If you charge”); Taylor, 49 (“you bastards”).

  From east and west: Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” 50; Dickson, War Slang, 113–33.

  At last the troops learned: Brown, To All Hands, 83–86; Peterman, “U.S.S. Savannah” (anxious landlubbers); Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner, 537.

  The Monrovia steamed past Bizerte: war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 7–8, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233; Bernard Stambler, “Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., vol. 2, CMH, 2-3.7 AA.L, 45; Pyle, 8; “Convoy to Gaeta,” combat narrative, #210, 1944, “WWII Histories and Historical Reports,” OCNO, NHC (“must be afloat”).

  Calypso’s Island

  FINANCE: “Geographical Code for Operation HUSKY,” May 17, 1943, AFHQ G-2, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily, 402 (St. Paul); Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles, 34, 78–80, 153–57.

  In 1530: John Gunther, D Day, 155–57; Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory, 15–16 (illiterate peasants).

  The first of 3,340: “Malta C.G.,” AB, No. 10, 1975, 1+; Gunther, D Day, 85, 157–58; Charles A. Jellison, Besieged: The World War II Ordeal of Malta, 1940–1942, 166, 258, 178 (“Beauty was slain”).

  Those not killed: Jellison, 111, 133, 167, 174n, 221, 229; Gunther, D Day, 86 (learned to live without); Jack Belden, Still Time to Die, 197 (contraceptives).

  victory in North Africa: Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 532; James Leasor, The Clock with Four Hands, 255–56 (“too thin and listless”); Gunther, D Day, 43, 82 (Indian cigarettes); code, appendix 2, communication plan, MTOUSA SOS, NARA RG 492, 290/55/1-2/7-1, box 2738 (BULLDOGS).

  “Everyone was on tiptoe”: William Ernest Victor Abraham, “Time Off for War,” ts, n.d., LHC, 69.

  Motorcyclists with numbers: “Malta C.G.,” 1+; Charles Cruickshank, Deception in World War II, 53–54 (radio traffic); F.A.E. Crew, The Army Medical Services, vol. III, 14–15 (hospital port); HCB, July 10, 1943, DDE Lib, A-559; Michael J. McKeough and Richard Lockridge, Sgt. Mickey and General Ike, 85 (lucky coins).

  “There are several rooms”: Gunther, D Day, 49–50; Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 428 (“it’ll do”).

  Nine months earlier: David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 689; OH, Hastings L. Ismay, Dec. 17, 1946, FCP, MHI (“No one else”).

  “incarnation of sincerity”: Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 690; Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. 1, 273 (“bits of metal”); James, 95 (“utterly fair”); Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier, 514; John Kennedy, The Business of War, 289 (“powers of expression”); Drew Middleton, Our Share of Night, 308.

  “I’m a born optimist”: Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 54; Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 689 (“studious reflection”); John Gunther, Eisenhower: The Man and the Symbol, 27 (“one officer in fifty”); OH, DDE, Aug. 29, 1976, D. Clayton James, DDE Lib, OH-501, 3–6 (“I would refuse”); Chandler, vol. 2, 1165 (“at least $25,000”).

  “You are fighting”: HCB, June 19, 1943, DDE Lib, A-491; Gunther, Eisenhower, 19 (“hate my enemies”); John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal, 67 (“the Almighty”).

  “A coordinator”: Brian Horrocks, A Full Life, 159; Brian Harpur, The Impossible Victory, 115 (“a compromisor”); JPL, May 24, 1943 (“keep in touch”).

  “solve problems through reasoning”: Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 418; Gunther, D Day, 59; David Fraser, Alanbrooke, 347 (“a grave risk”); Harold Macmillan, War Diaries, 260.

  The long summer twilight: Three Years, 343; Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health Status of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” n.d., Mattingly Collection, DDE Lib, box 1, 19–22, 53 (“disabling injury”); Gunther, Eisenhower, 29 (sixty or more Camels); Chandler, vol. 2, 1344 (he paid John); HCB, June 29, 1943, DDE Lib, A-508c
(gas fumes).

  Cigarette in hand: Michael Simpson, A Life of Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham, 161 (Tars scaled); John Howson, ts, n.d., LHC, 302 (“Every Nice Girl”); Ernle Bradford, Siege Malta, 1940–1943, 86–87 (limestone walls); Cunningham, 547 (“extremely smelly”); McKeough and Lockridge, 87 (banana cordials).

  Eisenhower strode: Gunther, D Day, 53, 61; Alden Hatch, General Ike, 173 (four hundred years); Gunther, Eisenhower, 23–24.

  He shrugged off: Harry L. Coles, Jr., “Participation of the 9th and 12th Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign,” AAF Historical Studies, no. 37, n.d., CMH, 56; Gunther, D Day, 80.

  his red-veined face: John Winton, Cunningham, 313; Daniel C. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy, 1943–1945, 27; George Kitching, Mud and Green Fields, 147, 151 (three Canadian ships); Three Years, 349 (heard from Malta); Martin Stephen, The Fighting Admirals, 65, 77, 83 (“velvet-arsed”); Simpson, 161; Gunther, D Day, 64 (“like a bulldog’s”).

  “The coast is everywhere”: “Tactical Study of the Terrain—Sicily,” AFHQ G-2, Feb. 1943, CMH, Geog Sicily 354, 1; Molony V, 13 (thirty-two beaches); L. V. Bertarelli, Southern Italy, 418; Ernest Samuels, ed., The Education of Henry Adams (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), 367.

  An amphibious landing: Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 110.

  If amphibious warfare: Garland, 54–58; Sidney L. Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” July 1945, SC Historical Project E-3, CARL, N-9425.4, 6–7 (couriers shuttled); Arthur S. Nevins, “Looking Back,” ts, n.d., A.S. Nevins papers, DDE Lib, box 1, 16 (frigid officers).

  Eisenhower in March: “Allied Commander-in-Chief’s Report on Sicilian Campaign 1943,” 75; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” XIII-14 (“grossly exaggerating”); GS IV, 368–69 (“defeatist doctrines”); Garland, 58.53 “Let’s finish this”: OH, Francis de Guingand, March 31, 1947, G. A. Harrison, OCMH WWII, “Europe Interviews,” MHI, 2; Abraham, “Time Off for War,” 68 (“how it would suit us”).

  The existing plan: Hunt, 189–90; Molony V, 22; Garland, 61 (“wooly thinking”); Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 191, 207, 217, 223, 226 (“military disaster”).

  Rather than divide: diary, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Gairdner, IWM 04/271/1, 39 (a thousand francs), 36 (run by Monty); Martin Blumenson, Sicily: Whose Victory?, 24; Carlo D’Este, A Genius for War, 493 (men’s latrine).

  A day later: Cunningham, 532–37; Garland, 62; SSA, 20n.

  “I can’t understand”: diary, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Gairdner, IWM 04/271/1, 37.

  HUSKY now called: Richard Doherty, A Noble Crusade, 140; Garland, 88–91.

  “Stick them in the belly”: SSt, 114; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, NSA, NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 48–49; “Trip Reports Concerning Use of Ultra in the Mediterranean Theater, 1943–1944,” NARA RG 457, SRH-031, 36; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 401–3; Peter Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra (“panoramic knowledge”); F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 1, 75, 483–86 (Hyena).

  Eisenhower also knew: SSA, 35, 56; Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943, 313 (“blindfolded”); “I Reparto Riunione dal Duce del Giorno 3 Aprile 1943,” Italian Collection, item 26, OCMH, SSI, NARA RG 319, 270/19/6/3, box 243 (lightbulbs).

  What Eisenhower did not know: Battle, 35.

  The Combined Chiefs had approved: Richard M. Leighton, “Planning for Sicily,” Proceedings, July 1962, 90+; Garland, 67 (“Your planners”).

  Marshall was right: Battle, 46; Garland, 89; “Outline Plan,” Force 343, May 18, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 270/19/6/3, box 242; Cochran, “Chicken or Eggs?”; Alexander S. Cochran, “Constructing a Military Coalition from Materials at Hand: The Case of Allied Force Headquarters,” paper, SMH conference, Apr. 16, 1999, 10–12 (Amphibious doctrine).

  A “terrible inflexibility”: Smith, “Mediterranean Operations,” 1; Garland, 92–93.

  In mid-June, Eisenhower: Three Years, 333; DDE, Crusade in Europe, 170; Davis, 425–26 (“Don’t ever do that”).

  Feints and deceptions: SSA, 167; memo, C. B. Hazeltine to McClure, July 14, 1943, AFHQ Psychological Warfare Branch, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 13; The Sicilian Campaign, 8.

  Verdala Palace: Three Years, 347–48, 353; DDE, Letters to Mamie, 125.

  Translators, for example: DDE to GCM, May 7 and 11, June 22 and 28, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16.

  “Aged Military Gentlemen”: C.R.S. Harris, Allied Administration of Italy, 1943–1945, 82; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 118; http://www.sokrates-digital.de/produktkatalog/AQ493328.php; DDE to AGWAR, June 1, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16. The abbreviation was shortened in August to AMG.

  he worried about his wife: Ambrose, vol. 1, 244.

  Kathleen Helen Summersby: Kay Summersby Morgan, Past Forgetting, 126, 136; finding aid, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib; Miller, 516 (Grief and strain); Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life & Times, 125.

  Just please remember: DDE, Letters to Mamie, 128.

  “The Horses of the Sun”

  The convoys from Algeria: Karig, 235–36; SSA, 62–65; Tregaskis, 15 (abacus); war log, U.S.S. Monrovia, July 8–9, 1943, NARA RG 38, OCNO, WWII war diaries, box 1233 (thirteen knots).

  Ships wallowed: Total tonnage included follow-on convoys. Memo, “Observations ‘HUSKY’—Joss Task Force,” July 10, 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, SOS, 290/55/1-2, 7-1, box 2736; msg, AFHQ to AGWAR, June 25, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” 3; “Orders for Operation HUSKY,” n.d., AFHQ, S.S.O. 17/3, CARL, N-14793A; msgs, DDE to AGWAR, May 28, 1943; AGWAR to AFHQ, June 10, 1943; and Office of Fiscal Director, WD, to DDE, June 17, 1943, all in NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16 (rat traps); Robert W. Komer, “Civil Affairs and Military Government in the Mediterranean Theater,” 1954, CMH, 2-3.7 AX, II-24 (occupation scrip); memo, “Medical Planning Instruction,” Force 141, March 14, 1943, A. S. Nevins papers, MHI, box 1 (condoms); “British Abbreviations and Glossary,” A. S. Nevins papers, MHI, box 1 (glossary).

  Half the tonnage: Mayo, 154; “Logistical History of NATOUSA/MTOUSA,” Nov. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-4, box 203, 58.

  “what they thought they needed”: “Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” John T. Mason, Jr., 1970, USNI OHD, 148; AAR, 6681st Signal Pigeon Co., July 9, 1944, NARA RG 407, SG Co-6681-0.1, box 23228; msg, AGWAR to DDE, June 17, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16 (pigeons); Max Corvo, The O.S.S. in Italy, 61; “Reminiscences of Phil E. Bucklew,” 1980, John T. Mason, Jr., USNI OHD, 44; memo, “Final Outline Plan, Force 343,” June 8, 1943, NARA RG 338, II Corps historical section, box 148; “Beaches of Sicily,” Strategic Engineering Study, No. 31, Nov. 1942, MHI (rumrunner); msgs, GCM to DDE, May 2 and 27, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; Blanche D.Coll et al., The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment, 455–56 (wooden crates); Nicholas, 222, 226, 234 (motorcycle courier).

  Much had been learned: memo, HQ, I Armored Corps, annex 2, June 14, 1943, MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, SOS, 290/55/1-2, 7-1, box 2736; “Operating Instructions HUSKY,” vol. IV, Force 343, FO No. 1, June 20, 1943, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-3.17, box 201 (chart distributed to medics); memo, HQ, SOS NATOUSA, June 29, 1943, and “Graves Registration Directive,” MTOUSA, NARA RG 492, SOS, 290/55/1-2, 7-1, box 2736; memo, “Disposition of Personal Effects,” May 24, 1943, Harlan W. Hendrick, ASEQ, 1st ID, MHI.

  welfare of civilians: “British Administrative History of the Italian Campaign,” appendix, 1946, NARA RG 94, E 427, 95-USF2-5.0; Komer, “Civil Affairs,” II-20 (vast stocks); “Post-HUSKY Operations, Military Government,” NARA RG 319, OCMH, 270/19/6/3, box 242 (nineteen million mouths); “History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” n.d., CMH, 3-2.2 AA, vol. 1, 92 (“self-supporting”).

  Kent He
witt spent the passage: OH, HKH, 1961, John T. Mason, Col U OHRO, 314; HKH, AAR, “The Sicilian Campaign,” n.d., 107; John H. Clagett, unpublished bio of HKH, ts, n.d., NHC, 392 (“God couldn’t be”).

  “sea-going bedpan”: “History of Amphibious Training Command, U.S. Atlantic Fleet,” 1951, USNAd, #145 a–c, VIII, 24; Beck et al., 118; Perry, “A Reporter at Large,” 50 (“ensign-eliminators”); author visit, LST 325, Alexandria, Va., May 28, 2005; Perret, 134 (rumrunners); Barry W. Fowle, ed., Builders and Fighters, 407; Kendall King, “LSTs: Marvelous at Fifty Plus,” Naval History, 1992 (river yards); Pyle, 157 (even in drydock).

  Hewitt knew: Beck et al., 124; Mason, 273–78 (Sherman tank).

  “take his chances”: “Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 149; HKH, AAR, “The Sicilian Campaign,” 44 (“illusory”); Hinsley, 86 (fourteen had been lost).

  In his own cabin: PP, 275, 271 (horses of the sun); diary, GSP, July 8, 1943, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 1 (“Attack and then look”); Mason, 284 (“on their necks”).

  Field Order No. 1: HQ, Force 343 (7th Army), June 20, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, SSI, box 242; “Seventh Army Report Summary,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 250 (“We shall win”).

  “You are a great leader”: PP, 272; John North, ed., The Alexander Memoirs, 1940–1945, 45–46; Hirshson, 360 (“Do you kill?”); GSP to DDE, Feb. 20, 1942, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 91 (“You name them”); memoir, Kenyon Joyce, ts, n.d., MHI, 345 (“colorful”).

  “a question of destiny”: GSP to Bea, July 5, 1943, LOC MS Div, Chrono File, box 10.

  Ernie Pyle was with them: SSA, 66; Pyle, 12 (“On fine days”); Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 267 (he rose at three A.M.).

  “older and a little apart”: David Nichols, ed., Ernie’s War, 18; Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 256 (“a family Bible”); Miller, 261 (“fundamentally sad”).

  “lost in the dark”: Richard Collier, Fighting Words, 140, 144, 152; Miller (“athlete’s foot”).