The Day of Battle

  Dozens of landing craft: Garland, 161; John Mason Brown, 147 (“dead man’s closet”); AAR, Amphibious Force Transport QM, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Aug. 6, 1943, in “Report on Operation Husky,” Army Observers, Amphibious Forces, MHI, 9; Claudia Levy, “Pulitzer-Winning WWII Cartoonist Bill Mauldin Dies,” Jan 23, 2003, WP, B6; Bill Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 150 (“Nobody really knows”).

  “The beach was in total confusion”: William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, box V-14, VII-7 and 13; SSA, 139, 140n (court-martialed); The Sicilian Campaign, 53; Garland, 161; lecture, “Narrative by Rear Adm. Alan G. Kirk,” Pearl Harbor, Oct. 2, 1943, NHC, 9–12 (bangalore torpedoes); corr, Troy H. Middleton to James A. Norell, Nov. 29, 1960, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, box 250 (“less comfortable”).

  Still, as D-day drew to a close: Precise numbers are elusive because the 45th Division figures are aggregated for three days. Garland, 161n; Clifford and Maddocks, “Naval Gunfire Support,” 21.

  That left the British: SSA, 152; Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles, 214; Ross Munro, “Landing Fairly Easy for Canadian Invaders,” July 12, 1943, Toronto Globe and Mail, www.warmuseum.ca.

  “Some confusion”: “History of the 50th (Northumberland) Division During the Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/473, 17–18, 23, 26; intel report, No. 6910, Dec. 11, 1943, CARL, N-6490 (“in no way carried out”); Daniel G. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers, 35 (“you silly bastards”).

  “Down door!”: C. R. Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM, 92/1/1, 14; K. G. Oakley, “Sicily, 1943,” ts, n.d., IWM 96/22/1, 2–3; Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 14–15.

  Ashore they swarmed: Richard S. Malone, A Portrait of War, 1939–1943; Pack, 97 (wild thyme); Robin Neillands, Eighth Army, 220 (makeshift jetties); George Aris, The Fifth British Division, 1939 to 1945, 115 (“Desert rats”); John Durnford-Slater, Commando, 134, 136 (“the right spirit”).

  up to ten thousand casualties: Molony V, 52; C. R. Eke, “A Game of Soldiers,” ts, n.d., IWM, 92/1/1, 44 (“We had learned”).

  More than a third: Alan Wood, The Glider Soldiers, 27; SSA, 160–61.

  There was the rub: Warren, 23, 26; Wood, 27; George Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 64, 67; Michael Hickey, Out of the Sky: A History of Airborne Warfare, 100.

  Several dozen Horsa gliders: Hickey, 100; Blair, 76–77 (at least one hundred hours); Harry L. Coles, Jr., “Participation of the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign,” 1945, AAF Historical Studies, No. 37, 85 (barely qualified); lecture, P. L. Williams, “Airborne Operations Against Sicily,” Sept. 2, 1943, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, L-1-43, W-68, box 168, 3 (more than half were destroyed).

  Pilots and passengers were doomed: Chatterton, 68; Lloyd, 39, 41 (tow ropes snapped); Tregaskis, 95; Hickey, 101 (wrong charts); Breuer, 41 (thirty men plummeted); Carlo D’Este, Bitter Victory, 233, 233n (“sorry to inform you”); “Report of Allied Force Airborne Board,” Oct. 13, 1943, AFHQ, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1 (A/B)-0.3.0 (“generally was bad”).

  Ninety percent of the aircraft: Chatterton, 89; Lloyd, 41 (“a blind swarm”); “Interview with Brig. Gen. Ray A. Dunn,” Oct. 14, 1943, MHI Lib, 4–5 (“released their gliders”); Richard Thruelsen and Elliott Arnold, Mediterranean Sweep, 111; “Tactical Employment in the U.S. Army of Transport Aircraft and Gliders in World War II,” vol. 1, chapter 3, n.d., CARL, N-16464-H, 33; “Report on Airborne Operations, HUSKY,” July 24, 1943, JPL, MHI, box 11; lecture, Williams, “Airborne Operations,” 4–7 (an optical illusion); “Report of Allied Force Airborne Board” (thirty-mile front); Warren, 46 (“unsound”).

  “As we lost height”: Chatterton, 73; Thruelsen and Arnold, 111–15 (“We went under”); By Air to Battle, 57 (“All is not well”).

  Fifty-four gliders made land: By Air to Battle, 57; Wood, 217 (Horsa No. 132); Chatterton, 94.

  Rather than five hundred or more: Chatterton, 87–88; Hickey, 103.

  The British high command would proclaim: Geoffrey Reagan, Blue on Blue: A History of Friendly Fire, 139; memo, HQ, Fifth Army Airborne Training Center to GCM, Aug. 15, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 419, WD GS, director of plans and ops, top secret gen’l corr, 312.4-319.1, 390/37/18/3, box 14 (“practically zero”); By Air to Battle, 59 (“confusion and dismay”).

  The Loss of Irrecoverable Hours

  If much had gone wrong: Albert Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily: Concluding Considerations,” n.d., in “Mittelmeerkrieg,” part II, “Tunisien,” FMS #T-3 P1, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 19; MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily,” ts, n.d., OCMH, #147, MHI (“amphibious contrivances”).

  hints of invasion: “War Diary of German Naval Command in Italy,” July 1, 1943, SEM, NHC, box 57; situation reports, OB Süd, July 1 and 7, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246; Michael Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 87–88 (fictional “Twelfth Army”).

  Operation MINCEMEAT: Frank J. Stech, “Outguessed and One-Behind: The Real Story of The Man Who Never Was,” paper presented to conference, University of Wolverhampton, UK, July 2004; Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was, 11, 73–74; “Mincemeat,” in “Naval Deception,” vol. III, ADM 223/794, 442–60, UK NA; monthly log, H.M.S. Seraph, UK NA, ADM 173/18038; Roger Morgan, “The Second World War’s Best Kept Secret Revealed,” After the Battle, no. 94, 1996, 31+; Ralph Bennett, Ultra and the Mediterranean Strategy, 227; “Historical Record of Deception in the War Against Germany and Italy,” vol. 2, UK NA, CAB 154/101, 385–89.

  Six immobile and badly armed: Garland, 110–11; Walter Fries, “Der Kampf Um Sizilien,” ts, n.d., FMS #T-2, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 6–9; Eberhardt Rodt, “Studie über den Feldzug in Sizilien bei der 15. Pz Gren. Div, Mai–August 1943,” n.d., FMS #C-077, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 15; SSA, 69–70 (went to bed); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily” (“Italian soil”); F. H. Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 1, 84 (Spitfires); Alice Leccese Powers, Italy in Mind, 302 (D. H. Lawrence).

  Little was expected: MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily: The Mission of General Guzzoni,” May 1959, NARA RG 319, E 145, OCMH, 270/19/30-31/6-2, R-117, 38; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIV-7 (nine thousand yards); Hellmut Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering auf Sizilien vom 10–14.7.1943,” Dec. 1950, FMS, #C-087a, NARA RG 319, box 245, 13 (morning glare).

  The German response: George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” U.S. Cryptologic History, series IV, vol. 1, n.d., NARA RG 57, SRH-391, 52; Max Ulich, “Sicilian Campaign Special Problems and Their Solutions,” March 1947, FMS, #D-004, MHI, 4 (car wreck); Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering,” 14–16 (olive groves); “War Diary of German Naval Command in Italy,” July 10, 1943 (“cleaned up”); war diary, German liaison staff, Italian 6th Army,” July 10–11, 1943, in FMS, #C-095, MHI, 25–34 (reembarked); “Operazioni in Sicilia dal 9 al 19 luglio,” Comando Supremo diary, July 11, 1943, 2100 hrs., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 246 (“constantly in crisis”).

  Such fairy tales: Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily,” 19–22; Kenneth Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 206 (“Germany’s savior”); Albrecht Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 27 (“less pleasing things”); Johannes Steinhof, Messerschmitts over Sicily, 27 (leather case).

  “Kesselring is a colossal optimist”: GS IV, 463; Paul Deichmann, “Italian Campaign,” 1948, FMS, #T-1a, chapter 1, 29; Steinhof, 27 (raid on Marsala).

  For six months he had pondered: Kesselring, Memoirs, 158; Garland, 46, 51; “Stellungnahme des verantwortlichen Oberbefehlshaber Süd zu den Betractungen des Oberst von Bonin,” n.d., in Kesselring, “Mittelmeerkrieg,” part II, “Tunisien,” FMS #T-3 P1, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 245, 3 (strategic concept); Kesselring, “Italy as a Military Ally,” 1948, FMS, #C-015, MHI, 4–5, 9 (“easily contented”).

  “pretty sugar pastry”: Kesselrin
g, “Mittelmeerkrieg,” 69; Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily,” 19–22; Kesselring, “German Strategy During the Italian Campaign,” n.d., FMS, #B-270, MHI, 12, 29 (“mousetrap”); Frido von Senger und Etterlin, “Liaison Activities with Italian 6th Army,” 1951, FMS, #C-095, MHI, 14–15; war diary, German liaison staff, Italian 6th Army, July 10–11, 1943, in FMS, #C-095, MHI, 25–34; Paul Conrath, “Der Kampf um Sizilien,” Jan. 1951, FMS, #C-087c, NARA RG 319, box 245, 2–3 (Göring panzers); Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering,” 4–9 (nine thousand combat troops); Garland, 171n.

  counterattack Gela at first light: Garland, 163; Kesselring, “The Campaign for Sicily,” 12–13 (“immediate advance”).

  “The Romans are fleeing”: “The Reminiscences of Walter C. W. Ansel,” 146; Tregaskis, 29 (“twinkling walk”); Biddle, 71 (“Bald, burnt”); William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” ts, 1983, CEOH, box V-14, VII-22 (upside down); John Lardner, “Up Front with Roosevelt,” in Jack Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 127–28 (“rhythmic state”); Frederick T. McCue, ASEQ, n.d., Battery A, 171st FA Bn, 45th ID, MHI (“Get into the battle!”).

  “I will always be known”: H. Paul Jeffers, In the Rough Rider’s Shadow, 152, 164, 174–75; Benjamin S. Persons, Relieved of Command, 66; Donald P. Darnell, “Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,” World War II, May 1998, 18+; Michael Pearlman, To Make Democracy Safe for America, 250 (“anti-bluff”); corr, TR to Eleanor, June 5 (“small beer”), June 12, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.

  “born to combat”: Quentin Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, 214; corr, Robert A. Riesman [26th Inf Regt] to author, Sept. 10, 2002 (“Keep it clear”); A. J. Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” New Yorker, part 2, May 1, 1943, 24+; author interview, Richard A. Williams, Jan. 25, 2003 (“we willingly got up”); diary, GSP, June 24, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 2, folder 15.

  “Well, doesn’t it?”: Maxwell Hamilton, “Junior in Name Only,” Retired Officer, June 1981, 28+; Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 110–11 (“beat up every M.P.”); Samuel David Spivey, A Doughboy’s Narrative, s.p., 1995, 81–82 (“Too much vino”).

  Toxic rumors: Jean Gordon Peltier, World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, 82; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” ts, n.d., MHI, 69 (hoarding Camels); “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” ts, n.d., TdA, box 5, MHI, 32 (“yellow-bellies”); Stanhope Brasfield Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” ts, 1988, MRC FDM, 150–51 (“killed trying to invade”).

  By late May, when the division bivouacked: Willam E. Faust, ASEQ, divarty HHQ, 1st ID, MHI, 60; Donald McB. Curtis, The Song of the Fighting First, 103–4 (“Let us know”); memo, S. B. Mason, “Weapons,” May 17, 1943, Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM (brass knuckles); memo, “Conference Notes, 24 May 1943,” Mason papers, MRC FDM (“disheveled appearance”); “History, Mediterranean Base Section, Sept. 1942–May 1944,” CMH, 8-4 CA 1944, 35 (five P.M. curfew); Dickson, “G-2 Journal,” 69 (“lively brawls”); Franklyn A. Johnson, One More Hill, 76 (“Truckloads”); speech, Stanhope B. Mason, Apr. 24, 1976, 57th annual dinner of Officers of the First Division, NYC, in Smith, 194 (“need not salute”).

  “bitched, buggered and bewildered”: speech, Mason, Apr. 24, 1976; JPL, 24–25; Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 110–11 (Eisenhower was furious), 118 (“piratical”); Benjamin S. Persons, Relieved of Command, 69; Robert John Rogers, “A Study of Leadership in the First Infantry Division During World War II,” thesis, 1965, Ft. L, 118 (“freebooters”).

  vineyards and orchards of the Geloan plain: author visit, Sept. 1996; Garland, 165.

  Through his field glasses: Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 297; Jeffers, 225; “History of the 26th Infantry Regiment,” 16–17 (“trying to flush quail”).

  Shortly before seven A.M.: “History of the 26th Infantry Regiment,” 18–19; H. R. Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 105; Garland, 166–67; Farago, 297 (“situation not so good”); Robert W. Baumer, Before Taps Sounded, s.p., 2000, 174 (“We beat their asses”); corr, TR to Eleanor, July 17, 1943, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10.

  In the lemon grove: Romeiser, ed., 162; “Terry Allen and the First Division in North Africa and Sicily,” ts, n.d., TdA, box 5, MHI, 50 (rolling gait); Pearlman, 249–50.

  Before flunking out: Gerald Astor, Terrible Terry Allen, 11–12; Thomas W. Dixon, “Terry Allen,” Army, Apr. 1978, 57+ (“loved horses”); Liebling, “Find ’Em, Fix ’Em, and Fight ’Em,” 221+.

  “The soldier’s greatest nightmare”: obit, NYT, Sept. 13, 1969; Astor, 184 (“win or die”); “Allen and His Men,” Time, Aug. 9, 1943, 30+ (“It’s crazy”); Johnson, 77 (“Do your job”); corr, TdA to Mary Fran, June 6, 1943, TdA, MHI, box 2.

  “Couriers dashed”: Romeiser, ed., 166; “Addendum by Major Groves, 27 Oct. 1950,” in OH, Bryce F. Denno and Melvin J. Groves, 16th Inf., Oct. 24, 1950, SM, MHI; Garland, 166–67; Smith, 21 (“let’s not wait”).

  At 10:10 A.M., the 3rd Battalion: Baumgartner et al., 41; Knickerbocker, 106; Peltier, 99; “Terry Allen and the First Division,” ts, n.d., TdA, box 5, MHI, 37.

  Allen climbed to the crest: Romeiser, ed., 166–67; Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 1988.32, box 215 (“burning tanks and confusion”); Garland, 160; memo, George A. Taylor, Dec. 26, 1950, SM, MHI; corr, John M. Brooks to author, Oct. 19, 2003; SSA, 109–12 (LST 313); Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” 63; combat narrative, Curtis Shears, USNR, Apr. 3, 1944, NHC, 2; William S. Hutchinson, Jr., “Use of the 4.2-inch Chemical Mortar in the Invasion of Sicily,” MR, Nov. 1943, 13+ (fishing dinghies).

  “I want tanks”: memo, TdA to OCMH, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 250; AAR, 3/16th Inf, Aug. 16, 1943, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, box 247; Charles F. Ryan et al., “2nd Armored Division in the Sicilian Campaign,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, 24 (large shears).

  “deficient inner cohesion”: Bergengruen, “Der Kampf der Pz. Div. ‘Hermann Goering,’” 14–19; Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, “Die Abwehr der Achsenmächte auf Sizilien,” Allgemeine schweizerische Militär Zeitschrift, Dec. 1950, 859–60 (too mammoth to tow); MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily” (“returning to their ships”).

  “They are carrying armloads”: Johnson, 89; Romeiser, ed. (“Hell, no”).

  Patton came ashore: Mason, 269; memo, GSP, July 11, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11, folder 8; Dennis Showalter, Patton and Rommel, 315 (timing his own pulse); Jack Belden, “Battle of Sicily,” 27+ (“beautiful and battle-fevered”); Milton F. Perry and Barbara W. Parke, Patton and His Pistols, 62; Patton, 54; Paul W. Brown, 165 (“Kraut bastards”).

  Adolf’s Alley: D’Este, Bitter Victory, 317; Jackson, “Signal Communication in the Sicilian Campaign,” 58–61 (code rooms).

  Dust and gray smoke: SSA, 112; Carlo D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 507; corr, GSP to L. J. McNair, Aug. 2, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11 (“dervishes”); James B. Lyle, “The Operations of Companies A and B, 1st Ranger Battlion, at Gela, Sicily,” 1948, IS, 18–19 (“hanging from trees”); Blythe Foote Finke, No Mission Too Difficult, 130 (“Kick ’em”).

  “a most foolish manner”: note, GSP, ts, n.d., GSP, LOC MS Div, box 48, folder 20.

  If the Italians had been stopped: TdA, “Commanding General’s After Action Report,” 1950, in Smith, 127; Garland, 170; MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily” Martin A. Shadday, “Operations of Company C, 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd AD, at Gela, Sicily,” 1948, IS, 15 (dried mud); OH, Samuel A. D. Hunter, March 7, 1944, NHC, 8–9 (“To arms”); The Sicilian Campaign, 93; William H. Frazier, Jr., “The Operations of XII Air Support Command in the Invasion of Sicily,” 1948, IS, 21 (“Men burned”).

  Firepower arrived: DSC citation, Clift Andrus, NARA RG 338, ETO, Seventh Army awards, box 2; Thomas F. Lancer, “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” in Albert H. Smith, Jr., ed., “Biographical Sketches, WWII,” MRC FDM; bio file, Clift Andrus, n.d., MHI; Malcolm Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 112 (threatened
to shoot any man).

  Then, above the whine: Clift Andrus, “Amphibious Landings—North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy,” ts, n.d., MRC FDM, 26; Godson, 74.

  German tanks began to burn: Patrick K. O’Donnell, Beyond Valor, 51; Franz Kurowski, The History of the Fallschirmpanzerkorps Hermann Göring, 159 (“rivets flew about”); William T. Dillon, 1/16th Inf, ASEQ, MHI, 6 (“he was melted”); Bergengruen, “Kampf der Pz. Div. Hermann Goering,” 20–21 (“counterattack against the hostile landings”); TdA, “Commanding General’s After Action Report,” 127 (“damned Heinies”); Romeiser, ed., 167 (“merely embarrassing”).

  Patton returned to the beach: PP, 279; D’Este, Patton, 507; Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II, 138 (white-haired brigadier); Patrick K. O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, 45–50 (“happy as a clam”); Anthony Cave Brown, The Last Hero, 352 (“fucking and fighting”).

  “I had the bitter experience”: memo, Paul Conrath, July 12, 1943, AFHQ captured documents, NARA RG 407, E 47, 95 AL1-2.9, box 162; Andrus, “Amphibious Landings,” 27; Kurowski, 157; MEB, “Axis Tactical Operations in Sicily” (630 men killed); Garland, 171n; Charles E. Smith, “The American Campaign in Sicily,” ts, n.d., CMH, Geog Sicily 314.7, 17 (American casualties); report summary, Seventh Army, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2 Sicily, box 250 (nine thousand prisoners); “Report of Activities,” July 31, 1944, staff judge advocate, 1st ID, MRC FDM (dead civilians).

  “I am well satisfied”: memo, GSP, July 11, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11, folder 8; PP, 279–80.

  “Tonight Wear White Pajamas”

  His own losses were modest: The Sicilian Campaign, 91–93 (the Barnett); Carver, 22; Roskill, 131 (Talamba); action reports, S. H. Alexander and Ralph C. Adams, LST 313, ts, n.d., in Donald J. Hunt, “USS LST 313 and Battery A, 33rd Field Artillery,” ts, 1997, MRC FDM, 42; SSA, 108 (flaming axles); Knickerbocker et al., 103–4.