The Day of Battle

  Clark’s intelligence estimated: German figures indicated that Tenth Army had 142,000 troops in twelve divisions on Dec. 1, 1943. StoC, 246–47, 269 (barely three hundred yards).

  “Oh, don’t worry”: OH, H. Alexander, Jan. 10–15, 1949, SM, CMH, II-3; StoC, 265, 270.

  More than nine hundred guns: “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 1944, HQ, NATOUSA, DTL, Ft. B, 100; Robert H. Adleman and George Walton, The Devil’s Brigade, 123–24; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 23; Molony V, 517 (eleven tons of steel).

  “only an Italian winter”: Vincent M. Lockhart, ts, n.d., 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Geoffrey Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 179 (American lumberjacks); Charles F. Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 88 (“potential gangster”); “Special List of Clothing and Equipment,” Sept. 24, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 3 (codeine sulfate).

  Leading the gangsters: OH, Paul D. Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI (French Quebec); mss notes, n.d., Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 8 (Son of a San Francisco doctor); obit, Robert T. Frederick, Assembly, spring 1972, 106 (sailed to Australia); Perret, 179 (bedroom slippers); corr, Oct. 20, 1943, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1 (“worthy of trust”); OH, Robert T. Frederick, Jan. 7, 1949, SM, MHI (“lacked guts”); OH, D. M. “Pat” O’Neill, n.d., Robert H. Adleman papers, HIA, box 10 (“casual indifference”).

  Their barked fingers blue: Adleman and Walton, 129; Bowlby, 113 (thrown rocks); Joseph A. Springer, Black Devil Brigade, 86 (rock splinters); Robert D. Burhans, The First Special Service Force, 107 (shallow saucer).

  A maddening wait: Burhans, 107, 112; Springer, 100–102 (“German was with me”), 95 (“red mist”); Adleman and Walton, 138–44.

  Panzer grenadiers counterattacked: Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 24; Springer 88–90, 109–10 (“huge shotgun”); Adleman and Walton, 138; Robert Wallace, The Italian Campaign, 108–9 (white flag ruse); affidavits, 2nd Regt investigation, Robert D. Burhans papers, box 19 (“Foxhole Willie”).

  “We have passed the crest”: msgs, R.T. Frederick, Dec. 5–6, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 21.

  Early on Tuesday morning: Burhans, 120; StoC, 263; Molony V, 517–18 (hilltop monastery); Bowlby, 120–21 (mossy rocks); Moorehead, Eclipse, 64; Burhans, 120; msg, Frederick, Dec. 7, 1943, 1630 hrs, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 21.

  Survivors hobbled: Burhans, 120; surgeon’s report, Dec. 2–9, 1943, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 19.

  “feet of a dead man”: Springer, 118.

  With his left flank secured: James J. Altieri, Darby’s Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, 65; StoC, 274; Frederick L. Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” ts, 1991, Texas MFM, 62 (“Krauts up there”).

  He soon learned otherwise: Robert L. Wagner, The Texas Army, 74, 77 (“couple of lizards”); Homer Bigart, “San Pietro a Village of the Dead,” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 20, 1943, in Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 738–45; Don Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 83 (“Rufus the Loudmouth”); Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” 67, 72, 81 (“Die kommen”); Richard Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, 235 (“This is fun”).

  Two miles west: Bowlby, 141; Jack Clover, ts, n.d., HQ Co., 2/143rd Inf, 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm (“skirmish lines”).

  pillboxes emplaced every twenty-five yards: “The Battle for San Pietro,” AB, no. 18, 1977, 1+; Bowlby, 142–45 (fingers shot off).

  Roma o morte: author visit, Monte Lungo, May 5, 2004; photos, Italian memorial and museum, Monte Lungo; Wagner, 72 (Alpine uniforms); R. K. Doughty, “The Pink House,” ts, n.d., 141st Inf, Texas MFM; StoC, 276; Wallace, 109; Calculated, 240–44 (vowing to punish); Bowlby, 146 (“corn cut by a scythe”); corr, Don E. Carleton to Hal C. Pattison, Feb. 10, 1965, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC3, Salerno to Cassino, box 256 (fastest runners); CM, 291; Thomas E. Hannum, “The 30 Years of Army Experience,” ts, n.d., 91st Armored FA Bn, ASEQ, MHI, 58; corr, Vincenzo Dapino to GK, Dec. 23, 1943, MWC, corr, Citadel, box 3 (“not in a condition”).

  trails marked with white tape: Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 8–9; John F. O’Malley, “The Operations of Company I, 143rd Infantry, South of Rome,” 1946, IS; Ernie Pyle, “One Demolished Town After Another,” Dec. 28, 1943, Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 733–34; Pyle, 100 (“Brrrr”); Betsy Wade, ed., Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, 34 (wearing packboards); Wagner, 77 (necktie); Lance Bertelsen, “Texans at San Pietro,” Discovery Magazine, University of Texas, vol. 14, no. 2 (1997), http://ftp.cc.utexas.edu/opa/pubs/discovery/disc1997v14n2/disc-sanpietro. html (“husky young men”).

  “feel the presence of the enemy”: Margaret Bourke-White, Purple Heart Valley, 42, 147–48 (“lives the longest”); Pyle, 166; Paul Dickson, War Slang, 113+; T. Moffatt Burriss, Strike and Hold, 65 (bunt a baseball); Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 51–52 (white phosphorus); memo, “Phosphorus Burns,” consulting surgeon, AAI, Nov. 8, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-235-D; memoir, Edward R. Feagins, ts, n.d., 143rd Inf, Texas MFM, 31; Ross S. Carter, Those Devils in Baggy Pants, 74, 81 (“don’t like this place”).

  Raised in the cotton country: Michael S. Sweeney, “Appointment at Hill 1205: Ernie Pyle and Capt. Henry T. Waskow,” 1995, http://www.kwanah.com/txmilmus/36division/archives/waskow/sect1.htm; Michael L. Lanning, “Goodbye to Captain Waskow,” VFW Magazine, May 1981, 19+; Berneta Peeples, “Requiem,” Belton (Tex.) Journal, Dec. 16, 1993, reprint of 1953 article; Bob Tutt, “Young Officer Was Father Figure,” Houston Chronicle, Feb. 6, 1994, 28A.

  “I guess I have always appeared”: Henry T. Waskow, “Last Will and Testament,” Temple (Tex.) Daily Telegram, reprinted, Texas MFM.

  after almost a week on Sammucro: StoC, 280; Young, “The First Casualty on Monte Sammucro,” 102; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 51–52; Peeples, “Requiem” (“an awful spot”).

  Wearing his trademark knit cap: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 133; Lee G. Miller, An Ernie Pyle Album, 90 (“Mr. God”); memoir, James R. Pritchard, 68th Armored FA bn, ts, n.d, ASEQ, MHI, 10 (filling ruts with logs).

  “some inert liquid”: Douglas Allanbrook, See Naples, 123; Pyle, 107 (“They slid him”).

  after returning to Fifth Army headquarters: Sweeney, “Appointment at Hill 1205.”

  Riley Tidwell appeared: ibid.; OH, Riley Tidwell, March 28, 1994, Jane Purtle, Cherokee County Historical Commission, Texas MFM.

  “Finally he put the hand down”: Pyle, 107; Lee G. Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 297 (“I’ve lost the touch”).

  Mark Clark had proposed using tanks: StoC, 277–79.

  This time the attack would be filmed: Marco Pellegrinelli, La Battaglia di S. Pietro di John Huston, 7–10; Bertelsen, “Texans at San Pietro” (“triumphant entry”); Ray Wells, “Battalion Commander,” Fighting 36th Historical Quarterly, spring 1992 (“a large mower”).

  loaders with asbestos gloves: John E. Krebs, To Rome and Beyond, 37; “Lessons from the Italian Campaign,” March 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-USF1-04, box 250, 116; “The Battle for San Pietro,” 1.

  The 141st Infantry’s 2nd Battalion: Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 62; Clifford H. Peek, Jr., Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns, 31–32 (“Dead and wounded”); Wagner, 84; Bowlby, 166, 171 (“stupidest assignment”); AAR, 141st Inf, Jan. 11, 1944, Aaron W. Wyatt, Jr., ASEQ, MHI (second attack at six A.M.); corr, Thomas A. Higbie, July 15, 2003, to author (“put that damn rag away”).

  Wisps of steam rose: Richard Manton, n.d., 2/141st Inf, 36th ID Assoc, Texas MFM, www.kwanah.com/36Division/pstoc.htm; Calculated, 248; diary, MWC, Dec. 16, 1943, Citadel, box 64, 287 (“What troops”); Texas, 287 (“The losses before the town”).

  And then it ended: StoC, 285; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 67; “The Battle for San Pietro,” 1.

  “mound of desolation”: Tom Roe, Anzio Beachhead, 37; Homer Bigart, “San Pietro a Village of the Dead,” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 20, 1943, in Reporting Wor
ld War II, vol. 1, 738–45 (“gray hand hanging limply”).

  “journey in Dante’s Inferno”: J. Glenn Gray, The Warriors, 59–60; Zambardi, Memorie di Guerra, 13 (140 San Pietrans). The U.S. Army official history estimated that three hundred San Pietrans died. StoC, 285.

  A baby’s corpse: Daniel J. Petruzzi, My War Against the Land of My Ancestors, 147; “The Battle of San Pietro,” Combat Report No. 2, 1945, NARA RG 111, film, CR 002 (folding the hands of dead GIs); Samuel Hynes, The Soldiers’ Tale, 3 (“impenetrable silence”).

  “where their bedding fell”: Wagner, 89–90; StoC, 285n.

  “Ah! Sweet Mystery”: Bourke-White, 118, 126–29, 131.

  “We find the country thick”: JPL, 271; StoC, 286 (“a long way off”); Bruce L. Barger, The Texas 36th Division, 144 (“heartbreaking business”).

  For John Huston: Peter Maslowski, Armed with Cameras, 75, 88–93; Bertelsen, “Texans at San Pietro” A Pictorial History of the 36th “Texas” Infantry Division, no pagination (“as good a war film”).

  “I was right, wasn’t I?”: Lanning, “Goodbye to Captain Waskow,” 19; Sweeney, “Appointment at Hill 1205” Miller, An Ernie Pyle Album, 92 (Pyle’s column).

  “A Tank Too Big for the Village Square”

  Life in exile: Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life and Times, 115 (three mattresses); memoir, “Italy,” ts, n.d., Kenyon Joyce papers, MHI, 347 (“social purposes”); corr, GSP to Arvin Harrington Brown, Oct. 22, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 27; PP, 362; diary, Sept. 9, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 3.

  On mild afternoons: JPL, 147–48; The Princeton Class of 1942 During World War II, 123 (quail hunting); PP, 367, 391 (language lessons); Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 364; Charles R. Codman, Drive, 135 (Wellington); George S. Patton, War As I Knew It, 74 (“a disgusting place”); Robert H. Patton, The Pattons, 232 (“too big for the village square”), 262; Robert E. Coffin and Joan N. Coffin, “The Robert Edmonstron Coffin–Joan Nelson Coffin Family Book,” 96 (La Bohème).

  Seventh Army was reduced to a shell: PP, 371; msg, W. B. Smith to GSP, Nov. 25, 1943, Walter Bedell Smith papers, DDE Lib, box 27 (signal battalion); diary, Dec. 2, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 4 (“strip the body”); JPL, 147–48; Stanley P. Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 416 (“dessicated”); OH, Garrison H. Davidson, Nov. 1980, John T. Greenwood, CEOH, 231 (“paper dolls”); corr, GSP to Beatrice, Nov. 7, 1943, Beatrice to GSP, Nov. 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 17, folder 20.

  issued wicker baskets: Ivan Dmitri, Flight to Everywhere, 191; “Italy,” Kenyon Joyce papers, 355 (“middle of my forehead”); James H. Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, 363; Clift Andrus, notes on A Soldier’s Story, ts, n.d., MRC-FDM, 1988.32, box 215.

  “You need have no fear”: Martin Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 213, 215 (“pink medecin”); Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 439 (“at least sixty reporters”); PP, 359, 361.

  He took little interest: Carl J. Friedrich, ed., American Experiences in Military Government in World War II, 120; Robert W. Komer, “Civil Affairs and Military Government in the Mediterranean Theater,” 1954, CMH, 2-3.7 AX, VI, 3–6 (“subsistence level”); PP, 371; Dmitri, 192 (feigned pregnancy); Malcolm S. McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” ts, 1975, MHI, 56 (Black marketeering).

  Shortages plagued the island: “History of the Island Base Section, Sicily,” n.d., CMH, 8-4 FA, 14, 18 (“every possible ruse”); “Monthly Report for August 1943 on the Administration of Sicily,” n.d., AMGOT, 15th Army Group, to H. Alexander, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI (“Mafia activities”); “Reports of AMGOT Divisions, up to Nov. 1, 1943,” part 3, n.d., Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI (jailed sixteen hundred); Norman Lewis, In Sicily, 56 (revenge killings); diary, Carleton Washburne, Oct. 22, 1943, Mina Curtiss collection, YU (scissored Fascist cant); John Hersey in Reporting World War II, vol. 1, 621; report, W. A. Eddy to W. L. Langer, Aug. 29, 1943, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 39.

  The Quaker muckraker: Dennis Showalter, Patton and Rommel, 321; Donald Coe, “Army Releases Patton Story After Denial,” Nov. 23, 1943, Boston Traveler, 1; Richard Collier, Fighting Words, 147; msg, DDE to AGWAR, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD executive files, Nov. 27, 1943, box 14; Chandler, vol. 3, 1606 (Smith in Algiers made matters worse).

  Army regulations: reprinted, Army and Navy Journal, Dec. 4, 1973, 394, Orlando Ward papers, MHI; PP, 377 (fifteen hundred letters); Hirshson, 427 (Gallup poll).

  “I am not so sure”: corr, GSP to Beatrice, Dec. 4 & 9, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 17; Calculated, 257; Hirshson, 433 (“family of the deceased”); diary, Dec. 25, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 4 (“live to see him die”); Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 81 (“always get in trouble”); corr, L. J. McNair to GSP, Nov. 27, 1943, and GSP to L. J. McNair, Dec. 29, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 418, director of plans and operations, box 1229; corr, GSP to D. S. Miller, Sr., Dec. 27, 1943, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 44, folder 1 (“Very few of us”).

  “I doubt that I would ever”: msg, DDE to GCM, Sept. 20, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD exec files, box 13; PP, 393; D. Clayton James and Anne Sharp Wells, A Time for Giants, 230 (“should always serve”).

  Deliverance came: “Log of the President’s Trip to Africa and the Middle East,” Stephen T. Early Papers, FDR Lib, box 37.

  “General Patton, you will have an army”: Mark W. Clark, “General Patton,” ts, n.d., subject file, MWC, Citadel, biography folder, box 70, 3; Michael F. Reilly, Reilly of the White House, 188.

  burst into sobs: Reilly, 188; William D. Leahy, I Was There, 215–16.

  “My destiny is sure”: PP, 391.

  A Gangster’s Battle

  Eighth Army since invading Calabria: Molony V, 481, 482n, 483n; Battle, 146; Richard Doherty, A Noble Crusade, 173; msg, DDE to CCS, Nov. 4, 1943, SM, MHI, box 2; Fifth Army at the Winter Line, 7; Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis, “The Allied Armies in Italy,” n.d., CMH, II-21 (“sufficiently stretched”).

  That strategy still seemed plausible: Molony V, 493, 496; StoC, 258–59; B. H. Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 343 (“We will now hit them”); Richard Lamb, Montgomery in Europe 1943–45, 56 (“The road to Rome”).

  The Bernhardt Line defenses: Doherty, 171; Thomas R. Brooks, The War North of Rome, June 1944–May 1945, 4 (“ridge and furrow country”); “Current Reports from Overseas,” March 11, 1944, War Office, CARL, N-148495 (“average range of vision”); Field Marshal Lord Carver, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy, 1943–1945, 98–99 (avenue of poplars).

  Drenching winter rains: Doherty, 174; Battle, 148; Molony V, 488; Dharm Pal, The Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945, 35 (“malignant river”); Richard S. Malone, A Portrait of War 1939–1943, 201 (“could hear the wounded men”); StoC, 259 (losses in the 78th Division).

  “an unprofitable sector”: OH, Howard Kippenberger, Feb. 4 and 12, 1947, SM, MHI; weekly intelligence summary, no. 67, Dec. 4, 1943, AFHQ, G-2, NARA RG 407, E 427, 95-AL1-2.6 (“lost the initiative”); Michael Pearson Cessford, “Hard in the Attack: The Canadian Army in Sicily and Italy, July 1943–June 1944,” Sept. 1996, Ph.D. diss, Carleton University, Ottawa, 215 (strategy of attrition); Molony V, 495–97.

  “almost lunar in its desolation”: Farley Mowat, The Regiment, 137, 146; Doherty, 191 (“lay rigid”).

  “To preserve sanity”: diary, O. Carpenter, Nov. 11, 1943, IWM, 79/38/1; John Gunther, D Day, 134 (“murder”); Gilbert Allnutt, “A Fusilier Remembers Italy,” ts, 1979, IWM, 80/46/1, 18, 23 (“Move forward”).

  Montgomery kept his swank: Gunther, 129; Malone, 193–95.

  “The army commander wants to see you”: L.S.B. Shapiro, They Left the Back Door Open, 44; OH, Francis de Guingand, March 31, 1947, G. A. Harrison, “OCMH WWII Europe Interviews,” MHI (“Sit down”); Stephen Brooks, ed., Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 313 (“go-as-you-please”); J. B. Tomlinson, “Under the Banner of the Battleaxe,” ts, n.d., IWM, 90/29/1, 108 (“And after the war”).

  “I must have fine weat
her”: Nigel Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 449; Dick Malone, Missing from the Record, 53 (“You are useless”); Andrew Brookes, Air War over Italy, 1943–1945, 38 (“‘Stop frigging’”); Molony V, 511 (“the unusual gift”).

  “a very good First World War general”: Richard H. Kohn, ed., “The Scholarship on World War II,” Journal of Military History, vol. 55, no. 3 (July 1991), 365+.

  “untidy and ad hoc”: B. L. Montgomery, “Reflections on the Campaign in Italy, 1943,” Nov. 24, 1943, ts, IWM, micro, reel 4, BLM 48, 1–4.

  Canada’s hour had finally come round: Mark Zuehlke, Ortona, 3; Martin Gilbert, The Second World War, 353–54; From Pachino to Ortona, CARL, N-14352; Arthur Bryant, The Turn of the Tide, 596 (feared that the war would end).

  a decrepit sandstone castle: Combat Report No. 1, “Liberation of Rome,” 1944, Signal Corps film, NARA RG 111, CR001; Zuehlke, Ortona, 31–32, 37–39; Karl Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily, 190 (local landmarks); Daniel G. Dancocks, The D-Day Dodgers: The Canadians in Italy, 1943–1945, 173–76 (ten thousand souls); Steiger, “The Campaign in Southern Italy,” 30 (holes in the harbor mole); “Canadian Street Fighting in Ortona,” June 15, 1944, Military Reports from the United Nations, No. 19, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 184 (easily severed).

  The Canadian division commander: http://www.junobeach.org/e/3/can-pep-can-vokesep.htm; Zuehlke, Ortona, 14 (“pompous bully”), 18; Dancocks, 69 (“roughneck”), 191 (the Butcher); Mark Zuehlke, The Liri Valley, 166 (“a man’s fate is written”); Molony V, 504.

  A lunge on the left flank: Dancocks, 156, 159 (“raving madhouse”); Mowat, 151 (“stupid bastard”); Zuehlke, Ortona, 124 (“translucent red”), 156, 160; From Pachino to Ortona, 133–34 (“confusing to the enemy”); war diary, Loyal Edmonton Regiment, Dec. 9, 1943, http://www.lermuseum.org/ler/cof/sacrifice/wwii/textwindow/wardiary1.html; “Victoria Cross Is Awarded Major Paul Triquet, Montreal, for Heroic Action in Italy,” March 6, 1944, Hamilton (Canada) Spectator, www.warmuseum.ca.