The Day of Battle (106 page)

“Many of the men”: George Sessions Perry, “A Reporter at Large,”
New Yorker,
July 24, 1943, 50+; Muirhead, 106–7 (“
could not bear the shame
”).

“
a gentle obsolescent breed
”: Samuel Hynes,
The Soldiers’ Tale,
143.

“
fighting for their right to be hypocrites
”: corr, George Henry Revelle, Jr., to Evelyn, July 7, 1943, author’s possession.

Across the great southern rim:
Paul A. Cundiff,
45th Infantry CP,
6; Hamilton H. Howze,
A Cavalryman’s Story,
78–79; Hamilton H. Howze, “35 Years and Then Some,” ts, n.d., Howze papers, box 10, MHI, VII, 1–2 (
locust swarms
); Charles F. Ryan et al., “2nd Armored Division in the Sicilian Campaign,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, 57 (
a hundred flatcars
); Donald E. Houston,
Hell on Wheels,
148 (
engineer at gunpoint
).

the 45th Infantry Division:
“History of Planning Division, Army Service Forces,” vol. 1, n.d., CMH, 3-2.2 AA, 90–92; Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson,
The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas,
195; Cundiff, 19; Wheeler, 86 (
mine detectors
); Alfred M. Beck et al.,
The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany,
133 (
all nineteen troop-ships
); Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIII-61 (
ordered to the Pacific
); Emajean Jordan Buechner,
Sparks,
64 (
Company J
); Don Robinson,
News of the 45th,
52 (
iced tea
); Brown,
To All Hands,
27, 41, 228 (“
Happy Hour
”).

The 45th was a National Guard division:
E. J. Kahn, Jr., “Education of an Army,”
New Yorker,
vol. 20, no. 35, Oct. 14, 1944, 28+; Flint Whitlock,
The Rock of Anzio,
18–19 (“
no good
”); Peter R. Mansoor,
The GI Offensive in Europe,
102 (“
better prepared
”); unit history, Ben C. Garbowski, ASEQ, 157th Inf., MHI; Frank Farner, ed.,
Thunderbird: 45th Infantry Division,
15 (
Wolftown Guards
); Whitlock, 20–21; George A. Fisher,
The Story of the 180th Infantry Regiment
(
war dance
).

Chancre Alley:
Loyd J. Biss, “Three Years, Four Months and Twenty-seven Days,” ts, n.d., author’s possession, 19; Fred Sheehan,
Anzio: Epic of Bravery,
48 (“
provost marshal’s report
”); Frank James Price,
Troy H. Middleton: A Biography,
146 (
brandy
); Kenneth D. Williamson, “Tales of a Thunderbird,” ts, n.d., 45th ID Mus, 73, 84, 87 (
scooping up dimes
).

Along with the money:
DDE to CG, NATOUSA SOS, June 3, 1943, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD Exec Files, box 16; OH, John E. Hull, 1974, SOOHP, James W. Wurman, MHI, 57 (
bayonets too dull
).

Three hundred and forty crow-flying miles:
Quentin Reynolds,
The Curtain Rises,
309–10; Cherpak, ed., 188–89.

“
solid forest of masts
”: “Notes on PT History in Mediterranean: Letter from LCDR S. M. Barnes, commander of Motor Torpedo Squadron 15, to CDR Bulkley,” n.d., SEM, NHC, box 54, 33; memo, Bert M. Rudd, “Landing Craft and Bases,” AGF Observer, July 16, 1943, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, box 150, 1 (“
into anchored vessels
”); Edmund F. Ball,
Staff Officer with the Fifth Army,
344 (“
Poems are made
”); Paul W. Pritchard, “Smoke Generator Operations in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operation,” Chemical Corps, n.d., CMH, 4-7.1 FA 1; Pyle, 6 (
Luftwaffe raiders
); Anders Kjar Arnbal,
The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers,
100 (
steel hail
); Nigel Nicolson,
The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939
–
1945,
vol. II, 347 (“
Bring up your children
”).

“Florida”
: OH, William Francis Powers, Aug. 1985, CEOH.

None of the namesake camps:
Howard, 30, 103 (“
wog wine
”); AAR, 3/26th Inf, July 1–5, 1943, MRC FDM; Jean Gordon Peltier,
World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier,
91–92 (
peppermint
); AAR, “1st Embarkation Group, Eastern Base Section,” Aug. 1943, CARL, N-2763, 39–48 (
German field ranges
); Maxwell D. Taylor,
Swords and Plowshares,
48; Clifford W. Dorman, “Too Soon for Heroes,” ts, n.d., author’s possession, 57 (
TNT
); diary, July 7, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10 (
ten young bulls
).

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
).

v
ictory 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
”).