The Day of Battle (122 page)

A visiting general complained:
Herbert E. MacCombie, “Chaplains of the Thirty-sixth Division,” ts, n.d., Texas MFM, 25.

C
HAPTER
5: C
ORPSE OF THE
S
IREN

“I Give You Naples”

British military policemen in red caps:
George Biddle,
Artist at War,
142; Malcolm Munthe,
Sweet Is War,
175 (
crooked their fingers
); Frank Gervasi,
The Violent Decade,
499 (“
didn’t look human
”); J. A. Ross,
Memoirs of an Army Surgeon,
171;
Texas,
267; John Lardner, “The Mayor of Futani,” in
The New Yorker Book of War Pieces,
266 (
recited the brands
), 269; John Steinbeck,
Once There Was a War,
164 (“
stinks of the classics
”); Richard Tregaskis,
Invasion Diary,
148 (“
make ’em to last
”).

A squadron from the King’s Dragoon Guards:
Molony V, 343; Matthew B. Ridgway,
Soldier,
88; Leon Weckstein,
Through My Eyes
;
Calculated,
214 (“
city of ghosts
”); AAR, Donald Downes to W. Donovan, OSS activities in Neapolitan campaign, Oct. 19, 1943, NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 48; AAR, secret intelligence in Italy, n.d., NARA RG 226, E 99, OSS history office, box 39; Malcolm S. McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” ts, 1975, MHI, 92 (
Italian bodies
); Donald Downes,
The Scarlet Thread,
158 (“
sweet heliotrope odor
”); MWC, “Salerno,”
AB,
no. 95, 1997, 1+ (“
less happy mood
”).

He was in the wrong place:
James M. Gavin,
On to Berlin,
73; Tregaskis, 149–52.

“
Naples has been taken
”: msgs, MWC to H. Alexander, Oct. 1, 1943, and MWC to Renie, Oct. 5, 1943, diary, MWC, Citadel, box 64.

It proved an odd gift:
George F. Botjer,
Sideshow War,
61 (
conscripting young men
); Peter Tompkins,
Italy Betrayed,
260 (
reign of German terror
); memo, John T. Whitaker, Psychological Warfare Branch, to MWC, “Attitude of People of Naples,” Oct. 3, 1943, MWC, Citadel, corr, box 3; Robert Wallace,
The Italian Campaign,
78 (
as young as nine
).

An estimated three hundred locals:
Botjer, 61. Allied counterintelligence put the number at 227. “Counter Intelligence Corps, Information Bulletin No. 4,” n.d., “Theater Com-Z Activities, ASF, 1944–1945,” CARL, N-5990; AAR, Downes to Donovan, Oct. 19, 1943 (
two days sooner
).

“
There were still Germans
”: diary, Oct. 19, 1943, JMG, MHI, box 10; Downes, 158 (
red Italian grenades
); Robert Capa,
Slightly Out of Focus,
102–3; Biddle, 152–57; George Biddle,
George Biddle’s War Drawings,
49.

“
the most beautiful city
”:
Naples with Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast,
35; C.R.S. Harris,
Allied Administration of Italy, 1943–1945,
85 (
blew up the main aqueduct
); msg, Fifth Army to AFHQ, Naples damage estimate, Oct. 13, 1943, MWC, Citadel, box 63 (
forty sewer lines
);
Building the Navy’s Bases in World War II,
vol. 2, 88; “German Demolition Policy in Occupied Russia and Italy,” June 15, 1944, Ministry of Economic Warfare Intelligence Weekly, NARA RG 334, NWC Lib, ANSCOL, box 467; Alfred M. Beck et al.,
The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany,
168; Leo J. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XIX-11 (
crashing two trains
); “Engineer History, Fifth Army, Mediterranean Theater,” n.d., MHI, 69 (
Coal stockpiles
); “History of the First Special Service Force,” n.d., Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 1, 52–53 (
Even the stairwells
).

The opportunities for cultural atrocity:
Tompkins, 276;
SSA,
311 (
city archives
); memo, Mason Hammond and F.H.J. Maxse to F. J. McSherry, Nov. 5, 1943, “Report of AMGOT Divisions, up to Nov. 1, 1943,” part 3, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI; Downes, 159n; Lynn H. Nicholas,
The Rape of Europa,
232 (
stored in Nola
).

Worse yet was the sabotage around the great port:
U.S. Army engineers estimated that half the damage was from Allied bombs, half from German demolitionists. Beck, 167.

Half a mile inland:
Tregaskis, 158; H.V. Morton,
A Traveller in Southern Italy,
230; Homer,
The Odyssey,
trans. Robert Fagles, book 12, line 199 (“
high, thrilling song
”); memo, Paul Gardner, damage to cultural facilities, Naples, Oct. 27, 1943, and draft report, MTOUSA IG, Dec. 20, 1943, both in NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, IG, 333.5, box 2014; Gervasi, 499 (
Grand hotels
); Paul W. Brown,
The Whorehouse of the World,
216.

Not a single vessel:
Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History,” xix–10; Joseph S. Gorlinski, “Naples: Case History in Invasion,”
Military Engineer,
vol. 36, no. 222 (Apr. 1944), 109+;
Battle,
124; Beck, 168 (
fifty-eight of sixty-one berths
); “Rehabilitation of the Port of Naples,” May 1944, NARA RG 336, ASF, Historical Program Files, chief of transportation, 190/33/30/00, box 559, 4–6 (
Pier F
); “Logistical History of NATOUSA/MTOUSA, Nov. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, AFHQ, 95-AL1-4, box 203, 104 (
pair of ninety-ton cranes
); HKH, “Action Report of the Salerno Landings, Sept.–Oct. 1943,” 1945, CMH, 156–57 (
seeded the harbor
).

“
small, aged animals
”: Brown, 219;
SSA,
311; lecture, W. A. Sullivan, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” 1947, Society of Military Engineers, Cincinnati, in “World War II Histories and Historical Reports,” #445, NHC, 16 (“
demolitions for revenge
”); Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History,” XIX–13 (
Marseilles and Cherbourg
).

equivalent of sixty-eight Liberty ships:
HKH, “Action Report of the Salerno Landings, Sept.–Oct. 1943,” 1945, CMH, 156–57; Gorlinski, “Naples,” 109+.

Twenty-nine Italian divisions: StoC,
7; F. W. Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship,
530; Tompkins, 229 (
forged orders
); David Hunt,
A Don at War,
221 (“
Each bomb is chipping
”).

island of Cephalonia:
E. F. Fisher, “Memo for the Record,” March 28, 1973, from
Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht,
Band III, zweiter Halbband, 1118–133, NARA RG 319, OCMH, CA, box 006; Richard Lamb,
War in Italy, 1943–1945,
132–33; R.J.B. Bosworth,
Mussolini’s Italy,
504; Alex Bowlby,
Countdown to Cassino,
7n; Lamb, 132–33 (
sunk at sea
); Melton S. Davis,
Who Defends Rome?,
466 (“
Italians are burning
”).

“
The only Italian army
”: Lamb, 87, 88–89, 104; Michael Burleigh,
The Third Reich,
741–42 (“
military internees
”); Karl Theodor Koerner, “Rail Transportation Problems in Italy,” Apr. 1947, FMS, #D-010, MHI, 8.

A German radio intercept:
Albert Praun, “German Radio Intelligence,” March 1950, FMS, #P-038, CMH, 68; John Winton,
Cunningham,
329; Hunt, 230–31 (“
size of a tennis court
”); Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani,
The Naval War in the Mediterranean,
307;
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,
vol. 7, NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 248, 931 (
catalogue of booty
); “Under the German Yoke,” ts, n.d., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Historical Division, X-39, 1 (
60,000 motor vehicles
).

The second escape:
S. W. Roskill,
The War at Sea, 1939–1945,
188;
SSA
, 304–8 (“
even more astonishing
”).

The third escape:
“Military Campaigns and Political Events in Italy, 1942–1943,” Jan. 1946, WD, Strategic Services Unit, A-63366, CMH, Geog Files, Italy, 370.22, 34–35; Elizabeth Wiskemann,
The Rome-Berlin Axis,
311; Otto Skorzeny,
Skorzeny’s Secret Missions,
57–58; Gerald Pawle,
The War and Colonel Warden,
249–60; “The Rescue of Mussolini,”
AB,
no. 22, 1978, 12+ (
vacated ski resort
); Bruton F. Hood, “The Gran Sasso Raid,”
MR,
Feb. 1959, 55+; Denis Mack Smith,
Mussolini,
300 (
endless carping
); Benito Mussolini,
My Rise and Fall,
137 (
removed all sharp objects
); Peter Neville,
Mussolini
, 177 (“
one must suffer
”).

Soon enough his whereabouts leaked:
O. Skorzeny and K. Radl, “The Rescue of Mussolini,” n.d., intelligence translation no. H-7563, DA, 72–93; John Toland,
Adolf Hitler,
754 (
badly scarred visage
); “Military Campaigns,” 47 (
gliders began skittering
); Skorzeny, 98–99 (“
the Führer has sent me
”); “How Strong Is the Enemy Today?” 1944, OSS film, NARA RG 111, M2997 (
Storch airplane
);
StoC,
539; Louis P. Lochner, ed.,
The Goebbels Diaries,
468–69.

two dozen Jews:
Martin Gilbert,
The Second World War,
462.

The first German time bomb:
Clark, “Salerno,” 1; “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” 1944, CMH, 8-4 HA 1, vol. 2 (“
The first two floors
”); Robert H. Welker,
A Different Drummer,
208–9.

The blast killed and wounded:
Clay Blair,
Ridgway’s Paratroopers,
164; Welker, 212–14.

Three days later, on Sunday morning:
“Engineer History, Fifth Army,” 35; Blair, 164;
Calculated,
218; OH, Louis Bednar, 82nd Airborne Div, Sept. 17, 2002, VHP (“
sacks of
burlap
”); Ross S. Carter,
Those Devils in Baggy Pants,
55 (“
Nice work, boys
”); MWC to Renie, Oct. 10, 1943, MWC, Citadel; memo, “Security of Material Bombs Explosion in Naples,” n.d., 158th Bomb Disposal, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R 367-F, box 216 (
Prince of Piedmont barracks
).

“
bodies overcome by the ash
”: Norman Lewis,
Naples ’44,
40; “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” vol. 2; “Engineers in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945,” n.d., UK, MHI Lib, 21; Harry L. Coles, “The Army Air Forces in Amphibious Landings in World War II,” 1953, USAF Historical Division, no. 96, 34 (“
suspicious noises
”).

Fears that more hidden bombs:
memo, J. G. Barney to PWB, Fifth Army, Nov. 3, 1943, C. D. Jackson papers, DDE Lib, box 1; Margaret Bourke-White,
Purple Heart Valley,
29; Lewis, 43; Malcolm Muggeridge,
The Infernal Grove,
229.

“
There are 57 varieties of grief
”: Harry L. Coles and Albert K. Weinberg,
Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors,
316; Lewis, 31, 61; “History of the Peninsular Base Section,” vol. 2; Biddle, 160; Robert L. Wagner,
The Texas Army,
58; William J. Diamond, “Water Is Life,”
Military Engineer,
Aug. 1947, 330+; Sullivan, “Ship Salvage and Harbor Clearance,” 19.

Twenty-six thousand tons:
Harris, 88; George C. S. Benson and Maurice Neufeld, “American Military Government in Italy,” in Carl J. Friedrich, ed.,
American Experiences in Military Government in World War II,
137–40; Gervasi, 501; Lewis, 84 (
bitter jest
).

Reconstruction had begun:
“History of the Peninsular Base Section,” vol. 2; Gorlinski, “Naples: Case History in Invasion,” 109; Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope,
A Sailor’s Odyssey,
572 (“
army of ants
”); Lida Mayo,
The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront,
187; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation and the Italian Campaign,” ts, Sept. 1945, mono #17, NARA RG 336, ASF, historical program files, chief of transportation, box 142, 60 (
only three berths
); booklet, 6th Port Bn, Walter J. Muller papers, HIA, box 2 (
more tonnage handled
); McLean, “Adventures in Occupied Areas,” 92.

Garbagemen sang:
OH, Frank Schultz, Apr. 2002, March 2006, with author, Washington, D.C.; Lewis, 51–52 (
hunchbacks
); Carter, 53 (“
wasn’t safe to go to town
”); Warren P. Munsell, Jr.,
The Story of a Regiment,
40n (
dropped your voice
); Mina Curtiss, ed.,
Letters Home,
93; Anders Kjar Arnbal,
The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers,
164 (
Monopoly money
); “Second Orientation Conference at Fifth Army Headquarters,” Nov. 15, 1943, AGF observer report, #77, NARA RG 337, E 15A, box 53 (
resistant to sulfa
); John F. Hummer,
An Infantryman’s Journal,
37, 44; diary, William Russell Hinckley, Oct. 6, 1943, author’s possession (“‘
Fik’ can be had
”).

Some soldiers behaved badly:
memo, Paul Gardner to W. W. Pence, Nov. 19, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA IG, box 2014; Nicholas, 233 (“
stuffed toucans
”); memos, Palazzo Reale custodian, Nov. 26, Dec. 5, 1943, in draft report, IG investigation, Dec. 20, 1943, NARA RG 492, MTOUSA IG, box 2014; T. Moffatt Burriss,
Strike and Hold,
57, 61 (“
He drained his glass
”).