The Day of Battle (130 page)

Smoke hardly helped:
Kleber and Birdsell, 444–45 (
complained about German smoke
); testimony, Henry H. Carden, XO, 143rd Inf, IG investigation, March 1, 1944, NATOUSA, NARA RG 492, 333.5, box 1055; testimony, Kenneth F. Zitzman, II Corps signal officer, Jan. 27, 1944, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2 (
only fifty yards
).

“
a pathetic inertia
”: Blumenson,
Bloody River,
116; testimony, William B. Chase, II Corps asst. G-3, Jan. 25, 1944, IG investigation, CMH, 370.2 (“
The situation as I saw it
”); GK, “Statement Covering the Rapido River Operation”
Texas,
311–13 (“
groggy
”).

But Clark in a phone call:
GK, Jan. 22, 1944; diary, FLW, Jan. 22, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“
not going to do it anyway
”); memo, William A. Walker, “Report of Interview”(“
might as well call it off
”).

Clark “seemed inclined to find fault”
: GK, Jan. 23, 1944; diary, FLW, Jan. 22, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“
I have done everything possible
”); Krebs, 50 (“
Too many damned Germans
”).

“
Tell me what happened
”: diary, GK, Jan. 23, 1944; diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, HIA, box 7.

As soon as Clark and Keyes drove off:
memo, W. H. Wilbur, Jan. 23, 1944, FLW, HIA, box 7; diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, HIA, box 7.

By midday on Sunday:
Clifford H. Peek, Jr., ed.,
Five Years, Five Countries, Five Campaigns,
39; AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID, chronology;
StoC,
346; Ray Wells, “Battalion Commander” (
deflected by the Parker pen
); Smith, 62–63 (“
I guess it’s your leg
”).

swam the river with one foot blown off:
Peek, ed., 39; Shelby Foote,
The Civil War,
vol. 2, 520 (
inured to supplication
); AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID (“
American firing had ceased
”); Bruce L. Barger,
The Texas 36th Division,
170–71 (“
I was never the same
”).

Official medical records:
Wiltse, 244n.

Some counts were a bit lower:
corr, Robert P. Patterson, WD, n.d., and corr, WD, Apr. 3, 1946, in “The Rapido River Crossing,” U.S. House, 31;
StoC,
346; memo, Thomas North to A. Gruenther, “Rapido Operation Action,” March 18, 1946, and attached note to Gruenther, Apr. 5, 1944, MWC, Citadel, box 39; Wagner, 121n.

Clark would accuse Walker:
OH, MWC, Rittgers, 71. Redacted pages opened at author’s request.

The Germans found 430 American bodies:
analysis, “Effect of Rapido Operation on German Plans and Dispositions,” n.d., MWC, Citadel, box 39; diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, HIA, box 7 (“Freuen wir uns”).

“
I had 184 men
”: William L. Allen,
Anzio: Edge of Disaster,
39; Wagner, 92; testimony, Andrew F. Price, 26–30 (
Two scarecrow battalions
); AAR, 2nd Bn, 19th Engineer Regt (“
bad tangled mess
”); Bowlby, 171 (“
crying halt
”).

Clark soon summoned Walker: Texas,
322–23,

“
No, you are doing all right
”: memo, William A. Walker, “Report of Interview”
Texas,
322, 325 (“
I am marked for relief
”); OH, Adams, 1975, Monclova and Lang (“
no sins of commission
”).

“
a series of mishaps
”:
StoC,
350;
Calculated,
282 (“
If I am to be accused
”).

“
Some blood had to be spilled
”:
StoC,
347–48;
Battle,
181; Blumenson,
Bloody River,
127 (
failed to enlighten Walker
).

“
From a military standpoint
”: Wagner, 227; OH, Frido von Senger u. Etterlin, Sept. 22, 1955, Philip A. Crowl, SM, MHI, 2; MEB, “Shifting of German Units Before and During Nettuno Landing,” 27; Mavrogordato, “XIV Panzer Corps Defensive Operations,” 44.

“
The attack was insufficiently planned
”: Charles W. Pence, “An Interview with Genfldm Albert Kesselring, Rapido River Crossing,” May 6, 1946, ETHINT 71, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1; Wallace, 113 (“
this ain’t the place
”); Lloyd M. Wells,
From Anzio to the Alps,
50 (“
untainted by association
”).

“
edge of mutiny
”: corr, Goode to Wagner, n.d., Texas MFM; C. L. Sulzberger,
A Long Row of Candles,
231; AAR, “143rd Infantry,” Jan. 1944, ASEQ, MHI (“
cannon fodder
”); Blumenson,
Bloody River,
142 (“
faulty orders
”).

That resolution would be revivied: StoC,
351; “The Rapido River Crossing,” U.S. House, Feb. 20 and March 18, 1946; Wagner, 224 (“
Walker’s mental attitude
”).

“
Nothing was right except the courage
”: Parker, 124.

“den englischen Kommandeur”: diary, FLW, Jan. 23, 1944, box 7; Wagner, 123 (
towels and iodine
).

They found a few survivors:
Bill Adler, ed.,
World War II Letters
; Ray Wells, “Battalion Commander” (
half his face blown away
).

For three hours they gathered the dead: Texas,
318; notebook, Will Lang, n.d., USMA Arch (
German photographers
); Hal Boyle, quoted in Gervasi, 546 (“
blow that place all to hell
”).

The short peace ended:
Bond, 49; AAR, “Report of Operations, January 1944,” 36th ID; Smith, 107; Sulzberger, 223 (
ravenous dogs
).

The Show Must Go On

Much has happened through antiquity:
Virgil,
The Aeneid,
trans. Robert Fagles, 197; H.V. Morton,
A Traveller in Southern Italy,
275–76 (
sixty trapdoors
); Norman Lewis,
Naples ’44,
154 (
lions here refused to eat
); http://www.geocities.com/lorensophia/bio.html.

the staging for
SHINGLE
neared completion:
“Outline Plan, Operation SHINGLE,” Fifth Army, Jan. 12, 1944, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI; S. W. Roskill,
White Ensign,
333 (
four-hundred-ship armada
); AAR, “Mounting and Initial Phase of Operation
SHINGLE,
” VI Corps, March 15, 1944, NARA RG 407, 206-3.0, box 3740 (
eighty-four LSTs
); Field-Marshal Lord Wilson,
Eight Years Overseas,
193 (
meteorologists for days
);
SSA
, 334.

A festive mood
: Fred Sheehan,
Anzio: Epic of Bravery,
35; Wells, 51 (
Columns of jeeps
);
SSA,
333 (
Italians vendors sang out
); Peter Verney,
Anzio 1944,
29 (
Irish Guardsmen marched
); Leo G. Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” ts, n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 CC5, XXII-8; F. J. Lowry, “The Naval Side of the Anzio Invasion,”
Proceedings,
Jan. 1954, 22+ (
portable organ
); diary, Robert M. Marsh, Jan. 21, 1944, 81st Armored Reconnaissance Bn, 1st AD, ASEQ, MHI.

Bum boats swarmed:
Verney, 29; diary, William Russell Hinckley, Jan. 1944, author’s possession (“
dagoes were fast
”); Hans Juergensen,
Beachheads and Mountains,
27 (“
The show must go on
”).

Robert Capa arrived:
Robert Capa,
Slightly Out of Focus,
120; Robert W. Black,
Rangers in World War II,
136 (
6615th Ranger Force
).

Boarding the
Princess Beatrix: AAR, “Report of Actions,” 1st Ranger Bn, Jan. 22–Feb. 5, 1944, USMA, micro, MP63-8, roll 1; Anders Kjar Arnbal,
The Barrel-Land Dance Hall Rangers,
217; Verney, 26 (“
love and nickel beer
”).

“
All that fanfare
”: Edmund F. Ball,
Staff Officer with the Fifth Army,
281–82.

“
no inclination to lighten burdens
”:
CM,
295; JPL, 305 (
turnover of lieutenants
); aide’s diaries, Jan. 21, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (
silver nitrate
).

“
I have many misgivings
”: JPL, 322–23.

The commander of VI Corps:
JPL, 141 (
iron-tipped cane
), 310 (“
I feel every year
”); Raleigh Trevelyan,
Rome ’44,
42 (“
Father Christmas
”); D.H.L. Fitzgerald,
History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War,
201 (“
layers of overcoats
”).

Born in West Virginia:
Benjamin S. Persons,
Relieved of Command,
82; JPL, 2; OH, MWC, Rittgers, 66 (
privately preferred
).

Lucas drove a jeep:
JPL, 145, 217 (“
unutterable swine
”); Wynford Vaughan-Thomas,
Anzio,
30 (“
by the yard
”); Allen, 46; Carver,
Harding of Petherton,
125; Ball, 316 (“
never seemed to want to hurt
”); Nicolson, 233 (“
no presence
”); John Nelson, “Always a Grenadier,” ts, 1982, LHC, 38 (“
our spirits sank
” 4); L. James Binder,
Lemnitzer,
118–20 (
yellow fever
).

“
I think too often of my men
”: JPL, 230, 295 (“
led to slaughter
”), 305 (“
OVERLORD
would be unnecessary
”), 320, 322; Greenfield, ed., 254 (“
desperate attack
”); OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI; John S. D. Eisenhower,
They Fought at Anzio: A Study in Command
(forthcoming, University of Missouri Press, 2007), mss 178 (
last will and testament
).

Could Alexander and others have:
Greenfield, ed., 256; weekly intelligence summary, No. 74, Jan. 24, 1944, AFHQ, CMH, Geog files, Italy, 370.2, 6 (“
very questionable
”); “Outline Plan, Operation
SHINGLE,
” Jan. 12, 1943, Fifth Army, Robert J. Wood papers, MHI (“
lowering of morale
”);
Anzio Beachhead,
6–7 (
no more than 31,000 Germans
); memo, E. Hughes to W. B. Smith, Feb. 1, 1944, Walter Bedell Smith papers, DDE Lib, box 7 (“
entertainment fund
”).

Lucas beheld a different vision
: “Outline Plan,
SHINGLE
,” Jan. 18, 1944, VI Corps, G-2, JPL papers, MHI, box 11; memo, Joseph L. Langevin, VI Corps G-2, to JPL, Jan. 4, 1944, JPL papers, MHI, box 12 (“
even under favorable conditions
”); JPL, 305 (“
Gallipoli
”).

“
John, there is no one
”: JPL, 305.

Under Alexander’s instructions to Clark
: Greenfield, ed., 251.

“
seize and secure a beachhead
”: “Outline Plan, Operation
SHINGLE
,” Jan. 12, 1944, Fifth Army, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R 97-I, box 270; Greenfield, ed., 251–53 (
Clark remained deliberately vague
); diary, MWC, Jan. 9, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“
feature duster
”).

In a private message:
JPL, 307.

“
Don’t stick your neck out
”: JPL, 333; OH, JPL, May 24, 1948, SM, MHI (“
goddam Rome
”).

The XII Air Support Command:
“Operation Plan
SHINGLE
,” Jan. 8, 1944, XII Air Support Command, JPL papers, MHI, box 11; “Notes by Comd 1 (Br) Division,” Jan. 2, 1944 (“
advance north towards fulfillment
”), and Jan. 20, 1944 (“
at last talking of plans
”) William R. C. Penney papers, LHC, Penney 8/2; Field Order no. 19, Jan. 15, 1944, VI Corps, NARA RG 319, OCMH, historical background files, American Forces in Action, Anzio, box 119; Nigel Hamilton,
Master of the Battlefield,
441 (“
complete nonsense
”).

The British failed to disembark:
AAR, “The First Division in Action,” Apr. and July 1944, Philip L. E. Wood papers, LHC, Wood 2/2; Meyer, “Strategy and Logistical History: MTO,” XXII-11 (
only eleven of thirty-seven
); J. W. Totten, “Anzio Artillery,” ts, 1947, CGSC, Ft. L, CARL N-2253.6, 7;
SSA
, 332; JPL, 321 (“
I stood on the beach
”).

“
If this is to be a forlorn hope
”: diary, MWC, Jan. 19, 1944, Citadel, box 65 (“
overwhelming mismanagement
”);
CM,
304 (“
I’ve got your report
”).

land of omen and divination:
Livy,
The War with Hannibal,
trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt, 89, 94.

ancient sailors’ injunction:
Carver,
The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Italy,
119, 120 (“
more like a review
”); aide’s diaries, Jan. 21, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 18, folder 3 (
at 5:20
A.M.
);
Anzio Beachhead,
14 (
Others snoozed
); Robert M. Hill and Elizabeth Craig,
In the Wake of War,
55; diary, Hinckley, Jan. 1944 (“
Most talk is of home
”).

“
More training is certainly necessary
”: JPL, 319, 284–85 (“
Little Big Horn
”).

C
HAPTER
8: P
ERDITION

“Something’s Happening”