The Day of Battle (158 page)

“2004 [Ranger] Reunion Program Book.” Aug. 25–30, 2004. Fort Wayne, Ind.

Weinberg, Gerhard L. “The Place of World War II in History.” Lecture, U.S. Air Force Academy, 1995.

Wood, Robert J. “The Landing at Salerno.” Lecture, Army and Navy Staff College. Dec. 28, 1944. NARA RG 319, OCMH, box 244.

A full list of manuscripts and other unpublished documents used in this book appears online at
www.liberationtrilogy.com
.

The second volume of the Liberation Trilogy is now complete, and once again I owe an inexpressible debt to many people without whom I would still be beating toward the Sicilian coast. The publication of volume one,
An Army at Dawn
, encouraged many veterans and their progeny, as well as others with an interest and expertise in World War II, to provide me with memoirs, oral histories, and sundry material about the Mediterranean campaigns, much of which appears in this volume for the first time. I would like to thank:

Blair Alexander, Consuelo Allen, John B. Babcock, John C. Beam, Homer Bishop, Loyd J. Bliss, Nathan Block, Martin Blumenson, William W. Bonning, John M. Brooks, Paul W. Brown, Charles F. Bryan, Jr., Harold Burson, W. W. Keen Butcher, Andrew Carroll, Russell W. Cloer, Robert E. Coffin, Mark H. Cohen, Barbara Moir Condos, Michael J. Corley, Jerry Countess, J. W. Crawford, John L. Creech, J. K. Cullen, Michael J. P. Cunneen, Jim Davies, Warren Davis, Carlo D’Este, Robert J. Dole, Clifford W. Dorman, Elizabeth Bradley Dorsey, Christopher Dunphie, Lawyn C. Edwards, John S. D. Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower, Uzal W. Ent, Graham Erdwurm, Francis A. Even, James F. Fain, Alicia Ferrari, R.L.V. ffrench Blake, Lou Fiset, David G. Fivecoat, Frederic D. Floberg, James D. Ford, Arthur L. Funk, Libby Gill, George H. Goldstone, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Paul F. Gorman, Douglas Gould, Richard Griffin, Fred Groff III, Arthur T. Hadley, George L. Hanssen, Joseph Heiser, Donald V. Helgeson, Thomas A. Higbie, Al Hormel, Fred S. Howard, Michael Howard, Charles P. Jacobi, Hugh S. Jacobs, Julian R. Jacobs, Michael Jason, George Juskalian, Walter T. Kerwin, Jr., Geoffrey B. Keyes, J. Keith Killby, Charles E. Kirkpatrick, Sherry Klein, William A. Knowlton, Edward C. Koenig, Jr., Bernard J. La Plante, James E. Lalley, George L. Laurie, D. H. Leathem, Ralph Ledesma, Arthur Lehrman, Rod Liner, Roy Livengood, C. Vincent Lyness, Clement S. Mackowiak, Jack Maher, Howard R. Maier, Mark Mann, Sanford H. Margalith, Jack Marshall, Tom May, Meg McAleer, John C. McManus, Allan R. Millett, Derek R. Mills, Frank Mills, William W. Monning, Louis J. Murchio, Lovern “Jerry” Nauss, Eric J. Neuner, Mike Norris, Michael O’Connor, Dick
Oshlo, Robin K. Overcash, Adolph Panetta, Roy Paterson, Alan R. Perry, Henry Gerard Phillips, George Pickett, G. Kurt Piehler, Russell H. Raine, John Ray, Mark Reardon, Randy Revelle, Robert A. Riesman, David Roberts, John B. Romeiser, Theodore Roosevelt IV, Jack Russell, Frank Schultz, Michael H. Sebastian, Robert Segan, Heinz Seltmann, Nathan M. Shippee, Albert H. Smith, Arthur O. Spaulding, Frank J. Stech, Patti Stickle, James Stroud, Floride Hewitt Taylor, R. C. Taylor, Ray Thomas, John J. Toffey IV, Jason D. Umberger, Joanne Speranza Walker, George Watanabe, Aubrey L. Williams, Isobel Williams, Richard A. Williams, Randall J. Willis, James M. Wilson, Jr., Gary D. Winder, Harold R. Winton, Walter F. Winton, Jr., Dennis B. Worthen, John G. Wright, Eléonore M. Zimmermann, and Carolyn A. Zuttel.

Once again I gratefully acknowledge my debt to the hundreds of historians, memoirists, and others whose writings in the sixty years after the war will forever provide the foundation for all subsequent works of scholarship. I have again relied on the 114-volume
U.S. Army in World War II
, the official history known informally as the Green Series, as well as the official British
History of the Second World War
.

The ground speaks even when eyewitnesses no longer can, and I made several trips to the battle venues of volume two, beginning in the mid-1990s, when I served as Berlin bureau chief of
The Washington Post
and visited Salerno, Anzio, San Pietro, and Cassino for the first time. Other research forays included a visit to Sicily in September 1996 and extended trips to Italian battlefields in April 2004 and November 2006. For the last of these, I thank Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, and two former chiefs of Army history, Maj. Gen. (ret.) William A. Stofft and Brig. Gen. (ret.) Harold Nelson.

The core of this narrative, like its predecessor, is drawn from primary, contemporaneous sources, which range from diaries, letters, and unpublished manuscripts to official records, after-action reports, and original maps. I am again deeply grateful for the professionalism and patience of several score historians and archivists in tracking down these thousands of documents. Any error of fact or judgment is mine alone.

At the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, I thank Richard Boylan, Timothy Mulligan, Larry McDonald, and, most particularly, Timothy K. Nenninger, the chief of modern military records and former president of the Society for Military History. Virtually every page of this book bears Tim’s imprint, and I am deeply grateful for his expertise, humor, friendship, and willingness to read a portion of the manuscript.

The U.S. Army’s Military History Institute, part of the Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is among the nation’s
finest archival repositories and
the
mother lode of Army history. For this volume, I visited MHI twenty-nine times, usually for two-or three-day stretches, and I am grateful for the hospitable professionalism of Col. Robert Dalessandro, the AHEC director, and to Conrad C. Crane, the MHI director, who read part of the manuscript. Thanks also to Richard J. Sommers, chief of patron services; Louise Arnold-Friend; Richard L. Baker; Steve Bye; Tom Hendrix; Gary Johnson; Shaun Kirkpatrick; Stanley Lanoue; Michael E. Lynch; Robert Mages; Mike Monahan; Mike Perry; Melinda Torres; and especially David A. Keough.

At the adjacent U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, where I held the Gen. Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership for the 2004–05 academic year, I thank the commandant, Maj. Gen. David H. Huntoon, Jr., and his faculty and staff, including the dean, Col. William T. Johnsen; Col. Charles D. Allen, director of leader development and my classroom copilot; and the library director, Bohdan I. Kohutiak. I am especially grateful to Tami Davis Biddle, the George C. Marshall Chair of Military Studies and a fine historian of airpower, who has been an exceptionally thoughtful and encouraging friend, and who read part of the manuscript.

Thanks also to Stephen P. Riley, executive director of the Army War College Foundation. The Omar Bradley chair is administered jointly with Dickinson College, and I appreciate the support of the president, William G. Durden, as well as Prof. Harry L. Pohlman and Col. (ret.) Jeffrey D. McCausland.

The U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., again offered a rich vein of documents and expertise. Thanks to Brig. Gen. (ret.) John Sloan Brown, the former chief of military history, and his successor, Jeffrey J. Clarke, as well as to Richard Stewart, the chief historian; Col. Gary M. Bowman; Robert K. Wright, Jr.; Mary L. Haynes; and R. Cody Phillips.

At the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, I am grateful to the director, Daniel D. Holt, for his help and hospitality, and to archivist David J. Haight. Similarly, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, I thank the director, Cynthia M. Koch, and archivists Robert Parks, Alycia Vivona, Mark Renovitch, and especially Robert Clark, who also helped to have various Secret Service records declassified.

I had the good fortune to hold a media fellowship at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, for which I thank David Brady and Mandy MacCalla. Elena S. Danielson, the now-retired director of library and archives, and Carol A. Leadenham, assistant archivist for reference, were particularly gracious in opening the institution’s extensive World War II holdings.

The ambitious Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress is a boon to historians; thanks to Eileen Simon, Sarah Rouse, W. Ralph Eubanks, and the able Eric Goldstein.

At the Citadel Archives and Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the director, Jane McCrady Yates, was extraordinarily helpful in offering access to her vast collection of Mark W. Clark’s papers, as well as to a biographical DVD, which she produced. My deep thanks also to Joanne D. Hartog, director of the library archives and special projects at the George C. Marshall Library at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, which among other treasures holds the papers of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.

Professor Mark A. Stoler of the University of Vermont, who has few peers as a scholar of twentieth-century diplomatic history, was kind enough to read and critique portions of the manuscript.

Once again I am grateful to the Robert R. McCormick Research Center at the First Division Museum in Cantigny, Illinois, for both archival excellence and professional assistance. I appreciate the help of John Votaw, the former executive director of the Cantigny First Division Foundation, and of his successor, Paul H. Herbert, as well as that of Andrew E. Woods and Eric Gillespie.

The Texas Military Forces Museum in Austin has a rich trove of material for the 36th Infantry Division. I appreciate assistance from John C. L. Scribner, the museum director and command historian, as well as Angie Rose, Bob Gates, and particularly archivist Brian Schenk.

Thanks to curator Michael E. Gonzalez and to Denise Neil-Binion at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City. I also appreciate early assistance on the 34th Infantry Division from the Iowa Gold Star Museum at Fort Dodge, with thanks to director Jerry L. Gorden and to Richard A. Moss, secretary-treasurer of the 34th Infantry Division Association.

In the special collections department at the U.S. Military Academy library, thanks to Alan Aimone, Susan Lintelmann, Sheila H. Biles, Elaine McConnell, Deborah A. McKeon-Pogue, and Suzanne Christoff. Thanks also to the former West Point history department chairman, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Robert A. Doughty, and to his successor, Col. Lance A. Betros. Thanks also to the Combined Arms Research Library at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, including the director, Edwin B. Burgess, and Col. (ret.) Lawyn C. Edwards, former director of the Combat Studies Institute. Further thanks to Ericka L. Loze-Hudson, director of the Donovan Research Library at the Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Georgia, and to the acting command historian, David S. Stieghan. At the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers History Office at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, thanks to historian Michael J. Brodhead.

I am again appreciative of encouragement and generous support from the Association of the United States Army, particularly from Gen. (ret.) Gordon R. Sullivan, the association president and former Army chief of staff; Lt. Gen. (ret.) Theodore G. Stroup, Jr.; and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas G. Rhame. Lt. Col. (ret.) Roger Cirillo, Ph.D., the association director of operational and strategic studies, once again was exceptionally generous in sharing his vast expertise and amazing personal archive.

At the Air Force Historical Research Agency, at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, I thank Charles F. O’Connell, Jr., the director, Toni Petito, Joseph D. Caver, and Robert E. Brown, Jr.

At the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., thanks to Kathleen M. Lloyd and John Hodges in operational archives, and the Navy Department Library. At the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, I appreciate the help of Evelyn Cherpak, Barbara Donnelly, Shirley Fernandes, Alice Juda, and Jamie Radke. At the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, I thank Paul Stillwell, director of the history division, and Ann Hassinger, as well as Fred H. Rainbow, former editor in chief of
Proceedings
. At the U.S. Naval Academy, thanks to Mary A. DeCredico, former chair of the history department.

Thanks to Edward C. Tracy, executive director of the Tawani Foundation and former executive director of the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, and to G. Kurt Piehler, director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. I appreciate the support and encouragement of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, including that of Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, Sam Wegner, and Bill Detweiler.

I also thank Christine Weideman and Diane E. Kaplan at the Yale University Library’s manuscripts and archives department; Lovetta Kramer, executive director of the RMS
Queen Mary
Foundation and Archive; Lorna Williams, library assistant in the special collections and archives at the University of Liverpool; Shaun Illingworth of the Rutgers University Oral History Archives; and the intrepid crew of
LST 325
, which berthed at Alexandria, Virginia, in May 2005, and is the only twenty-first-century survivor among eleven hundred LSTs built during World War II.

In the United Kingdom, I am grateful to the staff of the National Archive in Kew. At the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College in London, Kate O’Brien, Caroline Lam, and Patricia J. Methven, the director of archive services, were exceptionally helpful. Thanks also to the Department of Documents staff and trustees at the Imperial War Museum, particularly to Roderick Suddaby and Stephanie Clarke.

In Italy, thanks to Maurizio Zambardi and Lorenzo Picillo in San Pietro, and to Silvano Casaldi, director of the Museum of the Allied Landings in Nettuno. Antonio Ali Winston helped with both historical research and translations under an internship provided by the University of Chicago’s Jeff Metcalf Fellows Program. Robert Harp very ably translated several Italian documents for me.

Master cartographer Gene Thorp once again displayed uncommon skill and forbearance in drawing the maps for this volume. My close friend and agent, Rafe Sagalyn, has been there from the beginning.

The Washington Post
, my professional home for nearly a quarter century, is led by several extraordinary readers of history, notably chairman Donald E. Graham, publisher Bo Jones, executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., and editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, who was generous enough to read the manuscript. I’m also grateful for the continued support and friendship of other
Post
colleagues, including Phil Bennett, Benjamin C. Bradlee, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Stephen C. Fehr, Susan Glasser, David Hoffman, Robert G. Kaiser, Jeff Leen, Thomas E. Ricks, Margaret Shapiro, Steve Vogel, Tom Wilkinson, Bob Woodward, and fellow scribbler David Maraniss.