Harry Turtledove (Editor) - Alternate Generals II

If Beedle was as good a staff officer as he thinks he is, he'd know this. But he's mostly just Ike's hatchetman rather than a real staff officer. One of many reasons I hope we continue to wipe up the floor in Italy is that if we do that, I will swing as big a hatchet as Beedle.

So to bed-alone, in case anybody who shouldn't reads this diary after a while.

From The New York Times, September 15, 1943:

British Land on Italian Mainland

One Corps in Calabria; Second Near Taranto

A New Allied Pincers Movement?

Will Rome Be An Open City? Pope, Germans Silent.

Al Stiller wants to shoot a few reporters. I told him that any German who can read a map has probably figured out where the nutcracker is going to squeeze. If he can't get his nuts out in time, that's his problem.

Cod [Colonel Charles Codman, Patton's senior aide] arrived this afternoon with the first PT boats to be based at Cagliari. He's looking well. I told him that he doesn't need to worry about us running out of war.

Dinner of C-rations and coffee, while we watched the first Sardinia-based air strikes take off. Heaviest is A-20s, but we're supposed to have a B-25 group as soon as they finish paving Runway Q.

Word is: landing at Civitavecchia. Next word: convoy with French divisional task force for Corsica coming in tonight. Told Navy to be sure swept channels stay swept. Final word: Bradley going ashore with earliest possible wave. Good for him. Fifth Army (or any other) does not need two headquarters operators. Hope he isn't sticking his head into a buzz saw!

From The New York Times, September 17, 1943:

Allies Land North of Rome

Heavy Luftwaffe Raids on Beaches

Will Rome Be Defended?

The Luftwaffe has not shot itself dry. I should have remembered that Kesselring used to be in it, and was damned good. They seem to have pulled back to airfields safe from anything shorter-ranged than a B-17, risking us going ashore unopposed at Salerno. But we went ashore right up by Rome at Civitavecchia, and they are now all over us like what you might expect.

Germans probing hard at Sardinian perimeters and raided two airfields in broad daylight. Only seven planes destroyed, five of them A-36s; we can't afford losing even that many very often. Need to clear the rest of Sardinia sooner rather than later.

Placed French Deuxieme Division Coloniale under Lucian, with their first mission to secure Sardinia. Lucian asked permission to arm released Italian POWs to help. Okay, as long as he keeps them and the French well separated.

French thoroughly pissed at not being allowed to land in Corsica immediately. Understand their frustration, but no hope. We need to keep every spare ton of amphibious lift available, to reinforce Civitavecchia.

Sent Cod over to sweet-talk the Frogs. He knows all the fancy French, plus all the plain French needed to get mules, French generals, and other stubborn types moving. Drafted a message for the French, pointing out that they will have the honor of being the first French North African troops into action and the honor of liberating the first French soil. (Foreign Legion has a battalion with the British at Taranto, I've heard, but I've also heard that the Germans are hauling ass out of the Italian heel as fast as they can.)

Message from Forward HQ, Fifth Army, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, Acting CG, to HQ, Seventh Army, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, CG, September 18, 1943:

HEAVY LUFTWAFFE ATTACKS HAVE SUNK COMMAND SHIP ANCON WITH HEAVY CASUALTIES INCLUDING GEN. CLARK, TWO TRANSPORTS, ONE DESTROYER, NUMEROUS LANDING CRAFT. CASUALTIES ON SHORE PRINCIPALLY FROM SNIPERS, BOOBYTRAPS, AND ARTILLERY. WILL ATTACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO EXPAND PERIMETER TO PERMIT LANDING OF FIRST ARMORED DIVISION AS SOON AS AIR SITUATION ALLOWS. ITALIAN CIVILIAN SENTIMENT STRONGLY ANTI-GERMAN.

COPIES TO: CG EIGHTH ARMY

CG FIFTEENTH ARMY

GROUP HQ MTO

From Charles Codman, Audacity (Boston, 1961):

"Not standard form, is it?" General Patton asked.

I had now been with Patton long enough to know a rhetorical question when I heard it. "It conveys all the necessary information to everybody who needs it," seemed a neutral and accurate reply.

"So it does. But I remember a Brad who would rather be court-martialed than send an irregular message." He frowned. "But then, he's in irregular circumstances. At least for him."

I thought that was also neutral and accurate. Bradley's message certainly didn't sound like a cry for help. Of course, he would know that we could reinforce him faster than the Germans could reinforce their Rome garrison, once we regained complete command of the air, and that was a job for somebody else.

"Cod," the general said, "I'm going to hitch a ride over to Civitavecchia and get Brad's shopping list. As far as I'm concerned, supporting him is now Seventh Army's top priority. I'm taking Al Stiller and a couple of enlisted bodyguards."

I must have looked disappointed. "Cod," he said, "if the Luftwaffe starts hitting here, you'll have your hands full. Even if they don't, once the French move out Lucian will need a French-speaking liaison officer. You have just been volunteered for that post. While you're at it, see if you can trade a couple of jeeps for some good brandy. I've never known any French outfit larger than a platoon to go to war without a few bottles in reserve."

I gave him a particularly crisp salute. Neither of us wanted to admit the possibility that he might not come back from this particular excursion.

Getting over to the mainland was a long hundred miles.

No way to fly, because nothing fast enough to avoid the German flyboys could land on the one emergency strip they had in the Civitavecchia perimeter. The maps showed a couple of fighter fields, but I guessed they'd be too cratered and too close to German artillery to be safe.

So I rode a PT boat, one of four with a destroyer escort carrying medical personnel. They were going to have to go ashore in DUKWs or even rafts, but that didn't seem to be bothering them.

Don't know if we were escorting the DE or it was escorting us. The skipper said that the Germans were trying to either reinforce or evacuate Corsica by night, while our air is all tied up supporting the landings. They escorted the convoys with E-boats, and sometimes the E-boats swung south to take a crack at our routes to Civitavecchia.

I told him that I was too old to enjoy midnight swims and that I'd already been in one naval battle, off Casablanca, so if the E-boats stayed home I wasn't going to complain to Admiral Doenitz. The skipper said he wasn't going to complain to Doenitz either, but he would have a beef with Marshal Kesselring if the Germans hauled out before his squadron could get in at least one good fight.

He also said that he was a Catholic, but he still wished the Pope would piss or get off the pot as far as Rome being declared an open city. I said that we'd probably confused both Pius and Kesselring, practically landing in their bedrooms, and neither of them had been dropped on their heads as babies, from what I'd heard. Neither of them would want to go down in history as the man who got Rome burned down for the first time since somewhere around 1500, so they'd probably do the right thing.

The skipper agreed, as long as they damned well did it soon!

I asked him if he couldn't move along faster. He said he didn't want to outrun the DE, and anyway, over twenty-five knots the boats gizzled fuel and made a big white wake that the Luftwaffe could pick out even at night. And our own flyboys weren't much better at target recognition…