https://barrycountyhistoryportal.org/files/original/16/370/Dibble_Text0103.pdf fc8aa14b71803e0b8473aa375e89775c PDF Text Text NE by (ZZZ. a-612 August 2, I924.3. DECLASSIFIED DOD DIR. 5200.9, Sept. 27, 1958 Dats 5?—3 0 ~ ^7 Algiers, Monday, August 2, 1943* — Following th^fehelving of Mussolini and the quick denunciation of Fascism within Italy, the Prime Minister and the President on succeeding days called for "unconditional surrender". After they had spoken to their publics, the proposed message to the Italians which Ike caused to be sent on Monday, July 26 — intended to give the Italians their "white alley* — was approved by the Combined Chiefs. The Prime Minister had insisted on in­ sertion of a saving clause demanding the Italians not turn over British or American prisoners to the Nazis to be taken away to Germany. is pasted nearby. Text of this message It was broadcast to Italy, starting Friday noon, July 30. Immediately there was a murmur in the press corps because the message indicated permission to retain the House of Savoy but this was necessary because we will need in. Italy a stable government' and the House of Savoy is the only peg to which such a government conceivably may tie during the transition, until a popu­ lar vote by the people may be held to select their own government. We left Maison Blanche by Fortress at 6:30 Saturday morning, ing to fly direct to Palermo but Air Marshal Tedder had telephoned Ike Friday evening that he urgently desired to talk to him. Aouina airfield at Tunis. Consequently, we stopped at kl The Air Marshal had word that Badoglic was actively trending to the Germans and wanted permission to resume the heavy aerial bombard­ ment of Italy, particularly of Naples and of the marshaling yards at Rome. Ike gave his assent. The Fortress burned out a brake when we landed at El Aouina but the Air Force had a C-53 (on the nose of which.was painted a Walt Disney insignia with an inscription "Time's a wastin'") standing by-with an escort of six Lightnings. I had asked for two Lightnings toescort the Fortress, figuring these would be useful to help our^round troops in Sicily identify the Fortress .as friendly �a-615 August 2, 1943» because the Lightnings are so easily distinguishable with their twin tails. The Air Force, always careful to protect the Boss, had raised the ante to 6. General Patton met us at the Bocco-di-Falco airfield which is nestled amongst the mountains bordering Palermo. It was fortunate the brake of the Fortress had given way at Tunis because the runway at Palermo is not only short, but not J D Our 0-53 landed uphill and bounced. level. General Patton was in fine form. provisional 7th Army. He was proud rcfvthe a/coinplishment of the He said it is the best group of fighting men in the world It is true their accanplishments are remarkable although their opposition has been less than that of the British 5th Army on the east. Howrever, the Americans claimed that if Montgomery's army had moved as rapidly as our 7th, the Germans could not have concentrated at Catania to stop them. Now the 45th Division moving eastward along the northern coast road of Sicily and the First Division moving on its right, were making steady but slow progress. Mere marching over the terrain is difficult. Gun implacements have to be spotted during the daytime, mortars and artillery — such as can be transported and implaced in the precipitous mountains — are care­ fully aimed at th'ese strong points and then break loose with their concentrated fire after darkness, while our infantry surrounds and mops up the blown-up enemy positions. This makes for slow- going but the progress has been steady. Patton said they would continue this type of attack persistently so the enemy would never have a chance to re-group. In order to keep the pressure persistently applied to the enemy he was relieving the First Division with the Ninth, and the 45th with the Third. One of the difficulties encountered, particularly along the coast road was effective enemy demolition of the road bed. On one side was the sea, on the other sheer cliffs, sometimes reaching mountain high. A dsnolition would tumble the base of the road into the sea and make the work of the Arny Engineers most difficult. Incidentally, General Patton paid a high tribute to their excellence. General Patton is living in the Palace of the King of Sicily who had been DECLASSIFIED . DOD DIR. 5200.9, Sept. 27, 1958 NE by Dale_ �August 2, 1943. A-616 overthrown in 1861 when Garibaldi took Sicily with 1000 men and the island was joined into the union which became Italy. Major General Terry Allen, commander of the First Division and Brig. General Theodore Roosevelt, his assistant, had been relieved by Patton and confirmed by Ike. .The former for "war weariness," and to be returned to America uhder our rotation policy without discredit. eral Huebner is taking his place. leader of inexperienced troops. Gen­ General Roosevelt had proved to be a gallant He is battle-wise and extremely courageous but this was the only quality which commended him as a general. Ike thought eventually his good quality could be retained by later assigning him to an inexperienced division about to go into battle. He will be given an assignment in the North African theater where his qualities may be useful. The First Division has been in more fighting than any other outfit in this operation and no doubt General Allen simply became fatigued to such a low level that he was unable to afford the inspiration and the leadership, as well as the imagination and discipline that are necessary for a divisional commander. We saw the effect of bombing in Palermo.. It was fl^vastaging but satisfactory. When I saw the effect of bombing at Bizerte I felt sacT, but at Palermo my feeling was "The Ities asked for it and they got it." Two ships of about 125 i r length had been lifted by the force of an.explosion entirely out of the water and onto the quay — a scene that would *0 make a cartoon for Ripley's "Believe it or not." gS 1 3s s § % 5 g 2 Apparently an ammunition ship which had been bombed blew up, created a tidal wave and washed the ships onto the quay 10 ft. above the normal level of the water. The first thing the Americans had to do at Palermo was to organize Italian workers with G.I. bulldozers to clear the streets, particularly those in the vicinity of the docks. Now most of them are clear. The port had reached a level of 2,200 tons discharge with .rapid increase in prospect. American destroyers and PT boats were lying in the harbor.' General Patton had called on the Cardinal of the Palermo arch-diocese, Lavitrone, and the Cardinal ha<^promptly returned his call.. They had become fine �August 2, 1943 . friends. The Cardinal had shown Patton some of the ancient cathedrals. A-617 He had also given the General a message to be transmitted to the Pope, a copy of which I carried back with me and dispatched from Malta at Ike's direction to the Combined Chiefs so it could be sent by proper channels representative of both governments. In it the Cardinal said he and his people were being treated with the "utmost cour­ tesy" and that the occupation had occurred without any "unpleasant incidents". The message had come through the former Lieutenant Governor of New York State, Poletti, who is now a colonel in the Allied Military Government. I asked General Patton how Poletti was doing and he said "Beautifully, but I think he is electioneering for Roosevelt among the Sicilians" After a Spam luncheon in the Palace we took off for Syracuse to meet General Alexander. The headquarters for his 15th Army Group were just being established and he and his immediate stafi sre quartered in a farm The two General3 craferred under an olive i i 21 v tree, backgrounded by a mule unwillingly affording the yosyer^mich drew water from house about ten minutes from the airfield. a deep and cool well. When the mule stopped he was beaten with a long lash by an Italian farmer — an ex-soldier of the last war who expressed his friendship for the Allies in this one by freely giving of his Chianti and Marsala. Ike was anxious that there be no misunderstanding between Alexander and Patton as to plans for the attack scheduled to start the next day —August 2 — today. Patton was to continue his methodical and steady advance; Montgomery was to lay on all he had and try to break through! Incidentally, Monty has 400 big guns and his attack at Catania will be reminiscent of El Alamein. It should be re­ ported, too, that members of the Secretary of War's party who had just came from London said the failure of Monty to take Catania had given the public a let down on their hero. The Prime Minister had expressd to Secretary Stimson his profound gratitude at Ike's statement at having undertaken publicly to balance the progress between the stalled British 8th Army and the rapidly advancing American 7th Army. Ike had told the press, the 7th Army had relatiyely easy going and the 8th very DECLASSIFIED DOD DIR. 5200.9, Sept. 27, 1958 N.E by U6-L Date_£r3^7 �August 2, I943. difficult. A-618 Actually the 8th Army has been getting a great deal of public ity for any kind of movement and the ?th Amy, which has been going great guns, is still somewhat under the cloud of the great reputation of the Sth. Returning to Malta we stayed overnight at Verdala Palace, again the guests of Field Marshal the Lord Gort and his friendly assistants. g •s 4 CO Ike had a meeting of the senior commanders Sunday forenoon during which the entire Italian situation -was discussed, plans refined for attacking the toe of Italy and consideration 5 igiven to helping General Wayne Clark and his 5th Army plan its attack on Naples, probably September 9, with the BUTTRESS to come September 2. i 2 John Gunther, the newspaperman, happened to be a house guest at Verdala Jo Palace. He asked me to read a story about Ike which he had written for Readers Digest. It was most complimentary but I asked him to remove some quotations which I felt General Marshall might feel lacking in dignity. The fact that Malta served as headquarters during the on Sicily will be released for publication on August 4* ^of the attack Ike prepared a statement paying his tribute to the heroism of Malta as a symbol of the united nations which will be released at the same time. Returning to Algiers late, yesterday afternoon after a 3-hour and 40 minute direct flight from Malta in our Fortress, the crew of which had quickly repaired its brake — utilizing a part from a wrecked Fortress at El Aouina — I found that the French papers here were filled with a story that the Italians had sent a delegation to Algiers to confer with Ike.. While it is true we had a report that there was a man in Algiers willing to serve as "contact,* Ike has declined to see him. Naturally any emissaries from the enemy must come under appropriate flag of truce — if they should come here at all, as I suspect negotiations will come through the Vatican which will deal either with the Prime Minister or the Presi­ dent; more likely the latter. Ike was itching this morning to know the result of the long planned boobing of the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania. More than 150 B-24s of the 9th Air Force � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource James P. Dibble: Flying with Eisenhower Description An account of the resource See records of the flight where James and other P-38 pilots flew escort for Eisenhower in 1943.<br /><br />Jump to other sections of the collection: <ul><li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/5">James P. Dibble: World War II P-38 Fighter Pilot</a><ul><li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/6">His Early Life</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/7">High School into the Army Air Corps</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/8">Flight Training</a><ul><li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/17">We Got Married!</a></li> </ul></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/9">Combat!</a><ul><li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/10">Mission Reports</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/11">Letters Home</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/16">Flying with Eisenhower</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/12">The Day of Armageddon - August 30, 1943</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/13">Killed in Action</a></li> </ul></li> <li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/14">The Search for Answers</a><ul><li><a href="https://www.barrycountyhistoryportal.org/collections/show/15">The Monument in Padula, Italy</a><a href="http://omeka/collections/show/15"></a></li> </ul></li> </ul></li> </ul> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Typed document Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Declassified report of General Eisenhower's visit to Italy in August 1943 Subject The topic of the resource James Dibble. Eisenhower. Description An account of the resource Declassified report of General Eisenhower's visit to Italy in August 1943. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Mission report Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1943-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/ Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Hastings Public Library Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jim Dibble Date Accepted Date of acceptance of the resource. Examples of resources to which a Date Accepted may be relevant are a thesis (accepted by a university department) or an article (accepted by a journal). 1/18/2022