A long time ago my Dad handed me a book. It was a green hardback published in 1943–I can still see it clearly in my mind's eye–entitled Guadalcanal Diary, by journalist Richard Tregaskis. I didn't know much about the author, but I knew something about the topic. Dad had been in the U.S. Army during World War II, part of the "Americal" Division, and he had spent more time than he cared to remember on Guadalcanal. The Diary was (and is) a great book–required reading on the war, really. It's about the Marine effort on the 'Canal, but more than that, it's about men under fire. I learned how they acted, what they ate, the disparaging terms they used for their Japanese opponents–the whole nine yards. It opened a world to me of reading books about the war, studying them for a lifetime, and eventually writing them myself. It was a big hit with the public, deservedly so, and remains popular today with the World War II reading audience. Hollywood even turned it into a movie in 1943, with William Bendix playing what the New York Times called "the inevitable Dodger fan from Flatbush" and Lloyd Nolan as a tough-as-nails sergeant.
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Dick Tregaskis wrote another book about World War II that has never been made into a movie, however. Invasion Diary appeared in 1944, and dealt with the invasion of Sicily, the landing on the Italian mainland at Salerno, and the subsequent gritty fighting for Italy. Although the larger scale of the campaign makes it a little less immediate than the Guadalcanal book, it's still a terrific read, and it is chock-full of the same kind of soldierly detail that made the earlier work so popular. Even so, it can't be denied that it never quite caught the same kind of fancy among the reading public.
And the reason for that, I think, is to be found on p. 208 (in my current edition, the one issued by Bison Books). Tregaskis was attached to (I guess today we'd say "embedded with") the 509th Parachute Battalion under the command of LTC Bill Yarborough, during the fighting for Monte Corno. It was November 22, 1943, and both sides were exchanging artillery fire. Tregaskis had already been under fire on a number of occasions, but this time his number came up. The scream of incoming fire, a bright light, a sudden explosion. He knew he'd been hit, but he didn't know how badly. That realization came slowly. He could think coherent thoughts, he noted, but when he tried to call out for help, only gibberish came. His right arm, he would later write, felt like "a foreign body" to him, and hung limply. He could see his helmet, blown off by the force of the explosion, and he could clearly see the holes torn in it by the shrapnel. He remembered thinking, illogically, what a "fine souvenir" it would make.
It turned out Tregaskis had a head wound, a bad one, and how doctors put him right forms the last, harrowing chapter of the book. It's tough reading: an adult having to learn how to speak and read all over again. He eventually triumphs, but it's a rough road.
Perhaps–and this is not to be uncharitable, but merely to state a fact–the story that Dick Tregaskis had to tell in 1944 was more reality than many of the home folks wanted to read.
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Tregaskis's Story is depicted well in the recent History Channel series "WWII in HD" – in what looks like the channel's short-lived return to history.
It is interesting to note that the more popular history is the story of National triumph over an enemy rather than the personal triumph over adversity. It seems we are doing slightly better at remembering our injured soldiers today.
Cap'n–I'll have to check out "WWII in HD"–that's about the fifth time someone's told me something interesting about it!
Dr. Citino do you think that maybe the reason that Tregaskis's diary on the Sicilian and Italian campaigns never received the attention that his diary on Guadalcanal received is due to the public image of Italy and Sicily? When we hear of Guadalcanal I think we have this picture of the Marines fighting the Japanese in a do or die struggle for a small island in the Pacific. Sicily and Italy on the other hand presents this image of either Patton slapping a soldier or the Allies beating up on the Italians. Do you think the Italian campaign doesn't get the coverage it deserves because it is the Italian campaign and not the liberation of France? Could that have been part of the reason that Americans weren't attracted to his second war diary? Sorry for the massive amount of questions.
All good questions, Luke! I'm not sure about how most Americans viewed the Mediterranean campaign at the time. Certailnay historians have called it importance and strategic sense into question. But among the U.S. public at large AT THE TIME, I'm not sure we would have seen the same level of questioning.
Luke – I think the Italian campaign lacked coverage/interest for two reasons. First, it was a slugfest with little movement or flash. Too much like the trench warfare of WWI.
Second and more importantly, there was not a comfortable locale for the reporters. In other words, no London. This reason, at least to me, explains why everyone thinks the 8th AF was the only unit bombing Germany. I am NOT blaming the 8th. By the time a comfortable locale was liberated (Rome), D-day occurred two days later and the focus was on the drive across France.
Interesting point, Dave T!
Seeing as how I've returned to the WWII fold academically I figured it was time to chime in here. I think there's a lot to what Luke commented on regarding the public images of Guadalcanal and the fighting in Italy. Having recently reread Richard Frank's work on Guadalcanal I can say that that particular campaign was sold, even at the time, as the decisive point of conflict in the Pacific, with the "heroic" 1st Marine Division and the Cactus Airforce beating back Tojo's jungle-hardened hordes. Italy on the other hand, as has been mentioned already, was more of a methodical slugfest up the peninsula. And of course the "climax" of the Italian campaign, the capture of Rome, was overshadowed by the Normandy landings.
Frank's book is a good look at the campaign–probably the best book currently out there.