17 November, 2005
Visited Professor Sir Michael Howard today at his home near Newbury.  He is probably Britain’s pre-eminent military historian so I was a little nervous beforehand. I needn’t have worried, however, because he was very friendly and affable.  His study was amazing: built on to the end of his house, it is hexagonal with a gallery around it at the level of the first floor, and lined from floor to ceiling with books.  He was very interesting and we talked partly about his own experiences – including, serendipitously, his time at Monte Sole – but also about the campaign in general.  He was written one of the official histories about British strategy in the war, so I found the conversation absolutely fascinating.  He’s also writing his own memoir [since published as Captain Professor] and leant me a draft of the relevant wartime chapters.  It was a beautiful winter’s day and hugely enjoyable. 

Washington DC, 13 November, 2005
Got up in good time and since NARA is not open on a Sunday, drove down to Arlington Cemetery, where I’ve never been before; in fact, there is rarely time for sight-seeing on these trips.  I don’t like being away from home for too long and so tend to cram every day with as much as possible.  Glad I’ve seen it, though, although it’s a vast place and I managed little more than a look at Robert Lee’s house and JFK’s grave.  Then I headed over to the National Press Club where I met, as planned, Bill Konze.  Bill is over ninety, but had jus returned from a trip to Russia with his wife.  He told me he’s always loved travelling.  During the war he served with the 88th Infantry Division and despite his age seemed to have very clear memories.  All his stories were laced with tiny, yet fascinating details and told with tremendous good humour.  After lunch I left him and headed back to Dulles for the flight home.

NARA, College Park, 12 November, 2005
Another day at NARA.   Found some really interesting stuff in the OSS files, but still no mention of the Stella Rossa.  Also looked at the 88th Division files and spent some time upstairs going through some of the photographs they have for Italy.

NARA, College Park, 11 November, 2005
Veteran’s Day in the US, Armistice Day at home.  All day at NARA.  I was hoping to find references in the OSS files to the Stella Rossa Partisans based on Monte Sole.  It was supposedly the OSS who made contact with the Stella Rossa in the spring of 1944 and who organised arms drops and a link to the Allies.  There must be something about it somewhere, but I have been unable to unearth anything about it at the Public Record Office in Kew, nor here at NARA – so far.  I’ve another day and I can come back in the New Year.   I also looked at divisional files for the 92nd Division.  I hadn’t realised a major enquiry took place as to why they had performed so badly.  Anyway, I photocopied the lot.

College Park, 10 November 2005
Went straight to NARA (the National Archives) in the morning.  As usual with anywhere official in America, it takes twenty minutes just to get through security.  On the one hand, NARA is brilliant. The facilities are good and they have huge and fast photocopying machines and allow digital photography.  On the other, it’s truly awful.  The staff are, by and large, sullen and unhelpful, and the means of ordering documents is mind-bogglingly confusing and incomprehensible.  Moreover, you can only order documents at certain times of the day, so very careful management of time is required.  Anyway, I just about managed to look up and order a number of documents which I can at least keep out for a few days.  Specifically, these are OSS files and files relating to the 88th and 92nd Infantry Divisions.

It was to see a former member of the 92nd Infantry Division that I headed off at lunchtime.  Albert Burke lives in an almost entirely black suburb of northern Washington DC and fortunately not so very far from NARA.   I wondered whether I should bother addressing the 92nd Division in the book, as it is a thorny issue and in doing so I could be opening a whole bag of worms I should have left well alone.  But the 92nd Division did play a significant role in the campaign and they were the first all-black combat unit to see action in the war.  In a nutshell, the issue is this: at the time, and for some years afterwards, they were seen as a massively underperforming unit, whose men were all too quick to turn and run the moment the going got tough.  Recently, however, in these more politically correct times, this view has changed, with a number of books coming out refuting the claims as little more than flagrant racism. 

Albert Burke seemed to be quite frank about his experiences.  From Ohio, he grew up with little racism around him and admits he was shocked at the level of discrimination on show when he joined the embryonic 92nd.   Most of the officers were white, southern and clearly racist.  He admitted the division did under-perform but pointed out that unfortunately, losses once in the front line could not be replaced quickly enough and so under-trained troops from the US were hurried out before they were ready. This strikes me as very likely.  The experience of the 92nd also seems to me to be very similar to that of the 34th Red Bull Division, who were hopeless when they were first flung into action in Tunisia.  The US Army grew exponentially in the first years of the war, from 220,000 in 1939, to 13 million in uniform by 1945.  Whole divisions were born, trained and shipped out to fight as one; there wasn’t that core of experience that most British Army units could call on.  Training was insufficient, (often recruits never saw tanks or artillery until they reached the front line), and so it is unsurprising that they were underachievers to start with.  In war, the best training is experience – the 34th went on to achieve great things after their faltering start, as I’m sure the 92nd would have done too had they had longer at the front. 

Anyway, Albert Burke became Divisonal HQ Staff Sergeant and was therefore at the very heart of the 92nd.  He found it very emotional talking about it all and repeatedly broke down.  I kept telling him it was OK, that he didn’t have to go on, but he insisted he wanted to.  He was a lovely fellow, and I felt terrible for making him relive what was clearly such a difficult time for him.