American Airpower Comes of Age

ENGLAND, NORMANDY BEACHES, ITALY
110. The Anzio-Aronna perimeter was then the extent of the front lines
of the American Fifth Army and the German forces they faced.
111. In Latium, between the city of Lottoria and the Mussolini canal in
the west, the Littoria marshes had not remained successfully drained during
the war. By the time of this diary entry, they were very difficult to penetrate.
112. Although the typescript reads Boyea, Frederick W. Boye Jr., had
served as the “TAC” or tactical officer responsible for the company to which
cadet William Bruce Arnold had been assigned during the latter’s West Point
career prior to his 1943 graduation. Boye’s rank and specific assignment in
the 30th Division at this time are not known.
113. Lt Allen Brown, USA, General Marshall’s stepson, had been killed
by a German sniper near Velletgria, Italy, three weeks earlier, on 29 May
1944.
114. Wadies are ravines through which intermittent streams flow, similar
to a dry wash or arroyo in the US west.
115. If members of the 3d Reconnaissance Group, commanded by Maj
Thomas W. Barfoot Jr., they were flying F-5 aircraft, a specially modified P-
38 for reconnaissance missions, from their main base at Nettuno, Italy,
where they had recently moved. If this was the 5th Reconnaissance Group,
their main operating base was at San Severo, Italy, where they flew F-5 aircraft
under the command of Maj Lloyd R. Nuttall.
116. Constitution Avenue is a main thoroughfare, six lanes wide or more,
in downtown Washington, D.C.
117. Maj Gen Henry H. Johnson, USA, commander, Rome Garrison; Maj
Gen John K. Cannon, CG, Mediterranean Tactical Air Forces and CG,
Twelfth Air Force; Brig Gen Gordon P. Saville, CG, XII Tactical Air Command.
118. Field Marshal Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander, British Army, CG,
Allied Forces Italy.
119. The Italian colonel is not otherwise identified. Arnold saw most of
these landmarks, ranging from the marketplace ruins of the Forum to the
Vatican Basilica of St. Peter’s. The amphitheater undoubtedly refers to the
Coliseum. Caesar’s murder on 15 May, 44 B.C., is generally accepted to
have taken place in the Porticus of Pompei in Pompei’s Theater near the
present Campo dei Fioiri. Arnold, as the diary reflects, was more impressed
by the efficacy of US bombing than the antiquities of Rome.
120. In the spring of 1944, as the Allied ground forces in Italy encountered
strong resistance against their moving north, a debate ensued concerning
the use of airpower against communications and transportation
facilities. While one argument favored hitting rail marshalling yards, the
other advocated bombing bridges and viaducts to interdict German logistical
support for troops south of Rome. The criticism levied against the US
bombing of Monte Cassino on 15 February ordered by British Gen Henry
Maitland Wilson, and the potential for destruction of historic sites in Rome,
necessitated that targets be bombed with precision to prevent destruction of
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