Rick Atkinson: "The Day of Battle" (September 23, 2008)

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library welcomed Rick Atkinson to its stage. Atkinson is an accomplished reporter and author. He worked at the Washington Post for 25 years covering the Pentagon and politics, eventually becoming the papers Deputy National Director. He is the author of 5 books, has been awarded three Pulitzer Prizes for his articles and his 2003 book “An Army at Dawn”. He has received the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense for his series of articles called “Left of Boom” focusing on the role of I.E.D.’s in the Iraq War.

Before addressing the tome, Atkinson offered words of admiration for President Ford, calling his Presidential Library a “tabernacle to a man of character”.

Atkinson’s newest endeavor, the “Liberation Trilogy” addresses the role of the U.S. Army in the liberation of Europe in WWII. He appeared to discuss the second volume “The Day of Battle” which concentrates on the invasion of Sicily and mainland Italy.

Atkinson called WWII the “greatest story of the 20th Century”. He began his address by speaking about the invasion of Sicily, explaining the reasoning behind the Allies taking the island. It was the largest island in the Mediterranean and only two miles from Italian mainland. It allowed for the protection of shipping through the Suez Canal and allowed for airbases to be established for the bombing of the mainland fortifications. The British were adamant about taking the island. In contrast, the Americans felt that the assertion over Italy was a potential opportunity at imperialism for the British.

After some compromise, and a British argument that the Allied commitment would be a modest one, requiring no substantial occupation and an end to the war in 1944, the Americans agreed. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Commander of the Allied Forces, was given the order to come up with plan that best neutralized Italy from the war and contained the maximum number of German forces.

In September of 1943, war was brought to mainland Italy. The Italians capitulated immediately, but the Germans fought to the death in a campaign that would last over 600 days and claim 600,000 allied causalities.

Atkinson then addressed how hard the task of writing about war is… to put words to something so terrible. He pointed out the unmistakable difference between storytelling and an historical writing. Storytelling, in his words, evoke in the reader feelings and thoughts rather than facts, whereas narrative historical pieces try to “empower the readers imagination to follow the characters into smoke and fear”.

The Italian campaign still remains controversial over 60 years later. Many questions can be raised to argue its validity. Was it worth the 23,000 killed in action to knock Italy out of the war and to engage as many Germans as possible? Was it justified, fool hardy, tactically absurd or void of strategy? Atkinson quickly responded saying that “if not Italy, where?” No ocean going fleet existed to move 1M men from Africa to Europe as the capture of Italy did.

Видео Rick Atkinson: "The Day of Battle" (September 23, 2008) канала Gerald R. Ford