Army Patches

[Walt's Daughter]

VI Corps had been withdrawn from the front after the fall of Rome and assigned to the Seventh Army on June 15. Two days later, its commander, General Truscott, was called to Bouzareah to be briefed on Operation Anvil. Then in Salerno he attended a presentation of the procedures used in Normandy, before returning to Rome to study the plans with his staff.

 

At the beginning, Truscott stressed to General Patch the necessity of grouping all the planners involved in Naples and creating a single command structure for the assault phase. In particular he suggested that all the participating units be under his command as leader of the land forces and that his rank be equal to that as the chief of naval forces. But VI Corps was a latecomer and 7th Army with its partners has already finalized their plans. The introduction of a new level of command would be a source of confusion (no kidding). Beyond that, General Patch believed that, during the assault, VI Corps could not cope with the directing the special units and airborne troops, on top of its three assigned assault divisions.

 

General Truscott let himself be convinced and it was only natural that the Navy would direct the operations until the ground units CPs could be established on the shore. So the Navy planning group came to Naples on July 8 and was joined two days later by Admiral Hewitt, who was thus nearby the command structures: 7th Army, Armee B and XII Tactical Air Command.