The following abbreviations appear in the endnotes and bibliography. Some stack locations and box numbers change as archivists reconfigure their collections. A list of additional manuscripts, monographs, and unpublished documents used in this book appears online at www.liberationtrilogy.com.
a.p. author’s possession
AAAD Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn
AAF Army Air Forces
AAFinWWII W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. 3
AAR after action report
AB After the Battle
AB Div airborne division
AD armored division
admin administration
AF air force
AFHQ micro Allied Forces Headquarters microfilm, NARA RG 331
AFHRA Air Force Historical Research Agency
AFIA American Forces in Action publications and background papers
AG Army Group
ag adjutant general
AGF Army Ground Forces
ALH Howard L. Gleck et al., “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” part 5, WD, May 1946, a.p.
ALM Audie Leon Murphy papers, USMA Special Collections, West Point, N.Y.
ANSCOL Army-Navy Staff College Collection, NWC Lib, U.S. National Archives
AR action report
Ardennes Hugh M. Cole, The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge, USAWWII
AS Armored School
ASEQ Army Service Experiences Questionnaire, MHI
ASF Army Service Forces
AU Air University
bde brigade
Beck Alfred M. Beck et al., The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany, USAWWII
BLM Bernard Law Montgomery
bn battalion
BP Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit, USAWWII
CARL Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kans.
CBH Chester B. Hansen, including papers, diary, MHI
CBM Charles B. MacDonald, including papers, MHI
CCA Gordon A. Harrison, Cross-Channel Attack, USAWWII
CCS Combined Chiefs of Staff
CE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
CEOH U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History
Chandler Alfred Chandler, ed., The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower: The War Years
CI Combat Interview, ETO
CINCLANT Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet
CJB Clay and Joan Blair collection, MHI
CJR Cornelius J. Ryan, including papers, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
CMH U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
CNO Chief of Naval Operations
co company
Coakley Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, Global Logistics and Strategy 1943–1945, USAWWII
COHQ Combined Operations Headquarters, U.K.
Col U OHRO Columbia University Oral History Research Office, N.Y.
corr correspondence
COS chief of staff
CSI U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kans.
DA Department of the Army
Danchev Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman, eds., War Diaries, 1939–1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke
DDE Dwight David Eisenhower
DDE Lib Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kans.
diss dissertation
div division
DOB Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle
DTL Donovan Technical Library, Fort Benning, Ga.
E entry
ET Exercise Tiger collection, MHI
ETO European Theater of Operations
FA field artillery
FAJ Field Artillery Journal
FCP Forrest C. Pogue, including background material for The Supreme Command, MHI
FDR Lib Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.
FMS Foreign Military Studies
FOIA Freedom of Information Act
FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Malta and Yalta
Ft. K Ft. Knox, Ky.
Ft. L Ft. Leavenworth, Kans.
FUSA First U.S. Army
GCM Lib George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Va.
Germany VII Horst Boog et al., Germany and the Second World War, vol. 7, The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943–1944/45
Germany IX Ralf Blank et al., Germany and the Second World War, vol. 9, part 1, German Wartime Society, 1939–1945
GS V John Ehrman, Grand Strategy, vol. 5
GS VI John Ehrman, Grand Strategy, vol. 6
GSP George S. Patton, Jr., including papers, Library of Congress
HCB Harry C. Butcher, including papers
HD Historical Division
HI “Hospital Interviews,” NARA RG 407 E 427, ML #2233
HIA Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
Hinsley F. H. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, abridged
HKH Henry Kent Hewitt papers
Hq headquarters
ID infantry division
IFG Samuel Eliot Morison, The Invasion of France and Germany, 1944–1945
IG inspector general
IJ Infantry Journal
inf infantry
intel intelligence
IS Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Ga.
IWM Imperial War Museum, London
JAG U.S. Army judge advocate general
JB Joseph Balkoski
JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff
JLC J. Lawton Collins
JLD Jacob L. Devers, including papers
JMG James M. Gavin, including papers
JMH Journal of Military History
JT John Toland, including papers
LC Hugh M. Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, USAWWII
LHC Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London
LHD John Toland, The Last Hundred Days
lib library
LKT Jr. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., including papers
LO Charles B. MacDonald, The Last Offensive, USAWWII
LOC MS Div Library of Congress Manuscript Division
LSA Roland G. Ruppenthal, Logistical Support of the Armies, vols. 1 and 2, USAWWII
MB Martin Blumenson
MBR Matthew B. Ridgway
MEB Magna E. Bauer
MHI U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa.
MHUC Medical Historical Unit Collection, MHI
micro microfilm
ML miscellaneous AG records, ETO
MMB Mark M. Boatner III, The Biographical Dictionary of World War II
MMD 29th Infantry Division Archives, Maryland Military Department, Fifth Regiment Armory, Baltimore
MP military police
MRC FDM McCormick Research Center, First Division Museum, Cantigny, Ill.
msg message
mss manuscript
MTOUSA Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army
n.d. no date
NARA National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
NATOUSA North African Theater of Operations, United States Army
Naval Guns Morton L. Deyo, “Naval Guns at Normandy,” ts, n.d., SEM, NHHC, box 87
NHHC Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.
NSA National Security Agency
NWC Lib National War College Library
NWWIIM National World War II Museum archives, New Orleans
NYT New York Times
obit obituary
OCMH Office of the Chief of Military History
OCNO Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
OCS Office of the Chief of Staff
OH oral history
ONB Omar N. Bradley, including papers
OPD Operations Division, War Department
OR observer report
OSS Office of Strategic Services
PIR Robert M. Littlejohn, ed., “Passing in Review,” MHI
Para parachute
PP Martin Blumenson, The Patton Papers, 1940–1945
PP-pres Papers, Pre-presidential
Proceedings U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings
qm quartermaster
regt regiment
RG record group
RN Royal Navy
ROHA Rutgers University Oral History Archives of World War II, New Brunswick, N.J.
Ross William F. Ross and Charles F. Romanus, The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War Against Germany, USAWWII
RR Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith, Riviera to the Rhine, USAWWII
s.p. self-published
SC Signal Corps
SEM Samuel Eliot Morison Office Files
SGS Secretary General Staff
SLAM S.L.A. Marshall, including papers, MHI
SLC Charles B. MacDonald, The Siegfried Line Campaign, USAWWII
SMH Society for Military History
SOOHP Senior Officer Oral History Program
SOS Services of Supply
STM Sidney T. Mathews
Sylvan William C. Sylan and Francis G. Smith, Jr., Normandy to Victory
td tank destroyer
Texas MFM Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin
Three Years Harry C. Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower
TR Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., including papers, LOC MS Div
ts typescript
TSC Forrest C. Pogue, The Supreme Command, USAWWII
TT Charles B. MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets
UK NA National Archive, Kew, U.K. (formerly Public Record Office)
USAF HRC U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center
USAF U.S. Air Force
USAREUR U.S. Army, Europe
USAWWII United States Army in World War II
USFET U.S. Forces, European Theater
USHMM U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
USMA Arch U.S. Military Academy Special Collections and Archives, West Point, N.Y.
USMC U.S. Marine Corps
USN U.S. Navy
USNAd “U.S. Naval Administration in World War II”
USNI OHD U.S. Naval Institute, Oral History Department, Annapolis, Md.
USSAFE U.S. Strategic Air Forces Europe
UTEP University of Texas at El Paso
UT-K University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Center for the Study of War and Society
VC C. P. Stacey, The Victory Campaign, vol. 3, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War
VHP Veterans’ History Project, National Folklife Center, Library of Congress
VW L. F. Ellis, Victory in the West
WaS S. W. Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, vol. 3, part 2
WD War Department
WP Washington Post
WSC Winston S. Churchill
WWII World War II
XO executive officer
YCHT York County Heritage Trust, York, Pa.
YU Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives
PROLOGUE
A killing frost: The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 308–9; Peckham and Snyder, eds., Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 95 (“Three inches”).
Nearly five years: Settle, All the Brave Promises, 13, 84; Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 243–45 (zinc phosphate).
Privation lay on the land: Fussell, Wartime, 200, 203; “A Yank in Britain,” ts, n.d., Thor M. Smith Papers, HIA, box 2, 31 (“Squander Bug”); Times (London), May 15, 1944, 1 (“artificial teeth”); Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 203–4 (“bombed upholstery”).
Other government placards: Fussell, Wartime, 201; Calder, The People’s War, 380–81 (two ounces and roast cormorant); Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 128 (“Woolton pie”).
More than fifty thousand: VW, vol. 1, 29; Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” ts, 1946, MHUC, MHI, box 24, 72–74 (parachute flares); Moynihan, ed., People at War, 1939–45, 169 (“searchlights”); Ackroyd, London Under, e-book, chapter 12 (“slave ship”); Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 277, 270–71 (own beds).
Even during these short summer nights: Times (London), May 15, 1944, 5; Simpson, Selected Prose, 117 (“profoundly dark”); Reynolds, Rich Relations, 414 (“battlefield of sex”); Longmate, The G.I.’s, 276 (“Marble Arch style”); Eustis, War Letters of Morton Eustis to His Mother, 191 (“madhouse after dark”).
Proud Britain soldiered on: Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” ts, 1946, MHUC, MHI, box 24, 92; Daily Mail (London), May 15, 1944, 3 (pedaled their bicycles); Times (London), May 15, 1944, 2 (“colt of the first class”), 5, 8; Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 17; Brown, Many a Watchful Night, 78.
“French sailors with their red pompoms”: Calder, The People’s War, 307.
Savile Row tailors: Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 86; Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 132 (pocket flask); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 181 (pumpkin hue).
Nowhere were the uniforms: Forrest Pogue refers to American MPs as Snowballs. Pogue, Pogue’s War, 15. More common was the British term, Snowdrop. Mollo, The Armed Forces of World War II, 235; “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, appendix 3 (146 engraved invitations); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 308 (“big men”); Naval Guns, 19 (hard, narrow benches); http://www.oldpaulinelodge.org.uk/School.htm; http://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/page.aspx?id=8362; http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofstpaul00uoft.
Top secret charts and maps: Kennedy, The Business of War, 328 (blankets); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 82–83 (frock coat); “Presentation of OVERLORD Plans,” May 15 1944, PP-pres, DDE Lib, series VI, box 1 (King George VI); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 500 (Churchill bowed).
these big men: IFG, 223 (“Mediterraneanites”); Chandler, 1901 (“in my blood”).
The Anglo-Americans pounced: see AAAD and DOB.
Elsewhere in this global conflagration: Weinberg, A World at Arms, 651, 656–57; Liddell Hart, History of the Second World War, 513, 520; Gilbert, The Second World War, 519, 615–17; Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 11 (six Marine Corps divisions).
The collapse of Berlin’s vast empire: Charles V. P. von Lüttichau, “Germany’s Strategic Situation,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-93, box 15 (German casualties); Kimball, Forged in War, 257; GS V, 279 (193 divisions); Germany VII, 522 (almost two thousand tanks); Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 4, appendix 44, 456 (seventy thousand tons). No two estimates of German troop dispositions precisely agree.
In 1941, when Britain: Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 280; Maurice Matloff, “Wilmot Revisited,” in D-Day: The Normandy Invasion in Retrospect, 114–15 (“iron-mongering”).
Cometh the hour: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 83; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 240–41; Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 231–32; Powers, “The Battle of Normandy,” JMH (July 1992): 455+ (skid-proof socks).
“at peace with his soul”: Naval Guns, 19; CCA, 269 (June 5); Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 581 (“I consider it”); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 599–600 (“I have no sympathy”).
A wiry, elfin figure: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 231–32 (padded shoes); Chalmers, Full Cycle, 187; D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 595 (sharp rap); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 128 (ruddy, truculent); PP, 411–12 (bespoke overcoat); CBH, June 1 and 2, 1944, box 4; Allen, Lucky Forward, 23 (“son-of-bitchery”); GSP to Beatrice, Feb. 3, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11, folder 15 (“bad for the soul”).
With a curt swish: Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 577–78 (salmon); Moorehead, Montgomery, 36 (“pointed flint”); http://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/page.aspx?id=8362; http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofstpaul00uoft; The Pauline, March 1946, 50–52; Montgomery, A Field-Marshal in the Family, 306–8 (prayers in Latin).
Glancing at his notes: “Address on 15 May 1944: Brief Presentation of Plans Before the King,” IWM, PP/MCR, C46, Lt. Col. Christopher “Kit” Dawnay Collection, micro R-1.
The Bay of the Seine: “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” USFET General Board study no. 1, n.d., 6–8, 14; “The Planning and Tactical Background of the Invasion of the Continent of Europe,” n.d., Numa A Watson Collection, MHI; CCA, 72–73 (“strategically unsound”); ALH, I-183; WaS, 15 (“impudent reconnaissance”); George E. Creasy, OH, Feb. 4, 1947, FCP, MHI; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 345; www.msubmus.co.uk*.
Upon returning from Italy: GS V, 283; CCA, 165; LSA, vol. 1, 185 (230 additional support ships); WaS, 8.
As he unfolded his plan: Moorehead, Montgomery, 192–93; James, The Counterfeit General Montgomery, 53; Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 62, 66 (“essentially didactic”); Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 591 (two thousand clerks).
Montgomery pressed ahead: Hinsley, 439–40, 459–60; “Address on 15 May 1944: Brief Presentation of Plans Before the King,” IWM, PP/MCR, C46, Lt. Col. Christopher “Kit” Dawnay Collection, micro R-1 (“Last February”). The German high command in the west at the time of the invasion had forty-eight infantry and ten panzer divisions. Ludewig, Rückzug, 31–42.
Some officers in SHAEF: ALH, I-201; WaS, 13 (one and one-third divisions).
Montgomery envisioned: Cirillo, “The Allied High Command,” lecture to British Army Doctrine and Development Directorate, n.d., a.p.; Crosswell, Beetle, 607, 633; CCA, 188; GS V, 284 (Paris).
Precisely how that titanic: ALH, II-73–87.
But that lay: “History of COSSAC,” May 1944, file #95, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, 7; CCA, 10 (“ugly piece of water”); Smith, The English Channel, 12; Room, Placenames of the World, 6; www.jpmaps.co.uk/map/id.22553*; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 104 (“already assaulted”); memo, Aug. 21, 1942, NARA RG 165, E 421, JPS studies, box 603 (tunneling).
“Nothing must stop them”: “Address on 15 May 1944: Brief Presentation of Plans Before the King,” IWM, PP/MCR, C46, Lt. Col. Christopher “Kit” Dawnay Collection, micro R-1; Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 351.
None departed: “Instructions for Visitors,” SHAEF, May 4, 1944, NARA RG 331; PP, 456 (tumbler of whiskey); memo, W. H. S. Wright to Henry Stimson, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF top secret general corr, folder 319.1 (“biding his time”); GSP to Bea, Apr. 9, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 11, folder 16.
At 2:30: D’Este, Warlord, 665 (“Risks must be taken”); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 87–88 (“I am hardening”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 2 (most prodigious undertaking).
Shortly after six P.M.: Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health Status of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Mattingly Collection, DDE Lib, n.d., box 1, 53; Three Years, 550 (ringing), 538–39 (“The strain is telling”).
As the drear suburbs: Eisenhower in 1946 described Churchill’s statement as “shocking.” OH, DDE, June 3, 1946, SLAM, A. S. Nevins Papers, MHI. Churchill had used the phrase to George Marshall three months earlier. Reynolds, In Command of History, 395.
“You will enter”: “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, 14–17. Technically, the naval portion of the invasion was code-named NEPTUNE; for simplicity, OVERLORD—code for the overall invasion plan—has been used for all facets of the operation. Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 338 (“feet in the stirrups”).
For years he had pondered: Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 314–15, 324–25.
Planners had even coined: Gilbert, D-Day, 28–29 (PINWE); Chandler, 1869 (“Film Planning Commission”); memos, SHAEF, Apr. 4 and 23, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 6, box 9, “leave and furlough,” 210.7-12 (CIRCON); Three Years, 526 (“fog dispeller”); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 200 (gliders).
For every PINWE item: Richard Collins, SOOHP, 1976, Donald Bowman, MHI, II, 14–15 (“what parts would burn”); memos, Apr. 27, May 12, 26, 27, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, “Liquidation of German Personalities,” box 1.
As the invasion drew nearer: John W. Castles, Jr., memoir, ts, n.d., USMA Arch (biological warfare and Geiger counters); Chandler, 1860 (“radioactive poisons”); Groves, Now It Can Be Told, 199–202 (“unknown etiology”).
Perhaps less far-fetched: memo, “Gas Intelligence,” Maj. Gen. P. G. Whitefoord [sic], Jan. 20, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 27, SHAEF, box 83; DOB, 272; Kleber and Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service, 5, 655 (two dozen kinds of gas).
Fifteen hundred British civilians: “Historical Report of G-1 Section,” June 19, 1944, XIX District, NARA RG 407, E 427, pre-invasion planning file 100, box 19231; Brig. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, “Summary Report of Situation in ETO,” July 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR, box 2 (160,000 tons); “Chemical Warfare Plan,” June 2, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 89 (secret SHAEF plan).
“Everybody gets more”: Miller, Ike the Soldier, 588.
Thirty minutes after leaving: Williams, “Supreme Headquarters for D-Day,” AB, no. 84 (1994): 1+; “Chief Engineer’s Report on Camouflage Activities in the ETO,” Nov. 15, 1945, Howard V. Canan Papers, HIA, box 3 (garnished nets).
Here hundreds of staff officers: Three Years, 531 (“oldish”); Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 157 (double socks); Raymond H. Croll, ts, 1974, MHI, 240–55 (language classes).
Eisenhower’s office: Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 129–32; Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 466; D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 490 (golf ball).
Vernal twilight lingered: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 197; Eisenhower, Strictly Personal, 57 (bomb shelter); Chandler, 1852; Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 138, 162 (“Bad Woman”); Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 448 (“don’t have to think”).
“A man must develop”: Miller, Ike the Soldier, 598; Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 213 (last troop reserves); “Notes on the Planning of Operation Overlord,” 21st AG, n.d., UK NA, WO 216/139, 29–30 (Double Intense); “Casualties and Effects of Fire Support on the British Beaches in Normandy,” Army Operational Research Group, Report No. 261, n.d., UK NA, CAB 106/967 (above 40 percent).
Love’s Tables: “A Moving Army,” SOS, ts, n.d., NARA RG 498, UD 602, ETO HD; Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 202 (12 percent); “The United States Navy Medical Department at War, 1941–1945,” vol. 1, part 3, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, 1946, 719; Field Order No. 35, 1st ID, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 301-3.9 (gas warfare); Naval Guns, 21 (“one-third to one-half”); “Report of Operations,” 12th AG, vol. 2, G-1 section, n.d., CARL (combat drownings); Casualty Division History, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #4 (punch cards).
Recent exercises and rehearsals: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 9 (“hopping about”); Waugh, Men at Arms, 140; “Comments on Exercise TIGER,” NARA RG 407, E 427, FUSA, n.d., file 455 (DUCK, OTTER); Yung, Gators of Neptune, 160 (“got confused”); “Rough Draft of Gen. Maxwell Taylor’s Report,” with jumpmaster reports, 101st AB Div, July 1, 1944, GCM Lib.
The imaginary biffing turned: Lewis, Exercise Tiger, 20; Bradbeer, The Land Changed Its Face, 37–47; “A History of the United States Naval Bases in the United Kingdom,” 1944, NARA RG 498, HD, admin file #217; Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 324. All in ET: “Report of Enemy Navy Action,” Apr. 30, 1944, HQ, Sub Area V; “Exercise Tiger News Letter,” Jan. 1996; Arthur D. Clamp, “The American Assault Exercises at Slapton Sands, Devon, in 1944,” n.d., AR, Twelfth Fleet, May 3, 1944, including reports from LST-511, LST-496, LST-58, LST-499, LST-289, LST-531, LST-507, Task Force 125, H.M.S. Saladin; German E-boat logs; also, corr and transcripts. Also, “Notes on Utah Beach and the 1st Engineer Special Brigade,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #359a.
Survivors on rafts: Lewis, Exercise Tiger, 104; L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chap. 26, PIR, MHI, II, 2–3 (embalmers); Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” ts, 1946, MHUC, MHI, box 24, 90–91.
Drowned men continued to wash ashore: The precise death toll remains uncertain. CCA, 270; John Connell, “Over Age in Grade,” ts, n.d., MHI; Ingersoll, Top Secret, 103–5; Hoyt, The Invasion Before Normandy, 155–61; MacDonald, “Slapton Sands: The ‘Cover-Up’ That Never Was,” Army 38, no. 6 (June 1988): 64+ (remained secret).
Eisenhower grieved: CCA, 270 (LSTs); DDE to GCM, Apr. 29, 1944, GCM Lib, corr, box 67, folder 5.
“the man who can do the average thing”: Eisenhower, General Ike, 219; AAAD, 286 (expected to be relieved); Chandler, 1898 (Hollywood); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 511 (“generous and lovable”); Chalmers, Full Cycle, 261 (“a very great man”); DOB, 310 (“best politician”).
“When it comes to war”: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 50n; Danchev, 546 (“No real director”); Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diairies, 111 (“They dislike to believe”).
He needed sleep: Chandler, 1865, 1891, and vol. 5, chronology, 153; Williams, “Supreme Headquarters for D-Day,” AB, no. 84 (1994): 1+; “The U.S. Army Special Train Alive,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #16 (Monsters); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 294 (“the human soul”).
By the tens of thousands: LSA, vol. 2, 231; Ross, 289 (four thousand in early 1942); Coakley, 370 (twenty now could be found); “An Army in Transit,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #241, 7–37 (more than 100,000).
Down the gangplanks: Robert W. Coakley, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.1 AA2, vol. 3, 102–8; “Blankets,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #500; Amy, lecture, Apr. 8, 1944, NY Port of Embarkation, HIA, Henry J. Amy papers, box 2 (pillowcases).
“You are something”: Randall Jarrell, “The Sick Nought,” 1914; Karl Cocke, “U.S. Army Replacement Policies, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam,” DA, 1990, MHI, chart (eleven thousand); Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 710 (average GI was twenty-six); Crosswell, Beetle, 789 (teenagers); “Activities and Organization of COMZ,” May 28, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #89, 57 (grade school education); “Army Life,” WD pamphlet 21-13, Aug. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, AGO Cent File 1940–45, box 3638 ($50 a month).
The typical soldier: Wiltse, ed., Physical Standards in World War II, 19–29, 37–42, 163, 193–94.
But what of their souls?: Cawthon, “Pursuit: Normandy, 1944,” American Heritage (Feb. 1978): 80+ (“amateurs”); “Memorandum,” May 1944, NARA RG 330, E 94, Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers, ETO, B-46 (April survey); corr, Charles L. Easter to Marion Page, Aug. 14, 1944, USMA Arch (“civilian at heart”).
Skepticism and irony: Reynolds, Rich Relations, 324 (“Sums up my attitude”); Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 98, 152; Dickson, War Slang, 208; Richler, ed., Writers on World War II, 487 (“ambiguous farce”); Cawthon, Other Clay, 147 (“If it’s not ironic”); Yardley, “The Fight of Their Lives, and Not Just on the Battlefield,” WP, Mar. 6, 2009, C1 (“corrupt, inefficient”); Scannell, Argument of Kings, 122 (“madness”).
“War is all foreground”: Reporting World War II, vol. 1, xxi; Simpson, Selected Prose, 120–21; Reynolds, Rich Relations, 400 (“quarrelsome continent”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 258 (recent Army survey).
Certainly they believed: Scannell, Argument of Kings, 112, 121 (“drab khaki world”); Steidl, Lost Battalions, 31 (“unseen powers of God”).
And so four by four: “The Role Played by Communications Zone in the War Against Germany,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #479 (1,200 camps); VW, vol. 1, 34 (133 airfields); Eustis, War Letters of Morton Eustis to His Mother, 190 (“Thomas Hardy”); Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 482 (“old steady manner”); Bernard Paget, OH, FCP, Feb. 18, 1947, MHI (Home Guard); “A Yank in Britain,” ts, n.d., Thor M. Smith Papers, MHI, 75 (road signs).
Nearly 400,000 prefabricated huts: Botting, The Second Front, 66; “Construction in the United Kingdom,” Oct. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #506 (20 million square feet); LSA, vol. 1, 255 (“Spamland”); “Marshalling [sic] for OVERLORD,” Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 14 (School of Hygiene); Amy, lecture, Apr. 8, 1944, NY Port of Embarkation, HIA, Henry J. Amy papers, box 2; Robert W. Coakley, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.1 AA2, vol. 2, 189 (GLUE); H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH 4-13.1 AA 29, 160–61 (“exposure to weather”); “A Yank in Britain,” ts, n.d., Thor M. Smith papers, MHI, 32 (red tape).
No alliance in the war: “Britain,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #23 (“Redcoats”); Hastings, OVERLORD, 49; Wieviorka, Normandy, 111 (twice a month); Reynolds, Rich Relations, 298 (Goatland); Ross, 313 (shoe sizes); A Short Guide to Great Britain, 29; “Quartermaster Procurement in the United Kingdom, 1942–1944,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #154 (tent pegs); Thomas V. Barber, “Quartermaster Procurement,” n.d., chap 41, PIR, MHI, 4–5 (beer).
The British displayed forbearance: Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Library, MO, FR 2454, provided author by Prof. Donald L. Miller (“irritate me”); Meet the Americans, 1; Margaret Mead, “Army Talks: The Yank in Britain,” Mar. 15, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #23; Reynolds, Rich Relations, ix (Orwell).
Occasional bad beheavior: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 159 (royal swans); Francis L. Sampson, Look Out Below!, 1958, in CJR, box 97, folder 21 (grenades); Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 709 (haystacks); “Army Life,” WD, pamphlet 21-13, Aug. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, AGO Cent File 1940–45, box 3638 (“men who refrain”); “Legal Questions Arising in the Theater of Operations,” NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII Operations Reports, no. 87, 31–32 (“bastardy proceedings”); Longmate, The G.I.’s, 285 (“drive carefully”).
Both on the battlefield and in the rear: Lewis, Exercise Tiger, 48 (“delicate hothouse”); Hastings, OVERLORD, 293 (“the chaps that mattered”).
The loading of invasion vessels: Bykofsky and Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas, 259; ONB, OH, 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, IV-19 (Seven thousand kinds of combat necessities). This oral history with Bradley, conducted in fourteen sessions over ten months, had been closed to the public until made available to the author in January 2010.
evocative of the Marx Brothers: Van Creveld, Supplying War, 210; William E. Depuy, SOOHP, 1979; Romie L. Brownlee and William J. Mullen III, MHI, 18 (Selfridges); Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 138.
In twenty-two British ports: Gilbert, D-Day, 108; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 4-13.1 AA 29, 120–23 (301,000 vehicles); “Ordnance Diary,” Dec. 1, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 602, box 1 (2,700 artillery pieces); “Historical Report, Office of the Chief Signal Officers,” vol. 1, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 602, box 1 (telephone poles); Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 41 (7 million tons); Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, MHI, 99 (41.298 pounds); LSA, vol. 1, 441 (500-ton bales); “Ports: How an Army Is Supplied,” Oct. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #521, 1-3 (war flats); “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” 1962, John Mason, Col U OHRO, 302 (ferries); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 136.
Armed guards from ten cartography depots: “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII Operations Reports, 97-USF5-0.3, #130, 26; Beck, 565 (210 million maps); IFG, 68 (charts); Wieviorka, Normandy, 178 (aerial photos); “Reconnaissance in a Tactical Air Command,” 10th Photo Group, Ninth AF, 1945, CARL, N-9395, 3–4; Allen, “Untold Stories of D-Day,” National Geographic (June 2002): 2+ (watercolors); Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 864–65 (“restraint and discipline”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 224 (Gone with the Wind); Field Order No. 35, 1st ID, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 301-3.9 (Field Order No. 35); memo, XXX Corps, May 18, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #753, box 19123 (Pink List).
Day after night after day: Leppert, “Communication Plans and Lessons, Europe and Africa,” lecture, Oct. 30, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, L-7-44, 14 (radio crystals); Field Order No. 35, 1st ID, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 301-3.9; Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 475 (“marksmanship medal”); Beck, 308 (“Hagensen packs”); “The Administrative History of the Operations of the 21 Army Group,” Nov. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 458, GB 21-AG AH, 29 (metal crosses); Ross, 683 (mattress covers).
Four hospital ships made ready: Martha Gellhorn, “The First Hospital Ship,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 151; Dowling, lecture, Feb. 28, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207; Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 167, 245 (“dirty trap”); Frank Davis, OH, Nov. 24, 1944, 68th General Hospital, NARA RG 112, E 302, interview #109 (steam tables); Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 413; MacKensie, Men Without Guns, 97; Nalty, Strength for the Fight, 181 (black and white donors); Robert R. Kelley, OH, Jan. 27, 1945, Office of the Chief Surgeon, NARA RG 112, E 302, interview #130; Paul R. Hawley, OH, John Boyd Coates, Jr., et al., 1962, MHUC, 56 (pallets).
A new Manual of Therapy: memo, Office of the Chief Surgeon, Mar. 28, 1944, James B. Mason papers, HIA, folder 1 (morphine poisoning and whole blood); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 182; Paul R. Hawley, OH, John Boyd Coates, Jr., et al., 1962, MHUC, 54 (carbon dioxide tanks).
But whole blood would keep: Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 245; “The Evolution of the Use of Whole Blood in Combat Casualties,” U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History, http://143.84.107.69/booksdocs/wwii/blood/chapter3.htm; Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 175–76, 193; Gellhorn, “The First Hospital Ship,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 151.
On Tuesday, May 23: “Stories of Transportation,” vol. 1, Frank S. Ross Papers, HIA, box 20, 203; memo, W. H. S. Wright to Henry Stimson, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF top secret general corr, folder 319.1 (“One Way”); A. C. Doyle’s Sir Nigel, chapter 13, in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 197 (“We sat on a hilltop”).
Mothers held their children: Watney, The Enemy Within, 20, 49 (“boomerang” and “girl-saint”); Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 278–79 (“half empty”); Fussell, Wartime, 109 (Whore’s Lament).
By late in the week: Moorehead, Eclipse, 100 (“Civilians must not talk”); Burgett, Currahee!, 69–70 (German uniforms); Watney, The Enemy Within, 63 (Cherbourg); Scannell, Argument of Kings, 121 (diversionary attack); Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 282 (death beam); AAFinWWII, 92 (icebergs); Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 198 (“shock kept the wounded”); Longmate, The G.I.’s, 316 (“Don’t be surprised”).
Security remained paramount: Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 4, 250–54 (“certain defeat” and 600,000 monthly visitors); Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 15 (“handsome”); “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, 14–19; Gilbert, D-Day, 67; CCA, 270 (counterintelligence agents).
Camouflage inspectors roamed: “Chief Engineer’s Report on Camouflage Activities in the ETO,” Nov. 15, 1945, Howard V. Canan papers, HIA, box 3; “Concealment and Display of Camps,” Plan FORTITUDE, section II, “Implementation,” n.d., Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI, box 8 (Garnished nets); “Camouflage,” historical report #18, Aug. 1945, CEOX, box X-32, folder 18, 38 (“tone-down paint”); “The Concealment Aspect of Beach Group Work,” Camouflage Development and Training Center, Farnham, U.K., Sept. 22, 1944, CARL, N-5122, 4–5 (Standard Camouflage Color 1A); “Marshalling [sic] for OVERLORD,” CE, Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 28 (“contours”).
Deception complemented the camouflage: “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, chapter 3 (“strategic dispositions”); Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 110–11 (Pas de Calais); http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.mod.uk/aboutus/dday60/fortitude.htm*(“Bigbobs”).
The British genius for cozenage: Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 4, 239; Penrose, ed., The D-Day Companion, 58–59; Hesketh, Fortitude, xi–xiii, 46–52; Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 114, 131 (German hallucination); Hinsley, 118–19, 450; Holt, The Deceivers, 561–62; James,The Counterfeit General Montgomery, 53–66 (strutted about).
As May slid toward June: LSA, vol. 1, 369 (waterproofing); Beck, 317 (fifty-four inches); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 10 (“wren’s tail”); VW, vol. 1, 137 (Sherman tank); Gilbert, D-Day, 104 (white stripes); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 126; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 64 (push brooms).
Soldiers drew seasickness pills: Royce L. Thompson, “D-Day Personal Loads,” OCMH, Dec. 4, 1951, CMH 2-3.7 AE P-11; Cawthon, Other Clay, 42 (“braying”); memo, Cleave A. Jones to G. S. Eyster, SHAEF, July 17, 1944, NARA RG 498, UD 603, ETO HD, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (“skunk suits”).
“We’re ready now”: TR to Eleanor, May 30, 1944, TR, box 10; Ross, 695 (quartermaster box).
“I am a free man”: John M. Thorpe, “A Soldier’s Tale, to Normandy and Beyond,” Nov. 1982, IWM, 84/50/1, 80; Airborne Museum, Ste-Mère-Église, V-mail shown to author by curator Phil Jutras, May 1994 (“If I don’t come out”); corr, May 30, 1944, Joseph T. Dawson collection, MRC FDM, 1991.65, box 3 (“destiny of life”).
Eisenhower left Bushy Park: Chandler, vol. 5, 155; corr, T. Smith to family, June 17, 1944, Thor M. Smith Papers, HIA; Williams, “Supreme Headquarters for D-Day,” AB, no. 84 (1994): 1+; Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 178 (three telephones); “Normandy, 1944–1973,” AB, no. 1 (1973): 2 (Georgian mansion); Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 138 (nautical almanacs).
“The intensity of the burdens”: Overy, Why the Allies Won, 158; Three Years, 558 (“jitters”); Richard Collins, SOOHP, 1976, Donald Bowman, MHI, II, 16; R. H. Winecke, CI, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder 170; E. T. Williams, “Reports Received by U.S. War Department on Use of Ultra in the European Theater,” SRH-037, Oct. 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, box 18, 2; memo, H. R. Bull to W. B. Smith, May 26, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 76.
Such a robust force: diary, Oct. 14, 1944, N. T. Tangye, IWM, P 180 (“nincompoop”); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 141 (“peculiar knack”); CCA, 186 (“speculative operation”); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 303 (“futile slaughter”); VW, vol. 1, 139 (“two airborne divisions”).
“soul-racking problem”: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 263; CCA, 279.
Emerging from his canvas hideaway: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 303; Chandler, 1894 (“It must go on”).
A leafy hilltop: VW, vol. 1, 67–69; IFG, 77; CBH, June 3, 1944, box 4, MHI (Late spring warmth); memo, W. H. S. Wright to Henry Stimson, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF top secret general corr, folder 319.1 (barrage balloons).
Soldiers still braying and bleating: Cawthon, Other Clay, 48; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 55 (“If any of you fellows”); E. Jones, ts, n.d., IWM, 94/41/1, 4 (“real white bread”); Balkoski, Utah Beach, 66–67; memoir, Ralph Eastridge, 1995, NWWIIM (“a man could have jumped”); D. K. Reimers, “My War,” June 4, 1944, MHI, 67 (“which was Clara”).
As always where land met sea: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 47; ETOUSA pamphlet 370.5, Jan. 1944, Charles E. Rousek papers, MHI (“Preparation for Overseas Movement”); “War Diary of Force ‘U,’” June 2, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 82, folder 46 (Eighteen LCTs); Lewis, “Landing Craft,” lecture, Sept. 18, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, 9 (immersion rate); AR, Don P. Moon, Force U, June 26, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217 (ships were overloaded anyway).
The deadweight included: “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, chapter 3; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 204 (“annoying and mysterious”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 92 (“sparse and gray of hair”); Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 205 (“scarecrow”), 164–67 (“All I do is drink”).
“I’m no longer content”: Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 321–30; Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 221 (“fucking throat”), 168 (“too late”).
In claustrophobic holds: Harold S. Frum, “The Soldier Must Write,” 1984, June 1, 1944 entry, GCM Lib (“I love my fellow man”); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 177; Brown, Many a Watchful Night, 10 (On Augusta); Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 138 (“old uneasiness”).
More than five hundred weather stations: R. J. Ogden, “Meteorological Services Leading to D-Day,” Royal Meteorological Society, Occasional Papers on Meteorological History, July 2001, 2, a.p.; Stagg, Forecast for Overlord, 51 (reconnaissance planes); Charles C. Bates, “Sea, Swell and Surf Forecasting for D-Day and Beyond: The Anglo-American Effort, 1943–1945,” 2010, a.p., 6 (British beach watchers); Charles C. Bates, e-mail to author, Nov. 11 and 23, 2007; Hogben, “The Most Important Weather Forecast in the World,” London Review of Books 16, no. 10 (May 26, 1994): 21+.
Each Allied invasion constituent: J. M. Stagg, “Report on the Meteorological Implications,” SHAEF, June 22, 1944, CARL, N-11359.
Eisenhower had never been fortunate: Chandler, 1761; Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 248; Charles C. Bates, “Sea, Swell and Surf Forecasting for D-Day and Beyond: The Anglo-American Effort, 1943–1945,” 2010, a.p., 13–15 (Cyclonic disturbances); diary, Kay Summersby, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140 (“very depressed”).
At 4:30 A.M. on Sunday: Ryan, The Longest Day, 48; Botting, The Second Front, 62; “Memorandum of Record,” June 4, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI.
“A series of depressions”: “Report on the Meteorological Implications,” June 22, 1944, UK NA, CAB 106/976, 9–11; Stagg, Forecast for Overlord, 124 (depression L5); Bates and Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 1814–1985, 92–94 (“quite impossible”).
Eisenhower polled his lieutenants: Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 138–39 (“No part”); Stagg, Forecast for Overlord, 102 (“we must postpone”).
At that moment the lights failed: Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 138–39 (“Jesus!”); Three Years, 560 (Sunday papers).
Banks of gray cloud: J. H. Patterson, ts, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7, 3 (“spindrift was flying”); IFG, 80–81 (“pyramidical waters”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 257 (HORNPIPE BOWSPRIT); memo, W. H. S. Wright to Henry Stimson, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF top secret general corr, folder 319.1 (frantic blinkering).
But bombardment squadrons from Belfast: Naval Guns, 26; S. C. Donnison, diary, June 3, 1944, IWM, 94/50/1 (“three-quarter gale”); History of the Second World War (periodical), part 65, 1974, 1796; “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 395–96; Yung, Gators of Neptune, 176; “Memorandum of Record,” June 4, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (“somewhat out of hand”).
As anchors dropped and engines died: Rick Atkinson, foreword, Instructions for American Servicemen in France During World War II, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008, v–xiii; Collier, Fighting Words, 159 (“Encore une verre”); Medicine Under Canvas, 77th Evacuation Hospital, 1949, 120 (“mama-oiselle”); Collins, Lightning Joe, 196–97 (“Holy God”); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 175 (“If God be for us”); Linderman, The World Within War, 238 (“twenty dollars a card”); A. J. Liebling, “Cross-Channel Trip,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 136 (“Voltaire used the same gag”); Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 67 (Stormy Weather).
the “D” in D-Day: AAR, 146th Engineer Combat Bn, CEOH, box X-37A. There are various explanations for the term; some authorities assert it was first used in an Army order in 1918, with the “D” used as a code letter rather than an abbreviation.
The strange, tempestuous Sunday: Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle, 338–47.
The sad story was this: Eden, The Reckoning, 525–26 (greeted De Gaulle on the tracks); “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, 55–57; “The War of Will, Words and Images,” n.d., Wallace Carroll papers, LOC MS Div, box 1, 18–19; Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle, 346–47 (“in chains if necessary”); Fenby, The General, 638–39; Beevor, D-Day, 21 (“gangster”).
No sooner had Churchill stormed: Eisenhower, General Ike, 147 (Deux Mètres); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 462 (“balancing a chip”); “Memorandum of Record,” June 4, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (he revealed to De Gaulle); Aron, France Reborn, 27 (“your forged notes”); Fenby, The General, 638–39; Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 699 (“violation of national sovereignty”); “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, 55–57 (French liaison officers); “Preparations for D-Day,” n.d., C. D. Jackson papers, DDE Lib, box 3; De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 559; Chandler, 1907; Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 494 (“I cannot follow Eisenhower”).
“there is no room in war for pique”: Foot, SOE in France, 386; Beevor, D-Day, 21 (“treason”); Fenby, The General, 641–42; memo, John J. McCoy to GCM, Apr. 26, 1944, GCM Lib, box 76, folder 3 (“Frog File”); Roberts, The Storm of War, 488 (the hand that fed him); Reynolds, In Command of History, 456 (“not a scrap of generosity”); Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries, 118 (“sorry mess”); memo, W. B. Smith to Hastings L. Ismay, Jan. 23, 1944, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108 (“Joan of Arc complex”); Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 386 (“To hell with him”).
At 9:30 P.M. the supreme commander again: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 224–25 (“unexpected developments”); Charles C. Bates, “Sea, Swell and Surf Forecasting for D-Day and Beyond: The Anglo-American Effort, 1943–1945,” 2010, a.p., 15–16 (H.M.S. Hoste); “Report on the Meteorological Implications,” June 22, 1944, UK NA, CAB 106/976, 9–11.
Eisenhower polled his subordinates: Bates and Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 94; “Memorandum of Record,” June 4, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI.
For a long minute: CCA, 272–74; Crosswell, Beetle, 622; George E. Creasy, OH, Feb. 4, 1947, FCP, MHI; Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 138–39 (“We’ll go”); Stagg, Forecast for Overlord, 112–15 (“Don’t bring any more”).
Across the fleet: “So appears this fleet majestical / Holding due course to Harfleur,” Henry V, act III, prologue, 16–17.
“Up anchor!”: Naval Guns, 23–28; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 110; Moorehead, Eclipse, 105 (“Ships were heaving”); Roskill, White Ensign, 371; “War Diary of Force ‘U,’” June 5, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 82, folder 46; John A. Moreno, “The Death of Admiral Moon,” n.d., a.p. 225+ (“England expects”).
By midmorning the heavy skies: Brown, Many a Watchful Night, 12 (“tropical in its colors”); Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 264 (chalk cliffs); John F. Latimer, n.d., NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories (“one’s eye for beauty”); Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 91 (“Road to the Isles”); Sylvan, 8 (Rome had fallen).
Leading the fleet: VW, vol. 1, 67–69; “Report by the Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force,” Oct. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #624, box 19117, 144; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 109; “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 437–39; “Navigational Aspects of the Passage and Assault in Operation OVERLORD,” Nov. 1944, bulletin Y/39, COHQ, CARL, N-6530.18, 1–3; Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 202–3 (“street lamps”).
As the invasion convoys swung: Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 83 (“all ways at once”); Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 176 (Lousy Civilian Idea); Lewis, “Landing Craft,” lecture, Sept. 18, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, 12–13; IFG, 84; Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 145 (“an ominous impression”); Settle, All the Brave Promises, 6 (“swallow a pork chop”).
For those who could eat: AAR, “Report on Operation Neptune,” HQ Co, CT 16, June 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, 2-3.7 BG, AFIA; Cawthon, Other Clay, 48 (“edge of eternity”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 27–29 (“in case you stop one”); Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,” American Magazine (Sept. 1944): 26+(“Happy D-Day”); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 141, 360 (“Bring me my bow of burning gold”); Sommers, “The Longest Hour in History,” Saturday Evening Post (July 8, 1944): 22+ (stripped each bridge); Heinz, When We Were One, 10–11 (“dress blues”); diary, Cyrus C. Aydlett, June 6, 1944, NWWIIM (“Mr. Whozits”); Lankford, ed.,OSS Against the Reich, 56–57 (punching bag).
“The first six hours”: Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 207; diary, Jack Shea [Cota aide], Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI 81, 29th ID, box 19138, 4–5 (“You’re going to find confusion”).
“The government paid $5 billion”: Robert K. Skagg, 741st Tank Bn, OH, June 18, 1944, NARA RG 407, 2-3.7 BG, AFIA; corr, Philip Cole to Ralph Ingersoll, Apr. 21, 1946, Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI, box 1 (“alone and conspicuous”).
“We are starting”: TR to Eleanor, June 3, 1944, TR, box 10; Renehan, The Lion’s Pride, 236–37; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 180 (“I’ll see you tomorrow morning”).
Far inland, at more than a dozen airfields: Saunders, The Red Beret, 148; Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 33 (“a good stamp”).
American paratroopers smeared: Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 481; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 82 (minstrel act); corr, Charles L. Easter to Marion Page, July 7, 1944, USMA Arch (“$10,000 jump”); Albert Hassenzahl, VHP, AFC/2001/001/5222 (“I’m not going to die”); Burgett, Currahee!, 77–78; Otis L. Sampson, “Destination,” n.d., JMG, MHI, box 12 (brass-knuckle grip); Carl Cartledge, 501st PIR, ts, n.d., NWWIIM (“one for pain”); Alosi, War Birds, 57 (Carrier pigeons); Astor, June 6, 1944, 128 (trimmed the margins).
“We look all pockets”: Simpson, Selected Prose, 119; Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 107 (“I have tried”); diary, May 25 and June 5, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 10.
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area”: Chandler, 1908.
Just after six P.M.: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 252–53; Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 45 (“It’s very hard really”); Beevor, D-Day, 27 (“The idea, the perfect idea”).
At aircraft number 2716: manifest, aircraft 2716, in “D-Day Experience of Eugene D. Brierre,” ts, March 1998, NWWIIM; Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor, 77; Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 75–76; Crosswell, Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith, 623 (“light of battle”); Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 45 (“I hope to God”).
Red and green navigation lights: Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 72–73; corr, Charles L. Easter to Marion Page, July 7, 1944, USMA Arch; Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 157–58 (“Give me guts”); McNally, As Ever, John, 42 (crew chiefs); Burgett, Currahee!, 80 (“Flap your wings”); Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 79–80 (“Stay, light”).
“Our flag bridge is dead quiet”: Naval Guns, 31; John F. Latimer, ts, n.d., NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 12 (“trying to slip into a room”).
Small craft struggled: notes, Force O, n.d., NARA RG 407, 2-3.7 BG, AFIA (“Men sick”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 135; Chalmers, Full Cycle, 223 (thirty degrees); “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 405–8; McKernon, Corry, 32 (“Seasick”).
CHAPTER 1: INVASION
The Far Shore
The singing stopped: Robert H. George, “Ninth Air Force,” 1945, AFHRA, study no. 36, 62–63; Baedeker, Northern France, 161 (famed for cattle); Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 85 (“Say hello”); Wright and Greenwood, Airborne Forces at War, 50–58.
Then France vanished: Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 77; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 64–69 (“lighted tennis balls”), 136 (“keg of nails”); 101st AB Div, CI #223, July 11–29, 1944, NARA RG 407, E-427-A (jinking); Carl Cartledge, 501st PIR, ts, n.d., NWWIIM (“thick enough”); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 45.
Even as the cloud bank thinned: corr, Michael C. Chester to JMG, Mar. 30, 1959, JMG papers, MHI, 1–5; 101st AB Div, CI #223, July 11–29, 1944, and “Operation of 507th PIR,” n.d., CI #170, NARA RG 407, E 427-A; Gerald J. Higgins, 101st AB Div COS, OH, Feb. 5, 1946, SLAM, MHI, box 2 (bundles got stuck); “Report of Investigation of Operation NEPTUNE,” Aug. 9, 1944, Air Inspector, HQ, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETO, SGS, 333.5 (failed to descend to the specified jump height of 500 feet); Astor, June 6, 1944, 144–45 (“anything in my jump pants”); corr, Charles L. Easter to Marion Page, July 7, 1944, USMA Arch (“wall of flame”); Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 157–58 (“a thousand years”); Guy Remington, “Second Man Out,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 340 (burning shreds); Beevor, D-Day, 63 (“watermelons falling”).
“I pulled up my knees”: Astor, June 6, 1944, 142; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 112, 134.
Operation ALBANY: “Notes on Utah Beach and the 1st Engineer Special Brigade,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #359A, 53–54; “Interview with Dr. Simon, Carentan,” Sept. 1, 1945, SLAM, MHI, box 2; Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 3; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 53–54; memo, “Glider Operation NEPTUNE,” 82nd AB Div IG, Aug. 4, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 21.
At four A.M., as thousands: Beevor, D-Day, 71 (“ravens”); OH, J. Milnor Roberts, Jr., SOOHP, 1982, HIA, box 1, 72–74 (“shoot an arrow”); “Operation MARKET: Air Invasion of Holland,” n.d., Hq, IX Troop Carrier Command, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, Act R, A-66, box 48, 56; Paul M. Davis and Amy C. Fenwick, “Development and Procurement of Gliders,” Mar. 1946, AFHRA, study no. 47, 164–67; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 61 (rarely if ever flown at night); Lewis E. Johnston, ed., “The Troop Carrier D-Day Flights,” 2003, a.p., 64 (“typewriter keys”); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 222, 235 (Rommel’s asparagus); Albert J. Randall, First Airborne Surgical Team, ts, June 8, 1945, “Medical Department Activities in ETO,” Office of the Surgeon General, NARA; Astor, June 6, 1944, 160; Ryan, The Longest Day, 128–39; Otis L. Sampson, “Destination,” ts, n.d., JMG papers, MHI, box 12, 12 (“bees out of a hive”).
Of more than six thousand jumpers: “Rough draft of Gen. Maxwell Taylor’s report,” with jumpmaster reports, 101st AB Div, July 1, 1944, GCM Lib; Capt. R. H. Brown, HQ, 506th PIR, NARA HI (telephone books); “Employment of 75mm Pack Howitzers,” WD Observer Bd, Aug 1, 1944, CARL, N-7344; McNally, As Ever, John, 44 (“men lying in the straw”).
“L’invasion est arrivé”: Two versions of this anecdote can be found in Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 268, and Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 92; Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 79–81 (“Allez me tuer”); author visit, May 2009; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 42; corr, Maxwell D. Taylor to SLAM, Feb. 25, 1946, SLAM, MHI, box 2; Gerald J. Higgins, 101st AB Div COS, OH, Feb. 5, 1946, SLAM, MHI, box 2; Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 22.
Five hours after leaping: Balkoski, Utah Beach, 123–25.
“Wir fahren gegen England”: Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 90–92; author visits, May 1996 and May 2009, including Musée Airborne exhibits; Jutras, Sainte-Mère-Église, 11; Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 49–50 (listening to the BBC).
“almost no chance to sustain”: “Capture of Ste. Mère Église,” Regimental Study No. 6, n.d., CMH, 2–8.
Alas, the drops in Operation BOSTON: Gilmore, ed., U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II, 18–20; memo, “Glider Operation NEPTUNE,” 82nd AB Div IG, Aug. 4, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 21 (Less than half of the following gliders); JMG, “Account of D-Day,” ts, n.d., JMG papers, MHI, box 12; AAR, JMG, Aug. 16, 1944, “Debriefing Conference—Operation NEPTUNE,” CARL, N-12198; Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 179–81; AAR, “508 Regiment After the Drop,” n.d., MMD, 26–29 (“he could not take any prisoners”).
Of the division’s three parachute infantry regiments: Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 93.
“with eyes open”: Ryan, The Longest Day, 114–17.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward C. Krause: Wills, Put on Your Boots and Parachutes!, 82; AAR, 3rd Bn, 505th PIR, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI #170; “Capture of Ste. Mère Église,” Regimental Study No. 6, n.d., CMH, 2–8; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 152.
“I am in Ste. Mère”: Marshall, Night Drop, 18; CCA, 289; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 113 (first town in France).
By dawn, 816 planes: Balkoski, Utah Beach, 113; Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 236–37 (only one of six regiments); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 36, 59 (advance weather plane); Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 15 (“not an unmixed evil”); McNally,As Ever, John, 44 (wires snipped); Wills, Put on Your Boots and Parachutes!, 88 (lie on their backs).
an American light bomber flew: AAR, “Reconnaissance in a Tactical Air Command,” 10th Photo Group, XIX Tactical Command, Ninth AF, 1945, CARL, N-9395.
Fifty miles to the east: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 301–2 (stuffed moose head); VW, vol. 1, 156.
Two parachute brigades: VW, vol. 1, 149–50; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 234–35; Shannon and Wright, One Night in June, 52; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 108 (only seventeen dropped); Saunders, The Red Beret, 159 (wrapped around his legs).
Less fortunate were the men: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 41; Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 76 (tea bags), 81 (“silken circles”); Shannon and Wright, One Night in June, 83 (Dives muck).
Amid calamity came a celebrated success: Urquhart, A Life in Peace and War, 49 (Saxon king); Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 217–19 (“Flying Morgue”); Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 66 (spiked with rum); Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 5–13 (“Cow Cow Boogie”); Chatterton,The Wings of Pegasus, 138; Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 36 (“a giant sheet”); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 46–47.
“Anything that moved”: Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 76–83.
One platoon commander fell dead: Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 217–21 (asked in vain to be shot).
Across the Orne and Dives: Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 140–41; Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 64 (double bed); Ryan, The Longest Day, 108–9 (“They got my mate”); VW, vol. 1, 155.
Perhaps the most perilous mission: VW, vol. 1, 154–55; By Air to Battle, 85 (banded pigeon); Shannon and Wright, One Night in June, 83 (sixty lengths of bangalore).
“I went in with 150”: Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 75.
First Tide
Ship by ship: “War Diary of Force ‘U,’” June 5–6, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 82, folder 46; IFG, 87; Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 75; Robb, The Discovery of France, 312 (Norman pirates); Colville, Footprints in Time, 161 (“War in these conditions”); Colville, The Fringes of Power, 492.
On the pitching decks below: John C. Raaen, Jr., “Sir, the 5th Rangers Have Landed Intact,” ts, 2000, MMD, 1 (watched for mines); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 188 (“a passion”); Alter and Crouch, eds., “My Dear Moon,” no pagination (“extra systoles”); Reynolds, How I Survived the Three First Wave Invasions, 89 (“The mind can wander”); Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 111 (“when a bullet hits you”), 163 (Horace’s Satires).
At two A.M. the ship’s loudspeaker: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 139 (white jackets); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 204 (tinned beef); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 305 (“superb 1812 brandy”); K. G. Oakley, “Normandy ‘D’ Day 1944,” ts, n.d., IWM, 96/22/1, 1–2 (“Do not worry”).
Precisely what the enemy knew: ALH, vol. 2, 35–36; Hinsley, 466–67 (5 percent); Leppert, “Communication Plans and Lessons, Europe and Africa,” lecture, Oct. 30, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, L-7-44, 22–24; “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 479–82; Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 290 (electronic signature); Dear, ed., The Oxford Companion to World War II, 333 (simulate two large naval fleets).
The actual OVERLORD fleets: Allen, “Electronics Warfare,” lecture, Sept. 21, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-7-44, 4; Leppert, “Communication Plans and Lessons, Europe and Africa,” lecture, Oct. 30, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, L-7-44, 22–24; “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 479–82 (Jamming had begun).
Of particular concern were glide bombs: DOB, 217–19; Sunset 592, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS–1869 (145 radio-control bombers); Martin J. Bollinger, “Warriors and Wizards: The Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Bombs of the Third Reich,” ts, 2010, a.p., 326, 345–46; Orus Kinney, “Nazi Smart Bombs,” VHP, Jan. 2010, www.kilroywashere.org/003-Pages/03-OrusKinney.html (“like a man’s erect penis”).
“Each time they woke us”: Stiles, Serenade to the Big Bird, 127; WaS, 42–43; Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 336 (“a late tea”); Philip Cole, “Air Planning for Overlord,” lecture, Oct. 28, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, 14–16; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 403 (crash amid the waves).
Behind the British came: Balkoski, Utah Beach, 87–91.
Less precise was the main American force: ibid., 92; Juliette Hennessy, “Tactical Operations of the Eighth Air Force,” 1952, AFHRA, historical study no. 70, 15–17 (forty-five coastal fortifications).
Conditions were far from perfect: memo, “Statement of Result of D-Day Bombing by 4-Engine Aircraft,” Eighth AF, Aug. 8, 1944, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; AAFinWWII, 190–93.
For an hour and a half: Robert W. Ackerman, “The Employment of Strategic Bombers in a Tactical Role,” 1954, AFHRA, study no. 88, 78; Crane, Bombs, Cities & Civilians, 70–71; memo, “Statement of Result of D-Day Bombing by 4-Engine Aircraft,” Eighth AF, Aug. 8, 1944, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (“many seconds”); Davis,Bombing the European Axis Powers, 357.
Heavy chains rattled: Naval Guns, 35–36; Breuer, Hitler’s Fortress Cherbourg, 83 (“For Chrissake”); IFG, 93 (“Anchor holding”).
Aboard Princess Astrid: J. H. Patterson, ts, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7, 6 (“Troops to parade”); Ewing, 29 Let’s Go!, 37–39 (blackout curtains); Smith, The Big Red One at D-Day, 32 (“metal shoeboxes”); diary, Cyrus C. Aydlett, June 6, 1944, NWWIIM (“a great abyss”).
Nautical twilight arrived: “War Diary of Force ‘U,’” June 6, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 82, folder 46; Beevor, D-Day, 92 (“gigantic town”); Raitberger, “French Remember D-Day Landings,” Reuters, May 18, 1994 (“more ships than sea”).
Minesweepers nosed close: Yung, “Action This Day,” Naval History (June 2009): 20+; Yung, Gators of Neptune, 178; IFG, 96 (Two destroyers also took fire); Naval Guns, 36–37 (“Commence counterbattery”).
Soon enough eight hundred naval guns: “Notes on the Assault,” vol. 1, ts, n.d., Sidney Negretto Papers, MHI, box 4; VW, vol. 1, 161; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 204 (“air vibrated”); Naval Guns, 37; Liebling, Mollie & Other Pieces, 180 (“yellow cordite”); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 501 (“railway trains”); Reynolds, Hemingway: The Final Years, 96–98, 102; Heinz, When We Were One, 10–11; McManus, The Americans at D-Day, 261 (blue steel); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 60–61 (“There is cannonading”).
“The arc at its zenith”: John F. Latimer, n.d., NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 12; Dailey, Joining the War at Sea, 1939–1945, 314 (height of the splash); Ryan, The Longest Day, 162 (“monstrous thing”); Raitberger, “French Remember D-Day Landings,” Reuters, May 18, 1994 (“It is raining iron”).
Allied planes swaddled: The smoke plane in Corry’s sector was shot down, weakening the screen. Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 83; AR, U.S.S. Corry, June 19, 1944, MMD; McKernon, Corry, 38–52.
“We seemed to jump”: Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 334;
Most sailors on the destroyer: W. H. Greear, lecture, n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, 7; Hinsley, 478 (“overlooked it”); “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 504; http://www.uss-corry-dd463.com/d-day_u-boat_photos/d-day_photos.htm. The cause of Corry’s sinking remained controversial long after the war.
Eight minutes after the first explosion: AR, U.S.S. Corry, June 19, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/31/1, box 932, 5; Robert Beeman, “The Sinking of the U.S.S. Corry, June 6, 1944,” ts, n.d., MMD (necktie); memo, R. M. Allan, “U.S.S. Corry—Sinking of,” n.d., SEM, NHHC, box 81; OH, George D. Hoffman, CO, U.S.S. Corry, July 11, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 214–15; Hinsley, 478; “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 504.
Experience from the Pacific: Yung, “The Planners’ Daunting Task,” Naval History (June 2009): 12+; WaS, 31–33; “Notes on the Assault,” vol. 1, ts, n.d., Sidney Negretto Papers, MHI, box 4 (140,000 shells); “Enemy Defenses and Beach Obstacles Above Highwater Mark,” bulletin Y/23, Nov. 1944, COHQ, CARL, N-6530-12, 7 (few enemy casemates); Yung, Gators of Neptune, 209 (Houlgate battery); AR, Don P. Moon, Force U, June 26, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217 (none were completely knocked out); Yung, “Action This Day,” Naval History (June 2009): 20+ (pesky St.-Marcouf battery).
The Channel’s idiosyncratic tidal flow: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 220; Babcock, War Stories, 97 (“I can jump”); Jeffers, In the Rough Rider’s Shadow, 236 (“there are shadows”).
“Away all boats”: Vining, ed., American Diaries of World War II, 101.
He was an unlikely vanguard: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 221; Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 112–13 (“frazzle-assed”); Jeffers, In the Rough Rider’s Shadow, 4, 243; Morris, Colonel Roosevelt, 548.
“achieve the same heights as his father”: Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 173 (steel-rimmed spectacles), 307, 330, 461–63, 474, 487; AAAD, 85–86; DOB, 94–95; Hamilton, “Junior in Name Only,” Retired Officer (June 1981): 28+; http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/roosvlt.html*, TR, LOC MS Div;http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/smith-al.htm*.
“What man of spirit”: Morris, Colonel Roosevelt, 509; Renehan, The Lion’s Pride, 239 (“first, best destiny”); DOB, 160; Michael David Pearlman, “To Make Democracy Safe for the World,” Ph.D. diss, University of Illinois, 1978, 606 (“manhood”); Roosevelt, Day Before Yesterday, 450–51 (“all right to pull strings”); Eleanor Roosevelt to GCM, Feb. 7, 1944, GCM Lib, box 83, folder 31 (“matter considered so serious”).
The Army’s chief capitulated: TR to R. O. Barton, May 26, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 39 (“the behavior pattern”); Jeffers, In the Rough Rider’s Shadow, 5 (“can’t be that rough”); TR to Eleanor, July 11, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; IFG, 100.
He was on the wrong beach: Balkoski, Utah Beach, 182; IFG, 98; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 172–73; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 231 (two thousand yards south); Naval Guns, 44 (“Higher than her length”); Maynard D. Pederson et al., “Armor in Operation Neptune,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 21 (the remaining Shermans).
“We’re not where we’re supposed to be”: James A. Van Fleet, SOOHP, H. Williams, 1973, MHI, 55–56.
The accidental beach: “Combat Engineering,” CE, Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 19–21; Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 501 (“pikemen”); Ryan, The Longest Day, 179 (“real estate”); Rollyson, Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave, 197 (“heavy, dry glove”).
“How do you boys”: Astor, June 6, 1944, 229; Balkoski, Utah Beach, 236 (“great day for hunting”); “Notes on Utah Beach and the 1st Engineer Special Brigade,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #359A, 67; Fane and Moore, The Naked Warriors, 68 (“Fire in the hole”); OH, Herbert A. Peterson, Naval Combat Demolition, Oct. 1, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 2–3 (“no fear of impaling”).
Through the dunes and across the beach: Royce L. Thompson, “American Strength in D-Day Landings,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AE.P-5; Ingersoll, Top Secret, 126 (“ironed flat”); Fowle, ed., Builders and Fighters, 448–49 (Four causeways); Balkoski, Utah Beach, 236 (“arm signal”).
The mutter of gunfire: Maynard D. Pederson et al., “Armor in Operation Neptune,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 28–29; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 181 (shaving cream); Balkoski, Utah Beach, 254 (horse-drawn 88mm guns); diary, Cyrus C. Aydlett, June 10, 1944, NWWIIM (“It sure takes a lot”); “D-Day Experience of Eugene D. Brierre,” ts, March 15, 1998, NWWIIM, 2001.160, 5–6 (snipped the unit flashes).
East of Pouppeville: CCA, 283; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 233–34 (“Where’s the war”); Babcock, War Stories, 52 (“Hey, boy”).
Eleven miles offshore: “War Diary of Force ‘U,’” June 5–6, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 82, folder 46; Chandler and Collins, eds., The D-Day Encyclopedia, 373 (delay seven assault waves).
At age fifty, Admiral Moon: Alter and Crouch, eds., “My Dear Moon,” no pagination; John A. Moreno, “The Death of Admiral Moon,” n.d., a.p., 225+.
In his spare office aboard Bayfield: “Conference on the Operations of the VII Corps,” May 16, 1946, SLAM, MHI, box 2; Collins, Lightning Joe, 200–201 (“I had to put my foot down”); CCA, 329. Historian Joseph Balkoski believes 4th ID casualties for June 6 were “certainly over 300.” Balkoski, Utah Beach, 322.
“It is our good fortune”: “War Diary of Force ‘U,’” June 5–6, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 82, folder 46.
Hell’s Beach
Fifteen miles southeast of Utah: IFG, 110–11 (Spanish galleon); ALH, 21; “Beach 46—Omaha, Tidal Curves,” n.d., CARL, N-7374E; “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 57; CCA, 18; 1st ID, HI; “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 60 (two knots to three).
That Norman tide: IFG, 138; “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 566; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 41 (twenty feet deep), 22; Royce L. Thompson, “American Strength in D-Day Landings,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AE.P-5; “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET, General Board study no. 1, 25 (without stranding the boats); Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 53 (only half an hour).
OVERLORD’s plan called for nine infantry companies: Omaha Beachhead, AFIA, 42; Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 101. The nine included a Ranger company.
To minimize the risk of German shore fire: Yung, Gators of Neptune, 216; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 264; IFG, 124. Fourteen hundred tons of naval shells fell at Omaha, one-third the bombardment weight at much weaker Kwajalein Island. “Amphibious Operations: Invasion of Northern France,” CINC, U.S. Fleet, Oct. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #252, 2–27.
The German defenses were fearsome: “Comparison of British and American Areas in Normandy in Terms of Fire Support and Its Effects,” Army Operational Group Report no. 292, Aug. 14, 1945, UK NA, WO 291/270; McManus, The Americans at D-Day, 305 (“murder holes”); OH, J. D. Small, June 23, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 9 (“like huckleberries”); Drez, ed. Voices of D-Day, 283 (“New England town hall”); “The Invasion of Normandy,” USNAd, vol. 5, 512; IFG, 114–15 (aerial photos).
Also undetected and unexpected: Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 842–43; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 119 (radio blackout); Fritz Ziegelmann, “The 352nd Infantry Division,” FMS, #B-432, in Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 122–24 (requisitioned milk), 194–95, 202; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 45; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 48–49; Beevor, D-Day, 93; Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 277–79; Holt, The Deceivers, 578; Foot, SOE in France, 386–87 (British tricksters).
If the Omaha defenses had been thinned: Murray, “Needless D-Day Slaughter,” MHQ (spring 2003): 26+; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 842–43; Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 67, 78; Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 201 (odds of three to five).
For those who outlived the day: “Greek lyric,” epigram, Ridgway, Soldier (this high thing).
“utterly inhuman noises”: memo, Cleave A. Jones, July 4, 1944, NARA RG 498, UD 603, ETO HD, box 1, SLAM 201 file; Baumgartner et al., The 16th Infantry, 1798–1946, 84 (gas capes); OH, J. D. Small, June 23, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 9 (“It’s yours”).
They remembered the red splash: Cawthon, Other Clay, 51–53; Lebda, Million Miles to Go, 81–82 (“wind-driven hail”); Alan Anderson, ts, n.d., 467th AA Bn, NWWIIM (“corn cobs”); diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 17 (size of shovel blades); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 134 (“wicked living things”); Scannell, Argument of Kings, 152 (“insectile whine”); Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,” American Magazine (Sept. 1944): 26+ (frightened animals); AAR, 146th Engineer Combat Bn, June 30, 1944, CEOH, X-37A (spoons); Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” xxii (barked knuckles); W. Garwood Bacon, ts, n.d., 7th Naval Beach Bn, NWWIIM (eardrums).
“walking in the face”: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 67; Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,” American Magazine (Sept. 1944): 26+; Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 155 (“dying scream”).
Army and Navy engineers: OH, John T. O’Neill, 299th Engineer Combat Bn, June 9, 1944, NARA 407, E 427, ML #2210; Beck, 308, 320; “Combat Engineering,” CE, ETOUSA, Dec. 1945, report no. 10, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 10–16 (all drifted left); Omaha Beachhead, 42–43; AAR, 299th Engineer Combat Bn, July 1944, NARA 407, E 427, ML #2210 (Team 14’s landing craft); McManus, The Americans at D-Day, 340 (“V for victory”); Fowle, ed., Builders and Fighters, 438 (Seven died in Team 11); AAR, 146th Engineer Combat Bn, June 30, 1944, CEOH, X-37A (“like fence posts”).
Demolitionists shinnied up pilings: Field Order No. 35, 1st ID, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 301-3.9; Fowle, ed., Builders and Fighters, 438 (the fuse man’s fingers); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 134 (“cluster of bees”); Fane and Moore, The Naked Warriors, 56–58 (engineers screamed); Yung, Gators of Neptune, 187; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 143 (only six of sixteen gaps); OH, W. M. Hoge, CO, Provisional Brigade Group, July 3, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #493C; CCA, 317; IFG, 138n.
The fiascos multiplied: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 135 (“like toads”); Lewis, “Landing Craft,” lecture, Sept. 18, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, 18; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 234 (nine inches of freeboard); OH, Robert K. Skagg, 741st Tank Bn, June 18, 1944, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (of thirty-two Shermans); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 147 (“a certain gallantry”).
Artillerymen also struggled: Marshall, “The Mobility of One Man,” IJ (Oct. 1949): 6+ (eighteen sandbags); “111th FA Bn on D Day,” n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (“unseaworthy”); Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 239 (“I can still hear”).
Two infantry regiments washed: Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 28–29, 161 (“lose heart”); OH, 116th Inf, Co A, n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; Marshall, Battle at Best, 54–55 (“inert and leaderless”); Kershaw, The Bedford Boys, 144–51 (“didn’t get to kill”); Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 213 (“like hay”).
“a venetian blind being lifted”: Baumgarten, Eyewitness on Omaha Beach, 17; Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 125 (LCA-1015); S. L. A. Marshall, “First Wave at Omaha Beach,” Atlantic, Nov. 1960, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/fir*; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 209 (“he sat down”); Ryan, The Longest Day, 176 (safety pins); Richler, ed., Writers on World War II, 508 (“I run on”); Cawthon, Other Clay, 57 (“a debacle”).
“the greater portion of the dead”: Baumgartner et al., The 16th Infantry, 1798–1946, 107; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 87 (rank insignia); William Haynes, Co. E, 16th Inf, HI, box 24242 (“big and little stuff”); Lebda, Million Miles to Go, 81–82 (“twenty thousand bullets”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 139–40 (“Es una cosa”).
The four-hundred-ton LCI 85: AR, LCI (L) 85, June 24, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/3/1, box 1102; AAR, Company A, 1st Medical Bn, n.d., NARA 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 195–96 (White bandages); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Battalion 1998 Reunion,” MRC FDM (“we could hear”).
By 8:30 A.M. the Omaha assault: McManus, The Americans at D-Day, 327; Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 248 (“Face downwards”).
Two large boats burned furiously: AR, LCI 91, June 10, 1944, MMD; Robert E. Walker, “With the Stonewallers,” n.d., MMD (soles of his boots); AR, LCI(L) 92, Sept. 2, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/3/1, box 549 (champagne corks); “Actions Group, CT 116,” n.d., John P. McKnight papers, HIA, box 1; Seth Shepard, “The Story of theLCI(L) 92,” June 25, 1944, MMD, 9–12; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 223 (“Terror seized me” and “shipwreck”).
Only where escarpment: 2nd Ranger Bn, AAR, July 22, 1944, and “A Narrative History of the Second Ranger Infantry Battalion,” n.d., both in Robert W. Black collection, MHI, box 3; CI, 2nd and 5th Ranger Bn, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder 337; IFG, 126–29; Ryan, The Longest Day, 182–84.
“ripped-open dirt”: Heinz, “I Took My Son to Omaha Beach,” Collier’s (June 11, 1954): 21+; “Amphibious Operations: Invasion of Northern France,” CINC, U.S. Fleet, Oct. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #252, 2–11 (Texas’s 14-inch barrels).
Rangers hauled themselves over the lip: Interview, Leonard G. Lommell with author, May 2008; OH, Leonard G. Lommell, 2nd Ranger Bn, Mar. 16, 1993, NWWIIM; Kingseed, Old Glory Stories, 198–99; author visit, May 2009.
Back on Hell’s Beach: Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 212–13 (“They’ll come swarming”); FCP, “The 25th Anniversary of D-Day,” Congressional Record, June 25, 1969, E5246+ (“couldn’t look back”); Kingseed, From Omaha Beach to Dawson’s Ridge, 145–49, 163 (“The limitations of life”).
From the gray deck of the command ship: Pyle, Brave Men, 246; CBH, June 3 and 6, 1944 (First Army war room); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 252–53; Hastings, OVERLORD, 92; memoir, William Puntenney, 29th ID, n.d., MMD, 40–41 (“bunch of hogs”).
At a plotting table in the center: Hanson W. Baldwin, “Getting the D-Day News Out,” in Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 394; ONB, OH, 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, VII, 22 (“get ground quickly”); Astor, June 6, 1944, 212–13 (expected the two assault regiments); Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 243–44 (Photographers were forbidden).
“Lincolnesque”: “Doughboy’s General,” Time (May 1, 1944): 23+; Pyle, Brave Men, 210–11 (“he spoke so gently”); Liebling, “Five-Star Schoolmaster,” New Yorker (March 10, 1951): 40+.
Few could resist the biography: OH, ONB, Oct. 14, 1946, FCP (sodbuster twang); Liebling, “Five-Star Schoolmaster,” New Yorker (March 10, 1951): 40+; “Doughboy’s General,” Time (May 1, 1944): 23+; CBH, June 3, 1944 (two flasks of brandy); Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 77 (“If there’s a bird”), 85–93; ONB, OH, 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, II, 11, 24–26, 52–53 (“guidance from God”); DOB, 96, 114–15; AAAD, 485–86.
Perhaps. But a few wondered: C. B. Hansen, “General Bradley As Seen Close Up,” NYT Magazine, Nov. 30, 1947, 14+ (“superior”); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 37 (“mediocrity”); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 216 (“Has a strong jaw”); Murray, “Needless D-Day Slaughter,” MHQ (spring 2003): 26+(Bradley’s design); “Doughboy’s General,” Time (May 1, 1944): 23 (“tommyrot”). I’m grateful for the insights of Prof. Allan R. Millett on this topic.
Now he was not so sure: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 271–77; Astor, June 6, 1944, 212–13 (“this is carnage”).
Not for some hours would Bradley learn: Miller, Division Commander, 5–14; diary, Jack Shea [Cota aide], ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 14–17 (hugging wooden groins).
Pistol in hand, he sang tuneless: Kershaw, The Bedford Boys, 155; John C. Raaen, Jr., “Sir, the 5th Rangers Have Landed Intact,” ts, 2000, MMD, 28–29; McManus, The Americans at D-Day, 333; OH, 116th Inf, March 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 18–22 (“Medico, I’m hit”).
Up the bluff they climbed: diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 19–22, 29; OH, 116th Inf, March 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG.
“Where the hell have you been”: OH, 116th Inf, Mar. 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG.
“a final stubborn reserve”: Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 161; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 346 (“unwilling soul”), 262 (“Watch it”); “16-G on D-Day,” n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (stepping stones); diary, Stanley Bach, First Army, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (“Fire everywhere”); OH, Joseph Dorchak, Co B, 2nd Ranger Bn, HI (“shot the corpse”).
A dozen destroyers—some so close: IFG, 143; OH, Maurice F. McGrath, 116th Inf, Sept. 20, 1944, a.p. (“pick them out”); Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 108 (knocked the tower into the nave); Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 327 (“simply champion”).
“coagulating haphazardly”: CCA, 324; “Operation Neptune Report,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 30, 1944, CEOH, box X-24, 91–93, 93n (“Men believed ours”); Wheeler, The Big Red One, 277–82; Omaha Beachhead, 82–83, 87 (“Troops formerly pinned”).
Cota continued his charmed day: Omaha Beachhead, 95; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 23; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 278 (“Come on down here”).
That left the British and Canadians: WaS, 46–48; IFG, 183 (four times longer); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 170–71 (half a dozen gadgets).
In other respects, “the bitches”: Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 293; “Force G and 50 Division,” bulletin Y/36, Nov. 1944, COHQ, CARL, N-6530.16, 19–23 (engine rooms flooded); Hastings, OVERLORD, 105–6 (Centaur tanks); Vian, Action This Day, 138 (two battleships and a monitor); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 56 (“large packs of grouse”); VW, vol. 1, 197 (ninety shore guns); author visit, Crépon, May 25–29, 2009; “Casualties and Effects of Fire Support on the British Beaches in Normandy,” Army Operational Research Group (U.K.), report no. 261, n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 451, 5 (“not just disorganized”).
During the run to shore: Hastings, Winston’s War, 393; diary, S. C. Donnison, June 6, 1944, IWM, 94/50/1 (“thick as syrup”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 48, 60; “An Account of the Assault by an Infantry Battalion,” bulletin Y/44, Feb. 1945, COHQ, CARL, N-6350.22, 5–6; J. H. Patterson, ts, n.d., No. 4 Commando, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7 (“Jerusalem”); Hills, Phantom Was There, 178 (“The Beer Barrel Polka”).
Closest to Omaha lay Gold: Roskill, White Ensign, 377; “Report on the Battle of Normandy,” Royal Engineers, n.d., CARL, N-5785 (only two boat lanes); “An Account of the Assault by an Infantry Battalion,” bulleting Y/44, Feb. 1945, COHQ, CARL, N-6350.22, 9; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 270–72; Ryan, The Longest Day, 188 (“Perhaps we’re intruding”); WaS, 46–48 (Port-en-Bessin); VW, vol. 1, 178, 193 (all four brigades).
On the eastern lip of the Allied beachhead: VW, vol. 1, 185.
“Ramp down”: Hastings, OVERLORD, 103; Ryan, The Longest Day, 186 (“Bash on”); “Report on the Battle of Normandy,” Royal Engineers, n.d., CARL, N-5785 (cleared no beach obstacles); Collier, Fighting Words, 161 (“shoulders hunched like boxers”); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 313 (“drowning in their own blood”); Liddle,D-Day by Those Who Were There, 12–13 (“Beach a shambles”); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 129 (within thirty feet); VW, vol. 1, 186, 194–95; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 278.
Even so a kilted piper with a dirk: Millership, “Scots Piper Dodged Bullets,” Reuters, June 1, 1994; Burns, “Bill Millin, Scottish D-Day Piper, Dies at 88,” NYT, Aug. 19, 2010, B9 (“Highland Laddie”); Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 202 (“Get down”); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 316–18 (“parade-ground style”); Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 189–90.
The wind-whipped tide and a bullying current: VW, vol. 1, 179–83; VC, 100–106; Collier, Fighting Words, 164 (“Traitors!”).
Despite such setbacks: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 141 (half the number expected); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 275 (two miles inland); Saunders, The Red Beret, 153; Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 125; author visit, Crépon, May 25–29, 2009; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 199.
Reporters were told to expect: Ryan, The Longest Day, 196–97; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 297–301 (“cycle like mad”).
Yet the day seemed undimmed: author visit, Crépon, May 25–29, 2009; Ryan, The Longest Day, 206 (holding up trousers); Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 109 (French women who emerged); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 228 (Norman dialect); Thompson, The Price of Victory, 253 (antique gramophone).
A Conqueror’s Paradise
As if in pursuit: AAFinWWII, 159 (twenty-six bridges); Irving, The Trail of the Fox, Horch photo; Douglas-Home, Rommel, 205; Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 198 (youngest but most celebrated); Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 457 (“C’est Rommel!”).
He had driven home to Herrlingen: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 470–71; Ryan, The Longest Day, 237–38 (“If I was commander”).
At 9:30 P.M., with little left: Ryan, The Longest Day, 15; author visit, La Roche–Guyon, May 30, 2009, and “A Visit to La Roche–Guyon Castle,” brochure.
“How peaceful the world”: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 471–73; Beevor, D-Day, 40 (“conqueror’s paradise”); Camille Pissarro, “A Square in La Roche–Guyon,” Alte Nationalgaleri, Berlin; www.musee-imaginaire.de/lesesaal/renoir/biografi.html*; www.artchive.com/artchive/B/braque/castle.jpg.html.
On the chalk cliffs: Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 334, 345–54, 392.
Clacking typewriters: Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 53 (Edict of Nantes); Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 372–74 (“He’s very calm”).
There was much to be grim about: CCA, 275; Germany VII, 586 (“There are no signs”); Lewin, Rommel as Military Commander, 223 (away from their posts); war diary, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201 (“not a major action”).
Not until that fantastic armada: Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 120 (German aircraft losses); Germany VII, 328–30 (319 serviceable planes and dropped their bombs prematurely); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 143; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 414; Wieviorka, Normandy, 207 (American planes were gray).
“The enemy, penetrating our positions”: war diary, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201.
“the fighting animal”: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 274; Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 299; MMB, 462–63; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 48 (“re-win great fame”).
Hitler’s decision in November 1943: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 60–61, 65 (“Once defeated”); Germany VII, 512; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 458 (“zone of death”), 464 (“The enemy will have a rough time”).
If confident enough to travel: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 60–61 (200 million); Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 496 (eight different languages); Overy, Why the Allies Won, 225–27 (Army Group B relied); Friederich Freiherr von der Heydte, “A German Parachute Regiment in Normandy,” 1954, FMS, #B-839, MHI, 8 (“Emplacements without guns”).
“Our friends from the East”: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 467–68; F. Ruge, “Coast Defense and Invasion,” June 9, 1947, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, ONI IR 243, box 642, 9, 14 (“nailed to the ground”); “Railway Sabotage in France and Belgium,” SHAEF, G-3, n.d., CARL, N-16313 (armed railwaymen); Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars, 233–41; CCA, 225–30; AAFinWWII, 160; GS V, 287; memo, Erwin Rommel, Apr. 22, 1944, captured document, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, “Combat Engineering,” admin file #547, 8–9 (“The enemy will most likely”).
“a cock-fight controversy”: Bodo Zimmerman, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 42–43.
“main battle line must be the beach”: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 455; OH, Hans von Luck to author, Hamburg, Mar. 3 and Apr. 7, 1994 (“If we can’t throw”); CCA, 247.
This impertinence found little favor: Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 43 (“unlicked cub”); Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 48 (“Marshal Laddie”); Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, ETHINT 13, Dec. 11, 1947, MHI, 2 (S’engager).
Hitler dithered, then ordered a compromise: Germany VII, 508–20 (“In the East”); Wood, ed., Army of the West, 4; CCA, 243–49; Ose, “Rommel and Rundstedt: The 1944 Panzer Controversy,” Military Affairs (Jan. 1986): 7+; CCA, 333–34 (eight hours passed); Beevor, D-Day, 150 (“arrive too late”).
“Der Führer vertraut mir”: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 476–78; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 48 (“the Führer’s marshal”); Young, Rommel, the Desert Fox, 151 (stamp collector); Margry, “The Death of Rommel,” AB, no. 80 (1993): 38+ (confiscated from Jews); Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 485 (“come round to the idea”), 468, (“fate of the German people”).
The struggle in Normandy would depend: VW, vol. 1, 201–4: Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, 65 (oddments), 106–8 (pulverized by naval gunfire); OH, Hans von Luck to author, Hamburg, Mar. 3 and Apr. 7, 1994; Luck, Panzer Commander, 139–44; Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 57–58; Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 67 (Parisian fleshpot); Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 241; VW, vol. 1, 204–5; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 113 (almost 250 more British gliders).
At 10:40 P.M., General Friedrich Dollmann: war diary, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201. The 21st Panzer commander put his tank losses for June 6 at 25 percent, while official British sources calculate the loss at 40 to 44 percent. The official German history states that 80 of 125 deployed panzers were destroyed.Germany VII, 593; Hinsley, 474; VW, vol. 1, 204; Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 57–58.
Swarming enemy aircraft impeded movement: Luther, Blood and Honor, 70–73; Hastings, OVERLORD, 117 (Grenadiers skulked back).
“We cannot hold everything”: Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 98–99; Ryan, The Longest Day, 237–38 (“I’ve nearly always succeeded”).
A monstrous full moon: VW, vol. 1, 222; AAFinWWII, 562–63 (first of 241 airdromes); Omaha Beachhead, 108 (only a hundred tons); Balkoski, Utah Beach, 317 (nineteen airborne battalions); Astor, June 6, 1944, 239 (“to kill each other”).
“I must have Caen”: notes, Miles Dempsey, May 15, 1944, UK NA, WO 285/1; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 841–42; Beevor, D-Day, 142; Hastings, OVERLORD, 115 (“not unpleased”).
“My wife, my children!”: Beevor, D-Day, 146; Harris G. Warren, “Special Operations: AAF Aid to European Resistance Movements,” 1947, AFHRA, study no. 121, 149 (seventeen Norman towns); “Historical Record, A.E.A.F.,” n.d., UK NA, AIR 37/1057 (bomber fleets would follow); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 183 (eleven days), 185 (Westminster Abbey); Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 29–33; Gilbert, D-Day, 158–59 (five hundred coffins); Arthur Layton Funk, “Caught in the Middle: The French Population in Normandy,” in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 252.
three thousand Normans would be killed: Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 27; Beevor, D-Day, 49 (fifteen thousand French civilians), 123 (calvados); Moorehead, Eclipse, 120 (“excessive hardship”).
As for the liberators: casualty estimates vary substantially. VW, vol. 1, 222–23; Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 122.
The 8,230 U.S. casualties: historian Joseph Balkoski tabulates 4,720 casualties at Omaha, plus 3,510 at Utah and on the Cotentin Peninsula. Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, each appendix 1; Reister, ed., Medical Statistics in World War II, 13–20 (first of almost 400,000 men).
Many were felled by 9.6-gram bullets: Andrus et al., eds., Advances in Military Medicine, vol. 1, 192–201; Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 149 (corpses into burial sacks); J. H. Patterson, No. 4 Commando, ts, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7, 13 (“nothing was being done”); George E. McIntyre, “As Mac Saw It,” ts, n.d., MHI, 159 (handkerchiefs draped the faces); OH, Richard Oliphant, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 2–3 (“They do not seem to matter”).
Omaha was the worst: “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 328–29; “Activities of Medical Detachment,” 16th Inf, D-Day, n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 37 (cat’s-eye headlights); Fisher, Legacy of Heroes, 33, 38, 64 (gas gangrene); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Beach Battalion 1998 Reunion,” 1998, MRC FDM (bullet in the brain); “Vierville-sur-Mer,” ts, n.d., MMD (“There were men crying”).
“swollen grayish sacks”: Moorehead, Gellhorn, 219.
“I walked along slowly”: Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,” American Magazine (Sept. 1944): 26+; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 128 (More than double that number); Pyle, Brave Men, 246 (toes sticking up); Richard H. Oliphant, “Eleventh Amphibious Force,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217 (“staring was rude”).
Graves Registration teams: Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 485 (safety pins); “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 341 (Two inland sites); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Beach Battalion 1998 Reunion,” 1998, MRC FDM (fortified with brandy).
“since Alexander set out from Macedon”: Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 114; Gellhorn, The Face of War, 134–36 (“small shabby men”); Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 155 (“I’d kill him”).
“We will never again have to land”: Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 261.
“We have come to the hour”: Stephen E. Ambrose, “Battle Scars Remain But Little Has Changed in Normandy,” International Herald Tribune, Apr. 22, 1994, 12; Wacker, “The Voices of D-Day,” Retired Officer (June 1994): 26+ (scribbling “deceased”); Crosswell, Beetle, 795 (“dead stock”); Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 162–64 (“I wonder about him”).
CHAPTER 2: LODGEMENT
“This Long Thin Line of Personal Anguish”
Light rain fell in Portsmouth: www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-474304-18-gun-battery-and-flanking-battery-king; Three Years, 571 (four white stars).
“A scene of great confusion”: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 84–85.
Mines continued to bedevil: AR, Tide, July 6, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/3/1, 2–3; OH, George Crane, XO, Tide, Sept. 30, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories; AR, Susan B. Anthony, June 7, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217; “The United States Medical Department at War, 1941–1945,” vol. 1, part 3, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, 1946, NHHC, 732–33 (“ship lifted and hogged”); OH, Byron S. Huie, salvage officer, Aug. 18, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories (frightened men off the prow); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 191 (“put her nose in the air”).
“Why in the devil didn’t you”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 280–81.
“firmly rooted in France”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 256–57; Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, box 41 (truck’s running board); “The Administrative History of the Operations of 21 Army Group,” n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB 21-AG AH, box 458, 25 (build their own cages); memo, F-48 to “Secret Mail Room,” Aug. 12, 1944, U.S. Fleet, OPD Information Bulletin, amphibious supplement no. 8, June 9, 1945, GCM Lib, box 1, file 34 (More than one-third of all shore obstacles); Bertram H. Ramsay, dispatch, London Gazette, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109+ (Straits of Dover); memo, B. B. Talley, Feb. 1948, RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (pinpointed not only enemy gun batteries); corr, John H. Lauten, 16th Inf, to WD, July 22, 1947, “1st U.S. Infantry Division, G-2 report intelligence activities, MMD (now being pummeled).
Yet First Army still had not reached: CCA, 341, 351 (Only a quarter); “A Narrative History of the Second Ranger Infantry Battalion,” ts, n.d., Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 3; OH, Charles M. Bulap, Co E, 2nd Ranger Bn, HI (Pointe du Hoc).
Beyond Utah Beach, confusion remained: “Continuation of Command Narrative,” n.d., JMG, MHI, box 12; Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 257 (Benzedrine), 259–60 (“where’s the picnic?”).
The 82nd now occupied: Gavin, On to Berlin, 111; CCA, 291 (no real bridgehead existed west); Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 74–75.
“Bridgehead still very shallow”: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 84–85; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 257 (“pointless interruption”).
“With the mast swaying”: Three Years, 572–73; Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, xvi (“aura of vinegar”).
“We’ve started”: Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 190.
Even war could not dim the radiance: VW, vol. 1, 265; CCA, 339; Aron, France Reborn, 30 (cadging cigarettes), 24 (forty thousand); OH, Lt. Richard Oliphant, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories (White blossoms rioted); Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 145 (cows lowed); Watney, The Enemy Within, 108 (blue smocks); CBH, July 2, 1944, MHI, box 4 (fascist salutes); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 88 (shops offered goods); author visit, Bayeux, May 26–27, 2009; Osmont, The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont, 45, 49 (“without overcoats”).
“belted with gigantic floats”: Aron, France Reborn, 30 and foreword (Thirty-six thousand French communes); Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 293; Donnison, Civil Affairs and Military Government in North-West Europe, 74–77 (“impossible to differentiate” and “Looting by troops”); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 315 (set up a press camp); Moorehead, Eclipse, 113 (“a dry Sauterne”).
“only shells with their insides blown out”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 109; Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 90–91 (“please stop the shells”); Scannell, Argument of Kings, 157, 165–66 (“What I can never understand”); Osmont, The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont, 41, 46–47 (“Overhead the hisses”).
“looking helpless and insignificant”: CBH, June 8, 1944, MHI, box 4; Pyle, Brave Men, 251–52; Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 173–79.
A Gunman’s World
Enemy soldiers by the tens of thousands: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 157; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 305 (French buses upholstered).
Traveling by five dusty routes: Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, 81; VW, vol. 1, 23; Carell, Invasion—They’re Coming!, 107–8 (“bombers hovering”); Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars, 246 (six miles per hour); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 300; Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 503 (Not until June 9). Historian Niklas Zetterling asserts that Panzer Lehr march losses were exaggerated, although delays were significant. Normandy 1944, 47, 384–89.
Half a dozen flak battalions: Carell, Invasion—They’re Coming!, 114–15; Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 48 (sixty trains); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 156 (Das Reich matériel and troops).
“My friends, you are going to appear”: Hastings, Das Reich, 116–26, 170–82; Foot, SOE in France, 399 (“book of iniquity”).
Evil also shadowed: Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 503; Milner, “Stopping the Panzers,” JMH (Apr. 2010): 491+; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 241; Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 46 (too low on fuel); Chandler and Collins, eds., The D-Day Encyclopedia, 361 (former miner and policeman); Luther, Blood and Honor, 72–73 (broken nineteen bones); Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 423 (tossing live hand grenades).
Like hornets the grenadiers swarmed: Milner, “Stopping the Panzers,” JMH (Apr. 2010): 491+; Luther, Blood and Honor, 147 (chocolate, peanuts).
Belated salvos from the warships: VC, 132–33; C. P. Stacey, “Operation Overlord and Its Sequel,” Canadian Military HQ, report no. 131, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML, #640, 13–14 (more than two miles); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, 1981, Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 4–5 (“couple days”).
Yet Panzermeyer lacked the strength: Margolian, Conduct Unbecoming, 58–64.
“Why do you bring prisoners”: Luther, Blood and Honor, 181–82; C. P. Stacey, “Canadian Participation in the Operations of North-West Europe,” Canadian Military HQ, report no. 147, Oct. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML (Murder Division); “Report on the Court of Inquiry,” SHAEF, July 1944, NARA RG 331, 290/715/2, E-56, box 2; Margolian, Conduct Unbecoming, 102; Hart, Clash of Arms, 383–85 (cycle of atrocity); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 201 (“We just shoot them”); Beevor, The Second World War, 594 (“NPT below rank major”). War crimes courts later found the 12th SS Panzer Division culpable for sixty-two cold-blooded murders; many scholars and soldiers believe the number of victims was at least double that. Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 94.
Canadian battle casualties approached three thousand: VC, 140; Granatstein, The Generals, 132 (“fuck and frontal”); English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, 310 (expanded to more than fiftyfold).
“They went at it like hockey players”: Hastings, OVERLORD, 125; CCA, 373–74 (Authie impossible to replicate); Luther, Blood and Honor, 175 (“screamed from rage”); Milner, “Stopping the Panzers,” JMH (Apr. 2010): 491+ (“stupid things”).
Among the bastards watching: Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 42–43; MMB, 181; Luther, Blood and Honor, 170 (“My dear Meyer”); CCA, 373–74.
Trailers, tents, and four large radio trucks: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 303; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 58–59 (rely increasingly on the radio), 68–69; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” n.d., SRH 391, NSA, NARA RG 457, E 9002, 134 (seventeen thousand messages a day); Hinsley, 486–90.
Geyr now cocked an ear: Luther, Blood and Honor, 179–80.
Geyr escaped with minor wounds: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 303; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 68–69 (fled to Paris).
Similar decapitations further impaired: Geyr, “Reflections on the Invasion,” Military Review (Jan. 1961): 2+; Luther, Blood and Honor, 195; Günther Keil, “919th Grenadier Regiment,” n.d., FMS, #C-018, MHI, 36–38 (“little piece of life”); Hastings, OVERLORD, 173–74 (wooden leg); McLean, Quiet Flows the Rhine, 2, 130 (675 World War II German generals).
“The Seventh Army is everywhere”: VW, vol. 1, 258; “Special Messages,” June 11, 1944, UK NA, HW 1/2927 (intercepted by Ultra); Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, ETHINT 13, Dec. 11, 1947, MHI, 6 (antiaircraft gun carriers); BP, 33 (borrow fifteen machine guns).
Rommel too was unnerved: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 477–78; Ruge, Rommel in Normandy, 183 (“territory for bargaining”); Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 504–5 (“every man shall fight”).
“The battle is not going”: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 491–93.
Rommel’s lament would have delighted: “Monty’s Wartime Caravans,” AB, no. 20 (1978): 32+; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 336. John Colville, who was Churchill’s private secretary, reported that Montgomery had even signed some of his own photographs. Colville, Footprints in Time, 184–87 (“three of Rommel”).
On D+2 he had come home to Normandy: Montgomery, A Field-Marshal in the Family, 7–8; author visit, Creullet, May 29, 2009; Eisenhower, General Ike, 115 (“keep left”); Kennedy, The Business of War, 343 (“betting book”); Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 718 (“beaten when necessary”); Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 419 (menagerie); Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 158 (“slender, hard, hawk-like”); J. S. W. Stone, memoir, n.d., LHC, folder 5, 22 (reading scripture).
“The way to fame”: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 504; Moorehead, Montgomery, 188–89 (275 guineas); Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 22 (“Master”), 79 (“interesting personage”); Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 349 (“Cromwellian figure”); Granatstein, The Generals, 113 (“God Almonty”); PP, 472 (“little monkey”); Hastings, Armageddon, 26 (“little shit”); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 174 (“Monty wants to be a king”); OH, Charles Miles Dempsey, March 12–13, 1947, FCP, MHI (“Monty is a good man”).
He had arrived for the second time: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 501; Raymond Callahan, “Two Armies in Normandy,” in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 261 (“last great field army”); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 47 (British Liberation Army).
“the power of commanding affection”: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 503; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 319–20 (“tolerant and judicious”); Moorehead, Montgomery, 36 (“mousetrap”); Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 11 (“a burning glass”).
“I keep clear of all details”: Richardson, Send for Freddie, 146; Leasor, The Clock with Four Hands, 7 (“Do you agree”); Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 28 (“One was impressed”); OH, Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, Oct. 1, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 9 (usual bedtime).
“too many of his best qualities”: Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 342; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 501–3 (“Like Bottom”); Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 37 (“only rude intentionally”).
“very small-boyish”: Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 537, 546 (“As long as 51 percent”); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 660 (refuse to attend her funeral); Irving, The War Between the Generals, 170; Moorehead, Montgomery, 36; Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 23 (“Alone I done it”).
“Enjoying life greatly”: Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 652.
The OVERLORD plan was largely his: Ellis, Brute Force, 374; OH, David Belchem, 21st AG, Feb. 20, 1947, FCP, MHI (American right to capture Cherbourg); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 311–12 (“My general policy”); memo, B. L. Montgomery, Apr. 14, 1944, IWM, Christopher “Kit” Dawnay collection, PP/MCR, C46, Ancillary Collections, micro R-1 (“armored force thrusts”).
Thirty-four Allied armored battalions: Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 107; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 457 (“gutless bugger”).
A flanking attack from west of Caen: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 176–89; VW, vol. 1, 254–56.
“The whole show on land”: Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Daily Reflections on the Course of the Battle,” UK NA, AIR 37/784; Moorehead, Montgomery, 217 (“a gunman’s world”); Hastings, Inferno, 524 (“Bloody murder”); Lewis, ed., The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 405–6 (“Day of Hell”).
For the Americans in the west: Friedrich Freiherr von der Heydte, “A German Parachute Regiment in Normandy,” 1954, FMS, #B-839, MHI, 16–19; CCA, 366–67; Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 93 (“Lousy & undersized”), 125 (“I thought of Carthage”); “FUSA Weekly Report, 6–14 June 1944,” in “Memorandum to Harrison,” May 27, 1948, CMH.
Bradley late on June 13: corr, Clarence R. Huebner to G. A. Harrison, Oct. 17, 1947, NARA RG 319, CCA historical files, box 164.
“I’m sitting in a little gray stone”: TR to Eleanor, June 11, 1944, LOC MS, box 10.
No one took a greater proprietary interest: “General de Gaulle Visit to Normandy, 14 June 1944,” UK NA, ADM 1/16018; Aron, France Reborn, 45–47 (“not altogether in accordance”).
“I wrote to Mr. Churchill”: Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle, 357; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 29 (“Has it occurred to you”); Fenby, The General, 142-44.
“We have not come to France”: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 109; “General de Gaulle Visit to Normandy, 14 June 1944,” UK NA, ADM 1/16018 (“dislike of smoking”); Aron, France Reborn, 45–47 (“I missed him in Africa”).
“a stiff, lugubrious figure”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 122; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 30 (saluting gendarmes); Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 130–31 (“Vive De Gaulle”); Donnison, Civil Affairs and Military Government in North-West Europe, 78–79 (Several thousand people awaited); De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 563–64 (“women smiled and sobbed”); author visit, Bayeux, May 27, 2009, historical signage, Place de Gaulle (“glorious and mutilated”); Aron, France Reborn, 45–47 (“The path of war”).
After belting out “La Marseillaise”: “General de Gaulle Visit to Normandy, 14 June 1944,” UK NA, ADM 1/16018 (fourteen hotel rooms); Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 666; De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 638 (“France would live”); Robb, The Discovery of France, 29 (“cheese”).
Montgomery wrote Churchill: BLM to WSC, June 15, 1944, UK NA, CAB 120/867; Guérard, France: A Short History, 239 (“Blessed be he”).
Terror Is Broken by Terror
In happier days, when the Reich: Germany IX, 415 (a force of 28,000 workers); World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier, MRC FDM, 181–82 (new maple furniture); Mark Watson, “As I Saw It,” in Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 269–70 (bootjack); Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 222–24 (Potemkin farmhouses); Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 105 (Soissons Cathedral).
“the most forbidden place in France”: Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 222–24; Beevor, D-Day, 172 (“meat flies”); http://www.hitlerpages.com/pagina33.html.
This was Hitler’s first return to France: CCA, 140; Fest, Hitler, 695–98 (“tipping to the right”); Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 111 (personal command).
Hitler sat hunched on a wooden stool: Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 106–7; Bertram H. Ramsay, dispatch, London Gazette, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109+. Twenty Allied divisions had landed by D+9, but Rommel put the number at twenty-six. James Hodgson, “The German Defense of Normandy,” Sept. 1953, R-24, NARA RG 319, 270/19/30/4-7, box 6, 8–9.
The German Seventh Army opposed them: Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 503; Edward J. Drea, “Unit Reconstitution: A Historical Perspective,” Dec. 1983, CSI, 16 (averaged under eleven thousand); VW, vol. 1, 262 (casualties had reached 26,000); WaS, 62; James Hodgson, “The German Defense of Normandy,” Sept. 1953, R-24, NARA RG 319, 270/19/30/4-7, box 6, 8–9 (superiority in matériel).
Anglo-American warplanes harried: G. Rundstedt, “Experiences from the Invasion Battles of Normandy,” June 20, 1944, in Naval Intelligence Weekly, Nov. 15, 1944, Sidney Negretto Papers, MHI, box 4; Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 280 (three hundred trains); Germany VII, 328–30 (German aircraft reinforcements); F. Ruge, “Coast Defense and Invasion,” June 9, 1947, ONI IR 243, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 642; Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 147 (Le Havre).
American tanks had crossed the Cherbourg–Coutances road: Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 30.
“Don’t call it a beachhead”: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 165; Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 235; Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 106–7 (“Cherbourg is to be held”).
Rundstedt said little: Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 175–76, 191–98; Roberts, The Storm of War, 501 (Der alte Herr); Holt, The Deceivers, 570–71 (Der schwarze Ritter); Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 13–15 (Junker gentry); MMB, 477–78.
Beset by rheumatism: Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 390 (“psychic resignation”); Holt, The Deceivers, 570–71 (slept late); Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 47 (disdained both the telephone), 50 (“just as before 1866”); Liddell Hart, The German Generals Talk, 71–72 (“brown dirt”); Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 89–90 (“Bohemian corporal”); “Battle of the Bulge,” PIR, MHI, 12 (“Quatsch!”); G. Rundstedt, British interrogation, July 9, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML #2126, box 24231 (“cheap bluff”); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 185; Günther Blumentritt, ETHINT 73, Jan. 1946, MHI, 2–4 (deepened his gloom).
Now Rundstedt stepped forward: James Hodgson, “The German Defense of Normandy,” Sept. 1953, R-24, NARA RG 319, 270/19/30/4-7, box 6, 8–9; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 387 (“The fortress is to hold out”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 326 (“They must hold here”).
Rundstedt thought another invasion was likely: G. Rundstedt, British interrogation, July 9, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML #2126, box 24231; Holt, The Deceivers, 580–81 (diverted but a single division); Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 189 (twenty-one others); Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 86 (Rundstedt agreed with Marshal Rommel); Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 401; Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 98–99; CCA, 412–13.
“You must stay where you are”: Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 410.
Great things were afoot: IFG, 46–47; Hinsley, 483–84; WaS, 69.
“imagination run wild”: Germany VII, 420; Hinsley, 424 (Volkswagen factory); AAFinWWII, 105 (thirty-six thousand tons); “The V-Weapons,” AB, no. 6 (1974): 2+ (simple mobile equipment); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 85 (weapon was a flying torpedo); Irving, The Mare’s Nest, 299 (“cherry stones”).
The first salvo, launched from western France: Hinsley, 428–29; Germany VII, 375 (“Terror is broken by terror”).
Rundstedt suggested that the V-1: Liddell Hart, ed. The Rommel Papers, 454n; Goerlitz, History of the German General Staff, 1657–1945, 460–61; Germany VII, 426–29 (margin of error); Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 109 (“easier for peace”).
They broke for lunch: Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 235; Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 110; Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 386–88 (three liqueur glasses).
“What do you really think of our chances”: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 333; Goerlitz, History of the German General Staff, 1657–1945, 460–61 (“Attend to your invasion front”).
“The discussion had no success”: VW, vol. 1, 269; Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 112 (V-1 flew east rather than west); Germany VII, 432 (court-martial investigators); Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 643 (“Only optimists”).
“cannot escape the Führer’s influence”: Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 387; Ruge, Rommel in Normandy, 190–97, 234 (“endless parallels”).
Rommel retired to his chambers: author visit, La Roche–Guyon, May 30, 2009; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 492 (“The long-range action”).
Even on the Sabbath morn: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/homefront/arp/arp4a.html (crowed in jubilaton).
In the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks: “Services Tomorrow,” Times (London), June 17, 1944, 8; Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 290 (“Te Deum”); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 501–3 (“white-hot bunghole”); Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 39–40.
Then they heard nothing: King and Kutta, Impact, 198–99; www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V1*; War Damage Report No. 1861, Royal Military Guards Chapel, Aug. 3, 1944, UK NA, IR 37/59 (blew out walls); author visit, Guards Chapel and Museum, Apr. 5, 2010; McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 133–34 (“Be thou faithful”).
Clementine Churchill hastened home: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 39–40; reminiscence, George Laity, Aug. 15, 2005, www.bbc.co.uk/print/ww2peopleswar/stories/66* (wax tableau); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 133–34 (Churchill wept).
That afternoon he motored to Bushy Park: Chandler, 1933; AAFinWWII, 526–32; CCA, 215–17 (thirty thousand attack sorties); www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Monuments-Paris/Eiffel.shtml (four Eiffel Towers); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 33–34 (forty or more times); Lyall, ed., The War in the Air, 374 (harpoons).
CROSSBOW countermeasures in the coming weeks: Hillson, “Barrage Balloons for Low-Level Air Defense,” Airpower Journal (summer 1989): 37+; Germany VII, 430; Lyall, ed., The War in the Air, 378 (learned to use their wings); Baldwin, The Deadly Fuze, 257–58 (eight times more difficult); Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 383–84 (guns were shifted from greater London); Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 40 (Bomb Alley).
Eisenhower’s “first priority” edict: AAFinWWII, 532, 528 (one hundred V-1s were still fired at Target 42 each day); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 100 (one-quarter of all combat sorties); Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 387 (73,000 tons); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 432 (bombers had little impact); diary, July 4, 1944, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 2 (“give the enemy full credit”).
A British study calculated: “CROSSBOW Probable Scale and Effect of Attack on London by Pilotless Aircraft,” Jan. 10, 1944, British COS, NARA RG 331, E 3, SHAEF SGS, 290/7/4/4-5, box 132; corr, Bernard Lipford, 115th Inf, NARA RG 407, E 427, HI (“pushed through the walls”).
Soon not a pane of glass remained: King and Kutta, Impact, 202, 211; Fussell, Wartime, 215 (“little devilish laughs”); Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 197 (nineteen times); Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 306 (“How squalid”).
Fewer and fewer were willing: King and Kutta, Impact, 211; Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 395 (“an ordeal perhaps as trying”).
How Easy It Is to Make a Ghost
West of Bayeux, the Norman uplands: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 152–53; Davies, “Geographical Factors in the Invasion and Battle of Normandy,” Geographical Review (Oct. 1946): 613+ (pre-Cambrian schist); memo, Cleave A. Jones, July 17, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (sunken lanes);Nouveau Petit Larousse, 1934, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocage (“agreeable shady”); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 126 (“Gethsemane”); Doubler, Busting the Bocage, 21 (Guadalcanal).
“I couldn’t imagine the bocage”: OH, ONB, 1974–75, Charles Hanson, MHI, IX-4; “Neptune Monograph,” TF 122, Apr. 21, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 23, SHAEF G-3 Plans, 290/7/10/6, box 43 (amply forewarned); The 35th Infantry Division in World War II (“fortification like a wall”); terrain study, Charles H. Bonesteel III, FUSA, Apr. 18, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (“Norman bocage”); OH, Charles H. Bonesteel III, 1973, Robert St. Louis, SOOHP, MHI, 164; “Appreciation of Possible Development of Operations to Secure a Lodgment Area,” May 7, 1944, 21st AG, UK NA, WO 205/118, 2; St.-Lô, 4 (four thousand hedged enclosures); Cawthon, Other Clay, 76 (“We were rehearsed endlessly”).
“I feel we’ll be getting to St. Lô”: CCA, 383.
Tank companies now reported: Doubler, Closing with the Enemy, 43–44; Mack Morriss, “My Old Outfit,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 539 (“a wall of fire”); “Terrain—Cotentin Peninsula,” July 8, 1944, VIII Corps, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 10 (“spitting range”); Charles H. Coates, “German Defense in Hedgerow Terrain,” WD Observer Board, July 27, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, AGF ETO C-117 (intimacy neutralized Allied air and artillery); Pyle, Brave Men, 255 (“snipers everywhere”); msg, 15th Army Group to SHAEF, Feb. 11, 1945, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, 383.6/4 (sliding scale of rewards).
Enemy panzers, artillery, and savage small-arms fire: Simpson, Selected Prose, 139, 122 (“purr of the bullets”), 125 (“Some ideas stink”); Linderman, The World Within War, 85 (“I lie in the grass”); Shephard, A War of Nerves, 252 (“a soft siffle”); Whitaker et al., Victory at Falaise, 309–10 (Mortar fragments).
French civilians waving white strips: Pyle, Brave Men, 284–85 (eight cents); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 132 (“plastered to the walls”); Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 254 (stiff-legged as wooden toys); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 33 (“gigantic rake”); Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 96 (smoke tinted red); Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 133 (“not a building standing whole”); Peckham and Snyder, eds., Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 120 (“deserted and silent”).
Each contested town, like each hedgerow: memo, Royce L. Thompson, “ETO Invasion Casualties,” May 27, 1948, OCMH, GCM Lib, Royce L. Thompson collection, box 1; Osmont, The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont, 88 (“white as sheets” and “like hunted animals”); Shephard, A War of Nerves, 252; memo, July 15, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO, SGS, 333.5, 290/50/10/11/7-1, box 35; memo, First Army IG, Aug. 7, 1944, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr, OIG, box 218 (five hundred cases of suspected “S.I.W.”); memo, Cleave A. Jones, July 17, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (“Have we 100 divisions”).
“Things are always confusing”: Pyle, Brave Men, 269, 305; Hadley, Heads or Tails, 90 (“make a ghost”); Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 133 (slain by a mortar splinter); L. F. Skinner, “The Man Who Worked on Sundays,” n.d., IWM, 01/13/1, 18 (“I buried him close”).
Only the sharpest weather eye: WaS, 64; Stagg, Forecast for Overlord, 126; Bates and Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 96; Woodward, Ramsay at War, 164–65 (SHAEF forecasters predicted); Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 352–56 (chance of a June gale); “Operation OVERLORD: Report on the Effect of Bad Weather, 19–23 June 1944,” SHAEF, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #220 (three hundred to one).
More than two hundred ships now plied: “Report by the Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief,” Oct. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML, #624, 94–95; CCA, 423 (218,000 tons); Bynell, “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe,” lecture, March 16, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207, 5 (30 percent less than planned); LSA, vol. 2, 392–93 (anchored off the wrong strand); “Amphibious Operations: Invasion of Northern France,” CINC, U.S. Fleet, Oct. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #252, box 24148, 5–13 (officers in small boats); Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 65, 134 (“Please, oh, please”).
But shortages were more common: Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 75–76, 83 (strict firing limits); Bynell, “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe,” lecture, Mar. 16, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207, 5; Charles F. MacDermut and Adolph P. Gratiot, “History of G-4 Com Z ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.4 AA, 73 (bundles of maps); “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations report no. 130, 97-USF5-0.3.0, 41; “G-4 History,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C, 22 (145,000 tons); Howard, lecture, Aug. 8, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-6-44, H-83, box 191, 9 (expected to shoot 125 rounds).
Salvation appeared to be rising: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 8 (“synthetic harbors”); H. D. Bynell, lecture, Oct. 31, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-7-44, box 199, 6 ($100 million); “Invasion Harbors Towed to France,” British Information Services, Oct. 17, 1944, Hanson Baldwin papers, YU, box 109, folder 862 (another ten thousand now bullied); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 161; IFG, 25–26; “Prefabricated Ports,” Oct. 1944, British Information Services, Hanson Baldwin papers, YU, box 109, folder 862; WaS, 28 (160 tugs); VW, vol. 1, 88–90; IFG, 25–26; WaS, 26–27 (“journey of self-immolation”); Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 347 (antique side-wheelers); “Mulberry B,” SHAEF G-4, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #44 (enormous tricolor).
To this suicide fleet were added: “Prefabricated Ports,” Oct. 1944, British Information Services, Hanson Baldwin papers, YU, box 109, folder 862; “Mulberry B,” SHAEF G-4, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #44 (ten miles of floating piers); VW, vol. 1, 88–90 (two million tons);www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=8771 (seventeen times more concrete); Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 377 (“One storm will wash”); “Task Force 128: Report on Installation of Mulberry A,” n.d., DDE Lib, A. Dayton Clark papers, box 2 (unloading had begun at Mulberry A); Karig,Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 352–56 (LSTs could be emptied).
one of the worst June gales in eighty years: Woodward, Ramsay at War, 164–65; log, H.M.S. Despatch, June 19, 1944, UK NA, WO 32/12211; “Construction Battalions in the Invasion of Normandy,” Nov. 30, 1944, SEM, NHHC, box 81, folder 28, 39–40 (Anchors dragged and fouled); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 96 (“Storm continues”).
Swept away they were, pier by pier: “Task Force 128: Report on Installation of Mulberry A,” n.d., DDE Lib, A. Dayton Clark papers, box 2; IFG, 177 (gunshots from sailors); Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 140–42; CCA, 423–26; Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 352–56 (Distress calls jammed); Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 93 (“a damnable spell”).
After eighty hours, the spell broke: WaS, 64 (“a rent in the sky”); log, H.M.S. Despatch, June 19, 1944, UK NA, WO 32/12211 (Force seven gusts); OH, Byron S. Huie, Jr., Aug. 18, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 5–6 (“Not even a thousand-bomber raid”); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 102–3; Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 346–47 (small tanker deep in the dunes); AAR, 21st Weather Squadron, AAF, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #493-A (sea wrack); VW, vol. 1, 272–73 (two miles of articulated steel pier).
Mulberry A was a total loss: R. W. Crawford, “Guns, Gas and Rations,” June 1945, SHAEF G-4, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #145; Chalmers, Full Cycle, 238–39 (Gooseberries were positioned); Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 377 (“formidable abortion”).
Mulberry B ultimately did prove: Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 136 (completed in mid-July); Hickling and Mackillop, “The OVERLORD Artificial Harbors,” lecture, Nov. 6, 1944, CARL, N-12217; Charles C. Bates, “Sea, Swell and Surf Forecasting for D-Day and Beyond: The Anglo-American Effort, 1943–1945,” 2010, a.p., 20 (Port Winston); H. D. Crerar, “Notes on Conference Given by C-in-C 21 Army Group,” June 22, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016 (9) (“at least six days behind”); WaS, 65–66 (until late July); VW, vol. 1, 274 (Rommel had exploited the bad weather); “Supply and Evacuation by Air,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII Operations Reports, 97-USF5-0.3.0, no. 26 (hand grenades were flown); LSA, vol. 1, 407 (eight coasters deliberately beached).
With the beaches again in disarray: memo, R. C. Partridge and C. H. Bonesteel III, Dec. 31, 1943, NARA RG 407, ETO ML, #205, box 24143 (“overwhelm us”); “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492 (supplying up to thirty divisions); Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 721 (“most important port”).
Great misfortune had befallen Cherbourg: “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492 (pillage by the heriditary enemy); Baedeker, Northern France, 158–61; “Cherbourg, Gateway to France: Rehabilitation and Operation of the First Major Port,” 1945, NARA RG 319, ETO HD, 8-3.1 AE (financed with German reparations).
Now Cherbourg was again besieged: CCA, 420–22; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 146–47 (French farmers tossed roses); Pyle, Brave Men, 273–75 (“terribly pathetic”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 308 (Strauss waltzes); Three Years, 596–97 (hog calling); Fussell, Wartime, 255 (“bumf”); Lasky, “Military History Stood on Its Head,” Berlin Journal 14 (spring 2007), American Academy of Berlin: 20+ (“Ei sörrender”).
An American ultimatum: Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 172–77, 189; Whitehead, World War II: An Ex-Sergeant Remembers, 79 (“All you sons-a-bitches”).
In radio messages decrypted by Ultra: CCA, 431–34 (“bunker paralysis”); Sunset 604, June 25, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869 (“greatly worn out”); Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 165 (five thousand cows); Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 123 (four U-boats); CCA, 434 (“You will continue to fight”).
Schlieben’s miseries multiplied: “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” 1962, John Mason, Col U OHRO, NHHC, 349–50 (bombardment force split); Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 362–65.
Great salvos soon arced: OH, John F. Latimer, n.d., NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 19–20 (“more concentrated firing”); Morton L. Deyo, “Cherbourg,” Feb. 1956, SEM, NHHC, box 81, file 33; IFG, 198–205 (most pugnacious German battery).
Six miles east of Cherbourg: Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 151–52; AR, U.S.S. Texas, July 12, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/3/1, box 1470, 3–5; IFG, 205–12 (eight hundred rounds dumped on Battery Hamburg).
In this General Collins was ready to oblige: memo, Cleave A. Jones, June 22, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1; Johnson, History of the Twelfth Infantry Regiment in World War II, 111 (four hundred feet above); Collins, Lightning Joe, 221 (“The view of Cherbourg”).
“you can make the other fellow conform”: OH, JLC, Jan. 21, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CB 3; CBH, July 15, 1944, MHI, box 4 (gift for persuasion); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 159 (nonchalance about casualties); Berlin, U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders, 3–5 (youngest of the thirty-four), 16 (“concentration and decision”); diary, JMG, May 16, 1944, MHI, box 10 (“runty, cocky”); Collins, Lightning Joe, 2–3 (New Orleans emporium); OH, JLC, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 6 (malarial shakes); Arlington National Cemetery website, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/josephla.htm; corr, JLC to Brentano’s, Oct. 24, 1944, JLC papers, DDE Lib, box 3, 201 file (Moby Dick); Carafano, After D-Day, 186 (“An order is but an aspiration”).
Now Cherbourg was nearly his: Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 193; Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 150–52 (GIs fought to the docks); Johnson, History of the Twelfth Infantry Regiment in World War II, 112.
General von Schlieben had by now retreated: Carell, Invasion—They’re Coming!, 177 (“swing a cat”); CCA, 438 (“Documents burned”); memo, Cleave A. Jones, June 26, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (“It was good”).
Within minutes a German soldier: Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 158–59; Breuer, Hitler’s Fortress Cherbourg, 232; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 313 (a printed menu); Mittelman, ed., Hold Fast!, 17 (“I too am tired”).
a “looter’s heaven”: corr, Thor M. Smith to family, July 5, 1944, Smith papers, HIA; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 159–60 (“shaving cream”); OH, Albert Mumma, July 22, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 11 (Hôtel Atlantique); memo, Cleave A. Jones, June 26, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (canned octopus); “Cherbourg, Gateway to France: Rehabilitation and Operation of the First Major Port,” 1945, NARA RG 319, ETO HD, 8-3.1 AE; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities of II Corps,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 136 (two bottles of wine and three of liquor); Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 411–15 (“one big drunk”); Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 162–63. Capture of the oil tanks “ranked with the seizure of the Remagen bridge” across the Rhine nine months later, in one logistian’s analysis. LSA, vol. 1, 500.
Those who had inspected the port: Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI; CCA, 441–42 (“a masterful job”); “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492 (“completely wrecked”); “Port Plans, Pre-Invasion,” n.d., NARA RG 319, LSA background files, 2-3.7 CB 6 (Trainloads of explosives); F. K. Newcomer, Jr., “Analytical Study of the Rehabilitation of the Port of Cherbourg,” n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC, ANSCOL, box 234, 14–18; Beck, 352.
Countless booby traps seeded the ruins: “Cherbourg Port Reconstruction,” Office of the Chief Engineer, ETO, March 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC, ANSCOL, USA ETO Z-2, box 1128, 30–32; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 410 (four hundred mines); IFG, 217 (eight magnetic and eight acoustical sweeps); Harlan D. Bynell, “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe,” lecture, Oct. 31, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC, ANSCOL, L-7-44, box 199, 9 (tedious, dangerous reconstruction); LSA, vol. 2, 71–75; “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492 (not until mid-July); Beck, 355 (deepwater basins); “Port Plans, Pre-Invasion,” n.d., NARA RG 319, LSA background files, 2-3.7 CB 6 (“One cannot avoid noticing”).
“this most pregnant victory”: WSC to J. Stalin, June 29, 1944, “Strategy and Operations, vol. 2,” UK NA, CAB 120/421.
22,000 VII Corps casualties: Ruppenthal, Utah Beach to Cherbourg, 199; Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 731 (sewn from American parachutes), 735 (firearms and pigeons); Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 162–63 (“the fucking generals”).
Prisoners by the acre: Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 153; Moorehead, Eclipse, 138 (“lines of invective”); OH, Albert Mumma, July 22, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 7 (floatable conveyance); memo, W. H. S. Wright, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF Top Secret Gen’l Corr, box 2, folder 319.1 (ballads from the Seven Years’ War); Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 238–39; MMB, 138; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 160–61.
“To Alton C. Bright”: Babcock, War Stories, 213–16.
In a nearby nineteenth-century French naval hospital: Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 261–63; Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” 1946, MHUC, Professional Papers, Group 1, box 24, 133 (“stinking in their blood-soaked dressings”); Sforza, A Nurse Remembers, no pagination (“dirty instruments everywhere”); Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 164 (“Perhaps more men should know”), 159.
Two bordellos promptly opened: “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492; Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 49 (“Collaborators’ Wagon”), 382n; Beevor, D-Day, 449 (smelled for miles), 516.
“cosmoline gun-metal preservative”: Babcock, Taught to Kill, 84.
CHAPTER 3: LIBERATION
A Monstrous Blood-Mill
One million Allied soldiers: The millionth soldier landed on July 5. Dispatch, Bertram H. Ramsay, London Gazette, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109+.
the invasion increasingly resembled the deadlock at Anzio: OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, 270/19/5/4, box 184; Sylvan, 31 (labyrinthine burrows); Faubus, In This Faraway Land, 157 (“They keep lobbing mortars”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 137 (daily casualties in Normandy); msg, Dietrich von Choltitz, July 15, 1944, in James Hodgson, “The Battle of the Hedgerows,” Aug. 1954, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-54, box 8, IV-27 (“a monstrous blood-mill”); Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 280 (“I can’t afford to stay here”).
“concentrate all available air”: ALH, vol. 2, 104.
The supreme commander’s jitters: Crosswell, Beetle, 657 (Chesterfields); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 662 (“slow-up medicine”); Three Years, 584, 602 (sucking panes); diary, June 30 and July 8, 1944, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (“How I suffer!”); Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 348 (back of a P-51 Mustang); Davis,Soldier of Democracy, 501 (“Marshall would raise hell”); diary, CBH, July 2, 1944, MHI, box 4 (“Shoot the bastard”).
“the Dogfight”: Jackson, Overlord, 174.
“I am familiar with your plan”: DDE to BLM, July 7, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, 381.
Montgomery’s reply a day later: Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 116–17 (Canadian 3rd Division); BLM to DDE, July 8, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83 (“I am, myself, quite happy”); BLM to DDE, July 8, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, 381 (“the battle is going very well”).
“I like him very much”: D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 564; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 273 (“making sure I’m not sacked”).
“Chief Big Wind”: Crosswell, Beetle, 659; Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 144 (“something of a dictator”); Tedder, With Prejudice, 556 (told Churchill in late June); “Excerpts from Diary, D/SAC,” kept by Wing Commander Leslie Scarman, July 8, 1944, NARA RG 319, Supreme Command background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (“The problem is Monty”); Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Daily Reflections on the Course of the Battle,” June 15, 19, 27, July 17, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/784 (“egg-bound”).
Churchill too grew waspish: WSC to A. Brooke, June 18, 1944, and WSC to H. Ismay, July 16, 1944, “Strategy and Operations, vol. II,” UK NA, CAB 120/421; Parkinson, A Day’s March Nearer Home, 334–41 (anthrax looked promising); Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 194–95 (“one by one by bombing attack”).
“a cold-blooded calculation”: Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 194–95.
whether Allied poison gas would shorten: Eisenhower had reiterated SHAEF’s no-first-use policy in late June 1944. ALH, vol. 2, 116.
“It would be absurd”: Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 194–95; Parkinson, A Day’s March Nearer Home, 334–41 (“harassing effect”); margin note, SHAEF chief of staff meeting minutes, July 5, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 3, SGS, 290/7/4/4-5, box 128 (“I will not be party”).
Montgomery’s battle plan required: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 91–95 (little imagination); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 113 (three corps abreast); BP, 125–27 (“more or less confused”).
Beyond Omaha Beach, on the left flank: BP, 109–14 (congestion, fratricide), 82–84 (“That is exactly what I don’t want”); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 511 (“the deads”); Hogan, A Command Post at War, 100 (nine generals); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 187 (“the sadness of it”).
“too softhearted to take a division”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 333.
Roosevelt had been frantically busy: Jeffers, In the Rough Rider’s Shadow, 261; BP, 86, 131; corr, TR to Eleanor, June 17, 24, July 3, 7, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; Renehan, The Lion’s Pride, 239 (“a desperate weariness”); Michael David Pearlman, “To Make Democracy Safe for the World,” Ph.D. diss, University of Illinois, 1978, 603 (“Maybe my feet hurt”).
After a conference with Collins: “Official Statement of the Military Service and Death of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,” Aug. 29, 1958, TR, LOC MS Div, box 39; corr, R. O. Barton to Eleanor Roosevelt, July 13, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 32 (“The show goes on”).
An Army half-track bore Roosevelt: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 220 (“Libérateurs”).
Roosevelt never knew: Medal of Honor recommendation, R. O. Barton, June 27, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 39; Wheeler, The Big Red One, 300–301 (Marshall made certain); corr, Elizabeth Beston Henry to Eleanor Roosevelt, July 25, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 26 (“Elizabethan quality”).
“a very ancient place”: Baedeker, Northern France, 162–63.
Although sacked by Vikings: Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 268; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 138 (Calvinist apostates); BP, 146 (bombers returned every day); Aron, France Reborn, 104 (ten living inhabitants).
Eight roads and a rail line: Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 153; Doubler, Busting the Bocage, 15; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 190 (fifty-mile front); Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 541 (“big-stuff bombs”); BP, 150–51 (“moth-eaten”), 140 (“on their last legs”); Mayo, The Ordnance Department, 250 (Civil War battlefields); Daglish,Operation Goodwood, 27 (five hundred yards a day); St.-Lô, 51 (29th Infantry Division).
“Everything about him was explosive”: Cawthon, Other Clay, 27–28, 34 (“Twenty-nine, let’s go!”); Cawthon, “Pursuit: Normandy, 1944,” American Heritage (Feb. 1978): 80+ (“eradicator of lethargy”); “Memoirs of Charles Hunter Gerhardt,” July 1964, MHI; Gerhardt biographical material, MMD; Miller, Division Commander, 71 (“Loose Reins”); e-mail, Roy Livengood to author, Nov. 8, 2008 (“General Chickenshit”); OH, Charles L. Bolte, Maclyn Burg, Jan. 29, 1975, MHI, 172–77 (“describe the resuscitation” and “dashing Indian fighter”); Ewing, 29 Let’s Go!, 283 (“hard, exacting, aggressive”); Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 253–54 (a corps of three divisions).
By late afternoon on July 15: BP, 154; OH, 2nd ID, July 13–18, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 12 (slabs of TNT); Cawthon, “July, 1944: St. Lô,” American Heritage (June 1974): 4+ (“jerked with a rope”); Linderman, The World Within War, 346 (“the end of everything”).
Before dawn on Monday, July 17: Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 262; memoir, William Puntenney, ts, n.d., MMD, 59–63 (killing the new commander); St.-Lô, 110–11 (undershirts); BP, 167 (plasma bags); Robert E. Walker, “With the Stonewallers,” ts, n.d., MMD, 65 (“unbearably sorry scene”).
But German defenses were melting: BP, 170–71; Johns, The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo, 198, 233–34 (stone sarcophagus); Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 195 (“Here among the dead”); Miller, Division Commander, 90 (slashed his arm); St.-Lô, 117–19 (seventeen strongpoints); Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 278 (Howie’s body arrived by jeep).
“You couldn’t identify anything”: “Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation,” New York Public Library, exhibition, June 2009; Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 59 (“On this lake”); Blumenson, Liberation, 28 (“liberated the hell”); Bair, Samuel Beckett: A Biography, 242–44; Perloff, “In Love with Hiding,” Iowa Review (2005): 82 (“capital of ruins”); Linderman, The World Within War, 117 (“fence posts, teacups, doorbells”); AAR, George V. Bleier, Jr., graves registration, 11th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR, 290/56/5/1-3, box 11 (booby-trapped German bodies); “Graves Registration Service,” NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.3.0, no. 107, 10 (“jerked by a rope”).
“If there was a world beyond”: Cawthon, “Pursuit: Normandy, 1944,” American Heritage (Feb. 1978): 80+.
“eaten the guts out”: OH, 2nd ID, July 13–18, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 12.
“Here!”: Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 198; Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, 278. Many bodies of the division dead had yet to be recovered.
Rommel rose with the sun: Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 372–74; Liddell Hart, The Rommel Papers, 463–64 (“can take your mind off”).
Troubles he had: Ruge, Rommel in Normandy, 228; VW, vol. 1, 307; memoir, J. S. W. Stone, n.d., LHC, folder 5, 54 (“funk holes”).
“Militarily things aren’t at all good”: Liddell Hart, The Rommel Papers, 491–93; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 460 (six thousand half-ton bombs); BP, 120 (forty minutes); Moorehead, Eclipse, 145 (“nothing more to see”); Aron, France Reborn, 106 (Eight thousand French refugees); VW, vol. 1, 316 (a single battalion).
On any given day now: Liddell Hart, The Rommel Papers, 496, 486–87 (Only 10,000 replacements); BP, 181 (80,000 artillery rounds); Ruge, Rommel in Normandy, 213–19 (“bleeding white”); James Hodgson, “The Battle of the Hedgerows,” Aug. 1954, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-54, box 8, IV-5 (1.6 million German casualties).
That bloodletting had intensified: Gilbert, The Second World War, 544; Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command, 210; Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 228 (shuffle through Moscow).
Rommel’s disaffection grew: Lewin, Rommel as Military Commander, 230; Young, Rommel, the Desert Fox, 165 (“without the least regard”); Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 84–85 (dangerous talk); Beevor, D-Day, 326–30 (would consider taking command); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 200 (Rundstedt had been removed); Günther Blumentritt, ETHINT 73, Jan. 8–11, 1946, MHI, 2–4 (“make an end to the whole war”); Carver, ed., The War Lords, 197 (250,000-mark gratuity); CCA, 447 (“I will be next”).
Rundstedt’s successor: MMB, 282–83 (Cunning Hans); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 404–5; Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 120–22 (“obstinate self-will”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 240 (“couldn’t be grimmer”); Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 486–87 (“growing worse every day”); VC, 179 (Kluge had endorsed).
Fried eggs and brandy: Ruge, Rommel in Normandy, 233; “Rommel’s Accident,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 42+; Luther, Blood and Honor, 229 (“Who do you think”).
During a conference at St.-Pierre: Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 149; McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 256 (efforts to conceal the noise); Germany VII, 596–97 (still expected in the Pas de Calais).
Dietrich agreed that an attack seemed imminent: Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 83–86; Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 362 (ear pressed to the ground); Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 417–18 (“I obey only you”).
The car raced east on Route D-4: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 510. Conflicting claims were advanced for this action. The British official RAF history credits Spitfires of Squadron No. 602, flying from airfield B11. Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 121.
Slugs stitched the left side of the Horch: “Rommel’s Accident,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 42+; Young, Rommel, the Desert Fox, 170–71 (Rommel lay in the roadbed).
He was grievously hurt: Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, 743–44; “Rommel’s Death Reported,” (Melbourne, Australia) Argus, Aug. 23, 1944, 16.
Not for weeks would Reich propagandists: Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 121–22.
Rommel was right about the Allied attack: Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Daily Reflections on the Course of the Battle,” July 18, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/784 (“Aircraft were spread out”); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 258–59 (“little dots detach themselves”).
The first bombing wave alone: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 371; “Operation Goodwood,” Oct. 1946, (U.K.) Military Operational Research Unit, report #23, CARL, R-14999, 15, 22 (twenty-five pounds of high explosives); Watney, The Enemy Within, 217 (“canopy of noise”); Copp, ed., Montgomery’s Scientists, 85; VW, vol. 1, 338–39 (“unalterable dignity”); Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 366–67 (“Move now!”); Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 11 (biggest tank battle fought by Britain).
Operation GOODWOOD massed three British and Canadian corps: “Operation Goodwood,” Oct. 1946, (U.K.) Military Operational Research Unit, report #23, CARL, R-14999, 7, 18–22; VW, vol. 1, 329–30, 336; TSC, 186–87 (“draw the main enemy forces”).
That modest, credible battle plan: Callahan, Churchill & His Generals, 214–15; B. L. Montgomery, “Notes on Second Army Operations,” July 15, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“engage the German armor”); BLM to A. Brooke, July 14, 1944, Alanbrooke papers, LHC, 6/2/27; Beevor, D-Day, 321 (“Russian style” breakthrough).
Montgomery had overegged the pudding: AAR, “Operation Goodwood,” 1945, UK NA, CAB 106/959, 4–8; “Lessons from Operation Goodwood,” July 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/858; Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 360–61; Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 31–32 (titanic battle); Chandler, 2003–04 (“burst into flames”).
“to paint his canvas in rather glowing colors”: OH, M. Dempsey, March 8, 1951, G. S. Jackson, UK NA, CAB 106/1061; OH, M. Dempsey, Mar. 28, 1952, B. H. Liddell Hart, UK NA, CAB 106/1061 (“did not take Eisenhower into his confidence”); Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 760 (“had to be overconfident”).
“like a fleet raising anchor”: Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 101–03; AAR, “Operation Goodwood,” 1945, UK NA, CAB 106/959, 4–8 (one vehicle every twenty seconds); “Operation Goodwood,” Oct. 1946, (U.K.) Military Operational Research Unit, report #23, CARL, R-14999, 5 (long fields of fire), 15, 22; Watney, The Enemy Within, 217 (“angry women swishing”); Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 363–64 (three hundred yards every two minutes); William Steel Brownlie, “And Came Safe Home,” ts, n.d., IWM, 92/371, 18 (“grey wall of shellbursts”); VW, vol. 1, 340–41 (rail embankment).
Torrid orange sheaves: Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 131; OH, Hans von Luck, with author, Mar. 3, Apr. 7, 1994, Hamburg; Luck, Panzer Commander, 157 (“like torpedoes”); AAR, “Operation Goodwood,” 1945, UK NA, CAB 106/959, 4–8 (“great difficulty in locating”); Baynes, The Forgotten Victor, 203–4 (sixteen Shermans stood burning); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 42.
Many more tanks soon burned: Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 155; Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 362–63; “Operation Goodwood,” Oct. 1946, (U.K.) Military Operational Research Unit, report #23, CARL, R-14999, 18; “Lessons from Operation Goodwood,” July 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/858 (smokeless powder); Howard and Sparrow, The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946, 268 (“Violent, impassable fire”).
“Some tank crews are on fire”: John M. Thorpe, “A Soldier’s Tale, to Normandy and Beyond,” ts, Nov. 1982, IWM, 84/50/1, 96–98; William Steel Brownlie, “And Came Safe Home,” ts, n.d., IWM, 92/371, 19 (“burnt and injured men”); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 337 (“horrible graveyard”).
“Operations this morning a complete success”: VW, vol. 1, 344–46, 355–57; BLM to DDE, July 18, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83 (“Am very well satisfied”); Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them, 335 (pure fantasy); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 278 (“Second Army attacked and broke through”); “Caen: The Big Break-Through,” (U.K.) Daily Mail, July 19, 1944, 1.
“E worried”: desk calendar, July 19, 1944, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib, box 1; VW, vol. 1, 347–50 (“groaning with enemy”); Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 124–25 (“men who were still alive”); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 46 (“tropical violence”); Howard and Sparrow, The Coldstream Guards, 1920–1946, 270 (rum rations).
The offensive had liberated another thirty-four square miles: “Operation Goodwood,” Oct. 1946, (U.K.) Military Operational Research Unit, report #23, CARL, R-14999, 15, 22; AAR, “Operation Goodwood,” 1945, UK NA, CAB 106/959, 4–8 (Canadian First Army vanguard); Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 170, 183 (panzer forces were lured); Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 186–87; Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 369. Most of the lost British tanks were soon repaired or replaced. “Operation Goodwood,” Oct. 1946, (U.K.) Military Operational Research Unit, report #23, CARL, R-14999, 15, 22.
After nearly seven weeks: TSC, 189–93; Everett S. Hughes to wife, July 22, 1944, Hughes papers, LOC, box 2; VW, vol. 1, 353 (“Allies in France Bogged Down”); Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 11 (“limited meaning”); Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Daily Reflections on the Course of the Battle,” July 28, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/784 (“The fault with us”).
“Then we must change our leaders”: “Excerpts from Diary, D/SAC,” July 21, 1944, NARA RG 319, TSC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8; Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 271 (“I do not believe”); Tedder, With Prejudice, 566; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 693 (at least two hundred others); Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 477; Evans, The Third Reich at War, 642–43; Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command, 222 (stiff-armed Nazi Heil). Martin Gilbert put the number of executed at more than five thousand (The Second World War, 558). Andrew Roberts reports that fifty-eight hundred linked to the plot were arrested in 1944, and a similar number in 1945 (The Storm of War, 482).
“What do your people think”: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 398; Chandler, 2020(n) (“get on his bicycle”), 2018–19 (“Time is vital”), 2026 (“I could lie down”).
The Bright Day Grew Dark
Wearing the West Point bathrobe: corr, Chester B. Hansen to wife, n.d., CBH, MHI; diary, CBH, July 28 & 12, 1944, MHI, box 4 (sedatives at bedtime and “biggest thing”); Pyle, Brave Men, 213 (“frightful country ahead”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 330; OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, box 184; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 136 (long beech twig).
“Take all the time you need, Brad”: OH, M. Dempsey, March 28, 1952, B. H. Liddell Hart, UK NA, CAB 106/1061; OH, J. Lawton Collins, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 195 (bocage copse); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 162–63; memo, B. L. Montgomery to ONB, July 21, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML, box 24143; DDE to ONB, July 24, 1944, in BP, 331 (“Pursue every advantage”). The attack sector chosen by Bradley also avoided the area’s larger rivers. Prados, Normandy Crucible, 86.
That advantage lay mainly in airpower: Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 386; Carafano, After D-Day, 102 (more than one hundred howitzers); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 341 (fifteen hundred heavies); AAFinWWII, 231 (swatch five miles wide); diary, CBH, July 19, 1944, MHI, box 4 (bomb every sixteen feet).
Very little in Bradley’s vision appealed: Report of Investigation, Aug. 14, 1944, HQ, USSAFE, Frederick L. Anderson Papers, HIA, box 84, folder 10, 1–2, 5–6; “Handbook for Bombardiers,” TM 1-251, March 31, 1941, Frederick L. Anderson Papers, HIA, box 93; “Use of Heavy Bombers in a Tactical Role,” Oct. 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 94 (Only if the planes attacked perpendicular); report, signature illegible, July 27, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/762 (“between the Army’s legs”).
Bradley agreed to pull his assault battalions: BP, 220–21. An AAF colonel reported warning Bradley that 3 percent of the bombs would fall short, but he mistakenly believed that Bradley had acceded to a perpendicular flight path, whereas Bradley still believed the bombers would attack parallel to the road, which would make “short” drops less risky. OH, John R. De Russey, Eighth AF liaison officer, Sept. 9–12, 1947, NARA RG 319, CCA background files.
“nothing more than tools to be used”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 154; Pyle, Brave Men, 214 (“I’ve spent thirty years”).
Pyle spent Monday night, July 24: Pyle, Brave Men, 296; Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 199 (“your own small quota”); Cawthon, “July, 1944: St. Lô,” American Heritage (June 1974): 4+ (“they area”).
Now he had returned to the front: Field Order 44, 305th Bomb Group, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 18, AAF WWII, 190/58/17/1, box 925; “Investigation of Bombing of Ground Troops,” Aug. 16, 1944, FUSA IG, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG gen’l corr., box 216; BP, 222–23 (Allied white-star insignia); corr, J. H. Phillips to Ray E. Porter, WD, May 6, 1944, James H. Phillips papers, HIA (geometric design).
“like kids at a football game”: Carafano, After D-Day, 119; Nichols, ed., Ernie’s War, 333; Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 195 (“heavy rip”).
Not much had gone right with COBRA: “World Battlefronts, Western Front,” Time (Dec. 4, 1944) (three barometers).
Flying from Stanmore: Sullivan, “The Botched Air Support of Operation COBRA,” Parameters (March 1988): 97+; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 470–72; AAR, 305th Bomb Group, July 24, 1944, NARA RG 18, AAF WWII, 190/58/17/1, box 925 (“not to bomb short”); memo, “Bombing Errors Committed on the Normandy Battle Front, 24 July 1944,” HQ, Eighth AF, July 30, 1944, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 84, folder 10 (chaff bundle smacked the nose); “The Effectiveness of Third Phase Tactical Air Operations,” AAF Evaluation Board, Aug. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 15; “Investigation of Bombing of Ground Troops,” Aug. 16, 1944, FUSA IG, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG gen’l corr, box 216 (“As a fiasco”).
Bradley’s fury knew no bounds: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 347; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 278–79; memo, ONB, July 25, 1944, in diary, CBH, MHI, box 4 (At 10:30P.M. he phoned Bradley); T. Leigh-Mallory to ONB, July 19, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/762 (had left that meeting early); BP, 229–37.
From his farmyard redoubt: Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 198; Pyle, Brave Men, 298–301 (“Goddammit”).
The star-crossed 30th Division took more casualties: Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 36–37.
“that awful rush of wind”: Sullivan, “The Botched Air Support of Operation COBRA,” Parameters (March 1988): 97+; History of the 120th Infantry Regiment, 35–36 (Bombs entombed men); Alosi, War Birds, 64 (cows into trees); Regan, Blue on Blue, 166–67 (“beating you with a club”); “Investigation of Bombing of Ground Troops,” Aug. 16, 1944, FUSA IG, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG gen’l corr, box 216 (body part); “Operations of 30th Infantry Division, 24 Jul–1 Aug 1944,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1, part 5, 6–7 (“American Luftwaffe”).
Just over fifteen hundred heavies dropped: Sullivan, “The Botched Air Support of Operation COBRA,” Parameters (March 1988): 97+; BP, 236–37 (three dozen bombed American troops); AAFinWWII, 233–34 (forty-two medium bombers); Juliette Hennessy, “Tactical Operations of the Eighth Air Force,” 1952, AFHRA, historical study no. 70, 53–56 (Red marking smoke); diary, July 25, 1944, Hoyt S. Vandenberg papers, LOC MS Div, box 1 (five-knot southerly breeze); Sylvan, 68–71; diary, CBH, July 25, 1944, MHI, box 4 (corpse was spotted sixty-five feet away); DDE to GCM, July 26, 1944, GCM Lib, box 67, folder 10 (“I warned him time and again”); Individual Deceased Personnel File, Lesley J. McNair, a.p. under FOIA, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Dec. 2008 (“6 Lt. Gen. stars”).
By the time the last medium bomber flew off: BP, 222–23; Pyle, Brave Men, 301 (“Anybody makes mistakes”).
“That’s a job for artillery”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 349.
“I fired three rounds and they all bounced off”: Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 37; History of the 120th Infantry Regiment, 37 (“Just his legs”); BP, 246 (no more than a mile); Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2 (“enemy artillery was not touched”).
Africa veterans like Eisenhower and Bradley: Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 179 (“worn out”); BP, 240 (flipping tanks); James Hodgson, “Thrust-Counterthrust: The Battle of France (21 Jul–25 Aug 44),” March 1955, NARA RG 319, R-58, 20–21 (“half-crazed soldiers”); Spayd, Bayerlein, 167 (“Everything was burned” and “Only the dead can still hold”); “Air Power in the ETO,” USFET General Board study no. 56, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.30, 16–17 (70 percent of his men). An Eighth Air Force study put German physical casualties at less than 10 percent. Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2 (“conveyor-belt bombing” and “feeling of helplessness”).
Unaware of the size of the American host: Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 43; Hinsley, 500 (thirty Allied divisions).
“The front has, so to speak, burst”: James Hodgson, “Thrust-Counterthrust: The Battle of France (21 Jul–25 Aug 44),” March 1955, NARA RG 319, R-58, appendix, 30.
Collins had massed 120,000 troops: Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2; “List of Weapons Available to VII Corps for the Attack of July 25,” Aug. 4, 1944, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (six hundred artillery tubes); “Artillery in Operation Cobra,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2229 (140,000 rounds); Cooper, Death Traps, 51–52 (rugged tusks); Mark J. Reardon, “Conquering the Hedgerows,” ts, 2009, a.p.; Mayo, The Ordnance Department, 254–55 (oxygen acetylene cylinders); AAFinWWII, 239–41 (“hazing the Hun”).
Collins had not planned to launch: Persons, “St. Lô Breakthrough,” Military Review (Dec. 1948): 13+; OH, J. Lawton Collins, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 196–99; Collins, Lightning Joe, 242–43; BP, 246; Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 41 (feeling for booby traps).
With the new day, the American onslaught: Doubler, Busting the Bocage, 58 (“Russian style”); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 155 (under three minutes); “Operations of 30th Infantry Division, 24 Jul–1 Aug 1944,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1, part 5, 18 (sunken road to St.-Gilles); BP, 253–54, 275 (killed the Das Reich commander); Seventh Army documents, July 26, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #488, box 24154 (seven punctures); Hart, Clash of Arms, 390 (abandonment of two Panther companies); Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2 (no further reinforcements).
“Rem”—remnants: Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 130; BP, 250–51 (“busted wide open”).
French farmers flitted: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 194; George E. McIntyre, “As Mac Saw It,” ts, n.d., MHI, 273–74 (copies of Life); Hastings, OVERLORD, 261–62 (“holes in his head”).
On Friday enemy forces leaked to the rear: BP, 278–79, 287 (“Things on our front really look good”).
Ahead lay Avranches: Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 389; BP, 308 (“We face a defeated enemy”), 323 (“It’s a madhouse here”), 333 (ten thousand tactical air sorties).
Ministers of Thy Chastisement
Down metalled roads and farm lanes: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 232; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 193 (scolding dawdlers); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 228 (grayed their hair); Lee Miller, “The Siege of St. Malo,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 233 (“Cartier clips”).
On they marched, south, east, and west: diary, CBH, July 17, 1944, MHI (copper urns); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 152 (perfume); AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 42 (crude swastikas); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 199, 209, 134 (“My wife doesn’t understand me”); “Combat Diary of Edward McCosh Elliott, 1944,” n.d., 2nd Bn, Glasgow Highlanders, IWM, 99/61/1, VI-18 (tricolor nosegays); Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” ts, 1946, MHUC, Group 1, MHI, box 24, 190 (“I speeg Engless”); Neal Beaver, 3rd Bn, 508th PIR, ts, n.d., MMD (jugs of calvados); Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 55.
German tourist posters still hung: Lee Miller, “The Siege of St. Malo,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 233; Cawthon, “Pursuit: Normandy, 1944,” American Heritage (Feb. 1978): 80+ (Milwaukee German); Watney, The Enemy Within, 186 (“A German”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 259 (“No matter how many orders are issued”).
In hasty bivouacs the surging columns: Perry Wolff, “Why We Fight,” panel, International Conference on WWII, NWWIIM, Apr. 10, 2008; McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 254 (“a little piece of metal”); Beevor, D-Day, 390 (“We buried him darkly”).
SHAEF planners in late July estimated: ALH, vol. 2, 114–17; PP, 524 (“roaring comet”); Allen, Lucky Forward, 26 (“gamecock with brains”).
The first glimpse of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.: Codman, Drive, 159 (“Could anything be more magnificent?”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 630, 636–37 (“goddamned bastards”).
At noon on Tuesday, August 1: Allen, Lucky Forward, 71–72 (“win or die”); PP, 491 (“very happy”).
“There are apparently two types”: PP, 464.
“Patton has broken out again”: msgs, GCM to DDE, W. B. Smith to GCM, DDE to GCM, etc., Apr. 26–May 3, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, WD, OPD, history unit, box 4; affidavits, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12, folder 1.
Narrowly pardoned, Patton spent the spring: corr, Everett S. Hughes to wife, May 12, 1944, LOC MS Div, Hughes papers, box II:3, folder 1 (guns and saddles); diary, CBH, July 2, 1944, MHI, box 4 (offered Eisenhower $1,000); White, Conquerors’ Road, 34 (“neurotic and bloodthirsty”); Patton, The Pattons, 109 (tattoo parlor); GSP to Beatrice, July 3, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12 (“Can’t stand the times between wars”).
He also reflected deeply on generalship: Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 122–24; Collins, Lightning Joe, 248–49 (“I’m in the doghouse”); Blumenson, “Bradley-Patton: World War II’s ‘Odd Couple,’” Army (Dec. 1985): 56+ (“I didn’t ask for you”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 356 (“judicious, reasonable”); speech, GSP, n.d., George Smith Patton Papers, HIA, folder 1 (“raise up on their hind legs”).
“I had to keep repeating to myself”: PP, 499; Koch and Hays, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 61 (“I’m going to Berlin”).
First he was going to Brest: Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 46; IFG, 297; LSA, vol. 2, 467–74 (failed to dampen the ardor).
But the collapse of the German left wing: Ganz, “Questionable Objective: The Brittany Ports, 1944,” JMH (Jan. 1995): 77+; BP, 370 (£5 and “Take Brest”); GSP to Robert Howe Fletcher, Apr. 25, 1945, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“sixth sense”); Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 189 (ten thousand Krauts).
Third Army’s other spearhead, the 4th Armored Division: BP, 357–59; Ganz, “Patton’s Relief of General Wood,” JMH (July 1989): 257+ (because he had tutored his classmates); Carr, “The American Rommel,” MHQ (summer 1992): 77+ (rose gardener); Raines, Eyes of Artillery, 213 (Piper Cub).
“We’re winning this war”: Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 188; BP, 361–65 (“Dear George”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 631 (Proposing to reach Chartres); Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 508–9 (bloody siege at Lorient).
“the main business lies to the east”: BP, 431–32; Ganz, “Questionable Objective: The Brittany Ports, 1944,” JMH (Jan. 1995): 77+.
The Brittany campaign soon proved bootless: BP, 340 (“last cartridge”); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 164 (siege of St.-Malo); Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 214 (seventy-five strongpoints); “Combat Engineering,” CE, report No. 10, Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 47–53 (walls up to twenty-five feet thick); OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 (garrison was too dangerous); diary, GSP, Sept. 9, 1944, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 5 (“We must take Brest”).
The war ended with not a single cargo or troopship: Balkoski, From Beachhead to Brittany, 331; memo, “Fighting in Cities,” Ninth Army, Oct. 26, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 Observers’ Rpt, box 9 (half a million American shells); Ganz, “Patton’s Relief of General Wood,” JMH (July 1989): 257+ (“colossally stupid”); M-516, Aug. 4, 1944, and M-517, Aug. 6, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“We have unloosed the shackles”).
Montgomery’s plan was a simple, handsome thing: BLM, “Task of First Canadian Army,” Aug. 4, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9); BP, 435, 449–52 (struggling ten miles toward Vire); VW, vol. 1, 386, 408.
“a queer script of its own”: Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, 149.
Such a place was Mortain: The Green Guide to Normandy, 309; Beevor, D-Day, 401 (children wearing tags).
The last German occupier in Mortain: BP, 466n; Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 51 (civilians tossed flowers); SLC, 102.
Of keen interest was stony, steep Montjoie: author visit, signage, May 29, 2009; Weiss, Fire Mission, 5, 25, 35, 75–76.
“a unique opportunity, which will never return”: James Hodgson, “Thrust-Counterthrust: The Battle of France,” March 1955, NARA RG 319, R-series, R-58, 80; TSC, 203 (“he should keep his eyes riveted”).
“such an attack if not immediately successful”: Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 9–10; BP, 442; order of battle, Gilmore, ed., U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II, 52 (a dozen divisions in four corps); Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 120–21 (“recklessly to the sea”).
Swirling fog lifted and descended: AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 4–5; Baily and Karamales, “The 823rd at Mortain,” Armor (Jan.–Feb. 1992): 12+ (26,000 Germans); BP, 461 (120 tanks); Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, 62 (imperial cavalry); Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 57 (firing by earshot); “Armored Reconnaissance in the ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 337, AGF OR #157 (“all-gone feeling”); Robert J. Kenney, “Somewhere in France,” ts, 1978, 1st Bn, 117th Inf, a.p. (Wounded men mewed).
But almost nothing went right in the German attack: Isby, ed., Fighting the Breakout, 128–29 (not one reached the front); BP, 464–65 (three of six enemy spearheads); war diary, Seventh Army, Aug. 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML, #2201 (“uninspired and negative”).
The German weight fell heaviest on St.-Barthélemy: Baily and Karamales, “The 823rd at Mortain,” Armor (Jan.–Feb. 1992): 12+; Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 216–17 (let the panzers roll through); McManus, The Americans at Normandy, 381–82 (delayed six hours); Baedeker, Northern France, 180 (Abbaye Blanche); author visit, signage, May 29, 2009 (sixty-six men with bazookas); OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96; AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 13–14 (More than sixty enemy vehicles).
“First really large concentration”: VC, 233; Featherston, Saving the Breakout, 133–35; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 132; BP, 464–65.
“Hundreds of German troops began spilling”: Featherston, Saving the Breakout, 133–35. Pilots claimed four times more vehicle kills than could be confirmed by later ground investigation. Copp, ed., Montgomery’s Scientists, 175.
sorties mistakenly hit American revetments: OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96; OH, Brig. Gen. James M. Lewis, 30th ID, Aug. 25, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96 (raked the two roads leading west); VW, vol. 1, 414 (“well-nigh unendurable”).
“exceptionally poor start”: war diary, Seventh Army, Aug. 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML, #2201.
two traitorous French guides: Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 99; OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96 (hospital larder); BP, 487 (“Looks like hell”).
Lieutenant Weiss, with his field glasses: Weiss, Fire Mission, 53, 68–69, 82, 105; Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 69–74; Alosi, War Birds, 68 (“No birds were singing”).
Nor were the Germans advancing: Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 117, 143; Baily and Karamales, “The 823rd at Mortain,” Armor (Jan.–Feb. 1992): 12+ (fewer than six thousand infantrymen); VW, vol. 1, 416 (“If only the Germans will go on attacking”).
“Bruised them badly”: McManus, The Americans at Normandy, 399–400.
“We have to risk everything”: Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 66.
“thorn in the flesh”: BP, 488–90.
Hitler on August 9 again demanded: Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 9–12 (“very unpleasant”); Rudolph Freiherr von Gersdorff, “Avranches Counterattack, Seventh Army,” n.d., FMS, #A-921, 27-31; OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96 (“don’t surrender”); Ralph A. Kerley, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry at Mortain,” 1949, IS, 14.
Each night more slain soldiers on Hill 314: Ralph A. Kerley, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry at Mortain,” 1949, IS, 19 (bolster morale); OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96; AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 24 (turnips, cabbages); Weiss, Fire Mission, 124 (surgical tape); Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 67 (half the bundles drifted); Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 267 (“I want Mortain demolished”).
“The attack failed”: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 449; Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 416–17 (“where I lose my reputation”).
French civilians returning to wrecked Mortain: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 200 (“crying and rocking”); corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Aug. 28, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“ob-liberated”); Weiss, “Normandy: Recollections of the ‘Lost Battalion’ at the Battle of Mortain,” Prologue (spring 1996): 44+ (“Not much to write home about”).
Ultra’s big ears had given the Allied high command: Lewin, Ultra Goes to War, 405–9; Sunset 647-649, Aug. 7–9, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 246; Prados, Normandy Crucible, 181; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 118–19; Sunset 650, Aug. 10, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869 (“decisive thrust must lead”).
Encouraged by Eisenhower, Bradley kept: Chandler, 2060; Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 152; memoir, John W. Castles, Jr., n.d., USMA Arch (“I am General Patton’s commanding officer”).
Certainly they were thinking of it: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 251 (one-tenth of France’s landmass); Three Years, 789 (“obstinated”); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 308; VC, 216–24; Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 383–86 (“blind leading the blind”); Copp and Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Falaise, 94–99 (stalling in confusion); BP, 479; “Battlefield Tour: Operation Totalize,” Sept. 1947, HQ, British Army of the Rhine and Canadian Army Historical Section, CMH, 65 (“Push on, you dogs!”).
As this unspooled, Bradley was once again poring: Featherston, Saving the Breakout, 144–45; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 294–95 (roadside K-ration lunch); diary, Aug. 8, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 446 (sharp turn at Le Mans).
An exuberant Eisenhower followed Bradley: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 190–91; PP, 505 (“If I were on my own”).
“This is a first priority”: VC, 236; Hills, Phantom Was There, 211 (“ministers of Thy chastisement”).
“greatest tactical blunder”: McManus, The Americans at Normandy, 391; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 375 (“This is an opportunity”).
Leclerc instead fanned out on all available roads: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 204–5; Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 166–67 (giving the Germans six hours).
Patton was peeved but undeterred: Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 166–67; D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 429 (“push on slowly”); diary, CBH, Aug. 12, 1944, MHI, 1944, box 4 (“Shall we continue”).
“Nothing doing”: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 206–7; Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 223 (Bradley wrongly believed); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 313 (nineteen German divisions); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 376–77 (“I did not consult”); PP, 509 (“a great mistake”); Codman, Drive, 163 (“beside himself”).
Canadian difficulties further unstitched: Granatstein, The Generals, 114; English, Patton’s Peers, 32–33; BLM to Brooke, July 26, 1944, Alanbrooke papers, LHC, 6/2/27 (“I fear he thinks”).
Worse yet, the Germans on August 13: “Operations of the First Canadian Army in North-west Europe,” Oct. 1945, Historical Section, Canadian Military HQ, report no. 146, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML; Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, 202; Copp and Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Falaise, 117 (“molten fire bath”); VW, vol. 1, 430–31 (“troops burnt yellow flares”); VC, 240–44 (“dust like I’ve never seen”).
Bradley now made another momentous decision: BP, 523–27; ONB, Aug. 15, 1944, “Twelfth U.S. Army Group Directives,” CMH (“Due to the delay”).
“For the first and only time”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 379; OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, 270/19/5/4, box 184; Prados, Normandy Crucible, 216–21, 251.
The two most senior Allied field commanders: Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket,” Military Review (Sept. 1990): 45+; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 208; Hastings, OVERLORD, 301; Beevor, D-Day, 455; Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 217–18 (little effort to confirm); Kennedy, The Business of War, 344 (“squeaking and scuffling”); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 449 (“These are great days”).
Bradley was quick to fault Montgomery: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 376–79; Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 91 (“quality all the great generals had”); Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket,” Military Review (Sept. 1990): 45+ (“operational forethought”).
Nor was Eisenhower much help: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 216; diary, CBH, Aug 12, 1944, MHI, 1944, box 4 (“garbed in suntans”); Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 171 (“never really got the feel”).
Whatever shortcomings vexed the Allied high command: memos, Seventh Army, Aug. 12, 15, 19, 1944, NARA RG 407, M.L. #483, box 24154; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 20 (“strength of a company”); Lucas and Barker, The Killing Ground, 122 (“Such tiredness”);BP, 516–19 (“five minutes before midnight”).
Then Kluge vanished: Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 138–39; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 24 (“Ascertain whereabouts”); Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 142 (might have defected).
Shortly before midnight he appeared: Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 378–79; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 24 (“live in another world”); VC, 254; Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 277 (in a borrowed car); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 227–28 (Hitler affirmed the decision).
The order would be Kluge’s last: Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 382–83; MMB, 369 (Prussian music director); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 436 (“Hitler’s fireman”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 76 (stabilize the field after defeats); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Diary of Thuisko von Metzch,” May 1952, NARA RG 319, R-10, 32 (firing squads); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 320–26 (“a good sergeant”); Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 4 (“Did you see those eyes?”).
“Den lieb’ ich”: Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 312; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 26 (“My intention is to withdraw”).
Legend had it: author visit, Falaise, May 29, 2009; Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 398; The Green Guide to Normandy, 74, 237; Baedeker, Northern France, 185–86.
Bullet holes dinged the hoary castle keep: VC, 250–51; Lucas and Barker, The Killing Ground, 124 (last Tigers had rumbled); Carell, Invasion—They’re Coming!, 260–61 (two teenagers).
Ultra had decrypted Kluge’s withdrawal order: Sunset 657, Aug. 16, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869; Hinsley, 508.
Bradley now confessed: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 379; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 211 (three jeeps, nine officers); BP, 515, 529–30; diary, Aug. 16–17, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 446 (poised to attack in an hour).
Napoleonic it was not: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 239–42; VC, 257–59; “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+ (“comparatively easy business”); VW, vol. 1, 442–43 (“damage was immense”).
“inferno of incandescent ruins”: author visit, Trun, May 29, 2009, signage; Kennedy, The Business of War, 344 (“Shoot everything”); Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 135 (Shambles); “Closing of the Chambois Gap,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 1, 22–23 (“streams in the gutters”); Colby, War from the Ground Up, 230–41 (“vertebrae”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 275 (“lifted me in the air”); Maczek, Od Podwody do Czolga, Wspomnienia Wojenne 1918–1945, 167–68 (toasts drunk).
With eastbound roads now cut: Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 282; VW, vol. 1, 446–47 (by compass course); Horrocks, Corps Commander, 46–50 (Three thousand Allied guns); diary, D. K. Reimers, “My War,” Aug. 19, 1944, MHI, 151 (“The pocket surrounding the Germans”).
“We always hit something”: Raines, Eyes of Artillery, 220; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 133 (“Many go barefoot”), 136–37 (telltale glint); Copp, ed., Montgomery’s Scientists, 189 (“Heavy firing into the sunken road”); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 350 (“I saw a truck crew”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 271–73 (“surrounded by fire”).
Two death struggles: Copp and Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Falaise, 121 (“grey-clad men”); Freiherr von Lüttwitz, Oct. 1945, FMS, #A-904, MHI, 21–22 (“awful heap”); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, n.d., Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 7–8 (“gun boiled away”); Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 264 (“like burrs”); Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, 205–6.
Three miles northeast, eighteen hundred men: Maczek, Od Podwody do Czolga, Wspomnienia Wojenne 1918–1945, 167; Mieczkowski, ed., The Soldiers of General Maczek in World War II, 50–52 (Poles caught the brunt); “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+ (escaping Germans streamed past); Whitaker et al., Victory at Falaise, 277–87 (SS bodies roasted).
“Merde pour la guerre”: Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 136–37; Hastings, OVERLORD, 305 (“more of an execution”); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, n.d., Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 7–8 (“shot them down in droves”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 75 (urinated on the body).
“one of those paintings of Waterloo”: “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+; Collier, Fighting Words, 170 (“the end of Germany”); DOB, 168 (escaped seemingly sure destruction at Messina).
“All German formations”: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 241–42, 254–57.
After liberating Orléans and Chartres: “Memoranda for Record,” Aug. 19, 1944, XII AG, NARA RG 407, ML #205; BP, 566–70, 574–75; AAR, “Bridging the Seine,” XV Corps, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 10; Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct. 1945, MHI, 1.
“inextricable confusion”: Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct. 1945, MHI, 6–7; AAFinWWII, 272 (sixty Seine crossing sites); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 285 (improvised ferries); BP, 557, 581 (25,000 vehicles); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 433 (cider barrels), 424 (twelve of fifteen division commanders); Luck, Panzer Commander, 165 (empty fuel cans); Hastings, OVERLORD, 309 (dead cow); Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 282 (95 percent of German troops); TSC, 215. Historian John Prados estimates that 115,000 got away (Normandy Crucible, 249, 262).
Yet by any measure the defeat at Falaise: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 214; diary, D. K. Reimers, “My War,” Aug. 24, 1944, MHI, 157 (“Life in the cages”); Beevor, D-Day, 460–61; BP, 535–36 (“When you receive these lines”); Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 454 (“western thriller”).
Allied investigators counted: Ellis, Brute Force, 391. Various tallies have been offered. 21st Army Group reported finding 571 German guns, 358 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 4,700 trucks, cars, and armored tracks in the pocket. “The Operations of 21 Army Group,” 1946, CARL, N-133331, 15. Ludewig puts panzer losses at Falaise at more than 400, over half the total fleet. Ludewig, Rückzug, 99–100.
No Seine ferry could carry a Tiger: Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, photo (charred on the docks); Westermann, Flak, 260; Ellis, Brute Force, 391; VW, vol. 1, 448 (twenty-five hundred trucks and cars); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 434 (“five to ten tanks each”); Ludewig, Rückzug, 164 (Fifth Panzer Army); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 283–84 (Army Group Center); Callahan quoted in Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 272 (“remarkable resurgence”).
Eisenhower took a quick tour: corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Aug. 28, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“bloated dead”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 139 (paybooks); “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+ (bulldozed mass grave); Skibinski, Pierwsza Pancerna, 311 (“coal monuments”); Hastings,OVERLORD, 312 (evacuate gases); Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 136–37 (rear seat of a limousine); BP, 558 (“avenging angel”).
Troops cleansing the pocket wore gas masks: Lyall, ed., The War in the Air, 428; Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 217 (“Everything is dead”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 158 (“waiting to die in the water”); Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, 205–6 (eight thousand slaughtered horses); Lucas and Barker, The Killing Ground, 158–59 (Not until 1961).
“Thank you for liberating us”: Copp, Cinderella Army, 27; Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 331 (Many recalled November 1918); memo, BLM, Aug. 20, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML, box 24143 (“beginning of the end”).
The Loveliest Story of Our Time
Warm summer rain: Marshall, Battle at Best, 226 (“booming like bitterns”).
Tricolor pennants flew: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 306; Hills, Phantom Was There, 217–18 (white silhouette); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 31; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 201.
Scores of frisky “warcos”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 160; Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 168–69 (any procession into Paris), 160–62 (“Paris/Orléans”); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 521; Reynolds, Hemingway: The Final Years, 105–6; Voss, Reporting the War, 185–90 (“le grand capitaine”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 179 (“spitting short sentences”); Babcock, War Stories, 178 (“just in case”).
Astride the road outside Limours: Beevor, D-Day, 387; Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 525 (“Like the Scarlet Pimpernel”); Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 39–42 (child’s toy printing set); MMB, 310; Porch, The Path to Victory, 583–84; OH, SLAM, 1973, George J. Stapleton, MHI, V, 19–24 (“Have no fear”); Marshall, Battle at Best, 226.
“a weird assortment of private cars”: Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 211–12; Marshall, Battle at Best, 226 (Veterans of the Franco-Prussian War); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 171 (“wreck one’s constitution”).
By Thursday evening the spearhead remained five miles: BP, 611–14.
“advancing on a one-tank front”: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 308; Blumenson, “Politics and the Military in the Liberation of Paris,” Parameters (summer 1998): 4+ (“slam on in”); Zaloga, Liberation of Paris 1944, 67–68 (“Tenez bon”).
Eisenhower had long planned: “Crossing of the Seine and Capture of Paris,” Aug. 17, 1944, SHAEF, planning staff, Post-Neptune, NARA RG 331, E 23 (“eight divisions”); Wieviorka, Normandy, 350–1; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 291–92; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 39 (convoys were hijacked); Riding,And the Show Went On, 308 (Jewish deportees).
“Paris is worth 200,000 dead”: Zaloga, Liberation of Paris 1944, 34, 24; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 296 (“holier-than-thouery”).
The moment grew riper: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 37 (foretelling catastrophe), 40 (opened their windows); “Paris,” AB, No. 14, 1976, 11+; Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 149–50 (four hundred such redoubts), 133 (“things are going to get bad”), 219; Jacques Kim, ed., La Libération de Paris, 1944, no pagination, in HIA, Boris T. Pash papers, box 4, folder 4 (portraits of Hitler); Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 165 (“pictures of Delacroix”); Aron, France Reborn, 262 (Hèrmes scarves); Riding, And the Show Went On, 309 (“For every Parisian”); Collier, The Freedom Road, 1944–45, 165 (Swedish ball-bearing factory manager).
“If the enemy tries to hold Paris”: Chandler, 2088–89.
“Gestapo small fry”: Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 127, 121 (Ash from burning documents); Joseph R. Darnall, “Hospitalization in European Theater of Operations,” n.d., MHUC, Group 1, box 24, 25 (clogged the plumbing); Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 72–73 (“back for Christmas”); Blumenson, Liberation, 13 (“la ville sans regard”); Beevor, D-Day, 485 (toilet brushes).
With his main thrust delayed by skirmishers: “Paris,” AB, No. 14, 1976, 11+ (“Les Américains!”; BP, 615; Maule, Out of the Sand, 214 (“Rejoice!”).
From a balcony of the Hôtel Meurice: MWB, 89–90; Neiburg, The Blood of Free Men, 85. Choltitz had been linked to the murder of Jews in the Crimea. Roberts, The Storm of War, 495–96.
“field of ruins”: BP, 598.
“It has been my fate”: Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 24, 158 (“Our task is hard”); Ludewig, Rückzug, 138 (Saxon), 143 (eight centuries).
With only twenty thousand men: Germany VII, 615; Ludewig, Rückzug, 144–47; Blumenson, “Politics and the Military in the Liberation of Paris,” Parameters (summer 1998): 4+ (“Ever since our enemies”); BP, 609 (told superiors of placing explosives); Aron, France Reborn, 279–80 (“prudent and intelligent attitude”), 284–85; Maule, Out of the Sand, 214 (“the Allies are here”). Choltitz’s role in saving Paris would be vigorously debated for more than sixty years after the war. http://www.ina.fr/recherche/recherche/search/la+liberation+de+paris*
Leclerc managed to slide his entire division: “Paris,” AB, No. 14, 1976, 11+; BP, 615 (12th Infantry reached Notre Dame); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 309; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 45 (women curled their hair); Aron, France Reborn, 286 (colors flew from the Eiffel Tower); Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 173 (Animals set loose), 187 (scent of mothballs).
“The rip tide of courage”: Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 251, 260 (Yiddish); Marshall, Battle at Best, 246–47 (“not less than five thousand bullets”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 168–69 (from the rumble seats); chronology, Aug. 25, 1944, 1556 hours, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 53, folder 1 (“massacred or made prisoners”); “Paris,” AB, no. 14, 1976, 11+ (surrendered to a Signal Corps photographer); Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 313, 325 (weapons in the cloakroom); Aron, France Reborn, 286–87 (lunch at the usual hour).
“Germany’s lost the war”: Collier, The Freedom Road, 1944–45, 170; Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 312 (packed a valise), 307 (“our last combat”); Beevor, D-Day, 508 (“silent from the effort”); Aron, France Reborn, 287–89 (“particularly not today”).
Just down the street, fighting swept: Tillier et al., Paris, 131; Choltitz, Soldat Unter Soldaten, 268–69 (“Sprechen deutsch?”).
A furious mob punched and spat: Beevor, D-Day, 510; Aron, France Reborn, 291–92 (“Oh, no”). Choltitz would be court-martialed in absentia after his capture. Ludewig, Rückzug, 148–49.
Teams of French and German officers: Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 338–39; Germany VII, 615; Riding, And the Show Went On, 313 (Louvre).
“German spoken” signs: “Inside Paris,” Newsweek, Aug. 28, 1944, 25+; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 199 (“Supplier of the Boche”); Marshall, Battle at Best, 212 (“Leave her alone”); Edsel, The Monuments Men, 121 (“Arrests and Purges”); Aron, France Reborn, 423 (“a psychosis”); Riding, And the Show Went On, 318 (indignité nationale). Biographer Jonathan Fenby notes that the Aron figure was disputed, and that an Interior Ministry study found that the Resistance carried out 9,673 summary executions during the war. In Paris, 126,000 people were arrested for collaboration. The General, 659-60, 722.
At ten P.M., the first of an eventual eighteen hundred: AAR, “T Force and T Branch,” n.d., 12th AG, NARA RG 331, E 180, SHAEF, box 44; “T Force—The CIC in Paris,” Military Intelligence Service, No. 25, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #494L, 66+; AAR, T Force, n.d., 6th AG, G-2, Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 4, file 6; Gellhorn, The Face of War, 180–82 (“Revenge me”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 178 (“a knock on my door”).
“a great city where everybody is happy”: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 235; Prinsburg (Minn.) Record News, Sept. 1944, 2 (“never in my life been kissed”); George E. McIntyre, “As Mac Saw It,” n.d., MHI; Collier, Fighting Words, 172 (“Had we ever been away?”); Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 292 (treasures from the Jeu de Paume); Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 154 (Bank of France cellars).
“You’ve got just thirty seconds”: OH, SLAM, 1973, George J. Stapleton, MHI, V, 19–28; Collier, Fighting Words, 173 (“seventy-three dry martinis”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 113 (raspberries in liquer); Marshall, Battle at Best, 212 (“It’s the law”); Blumenson, Liberation, 156 (“the day the war should have ended”).
“Paris seems to have”: Nichols, ed., Ernie’s War, 354; Pyle, Brave Men, 314 (“the loveliest, brightest story”).
De Gaulle entered the city: De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 648 (“Nothing was missing”); Aron, France Reborn, 293 (whence he had fled); Foote, SOE in France, 416 (blotting paper); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, x (He uttered hardly a word); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 517;VW, vol. 1, 488, 493; Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 349 (Coleman lanterns). Jonathan Fenby writes that de Gaulle made a perfunctory reference to “our dear and admirable Allies.” The General, 679–80. Michael Neiberg calls it “the best speech of his life.” The Blood of Free Men, 237.
“City is scarcely damaged”: memo, N. H. Vissering, SHAEF G-4, Aug. 30, 1944, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; “The Coal Situation on the Continent,” n.d., “G-4 History,” NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C; Harold S. Frum, “The Soldier Must Write,” 1984, GCM Lib (charcoal burners); “Paris Is Free!,” Time(Sept. 4, 1944): 34+ (cafés in Montparnasse); Wieviorka, Normandy, 354 (two thousand Resistance fighters and twenty-five hundred civilians); Zaloga, Liberation of Paris, 1944, 83–90 (twelve hundred casualties in the eastern suburbs); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 175–77 (“After a noisy hour”); Chandler, 2108 (“We should not blame the French”). Some question whether Hitler personally asked, “Is Paris burning?” Neiberg, The Blood of Free Men, 214.
At three P.M. on Saturday, August 26, De Gaulle appeared: Aron, France Reborn, 297–300 (“confides his safety”); Foote, SOE in France, 416 (“nunnery”).
A million people or more lined the boulevard: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 53; Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 204–5 (shots rang out); Moorehead, Eclipse, 170–73 (“like a field of wheat”); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 175–77 (“firing wildly with machine guns”); corr, P. B. Rogers to family, Sept. 23, 1944, Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (fired “to beat hell”).
“The huge congregation, who had all been standing”: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 56; Voss, Reporting the War, 90–91 (FFI fighters fired at the organ pipes); Blumenson, Liberation, 166 (“extraordinary example of courage”); Maule, Out of the Sand, 226 (“Have you no pride?”).
“The first wild shots”: Aron, France Reborn, 300.
So ended the great struggle: Keegan, Six Armies in Europe, 317; Fritz Bayerlein, ETHINT 67, Aug. 15, 1945, MHI, 7.
German casualties in the west: memo, DDE to CCS, Aug 30, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, 381; D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 517; Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 82; Ellis, Brute Force, 355–56; Zaloga, Armored Thunderbolt, 169; memo, DDE to CCS, Aug 30, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, 381 (“very badly cut up”); Keegan,Six Armies in Normandy, 316 (early warning network); “The Process of Collapse of the German Armies,” Aug. 29, 1944, OSS, research and analysis, no. 2458, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 922 (monthly casualties of a quarter million); “Age-Distribution of Dead in the German Ground Forces,” Apr. 3, 1945, OSS, research and analysis, no. 1087.6, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 888.
Americans killed, wounded, missing, or captured: The figures include air crews. D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 517.
In half a million sorties flown: VW, vol. 1, 488.
The 82nd Airborne had given battle: Gavin, On to Berlin, 12.
Normandy paid a fell price: Blumenson, Liberation, 73 (of 3,400 Norman villages and towns); Vigneras, Rearming the French, 306 (24,000 FFI fighters); Wieviorka, Normandy, 131; Neiberg, The Blood of Free Men, 13; Kedward, France and the French, 298; http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Monuments-Paris/Eiffel.shtml.
Most prominent among the German dead: Ruge, Rommel in Normandy, 246; Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 232 (merely lifting the eyelid); Margry, “The Death of Rommel,” AB, no. 80 (1993): 38+ (“Just one thought”).
The killers would come to Herrlingen: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 501–5; Margry, “The Death of Rommel,” AB, no. 80 (1993): 38+ (“another of the old ones”); Douglas-Home, Rommel, 210 (“His heart belonged”).
“If I ever was brave”: Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 345.
“a flat, black depression”: Pyle, Brave Men, 319; Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 364 (“I have had all I can take”); CBH, Sept. 2, 1944, box 4 (“worn out, thin”).
For many rank-and-file troops: corr, T. M. Smith to family, Aug. 8, 1944 (“spreading like a disease”), and Aug. 15, 1944 (“just a damn fool”), HIA, Thor M. Smith papers, box 1; Pogue, George C. Marshall of Victory, 430 (holiday gifts); corr, P. B. Rogers, Aug. 17, 1944, Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (“space for a long time”).
“fundamental inability to make sound strategic judgments”: Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command, 232–36; Overy, Why the Allies Won, 227 (tactical edge); “The Effectiveness of Third Phase Tactical Air Operations,” AAF Evaluation Board, Aug. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 15 (thirty-one airfields); Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 416–17; Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 135 (“much more amusing”).
“a vivid moral structure”: Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, ix.
Soviet troops in Poland: Some historians put the toll at Majdanek at three hundred thousand or more. Weinberg, A World at Arms, 708.
“I have just seen the most terrible place”: Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 35–36; “Murder, Inc.,” Time (Sept. 11, 1944): 36 (“Children’s shoes”); William J. vanden Heuvel, “Comments on Michael Beschloss’ The Conquerors,” SHAFR Newsletter, March 2003, 27+ (“systematic murder”).
“The saviors come not home”: Harold S. Frum, “The Soldier Must Write,” 1984, GCM Lib; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 365 (“like a lamb”).
It will be my cross: Carroll, Behind the Lines, 69–73.
“It is summer”: Stiles, Serenade to the Big Bird, 215.
A final gesture of American arms: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 316 (“show of force”); Huie, The Execution of Private Slovik, 106–7 (Benjamin Franklin).
Hurriedly trucked to Versailles: Miller, Division Commander, 100; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 396 (“Khaki Bill”); Ent, ed., The First Century, 165 (three-cent postage stamp).
CHAPTER 4: PURSUIT
“The Huntsman Is Hungry”
Naples in August 1944 still carried scars: Taylor and Taylor, eds., The War Diaries, 128 (carved from the bones of saints); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 204–5 (one-third of all arriving cargo); Lewis, Naples ’44, 134–35 (civilian suits); Richler, ed., Writers on World War II, 477 (“kingdom come”).
The city was “colorful”: Fairbanks, A Hell of a War, 224; Taylor and Taylor, eds., The War Diaries, 448 (touch their testicles); Lewis, Naples ’44, 93 (“romantic frustration”); Vining, ed., American Diaries of World War II, 114 (prices had jumped thirtyfold); diary, Cyrus C. Aydlett, July 15, 1944, NWWIIM (“Piece ass!”).
More than ever Naples was a military town: Fisher, Cassino to the Alps, 292–99.
under Plan 4-44: Hewitt, “Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (July–Aug. 1954): 731+; “Southern France,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH background files, chapter 10 (nine hundred vessels); IFG, 238–39.
By August 13, the 36th and 45th Infantry Divisions: “Southern France,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH background files, chapter 10; Mauldin, Up Front, 198–99 (moldering corpses); Even, The Tenth Engineers, 38 (makeshift aircraft carrier); Wyant, Sandy Patch, 114–15 (“Many a New Day”); Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 202 (never glanced up).
Pacing the bridge of the flagship: OH, “The Reminiscences of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt,” Col U OHRO, 1962, 6: 1–3; AAAD, 21–23; DOB, 30–32.
DRAGOON had begun dreadfully: Hewitt, “Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (July–Aug. 1954): 731ff.; John A. Moreno, “The Death of Admiral Moon,” n.d., a.p., 225+; Alter and Crouch, eds., “My Dear Moon,” no pagination; OH, “The Reminiscences of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt,” Col U OHRO, 1962, 24: 33–35 (“I don’t think it’s as bad”).
At seven the next morning: Alter and Crouch, eds., “My Dear Moon,” no pagination (“I am sick”); Individual Deceased Personnel File, Don P. Moon, a.p., obtained under FOIA, 2008 (“Cause: suicide”); corr, JLC to Mrs. Don P. Moon, Aug. 17, 1944, JLC papers, DDE Lib, box 3, 201 file (“a casualty of this war”).
At two P.M. on August 13, under clear skies: Hewitt, “Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (July–Aug. 1954): 731+; Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 179 (“All that they felt”).
Vesuvius had begun to recede: Hewitt, “Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (July–Aug. 1954): 731+; Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 315–16 (light tropical suit); Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 202 (“It’s Churchill!”); Reitan, Riflemen, 41.
Colonel Kent: Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 174.
on a fortnight’s bathing holiday: Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 752–53; Reynolds, In Command of History, 3 (“benevolent hippo”); Macmillan, War Diaries, 502 (portable map room).
DRAGOON, originally called ANVIL: A recent history on the German retreat from France states that the two Wehrmacht armies in Army Group G together numbered sixteen divisions on June 6, 1944. Ludewig, Rückzug, 48.
Shipping shortages and delays in capturing Rome: Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Army Group G Prepares to Meet the Invasion,” 1957, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #103, box 16; H. Maitland Wilson, “Dispatch, Invasion of Southern France,” 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #108, 4–31; CCA, 76n, 100; “The Invasion of Southern France, Operation Dragoon,” ETOUSA, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #314; TSC, 220–21 (“decisive theater”); Howard, The Mediterranean Strategy in World War II, 61; Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 338; OH, Charles de Gaulle, Jan. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI; De Gaulle, The Complete Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 613–14.
The British disagreed, politely at first: TSC, 221–22 (“bleak and sterile”); IFG, 229–30 (“great hazards”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 301 (would take three months); memo, British chiefs, June 26, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, history unit, box 12 (“unacceptable to us”); H. Maitland Wilson, “Dispatch, Invasion of Southern France,” 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #108, 31; Macmillan, War Diaries, 470 (“eliminate the German forces”); Kennedy, The Business of War, 333 (“dagger under the armpit”).
“We need big ports”: Chandler, 1938; Howard, The Mediterranean Strategy in World War II, 67 (threading the gap); Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 408 (“Austrians held off the Italians”); OH, John E. Hull, 1974, James W. Wurman, SOOHP, MHI, III-54, V-26 (“not more than seven divisions”); Barker, “The Ljubljana Gap Strategy,” JMH (Jan. 1992): 57+ (dash to Vienna); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 233 (“Winston is a gambler”); Danchev, 561–65 (“damned fools”).
The prime minister would have none of it: Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 523 (forestall Soviet domination), 214–23 (“complete ruin”).
Still Churchill persisted: diary, CBH, Aug. 7, 1944, MHI, box 4 (“beautifully colored speech”); dispatch, Henry Maitland Wilson to CCS, n.d., CMH, UH 0-1, 23 (“greatest secrecy”); msg, U.S. JCS, Aug. 5, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-323-A (“extremely unwise”); Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 174 (“utmost confusion”); IFG, 231 (insufficiently seaworthy); Chandler, 2057 (no major Breton port would open), 2066–67; Three Years, 635 (“Ike said no”), 639 (“lay down the mantle”), 644; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 197 (wept copiously); Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 68–71 (“no more to be done”).
Denouncing the “sheer folly”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 173.
“strong and dominating partner”: TSC, 226.
“We have been ill-treated”: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 412–13; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 501 (“lying down”), 500 (“Winston is very bitter”); Hastings, Armageddon, 232 (“one of the stupidest strategic teams”); Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 38 (“The only times I ever quarrel”).
“an Englishman’s idea of cooperation”: Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 59; Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 491 (“always a disperser”); Howard, The Mediterranean Strategy in World War II, 67 (incoherent); Brower, ed., World War II in Europe, 42 (“slogan not a strategy”); VW, vol. 2, 19; TSC, 246–47 (“tearing the guts out”).
Certainly the fraught imperatives: Powers, “The Battle of Normandy,” JMH (July 1992): 455+; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 505 (“full-blown professionals”); pamphlet, “Beachheads and Mountains,” MTO, U.S. Army, June 1945, Theodore J. Conway papers, MHI, box 2 (one in every ten).
“He must always be right”: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 500.
“He was literally frothing”: Danchev, 571; Colville, The Fringes of Power, 564 (“corrective sneering”), 522 (black bristles of the hair brushes); Hastings, Winston’s War, 411 (“his own vivid world”); Buhite, Decisions at Yalta, 15 (“Of course I am an egotist”).
“that unresting genius”: Fraser, Alanbrooke, 22.
“The P.M. is very tired”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 194; Macmillan, War Diaries, 474 (“old and weary”); Foreman, “Winston Churchill, Distilled,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 10, 2009, D6 (“economy of effort”).
Already this Mediterranean sojourn had revived him: Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 184 (Champagne lunches); Kimball, Forged in War, 22 (Churchill was no alcoholic); msg, U.S. JCS, Aug. 5, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-323-A (“DRAGOON will be successful”).
In the smallest hours of Tuesday, August 15: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., Office of the Theater Historian, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #607, 11–12; IFG, 255–57 (one hundred fathoms); Robichon, The Second D-Day, 163 (“deluge of metal”).
“Nancy has a stiff neck”: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 64. In southern France, the OSS had twenty-eight agent networks radioing reports on German defenses and troop movements. Waller, Wild Bill Donovan, 264.
Each soldier aboard the combat loaders: Stephen J. Weiss, “Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON: The Allied Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., a.p.; Garland, Unknown Soldiers, 277 (“Swilled coffee”), 309 (“sunstorms”); Langan W. Swent, “Personal Diary,” Aug. 14, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“things are so quiet”).
Catoctin’s malfunctioning ventilation system: Will Lang, draft cable to Life, Aug. 1, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 21 (“predatory” face); corr, Don E. Carleton to Sarah Truscott, July 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1 (silver nitrate); Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 241 (“one of the really tough generals”).
Truscott’s was an unorthodox path: biographical material, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 21, folder 7; Jeffers, Command of Honor, 215 (unlucky dabbler); Heefner, Dogface Soldier, 9–13 (renounced strong drink).
“willpower, decision, and drive”: description by Ernest Harmon in Layne Van Arsdale, ed., “Allied Biographies,” USAREUR staff ride, Alsace, May 2009; Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 296 (lamented his inability to get Truscott released); Will Lang, draft cable to Life, Aug. 1, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 21 (“Bullshit”); Jeffers, Command of Honor, 215 (“hunters by instinct”).
“far removed from the softening touch”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, July 19 and Aug. 14, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1; DOB, 586.
The enemy never had a chance: IFG, 251; OH, Paul D. Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI (Quaker guns); signals report, appendix H, “Airborne Diversion in Support of Operation Dragoon,” NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-69 Spec, box 294; John C. Warren, “Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945,” 1955, AFHRA, study no. 74, 92–93; Holt, The Deceivers, 619–20 (attack at Genoa).
The usual anarchy and intrepidity: “Report on Airborne Operations in Dragoon,” Oct. 30, 1944, Allied Force HQ, HIA, 10; RR, 104; John C. Warren, “Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945,” 1955, AFHRA, study no. 74, 99–102; “The Night Landing in Provence, Aug. 1944,” n.d., SEM, NHHC, box 87, file 97, 2–3.
At eight A.M., eleven American assault battalions: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 50; “Operation Dragoon,” Dec. 1944, COHQ, bulletin Y/42, CARL, N-6530.20.
Among those at the point of the spear: certificate of service, ALM; Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 1 (“greatest folk hero”); Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 16–17 (“can’t remember”); Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website, http://www.audiemurphy.com/biography.htm (eighteen); Arlington National Cemetery website,http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/History/Military/HF_AudieMurphy.aspx; Hubler, “He Doesn’t Want to Be a Star,” Saturday Evening Post (Apr. 18, 1953): 34+ (fainted).
Sharpshooting now served him well: Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 121–22; Murphy, To Hell and Back, 176–77 (“My whole being”).
Only on the invasion right flank: WaS, 97; IFG, 267–68; RR, 115–18; Swent, “Personal Diary,” Aug. 9, 1944, HIA, box 1 (radio-controlled landing craft); Greear, “Operation Neptune and Landing on Coast of Southern France,” lecture, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, 12–13 (same frequencies); LKT Jr., “Comments on ‘Dragoon Secondary Attack Against Fortress Europe,’” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, 2–3 (“milled around at high speed”); OH, Herbert A. Peterson, Oct. 1, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 5 (“As a general proposition”).
“All ships and craft reached their final assault”: msg, HKH, Aug. 15, 1944, NARA RG 331, AFHQ micro, R-323-A.
“quietest beachhead I have ever seen”: Langan W. Swent, “Personal Diary,” Aug. 15, 1944, HIA, box 1.
By the close of this D-Day: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 56; RR, 123–24, 63, 70 (less than 300,000); “Operation Dragoon,” Dec. 1944, COHQ, bulletin Y/42, ANSCOL, NARA 334, E 315, box 465 (preferred to surrender); Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 451 (“worst day of my life”); MMB, 45; Bonn,When the Odds Were Even, 68 (SS atrocities in Poland); Pallud, “The Riviera Landings, AB, no. 110 (2000): 2+ (one-quarter of his infantry divisions); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Invasion,” 1957, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series # 104, box 16, 12–13; Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 189; Ludewig, Rückzug, 57–61 (“Russians in France”). Demands from the Normandy front had reduced the 11th Panzer Division to barely one hundred tanks and assault guns.
By twilight on Tuesday: Le Victorieux, n.d., translation, Robert T. Frederick papers, HIA, box 4; Seventh Army war diary, Aug. 16, 1944, MHI (“weak at most points”); Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 432 (“faintly sourish smell”); “The Night Landing in Provence, Aug. 1944,” n.d., SEM, NHHC, box 87, file 97, 1 (“What happiness”); OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1978, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-21 (VI Corps crystal); Conway, “Operation Anvil,” lecture, n.d., Norfolk, Theodore J. Conway papers, MHI, box 2, 16 (“best invasion I ever attended”).
“frog blackmoors”: Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 273.
the Kimberly ventured no closer: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 94–95; Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 180 (“a querulous mood”); Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 315–16 (“a lot more exciting”).
The Avenue of Stenches
The immediate objective of DRAGOON: memo, Joint Security Council, July 4, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, WD OPD, history unit, box 39; RR, 137; IFG, 282; The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 151 (three more divisions).
Known for now as Army B: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 23; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 67 (New Caledonians, Tahitians); Porch, The Path to Victory, 596 (boots tied around their necks); Vigneras, Rearming the French, 229, 245, 248, 258, 264–66; memo, Charles L. Kades, “Allied Civil Affairs Administration in Southeastern France,” Oct. 30, 1944, CARL, N-3972, 14–17 (cherished wine transports).
The gimlet-eyed commander of this force: Salisbury-Jones, So Full a Glory, 16; Aron, France Reborn, 317–18 (“animal of action”); Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 26–27 (“jupiterien”), 22–23 (“greatest soldier to serve France”); OH, “The Reminiscences of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt,” Col U OHRO, 1962 copy at NHHC, 24:28 (“very volatile”); Truscott, Command Missions, 403 (“thin hair graying”); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 25 (“What have you done”).
De Lattre sprang from minor gentry: Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 22–33.
Loyal to Vichy for more than two years: Codman, Drive, 220–21 (outside his office door), 222 (“a nocturnal”); Porch, The Path to Victory, 594–95 (“lived on stage”); Clayton, Three Marshalls of France, 117–18 (might sit for days).
The DRAGOON landing plan for Army B: Aron, France Reborn, 314 (“the price we must pay”); OH, JLD, 1968, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, box 110 (torrent of French); Porch, The Path to Victory, 594–96 (“ardent to the point of effervescence”).
The Germans waited, too: RR, 138–40; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Army Group G Prepares to Meet the Invasion,” 1957, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #103, 24 (fortifications at Toulon); Wilt, The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944, 121 (both garrisons reinforced); Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 191
Toulon was the greatest naval base: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 155–59; de Belot, The Struggle for the Mediterranean, 1939–1945, 260 (range of twenty-two miles); Hewitt, “Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (July–Aug. 1954): 731+; IFG, 290–91; AR, U.S.S. Quincy, Sept. 6, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 57 (chasing the interlopers back into their smoke); OH, John F. Latimer, n.d., NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 23; OH, Glynn Markham, n.d., WWII Oral History Collection, Samuel F. Proctor Archive, Department of History, University of Florida (“spitting against the wall”).
De Lattre had assumed as much: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 111; “Invasion of Southern France,” Office of the Theater Historian, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #607, 145–50; The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 154.
By last light on Monday, August 21: Salisbury-Jones, So Full a Glory, 144 (Monks from a local monastery); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 77–78 (borrowed policeman’s uniform), 92–94 (“Three hours later”); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 158–59; “Invasion of Southern France,” Office of the Theater Historian, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #607, 160–62 (blew up their remaining ammunition); Hewitt, “Planning Operation Anvil-Dragoon,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (July–Aug. 1954): 731+ (more than a thousand shells).
Marseille fell at almost the same moment: LSA, vol. 1, 163–64; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 99–102; Robichon, The Second D-Day, 292–93 (“figures from another world”), 289–90 (civilians in nightclothes); Salisbury-Jones, So Full a Glory, 147 (city soon grew indefensible); Aron, France Reborn, 335 (spread his maps).
“It would be purposeless”: Aron, France Reborn, 342; RR, 80.
Thirty-seven thousand prisoners: Wilt, The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944, 130–31; “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” n.d., USFET General Board, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0, no. 130, 50. Toulon received its first Liberty ship on Sept. 20. LSA, vol. 2, 122.
Marseille was devastated even beyond Allied fears: H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 4-13.1 AA 29, 283–84 (“German masterpiece” and five thousand mines); Aron, France Reborn, 343 (“chaos of steel”); OH, HKH, June 26, 1945, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 21 (blimps).
Yet the Allies had their port: LSA, vol. 2, 122; The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 331 (12,500 tons of cargo); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 115 (“no German not dead or captive”).
Following his abdication and removal to Elba: Young, Napoleon in Exile: Elba, 136, 229, 283, 292–93, 304–18; Norwich, The Middle Sea, 456.
The Route Napoléon led, indirectly, to Waterloo: Conway, “Operation Anvil,” lecture, n.d., Norfolk, Theodore J. Conway papers, MHI, box 2, 18–24; memo, LKT Jr. to A. Patch, July 21, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH 2-3.7 CC2, Hamilton mss.
To command this scratch assemblage: OH, Frederic B. Bates, Oct. 6, 1967, Raymond Henle, HIA, http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/oralhistories/detail/2000,1*; Layne Van Arsdale, ed., “Allied Biographies,” USAREUR staff ride, Alsace, May 2009.
An order radioed from the German high command: Hinsley, 509 (deciphered by British cryptologists); Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 193–93. Historian Joachim Ludewig writes that Blaskowitz did not receive the withdrawal order until the morning of August 18, and that Nineteenth Army got it that afternoon (Rückzug, 82). David T. Zabecki points out that “Army Group B and Army Group G were not quite the same,” in that the former was designated an Armeegruppe, tantamount to an oversized army in Allied terms, and the latter a Heeresgruppe, the equivalent of an Allied army group (Corr. to author, May 9, 2012).
Now the U.S. Seventh Army could speed north: Donald S. Bussey, “Ultra and the U.S. Seventh Army,” May 12, 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-022; Arthur L. Funk, “General Patch, Ultra, and the Alpine Passes, 1944,” n.d., University of Florida, a.p., 3–8 (NOVOCAINE); Beavan, Operation Jedburgh, 258–59.
Truscott put the spurs to Butler: Butler, “Task Force Butler,” Armored Cavalry Journal, part 1 (Jan.–Feb.): 12+ (“dignified weep”), and part 2 (March–Apr. 1948): 30+; memo, F. B. Butler, March 3, 1947, NARA RG 319, OCMH background files, Hamilton mss, box 7.
Task Force Butler covered forty-five miles: John A. Hixson, “Analysis of Deep Attack Operations: U.S. VI Corps, Task Force Butler, Aug. 1944,” March 1987, CSI, 27–33; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 69; Butler, “Task Force Butler,” Armored Cavalry Journal, part 1 (Jan.–Feb. 1948): ff. (formed a fire brigade); OH, 2nd Bn, 143rd Inf and 117th Cavalry Recon Squadron, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 117; Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 197.
Across folded limestone hills: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 109; Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 440–42 (“through civilized, settled Provence”).
In Gap, nearly a hundred miles from the sea: Arthur L. Funk, “Allies and Maquis,” n.d., NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5; Butler, “Task Force Butler,” Armored Cavalry Journal, part 2 (Mar.–Apr. 1948): 30. (sixty B-17s); OH, 117th Cavalry Recon Squadron, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 117 (wearing full packs).
“You will move at first light”: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 199–200; John A. Hixson, “Analysis of Deep Attack Operations: U.S. VI Corps, Task Force Butler, Aug. 1944,” March 1987, CSI, 27–33; Truscott, Command Missions, 437; Jackson, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, vol. 6, part 2, 197; RR, 147 (dash toward the river).
By now supply shortages threatened to undermine: “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” n.d., USFET General Board, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0, no. 130, 50; The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 218–20 (three hundred-mile round-trip); Leo J. Meyer, “Moving Men and Supplies in Southern France,” n.d., NARA RG 319, E 99, OCMH background files, 314.7, box 1, 14-17a (only eleven thousand gallons); “History of Ordnance Service in the MTO,” n.d., vol. 2, CMH, 8-4 JA, 188–89 (tire patches).
Even so, by late Monday afternoon the vanguard: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 74–75; RR, 149 (Fifty Wehrmacht vehicles).
VI Corps had severed the enemy escape route: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 75–78; RR, 149 (full-throated attack).
“Everything has gone better”: LKT Jr. to Sarah, Aug. 17, 21, 29, Sept. 1, 3, 13, 1944, GCM Lib, box 1.
His opponent felt dreadful: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 80 (“pre-technical days”); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Breakout and Withdrawal to the Dijon Salient,” Sept. 1958, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #106, 5 (save itself by fleeing); Ganz, “The 11th Panzers in the Defense, 1944,” Armor (Mar.–Apr. 1944): 26+; Giziowski, The Enigma of General Blaskowitz, 323–24 (dangled ropes).
Truscott took the German feint: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 356–57 (“carved out with an axe”); OH, “The Invasion of Southern France,” Seventh Army, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #368, 160–62 (“Tell General O’Daniel”); RR, 164.
At Montélimar, Task Force Butler struggled: RR, 144–50; “Operation Dragoon,” Dec. 1944, COHQ, bulletin Y/42, CARL, N-6530.20 (Army’s swift advance had outrun P-47s).
This pleased Truscott not at all: Truscott, Command Missions, 426–27; msg, LKT Jr. to J. Dahlquist, Aug. 22, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 12, folder 6 (“Don’t you understand”).
In truth, Dahlquist was overmatched: photos, biographical notes, John E. Dahlquist papers, MHI; Steidl, Lost Battalions, 24, 57, 142–46 (given to brooding); corr, John E. Dahlquist to Ruth, Oct. 29, 1944, Dahlquist papers, MHI (“I get winded”); corr, John E. Dahlquist to Homer Case, June 5, 1945, Dahlquist papers, MHI (Half his transport had yet to be unloaded); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 76 (Spanish consul’s car); LKT Jr., “Comments on ‘Dragoon Secondary Attack Against Fortress Europe,’” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, Hamilton mss, 3 (carrying three dozen men); “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 237 (“Your primary mission”).
The battalion withdrew “at night from a hill”: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 85.
The German capture of a 36th Division battle plan: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, appendix B, v–xii; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 92 (“Come on, you bastards”).
“John, I have come here”: Truscott, Command Missions, 430–31.
More than eight battalions—some one hundred guns: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 243; Holt, The Deceivers, 621 (asphalt caught fire); OH, 3rd Bn, 143rd Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 117 (2,500 mortar rounds); Lucian Heichler, “German Defense of the Gateway to Antwerp,” Dec. 1953, NARA RG 319, R-series #23, 21–27; Turner and Jackson, Destination Berchtesgaden, 62; Giziowski, The Enigma of General Blaskowitz, 330–31 (splashed across the Drôme).
In a confused mêlée: RR, 166.
Task Force Butler, reduced to hardly more than a battalion: OH, 3rd Bn, 36th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 117.
“That’s the first time I ever saw a Texan”: Murphy, To Hell and Back, 188–89.
The battle of Montélimar was over: Conway, “Operation Anvil,” lecture, n.d., Norfolk, Theodore J. Conway papers, MHI, box 2, 22–24 (“concept was daring”); “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 245 (sixty thousand U.S. artillery shells); Wilt, The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944, 141 (“I fumbled it badly”);RR, 167–68 (Blaskowitz’s losses exceeded ten thousand); Lucian Heichler, “German Defense of the Gateway to Antwerp,” Dec. 1953, NARA RG 319, R-series #23, 31–32; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Breakout and Withdrawal to the Dijon Salient,” Sept. 1958, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #106, 16–17 (338th Division mustered barely one thousand); Ludewig, Rückzug, 178–79 (“almost a miracle”).
“carnage compounded”: Truscott, Command Missions, 432–33; Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 222 (Avenue of Stenches); Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 125 (gas masks).
“some degree of satisfaction”: Truscott, Command Missions, 432–33; OH, “The Invasion of Southern France,” Seventh Army, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #368, 176–77 (ten thousand square miles); RR, 167 (captured 23,000 Germans).
Two field-gray torrents streamed: Dean H. Krasomil, “German Operations in Southern France: The Withdrawal of the LXIV Corps,” March 1954, NARA RG 319, R-series #47, 4–18; Germany VII, 650–61 (“improper remarks”); Ludewig, Rückzug, 80 (kidnapped whenever possible).
Allied air strikes and FFI marauders: Steidl, Lost Battalions, 20 (8 million francs); “German Surrenders,” AB, no. 48 (1985): 1+ (making bonfires).
The other retreating gaggle: Wilhelm Heinrich Scheidt, “German Operations in the West,” Sept. 1945, OKW Historical Section, NARA RG 407, ML #874, VI, 13–15 (“trekking Wehrmacht”); Germany VII, 657–61 (138,000 men); Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 131 (“moving bushes”); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 220–21 (Field Order No. 4); OH, Viscount Portal, Feb. 7, 1947, FCP (“swine”); Wilt, The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944, 157 (shot up a train). Stalin renewed his suggestion in October 1944. TSC, 406.
By early September, almost 200,000 Allied soldiers: IFG, 276; Garland, Unknown Soldiers, 282 (“liberation, libation”); Collier, Fighting Words, 177 (“festooned with humanity”); Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 151 (“hand out British flags”); Pallud, “The Riviera Landings,” AB, no. 110 (2000): 2+ (cakes of butter).
“Sometimes the sheets on the hotel beds”: Gray, The Warriors, 155; Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 457–59 (painted by Picasso); corr, Gertrude Stein to A. M. Patch, Jr., n.d. and Nov. 15, 1944, Alexander M. Patch, Jr., papers, USMA Arch, box 1; Wyant, Sandy Patch, 141 (“a lot of repetitions”).
In Grenoble the fleeing Germans: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 454; Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 227–28 (pistol shot in the ear).
A 36th Division patrol entered Lyon: Truscott, Command Missions, 434; Higgins, Soft Underbelly, 220 (“British opposed to the end”).
“In the shops one could buy”: Garland, Unknown Soldiers, 312; Aron, France Reborn, 354 (“capital of repression”); diary, Sept. 19, 1944, Kingsley Andersson papers, HIA, box 1 (“Too much gunfire”).
Tracers fired into a city hospital: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 462; Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 768–69 (spans over the Rhône). One recent German account asserts that all thirty-three bridges around Lyon were blown (Ludewig, Rückzug, 192).
Precisely where those convoys should go: A. M. Patch, Jr., to Julia, Sept. 14, 1944, Patch papers, USMA Arch, box 1 (“temporary notoriety”).
Sandy Patch was tall, gangly: Truscott, Command Missions, 383 (“expressing himself”); Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 27 (“mystic turn of mind”); “Patch of Provence,” Time (Aug. 28, 1944), 22+ (“devil before dawn”); Strobridge and Nalty, “From the South Pacific to the Brenner Pass: General Alexander M. Patch,” Military Review (June 1981): 41+ (Apache country); memo, J. N. Wenger, June 17, 1943; memo, E. J. King “for Gen. Marshall only,” June 21, 1943; memo, A. M. Patch, Jr., June 29, 1943; “eyes only,” GCM to A. M. Patch, Jr., June 29, 1943; memo, GCM to E. J. King, July 28, 1943, GCM Lib, box 78, folder 49 (“I am puzzled”).
“It feels as though it was three months ago”: A. M. Patch, Jr., to Julia, Sept. 14, 1944, Patch papers, USMA Arch, box 1; Giziowski, The Enigma of General Blaskowitz, 355 (Blaskowitz halted the Nineteenth Army); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 168–70 (scaling ladders); RR, 189; Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 466 (stolen bicycles); Wilt,The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944, 154 (“never saw such confusion”).
The captured booty included: Wilt, The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944, 150–51 (“fleeting opportunity”); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 399; Salisbury-Jones, So Full a Glory, 161 (irked De Lattre); RR, 182–83, 223 (Patch agreed to permit); Truscott, Command Missions, 443 (“gateway to Germany”).
Then the ground shifted: RR, 228–29; Chandler, 2146–47 (supreme commander in mid-September); Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 207 (making the U.S. armies contiguous).
“surprised and disappointed”: diary, VI Corps, Sept. 14–15, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1.
“The assault on the Belfort Gap”: LKT Jr. to A. M. Patch, Jr., Sept. 15, 1955, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 12, folder 6; Truscott, Command Missions, 443–44; Wyant, Sandy Patch, 138 (Lons-le-Saunier).
Patch phoned at 6:30 P.M.: “Telephone Conversation Between Gen. Patch and Gen. Truscott,” 1830 hrs, Sept 16, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH 2-3.7 CC2, Hamilton mss.
So ended DRAGOON: RR, 563 (“just one day’s supplies”), 237 (barely two dozen tanks left); John W. Mosenthal, “The Establishment of a Continuous Defensive Front by Army Group G,” Nov. 1955, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series, #68, 3–11 (“still able to fight”), 13–15 (Blaskowitz was sacked); Ludewig, Rückzug, 180 (His greatest fear); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Army Group G Operations in Southern France,” Aug. 1956, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #87, 36 (130,000 had escaped); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Breakout and Withdrawal to the Dijon Salient,” Sept 1958, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #112, 28 (only 165 of 1,600 artillery pieces); Giziowski, The Enigma of General Blaskowitz, 361 (“planting cabbage”). Ludewig estimates that at least 160,000 Germans from southern and southwestern France reached Dijon (Rückzug, 267–68).
On the same Tuesday that Blaskowitz was relieved: Pogue, George C. Marshall, 415. The official Army history acknowledges that “it is impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy” the casualties in Army Group G for late summer 1944. RR, 197.
But ahead lay the granite and gneiss uplands: author visit, May 24–28, 2009; Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 237–38; Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 473 (“long again for home”); diary, VI Corps, Sept. 28, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1 (“Looking for skis”); LKT Jr. to Sarah, Sept. 16, Oct. 18, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1.
“Harden the Heart and Let Fly”
A world away: Robb, The Discovery of France, 42; Roach, The 8.15 to War, 170 (waved with one hand).
By the end of August the front stretched: BP, 667; Gilmore, ed., U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II, 65; LC, 2–3 (more than two million Allied soldiers); AAFinWWII, 596 (7,500 bombers and 4,300 fighters); “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 1, 50 (Montgomery’s fifteen divisions); King and Kutta, Impact, 221–23; Hinsley, 570 (Luftwaffe aircraft); Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 177; Germany VII, 434; Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 48 (“battle of London is won”); corr, WSC to A. Eden, Sept. 2, 1944, “Strategy and Operations, vol. II,” UK NA, CAB 120/421 (“fall out of temper”).
In 12th Army Group, Bradley commanded: LC, 4–5; Balkoski, From Beachhead to Brittany, 316–17; Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 214 (fishing tackle).
Under this onslaught the Wehrmacht: Alfred Jodl, ETHINT 52, Aug. 2, 1945, MHI, 6 (“planless flight”); Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 222 (OB West listed eighteen divisions); Ludewig, Rückzug, 191 (“We have lost a battle”); “Penetration of Siegfried Line,” 4th ID, n.d., CARL, N-12159.1 (“Americans will be here”); Germany VII, 624 (“ignominious rout”); Boesch, Road to Huertgen, 110 (waving chickens).
“Any Boches today?”: Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 272.
By truck and by foot the pursuers pursued: Blue Spaders, 69; Horrocks, Corps Commander, 71–72 (“harden the heart”); Pyle, Brave Men, 310 (gray lace of burned powder); SLC, 15 (among a half-million killed).
“We blew up everything”: Will Thornton, “World War II ‘M’ Co. History as Told by the Survivors,” n.d., a.p.
At Braine, near Reims: Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 158 (Patton’s vanguard); White, Conqueror’s Road, 10 (“ecstatic agony”), 25 (“tits”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 19 (“west front has collapsed”).
Fuel shortages, nettlesome since early August: Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 63 (tripled from six gallons); LC, 24–25 (100,000 gallons and Patton’s fuel dumps), 117–18 (tanks sent to capture a Meuse bridge); OH, Lt. Gen. Sir Humphrey Gale, Jan. 27, 1947, FCP; VW, vol. 2, 72 (battleships); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 332 (stalled for four days); diary, Sept. 6, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (corps commanders cadged cans); “G-4 Periodic Report,” Third Army, Sept. 5, 1944, Walter J. Muller papers, HIA, box 6 (“extremely critical”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 402 (“Damn it, Brad”).
Onward they pushed, on foot: Heinz, When We Were One, 220 (polka-dot stars); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 194 (“Vote for Dewey”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 131 (“If that was the only mistake”).
Giddy rumors swirled: Hastings, Armageddon, 14 (fled to Spain); Sylvan, 133–34 (insurrection in Cologne); OH, A. F. Kibler, 12th AG, May 29, 1946, NARA RG 407, ML #501, box 24155 (river crossing sites); diary, CBH, Sept. 1, 1944, MHI, box 4 (“‘If the war lasts’”); diary, Raymond G. Moses, Sept. 4, 1944, MHI, box 1.
“End the war in ‘44”: Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 359; “Ready for V-Day?,” Time (Sept. 4, 1944): 17 (“first newsboy”); Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 12 (spare an extra army headquarters); memo, E. E. MacMorland to H. B. Sayler, July 29, 1944, Henry B. Sayler papers, DDE Lib, box 4 (Pentagon drafted plans).
“There is a feeling of elation”: Colville, The Fringes of Power, 507.
“Militarily the war is won”: Three Years, 657; Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries, 127 (“advance almost at will”).
The Allied juggernaut aimed vaguely for Berlin: OH, W. B. Smith and H. R. Bull, Sept. 14, 1945, OCMH WWII Europe Interviews, MHI; SLC, 28; LO, 294 (Two-thirds of German steel); “Industrial Value of the Ruhr to the German War Effort,” Oct. 30, 1944, British Brief and Action Report, JIC, NARA RG 331, E 3, box 132 (40 percent drop in artillery ammunition); VW, vol. 1, 82 (“every chance of bringing to battle”).
Four paths led to the Ruhr: “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 1, 42–50; BP, 658–59 (Eisenhower’s planners had proposed).
Montgomery would have none of it: BP, 658–59; VW, vol. 1, 459–61; OH, David Belchem, Feb. 20, 1947, FCP, MHI (preponderance in armor).
Bradley most certainly did not agree: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 314; De Guingand, Operation Victory, 411; OH, Lord Tedder, Feb. 13, 1947, FCP, MHI (“better to use both hands”); VW, vol. 1, 461 (Smith was excluded); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 468 (“Victories win wars”).
Montgomery emerged from the caravan: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 340–41; BP, 659–60 (First Army would swing largely north); draft memo, W. B. Smith, “Command and organization after D-day ‘Overlord,’” May 23, 1944, Raymond G. Moses papers, MHI, box 1 (some SHAEF planners had long considered).
Eisenhower also agreed that a single commander: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 340–41; “General Eisenhower’s Comments on Command,” May 18, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (“nothing must be said”).
Churchill, “as a solace”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 254; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 512 (“proper perspective”); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 345 (“close and warm friend”).
“Damn stupid”: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 129; PP, 535 (“made us sick”); Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 799 (“almost a disaster”).
Late in the morning of Saturday, September 2: Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, 165; diary, CBH, Sept. 2, 12, 15, 21, 1944, MHI, box 4.
A message from Beetle Smith: Williams, “Supreme Headquarters for D-Day,” AB, no. 84 (1994): 1+; Baedeker, Northern France, 179.
Eisenhower slipped in the sand: Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health System of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” n.d., DDE Lib, Thomas W. Mattingly papers, box 1; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 326; Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 347–48 (refused to allow his blood pressure).
For more than a fortnight: Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, 165–67; Three Years, 661 (Two resident cows); Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 195 (“off-key”), 210–11 (dead son); Chandler, 2141 (“Who is going to buy the plane?”).
Even for an ambulatory commander: D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 593; Crosswell, Beetle, 700 (through the RAF); BP, 686 (reaffirm his commitment to a multipronged advance); Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 132 (“Monty-like”).
On Monday, September 4: LSA, vol. 1, 492; TSC, 253 (“now as never before”).
An exasperated Montgomery: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 531 (“curious idea”); “Notes on Conversation with Monty, 18.5.46,” R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot papers, LHC, LH 15/15/127 (first call on supplies).
“We have now reached a stage”: BLM to DDE, Sept. 4, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83; Chandler, 2120–21.
Eisenhower replied on Tuesday: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 278–79; OH, Arthur Coningham, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI (“‘The war is lost’”).
The misdirected signal was entirely apt: corr, DDE to H. L. Ismay, Jan. 14, 1959, LHC, 4/12/131 (“preposterous proposal”); Crosswell, Beetle, 687 (“balderdash”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, box 41 (“arrogant and egotistical”).
Montgomery’s vision had the military virtue of mass: Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 199–201 (counter to SHAEF calculations); LSA, vol. 2, 10–11 (nearly five hundred truck companies and “wholesale grounding”); LSA, vol. 1, 487–88. A three-corps drive to Berlin in late September even under optimal conditions would require grounding five corps, according to SHAEF (TSC, 253–54).
Moreover, the need to protect long open flanks: TSC, 260; Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI (“easy prey for the German mobile reserves”); OH, E. J. Foord, Dec. 12, 1946, R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot papers, LHC, LH 15/15/27 (“overbidding his hand”); De Guingand, Operation Victory, 412 (Hitler’s eventual defeat).
Most strategists would come to similar conclusions:: Dan van der Vat, obituary, “Field Marshal Lord Carver,” The Guardian, Dec. 12, 2001 (youngest brigadier); Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 162–63 (In both world wars).
Two-fisted punching: Weigley, The American Way of War, 352; Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 334 (“Whatever Montgomery’s talents”).
“political factors can sometimes have the same weight”: Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 298.
Eisenhower’s “ignorance”: Hamilton, Master of the Battlefield, 799; Danchev, 575 (“quite unsuited”), 585 (“3 to 6 months”).
“extremely susceptible to the personality”: “Notes on Conversation with Monty, 18.5.46,” R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot papers, LHC, LH 15/15/127.
“Ike is all for caution”: diary, Sept. 2, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 7.
“the trouble with Ike”: Crosswell, Beetle, 696, 702, 708, 722.
“hardly decisive in the way he communicated”: Stephen E. Ambrose, “Eisenhower as Commander: Single Thrust Versus Broad Front,” in Chandler, vol. 5, 47.
“There is never a moment”: Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 195, 217; Chandler, 2158 (“team is working well”).
The armies fought on, largely unaware: LC, 52 (first five days of September); LSA, vol. 1, 513; war diary, Leroy Irwin, Sept. 6, 1944, 5th ID, Hugh Cole papers, MHI (“Frankfort”); AAFinWWII, 277 (flying gas stations); Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 205 (bounties of cognac and confiscated champagne); “G-4 Periodic Report,” Third Army, Sept. 5, 1944, Walter J. Muller papers, HIA, box 6 (army shortages); Allen, Lucky Forward, 41, 101–2; PP, 549 (fifty thousand cases of champagne).
“a goddam army commander”: PP, 542; Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 240–41 (“shit through a goose”).
To his northwest, Courtney Hodges’s First Army: BP, 694–95 (“pretty girls”); Blue Spaders, 71–72 (“heterogeneous mass”).
Bounding from the south, the 1st Division: Stanhope B. Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126, 87, 206–10; OH, C. A. Wollmer, 83rd Armored Reconnaissance Bn, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, HI; Heinz, When We Were One, 197, 213 (rake the German columns); Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 274 (“Belgian horses”); George W. Williams et al., “Exploitation by the 3rd Armored Division—Seine River to Germany,” AS, Ft. K, 1949, NARA RG 337, 44–45 (“You only want to slaughter us”).
In addition to some 3,500 enemy dead: Wheeler, The Big Red One, 311–12; Pallud, “The Battle of the Mons Pocket,” AB, no. 115 (2002): 2+ (steaks); AAR, 1st ID, Oct. 31, 1944, a.p., 1–6; Heinz, When We Were One, 200–204 (“You will not love”).
Thirty miles to the north, the British Second Army: BP, 686; VW, vol. 2, 15 (surrender in his pajamas), 6; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 471 (fleeing in a Volkswagen); Taurus Pursuant, 67 (“what used to be”).
At eight P.M. on Sunday, September 3: VW, vol. 2, 5; “Advance of 30 Corps Across R. Seine to Brussels and Antwerp,” War Office, n.d., NARA RG 407, ML #226; Moorehead, Eclipse, 191 (“a pallid thing”); Collier, Fighting Words, 177 (“a flambeau”); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 450–53 (“Goodbye, Tommy”).
Local worthies appeared in sashes: Daniell, The Royal Hampshire Regiment, vol. 3, 231; Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 450–53 (Bistros sent waiters); Hastings, Armageddon, 7 (“eating their way”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 191 (“a remarkable claret”).
On Monday at noon British tanks: J. B. Churcher, “A Soldier’s Story,” 159th Inf Bde, LHC, 52–54 (houses for belonging to alleged collaborators and search for a cinema); Collier, Fighting Words, 177–79 (still sipping beer); VW, vol. 2, 5, 10–11, 414–15 (two million barrels); Freeman W. Burford, “The Inside Story of Oil in the European War,” Nov. 25, 1946, NARA RG 319, 2-37 CB 6; “Advance of 30 Corps Across R. Seine to Brussels and Antwerp,” War Office, n.d., NARA RG 407, ML #226 (petered out by 9:30P.M.); Moorehead, Eclipse, 192–93 (cages in the lion house); Moorehead, Gellhorn, 227 (“sat on the straw”).
With Brittany’s ports soon to be forsaken: Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 150–52 (“at least a year to reduce it”); Lucian Heichler, “German Defense of the Gateway to Antwerp,” Dec. 1953, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #22, 2; LSA, vol. 2, 104 (thousand ships each month).
The capture of Antwerp and exploitation: Weinberg, A World at Arms, 700; Chandler, 2090, 2100, 2116; msg, Montgomery, Aug. 26, 1944, M-520, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016 (9) (“destroy all enemy forces”).
Having sailed these waters: WaS, 142–43; Fergusson, The Watery Maze, 352 (campaign in 1809); Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 248–50 (rushed to Antwerp); VW, vol. 2, 10–11; Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 131; Roskill, Churchill and the Admirals, 245 (“Timbuctoo”).
“decisive importance” of holding the Scheldt: Bennett, Ultra in the West, 147–48; Ralph Bennett, “Ultra and Some Command Decisions,” in Laqueur, ed., The Second World War, 231 (strategic mistake); Crosswell, Beetle, 706 (“bottle is now corked”).
A Royal Marine Commando unit: Roskill, White Ensign, 397; Taurus Pursuant, 56–58 (seize the docks); Horrocks, Corps Commander, 79–81 (“My eyes were fixed”).
The British drive soon was stymied: Moulton, Battle for Antwerp, 30; Ludewig, Rückzug, 214 (Fifteen of seventeen); J. B. Churcher, “A Soldier’s Story,” 159th Inf Bde, LHC, 52–54 (“swift and most unpleasant”); Copp, Cinderella Army, 38–39 (reinforce the canals); Moulton, Battle for Antwerp, 52; Lamb, Montgomery in Europe, 1943–1945, 201–4; Horrocks, Corps Commander, 84.
An evacuation of German troops by ferry: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 293; Lucian Heichler, “German Defense of the Gateway to Antwerp,” Dec. 1953, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #22, 13–14 (5,000 vehicles); Ludewig, Rückzug, 272 (eleven thousand troops).
Montgomery told London on September 7: Orange, Coningham, 215; SLC, 207 (“a jewel that could not be worn”); Hills, Phantom Was There, 247 (“most bewildering”).
CHAPTER 5: AGAINST THE WEST WALL
“Five Barley Loaves and Three Small Fishes”
Versailles had long proved irresistible: Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 213 (“unhygienic squalor”); McCullough, The Greater Journey, 296, 303 (starving winter of 1870); Tillier et al., Paris, 252; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles; Macmillan, Paris 1919, 474–78 (Republican Guardsmen).
And it was here that Eisenhower: Baedeker, Paris and Its Environs, 376 (175 francs); memo, war room procedures, Mar. 19, 1945, Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI (SHAEF master pass); memoir, 1974, Raymond H. Croll papers, MHI, 277–89 (K-ration lunches); http://www.normandybattlefields.com/normandy_today.htm; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 202–3 (Thickets of antennae); Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 213 (Marie Antoinette); TSC, 276–78; Hammon, “When the Second Lieutenant Bearded General Eisenhower,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1983): 129+ (“state capitols”).
“he has been a bad boy”: diary, CBH, Sept. 22, 1944, MHI, box 4; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 422.
Eleven paintings, including a Van Dyck: Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 868–69; Hammon, “When the Second Lieutenant Bearded General Eisenhower,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1983): 129ff.; Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 302.
SHAEF by midsummer had already tripled: TSC, 276–77 (750,000 square feet) and appendix B, 529–34. SHAEF’s authorized strength on Feb. 1, 1945, was 16,312.
Eventually 1,800 properties: LSA, vol. 2, 497; Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 473 (French magazine); OH, Adolph Rosengarten, Jr., Dec. 22, 1947, FCP, MHI (Should Have Army Experience First); OH, Ford Trimble, Dec. 17, 1946, FCP, MHI (sea serpent).
Another sea serpent had wrapped: “Activities and Organization of COMZ,” U.S. Senate hearing, May 28, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #89, 1–5; Robert W. Coakley, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” vol. 2, 1946, CMH, 8-3.1 AA 2, 119–28; “U.S. Army Operations in the ETO from January 1942 to V-E Day,” May 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #353 (one in every four GIs); “Engineer Memoirs: General William M. Hoge,” 1993, CEOH, 128; Beck, 350 (tentage); Ingersoll, Top Secret, 207 (“tons of files”); memo, Seine Section, COMZ to SHAEF, Sept. 20, 1944, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108 (315 hotels); memoir, n.d., Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (three thousand additional Parisian properties); corr, “GHH” to Ralph Ingersoll, May 14, 1946, Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI, box 1 (“elegance and swank”); Crosswell, Beetle, 739 (permitted to keep their schools); TSC, 322–23 (Americans’ demands exceeded).
All this and more was the handiwork: “Miracle of Supply,” Time (Sept. 25, 1944): 8+ (“exceptionally friendly”); “The Tendons of an Army,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #531, 5–6; John Kennedy Ohl, “General Brehon B. Somervell and Logistics in the European Theater of Operations in World War II,” 1993, Alexandria, Va., Historical Office, U.S. Army Materiel Command, 20–22 (“personal gift”); Irving, The War Between the Generals, 78 (standing in a London theater); John C. H. Lee, “Service Reminiscences,” n.d., Lee papers, MHI, box 1 (“my ability to get along”); LSA, vol. 2, 267 (“Heavy on ceremony”); Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 224 (“fishing with for a week”); PP, 555–57 (“glib liar”); diary, GSP, Aug. 7, 1944, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 7 (“pompous little son-of-a-bitch”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 649 (Patton welcomed him).
Booted and bedizened: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 391 (riding crop); “Miracle of Supply,” Time (Sept. 25, 1944): 8+ (Bibles in his desk and red-cushioned limousine); John C. H. Lee, “Service Reminiscences,” n.d., Lee papers, MHI, box 1 (“at His altar”); “Engineer Memoirs: Major General William E. Potter,” 1983, CEOH, 35 (personal retinue of forty); Irving, The War Between the Generals, 92 (eight correspondence secretaries); “The U.S. Army Special Train ‘Alive,’” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #16; John Connell, “Over Age in Grade,” n.d., MHI, 49 (special railcar); LSA, vol. 2, 267 (“instrument of torture”); OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI (read scripture aloud); Irving, The War Between the Generals, 316 (“Dress up”); OH, Leonard D. Heaton, 1978, Robert B. McLean, SOOHP, MHI (“had to lie at attention”); “Engineer Memoirs: General William M. Hoge,” 1993, CEOH, 125–26 (“I can eat it”); Pyle, Brave Men, 233.
In Paris, Lee kept a huge war room: OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI; Crosswell, Beetle, 739 (three suites upstairs); Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 437 (a piano); Pogue, Pogue’s War (“Avenue de Salute”); Allen, Lucky Forward, 69 (“General Lee’s personal residence”).
“Why didn’t somebody tell me”: OH, Leonard D. Heaton, 1978, Robert B. McLean, SOOHP, MHI; OH, W. B. Smith, May 13, 1947, FCP, MHI; MMB, 311 (“modern Cromwell”).
“Due to the heavy shipments”: DDE to J. C. H. Lee, Sept. 16, 1944, attached to memo, W. B. Smith to G-1, “Discipline in the Paris Area,” Sept. 17, 1944, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108.
“I have no regrets”: John C. H. Lee, “Service Reminiscences,” n.d., Lee papers, MHI, box 1.
Lee’s “first priority duties”: Crosswell, Beetle, 739 (Sears, Roebuck); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 323 (assumed that by D+90); “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET, General Board study no. 1, 35; LSA, vol. 2, 6–7 (No logistician expected to reach).
Battlefield exigencies disrupted: Frank O. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI, 43; “Logistics of Overlord,” n.d., CARL, N-13587; LSA, vol. 1, 479; Crosswell, Beetle, 688–89 (Marshall and Eisenhower further accelerated); TSC, 258–59; Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 327 (2.5 combat divisions).
Truck convoys that in July: H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 4-13.1 AA 29, 216; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 145–46 (quartermaster depot moved six times); Weinberg, A World at Arms, 761 (two thousand tanks); PP, 555–57 (“five barley loaves”).
Much more than bread and seafood: “Quartermaster Procurement,” chapter 41, PIR, MHI, 7; “Food Service in the ETO,” chapter 47, PIR, MHI, 71; “Quartermaster Procurement on the Continent,” n.d., SHAEF QM, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #154, 1–2 (“one-sixteenth of an inch”), 11 (woodcutting camps), 14 (toilet paper).
Average daily supply needs: Coakley, 825; “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” USFET General Board study no. 130, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0, 37 (eating 30 percent more); TSC, 256–57 (a million gallons of gasoline); Charles K. MacDermut and Adolph P. Gratiot, “History of G-4 Com Z ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.4 AA, 83 (ammunition expenditures); Henry F. Pringle, “Weapons Win Wars,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AB.B, 187 (eight million artillery and mortar shells).
Prodigal wastage, always an American trait: memo, “Supply Discipline,” ONB, July 23, 1944, Walter J. Muller papers, HIA, box 8; Henry F. Pringle, “Weapons Win Wars,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AB.B, 187 (“extremely high”); “Supply: Oversea Theaters of Operation,” 1945, NARA RG 319, background files, 2-3.7 (mine detectors); Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 149 (a hundred miles every hour); Hastings, Armageddon, 23 (22 million jerricans); LSA, vol. 2, 203 (7 million more); Chandler, 2200 (“it is now costing us”).
All this fell largely unforeseen: memo, Raymond G. Moses to ONB, Sept. 26, 1944, and draft memo to W. B. Smith, Nov. 7, 1944, Moses papers, MHI, box 1; Graham and Bidwell, Coalitions, Politicians & Generals, 259 (crates of oranges); OH, J. C. H. Lee, March 21, 1947, FCP, MHI (regretted not playing bridge); Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI, 29 (ad hoc dumps); minutes, Military Shipments Priority Meeting, Sept. 9, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 54 (“stretched to the limit”); memo, Raymond G. Moses to ONB, Sept. 26, 1944, Moses papers, MHI, box 1 (“For a period of about one month”).
COMZ improvised, with mixed results: “Pluto: Pipeline Under the Ocean,” AB, no. 116 (2002): 2+ (“Bambi”); Moore, “Operation Pluto,” Proceedings (June 1954): 647+; Freeman W. Burford, “The Inside Story of Oil in the European War,” Nov. 25, 1946, NARA RG 319, CMH background file, 2-.37 CB 6; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 417 (“scandalous waste”).
A terrestrial innovation was the Red Ball Express: Henry F. Pringle, “Weapons Win Wars,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AB.B, 188; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities of II Corps … and First Army Through Europe,” 1955, chapter 46, PIR, MHI, 142 (Cub planes); BP, 691 (300,000 gallons of gasoline); “Red Ball,” Feb. 3, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #281, 1–3, 14, 16–18, 28–29, 40, 55, 56–57, 63–65 (“steep hill”); memoir, Robert P. Patterson, ts, 1947 (?), a.p., 273 (“gas splashing inside”); “Shipping Situation and Supply Requirements,” Nov. 25, 1944, COM Z, G-4, CARL, N-6726 (“deadlined”); OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI (nine thousand were trucks). At war’s end, the U.S. Army had 464 truck companies in Europe, each typically with 48 trucks (Eudora Ramsay Richardson and Sherman Allan, “Quartermaster Supply in the ETO in WWII,” vol. 1, 1947, QM School, Camp Lee, Va.).
Roads deteriorated in the autumn rains: Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 124–31; “Supply: Oversea Theaters of Operations,” 1945, NARA RG 319, background files, 2-3.7 (ruination of five thousand tires); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 649 (Lee requested thirteen infantry battalions); “Subsistence in the ETO,” 1959, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA (shoot-to-kill authority); Gropman, ed., The Big “L,” 389 (400000 tons); LSA, vol. 2, 140; OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI (“greatest killer of trucks”).
A single train could haul: Gropman, ed., The Big “L,” 389–90 (almost five thousand miles of track); LSA, vol. 1, 551 (obliterated by years of Allied bombing); “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” USFET General Board study no. 130, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0, 30–36; Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 118 (creeping across bridges); “Military Railway Service,” USFET General Board study no. 123, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (line to Paris and as far away as Persia); H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 4-13.1 AA 29, 232 (flagging with lighters); “Activities and Organization of COMZ,” U.S. Senate hearing, May 28, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #89, 21–22 (thirteen hundred muscular American engines); memo, COMZ assistant G-5, Feb. 18, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #494U (eleven thousand miles).
“the number of divisions required to capture the number of ports”: Whipple, “Logistical Bottleneck,” IJ (March 1948): 6+.
Fifty-four ports had been studied: R. W. Crawford, “Guns, Gas and Rations,” SHAEF G-4, June 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #145; “American Port Plans, August to November 1944,” n.d., NARA RG 319, background files, 2-37 CB 6 (half eventually played a role); RR, 575 (one-third of all Allied supplies); LSA, vol. 2, 71 (Cherbourg tripled its expected cargo); OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI (“Napoleon’s hand”); Whipple, “Logistical Bottleneck,” IJ (March 1948): 6+ (two hundred by mid-October).
Clearly the solution was to be found in Antwerp: LC, 211; LSA, vol. 2, 52 (“blood transfusion”); John Connell, “Over Age in Grade,” n.d., 11th Port Engineer Special Brigade Group, MHI, 99–100 (“What a life!”).
Every Village a Fortress
A stubby C-47 transport plane: Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 27 (B-58); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_Airport.
There he found Eisenhower: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 348. Ambrose puts the meeting on Eisenhower’s B-25 aircraft.
“Well, they’re nothing but balls”: OH, Miles Graham, Jan. 19, 1949, “Allied Strategy After Fall of Paris,” R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot, LHC, LH 15/15/48; Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 348–49 (Patton actually running the war).
For a long hour they bickered: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 489 (capture the Ruhr with twenty divisions); TSC, 255.
Eisenhower agreed that the Ruhr: OH, DDE, n.d., CJR, box 43, file 7 (“What the hell?”).
“Our fight must be with both hands”: VW, vol. 2, 22; SLC, 120–22.
“Just when a really firm grip was needed”: BLM to Brooke, Sept. 10, 1944, AB papers, LHC, 6/2/27.
Regardless of American requirements: OH, Miles Graham, Jan. 19, 1949, “Allied Strategy After Fall of Paris,” R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot, LHC, LH 15/15/48 (350 to 400 tons); Hinsley, 542 (Dieppe and Le Havre); VC, 310 (“one good Pas de Calais port” and “last priority”); Second Army war diary, “The First 100 Days,” Sept. 7, 1944, UK NA, WO 285/9; VW, vol. 2, 131–32 (would not open until mid-October), 15; SLC, 208; Hastings, Armageddon, 23 (fourteen hundred three-ton British trucks); Crosswell, Beetle, 707.
Another grim battlefield development: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 42 (War Office cable); Longmate, Hitler’s Rockets, 164–74 (Stavely Road and “flying gas mains”); Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 406; AAFinWWII, 542 (refused to publicly acknowledge).
The true culprit, the V-2 rocket: Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 521; Germany VII, 438 (fifty big train engines). A 1960 movie based on Von Braun’s life, I Aim at the Stars, inspired the proposed subtitle, “But Sometimes I Hit London.” Mallon, “Rocket Man,” review of Michael J. Neufeld, Von Braun, New Yorker (Oct. 22, 2007): 170+ (young Prussian Junker).
The rocket had long been expected: minutes, British chiefs of staff meeting, July 11, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 3, box 129; Hinsley, 421–23 (Saturation bombing of Peenemünde); Germany VII, 443 (tendency to break up); Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 180–81 (British government also considered evacuating).
The initial volley had been fired: M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 72; Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 408 (outside Nijmegen); King and Kutta, Impact, 245 (“Will you please report” and “It must be towards Arnhem”); OH, Miles Dempsey, June 4, 1946, R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot papers, LHC, 15/15/30 (favored a more easterly advance).
“This delay,” he added: VW, vol. 2, 22.
“E. is spending a few days in bed”: diary, Kay Summersby, Sept. 11, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140.
“Monty seems unimpressed”: desk calendar, DDE, Sept. 11–13, 1944, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 1.
“He let himself go on subject of Monty”: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 137.
At a moment when strategic harmony: OH, SLAM, 1973, George J. Stapleton, SOOHP, MHI, III, 2–3; VW, vol. 2, 351–52; msg, DDE to ONB, Sept. 15, 1944, ONB papers, MHI (“There is no reason”); PP, 552 (“‘clever son of a bitch’”); OH, DDE, n.d., CJR, box 43, file 7, 17, 36–37 (“psychopath”).
He also authorized Montgomery to communicate directly: Chandler, 2133–34; VW, vol. 2, 24 (“Ike has given way”).
“Montgomery suddenly became obsessed”: Chandler, 2144.
Just after six P.M. on the warm, clear Monday: After various units claimed to have been first into Germany, an Army historical investigation concluded that Holzinger and his patrol had earned the distinction. Emerson F. Hurley, “Study of the First Entry into Germany in World War II,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 605-CAV-0.20; SLC, 3.
Up the slope for four hundred yards: “Unit History, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron,” 5th AD, n.d., and letter, W. W. Holzinger, Nov. 3, 1947, NARA RG 407, E 429, 95-USF 2-0.3.0; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 264.
By midnight, other patrols from the 4th and 28th Infantry Divisions: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 264; MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 6 (Three corps abreast); memo, commanders’ conference, First Canadian Army, Oct. 16, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“cuckoos”); Heinz, When We Were One, 29, 258 (“eating away at each other”); RR, 223 (spied French dragoons); Robichon, The Second D-Day, 295–96; William K. Wyant, “Seventh Army History,” n.d., NARA RG 319, background historical file, FRC 4.
From the North Sea to the Mediterranean: Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 345; BP, 701–2; Roskill, White Ensign, 390 (evacuating southern Greece); “Germany’s War Effort and Its Failure,” Oct. 8, 1945, U.K. chiefs of staff committee, Joint Intelligence Subcommittee, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, E 315, 91 (operational life of a U-boat commander); GS V, 343–45; SLC, 14 (114,000 officers and 3.6 million enlisted).
“I would like to place the Western front”: Rundstedt also had presided over a kangaroo “court of honor” convened to expel from service officers implicated in the July 20 assassination plot. Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 201.
From his new headquarters near Koblenz: Germany VII, 632–35 (fighting strength in the west); VC, 317–24 (“roughly 1,700”); interrogation, Erich Brandenberger, Sept. 1945, Third Army Intelligence Center, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #978, 1–2, 14 (two hundred postal detachments); “Weaknesses in Germany’s Capacity to Resist,” JIC assessment, UK COS brief and action report, Sept. 27, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 3, SHAEF SGS, box 132 (tanks and trucks to ammunition and uniforms); LC, 33 (created in late summer); SLC, 15 (Begun in 1936).
The Siegfried Line: interrogation, Erich Brandenberger, Sept. 1945, Third Army Intelligence Center, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #978, 11; SLC, 34–35 (Fatherland had been made invincible); “Combat Engineering,” Aug. 1945, CE, historical report no. 10, CEOH, box X-30, 63 (disguised as electrical substations), 57; LC, 548–51 (fields of fire); G-2 analysis, XIX Corps, Sept. 14, 1944, Thomas L. Crystal papers, HIA (fifteen big bunkers might be found); “Breaching the Siegfried Line,” Dec. 5, 1944, Seventh Army, special intelligence bulletin, NARA RG 200, E 4100 (UD), Garrison H. Davidson personal office file, box 1.
But years of neglect had ravaged the West Wall: interrogation, Erich Brandenberger, Sept. 1945, Third Army Intelligence Center, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #978, 17–18; Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Facing V Corps, September 1944,” May 1952, NARA RG 319, R-series, #37, 2–5 (Farmers laid roadbeds); OH, Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct.–Nov. 1945, MHI, 34 (tool sheds or storage bins); Rudolf Freiherr von Gersdorff, “The Battle of Schmidt,” Nov. 1945, FMS, #A-891, MHI (hideouts for soldiers); White, Conquerors’ Road, 12–13 (“more like sewage works”).
Hitler in mid-August ordered: LC, 548–51; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 478 (finding keys to locked doors); Germany VII, 633 (League of German Maidens); Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 517 (plucked from depots); Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Facing V Corps, September 1944,” May 1952, NARA RG 319, R-series, #37, 5 (Captured weapons from the Eastern Front); Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, ETHINT 53, Nov. 24, 1945, MHI, 1 (large barrel of the MG-42).
With characteristic agility, Rundstedt manned: SLC, 43; Henry P. Halsell, “Hürtgen Forest and Roer River Dams,” n.d., CMH, 314.7, I-20 (improvised with dismounted panzer crews); Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Opposite XIX Corps,” May 1953, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series, #21, 77 (49th Infantry Division); Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 517 (two Luftwaffe divisions); Germany VII, 634–35 (160,000 stragglers had been redirected to the front).
“holding of the position until annihliation”: John W. Mosenthal, “The Establishment of a Continuous Defensive Front by Army Group G,” Nov. 1955, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series, #68, 11; Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Facing V Corps, September 1944,” May 1952, NARA RG 319, R-series, #37, 30 (“Every bunker, every block of houses”).
“It is a monument to stupidity”: Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 223.
But the U.S. Army had little experience: Hogg, The Biography of General George S. Patton, 116; “Combat Engineering,” Aug. 1945, CE, historical report no. 10, CEOH, box X-30, 65–66 (single bunker atop a hill south of Aachen).
Ordinary artillery barrages: SLC, 45 (“dust off”); “Breaching the Siegfried Line,” XIX Corps, Oct. 2, 1944, CARL, N-7623, 9–15 (Napalm), 23–26 (jeep-towed arc welder); Kleber and Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service, 602–3; “Combat Engineering,” Dec. 1945, CE, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 70 (twenty-five to fifty pounds of explosives), 66 (made it hard for defenders to breathe); memo, Albert H. Peyton to First Army CG, Oct. 20, 1944, NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR, box 9 (large pillboxes required half a ton).
As Rundstedt rushed defenders into the line: AAR, “Reconnaissance in a Tactical Air Command,” 10th Photo Group, XIX Tactical Air Command, Ninth AF, 1945, CARL, N-9395, 29 (200,000 aerial photos); LC, 55; SLC, 37; “Mobility, Unused: Study Based on Lorraine Campaign,” Oct. 1952, MHI, OCMH WWII Europe Interviews (“a ripe plum”).
Hitler had other ideas: Doubler, Closing with the Enemy, 127 (elaborate constellation of forts).
The next morning, a battalion from the 5th Infantry Division: LC, 139–41, 145–46, 157 (“hell hole”); AAR, 2nd Bn, 11th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR, box 11; John K. Rieth, “We Seek: Patton’s Forward Observers,” 2002, a.p., 101.
Patton would gain other bridgeheads: LC, 93–96; Rickard, Patton at Bay, 107, 160, 230–31; Ludewig, Rückzug, 22 (“thrash about and bite”); Ayer, Before the Colors Fade, 166 (“I have studied the German”).
Farther north, First Army’s prospects: SLC, 46–48, 56.
“We all seemed for the moment”: Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 539–40.
On Friday, September 15, the division command post: AAR, “Penetration of Siegfried Line,” 4th ID, n.d., CARL, N-12159.1; SLC, 52–53, 61–65.
On First Army’s left flank, XIX Corps: SLC, 106, 111–15; MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 58–59.
That left the last, best chance: SLC, 66, 29; OH, JLC, Jan. 21, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH background file, 2-3.7 CB 3 (“the real route”); Blue Spaders, 74 (twin fortification belts).
Collins now made a tactical choice: OH, JLC, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 219; Blue Spaders, 76; Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 213; Collins, Lightning Joe, 269, 279; Wheeler, The Big Red One, 329 (Germans would abandon Aachen).
The sudden appearance of VII Corps: Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Opposite VII Corps in Sept. 1944,” Dec. 1952, CMH, CMH 2-3.7 EB, 12, 18–19.
Into this chaos: SLC, 71, 81; Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct.–Nov. 1945, MHI, 44 (“Santa Clauses”); http://www.waffenhq.de/biographien/biographien/schwerin.html; Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 176 (“splendid battlefield commander”); Fritz Krämer, ETHINT 24, Nov. 17, 1945, MHI, 1 (“He was intelligent”).
“I stopped the absurd evacuation”: Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct.–Nov. 1945, MHI, 37–41.
A day passed, and then another: MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 37; Reynolds, How I Survived the Three First Wave Invasions (half-eaten meals).
But the momentum had seeped out of Collins’s attack: SLC, 86; Meyer A. Edwards, Jr., et al., “Armor in the Attack of a Fortified Position,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 62–64 (two-hundred-mile round-trip); Blue Spaders, 77 (Fifty rounds from a tank destroyer). The official Army history contends that the 3rd Armored Division was authorized 232 tanks, but it was one of two “heavy” armored divisions actually authorized more than 300.
The dawning realization that the Americans intended: Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 214 (Wild Buffaloes); Stolberg: Penetrating the Westwall, 19; SLC, 81–82 (forcibly evacuated); Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Opposite VII Corps in Sept. 1944,” Dec. 1952, NARA RG 319, R-series, #38, 56; Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct.–Nov. 1945, MHI, 48–53 (“Fate”).
A German counterattack on Sunday: Wheeler, The Big Red One, 332; Lewis, ed., The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 434 (“like a huge torch”); Heinz, When We Were One, 23–25 (“a Last Greeting”).
After five days of fighting, Collins had gashed: SLC, 86; Blue Spaders, 84–85 (meandering stone town); Collins, Lightning Joe, 270; Stanhope B. Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 234 (tacked blankets across holes); “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 1999, 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 10.
Three German divisions soon sealed: Lucian Heichler, “The Germans Opposite VII Corps in Sept. 1944,” Dec. 1952, CMH, CMH 2-3.7 EB, 83–84, 36 (“Each and every house”); SLC, 88 (“the last bullet”).
A Market and a Garden
Since its founding in 1835: Ivan Sache and Jan Martens, “Presentation of Leopoldsburg,” Apr. 14, 2006, http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/be-vlilp.html.
Now the Germans were gone, again: memoir, J. S. W. Stone, Royal Engineers, LHC, folder 5, 70–71 (painted wooden hives); http://home.mweb.co.za/re/redcap/rmp.htm; Horrocks, A Full Life, 210; AAR, “Operation Market Garden,” 21st AG, n.d., UK NA, AIR 37/1249, appendix D (two thousand truckloads).
On the radiant Sunday morning of September 17: C. D. Renfro, 101st AB, liaison to XXX Corps, “Operation Market,” Oct. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #226; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 146 (“sniper’s smocks”); Horrocks, Corps Commander, 98–99 (huge sketch map).
At eleven A.M. Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 98–99; Moorehead, Eclipse, 239 (“ecclesiastical face”).
Horrocks was made for such moments: Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 225–36; MMB, 238–39; Warner, Horrocks, 101–3, 110 (Montgomery summoned him in August); Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 101 (a tad frail).
Eyes alight, graceful hands gliding: Urquhart, Arnhem, 184–85; C. D. Renfro, 101st AB, liaison to XXX Corps, “Operation Market,” Oct. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #226; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 3 (“dominate the country”); Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 224 (V-2 rocket sites); Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 99 (spearheaded by three armored divisions); code names, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 226-A (HAMLET).
Linking these towns was a single narrow highway: SLC, 131; GS V, 527–28 (Nine substantial bridges); SLC, 131–32; www.rollintl.com/roll/rhine.htm (“distributaries”); Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 400 (retirement mecca); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 49 (“exceedingly healthy atmosphere”).
Horrocks paused, glancing at his notes: AAR, “Operations in Holland,” First Allied Airborne Army, Dec. 1944, ANSCOL, NARA RG 334, E 315, Act R A-104, box 62, 19; OH, Brian Urquhart, Jan. 24, 1967, CJR, box 108, folder 6 (“carpet of airborne troops”).
As this unfolded, the land assault: SLC, 133–34; Horrocks, Corps Commander, 98–99 (“absolutely vital”).
“the enemy has by now suffered”: weekly intelligence summary no. 26, SHAEF, Sept. 16, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15.
German strength facing the 100,000-man XXX Corps: AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 36; Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 486 (“easier for a rich man”).
Irish Guards officers looked especially pensive: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 100.
Tanks trundled forward, slowly: ibid., 209–10.
“What do you think of the plan?”: C. D. Renfro, 101st AB, liaison to XXX Corps, “Operation Market,” Oct. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #226.
Horrocks was in fact fretful: Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 11–12; Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 236–38 (“I shan’t invalid you”); Horrocks, A Full Life, 210 (no attack he had launched on a Sunday).
From a nearby radio came word: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 100–101.
Many others invested in MARKET GARDEN: Chandler, 1947 (Under relentless pressure); office diary, First Allied Airborne Army, Sept. 10–17, 1944, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 2 (less than a week); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 334 (created at War Department insistence); Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 343 (eighteen operational plans); Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 76 (WILD OATS); Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 338 (“cowpats”).
Some commanders worried about MARKET’S dispersal: corr, A. C. McAuliffe to A. C. Smith, Feb. 8, 1954, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CB3; Willmott, The Great Crusade, 361–63; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 22–24; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 295; OH, ONB, 1974–75, Charles Hanson, MHI, V-58-61 (“foolhardy”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, boxes 41–42 (“Flabbergasted”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 402 (“astonishing faculty”).
Personalities added fat to the fire: Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 181; MMB, 61–62; Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 342 (“Mystify, mislead”), 308–9; Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, boxes 41–42 (“not sincere nor energetic”); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 299 (“Thank goodness”); Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor, 97.
If Brereton’s interactions with his fellow Americans: Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 181 (“stupid ass”); Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 36 (false uhlan front); OH, Eddie Newbury, Browning personal secretary, n.d., CJR, box 108, folder 6 (kicking over the furniture); Hastings, Armageddon, 36 (“popinjay”); diary, July 2, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (“too deliberate a smile”); MMB, 66 (high hurdles). Hitchcock later directed another movie based on a du Maurier short story, The Birds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_du_Maurier).
Browning so loathed Brereton: Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 337–38; Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 12.
“enemy appreciation was very weak”: OH, E. T. Williams, May 1947, FCP, MHI.
The road bridge over the Neder Rijn: Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 27; Hinsley, 544 (radio decrypt).
“But the Germans, how about the Germans”: Gavin, On to Berlin, 150. Other accounts put this comment a bit earlier, during planning for the stillborn Operation COMET. See http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/stanislaw_sosabowski.htm.
someone “with a vivid imagination”: Sosabowski, Freely I Served, 140; Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 8 (“fighting-the-Germans bit”). Sosabowski’s Polish rank had no direct Anglo-American equivalent, and is variously translated as either brigadier or major general (David T. Zabecki, note to author, May 9, 2012).
Guessing which Germans would be fought: Hinsley, 544; TSC, 282–83 (“low category”), 142; Lucian Heichler, “Holland, Allied Invasion from the Sky,” Oct. 1953, NARA RG 319, R-series, #5, 16 (lacked field kitchens); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 79 (II SS Panzer Corps); Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 336–39, 344–47 (nine thousand casualties); Bennett, Ultra in the West, 151–53 (120 tanks).
Montgomery’s senior staff officers almost to a man: Crosswell, Beetle, 717–18; Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 42–43 (Smith flew to Brussels); SLC, 122. Biographer Crosswell believes Smith never physically traveled to Montgomery’s headquarters (Beetle, 717).
“Montgomery ridiculed the idea”: OH, W. B. Smith and Pink Bull, Sept. 14, 1945, OCMH WWII Europe Interviews, MHI; OH, W. B. Smith, Apr. 18, 1949, SLAM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 (“waved my objections”).
Montgomery’s insouciance was understandable: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 144 (“weak, demoralized, and likely to collapse”); Saunders, The Red Beret, 212–13 (no larger than a brigade); Hinsley, 543; SLC, 121–22; OH, Brian Urquhart, Jan. 24, 1967, CJR, box 108, folder 6; VW, vol. 1, 52 (Dutch underground); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 56; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 79; Horrocks, Corps Commander, 93; Ralph Bennett, “Ultra and Some Command Decisions,” in Laqueur, ed., The Second World War, 232. Bennett reports that Browning was included on the Ultra distribution list (“tanks at Arnhem”).
Boy Browning declared himself ready: memo, G-3, 82nd Airborne, Oct. 23, 1945 [sic], JMG papers, CJR, box 100, folder 3; SLC, 137–39; Hills, Phantom Was There, 251 (“That means business”); Saunders, The Red Beret, 216 (British sergeant strutted).
“Emplane!”: memoir, Dwayne Burns, 508th PIR, n.d., NWWIIM; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 173 (more than twenty thousand troops); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 83–85 (“floated up and down”).
The first British pathfinders jumped: McNally, As Ever, John, 53 (“plowing up dirt”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 66 (snowflakes); SLC, 137–39 (within eighty minutes); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 112 (“Jingle Bells”).
That this welcoming chorus congregated: AAR, “Airborne Division Report on Operation Market,” UK 1st Airborne Division, Jan. 10, 1945, CARL, N-5647, 43; Airborne Forces, 174; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 149; Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 441; Urquhart, Arnhem, 6–7; Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 54–55;
The second complication was evident: MARKET troop carrier commanders argued that the shorter days of mid-September made two missions more difficult to squeeze in (John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 150).
Pleas by airborne commanders and by an emissary: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 33–34; Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 92; SLC, 131–32 (up to four days).
The day went well enough for the Yanks: “Kinnard’s Operation in Holland,” 1st Bn, 501st PIR, 1946, Battalion and Small Unit Study No. 1, ETOUSA, history section, CJR, box 100, folder 5; Simpson, Selected Prose, 129 (“laid there to die”).
Nine road and rail bridges stood: “Eindhoven,” 506th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427A, CI, folder #226; OH, Lynn Compton, 506th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, HI; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 105 (sprint south and seize Eindhoven).
Twenty miles north, 7,300 troops: A. D. Bestebreurtje, “The Airborne Operation in Netherlands in Fall 1944,” De Militaire Spectator, English trans. from Dutch, Jan. 1946, CJR, box 100, folder 4; SLC, 159 (All but one of 482 planes); Gavin, On to Berlin, 161; corr, JMG to CJR, Nov. 16, 1966, and to A. D. Bestebreurtje, July 9, 1973, JMG papers, CJR, box 100, folders 4 and 9.
With the ascension of Matthew Ridgway: Muir, ed., The Human Tradition in the World War II Era, 178; Nordyke, All American All the Way, 412 (youngest major general); D’Este, “Raw Courage,” World War II (July–Aug. 2011): 30+.
adopted as a toddler: memoir, “Beyond the Stars,” ts, 1983, James M. Gavin Irrecovable Trust, JMG, MHI, box 2, 3, 10, 21–27 (invoked the Holy Family), 410–11; Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 26–27 (soaped miners’ beards), 42–43 (He lied about his age); West Point application, 1925, JMG, MHI, box 9 (filling station); Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 124 (Book-of-the-Month Club); “Generalship,” JMG, MHI, box 10; OH, JMG, 1975, Donald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, 23 (“two o’clock in the morning”); Nordyke, All American All the Way, 412 (“charm of manner”).
After combat jumps into Sicily: Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 105 (“the scuffle”); Gavin, On to Berlin, 152 (“bank account”); “Personal Diary,” Sept. 14, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 10 (“looks very rough”).
Eleven bridges could be found in the 82nd sector: Field Order No. 11, 82nd AB Div, Sept. 13, 1944, “bridge data” annex, CARL; John S. Thompson, “The Holland Jump,” 1944, CJR, box 101, folder 9 (shooting up two truckloads); AAR, Reuben H. Tucker, 504th PIR, n.d., and AAR, 2nd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (ripped out boxes of dynamite); signage, Grave bridge, author visit, May 2009 (“Bridge number eleven”).
Bridge eleven and all its sisters: memo, JMG to Office of the Theater Historian, July 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder 171; memo, G-3, 82nd Airborne, Oct. 23, 1945, CJR, box 100, folder 3 (“capture and retention”); SLC, 159 (eight 75mm howitzers); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 221–22 (seven pieces).
“Everything is going as planned”: corr, JMG to A. Bestebreurtje, July 9, 1973, CJR, box 100, folder 9; OH, JMG, Jan. 20, 1967, CJR, box 101, folder 10.
So too had the Germans: Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 68 (“Everyone out”); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 199 (underwear spilling); Hastings, Armageddon, 41; SLC, 140.
Vengeful Dutchmen ripped the rank badges: Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 299; photo, Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 95.
Not much else went right: Urquhart, Arnhem, 40–41; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 304–5 (fire engines); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 117–19.
Ignoring warnings of dangers ahead: Urquhart, Arnhem, 64–66; Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 108–11; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 298 (“idiotic, ridiculous”).
A single British parachute battalion: Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 38 (“snogging”); Frost, A Drop Too Many, 210–11 (rail bridge blew up); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 147–48, 152–58; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 99 (trucks blazing on the ramp).
A brutal deadlock had begun: VW, vol. 2, 51; Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 292–93 (only 740); Saunders, The Red Beret, 225–26 (lashed into the tree branches); Frost, A Drop Too Many, 204 (golf clubs).
That would not happen. At precisely two P.M.: Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 489–90; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 37 (Typhoons swooped in).
“Driver, advance!”: Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 99–101.
The artillery barrage now rolled: AAR, 2nd Bn, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1256; Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 127 (“Advance going well”).
No sooner had the hand-rubbers on the roof: Horrocks, A Full Life, 211–12; Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 127–28 (“burning hulks”); Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 101–3; Hastings, Armageddon, 55 (tanker boots).
The German defenders soon were identified: AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 37 (“complete surprise”); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 129 (6th Parachute Regiment); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 230 (“indignant surprise”); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 492–93 (“ugly mood”); OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 216–17, 226; AAR, 2nd Bn, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1256.
For seven miles from the Dutch border: Bredin, Three Assault Landings, 126; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 89 (wider than thirty feet); “Preliminary Tactical Study of the Terrain,” XVIII Airborne Corps, Sept. 11, 1944, CARL (“impracticable to impossible”); SLC, 148–49; Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 101–3 (only fifteen dead); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 227.
“Things are going very well indeed”: office diary, Sept. 17–18, 1944, First Allied Airborne Army, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 2.
Eindhoven was home: Baedeker’s Netherlands, 178; www.hansvogels.nl/eindhovenENG/violet2en.htm; www.frits.philips.com/en/darkcloud.html; Crouch, “Frederik Philips Dies at 100; Businessman Saved Dutch Jews,” NYT, Dec. 7, 2005; Teulings, “Structure and Logic of Industrial Development: Philips and Electronics Industry,” Social Scientist 9, no. 4 (Nov. 1979): 3+; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips.
Now this company town of thatched roofs: Moorehead, Eclipse, 202–3; “Eindhoven,” 506th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427A, CI, folder #226 (all bridges intact); SLC, 150 (“reek with hate”).
Not until dusk did XXX Corps arrive: AAR, 3rd Bn, Irish Guards, Sept. 18, 1944, UK NA, WO 171/1257; AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 39–42 (stiffened with Panther tanks); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 113 (grounded the Typhoons); Verney, The Guards Armoured Division, 103; Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 122 (“Every time the advance”); SLC, 150.
Reinforcements from England also arrived: “327th RCT at Zon,” 327th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427A, CI, folder #226-A; H. J. Jablonsky, “Combat Lessons of 82nd Airborne Division,” Observers’ Board, WD, Dec. 9, 1944, CARL, 5; SLC, 167; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 311–16 (four thousand aircraft); AAR, “Air Resupply and Resupply by B-24 Aircraft,” Oct. 29, 1944, 2nd Bombardment Division, CARL, 1–7 (stripped of their ball turrets); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 124.
The 101st found more unexpected trouble: “Combat Diary of Edward McCosh Elliott, 1944,” 2nd Bn, Glasgow Highlanders, IWM, 99/61/1, VIII-12; “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1; Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 308–09 (Fifteenth Army troops).
Among seven wounded GIs: Nappi, “War Hero Enriches Soul History,” (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review, Aug. 14, 2004, www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=20967*; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 287–99; Marshall, Battle at Best, 10–36; Medal of Honor citation,http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_1940_wwii/mann.html.
Nearly out of ammunition: Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 144; SLC, 152 (three hundred enemy corpses); “Battalion and Small Unit Study No. 6,” Oct. 1944, NARA 498, ETO HD, UD 602, box 5, 35–36 (shot by their own comrades); Marshall, Battle at Best, 41.
“Dutch report Germans winning”: SLC, 170.
“grossly untidy situation”: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 110.
In a shot-torn town: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 282 (bakeries), 218 (head to toe like sandbags), 232–33 (“gone awry”); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 200–202, 209, 281; Saunders, The Red Beret, 232–34 (“little bayonet rushes”); Airborne Forces, 167; SLC, 172–73 (Balky radios); Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 111 (would not rejoin his headquarters); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 130 (over half of the British soldiers).
Nothing was right except the courage: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 344–45; Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 72 (cherry brandy); Mackay, “The Battle of Arnhem Bridge,” Royal Engineer Journal (Dec. 1954): 305ff. (Benzedrine and “Great joy all round”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 177 (perimeter of ten buildings); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 359 (vases were filled with water); Saunders, The Red Beret, 239 (rolled strips of wallpaper); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 292–95; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 465 (Mercedes trucks); “Arnhem,” AB, no. 2 (1973): 1ff.
Germans on the south bank of the Neder Rijn: Frost, A Drop Too Many, 223–25; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 177–78 (“skin peeling”); Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 74 (“shake itself like a dog”).
“Arnhem was burning”: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 359 (“metallic daylight”), 354 (“Nobody is in such dire need”); Saunders, The Red Beret, 236–37 (“never saw anything more beautiful”); Mackay, “The Battle of Arnhem Bridge,” Royal Engineer Journal (Dec. 1954): 305ff. (Despite a BBC report); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 312 (“pretty desperate thing”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 216–17 (tossed from upper windows).
“a sea of flame”: Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 307.
“Our building is on fire”: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 167–68.
“Deutschland, Deutschland”: OH, Joseph Enthammer, Arnhem History Museum, John Frost Bridge, author visit, May 2009.
Both sides agreed to a two-hour cease-fire: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 167–68. (“British or American?”), 169 (offered brandy, chocolate); Sims, Arnhem Spearhead, 85 (“The Last Stand”), 88 (“grotesque paddles”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 125–26 (“harder battle than any”); Frost, Nearly There, 80–81; Frost, A Drop Too Many, 233 (“kind, chivalrous”); exhibit on Dr. Jan Zwolle, Arnhem History Museum, John Frost Bridge, author visit, May 2009 (put before a firing squad).
Eighty-one paratroopers had been killed: Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 321.
“God save the king”: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 430.
The Arrow That Flieth by Day
At 4:30 P.M. on Tuesday, September 19: OH, JMG, Jan. 20, 1967, CJR, box 101, folder 10, 1–3 (curb); Gavin, On to Berlin, 170–71.
Afternoon shadows stretched: Bates and Fuller, America’s Weather Warriors, 99–100 (weather had deteriorated); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 129–33; SLC, 154.
Of five major objectives: “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1, 22; AAR, JMG, July 25, 1945, Office of Theater Historian, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 1, 164; SLC, 163–66 (muddled firefight in the dark); Nordyke, All American All the Way, 457 (10th SS Panzer soldiers); Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 404; Baedeker’s Netherlands, 288 (falcons).
Nor had the belated arrival of XXX Corps: VW, vol. 2, 37; Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 129–33; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 349, 360–63; AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125. No Dutchman explained why the detonators would be placed on the wrong side of the bridges to be destroyed (Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 499–500).
Enemy commanders were so confident of holding the bridges: Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 43; Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 128 (bowled thermite grenades).
Joining Gavin along the Malden curb: Tucker biographical data, CJR, box 103, folder 23; Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 178 (“air of nonchalance”); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 118 (arrived in a nearby cabbage patch); OH, Eddie Newbury, Browning personal secretary, n.d., CJR, box 108, folder 6 (Twirling his mustache); Margry, ed.,Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 344 (airborne smock); office diary, First Allied Airborne Army, Sept. 19, 1944, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 2 (“extremely pleased”); Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 60 (ink jar).
Gavin quickly described the predicament: Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 193; SLC, 175; Gavin, On to Berlin, 175, 163 (“tough and confident”); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 134–35 (riverfront bandstand); Wills, Put on Your Boots and Parachutes!, 141–43 (on foot and by bicycle); Otis L. Sampson, “My Last Combat Jump,” n.d., Co E, 505th PIR, JMG, MHI, box 15 (wrapping themselves in drapes); corr, JMG to CJR, Oct. 2, 1973, and JMG to M. C. Hustinx, March 8, 1947, CJR, box 101, folders 9 & 10 (six hundred Dutch resistance fighters); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 118 (Browning’s radios).
Colonel Tucker, whose helmet brim: Chatterton, The Wings of Pegasus, 178 (“Every time he did”); Gavin, On to Berlin, 173 (attack the German rear).
Browning and Adair said little: corr, JMG to CJR, Oct. 2, 1973, CJR, box 101, folder 9 (Horrocks was skeptical); DOB, 347 (Rapido); Gavin, On to Berlin, 170–71 (“never try to fight an entire corps”).
Two hours later, as dusk sifted: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 135; SLC, 153 (only large, long-range air strike); Bredin, Three Assault Landings, 126–28 (Dutch flags abruptly vanished); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 395–97 (“All smiles stopped”).
No enemy tanks appeared: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 135; Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 349–50 (“flat on our stomachs”); Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 228 (“Great fires were burning”).
“A blind act of malice”: Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 395–401.
The boats were late arriving: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 112 (“For God’s sake, try!”); OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17 (there were twenty-six); Rosse and Hill, The Story of the Guards Armoured Division, 137 (“suitable for the quieter rivers”); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 406–8 (two paddles); corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“Daddy’s tin ducking boat”).
As a Royal Engineer major gave rudimentary instructions: OH, Robert M. Tallon, March 6, 1968, CJR, box 103, folder 20 (“Head them upriver”); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 225 (pork chops); AAR, Reuben H. Tucker, 504th PIR, n.d., and AAR, 2nd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171; OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17 (milky smoke screen); AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (Four hundred grunting men).
Instantly German fire from three directions: AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (“mackerel on the feed”); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 406–8; SLC, 180; OH, Robert M. Tallon, March 6, 1968, CJR, box 103, folder 20 (direct hit from a mortar round); Burriss, Strike and Hold, 113–15 (engineer shot through the head), 116–17 (“Thy will be done”); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 234 (“his skull dropped”).
“It was a horrible, horrible sight”: OH, Giles A. M. Vandeleur, Irish Guards, Aug. 10, 1967, CJR, box 102, folder 17.
The roar of gunfire and ripping canvas: Nordyke, More Than Courage, 237, 256; Reuben H. Tucker, ts, n.d., CJR, box 103, folder 23 (“look at ’em”).
Half made the far shore: SLC, 181; AAR, 3rd Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (galley slaves).
“God help anyone in front of us”: Nordyke, More Than Courage, 240.
“jack-in-the-box shooting”: OH, Theodore Finkbeiner, Jr., March 4, 1968, CJR, box 102, folder 24; SLC, 181.
One company slaughtered the enemy garrison at Hof: AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125; Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 160; corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“driven to a fever pitch”).
Sensing that the day had turned: AAR, Co. A, 1st Bn, 504th PIR, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #171 (yellow recognition flags); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 504 (high in the girders); corr, Henry B. Keep to mother, Nov. 20, 1944, JMG, MHI, box 15 (“gargoyles”); corr, Virgil F. Carmichael, Oct. 13, 1967, CJR, box 102, file 16 (shot trying to surrender); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 260 (“Old German men grab”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 211–12 (“throwing our wounded from the bridge”); SLC, 183 (Two hundred and sixty-seven enemy bodies).
Paratroopers darting through river grass: Nordyke, More Than Courage, 263 (“Roman candle balls”); Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 137–38 (skidded sideways); AAR, “The Capture of Nijmegen Bridge,” XXX Corps, UK NA, WO 205/1125 (detonators lashed to a catwalk).
“The most gallant attack”: Horrocks, Corps Commander, 112; SLC, 183; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 211–12 (“blow up the bridge”); Nordyke, More Than Courage, 264 (“They’re over the Waal”).
Montgomery monitored the battle: Hamilton, Monty: The Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 73, 76, 87–89.
“Things are going to work out alright”: msg, BLM to DDE, Sept. 20, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.
“I regard general situation on rivers”: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 184.
“all was not well”: Randal, A Short History of 30 Corps in the European Campaign, 35.
“General, you’d better get the hell back here”: OH, JMG, 1975, Donald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, JMG papers, box 1.
Racing to his command post: corr, JMG to MBR, Jan. 27, 1973, CJR, box 102, folder 6; Gavin, On to Berlin, 176–77.
But troubles in the Anglo-American rear: SLC, 187; “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG Staff Study No. 3, CARL, N-17309.1 (another 85,000 Germans); John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 150; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 569.
That same morning, Hell’s Highway: Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 476–77; Horrocks, A Full Life, 228 (“blackest moment”); SLC, 189–92; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 283–87 (destroy fifty vehicles).
The new bridgehead over the Waal: SLC, 184–86; Crosswell, Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith, 720 (supplies promised by SHAEF); OH, JMG, 1975, Donald G. Andrews and Charles H. Ferguson, SOOHP, MHI, JMG papers, box 1 (“Why die now?”); corr, JMG to MBR, Jan. 27, 1973, CJR, box 102, folder 6 (found Colonel Tucker in a farmhouse); Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 162–63 (“What in the hell are they doing?”).
At 1:30 P.M. on Thursday: AAR, 3rd Battalion, Irish Guards, UK NA, WO 171/1257 (captured German map); SLC, 185 (waited in ambush); Fitzgerald, History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, 508–9 (“head to tail in silhouette”); Ellis, Welsh Guards at War, 229 (“these sad flat lands”); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 576–77 (“not going to get a yard”).
“But farther they could not go”: Forbes, The Grenadier Guards in the War of 1939–1945, vol. 1, 141; T. G. Lindsay, “Operation Overlord Plus,” n.d., LHC, 43–44 (plover and pheasant).
The British survivors at Arnhem were now pinched: Urquhart, Arnhem, 105–7, 131; Saunders, The Red Beret, 242–43 (“I used to watch an apple tree”).
Between mortar barrages, called “hate” by the British: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 208 (“In the Mood”); By Air to Battle, 124–25 (notched their rifle butts); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 240 (“room to room”); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 344–46 (“You have no idea”); Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 147 (kept the 9th SS Panzer at bay).
Of nearly 9,000 British soldiers inserted: Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 39, 339, 398–400. Urquhart cited eighty-four supply planes lost (AAR, “Airborne Division Report on Operation Market,” 1st Airborne Division, Jan. 10, 1945, CARL, N-5647, 34).
“Thou shalt not be afraid”: By Air to Battle, 125; http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/jimmy_cleminson.htm.
“Our casualties heavy”: Urquhart, Arnhem, 132.
Relief came, though far too little: Sosabowski, Freely I Served, 152, 156, 164; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 138–39 (forced many befuddled pilots); Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 410–11, 341–43 (narrowing Urquhart’s river frontage); SLC, 186–86; Margry, ed.,Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 588–89.
A night passed, then another: Chmielewska-Szymańska, Życie i działalność Stanisława Sosabowskiego, 144–45; Sosabowski, Najkrótszą Drogą, 247; Peszke, “The Polish Parachute Brigade in World War II,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1984): 188ff.
A battalion from the Dorsetshire Regiment: “Pegasus and the Wyvern,” Royal Engineers Journal (March 1946): 22ff.; SLC, 196–97; Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 215 (“quite useless”); Swiecicki, With the Red Devils at Arnhem, 82 (“Everything would seem to point”).
When the end came, it came quickly: Horrocks, A Full Life, 230–32; Urquhart, Arnhem, 170–77 (trundled the lightly injured); Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 76 (medical truces).
“The night was made for clandestine exits”: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 221; author visit, May 24, 2009; Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 83 (shuffled through the mud flats); Urquhart, Arnhem, 170–77 (“Let’s be having you”); By Air to Battle, 130 (Cointreau and mugs of tea); Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 684.
Dawn caught the division: “Pegasus and the Wyvern,” Royal Engineers Journal (March 1946): 22+; Tucholski, Spadochronowa opowieść, czyli o żołnierzach gen. Sosabowskiego i cichociemnych, 72–73 (flailed for the southern bank); Waddy, A Tour of the Arnhem Battlefields, 177 (only four of twenty-five aboard).
Urquhart was among those: Urquhart, Arnhem, 179–80.
“You did all you could”: Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 151. Historian Max Hastings concluded that Browning “displayed shameful incompetence and merited dismissal with ignominy” (Inferno, 561).
In the small hours of Friday, September 29: “Germans Use Expert Swimmers to Mine Dutch Bridges,” Military Intelligence Service, no. 25, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #494L, 61+; Margry, ed., Operation Market-Garden Then and Now, vol. 2, 706–7 (air cylinders); “Forced Crossing of the Rhine, 1945,” Aug. 1945, CE, Historical Report No. 20, CEOH, box X-32, folder 20, 14; Randal, A Short History of 30 Corps in the European Campaign, 38.
This rude gesture hardly dampened: Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 232 (“decided victory”); Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 360–61 (“brilliant success”); Hart-Davis, ed., King’s Counsellor, 258 (“well pleased with the gross result”); AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 115 (“90 percent successful”); Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 279 (“one jumps off a cliff”); OH, F.A.M. Browning, Feb. 1955, NARA RG 319, SLC background papers, 2-3.7 CB 3 (“Who was to tell”); SLC, 198 (“We have no regrets”).
Brave words from a division commander: Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 445; SLC, 200 (losses inMARKET approached 12,000); VW, vol. 2, 54 (in 17,000 air sorties); Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, 523; Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 311 (total German losses); De Slag Om Arnhem, 24 (went on finding skeletons). A recent German study puts Model’s losses around Arnhem alone at 3,300 (Ludewig, Rückzug, 278).
Even decided victories and brilliant successes: AAR, Operation Market Garden, 21st AG, n.d., CARL, R-13333, 115 (Montgomery blamed the weather); AAR, “Operations in Holland,” First Allied Airborne Army, Dec. 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, Act R A-104, box 62; Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 360–61.
Browning blamed Sosabowski: In 2006, Queen Beatrix awarded the Bronze Lion to Sosabowski, who died in 1967 (Dreel ferry signage, author visit, May 24, 2009. www.ww2awards.com/person/34944).
“too busy fighting Eisenhower”: Baynes, Urquhart of Arnhem, 160, 167 (“a bit more constructive criticism”).
“a single controlling mind”: ibid., 159.
Horrocks at least had the grace: Horrocks, A Full Life, 231; Keegan, ed., Churchill’s Generals, 236–38 (had failed to keep a senior Dutch officer).
Several hundred fugitive Allied troops: brochure, “Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein,’” Oosterbeek, author visit, May 2009, 12–13; Badsey, Arnhem 1944, 83–85; Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, 439 (more than six thousand others); Hastings, Armageddon, 56 (“Green grow the rushes”); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 364 (“show these bastards”).
The Dutch too would tramp away: “Freedom Trail Arnhem,” n.d., city of Arnhem, author visit, May 24, 2009; Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, 229 (plundered the city and eating dogs and tulip bulbs); Saunders, The Red Beret, 262 (execution of fifty resistance members); VW, vol. 2, 416–17 (rail strike); Nijmegen signage, author visit, May 22, 2009 (five thousand buildings); Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 122 (sixteen thousand died of starvation); Urquhart, A Life in Peace and War, 75 (“can never again afford”).
21st Army Group had nearly doubled the perimeter: SLC, 204–5.
That task would entangle most of Second Army: Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 381 (oxtail soup); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 368 (empty oil drums); Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 134–35 (“I’d be mortified”); SLC, 206 (another 3,600 casualties); corr, JMG to MBR, Oct. 3, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 21 (“much more vicious”); T. G. Lindsay, “Operation Overlord Plus,” n.d., LHC, 54–55 (which they stalked on ice skates).
“an epic cock-up”: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 346–47.
Eisenhower offered Montgomery a fistful: corr, DDE to BLM, Oct. 11, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.
Montgomery shifted his command post: Biographer Nigel Hamilton considered MARKET GARDEN to be “Monty’s worst mistake of the war” (Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 56, 97, 115).
“will not affect operations eastward”: Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them, 348.
“the last occasion of the war”: Hastings, Armageddon, 60–61.
“The opening of the port”: BLM, M-527, Sept. 27, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9).
“There was a change of mood after Arnhem”: Hastings, Armageddon, 141.
“The picture is not very good”: diary, Sept. 24, 1944, Raymond G. Moses papers, MHI, box 1.
“I am not looking forward to the winter”: Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 57.
CHAPTER 6: THE IMPLICATED WOODS
Charlemagne’s Tomb
For the most loyal Germans: “Concise Guide to Aachen Cathedral,” n.d., Europäische Stiftung für den Aachener Dom, www.aachendom.de; “Aachen at a Glance,” Aachen Tourist Service, author visit, Sept. 25–27, 2009.
It was said that the fearless burghers: Friedrich, The Fire, 116–17, 246–47.
Now smoke rose from Aachen again: SLC, 252 (First Army had narrowed its front), 281–84 (eighteen thousand German troops); “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 49 (Seventy-four American gun batteries); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 345 (“gray and brown mass”).
To help VII Corps complete Aachen’s encirclement: “Breaching the Siegfried Line,” XIX Corps, Oct. 2, 1944, Charles H. Corlett papers, MHI, box 1, 9–15 (Napalm fizzled); SLC, 260–61, 279–80 (“We have a hole”), 294 (“job is finished”).
Hobbs was dead wrong: “German Reaction to XIX Corps Breakthrough Siegfried Line, 2–16 Oct., 1944,” n.d., NARA RG 407, ML, box 24130; SLC, 287 (huge white cross); “Battle of Aachen, 18th Infantry Regiment,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI (gobbled down the breakfast).
Field Marshal Rundstedt warned Berlin: SLC, 299n; Wheeler, The Big Red One, 337 (hardly a mile separated); “The Fall of Aachen,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126 (“no middle course”).
Lest the Germans miss the message: “The Fall of Aachen,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126; “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 17–18.
Aachen’s dismemberment began in earnest: “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 17–18; Daniel, “The Capture of Aachen,” lecture, CO, 2nd Bn, 26th Inf, n.d., Quantico, Va., 8–11 (tossed one thousand grenades).
They found a “sterile sea of rubble”: SLC, 308, 289; Daniel, “The Capture of Aachen,” lecture, CO, 2nd Bn, 26th Inf, n.d., Quantico, Va., 5 (“Knock ’em all down!”).
Street by street, building by building: “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 29–30; “Battle Experiences,” Apr. 15, 1945, NARA RG 407, ML #248, box 24148 (perforated each building); Beck, 384 (beehive charges); Wheeler, The Big Red One, 339 (bulldozers piled rubble); “Battle Experiences, Twelfth Army Group,” Dec. 5, 1944, NARA RG 337, AGF OR, no. 173 (No. 2 green bean can).
Three captured German streetcars: “1106th Engineer Group South of Aachen,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126; “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 6; Daniel, “The Capture of Aachen,” lecture, CO, 2nd Bn, 26th Inf, n.d., Quantico, Va., 15–16 (“Surrender or get fried”); “1st Division World War II Combat Achievements Report,” chapter XXV, “Aachen,” 2nd Bn, 26th Inf, Oct. 14, 1944, MRC FDM; Stanhope B. Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126, 226 (collect mattresses).
Another lethal legacy from the Italian campaign: Mayo, The Ordnance Department, 301 (capable of keeping pace); author visit, Sept. 25–27, 2009; “Clearing the Area South of the Railroad Tracks,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126 (seven rounds down Hindenburgstrasse).
Across the city the Americans crept: Middleton, Our Share of Night, 349, 354 (“fucking bastards”).
As the house-to-house ruination proceeded: “1st Division World War II Combat Achievements Report,” chapter XXV, “Aachen,” 2nd Bn, 26th Inf, Oct. 8–9, 1944, MRC FDM; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 224 (Not even a radio antenna); SLC, 302 (“have to close that gap”).
Hodges also castigated the XIX Corps commander: Farrington, ed., Cowboy Pete, 9, 13, 21, 103.
“Every hour seems interminable”: Kingseed, From Omaha Beach to Dawson’s Ridge, 209–10.
“I’ve calloused my emotions”: corr, Joseph T. Dawson to sister, Sept. 19, 1944, MRC FDM, 1991.65.
“His face is bony”: Heinz, When We Were One, 39 (“large ears”), 20 (“Just move the ones”).
Bruno and the Swinging Tigers: Alosi, War Birds, 91.
“We could hear them singing”: Wheeler, The Big Red One, 340.
By ten A.M. several Tigers had churned uphill: “Attack on G and I Companies,” 16th Infantry, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI; Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 216.
“Situation very critical”: Kingseed, From Omaha Beach to Dawson’s Ridge, 212–15; Heinz, When We Were One, 49 (“thrown against the door” and Judy Garland sang); Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 216 (P-47 fighters).
“Much moaning and groaning”: “Attack on G and I Companies of the 16th Infantry Regiment,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126.
“If higher authority decides”: OH, James K. Woolnough, 1971, W. D. Macmillan and William M. Stevenson, SOOHP, MHI, 18.
As the enemy attacks grew feebler: “Attack on G and I Companies of the 16th Infantry Regiment,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126; Heinz, When We Were One, 223, 41–42 (“He doesn’t know why”).
At 4:15 P.M. on Monday, October 16: SLC, 306; Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 241 (sixty-three of ninety panzers).
The tally for G Company: Kingseed, From Omaha Beach to Dawson’s Ridge, 219–20 (“somewhat shattered”); Heinz, When We Were One, 223 (“We died right here”).
In keeping with the Führer’s wishes: “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 40 (“We shall fight”); “Clearing Area South of the Rail Road Tracks,” 26th Inf, n.d., and blueprint, map, Palast Hotel, “Aachener Quellenhof,” NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI; Register of Graduates, U.S. Military Academy, class of 1938 (John T. Corley).
At seven A.M., as mortars pummeled: “1st Division World War II Combat Achievements Report,” chapter XXVI, “Farwick Park, Aachen,” 3rd Bn, 26th Inf, Oct. 14, 1944, MRC FDM; “Clearing Area South of the Rail Road Tracks,” 26th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI (exchange of grenades); Robert G. Botsford, “The City of Aachen,” in Stanhope B. Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126 (hunting-scene oils); SLC, 316 (ten thousand marks).
The colonel instead had packed his bags: SLC, 316; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 273–74 (“They marched smartly”); “Aachen: Military Operations in Urban Terrain,” 26th Infantry Regiment Association, 42 (“do it in our hearts”); Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 266 (“I don’t believe in miracles”).
Nearly twelve thousand Germans had been captured: SLC, 317–18; Wheeler, The Big Red One, 342.
“These bitter tragic months”: Wheeler, The Big Red One, 342–43. Promoted to major, Dawson would return to Europe to work with the OSS. An oil industry geologist after the war, he died in 1998.
Also sent home was General Corlett: corr, ONB to DDE, Oct. 19, 1944, Charles H. Corlett papers, MHI, box 1 (failing health); Farrington, ed., Cowboy Pete, 104–5 (“plain heartbreak”); OH, George I. Forsythe, 1974, Frank L. Henry, SOOHP, MHI, 212 (“sasses the army commander”); Berlin, U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders, 6 (Oklahoma National Guard soldier); http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/M/MC033.html.
No one would take the waters in Aachen: Robert G. Botsford, “The City of Aachen,” in Stanhope B. Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126 (“none of the grace”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 165 (“dead as yesterday” and “the dead from my house”); Heinz, When We Were One, 226 (83 percent);Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 546–47 (“These ruins”).
A plump, sooty man wandering the streets: Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 178–79 (“Gebt mir fünf Jahre”); Robert G. Botsford, “The City of Aachen,” in Stanhope B. Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126 (graveyard uprooted); Edsel, The Monuments Men, 142–44 (formed a fire brigade).
“We can force the Boche to their knees”: corr, JLC to M. S. Eddy, Oct. 24, 1944, JLC papers, DDE Lib, box 3, 201 file; “U.S. Military Government in Germany: Operations During the Rhineland Campaign,” 1950, CMH, 8-3.1 DA5, 34–35, 138; Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 178–79 (curfew was imposed); Alosi, War Birds, 134 (“clipping details”); “Pigeon Report,” AFHQ G-2 to SHAEF G-2, March 12, 1945, NARA RG 331, SGS, Entry 15, box 112 (“falconry unit”).
“We come as conquerers”: “U.S. Military Government in Germany: Operations During the Rhineland Campaign,” 1950, CMH, 8-3.1 DA5, 34–39, 55a, 57, 105–6; TSC, 356–57 (“not as oppressors”).
An Army study also concluded: Lerner, Psychological Warfare Against Nazi Germany, 276–79.
“first German city to be taken”: Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 402.
“Do Not Let Us Pretend We Are All Right”
The autumnal struggles at Arnhem and Aachen: ALH, 142; Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, 207 (“We have them licked”); Royce L. Thompson, “Proposed CCS Directive to Eisenhower to End ETO War in 1944,” Jan. 19, 1950, Historical Section, CMH, 2-3.7 AE.P-9 (“playing everything for a conclusion”); OH, W. B. Smith, Sept. 14, 1945, OCMH WWII Europe Interviews, MHI (fight in the Pacific).
“We have facing us now”: Chandler, 2208.
“Most people that write to me”: ibid., 2288.
Eisenhower now commanded fifty-eight divisions: SLC, 378, 388, 390; Chandler, 2168 (“in a bad state”); TSC, 296 (insufficient means to support them); LSA, vol. 2, 13 (no more than twenty divisions).
To further explain his plight: Chandler, 2281–85; “G-4 History,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C, 82; Cooper, Death Traps, 239 (enemy depot in Liège).
The most desperate need was for ammunition: Chandler, 2281 (two tons every minute), 2311n; “Ammunition Supply for Field Artillery,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 58, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF-0.3.0, 8–9 (incessant rationing), 24–27 (“complete collapse”); LSA, vol. 2, 247–48, 255–56 (Patton wanted sixty); Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 45 (“silence policy”).
The shortfall partly reflected an inability: LSA, vol. 2, 269, 274, 255–56 (largely on the defensive); “Ammunition Supply and Operations, European Campaign,” USFET General Board study no. 100, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97USF-0.3.0 (25,000 man-hours); Eiler, Mobilizing America, 410 (“Firepower for Eisenhower”).
One senior American general believed: “Ammunition Supply for Field Artillery,” n.d., USFET General Board study no 58, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF-0.3.0, 28–29 (“saved many lives”); corr, Brig. Gen. John H. Hinds to Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward, July 6, 1951, NARA RG 319, E 97, background papers, LSA, vol. 1, box 6 (thousands of tons were stacked); Charles K. MacDermut and Adolph P. Gratiot, “History of G-4 Com Z ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.4 AA, 86–87 (actual number was less than 100); “G-4 History,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C, 56, 87–88 (246 cargo vessels); LSA, vol. 2, 128 (floating warehouses).
The War Department, trying to supply a global war: Charles K. MacDermut and Adolph P. Gratiot, “History of G-4 Com Z ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.4 AA, 87–89 (“no further commodity-loaded ships”); “G-4 History,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C, 92 (Bronze Stars).
If only Antwerp were free: corr, BLM to H. Crerar, Sept. 13, 1944, M-523, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“We have captured a port”); minutes, Sept. 22, 1944, conference, SHAEF forward war room, 2:30 P.M., Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (“indispensable prerequisite” and “matter of urgency”); Wilmot,The Struggle for Europe, 534 (sent his chief of staff); Chandler, 2202 (“terribly anxious”), 2212 (“must retain as first mission”); Crosswell, Beetle, 726.
Montgomery had assigned clearing the Scheldt: VW, vol. 2, 59–67, 70–71, 104–7, 116; SLC, 220–21.
“We need this place more than we need FDR”: corr, Sept. 23, 1944, Everett S. Hughes papers, LOC MS Div, box II:3, folder 4.
Dempsey’s Second Army continued to look beyond the Rhine: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 152n; Danchev, 600 (“Antwerp must be captured”); Callahan, Churchill & His Generals, 220 (“I was wrong”).
But in October 1944, the field marshal displayed: ONB to C. Hodges, Sept. 23, 1944, “Memoranda for Record,” 12th Army Group, NARA RG 407, ML #205, box 24143 (Ramsay warned that to clear the Scheldt); Chalmers, Full Cycle, 251 (“not taking this operation seriously”); Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 151 (“I let fly”); corr, BLM to DDE, Oct. 9, 1944, DDE Lib PP-pres, box 83 (“he makes wild statements”). Eisenhower denied getting “wild statements” from Ramsay (Chandler, 2216).
“I can not agree that our concepts”: TSC, 293.
Unchastened by the destruction: Pogue, George C. Marshall, 475 (“overwhelming egotism”).
“Our advance into Germany may be delayed”: LSA, vol. 2, 107; Chandler, 2215n (high winds that very day).
“This reemphasizes the supreme importance”: Chandler, 2215.
Montgomery would assert: VW, vol. 2, 95 (“hardly justified”); corr, BLM to DDE, Oct. 9, 1944, DDE Lib PP-pres, box 83 (“You can rely on me”); corr, BLM to Canadian First Army, M-530, Oct. 9, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“port will take priority”); SLC, 220; VW, vol. 2, 85.
“Nothing that I may ever say or write”: Chandler, 2216.
“It may be that political and national considerations”: VW, vol. 2, 85–88.
“The questions you raise are serious ones”: Chandler, 2221–24.
The threat could hardly be misconstrued: VW, vol. 2, 92, 103, 109.
“You will hear no more”: corr, BLM to DDE, Oct. 16, 1944, DDE Lib PP-pres, box 83.
a newer model from Detroit was somewhere: Chandler, 2265.
With Kay Summersby behind the wheel: Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 191; Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, Oct. 13–14, 1944; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 432–33 (“I must have shot a dozen”).
Bidding farewell to king and comrades: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 433.
“has not visibly aged”: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 489; Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, Oct. 14, 1942, and Oct. 14, 1943.
Yet even Time’s omniscience: John P. Roche, “Eisenhower Redux,” NYT Book Review, June 28, 1981 (“calculating quality”); Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 419 (“veiled man”); Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 212 (“far more complicated”).
He would never be a Great Captain: Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 610 (Cannae), 338 (“chairman of the board”); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 467 (exceptional political instincts); Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 168 (“genius of getting along”).
He was by temperament a reconciler: Graham and Bidwell, Coalitions, Politicians & Generals, 193; VW, vol. 2, 92; Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 168 (“shrewd without being subtle”).
“no one knew better than he”: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 31; DOB, 50 (“solve problems through reasoning”).
“We’ve now been apart”: Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike, 226.
The miles slid past, and with them the day: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 432 (steam-heated stone buildings); OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI; OH, James E. Moore, 1984, Larry F. Paul, SOOHP, MHI, 111; “Brief Historical Survey of the War Years in Luxembourg,” National Museum of Military History,http://www.luxembourg.co.uk/NMMH/waryears.html* (germanized); David Lardner, “Letter from Luxembourg,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 399–401 (and conscripted ten thousand). Lardner was killed in Aachen a week after writing this article.
Bradley’s office on the Place de Metz: MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, 71; author visit, June 4, 2009; A Walk Through Luxembourg, tourist booklet, n.d., 2–3, 24, 29.
Here in the dining room: Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 191; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 433.
The Worst Place of Any
The Belgian town of Spa: Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 249–53; PP, 632–33 (Hindenburg concluded); Keegan, The First World War, 417–19 (fantasize about unleashing the army).
Now GIs hauled the roulette wheels: Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities of II Corps Through Algeria, Tunisia & Sicily and First Army Through Europe,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 149; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 171 (triple bunks); Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 333 (“take the ‘hit’ out”); William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” 1983, CEOH, box V, 14, XI, 25 (eleven drinking water sources), 27 (grand ballroom with mirrors); Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 258 (horsemeat); OH, Charles G. Patterson, First Army AA officer, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI, 118 (monthly consignment); Sylvan, 155 (hilltop mansion), 154 (clatter of a V-1);Medicine Under Canvas, 138 (Gaslight and A Guy Named Joe); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 344 (“song had been taken prisoner”);
Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges moved: Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 10–13 (“#10 Blue”); MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, 188 (“pessimistic”); Sylvan, 119 (“a little too sad”).
A crack shot and big-game hunter: “Precise Puncher,” Time (Oct. 16, 1944): cover story; OH, Mildred Lee Hodges (widow), 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI, 12 (“sissy”), 40 (dash of bitters); OH, Charles G. Patterson, First Army antiaircraft officer, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI, 18; Miller, Ike the Soldier, 705 (“I wish everybody”); corr, Walter E. Lauer, CG, 99th ID, May 8, 1963, MHI, Maurice Delaval collection, box 13 (“Unexcitable. A killer”); Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 187–88 (“a Georgia farmer”), 52 (“sir”); OH, ONB, [1966?], Kitty Buhler, MHI, 45–47 (“very dignified”).
First Army was the largest American fighting force: Beetle Smith called him “the weakest commander we had” (OH, W. B. Smith, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI).
Capable enough during the pursuit: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 288–90 (illness, fatigue); corr, David T. Griggs, advisor to secretary of war, Feb. 22, 1945, to Edward L. Bowles, AFHRA, 519.161-7 (“a little confused”); SLC, 619–20 (“lacking in vigor” and “pretty slow”), 21–22 (platoon dispositions); LSA, vol. 2, 349 (“least disposed to make any attempt”); Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+ (rarely left Spa and “refused to discuss orders”); Sylvan, 144 (Hobbs never laid eyes on him), 76 (“quicker to keep smashing ahead”).
Peevish and insulated: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 184–85, 288–89.
Of thirteen corps and division commanders relieved: The initial First Army firings were of course under Bradley before he relinquished command to Hodges. Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+.
“like a mendicant”: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 111–12.
“Aggressive, touchy, and high-strung”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 180 (“Critical, unforgiving”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI.
Three rivalrous figures: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 28 (“Captain Bligh”), 32 (Tubby); Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 150, 197 (Iago); Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 497; Dickson obituary, Assembly, Sept. 1978.
“slightly angry bafflement”: Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 318.
“The enemy has continued to reinforce”: Chandler, 2257–59.
Canadian First Army troops had captured Breskens: The Breskens Pocket dissolved on Nov. 3. The British I Corps under the Canadian army included a British infantry division, the U.S. 104th Infantry Division (as of Oct. 23), and Polish and Canadian armored divisions. VW, vol. 2, 107, 111–13; SLC, 215–29.
“three general phases”: Chandler, 2257–59.
First Army’s capture of Aachen: “Approach to and Crossing of the Rhine, 18 Oct. 1944,” 12th Army Group, G-3, NARA RG 407, ML, box 24143; OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (the most promising frontage).
Four compact woodland tracts formed the Hürtgen: Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 17; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 272 (regulated logging); Heinz, When We Were One, 141 (“picture forest”); Currey, Follow Me and Die, 108 (“worst place of any”).
The Hürtgenwald had been fortified: Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 19; McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 62 (sowed mines); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 366 (four days to move a mile); SLC, 337–40 (4,500 casualties); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 272 (“Battle of the Wilderness”).
Nearly half of the 6,500 German defenders: Lucian Heichler, “The First Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” March 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #42, 10–17 (“family-fathers”); SLC, 335–40, 333–34 (“extensive, thick, and nearly trackless”); Mack Morriss, “War in the Huertgen Forest,” Yank, Jan. 5, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 562–63 (“ointment box”).
That underestimated American obstinacy: author visit, Sept. 26, 2009; SLC, 323–24 (Argonne Forest); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 365 (“to make the Hürtgen a menace”).
No consideration was given to bypassing: OH, T. C. Thorson, Sept. 12, 1956, and R. F. Akers, June 11, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 182; MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 88; OH, JLC, Jan. 25, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 (“would not question Courtney”).
“We had to go into the forest”: OH, JLC, Jan. 25, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7; OH, “Conversations with General J. Lawton Collins,” May 17, 1983, Gary Wade, ed., CSI, report no. 5, CARL (“they could have hit my flank”).
Seven dams built for flood control: Together the two main reservoirs had a capacity of 123,000 acre-feet (SLC, 325).
“great destructive flood waters”: Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 32; Collins, Lightning Joe, 273 (nor were the dams mentioned in tactical plans); OH, “Conversations with General J. Lawton Collins,” May 17, 1983, Gary Wade, ed., CSI, report no. 5, CARL (“intelligence failure”).
By late October, as First Army coiled: SLC, 327 (Düren’s church bells), 342; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 190; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 181; Edgar Holton, former XIX Corps G-2 lieutenant, e-mails to author, June 30, July 23, Aug. 3, 2011 (Inside an Aachen safe); XIX Corps history, July 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2220, 21–23 (a hundred million metric tons of water); memo, W. Simpson to C. Hodges, Nov. 5, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #1024 (“capabilities”); English, Patton’s Peers, 119 (flanking attack toward Schmidt).
“a kind of torpor”: OH, T. C. Thorson, Sept. 12, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7.
“present plans of this army”: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 181; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 434–45 (replenished).
Bradley would later claim: Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 341; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 442.
Not until November 7 did Hodges order: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 181; war diary, Dec. 4, 1944, ONB papers, MHI (“must control Roer dam”).
“Damn the dams”: OH, T. C. Thorson, Sept. 12, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7.
Attacking the worst place of any: OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Heinz, When We Were One, 239, 244–46 (“save everybody a lot of trouble”).
In late October the Bloody Bucketeers: Currey, Follow Me and Die, 28, 87 (Sterno blocks); Mack Morriss, “War in the Huertgen Forest,” Yank, Jan. 5, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 562–63 (No. 8 wire); Will Thornton, “World War II ‘M’ Co. History as Told by the Survivors,” n.d., a.p. (“His clothing and tire chains”); Boesch, Road to Huertgen, 162 (stripping footwear).
Foul weather, supply shortages, and the slow arrival: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 184–85; Margry, “Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” AB, no. 171 (1991): 1+ (two-story Gasthaus); author visit, Sept. 26, 2009; Sylvan, 161 (“fine fettle”).
In fact, it was badly flawed: SLC, 346–47; OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Carey A. Clark et al., “Armor in the Hürtgen Forest,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 36; Miller, Division Commander, 117 (“gambler’s chance”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 191 (“Dismount and fight”).
At nine A.M. on November 2: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 259; Ent, ed., The First Century, 170–72 (“singly, in groups”).
The attack hardly began better for the 109th: Paul Brückner, “The Battle in the Hürtgen Forest,” n.d., a.p. I am grateful to Maj. Gen. (ret.) David Zabecki for his insights about the battle and for various documents, including this one.
The 109th had advanced barely three hundred yards: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 272; SLC, 349–50.
Against such odds, and to the surprise: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 259–63; SLC, 349; Carey A. Clark et al., “Armor in the Hürtgen Forest,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 36–39 (wrecked five Shermans); corr, Edwin M. Burnett to 12th AG, Nov. 6, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 1 (burrowed into the northeast nose).
At dawn on Friday, November 3: author visit, Hürtgen Forest, Sept. 26, 2009; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 113–14 (astonished garrison at Schmidt).
“extremely satisfied”: Sylvan, 163; SLC, 352 (“little Napoleon”).
The bad news from Schmidt: General Freiherr von Gersdorff, “The Battle of Schmidt,” Nov. 1945, FMS, #A-891 and A-892, MHI.
Model ordered the corps commander: 116th Panzer Division memorial and cemetery, Vossenack, author visit, Sept. 26, 2009; Henry P. Halsell, “Hürtgen Forest and Roer River Dams,” n.d., CMH, 314.7, I-22; General Freiherr von Gersdorff, “The Battle of Schmidt,” Nov. 1945, FMS, #A-891 and A-892, MHI.
Three isolated American rifle companies: Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 64–65, 77; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 290–91 (scattered sixty antitank mines); AAR, 28th ID, n.d., a.p. from David Zabecki; Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+ (Cota remained in Rott).
Just before sunrise on Saturday, November 4: “Combat Experiences,” 28th ID hq, March 9, 1945, NARA RG 498, G-3 observers’ reports, box 2.
At 8:30 an American platoon: OH, Jack W. Walker, Co L, 112th Inf, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 28th ID, folders 74–77; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 129–34 (“ragged, scattered, disorganized”); SLC, 360–61; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 297–300.
stampeded in the wrong direction: The division history estimates that only 67 of the 200 survived (Ent, ed., The First Century, 17).
The fight for the Hürtgen had taken a turn: author visit, Bergstein, Sept. 26, 2009; e-mail, David T. Zabecki to author, Sept. 22, 2009 (slow to realize).
Confusion soon turned to chaos: SLC, 359–60; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 288, 310 (nine feet); Carey A. Clark et al., “Armor in the Hürtgen Forest,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 61 (unhitched and manhandled).
In Rott, Cota’s perplexity: AAR, 893rd TD Bn, Nov. 18, 1944, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 28th ID, folders 74–77; Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 73; SLC, 359–60 (“warm-hearted affection”); MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 313.
A fretful General Gerow: Miller, Division Commander, 122–24; OH, JLC, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI (“tougher than I had ever heard”); Currey, Follow Me and Die, 155 (“Roll on”).
Had the generals seen the battlefield clearly: SLC, 360–63; OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (“artesian wells”); MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 335 (shifting guns hole by hole by hole).
A relief battalion from the 110th Infantry: OH, Anthony R. Seymour, Warren G. Holmes, John Hayducok, 110th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, HI (“just like cattle”).
Soldiers in the claustrophobic forest: Linderman, The World Within War, 29 (cigarettes), 16 (“So this is combat”); Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 260 (“wet liver”); memoir, Robert D. Georgen, n.d., 2nd Bn, 110th Inf, NWWIIM (snipers were aiming).
“Pushing, shoving, throwing away equipment”: Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 79; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 165 (“saddest sight”).
Officers managed to rally: memoir, Thomas E. Wilkins, Co. C, 146th Engineers, n.d., CEOH, box X-37A (hip boots); Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 79–82 (Rubble Pile); Ent, ed., The First Century, 172 (“destroyed as a fighting unit”).
“The 28th Division situation”: Sylvan, 167; OH, Richard W. Ripple, CO, 707th Tank Bn, Nov. 14, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 183–86; SLC, 362–65; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 378 (dogtags).
Reeling from lack of sleep: At one point in the ordeal, Cota reportedly fainted (Miller, Division Commander, 128–29).
“All we seem to be doing is losing ground”: Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+; OH, Richard W. Ripple, CO, 707th Tank Bn, Nov. 14, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (battered last-stand redoubt); OH, George R. Sedberry, Jr., Co C, 112th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, HI (litters from tree limbs); OH, G. M. Nelson, CO, 112th Inf, Nov. 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (threw away his compass); OH, 20th Engineer Combat Bn, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (abandoned two tons of TNT).
Come nightfall, American artillery smothered: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 380; OH, G. M. Nelson, CO, 112th Inf, Nov. 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (walking into a lake).
“Like blind cattle the men thrashed”: SLC, 371.
The dead accumulated in stiff piles: Babcock, War Stories, 275.
Eisenhower and Bradley had driven to Rott: Sylvan, 167–68; Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+ (“bloody nose”).
“I’ve condemned a whole regiment”: Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 181.
Survivors from the Kall: AAR, Albert L. Berndt, 112th Inf surgeon, Nov. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 89 (soldierly airs); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 232 (“Chow all right, son?”).
On Thursday, November 9: Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+.
The weeklong battle had been among the costiliest: Losses included those in units attached to the 28th Division (SLC, 374). Division casualties included 750 cases of trench foot (OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77).
The Bloody Bucket was bloodier than ever: SLC, 372 (reduced to 57 men); Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+ (from 2,200 to 300); Ent, ed., The First Century, 172 (“accomplished very little”); memo, N. Cota, Nov. 29, 1944, in AAR, 28th ID, n.d., a.p., from David Zabecki (“Salute, March, Shoot, Obey”).
German losses for the week: MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 120 (about three thousand); corr, Hans-Helmut Jansen to parents, Dec. 5, 1944, trans. David Zabecki, a.p. (“We squat in an airless cellar”); Ivan “Cy” H. Peterman, “As I Saw It,” in Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 304 (“South of the Border”); Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 60 (“days were so terrible”).
In less than three months, six U.S. Army infantry divisions: SLC, 437–38, 492; Charles B. MacDonald, introduction to Boesch, Road to Huertgen.
All told, 120,000 soldiers: MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 195.
“the most ineptly fought series of battles”: quoted in Hastings, Armageddon, 193; 183rd Volksgrenadier Div, n.d., in “Tactical Lessons,” First Army, Aug. 1944–Feb. 1945, 5A, USAREUR staff ride, Hürtgen Forest, Dec. 5–8, 2001 (“completely unfit”).
“He went on and on”: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 186; Sylvan, 184 (individual cake).
“We thought woods were wise”: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 6.
“not so much an area”: Henry P. Halsell, “Hürtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams,” n.d., CMH, 314.7, I-32.
Fighter-bombers incinerated recalcitrant towns: Sylvan, 189; Boesch, Road to Huertgen, 142 (“C’est la bloody goddam guerre”); Towne, Doctor Danger Forward, 150 (cache of ears); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 555 (seared by white phosphorus); McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 253 (“my personal Valley”).
From his fieldstone house near Vicht: Heinz, When We Were One, 243–46 (“bulk bigger”); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 556; Reynolds, Hemingway: The Final Years, 113–25; Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 240 (“fornicatin’ beasts”); William P. Shaw, “Fellowship of Dust: The WWII Journey of Sgt. Frank Shaw,” n.d., NWWIIM, 70 (King Lear).
“I see you everywhere”: Frank Maddalena was declared killed in action a year later (Litoff and Smith, eds., Since You Went Away, 247–48).
CHAPTER 7: THE FLUTTER OF WINGS
A Town Too Small for the Tragedy
A stately procession of nineteen cargo ships: British Pathé newsreel, 1944, http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=23525.
Seamen and anxious war correspondents: Correspondents sailed with the port headquarters on the U.S.S. James B. Weaver (LSA, vol. 2, 110).
Three small coasters had made the run: VW, vol. 2, 127; Rawling, Cinderella Operation, 147–48; VC, 422–24.
COMZ three days earlier had warned: “Shipping Situation and Supply Requirements,” COM Z, G-4, Nov. 25, 1944, CARL, N-6726.
A protocol oversight had excluded: VC, 422–24 (snub). Roughly half of those Canadian First Army casualties were Canadian nationals, with the balance divided among British, Polish, Czech, French, and American units (SLC, 229; VW, vol. 2, 127–28).
The protracted “struggle in the polders”: VC, vol. 3, 386; SLC, 221 (flamethrowers); Thompson, Men Under Fire, 17 (windmill to windmill); Reed, “Assault on Walcheren,” AB, no. 36 (1982): 1+ (bombardment of ancient Dutch dikes); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 545–46; Chalmers, Full Cycle, 256 (“Good morning!”); Woodward,Ramsay at War, 192–93 (rousted from his bed); Roskill, White Ensign, 397; VW, vol. 2, 115–23 (last two thousand); Rawling, Cinderella Operation, 147–48 (at noon).
With enemy shore guns finally silenced: Rawling, Cinderella Operation, 147–48; Moulton, Battle for Antwerp, 181–82 (white chevron and nine explosions); Thompson, Men Under Fire, 21 (feeling their way); Roskill, White Ensign, 153 (Two hundred and sixty-seven mines).
Twenty more ships arrived: LSA, vol. 2, 110; “G-4 History,” ETOUSA, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C, 99. (23,000 tons); Edwin T. Bowden, “Quartermaster Operations at the Port of Antwerp,” n.d., chapter 22, PIR, MHI, 9; “American Port Plans, August to November 1944,” n.d., NARA RG 319, LSA background papers, 2-3.7 CB 7, 65–66 (Six thousand civilian stevedores); Eudora Ramsay Richardson and Sherman Allan, “Quartermaster Supply in the ETO in WWII,” vol. 1, QM School, Ft. Lee, Va., 1947 (densest rail network); LSA, vol. 2, 111 (85,000 tons of matériel); “Clothing and Footwear,” chapter 56, PIR, 1959, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA (depots in Lille, Mons); “Development of Antwerp,” ETOUSA, 1944, NARA RG 498 ETO HD, admin file #244, 15–16 (ammunition ships).
Explosions had already become all too commonplace: King and Kutta, Impact, 274. Various accounts give different dates for the initial V-weapon attacks in Antwerp. See VW, vol. 2, 149.
Both V-1s and V-2s struck on October 13: SLC, 229 (“Something beastly”); Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’” AB, no. 57 (1987) 43+ (women’s handbags).
Barely above sea level: King and Kutta, Impact, 279–81 (“city of sudden death”); “Development of Antwerp,” ETOUSA, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #244, 17 (tent encampments); Antrobus, “V-2 in Antwerp,” Yank, May 4, 1945, 6+ (“unwanted smell”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 195 (“cast continued singing”).
Hitler had long recognized: M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” OCMH, 1954, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, box 28, 75; Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’” AB, no. 57 (1987): 43+ (over the course of six months). The German official history states that of 3,170 V-2s launched, 1,610 were aimed at Antwerp (Germany VII, 444).
Sixty-seven thousand buildings in greater Antwerp: “5th Major Port: A Story of Three Years Overseas,” U.S. Army Transportation Corps, 1945, MHI, 68–71; TSC, 332 (two-thirds of all houses); VW, vol. 2, 149–50, 235 (port operations to remain largely unimpaired); “The Story of Antwerp,” 50th AAA Bde, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #244A (22,000 antiaircraft artillerymen); film, “Defense of Antwerp Against the V-1,” 1947, http://www.archive.org/details/gov.dod.dimoc.20375; Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’” AB, no. 57 (1987): 43+ (new gun barrels and ammunition).
German V-1 crews in December: “The Story of Antwerp,” 50th AAA Bde, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #244A; “Tactical Employment of Antiaircraft Artillery Units,” USFET General Board study no. 38, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AGWWII Operations Reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 40–41 (“characteristic roar”); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, box 28, 131 (within eight miles of central Antwerp).
“The angel of death”: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 537.
Nearly all twelve hundred seats were filled: “Ciné Rex: 1935–1993,” http://users.telenet.be/rudolf.bosschaerts/rex1e.html (only German films were screened); Huntington, “Lights. Camera. War!” America in World War II (June 2008): 34+ (thirteen hundred films).
At 3:20 P.M., just after Gary Cooper: Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’” AB, no. 57 (1987): 43+.
Recovery teams ultimately retrieved: “The Antwerp Story,” in “Stories of Transportation,” vol. 1, Frank S. Ross papers, HIA, box 20, 407; SLC, 230 (two hundred servicemen); “Antwerp, ‘City of Sudden Death,’” http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html (city zoo became a morgue); Antrobus, “V-2 in Antwerp,” Yank, May 4, 1945, 6+ (decontamination squads).
“Faith in a Friendly Universe”
Despite the travails of the Hürtgen Forest: Sylvan, 175 (“last big offensive”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 438–41; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 342–43.
Just past the meridian on November 16: AAR, “Operation Q,” IX Tactical Air Command, n.d., Courtney H. Hodges papers, DDE Lib, box 7 (“I feel very good”); Heinz, When We Were One, 58 (“yellow blossoms”), 59 (“no expression at all”); Harmon, Combat Commander, 219 (orange sheets); memo, William L. Blanton, XIII Corps, n.d., NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR (800 million candlepower).
The entrenched enemy quickly stiffened: SLC, 420–24, 492, 505 (hot food and burning candles), 416–18 (“house-by-house killing match”); “Further Technical Notes on German Minefields,” March 7, 1945, UK War Office, NARA RG 407, ML #225, appendix J (dozen types of mine). First Division casualties included those of the attached 47th Infantry.
Thirty days hath November: SLC, 518; “Weather Conditions in the ETO on D-Day and in Nov. 1944,” HQ, Air Weather Service, Sept. 1946, NARA RG 319, CCA background historical files, box 164 (triple the monthly average).
“Men were forced to discard their overcoats”: SLC, 446, 457, 518; Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 16 (condoms); LSA, vol. 2, 492 (“duck bills”).
This was “thee or me” combat: Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+; Nickell, Red Devil, 79 (“They say cleanliness”), 84–85 (“With every heartbeat”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 203 (“‘You ain’t goin’ back’”); Babcock, Taught to Kill, 123 (“pissing your pants”); Linderman,The World Within War, 306 (“One forgets so much”), 311 (Snow White).
“My heart and soul have been torn”: Sorley, Thunderbolt, 62.
“War happens inside a man”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 495.
Among the empty chairs: AAR, Cannon Company, 16th Inf, and “Jack’s Letters,” Nov. 6, Dec. 8, Dec. 10, 1944, a.p., compiled by Rick Perry.
As fresh reserves came forward: “Graves Registrations Service,” NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 107; Ross, 219, 688 (Great pains were taken).
For the living, small pleasures: diary, Harold S. Frum, Nov. 11, 1944, “The Soldier Must Write,” 1984, GCM Lib (“90 percent boredom”); Nickell, Red Devil, 80 (burrows ten feet square); Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 214–15 (“war stands aside”); corr, T. R. Bruskin to wife, Dec. 5, 1944, a.p. (“pulling the chain”).
“I’ve learned what it means”: McNally, As Ever, John, 52.
“I can see now”: Blunt, Foot Soldier, V-mail photo, 154.
Operation QUEEN sputtered and stalled: SLC, 578, 593, 616–17. SHAEF in October had set quotas. The highest awards required authorization from higher headquarters (“Awards and Decorations,” USFET General Board study no. 10, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF-0.3.0).
The Roer, already in spate from daily rain: SLC, 598 (nearly two thousand tons), 581, 594; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 434–35; AAR, 12th AG, vol. 14, publicity and psychological warfare, NARA RG 331, E-200A, SHAEF records, box 267, 82–83 (censors banned all reference).
Certainly the enemy had been badly hurt: SLC, 412–14, 583 (even a hundred men), 594, 457 (“numerous frostbites”).
“It is entirely possible”: Crosswell, Beetle, 798.
Winter always seemed to catch: Bynell, “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe,” lecture, March 16, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207, 13 (Arctic clothing tested at Anzio); LSA, vol. 2, 222–24 (“serious fighting” and “precautionary measure”); “Report of Observers, ETO, 11 March–21 Apr 1945,” Apr. 27, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #371; Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 490 (“Don’t you know”).
“General, the weather is getting cold”: Robert M. Littlejohn, “Ports and Transportation,” n.d., chapter 27, PIR, MHI, 9; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities of II Corps … and First Army Through Europe,” 1955, chapter 46, PIR, MHI, 147–48 (delays in opening Antwerp); LSA, vol. 2, 224–26 (850,000 heavy overcoats); “Jack’s Letters,” Feb. 4, 1945, a.p. (“We can’t fight a winter war”).
“front-line troops fought”: LSA, vol. 2, 227.
Far less than half of the requested underwear: Ross, 599, 571 (shrinking size 12 pairs); Robert M. Littlejohn, “Helpful Hints to Would-Be Quartermaster Generals,” 1945, PIR, MHI, 3 (“wool is essential to combat”); Erna Risch and Thomas M. Pitkin, “Clothing the Soldier in World War II,” 1946, CMH, 4-10.2 AA 16, 244–51 (seven million new pairs).
The Army listed seventy different articles: LSA, vol. 2, 233; Morris M. Bryan, “Quartermaster Planning,” n.d., chapter 45, PIR, MHI (“jacket, field, M-43”); Andrus et al., eds., Advances in Military Medicine, vol. 2, 499–500 (the “Clo”); “Blankets,” NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #500.
The Army was said to believe that every GI: Sherry, In the Shadow of War, 94; “Trench Foot,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.3.0, no. 94, 4–5 (“none of which”); “Clothing and Footwear,” chapter 56, PIR, 1959, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA (“nothing but a sponge”); Ross, 602–3 (none larger than size 11); Harold M. Florsheim, “Quartermaster Supply,” n.d., chapter 40, PIR, MHI, 27–28; Lawrence B. Sheppard, “Supply of Footwear and Socks in the European Theater,” 1945, chapter 31, PIR, MHI; LSA, vol. 2, 228–29; Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 492–93.
The first case of trench foot: “Notes Taken at Trench Foot Conference,” Jan. 24, 1945, Office of the Chief Surgeon, Paris, Paul R. Hawley papers, MHI, 1–6; Chandler, 2320 (“We are making some progress”); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 494; Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 267; corr, D. G. Gilbert to JT, Jan. 28, 1959, JT, LOC, box 38 (one-quarter of all hospital admissions); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 187 (“long lines of cots”).
Almost nothing had been learned: The official report on trench foot in Italy, completed in Jan. 1944, took a year to reach the ETO (Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 489).
Nor had the Americans learned from the British: “Notes Taken at Trench Foot Conference,” Jan. 24, 1945, Office of the Chief Surgeon, Paris, Paul R. Hawley papers, MHI, 6; “German Training on Proper Use of Winter Clothing,” July 21, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #559; monograph, “Cold Weather Injuries,” n.d., NWWIIM.
Many GIs were told to lace their boots tighter: Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 490, 496; corr, W. H. Simpson to A. C. Gillem, Jr., Nov. 25, 1944, Alvan Cullom Gillem, Jr., papers, MHI, box 6 (could lose a thousand men); LSA, vol. 2, 229; “Trench Foot,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.30, USFET General Board study no. 94, 1–5 (Purple Heart); Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 267; “Trench Foot,” XV Corps, Dec. 28, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 10, 1–2.
As every buck private knew: Sylvan, 172 (“1 in 1,000”); diary, Harold S. Frum, Oct. 21, 1944, “The Soldier Must Write,” 1984, GCM Lib (“never realized its omnipresence”); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 705 (“trench body”); monograph, “Cold Weather Injuries,” n.d., NWWIIM (wedging newspaper); OH, John Cappell, 8th Inf, 4th ID, NWWIIM (sleeping platforms); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 492–93 (making their own footwear); diary, Manton Eddy, Nov. 15, 1944, FCP, MHI (“one dead Kraut”).
The soldiers’ misery contributed to a spike: DOB, 508–9; Sherry, In the Shadow of War, 96 (“ghosted”); “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,” AB, no. 32 (1981): 28+ (“Each moment of combat”).
Those evacuated from the front: Ewing, 29 Let’s Go!, 88 (“going back to the kitchen”); “SHAEF Censorship Guidance,” No. 11, May 4, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, box 4; Reister, ed., Medical Statistics in World War II, 43 (929,000 men); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 385–86 (one in four admissions); extract, censorship report, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file (“I can’t take much more”).
In contrast to the Army’s nonchalance: Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 110, 126; “Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” AGF G-3, Sept. 25, 1946, NARA RG 337, E 16A, admin div subject file, box 48, 2–3; Cawthon, Other Clay, 100 (“Blue 88s”); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 385–87 (ninety returned to duty); “Combat Fatigue,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.30, USFET General Board study no. 91, 1–4; DOB, 509.
competent treatment and all the Blue 88s: Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 309 (“Between the physical fear”); Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 144 (“The only way one could get out”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 31 (“after five months”); Linderman, The World Within War, 356–57 (“I’m not badly injured”); “Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” AGF G-3, Sept. 25, 1946, NARA RG 337, E 16A, admin div subject file, box 48, 3 (200 to 240 days). Ten combat days typically equaled seventeen calendar days.
“Morale is a darkling plain”: Martin R. R. Goldman, “Morale in the AAF in World War II,” 1953, AFHRA, historical study no. 78, 4.
The Army’s surgeon general recommended: Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 231–32; “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,” AB, no. 32 (1981): 28+. (“Under present policy”); “Military History of the Second World War: The Corps of Chaplains,” 1946, CMH, 4-3 AA, 86 (“faith in a friendly universe”).
George Patton had encamped in a villa: Codman, Drive, 202–3; Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 553 (“impossible bric-a-brac”); John K. Rieth, “We Seek: Patton’s Forward Observers,” 2002, a.p., 101 (German rail guns); PP, 566; diary, Oct. 24, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 539 (broke the windows).
Patton swanned about Lorraine: D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 655, 691, 689; Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 521 ($250,000 offer); diary, Oct. 28 and 29, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 8; Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 241; PP, 557–58 (“May God rot his guts”).
“How long, O Lord”: Codman, Drive, 202–3.
“Send me a couple of bottles”: PP, 567, 570.
Because of the West Wall’s eastward bow: Allen, Lucky Forward, 113 (removal of XV Corps); LC, 302–3; Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 169 (scores of manure-stacked Lorraine villages).
Patton claimed that Metz had not fallen: PP, 576 (Germans had taken it); Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 544 (Vauban told Louis XIV); John P. Ludwikosky et al., “735th Tank Battalion in the Reduction of Metz,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 6–7 (forty-three forts); Rickard, Patton at Bay, 123 (modern works faced west); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 427 (“blood the new divisions”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, box 42 (“Leave it alone”); OH, ONB, Dec. 1974–Oct. 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, VI, 47 (“too many casualties”); PP, 566 (“more daring”).
Daring had thus far gained nought: Doubler, Closing with the Enemy, 130 (“most formidable”); Meyer A. Edwards, Jr., et al., “Armor in the Attack of a Fortified Position,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 88–91 (“100 old men and boys”); LC, 264–66 (walls seven feet thick); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 173–74 (“medieval fortress”); diary, Oct. 4, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 522 (“could not allow an attack”).
It failed anyway: Patton, The Pattons, 268 (“or not come back”); LC, 270–75 (first substantial reverse); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 174 (bad news out of the papers); Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 189–90 (“Those low bastards”).
“Had a bad case of short breath”: PP, 568–69.
“tired, aged appearance”: Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 185; PP, 568–70 (pleaded for a postponement).
He woke at three A.M. on Wednesday, November 8: PP, 571; LC, 317–19.
Bradley phoned at 7:45: Codman, Drive, 213 (“almost sorry” and “relaxed and talkative”); PP, 571.
Doolittle’s air fleets on Thursday: Robert W. Ackerman, “The Employment of Strategic Bombers in a Tactical Role,” 1954, AFHRA, study no. 88, 86–88; “The Effectiveness of Third Phase Tactical Air Operations in the European Theater,” AAF Evaluation Board, Aug. 1945, 4, 162–65; LC, 425.
The infantry soldiered on, resupplied: AAR, 95th ID, Nov. 1944, AGF OR, CARL, N-6741; Raines, Eyes of Artillery, 227; AAR, 1st Bn, 358th Inf, Nov. 1944, http://www.worldhistorycompass.com/peragimus/358journal.html (scampered across the roof); Colby, War from the Ground Up, 308 (“This fort is ours”); Braim, The Will to Win, 108–11.
Almost half a mile wide, the Moselle: Rickard, Patton at Bay, 177–79; Nickell, Red Devil, 91 (“The air seemed filled”).
“Groans, suffering, and pain”: Knight, Would You Remember This?, 128–29.
“bolts, washers, [and] bushings”: Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 262–63.
“getting up where the dead were still warm”: PP, 573–74.
On November 14, nearly a week: LC, 408–9, 417 (“Halb-soldaten”); Codman, Drive, 213–14 (“very jolly”).
“If we win now”: PP, 575.
Hitler had twice rebuffed Rundstedt’s suggestion: LC, 418–32.
At 10:30 A.M. on November 19: Rickard, Patton at Bay, 193; LC, 447.
Patton drove into Metz: Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, 643; PP, 581 (“I will be hard to live with”), 577–78 (“When I am dealing with vipers”); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 181–82 (personally interrogated).
An honor guard played: diary, Nov. 23, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 580; Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 206 (“one of the epic river crossings”); Nickell, Red Devil, 111 (French soldiers).
Little mention was made of the outlying forts: John P. Ludwikosky et al., “735th Tank Battalion in the Reduction of Metz,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 54–55 (French white phosphorus); LC, 448–49.
“Patton’s bloodiest and least successful campaign”: D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 666–69; “Mobility, Unused: Study Based on the Lorraine Campaign,” Oct. 1952, OCMH WWII Europe Interviews, MHI, 5–7 (forfeited the single greatest advantage).
“this nasty country where it rains”: PP, 588–89.
“Chaplain, how much praying”: James H. O’Neill, “The True Story of the Patton Prayer,” n.d., chap. 25, PIR, MHI; PP, 591 (“certainly rained less”).
To the Land of Doom
Far above the killing fields: AAFinWWII, 280; Miller, Masters of the Air, 278 (“murder business”); Westermann, Flak, 1 (well over one million tons); DOB, 495–97.
Terrible aircraft losses in the first three months: Jean H. Dubuque and Robert F. Gleckner, “The Development of the Heavy Bomber, 1918–1944,” 1951, AFHRA, historical study no. 6, 114–20 (eight hundred U.S. heavies shot down); Bernard Boyland, “Development of the Long-Range Escort Fighter,” 1955, AFHRA, historical study no. 136, 242–45, 147–61; Kennedy, “History from the Middle: The Case of the Second World War,” JMH (Jan. 2010): 35+; AAFinWWII, 287–88, 303 (another nine hundred bombers went down); Hastings, Armageddon, 301 (Luftwaffe now was in a death spiral), 310 (“Each time I close the canopy”); Muller, “Losing Air Superiority: A Case Study from the Second World War,” Air & Space Power Journal (winter 2003): 55+; Ehlers, Targeting the Reich, 319 (less than thirty flying hours).
Of necessity, antiaircraft flak: Westermann, Flak, 278, 295 (1.2 million Germans); Friedrich, The Fire, 40 (any plane within two hundred meters); Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 594 (sixteen thousand 88mm shells); Ferguson, All’s Fair, 162 (“evil, hypnotic fascination”); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 439 (Heavier German guns).
British bombers, flying mostly at night: Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 21 (“wall of light”); Friedrich, The Fire, 42 (“moving vertex”); “An Evaluation of German Capabilities in 1945,” USSAFE, Jan. 19, 1945, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 80, folder 7 (electronic jammers); “Signal Service in ETOUSA,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #299, 24 (effective jamming meant that 25 percent).
“Six miles from earth”: Randall Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” in Stallworthy, ed., The Oxford Book of War Poetry, 277.
Air supremacy provided an invaluable advantage: Millett and Murray, Military Effectiveness, vol. 3, The Second World War, 64 (eighty thousand lives); Crane, Bombs, Cities & Civilians, 51 (battle casualty rates for every 1,000 bomber crewmen); Linderman, The World Within War, 39 (barely one in four); “Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” HQ, AGF G-3, Sept. 25, 1946, NARA RG 337, E 16A, admin div subject file, box 48, 4; Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 233, 237. Some crews permitted to go home after fulfilling the lower quota were ordered back to Europe when the number increased (Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 439, 446).
Perhaps less lethal, but hardly less stressful: Tripp, The Eighth Passenger, 4–5; Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 583–88 (two of every five fliers did not live).
The simplest missions could be fatal: memo, “Bomber Crash at Freckleton,” Office of the Chaplain, USSAFE, Aug. 29, 1944, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, diary, box 18; Russell Brown and Nick Wotherspoon, “The Freckleton Disaster,” 2007, http://web.ukonline.col.uk/lait/site/B-24%2042-50291.htm*; “Freckleton Air Disaster of 1944,” BBC News, Aug. 7, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8189000/8189386.stm; “Plane Kills 35 Infants in School,” Daily Telegraph, Aug. 24, 1944, 3; “Crashing Bomber Wipes Out Nearly All a Village’s 4 to 6 Children,” Daily Express, Aug. 24, 1944, 3.
High though the war’s cost in men and machines: Arnold, Global Missions, 530 (cut by over 70 percent); corr, H. H. Arnold to C. A. Spaatz, Aug. 14, 1944, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, personal diaries, box 15 (“incipient weaknesses”); AAFinWWII, 306 (rest-and-recuperation program); corr, 319th Bombardment Group, 438th Bombardment Squadron, n.d., NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, office of the surgeon, 1944, 290/54/33/2 (“he spills food at the table”); Brendan Gill, “Young Man Behind Plexiglass,” New Yorker, Aug. 12, 1944, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 474–84 (“God, you gotta”).
In the airman’s world, those afflicted: Crane, Bombs, Cities & Civilians, 54 (“clanks”); Tripp, The Eighth Passenger, 70, 34, 197 (“dead men flying”); Stiles, Serenade to the Big Bird, 159 (“giving birth”); Andrus et al., eds., Advances in Military Medicine, vol. 2, 502–3; Jean H. Dubuque and Robert F. Gleckner, “The Development of the Heavy Bomber, 1918–1944,” 1951, AFHRA, historical study no. 6, 111–13; Fisher, Legacy of Heroes, 16 (tattooed them red).
a B-17 pilot sat in the five-foot cube: Stiles, Serenade to the Big Bird, 133 (“oxygen mask” and “dead things”); Miller, Masters of the Air, 316 (“Land of Doom”); Crane, Bombs, Cities & Civilians, 54 (“I would not grieve”).
How best to destroy the Land of Doom: “Target Priorities of the Eighth Air Force,” May 15, 1945, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 326, folder VIII A.F., 20 (“progressive destruction”); Earle, “Selection of Strategic Bombing Targets,” lecture, Apr. 23, 1946, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 235, 4–12 (“instructive hints”).
But Germany did have an Achilles heel: Overy, Why the Allies Won, 228–31 (whereas the Axis share was 3 percent); “German Petroleum Situation,” OSS, R&A no. 2340, July 13, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 919, 3 (Soviet oil fields and “rapid and drastic effects”); Rostow, Concept and Controversy, 45–47 (wood-burning engines); Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 57–58 (British intelligence by late May); Hinsley, 580 (“Germany’s problem”).
No one believed that more: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 568–69 (Taciturn and unpretentious); Middleton, “Boss of the Heavyweights,” Saturday Evening Post (May 20, 1944), 18+ (fishing and cribbage); James, A Time for Giants, 98–100 (aviation pioneer); MMB, 518; “The Man Who Paved the Way,” Time (June 12, 1944): 23+ (“finest poker table”); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 552 (inside straight); Three Years, 629 (played with a kitten); Miller, Masters of the Air, 290 (mid-May attack by nine hundred bombers).
No sooner had OVERLORD forces come ashore: “Target Priorities of the Eighth Air Force,” May 15, 1945, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 326, folder VIII A.F., 22; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 58.
That estimate was too rosy: TSC, 308; AAFinWWII (only three were at full production).
Not everyone subscribed to the oil strategy: VW, vol. 2, 150–51 (But Bomber Command resisted the edict); Germany VII, 367 (Lübeck and Rostock); Germany IX, 385 (firestorm that incinerated Hamburg); Friedrich, The Fire, 9 (“fire-raising”), 16–17 (eighty million incendiary sticks), 167 (“the atmosphere of another planet”).
Air Chief Marshal Arthur T. Harris, the Bomber Command chief: Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 229–32 (“between 40 percent and 50 percent”); Davies, No Simple Victory, 69 (“like pulling teeth”); Germany IX, 387 (lime pits).
“no grounds for supposing”: Hinsley, 582–83.
“internal collapse certainly will not be brought about”: Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 304.
Harris believed otherwise: Tripp, The Eighth Passenger, 18; Hastings, Armageddon, 304–5 (“a certain coarseness”); Grayling, Among the Dead Cities, 192 (“tiger with no mercy”); Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 218; Hastings, Bomber Command, 278–79 (ulcers), 282–83 (“I’m sick of these raids”); Probert, Bomber Harris, 154–58 (black Bentley).
“He had a tendency to confuse advice”: Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 3, part 5, 80.
Harris believed that bombers: Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 249 (“If the Germans were asked”); Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 566 (more than half of Bomber Command’s payloads); Hastings, Bomber Command, 282–84 (The Hole), 386–87 (“If I knew you”); Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 3, 44 (“in order to destroy anything”), 82 (“virtually destroyed”); Probert, Bomber Harris, 309 (“city programme”).
Harris’s resolve to crack the enemy’s will: Probert, Bomber Harris, 336 (“proved to be totally unsound”); Miller, Masters of the Air, 473 (“bombing seriously depressed”); Germany IX, 458 (two thousand Allied aircraft); Randall Jarrell, “Losses,” http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/losses/.
While British Bomber Command believed in leveling: Earle, “Selection of Strategic Bombing Targets,” lecture, Apr. 23, 1946, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 235, 18; Hugh Odishaw, “Radar Bombing in the Eighth Air Force,” 1946, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 80, 88, 93, 94–97 (as few as one out of ten bombs); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 504 (one sortie of seven); Crane, Bombs, Cities & Civilians, 63–67 (“not a literal sense”); Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 243–45, 258 (frequent diversions), 280 (Such attacks on transportation targets); Schaffer, “American Military Ethics in World War II: The Bombing of German Civilians,”Journal of American History (Sept. 1980): 318+ (“The way to stop the killing”); Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 574 (20 percent of its payloads).
The Americans were no less intent: Miller, Masters of the Air, 455; Kleber and Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service, 622 (M-76 Block Burner), 614 (“as much death and destruction”).
Air Chief Marshal Harris never believed: Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 252 (“I am not only not a convert”); Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 569 (oil targets in August and September), 570 (flew more than twice as many missions as Eighth Air Force); Ehlers, Targeting the Reich, 287–88 (British attacked to greater effect); AAFinWWII, 795 (faulty fuzes).
The inclement fall weather gave Germany: Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 58; AAFinWWII, 283–87, 641 (350,000 workers); Westermann, Flak, 263–64; Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, 433 (most heavily defended).
But the die had been cast: Ehlers, Targeting the Reich, 266, 279 (1,200 gallons of gasoline and oxen); Willmott, The Great Crusade, 418–19 (had dropped to a quarter of the May level); Westermann, Flak, 270; Weigley, The American Way of War, 356–57; Miller, Masters of the Air, 312–14 (synthetic rubber).
No industrial disparity: Zetterling, Normandy 1944, 47; Weigley, The American Way of War, 356–57 (decline to 12 percent). Air commanders at the end of the war put German motor and aviation production at 2 percent of the earlier peak. “Joint Statement on Strategic Bombing by Air Ministry and U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe,” Apr. 30, 1945, UK NA, AIR 2/5737, 4.
“They are sowing the wind”: Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 96; Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 3–4 (131 German cities and towns); Germany IX, 475–76 (400,000 dead).
For those on the ground, the ordeal: Hastings, Armageddon, 328; Germany IX, 390 (“People alongside us”); Friedrich, The Fire, 363 (phosphorescent paint).
Three thousand municipal air raid shelters: Foedrowitz, “Air Raid Shelters in Hannover,” AB, no. 124 (2004): 2+; Germany IX, 391 (“filth and disorder”); Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 144–45 (opening their mouths); Friedrich, The Fire, 356 (“Children with scarlet fever”).
“In Cologne life is no longer possible”: Friedrich, The Fire, 258, 45.
The iron and steel center of Duisburg: Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 3, Victory, part 5, 66; Friedrich, The Fire, 201 (“The night had done its work”), 176–77, 294–95 (carbon monoxide); Germany IX, 461 (Heilbronn), 462 (“a hideous sight”); Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 140 (“Politeness Week”).
Even from the Dutch coast: Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 22–23; Friedrich, The Fire, 382 (210 Reichmarks); Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, 488 (“blue faces”); Wilhelm von Grolmann, “The Collapse of the German Reich as Seen from Leipzig,” n.d., FMS, #B-478, MHI, 14–15 (fortified with alcohol); corr, “Annemarie,” Dec. 29, 1944, Norman D. King papers, HIA, box 1 (“Do you still remember”). Friedrich Schiller’s “The Song of the Bell” was published in 1798.
On and on it went, high explosives: Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 22–29 (Deranged mothers); Friedrich, The Fire, 213 (“The heat was so great”), 447 (“a man dragging a sack”); Hastings, Bomber Command, 361–78.
“The destruction will go on”: Lubrich, ed., Travels in the Third Reich, 1933–1945, 299.
“Providence Decrees and We Must Obey”
After advancing nearly four hundred miles: Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 227; RR, 335 (Nine weak enemy divisions); “A History of the Headquarters Sixth Army Group,” vol. 1, NARA RG 331, E 242A, box 157, from James Scott Wheeler (nearly half a million men); William K. Wyant, “Seventh Army History,” n.d., NARA RG 319,RRbackground files, FRC 4 (“first crossing of the Vosges”).
Few could feel optimistic: RR, 240–42, 245, 291–93 (“mental and physical lethargy”); Steidl, Lost Battalions, 121–22 (“Mountains, woods, and rain”).
The season had been marked by straggling: RR, 291–93 (“inept”); Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 257; Pete T. Heffner, Jr., “Lessons Learned in the Vosges Mountains Campaign,” Dec. 12, 1944, NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR, box 3 (bear traps); Aron, France Reborn, 445 (first snow); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 1, 323 (emergency shipments); “The Invasion of Southern France, Operation DRAGOON,” ETOUSA, G-4, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #314 (Six hundred thousand men); Gilland, “Logistical Support for the Combat Zone,” lecture, 1948, Engineer Officers Advance Course, NARA RG 319, LSAbackground file, 2-3.7 CB 6 (various miscalculations); Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 752 (20 percent of the cargo); “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 130, 97-USF5-0.30, 50–54 (shortages of food, ammunition, and fuel).
“Dear Family”: Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 141, 144, 190.
The season also had been marked: diary, Oct. 29, 1944, John E. Dahlquist papers, MHI, box 3; Steidl, Lost Battalions, 140–41.
Killed the same week: corr, Frank McCarthy to Julia Littell Patch, Oct. 22, 1944, GCM Lib, box 78, folder 50; Wyant, Sandy Patch, 149–51 (“So long, son”); obit, Alexander McC. Patch, Jr., Assembly, July 1946, 12 (“cold and wet and hungry”).
“I’ve been dreading my first letter”: corr, A. M. Patch to Julia, Nov. 6, 10, 14, 1944, Alexander M. Patch, Jr., papers, USMA Arch, box 1.
“I cannot and must not allow”: Wyant, Sandy Patch, 149–50.
“the psychological effect on Patch”: “Allied Biographies,” USAREUR staff ride, May 2009, compiled by Layne Van Arsdale.
“It is almost beyond comprehension”: Steidl, Lost Battalions, 92–95.
The town of Baccarat had been liberated: Maule, Out of the Sand, 242; corr, John E. Dahlquist to Ruth, Nov. 2 and 5, 1944, Dahlquist papers, MHI (“Rain has started again”).
Perpetual friction with the French: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 167–71 (“Our African soldiers”), 179; OH, Albert Kenner, SHAEF chief medical officer, May 27, 1948, FCP, MHI (susceptible to trench foot); AAR, “Supply of Petroleum Products in Southern France,” June 1945, CARL, N-15081, 3 (wooden shoes); Porch, The Path to Victory, 565, 591–92, 601–4 (blanchiment); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 179–83 (137,000 maquis).
Base 901, the French supply organization: Vigneras, Rearming the French, 187–88, 270 ($6.67 per day); “The Service Forces in Southern France,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file 314, 13-14 (crushed oats).
Franco-American frictions intensified: Vigneras, Rearming the French, 325–26; Ross, 122, 205 (“forced to withdraw”); Seventh Army war diary, Oct. 1, 1944, MHI, 277–78 (received less than a third); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 162 (“asphyxiation of the front line”).
U.S. quartermasters bitterly denied: The U.S. quartermaster official history contends that the French First Army received twice as much clothing and equipment as Seventh Army (Ross, 205).
countered that reckless French troops had ruined three thousand: memo, “Housing Tentage Used by French in N. Africa,” Nov. 17, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 34, SHAEF, box 60; diary, JLD, Oct. 8, 1944, MHI, original in YCHT (“He goes into these tirades”); Pogue, George C. Marshall, 476 (“You celebrated”).
“It was our duty”: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 162.
Now Truscott was gone: Truscott, Command Missions, 446; OH, Theodore J. Conway, 1978, Robert F. Ensslin, SOOHP, MHI, III-26 (tears streamed).
With Truscott’s departure, the dominant figure: Markey, Jake: The General from West York Avenue, 16 (grandson of a blacksmith); Martin Weil, “Gen. Jacob Devers Dies; Leader in World War II,” WP, Oct. 1979 (classmate of Patton’s and five hundred more senior colonels); Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 10 (“exceedingly earnest youth”), 155 (“I made a lot of mistakes today”); Franklin L. Gurley, “The Relationship Between Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and Jacob L. Devers,” March 26, 1994, Sorbonne, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4; MMB, 129–30.
Capable and decisive, he had a knack: “Battlebook,” USAREUR Senior Leader Staff Ride, Alsace, May 2009; OH, Field Marshal Harold Alexander, Jan. 10-15, 1949, SM, CMH, Geographic Files (“a boy who hasn’t grown up”); DOB, 506 (detested each other); diary, GSP, Feb. 29, 1944, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 5 (“very small caliber”); notes, Daniel Noce, Dec. 4, 1944, NARA RG 319, RR background papers, FRC 5 (“Devers talks too much”); Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 210 (“overly garrulous”).
“Ike hates him”: PP, 552.
The supreme commander evidently nursed old resentments: msg, DDE to JLD, Jan. 16, 1944, and JLD to DDE, Jan. 18, 1944, “Eyes Only, General Devers, Incoming,” NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, SGS, box 135; Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 86; diary, Kay Summersby, Oct. 20, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140 (“talks a lot”); corr, DDE to GCM, July 12, 1944, GCM Lib, box 67, folder 10 (“I have nothing in the world”). Eisenhower had advised Marshall that “Devers would be a good bet” to command an army group in southern France. DDE to GCM, July 15, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, WD, operations division, history unit, box 55.
“Enthusiastic but often inaccurate”: Chandler, 2466–69.
Eisenhower sold Devers short: OH, Ira C. Eaker, Aug. 1, 1975, Thomas E. Griess, JLD, YCHT, box 81 (“ablest commander I saw”); diary, JLD, Nov. 7 and 18, 1944, MHI (“very difficult man to handle” and “inspirational leader”); Franklin L. Gurley, “The Relationship Between Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and Jacob L. Devers,” March 26, 1994, Sorbonne, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (“never did learn to pronounce”); OH, JLD, 1968, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, box 110, 20 (“gesture and the smile”).
“the same fine character as always”: diary, JLD, Nov. 5, 1944, MHI.
“the undercutting that goes on”: corr, JLD to wife, Sept. 23, 1944, NARA RG 319, RR background papers, FRC 5; OH, Reuben Jenkins, Oct. 14, 1970, JLD, YCHT, box 94, 18–20 (“lonely as the devil”).
SHAEF’s orders called for 6th Army Group: RR, 351–53.
Devers had grander ambitions: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 402; RR, 352–53; OH, JLD, Aug. 1971, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, 16. (“Don’t get stuck”).
De Lattre made the first move: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 225–30; John W. Price, “Forcing the Belfort Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (Various deceptions); RR, 414–18; author visit, Belfort, May 2009.
By Thursday, French tanks were “decisive everywhere”: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 233–36; RR, 410.
Having forsaken a substantial wedge: Friedrich-Wilhelm von Mellenthin, Army Group G chief of staff, ts, March 1946, FMS #A-999, MHI, 79; Seaman, “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,” Military Review (Oct. 1951): 37+ (Confusion in the French ranks); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 253–62 (GermanFeldpostworkers); RR, 431 (a spent force).
Hope for a decisive breakthrough: Seventh Army war diary, Nov. 20, 1944, MHI, 393; Robb, The Discovery of France, 227 (“one of the masterpieces of man”); Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, 111–16 (“ersatz morale”).
On November 19, the weight of metal: OH, 79th ID, Saverne Gap, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 156; RR, 368–71 (44th Division rambled for nine miles); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 411 (broke through to Sarrebourg); Aron, France Reborn, 440–41 (French policemen pulled on uniforms); diary, JLD, Nov. 20, 1944, MHI (“as hard as I have ever seen it rain”).
Into the breach pried open: Porch, The Path to Victory, 538 (“We swear”); Maule, Out of the Sand, 249 (“Beat the devil”).
“The brave horses were galloping”: “Capture of Strasbourg,” French 2nd AD, Jan. 28, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #247.
Tout au contraire: De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 824 (five columns); Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 123–24 (“We went roaring” and “sent windowpanes tinkling”); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 413–16 (Sixteen strongholds); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 243–44 (tanks spilled into downtown Strasbourg).
As rain drummed off his kepi: Maule, Out of the Sand, 252–54; “Capture of Strasbourg,” French 2nd AD, Jan. 28, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #247; Susan Bernstein, “Goethe’s Architectonic Bildung and Buildings in Classical Weimar,” 2000, Johns Hopkins University Press,http://www2.winchester.ac.uk/edstudies/courses/level%20two%20sem%20two/114.5bernstein.html (“tree of God”); Porch, The Path to Victory, 606 (“Now we can die”).
A captured German engineer was persuaded: Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Fall of Strasbourg and the Birth of the Colmar Pocket,” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series, #129, 2–3, 13–14; RR, 380–81; AAR, XV Corps, Jan. 23, 1945, Wade H. Haislip papers, MHI, box 2; “Capture of Strasbourg,” French 2nd AD, Jan. 28, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #247 (“solid artillery argument”).
“Lots of dead civilians”: diary, Nov. 25, 1944, Kingsley Andersson papers, HIA, box 1; “Capture of Strasbourg,” French 2nd AD, Jan. 28, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #247 (“One by one”).
Strasbourg’s emancipation: “Natzweiler-Struthof,” USHMM, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007260. British troops had overrun the Breendonk internment camp near Antwerp in September (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005423).
Built in 1941, Natzweiler had housed: Turner and Jackson, Destination Berchtesgaden, 97 (socially unfit); Yurka N. Galitzine, “Investigation Report on the Life in a German Extermination Camp (KZ Natzweiler),” n.d., C. D. Jackson papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (sweets and cakes and urn of ashes); J. M. Barnes, Royal Army Medical Corps, “Report on a Third Visit to France,” Feb. 1945, Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 2, folder 1; Evans, The Third Reich at War, 607 (mustard gas).
The second discovery was no less portentous: corr, J. R. Oppenheimer and Luis Alvarez to Robert Furman, June 5, 1944, Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 3, folder 2; memo, S. A. Goudsmit, “Strassburg [sic] Intelligence on German Nuclear Physics,” Dec. 17, 1944, and “Progress Report #8—Strasbourg Operation, ALSOS Mission,” Dec. 7, 1944, Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 2, folders 1 and 3; Pash, The Alsos Mission, 155–57; Groves, Now It Can Be Told, 212–23.
“most complete, dependable and factual information”: memo, L. R. Groves to Maj. Gen. Clayton Bissell, March 16, 1945, George Bryan Conrad papers, USMA Archives; memo, S. A. Goudsmit, “Strassburg [sic] Intelligence on German Nuclear Physics,” Dec. 17, 1944, Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 2, folder 1 (“two slide rules”); “Alsos Mission History,” n.d., and “Report by the Scientific Chief of the ALSOS Mission,” n.d., Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 2, folder 8; Pash, The Alsos Mission, 159 (“the Nazis had not progressed”).
Leclerc and his lieutenants bivouacked: “Capture of Strasbourg,” French 2nd AD, Jan. 28, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #247 (“its pretentious design”); Gray, The Warriors, 4–5 (switched their storefront signage); Aron, France Reborn, 437–38 (deported to Germany). The French refused to print 6th Army Group guarantees of the Geneva Conventions, forcing Seventh Army to put up its own posters to that effect (Seventh Army war diary, Dec. 6–10, 1944, MHI, 426–35).
“There is no question that the French hate”: Gray, The Warriors, 200.
A ceremony near the cathedral: “Capture of Strasbourg,” French 2nd AD, Jan. 28, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #247; Franklin Louis Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy: The Defense of Strasbourg in Dec. 1944,” 1992, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“never give it back”).
For nearly three months Seventh Army: Seventh Army war diary, Sept. 26, 1944, MHI, 266.
Eight hundred outboard-motor operators: “The Crossing of the Rhine,” 1945, CEOH, box X-25, folder 2; Seventh Army war diary, Sept. 19, Nov. 7, and Nov. 18, 1944, MHI, 256, 356, 380; corr, Garrison H. Davidson to Hal C. Pattison, CMH, July 23, 1988, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (SHAEF rejected a proposal).
Even if the bridge from Strasbourg to Kehl: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 419; OH, Reuben Jenkins, Oct. 14, 1970, Thomas E. Griess, JLD, YCHT, box 94, 29–30 (Patrols found few defenders); RR, 439; Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 150; corr, Garrison H. Davidson, Apr. 21, 1953, CEOH, box X-25 (On Thanksgiving night, Patch’s engineers).
Eisenhower knew almost nothing: diary, JLD, Nov. 24, 1944, MHI; Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 135–36 (“happy and boyish” and “impassive Alsatian faces”); http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/lewis_clark/exploring/ch1-1.html (the name “America”); Steidl, Lost Battalions, 126 (St.-Dié’s textile mills); Turner and Jackson, Destination Berchtesgaden, 92 (grenades and dynamite); Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 168 (“wanton destruction”).
A final forty-mile drive: Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 135–36; RR, 439–40 (Heritage Hotel).
The supreme commander wasted no time: memo, ONB to G-3, 12th AG, Nov. 26, 1944, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (Bradley agreed that the transfer); RR, 439–40.
“He’s in the mud”: Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 136–38.
New reports of a German counterattack: RR, 382–86; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 407 (only massed artillery); corr, Robert R. Smith, CMH, to Thomas E. Griess, USMA, Nov. 28, 1978, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (“helluva way to get to Berlin”).
“Ike, I’m on the Haguenau”: The river at Haguenau is in fact named the Moder, a tributary of the Rhine.
“I’ve got everything in the woods”: Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 136–38; RR, 439–42; corr, Hal. C. Pattison, CMH, to Garrison H. Davidson, Aug. 1, 1968, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (Patton’s army should be shifted).
Devers grew shrill: RR, 439–42, 575; Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 136–38 (likened it to Patton’s effort in August 1943); DOB, 162–64 (a misbegotten analogy).
Eisenhower remained immovable: corr, Robert R. Smith, CMH, to Thomas E. Griess, USMA, Nov. 28, 1978, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4; Three Years, 702–5 (no “definitely decisive area”); RR, 439–42 (“mad as hell”).
The trio of generals retired for a few hours’ sleep: Seventh Army war diary, MHI, 400–403; LC, 520–21 (“offers the best chance”).
“The decision not to cross the Rhine”: diary, JLD, Nov. 24 and 26, 1944, MHI.
Even the Army official history: RR, 563 (“difficult to understand”), 445 (“‘strategy’ of firepower and attrition”); Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 207 (neither a coherent strategic goal); corr, Robert R. Smith, CMH, to Thomas E. Griess, USMA, Nov. 28, 1978, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (“misusing 6th Army Group”); Friedrich-Wilhelm von Mellenthin, Army Group G chief of staff, ts, March 1946, FMS #A-999, MHI, 100–112 (gave the Germans a respite).
Surely the supreme commander’s personal distaste: corr, Thomas E. Griess, USMA, to Robert R. Smith, CMH, Dec. 19, 1978, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4; OH, Reuben Jenkins, Oct. 14, 1970, Thomas E. Griess, JLD, YCHT, box 94, 35–36 (played favorites with Bradley); RR, 439–40 (“member of the same team”); Colley,Decision at Strasbourg, 178, 154 (“bring the war to a quicker end”); diary, JLD, Dec. 19, 1944, MHI (“The tragedy to my mind”).
Yet Devers made errors of his own: RR, 433, 437; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Fall of Strasbourg and the Birth of the Colmar Pocket, n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series, #129, 24–26 (“out of the question”); diary, JLD, Dec. 2, 1944, MHI (“It is hoped that the French Army”).
“with the help of darkness and fog”: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 291; memo, Reuben E. Jenkins to JLD, Feb. 24, 1947, Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1, 8 (only a few thousand more troops), 6 (“confusion”).
Still more disheartening: Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 60–61; Mitchell, Hitler’s Mountain, 124 (“I will not serve”); Porch, The Path to Victory, 588 (his antebellum name); diary, JLD, Dec. 6, 1944, MHI (“Having a great deal of trouble”); Maule, Out of the Sand, 260–62 (“the only failure in command”); John Hixson and Benjamin Franklin Cooling, “Combined Operations in Peace and War,” 1982, MHI, 190–92 (Even when reinforced); OH, Russell L. Vittrup, 1989, Henry E. Fitzgerald, 1989, SOOHP, MHI, 124 (“consternation and ill-feeling”).
Seventh Army engineers trucked their storm boats: Colley, Decision at Strasbourg, 144; Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 278 (dropped the Kehl bridge); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 254 (keep the pocket victualed); Peter T. Heffner, Jr., VI Corps, Dec. 29, 1944, G-3 OR, NARA RG 498, box 3 (Loudspeaker broadcasts).
“SHAEF treats us as bastard children”: corr, T. R. Bruskin to wife, Apr. 15, 1945, a.p.
CHAPTER 8: A WINTER SHADOW
“We Are All So Human That It Is Pitiful”
Nine million Allied propaganda leaflets: “The Psychological Warfare Division,” 1945, CMH, 8-3.6 BA, 45–48; Robert H. Garey, “Leaflet Operations in the Western European Theater,” SHAEF, July 1945, C. D. Jackson papers, DDE Lib, box 9, 1, 19, 25 (one thousand tons); Lerner, Psychological Warfare Against Nazi Germany, 239–40.
In the early days of this “nickeling”: “The Psychological Warfare Division,” 1945, CMH, 8-3.6 BA, 47; Harris G. Warren, “Special Operations: AAF Aid to European Resistance Movements,” 1947, AFHRA, historical study no. 121, 44–45 (as far afield as Italy); “Psychological Warfare in the ETO,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 131, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.30, 32–33 (T-1 Monroe Leaflet Bomb); Robert H. Garey, “Leaflet Operations in the Western European Theater,” SHAEF, July 1945, C. D. Jackson papers, DDE Lib, box 9, 25 (A single B-24). Invented by a bomb squadron armament officer, the munition technically was known as “Bomb, Propaganda, T-1.”
Psychological warfare teams studied: TSC, 344; “Psychological Warfare in the ETO,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 131, NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.30, 8 (“best fed Army”), 43 (“hog calling”); “The Psychological Warfare Division,” 1945, CMH, 8-3.6 BA, 39–42 (Voice of SHAEF). Radio Luxembourg often broadcast damage reports as if they came from a clandestine German station in the Rhineland (AAR, 12th AG, vol. 14, NARA RG 331, E-200A, SHAEF, box 268, 187–91).
Millions of time-fuze incendiaries: “The Psychological Warfare Division,” 1945, CMH, 8-3.6 BA, 53; OSS, “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” Field Manual No. 3, Jan. 1944, 5, 11–14 (“Try to commit acts”).
Still Germany fought on: Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 240 (unconditional surrender); memo, Wallace Carroll, Office of War Information, Mar. 25, 1944, Wallace Carroll papers, LOC MS Div, box 1, folder: day files Mar. 1944, 1 (“nothing to lose”); Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944, 529 (“phrase coined at a conference”), 431 (“I want at all costs”); TSC, 354–55 (“a lawless conspiracy”).
Eventual Allied victory: McCreedy, “Planning the Peace: Operation Eclipse and the Occupation of Germany,” JMH (July 2001): 713+ (seventy-two studies); Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 466 (four in five Americans supported); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 86–90 (War Department’s top linguist).
The victorious Red Army: Mosely, “The Occupation of Germany,” Foreign Affairs (July 1950): 580+.
“The defeat of Germany will leave Russia”: Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944, 523–24.
Winston Churchill also perceived: Kimball, Forged in War, 286; Reynolds, In Command of History, 460–63 (“naughty document”). One prominent historian believes Stalin’s confirmational tick mark was intended for Romania only, and that in fact he wanted a 90 percent share in Bulgaria rather than Churchill’s proposed 75 percent (Plokhy,Yalta, 147).
Although the “percentages agreement”: Hastings, Winston’s War, 415–19; Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 759–61.
That fall, a separate controversy: Kimball, Forged in War, 275 (“two Jeffersonian gentlemen farmers”), 276 (“unnatural, unchristian”); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 474 (“re-creation of an agricultural state”). Churchill’s change of heart may also have been encouraged by a U.S. agreement to continue providing American aid to Britain after the war (Stoler, Allies in War, 170).
“They brought it on themselves”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 190–91.
Others in the Anglo-American braintrust: ibid., 193 (“flew into a rage”); Grayling, Among the Dead Cities, 161 (“blind vengeance”); Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 569–71 (“general evils”); Weinberg, A World at Arms, 796–97; Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 467 (proposal to summarily shoot).
“The papers have taken it up”: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 580–81; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 101–05.
“a ruined no-man’s land”: Collier, The Freedom Road, 1944–45, 189.
“A policy which condones or favors chaos”: VW, vol. 2, 147.
“Henry Morgenthau pulled a boner”: Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 580–81; TSC, 342 (“inspired by the Jews”).
This contretemps cooled Roosevelt’s enthusiasm: Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 228 (“I dislike making detailed plans”); TSC, 342–43 (would not be enslaved), 351; Mosely, “Dismemberment of Germany,” Foreign Affairs (Apr. 1950): 487+ (seven disparate states); Mosely, “The Occupation of Germany,” Foreign Affairs (July 1950): 580+ (three occupation zones); ALH, I-178–79; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 792–95.
No formal ratification of this plan: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 280 (single Allied commander); Chandler, 1873 (“eastern portion of Germany”); Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 231–32 (“not having any faith”).
“Something ‘big’ will come out of this war”: Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 22.
Montgomery’s promise to Eisenhower: Bryant, Triumph in the West, 252 (“He has never commanded anything”), 254 (“You have always told me”); Hastings, Armageddon, 153 (“feeling of optimism”); Crosswell, Beetle, 778 (“Eisenhower is quite useless”).
On Tuesday afternoon, November 28: VW, vol. 2 167–68; Bryant, Triumph in the West, 258–59 (“We talked for three hours”).
“Ike does not agree”: Howarth, ed., Monty at Close Quarters, 16.
“He thinks Bradley has failed him”: Bryant, Triumph in the West, 258–59.
“We have achieved none of this”: msg, BLM to DDE, Nov. 30, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83; Chandler, 2325.
On Friday, December 1: Sylvan, 197 (hives); Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 346 (“as angry as I had ever seen him”).
“There are certain things in your letter”: Chandler, 2323–25.
“such canalized egotism”: Hart-Davis, ed., King’s Counsellor, 265, 311 (“mental unstability”).
“He had no competence in the fine art”: Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 512.
A British official who watched Montgomery: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 117 (“like a little bird”); Danchev, 620 (“goes on harping”).
But others in the highest British circles: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 267 (“We have of course sustained”); VW, vol. 2, 167 (“We have definitely failed”); TSC, 315 (“a decisive break”); Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, xliii (“no prospect of Ike”).
Some of Montgomery’s partisans were more savage: Danchev, 625, 628.
The fairways at Reims: Sixsmith, Eisenhower as Military Commander, 178 (never swung a golf club); Danchev, 627–30 (“Eisenhower completely fails”).
At Montgomery’s request, another high-command conclave: Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 239–40; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht; www.fortified-places.com/sieges/maastricht1673.html.
Eisenhower and Tedder spent Wednesday: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 347; Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, 175; Signal Corps footage, http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675070150_General-Eisenhower_Omar-Bradley_Bernard-Montgomery_World-War-II (smartly tailored); “Extracts from report of Maj. Gen. K. W. D. Strong,” Nov. 29, 1944, BLM corr, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83 (twenty German divisions a month); Hastings, Armageddon, 140 (less than ten miles), 148.
“The master plan”: “Notes of Meeting at Maastricht on 7.12.1944,” Tedder notes, Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI, box 4; copy in Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2. VW, vol. 2, 167–68.
Round and round they went: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 347 (“tedious affair”); Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 610.
“The meeting was affable”: corr, D/SAC to CAS, Nov. 7, 1944, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (“Another balls up”).
“I personally regard the whole thing”: Bryant, Triumph in the West, 264–65; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 163.
Bradley a few days later wrote: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 163 (“He refused to admit”); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 635 (“an indication that I had failed”); corr, Everett S. Hughes to wife, Dec. 1, 1944, Hughes papers, LOC MS Div, box II:3, folder 4 (“We are all so human”).
Staking Everything on One Card
An iron sky roofed the gray-green Taunus Hills: Alfred Jodl, ETHINT 51, July 31, 1945, MHI, 24.
To the unschooled eye: Kappes, “Hitler’s Ultra-Secret Adlerhorst,” 2003, http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/adlerhorst.aspx (Interior furnishings); White, Conquerors’ Road, 54–57 (heavy metal doors and peepholes); Raiber, “The Führerhauptquartiere,” AB, no. 19 (1977): 1+ (Artificial trees); “Kransberg-die Perle in Taunus,”www.kransberg.com (centuries of neglect).
Hitler shuffled into his private chalet: Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 762; Percy Ernst Schramm, “The Preparations for the German Offensive in the Ardennes,” in Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 121–22 (vocal cords); Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 6 (“He seemed near collapse”); Overy, Why the Allies Won, 274–75 (“will-o’-the-wisp”); Germany VII, 680 (“everything on one card”).
Even a delusional megalomaniac: Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 345.
German war production: Ardennes, 4–5 (118,000 military trucks), 8 (holidays abolished); Charles V. P. von Lüttichau, “The Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Situation in the Fall of 1944,” OCMH, 1953, part II, NARA RG 319, R-series, #25, box 6, 44, 52, 59, 62, 67, 69 [copy also in CMH, 2-3.7]; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 595 (“Heroes of National Socialist Labor”), 603, 629 (vitamins); Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 249 (Seven million prisoners-of-war).
To shore up a military now losing: MEB, “Overall View of Germany’s Economic, Political, and Military Situation at the Beginning of 1945,” May 1950, NARA RG 319, R-series #28, 12; Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 347; Ardennes, 8 (“rear-area swine”), 15; Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, 461 (“out of sheer terror”); TT, 43; Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command, 221 (Volkssturm); Evans, The Third Reich at War, 676 (“Closed because of the call-up”); Willmott, The Great Crusade, 416 (robbed German industry); Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 306 (“bow-and-arrow infantry”).
Secret weapons always beguilded: Rudolf Lusar, “The German Weapons and Secret Weapons of World War II and Their Subsequent Development,” 1956, CMH, 16–17; Germany VII, 339 (“as if an angel”), 341–48, 353–54; VW, vol. 2, 144 (oddly ineffective); Muller, “Losing Air Superiority: A Case Study from the Second World War,” Air & Space Power Journal (winter 2003): 55+.
No less innovative were new “electro” U-boats: Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 613–16; Spector, At War at Sea, 253; Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 128; Hinsley, 600–603; Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. 2, The Hunted, 1942–1945, 627, 657–59.
Well into 1945, German submarines continued: U-boats during the war were credited with sinking three thousand Allied and neutral vessels (Roskill, White Ensign, 413–15, 422–23). Clay Blair calculates that in 1944–45, a total of 188 ships were sunk by U-boats (Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. 2, The Hunted, 1943–1945, 820).
But scarcely any vessels would be sunk by the new U-boats: Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. 2, The Hunted, 1942–1945, 659, 820; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 771–72.
Dusk enfolded the Taunus Hills: Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 8–10 (Many believed they had been summoned); Spayd, Bayerlein, 179–80 (each man surrender his sidearm); Kappes, “Hitler’s Ultra-Secret Adlerhorst,” 2003, http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/adlerhorst.aspx.
A double row of armed SS guards: Spayd, Bayerlein, 179–80; TT, 47 (“handkerchief”).
Ten minutes later Hitler hobbled in: Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 1; OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 15–17; Spayd, Bayerlein, 180 (Nick-Esel); Hasso von Manteuffel, “The 5. Pz Army and the Offensive in the Ardennes,” Apr. 1946, FMS, #B-151, MHI, 78–79 (“a broken man”); Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 121–22 (“stared vacantly”).
Then he spoke: Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 4.
“Never in history”: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 578.
As the Allies approached each other: GS VI, 65; Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 401–2 (Canada).
“Rome would not be thinkable”: Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 4–8 (“most daring”); Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command, 218.
Toward that end he had a plan: The name was changed shortly before the attack for security reasons. HERBSTNEBEL had been the army group code-name (TT, 36–38).
It had come to him as in a fever dream: Alfred Jodl, ETHINT 50, July 26, 1945, K. W. Hechler, CBM, MHI, box 12; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 732; Ardennes, 1–10, 13; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Ardennes Offensive: Planning and Preparations,” Aug. 1953, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #12, 11–13, 31–33 (“Antwerp”); MEB, “The Idea for the German Ardennes Offensive in 1944,” May 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #9, 22–23 (“sealed in the West”).
The naysayers promptly said nay: MEB, “The Idea for the German Ardennes Offensive in 1944,” May 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #9, 109 (“great surprise”); Parker, ed., Hitler’s Ardennes Offensive, 248 (“no offensive”); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Situation in the Fall of 1944,” 1953, OCMH, CMH, 2-3.7, 39; Ardennes, 72 (invasion of the Soviet Union); British interrogation report, Gerd von Rundstedt, July 9, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2126, box 24231 (“much too weak”); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97.
“The soldier can do nothing”: Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 6; Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 268–70 (“I am a better judge”).
Even Model, who claimed to love: Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 312 (“moldy”); Westphal, The German Army in the West, 180–81 (“small solution”); “The Ardennes Offensive,” British monograph, Aug. 1, 1945, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2, 7–8; OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 15–16; Hasso von Manteuffel, “The 5. Pz Army and the Offensive in the Ardennes,” Apr. 1946, FMS, #B-151, MHI, 78-38-45, 71; Fritz Krämer, ETHINT 21, Aug. 14–15, 1945, MHI, 3 (Wehrmacht soldiers would fight).
The Führer was unmoved: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 482–85; Ardennes, 34–35 (promised thirty-eight divisions), 30–32 (virtually unchanged); Hasso von Manteuffel, “The 5. Pz Army and the Offensive in the Ardennes,” Apr. 1946, FMS, #B-151, MHI, 73 (two thousand planes); GS VI, 66–67 (“Not to Be Altered”).
And thus was the plan fixed: Ardennes, 71–72; Germany VII, 681; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 3, 10.
With the possible exception of the Vosges: MacDonald, “The Neglected Ardennes,” Military Review (Apr. 1963): 74+ (“impenetrable massif”); Ardennes, 43 (ten all-weather roads).
Hitler had been consumed for weeks: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 482–85 (Alsatian troops); “Germany’s War Effort and Its Failure,” Oct. 8, 1945, UK Chiefs of Staff Committee, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB JIC (46) 33, 153 (vehicles built in November); Merriam, Dark December, 105 (“hold the reins loose”); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97 (German forces on the Meuse within forty-eight hours); Hasso von Manteuffel, ETHINT 46, Oct. 29, 1945, MHI, 9 (four to six days). Westphal quoted Jodl as claiming that six days to the Meuse would be “quite permissible for this phase” (The German Army in the West, 182).
No significant interference was expected: Germany VII, 682 (Brussels); Herbert Büchs, Jodl aide, ETHINT 34, Aug. 31, 1945, MHI, 12–13 (Vague plans).
Two tank armies would form the point: Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 411–13, 419; MMB, 133 (hippopotamus whips); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 166–67 (of his original 23,000 men); TT, 160–61 (“decent but stupid”), 26, 29 (Losheim Gap); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97 (nine divisions); Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 11; Ardennes, 77 (wheeling northwest toward Antwerp).
On the left, the Fifth Panzer Army: Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97; “Battlebook,” USAREUR staff ride, Ardennes, Dec. 2001 (“a daredevil”); SLC, 396 (a thousand artillery tubes); Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 450 (fretted more about fuel); “The Ardennes Offensive,” British monograph, Aug. 1, 1945, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2, 11; Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 136–37 (only three million gallons), 133 (two thousand horses); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 327 (“take it from the Americans”).
A thousand trains beginning in early December: München-Gladbach’s name was changed to Mönchengladbach after the war. “The German Counter-Offensive in the Bulge,” Sept. 1945, U.K. War Office, Directorate of Tactical Investigation, CARL, N-13205, 3.
Security remained paramount: Ardennes, 48–51; Hasso von Manteuffel, ETHINT 46, Oct. 29, 1945, MHI, 1–2 (started a rumor).
Maps remained sealed: “The Ardennes Offensive,” British monograph, Aug. 1, 1945, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2, 12–16, 23; Ardennes, 69–70 (delayed again for nearly a week).
“The army must gain a victory”: Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, ETHINT 16, July 10, 1945, MHI, 2–3; Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 9–10 (“both sides are equal”).
The central weather office in Berlin: Royce L. Thompson, “Weather of the Ardennes Campaign,” Oct. 2, 1953, CMH, 10–12.
“Troops must act with brutality”: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 2–6.
“War is of course a test of endurance”: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 486–87; Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 762.
Finally spent, Hitler ended: Spayd, Bayerlein, 180 (would not disappoint); Ardennes, 28–32 (“grave doubts”).
The Light Line
For three months after her glorious liberation: Moorehead, Eclipse, 186 (“without light”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 212 (leg sores); Gellhorn, The Face of War, 183 (“bath in champaigne”); Moorehead, Gellhorn, 224 (“platform soles”).
The small fuel ration: corr, Pleas B. Rogers to family, Jan. 17, 1945, and Nov. 14, 1944 (“cold as charity”), and Oct. 14, 1944 (crematorium), Rogers papers, MHI; Richler, ed., Writers on World War II, 542–43 (sawdust by the ton); memoir, William Henry Baumer, n.d., HIA, box 1, 170 (“we opened the windows”); memoir, Raymond H. Croll, 1974, Croll papers, MHI, 300 (“refrigerator door”).
By late November conditions began to brighten: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 212; pamphlet, “Red Ball SOP,” Oct. 1, 1944, Ewart G. Plank papers, HIA (“light line”); Whipple, “Logistical Bottleneck,” IJ (March 1948): 6+ (seven thousand tons a day); minutes, meeting of chief administrative officers, Dec. 22, 1944, Versailles, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 55 (“electricity consumption in Paris”).
For liberators behind the light line: diary, Jan. 22, 1945, Kingsley Andersson, HIA, box 1 (PX open only to general officers); corr, E. S. Hughes to wife, Dec. 8, 1944, Everett S. Hughes papers, LOC MS Div, box II:3, folder 4 (hunting partridge); diary, CBH, Dec. 27, 1944, MHI, box 4 (Chesapeake oysters); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 336 (“chair-borne infantry”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 334 (“COMZ set-up”), 213 (French waitresses).
The Majestic was hardly unique: OH, J. C. H. Lee, Mar. 21, 1947, FCP, MHI (Fifty-one generals); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 203 (frock coats); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 126 (Wehrmacht boot leather).
“Don’t go forward of army group”: Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+.
The British occupied twelve hotels: minutes, SHAEF, Oct. 20, 1944, Versailles, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Oct. 25, 1944, HIA, box 1 (Champagne cost); ASF, Technical Intelligence Report No. 2426, Apr. 12, 1945, CARL, N-9270 (black market rates). SHAEF in December noted that soldiers felt they were “the victims of extreme financial injustice” because the official exchange rate of 50 francs to the dollar was four to five times less than black market transactions (Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 747–48).
stoppers were at a premium: “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” Col U OHRO, transcript in NHHC, 374; memo, “Whiskey and Gin for General Officers,” Dec. 2, 1944, COMZ, MBR, MHI, box 22.
For GIs without stars: “Leaves, Furloughs and Passes in the Theater,” May 1946, General Board study no. 4, NARA RG 407, AG WWII operations reports, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (first leave center); memo, Nov. 8, 1944, Minutes, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; “Special Service Clubs,” General Board report no. 121, n.d., NARA RG 407, AG WWII Operations Reports, E 427, 97-USF-0.3.0 (fifty-one GI clubs); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 224 (Glenn Miller’s orchestra), 230–31 (ten thousand soldiers a day); corr, T. R. Bruskin to wife, Sept. 27, 1944, a.p. (“Just returned from a trip”); Helen Van Zonneveld, “A Time to Every Purpose,” n.d., HIA, 382–83 (“canvas-covered bathtubs”); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 125–26 (“easygoing manner”).
Troops packed movie theaters: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 224 (hamburgers and bourbon); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 130 (Sunny Side of the Street); “History of Special Service Operations in the ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #573, 46, 51–52 (activities); Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 306–7 (Bayeux Tapestry).
In early December, Gertrude Stein: Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 306–7 (“stratified”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 225 (cigarettes and soap); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 71 (underwear); Taylor and Taylor, eds., The War Diaries, 525 (“all over the world?”).
For many soldiers, of course, culture: Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 41 (“going to get laid”); report, Seine Section, COMZ, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #599 (230 brothels); memo, “Venereal Disease,” Feb. 21, 1945, SHAEF G-5, public safety division, NARA RG 331, SHAEF, E-47, box 931 (more than a third); Neillands, The Battle for the Rhine, 75 (three packs of Chesterfields); memo to chief surgeon, COMZ, “Remarks on Attitudes and Behavior of Enlisted Men Related to VD,” n.d., NARA RG 330, E 94, attitude surveys, ETO B-24, 1 (intercourse at least once); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 233 (“Come along”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 182 (“Zig zig?”); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 541 (“VD contact form”); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 207 (“aphrodisiac dreams”).
They were devastated by more than dreams: Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 541 (two-thirds of all infections); “V.D.,” Army Talks 46, Dec. 2, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD (since 1830); memo, A. W. Kenner, chief medical officer, to R. W. Barker, Nov. 8, 1944, and memo, R. W. Barker to W. B. Smith, Nov. 10, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, entry 6, box 45 (rate in Europe); G-1 history, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #550, 12 (off-limits).
Twenty-nine prophylactic dispensaries: Steckel, “Morale Problems in Combat,” Army History (summer 1994): 1+; Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 98; “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” Col U OHRO, transcript in NHHC, 368 (“proof of chastity”); “V.D.,” Army Talks 46, Dec. 2, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD (“Don’t forget the Krauts”).
Still the VD rate climbed: Nickell, Red Devil, 139 (“whores de combat”); Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 80 (“No-Clap Medal”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 182 (“Hershey bars”); Blunt, Foot Soldier, 49 (“horizontal refreshment”); corr, French Foreign Ministry to SHAEF, Feb. 24, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, entry 6, box 45 (“noteworthy recrudescence”); corr, GSP to DDE, Oct. 19, 1944 (“human nature”), and DDE to GSP, Oct. 21, 1944 (“do not agree”), NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, entry 6, box 45.
Paris soldiered on: corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Oct. 24 and 25, 1944, HIA, box 1 (stamp market) and Nov. 17, 1944 (surreptitious dancing); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After Liberation, 1944–1949, 68 (clenched-fist salutes); Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 250–51 (“jammed with French civilians”).
Among the liveliest tableaus: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After Liberation, 1944–1949, 73 (“American enclave”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 189 (Suffering Bastard); TSC, 523–25 (100,000 words); “A History of Field Press Censorship in SHAEF,” n.d., MHI, 47–52 (“hot stops”); White, Conquerors’ Road, 110 (“nimble French youths”).
Sporadic privation would beset Paris: minutes, “Critical Supply Situation in Paris,” Jan. 18, 1945, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After Liberation, 1944–1949, 101 (government stationery); ETO inspection report, cigarette shortage, Dec. 15, 1944, NARA RG 498, file #44, box 10; Robert M. Littlejohn, “Ports and Transportation,” chapter 27, PIR, MHI, 11–12, appendix B (blankets and sleeping bags); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 620 (rolling his own).
Not least among the problems for Court House Lee: Ecker, “G.I. Racketeers in the Paris Black Market,” Yank, May 4, 1945, 2; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 231–32 (“black market bag”); Durnford-Slater, Commando, 205 (Danish butter); OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI (entire train with three engines); “The Administrative History of the Operations of 21 Army Group on the Continent of Europe, 6 June [1944]–8 May, 1945,” Nov. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB 21-AG AH, 53 (captured German horses); White, Conquerors’ Road, 110 (“camouflaged horse steak”).
Eisenhower’s provost marshal estimated: Hastings, Armageddon, 185; Cawthon, Other Clay, 165 (hiding in the Parisian demimonde); “Subsistence in the ETO,” 1959, chapter 55, PIR, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA (peddle K rations); report, provost marshal, Seine Section, COMZ, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #599-G (hundreds of such vehicles); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 230–31 (selling the entire deuce-and-a-half and “Chicago-sur-Seine”); resume, n.d., Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (four thousand military policemen); “Report of Visit to Paris Detention Barracks,” March 9, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO inspection report, file #37 (trucked back to the front); Bykofsky and Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas, 351; Ecker, “G.I. Racketeers in the Paris Black Market,” Yank, May 4, 1945, 2 (fifty years).
Shortly before six P.M. on Tuesday, December 12: Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, 175; “The Tendons of an Army,” ETOUSA, n.d., RG 490, ETO HD, admin file #531, 2.
As his car sped southeast across Piccadilly: S. N. Behrman, “The Suspended Drawing Room,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 424 (“little points of blue light”); Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 309 (“Children’s amusement section”).
A national ban on making ice cream: Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 305; Stiles, Serenade to the Big Bird, 170 (“cave dwellers”); S. N. Behrman, “The Suspended Drawing Room,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 429 (five deep); Ackroyd, London Under, e-book, chapter 12 (Elgin Marbles); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 372 (“It’s death”).
As in Antwerp, death could also arrive: M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” OCMH, 1954, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 75; Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 298 (half in greater London); Germany VII, 454–55 (equivalent to that of producing 24,000 fighter planes).
Radar usually detected V-2 launches: “V-2 Countermeasures in the ETO,” July 4, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #506, 18–20, 40–41; Ackroyd, London Under, e-book, chapter 12 (floodgates); S. N. Behrman, “The Suspended Drawing Room,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 421 (“You just strolled along”); Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 417 (as high as a thousand to one); Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 181 (agents controlled by British counterintelligence); Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 182–83 (sparing an estimated 1,300 British lives).
That was cold comfort for the nearly three thousand: Official British figures listed 9,300 V-2 casualties, including 2,800 fatalities, a bit less than half the corresponding figures for the V-1 attacks (Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 527).
“Never have I seen buildings”: Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 296–97; Longmate, Hitler’s Rockets, 209 (Saturday sale on saucepans).
“A horse’s head was lying in the gutter”: Roberts, The Storm of War, 518; http://lewishamwarmemorials.wikidot.com/incident:world-war-ii-new-cross-woolworths-v2-rocket; Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 298; Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 836 (“quite a lot to take”).
No V-weapons fell on Whitehall: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 551.
Eisenhower now commanded sixty-nine divisions: GS VI, 18–19; author visit, Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, London, 2005 (pushpins and colored yarn).
“Ike explained his plan”: Danchev, 634–35.
Two years earlier, under similar circumstances: AAAD, 282–83 (retreating in disarray); “U.S. Military Government in Germany: Operations During the Rhineland Campaign,” 1950, CMH, 8-3.1 DA5, 28 (“capability of concentration”); Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 551; Chandler, 2341.
“Ike was good”: Crosswell, Beetle, 786.
The evening ended in stilted silences: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 552 (“evening of my life”); Danchev, 634–35 (“utterly failed”); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 361.
Eisenhower flew back to Versailles: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 533; Chandler, 2341 (“Brooke seemed disturbed”); Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 550 (“let it be sunny”).
“I greatly fear the dwindling”: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 265; Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 199 (fourteen British divisions); memo, E. I. C. Jacob, Dec. 5, 1944. Also, BLM to A. Brooke, Oct. 26, 1944 (“acute problem in the next six months”), and A. Brooke to WSC, Nov. 3, 1944; WSC, “Personal Minute,” Dec. 3, 1944, and “Note on Reduction of 50 Div in 21 Army Group,” Dec. 8, 1944, and memo, WSC, Dec. 12, 1944: all in UK NA, WO 215/101; VW, vol. 2, 142–43 (Wastage in infantry riflemen); Hastings, Armageddon, 77 (20 percent).
“All of us are now faced with an unanticipated shortage”: FDR to WSC, Oct. 16, 1944, in NARA RG 165, E 422, WD, OPD, history unit, box 55.
The American dearth was even more problematic: GS VI, 19; Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944, 409 (new B-29 bomber); Eiler, Mobilizing America, 400 (300,000 workers already building), 397 (occupational deferments), 417n (hard-pressed critical industries); Bland, ed., George C. Marshall Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, 390 (Marshall felt pressure).
To swell the ranks, Selective Service exemptions: Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 635; Eiler, Mobilizing America, 635 (many new privates); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 207, 224 (ban on shipping eighteen-year-olds); LSA, vol. 2, 506 (“physically imperfect men”); Wiltse, ed., Physical Standards in World War II, 194 (“such terms as ‘imbecile’”), 42, 199–200 (“put their hands under cars”).
The need for more soldiers: LSA, vol. 2, 316–17 (two thousand a day and trench foot epidemic); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 217 (figure hit three thousand); “Reinforcement System and Reinforcement Procedures in the European Theater,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF-0.3.0, study no. 3 (three hundred thousand individual replacement troops); Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 94 (below its authorized strength); Bradley Commentaries, Chester B. Hansen collection, MHI, box 42 (“life expectancy of a junior officer”); diary, Dec. 3, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 9 (“Our situation is bad”).
All combat arms felt pinched: “Report of Observers, ETO,” Apr. 27, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR no. 371 (“delivery of armored replacements”); Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 65 (“black line on a map”); LSA, vol. 2, 506 (obsolete data); Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 75 (actual figure was 83 percent); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 216 (a need for 300,000).
Of more than eight million soldiers in the Army: Weigley, History of the United States Army, 440; Palmer, “Procurement of Enlisted Personnel for the AGF: The Problem of Quality,” 1946, AGF, historical section S #4, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 150, 40 (disproportionate share); Eric Klinek, “The Army’s Orphans: The United States Army Replacement System During World War II and Its Impact on Combat Effectiveness,” paper, SMH, Ogden, Utah, Apr. 19, 2008.
The severest shortage was of that priceless creature: Crosswell, Beetle, 797; Weigley, History of the United States Army, 464 (27 rifle companies); “Reinforcement System and Reinforcement Procedures in the European Theater,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF-0.3.0, study no. 3 (“We find ourselves totally out”); Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 96 (“Nobody gets out”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 122 (“no infantryman can survive”).
Frantic efforts were made: Crosswell, Beetle, 788 (Seventeen of those divisions); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 472–74 (sixteen platoon leaders); Report No. ETO-5, n.d., Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers Fighting in the ETO, NARA RG 330, E 94, 6 (“show them how to load their rifles”).
Crash programs to convert quartermaster soldiers: Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 84–85; Report No. ETO-5, n.d., Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers Fighting in the ETO, NARA RG 330, E 94, 13 (“miracle men”); Steckel, “Morale Problems in Combat,” Army History (summer 1994): 1+ (“retreads”); Edward J. Drea, “Unit Reconstitution: A Historical Perspective,” Dec. 1983, CSI, 19 (refused to accept hundreds); inspection report, 16th Reinforcement Depot, Dec. 29–31, 1944, NARA RG 498, 290/57/30/4, box 2, file 3 (“State of mind of men”); Crosswell, Beetle, 789 (“aren’t good for anything else”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 108 (“You are expendable”).
Even the deployment of intact divisions: “History of the Red List,” 1946, CMH, 3-5.1 A BA, 1-4, 55f, 60–66, 75.
The Red List was a paragon of efficiency: memo, DDE to GCM, Feb. 17, 1945, NARA RG 498, SGS IG, 333.5 (“feeling of being a lost soul”); Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 34 (adhesive tape); “History of the Ground Force Replacement System, ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD file #571A (World War I–vintage rifles); OH, Andre Beaumont, n.d., ROHA, http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu (“We left Fort Meade”).
Replacements traveled for days: Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 16–17, 21; corr, DDE to GCM, Feb. 25, 1945, NARA RG 498, SGS IG, 333.5 (“We have reduced the figure”); inspection report, 16th Reinforcement Depot, Dec. 29–31, 1944, NARA RG 498, 290/57/30/4, box 2, file 3 (“stockage depots”); Eric Klinek, “The Army’s Orphans: The United States Army Replacement System During World War II and Its Impact on Combat Effectiveness,” paper, SMH conference, Apr. 19, 2008, Ogden, Utah (combat skills deteriorated); “History of the Ground Force Replacement System, ETO,” n.d., chapter 4, “Major Problems Encountered by Ground Force Reinforcement Command,” NARA RG 498, ETO HD file #571F, 346 (“had not bathed in thirty days”).
“We want to feel that we are a part of something”: Report No. ETO-5, n.d., Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers Fighting in the ETO, NARA RG 330, E 94, 14; Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, A Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 34–36 (“scared the pants off”).
Court House Lee proposed on December 1: Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 34–35, 65, 36 (almost half a million replacements); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 446–47 (“cannon fodder implication”); memo, “Replacement System,” July 29, 1944, 9th ID IG, NARA RG 498, box 9, file 34 (“morale of our officers”).
Now the Army’s ability to replenish its ranks: Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, 688–89 (shortage of 23,000); LSA, vol. 2, 321–28 (truncated to two weeks).
No one was more fretful than Omar Bradley: The tank figure includes those in Ninth Army, temporarily seconded to 21st AG (Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, E 97, LSA vol. 1, background files, box 7).
mustered less than 80 percent: “Report of Operations,” n.d., 12th AG, vol. 2, G-1 section, CARL, 30; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 446–47 (“Don’t they realize”).
“Go Easy, Boys. There’s Danger Ahead”
Allied intelligence first recognized in September: Hinsley, 550–55; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 189–99; “Estimate No. 37,” First Army, G-2, Dec. 10, 1944, USAREUR staff ride, Dec. 2001 (Skorzeny); memo, K. W. D. Strong, SHAEF, to army groups, Oct. 19, 1944, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, 383.6/4, box 86.
The U.S. First Army had flown: Hinsley, 558–59 (361 reconnaissance sorties); AAFinWWII, 679 (canvas-covered flatcars); Bennett, Ultra in the West, 196 (two hundred troop trains).
None of this suggested an enemy offensive: Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 1, Nov. 1949, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-1 (counterattack force); Hinsley, 558–59 (“true counter-offensive”); Sibert, G-2, 12th AG, “Military Intelligence Aspects of the Period Prior to the Ardennes Counter Offensive,” sent to Hanson Baldwin, Jan. 2, 1947, CBM, MHI, box 6, 8–9 (reconnaissance of the Meuse bridges); VW, vol. 2, 175 (“bruited drive on Antwerp”).
Those nearest the front: “Estimate of Enemy Capabilities Prior to the Counter-Offensive,” n.d., in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1, 4 (officers interviewing German prisoners); TSC, 365 (assumed to be green units); Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 2, “Division Level,” March 1949, CARL, N-16829.2 (“German army [is] disintegrating”); Ardennes, 59–61.
Several factors fed this disregard: TSC, 372 (Hitler rather than the prudent Rundstedt); VW, vol. 2, 171 (“in the hands of soldiers”); 21st AG intelligence review, Dec. 3, 1944, Oscar W. Koch papers, MHI, box 12 (No sensible field marshal); Pogue, “The Ardennes Campaign: The Impact of Intelligence,” lecture, Dec. 16, 1980, NSA Communications Analysis Association, a.p. (“we would not attack”); Sibert, G-2, 12th AG, “Military Intelligence Aspects of the Period Prior to the Ardennes Counter Offensive,” sent to Hanson Baldwin, Jan. 2, 1947, CBM, MHI, box 6, 3 (“intentions of a maniac”).
Top Allied officers also had become overly enchanted: Bennett, Ultra in the West, 191; “Synthesis of Experiences in the Use of Ultra Intelligence by U.S. Army Field Command in the ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-006, 12–16.
“They had become so dependent”: OH, Richard Collins, 1976, Donald Bowman, SOOHP, MHI, 8; OH, Ralph Hauenstein, Jan. and Feb. 2102, author, Palm Beach and Naples, Fla. The list of Ultra recipients grew to about six hundred by March 1945 (“List of Recipients,” March 25, 1945, Richard Collins papers, MHI, box 1).
“Instead of being the best”: E. T. Williams, “Reports Received by U.S. War Department on Use of Ultra in the European Theater,” Oct. 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-037, 1, 13; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 202–3; Lewin, Ultra Goes to War, 428–33.
Some would later claim clairvoyance: “Estimate No. 37,” First Army, G-2, Dec. 10, 1944, USAREUR staff ride, Dec. 2001; TSC, 366–68 (a windy alarmist); OH, E. T. Williams, May 30–31, 1947, FCP, MHI; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 242–43; TT, 76–77 (departure from Spa); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 460.
A suggestion in early December: OH, W. B. Smith, Apr. 1949, SLAM, OCMH WWII General Miscellany, MHI; TSC, 365n (ample reinforcements had been positioned); corr, K. W. D. Strong to FCP, Aug. 31, 1951, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (chose not to trouble Eisenhower); OH, Edwin L. Sibert, May 11, 1951, FCP, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (“I don’t think they will come”). Bradley grew sufficiently concerned that he told Sibert he wanted Eisenhower to reinforce him with the 12th Armored Division.
Perhaps the only true prescience: TT, 52 (“has not been a rout”); Third Army intel summaries, Dec. 7 and 14, 1944, Oscar W. Koch papers, MHI, box 12 (“large panzer concentration” and persistent mystery); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 245 (vulnerability of VIII Corps); TSC, 366–67; PP, 582 (“The First Army is making a terrible mistake”).
Yet in other Allied high councils a confident swagger: “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET, General Board study no. 1, 69; Hinsley, 563 (“sudden attack in the West”); OH, Edwin L. Sibert, May 11, 1951, FCP, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (punch up the prose); TSC, 369n; intel summary no. 18, 12th AG, Dec. 12, 1944, Oscar W. Koch papers, MHI, box 11 (“Attrition is steadily sapping”); Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 1, Nov. 1949, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-1 (“given time and fair weather”).
Montgomery needed no ghostwriter: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 587n (“cannot stage major offensive operations”).
“I still have nine days”: TSC, 370n.
Marlene Dietrich cut a wide swath: Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 28–30; Atkinson, “Ghost of a Chanteuse,” WP, May 7, 1996; Joseph Edgar Martin, “From Casblanca to Berchtesgaden: A Memoir of World War II,” 2003, a.p., 53 (sequined gown); Goolrick and Tanner, The Battle of the Bulge, 41 (lipstick autographs); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 202 (eleven pistols); Codman, Drive, 200–201 (“the first girl laughed”); Spoto, Blue Angel, 196–200 (“how could it have been Eisenhower?”).
On a rainy Thursday evening, December 14: corr, Malcolm Richard Wilkey, March 7, 1983, CBM, MHI, box 1, 3; TT, 96–97; McManus, Alamo in the Ardennes, 33.
The U.S. Army’s Guide to the Cities of Belgium: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 31, 213; Ardennes, 238 (“quiet paradise”); Babcock, Taught to Kill, 63 (“crisp and sunny day”); Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 22–23 (“I’ll be getting fat”); Toland, Battle, 18 (sang while eating crackers); Blunt, Foot Soldier, 108; OH, Albert Handaly, ROHA, http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/handaly_albert.html* (death notifications).
Among visitors to the First Army headquarters: Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 180–83; Sylvan, 211; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 207, 212 (worn down by fatigue); Holt, The Deceivers, 657 (“The retreat we beat”).
Ten thousand Belgian civilians: Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 12 (“connected with Germany”); corr, Ralph G. Hill, Jr., Nov. 10, 1973, Maurice Delaval collection, MHI, box 9 (Army trucks then hauled the beef); TT, 127–28 (Another roundup); corr, John I. Hungerford, June 26, 1957, JT, LOC MS Div, box 36 (“cornfield forest”); Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 170 (“Go easy, boys”).
Of the 341,000 soldiers in the U.S. First Army: Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, E 97, LSA vol. 1, background files, box 7; Ardennes, 56; corr, Troy H. Middleton to theater historians, July 30, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; TSC, 371; Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 212–13 (phony shoulder flashes); John C. Hollinger, “The Operations of the 422nd Infantry Regiment,” 1949, Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Ga. (frontages); Lauer, Battle Babies, 6–7.
For much of the fall, four veteran U.S. divisions: SLC, 612–15; Beck, 461 (eighteen-year-old draftees); Alan W. Jones, Jr., “The Operations of the 423rd Infantry,” 1949, IS, 6 (across the Losheim Gap).
As with so many newer divisions: John C. Hollinger, “The Operations of the 422nd Infantry Regiment,” 1949, IS (seven thousand men had been transferred); OH, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” 106th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A (arriving at Le Havre); Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 15–16 (“numb, soaked, and frozen”).
Few soldiers of the 106th had ever heard: corr, John I. Hungerford, June 26, 1957, JT, LOC MS Div, box 36; Alan W. Jones, Jr., “The Operations of the 423rd Infantry,” 1949, IS, 8 (calibration of new sets); OH, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” 106th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A (shortages of winter clothing); Rosser L. Hunter, IG report, “Action of 106th Infantry Division,” Jan. 26, 1945, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG, 333.9, 1 (“aggressive defense”); report, M. C. Shattuck, VIII Corps, Dec. 13, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 9 (German war dogs).
“The woods are of tall pines”: Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 14; “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., ETO HD, NARA RG 498, UD 584, box 4; OH, Mark Devine, 14th Cavalry Group, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #329 (“sugar bowls”).
“It has been very quiet”: Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 15–16.
Straw and rags muffled gun wheels: Ardennes, 70; OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 21–22 (authorized to shoot out tires); Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 139–40 (portaged ammunition); memo, Walter Model, “Maximum Performance Without Sleep,” Dec. 17, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (“strengthening foods”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 582 (“Some believe in living”).
Two hundred thousand assault troops: Ardennes, 72–73, 650.
“Tomorrow brings the beginning”: ibid., 74.
In the red-roofed Belgian army barracks: TT, 189; Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 215–16 (champagne corks); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 121 (“outstanding infantry regimental commander”).
A few miles to the east, the faint clop: Ardennes, 194, 63 (“Nothing to report”); Royce L. Thompson, “Weather of the Ardennes Campaign,” Oct. 2, 1953, CMH, 22.
CHAPTER 9: THE BULGE
A Rendezvous in Some Flaming Town
Sheets of flame leaped: Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 26; OH video, I&R platoon, 394th Inf, 99th ID, compiled by NWWIIM, 2008 (“the end of the world”).
For some, yes: OH, 14th Cavalry Group, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 329; Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 3; OH video, I&R platoon, 394th Inf, 99th ID, compiled by NWWIIM, 2008 (“The whole German army”).
The battle was joined, this last great grapple: As described later in this chapter, Operation NORDWIND, effectively a coda to the Bulge attack, was the last substantial German offensive in the west (OH, 99th ID, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 209; Ardennes, 82).
Es geht um das Ganze: “Intelligence Notes on the Breakthrough,” 99th ID, G-2, n.d., CBM, MHI, box 4.
No man embraced the field marshal’s sentiments: Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH; Ardennes, 260–61; http://www.ss501panzer.com/Trail_KG_Peiper.htm.
As commander of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment: TT, 198–99, 462–63; “Malmedy Massacre Investigation,” U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 1949 (Blow Torch Battalion); Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 5–6; MMB, 418; Reynolds, The Devil’s Adjutant, 25 (Two brothers, also SS men); memo, European Command judge advocate, March 28, 1949, CMH, LAW 2-7, 2. (Hitler’s orders to wield fear).
In early December, after a test run: “An Interview with Obst Joachim Peiper,” ETHINT 10, Sept. 7, 1945, MHI, 2–3, 7, 13–14 (“these roads were not for tanks”).
Both German and American mines cost Peiper: ibid., 15; Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods, 218; Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH (clattered into Honsfeld); TT, 203; Ardennes, 261; “The Battle of the Bulge,” AB, no. 4 (1974): 1+ (stripped boots).
German intelligence had correctly identified: Ardennes, 261, 91; Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH. “An Interview with Obst Joachim Peiper,” ETHINT 10, Sept. 7, 1945, MHI, 16 (fifty thousand gallons). The official Army history contends that fifty American soldiers were murdered in Büllingen, but Charles B. MacDonald, a particularly capable historian, asserts that a single GI was murdered there (TT, 206–9).
This serendipity proved catastrophic for Battery B: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, ix; Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 37–38 (“Boches!”); TT, 213–15.
Boches there were, and in a particularly foul mood: Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH; Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 40–50, 62; Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 37 (captors stripped them of rings).
“Da kriegt noch einer Luft”: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 67.
“I was wounded in the left arm”: affidavit, Homer D. Ford, in memo to ONB, Dec. 29, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; Ed Cunningham, “The Battle of the Bulge,” Yank, March 2, 1945, in Reporting World War 2, 582 (“then the click”).
For twenty minutes executioners prowled: TT, 219; author interviews, Bastogne, 50th anniversary, Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 17, 1994 (claret color).
Unaware for the moment that his minions: “An Interview with Obst Joachim Peiper,” ETHINT 10, Sept. 7, 1945, MHI, 16–17; “The Battle of the Bulge,” AB, no. 4 (1974): 1+ (wolfing down the lunch); TT, 229 (killing seven. The eighth fled).
“God made me to know him”: McNally, As Ever, John, 57–58.
Twilight had fallen when Pieper reached: Ardennes, 265–66; Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH (strung out for twenty-five kilometers).
Behind him, near Malmédy: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 83 (word of the massacre passed); author interviews, Bastogne, 50th anniversary, Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 17, 1994 (Vows to give no quarter); Linderman, The World Within War, 139; war diary, Ninth Army, Dec. 23, 1944, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“American troops are now refusing”).
Peiper had bored a small, vicious hole: Ardennes, 78, 101–6; Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 225 (“red nightmare”); Lauer, Battle Babies, 17, 42 (flame pits); OH, 99th ID, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 209 (bayoneting GIs).
“One of our young lieutenants”: Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 225; OH, 99th ID, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 209; Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 33–34 (killed their own major), 32 (“I’ve a rendezvous with death”); TT, 179 (played a piano); Ardennes, 123 (climb to two thousand).
Two towns, actually: Royce L. Thompson, “Tank Fight of Rocherath-Krinkelt,” Feb. 13, 1952, CMH, 2-37 AE P-12, 2–8; Toland, Battle, 80 (“more like postmen”).
A full-throated German assault: Royce L. Thompson, “Tank Fight of Rocherath-Krinkelt,” Feb. 13, 1952, CMH, 2-37 AE P-12, 4; Reynolds, Men of Steel, 87 (“perfect panzer graveyard”).
At dusk on Tuesday, with the last remnants: USAREUR staff ride, Elsenborn, Dec. 5–8, 2001 (unmarked on Belgian military maps).
Corps gunners muscled hundreds of tubes: Blue Spaders, 99–100 (Tiger tanks being dropped by parachute), 99 (“worry no longer”); Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 32 (“throw back my head”).
Just so. At the moment when artillery prowess: Albert H. Smith, Jr., ed., “Biographical Sketches,” n.d., Stanhope Mason papers, MRC FDM, 1994.126.
Here for three days and nights: Wheeler, The Big Red One, 353–57; Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 341 (“Attack repulsed”); Blue Spaders, 104 (“We are killing”).
The heaviest blows fell: corr, Derrill M. Daniel to JT, “The Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry, at Dom Bütgenbach,” June 9, 1958, CBM, MHI, box 2; TT, 404–5; Blue Spaders, 105; Ardennes, 129–32; Rivette, “The Hot Corner at Dom Bütgenbach,” IJ (Oct. 1945): 19+ (Thursday brought worse yet).
“Get me all the damned artillery”: Blue Spaders, 108; Rivette, “The Hot Corner at Dom Bütgenbach,” IJ (Oct. 1945): 19+ (finally winkled out the last defenders).
Army patrols reported enemy dead: corr, Derrill M. Daniel to JT, “The Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry, at Dom Bütgenbach,” June 9, 1958, CBM, MHI, box 2; TT, 406–7, 410–11 (five thousand others were killed).
But the American line held: Percy E. Schramm, “The Course of Events in the German Offensive in the Ardennes,” n.d., FMS, #A-858, MHI, 4, 7; author visit, 1st ID memorial, Dom Bütgenbach, June 2, 2009; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 16; TT, 410; Westphal, The German Army in the West, 183 (muscle-bound and clumsy). Dietrich later claimed that one-quarter of his tanks had been immobilized by various misfortunes simply in moving to the line of departure (USAREUR staff ride, Elsenborn, Dec. 5–8, 2001).
The Americans by contrast demonstrated agility: MacDonald, “The Neglected Ardennes,” Military Review (Apr. 1963): 74+; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Key Dates During the Ardennes Offensive,” part 2, April 1952, NARA RG 319, R-series, #11, 104–8 (“the Elsenborn attack is gaining”); “Answers to Questions Asked General Westphal,” 1954, FMS, #A-896, MHI, 8–9 (tactical fortunes of Dietrich). The formal shift of emphasis from north to south occurred on Dec. 20 (Ardennes, 134–35).
Two armored corps abreast had come down: TT, 130–31; David E. Wright, “The Operations of the 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry,” 1948, IS, 7 (Cota’s 28th Division); Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 2, “Division Level,” March 1949, CARL, N-16829.2, 140–41 (found themselves fighting five).
As artillery and mortar barrages shredded: Ardennes, 181–82; Phillips, To Save Bastogne, 52; AAR, 28th ID, Unit Report No. 6, Dec. 1944, JT, LOC MS Div, box 34 (German infiltrators forded the Our); corr, Bill Jarrett, May 23, 1945, Norman D. Cota papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (“While I was being searched”); Ardennes, 188 (“clay pipes”), 198–99 (“not healthy anymore”).
Yet as in the north, frictions and vexations: TT, 143–44; Ardennes, 186 (Engineers eventually built two spans); “The Breakthrough to Bastogne,” vol. 2, n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, 4–6 (reduced traffic to a crawl).
On the American right, where four infantry divisions: Ardennes, 212–13; Ent, ed., The First Century, 176 (would fall back slowly for four miles). Seventh Army took several days to throw five bridges across the Our. Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 405–6.
On Cota’s left, two battlion kitchens: corr, Gustin M. Nelson, CO, 112th Inf, to father, May 1945, CBM, MHI, box 3; Ardennes, 193; Ent, ed., The First Century, 174.
That left Cota a single regiment: The 110th Inf also had only two infantry battalions on line, with the third held to the west in division reserve (“The Breakthrough to Bastogne,” vol. 2, n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, 4–6).
Here Manteuffel swung his heaviest blow: Ardennes, 176–77, 190–91 (barricaded themselves); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 394–95 (under a Führer order); Clervaux en Ardennes, 12, 26–27 (John the Blind); Toland, Battle, 99 (pleas for salvation).
A mile up the road, in the three-story Hotel: author visit, Clervaux, June 3, 2009; AAR, 110th Inf, n.d., JT, LOC MS Div, box 35 (advised Cota by radio); Toland, Battle, 88 (“Hold at all costs”).
At 7:30 on Sunday evening: TT, 276–79; AAR, 110th Inf, n.d., JT, LOC MS Div, box 35; corr, Hurley E. Fuller to Norman D. Cota, Feb. 22, 1945, Cota papers, DDE Library, box 2 (Within hours Fuller had been captured).
The castle too was burning: McManus, Alamo in the Ardennes, 93–94, 143; Phillips, To Save Bastogne, 142–43 (garrison hoisted a white flag); Jos. Märtz, “Luxemburg in der Rundstedt-Offensive,” JT, LOC MS Div, box 39, 144 (German looting); Margaret Henry Fleming, “With the American Red Cross in the Battle of the Bulge,” n.d., Columbus WWII Round Table Collection, MHI, box 1 (“Of course we’re open”).
Not far from Clervaux, frightened civilians: diary, “First Army,” Dec. 19, 1944, JT, LOC MS Div, box 36; Ardennes, 226 (fled Diekirch in bitter cold); Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 40 (Christmas packages and letters); “The Breakthrough to Bastogne,” vol. 2, n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, 31, 37–40 (A gaggle of Army bandsmen).
“This was the end”: Ardennes, 210–11; Daniel B. Stickler, XO, 110th Inf, “The Battle of the Bulge,” n.d., CBM, MHI, box 3 (radium-dial compasses); McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 160 (“laughing at me”).
The 110th Infantry had been annhilated: “The Breakthrough to Bastogne,” vol. 2, n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, 31, 40–41; Cirillo “Ardennes-Alsace,” 25.
Only in the center of the German onslaught: Royce L. Thompson, “Intensity of Fighting on a Division Level: The Ordeal of the 106th ID,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-5, 135; Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 35, 46 (Siegfried Line pillboxes); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 2–7 (hoped to capture St.-Vith within a day); Ardennes, 145 (On no segment of the Western Front), 147 (“Take a ten-minute break”); “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 584, 6–10.
Not for long, at least on the left flank: “VIII Corps Strength, 16 Dec 1944,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7, AE P-14 (sixteen hundred troopers); “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 584, 3–4, 18 (put Manderfeld to the torch); OH, 14th Cavalry Gp, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #329 (“Your damn town” and “Tanks seventy-five yards”); “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 584, 2, 14–16; TT, 117 (the cavalry buckled); Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 28–29 (“Front lines still intact”); affidavit, A. D. “Pat” Dugan, former XO, 14th Cavalry Gp, June 12, 1950, a.p., 2–4 (knocked Devine to the floor); “Report of Investigation, Action of 14th Cavalry Group,” Jan. 29, 1945, IG, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr (eight of a dozen tank destroyers).
Devine’s behavior now grew odd: corr, M. A. Devine, Jr., to “Gen. Searcy,” Feb. 27, 1945, and handwritten notes, n.d., a.p. (eating bread, cheese); affidavit, W. M. Hoge, 4th AD, Apr. 20, 1945, a.p. (thought his demeanor unremarkable); testimony, Henry B. Perrine, ADC, 106th ID, and William C. Baker, Jr., chief of staff, 106th ID, in IG memo, Feb. 2, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr, box 222 (“almost incoherent”).
Instead, at daybreak on Sunday Devine: Ardennes, 162–64. On his first two visits to St.-Vith, Devine took a French liaison officer, Aspirant George Guderin (Affidavit, G. Guderin, March 12, 1945, a.p.).
“The Germans are right behind us”: Toland, Battle, 66 (“They’ve broken through”); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 338–39; Rosser L. Hunter, “Action of 106th Infantry Division,” IG, Jan. 26, 1945, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG, 333.9, 1–6; “Report of Investigation, Action of 14th Cavalry Group,” Jan. 29, 1945, IG, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr; “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 584, 28, 32.
At dusk on Sunday, Devine set out: OH, 14th Cavalry Gp, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #329.
Thwarted by torrents of traffic: corr, Lawrence J. Smith, former 14th Cav S-3, to CBM, Oct. 22, 1983, CBM, MHI, box 5 (disheveled, incoherent); testimony, William F. Damon, Jr., in IG memo, Feb. 2, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr, box 222 (“I want you to take over”); affidavit, Robert N. Pritchard, n.d., a.p. (evacuated to Vielsalm).
A battalion surgeon later found Devine: testimony, Clark P. Searle, surgeon, 820th Tank Bn, in IG memo, Feb. 2, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr, box 222. Even before the war ended, and for five years subsequently, Devine sought to explain his actions. Gen. Middleton described him as “better than the average officer” (Corr, Troy H. Middleton, July 20, 1949, a.p.).
The damage had been done: memo, “Action of 106th Infantry Division,” First Army IG to chief of staff, Jan. 26, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG Gen’l Corr; Ardennes, 90–91 (American left flank abruptly unhinged); “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 584, 12, 32.
In St.-Vith, General Jones, a stocky native: Persons, Relieved of Command, 159–61; Ardennes, 155–57.
“You know how things are up there”: TT, 128–29; OH, Troy H. Middleton, July 30, 1945, theater historian, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (“He felt that he could hold”).
Jones also believed that help was on the way: Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 295; Rosser L. Hunter, “Action of 106th Infantry Division,” IG, Jan. 26, 1945, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG, 333.9, 1–6 (VIII Corps promised); Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 113–14 (“indescribable confusion”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 9–10 (“every dog for himself”); Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 329 (“fear-crazed occupants”).
By midday on Sunday: TT, 322–23 (gallstone); Clarke, “The Battle for St. Vith,” Armor (Nov.–Dec. 1974): 1+ (“some trouble”); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 295–300 (“enough troubles already”).
The crackle of small-arms fire: http://www.cellitinnen-osa.de/en/geschichte-teil3.html; TT, 327 (“thrown in my last chips”); Clarke, “The Battle for St. Vith,” Armor (Nov.–Dec. 1974): 1+ (“You take it now”); Rosser L. Hunter, “Action of 106th Infantry Division,” IG, Jan. 26, 1945, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG, 333.9, 5 (joined the frantic exodus).
Jones’s stand-fast decision: “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 584, 32; Ardennes, 165–67; “Report of Action Against Enemy,” 106th ID, Jan. 6, 1945, Alan W. Jones papers, MHI, box 1; John C. Hollinger, “The Operations of the 422nd Infantry Regiment,” IS, 1949 (“absolutely no expression”).
“My poor men”: TT, 340.
Cooks made towering stacks of pancakes: John P. Kline, “The Service Diary of German War Prisoner #315136,” n.d., CBM, MHI, box 2; OH, 106th ID, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 244–245a (compass azimuth); Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 123 (“Where the hell are we?”); “Report on Allied Air Force Operations,” May 21, 1945, SHAEF, A-3, CARL, N-9371; Royce L. Thompson, “Air Resupply to Isolated Units, Ardennes Campaign,” Feb. 1951, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P, 2–3, 26–29 (“command incoordination”).
“Attack Schönberg”: TT, 340.
At daybreak on Tuesday, three battalions: OH, 106th ID, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 244–245a; corr, George A. Curtis, Sept. 7, 1957, CBM, MHI, box 4 (“this isn’t exactly as we planned”).
By one P.M., at least one battalion: memo, Distinguished Unit Citation nomination, 423rd Inf, CBM, MHI, box 4; “A Glimpse of War,” n.d., submitted by Robert Fullam, NWWIIM, 9 (“their skin that yellow-white”); OH, 106th ID, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 244–245a (“Go blow it out your ass”); Alan W. Jones, Jr., “The Operations of the 423rd Infantry,” IS, 1949, 26 (Spirits soared for a moment).
At 2:30 P.M., with two thousand of his men: http://www.purplehearts.net/descheneaux/descheneaux.htm (“like fish in a pond”); OH, 106th ID, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 244–245a (“Destroy all weapons”); TT, 343–45 (Descheneaux sat on the lip); memo, Distinguished Unit Citation nomination, 423rd Inf, CBM, MHI, box 4; Leo R. Leisse, “Diary of an Ex-P.O.W.,” n.d., CBM, MHI, box 5, 2–4 (Cavender had reached the same conclusion); Richard A. Hartman, “The Combat History of the 590th Field Artillery Battalion,” 1949, CBM, MHI, box 2 (“We surrender”).
A few diehards lay low: Ardennes, 170; Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 275 (“I’ve lost a division quicker”); memos, Jan. 26 and March 8, 1945, 365th Station Hospital, Alan W. Jones papers, MHI, box 1 (“Detachment of Patients”); Winton, Corps Commanders of the Bulge, 253–56, 412.
Long columns of prisoners plodded: John P. Kline, “The Service Diary of German War Prisoner #315136,” CBM, MHI, box 2 (wounded men wailing); OH, Jacques Peterges, Aug. 5, 1981, and Adolf Schür, Aug. 10, 1981, CBM, MHI, box 6 (catcalling); William P. Kirkbridge, “Negotiations for the Surrender at Losheimergraben,” n.d., Richard H. Byers papers, 99th ID, MHI, box 1 (“tanks towing other tanks”).
“Do not flee”: corr, John I. Hungerford to JT, June 26, 1957, CBM, MHI, box 4; Leo R. Leisse, “Diary of an Ex-P.O.W.,” n.d., CBM, MHI, box 5, 3–4 (back to belly); Roger S. Durham, “The Past Is Present: The World War II Service of George E. Durham,” 1996, a.p., 174–75 (potato skins); John P. Kline, “The Service Diary of German War Prisoner #315136,” n.d., CBM, MHI, box 2 (“made us take off our overshoes”).
“Bayonets aren’t much good”: Carroll, Behind the Lines, 318–20.
“Success—complete success”: TT, 193.
“Why Are You Not Packing?”
A leaden overcast in Luxembourg City: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 449 (Coca-Cola and “lifeless chimneys”); war diaries, Dec. 16, 1944, ONB papers, MHI; “Destroy the Enemy,” Time, Dec. 4, 1944; Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 54–55 (“There’s been a complete breakthrough”).
Shortly before three P.M., a SHAEF colonel: memo, “Conference in War Room,” Dec. 16, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; “Excerpts from Diary, D/SAC,” Dec. 16, 1944, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 449; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 212–17 (“it would be wrong to underrate”).
Eisenhower and Bradley dined that night: http://www.ibiblio.org/lia/president/EisenhowerLibrary/_General_Materials/DDE_Biography.html (ascended from lieutenant colonel to general); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 723 (Piper Scotch); diary, Dec. 17, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (five rubbers of bridge).
Eisenhower in a subsequent cable to Marshall: TSC, 375, 376n; TT, 186 (“Tell him that Ike”).
Other moves quickly followed: DDE, “The Battle of the Ardennes Salient,” Dec. 23, 1944, Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI; Ardennes, 334 (Army tactical doctrine); TSC, 380 (“By rushing out”); Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 219 (“Why are you not packing?”).
In a message to Marshall: Chandler, 2368; war diaries, Dec. 17, 1944, ONB papers, MHI (at least fourteen German divisions); diary, Dec. 17, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (sedatives); memoir, H. Wentworth Eldredge, n.d., Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI (buried secret documents).
Still Bradley affected nonchalance: diary, Dec. 17, 1944, Raymond G. Moses papers, MHI, box 1 (“Rhine crossing plan”); diary, Dec. 18, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (“I don’t take too serious”). Gen. Sibert, the army group G-2, continued to see the offensive as a “diversionary attack” that “cannot be regarded as a major long term threat” (TT, 190).
Among those who no longer agreed: Ardennes, 332 (engineer company); memoir, H. Wentworth Eldredge, n.d., Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI (“Oh, what a beautiful mornin’”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 209 (“briskly up, over, and across”).
Fourteen First Army divisions: Ardennes, 259; “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 5–6 (165-mile front); Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 338 (Church bells); “Defense of Spa,” 518th M.P. Bn, n.d., in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (civilian curfew); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 341 (tin pans and crockery); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 205–6 (perimeter strongpoints); Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+ (German paratroopers); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 296–97 (lawyers and accountants).
Soldiers in muddy boots tromped through the Britannique: “Defense of Spa,” 518th M.P. Bn, n.d., in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (twenty-one jailed collaborators); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 294 (“Thermite grenades”); Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 312 (among those building bonfires); OH, Robert A. Hewitt, 1981, Earl D. Bevan, SOOHP, MHI, 175; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 183 (Kasserine Pass).
Perhaps the prospect of a similar debacle: The most comprehensive account of this episode is to be found in Hogan, A Command Post at War, 212.
“probably the most shaken man I have ever seen”: corr, E. N. Harmon to G. F. Howe, Oct. 21, 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, Howe papers, background files to Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, USAWWII; Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, boxes 41–42 (“almost went to pieces”); Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+; OH, Adolph Rosengarten, Jr., Dec. 22, 1947, FCP, MHI (considered relieving Hodges).
Officers fussed over how to pack: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 296–97 (“I imagine that the Germans”); Sylvan, 225 (photos of President Roosevelt); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 212 (“take my child”); memo, IG, March 21, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG General Corr, box 223 (bolting for Huy); Royce L. Thompson, “Military Impact of the German V-Weapons, 1943–1945,” July 31, 1953, CMH, 2-3.7 AE-P-4, 38 (V-1s hit two fleeing convoys).
When Hodges tarried at the Britannique: Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 213 (“Save yourself”); OH, JLC, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 229–30; Sylvan, 221 (opened at midnight); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 150 (food simmering).
A British liasion officer: Hastings, Armageddon, 205–7; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 217 (flagged down passing truck drivers), 223 (not until a week into the German offensive); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 150 (uncertain where the First Army command post); corr, Weldon Hogie to family, Dec. 30, 1944, “Letters Back Home,” a.p., 82–83 (“We can’t lose three months’ gains”).
Evacuation of the vast supply dumps: “Operational History of the Advance Section, COMZ,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #583F, 109; Robert M. Littlejohn, ed., “Battle of the Bulge,” 1955, chapter 21, PIR, MHI, 3–4 (stocks could be found in the rear); Fest, “The German Ardennes Offensive: A Study in Retrograde Logistics,”Ordnance (Feb. 1983): 51+; Wendt, “Logistics in Retrograde Movements,” Military Review (July 1948): 34+.
Three miles of primacord: “Ardennes, Supply Installations, Withdraw of,” FUSA, Apr. 29, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2; Cooper, Death Traps, 183 (fuel dump covered several square miles); “The Quartermaster in the Bulge,” in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (ignited in a roadblock); Wendt, “Logistics in Retrograde Movements,” Military Review (July 1948): 34+.
Crows or starlings might have been mistaken: “Kampfgruppe von der Heydte,” FMS, #B-823, JT, LOC MS Div, box 38; interrogation, F. von der Heydte, Oct. 31, 1945, London, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #1068; Ardennes, 271.
Operation GREIF, or “condor”: DOB, 244 (flamboyant Viennese commando); Ardennes, 270 (150th Armored Brigade); Skorzeny, Skorzeny’s Special Missions, 156–58; interrogation, Otto Skorzeny, n.d., ETHINT 12, CBM, box 12; Weingartner, “Otto Skorzeny and the Laws of War,” JMH (Apr. 1991): 207+ (Casablanca).
found to be wearing swastika brassards: “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 2–3, 10–12, 19; memo, Richard F. Shappell to Hugh M. Cole, May 14, 1945, FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994 (sixteen infiltrators); Ardennes, 559 (without effecting a single act), 360–63; Weingartner, “Otto Skorzeny and the Laws of War,” JMH (Apr. 1991): 207+.
The sole accomplishment of GREIF: memo, C. Hodges to SHAEF, Dec. 20, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, “Assassins,” box 8; “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 12; memo, FUSA to SHAEF, Dec. 22, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, “Assassins,” box 8 (“dueling scars”); Toland, Battle, 158–59 (brawling over a ballerina and nuns); CI News Sheet No. 12, Dec. 26, 1944, 21st AG, in FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994 (sulfuric acid); Paul E. Kohli, “Stavelot, Belgium, 16–18 December 1944,” 1985, Columbus WWII Round Table collection, MHI, box 1, 5 (spoke English better); “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 18 (top button of a uniform); Ardennes, 559 (“Belgian or French café keepers”).
MPs at checkpoints sought to distinguish: FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994; “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 18 (Sinatra’s first name?); Elstob, Hitler’s Last Offensive, 189 (Where is Little Rock?); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 208 (capital of Nebraska); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 302–3 (“The capital is Frankfort”); Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 59 (“Who won the World Series”). Niven was attached to 12th Army Group as a liaison officer.
Cooks, bakers, and clerks were tutored: Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 223; memo to W. B. Smith, Dec. 21, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, “Assassins,” box 8 (gunned down four French civilians); war diary, Dec. 22, 1944, Ninth Army, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“get out of my way”); Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 239 (“We deployed into the garden”).
a perfect body double: “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 14; TT, 226.
The real Eisenhower, traveling with Tedder: diary, Dec. 19–20, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4; Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 335 (“What the hell is this?”).
“The present situation is to be regarded”: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 371.
Two staff officers reviewed the battlefront: “Record of Meeting,” Dec. 19, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; TT, 419–20 (seventeen German divisions), 417 (180,000 troops); “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (Daily Luftwaffe sorties); “Task Force Thrasher: History of the Defense of the Meuse River,” 1945, NARA RG 407, ML #945, box 24198 (Seven French infantry battalions).
Eisenhower then spoke: “Record of Meeting,” Dec. 19, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (“positive concerted action”); “Counter-offensive Measures,” SHAEF, Dec. 22, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (“a supply desert”); Ardennes, 487; “The Intervention of the Third Army: III Corps in the Attack,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, I-1 (three corps facing the Saar).
“George, how soon”: Verdun conference participants left varying accounts of this exchange, including one staff officer who recalled Patton saying he could attack in two days (OH, Reuben Jenkins, 6th AG G-3, Oct. 14, 1970, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, 39–40). Most recalled a claim of three days. “Notes on Bastogne Operation,” Third Army, Jan. 15, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, “The Siege of Bastogne,” folder #227.
“On December 22”: PP, 599–600. John Nelson Rickard notes that some evidence suggests Patton may have proposed Dec. 21 (Advance and Destroy, 106).
Leaning forward, Eisenhower quickly calculated: OH, Reuben Jenkins, 6th AG G-3, Oct. 14, 1970, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, 39–40; TT, 421 (“Don’t be fatuous”).
“We can do that”: Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 577.
Before leaving the barracks, Patton phoned: “Notes on Bastogne Operation,” Jan. 16, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 49, folder 13; Allen, Lucky Forward, 33 (“Everyone is a son-of-a-bitch”).
“Yes, and every time you get attacked”: Codman, Drive, 233–34; diary, Dec. 19, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 9; diary, Dec. 19, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (“great expansive exuberance”).
“There’s something about the guy”: diary, Nov. 8, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4.
Eisenhower had urged his lieutenants: “Record of Meeting,” Dec. 19, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (“avoid any discouragement”).
British intelligence on Tuesday evening: Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 247; msg, BLM to Brooke, Dec. 19, 1944, IWM, PP/MCR, C46, Ancillary Collections, micro R-1 (“Ike ought to place me”); Ardennes, 423–24 (best be managed by two commanders).
Bradley’s subordinate generals to the north: Ardennes, 423–24; Merriam, Dark December, 123; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 248–49; notes, phone conversation, A. Coningham and James M. Robb, SHAEF, Dec. 22, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98 (not a single staff officer); OH, ONB, Dec. 1974 to Oct. 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, VI, 34 (“That would startle the people of Luxembourg”).
Rousted from his bed: Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 224–25.
As Whiteley and Strong slunk away: Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, boxes 41–42; Ardennes, 423–24; TT, 422–23 (drew a line on the map).
“Ike thinks it may be a good idea”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 476; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 363–64 (“I’d question whether such a changeover”).
By Wednesday morning, when Eisenhower called: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 368; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 226 (“those are my orders”), 233; OH, BLM, March 29, 1949, R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot papers, LHC, LH 15/15/127 (“I think you’d better take charge”).
At 12:52 P.M., a SHAEF log entry: corr, H. R. Bull to Hanson Baldwin, Sept. 12, 1946, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; OH, Arthur Coningham, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI (“absolutely livid”).
Amid the dogs, goldfish, and singing canaries: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 181; Hastings, Armageddon, 205–7 (“now have to pay the price”).
“There is great confusion”: corr, BLM to A. Brooke, Dec. 19, 1944, IWM, PP/MCR, C-46, Ancillary Collections, micro R-1.
Little of this was true: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 505 (“energy and verve”); Sylvan, 223 (“bedside conference”); “Operations of 30 (Br) Corps During the German Attack in the Ardennes,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 247 (piled carts).
The field marshal himself arrived: OH, BLM, Oct. 1, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 6; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 246 (eight pullovers); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 215–16 (“Unwrapping the bearskin”); Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 161 (“monkey on a stick”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 592 (“Christ come to cleanse”).
Three hours later they had both a plan: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 219–20; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 248–49 (Hodges feared that two First Army divisions); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 593; Ardennes, 426–27; war diary, Ninth Army, Dec. 20, 1944, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (assemble a strike force); “Operations of 30 (Br) Corps During the German Attack in the Ardennes,” and tally of British equipment transfers, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (“enemy’s hopes of bouncing” and British stocks); “Combat Engineering,” Aug. 1945, Historical Report No. 10, CEOH, box X-30, 89–90 (all Meuse bridges).
“Hodges is not the man I would pick”: OH, W. B. Smith, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI.
“Hodges is the quiet reticent type”: Chandler, 2369.
SHAEF ordered the new command arrangement: “The Old Army Game,” Time (Jan. 1, 1945): 45; Elstob, Hitler’s Last Offensive, 462 (“They seemed delighted”); Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 238 (“a 1st Class bloody nose”).
As for Bradley: OH, James M. Robb, n.d., FCP, MHI (Bronze Star); Chandler, 2367–68 (“I retain all my former confidence”).
War in the Raw
Civilian refugees with woeful tales: “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., Battle Studies, CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 2; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 665 (“ancient town in the dreariest part”); “The Battle of the Bulge,” AB, no. 4 (1974): 1+ (“unattended vehicles”); TT, 506–7 (hundreds took refuge).
The first paratroopers from the 101st Airborne: Ardennes, 305–9; Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 244 (“Get out of the sack”); Toland, Battle, 94 (interrupted a ballet performance).
Since leaving Holland in November: memo, MBR to Maxwell D. Taylor, Nov. 12, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 21 (AWOL incidents); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 171 (drunken brawls); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 209–10 (troopers held contests); Marshall, Bastogne, 10 (in England with seventeen officers); Blair,Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 362, 513 (killed himself with a pistol).
Anthony Clement McAuliffee: MMB, 351. McAuliffe was born in Washington, D.C., and attended West Virginia University before West Point (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/amcauli.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe#cite_note-2; “Gale Encyclopedia of Biography,” http://www.answers.com/topic/anthony-mcauliffe; Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 221, 336–37).
Several thousand replacement troopers: OH, A. C. McAuliffe, Jan. 2, 1945, Paris, in Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 378–82; Bowen, Fighting with the Screaming Eagles, 161 (“olives in a jar”); “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (without helmets or rifles); “Battle of the Bulge,” 101st Airborne miscellany, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #229 (emergency convoy); OH, William L. Roberts, CCB, 10th AD, Jan. 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder #305 (“fluid and obscure”); “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., Battle Studies, CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 2 (first wounded); Ardennes, 315; Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 248 (in his Packard).
Bearing down on Bastogne: Ardennes, 449, 229 (Foot soldiers slouching westward); Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 26; Ritgen, Die Geschischte der Panzer-Lehr Division im Westen, no pagination; “The Battle of the Bulge,” AB, no. 4 (1974): 1+; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Diary of Thuisko von Metzch,” Army Group B, May 1952, and OH with von Metzch, n.d., NARA RG 319, R-series, #10, 25–26 (Model now privately doubted).
“an abscess on our line”: Toland, Battle, 119.
Two straggling artillery battalions at Longvilly: Ardennes, 449, 303–4 (“We’re not driven out”), 319–20.
No less vital in delaying the enemy: Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 230; OH, William R. Desobry, 1978, Ted S. Chesney, SOOHP, MHI (“by guess and by God”); Marshall, Bastogne, 57–59 (ripped into nine panzers).
All morning and through the afternoon: OH, William R. Desobry, 1978, Ted S. Chesney, SOOHP, MHI; AAR, 506th PIR, Jan. 8, 1945, in “Battle of the Bulge,” NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 229 (pounded Noville to rubble).
At midday on Wednesday, December 20: Ardennes, 454–55 (“Situation critical”); OH, R. Harwick, 506th PIR, n.d., HI (four remaining Shermans); TT, 500; McManus, Alamo in the Ardennes, 252; author visit, Noville, Bastogne, June 3, 2009, tourist pamphlet (Gestapo agents).
Strongpoints east of Bastogne, now reinforced: OH, J. Ewell, “Action of 501st Regiment at Bastogne,” Jan. 6, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #230 (“mantrap”); OH, Stanfield Stach, 501st PIR, n.d., HI (“We took no prisoners”); Marshall, Bastogne, 76 (“dam of fire”); Ardennes, 456–58.
Little profit had been found in frontal assaults: Ardennes, 321; Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 405–6.
Among the few heartening reports: AAR, Albert J. Crandall, First Airborne Surgical Team, June 8, 1945, “Medical Department Activities in ETO,” NARA; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 468 (“bullets were so close”); “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (division surgeon).
“Above all,” Middleton had instructed: “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; “Report on Allied Air Forces Operations,” SHAEF, May 21, 1945, CARL, N-9371 (twenty-nine sorties in Europe); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 407–9 (Resurgent optimism).
At 11:30 on Friday morning: Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 510–11.
“The fortune of war is changing”: Devlin, Paratrooper!, 529–30.
At 12:25 P.M. the ultimatum reached McAuliffe: “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., Battle Studies, CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 3; “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; corr, Eugene A. Watts to CBM, Feb. 28, 1985, CBM, MHI, box 1; Ardennes, 459 (only five battalions among the four regiments); OH, William L. Roberts, CCB, 10th AD, Jan. 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder #305 (mimeographed useful tips and two meals a day); Marshall, Bastogne, 133–34 (“whites of their eyes”); Ardennes, 460–61 (flapjacks).
Perhaps inspired by the legendary epithet: John Glendower Westover, “Selected Memories,” vol. 3, MHI, 56, 89–90; OH, Harry W. O. Kinnard, May 2004, author, Arlington, Va.
“We will kill many Americans”: “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584.
“This is crazy”: OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 21.
The town had been named for Saint Vitus: http://saintvitus.com/SaintVitus/Catholic_Encyclopedia.html; http://www.catholic-saints.info/patron-saints/saint-vitus.htm; author visit, St.-Vith, June 2, 2009, signage (Various unpleasantries); http://st.vith.be/touristinfo/?Geschichtliches; Manteuffel assessment, 1964, in terrain study, Northern Army Group, June 1976, MHI, 11 (German plan to occupy St.-Vith).
Gunfights had erupted around the town: AAR, 106th ID, Jan. 6, 1945, Alan W. Jones papers, MHI, box 1; Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 306–7 (easternmost U.S. redoubt); Ardennes, 292–93 (“German tide”).
With supply lines cut: Ardennes, 399 (seven rounds); AAR, 442nd FA Group, March 18, 1946, Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1 (“old propaganda shells”); Donald P. Boyer, Jr., “Narrative Account of Action of 38th Armored Infantry Battalion,” n.d., Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1 (“for every round fired”); Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 169–70 (burning slaughterhouse); “Engineer Memoirs: General William M. Hoge,” 1993, CEOH, 134 (gobbled amphetamines); Lauer, Battle Babies, 83 (greasy smoke); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 97 (“cold, plodding, unwilling”); memoir, Archie Ross, n.d., 424th Inf, NWWIIM (“grow into an old man”).
Manteuffel on December 20: “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 25; Ardennes, 404–6 (flat-trajectory flares); Donald P. Boyer, Jr., “Narrative Account of Action of 38th Armored Infantry Battalion,” n.d., Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1 (“They’re blasting my men”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., Ft. K, AS, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 29 (ordered his troops to fall back); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 385; TT, 481 (twenty thousand others).
General Hodges had given XVIII Airborne Corps: war diary, XVIII Airborne Corps, Dec. 19, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 59; Ardennes, 401 (twenty-five miles to eighty-five), 410–13 (battalion staff at Neubrück); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 308–10, 326 (lost half its strength).
“This terrain is not worth a nickel”: Bruce C. Clarke, “The Battle of St. Vith: A Concept in Defensive Tactics,” n.d., CARL, N-8467.297; msg, R. Hasbrouck to MBR, Dec. 22, 1944, Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1; corr, MBR to JMG, Oct. 6, 1978, Maurice Delaval papers, MHI, box 9; Ridgway, Soldier, 120 (“We’re not going to leave you”).
Reluctantly, Ridgway in midafternoon: Ardennes, 412–13; corr, MBR to JMG, Oct. 6, 1978, Maurice Delaval papers, MHI, box 9; Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 308–10 (“They can come back”).
Fourteen hours of December darkness: Goolrick and Tanner, The Battle of the Bulge, 124 (“Go west”); memoir, Roger W. Cresswell, 7th AD, Sept. 23, 1979, Maurice Delaval collection, MHI, box 7 (each man gripping the belt and “only their eyes showing” and “Stay right where you are”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 36 (prodigal counterfire); TT, 481, 487 (Hasbrouck stood on a road).
Ridgway estimated that fifteen thousand troops: Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 389; Ardennes, 422 (casualties east of the Salm); TT, 487 (would long resent Ridgway); Soffer, General Matthew B. Ridgway, 71 (“Nobody is worried”).
German troops ransacked St.-Vith: Ardennes, 412–13.
“Model himself directs traffic”: Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 338.
Looting was best done quickly: “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (seventeen hundred tons); author visit, June 2, 2009, signage, tourist brochure; Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 183–84; Hastings, Armageddon, 211 (“big-mouthed apes”).
A GI shivering in an Ardennes foxhole: Blunt, Foot Soldier, 119 (“How come we don’t”); Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 222 (“most remarkable scientific achievement”).
The new weapon’s origin dated to 1940: “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 3–6 (2,500 antiaircraft artillery shells); Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 223–24 (ice cream cone).
The resulting device, eventually known: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 223–24, 235; Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 363–66 (used only over open water); Appleman et al., Okinawa: The Last Battle, 257; “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 3–6, 17; Morton, “The VT Fuze,” Army Ordnance (Jan.–Feb. 1946): 43+ (five times more effective); Baldwin, The Deadly Fuze, 275–76 (Lancaster bombers had flown).
Pozit variants had been developed: Cooper, Death Traps, 206; corr, Ben Lear to GCM, n.d. (fall 1944), Henry B. Sayler papers, DDE Lib, box 9 (“most important new development”); Morton, “The VT Fuze,” Army Ordnance (Jan.–Feb. 1946): 43+.
With approval from the Charlie-Charlies: “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 9–11, 21–24 (“slaughter of enemy concentrations” and “terror weapon”); Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 39 (“piles of shells”); “Operational Use of VT Artillery Fuzes,” OPD Information Bulletin, Feb. 23, 1945, vol. 4, #2, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 1164; Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 363–66 (“severely upset”).
Three hundred American companies: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 233, 236 (“The other night we caught”); Ardennes, 655–56; “VT Fuzes,” March 29, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #282 (exaggerations); “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 3 (the Army’s heaviest shells); Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 366; Chester C. Hough, “Effectiveness of VT Fuze,” Apr. 18, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #305.
Yet the pozit would prove as demoralizing: Baldwin, The Deadly Fuze, 284; Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 232 (“It hangs in the air”); memo, “Results of Use of Pozit Fuses,” Jan. 10, 1945, V Corps to First Army, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 1 (single 155mm airburst); “Effect of Pozit Fuze,” Jan. 6, 1945, XV Corps, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 10 (“The devil himself”).
But what of the devil’s henchmen?: Guns of the 30th ID first used pozit shells on December 19, and gunners estimated that one-quarter of all rounds fired around La Gleize were so fuzed (“VT Fuzes,” March 29, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #282).
Peiper’s drive toward the Meuse: corr, J. Peiper to John S. D. Eisenhower, Apr. 4, 1967, CBM, MHI, box 6; TT, 239–40 (blew all three bridges); “An Interview with Obst Joachim Peiper,” ETHINT 10, Sept. 7, 1945, MHI, 21 (Peiper swung north); Reynolds, Men of Steel, 95; Ardennes, 337–39 (cans of water).
More spans were demolished: Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH; Toland, Battle, 176 (fuel cans into the Amblève); Weingartner, Crossroads of Death, 58–60; Ardennes, 349–50, 364–65; Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 54–56 (priest gave general absolution); TT, 445.
Peiper had traveled some sixty miles: Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH; Reynolds, Men of Steel, 125 (fifteen hundred survivors); “Kampfgruppe Peiper,” n.d., FMS, #C-004, MHI, 12–13 (a hundred American prisoners); Hal D. McCown, CO, 2nd Bn, 119th Inf, “Observations of an American Field Officer,” n.d., MHI; TT, 459 (“communist menace”); Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 42–48; Moriss, “The Defense of Stavelot,” Yank, Feb. 9, 1945, 8+; Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 84–85; “Malmédy Massacre Investigation,” Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 1949, 2.
By late Friday, American machine guns: TT, 459; Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH (burned secrets in the cellar); Reynolds, Men of Steel, 126; Ardennes, 374–77; TT, 457–59 (Luger pistols), 465 (hit Malmédy instead).
“Position considerably worsened”: H. Priess, “Commitment of the I SS Panzer Corps During the Ardennes Offensive,” March 1946, FMS, #A-877, MHI, 40–43; Reynolds, Men of Steel, 133 (coded message); Reynolds, The Devil’s Adjutant, 225–35 (shot for desertion); Ardennes, 376–77 (last twenty-eight panzers).
At two A.M. on Sunday, December 24: Ardennes, 376–77. Other accounts cite fewer German wounded and more American prisoners left behind (Reynolds, Men of Steel, 133).
During a brief firefight with an American patrol: Hal D. McCown, CO, 2nd Bn, 119th Inf, “Observations of an American Field Officer,” n.d., MHI; TT, 462–63 (“Yankee Doodle”).
At a ford in the frigid Salm: Reynolds, Men of Steel, 134–35 (human chain); Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH (German line at Wanne); TT, 462–63; Reynolds, Men of Steel, 134–35 (770 remained); “Malmédy Massacre Investigation,” Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 1949, 2; Ardennes, 262; Royce L. Thompson, “Bibliography of the Malmédy Massacre Case,” Dec. 9, 1954, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2.
Across the Ardennes, heavy snow: Royce L. Thompson, “Weather of the Ardennes Campaign,” Oct. 2, 1953, CMH, 29; Ardennes, 470; Moorehead, Eclipse, 228 (a “radiant world”); William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” 1983, CEOH, box V-14, XII, 22 (stacked like sandbags); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 209 (women’s dresses); Lewis, ed., The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 441 (“Everyone seems about the same age”).
Troops fashioned sleds: “Ardennes, Supply Installations, Withdraw of,” FUSA, Apr. 29, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; “Chief Engineers Report on Camouflage Activities in the ETO,” Nov. 15, 1945, Howard V. Canan papers, HIA, box 3 (lime wash and salt); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 208 (Belgian lace); “Third U.S. Army After Action Report,” n.d., chapter 21, CMH (mattress covers); “Unit History, 93rd Evacuation Hospital, 1944,” Donald E. Currier papers, MHI, box 1, 42–43 (gloves dipped in paint); Simpson, Selected Prose, 138 (“out like a match”); Mary Ferrell, 101st Evacuation Hospital, ts, March 1970, NWWIIM (“like an untuned radio”).
Clumsy skirmishes and pitched battles: Ardennes, 438–39; “Engineer Troops in Ardennes Breakthrough,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2, 2 (impeded the north shoulder); Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 463 (exposed Manteuffel’s left flank); Horst Stumpff, OB West chief armored officer, Aug. 11, 1945, ETHINT 61, MHI, 61 (new panzers in the Rhine valley).
But west of St.-Vith in the German center: Gilmore, ed., U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II, 142–43; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 33 (twenty-five-mile battlefront).
New anxiety beset First Army headquarters: Sylvan, 231; war diary, Dec. 24, 1944, 0615 hrs, MBR papers, MHI, box 59 (“The situation is normal”).
Others were far less sanguine: “Report on Allied Air Force Operations,” May 21, 1945, SHAEF, A-3, CARL, N-9371; AAFinWWII, 773 (“processing the terrain”); Royce L. Thompson, “Weather of the Ardennes Campaign,” Oct. 2, 1953, CMH, 29–30 (GIs craned their necks); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 532–33 (heaviest attacks of the war); Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 36 (“The bombers have fine, feathery”); Ardennes, 649–50 (horse-drawn plows); Quesada, “Operations of the Ninth Tactical Air Command,” lecture, May 29, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-10-45, 13; diary, Martin Opitz, 295th VG Div, Dec. 25, 1944, NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR, box 8 (“The American Jabos”).
Clear skies also permitted resupply of Bastogne: “Report on Air Resupply to 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne,” Jan. 11, 1945, in “Battle of the Bulge,” and OH, Carl W. Kohls, G-4, et al., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #229 and 230. Of 900 sorties to Bastogne, 23 planes would be lost (Royce L. Thompson, “Air Resupply to Isolated Units, Ardennes Campaign,” Feb. 1951, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P, 73).
General McAuliffe also had the invaluable services: OH, James E. Parker, “Air Support Part at Bastogne,” Jan. 1, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #230; Marshall, Bastogne, 134–56; “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (Tracks in the snow).
Bastogne was reprieved: OH, William L. Roberts, CCB, 10th AD, Jan. 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder #305; “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (rationed to ten rounds); Ardennes, 474 (sixteen miles in circumference); Ingersoll, Top Secret, 250 (“steel filings”).
More than three thousand civilians remained trapped: Toland, Battle, 255–57; “Medical Evacuation and Supply, Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 230 (Several hundred wounded); Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 265–66 (“their faces were old”); Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 469–70 (toiled by flashlightandrifle range); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Services in the European Theater of Operations, 418 (the moribund lay along a wall and cognac); “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (coffee and Ovaltine); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 166–67.
Napalm fires ringed the town: Ardennes, 475.
“Do not plan, for God’s will”: Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 137; Simpson, Selected Prose, 140 (“Those who are attacking you”); Toland, Battle, 255–57 (“Santa Claus Is Coming”); Ardennes, 475 (“Xmas eve present”); Marshall, Bastogne, 169 (“We have been let down”).
At 5:10 P.M. an intrepid pilot: “Medical Evacuation and Supply, Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 230; author visit, Bastogne, June 3, 2009, signage; OH, William L. Roberts, CCB, 10th AD, Jan. 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder #305 (civilian nurse); Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 471; “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 4.
Patton attended a candlelight communion: PP, 606; corr, GSP to Bea, Dec. 25, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12; D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 691 (enthroned with Bradley); Codman, Drive, 235 (crowded, frigid).
“brick-red face”: PP, 852–53.
Scanning the starry sky outside: Allen, Lucky Forward, 184 (“Noel, noel”); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 210 (personally challenged sentries); Allen, Lucky Forward, 184 (“root-hog or die”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 682–83 (“war in the raw”); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 251 (asked God for fair weather); PP, 606 (“clear cold Christmas”).
Patton had made good on his brash promise: H. P. Hudson, “The Intervention of the Third Army: III Corps in the Attack,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 3 (feat was prodigious and “Drive like hell”); Allen, Lucky Forward, 180 (108 artillery battalions); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 167 (No SS prisoners were to be taken alive); Baily, Faint Praise, 120 (“Jumbo” tanks).
Both commander and commanded had also made missteps: Albret Praun, Wehrmacht signal chief, “German Radio Intelligence,” n.d., FMS, #P-038, CMH, 84–85; Holt, The Deceivers, 647–48, 658–59; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 36 (plodding frontal assault); Robert R. Summers et al., “Armor at Bastogne,” May 1949, AS, CARL, N-2146.71-2, 123 (first time since October); Ardennes, 526 (perilous night attack); Fox, Patton’s Vanguard, 388 (just fourteen Shermans), 382–84 (“manure-strewn hell of a village”); “The Intervention of the Third Army: III Corps in the Attack,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, II, 12–13; Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor, 130 (“The troops built little fires”).
“This was probably my fault”: PP, 605.
“it takes a long time to learn war”: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 172; Fox, Patton’s Vanguard, 388; Robert R. Summers et al., “Armor at Bastogne,” May 1949, AS, CARL, N-2146.71-2, 128–31 (German paratroopers kept infiltrating); notes, Dec. 26, 1944, SHAEF main, James M. Robb corr, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98 (Patton twice phoned); “The Intervention of the Third Army: III Corps in the Attack,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, II, 12–13 (“I am unhappy”).
In search of a seam: Sorley, Thunderbolt, 22, 55 (eating aspirin); Fox, Patton’s Vanguard, 399.
“shooting, clubbing, stabbing melee”: Ardennes, 552–55; “The Intervention of the Third Army: III Corps in the Attack,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, VIII, 10 (“They are through Assenois”).
Five Shermans and a half-track: Sorley, Thunderbolt, 80–81; Toland, Battle, 282–83 (“Come here!”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 212 (“It’s good to see you”).
“Kilroy Was Stuck Here”: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 212; Ardennes, 607–9 (seven hundred enemy prisoners), 480–81 (two thousand American casualties); Hastings, Armageddon, 234 (smashing his rifle butt); “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (division’s tank strength); “Answers to Questions Asked General Westphal,” 1954, FMS #A-896, MHI, 11 (“failure to conquer Bastogne”).
“as important as the battle of Gettysburg”: PP, 613.
“Glory Has Its Price”
Time in the last week of December: “Man of the Year,” Time (Jan. 1, 1945): cover; TT, 600 (current German salient); Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 28, 1952, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-15; “Ordnance,” n.d., “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, UD 584, box 2; “Tactical Air Operations in Europe,” XIX Tactical Air Command, May 1945, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 83, folder 1, 56 (ordered to bomb any column).
Of greater concern was a German armored spearhead: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 202–3; Ardennes, 430–35, 535 (four-night round-trip), 426–27; TT, 577–79 (five miles from Dinant); Collins, Lightning Joe, 292 (nearly 100,000 strong).
Savage fighting raged from the Salm: William E. Dressler et al., “Armor Under Adverse Conditions,” 1949, AS, Ft. K, 41–48; TT, 583; Ardennes, 570 (equipment from six battalions), 595–603 (Sixth Panzer Army’s last sally); Harmon, Combat Commander, 240 (British flame-throwing tank).
Eisenhower for the past week: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 545.
An Ultra intercept decoded just after Christmas: Sent on December 21, the message took five days to decode (Bennett, Ultra in the West, 214); Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 28, 1952, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-15 (almost four thousand tanks).
Patton favored driving from the south: Ardennes, 610-11; Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 191–96.
Collins, in a memorandum on Wednesday: memo, JLC to C. Hodges, “Plans for Offensive Operations,” Dec. 27, 1944, JLC papers, DDE Lib, box 3, 201 file.
Montgomery hesitated: war diary, Ninth Army, Dec. 28, 1944, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11; corr, JLC to Bruce C. Clarke, Feb. 21, 1975, CARL, N-8467.297; OH, JLC, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, in “Courtney Hodges Story,” MHI (“Nobody is going to break through”); OH, JLC, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 235–38 (“You’re going to push the Germans out”).
Falaise could hardly be blamed solely on Montgomery: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 539; msg, BLM to DDE, Dec. 22, 1944, 2155 hrs, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83 (doubted Patton’s ability); memo, JLC to C. Hodges, Dec. 30, 1944, JLC papers, DDE Lib, box 3 (“definitely expended itself”).
“Praise God”: notes, James M. Robb, Dec. 27, 1944, DDE office, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98.
“Monty is a tired little fart”: PP, 608; notes, James M. Robb, Dec. 27, 1944, W. B. Smith office, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98 (“our masters in Washington”); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 193, 198–99 (Bradley also favored pinching the enemy at Houffalize); Hogan, A Command Post at War, 225 (counted seventeen uncommitted German divisions); Ardennes, 614 (clear skies ended).
Montgomery later asserted: OH, BLM, Oct. 1, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 7; Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+ (preferred the more conservative route); Sylvan, 241 (“Hodges has had enough”).
Delayed by fog, snowbanks, and further reports: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 259–63; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 360; TT, 609 (Montgomery sketched the plan).
Yet the field marshal was vague: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 222 (“gallopers”), 259–63 (a “master plan”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 605 (“one more full-blooded attack”); TSC, 385n.
With this ancient theme again resurrected: TSC, 385. Eisenhower glosses over this episode in his memoir (Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 360–61).
“definitely in a somewhat humble frame of mind”: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 265, 246–48 (“such a decent fellow” and “You are far better informed”); Hastings, Armageddon, 223 (“We have tidied up the mess”).
“We have had one very definite failure”: Chandler, 2387.
“I put this matter up to you again”: corr, BLM to DDE, Dec. 29, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.
“Under no circumstances make any concessions”: corr, GCM to DDE, Dec. 30, 1944, Eyes Only Message, Walter B. Smith collection, DDE Lib, WWII documents, box 27; TSC, 385–86.
“They are all mad at Monty”: diary, Kay Summersby, Dec. 29 and 31, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140.
“knowing Monty, the last thing he would do”: notes, James Robb, SHAEF, Dec. 31, 1944, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8.
“All right, Beetle”: OH, DDE, n.d., CJR, box 43, file 7, 33.
Now fully alive to Montgomery’s peril: Chandler, 2387n.
“All right, Freddie”: OH, DDE, n.d., CJR, box 43, file 7, 34.
“I do not agree that one army group commander”: corr, DDE to BLM, Dec. 31, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.
Already in fragile health: OH, Alan Moorehead, Jan. 21, 1947, FCP, MHI (“one of you will have to go”); AAAD, 425 (Mareth); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 376 (“What shall I do”).
“Dear Ike … Whatever your decision”: corr, BLM to DDE, Dec. 31, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83.
“The general tendency at SHAEF”: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 288–89; Chandler, 2389 (“very fine telegram”), xxiii (“He’s just a little man”); OH, John Whiteley, May 15, 1963, CR, box 44, folder 3 (kept him awake).
Although he commanded ten French and eight American divisions: RR, 462–63, 482–83, 492; Garland, Unknown Soldiers, 346 (“Shit on Hitler’s Home”).
The Colmar Pocket, as wide as the Bulge: OH, Paul D. Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI; diary, Dec. 12, 1944, John E. Dahlquist papers, MHI, box 3 (“enemy attacked on three fronts”); corr, J. E. Dahlquist to Homer Case, June 5, 1945, John E. Dahlquist papers, MHI, box 1 (“holding the bag”); corr, JLD to DDE, Dec. 18, 1944, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5; diary, JLD, Dec. 15, 1944, MHI; Franklin L. Gurley, “The Relationship Between Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and Jacob L. Devers,” March 26, 1994, Sorbonne, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (“two problem children”).
At Verdun on December 19: RR, 486–89, 495–97, 511, 533; notes, Dec. 26, 1944, SHAEF main, James M. Robb corr, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98 (brought Devers a map); Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy: The Defense of Strasbourg in Dec. 1944,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (abandoning Strasbourg and the Alsatian plain); memo, DDE to JLD, Dec. 28, 1944, 1024 hrs, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (SHAEF reserve west of the Vosges).
“The Germans undoubtedly will attack me”: diary, JLD, Dec. 26, 28, 29, 1944, MHI.
De Gaulle thought so too: DOB, 401 (left-handed salute); Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“They are up to something”).
While Smith prevaricated: John W. Price, “The Strasbourg Incident,” 1967, OCMH, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5, 3–5 (fallback positions); OH, Russell L. Vittrup, 1989, Henry E. Fitzgerald, SOOHP, MHI, 125–26 (“Ain’t going to do it”); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 303–4 (“psychosis of retreat”); Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“integrity of the present front”).
“Call up Devers and tell him”: notes, Jan. 1, 1945, SHAEF main, James M. Robb corr, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98.
“I won’t go to him with that story”: Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5.
“The political pressure to retain French soil”: corr, DDE to JLD, Jan. 1, 1945, JLD papers, MHI.
Devers capitulated: diary, JLD, Jan. 1, 1945, MHI (“no alternative”); Franklin L. Gurley, “The Relationship Between Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and Jacob L. Devers,” March 26, 1994, Sorbonne, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4; Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” JMH (July 1994): 481+.
“You can kill a willing horse”: diary, JLD, Dec. 30, 1944, MHI.
“make it a Stalingrad”: diary, JLD, Jan. 1, 1945, MHI.
The final day of the year ticked by: war diary, Seventh Army, Dec. 31, 1944, MHI; Cochran, “Protecting the Ultimate Advantage,” Military History (June 1985): 45+; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 483 (“Never was the world plagued”); diary, JLD, Dec. 31, 1944, MHI (“Patch called me”).
The attack indeed fell that night: RR, 493–97, 499–500 (Seventh Army was overextended); Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, 181–83; Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 173, 241 (force Patton to withdraw).
The Americans were also alert and entrenched: Cochran, “Protecting the Ultimate Advantage,” Military History (June 1985): 45+; Donald S. Bussey, “Ultra and the U.S. Seventh Army,” May 12, 1945, SRH-022, and “Reports by U.S. Army Ultra Representatives,” 6th Army Group, n.d., SRH-023, NARA RG 457, E 022 (Patch had little doubt).
“German offensive began”: Wyant, Sandy Patch, 9–11 (“Murdered them”); Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, 197, 200, 203–4 (“Gained only insignificant ground”); RR, 504–5; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 275 (“Morgue Valley”).
The most flamboyant German sally: TT, 608 (Hangover Raid); Miller, Masters of the Air, 374 (white gloves); VW, vol. 2 190. Richard G. Davis puts the tally of destroyed Allied planes at nearly two hundred, including three dozen American aircraft (Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 535).
But German losses approached 300 planes: Germany VII, 693–94; Miller, Masters of the Air, 374 (“our last substance”). Miller puts Allied losses at more than 450 planes and German losses at over 400.
Even as NORDWIND collapsed: RR, 505–9; “The Psychological Warfare Division,” 1945, CMH, 8-3.6 BA, 78–79 (Radio Stuttgart): Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“caused a general panic”).
Lowered tricolors and the sight of official sedans: Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5; memo, “Misleading Briefing Data,” Frank A. Allen, Jr., to JLD, Jan. 16, 1945, and memo, 6th Army Group, Jan. 21, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 240P, SHAEF public relations section, box 38 (“women pushing baby carriages”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 129 (inverted dinner plates).
Charles de Gaulle, once again referring to himself: De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 834. De Gaulle’s message, written on January 1, took twenty-seven hours to reach De Lattre (OH, Philippe de Camas, asst G-3, French First Army, Oct.–Dec. 1948, Miguel Vigneras, Paris, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5).
“a bomb-like effect”: OH, Philippe de Camas, asst G-3, French First Army, Oct.–Dec. 1948, Miguel Vigneras, Paris, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5; Salisbury-Jones, So Full a Glory, 171 (“Ça, non!”); Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“problem of conscience”).
De Gaulle saw no dilemma: De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 834–37; Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (snubbed Madame De Lattre); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 311 (“our last hope”).
At nine P.M. on Tuesday, General Juin: Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“extremely grave consequences” and “they are dependent on us”); corr, David G. Barr to JLD, Aug. 15, 1967, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (pulled from his pocket).
“Juin said things to me last night”: notes, Jan. 3, 1945, DDE office and W. B. Smith office, James M. Robb corr, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98; “Summary of Directions in Chronological Order Concerning Holding Strasbourg or Not Holding Strasbourg,” Jan. 3, 1945, JLD papers, MHI (“forget Strasbourg”); John W. Price, “The Strasbourg Incident,” 1967, OCMH, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5, 26 (“ineradicable shame”); Seventh Army war diary, Jan. 3, 1945, MHI (“terrible reprisals”); Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (Evacuation plans); memo, “Misleading Briefing Data,” Frank A. Allen, Jr., to JLD, Jan. 16, 1945, and memo, 6th Army Group, Jan. 21, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 240P, SHAEF public relations section, box 38 (only two hundred rail cars).
“Next to the weather”: Chandler, 2491.
Smith phoned Devers to ask: “Summary of Directions in Chronological Order Concerning Holding Strasbourg or Not Holding Strasbourg,” Jan. 3, 1945, JLD papers, MHI.
The crowded stage in this melodrama: John W. Price, “The Strasbourg Incident,” 1967, OCMH, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5, 21–22; Danchev, 642 (Eisenhower whisked them); Chandler, 2396n (a copy of his letter).
Eisenhower gestured to the map: De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 834–37 (“In Alsace, where the enemy”).
“a state bordering on anarchy”: memo, DDE to GCM, Jan. 6, 1945, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5.
“All my life,” Churchill said: De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 837–39; Porch, The Path to Victory, 603 (asked for a total of fifty).
By now the supreme commander’s face: Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“If you carry out the withdrawal”); De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 837–39 (“I am having a lot of trouble”).
“I think you’ve done the wise and proper”: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 384.
“not always aware of the political consequences”: Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle, 300; De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 838–39 (“Glory has its price”); Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“Imagine, asking us to withdraw”); Porch, The Path to Victory, 610 (“equate politics with sentiment”).
As the happy news of salvation: Gurley, “Policy Versus Strategy,” NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5; msg, DDE to JLD, Jan. 7, 1945, and “Summary of Directions in Chronological Order Concerning Holding Strasbourg or Not Holding Strasbourg,” Jan. 3, 1945, JLD papers, MHI (“as strongly as possible”).
NORDWIND would drag on: RR, 505–9, 513, 527, 564; VW, vol. 2, 249 (enemy troops ferried across the river); MEB, “Army Group G,” Dec. 1956, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-91, box 14, 18; Giziowski, The Enigma of General Blaskowitz, 373 (Hitler denounced as “pessimistic”), 371 (“Whipped Cream Division”); Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, 219 (recruits from eastern Europe).
“We must believe in the ultimate purposes”: Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 229.
He had new worries, too: office diary, Jan. 5, 1945, Kay Summersby, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140 (developing a ray); Gardner, “The Death of Admiral Ramsay,” AB, no. 87 (1995): 44+; Woodward, Ramsay at War, 194; Chalmers, Full Cycle, 267.
“E. leaves office early”: desk calendar, Jan. 7, 1945, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib, box 1.
The Agony Grapevine
SHAEF on January 5 confirmed: office diary, Jan. 5, 1945, Kay Summersby, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 565 (“by instant agreement”); Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods, 465.
“We have nothing to apologize for”: diary, Jan. 1, 5 and 6, 1945, CBH, MHI, box 5. Even Stars and Stripes referred to GIs as “Monty’s troops” (Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 302).
“I shall show how the whole Allied team”: msg, BLM to WSC, Jan. 6, 1945, UK NA, CAB 120/867.
“The real trouble with the Yanks”: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 411.
When Brigadier Williams, the intelligence chief, asked why: OH, E. T. Williams, May 30–31, 1947, FCP, MHI; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 304 (“Please don’t”); OH, David Belchem, Feb. 20, 1947, FCP, MHI (smelling condescension); OH, Alan Moorehead, Jan. 21, 1947, FCP, MHI (“some bloody awful mistake”).
In a double-badged maroon beret: OH, Alan Moorehead, Jan. 21, 1947, FCP, MHI (“dressed like a clown”); VW, vol. 2, 425–27 (“a brave fighting man”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 610–11 (No mention was made of Bradley); TT, 611 (British troops were “fighting hard”).
“The first thing I did”: Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 530.
“Let us have done with the destructive criticism”: VW, vol. 2, 425–27.
“Oh, God, why didn’t you stop him?”: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 303; Colville, The Fringes of Power, 551 (“indecently exultant” and “exceedingly self-satisfied”); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 565 (“what a good boy am I”); Richardson, Send for Freddie, 172 (“cock on a dunghill”); Bradley and Blair,A General’s Life, 382 (“Montgomery Foresaw Attack”); VW, vol. 2, 428 (“‘somewhat bewildered’”).
“He sees fit to assume”: war diary, Ninth Army, Jan. 19, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, “Personal Calendar,” MHI, box 11; OH, Frederick E. Morgan, n.d., FCP, MHI (“active hatred”); “Excerpt from Diary, D/SAC,” Jan. 31, 1945, NARA RG 319, SC background papers, 2-3.7 CB 8 (“out of the question”).
Bradley twice called Versailles: office diary, Jan. 9, 1945, Kay Summersby, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 140. The “calculated risk” explanation first emerged from 12th Army Group on Dec. 21 and was widely cited long after the war (Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 1, Nov. 1949, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-1).
“attempt to discredit me”: Bradley Commentaries, CBH collection, MHI, box 41.
“I cannot serve under Montgomery”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 487–88; diary, Jan. 8, 1945, CBH, MHI, box 5.
“No single incident that I have encountered”: Chandler, 2481.
Heading off, seeing off, and writing off: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 200–203 (“must take care of itself”); Ardennes, 650–51 (twice as many tanks); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 572 (“Desertions few”).
Yet many enemy commanders had been killed: Ardennes, 615; MEB, “The German Withdrawal from the Ardennes,” May 1955, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #59, 20 (combed the countryside for gasoline); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 319 (traveled by bicycle); Roger S. Durham, “The Past Is Present: The World War II Service of George E. Durham,” 1996, a.p., 124 (“pants-crapper”).
“Ten shells for their one”: White, Conquerors’ Road, 7, 14 (“Get along there”); PP, 615 (“unfortunate incidents”); TT, 226 (Skorzeny’s saboteurs); FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994 (“musketry”); Heinz, “The Morning They Shot the Spies,” True (Dec. 1949): 28+ (“We had to stop them”); “W.C. Heinz, 93, Writing Craftsman, Dies,” NYT, Feb. 28, 2008.
A final German lunge at Bastogne: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 607–8; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 45 (increased from three to nine); “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (Dreadful weather); Ardennes, 628–29 (blowtorches and pinch bars); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 216, 314 (barely a mile a day); LO, 26–33 (five thousand casualties), 39–42 (must halt at the West Wall).
At 11:40 A.M. on Tuesday, January 16: LO, 42–43; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 561; author visit, Houffalize, June 4, 2009, signage; “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (One thousand tons); PP, 632 (“I have never seen anything like it”). Of the nearly two hundred civilians killed in Houffalize, almost all died “at the hands of their liberators” (Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 87).
“Little town of Houffalize”: D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 696–97.
A day later, Eisenhower returned First Army: Sylvan, 262; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 203 (Hôtel Britannique); Hogan, A Command Post at War, 239 (“tilting drunkenly”); war diary, Ninth Army, Jan. 30, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, “Personal Calendar,” MHI, box 11; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 502 (“Whore’s Camp”).
Village by village, croft by croft: Fussell, Wartime, 122 (“Kraut disinfected”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft., K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG records, #2280, 42 (“The battle noises”); LO, 51.
Hitler had already decamped: Raiber, “The Führerhauptquartiere,” AB, no. 19 (1977): 1+; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 747 (“I know the war is lost”); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 290–92 (five bridges thrown over the Our); Chandler, 2439 (“probably manage to withdraw”). A U.S. Army history estimated that “perhaps one-third” of German armor committed to the Bulge escaped (Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 52).
The Red Army had massed more than 180 divisions: GS, vol. 4, 80; Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 499; LO, 51; MEB, “The German Withdrawal from the Ardennes,” May 1955, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #59, 1–2, 20; Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, Aug. 8–9, 1945, ETHINT 15, MHI, 22; Percy E. Schramm, “The Course of Events in the German Offensive in the Ardennes,” n.d., FMS, #A-858, MHI, 18–21 (“suction pump”).
In the west the war receded: Lewis, The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 444 (Thunderbolt cannons); Moorehead, Eclipse, 228 (“Are you sure?”).
The dead “lay thick”: Gellhorn, The Face of War, 194; Bagnulo, ed., Nothing But Praise, 48 (precluded burials); Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 27 (blankets), 359. The National Museum of Military History in Diekirch put total civilian dead and wounded in Belgium and Luxembourg at 3,800 (Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 385n).
At the American cemetery in Henri-Chapelle: Joseph T. Layne and Glenn D. Barquest, “Margraten: U.S. Ninth Army Military Cemetery,” 1994, NWWIIM, 7–13; Joseph James Shomon, Crosses in the Wind, 91–98, 109; “Third U.S. Army After Action Report,” chapter 21, CMH (morgue tent for photographs).
Among the dead gathered by Graves Registration teams: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 100–101.
An Army tally long after the war: The figures included losses from 6th Army Group. TSC, 402. Corr, D. G. Gilbert, chief, Army historical services division, to JT, Jan. 28, 1959, JT, LOC MS Div, box 38. About three-quarters of U.S. casualties were suffered by 12th Army Group; a 1952 monograph put the figure at 71,000 through January 19, 1945 (Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 28, 1952, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-15).
Thousands more suffered from trench foot, frostbite: Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 20.
More than 23,000 were taken prisoner: OH, William R. Desobry, 1978, Ted S. Chesney, SOOHP, MHI (“so foul we used to bathe”).
organized the “Agony Grapevine”: Frank, “The Glorious Collapse of the 106th,” Saturday Evening Post (Nov. 9, 1946).
Of more than sixty thousand wounded and injured: Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 263 (“ledge of a skyscraper”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 146 (“Battle of Atlanta”); Carroll, ed., War Letters, 267–68 (“I looked down”).
German losses would be difficult to count: AAAD, 484; Sylvan, 262; Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 316 (120,000 enemy losses); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 492 (more than a quarter-million); Percy E. Schramm, “The Course of Events in the German Offensive in the Ardennes,” FMS, #A-851, MHI, 20; Germany VII, 694 (official German history). Other German historians put total casualties at approximately 68,000, plus the 23,000 in Alsace (Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 316; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 53).
Model’s success: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 322 (289 divisions); OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 7 (“He bent the bow”); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 356 (virtually no fuel); MEB, “Effects of the Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Remaining War Potential,” May 1955, OCMH, Foreign Studies Branch, NARA RG 338, R-series, #61, 28 (“rabbit hunt”); Zaloga, Armored Thunderbolt, 258 (seven hundred armored vehicles); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 537 (freight shipments were banned); LO, 8 (four million German soldiers). A 1950 study put total German military losses through January 31, 1945, at 8.3 million (MEB, “Overall View of Germany’s Economic, Political, and Military Situation at the Beginning of 1945,” May 1950, CMH, 2-3.7 EC, 12).
“When you catch a carp”: transcript, GSP press conference, Jan. 1, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12, folder 18.
“a corporal’s war”: Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 464.
Few U.S. generals had enhanced their reputations: Millett and Murray, Military Effectiveness, vol. 3, The Second World War, 80; Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 193, 291, 320 (Patton proved the most distinguished); ONB, 1945 efficiency report on GSP, DDE Lib, PP pres, box 91.
Churchill sought to repair: TSC, 389; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 488; Colville, The Fringes of Power, 583 (“no greater exhibition of power”); TSC, 395 (“What a great honor”); diary, Jan. 24, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 9 (“Why isn’t Ike a man?”).
“had in no sense achieved anything decisive”: “Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the Army,” Oct. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2; Franz Kurowski in Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 432 (“godsend for the Red Army”); Ehlers, Targeting the Reich, 292, 311–14 (lack of gasoline); Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 447–48, 460–62; Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 525–26; Gerhard L. Weinberg, “D-Day: Analysis of Costs and Benefits,” in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 336 (within fifty miles of Berlin).
With the German tide receding: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 314 (timetable had been disrupted).
his basic scheme for ending the war remained unaltered: Chandler, 2450–54; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 547. One SHAEF study, dated December 23, put the number of divisions that could be supported in the north at just twenty-five until rail bridges were built, a figure Montgomery himself considered plausible (ALH, 155–56; TSC, 410).
At present the Western Allies mustered 3.7 million: LO, 5–7; LSA, vol. 2, 288; MEB, “Effects of the Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Remaining War Potential,” May 1955, OCMH, Foreign Studies Branch, NARA RG 338, R-series, #61, 46 (729-mile front); TSC, 392–93 (“plenty of fat meat”).
So desperate was the need for rifle platoon leaders: “History, 1945,” Ground Forces Training Center, n.d., Harold E. Potter papers, MHI, box 1; corr, Congressional Research Service to Rep. Adam Benjamin, Jan. 1981, a.p. (thirty thousand U.S. enlisted); D. M. Giangreco, “Spinning the Casualties: Media Strategies During the Roosevelt Administration,” Passport, newsletter, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Dec. 2004, 22+ (ninety thousand men a month); Chandler, 2453 (85 divisions).
That would have to suffice: “Major Problems Encountered by Ground Force Reinforcement Command,” chapter 6, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571F, 291–95 (“almost depleted”); TSC, 392–93 (a hundred thousand Marines); corr, David T. Griggs to Edward L. Bowles, adviser to secretary of war, Feb. 22, 1945, AFHRA, 519.161-7 (“twenty more divisions”); Kirkpatrick, An Unknown Future and a Doubtful Present: Writing the Victory Plan of 1941, CMH, 1990, 113–14
“Everybody shares the same universals”: Carroll, ed., War Letters, 266; Ardennes, 99; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 20 (thirty-two recognizing).
Affixed to a wall: “Monty’s Wartime Caravans,” AB, no. 20 (1978): 32+; VW, vol. 2, 357.
CHAPTER 10: ARGONAUTS
Citizens of the World
Morning sun and a tranquil breeze: Dilks, ed., The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 700–701; Eden, The Reckoning, 592 (“Star-Spangled Banner”); DOB, 46–51 (invasion of Sicily).
Sixteen thousand tons: “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172 (“rumors and gossip”); “Operation Argonaut,” n.d., Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 95, folder 14 (Lascaris Bastion); Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 69 (“cold-storage vaults”); King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587 (wrapped in a dressing gown); Norwich, The Middle Sea, 303 (“astonishing natural anchorage”); Cherpak, ed., The Memoirs of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, 213–14 (floating garage).
To compensate for any discomfort: Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 70–71, 72–73 (local librarian); John E. Hull, “Unpublished Autobiography,” n.d., MHI, 14-3 (“shine he put on my shoes”); Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 706–10 (bars opened punctually); Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 540 (twenty-piece orchestra); Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 357 (marble scrolls); Norwich, The Middle Sea, 302–7; “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172.
At 9:30 A.M. on Friday: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 68; notes, Feb. 2, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (“entrance to the harbor”).
As the cruiser crept at four knots: “Trips of the President,” FDR Lib, container 21, file 6-1; Churchill, Closing the Ring, 642 (ADMIRAL Q); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 292 (slow salute).
“The sun was glistening”: Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 171.
Across the harbor, on the quarterdeck: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 234; Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 292 (“Through with engines”); Eden, The Reckoning, 592 (“one of those moments”); William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 14 (Berth 9).
Since leaving Washington: Guy H. Spaman, “President’s Trip,” July 5, 1945, Secret Service records, FDR Lib, container 4, file 103-1; Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 22. The physician with Roosevelt aboard Quincy reported that he rested well and slept late on the voyage (Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Annals of Internal Medicine 72, no. 4 (Apr. 1, 1970): 579+).
He devoted little time: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 1–3 (Laura and sixty-one degrees); book list, official files, Yalta trip, FDR Lib, box 3 (Death Defies the Doctor); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 271–72 (agent stood near); notes, Jan. 27, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (half a penny a point); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 481; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 264 (thirteen of his grandchildren).
To celebrate the president’s sixty-third birthday: corr, E. J. Flynn to Helen, Feb. 2, 1945, Edward J. Flynn papers, FDR Lib, box 25; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 574–75 (brass ashtray).
With Quincy made fast: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 14–18; King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587 (violet circles); Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 172–73 (“I was shocked”).
Time magazine had catalogued: “The Presidency,” Time (May 8, 1944): 8; Altman, “For F.D.R. Sleuths, New Focus on an Old Spot,” NYT, Jan. 5, 2010, D1; Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Annals of Internal Medicine 72, no. 4 (Apr. 1, 1970): 579+ (260 over 150 and “Can’t eat”); Goodwin,No Ordinary Time, 494, 496–97 (digitalis); Burns, “FDR: The Untold Story of His Last Year,” Saturday Evening Post (Apr. 11, 1970): 12+; Kimball, Forged in War, 341 (“abdominal distress”); Tully, F.D.R. My Boss, 351–53 (“Lots of sleep”); Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 265 (official photographs).
Yet if the body was frail: Burns, “FDR: The Untold Story of His Last Year,” Saturday Evening Post (Apr. 11, 1970): 12+; King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587 (SHAEF plan).
Another trill of the bosun’s pipe: Argonaut files, UK NA, PREM 4/77/1B; “Trips of the President,” FDR Lib, container 21, file 6-1 (TUNGSTEN); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 232 (“very wordy”); Eden, The Reckoning, 590–91 (bezique); Leahy, I Was There, 294–95 (Declaration of Independence); Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1031 (“pushing Winston uphill”); Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 70–72 (defeat of Japan).
Churchill retrieved an eight-inch cigar: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 70–72.
Off he went for thirty miles: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 16–18; notes, Feb. 2, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (half an hour late); Coffey, Hap, 349 (fourth heart attack).
“complete agreement”: FRUS, 542–43; Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 523 (impede Soviet expansion).
Roosevelt nodded: FRUS, 542–43, 548 (eight o’clock); King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587.
This amiable gathering concealed: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 666; Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 711 (bundled in their overcoats); FRUS, 464–66, 471 (“heart of Germany”); LO, 55–56. SHAEF on January 28 calculated that thirty-three Allied divisions could defend the Rhine line, compared to the forty-two needed if German forces continued to occupy the Colmar Pocket and other salients west of the river (ALH, 178).
Again Field Marshal Brooke: DOB, 281–82; Danchev, xv (“Men admired, feared”); Kennedy, The Business of War, 329 (Monograph of the Pigeons); “Notes About Alan’s Childhood and Boyhood,” 1943, LHC, Alanbrooke papers, 1/1 (hoped to become a physician); Fraser, Alanbrooke, 24–29 (“gunner of genius”), 215, 448, 514; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 47 (“searching back”).
The tactic befitted the man: Danchev, 649.
The British chiefs, Brooke said: FRUS, 472; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 578 (Bulge had revealed the folly); minutes, CCS, Jan. 30, 1945, FDR Lib, Map Room conferences, box 29 (“Closing up the Rhine”).
This argument had dragged on: FRUS, 473 (“every single division”); minutes, CCS, Jan. 30, 1945, FDR Lib, Map Room conferences, box 29 (barely two dozen divisions); GS VI, 91; John E. Hull, “Unpublished Autobiography,” n.d., MHI, 14-2.
Marshall concurred: FRUS, 473; Chandler, 2463–64 (“You may assure”).
“I am feeling very tired”: Danchev, 652.
Worse was to come: OH, Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke, Jan. 28, 1947, FCP, MHI (“hands too full”); Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 586–87 (“Let’s have it out”); Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63; Danchev, 652 (“talk did both of us good”).
That was unlikely: SC, 409; GS VI, 90; Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63 (“Please leave this to me”).
As the chiefs convened again: Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63; Cray, General of the Army, 502–3 (“practically never sees General Eisenhower”); Pogue, George C. Marshall, 516–17 (“wrong foot”).
He had not finished: Chandler, 2461; Cray, General of the Army, 500–501; SC, 413; Bland, ed., George C. Marshall Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, 400–402 (“everything he asked for”); Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63 (“over-cautious commander”).
“Marshall clearly understood nothing”: Danchev, 653.
“Marshall’s complaint was not unjustified”: Cunningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 626–27; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 577.
For another month, the British conspired: corr, F. L. Anderson to C. A. Spaatz, Feb. 2, 1945, “Operation Argonaut,” HIA, Frederick L. Anderson papers, box 95, folder 14; Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 297; Hastings, Armageddon, 195 (“a very, very small man”); Chandler, 2480–82 (“no question whatsoever”).
“The P.M. was sore”: Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 297.
Light rain spattered Luqa airdrome: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 519; Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 28–29 (Mission No. 17); “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172 (black bands and yellow tags).
Roosevelt in recent months had proposed: Olsen, “Full House at Yalta,” American Heritage (Jan. 1972): 1+. Stalin initially proposed Odessa, but that port city remained within range of German bombers (Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 447–48).
“I emphasized the difficulties”: memo, A. Harriman to FDR, Dec. 27, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, box 31; cable file, ARGONAUT, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, box 31 (“toilet facilities”); Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 844–45 (“his adventurous spirit”).
Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed to limit: memo, William Leahy to GCM, E. King, Dec. 28, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, box 31; Clemens, Yalta, 111; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 447–48 (Americans numbered 330); “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172; admin papers, UK NA, CAB 104/177 (“plausible cover story”).
In view of the rustic conditions: admin papers, UK NA, CAB 104/177; memo, M. Moritz, Malta Command, to E. A. Armstrong, War Cabinet Offices, Feb. 23, 1945; admin papers, UK NA, CAB 104/177 (“Yalta Voyage 208”); Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 390 (“good for typhus”).
“We left Malta in darkness”: Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 719–23; Leahy, I Was There, 295–301 (set their watches ahead).
Churchill boarded a four-engine C-54: Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 103; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 575 (“hot pink baby”).
Down the flight line stood C-54 No. 252: http://www.strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/cargo/c54_skymaster.htm; Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 300 (caged elevator); Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception, 202 (“a transparency”).
Spitfire and P-38 fighter escorts: memo, Jan. 27, 1945, Naples, “Trips of the President,” FDR Lib, container 21, file 6-1; William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 17–18.
A Fateful Conference
Wedged into a natural amphitheater: Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 280; Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” http://www.enotes.com/lady-pet-text (“The stories told”).
That sea—to the ancients Pontus Euxinus: Thomas Spencer Baynes, ed., The Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 3, 795, online ed.; “Notes on the Crimea,” 1945, “WWII Summit Conferences,” Charles H. Donnelly papers, MHI (Cimmerians and Scythians); Ponomarenko, Yalta: A Short Guide, 11, 19–21 (Lenin’s decree); Yhagapov and Shekurov,Greater Yalta, 19–26; Clemens, Yalta, 113 (three dozen sanatoriums).
Then came the Germans: Leasor, The Clock with Four Hands, 286–87; corr, E. J. Flynn to wife, Feb. 8, 1945, Edward J. Flynn papers, FDR Lib, box 25 (brass doorknobs); John E. Hull, “Unpublished Autobiography,” n.d., MHI, 14-4; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 449–50; Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 393 (coat hangers).
British and American support ships: Buhite, Decisions at Yalta, 4 (“didn’t leave a map”); Olsen, “Full House at Yalta,” American Heritage (Jan. 1972): 1+ (nine hundred hairpin turns); memo, T. W. Sullivan and L. H. Backus, U.S. Navy physicians, Feb. 18, 1945, Ross T. McIntire papers, FDR Lib, box 4 (“marked infestation”).
Four Soviet regiments arrived: Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 480–81; Davies, No Simple Victory, 191–92 (dozen Georgians); Plokhy, Yalta, 58, 233 (Eavesdroppers).
“This may well be a fateful conference”: corr, WSC to FDR, Jan. 8, 1945, GCM Lib, box 62, folder 19; Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 358 (“nineteen full colonels”); Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 384 (“would have been difficult”).
Sacred Cow touched down: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 19; Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 80–81 (agent lifted him); Clemens, Yalta, 128 (“Stone Ass”); Guy H. Spaman, “President’s Trip,” July 5, 1945, Secret Service records, FDR Lib, container 4, file 103-1 (ammunition had been confiscated); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 234 (“a great icicle”).
“We will destroy”: Aron Kots version, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale#Russian_lyrics.
Beside steaming glasses of tea: Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 719–23; John E. Hull, “Unpublished Autobiography,” n.d., MHI, 14-4 (“Let’s get going”); Houghton, “That Was Yalta,” New Yorker (May 23, 1953): 86+ (khaki overcoat).
Soon a weaving convoy: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 81; U.S. Navy color footage, FDR Lib, 71-8: 65–67 (women in shawls); Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 114–15; Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 719–23; notes, Feb. 3–4, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (a few sheep); William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 18–20 (Route Romanoff). Author Michael Dobbs notes that at least some of the destruction likely was inflicted by Soviet forces during a 1944 purge of Tatar villages (Six Months in 1945, 24–25, 10 [Don Juan]).
Churchill and the British contingent: Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay, 386–87; Dilks, ed., The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 703 (“hideosity”); Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 347 (goldfish).
“nothing is left out but cleanliness”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 237–38; Leasor, The Clock with Four Hands, 288 (shipped by special train); Richardson, From Churchill’s Secret Circle to the BBC, 198 (“We sleep in droves”); Plokhy, Yalta, 50 (“queuing for a bucket”); Hastings, Winston’s War, 442 (“Riviera of Hades”); Danchev, 656 (“a great northern diver”).
Ten miles away the Americans settled: Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 121–22, 138 (tea in tall glasses); Olsen, “Full House at Yalta,” American Heritage (Jan. 1972): 1+; Houghton, “That Was Yalta,” New Yorker (May 23, 1953): 86+ (“Please do not pilfer”).
An air of tragedy: Clemens, Yalta, 113 (two million rubles); Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 156–64 (reindeer tongue); Plokhy, Yalta, 43–44.
Now Roosevelt slept: Houghton, “That Was Yalta,” New Yorker (May 23, 1953): 86+.
At four o’clock on Sunday: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, photo; OH, John E. Hull, 1974, James W. Wurman, SOOHP, MHI, VI-6, 7; Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, 79 (Hero of the Soviet Union); Dobbs, Six Months in 1945, 35 (talcum powder); Buhite, Decisions at Yalta, 17 (smallpox scars); Houghton, “That Was Yalta,” New Yorker (May 23, 1953): 86+ (rattle the teacups).
Joseph Stalin intrigued even Franklin Roosevelt: Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 180; Fox, “The Super-Powers Then and Now,” International Journal (summer 1980): 417+; Reynolds, Rich Relations, 438. See also William T. R. Fox, The Super-Powers (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1944).
In other respects the wealthy patrician: Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 25; Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 521 (“a Christian gentleman”); Plokhy, Yalta, 56–57, 77; MMB, 527–28; Overy, Why the Allies Won, 259 (“military brain”); Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 232–33 (“I can handle Stalin”); Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 486 (“bigger coins”).
Beneath a painting of a farmer: Hastings, Winston’s War, 444 (“You said it!”); Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 99 (communicate directly).
The marshal replied that the carnage: Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 468–69, 477–83; FRUS, 571–73 (“sadistic hatred”).
Roosevelt offered Stalin: Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 310–11; Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle, 392–93 (“unpleasant and impossible”).
“Only out of kindness”: FRUS, 571–73; Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 492 (“Why did nature”).
Upon Churchill’s arrival: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, photo; Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 312–13; Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 168–69 (diamonds and pearls).
Much of ARGONAUT’s initial meeting: Bland, ed., George C. Marshall Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, 405; FRUS, 575–78. Among other discrepancies, Soviet minutes of the conference quote Marshall as putting German oil production at 40 percent of previous levels (Clemens, Yalta, 124). A Soviet account also reported that Churchill seemed bored by the military recitations (“The Crimea and Potsdam Conferences of the Leaders of the Three Great Powers,” International Affairs, All-Union Society, Moscow [June 1965]: 97).
The Soviet account: FRUS, 582–83; Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 447–48, 461, 471–72; Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 211 (“You are now in goddam Germany”).
The Soviets currently possessed a seven-to-one advantage: Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 132; FRUS, 582–83 (180 to 80); Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 35–36; “Auschwitz,” USHMM,http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189; Posner and Ware, Mengele: The Complete Story, 3–8 (medical experiments); Gill, The Journey Back from Hell, 25–27; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 798–800 (seven tons of women’s hair); Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 212 (pyramids of dentures).
“Our wishes”: FRUS, 582–83; Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, 498–99; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 798–800; Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 475–76, 480, 517 (threatened the flanks in East Pomerania); Buell, Master of Seapower, 487 (“It takes a very brave man”).
By late 1945, an estimated two million German women: Antony Beevor, introduction to Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin, xx; Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 154–167 (dragged from operating tables and forced migration of 7.5 million Germans); Evans, The Third Reich at War, 710 (“Our men shoot the ones” and “They are going to remember”); Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 466–67 (nailed by their hands).
“in very good humor”: FRUS, 589–90.
Great care had been taken: notes, Feb. 4, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84; Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 852 (Filipino mess boys); William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 25 (five types of wine); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 319 (“peace for a hundred years”); Dilks, ed., The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 707 (“drinking buckets”); Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 111 (recharging his glass).
Not until the final half hour: FRUS, 589–90.
“But of your seven million Poles”: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 113.
“The eagle should permit”: FRUS, 589–90.
“A terrible party”: Eden, The Reckoning, 593.
Stalin’s attitude toward Germany: FRUS, 611–14, 624–27, 633.
Glancing at a note slipped to him: ibid., 612–18, 629, 634.
“I can get the people and Congress”: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 127.
“Germany should be run by those”: FRUS, 612–18.
“He loves France like a woman”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 241.
rather than remind Stalin: Fenno, ed., The Yalta Conference, 48–50; FRUS, 612–18, 629 (“France must take her place”).
But who should pay: Clemens, Yalta, 37 (Stalin had pressed); Smith, American Diplomacy During the Second World War, 132; FRUS, 620–21; Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 26–27.
Washington and London had second thoughts: Clemens, Yalta, 37–41, 137–39, 172; “The Crimea and Potsdam Conferences of the Leaders of the Three Great Powers,” International Affairs, All-Union Society, Moscow (June 1965): 101; Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 28 ($200 million).
Recalling the ruinous conditions: FRUS, 621–23.
On it went for six more days: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 185 (“in for ½ hour of it”); Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 319 (“ran away from the interpreter”); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 243 (wooden stethoscope); Danchev, 658–59; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 552–55 (Crimean War battlefields).
Back at the Villa Livadia: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 365; Hastings, Winston’s War, 417 (“feeble lot of fools”); Clemens, Yalta, 174–177; Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 411 (150,000 Polish soldiers); Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 494 (ten million Red Army troops).
Rising from his chair: Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 187; Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 30–32 (“Within a month’s time”).
elections would not be held in Poland for two years: Kimball, Forged in War, 307–8; Dobbs, Six Months in 1945, 64, 85 (Missouri); Colville, The Fringes of Power, 555 (“All the Balkans except Greece”); Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 206–7 (“Terrible and humbling submissions”).
For Roosevelt, two paramount concerns: FRUS, 396; Fenno, ed., The Yalta Conference, 96–98; Howarth, ed., Men of War, 104; FCP, “Yalta in Retrospect,” in Snell, ed., The Meaning of Yalta, 201 (huge American casualties); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 517; Stoler, George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century, 126.
Stalin at the Teheran conference: Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 527; Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 400, 412 (“same horse twice”); Plokhy, Yalta, 285–88; Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, 535 (Japan forfeited its entire empire); Leahy, I Was There, 318–21.
The second issue preoccupying Roosevelt: Leahy, I Was There, 315; http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/ (“United Nations”); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 507 (committed to the wider world); Clemens, Yalta, 216–18 (all sixteen Soviet republics); Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 174–75, 187, 281; Plokhy, Yalta, 289–92, 366–67; Leahy, I Was There, 321 (would remain secret). Stalin at one point offered Roosevelt two extra votes for the United States.
ARGONAUT staggered to an end: Kimball, Forged in War, 324 (“tired all through”); FRUS, 797–98 (forty-five toasts); diary, William D. Leahy, Feb. 8, 1945, LOC MS Div, micro R-4, container 6, 27 (mosquitoes); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 384–85 (“Drink it down!”); FRUS, 797–98; Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 361–62 (“We regard Marshal Stalin’s life”).
Roosevelt, who had tossed down two cocktails: Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 384–85. A staff officer who later rose to four-star rank, John E. Hull, described FDR as drinking heavily at one dinner (OH, 1974, James W. Wurman, SOOHP, MHI, VI-6, 7).
Guests hopped around the table: diary, William D. Leahy, Feb. 8, 1945, LOC MS Div, micro R-4, container 6, 28; Peckham and Snyder, eds., Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 211 (butter and oily salmon); Cunningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 628 (advising the marshal); Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 493, 516–20 (“our Himmler”).
Churchill hosted the final dinner: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 393 (“The fire of war”); Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 178–80; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 320 (“secret weapon”); menu, Feb. 10, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84; Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 421–22 (gathered in the foyer).
They were done: Clemens, Yalta, 300; FRUS, 972–73 (“declaration on liberated Europe”); Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1072 (“We will meet again”); William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 31 (Target: Germany); Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 242–43 (Two Russian servants); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 430–31 (“worked so hard”).
Churchill had begun the day: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 248–49, 251 (chef from the Queen Mary); Clemens, Yalta, 267–68 (“this bloody thing”); Argonaut files, UK NA, PREM 4/77/1B (hampers of gifts).
“Papa, genial and sprightly”: Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 782.
“I am a bit exhausted”: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 582; Jonathan Daniels, “The Presidency,” in Goodman, ed., While You Were Gone, 124 (“afraid of getting hit”).
“in a sulky mood”: Willis, The French in Germany, 13.
Instead the president again boarded Quincy: OH, W. B. McCarthy, U.S.S. Murphy, March 8, 1945, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories; official file, 200-4-E, ship’s logs, FDR Lib, box 67; William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 43–49 (“harem attire”); Tully, F.D.R. My Boss, 352–53 (“2 Kings & 1 Emperor”).
“a slender contact with life”: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 397; Roosevelt, As He Saw It, 246 (“It’s been a global war”).
“We really believed in our hearts”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 870. Hopkins had been treated for stomach cancer as early as 1937 (James A. Halsted, “Severe Malnutrition in a Public Servant of the World War II Era: The Medical History of Harry Hopkins,” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 86 (1975),http://www.scribd.com/doc/20368863/Harry-Hopkins-Medical-Bio, 23+).
“For what we have gained here”: Stoler, Allies and Adversaries, 226; Danchev, 661 (“Conference is finished”).
“Stalin doesn’t want anything”: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 557–58; Stoler, Allies in War, 196 (“I don’t think I’m wrong”); Reynolds, In Command of History, 465 (“great and good man”).
“justify and surpass most of the hopes”: msg, Jonathan Daniels to S. Early, Feb. 13, 1945, official files, FDR Lib, box 3; memo, Hadley Cantril to FDR, “Public Reaction to the Crimea Conference,” March 13, 1945, official file 200-4-E, FDR Lib, box 67 (Polling results); Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 45 (“all doubts”).
“the shadows of victory”: Colville, The Fringes of Power, 562–63; Reynolds, In Command of History, 468 (Neville Chamberlain); Smith, American Diplomacy During the Second World War, 134–35; Clemens, Yalta, 269–71, 277, 280–89; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 809 (Moscow in turn consolidated its grip); Dobbs, Six Months in 1945, 114 (slave laborers), 110 (“partition of Poland”); Kissinger, “The Age of Kennan,” review of John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life, NYT Book Review, Nov. 13, 2011 (sentimentality ofARGONAUT); Stoler, Allies and Adversaries, 231 (“Russian non-cooperation”); Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 444 (“We can’t do business”); Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1081 (“the best I could do”).
Recriminations followed: I am particularly grateful to Prof. Mark A. Stoler for his insights on Malta and Yalta. His essay “World War II” provides a fine survey of the subsequent historiography after Yalta, in Schulzinger, ed., A Companion to American Foreign Relations, 188+ (“connotation of shameful failure”).
For decades the Western delegates would be blamed: Miller, F.D.R.: An Intimate History, 506.
Roosevelt’s frailty came to be seen: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 239–41 (“The shrewdness has gone”); Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, 557; Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception, 169–70 (“extraordinary effort”); Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 585; Plokhy, Yalta, 400 (“trademark ability”); Eden, The Reckoning, 592–93 (“impression of failing powers”); U.S. Navy movie footage, FDR Lib, 71-8: 65–67; transcript, 992nd press conference, Quincy, Feb. 23, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84.
Two generations later, Yalta can be seen: Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 519, 533 (“military and political glacis”); Forrest C. Pogue, “Yalta in Retrospect,” in Snell, ed., The Meaning of Yalta, 191; Plokhy, Yalta, 228, 287, 401 (“saved two million Americans”). James MacGregor Burns later wrote that Roosevelt had “reached the limit of his bargaining power” (“FDR: The Untold Story of His Last Year,” Saturday Review [Apr. 11, 1970]: 12+).
War had held the Big Three together: Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 200 (met on nine occasions); transcript, 992nd press conference, Quincy, Feb. 23, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (“mid-Victorian”); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 245 (“seems to upset him”); Eden, The Reckoning, 593 (“dependent upon the United States”).
“We have moved a long way”: Hastings, Winston’s War, 459; Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 401 (“a world of imponderables”).
“The Americans pitch their song”: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 249.
“Only Our Eyes Are Alive”
From the Swiss border: Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, 177–78 (“Stay Alive”); L. D. Docken, “My Recollections of the Battle of Phillipsburg in Jan. 1945,” 1981, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“My mind is absolutely stripped”).
The harshest winter in decades: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 21 (“tuning forks”); Blunt, Foot Soldier, 122 (“block of ice”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 130 (“hands in the crotch”); Murphy, To Hell and Back, 233 (patches of hair); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 424 (igloos); Blue Spaders, 117 (quarter-pound TNT block); Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 41 (“Austin White, Chicago, Ill.”).
A SHAEF plan to cut one million cords: LSA, vol. 2, 213; Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI; OH, Philip Carlquist, 1978, Emory University, http://sage.library.emory.edu/collection-0608.html; Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 278 (Sled dogs).
“To date, I’ve slept”: Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p.
“I tried to knock him out”: McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 141.
“Everywhere we searched”: Blunt, Foot Soldier, 156.
“Tell ’em it’s rough”: CBM, Company Commander, quoted in Ellis, On the Front Lines, 332; Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 163 (“nice cowboy boots”); Hauser, “Shock Nurse,” Saturday Evening Post (March 10, 1945): 12+ (“their mothers can’t see them”).
Prison-camp guards opened: memo, Theater IG to CG, Advance COMZ, Apr. 1, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO IG, box 19; DDE to GCM, March 18, 1945, memos, NARA RG 498, ETO SGS classified gen’l corr, 383.6, box 51 (“I certainly loathe”).
“Will you tell me what the hell”: Heinz, When We Were One, 231; memoir, Ralph M. Morales, 254th Inf, 1964, NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 4 (“a thousand deaths”); L. D. Docken, “My Recollections of a Raiding Party into Lixing, Feb. 1945,” n.d., NARA RG 319, RR background files, FRC 5 (“Things didn’t go exactly as planned”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 140 (“accident and contingency”).
“How hard I have become”: Vining, ed., American Diaries of World War II, 106; Blunt, Foot Soldier, 138, 86 (“I sat and ate”); Gray, The Warriors, 233–34 (“‘Tis bitter cold’”).
A survey of four thousand GIs: “Attitudes of Soldiers in the European Theater,” Apr.–May 1945, report no. ETO 85, NARA RG 330, E 94, 6; Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 76 (“A hatred such as I have never seen”); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 286 (“The question of killing”).
“Slowly it is beginning to dawn”: Peckham and Snyder, eds., Letters from Fighting Hoosiers, vol. 2, 165; Christen T. Jonassen, “Living Conditions in the E.T.O.,” 1987, Columbus WWII Round Table, MHI, box 1, 4 (“Screw the bastards”); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 286 (“When the Jerries come in”); Toole, Battle Diary, 57 (“Some of our best men”).
“Their visible wish to surrender”: Fussell, Doing Battle, 124.
“Killing is an obsession”: corr, Waldo Heinrichs, Jr., to parents, Apr. 30, 1945, MHI, box 1.
At 7:30 A.M. on Wednesday: Huie, The Execution of Private Slovik, 22–25, 34, 60; “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,” AB, no. 32 (1981): 28+.
Indiscipline had become a nagging worry: “Military Justice Administration in Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 83, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 1–2 (11,000 general courts-martial); desk calendar, Nov. 5, 1944, DDE Lib, Barbara Wyden papers, box 1 (“Disciplinary conditions”); memo, DDE, Dec. 13, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 11 (“The large incidence of crimes”); Wieviorka, Normandy, 328 (“liberators have turned into looters”); “Alleged Lawlessness of American Troops in Normandy Area,” Nov. 18, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO inspection file #40 (“fear of being accosted”); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 200 (less than one-half of one percent); memo, SHAEF G-2 to SHAEF G-1, Jan. 24, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 11 (“a considerable percentage”). Beetle Smith subsequently complained to commanders on March 20, 1945, that “large scale looting is being practiced by both U.S. and British troops in Holland and Germany.”
Severe punishment had a fitful deterrent effect: “The Military Offender in the Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 84, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 1–2 (“mental ages” and dishonorable discharge); “Military Justice Administration in Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 83, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 7–9.
Four hundred and forty-three death penalties: “Normandy Executions,” AB, no. 85 (1994). At least one author subsequently claimed that fourteen thousand European women were raped by U.S. soldiers. John H. Morrow, Jr., review of J. Robert Lilly, Taken by Force, JMH (Oct. 2008): 1324. See also Davies, No Simple Victory, 339. SHAEF and Army figures suggest that the numbers, though appalling, were far lower. See AAR, 12th AG, vol. 10, NARA RG 331, E 200A, SHAEF, box 267; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 220; and Wieviorka, Normandy, 328.
Seventy executions took place in Europe: corr, Theodore Wyman, Jr., to OCMH, May 5, 1954, NARA RG 319, E 97, LSA, vol. 1, background files, box 4,14; Lilly, “U.S. Military Executions,” AB, no. 90 (1995): 50+; “Normandy Executions,” AB, no. 85 (1994) (“manila hemp”).
Desertion, defined by the U.S. military: “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,” AB, no. 32 (1981): 28+; Laffin, Combat Surgeons, 197–98 (more than three thousand death sentences).
The German military issued: Geoffrey P. Megargee, World War II panel, SMH conference, May 22, 2004, Bethesda, Md.; Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 336; Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 129. Boog estimates that “somewhat less than half” of the fifty thousand condemned were executed.
Twenty-one thousand soldiers would desert: DOB, 508; Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 108 (less than half had been caught).
Of nearly two thousand deserters convicted in Europe: “Military Justice Administration in Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 83, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 4. Several dozen others were condemned for mutiny, sedition, or misbehavior before the enemy, i.e., fleeing from battle.
since 1864: Huie, The Execution of Private Slovik, 146.
Slovik was arrested in October: ibid., 121–22, 150–51 (“in a little trouble”), 174, 179–80; Carroll, “A Deserter Begs Eisenhower to Spare His Life,” World War II (Jan.–Feb. 2012): 21+ (“How can I tell you”); Morgan, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 134 (“Hanging Hour”); “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,” AB, no. 32 (1981): 28+.
The MP guards had lost the handcuff key: Huie, The Execution of Private Slovik, 203–11, 217–21, 227.
Gray overcast roofed the garden: “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,” AB, no. 32 (1981): 28+; Miller, Division Commander, 160–62. In a letter to author William Bradford Huie in 1953, General Cota said, “I regret that Private Slovik had to be a product of our replacement system. This was a cruel system … and I never liked it.” Corr, Dec. 13, 1953, Norman D. Cota papers, DDE Lib, 201 file, box 1.
A priest anointed the body: L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chapter 26 PIR, MHI; Lilly, “U.S. Military Executions,” AB, no. 90 (1995): 50+.
“the one sore on the whole front”: diary, JLD, Jan. 27, 1945, MHI; Tedder, With Prejudice, 657 (“we must get cleaned up”).
In this he would be further frustrated: RR, 533, 538 (Iron Cross); OH, 3rd ID, Colmar Pocket, RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 270/65/5/1, folder 26 (converted into fortresses); MEB, “The Colmar Pockets, 20 Jan–9 Feb 45,” Oct. 1954, NARA RG 319, R-56, 11 (ten ferry sites); “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,” Sixth AG, n.d., CARL, N-11980.3, 5 (floating contact mines).
General Devers’s initial effort: Seaman, “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,” Military Review (Oct. 1951): 37+; The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 627; “History of Ordnance Service in the Mediterranean Theater,” vol. 2, n.d., CMH, 8-4 JA, 196–97; Turner and Jackson, Destination Berchtesgaden, 120–21; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 345–48 (“polished ice terrain”); memo, Reuben E. Jenkins to JLD, Feb. 24, 1947, Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1 (French II Corps); Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 307 (“Elsass bleibt deutsch”).
“Having gained surprise”: diary, JLD, Jan. 24–26, 1945, and Feb. 1, 1945 (“he would be shot”), MHI; RR, 537 (“willingness to go all out”); OH, Henry Cabot Lodge, Aug. 16, 1973, Thomas E. Griess, JLD, YCHT, box 94, 11–12 (“Goddamn it!”); Tedder, With Prejudice, 657 (“let down by the French”).
American units had their own difficulties: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 629 (“exhausted and depleted”); William A. Sutton, “Operation Grandslam, 30th Regiment,” 3rd ID, June 2, 1945, Seventh Army Combat Narratives, MHI, 5 (improvised nightshirts), 38 (“Civil War days”); Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 305–9 (350 men); Even, The Tenth Engineers, 45 (Maison Rouge); Melvin J. Lasky, “La Maison Rouge,” March 3, 1945, Seventh Army Combat Narratives, MHI, 2–28 (“flight and panic”); RR, 544–47; memoir, James T. Cooper, 30th Inf, ts, n.d., Audie Murphy papers, USMA Arch (“rattled like paper”).
Audie Murphy helped redeem: Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 130–37, 153–60; Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 310–11; Murphy, To Hell and Back, 240–43 (“huddled like partridges”); Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 90 (“Things seemed to slow down”); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 361 (“bravest thing”).
At last an Allied preponderance: MEB, “The Colmar Pockets, 20 Jan–9 Feb 45,” Oct. 1954, NARA RG 319, R-56, 18–19; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 375 (“God be praised!”); RR, 551.
By February 5, columns from north and south: Statements collected from GIs by Army historians shortly after the battle included, “We shot the wounded Germans because we only had twenty men and couldn’t fool with them.” OH, 3rd ID, Colmar Pocket, RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 270/65/5/1, folder 26.
A French patriot showed GIs: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 598–99.
“My dear French comrades”: Seaman, “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,” Military Review (Oct. 1951): 37+ (“national event”); De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 397; LO, 238 (corner of northeastern Alsace); memo, Reuben E. Jenkins to JLD, Feb. 24, 1947, Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1 (three times longer); Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 94 (“frozen, dead chickens”).
Colmar had cost: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 398–99. U.S. casualties were put at eight thousand, although only five hundred killed in action (RR, 556–57).
“sacrificed for no appreciable gain”: RR, 558. Russell F. Weigley asserts that one Volksgrenadier unit, the first evacuated across the Rhine, escaped reasonably intact (Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 598–99).
Pulverizing the Reich from above: Willmott, The Great Crusade, 414; Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 3, Victory, part 5, 204 (“earthquake bomb”); Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 470–71 (only by the atomic bomb); “Tactical Air Operations in Europe,” XIX TAC, May 1945, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 83, folder 1, 8–9 (“antipersonnel incendiary”); Miller, Masters of the Air, 4 (“horrible as possible”); “Preservation of Historical Monuments, Art Objects, etc.,” Sept. 1944; memo, DDE, June 1, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 1 (“symbolizing to the world”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 201 (“Stonehenge”); Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 47 (“lifeless life”).
British air strategists considered: memo, L. S. Kuter to H. H. Arnold, Aug. 9, 1944, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 96; corr, F. L. Anderson to C. A. Spaatz, Feb. 2, 1945, in “Operation ARGONAUT,” n.d., Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 95, folder 14; AAFinWWII, 724–26; Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 3, Victory, part 5, 116 (“ceases to beat”); Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 490–95 (“already shaky morale”).
Skeptics objected: THUNDERCLAP originally was planned in Aug. 1944 only to be postponed six months and revived in truncated form (Transcript, phone conversation, J. Doolittle and F. L. Anderson, Aug. 21, 1944, in “Operation Thunderclap: Attack on German Civilian Morale,” Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 96, folder 2); Ehlers,Targeting the Reich, 335 (“extremely remote”).
“Big B is no good”: “Survey of Combat Crews in Heavy Bombardment Groups in ETO,” June 1944, Research Branch, Eighth AF, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 18.
“I agree the project”: DDE, marginalia on “Air Attack on German Civilian Morale,” U.K. Chief of Staff Brief and Action Report, Aug. 7, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 3, SGS conferences and briefings, box 129.
THUNDERCLAP, as the “project”: Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 552–53; Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 496–500, 515n; AAFinWWII, 724–26; Miller, Masters of the Air, 265 (sixth largest city).
Even so, bombs smashed: AAFinWWII, 724–26. Among those killed was Roland Freisler, the notorious state secretary in the Reich Justice Ministry and a Wannsee Conference participant (Author visit, Wannsee Conference villa, Berlin, Sept. 30, 2009).
“It was a sunny, beautiful morning”: “Vor Fünfzig Jahren: Ein Tagebuch,” Frankfurter Allgemeine, 1994, a.p.; Friedrich, The Fire, 352 (“people literally ripped clothes”); Miller, Masters of the Air, 478 (“deer in a storm”); Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 144–45 (“flaming rivers”), 422–26 (120,000 Germans homeless); Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin, 5, 10 (“Only our eyes”).
Other elaborate air missions: Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 571; Schaffer, “American Miltary Ethics in World War II: The Bombing of German Civilians,” Journal of American History (Sept. 1980): 318+ (“virgin areas”); Juliette Hennessy, “Tactical Operations of the Eighth Air Force,” 1952, AFHRA, historical study no. 70, 119–21, 126 (civilian will); AAFinWWII, 735 (“no morale”).
Most infamous of the winter raids: Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. 3, Victory, part 5, 108–9; Biddle, “Dresden 1945: Reality, History, and Memory,” JMH (Apr. 2008): 413+ (uprooting trees); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 404 (“Chimney stacks fell”); Colville, The Fringes of Power, 562–63 (“Dresden?”); “Death Toll in Second World War Dresden Bombing,” Daily Mail (U.K.), Oct. 3, 2008, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1067489/Death-toll-Second-World-War-Dresden-bombing-25-000-commission-finds.html; Germany IX, 390; Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 98 (Treblinka).
“We were put to work”: Carroll, Behind the Lines, 318–20.
Each night and each day, bombing: Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 588. The German fatality number of 406,000, calculated in 1990, included Austrians, forced laborers, and prisoners of war (Germany IX, 475–76). Max Hastings and W. G. Sebald put the number closer to 600,000. See, respectively, Armageddon, 299, and On the Natural History of Destruction, 3–4.
Devastation scorched seventy cities: Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 183, 191 (“burned like torches”); Collier, Fighting Words, 180 (“a hairpin”).
Yet still the lifeless life: Crane, Bombs, Cities & Civilians, 105 (“chimera”).
Field Marshal Montgomery had a conqueror’s glint: The Canadian First Army offensive also became known as the Battle of the Reichswald (VW, vol. 2, 253–57; LO, 136–37).
But no crossing could be made on the Roer: OH, 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149.
The Urft fell easily: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 243; OH, 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149 (booby-trapped corpses); Gavin, On to Berlin, 262–63; Sylvan, 293 (forty battalions); Lightning: The History of the 78th Infantry Division, 110.
At eight P.M. on Friday, February 9: OH, 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149; Sylvan, 296–97 (forty thousand U.S. shells); Mittelman, Eight Stars to Victory, 309–12; Lightning: The History of the 78th Infantry Division, 118–20; Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 201 (ominous rumble); OH, 303rd Engineer Bn and 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149 (“tunnel under the sea”).
But mortal wounds had already: LO, 81–82; VW, vol. 2, 264 (100 million tons).
Snowmelt and rain: “Combat Engineering,” Aug. 1945, Historical Report No. 10, ETO, CEOH, box X-30, 129; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 603.
With Montgomery’s concurrence: Ninth Army war diary, Feb. 8–10, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11; LO, 143; OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI.
For nearly a fortnight, fifteen American divisions: OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI; SLC, 379; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 340; Stone, “General William Hood Simpson: Unsung Commander of U.S. Ninth Army,” Parameters 9, no. 2 (June 1981): 44+; Bradley, Soldier’s Story, 437 (“uncommonly normal”); memoir, Richard D. Hughes, n.d., AFHRA, 520.056-234, 60 (“He displayed no anxiety”).
While Simpson bided his time: The Anglo-Canadian operation was known as VERITABLE (VW, vol. 2, 264–71; LO, 145).
“Machine guns are crackling now”: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 80, 83; LO, 141–42.
At length Ninth Army was ready: Ninth Army war diary, Feb. 22, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11; OH, George I. Forsythe, 1974, Frank L. Henry, SOOHP, MHI, 180 (“you could read a document”).
Forty-five minutes later three corps plunged: LO, 145–55 (“indescribable confusion”), 160–62; “Combat Engineering,” CE, ETOUSA, report #10, Dec. 1945, RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 129–33 (six hundred storm boats); Hubert S. Miller, XIX Corps engineer, “Roer River Crossing,” 1947, CARL, N-9924.2, part I, 17 (knocked out eight times). VII Corps was still part of First Army (LO).
But within hours brute force won: Hubert S. Miller, XIX Corps engineer, “Roer River Crossing,” 1947, CARL, N-9924.2, part I, 12–13; “Combat Engineering,” CE, ETOUSA, report #10, Dec. 1945, RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 129–33; Ninth Army war diary, Feb. 23, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“cities captured”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 673 (nineteen bridges); LO, 167 (“things are beginning to break”).
On Tuesday, Simpson committed his armor: LO, 172; Ninth Army war diary, March 12, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“dead, lifeless giant”).
Eight bridges spanned the great river: LO, 174.
“the enemy is completely disorganized”: Ninth Army war diary, March 4, March 5 (“unwise”), and March 27, 1945 (“time out for tea”), William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11; OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI (“Don’t go across” and “selfish idea”); LO, 178; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 677 (“industrial wilderness”).
GRENADE was over: LO, 184; VW, vol. 2, 277.
Despite the staggering losses: LO, 171 (“heavy heart”).
CHAPTER 11: CROSSINGS
The Inner Door to Germany
Into the Rhineland they pounded: William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” 1983, CEOH, box V, XIII-25; Thompson, Men Under Fire, 54 (“other sort of war”).
German refugees trudged away: corr, Thor Smith to family, March 13, 1945, Thor M. Smith papers, HIA, box 1; Ed Cunningham, “The Battle of the Bulge,” Yank, March 2, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 585; war diary, Lasky, “Military History Stood on Its Head,” Berlin Journal 14 (spring 2007), American Academy of Berlin, 20+(“wir folgen”); Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, 3 (“Krieg weg!”); Gander, After These Many Quests, 313–14 (“In Memoriam” notices); Heinz, When We Were One, 156 (“They stood facing”), 261 (tossed bread); Simpson, Audie Murphy, American Soldier, 212 (“fodderland”).
As two dozen British, Canadian, and American divisions: Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them, 390; “Report of Rhine River Crossings,” May 1945, FUSA, Office of the Engineer, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #887, box 19135 (three corps abreast); Sylvan, 319 (“impossible not to be elated”); LO, 114–15, 240, 252; White, Conquerors’ Road, 33 (“bullshit wagon”); 4th AD combat interviews, March–Apr. 1945, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #857, box 19133 (tank and howitzer shells); corr, A. C. Gillem to wife, Feb. 25, 1945, Alvan Cullom Gillem, Jr., papers, MHI, box 7 (“On the road yesterday”); Friedrich, The Fire, 122–24; William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” 1983, CEOH, box V, XIII-6 (“most totally destroyed city”); Henry L. Barr, “Infantry Living Conditions in Combat Area,” n.d., Columbus WWII Round Table Collection, MHI, box 1 (Doors torn from their hinges).
“Everything smelled”: Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 257; White, Conqueror’s Road, 42–43 (“rat hunt”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 235 (“lovely play of light”); corr, P. B. Rogers to family, March 7, 1945, Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (“certainly scorched”).
“The cattle, so numerous”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 230–31.
“Every house seemed to have”: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 35.
“vast stocks of sugar”: Martha Gellhorn, “Das Deutsches Volk,” Collier’s, May 26, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 675.
Here was a world of Dresden plates: White, Conquerors’ Road, 20–21; Nickell, Red Devil, 154 (boiled eggs); Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself, 262–63 (motherhood medals); Thompson, Men Under Fire, 145 (Christian texts); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 356–57 (Dutch or Belgian); Martha Gellhorn, “Das Deutsches Volk,” Collier’s, May 26, 1945, inReporting World War II, vol. 2, 671 (“No one is a Nazi”).
Here too was a world to be looted: Robert E. Walker, “With the Stonewallers,” n.d., MMD, 111 (“We’re advancing”); memo, ONB to GSP, “Misbehavior of Allied Troops,” May 7, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“processed”); memo, FUSA IG, Apr. 23, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG gen’l corr, box 220 (Leica cameras); Wellard, The Man in a Helmet, 224–25; Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 226 (medieval grave); memo, W. B. Smith to ONB, March 20, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, box 11 (floorboards); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 205 (mine detectors); Heinz, When We Were One, 233 (women’s dresses); Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 45 (“Lootwaffe”); Christen T. Jonassen, “Living Conditions in the E.T.O.,” 1987, Columbus WWII Round Table collection, MHI, box 1, 2 (“two shooting”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 253 (“German cars by the hundred”); Adams, “Operations of an American Military Government Detachment in the Saar, 1944–45,” Military Affairs (autumn 1955): 121+ (motorcycles, typewriters); Gander, After These Many Quests, 312 (“unhindered shoplifting”).
“drunken, end-of-the-world carnival”: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 171.
“First I took a hammer”: Linderman, The World Within War, 244.
“I did not feel sorry”: Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 260.
Allied commanders also found themselves: LO, 330 (“Bitte, schlafen mit”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 261 (“ogling”); Willoughby, “The Sexual Behavior of American GIs During the Early Years of the Occupation of Germany,” JMH (Jan. 1998): 155+ (“$65 question”); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 213 (“Don’t play Samson”); Stafford, Endgame 1945, 128–29 (“To frat”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 183 (“copulation without conversation”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 653 (“Tell the men of Third Army”).
General Hodges ordered champagne: Sylvan, 322; Friedrich, The Fire, 221–25 (only 10,000); Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 182–89 (“charred corpse”).
Volksstrum pensioners fought: Cooper, Death Traps, 257; Margry, “The Battle for Cologne,” AB, no. 104 (1999): 2+ (cavalry charge); Janet Flanner [Genêt], “Letter from Cologne,” March 31, 1945, New Yorker, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 664–68 (“scarlet garbage”).
Hodges on Wednesday, March 7: Margry, “The Battle for Cologne,” AB, no. 104 (1999): 2+; LO, 191.
“The Rhine. I didn’t know”: David Pergrin, 291st Engineer Bn, “The Remagen Bridgehead,” 1983, CEOH, box X-26, folder 2, 19; “Combat Engineering,” historical report no. 10, Aug. 1945, CEOH, box X-30, 148–49 (150 glaciers); Michael George Mulhall, The Dictionary of Statistics, 515 (fifteenth-largest); LSA, vol. 2, 373 (“short sea voyage”); “Forced Crossing of the Rhine, 1945,” historical report no. 20, Aug. 1945, CEOH, box X-32, folder 20, 1 (“fordable” and eleven miles an hour); Dziuban, “Rhine River Flood Prediction Service,” Military Engineer (Sept. 1945): 348+ (floods had been the highest); Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 651 (relatively unpolluted); ALH, 178 (wreckage clogged its bed); corr, H. L. Ismay to W. B. Smith, Dec. 30, 1944, LHC, 4/29/15 (“another D-Day”).
Plans to jump the Rhine: “Forced Crossing of the Rhine,” Dec. 1945, CE, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 4; “Rhine River Crossing,” Jan. 26, 1945, ETOUSA, CEOH, box X-24A, folder 2; OH, Franklin F. Snyder, “Water Resources: Hydraulic and Hydrology,” 1995, CEOH, 5, 45, 57 (engineers in Vicksburg); Dziuban, “Rhine River Flood Prediction Service,” Military Engineer (Sept. 1945): 348+ (radio broadcasts and Grenoble); Abrams, Our Secret Little War, 62–63 (170 models).
River-crossing schools on the Loire: “Forced Crossing of the Rhine,” Dec. 1945, CE, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 10–12; The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: A History, 145; Henry F. Pringle, “Weapons Win Wars,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AB.B, 201–2 (Boatyards); “Supply: Oversea Theaters of Operation,” 1945, NARA RG 319,Global Logistics and Strategy, 1943–1945 background files, 2-3.7 (nested and crated); We Bought the Eiffel Tower: The Story of the General Purchasing Agent, European Theater, 1949, MHI, 60, 174–75; OH, Alan G. Kirk, Sept. 22, 1945, NARA RG 38, CNO, box 15, 3–4 (up the Albert Canal); Davis, Across the Rhine, 8 (bulldozers); IFG, 318; Karig,Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 394–96 (“festooned with treetops”).
By early March, forward depots: Henry F. Pringle, “Weapons Win Wars,” n.d., CMH, 2-3.7 AB.B, 201–2 (2,500 outboard motors); Davis, Across the Rhine, 8 (1,100 assault boats).
Just such a bridge still stood: Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 3, 49–53; Zaloga, Remagen 1945, 35. Some locals referred only to an adjacent subterranean gallery, used as an air raid shelter, as the Dwarf’s Hole (http://www.herrlichkeit-erpel.de/EnglischeVersion/Bruecke03_eng.htm).
Local aesthetes complained: author visit, Friedensmuseum Brücke von Remagen, June 18, 1996.
Retreating German soldiers: Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, 410 (“cannons being pulled”); Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 44–45 (fractured command architecture); LO, 214 (Model had promised).
Sixty zinc-lined boxes: LO, 213; “The Ludendorff Railway Bridge,” AB, no. 16 (1977): 2+; Kenneth W. Hechler, “The German Reaction to Remagen,” OCMH, July 1957, NARA RG 319, R-series, #101, 6.
“Do you see”: OH, John W. Leonard, 9th AD, CG, March 16, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 300, box 19081.
At 8:20 A.M.: Reavis, “Crossing of Rhine Remembered,” Stars and Stripes, March 8, 1995, 1; Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 79 (“There is no glory”).
Now Lieutenant Timmermann would prove: Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 88; LHD, 201 (“Do you know what the hell”); corr, L. E. Engeman, CO, 14th Tank Bn, to JT, Apr. 5, 1964, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 10 (locomotives with steam up).
As three platoons descended: Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 98; LHD, 202; Hechler, Hero of the Rhine, 18–20.
Shortly before two P.M. a dark geyser: OH, Karl Timmermann, Murray Deevers, William M. Hoge et al., 27th Armored Inf Bn, March–Apr. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI (“chicken dinner”); Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 104–5 (“before they blow it”).
Barely half a mile away, pandemonium: LO, 217; Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 112–13 (“Everybody lie down”).
With a doleful boom: “Report of Rhine River Crossings,” May 1945, FUSA, Office of the Engineer, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #887 (fourteen hundred pounds); “Engineers at Remagen,” n.d., 7, and OH, Sears Y. Coker, 9th Armored Engineer Bn, March 11, 1945, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, boxes 9 and 10; LO, 230.
Reprieved, Timmermann and his men: OH, Karl Timmermann, Murray Deevers, William M. Hoge et al., 27th Armored Inf Bn, March–Apr. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 300, box 19081.
By late afternoon, Company A: ibid.; OH, George P. Soumas, 14th Tank Bn, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 300, box 19081; “Report of Rhine River Crossings,” May 1945, FUSA, Office of the Engineer, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #887 (GIs blew apart); LHD, 210; Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 128; Kenneth W. Hechler, “The German Reaction to Remagen,” OCMH, July 1957, NARA RG 319, R-series, #101, 7 (“Inform them”). There is no evidence that this particular message reached a higher headquarters.
Night fell, a sodden, moonless night: “Engineer Memoirs: General William M. Hoge,” 1993, CEOH, 151 (“dark as a pocket”); Ben Cothran, “Remagen, 7 March 1945,” n.d., JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 10 (drivers napped); OH, Donald J. Russel [sic], 27th Armored Inf Bn, June 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 300, box 19081 (three depleted rifle companies); Reichelt, Phantom Nine, 210 (half a ton of explosives).
At last nine Shermans: “Engineers at Remagen,” n.d., JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 9, 4 (“most harrowing”); OH, George P. Soumas, 14th Tank Bn, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 300, box 19081 (“Ominous and nerve-wracking”); Rudolf Schulz, “The Bridge of Decision,” Dec. 1951, JT, LOC MS Div, box 10, LHD, 5 (“inner door”).
Ancient, stately Reims: “Code Names and Code Words,” NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, 290/7/2-4/1, box 24; Baedeker, Northern France, 85, 103; Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 272–75; memoir, William Henry Baumer, n.d., HIA, box 1, 183 (blind tastings).
Eisenhower messed in the borrowed house: Danchev, 669.
“Brad, that’s wonderful”: Three Years, 764, 767–78.
Returning to the dining room: OH, DDE, June 3, 1946, SLAM, A. S. Nevins papers, “Message Log Oral History Interview,” MHI; Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 105–6 (“badly located”).
They drank to the bridge: Courtney H. Hodges, “Remagen: The Bridge That Changed the War,” 1949, Hodges papers, MHI, box 21, 24–25; OH, John Millikin, March 19, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 339 (“Nobody ever”); diary, March 7, 1945, CBH collection, MHI, box 4; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 629; David Pergrin, 291st Engineer Bn, “The Remagen Bridgehead,” 1983, CEOH, box X-26, folder 2, 17 (the Ludy).
For the moment, Eisenhower would commit: memo, “Telephone Conversation—General Bradley–General Bull,” March 9, 1945, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 510–14 (gain the autobahn); author visit, Friedensmuseum Brücke von Remagen, June 18, 1996 (eight thousand GIs); OH, Ben J. Cothran, 9th AD, March 14, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 300, box 19081; “Report of Rhine River Crossings,” May 1945, FUSA, Office of the Engineer, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #887, box 19135 (protective booms); B. C. Andrus, III Corps, March 24, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3 OR (Searchlights swept the water); Beck, 510–11 (depth charges); OH, F. Russell Lyons et al., III Corps engineers, March 21, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 339–340 (seven tons).
As engineers toiled: “Report of Rhine River Crossings,” May 1945, FUSA, Office of the Engineer, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #887, box 19135; “Combat Engineering,” historical report no. 10, Aug. 1945, CEOH, box X-30, 151–60 (nineteen floats in ten minutes); David Pergrin, 291st Engineer Bn, “The Remagen Bridgehead,” 1983, CEOH, box X-26, folder 2, 32–38 (“Boys, I’ve had it”), 70 (first jeep crossed); SC, 424; Courtney H. Hodges, “Remagen: The Bridge That Changed the War,” 1949, Hodges papers, MHI, box 21, 31 (four miles deep).
Loss of the Ludendorff: “History of U.S. Strategic Air Force Europe vs. German Air Force,” Sept. 1945, SRH-013, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, 338 (“immediately destroyed”); Rudolf Schulz, “The Bridge of Decision,” Dec. 1951, JT, LOC MS Div, box 10, LHD, 3, 7 (11th Panzer Division); OH, F. Russell Lyons et al., III Corps engineers, March 21, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, box 19086, folders 339–340; LO, 228; Zaloga, Remagen 1945, 59; OH, Rich Porter, with author, Jan. 27, 2009 (Reichsmark notes).
Hermann Göring sought volunteers: Zaloga, Remagen 1945, 56, 59 (Army’s densest concentration); Hinsley, 592 (Allied eavesdroppers); B. C. Andrus, III Corps, March 24, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3 OR (barrage balloons); Paul Semmens, “The Hammer of Hell,” n.d., CMH, 156–67 (nearly seven hundred); Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 183 (“a million dollars”); LO, 228 (aircraft shot down); Royce L. Thompson, “Military Impact of the German V-Weapons, 1943–1945,” July 31, 1953, CMH, 2-3.7 AE-P-4, 39; M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 81; Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 162; Beck, 510–11.
The debacle at Remagen clearly called: Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 279; Carver, ed., The War Lords, 199 (repaired to Bad Tölz); Westphal, The German Army in the West, 192–93 (“his own shadow”); LO, 222; AAAD, 166–67; DOB, 93.
Harsher fates befell: Günther Kraft, “The Shooting of My Father in Consequence of the Remagen Incidents,” Apr. 10, 1946, trans. Duscha Ziegel, OCMH, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 10; Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 102–5; Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 178–79 (letters). A fifth officer, Captain Willi Bratge, was tried in absentia, having been captured.
Such rough justice: Spayd, Bayerlein, 198 (“bridge psychosis”); Colley, Blood for Dignity, 93.
“Hitler was the one”: Sherry, In the Shadow of War, 101.
“You ain’t in the quartermaster”: Charles Roland, “G.I. Joe: The Citizen Soldier in World War II,” 1979, MHI, ASEQ, 3rd Bn, 394th Inf, 99th ID, 24.
They of course had already been in the Army: memo, “Report of Board of Officers on Utilization of Negro Manpower,” to GCM, Nov. 17, 1945, and “Negro Platoons in Composite Rifle Companies—World War II Style,” “Army Talk,” no. 170, Apr. 12, 1947, Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., papers, DDE Lib, box 14; MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 51–53. A proposal by John C. H. Lee to fully integrate them was rejected by Eisenhower after Smith noted that such radical integration contradicted War Department policy (Colley, Blood for Dignity, 49; Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, 688–97).
Despite the creditable fighting records: DOB, 381–83; Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, 648–52, 661–64, 679; Patton, War as I Knew It, 160 (“cannot think fast enough”); Colley, Blood for Dignity, 53–55 (“make liars out of the whites”); Reynolds, Rich Relations, 315 (“I am an American negro”); e-mail, Harry Dewey to author, Dec. 15, 2008 (“We were short-handed”).
Repairs on the Ludendorff continued: corr, Justin Dwight Hillyer to Ken Hechler, Oct. 25, 1959, CEOH, box X-26, folder 1.
Just before three P.M. on Saturday, March 17: Beck, 510–11; David Pergrin, 291st Engineer Bn, “The Remagen Bridgehead,” 1983, CEOH, box X-26, folder 2, 100–105 (“slow-motion movie”).
Of those who rode the Ludy down: Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, 163–64; OH, F. Russell Lyons et al., III Corps engineers, March 21, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, box 19086, folders 339–340 (engineers with axes); “Report of Rhine River Crossings,” May 1945, FUSA, Office of the Engineer, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML #887, box 19135 (8-inch howitzer battery); “Combat Engineering,” historical report no. 10, Aug. 1945, CEOH, box X-30, 151–60; David Pergrin, 291st Engineer Bn, “The Remagen Bridgehead,” 1983, CEOH, box X-26, folder 2, 107 (“glad the damned thing”). Hodges sacked General Millikin the day the bridge fell for failure to properly organize the bridgehead (Sylvan, 335–37).
Late Saturday night, seven German frogmen: B. C. Andrus, III Corps, Mar. 24, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3 OR; LO, 228–30; VW, vol. 2, 283.
Eisenhower approved shoving: LO, 234; Sylvan, 338 (“The war is over”).
Two If by Sea
Field Marshal Kesselring’s buoyant optimism: Macksey, Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe, 6–8; Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 9, 13–14, 243 (“Hang on”); Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 451 (“I don’t believe”), 506.
Now Kesselring’s luck: Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 218–19, 241; MacDonald, The Mighty Endeavor, 457 (quarter-million Germans had vanished), 239 (“one hundred combatants”); Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 506 (Channel Islands garrison); Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, 413 (shoot all German corporals).
Field commanders in mid-March urged Kesselring: LO, 244, 257–58; Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 249–50 (“bricks without straw”).
George Patton had taken brief leave: PP, 643; Codman, Drive, 254–57.
In Trier, for instance: Friedrich, The Fire, 248–49.
“The desolation is frozen”: Edsel, The Monuments Men, 260–62.
“smell the sweat of the legions”: PP, 655.
Rarely, perhaps never, had his generalship: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 639; LO, 262 (“Scarcely a man-made thing”); Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 179 (“hanging onto my hand”); Allen, Lucky Forward, 254 (“Roads don’t matter”); Ayer, Before the Colors Fade, 193 (“blow up the goddamn gun”).
By Wednesday, March 21: LO, 250–51, 259; Allen, Lucky Forward, 260 (“We’re going to cross the Rhine”).
He made good his boast: memo, William Sackville, XII Corps, March 26, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3 OR, box 9; Allen, Lucky Forward, 263; LO, 267–71 (“walking death”); diary, GSP, March 24, 1945, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 11 (“drove to the river”).
“Brad, we’re across”: Codman, Drive, 269; LO, 273 (“feeling of rivalry”).
“I love war”: Semmes, Portrait of Patton, 264.
Churchill had proposed riding: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 561; Hastings, Winston’s War, 456 (“I’m an old man”); Colville, Footprints in Time, 184–87; AAR, “Operation Varsity,” First Allied Airborne Army, May 19, 1945 (smoke screen); Saunders, The Red Beret, 287 (“thick black haze”).
They found Montgomery’s command post: Colville, The Fringes of Power, 575; Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 411; LO, 303 (“Two if by sea”).
Under Montgomery’s command: SC, 421; LO, 301 (“pretend to resist”); Callahan, Churchill & His Generals, 222 (thirty-five infantry battalions).
The plan for PLUNDER: VW, vol. 2, 286–87; AAR, “Activities, Final Phase, European War,” IX Troop Carrier Command, June 1945, MBR papers, MHI, box 62, 56–76; Harris, “The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall,” FAJ (May–June 1938): 229+ (single 105mm howitzer); Thompson, I Was Churchill’s Shadow, 151 (“Hitler Personally”). Ninth Army had accumulated 138,000 tons of supplies (LO, 297).
Churchill and Brooke strolled: Danchev, 674.
“They were slightly bent under their packs”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 499–502.
“If you happen to hear”: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 405–6.
“a single hurrying black moth”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 240.
“A great crimson stain”: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 106–7.
“more than mortal powers”: Allen, One More River, 241.
“Burglar-like and in single file”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 240; VW, vol. 2, 288–89.
A few miles upstream: Allen, One More River, 247 (“shoals of small boats”); “The Rhine Crossing,” Aug. 1945, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF OR #608 (a thousand shells a minute); LO, 305–7 (seven hundred assault boats and thirty-one casualties); Albert H. Peyton, XVI Corps, March 31, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3 OR, box 8 (twenty-ton cranes).
fishing nets, chicken wire, tar paper: “Chief Engineers Report on Camouflage Activities in the ETO,” Nov. 15, 1945, Howard V. Canan papers, HIA, box 3.
Rested and exultant: Colville, The Fringes of Power, 576; Colville, Footprints in Time, 184–87; Moorehead, Eclipse, 240–42 (“my armies are too vast”).
“They’re coming!”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 244.
Here then was VARSITY: “Narrative of Operation Varsity,” March 31, 1945, First Allied Airborne Army, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 3; LO, 309; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 192. Various official histories of VARSITY PLUNDER differ markedly on details of the operation. The fighter and fighter-bomber cover included escort, cover, and patrol missions (AAFinWWII, 774).
Their orders were to seize the high ground: “Visit to ETO,” May 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF OR #320; Gander, After These Many Quests, 286 (“loosen up the scrum”).
In this they would be modestly effectual: “Visit to ETO,” May 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF OR #320; “Narrative of Operation Varsity,” March 31, 1945, First Allied Airborne Army, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 3 (failed to winkle out); corr, Paul M. McGuire, 3rd Bn, 513th PIR, to JT, Sept. 6, 1963, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 3 (“holes started appearing”); A. C. Miller, 2nd Bn, 513th PIR, “Operation VARSITY,” Sept. 1963, JT, LOC MS Div, box 3, LHD (“I looked back”).
The body of the plane plummeted: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 503.
“falling like puppets”: Clark, Crossing the Rhine, 319.
“cracked it open like an egg”: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 412.
Of four hundred 6th Airborne gliders: Ernest M. Layman, Jr., “The Operations of XVIII Airborne Corps in the Crossing of the Rhine River at Wesel,” n.d., JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 3, 9; VW, vol. 2, 291; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 176–77; LO, 313.
“Controls hit by flak”: John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 184–87.
“Stop those Jewish prayers”: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 219; Richard C. Hottelet, “Big Jump into Germany,” Collier’s, May 5, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 658 (“burning and disabled C-47s”).
The morning proved even more hazardous: “A Historical Study of Some World War II Airborne Operations,” [1951?], WSEG staff study no. 3, CARL N-17309.1, 136; Eckelmeyer, “The Story of the Self-Sealing Tank,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (Feb. 1946): 205+ (sparks up to five inches); AAR, “Operation Varsity,” 52nd Troop Carrier Wing, n.d., MBR papers, MHI, box 62; memo, Maj. Donald W. Nyrop, “Fuel Tanks C-46 Aircraft,” Sept. 9, 1944, and H. H. Arnold, “Operational and Tactical Suitability of the C-46A Airplane for Troop Carrier Operations,” Aug. 8, 1944, Report of the Army Air Forces Board, both in NARA RG 18, AAF fuel systems, AAF Central Files, 1942–44, file 452.22; Holley, Buying Aircraft, 550–51 (three thousand C-46s); S. D. Heron, “Development of Aviation Fuels,” in Schlaifer, ed., Development of Aircraft Engines and Fuels, 640
Two layers of rubber lined the fuel tank: corr, Lt. Col. David N. Laux to Henry L. Stimson, June 1, 1944; memo, Robert Lovett to Henry L. Stimson, July 18, 1944; memo, Brig. Gen. Mervine E. Gross, “Additional Built-in Fuel Capacity for C-46 Airplanes,” Oct. 12, 1944; memo, Lewis H. Brereton, First Allied Airborne Army, Nov. 30, 1944; memo, Col. H. A. Shepard to H. H. Arnold, “Self-Sealing Fuel Cells for C-47 Airplanes,” Dec. 13, 1944; memo, Col. S. F. Giffin, “Self-Sealing Tanks and Armor Plate for Troop Carrier C-46 and C-54 Aircraft,” Feb. 3, 1945; memo, Col. H. G. Bunker, Apr. 16, 1945; Pearson, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” Apr. 29, 1944, WP, all in NARA RG 18, AAF fuel systems, AAF Central Files, 1942–44, file 452.22; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 194 (some C-47s).
“I saw pieces”: Allen, One More River, 267.
“The C-46 seemed to catch on fire”: John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 180; AAR, “Activities, Final Phase, European War,” IX Troop Carrier Command, June 1945, MBR papers, MHI, box 62, 80–81 (seventy-three C-46s); AAR, “Operation Varsity,” 52nd Troop Carrier Wing, n.d., MBR papers, MHI, box 62 (“not a suitable troop carrier”).
One final calamity remained: John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 189.
Among those shot down: corr, John E. Cannon to Emma Cheek, Apr. 3, 1945, Earle C. Cheek collection, USMA Arch; e-mail, http://www.Accident-Report.com to author, Dec. 11, 2009.
Cheek had survived many harrowing sorties: corr, Earle C. Cheek to Doris, family, Nov. 1944–March 1945, Cheek collection, USMA Arch; “Missing Air Crew Report,” HQ, AAF, March 27, 1945, a.p., www.Accident-Report.com. Other crewmen on the plane had completed eighteen to twenty-eight missions.
The sole survivor: corr, A. W. Keenen to Emma Cheek, June 25, 1945; Capt. T. G. Brown to Doris, June 12, 1945; Maj. Gen. Edward F. Witsell to Emma Cheek, Apr. 14, 1945, all in Cheek collection, USMA Arch.
“The German is whipped”: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 390.
Churchill entertained the mess: Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 373–74.
Engineers were at work on various spans: “Visit to ETO,” May 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF OR #320.
The utility of VARSITY’s vertical envelopment: VW, vol. 2, 292; AAFinWWII, 774; John C. Warren, “Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater,” 1956, AFHRA, historical study no. 97, 191–93 (“tremendous success”). The U.S. Army official history is unusually caustic in evaluating VARSITY (LO, 314).
The two airborne divisions incurred: “Narrative of Operation Varsity,” Mar. 31, 1945, First Allied Airborne Army, Floyd Lavinius Parks papers, MHI, box 3; “Visit to ETO,” May 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, E 15A, AGF OR #320; AAR, “Operation Varsity: First Allied Airborne Army,” May 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, ACT R A-105, box 62 (more than three hundred C-47s); AAR, “Activities, Final Phrase, European War,” IX Troop Carrier Command, June 1945, MBR papers, MHI, box 62, 80–81 (another 357 casualties); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 234 (VARSITY BLUNDER); Clark, Crossing the Rhine, 323 (saws and ladders).
“an influence, supreme and watchful”: Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 31.
Together in the brilliant sunshine: OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI; Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 242 (“Our men muttered”); Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 372 (“Thank God, Ike”); Danchev, 676–77 (“I was misquoted”).
“I am in command now”: OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI (“Get him out of here”); Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 416 (“Why don’t we go across”); “Winston Churchill Visits the Rhine,” AB, no. 16 (1977): 28+ (ears cocked); Davis, Across the Rhine, 85 (“lighting his cigar”).
“pouting mouth and angry eyes”: Danchev, 677.
After presenting Montgomery: Colville, The Fringes of Power, 579; Winston S. Churchill, Marlborough: His Life and Times, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 15.
In short order, seven Allied armies: LO, 320; OH, William H. Simpson, n.d., CJR, box 44, folder 14, 10–12 (Simpson bridled); war diary, Ninth Army, March 27–31, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, “personal calendar,” MHI, box 11 (languid British pace); VW, vol. 2, 294 (twenty miles beyond the Rhine).
On the right flank, in the south: LO, 285–89; Wyant, Sandy Patch, 189 (fewer than six thousand combat effectives).
“My dear General, you must cross”: LO, 321–22; De Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 1940–1946, 845–46; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 421 (“even if they do not want you”), 425 (A solitary company).
“This is the collapse”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 244; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 203–12 (“The enemy is capable of collapse”).
“a systematic annihilation”: SC, 429; Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 287 (heaviest bombing month); Addison, Churchill, the Unexpected Hero, 196–97 (“stigmatizing a policy”); memoir, Richard D. Hughes, n.d., AFHRA, 520.056-234, 64 (“petering out”).
“machinery in their souls”: John Steinbeck, Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team, (New York: Penguin, 2009), e-book edition.
“people accustomed to great spaces”: “Miracle of Supply,” Time (Sept. 25, 1944): 8+.
The United States in the past year: Wieviorka, Normandy, 43.
American factories during the war: Gropman, Mobilizing U.S. Industry in World War II, 133. The Allies collectively outproduced Germany in military trucks by a factor of 12 to 1 (Ellis, Brute Force, 348–49).
with more than 700,000 vehicles on the Continent: “Ordnance Diary,” Dec. 1, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 602, box 1; Nevins, “How We Felt About the War,” in Goodman, ed., While You Were Gone, 21 (“armed workshop”); Freeman W. Burford, “The Inside Story of Oil in the European War,” Nov. 25, 1946, NARA RG 319, E 97,LSA, vol. 1, background files, box 6 (four million gallons); “Combat Engineering,” CE, ETOUSA report no. 10, Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 7 (ten bridges a day); LSA, vol. 2, 422–23 (fifty-seven more across the Rhine), 454 (six thousand tanks).
“one might be able to see the end”: Hastings, Armageddon, 380.
“Naturally I am immensely pleased”: Chandler, 2544.
“The Enemy Has Reason to Fear Him”
No sword was swifter: Three Years, 797 (German houses burned); PP, 660 (“Most of the houses are heaps”), 656–57 (“having so much fun”); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 227 (“brick and stone wilderness”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 725 (“reason to fear him”). The German high command generally was less attentive to Patton individually than Americans liked to believe (Yeide, “The German View of Patton,” World War II [March–Apr. 2012]: 27+).
“I am very proud of the fact”: PP, 662–63.
His beloved son-in-law: AAAD, 339–44; OH, John K. Waters, 1980, William C. Parnell, III, SOOHP, MHI, 240–58; OH, Brooks Kleber, June 27, 1989, William A. Young, III, Kleber papers, MHI, 8–9; http://www.oflag64.us/Oflag64/Oflag_64_Association_homepage.html.
Waters kept a pocket notebook: John K. Waters, “Remembrances,” a.p., courtesy George Patton “Pat” Waters.
He also maintained a “Wartime Log”: John K. Waters, “A Wartime Log,” a.p., courtesy George Patton “Pat” Waters.
The great Russian winter offensive: Blatman, The Death Marches, 407; “Sketches from the Lives of the Kriegies of Oflag 64,” 1997, a.p., 34; OH, Brooks Kleber, June 27, 1989, William A. Young, III, Kleber papers, MHI, 8–18 (secret radio).
On February 26, the column was herded: Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+; Baron et al., Raid!, 46–48.
Conditions at Hammelburg were wretched: Deborah A. Smith, “American Prisoners of War in Germany, 1944–45: Hammelburg,” May 10, 1976, and OH, Brooks Kleber, June 27, 1989, William A. Young, III, both in Kleber papers, MHI, 19.
Patton had hoped to hear: diary, Jan. 18, 1945, GSP, LOC, MS Div, box 3, folder 9; diary, Third Army chief of staff, Feb. 9, 1945, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 722 (Soviet intelligence); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 260–61 (new arrivals at Hammelburg); PP, 667 (“We are headed”); corr, GSP to Beatrice, March 25, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“Hope to send an expedition”).
The dubious honor of rescuing: Baron et al., Raid!, 21–25; “Interview of Major Abraham J. Baum,” Sept. 14, 1945, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 1; Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+; Whitaker, “Task Force Baum and the Hammelburg Raid,” Armor (Sept.–Oct. 1996): 20+; diary, Manton Eddy, XII Corp CG, March 26, 1945, FCP, MHI (Patton ordered XII Corps); Alexander C. Stiller, ts, n.d., GSP, LOC MS Div, box 49, folder 13; Blumenson, “The Hammelburg Affair,” Army (Oct. 1965): 16+ (“thrills and laughs”).
Patton had proposed sending: OH, Abraham Baum, “Interview by Mr. Lake, War Correspondent,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427; OH, Abraham J. Baum, Apr. 10, 1945, D. G. Dayton and S. J. Tobin, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 1 (fifteen maps); PP, 668–70; Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 260–61 (east of a corps driving north); Sorley, Thunderbolt, 92–93 (“What the hell”); corr, GSP to Beatrice, March 27, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“nervous as a cat”); PP, 666 (“I do not believe”).
After skirmishes near Aschaffenburg: Baron et al., Raid!, 99–109. A meticulous contemporary effort by Peter Domes to reconstruct the raid can be found under “US Schedule,” http://taskforcebaum.de/schedule/schedule%20us.html.
American tank and machine-gun fire: Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+; Alexander C. Stiller, ts, n.d., GSP, MS Div, box 49, folder 13 (“scattered like quail”); Baron et al., Raid!, 118–19, 133 (“Mazel tov”); “Notes on Task Force Baum, Narrative of Capt. Baum,” n.d., NWWIIM.
Here trouble awaited them: Alexander C. Stiller, ts, n.d., GSP, MS Div, box 49, folder 13; Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+.
Drumfire and coiling black smoke: Herndon Inge, Jr., untitled memoir, n.d., MHI, 711–17; LHD, 292 (offered absolution), 294 (“No smoking”).
With consent from a German commandant: corr, John K. Waters to Harry H. Semmes, Sept. 15, 1953, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 1; OH, John K. Waters, 1980, William C. Parnell, III, 277–79; Baron et al., Raid!, 156–57 (coccyx); Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+ (paper bandages).
Baum’s tanks meanwhile: Alexander C. Stiller, ts, n.d., GSP, MS Div, box 49, folder 13; Herndon Inge, Jr., untitled memoir, n.d., MHI, 711–17; OH, Col. Paul R. Goode, May 17, 1945, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 2 (he confronted 1,291).
It was now 6:30 P.M.: Baron et al., Raid!, 162–64.
Evening’s first stars glittered: OH, Col. Paul R. Goode, May 17, 1945, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 2; OH, R. S. Garner, 707th Tank Bn, 28th ID, May 4, 1945, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML 857, box 19133 (a few compasses).
Scouts reported ambushes and roadblocks: “Notes on Task Force Baum,” 4th AD, Apr. 10, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, file 604-0.3.0, box 12337; OH, R. S. Gardner, 28th ID, May 4, 1945, 707th Tank Bn, 28th ID, May 4, 1945, NARA RG 407, Miscl AG records, ML 857, box 19133.
“A sheet of hell”: Baron et al., Raid!, 202–3; Alexander C. Stiller, ts, n.d., GSP, MS Div, box 49, folder 13 (“they destroyed us”).
“Every man for himself”: Baron et al., Raid!, 202–3; Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+; OH, Brooks Kleber, June 27, 1989, William A. Young, III, Kleber papers, MHI, 21–22 (“Get a good sleep”).
“March 27: ‘Shot’”: John K. Waters, “Remembrances,” a.p., courtesy George Patton “Pat” Waters.
Not for some days: Baron et al., Raid!, 250.
Patton both evaded responsibility: Phillips, The Making of a Professional, 184 (undersized force); PP, 667 (“I felt by hazarding”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 717 (long after the raid).
“I had known of the camp”: corr, GSP to Beatrice, March 31, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13.
“They are trying to make an incident”: corr, GSP to Beatrice, Apr. 13, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13.
Ten days after the raid: Margry, “The Hammelburg Raid,” AB, no. 91 (1996): 1+; Baron et al., Raid!, 244–49 (“courageous devotion”).
Patton had abused his authority: Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 623; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 542–43 (“Failure itself”); Chandler, 2616–17 (“crackpot actions”).
Lovers’ Quarrels Are a Part of Love
Eisenhower’s office in Reims: Williams, “Supreme Headquarters for D-Day,” AB, no. 84 (1994): 1+; Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 49 (Military convoys crawled); SC, 420 (more than five thousand); Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” 1946, MHUC, group 1, box 24, 180 (jitterbugging soldiers).
“France smells wonderful”: corr, Howard J. Silbar to family, Apr. 15, 1945, Silbar papers, MHI, box 1.
Eisenhower “looked terrible”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 410; Morgan, Past Forgetting, 216–17 (“physical and mental condition”); Crosswell, Beetle, 878–89 (“Ike shouts and rants”).
The supreme commander needed rest: Morgan, Past Forgetting, 217–18; Thomas W. Mattingly and Olive F. G. Marsh, “A Compilation of the General Health System of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Mattingly papers, DDE Lib, box 1; D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 679–81 (“Those of us”).
“Ike has learnt his lesson”: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 560.
“As soon as you have joined hands”: Chandler, 2552, 2593 (“simplicity itself”).
“I get tired of trying to arrange”: ibid., 2521; “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET, General Board study no. 1, 97 (ten thousand German soldiers); OH, John Whiteley, May 15, 1963, CJR, box 44, folder 3 (“if anything was to be done”).
Montgomery was gobsmacked: VW, vol. 2, 299–301; Crosswell, Beetle, 887 (“blow from Ike”); Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 446 (“violent, pro-American”), 458 (“prolong the war”); Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 564 (“only himself to blame”).
Allied planners had presumed that Berlin: Chandler, 2561, 2568 (“In none of this do I mention Berlin”).
The Red Army was thirty miles from Berlin: LO, 340–41; GS VI, 132–33; Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 229; OH, Arthur Nevins, Aug. 15, 1972, Maclyn P. Burg and John E. Wickman, Nevins papers, DDE Lib, 60; SC, 445; Chandler, 2553n (“unfortunate incidents”).
On a single day in early April: That aircraft incident occurred on April 2 (Chandler, 2602).
Postwar occupation zones already: Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 387; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 786 (“Destructive Measures”); Ambrose, Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945, 29–30, 42; OH, John Whiteley, May 15, 1963, CJR, box 44, folder 3; OH, DDE, n.d., CJR, box 43, file 7, 26 (“What would you have done”).
None of this went down easily: Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 604; SC, 442 (“The commander in the field”).
“We might be condemned”: Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 380.
“Berlin remains”: Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 604–5.
“very logical objectives”: ibid., 608.
“I shall not attempt any move”: SC, 468.
The Allied juggernaut in the west had grown: More than two-thirds of the divisions were American (LO, 322).
They faced a tatterdemalion enemy: 12th AG, G-2 summary no. 43, March 25, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, box 3.
Gasoline had grown precious: German gasoline production was less than one-tenth what it had been a year earlier (“Target Priorities of the Eighth Air Force,” May 15, 1945, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 326, folder VIII A.F., 23); Robert J. C. Osborne et al., “The 9th Armored Division in the Exploitation of Remagen Bridgehead,” March 1950, AS, Ft. K, 9 (“fifty-man panzer crew”).
Montgomery had not quite yielded: Chandler, 2594; SC, 446 (“It is quite clear”).
Lovers’ quarrels: War Department translation. Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 604, 612.
With Armed Forces Radio playing: Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 380 (“Last Round-up”); Robert J. C. Osborne et al., “The 9th Armored Division in the Exploitation of Remagen Bridgehead,” March 1950, AS, Ft. K, 30; Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 141 (“dream roads”); Triplet, A Colonel in the Armored Regiments, 232–33 (cloverleaf ramps); Jack A. Marshall, “Once Upon a War,” 2009, a.p., 131–32 (“Onward, Christian Soldiers”); OH, Andrew J. Boyle, 1971, Frank Walton, SOOHP, MHI, 11–14 (mobile microfilm teams).
Towns fell quickly: Sylvan, 351 (box of cigars); corr, Gerald Ritchie, 6th Airborne Div, to Elspeth, Apr. 10, 1945, IWM, P. 182 (“Alice in Wonderland”); Patton, War as I Knew It, 282; LO, 350 (false rumors); Graham, No Name on the Bullet, 95 (“How I want”).
The hour had come to cinch: LO, 351–52; Friedrich, The Fire, 139 (the very air had first turned yellow); Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 225–26 (motley brigade).
General Collins’s VII Corps: Ossad and Marsh, Major General Maurice Rose, 22–23, 33–34; Cooper, Death Traps, 277–79 (roadside ditch).
Flame, smoke, and percussive gunfire: OH, JLC, Jan. 25, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, SLC background files, box 184; OH, JLC, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 202; Cooper, Death Traps, 191 (nearly four hundred tanks); Ossad and Marsh, Major General Maurice Rose, 38, 46, 49; memo, Col. E. V. Freeman, memorial division, Office of the Quartermaster General, Nov. 16, 1949, M. Rose individual deceased personnel file, obtained under FOIA, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, July 2008 (repeatedly declared himself); Heinz, When We Were One, 154 (“I have a son”).
“We’re in a hell of a fix”: corr, George G. Garton, CO, 391st Armored FA Bn, to JT, Apr. 13, 1963, JT, LOC MS Div, box 2 (“they have us”); Ossad and Marsh, Major General Maurice Rose, 28–35, 312–24, 343.
“It can’t be him”: Heinz, When We Were One, 154.
Rose would be interred: memo to Brig. Gen. J. R. Ranck, QM, COMZ, Orleans, France, Dec. 4, 1959, M. Rose individual deceased personnel file, obtained under FOIA, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, July 2008; Palmer and Zaid, eds., The GI’s Rabbi, 162 (Kaddish).
A war-crimes investigation: Ossad and Marsh, Major General Maurice Rose, 339; Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 227 (Feral American troops).
Fanatical resistance in Paderborn: Albert R. Cupello et al., “Armored Encirclement of the Ruhr,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 78–79; Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 107–8, 117–18; Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 249–58 (blood group tattoos).
Easter Sunday dawned: corr, Paul M. McGuire to JT, Sept. 6, 1963, JT, LOC MS Div, LHD, box 3 (“Every time a battery”); Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 107; Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 251–54 (bicycles).
At noon, observation planes: LO, 359; Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 118 (Werner Osthelmer).
Shortly after four P.M. the columns met: The official Army history put the rendezvous at one P.M., but that appears to be several hours too early (Albert R. Cupello et al., “Armored Encirclement of the Ruhr,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 78–79); Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 260; Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 119 (hundred-mark notes).
“largest double envelopment”: SC, 438; Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 260; LO, 353 (Hitler forbade withdrawal); Francis Daugherty et al., “7th Armored Division’s Part in the Reduction of the Ruhr Pocket,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 63–66 (imaginary Twelfth Army); Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 114–15 (“All fear comes”).
To bring that day closer: LO, 363–66; AAR, “Operations in the Ruhr Valley,” 75th ID, n.d., CARL, N-13095 (thermite grenades); OH, “Crushing the Rose Pocket,” 97th ID, Apr. 7–19, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, box 19066, folder 208 (fifty flamethrowers); corr, Robert W. Hasbrouck to wife, Apr. 16, 1945, Maurice Delaval papers, MHI, box 9 (“so many interruptions”); Francis Daugherty et al., “7th Armored Division’s Part in the Reduction of the Ruhr Pocket,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 85.
“What is there left?”: Carl Wagener, “Army Group B,” n.d., FMS, #B-593, MHI, 34–47.
“Eighty years ago this month”: Ridgway, Soldier, 139–40.
Moscow had accused Model: Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 329; LO, 369–72 (“Have we done everything”).
“I sincerely believe”: A decade later, Model’s son exhumed his remains in a moldering field marshal’s uniform; he was reburied in the German cemetery at Vossenack (Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 375–79, 412; Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 3, 206–10); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 329 (Walther service revolver).
“a dark plowed field”: Hastings, Armageddon, 419.
Allied intelligence originally estimated: Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI, 45; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 203–12 (125,000); Chandler, 2587 (“at least 100,000”).
Those figures proved far too modest: “Consumption Rates U.S. Forces from the Rhine to the Elbe,” May 11, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin history #27; LO, 359 (seven corps and nineteen divisions), 372 (Stalingrad or Tunis); SC, 440 (dry-shod admiral); Spayd, Bayerlein, 222–23 (“I had some nice days”).
“We have prisoners like some people”: Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 181; LO, 370; Spayd, Bayerlein, 218 (groomed their teams).
“Young men, old men”: LO, 370–71.
GI sentries cradled their carbines: OH, “Crushing the Rose Pocket,” 97th ID, Apr. 7–19, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, box 19066, folder 208.
CHAPTER 12: VICTORY
Mark of the Beast
For the final destruction: Stars and Stripes, March 27, 1945, CBH letters, MHI (“Omar the Warmaker”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 539 (Eisenhower joined him); diary, Third Army chief of staff, Feb. 9, 1945, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 866–69; Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 627–28 (five-star rank insignia); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 228–29 (GIs had made a discovery). Patton’s official date of rank as a four-star was April 14.
A photograph of the Führer: Stafford, Endgame 1945, 74; White, Conquerors’ Road, 68 (“Thy Strength”); Codman, Drive, 281 (“If that clothesline”); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 229–31 (“Jesus Christ!”); Bradsher, “Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure,” Prologue 31, no. 1 (spring 1999): 7+ (“meeting payrolls”).
Treasures already had been discovered: “Civil Affairs and Military Government Activities in Connection with Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives,” NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 36, 97-USF5-0.3.0, 27–29; Edsel, The Monuments Men, 281–83.
Here in “Room No. 8”: Bradsher, “Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure,” Prologue 31, no. 1 (spring 1999): 7+ (concentration-camp victims and “richest man in the world”); Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 654 (double-decker buses); Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 312, 333–36; Holland and Rothbart, “The Merkers and Buchenwald Treasure Troves,” AB, no. 93 (1996): 1+; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 231 (each sack worth $25,000); Slany, U.S. and Allied Efforts to Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II, 159–61; memo, Col. B. Bernstein to Brig. Gen. F. J. McSherry, “Contents of Mines in Merkers Area,” Apr. 18, 1945, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI, box 53 (galleries and shafts nearby).
Patton facetiously proposed: memo, Brig. Gen. Frank J. McSherry to DDE, “Gold and Art Treasure Found at Meikers [sic],” Apr. 10, 1945, McSherry papers, MHI, box 53 (250 tons); Crosswell, Beetle, 899 (“every son of a bitch”).
Eventually valued by SHAEF: Bradsher, “Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure,” Prologue 37, no. 1 (spring 1999): 7+; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 229–31 (ten-ton trucks).
Similar removals were under way: William F. Heimlich, “The Eagle and the Bear: Berlin, 1945–1950,” n.d., HIA, 46–52 (AIRMAIL); OH, Andrew J. Boyle, 1971, Frank Walton, SOOHP, MHI, 13–17; corr, DDE to Harry S. Truman, Aug. 8 and Sept. 24, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO, secretary general staff, 333.5, box 35. In response to a Soviet protest, Eisenhower told Truman in a top-secret note, “I believe it may be granted that the Russian report is correct. Actually, equipment, documents and personnel exceeding the claims made were evacuated.”
Other swag included ground-to-air missile: William F. Heimlich, “The Eagle and the Bear: Berlin, 1945–1950,” n.d., HIA, 46–52; Rudolf Lusar, “The German Weapons and Secret Weapons of World War II and Their Subsequent Development,” 1956, CMH (patents); Longmate, Hitler’s Rockets, 375–76 (seventy-five rockets). For details of Soviet removals see Dobbs, Six Months in 1945, 242–47.
Patton had one more discovery: diary, Third Army chief of staff, Feb. 9, 1945, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 866–69; LO, 375–78; Allen, Lucky Forward, 279 (flush toilets).
the Americans liberated a concentration camp: Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 33; case file, Buchenwald KZ, n.d., Donald McClure papers, HIA, box 1 (eighty satellite camps).
“We passed through the stockade”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 539.
An inmate pointed out a gallows: Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 231; PP, 684 (“mammoth griddle”); James J. Weingartner, “Early War Crimes Trials,” in Liberation 1945, 82–83 (vengeful inmates); Thompson, Men Under Fire, 138 (“mark of the beast”); White, Conquerors’ Road, 91–92 (“ash and human debris”); Schudel, “General Witnessed History at Nazi camp, Panama Canal,” WP, Aug. 7, 2012, B6.
“Still having trouble”: Codman, Drive, 282–83.
Eisenhower and Bradley agreed to spend: Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 232–33 (125 miles); MacDonald, The Mighty Endeavor, 476–77; LO, 380.
Despite great bounds: Ryan, The Last Battle, 314 (226 miles); LO, 384.
“Ike, I don’t know”: diary, Third Army chief of staff, Feb. 9, 1945, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 866–69; Weintraub, 15 Stars, 331 (hordes of refugees).
Another anxiety weighed: LO, 407.
How did a police state perish?: Timothy Naftali, “Creating the Myth of the Alpenfestung,” in Bischof and Pelinka, eds., Austrian Memory & National Identity, 203–46.
As early as the fall of 1943: Jenkins, “The Battle of the National Redoubt,” Military Review (Dec. 1946): 3+; Crosswell, Beetle, 883 (“bitter guerrilla warfare”); memo, DDE to ONB, “Security of Troops,” Feb. 20, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, file 371.2, box 65 (“nests of guerrillas”); Hinsley, 613; Timothy Naftali, “Creating the Myth of the Alpenfestung,” in Bischof and Pelinka, eds., Austrian Memory & National Identity, 213, 236n (quarter-million Ultra intercepts); Pogue, George C. Marshall, 557 (“no indications”).
Far more credulous: Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 255 (“no more chances”); OH, Kenneth Strong, May 15, 1963, CJR, box 95, folder 5, 1–2 (“die together”); VW, vol. 2, 302–4 (“most important ministries”); Minott, The Fortress That Never Was, 29, 88–94 (more obdurate than Cassino).
An OSS psychological portrait: Walter C. Langer, “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler—His Life and Legend,” n.d., OSS, NARA RG 226, 190/3/6/01, box 1, 244–49; OSS, “Report from Switzerland,” March 1, 1945, NARA RG 226, M 1642, R-83, frame 333 (150 trucks); memo, R&A London to Chandler Morse, Harold Barger, “Subject: Pickaninny—Economic Capabilities of the Alpine Area,” March 29, 1945, OSS, NARA RG 226, E 73, box 3 (“absence of sugar”); OSS Berne to OSS director, “Official Dispatch,” March 16, 1945, NARA RG 226, M 142, R-30, frames 99–100 (antitank guns); memo, William J. Donovan to FDR, March 26, 1945, NARA RG 226, M-1642, R-25, frames 441–42 (“go underground”).
The correspondent William L. Shirer: Miller, Ike the Soldier, 761 (“mystery writers”); memo, “Study of the German National Redoubt,” March 25, 1945, HQ, Seventh Army, G-2, NARA RG 226, M 1642, R-52, frames 253–59 (“Vast stores” and “Messerschmitt” and “imbued with the Nazi spirit”); Ryan, The Last Battle, 213 (long freight trains); AAR, The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 3, 808–10; Minott, The Fortress That Never Was, 54 (hydro-powered).
The truth was less flamboyant: Hinsley, 613; Hans [sic] Hofer, Lower Alps gauleiter, n.d., FMS #B-458, ETHINT, vol. 24, MHI, 9–11, 23 (wall map); Georg Ritter von Hengl, Apr. 25, 1946, FMS #B-459, 3–11, and #B-461, n.d., 1–3, ETHINT, vol. 24, MHI (not until spring); Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 277 (“make-believe”).
Werewolf movement: Timothy Naftali, “Creating the Myth of the Alpenfestung,” in Bischof and Pelinka, eds., Austrian Memory & National Identity, 203–46; Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, 175 (“Werewolf is watching”); Whiting, The Home Front: Germany, 179–80 (mayor of Aachen); Brown, The Last Hero, 738–40 (Basque assassins).
Yet at SHAEF the myth: press conference, W. B. Smith, Apr. 21, 1945, in “Operations of the Approach to the Rhine and Across the Rhine,” n.d., Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI; D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 696–98; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 536 (“We may be fighting”); Crosswell, Beetle, 90 (“possibly 100 to 125”); memo, “Location of Caves in Germany,” SHAEF G-2, Apr. 16, 1945, and memo, “Photographic Cover of National Redoubt,” SHAEF G-2, Apr. 14, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 240B, 6th Army Group, files 452.2 and “National Redoubt,” boxes 3 and 5 (two hundred caves); Jenkins, “The Battle of the National Redoubt,” Military Review (Dec. 1946): 3+ (ordered Devers’s army group); Hinsley, 613 (First Allied Airborne Army); LO, 422.
“no less than 70 examples”: SHAEF weekly intelligence summary no. 57, Apr. 22, 1945, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 14; “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” USFET General Board study no. 1, n.d., 102 (one hundred divisions); VW, vol. 2, 429–31 (“fanatical resistance”); Georg Ritter von Hengl, Apr. 25, 1946, FMS #B-459, ETHINT, vol. 24, MHI, 11 (“run its course”).
Shortly after midnight on Friday: Ayer, Before the Colors Fade, 210 (“hot air”); PP, 694 (“a figment”); diary, Apr. 11, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 11 (carbine by his cot); corr, GSP to Beatrice, Apr. 17, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“end of this life”); corr, March 16, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 74, folder 5 (“hot furnace”).
“War for me”: corr, GSP to Robert Howe Fletcher, Apr. 25, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13.
Glancing at his wristwatch: diary, Third Army chief of staff, Feb. 9, 1945, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 866–69. International News Service broke the story at 5:47 P.M. Washington time in a terse flash: “FDR DEAD.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man who: Goodman, ed., While You Were Gone, 116; Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 627 (transcendent cause); Taylor and Taylor, eds., The War Diaries, 159 (sob like a child); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 716–17 (“altered decisively”); Leahy, I Was There, 346 (“How could a man”).
His passing came: Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 808; Tully, F.D.R. My Boss, 359 (stamp collection); Hassett, Off the Record with F.D.R., 332–35 (signed into law); Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Annals of Internal Medicine 72, no. 4 (Apr. 1, 1970): 579+; Altman, “For F.D.R. Sleuths, New Focus on an Old Spot,” NYT, Jan. 5, 2010, D1 (blood pressure); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 527–33; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 603, 611–12 (“that was it”); Reilly, Reilly of the White House, 234 (poison). The portrait artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff denied measuring Roosevelt’s nose and later wrote that the president said nothing before he collapsed (Shoumatoff, FDR’s Unfinished Portrait, 115–18; Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center, http://www.fdrheritage.org/shoumatoff.htm).
J. Austin Dillon: memo, J. Austin Dillon, n.d., Small Collections: FDRL Miscellaneous Documents: Roosevelt, Franklin D.—Health, FDR Lib.
On Friday, the daily casualty list: MacDonald, The Mighty Endeavor, 484; Seventh Army war diary, Apr. 13, 1945, MHI, 653 (“mourning badges”); Toole, Battle Diary, 132 (“This is a shock”).
Dragon Country
To an American pilot: Ryan, The Last Battle, 127 (“very crust”); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 3, 820 (“molten mass”); corr, Waldo Heinrichs, Jr., May 8, 1945, Heinrichs papers, MHI, box 1 (“running to the rear”).
This was Dragon Country: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 132–33; LO, 410 (“Sixty-one Roadblocks”), 386 (Hanover’s defenses), 404–5 (“a conglomeration”); The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 3, 822 (wooden sticks); Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 220; Holt, The Deceivers, 662 (geraniums); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 244–47.
“The shame of German defeat”: Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 261.
“What right had they”: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 146.
Alfried Krupp, an industrialist: Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself, 265–70 (said to have wept); Manchester, The Arms of Krupp, 1587–1966, 521, 674–81. Arrested in April, Krupp would be formally charged in August; Manchester writes that he was dry-eyed upon being detained.
“Brilliant spring sunshine”: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 132–33.
“old men leaning on sticks”: White, Conquerors’ Road, 17.
And yet dragons lurked: Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 480 (10,677 U.S. soldiers); Lubrich, ed., Travels in the Reich, 1933–1945, 328 (“plague bacteria”); Howarth, ed., Men of War, 205–6; Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 334; Germany IX, 459 (“If we lose the war”); Friedrich, The Fire, 306 (“Negro brothels”).
Some Luftwaffe pilots: Rudolf Lusar, “The German Weapons and Secret Weapons of World War II and Their Subsequent Development,” 1956, CMH, 78; Ninth AF, intelligence summary no. 130, Apr. 30, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 116 (political indoctrination); “History of U.S. Strategic Air Force Europe vs. German Air Force,” Sept. 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-013, 342 (“staking your lives”); Muller, “Losing Air Superiority: A Case Study from the Second World War,” Air & Space Power Journal (winter 2003): 55+ (“total commitment missions”); Seventh Army, G-2 bulletin no. 63, May 22, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3, Col. C. Hilldebrand, VI Corps, OR, box 1458 (several young boys); Lubrich, ed., Travels in the Reich, 1933–1945, 320 (“heartbreaking sight”).
“women and children lined the rooftops”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 530; LO, 410.
In Heilbronn, on the Neckar: LO, 417–18; “Attack on Heilbronn,” 100th ID, July 1945, Seventh Army narratives, MHI, 4, 33; Turner and Jackson, Destination Berchtesgaden, 160–61; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 357–59; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 247 (“noticeable stench”).
“Why don’t the silly bastards”: Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 414; Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 131.
“Mother, you asked me”: “Jack’s Letters,” March 22, March 24, and April 3, 1945, a.p., courtesy of Rick Perry.
“Half the nationalities of Europe”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 254–55; Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 64 (“moving frieze”); “Civil Affairs and Military Government Organizations and Operations,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 32, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (4.2 million); Abraham J. Peck, “A Continent in Chaos,” in Liberation 1945, 101 (eleven million unmoored).
Some were on forced marches: diary, Darrell William Coates, Apr. 1945, HIA; http://www.b24.net/pow/stalag17.htm.
“Everyone is yelling”: Vining, ed., American Diaries of World War II, 417–18.
“Smaller wounds were covered”: Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 181–82; Moorehead, Eclipse, 256 (“jeep looks like”); “After WWII, Economist Devoted Life,” obit, WP, July 8, 2009, B4 (cheered wildly).
Of the shambling millions: “Activities and Organization of COMZ,” June 11, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #89, 11; Foreign Workers Programs, Apr. 25, 1945, Radio Luxembourg collection, HIA, box 1 (SHAEF broadcasts).
“tractable, grateful, and powerless”: “Displaced Persons, Refugees, and Recovered Allied Military Personnel,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 35, 97-USF5-0.3.0.
Freed laborers plundered houses: Zumbro, Battle for the Ruhr, 329–30; “Concentration Camp Train,” G-2 Periodic Report No. 304, 30th ID, Apr. 17, 1945, NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR (licked flour); Urquhart, A Life in Peace and War, 79, 86 (“rampageous” and Hanover cellar); Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, 26.
Thousands of refugees carried: “History of Medical Service in the European Theater,” tape transcript, Oct. 1962, MHI, II-69; OH, Philip Carlquist, Sept. 1, 1978, Emory University; “The Disease Potential in Germany,” in OH, Albert W. Kenner, SHAEF chief medical officer, May 27, 1948, FCP, MHI; “Displaced Persons, Refugees, and Recovered Allied Military Personnel,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 35, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (roadblocks); Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, 29 (“Alleluia!).
Some went barefoot: White, Conquerors’ Road, 100–103.
“One died taking a drink”: Leonard C. Barney, 315th Medical Bn, 90th ID, “Inmates of Concentration Camps,” 1985, Columbus WWII Round Table Collection, MHI, 3–4.
“It’s too big”: Leh, “World War II from One Enlisted Man’s Point of View,” Proceedings of the Lehigh County Historical Society 39 (1990): 89+.
“a kind of dull satisfaction”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 504–6.
“If the heavens were paper”: Collier, Fighting Words, 188.
Nordhausen was overrun: OH, Col. D. B. Hardin, VII Corps, “Concentration Camp at Nordhausen,” Apr. 14, 1944, NARA RG 407, ETO ML #1028, box 19152, 1–4; LO, 391–92 (“Men lay”); Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 156–57 (beat up a captured German scientist); Collins, Lightning Joe, 324; Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 293–95 (“no greater shame”).
“There was no fat”: Ingersoll, Top Secret, 333.
At the Wöbbelin camp: Nordyke, All American All the Way, 756; “Wöbbelin,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006160; McNally, As Ever, John, 65–67 (“Each body was pulled”); Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 294 (never failed to weep); Stafford, Endgame 1945, 311 (“defining moment”).
“We came into a smell”: Stafford, Endgame 1945, 83; Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 300–302 (“simian throng”), 341 (watery soup); “Early Measures at Belsen,” lecture, June 4, 1945, Royal Society of Medicine, UK NA, WO 219/3944A (designed for eight thousand); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 252–55 (hearts, livers, and kidneys), 264 (“woman squatting”); “What the Army Did at Belsen Concentration Camp,” n.d., UK NA, WO 219/3944A, 3 (“continuous carpet”), 16–17; “Bergen-Belsen,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224; Collier, Fighting Words, 188 (“peeping through fingers”).
The living resembled “polished skeletons”: Stafford, Endgame 1945, 83; “What the Army Did at Belsen Concentration Camp,” n.d., UK NA, WO 219/3944A, 20–23 (medics tallied); Davis, Soldier of Democracy, 535–36 (“he fell dead”); Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 33–34, 43; Arthur,Forgotten Voices of World War II, 419–21 (clubbed with rifle butts).
An estimated quarter-million: Blatman, The Death Marches, 11–12, 278, 310–21, 332–47; Margry, “The Gardelegen Massacre,” AB, no. 111 (2001): 2+; “Gardelegen Massacre 13 April 1945,” www.scrapbookpages.com/GerhardThiele*.
For the U.S. Army, the camp at Buchenwald: investigative papers, “Buchenwald KZ,” Donald McClure papers, HIA, box 1; Hackett, ed., The Buchenwald Report, 330–33.
An hour later, outriders: Brig. Gen. Eric F. Wood et al., “Inspection of German Concentration Camp for Political Prisoners Located at Buckenwal [sic],” Apr. 16, 1945, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI, box 53; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 236–38; “Civil Affairs and Military Government Organizations and Operations,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 32, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (six hundred calories).
“They were so thin”: Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 40.
An intricate, awful world: Brig. Gen. Eric F. Wood et al., “Inspection of German Concentration Camp for Political Prisoners Located at Buckenwal [sic],” Apr. 16, 1945, Frank J. McSherry papers, MHI, box 53; investigative papers, “Buchenwald KZ,” Donald McClure papers, HIA, box 1.
The SS had murdered: “Buchenwald,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005198; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 236–38 (brick ovens).
A verse in gold and black: White, Conquerors’ Road, 82.
Patton marched the burghers: PP, 687, 692; Edward R. Murrow, CBS radio broadcast, Apr. 15, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 681–85 (“The stink was beyond”).
Shocking evidence of German torture: Kimball, Forged in War, 278 (Breedonck); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 220 (“legacy of skepticism”); Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 56 (barely one-third), 66; Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 17.
“What kind of people”: Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 269.
“Hardly any boy infantryman”: Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 157.
“I’ve been in the Army”: “History, 157th Inf Regt, Apr 1945,” NARA RG 405, E 427, WWII Ops Reports, 345-INF (157)-0.3.
Berliners received an extra allocation: Ryan, The Last Battle, 409–10, 417–18 (Karstadt); Klemperer, To the Bitter End, 209 (“We are defending Europe”); Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 335 (birthday salute).
“All transportation is at a standstill”: Moorhouse, Berlin at War, 359–60, 371–72 (“pastor shot himself”).
“Lift our banners”: ibid., 359–60.
The man himself took the passing: Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 798; “Hitler’s Höllenfahrt,” Der Spiegel (Apr. 10, 1995): 172+ (thirty-seven steps).
Back behind three steel doors: Fest, Hitler, 764–65; Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 340 (“I shall fight”); Moorhouse, Berlin at War, 358–59 (“birthday atmosphere”); Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 801 (Blutrote Rosen).
The U.S. Seventh Army marked the day: Stafford, Endgame 1945, 27; AAR, XV Corps, June 1, 1945, Wade H. Haislip papers, HIA, box 1; LO, 425; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 359 (two thousand last-ditch soldiers).
“alluvial fans of rubble”: Wyant, Sandy Patch, 191; Taggart, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division, 354–62 (“Dog-Faced Soldier”); White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 265–66 (“Casablanca. Palermo”).
A quieter commemoration: White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 265–66; Even, The Tenth Engineers, 49 (wreath); Palmer and Zaid, eds., The GI’s Rabbi, 173–74; Stafford, Endgame 1945, 28 (“Stars and Stripes Forever”).
“God, Where Are You?”
War correspondents had begun offering odds: Heinz, When We Were One, 188–89 (“GIvans”); LO, 446–48 (welcome signs and recognition signals); Forrest C. Pogue, “The Meeting with the Russians,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2249, box 19185, 1 (brigands in Cossack attire); OH, 69th ID, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 136-A, box 19050, folder #137 (grassy hummock).
East of Leipzig: LO, 446–48; Ryan, The Last Battle, 472; OH, 69th ID, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #137 (confused Strehla with Groba).
Twenty miles north and two hours later: OH, 69th ID, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #137; LO, 455–56; Margry, “The U.S.-Soviet Link-Up,” AB, no. 88 (1995): 1+.
After a brief, unnerving riposte: OH, William D. Robertson, 69th ID, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI 136-A, box 19050, folder #137; LO, 455–56 (carrying four soldiers). After the war Robertson became a neurosurgeon in California.
Thursday morning brought the full, overwrought merger: Forrest C. Pogue, “The Meeting with the Russians,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2249, box 19185, 2–3; narrative, Thor Smith, n.d., Thor Smith papers, HIA, box 1 (“Iowa picnic”); Heinz, When We Were One, 189–92 (varnished shells); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 368–70 (black bread and apples).
“The Russians all looked”: Martha Gellhorn, “The Russians,” Collier’s, June 30, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 701–6; Heinz, When We Were One, 189–92 (GIs traded).
“Get that woman off”: Heinz, When We Were One, 189–92; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 372–73 (Soviet general).
An unbroken Allied line: Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 260 (last bombing raid); Bessel, Germany 1945, 112 (met at Ketzin).
Nothing now could thwart: Bessel, Germany 1945, 104–5, 405 (two and a half million troops); Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 539–41, 622 (three hundred thousand casualties); “Hitler’s Höllenfahrt,” Der Spiegel (Apr. 4, 1995): 170+; Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, 123, 410–13 (typhus); Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, 454–57; interview, Rosemarie Meitzner, Apr. 1995, author, Berlin; Ryan, The Last Battle, 494 (lightbulbs), 371 (“Bleib übrig”); Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 43 (“hilly landscape”).
In the south, the Reich: LO, 454, 425–26 (bridge over the Danube); Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 249 (twenty-eight towns).
“We are constantly suffering”: memo, F. E. Morgan to G-1, Feb. 10, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, file 211, box 20; LO, 427–30; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 458–59; OH, JLD, Aug. 1971, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, box 110, 26–27.
General de Gaulle had other ideas: De Gaulle, The Complete Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 860; Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 114–15 (Holding a large tract).
With Deux Mètres urging him on: LO, 427–30; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 458–64, 491 (“merry-go-round”); SC, 460–61 (“national interest of France”); Wyant, Sandy Patch, 193 (“Penny politics”).
“The good and upright Devers”: Salisbury-Jones, So Full a Glory, 197; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 365–68 (seventeen thousand men); Reuben E. Jenkins, “The Battle of the National Redoubt,” n.d., Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1, 15; Willis, The French in Germany, 20–21; memo, JLD, Apr. 27, 1945, JLD papers, MHI (“an absurdity”);LO, 430–31; OH, JLD, Aug. 1971, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, box 110, 26–27 (“trying to be Napoleon”).
This opéra bouffe: LO, 430–31; Seventh Army war diary, Apr. 26, 1945, MHI, 678 (predatory French colonial troops); Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, 22–23 (“Hens and women”); Wyant, Sandy Patch, 193 (“Situation in Stuttgart”); memo, JLD, Apr. 27, 1945, JLD papers, MHI (“What can you do”).
“Stuttgart is chaotic”: De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 491.
Devers drove into the city: diary, JLD, 6th AG, Apr. 27, 1945, MHI; LO, 432–33. Clinics in nearby Tübingen reported treating hundreds of rape victims, and a substantial number of women in Konstanz sought abortions for pregnancies resulting from French assaults (Bessel, Germany 1945, 117).
“French procedure in occupying”: Wyant, Sandy Patch, 193.
Eisenhower now intervened: LO, 432–33; Chandler, 2657–59; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 366.
But with a war to finish: OH, Philippe de Camas, French First Army, Oct.–Dec. 1948, Marcel Vigneras, NARA RG 319, E P-100, RR background files, FRC 5; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 365 (execution of a few rapists); diary, JLD, 6th AG, Apr. 27, 1945, MHI (“much better”).
Patch’s legions meanwhile pressed south: LO, 427–30; Walker, German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939–49, 158; Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, 609–10.
Bickering over the French occupation zone: Willis, The French in Germany, 20–21; Porch, The Path to Victory, 601 (“often on the same side”). De Gaulle would write after these disagreements, “The roses of glory cannot be without thorns”; Truman said of the French leader, “I don’t like the son of a bitch” (Fenby, The General, 746).
Ten miles northwest of Munich: Mollo, “Dachau,” AB, no. 27, 1980, 1+; KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten, http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/index-e.html (200,000 prisoners); Gellately, Backing Hitler, 217 (170 subcamps); corr, JLD to SHAEF, May 4 and 6, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO SGS classified gen’l corr, file 383.6/9, box 88 (thirteen thousand had died).
On a chilly, sunless Sunday: “History, 157th Inf Regt, Apr 1945,” NARA RG 405, E 427, WWII Ops Reports, 345-INF (157)-0.3; Robert H. Abzug, “The Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” in Liberation 1945, 38 (“flower beds and trees”); Joseph M. Whitaker, asst. IG, Seventh Army, “Investigation of Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau,” June 8, 1945, NARA RG 338, box 7; “The Train Ride into Hell,” 1998, Pierre C. T. Verheye papers, HIA; Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 357–64 (“sons of bitches”).
“That’s the only thing the guy owns”: Flint Whitlock, “Liberating Dachau,” in The World War II Reader, 368–69.
Howling inmates pursued: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 832.
“They tore the Germans apart”: Garland, Unknown Soldiers, 393.
“We stood aside and watched”: Palmer and Zaid, eds., The GI’s Rabbi, 178; Carroll, ed., War Letters, 275–77 (sticks and rocks); Joseph M. Whitaker, asst. IG, Seventh Army, “Investigation of Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau,” June 8, 1945, NARA RG 338, box 7 (crushing skulls and battalion surgeon refused); OH, John A. Heintges, 1974, Jack A. Pellici, SOOHP, MHI, 370 (“strewn all over”).
At the same hour, the vanguard: Brig. Gen. John H. Linden, 42nd ID, “Report on Surrender of Dachau Concentration Camp,” May 2, 1945, and 1st Lt. William J. Cowling, III, 42nd ID, “Report on Surrender of the German Concentration Camp at Dachau,” May 2, 1945, John H. Linden papers, HIA, box 1; Flint Whitlock, “Liberating Dachau,” inThe World War II Reader, 368–69; Howard Cowan, Associated Press, “32,000 Liberated from Dachau Prison Camp,” Apr. 1945, John H. Linden papers, HIA, box 1 (“amidst a roar”).
“I haven’t the words”: Eliach and Gurewitsch, eds., The Liberators, vol. 1, 45; Palmer and Zaid, eds., The GI’s Rabbi, 178–83 (dusted with DDT); OH, Paul D. Adams, 1975, Irving Monclova and Marlin Lang, SOOHP, MHI (“I wouldn’t bother”).
The Seventh Army inspector general: memo, DDE, “Mistreatment of Prisoners of War,” July 18, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO SGS classified gen’l corr, 383.6, box 51.
At least twenty-eight SS men: Joseph M. Whitaker, asst. IG, Seventh Army, “Investigation of Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau,” June 8, 1945, NARA RG 338, box 7; Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, 388–89 (four U.S. soldiers); Garland, Unknown Soldiers, 395–97 (Others believed); memo, Charles D. Decker, “Report on Results of Investigation into Mistreatment of Prisoners of War by U.S. Forces,” Dec. 31, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO SGS classified gen’l corr, 383.6, box 51 (“violation of the letter”). The 45th Division would be transferred to Third Army; beginning in Sicily, Patton had evinced no zeal for war crimes prosecution of U.S. soldiers.
“I’m on night duty”: Wandrey, Bedpan Commando, 204–5.
As a specially designated “Führer City”: Stafford, Endgame 1945, 242; SC, 456 (“Nazi beast”); AAR, XV Corps, June 1, 1945, Wade H. Haislip papers, HIA, box 1. Commanding the 20th Armored Division in the assault on Munich was Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward, rehabilitated after being relieved by Patton of division command in Tunisia two years earlier.
“Window by window” shelling: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, vol. 2, 834–37; LO, 437; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 840 (“I am ashamed”).
Three hundred miles north: OH, Vasily Ustyugov, Apr. 1995, Fred Hiatt, Moscow, a.p. (Iron Crosses); Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 465 (roasting an ox); OH, Hans-Jürgen Habenicht, Apr. 1995, author, Berlin (excrement and urine); Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, 388–92 (“post-mortal”).
Far below the Reich Chancellery: Read and Fisher, The Fall of Berlin, 290; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 827–28; Fest, Hitler, 778–79.
Twelve years and four months: Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 841; Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 609 (“that’s the end”).
Henchmen wrapped the two bodies: Toland, Adolf Hitler, 890; Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, 358–60 (“chief’s on fire”); Ryan, The Last Battle, 498 (“burning bacon”).
“binding for all soldiers”: Bessell, Germany 1945, 121.
Fifty miles due west along the Elbe: Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 34–47; OH, Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., XIII Corps, n.d., CJR, box 44, folder 18, 5–7.
Simpson agreed to accept: Stenbuck, ed., Typewriter Battalion, 34–47; LO, 465; OH, Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., 1972, Eugene Miller, SOOHP, MHI, box 1, 69–70; Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, 397 (“quite a few people”).
In Italy, an offensive: Willmott, The Great Crusade, 429–30; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 818 (Po River); Philip Hamburger, “Letter from Rome,” May 8, 1945, in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 479; Fisher, Cassino to the Alps, 524; GS VI, 121 (Army Group C).
Along the Continent’s northern lip: In the final two months of the war, Canadian troops used flamethrowers in three thousand operations (Brig. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, chemical warfare service, “Summary Report of Situation in ETO,” July 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, E 16, OR, 210.684, GHQ AGF G-3, box 2).
the starving Dutch had been reduced: Hastings, Armageddon, 411–14; Gander, After These Many Quests, 315 (“hinged-bottom coffins”).
Allied engineers also feared: historical report, SHAEF G-5 mission in Netherlands, July 14, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #219, 4–14; “Brief Historical Outline of the Occupation of N.W. Holland by 1 Canadian Corps,” n.d., NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, SC background files; corr, Brig. Sir Geoffrey Hardy-Roberts, May 6, 1945, LHC (“five years of repression”).
“They left like tramps”: Gander, After These Many Quests, 314, 324–25.
Farther east, where four British divisions: VW, vol. 2, 316, 337–38 (quarter of a million prisoners), 353; Stafford, Endgame 1945, 280 (“looting, drinking”); Chandler, 2652; LO, 464 (two hours before the Red Army).
“Welcome Americans”: Stanhope Mason, “Reminiscences and Anecdotes of World War II,” 1988, MRC FDM, 1994.126, 250; VW, vol. 2, 332 (“situation in Czechoslovakia”); LO, 456–58 (between Pilzen and Karlsbad); SC, 454.
Austrian partisans seized Innsbruck: Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 259 (Viennese orchestra); LO, 469–71; Royce L. Thompson, “Military Surrenders in the European Theater,” June 30, 1955, CMH, 2-3.7, AE.P-28, 58 (positioning of flags); Martin, Blow, Bugle, Blow, 167 (“internal security”).
At almost the same hour, Devers: memo, R. E. Jenkins, May 7, 1945, Reuben E. Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1; LO, 471–72.
Few locales were more freighted: David Ian Hall, review of Hitler’s Mountain, JMH (Jan. 2009): 310+; “Obersalzburg,” AB, no. 9 (1975): 1+ (beehives).
As a gift for the Führer’s fiftieth: Beierl, History of the Eagle’s Nest, 103; “Das Kehlsteinhaus,” http://www.kehlsteinhaus.com/ (Otis elevator).
RAF bombers on April 25: “Obersalzburg,” AB, no. 9 (1975): 1+; Osborne, “Return to the Berghof,” AB, no. 60 (1988): 50+; Walden, http://www.thirdreichruins.com/obersalzberg.htm; Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 320 (Bormann’s collection); Mitchell, Hitler’s Mountain, 120–21 (set fire to the house).
Flames still licked: OH, John A. Heintges, 7th Inf, 1974, Jack A. Pellici, SOOHP, MHI, 379–85; White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 278–80; Mitchell, Hitler’s Mountain, 127 (“You’ve had Paris”). Both French troops and U.S. paratroopers soon found a way into the town.
Despite bombing, arson, and plunder: Osborne, “Return to the Berghof,” AB, no. 60 (1988): 50+; Philip Hamburger, “Letter from Berchtesgaden,” June 9, 1945, in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 497–99 (ice cream tubs); Mitchell, Hitler’s Mountain, 132 (toilet seat); Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 747 (light fixtures); AAR, T-Force, n.d., 6th AG, G-2, Boris T. Pash papers, HIA, box 4, file 6 (situation maps); Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 291–95 (“coat hangers”).
RAF bombs had spared: Philip Hamburger, “Letter from Berchtesgaden,” June 9, 1945, in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 500–501; Beierl, History of the Eagle’s Nest, 116, 144–48; White, Conquerors’ Road, 61–62 (“on the spit”); Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 747 (guides).
Göring’s booty proved: OH, John A. Heintges, 7th Inf, 1974, Jack A. Pellici, SOOHP, MHI, 394–95, 406–7; White, From Fedala to Berchtesgaden, 278–80 (eighteen thousand bottles); “The Goering Collection,” OSS, Art Looting Investigation Unit, Consolidated Interrogation Report no. 2, Sept. 15, 1945, Hermann Goering papers, HIA, box 1, 171–73; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 749; Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 314, 344 ($500 million); White, Conquerors’ Road, 74 (“Ah, war!”).
The Reichsmarschall himself: AAR, Robert C. Stack, 36th ID, n.d., Texas MFM (entourage); diary, John E. Dahlquist, May 9, 1945, and scrapbook; A. I. Goldberg, Associated Press report, May 9, 1945; Life, May 28, 1945, 30+, all in Dahlquist papers, MHI; corr, Alexander M. Patch, Jr., Oct. 16, 1945, Patch papers, USMA Arch, box 1 (marshal’s baton).
“Well, bugger me”: Collier, Fighting Words, 194–95.
An American major subsequently invited: Kesselring, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, 291; Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 107 (“historical character”).
A Great Silence
“The lovely colors of the countryside”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 259–62, 285.
Tommies fished unconventionally: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 148–51; Stafford, Endgame 1945, 11 (hospitals); Col. T. G. Lindsay, “Operation Overlord Plus,” n.d., LHC, 66–69 (fine maps).
At 11:30 A.M. on Thursday: “Surrender Negotiations,” n.d., UK NA, CAB 101/330, 4–5.
“I have never heard of you”: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 501–2; John Keegan, “The German Surrender,” in Hollinshead and Rabb, eds., I Wish I’d Been There, vol. 2, 307 (“rehearsing this”).
Undaunted, Friedeburg: Moorehead, Eclipse, 282–84; “Surrender Negotiations,” n.d., UK NA, CAB 101/330, 6 (“usual way”); VW, vol. 2, 339.
Calling for a map: Moorehead, Eclipse, 284; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 501–4 (tongue-lashing); Francis de Guingand, “Notes for the Chief of Staff,” May 3, 1945, LHC, 2/4/2 (“delighted to continue”); De Guingand, Operation Victory, 453–55.
At five P.M. on a rainy Friday: Thompson, Men Under Fire, 148–51; John Keegan, “The German Surrender,” in Hollinshead and Rabb, eds., I Wish I’d Been There, vol. 2, 311 (“with the doings”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 285–86 (“We will go and see”).
The answer was yes: diary entry, May 7, 1945, Harold S. Frum, “The Soldier Must Write,” 1984, GCM Lib (Donuts); Moorehead, Montgomery, 223 (“a good likeness”).
“It was a grey evening”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 286–87.
Friedeburg and his comrades rose: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 512–13.
Once all German signatures: Moorehead, Eclipse, 288–89; “Surrender Negotiations,” n.d., UK NA, CAB 101/330, 6–7; Thompson, Men Under Fire, 152–53 (“concludes”).
“The tent flaps”: “German Surrenders,” AB, no. 48 (1985): 1+; VW, vol. 2, 340 (“It looks as if”).
Foul weather on Saturday: SC, 486–87; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 273 (fresh collar); Three Years, 825–26 (twenty minutes).
Smith and Major General Strong: Crosswell, Beetle, 918.
Smith walked down the hall: Three Years, 825–28, 834; Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 237 (“let-down”).
“I really expected”: Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, 250.
A new negotiator arrived: Doenitz, Memoirs, 462–63; OH, Kenneth Strong, May 15, 1963, CJR, box 95, folder 5, 2 (“fight the Russians”).
“You tell them”: Three Years, 830–31. Dönitz’s stalling was credited with allowing 1.8 million German soldiers to surrender to the Western Allies rather than the Soviets. A substantial majority of the 10 million total German prisoners-of-war ended up being held by the West (Bessel, Germany 1945, 124–25).
“Eisenhower insists that we sign”: Doenitz, Memoirs, 462–63; SC, 487 (“Full power”).
SHAEF typists for days: Crosswell, Beetle, 921–22.
In the absence of firm instructions: ibid., 916–17; Mosely, “Dismemberment of Germany,” Foreign Affairs (Apr. 1950): 487+; OH, Philip E. Mosely, n.d., CJR, box 43, folder 10, 3–4. The diplomat Robert Murphy asserted that Smith had simply forgotten about the EAC version (Diplomat Among Warriors, 240–41).
He opted instead for a third, abridged document: Counsell, Counsell’s Opinion, 149–50, 151–53 (pecking at a typewriter); memoir, John Counsell, n.d., CJR, box 43, folder 3, 110–16; Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946, 257–58; Mosely, “Dismemberment of Germany,” Foreign Affairs (Apr. 1950): 487+(“enabling clause”).
“Get ready, gentlemen”: White, Conquerors’ Road, 115.
“The effect of make-believe”: Crosswell, Beetle, 922. Some of the nameplates can be found in the Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI.
Strong laid a copy: SC, 488.
Purple circles rimmed his eyes: White, Conquerors’ Road, 115; Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 240 (“Ja. Ja”); Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 282 (“You will officially”).
“I suppose this calls”: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 407.
“The mission of this Allied force”: Chandler, 2696.
The sharp odors of soap: narrative, end of war, CBH, n.d., and diary, May 7, 1945, CBH, MHI.
Bradley climbed from the bed: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 554 (“D+335”); narrative, end of war, CBH, n.d., and diary, May 7, 1945, CBH, MHI (“our troubles”).
“For the first time”: “Reports by U.S. Army Ultra Representatives with Army Field Commands in the European Theater of Operations,” NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-023, box 14; Wheeler, The Big Red One, 381–82 (21,000 Purple Hearts); Clay, Blood and Sacrifice, 238 (“It’s about goddamn time”); PP, 696 (Peace still held); Allen,Lucky Forward, 394 (“rivers in Japan”); Codman, Drive, 299 (strode from the command post).
As word spread: Linderman, The World Within War, 231 (“mad, dangerous”); Mitchell, Hitler’s Mountain, 135 (“like a hailstorm”); “Personal Diary,” May 6, 1945, JMG, MHI, box 10 (“This is it”); Heinz, When We Were One, 152 (drank a toast).
“curiously flat”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 305.
“I should be completely joyous”: Christen T. Jonassen, “Letter Written on V-E Day 1945,” n.d., Columbus WWII Round Table collection, MHI, box 1.
“I am in a let-down mood”: diary, JLD, May 5, 1945, MHI.
“We did not know”: Heinz, When We Were One, 150, 157.
“Lights scintillated”: Robert E. Walker, “With the Stonewallers,” n.d., MMD, 118.
Darkness enfolded: Forrest Pogue wrote, “We knew the war in Europe was over … because the lights came on in Pilzen and in every village near us” (Pogue’s War, 381).
EPILOGUE
The Daily Mail in London: Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 88.
No matter that word of the Reims ceremony: “Infractions of Press Censorship,” telephone transcript, SHAEF and WD, May 7, 1945, 4 P.M., NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, file 000.73, box 4 (ticker tape); SC, 527–28; Voss, Reporting the War, 193–96.
But Stalin remained adamant: Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 92–98; SC, 491–92 (Eisenhower dispatched); OH, Arthur Tedder, Feb. 13, 1947, FCP, MHI (noisy haggling); Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 250–52; De Lattre de Tassigny, The History of the French First Army, 518; Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 119; author visits, Karlshorst, Nov. 1995 and Sept. 2009; Three Years, 836 (“easier to start”).
Notwithstanding a BBC announcement: Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, 94; Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 98 (“Move along”).
In Paris, a celebration: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 195–97, (Garde Républicaine); Helen Van Zonneveld, “A Time to Every Purpose,” n.d., HIA, 401–2 (“Salut!”); Cooper, Old Men Forget, 352 (all clear); Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 220–22 (“anywhere to anywhere”); corr, P. B. Rogers to family, May 10, 1945, Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (“Battle Hymn”); OH, Richard Collins, 1976, Donald Bowman, SOOHP, MHI, III-26 (Avenue de Paris).
The rest of the world: Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 259 (U.S. embassy); Dobbs, Six Months in 1945, 203 (tossed into the air); Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 275 (lights bathed the Capitol); Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 293–94 (“treacherous Japanese”).
V-E Day dawned in London: Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 324 (“Wagnerian rain”), 325 (cymbals), 328 (“Not to Be Sold”); Mollie Panter-Downes, “Letter from London,” May 19, 1945, in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 472–76; Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 211 (“We want the king!”); Lewis, The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 461 (Hitler effigy).
Early in the afternoon Churchill left: D’Este, Warlord, 692–93; Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 381; Mollie Panter-Downes, “Letter from London,” May 19, 1945, in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 472–76; Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 199 (“roared ourselves”); Thompson, I Was Churchill’s Shadow, 157–58 (“They expect it”).
Searchlights at dusk: Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 327; Gilbert, The Day the War Ended, 211 (“your hour”); D’Este, Warlord, 692–93 (“ancient land”); Taylor and Taylor, eds., The War Diaries, 195 (“Hope and Glory”). Churchill would be turned from office less than two months later when his Conservatives took a drubbing at the polls; in 1951, he again became prime minister for nearly four years.
By the time Japan surrendered: Weinberg, A World at Arms, 894 (Sixty million had died); Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 131 (one-third of them soldiers); Snyder, “Walter Bedell Smith: Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff,” Military Affairs (Jan. 1984): 6+ (“great and terrible”); Rosenbaum, “Explaining Hitler,” New Yorker (May 1, 1995): 50+(“genocide”); Fussell, Wartime, 132, 139 (“unmitigated misfortune”), 268 (“tragic and ironic”).
“a God all-powerful”: Danchev, 689.
In Europe, the Western Allies: Battle Itinerary Study, USFET G-3, Aug. 1946, NARA RG 498, UD 583, box 4017, 5; Gerhard L. Weinberg, “D-Day: Analysis of Costs and Benefits,” in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 337.
A British military maxim: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 730; Overy, Why the Allies Won, 281 (“centralized, unified”).
Allied leadership included checks: Overy, Why the Allies Won, 278–81; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 580–81; Biddle, “Leveraging Strength: The Pillars of American Grand Strategy in World War II,” Orbis (winter 2011): 4+.
“Our resolution to preserve”: Overy, Why the Allies Won, 324; LO, 477–78; Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe, 4–6, 252; “Report of Activities: Army Ground Forces, World War II,” Jan. 1946, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, AGF RTC, box 150; http://www.minneapolisfed.org/ (roughly $4 trillion); Stephen Daggett, “Cost of Major U.S. Wars,” June 29, 2010, Congressional Research Service, 2; Montgomery, “The Cost of War, Unnoticed,” WP, May 8, 2007, D1 (42 million); Millett and Murray, Military Effectiveness, vol. 3, The Second World War, 47, 62; Bynell, “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe,” lecture, March 16, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207, 14 (“digging the Panama Canal”).
“prodigy of organization”: Weigley, History of the United States Army, 475; “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, no. 130, 42 (18 million tons); “Ordnance Diary,” Dec. 1, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 586, box 1 (vehicles); “Clothing and Footwear,” chapter 56, PIR, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA, 2 (footwear); “U.S. Army in WWII,” 1952, CMH, cited in “Statistical Review,” RefBib, MHI (munitions plants); “Statistical Review,” RefBib, MHI, citing Cavalry Journal, March–Apr. 1946, 21+ (500 million machine-gun bullets); Goodman, ed., While You Were Gone, 23 (“American taxpayer”); Ambrose, Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945, 63 (two-thirds of all ships).
The enemy was crushed by logistical brilliance: At its peak, the war accounted for 35.8 percent of GDP (Stephen Daggett, “Cost of Major U.S. Wars,” June 29, 2010, Congressional Research Service, 2); Gropman, Mobilizing U.S. Industry in World War II, 107 (smaller proportion), 133; Ellis, Brute Force, 348–49.
“Warfare like yours is easy”: German POW survey, Dec. 7, 1944, SHAEF, Psychological Warfare Division, RG 331, E 87, 23 782.
There was nothing easy: Stoler, Allies in War, 227; Willmott, The Great Crusade, 352 (“European supremacy”); Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 631 (“American century”); Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 63 (“great soul”).
The war was a potent catalyst: Weinberg, A World at Arms, 915; Weinberg, “The Place of World War II in History,” lecture, 1995, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Spring, Colo., 11 (GI Bill); Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 779 (antebellum roles); MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 51–53, 56; “The Utilization of Negro Infantry Platoons in White Companies,” NARA RG 330, E 94, soldier surveys, report no. ETO 82, 4–12.
“Glad to be home”: Reynolds, Rich Relations, 444.
In battered Europe, enormous tasks: Pyle, Brave Men, 320 (“broken world”); SC, 508–10 (Norway), 499; Margry, “The Flensburg Government,” AB, no. 128 (2005): 2+; J. B. Churcher, “A Soldier’s Story,” n.d., LHC, 80–81 (“Any word”); SC, 512–15; “Activities and Organization of COMZ,” U.S. Senate hearing, May 28, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #89, 29 (three million strong); Brig. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, “Summary Report of Situation in ETO,” July 5, 1945, NARA RG 337, E 16, GHQ AGF G-3, OR, 210.684, box 2 (poisonous gas munitions).
“On the continent of Europe”: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 549–50.
Part of that cleansing: Gill, The Journey Back from Hell, 24; pamphlets, “The Courthouse in Nuremberg” and “The International Military Tribunal,” Oberlandgericht, Nuremberg, author visit, Feb. 13, 1996; Lewis, ed., The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 561–66.
Individual Allied governments: Weingartner, “Otto Skorzeny and the Laws of War,” JMH (Apr. 1991): 207+; Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 674 (200,000 suspected culprits); “Bergen Belsen,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224. Additional Bergen-Belsen defendants were tried subsequently (Margry, “Bergen-Belsen,” AB, no. 89 [1995]: 1+).
From 1945 to 1948: James J. Weingartner, “Early War Crimes Trials,” in Liberation 1945, 84.
The path to justice often proved: “Malmedy Massacre Investigation,” Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 1949, 4–16, 22–32; memo, judge advocate, European Command, March 28, 1949, CMH, LAW 2–7, 1, 26–30. During Senate hearings into the Malmédy prosecutions, Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the Army of using “Gestapo tactics” (TT, 623).
Released from Landsberg prison: Weingartner, Crossroads of Death, 238–50, 262–63; “The Death of Joachim Peiper,” AB, no. 40 (1983): 47+; Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 32 (slashed the hoses).
Eisenhower’s avowed “number 1 plan”: Three Years, 820; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 573n (“I owe much”).
“You have completed your mission”: Pogue, George C. Marshall, 583; Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries, 221.
Ahead lay fifteen more years: Lyon, Eisenhower: Portrait of the Hero, 23 (“Ike!”); Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 254–59 (“almost speak”).
On Tuesday, June 12: Miller, Ike the Soldier, 780; Striner, “Eisenhower’s Triumph: The Guildhall Address of 1945,” American Veterans Center, http://www.americanveteranscenter.org/magazine/avq/issue-vi-springsummer-2009/eisenhower%e2%80%99s-triumph-the-guildhall-address-of-1945/*; Fraser, Alanbrooke, 468 (“I had never realized”);http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/education/bsa/citizenship_merit_badge/speeches_national_historical_importance/guildhall_address.pdf.
Blood there had surely been: VW, vol. 2, 407; LO, 478; “The Normandy Invasion,” statistical appendix, June 10, 1945, SHAEF, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (12,000 Allied planes). Official casualty figures from various governments rarely agree.
British, Canadian, Polish: “The Operations of 21 Army Group,” 1946, CARL, N-133331.
French battle casualties: SC, 544. During the occupation and liberation, more than six hundred thousand French men were killed (Aron, France Reborn, 464).
Of all German boys: Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 672. The number of German military deaths has long remained in dispute. John Ellis puts the dead and missing at 3.25 million, a widely cited figure (Ellis, World War II: A Statistical Survey, 253). Another recent analysis puts the number at 5.3 million (Rüdiger Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg, cited in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#cite_note-R.C5.B1diger_Overmans_2000-4).
Some 14 percent of the Soviet population: Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 131; Stoler, “The Second World War in U.S. History and Memory,” International Historical Congress, Oslo, Aug. 12, 2000; Hastings, Inferno, 427 (killed roughly nine times more Germans). Seventeen hundred Soviet towns were destroyed, plus seventy thousand villages (Dobbs, Six Months in 1945, 225).
American soldiers bore the brunt: LO, 478; SC, 543; Hynes, The Soldier’s Tale, 281 (“left index finger”); Reister, ed., Medical Statistics in World War II, 23 (1,700 left blind); Fisher, Legacy of Heroes, 8–10 (18,000 amputations), 20 (“their stump”); Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 321 (hospital in Michigan).
Seventy-five thousand Americans had been listed: VW, vol. 2, 543; Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition of World War II Dead, 1945–51, 120–21 (isolated graves); Litoff and Smith, eds., Since You Went Away, 236–37 (“Darling, come to me”); Myra Strachner Gershkoff Papers, New York State Library, manuscripts and special collections, SC 20575, http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc20575.htm.
No sooner had the ink dried: Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition of World War II Dead, 1945–51, 178–79; L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chapter 26, PIR, MHI. A total of seventy-eight thousand American dead were never recovered; of remains recovered, less than 4 percent could not be identified (Risch and Kieffer, The Quartermaster Corps, vol. 2, 404).
Within weeks, seven hundred bodies: Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition of World War II Dead, 1945–51, 175, 186–204, 247.
Even as this search began: L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chapter 26, PIR, MHI; Joseph T. Layne and Glenn D. Barquest, “Margraten: U.S. Ninth Army Military Cemetery,” 1994, 172nd Engineer Combat Bn, NWWIIM, 9 (Dutch citizens).
“I cried for the joy”: Babcock, War Stories, 212; “4ID Update,” vol. 5, no. 47, June 6, 2011, http://parentsofdeployed.homestead.com/2011Jun06.html.
In 1947, the next of kin: Joseph T. Layne and Glenn D. Barquest, “Margraten: U.S. Ninth Army Military Cemetery,” 1994, 172nd Engineer Combat Bn, NWWIIM, 11–12. Congress appropriated $191 million for the task, which resulted in 279,869 interments overseas and at home; just under 110,000 of those remained in cemeteries abroad (Risch and Kieffer, The Quartermaster Corps, vol. 2, 404).
In Europe the exhumations: Joseph T. Layne and Glenn D. Barquest, “Margraten: U.S. Ninth Army Military Cemetery,” 1994, 172nd Engineer Combat Bn, NWWIIM, 13.
Labor strikes in the United States: Risch and Kieffer, The Quartermaster Corps, vol. 2, 402; Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition of World War II Dead, 1945–51, 351–54 (“tombs”). More than one thousand additional bodies were loaded aboard Connolly in subsequent European ports before she crossed the Atlantic (L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chapter 26, PIR, MHI, 42–43).
Among those waiting was Henry A. Wright: Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition of World War II Dead, 1945–51, 682.
Thus did the fallen return: L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chapter 26, PIR, MHI, 42–43; Schuyler Dean Hoslett, “The Army Effects Bureau of the Kansas City Quartermaster Depot,” 1946, CMH, 4-10.8 AA.
Hour after hour, day after day: Eddy, “Treasure of Our Heroes,” American Magazine (Apr. 1944): 44+, in Schuyler Dean Hoslett, “The Army Effects Bureau of the Kansas City Quartermaster Depot,” 1946, CMH, 4-10.8 AA, appendix, 268–70; “Honoring Those Fallen Who Served,” Aurora (Ill.) Beacon News, Apr. 12, 2005, B2. Horton, in the 32nd Infantry Division, died in December 1942. After reading his final words, his mother, Odessa J. Horton, wrote, “To me the war can never be over and you may know, this letter to us is Gethsemane” (Congressional Record, Nov. 24, 1943, A 5114).
“The times were full of certainty”: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, foreword.
“Never did I feel”: Fussell, Doing Battle, 174.
“What we had together”: Linderman, The World Within War, 264.
“We are certainly no smaller”: Fauntleroy, The General and His Daughter, 151–52.
“The anti-aircraft gunner in a raid”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 305.
“the living have the cause”: White, Conquerors’ Road, ix.
“No war is really over”: Kotlowitz, Before Their Time, 192; Atkinson, “What Is Lost?” World War II (Nov. 2009): 32+ (By the year 2036).