The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  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://u
sers.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”).