Panzergrenadier divisions possessed no tanks but their infantry were fully motorized, and supported by a battalion of 45 self-propelled guns.
Of the 38 German infantry divisions that fought in Normandy, five were ‘static’ formations comprising nine battalions, the same organization as the parachute units. The other 30 were on ‘1944 establishment’ of six infantry battalions, with a fusilier reconnaissance battalion, often bicycle-mounted. Each division mustered, on average, 650 machine-guns, 76 mortars, 24 infantry guns and howitzers, 31 anti-tank guns and 48 medium and field guns. Transport was provided by 615 motor vehicles and 1,450 horse-drawn vehicles.
GHQ and army troops included III Flak Corps’ 160 88 mm guns in a dual-purpose role facing the British front. There were three heavy tank battalions, each containing up to 45 Tigers; two battalions of Jagdpanthers, 88 mm tank-killing self-propelled guns; several independent towed 88 mm gun battalions and 75 mm-mounted self-propelled gun battalions. The Germans possessed relatively few field or medium guns, and only one heavy regiment of 170 mm guns.
Appendix E
Some British administrative statistics
Bibliography and a note on sources
The literature of the north-west Europe campaign in general and of Normandy in particular is vast. I have omitted many battlefield reminiscences, together with the invaluable regimental and divisional histories which are available for almost every British and American formation mentioned in the text. I have also left out a number of books whose accuracy has been the subject of such severe strictures as to make them of doubtful value to students of the period. I am deeply indebted to all those men, British, American and German, who have lent me contemporary letters, diaries, and narratives.
I have learned much about contemporary attitudes to the campaign from the files of The Times, the New York Times, the Daily Express and Picture Post, for whom my father served as war correspondent in Normandy. For this as for other books of mine, I must acknowledge the generosity of David Irving in lending documents and files he had assembled for his own researches. Among original sources which have proved especially valuable, I must mention Current Notes From Overseas, the weekly British tactical pamphlet circulated to unit commanding officers; the diaries of General Carl Spaatz, General Hoyt Vandenberg, Captain H. C. Butcher; the papers of Sir John Grigg; copies of papers pertaining to General Walter Bedell Smith, General Everett Hughes, Air-Marshal J. M. Robb, General George Patton, General Raymond Barker held in the Eisenhower Library; the personal diary of Brigadier N. Elliott Rodger, Chief of Staff II (Canadian) Corps; the superb after-action reports of US units in France; and of course, the SHAEF, War Office and War Department files in the US National Archive and the Public Records Office in London.
Ambrose, Stephen – The Supreme Commander, New York, 1970.
Aron, Robert – De Gaulle Before Paris, New York, 1962; De Gaulle Triumphant, New York, 1964.
Batchelor & Hogg – Artillery, New York, 1973.
Belchem, David – All in a Day’s March, London, 1967.
——, Victory in Normandy, London, 1981.
Bennett, Ralph – Ultra in the West, London, 1979.
Blumenson, Martin – Breakout and Pursuit, Washington, 1961.
Bradley, Omar – A Soldier’s Story, London, 1952
——, A General’s Life, New York, 1982.
Bryant, Arthur – The Turn of the Tide, London, 1957
——, Triumph in the West, London, 1959.
Butcher, Captain H. C. – My Three Years with Eisenhower, London, 1946.
Butler, J. R. M., & Gwyer, M. A. – Grand Stategy, vol. iii, London, 1964.
Carell, Paul – Invasion – They’re Coming, London, 1962.
Chalfont, Alun – Montgomery of Alamein, London, 1976.
Churchill, Winston – Triumph and Tragedy, London, 1954.
Collins, J. Lawton – Lightning Joe, Louisiana, 1979.
Cooper, Matthew – The German Army: Its Political and Military Failure, London, 1978.
Craven & Cate – The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, Chicago, 1951.
Cruikshank, Charles – Deception in World War II, Oxford, 1979.
De Guingand, Frederick – Operation Victory, London, 1960.
D’Este, Carlo – Decision in Normandy, London, 1983.
Dunn, Walter Scott – Second Front Now – 1943, Alabama, 1980.
Dupuy, Colonel T. N. – A Genius for War, London, 1977.
Ehreman, John – Grand Strategy, vol. v, London, 1956.
Eisenhower, Dwight – Crusade in Europe, New York, 1948.
——, Papers, vol. iii, Baltimore, 1970.
Ellis, Major L. F. – Victory in the West, vol. i, London, 1962.
Farago, Ladislas – Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, New York, 1963.
Farrar-Hockley, Anthony – Infantry Tactics 1939–45, London, 1976.
Fergusson, Bernard – The Black Watch and The King’s Enemies, London, 1950.
——, The Watery Maze, London, 1961.
Foot, M. R. D. – SOE in France, London, 1966.
Fraser, Sir David – And We Shall Shock Them, London, 1983.
——, Alanbrooke, London, 1982.
Gavin, James – On To Berlin, London, 1978.
Golley, John – The Big Drop, London, 1982.
Gosset & Lecomte – Caen pendant la Bataille, Caen, 1946.
Greenfield, Palmer & Wiley – The US Army in World War II: The Organization of Ground Combat Troops, Washington, 1946.
Grigg, John – 1943: The Victory That Never Was, London, 1980.
Guderian, Heinz – Panzer Leader, London, 1952.
Hamilton, Nigel – Montgomery: The Making of a General, London, 1981.
——, Montgomery: Master of a Battlefield, London, 1983.
Harrison, Gordon – Cross Channel Attack, Washington, 1951.
Hastings, Max – Bomber Command, London, 1979.
——, Das Reich, London, 1982.
Haswell, J. The Intelligence and Deception of the D-Day Landings, London, 1979.
Hinsley, Prof. F. H. & others – British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. ii, London, 1981.
How, J. J. – Normandy: The British Breakout, London, 1981.
Howard, Michael – Grand Strategy, vol. iv, London, 1972.
Howarth, David – Dawn of D-Day, London, 1959.
Irving, David – Hitler’s War, London & New York, 1979.
——, The Trail of the Fox, London & New York, 1977.
——, The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe, Boston, 1973.
Ismay, Lord – Memoirs, London, 1960.
Joly, Cyril – Take These Men, London, 1955.
Jonson, G., & Dunphie, C. – Brightly Shone the Dawn, London, 1980.
Keegan, John – Six Armies in Normandy, London, 1982.
Kohn & Harahan (eds) – Air Superiority in World War II and Korea, Washington, 1983.
Lamb, Richard – Montgomery in Europe, London, 1983.
Lane, Ronald L. – Rudder’s Rangers, Manassas, 1979.
Lewin, Ronald – Montgomery as Military Commander, London, 1971.
——, Ultra Goes to War, London, 1978.
Liddell Hart, Basil – The Other Side of the Hill, London, 1951.
——, The Second World War, London, 1970.
Lovat, Lord – March Past, London, 1978.
Lucas, J., & Barker, J. The Killing Ground, London, 1978.
Macksey, Kenneth – Armoured Crusader, London, 1967.
Maule, Henry – Caen: The Brutal Battle and the Break-out from Normandy, London, 1976.
Marshall, S. L. A. – Night Drop, London, 1962.
McBryde, Brenda – A Nurse’s War, London, 1979.
McKee, Alexander – Caen, Anvil of Victory, London, 1964.
Montgomery, Earl – The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery, London, 1958.
——, Normandy to the Baltic, London, 1947.
Moorehead, Alan – Montgomery, London, 1947.
Morgan, F. E. – Overture
to Overlord, London, 1950.
Nelson – Second Front Now – 1943, Alabama, 1980.
Palmer, Wiley & Keast – The U.S. Army in World War II: The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, Washington, 1948.
Patton, George S. – War as I Knew it, Boston, 1947.
Pogue, Forrest C – George C. Marshall, vols ii & iii, New York, 1965, 1973.
Roach, Peter – The 8.15 to War, London, 1982.
Rohmer, Richard – Patton’s Gap, London, 1981.
Ross, George MacLeod – The Business of Tanks, London (privately printed), 1976.
Ruge, Frederich – Rommel in Normandy, London, 1979.
Ruppenthal, Ronald G. – The U.S. Army In World War II: Logistical Support of the Armies, Washington, 1966.
Ryan, Cornelius – The Longest Day, London & New York, 1959.
Scarfe, Norman – Assault Division, London, 1947.
Scott, Desmond – Typhoon Pilot, London, 1982.
Seaton, Albert – The Fall of Fortress Europe 1943–45, London, 1981.
——, The German Army, London, 1982.
Shulman, Milton – Defeat in the West, London, 1948.
Speidel, Hans – We Defended Normandy, London, 1951.
Stacey, C. P. – The Canadian Army in the Second World War, vol. iii, Ottawa, 1960.
Strong, Kenneth – Intelligence at the Top, London, 1968.
Tedder, Lord – With Prejudice, London, 1966.
Van Creveld, Martin – Supplying War, London, 1978.
——, Fighting Power: German Military Performance 1914–45, Washington, 1980.
Warlimont, Walter – Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, London, 1962.
Webster & Frankland – The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, vol. iii, London, 1961.
Weigley, Russell F. – Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, London & New York, 1980. Weller, Jac – Weapons and Tactics: Hastings to Berlin, New York, 1966.
West, Nigel – M16: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–45, London, 1983.
Westphal, S. – The German Army in the West, London, 1951.
Wilmot, Chester – The Struggle for Europe, London, 1952.
Wilson, Andrew – Flamethrower, London, 1974.
Woollcombe, Robert – Lion Rampant, London, 1970.
Notes and references
All quotations in the text based upon the author’s interviews with individuals are given specific references on the subject’s first mention, but not thereafter unless there are grounds for confusion between personal interview quotations and those not listed in the bibliography.
Foreword
1 Lessons of Normandy, Liddell Hart; essay in LH papers, King’s College, London
Prologue
1 This narrative is based entirely upon an interview with Lt-Col. John Warner, 16.vi.83
1. ‘Much the greatest thing we have ever attempted’
1 Fraser, Alanbrooke, p. 397
2 Bryant, Triumph in the West, p. 205
3 Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. iv, p. 252
4 Harrison, Cross Channel Attack, p. 10
5 Ehrman, Grand Strategy, vol. v, p. 108
6 Ibid., p. 109
7 Ibid., pp. 109 et seq.
8 US CoS papers, ABC 384, Europe: 5.viii.43
9 Ehrman, Grand Strategy, p. 43
10 Portal Papers, Christchurch College, Oxford, File 2, 2g
11 Howard (op. cit.), p. 249
12 For instance, see Grigg, 1943: The Victory that Never Was; Walter Scott Dunn, Second Front Now – 1943
13 See Nigel Nicolson, Alexander, p. 211
14 Bryant (op. cit.), p. 160
15 Public Record Office WO205/33
16 PRO WO205/2
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 PRO WO205/33
20 Ibid.
21 Fraser (op. cit.), p. 421
22 Eisenhower, diary
23 For an extreme example, see Irving, The War Between the Generals (London, 1981), which highlights the squabbles within the Allied high command and the personal vices of its commanders to a degree which obscures the extraordinary co-operation on the military issues that mattered.
24 Eisenhower, diary
2. Preparations
COMMANDERS
1 Omar Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, p. 171
2 Ibid., p. 176
3 Interview with the author, vi.83
4 Ronald Lewin, Wavell: The Chief (London, 1980)
5 Russell Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, p. 37
6 Quoted in Hamilton, Montgomery: Master of the Battlefield, p. 513
7 Palmer, Wiley & Keast, Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, p. 258
8 Ehrman, Grand Strategy, p. 50
9 PRO WO205/118
10 Williams, interview with the author, 14.vi.83
11 PRO WO205/118
12 Ibid.
13 Interview with the author
14 PRO WO232/1
15 Some special forces, above all the US Rangers and the French SAS parachuted into Brittany, made a notable contribution on D-Day and in the weeks that followed. But their story has been repeated so often in earlier narratives of OVERLORD that it seems redundant to retrace the story in detail here.
16 Quoted in Hamilton (op. cit.), pp. 562 et seq.
17 Ibid.
18 See Aron, De Gaulle Before Paris; François Kersaudy, Churchill and De Gaulle (London, 1981). None of the parties concerned emerge with great credit from the pre-D-Day struggle concerning the future administration of liberated France, the Americans showing extraordinary insensitivity by their determination to treat her as if she were bankrupt stock purchased in blood from some global liquidator, rather than one of the great nations of the world.
AIRMEN
1 Harris quoted in Hastings, Bomber Command, p. 257
2 Craven & Cate, The US Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. ii, p. 735
3 Hastings (op. cit.), p. 275
4 Carl F. Spaatz, diary, 21.i.44, in Spaatz papers, Box 15, Library of Congress
5 Spaatz papers, Box 14 (loc. cit.)
6 Quesada, interview with the author, 5.vii.83
7 Ibid.
8 Gavin, interview with the author, 8.vii.83
9 Vandenberg, diary, 24.iii.83, MS Division, Library of Congress
10 PRO WO216/139
INVADERS
1 Wilson, interview with the author, 20.vi.83
2 Ibid.
3 Gosling, interview with the author, 21.vi.83
4 Richardson, interview with the author, 21.vii.83
5 Priest, interview with the author (pseudonym at subject’s request), 14.vi.83
6 Portway, interview with the author, 13.vii.83
7 Heal, interview with the author, 27.vi.83
8 Bramall, interview with the author, 28.vi.83
9 PRO WO216/101
10 Bach, interview with the author, 30.vi.83
11 Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, p. 31
12 Patton, War as I Knew it, p. 336
13 Butcher, diary, unexpurgated MS, Eisenhower Library
14 et seq. Higgins, interview with the author, 3.vii.83
15 et seq. Herman, interview with the author, 3.vii.83
16 Pre-war American tactical doctrine dictated that forces advance with the weight of their fighting power centred in valleys, their flanks on hilltops. This proved absurd in the face of German defenders who invariably concentrated their strength on available high ground.
17 Colacicco, interview with the author, 6.vii.83
18 Bradley (op. cit.), pp. 226–7
19 Marshall, on sacking corps commanders
20 Colacicco, interview with the author (loc. cit.)
21 Herman, interview with the author (loc. cit.)
22 Walsh, interview with the author, 1.vii.83
23 et seq. Raymond, interview with the author, 2.vii.83
24 Svboda, interview with the author, 3.vii.83
25 Papers of Admiral Allen G. Kirk, US Navy Archi
ves, Washington DC
26 Original letter in possession of Herman
27 Quoted in Hamilton (op. cit.), p. 570
28 Bradley (op. cit.), p. 223
29 inter alia Gavin, interview with the author (loc. cit.)
30 Bradley (op. cit.), p. 209
31 et seq. Reisler, interview with the author, 5.vii.83
DEFENDERS
1 Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, p. 403
2 Ehrman (op. cit.), p. 108
3 Ibid., pp. 406–7
4 Ibid.
5 To the Dominions Secretary; Churchill, vol. v (op. cit.), p. 602
6 Cruickshank, Deception in World War II, p. 186
7 German forecasting was drastically impeded by the loss of their outlying weather stations. Their blindness in meteorology, as in military intelligence, contributed directly to the German high command’s unpreparedness on D-Day. Where Group-Captain Stagg and his colleagues had predicted the ‘window’ of reasonable weather which would follow the poor conditions prevailing in the Channel on 5 June, their German counterparts had not.
8 In the British press, drawing entirely unwarranted conclusions from material contained in West, MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–45
9 To the author, 25.ix.83
10 Most sensationally, Irving, The Trail of the Fox; Cave-Brown, Bodyguard of Lies
11 Cruickshank (op. cit.), p. 213
12 To the author, 14.vi.83
13 Irving, Trail of the Fox, p. 320
14 Interview with the author, 3.v.83
15 Schaaf, interview with the author, 4.v.83
16 Ibid.
17 Interview with the author, 2.v.83
18 Guderian, Panzer Leader, p. 332
19 Interview with the author, 6.v.83
3. To the Far Shore
OVERTURE
1 Quoted in Harrison, Cross Channel Attack, p. 274
2 Combat narrative from Cota papers in Eisenhower Library
3 Letter to the author, 16.iii.82
4 This, and all subsequent F. O. Richardson quotations, from unpublished narrative loaned to the author, or interview of 2.vii.83
Overlord (Pan Military Classics) Page 47
