The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945

by Rick Atkinson

  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 Wor
ds, 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 9:30 P.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”).