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

by Rick Atkinson

  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 #7
4–77; 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 A
ntwerp 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).