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

by Rick Atkinson

  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, in Reporting 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 d
ollars”); 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”).