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

by Rick Atkinson

  Yale University Library, Manuscript and Archives: Hanson Baldwin Papers

  York County Heritage Trust, York, Pa.: Jacob L. Devers Papers

  INTERVIEW, QUESTIONNAIRE, AND ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPTS

  Author interviews: Garfield Brown; Steve Bull Bear; Paul Fussell; Walter Grabowski; Hans-Jürgen Habenicht; Ralph Hauenstein; Harry W. O. Kinnard; Leonard G. Lommell; Hans von Luck; Rosemarie Meitzner; Rich Porter; Delmar Richards; Estil Robertson; James M. Wilson, Jr.

  Columbia University, Oral History Research Office, New York, N.Y.: H. Kent Hewitt; Alan Goodrich Kirk

  Combined Arms Research Library, Ft. Leavenworth, Kans.: J. Lawton Collins

  Cornelius J. Ryan Collection, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio: William A. B. Addison; Virgil F. Carmichael; Julian A. Cook; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Theodore Finkbeiner, Jr.; James M. Gavin; Alvan C. Gillem, Jr.; Averell Harriman; John E. Hull; Harry W. O. Kinnard; Ivan S. Koniev; Albert L. Kotzebue; Anthony C. McAuliffe; Philip E. Mosely; Eddie Newbury; Paul L. Ransom; Francis L. Sampson; William H. Simpson; Robert Sink; Kenneth Strong; Robert M. Tallon; Maxwell Taylor; Reuben H. Tucker; Brian Urquhart; Giles A. M. Vandeleur; John Whiteley; Robert H. Wienecke

  Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kans.: Jacob L. Devers; Dwight D. Eisenhower; LeRoy Lutes; Lauris Norstad

  Emory University, Fred Roberts Crawford Witness to the Holocaust Project, Atlanta, Ga.: William R. Barton; Kenneth Bowers; Philip Carlquist; Daniel Cogar

  Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.: Frederic B. Bates; Dixon M. Raymond

  Library of Congress, Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C.: William Fordham; Patrick Fordney; Gale E. Garman; Ray Goad; Robert Hagopian; Roy Haserodt; Albert Hassenzahl; Joseph Hecht; Edwin Kelmel; Orus Kinney, “Nazi Smart Bombs”; George W. Knapp; Irvin Seelye

  Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London: Miles Dempsey, E. J. Foord Papers

  National Archive, Kew, United Kingdom: Miles Dempsey

  National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.

  “Hospital Interviews,” RG 407: William A. Anderson; Samuel E. Belk, III; Kenneth K. Bladorn; William A. Boykin; R. H. Brown; Charles M. Bulap; W. A. Burkholder; Jack P. Carroll; Arthur B. Clark; Bernard Coggins; Lynn Compton; Gilbert R. Cook; Charles R. Crispin; Robert M. Dasbro; Joseph Dorchak; John P. Dube; Stanley G. Emert; Charles B. Freeman; R. Harwick; John Hayduchok; Francis Healy; Warren G. Holmes; David M. Hull; Anthony N. Hutchison; William L. Johnston; Stanley G. Kowlacwiski; J. N. Kreil; Kenneth E. Lay; Bernard Lipford; A. W. Loring; H. V. Lyon; P. W. J. Malloy; Donald E. Martini; Rudolph Mongrandi; Harold J. Morse; James H. Nelson; Nelson W. Noyes; Edward V. Ott; Eugene H. Pruett; Oliver E. Reed; George M. Rhodes; Robert J. Ritter; Elmer Rohmiller; Ernest Rothemberger; George R. Sedberry; Anthony R. Seymour; Ernest D. Shacklett; Warren A. Smart; R. G. Smith; Stanfield Stach; Louis L. Toth; C. A. Wollmer

  Siegfried Line Campaign interviews, RG 319: R. F. Akers; Omar N. Bradley; Harold R. Bull; J. Lawton Collins; Truman C. Thorson; Walter B. Smith

  National World War II Museum, New Orleans, La.: Leonard G. Lommell

  Rutgers Oral History Archive of World War II, New Brunswick, N.J.: Lee Eli Barr; Edward J. Barry; Edward Bautz; Andre Beaumont; Werner Carl Berger; Robert Billian; James B. Carlaw; Andrew J. Ciampa; Russell W. Cloer; Albert Handaly; Andrew White

  University of Florida, WWII Oral History Collection, Samuel F. Proctor Archive, Department of History: Glynn Markham; Bernard Mellman; William F. Roberts; Robert W. Schwaegerl

  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History, Ft. Belvoir, Va.: Garrison H. Davidson; Franklin F. Snyder

  U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa.

  Forrest C. Pogue interviews: Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke; Ray W. Barker; David Belchem; C. H. Bonesteel; Omar N. Bradley; A. M. Cameron; Arthur Coningham; Robert W. Crawford; George E. Creasy; Viscount Cunningham; J. Curtis; Charles de Gaulle; Charles Miles Dempsey; B. A. Dickson; Manton Eddy; Humphrey Gale; James Gault; T. P. Gleave; A. E. Grasset; J. Hughes Hallett; Hastings L. Ismay; Alphonse Pierre Juin; Albert Kenner; J. C. H. Lee; Robert Bruce Lockhart; Kenneth R. McClaen; R. A. McClure; Alan Moorehead; Frederick E. Morgan; Bernard Paget; Viscount Portal; James M. Robb; Adolph Rosengarten, Jr.; Leslie Scarman; J. A. Sinclair; Walter Bedell Smith; Lord Tedder; Ford Trimble; C. H. H. Vulliamy; Charles A. West; J. F. M. Whiteley; Philip Wigglesworth; E. T. Williams

  Miscellany: Charles L. Bolte; Omar N. Bradley; H. R. Bull; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Francis de Guingand; Hasso von Manteuffel; Bernard L. Montgomery; Walter B. Smith

  Also: Army Service Experiences Questionnaires

  Senior Officer Oral History Program: Paul D. Adams; Henry S. Aurand; Charles H. Bonesteel, III; Andrew J. Boyle; J. Lawton Collins; Richard Collins; Theodore J. Conway; William E. Depuy; William R. Desobry; George I. Forsythe; James M. Gavin; Hobart Gay; Leonard D. Heaton; John A. Heintges; Mildred Lee Hodges; John E. Hull; Brooks Kleber; Harry Lemley; S. L. A. Marshall; James E. Moore; Charles G. Patterson; Matthew B. Ridgway; J. Milnor Roberts, Jr.; William H. Simpson; Maxwell D. Taylor; James A. Van Fleet; Russell L. Vittrup; John K. Waters; James K. Woolnough

  York County Heritage Trust, York, Pa.: Jacob L. Devers; Ira C. Eaker; Reuben Jenkins; Henry Cabot Lodge; Anthony McAuliffe

  MISCELLANY

  Allen, J. L. “Electronics Warfare.” Lecture, Sept. 21, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-7-44.

  Amy, H. J. Lecture, Apr. 8, 1944. NY Port of Embarkation, HIA, Henry J. Amy papers, box 2.

  “Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation.” New York Public Library. Exhibition, June 2009.

  Bollinger, Martin J. “Warriors and Wizards: The Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Bombs of the Third Reich.” 2010, a.p.

  Bynell, H. D. “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe.” Lecture, March 16, 1945. NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207.

  Cirillo, Roger. “The Allied High Command.” Lecture, n.d. British Army Doctrine and Development Directorate.

  _____. “Ardennes-Alsace.” Pamphlet, n.d., U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II. CMH, pub 72-26.

  Conway, T. J. “Operation Anvil.” Lecture, n.d., Norfolk, Va., Theodore J. Conway papers, MHI, box 2.

  Daniel, Derrill M. “The Capture of Aachen.” Lecture, n.d., Quantico, Va.

  “Defense of Antwerp Against the V-1,” film, 1947, http://www.archive.org/details/gov.dod.dimoc.20375.

  Domes, Peter. Hammelburg Raid Reconstruction, http://taskforcebaum.de/schedule/schedule%20us.html.

  Dowling, George B. Lecture, Feb. 28, 1945. NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207.

  Earle, Edward Mead. “Selection of Strategic Bombing Targets.” Lecture, Apr. 23, 1946, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 235.

  “Early Measures at Belsen.” Lecture, June 4, 1945, Royal Society of Medicine, UK NA, WO 219/3944A.

  Foreign Workers Programs. Radio Luxembourg collection, HIA, box 1.

  “4ID Update.” Vol. 5, no. 47, June 6, 2011, http://parentsofdeployed.homestead.com/2011Jun06.html

  “Freckleton Air Disaster of 1944,” BBC News, Aug. 7, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8189000/8189386.stm.

  “Gardelegen Massacre, 13 April 1945.” www.scrapbookpages.com/GerhardThiele*.

  Gilland, Morris W. “Logistical Support for the Combat Zone.” Lecture, 1948, Engineer Officers Advance Course, NARA RG 319, LSA background file, 2-3.7 CB 6.

  Greear, W. H. “Operation Neptune and Landing on Coast of Southern France.” Lecture, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199.

  Gurley, Franklin Louis. “Policy Versus Strategy: The Defense of Strasbourg in Dec. 1944.” Trans. from Guerres Mondiales et Conflits Contemporains, 1992, NARA RG 319, RR background files FRC 5.

  Hewitt, H. K. “The Navy in the European Theater of Operations in World War II.” Lecture, Naval War College, Jan. 4–7, 1947.

 
; Hickling, H., and I. L. H. Mackillop. “The OVERLORD Artificial Harbors.” Lecture, Nov. 6, 1944, CARL, N-12217.

  “History of Medical Service in the European Theater.” Tape transcript, Oct. 1962, MHI

  Howard, C. F. Lecture, Aug. 8, 1944. NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-6-44, H-83, box 191.

  Kappes, Irwin J. “Hitler’s Ultra-Secret Adlerhorst.” 2003, http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/adlerhorst.aspx.

  Leppert, J. L. “Communication Plans and Lessons, Europe and Africa.” Lecture, Oct. 30, 1944. NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, L-7-44.

  Lewis, M. L. “Landing Craft.” Lecture, Sept. 18, 1944. NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199.

  Littlejohn, Robert M., ed., “Passing in Review.” M.d., MHI

  “Malmédy Massacre Investigation.” U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 1949.

  “Notes on Task Force Baum, Narrative of Capt. Baum.” N.d., National World War II Museum archives, New Orleans.

  Ogden, R. J. “Meteorological Services Leading to D-Day.” Royal Meteorological Society, Occasional Papers on Meteorological History, July 2001.

  OH video, I&R platoon, 394th Inf, 99th ID. Compiled by the National World War II Museum, New Orleans, 2008.

  “The Operations of 21 Army Group.” 1946, CARL, N-133331.

  Pogue, Forrest C. “The Ardennes Campaign: The Impact of Intelligence.” Lecture, Dec. 16, 1980, NSA Communications Analysis Association, a.p.

  Quesada, E. R. “Operations of the Ninth Tactical Air Command.” Lecture, May 29, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, L-10-45.

  Sibert, Edwin L. “Military Intelligence Aspects of the Period Prior to the Ardennes Counter Offensive.” Jan. 2, 1947, CBM, MHI, box 6.

  Signal Corps footage, http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675070150_General-Eisenhower_Omar-Bradley_Bernard-Montgomery_World-War-II.

  Stoler, Mark A. “The Second World War in U.S. History and Memory.” International Historical Congress, Oslo, Aug. 12, 2000.

  Striner, Richard A. “Eisenhower’s Triumph: The Guildhall Address of 1945.” American Veterans Center, http://www.americanveteranscenter.org/magazine/avq/issue-vi-springsummer-2009/eisenhower%e2%80%99s-triumph-the-guildhall-address-of-1945/*.

  Walden, Geoffrey R. http://www.thirdreichruins.com/obersalzberg.htm.

  Weinberg, Gerhard L. “The Place of World War II in History.” Lecture, 1995, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  So there. Fourteen years after I began the Liberation Trilogy, the final volume is done. It took me far longer to tell the tale of the war in the Mediterranean and in western Europe than it took Allied armies to win those campaigns. There were more of them, true enough, but I certainly had assistance from many quarters. My debt to those who helped along the way is exceeded only by my gratitude.

  Publication of the first two volumes, An Army at Dawn and The Day of Battle, encouraged many veterans and their progeny, as well as others with an interest and expertise in World War II, to provide me with memoirs, oral histories, and sundry material about the campaign in western Europe for this third volume. I would like to thank:

  Creighton Abrams, James Acklin, Bruce Adkinson, John Alosi, Jr., Karen Anderson, Robert C. Baldridge, Steven Barry, Charles C. Bates, Robert W. Baumer, Günter Bischof, W. H. Black, Lloyd J. Bliss, Roger N. Bollier, Marty Bollinger, Jan Bos, David R. Boyd, Spencer Bruskin, Garfield Brown, Charles F. Bryan, Jr., Steve Bull Bear, James MacGregor Burns, Harold Burson, Andrew Carroll, Ben Celano, Robert E. Coffin, Edward M. Coffman, Michael J. Corley, Jim K. Cullen, Richard G. Davis, Joe DeMarco, Leonard Nicolas DeNucci, Carlo D’Este, Henry B. Dewey, Joseph C. Doherty, Michael D. Doubler, R. K. Doughty, Gerald H. Dorman, Roger S. Durham, Walter D. Ehlers, David Eisenhower, John S. D. Eisenhower, Coy Eklund, Jan Elvin, Isaac Epps, Francis A. Even, Daniel G. Felger, Allen R. Ferguson, Andrew E. Finkel, Giovanni Finzi-Contini, Don M. Fox, Richard B. Frank, Bill Frederick, Leonard J. Fullenkamp, Johnny Gibson, John A. Gill, Linda Gilmore, Mark Good, Walter Grabowski, Walter H. Greenfield, Jr., Fred Groff III, Hans-Jürgen Habenicht, Arthur T. Hadley, Fred W. Hall, Jr., Herb H. Ham, Ralph Hauenstein, Dixon D. Hedges, Carl F. Heintze, Walter C. Heisler, Matthew Hermes, Peter C. Hesse, Shane Hinckley, Fred Hoffman, Weldon Hogie, Rick Holderbaum, Edgar Holton, Douglas Hope, Sir Michael Howard, Charles H. Hubbell, Tim Hughes, Dennis J. Hutchinson, Dean F. Jewett, Lewis Johnston, Douglas B. Jordan, Phil Jutras, David Kahn, Dave Kanzler, William Kearney, Robert J. Kenney, Jr., Roger Keppel, Dave Kerr, Michael Ketchum, Janet Keysser, Harry W. O. Kinnard II, Sherry Klein, Todd Kleinhuizen, William A. Knowlton, Frederick J. Kroesen, Edward Latham, John Leh II, Brian M. Linn, Roy Livengood, Leonard G. Lomell, Eugene M. Long, Jr., John F. Manning, Sanford H. Margalith, Jack A. Marshall, Joseph Edgar Martin, Peter A. McGrath, Sally McGrath, Donald L. Miller, Allan R. Millett, William W. Moir, Philip Monteleoni, Virginia P. Montgomery, Dan Morgan, Henry G. Morgan, Mary Ann Moxon, Paul Gregory Nagle, Michael Carey Nason, Lovern “Jerry” Nauss, Jeff Nichols, Randy Norton, Bruce Parker, Donald G. Patton, Rick Perry, Paul A. Philcox, Henry G. Phillips, Richard Piotrowski, Mike Popowski, Rich Porter, William P. T. Preston, Jr., Sally Quinn, William W. Quinn, Russell Rains, Daniel B. Rathburn, Edward Rathje, Mark J. Reardon, Lacy Reaves, Robert A. Reisman, Delmar Richards, John K. Rieth, Joseph P. “Phil” Rivers, Estil Robertson, Eric Ross, Stan Scislowski, Robert H. Seabrook, Allan Serviss, William P. Shaw, Kevin P. Shea, Robert Sheridan II, Nathan M. Shippee, Lewis “Bob” Sorley, Arthur O. Spaulding, Douglas M. Spencer, Roger Spiller, Gregory Stejskal, Wayne Stiles, Timothy R. Stoy, Ray Stuchell, Jim Sudmeier, C. C. Taylor, Will Thornton, Louis J. Timchak, Jr., Jack W. Tipton, Laurie Campbell Toth, Charles E. Umhey, Jr., Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg, Jr., Donald C. Van Roosen, Hans von Luck, Douglas C. Waller, George Patton “Pat” Waters, Joanne Villafane, Stephen J. Weiss, Carroll Wetzel, Jr., Clark Whelton, Tanya Bruskin White, Luther George Williams, Jr., James M. Wilson, Jr., Harold R. Winton, Scott Wolf, Tom Wolfson, John Ward Yates, and David T. Zabecki.

  I had the good fortune to have seven accomplished historians read all or parts of the manuscript. I thank them for their invaluable suggestions, while accepting full responsibility for any errors of fact or judgment: Tami Davis Biddle, Roger Cirillo, Timothy K. Nenninger, Mark A. Stoler, James Scott Wheeler, David T. Zabecki, and particularly Joseph Balkoski, the gifted chronicler of the battles for Normandy and beyond, who was generous enough to read the thing twice.

  For a third time I gratefully acknowledge a profound debt to the hundreds of historians, memoirists, and others whose writings over the past seventy years provide the foundation for all subsequent works of scholarship. The 114-volume U.S. Army in World War II, the official history known as the Green Series, has been invaluable to me, as have the official British History of the Second World War, The Army Air Forces in World War II, and other works, ranging from short monographs and periodical articles to multivolume studies.

  But the core of this narrative, like its two predecessors, derives from primary, contemporaneous sources, including diaries, letters, and unpublished manuscripts, as well as official records, after action reports, and combat interviews. I appreciate the professionalism and patience of archivists, historians, and librarians by the score in tracking down those thousands of documents. That starts at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland, where cumulatively I have spent many months since January 1999. I thank Richard Boylan, Timothy Mulligan, Larry McDonald, Sharon Culley, Theresa Roy, and especially my close friend Tim Nenninger, the chief of modern military records, without whom there would be no trilogy.

  The U.S. Army’s Military History Institute, part of the Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, remains among the greatest military archives in the world and a priceless asset to anyone studying World War II. In researching this volume, I made twenty-three pilgrimages to MHI, usually for two- or three-day stretches; in all, I made sixty-nine visits while working on the trilogy. I am beholden to
the entire staff, and particularly Col. Matthew Dawson, the AHEC director; Conrad C. Crane, the MHI director; Richard L. Baker, senior technical information specialist; Molly A. Bompane, curator of photography; Stephen Bye; Terry Foster; Rodney Foytik; Tom Hendrix; Clifton Hyatt; Gary Johnson; David A. Keough; Michael E. Lynch; Jessica Sheets; Melissa K. Wiford; and particularly Richard J. Sommers.

  At the adjacent U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, I thank the current commandant, Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III, and his predecessors, Lt. Gen. David H. Huntoon, Jr., and Maj. Gen. Gregg F. Martin. Also: Bohdan I. Kohutiak, the library director, and my good friend and former co-instructor, Col. (ret.) Charles D. Allen.

  The U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., once again provided expertise and a rich lode of documents. I thank Robert J. Dalessandro, the executive director and chief of military history; Richard W. Stewart, the chief historian; Frank R. Shirer, chief of the historical resources branch; David W. Hogan, Jr.; and Beth McKenzie.

  I had the good fortune to twice hold media fellowships in 2008 and 2010 at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. I thank David Brady and Mandy MacCalla, as well as archivist Carol A. Leadenham and associate archivist Brad Bauer. Thanks too to George P. Shultz for his cordial encouragement.

  I was an Axel Springer Berlin Prize fellow in the fall of 2009 at the American Academy in Berlin, a marvelously nurturing institution for scholars and artists. I thank Gary Smith, the executive director, and his entire staff.

  Through the University of Chicago’s Jeff Metcalf Fellows Program I was lucky enough to have research assistance in the summer of 2010 from the talented, diligent Tomek Blusiewicz, then a Chicago undergraduate and now a graduate student in history at Harvard. I’m also grateful for research assistance on volume three from Ella Hoffman, Hal Libby, and Eric Goldstein, and from my children, Sarah J. Atkinson, now a surgical resident in Cincinnati, and Rush Atkinson, now a Justice Department lawyer in Washington. The knowledgeable Steve Goodell helped with photo research.