3 ‘Although I loathed …’: Helmut Ritgen, The Western Front, 1944, p. 97
4 ‘His death could bring us …’: Eberhard Günther Beck, Tagebuch, p. 19, BA-MA
5 ‘Young man …’: Richard Freiherr von Rosen, Panzer Ace, p. 257
6 ‘unsettled’: Willi Müller, Vom Pionier-Bataillon in der Normandie zum Panzerjagdkommando in Sachsen, p. 106
7 ‘As feared …’: Ritgen, p. 96
8 ‘I saw that there was no hope …’: Orion C. Shockley, Random Chance, p. 152
9 ‘Lieutenant, I’m going …’: ibid, p. 153
10 ‘Ow, I’m hit.’: ibid, p. 161
11 ‘The hedgerows were terrible’: John Rogers, NWWIIM
12 ‘We were there …’: ibid
13 ‘Finally taking a cigarette …’: Reg Spittles, ‘Story No. 3’, BTM Archives
14 ‘The journey back …’: Robert Woollcombe, Lion Rampant, pp. 90–91
15 ‘I just wanted …’: Beck, p. 16
16 ‘Hearing the news …’: John Robert Slaughter, Omaha Beach and Beyond, p. 137
17 ‘Karl, any fool …’: cited in Vince Milano and Bruce Conner, Normandiefront, p. 239
18 ‘Karl, through all this …’: ibid, p. 245
19 ‘Thank God …’: ibid, p. 246
20 ‘Almost every time …’: ibid, p. 250
21 ‘quivering with alertness’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 19/7/1944
22 ‘General was pleased …’: ibid
23 ‘Everything is now …’: ibid
24 ‘That’s giving them …’: ibid
31 COBRA
1 ‘This was meant …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 21/7/1944
2 ‘When I die …’: ibid, 20/7/1944
3 ‘It has been said of this battle …’: cited in John Buckley, Monty’s Men, p. 147
4 ‘Dammit. I’m going to …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 23/7/1944
5 ‘It is Hell …’: Martin Blumenson (ed.), The Patton Papers, p. 464
6 ‘I’m proud to be here …’: ibid, p. 477
7 ‘This is no limited …’: Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, p. 456
8 ‘How the hell …’: General Elwood Richard ‘Pete’ Quesada, interview 8, AFHRA
9 ‘The human truth …’: ibid
10 ‘It was hopeless …’: Fritz Bayerlein, ETHINT 66-ML-1079, USAHC, p. 43
11 ‘Bail out!! …’: Truman Smith, The Wrong Stuff, p. 266
12 ‘Based on what …’: ibid, p. 273
13 ‘And before the next …’: Pyle, p. 434
14 ‘We sat in a little café …’: J. Lawton Collins, Lightning Joe, p. 240
15 ‘It was all fast and furious …’: Pyle, p. 459
16 ‘My God, look …’: Smith, p. 276
17 ‘And while we didn’t …’: ibid, p. 277
18 ‘I’ve never known …’: Pyle, p. 460
19 ‘I had heard my share …’: Richard Blackburn, In the Company of Heroes, p. 160
20 ‘The feeling of the blast …’: Pyle, p. 461
21 ‘You never saw so much …’: Tom Bowles, author interview
22 ‘The three days …’: Bayerlein, ETHINT 66-ML-1079, USAHC, p. 47
23 ‘Shock, if we survive …’: Orion C. Shockley, Random Chance, p. 164
24 ‘I don’t believe …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 24/7/1944
25 ‘I sensed that their …’: Collins, p. 242
26 ‘It really worked wonderfully …:’ John Rogers, NWWIIM
27 ‘We’d have call …’: Archie Maltbie, NWWIIM
28 ‘Everyone is overjoyed …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 27/7/1944
32 BLUECOAT
1 ‘The centre and the left …’: Paul Hausser, B-179, USAHC
2 ‘Impossible due to …’: Willi Müller, Vom Pionier-Bataillon in der Normandie zum Panzerjagdkommando in Sachsen, p. 111
3 ‘One had to play …’: Helmut Ritgen, The Western Front, 1944, p. 114
4 ‘There were scores and scores …’: Richard Blackburn, In the Company of Heroes, p. 163
5 ‘It horrified us …’: Müller, p. 115
6 ‘General Bayerlein and Rommel …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 29/7/1944
7 ‘Felt Hitler …’: ibid
8 ‘If only we Germans had this.’: ibid
9 ‘We eagered for good news …’: ibid
10 ‘This windfall covered …’: Robert Woollcombe, Lion Rampant, p. 112
11 ‘He was a wiry …’: Stanley Christopherson Diary, 29/7/1944
12 ‘This ridge was captured …’: Walter Caines Journal, p. 27, IWM 306
13 ‘You may lose every tank …’: cited in John Buckley, Monty’s Men, p. 158
14 ‘It was a terrible …’: Walter Caines Journal, p. 28, IWM 306
15 ‘A few fanatics …’: ibid, p. 28
16 ‘I was so tired …’: ibid, p. 29
17 ‘But it seemed …’: Woollcombe, p. 113
18 ‘Even a troop …’: Reg Spittles, ‘Story No. 32’, BTM Archives
19 ‘A profusion of Nebelwerfers …’: Woollcombe, p. 114
20 ‘I really did feel scared …’: Walter Caines Journal, p. 31, IWM 306
21 ‘The unit had certainly …’: ibid, p. 32
22 ‘He was prone …’: Stanley Christopherson Diary, 6/8/1944
23 ‘Ondefontaine was now …’: Walter Caines Journal, p. 33, IWM 306
33 LŰTTICH
1 ‘On this journey …’: Richard Freiherr von Rosen, Panzer Ace, p. 257
2 ‘I decide that this old …’: Robert Leblanc, Journal du Maquis, ed. Alain Corblin, 30/6/1944
3 ‘It’s anarchy.’: ibid, 6/7/1944
4 ‘Pelican, Jean l’Abbé …’: ibid, 4/8/1944
5 ‘Some people are …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 2/8/1944
6 ‘Brad went over …’: ibid, 2/8/44
7 ‘Self-confidence, speed …’: George S. Patton, War As I Knew It, p. 354
8 ‘politically unbearable …’: Heinrich Eberbach, A-922, USAHC
9 ‘Events like these …’: Richard Blackburn, In the Company of Heroes, p. 166
10 ‘Ralph, be sure …’: J. Lawton Collins, Lightning Joe, p. 250
11 ‘In fact, not a single …’: Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, B-725, USAHC
12 ‘We had hit …’: Richard E. Turner, Mustang Pilot, p. 110
13 ‘For the next five …’: ibid
14 ‘The absolute air …’: Gersdorff, B-725, USAHC
34 Tank Battle at Saint-Aignan
1 ‘I came to tell you …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 7/8/1944
2 ‘Why break down the back door …’: ibid
3 ‘Do you think …’: Ken Tout, By Tank, p. 40
4 ‘Business this time …’: ibid, p. 41
5 ‘The Germans are now …’: ibid, p. 42
6 ‘Our little silver …’: ibid
7 ‘Driver, start up!’: ibid, p. 43
8 ‘That is artificial …’: ibid, p. 46
9 ‘The physical sensation …’: ibid, p. 49
10 ‘Behind us and to our right …’: ibid, p. 70
11 ‘Sitting here like this …’: ibid, p. 86
12 ‘Hallo, Roger 2 Baker …’: ibid, p. 89
13 ‘Hullo, Oboe Able …’: this incident in ibid, p. 92
14 ‘Two Charlie! …’: ibid, p. 94
15 ‘The day degenerates …’: ibid
16 ‘The clutching feeling …’: ibid, p. 99
17 ‘Ken, have a look …’: ibid, p. 110
18 ‘The mess on the floor …’: ibid, p. 111
19 ‘Your war’s over …’: ibid, p. 119
35 The Corridor of Death
1 ‘What an awful waste …’: Mary Morris, 16/8/1944, IWM 4850
2 ‘Our lead elements …’: Chester B. Hansen Diary, 10/8/1944
3 ‘Dietrich’s totally unqualified …’: cited in Samuel W. Mitcham, Panzers in Normandy, p. 143
4 ‘It was unaccountable …’: ibid, p. 144
5 ‘All we could do …’: cited in
Marvin Jensen, Strike Swiftly!, p. 194
6 ‘We got him.’: ibid, p. 195
7 ‘She abandoned her plan …’: Willi Müller, Vom Pionier-Bataillon in der Normandie zum Panzerjagdkommando in Sachsen, p. 133
8 ‘We had to hurry …’: Eberhard Günther Beck, Tagebuch, p. 26, BA-MA
9 ‘Whole battery …’: ibid, p. 24
10 ‘We were not supposed …’: ibid, p. 27
11 ‘His head was torn …’: Müller, p. 27
12 ‘When he was killed …’: Charles Cromwell Martin, Battle Diary, p. 60
13 ‘The enlisted soldiers …’: Kurt Meyer, Grenadiers, p. 283
14 ‘We have been in Normandy …’: Denis Edwards, The Devil’s Own Luck, p. 138
15 ‘We were informed …’: Walter Caines Journal, p. 35, IWM 306
16 ‘Many prisoners were …’: ibid
17 ‘Oh, Blackie, no …’: Richard Blackburn, In the Company of Heroes, p. 173
18 ‘But I was always taught …’: ibid, p. 181
19 ‘Talk about fear! …’: Martin, p. 61
20 ‘Once again I was witness …’: Meyer, p. 294
21 ‘No matter how many …’: cited in Jean-Paul Pallud, Rückmarsch!, p. 67
22 ‘From there I had …’: Stanley Christopherson Diary, 17/6/1944
23 ‘Between August 7 …’: Orion C. Shockley, Random Chance, p. 179
24 ‘“Man, horse, and truck …”’: Hans von Luck, Panzer Commander, p. 205
25 ‘This was an awful price …’: Martin, p. 67
Postscript
1 ‘The smell was terrible …’: Ken Adam, author interview
2 ‘He was absolutely …’: Peter Caddick-Adams, author interview
Selected Sources
PERSONAL TESTIMONIES
Author Interviews
* * *
Adam, Ken
Beamont, Roland ‘Bee’
Börner, Johannes
Bowles, Henry D.
Bowles, Tom
Byers, Bill
Halloran, Walter
Mann, Douglas
Mather, Carol
Munro, Les
Neil, Tom
Roberts, Eldon ‘Bob’
Semken, John
Tout, Ken
Watson, Stuart
Waughman, Rusty
Cornelius Ryan Archive, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
* * *
Brannen, Malcolm D.
Cass, E. E. E.
Cota, Norman
Damski, Aloysius
Feuchtinger, Edgar
Freyberg, Leodegard
Gunning, Hugh
Hayn, Friedrich
Hermes, Walter
Keller, Robert
Morrissey, James
Oppeln-Bronikowski, Hermann, von
Pemsel, Max
Tempelhof, Hans
Thornhill, Avery
Voight, Bill
Wünsch, Anton
Imperial War Museum, London
* * *
Blizzard, Arthur
Todd, Richard
John Kane Interviews
* * *
Seekings, Reg
Legasee: The Veterans’ Video Archive, London
* * *
Corbett, Frank
Downing, Eric
Eagles, Charles
Renouf, Tom
Sullivan, Bob
Mémoriale de Caen, Normandy
* * *
Fauré, Hubert
Zivolhave, Otto
National World War II Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
* * *
Bailey, Richard
Baumgarten, Harold
Bell, Bryan
Brueland, Lowell K.
Denius, Frank
Farley, Dan
Ford, Richard
Gross, Clayton Kelly
Hawk, John ‘Bud’
Lomell, Leonard
Maltbie, Archie
McCarthy, George
Raaen, John
Rice, Darold
Rogers, John
Utero, Cosmo
Venverloh, Joseph
Wichterich, George
Witmeyer, John James ‘JJ’
Robin Schäfer Interviews
* * *
Leuffert, Karl
Seiler, Hermann
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
* * *
Biehler, William H.
Farrell, Francis
Johnson, Franklyn
Kingston, Clifford
Logerfo, Peter J.
Parisi, Joseph
Waters, John
US Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell, Alabama
* * *
Gabreski, Francis ‘Gabby’
Quesada, Elwood R. ‘Pete’
US Army Heritage Centre, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
* * *
Bonesteel, Charles H.
Haley, Joseph M.
Ziegelmann, Fritz
Forrest Pogue Interviews
* * *
Alanbrooke, Viscount Sir Alan
Bonesteel, Charles H.
Bradley, Omar N.
Corbett, Paddy
De Gaulle, Charles
Dempsey, Miles
Gleave, Tom
Hughes-Hallett, John
Ismay, Hastings
Morgan, Frederick
Mountbatten, Admiral Lord Louis
Paget, Sir Bernard
Robb, James M.
Williams, E. T. ‘Bill’
US Army Historical Division, Foreign Military Studies Series: Interviews
* * *
Bayerlein, Fritz
Rommel, Lucie
Schweppenburg, General Leo Geyr von, Interview: Panzer Tactics in Normandy
UNPUBLISHED REPORTS, MEMOIRS, PAPERS, ETC.
Bovington Tank Museum, Dorset
* * *
21st Army Group Administrative Statistics
21st Army Group AFV Technical Issues, 355.48.5
21st Army Group AFV Technical Reports, 355.486.1
Baulf, H. E. A., Nine Elms: A Tank to Remember, unpublished memoir
Casualties and Effects of Fire Support on the British Beaches in Normandy, 355.48.5(4)
Current Reports from Overseas, Nos 46–57
Overlord Outline Mounting Plan
Spittles, Reg, ‘Stories’ No. 3, 14, 24, 32 and 41
Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg
* * *
Beck, Eberhard Günther, Tagebuch
German Tank Production
Training Instructions, Nos 29–39
Churchill College Archives, Cambridge
* * *
Lewin, Ronald, Papers
Eton College Library, Eton
* * *
Henderson, John, Papers, Diary, Photographs
Gettysburg Museum, Pennsylvania
* * *
Winters, Richard ‘Dick’, Papers
Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
* * *
70th Tank Battalion, 3663
737th Tank Battalion, 3608
741st Tank Battalion, 3522
893rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, 3518
Imperial War Museum, London
* * *
Caines, Walter, Papers
Green, T. W., Reminiscences
Guillotin, Claude, Memoir
Handley, Ken, Papers
Harris, J. R., Diary
Mulry, Mary, Diary
Wright, Frank, Papers
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London
* * *
Churcher, J. B., A Soldier’s Story
Hutton, Michael, Just a Bit of Time, unpublished memoir
Jowett, George, One Man’s Long Journey, unpublished memoir
Lampen, Ambrose, Naval Reminiscences 1941–1944, unpublished memoir
O’Connor, Richard, Papers
Wilmot, Chester, Papers
US Armed Forces Oral Histories
National Archives, Kew, London
* * *
1st Northants Yeomanry War Diary, WO 171/859
2nd Northants Yeomanry War Diary, WO 171/860
4th Somerset Light Infantry War Diary, WO 171/1372
4th Wiltshire Regiment War Diary, WO 171/1394
5th Wiltshire Regiment War Diary, WO 171/1395
6 KOSB War Diary, WO 171/1322
21st Army Group Combat Reports, WO 205/422
602 Squadron, Operations Record Book, AIR 27/2078
609 Squadron, Operations Record Book, AIR 27/2103
AEAF Historical Record, AIR 37/1057
Airborne Air Planning Committee, AIR 37/773
Appreciation of Possible Developments, WO 205/118
Daily Reflections by Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, AIR 37/784
Dempsey Papers, WO 285
Employment of Air Forces in Operation Overlord, AIR 37/772
General Montgomery Planning Notes, CAB 106/1031
German POW Prisoner Statements, WO 232/10A
Montgomery Notes for Address to Senior Officers Before Overlord, PREM 3/339/1
Observations on RAF Bomber Command’s Attack on Caen, AIR 37/1255
Overlord: An Assault by an Infantry Battalion, WO 205/422
Personnel & Morale, WO 163/53
Probability of Hitting Targets, WO291/1330
Report by Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, AIR 37/867
Survey of Casualties, WO 205/116
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
* * *
4th Infantry Division after-action reports
29th Infantry Division after-action reports
82nd Airborne Division, reports, papers, etc.
101st Air Division, reports, papers, etc.
United States Army, Notes From Normandy, Vol. II, No. 27
Naval Historical Branch, Historic Dockyards, Portsmouth
* * *
Curtis, Rupert (ed.), Chronicles of D-Day and the Battle of the Build-Up
Normandy '44 Page 75
