The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  At a plotting table in the center: Hanson W. Baldwin, “Getting the D-Day News Out,” in Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 394; ONB, OH, 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, VII, 22 (“get ground quickly”); Astor, June 6, 1944, 212–13 (expected the two assault regiments); Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 243–44 (Photographers were forbidden).

  “Lincolnesque”: “Doughboy’s General,” Time (May 1, 1944): 23+; Pyle, Brave Men, 210–11 (“he spoke so gently”); Liebling, “Five-Star Schoolmaster,” New Yorker (March 10, 1951): 40+.

  Few could resist the biography: OH, ONB, Oct. 14, 1946, FCP (sodbuster twang); Liebling, “Five-Star Schoolmaster,” New Yorker (March 10, 1951): 40+; “Doughboy’s General,” Time (May 1, 1944): 23+; CBH, June 3, 1944 (two flasks of brandy); Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 77 (“If there’s a bird”), 85–93; ONB, OH, 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, II, 11, 24–26, 52–53 (“guidance from God”); DOB, 96, 114–15; AAAD, 485–86.

  Perhaps. But a few wondered: C. B. Hansen, “General Bradley As Seen Close Up,” NYT Magazine, Nov. 30, 1947, 14+ (“superior”); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 37 (“mediocrity”); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 216 (“Has a strong jaw”); Murray, “Needless D-Day Slaughter,” MHQ (spring 2003): 26+ (Bradley’s design); “Doughboy’s General,” Time (May 1, 1944): 23 (“tommyrot”). I’m grateful for the insights of Prof. Allan R. Millett on this topic.

  Now he was not so sure: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 271–77; Astor, June 6, 1944, 212–13 (“this is carnage”).

  Not for some hours would Bradley learn: Miller, Division Commander, 5–14; diary, Jack Shea [Cota aide], ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 14–17 (hugging wooden groins).

  Pistol in hand, he sang tuneless: Kershaw, The Bedford Boys, 155; John C. Raaen, Jr., “Sir, the 5th Rangers Have Landed Intact,” ts, 2000, MMD, 28–29; McManus, The Americans at D-Day, 333; OH, 116th Inf, March 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 18–22 (“Medico, I’m hit”).

  Up the bluff they climbed: diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 19–22, 29; OH, 116th Inf, March 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG.

  “Where the hell have you been”: OH, 116th Inf, Mar. 25, 1945, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG.

  “a final stubborn reserve”: Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 161; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 346 (“unwilling soul”), 262 (“Watch it”); “16-G on D-Day,” n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (stepping stones); diary, Stanley Bach, First Army, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (“Fire everywhere”); OH, Joseph Dorchak, Co B, 2nd Ranger Bn, HI (“shot the corpse”).

  A dozen destroyers—some so close: IFG, 143; OH, Maurice F. McGrath, 116th Inf, Sept. 20, 1944, a.p. (“pick them out”); Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 108 (knocked the tower into the nave); Karig, Battle Report: The Atlantic War, 327 (“simply champion”).

  “coagulating haphazardly”: CCA, 324; “Operation Neptune Report,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 30, 1944, CEOH, box X-24, 91–93, 93n (“Men believed ours”); Wheeler, The Big Red One, 277–82; Omaha Beachhead, 82–83, 87 (“Troops formerly pinned”).

  Cota continued his charmed day: Omaha Beachhead, 95; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 23; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 278 (“Come on down here”).

  That left the British and Canadians: WaS, 46–48; IFG, 183 (four times longer); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 170–71 (half a dozen gadgets).

  In other respects, “the bitches”: Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 293; “Force G and 50 Division,” bulletin Y/36, Nov. 1944, COHQ, CARL, N-6530.16, 19–23 (engine rooms flooded); Hastings, OVERLORD, 105–6 (Centaur tanks); Vian, Action This Day, 138 (two battleships and a monitor); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 56 (“large packs of grouse”); VW, vol. 1, 197 (ninety shore guns); author visit, Crépon, May 25–29, 2009; “Casualties and Effects of Fire Support on the British Beaches in Normandy,” Army Operational Research Group (U.K.), report no. 261, n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 451, 5 (“not just disorganized”).

  During the run to shore: Hastings, Winston’s War, 393; diary, S. C. Donnison, June 6, 1944, IWM, 94/50/1 (“thick as syrup”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 48, 60; “An Account of the Assault by an Infantry Battalion,” bulletin Y/44, Feb. 1945, COHQ, CARL, N-6350.22, 5–6; J. H. Patterson, ts, n.d., No. 4 Commando, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7 (“Jerusalem”); Hills, Phantom Was There, 178 (“The Beer Barrel Polka”).

  Closest to Omaha lay Gold: Roskill, White Ensign, 377; “Report on the Battle of Normandy,” Royal Engineers, n.d., CARL, N-5785 (only two boat lanes); “An Account of the Assault by an Infantry Battalion,” bulleting Y/44, Feb. 1945, COHQ, CARL, N-6350.22, 9; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 270–72; Ryan, The Longest Day, 188 (“Perhaps we’re intruding”); WaS, 46–48 (Port-en-Bessin); VW, vol. 1, 178, 193 (all four brigades).

  On the eastern lip of the Allied beachhead: VW, vol. 1, 185.

  “Ramp down”: Hastings, OVERLORD, 103; Ryan, The Longest Day, 186 (“Bash on”); “Report on the Battle of Normandy,” Royal Engineers, n.d., CARL, N-5785 (cleared no beach obstacles); Collier, Fighting Words, 161 (“shoulders hunched like boxers”); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 313 (“drowning in their own blood”); Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 12–13 (“Beach a shambles”); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 129 (within thirty feet); VW, vol. 1, 186, 194–95; Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 278.

  Even so a kilted piper with a dirk: Millership, “Scots Piper Dodged Bullets,” Reuters, June 1, 1994; Burns, “Bill Millin, Scottish D-Day Piper, Dies at 88,” NYT, Aug. 19, 2010, B9 (“Highland Laddie”); Holt and Holt, Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battlefield Guide to the Normandy Landing Beaches, 202 (“Get down”); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 316–18 (“parade-ground style”); Liddle, D-Day by Those Who Were There, 189–90.

  The wind-whipped tide and a bullying current: VW, vol. 1, 179–83; VC, 100–106; Collier, Fighting Words, 164 (“Traitors!”).

  Despite such setbacks: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 141 (half the number expected); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 275 (two miles inland); Saunders, The Red Beret, 153; Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 125; author visit, Crépon, May 25–29, 2009; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 199.

  Reporters were told to expect: Ryan, The Longest Day, 196–97; Drez, ed., Voices of D-Day, 297–301 (“cycle like mad”).

  Yet the day seemed undimmed: author visit, Crépon, May 25–29, 2009; Ryan, The Longest Day, 206 (holding up trousers); Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge, 109 (French women who emerged); Howarth, Dawn of D-Day, 228 (Norman dialect); Thompson, The Price of Victory, 253 (antique gramophone).

  A Conqueror’s Paradise

  As if in pursuit: AAFinWWII, 159 (twenty-six bridges); Irving, The Trail of the Fox, Horch photo; Douglas-Home, Rommel, 205; Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 198 (youngest but most celebrated); Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 457 (“C’est Rommel!”).

  He had driven home to Herrlingen: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 470–71; Ryan, The Longest Day, 237–38 (“If I was commander”).

  At 9:30 P.M., with little left: Ryan, The Longest Day, 15; author visit, La Roche–Guyon, May 30, 2009, and “A Visit to La Roche–Guyon Castle,” brochure.

  “How peaceful the world”: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 471–73; Beevor, D-Day, 40 (“conqueror’s paradise”); Camille Pissarro, “A Square in La Roche–Guyon,” Alte Nationalgaleri, Berlin; www.musee-imaginaire.de/lesesaal/renoir/biografi.html*; www.artchive.com/artchive/B/braque/castle.jpg.html.

  On the chalk cliffs: Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 334, 345–54, 392.

  Clacking typewriters: Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 53 (Edict of Nantes); Irving, The Trail of the Fox, 372–74 (“He’s very calm”).

  There was much to be grim about: CCA, 275; Germany VII, 586 (“There are no signs”); Lewin, Rommel as Military Commander, 223 (away from their posts); war diar
y, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201 (“not a major action”).

  Not until that fantastic armada: Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 120 (German aircraft losses); Germany VII, 328–30 (319 serviceable planes and dropped their bombs prematurely); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 143; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 414; Wieviorka, Normandy, 207 (American planes were gray).

  “The enemy, penetrating our positions”: war diary, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201.

  “the fighting animal”: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 274; Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 299; MMB, 462–63; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 48 (“re-win great fame”).

  Hitler’s decision in November 1943: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 60–61, 65 (“Once defeated”); Germany VII, 512; Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 458 (“zone of death”), 464 (“The enemy will have a rough time”).

  If confident enough to travel: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 60–61 (200 million); Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 496 (eight different languages); Overy, Why the Allies Won, 225–27 (Army Group B relied); Friederich Freiherr von der Heydte, “A German Parachute Regiment in Normandy,” 1954, FMS, #B-839, MHI, 8 (“Emplacements without guns”).

  “Our friends from the East”: Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 467–68; F. Ruge, “Coast Defense and Invasion,” June 9, 1947, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, ONI IR 243, box 642, 9, 14 (“nailed to the ground”); “Railway Sabotage in France and Belgium,” SHAEF, G-3, n.d., CARL, N-16313 (armed railwaymen); Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars, 233–41; CCA, 225–30; AAFinWWII, 160; GS V, 287; memo, Erwin Rommel, Apr. 22, 1944, captured document, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, “Combat Engineering,” admin file #547, 8–9 (“The enemy will most likely”).

  “a cock-fight controversy”: Bodo Zimmerman, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 42–43.

  “main battle line must be the beach”: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 455; OH, Hans von Luck to author, Hamburg, Mar. 3 and Apr. 7, 1994 (“If we can’t throw”); CCA, 247.

  This impertinence found little favor: Stafford, Ten Days to D-Day, 43 (“unlicked cub”); Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 48 (“Marshal Laddie”); Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, ETHINT 13, Dec. 11, 1947, MHI, 2 (S’engager).

  Hitler dithered, then ordered a compromise: Germany VII, 508–20 (“In the East”); Wood, ed., Army of the West, 4; CCA, 243–49; Ose, “Rommel and Rundstedt: The 1944 Panzer Controversy,” Military Affairs (Jan. 1986): 7+; CCA, 333–34 (eight hours passed); Beevor, D-Day, 150 (“arrive too late”).

  “Der Führer vertraut mir”: Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 476–78; Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 48 (“the Führer’s marshal”); Young, Rommel, the Desert Fox, 151 (stamp collector); Margry, “The Death of Rommel,” AB, no. 80 (1993): 38+ (confiscated from Jews); Liddell Hart, ed., The Rommel Papers, 485 (“come round to the idea”), 468, (“fate of the German people”).

  The struggle in Normandy would depend: VW, vol. 1, 201–4: Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, 65 (oddments), 106–8 (pulverized by naval gunfire); OH, Hans von Luck to author, Hamburg, Mar. 3 and Apr. 7, 1994; Luck, Panzer Commander, 139–44; Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 57–58; Daglish, Operation Goodwood, 67 (Parisian fleshpot); Isby, ed., Fighting the Invasion, 241; VW, vol. 1, 204–5; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 113 (almost 250 more British gliders).

  At 10:40 P.M., General Friedrich Dollmann: war diary, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201. The 21st Panzer commander put his tank losses for June 6 at 25 percent, while official British sources calculate the loss at 40 to 44 percent. The official German history states that 80 of 125 deployed panzers were destroyed. Germany VII, 593; Hinsley, 474; VW, vol. 1, 204; Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 57–58.

  Swarming enemy aircraft impeded movement: Luther, Blood and Honor, 70–73; Hastings, OVERLORD, 117 (Grenadiers skulked back).

  “We cannot hold everything”: Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 98–99; Ryan, The Longest Day, 237–38 (“I’ve nearly always succeeded”).

  A monstrous full moon: VW, vol. 1, 222; AAFinWWII, 562–63 (first of 241 airdromes); Omaha Beachhead, 108 (only a hundred tons); Balkoski, Utah Beach, 317 (nineteen airborne battalions); Astor, June 6, 1944, 239 (“to kill each other”).

  “I must have Caen”: notes, Miles Dempsey, May 15, 1944, UK NA, WO 285/1; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 841–42; Beevor, D-Day, 142; Hastings, OVERLORD, 115 (“not unpleased”).

  “My wife, my children!”: Beevor, D-Day, 146; Harris G. Warren, “Special Operations: AAF Aid to European Resistance Movements,” 1947, AFHRA, study no. 121, 149 (seventeen Norman towns); “Historical Record, A.E.A.F.,” n.d., UK NA, AIR 37/1057 (bomber fleets would follow); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 183 (eleven days), 185 (Westminster Abbey); Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 29–33; Gilbert, D-Day, 158–59 (five hundred coffins); Arthur Layton Funk, “Caught in the Middle: The French Population in Normandy,” in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 252.

  three thousand Normans would be killed: Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 27; Beevor, D-Day, 49 (fifteen thousand French civilians), 123 (calvados); Moorehead, Eclipse, 120 (“excessive hardship”).

  As for the liberators: casualty estimates vary substantially. VW, vol. 1, 222–23; Buffetaut, D-Day Ships, 122.

  The 8,230 U.S. casualties: historian Joseph Balkoski tabulates 4,720 casualties at Omaha, plus 3,510 at Utah and on the Cotentin Peninsula. Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, each appendix 1; Reister, ed., Medical Statistics in World War II, 13–20 (first of almost 400,000 men).

  Many were felled by 9.6-gram bullets: Andrus et al., eds., Advances in Military Medicine, vol. 1, 192–201; Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 149 (corpses into burial sacks); J. H. Patterson, No. 4 Commando, ts, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7, 13 (“nothing was being done”); George E. McIntyre, “As Mac Saw It,” ts, n.d., MHI, 159 (handkerchiefs draped the faces); OH, Richard Oliphant, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 2–3 (“They do not seem to matter”).

  Omaha was the worst: “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 328–29; “Activities of Medical Detachment,” 16th Inf, D-Day, n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 37 (cat’s-eye headlights); Fisher, Legacy of Heroes, 33, 38, 64 (gas gangrene); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Beach Battalion 1998 Reunion,” 1998, MRC FDM (bullet in the brain); “Vierville-sur-Mer,” ts, n.d., MMD (“There were men crying”).

  “swollen grayish sacks”: Moorehead, Gellhorn, 219.

  “I walked along slowly”: Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,” American Magazine (Sept. 1944): 26+; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 128 (More than double that number); Pyle, Brave Men, 246 (toes sticking up); Richard H. Oliphant, “Eleventh Amphibious Force,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217 (“staring was rude”).

  Graves Registration teams: Perret, There’s a War to Be Won, 485 (safety pins); “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 341 (Two inland sites); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Beach Battalion 1998 Reunion,” 1998, MRC FDM (fortified with brandy).

  “since Alexander set out from Macedon”: Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 114; Gellhorn, The Face of War, 134–36 (“small shabby men”); Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 155 (“I’d kill him”).

  “We will never again have to land”: Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 261.

  “We have come to the hour”: Stephen E. Ambrose, “Battle Scars Remain But Little Has Changed in Normandy,” International Herald Tribune, Apr. 22, 1994, 12; Wacker, “The Voices of D-Day,” Retired Officer (June 1994): 26+ (scribbling “deceased”); Crosswell, Beetle, 795 (“dead stock”); Tapert, ed., Lines of Battle, 1
62–64 (“I wonder about him”).

  CHAPTER 2: LODGEMENT

  “This Long Thin Line of Personal Anguish”

  Light rain fell in Portsmouth: www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-474304-18-gun-battery-and-flanking-battery-king; Three Years, 571 (four white stars).

  “A scene of great confusion”: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 84–85.

  Mines continued to bedevil: AR, Tide, July 6, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/3/1, 2–3; OH, George Crane, XO, Tide, Sept. 30, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories; AR, Susan B. Anthony, June 7, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217; “The United States Medical Department at War, 1941–1945,” vol. 1, part 3, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, 1946, NHHC, 732–33 (“ship lifted and hogged”); OH, Byron S. Huie, salvage officer, Aug. 18, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories (frightened men off the prow); Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 191 (“put her nose in the air”).

  “Why in the devil didn’t you”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 280–81.

  “firmly rooted in France”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 256–57; Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, box 41 (truck’s running board); “The Administrative History of the Operations of 21 Army Group,” n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB 21-AG AH, box 458, 25 (build their own cages); memo, F-48 to “Secret Mail Room,” Aug. 12, 1944, U.S. Fleet, OPD Information Bulletin, amphibious supplement no. 8, June 9, 1945, GCM Lib, box 1, file 34 (More than one-third of all shore obstacles); Bertram H. Ramsay, dispatch, London Gazette, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109+ (Straits of Dover); memo, B. B. Talley, Feb. 1948, RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (pinpointed not only enemy gun batteries); corr, John H. Lauten, 16th Inf, to WD, July 22, 1947, “1st U.S. Infantry Division, G-2 report intelligence activities, MMD (now being pummeled).

  Yet First Army still had not reached: CCA, 341, 351 (Only a quarter); “A Narrative History of the Second Ranger Infantry Battalion,” ts, n.d., Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 3; OH, Charles M. Bulap, Co E, 2nd Ranger Bn, HI (Pointe du Hoc).