The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  Wearing the West Point bathrobe: corr, Chester B. Hansen to wife, n.d., CBH, MHI; diary, CBH, July 28 & 12, 1944, MHI, box 4 (sedatives at bedtime and “biggest thing”); Pyle, Brave Men, 213 (“frightful country ahead”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 330; OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, box 184; Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 136 (long beech twig).

  “Take all the time you need, Brad”: OH, M. Dempsey, March 28, 1952, B. H. Liddell Hart, UK NA, CAB 106/1061; OH, J. Lawton Collins, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 195 (bocage copse); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 162–63; memo, B. L. Montgomery to ONB, July 21, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML, box 24143; DDE to ONB, July 24, 1944, in BP, 331 (“Pursue every advantage”). The attack sector chosen by Bradley also avoided the area’s larger rivers. Prados, Normandy Crucible, 86.

  That advantage lay mainly in airpower: Davis, Bombing the European Axis Powers, 386; Carafano, After D-Day, 102 (more than one hundred howitzers); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 341 (fifteen hundred heavies); AAFinWWII, 231 (swatch five miles wide); diary, CBH, July 19, 1944, MHI, box 4 (bomb every sixteen feet).

  Very little in Bradley’s vision appealed: Report of Investigation, Aug. 14, 1944, HQ, USSAFE, Frederick L. Anderson Papers, HIA, box 84, folder 10, 1–2, 5–6; “Handbook for Bombardiers,” TM 1-251, March 31, 1941, Frederick L. Anderson Papers, HIA, box 93; “Use of Heavy Bombers in a Tactical Role,” Oct. 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 94 (Only if the planes attacked perpendicular); report, signature illegible, July 27, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/762 (“between the Army’s legs”).

  Bradley agreed to pull his assault battalions: BP, 220–21. An AAF colonel reported warning Bradley that 3 percent of the bombs would fall short, but he mistakenly believed that Bradley had acceded to a perpendicular flight path, whereas Bradley still believed the bombers would attack parallel to the road, which would make “short” drops less risky. OH, John R. De Russey, Eighth AF liaison officer, Sept. 9–12, 1947, NARA RG 319, CCA background files.

  “nothing more than tools to be used”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 154; Pyle, Brave Men, 214 (“I’ve spent thirty years”).

  Pyle spent Monday night, July 24: Pyle, Brave Men, 296; Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 199 (“your own small quota”); Cawthon, “July, 1944: St. Lô,” American Heritage (June 1974): 4+ (“they area”).

  Now he had returned to the front: Field Order 44, 305th Bomb Group, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 18, AAF WWII, 190/58/17/1, box 925; “Investigation of Bombing of Ground Troops,” Aug. 16, 1944, FUSA IG, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG gen’l corr., box 216; BP, 222–23 (Allied white-star insignia); corr, J. H. Phillips to Ray E. Porter, WD, May 6, 1944, James H. Phillips papers, HIA (geometric design).

  “like kids at a football game”: Carafano, After D-Day, 119; Nichols, ed., Ernie’s War, 333; Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 195 (“heavy rip”).

  Not much had gone right with COBRA: “World Battlefronts, Western Front,” Time (Dec. 4, 1944) (three barometers).

  Flying from Stanmore: Sullivan, “The Botched Air Support of Operation COBRA,” Parameters (March 1988): 97+; Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 470–72; AAR, 305th Bomb Group, July 24, 1944, NARA RG 18, AAF WWII, 190/58/17/1, box 925 (“not to bomb short”); memo, “Bombing Errors Committed on the Normandy Battle Front, 24 July 1944,” HQ, Eighth AF, July 30, 1944, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 84, folder 10 (chaff bundle smacked the nose); “The Effectiveness of Third Phase Tactical Air Operations,” AAF Evaluation Board, Aug. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 15; “Investigation of Bombing of Ground Troops,” Aug. 16, 1944, FUSA IG, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG gen’l corr, box 216 (“As a fiasco”).

  Bradley’s fury knew no bounds: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 347; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 278–79; memo, ONB, July 25, 1944, in diary, CBH, MHI, box 4 (At 10:30 P.M. he phoned Bradley); T. Leigh-Mallory to ONB, July 19, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/762 (had left that meeting early); BP, 229–37.

  From his farmyard redoubt: Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, 198; Pyle, Brave Men, 298–301 (“Goddammit”).

  The star-crossed 30th Division took more casualties: Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 36–37.

  “that awful rush of wind”: Sullivan, “The Botched Air Support of Operation COBRA,” Parameters (March 1988): 97+; History of the 120th Infantry Regiment, 35–36 (Bombs entombed men); Alosi, War Birds, 64 (cows into trees); Regan, Blue on Blue, 166–67 (“beating you with a club”); “Investigation of Bombing of Ground Troops,” Aug. 16, 1944, FUSA IG, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG gen’l corr, box 216 (body part); “Operations of 30th Infantry Division, 24 Jul–1 Aug 1944,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1, part 5, 6–7 (“American Luftwaffe”).

  Just over fifteen hundred heavies dropped: Sullivan, “The Botched Air Support of Operation COBRA,” Parameters (March 1988): 97+; BP, 236–37 (three dozen bombed American troops); AAFinWWII, 233–34 (forty-two medium bombers); Juliette Hennessy, “Tactical Operations of the Eighth Air Force,” 1952, AFHRA, historical study no. 70, 53–56 (Red marking smoke); diary, July 25, 1944, Hoyt S. Vandenberg papers, LOC MS Div, box 1 (five-knot southerly breeze); Sylvan, 68–71; diary, CBH, July 25, 1944, MHI, box 4 (corpse was spotted sixty-five feet away); DDE to GCM, July 26, 1944, GCM Lib, box 67, folder 10 (“I warned him time and again”); Individual Deceased Personnel File, Lesley J. McNair, a.p. under FOIA, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Dec. 2008 (“6 Lt. Gen. stars”).

  By the time the last medium bomber flew off: BP, 222–23; Pyle, Brave Men, 301 (“Anybody makes mistakes”).

  “That’s a job for artillery”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 349.

  “I fired three rounds and they all bounced off”: Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 37; History of the 120th Infantry Regiment, 37 (“Just his legs”); BP, 246 (no more than a mile); Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2 (“enemy artillery was not touched”).

  Africa veterans like Eisenhower and Bradley: Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 179 (“worn out”); BP, 240 (flipping tanks); James Hodgson, “Thrust-Counterthrust: The Battle of France (21 Jul–25 Aug 44),” March 1955, NARA RG 319, R-58, 20–21 (“half-crazed soldiers”); Spayd, Bayerlein, 167 (“Everything was burned” and “Only the dead can still hold”); “Air Power in the ETO,” USFET General Board study no. 56, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, 97-USF5-0.30, 16–17 (70 percent of his men). An Eighth Air Force study put German physical casualties at less than 10 percent. Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2 (“conveyor-belt bombing” and “feeling of helplessness”).

  Unaware of the size of the American host: Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 43; Hinsley, 500 (thirty Allied divisions).

  “The front has, so to speak, burst”: James Hodgson, “Thrust-Counterthrust: The Battle of France (21 Jul–25 Aug 44),” March 1955, NARA RG 319, R-58, appendix, 30.

  Collins had massed 120,000 troops: Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2; “List of Weapons Available to VII Corps for the Attack of July 25,” Aug. 4, 1944, NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (six hundred artillery tubes); “Artillery in Operation Cobra,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2229 (140,000 rounds); Cooper, Death Traps, 51–52 (rugged tusks); Mark J. Reardon, “Conquering the Hedgerows,” ts, 2009, a.p.; Mayo, The Ordnance Department, 254–55 (oxygen acetylene cylinders); AAFinWWII, 239–41 (“hazing the Hun”).

  Collins had not planned to launch: Persons, “St. Lô Breakthrough,” Military Review (Dec. 1948): 13+; OH, J. Lawton Collins, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 196–99; Collins, Lightning Joe, 242–43; BP, 246; Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 41 (feeling for booby traps).

  With the new day, the American onslaught: Doubler, Busting the Bocage, 58 (“Russian style”); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 155 (under three minutes); “Operations of 30th Infantry Division, 24 Jul–1 Aug 1944,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1, part 5, 18 (sunken road to St.-
Gilles); BP, 253–54, 275 (killed the Das Reich commander); Seventh Army documents, July 26, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #488, box 24154 (seven punctures); Hart, Clash of Arms, 390 (abandonment of two Panther companies); Kenneth W. Hechler, “VII Corps in Operation COBRA,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 2 (no further reinforcements).

  “Rem”—remnants: Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 130; BP, 250–51 (“busted wide open”).

  French farmers flitted: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 194; George E. McIntyre, “As Mac Saw It,” ts, n.d., MHI, 273–74 (copies of Life); Hastings, OVERLORD, 261–62 (“holes in his head”).

  On Friday enemy forces leaked to the rear: BP, 278–79, 287 (“Things on our front really look good”).

  Ahead lay Avranches: Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 389; BP, 308 (“We face a defeated enemy”), 323 (“It’s a madhouse here”), 333 (ten thousand tactical air sorties).

  Ministers of Thy Chastisement

  Down metalled roads and farm lanes: Liebling, Mollie & Other War Pieces, 232; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 193 (scolding dawdlers); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 228 (grayed their hair); Lee Miller, “The Siege of St. Malo,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 233 (“Cartier clips”).

  On they marched, south, east, and west: diary, CBH, July 17, 1944, MHI (copper urns); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 152 (perfume); AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 42 (crude swastikas); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 199, 209, 134 (“My wife doesn’t understand me”); “Combat Diary of Edward McCosh Elliott, 1944,” n.d., 2nd Bn, Glasgow Highlanders, IWM, 99/61/1, VI-18 (tricolor nosegays); Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” ts, 1946, MHUC, Group 1, MHI, box 24, 190 (“I speeg Engless”); Neal Beaver, 3rd Bn, 508th PIR, ts, n.d., MMD (jugs of calvados); Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 55.

  German tourist posters still hung: Lee Miller, “The Siege of St. Malo,” in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 233; Cawthon, “Pursuit: Normandy, 1944,” American Heritage (Feb. 1978): 80+ (Milwaukee German); Watney, The Enemy Within, 186 (“A German”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 259 (“No matter how many orders are issued”).

  In hasty bivouacs the surging columns: Perry Wolff, “Why We Fight,” panel, International Conference on WWII, NWWIIM, Apr. 10, 2008; McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 254 (“a little piece of metal”); Beevor, D-Day, 390 (“We buried him darkly”).

  SHAEF planners in late July estimated: ALH, vol. 2, 114–17; PP, 524 (“roaring comet”); Allen, Lucky Forward, 26 (“gamecock with brains”).

  The first glimpse of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.: Codman, Drive, 159 (“Could anything be more magnificent?”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 630, 636–37 (“goddamned bastards”).

  At noon on Tuesday, August 1: Allen, Lucky Forward, 71–72 (“win or die”); PP, 491 (“very happy”).

  “There are apparently two types”: PP, 464.

  “Patton has broken out again”: msgs, GCM to DDE, W. B. Smith to GCM, DDE to GCM, etc., Apr. 26–May 3, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, WD, OPD, history unit, box 4; affidavits, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12, folder 1.

  Narrowly pardoned, Patton spent the spring: corr, Everett S. Hughes to wife, May 12, 1944, LOC MS Div, Hughes papers, box II:3, folder 1 (guns and saddles); diary, CBH, July 2, 1944, MHI, box 4 (offered Eisenhower $1,000); White, Conquerors’ Road, 34 (“neurotic and bloodthirsty”); Patton, The Pattons, 109 (tattoo parlor); GSP to Beatrice, July 3, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12 (“Can’t stand the times between wars”).

  He also reflected deeply on generalship: Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 122–24; Collins, Lightning Joe, 248–49 (“I’m in the doghouse”); Blumenson, “Bradley-Patton: World War II’s ‘Odd Couple,’” Army (Dec. 1985): 56+ (“I didn’t ask for you”); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 356 (“judicious, reasonable”); speech, GSP, n.d., George Smith Patton Papers, HIA, folder 1 (“raise up on their hind legs”).

  “I had to keep repeating to myself”: PP, 499; Koch and Hays, G-2: Intelligence for Patton, 61 (“I’m going to Berlin”).

  First he was going to Brest: Waddell, United States Army Logistics, 46; IFG, 297; LSA, vol. 2, 467–74 (failed to dampen the ardor).

  But the collapse of the German left wing: Ganz, “Questionable Objective: The Brittany Ports, 1944,” JMH (Jan. 1995): 77+; BP, 370 (£5 and “Take Brest”); GSP to Robert Howe Fletcher, Apr. 25, 1945, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“sixth sense”); Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 189 (ten thousand Krauts).

  Third Army’s other spearhead, the 4th Armored Division: BP, 357–59; Ganz, “Patton’s Relief of General Wood,” JMH (July 1989): 257+ (because he had tutored his classmates); Carr, “The American Rommel,” MHQ (summer 1992): 77+ (rose gardener); Raines, Eyes of Artillery, 213 (Piper Cub).

  “We’re winning this war”: Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 188; BP, 361–65 (“Dear George”); D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 631 (Proposing to reach Chartres); Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 508–9 (bloody siege at Lorient).

  “the main business lies to the east”: BP, 431–32; Ganz, “Questionable Objective: The Brittany Ports, 1944,” JMH (Jan. 1995): 77+.

  The Brittany campaign soon proved bootless: BP, 340 (“last cartridge”); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 164 (siege of St.-Malo); Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 214 (seventy-five strongpoints); “Combat Engineering,” CE, report No. 10, Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 47–53 (walls up to twenty-five feet thick); OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 (garrison was too dangerous); diary, GSP, Sept. 9, 1944, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 5 (“We must take Brest”).

  The war ended with not a single cargo or troopship: Balkoski, From Beachhead to Brittany, 331; memo, “Fighting in Cities,” Ninth Army, Oct. 26, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 Observers’ Rpt, box 9 (half a million American shells); Ganz, “Patton’s Relief of General Wood,” JMH (July 1989): 257+ (“colossally stupid”); M-516, Aug. 4, 1944, and M-517, Aug. 6, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“We have unloosed the shackles”).

  Montgomery’s plan was a simple, handsome thing: BLM, “Task of First Canadian Army,” Aug. 4, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9); BP, 435, 449–52 (struggling ten miles toward Vire); VW, vol. 1, 386, 408.

  “a queer script of its own”: Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, 149.

  Such a place was Mortain: The Green Guide to Normandy, 309; Beevor, D-Day, 401 (children wearing tags).

  The last German occupier in Mortain: BP, 466n; Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 51 (civilians tossed flowers); SLC, 102.

  Of keen interest was stony, steep Montjoie: author visit, signage, May 29, 2009; Weiss, Fire Mission, 5, 25, 35, 75–76.

  “a unique opportunity, which will never return”: James Hodgson, “Thrust-Counterthrust: The Battle of France,” March 1955, NARA RG 319, R-series, R-58, 80; TSC, 203 (“he should keep his eyes riveted”).

  “such an attack if not immediately successful”: Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 9–10; BP, 442; order of battle, Gilmore, ed., U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II, 52 (a dozen divisions in four corps); Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 120–21 (“recklessly to the sea”).

  Swirling fog lifted and descended: AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 4–5; Baily and Karamales, “The 823rd at Mortain,” Armor (Jan.–Feb. 1992): 12+ (26,000 Germans); BP, 461 (120 tanks); Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, 62 (imperial cavalry); Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 57 (firing by earshot); “Armored Reconnaissance in the ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 337, AGF OR #157 (“all-gone feeling”); Robert J. Kenney, “Somewhere in France,” ts, 1978, 1st Bn, 117th Inf, a.p. (Wounded men mewed).

  But almost nothing went right in the Germa
n attack: Isby, ed., Fighting the Breakout, 128–29 (not one reached the front); BP, 464–65 (three of six enemy spearheads); war diary, Seventh Army, Aug. 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML, #2201 (“uninspired and negative”).

  The German weight fell heaviest on St.-Barthélemy: Baily and Karamales, “The 823rd at Mortain,” Armor (Jan.–Feb. 1992): 12+; Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 216–17 (let the panzers roll through); McManus, The Americans at Normandy, 381–82 (delayed six hours); Baedeker, Northern France, 180 (Abbaye Blanche); author visit, signage, May 29, 2009 (sixty-six men with bazookas); OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96; AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 13–14 (More than sixty enemy vehicles).

  “First really large concentration”: VC, 233; Featherston, Saving the Breakout, 133–35; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 132; BP, 464–65.

  “Hundreds of German troops began spilling”: Featherston, Saving the Breakout, 133–35. Pilots claimed four times more vehicle kills than could be confirmed by later ground investigation. Copp, ed., Montgomery’s Scientists, 175.

  sorties mistakenly hit American revetments: OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96; OH, Brig. Gen. James M. Lewis, 30th ID, Aug. 25, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96 (raked the two roads leading west); VW, vol. 1, 414 (“well-nigh unendurable”).

  “exceptionally poor start”: war diary, Seventh Army, Aug. 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML, #2201.

  two traitorous French guides: Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 99; OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96 (hospital larder); BP, 487 (“Looks like hell”).

  Lieutenant Weiss, with his field glasses: Weiss, Fire Mission, 53, 68–69, 82, 105; Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 69–74; Alosi, War Birds, 68 (“No birds were singing”).

  Nor were the Germans advancing: Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 117, 143; Baily and Karamales, “The 823rd at Mortain,” Armor (Jan.–Feb. 1992): 12+ (fewer than six thousand infantrymen); VW, vol. 1, 416 (“If only the Germans will go on attacking”).