The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  “Bruised them badly”: McManus, The Americans at Normandy, 399–400.

  “We have to risk everything”: Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 66.

  “thorn in the flesh”: BP, 488–90.

  Hitler on August 9 again demanded: Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 9–12 (“very unpleasant”); Rudolph Freiherr von Gersdorff, “Avranches Counterattack, Seventh Army,” n.d., FMS, #A-921, 27-31; OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96 (“don’t surrender”); Ralph A. Kerley, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry at Mortain,” 1949, IS, 14.

  Each night more slain soldiers on Hill 314: Ralph A. Kerley, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry at Mortain,” 1949, IS, 19 (bolster morale); 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, 24 (turnips, cabbages); Weiss, Fire Mission, 124 (surgical tape); Hewitt, Workhorse of the Western Front, 67 (half the bundles drifted); Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 267 (“I want Mortain demolished”).

  “The attack failed”: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 449; Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 416–17 (“where I lose my reputation”).

  French civilians returning to wrecked Mortain: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 200 (“crying and rocking”); corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Aug. 28, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“ob-liberated”); Weiss, “Normandy: Recollections of the ‘Lost Battalion’ at the Battle of Mortain,” Prologue (spring 1996): 44+ (“Not much to write home about”).

  Ultra’s big ears had given the Allied high command: Lewin, Ultra Goes to War, 405–9; Sunset 647-649, Aug. 7–9, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, part 2, 246; Prados, Normandy Crucible, 181; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 118–19; Sunset 650, Aug. 10, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869 (“decisive thrust must lead”).

  Encouraged by Eisenhower, Bradley kept: Chandler, 2060; Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 152; memoir, John W. Castles, Jr., n.d., USMA Arch (“I am General Patton’s commanding officer”).

  Certainly they were thinking of it: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 251 (one-tenth of France’s landmass); Three Years, 789 (“obstinated”); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 308; VC, 216–24; Liddell Hart, The Tanks, vol. 2, 383–86 (“blind leading the blind”); Copp and Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Falaise, 94–99 (stalling in confusion); BP, 479; “Battlefield Tour: Operation Totalize,” Sept. 1947, HQ, British Army of the Rhine and Canadian Army Historical Section, CMH, 65 (“Push on, you dogs!”).

  As this unspooled, Bradley was once again poring: Featherston, Saving the Breakout, 144–45; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 294–95 (roadside K-ration lunch); diary, Aug. 8, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 446 (sharp turn at Le Mans).

  An exuberant Eisenhower followed Bradley: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 190–91; PP, 505 (“If I were on my own”).

  “This is a first priority”: VC, 236; Hills, Phantom Was There, 211 (“ministers of Thy chastisement”).

  “greatest tactical blunder”: McManus, The Americans at Normandy, 391; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 375 (“This is an opportunity”).

  Leclerc instead fanned out on all available roads: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 204–5; Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 166–67 (giving the Germans six hours).

  Patton was peeved but undeterred: Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 166–67; D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 429 (“push on slowly”); diary, CBH, Aug. 12, 1944, MHI, 1944, box 4 (“Shall we continue”).

  “Nothing doing”: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 206–7; Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 223 (Bradley wrongly believed); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 313 (nineteen German divisions); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 376–77 (“I did not consult”); PP, 509 (“a great mistake”); Codman, Drive, 163 (“beside himself”).

  Canadian difficulties further unstitched: Granatstein, The Generals, 114; English, Patton’s Peers, 32–33; BLM to Brooke, July 26, 1944, Alanbrooke papers, LHC, 6/2/27 (“I fear he thinks”).

  Worse yet, the Germans on August 13: “Operations of the First Canadian Army in North-west Europe,” Oct. 1945, Historical Section, Canadian Military HQ, report no. 146, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML; Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, 202; Copp and Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Falaise, 117 (“molten fire bath”); VW, vol. 1, 430–31 (“troops burnt yellow flares”); VC, 240–44 (“dust like I’ve never seen”).

  Bradley now made another momentous decision: BP, 523–27; ONB, Aug. 15, 1944, “Twelfth U.S. Army Group Directives,” CMH (“Due to the delay”).

  “For the first and only time”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 379; OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, 270/19/5/4, box 184; Prados, Normandy Crucible, 216–21, 251.

  The two most senior Allied field commanders: Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket,” Military Review (Sept. 1990): 45+; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 208; Hastings, OVERLORD, 301; Beevor, D-Day, 455; Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 217–18 (little effort to confirm); Kennedy, The Business of War, 344 (“squeaking and scuffling”); D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 449 (“These are great days”).

  Bradley was quick to fault Montgomery: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 376–79; Wertenbaker, Invasion!, 91 (“quality all the great generals had”); Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket,” Military Review (Sept. 1990): 45+ (“operational forethought”).

  Nor was Eisenhower much help: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 216; diary, CBH, Aug 12, 1944, MHI, 1944, box 4 (“garbed in suntans”); Essame, Patton: A Study in Command, 171 (“never really got the feel”).

  Whatever shortcomings vexed the Allied high command: memos, Seventh Army, Aug. 12, 15, 19, 1944, NARA RG 407, M.L. #483, box 24154; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 20 (“strength of a company”); Lucas and Barker, The Killing Ground, 122 (“Such tiredness”); BP, 516–19 (“five minutes before midnight”).

  Then Kluge vanished: Mitcham, Retreat to the Reich, 138–39; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 24 (“Ascertain whereabouts”); Speidel, We Defended Normandy, 142 (might have defected).

  Shortly before midnight he appeared: Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 378–79; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 24 (“live in another world”); VC, 254; Reardon, Victory at Mortain, 277 (in a borrowed car); Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 227–28 (Hitler affirmed the decision).

  The order would be Kluge’s last: Reardon, ed., Defending Fortress Europe, mss, 382–83; MMB, 369 (Prussian music director); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 436 (“Hitler’s fireman”); Kershaw, “It Never Snows in September,” 76 (stabilize the field after defeats); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Diary of Thuisko von Metzch,” May 1952, NARA RG 319, R-10, 32 (firing squads); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 320–26 (“a good sergeant”); Kessler, The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, 4 (“Did you see those eyes?”).

  “Den lieb’ ich”: Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 312; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 26 (“My intention is to withdraw”).

  Legend had it: author visit, Falaise, May 29, 2009; Abram et al., The Rough Guide to France, 398; The Green Guide to Normandy, 74, 237; Baedeker, Northern France, 185–86.

  Bullet holes dinged the hoary castle keep: VC, 250–51; Lucas and Barker, The Killing Ground, 124 (last Tigers had rumbled); Carell, Invasion—They’re Coming!, 260–61 (two teenagers).

  Ultra had decrypted Kluge’s withdrawal order: Sunset 657, Aug. 16, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869; Hinsley, 508.

  Bradley now confessed: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 379; Weigley, Eisenhower’s
Lieutenants, 211 (three jeeps, nine officers); BP, 515, 529–30; diary, Aug. 16–17, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 446 (poised to attack in an hour).

  Napoleonic it was not: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 239–42; VC, 257–59; “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+ (“comparatively easy business”); VW, vol. 1, 442–43 (“damage was immense”).

  “inferno of incandescent ruins”: author visit, Trun, May 29, 2009, signage; Kennedy, The Business of War, 344 (“Shoot everything”); Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 135 (Shambles); “Closing of the Chambois Gap,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 1, 22–23 (“streams in the gutters”); Colby, War from the Ground Up, 230–41 (“vertebrae”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 275 (“lifted me in the air”); Maczek, Od Podwody do Czolga, Wspomnienia Wojenne 1918–1945, 167–68 (toasts drunk).

  With eastbound roads now cut: Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 282; VW, vol. 1, 446–47 (by compass course); Horrocks, Corps Commander, 46–50 (Three thousand Allied guns); diary, D. K. Reimers, “My War,” Aug. 19, 1944, MHI, 151 (“The pocket surrounding the Germans”).

  “We always hit something”: Raines, Eyes of Artillery, 220; Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 133 (“Many go barefoot”), 136–37 (telltale glint); Copp, ed., Montgomery’s Scientists, 189 (“Heavy firing into the sunken road”); McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory, 350 (“I saw a truck crew”); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 271–73 (“surrounded by fire”).

  Two death struggles: Copp and Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Falaise, 121 (“grey-clad men”); Freiherr von Lüttwitz, Oct. 1945, FMS, #A-904, MHI, 21–22 (“awful heap”); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, n.d., Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 7–8 (“gun boiled away”); Reynolds, Steel Inferno, 264 (“like burrs”); Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, 205–6.

  Three miles northeast, eighteen hundred men: Maczek, Od Podwody do Czolga, Wspomnienia Wojenne 1918–1945, 167; Mieczkowski, ed., The Soldiers of General Maczek in World War II, 50–52 (Poles caught the brunt); “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+ (escaping Germans streamed past); Whitaker et al., Victory at Falaise, 277–87 (SS bodies roasted).

  “Merde pour la guerre”: Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 136–37; Hastings, OVERLORD, 305 (“more of an execution”); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, n.d., Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 7–8 (“shot them down in droves”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 75 (urinated on the body).

  “one of those paintings of Waterloo”: “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+; Collier, Fighting Words, 170 (“the end of Germany”); DOB, 168 (escaped seemingly sure destruction at Messina).

  “All German formations”: Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 241–42, 254–57.

  After liberating Orléans and Chartres: “Memoranda for Record,” Aug. 19, 1944, XII AG, NARA RG 407, ML #205; BP, 566–70, 574–75; AAR, “Bridging the Seine,” XV Corps, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 10; Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct. 1945, MHI, 1.

  “inextricable confusion”: Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, ETHINT 18, Oct. 1945, MHI, 6–7; AAFinWWII, 272 (sixty Seine crossing sites); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 285 (improvised ferries); BP, 557, 581 (25,000 vehicles); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 433 (cider barrels), 424 (twelve of fifteen division commanders); Luck, Panzer Commander, 165 (empty fuel cans); Hastings, OVERLORD, 309 (dead cow); Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 282 (95 percent of German troops); TSC, 215. Historian John Prados estimates that 115,000 got away (Normandy Crucible, 249, 262).

  Yet by any measure the defeat at Falaise: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 214; diary, D. K. Reimers, “My War,” Aug. 24, 1944, MHI, 157 (“Life in the cages”); Beevor, D-Day, 460–61; BP, 535–36 (“When you receive these lines”); Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 454 (“western thriller”).

  Allied investigators counted: Ellis, Brute Force, 391. Various tallies have been offered. 21st Army Group reported finding 571 German guns, 358 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 4,700 trucks, cars, and armored tracks in the pocket. “The Operations of 21 Army Group,” 1946, CARL, N-133331, 15. Ludewig puts panzer losses at Falaise at more than 400, over half the total fleet. Ludewig, Rückzug, 99–100.

  No Seine ferry could carry a Tiger: Lefèvre, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now, photo (charred on the docks); Westermann, Flak, 260; Ellis, Brute Force, 391; VW, vol. 1, 448 (twenty-five hundred trucks and cars); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 434 (“five to ten tanks each”); Ludewig, Rückzug, 164 (Fifth Panzer Army); Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 283–84 (Army Group Center); Callahan quoted in Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, 272 (“remarkable resurgence”).

  Eisenhower took a quick tour: corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Aug. 28, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“bloated dead”); Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe, 139 (paybooks); “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,” AB, no. 8 (1975): 1+ (bulldozed mass grave); Skibinski, Pierwsza Pancerna, 311 (“coal monuments”); Hastings, OVERLORD, 312 (evacuate gases); Saunders, Royal Air Force, 1939–1945, vol. 3, 136–37 (rear seat of a limousine); BP, 558 (“avenging angel”).

  Troops cleansing the pocket wore gas masks: Lyall, ed., The War in the Air, 428; Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 217 (“Everything is dead”); Moorehead, Eclipse, 158 (“waiting to die in the water”); Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939–1945, 205–6 (eight thousand slaughtered horses); Lucas and Barker, The Killing Ground, 158–59 (Not until 1961).

  “Thank you for liberating us”: Copp, Cinderella Army, 27; Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 331 (Many recalled November 1918); memo, BLM, Aug. 20, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML, box 24143 (“beginning of the end”).

  The Loveliest Story of Our Time

  Warm summer rain: Marshall, Battle at Best, 226 (“booming like bitterns”).

  Tricolor pennants flew: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 306; Hills, Phantom Was There, 217–18 (white silhouette); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 31; Yeide and Stout, First to the Rhine, 201.

  Scores of frisky “warcos”: Moorehead, Eclipse, 160; Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 168–69 (any procession into Paris), 160–62 (“Paris/Orléans”); Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 521; Reynolds, Hemingway: The Final Years, 105–6; Voss, Reporting the War, 185–90 (“le grand capitaine”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 179 (“spitting short sentences”); Babcock, War Stories, 178 (“just in case”).

  Astride the road outside Limours: Beevor, D-Day, 387; Baker, Ernest Hemingway, 525 (“Like the Scarlet Pimpernel”); Clayton, Three Marshals of France, 39–42 (child’s toy printing set); MMB, 310; Porch, The Path to Victory, 583–84; OH, SLAM, 1973, George J. Stapleton, MHI, V, 19–24 (“Have no fear”); Marshall, Battle at Best, 226.

  “a weird assortment of private cars”: Whitehead, “Beachhead Don,” 211–12; Marshall, Battle at Best, 226 (Veterans of the Franco-Prussian War); Lankford, ed., OSS Against the Reich, 171 (“wreck one’s constitution”).

  By Thursday evening the spearhead remained five miles: BP, 611–14.

  “advancing on a one-tank front”: Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 308; Blumenson, “Politics and the Military in the Liberation of Paris,” Parameters (summer 1998): 4+ (“slam on in”); Zaloga, Liberation of Paris 1944, 67–68 (“Tenez bon”).

  Eisenhower had long planned: “Crossing of the Seine and Capture of Paris,” Aug. 17, 1944, SHAEF, planning staff, Post-Neptune, NARA RG 331, E 23 (“eight divisions”); Wieviorka, Normandy, 350–1; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 291–92; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 39 (convoys were hijacked); Riding, And the Show Went On, 308 (Jewish deportees).

  “Paris is worth 200,000 dead”: Zaloga, Liberation of Paris 1944, 34, 24; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 296 (“holier-than-thouery”).

  The moment grew riper: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 37 (foretelling catastrophe), 40 (opened their windows); “Paris,” AB, No. 14, 1976, 11+; Coll
ins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 149–50 (four hundred such redoubts), 133 (“things are going to get bad”), 219; Jacques Kim, ed., La Libération de Paris, 1944, no pagination, in HIA, Boris T. Pash papers, box 4, folder 4 (portraits of Hitler); Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 165 (“pictures of Delacroix”); Aron, France Reborn, 262 (Hèrmes scarves); Riding, And the Show Went On, 309 (“For every Parisian”); Collier, The Freedom Road, 1944–45, 165 (Swedish ball-bearing factory manager).

  “If the enemy tries to hold Paris”: Chandler, 2088–89.

  “Gestapo small fry”: Thornton, The Liberation of Paris, 127, 121 (Ash from burning documents); Joseph R. Darnall, “Hospitalization in European Theater of Operations,” n.d., MHUC, Group 1, box 24, 25 (clogged the plumbing); Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 72–73 (“back for Christmas”); Blumenson, Liberation, 13 (“la ville sans regard”); Beevor, D-Day, 485 (toilet brushes).

  With his main thrust delayed by skirmishers: “Paris,” AB, No. 14, 1976, 11+ (“Les Américains!”; BP, 615; Maule, Out of the Sand, 214 (“Rejoice!”).

  From a balcony of the Hôtel Meurice: MWB, 89–90; Neiburg, The Blood of Free Men, 85. Choltitz had been linked to the murder of Jews in the Crimea. Roberts, The Storm of War, 495–96.

  “field of ruins”: BP, 598.

  “It has been my fate”: Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 24, 158 (“Our task is hard”); Ludewig, Rückzug, 138 (Saxon), 143 (eight centuries).

  With only twenty thousand men: Germany VII, 615; Ludewig, Rückzug, 144–47; Blumenson, “Politics and the Military in the Liberation of Paris,” Parameters (summer 1998): 4+ (“Ever since our enemies”); BP, 609 (told superiors of placing explosives); Aron, France Reborn, 279–80 (“prudent and intelligent attitude”), 284–85; Maule, Out of the Sand, 214 (“the Allies are here”). Choltitz’s role in saving Paris would be vigorously debated for more than sixty years after the war. http://www.ina.fr/recherche/recherche/search/la+liberation+de+paris*