The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  If only Antwerp were free: corr, BLM to H. Crerar, Sept. 13, 1944, M-523, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“We have captured a port”); minutes, Sept. 22, 1944, conference, SHAEF forward war room, 2:30 P.M., Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (“indispensable prerequisite” and “matter of urgency”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 534 (sent his chief of staff); Chandler, 2202 (“terribly anxious”), 2212 (“must retain as first mission”); Crosswell, Beetle, 726.

  Montgomery had assigned clearing the Scheldt: VW, vol. 2, 59–67, 70–71, 104–7, 116; SLC, 220–21.

  “We need this place more than we need FDR”: corr, Sept. 23, 1944, Everett S. Hughes papers, LOC MS Div, box II:3, folder 4.

  Dempsey’s Second Army continued to look beyond the Rhine: Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 152n; Danchev, 600 (“Antwerp must be captured”); Callahan, Churchill & His Generals, 220 (“I was wrong”).

  But in October 1944, the field marshal displayed: ONB to C. Hodges, Sept. 23, 1944, “Memoranda for Record,” 12th Army Group, NARA RG 407, ML #205, box 24143 (Ramsay warned that to clear the Scheldt); Chalmers, Full Cycle, 251 (“not taking this operation seriously”); Love and Major, eds., The Year of D-Day, 151 (“I let fly”); corr, BLM to DDE, Oct. 9, 1944, DDE Lib PP-pres, box 83 (“he makes wild statements”). Eisenhower denied getting “wild statements” from Ramsay (Chandler, 2216).

  “I can not agree that our concepts”: TSC, 293.

  Unchastened by the destruction: Pogue, George C. Marshall, 475 (“overwhelming egotism”).

  “Our advance into Germany may be delayed”: LSA, vol. 2, 107; Chandler, 2215n (high winds that very day).

  “This reemphasizes the supreme importance”: Chandler, 2215.

  Montgomery would assert: VW, vol. 2, 95 (“hardly justified”); corr, BLM to DDE, Oct. 9, 1944, DDE Lib PP-pres, box 83 (“You can rely on me”); corr, BLM to Canadian First Army, M-530, Oct. 9, 1944, National Archives of Canada, RG 24, vol. 1054 2, file 215A21.016(9) (“port will take priority”); SLC, 220; VW, vol. 2, 85.

  “Nothing that I may ever say or write”: Chandler, 2216.

  “It may be that political and national considerations”: VW, vol. 2, 85–88.

  “The questions you raise are serious ones”: Chandler, 2221–24.

  The threat could hardly be misconstrued: VW, vol. 2, 92, 103, 109.

  “You will hear no more”: corr, BLM to DDE, Oct. 16, 1944, DDE Lib PP-pres, box 83.

  a newer model from Detroit was somewhere: Chandler, 2265.

  With Kay Summersby behind the wheel: Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 191; Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, Oct. 13–14, 1944; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 432–33 (“I must have shot a dozen”).

  Bidding farewell to king and comrades: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 433.

  “has not visibly aged”: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 489; Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, Oct. 14, 1942, and Oct. 14, 1943.

  Yet even Time’s omniscience: John P. Roche, “Eisenhower Redux,” NYT Book Review, June 28, 1981 (“calculating quality”); Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 419 (“veiled man”); Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 212 (“far more complicated”).

  He would never be a Great Captain: Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 610 (Cannae), 338 (“chairman of the board”); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 467 (exceptional political instincts); Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 168 (“genius of getting along”).

  He was by temperament a reconciler: Graham and Bidwell, Coalitions, Politicians & Generals, 193; VW, vol. 2, 92; Kingston McCloughry, Direction of War, 168 (“shrewd without being subtle”).

  “no one knew better than he”: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, 31; DOB, 50 (“solve problems through reasoning”).

  “We’ve now been apart”: Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike, 226.

  The miles slid past, and with them the day: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 432 (steam-heated stone buildings); OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI; OH, James E. Moore, 1984, Larry F. Paul, SOOHP, MHI, 111; “Brief Historical Survey of the War Years in Luxembourg,” National Museum of Military History, http://www.luxembourg.co.uk/NMMH/waryears.html* (germanized); David Lardner, “Letter from Luxembourg,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 399–401 (and conscripted ten thousand). Lardner was killed in Aachen a week after writing this article.

  Bradley’s office on the Place de Metz: MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, 71; author visit, June 4, 2009; A Walk Through Luxembourg, tourist booklet, n.d., 2–3, 24, 29.

  Here in the dining room: Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, 191; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 433.

  The Worst Place of Any

  The Belgian town of Spa: Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, 249–53; PP, 632–33 (Hindenburg concluded); Keegan, The First World War, 417–19 (fantasize about unleashing the army).

  Now GIs hauled the roulette wheels: Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities of II Corps Through Algeria, Tunisia & Sicily and First Army Through Europe,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 149; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 171 (triple bunks); Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 333 (“take the ‘hit’ out”); William A. Carter, “Carter’s War,” 1983, CEOH, box V, 14, XI, 25 (eleven drinking water sources), 27 (grand ballroom with mirrors); Marshall, ed., Proud Americans, 258 (horsemeat); OH, Charles G. Patterson, First Army AA officer, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI, 118 (monthly consignment); Sylvan, 155 (hilltop mansion), 154 (clatter of a V-1); Medicine Under Canvas, 138 (Gaslight and A Guy Named Joe); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 344 (“song had been taken prisoner”);

  Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges moved: Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 10–13 (“#10 Blue”); MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, 188 (“pessimistic”); Sylvan, 119 (“a little too sad”).

  A crack shot and big-game hunter: “Precise Puncher,” Time (Oct. 16, 1944): cover story; OH, Mildred Lee Hodges (widow), 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI, 12 (“sissy”), 40 (dash of bitters); OH, Charles G. Patterson, First Army antiaircraft officer, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI, 18; Miller, Ike the Soldier, 705 (“I wish everybody”); corr, Walter E. Lauer, CG, 99th ID, May 8, 1963, MHI, Maurice Delaval collection, box 13 (“Unexcitable. A killer”); Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 187–88 (“a Georgia farmer”), 52 (“sir”); OH, ONB, [1966?], Kitty Buhler, MHI, 45–47 (“very dignified”).

  First Army was the largest American fighting force: Beetle Smith called him “the weakest commander we had” (OH, W. B. Smith, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI).

  Capable enough during the pursuit: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 288–90 (illness, fatigue); corr, David T. Griggs, advisor to secretary of war, Feb. 22, 1945, to Edward L. Bowles, AFHRA, 519.161-7 (“a little confused”); SLC, 619–20 (“lacking in vigor” and “pretty slow”), 21–22 (platoon dispositions); LSA, vol. 2, 349 (“least disposed to make any attempt”); Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+ (rarely left Spa and “refused to discuss orders”); Sylvan, 144 (Hobbs never laid eyes on him), 76 (“quicker to keep smashing ahead”).

  Peevish and insulated: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 184–85, 288–89.

  Of thirteen corps and division commanders relieved: The initial First Army firings were of course under Bradley before he relinquished command to Hodges. Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+.

  “like a mendicant”: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 111–12.

  “Aggressive, touchy, and high-strung”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 180 (“Critical, unforgiving”); Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI.

  Three rivalrous figures: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 28 (“Captain Bligh”), 32 (Tubby); Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 150, 197 (Iago); Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 497; Dickson obituary, Assembly, Sept. 1978.

  “slightly angry bafflement”: Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 318.


  “The enemy has continued to reinforce”: Chandler, 2257–59.

  Canadian First Army troops had captured Breskens: The Breskens Pocket dissolved on Nov. 3. The British I Corps under the Canadian army included a British infantry division, the U.S. 104th Infantry Division (as of Oct. 23), and Polish and Canadian armored divisions. VW, vol. 2, 107, 111–13; SLC, 215–29.

  “three general phases”: Chandler, 2257–59.

  First Army’s capture of Aachen: “Approach to and Crossing of the Rhine, 18 Oct. 1944,” 12th Army Group, G-3, NARA RG 407, ML, box 24143; OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (the most promising frontage).

  Four compact woodland tracts formed the Hürtgen: Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 17; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 272 (regulated logging); Heinz, When We Were One, 141 (“picture forest”); Currey, Follow Me and Die, 108 (“worst place of any”).

  The Hürtgenwald had been fortified: Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 19; McManus, The Deadly Brotherhood, 62 (sowed mines); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 366 (four days to move a mile); SLC, 337–40 (4,500 casualties); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 272 (“Battle of the Wilderness”).

  Nearly half of the 6,500 German defenders: Lucian Heichler, “The First Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” March 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #42, 10–17 (“family-fathers”); SLC, 335–40, 333–34 (“extensive, thick, and nearly trackless”); Mack Morriss, “War in the Huertgen Forest,” Yank, Jan. 5, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 562–63 (“ointment box”).

  That underestimated American obstinacy: author visit, Sept. 26, 2009; SLC, 323–24 (Argonne Forest); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 365 (“to make the Hürtgen a menace”).

  No consideration was given to bypassing: OH, T. C. Thorson, Sept. 12, 1956, and R. F. Akers, June 11, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 182; MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, 88; OH, JLC, Jan. 25, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 (“would not question Courtney”).

  “We had to go into the forest”: OH, JLC, Jan. 25, 1954, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7; OH, “Conversations with General J. Lawton Collins,” May 17, 1983, Gary Wade, ed., CSI, report no. 5, CARL (“they could have hit my flank”).

  Seven dams built for flood control: Together the two main reservoirs had a capacity of 123,000 acre-feet (SLC, 325).

  “great destructive flood waters”: Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 32; Collins, Lightning Joe, 273 (nor were the dams mentioned in tactical plans); OH, “Conversations with General J. Lawton Collins,” May 17, 1983, Gary Wade, ed., CSI, report no. 5, CARL (“intelligence failure”).

  By late October, as First Army coiled: SLC, 327 (Düren’s church bells), 342; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 190; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 181; Edgar Holton, former XIX Corps G-2 lieutenant, e-mails to author, June 30, July 23, Aug. 3, 2011 (Inside an Aachen safe); XIX Corps history, July 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2220, 21–23 (a hundred million metric tons of water); memo, W. Simpson to C. Hodges, Nov. 5, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #1024 (“capabilities”); English, Patton’s Peers, 119 (flanking attack toward Schmidt).

  “a kind of torpor”: OH, T. C. Thorson, Sept. 12, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7.

  “present plans of this army”: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 181; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 434–45 (replenished).

  Bradley would later claim: Bradley Commentaries, CBH papers, MHI; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 341; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 442.

  Not until November 7 did Hodges order: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 181; war diary, Dec. 4, 1944, ONB papers, MHI (“must control Roer dam”).

  “Damn the dams”: OH, T. C. Thorson, Sept. 12, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7.

  Attacking the worst place of any: OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Heinz, When We Were One, 239, 244–46 (“save everybody a lot of trouble”).

  In late October the Bloody Bucketeers: Currey, Follow Me and Die, 28, 87 (Sterno blocks); Mack Morriss, “War in the Huertgen Forest,” Yank, Jan. 5, 1945, in Reporting World War II, vol. 2, 562–63 (No. 8 wire); Will Thornton, “World War II ‘M’ Co. History as Told by the Survivors,” n.d., a.p. (“His clothing and tire chains”); Boesch, Road to Huertgen, 162 (stripping footwear).

  Foul weather, supply shortages, and the slow arrival: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 184–85; Margry, “Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” AB, no. 171 (1991): 1+ (two-story Gasthaus); author visit, Sept. 26, 2009; Sylvan, 161 (“fine fettle”).

  In fact, it was badly flawed: SLC, 346–47; OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Carey A. Clark et al., “Armor in the Hürtgen Forest,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 36; Miller, Division Commander, 117 (“gambler’s chance”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 191 (“Dismount and fight”).

  At nine A.M. on November 2: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 259; Ent, ed., The First Century, 170–72 (“singly, in groups”).

  The attack hardly began better for the 109th: Paul Brückner, “The Battle in the Hürtgen Forest,” n.d., a.p. I am grateful to Maj. Gen. (ret.) David Zabecki for his insights about the battle and for various documents, including this one.

  The 109th had advanced barely three hundred yards: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 272; SLC, 349–50.

  Against such odds, and to the surprise: MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 259–63; SLC, 349; Carey A. Clark et al., “Armor in the Hürtgen Forest,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 36–39 (wrecked five Shermans); corr, Edwin M. Burnett to 12th AG, Nov. 6, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 1 (burrowed into the northeast nose).

  At dawn on Friday, November 3: author visit, Hürtgen Forest, Sept. 26, 2009; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 113–14 (astonished garrison at Schmidt).

  “extremely satisfied”: Sylvan, 163; SLC, 352 (“little Napoleon”).

  The bad news from Schmidt: General Freiherr von Gersdorff, “The Battle of Schmidt,” Nov. 1945, FMS, #A-891 and A-892, MHI.

  Model ordered the corps commander: 116th Panzer Division memorial and cemetery, Vossenack, author visit, Sept. 26, 2009; Henry P. Halsell, “Hürtgen Forest and Roer River Dams,” n.d., CMH, 314.7, I-22; General Freiherr von Gersdorff, “The Battle of Schmidt,” Nov. 1945, FMS, #A-891 and A-892, MHI.

  Three isolated American rifle companies: Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 64–65, 77; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 290–91 (scattered sixty antitank mines); AAR, 28th ID, n.d., a.p. from David Zabecki; Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+ (Cota remained in Rott).

  Just before sunrise on Saturday, November 4: “Combat Experiences,” 28th ID hq, March 9, 1945, NARA RG 498, G-3 observers’ reports, box 2.

  At 8:30 an American platoon: OH, Jack W. Walker, Co L, 112th Inf, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 28th ID, folders 74–77; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 129–34 (“ragged, scattered, disorganized”); SLC, 360–61; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 297–300.

  stampeded in the wrong direction: The division history estimates that only 67 of the 200 survived (Ent, ed., The First Century, 17).

  The fight for the Hürtgen had taken a turn: author visit, Bergstein, Sept. 26, 2009; e-mail, David T. Zabecki to author, Sept. 22, 2009 (slow to realize).

  Confusion soon turned to chaos: SLC, 359–60; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 288, 310 (nine feet); Carey A. Clark et al., “Armor in the Hürtgen Forest,” May 1949, AS, Ft. K, 61 (unhitched and manhandled).

  In Rott, Cota’s perplexity: AAR, 893rd TD Bn, Nov. 18, 1944, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 28th ID, folders 74–77; Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 73; SLC, 359–60 (“warm-hearted affection”); MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 313.

  A fretful General Gerow: Miller, Division Commander, 122–24; OH, JLC, 1973, G. Patrick Murray, SOOHP, MHI (“tougher than I had ever heard”); Currey, Follow Me and Die, 155 (“Roll on�
��).

  Had the generals seen the battlefield clearly: SLC, 360–63; OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (“artesian wells”); MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 335 (shifting guns hole by hole by hole).

  A relief battalion from the 110th Infantry: OH, Anthony R. Seymour, Warren G. Holmes, John Hayducok, 110th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, HI (“just like cattle”).

  Soldiers in the claustrophobic forest: Linderman, The World Within War, 29 (cigarettes), 16 (“So this is combat”); Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 260 (“wet liver”); memoir, Robert D. Georgen, n.d., 2nd Bn, 110th Inf, NWWIIM (snipers were aiming).

  “Pushing, shoving, throwing away equipment”: Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 79; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 165 (“saddest sight”).

  Officers managed to rally: memoir, Thomas E. Wilkins, Co. C, 146th Engineers, n.d., CEOH, box X-37A (hip boots); Miller, A Dark and Bloody Ground, 79–82 (Rubble Pile); Ent, ed., The First Century, 172 (“destroyed as a fighting unit”).

  “The 28th Division situation”: Sylvan, 167; OH, Richard W. Ripple, CO, 707th Tank Bn, Nov. 14, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Currey, Follow Me and Die, 183–86; SLC, 362–65; MacDonald and Mathews, Three Battles, 378 (dogtags).

  Reeling from lack of sleep: At one point in the ordeal, Cota reportedly fainted (Miller, Division Commander, 128–29).

  “All we seem to be doing is losing ground”: Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,” Army History (spring 2010): 18+; OH, Richard W. Ripple, CO, 707th Tank Bn, Nov. 14, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (battered last-stand redoubt); OH, George R. Sedberry, Jr., Co C, 112th Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, HI (litters from tree limbs); OH, G. M. Nelson, CO, 112th Inf, Nov. 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (threw away his compass); OH, 20th Engineer Combat Bn, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (abandoned two tons of TNT).