“Don’t go forward of army group”: Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+.
The British occupied twelve hotels: minutes, SHAEF, Oct. 20, 1944, Versailles, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Oct. 25, 1944, HIA, box 1 (Champagne cost); ASF, Technical Intelligence Report No. 2426, Apr. 12, 1945, CARL, N-9270 (black market rates). SHAEF in December noted that soldiers felt they were “the victims of extreme financial injustice” because the official exchange rate of 50 francs to the dollar was four to five times less than black market transactions (Coles and Weinberg, Civil Affairs, 747–48).
stoppers were at a premium: “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” Col U OHRO, transcript in NHHC, 374; memo, “Whiskey and Gin for General Officers,” Dec. 2, 1944, COMZ, MBR, MHI, box 22.
For GIs without stars: “Leaves, Furloughs and Passes in the Theater,” May 1946, General Board study no. 4, NARA RG 407, AG WWII operations reports, E 427, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (first leave center); memo, Nov. 8, 1944, Minutes, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; “Special Service Clubs,” General Board report no. 121, n.d., NARA RG 407, AG WWII Operations Reports, E 427, 97-USF-0.3.0 (fifty-one GI clubs); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 224 (Glenn Miller’s orchestra), 230–31 (ten thousand soldiers a day); corr, T. R. Bruskin to wife, Sept. 27, 1944, a.p. (“Just returned from a trip”); Helen Van Zonneveld, “A Time to Every Purpose,” n.d., HIA, 382–83 (“canvas-covered bathtubs”); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 125–26 (“easygoing manner”).
Troops packed movie theaters: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 224 (hamburgers and bourbon); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 130 (Sunny Side of the Street); “History of Special Service Operations in the ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #573, 46, 51–52 (activities); Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 306–7 (Bayeux Tapestry).
In early December, Gertrude Stein: Nicholas, The Rape of Europa, 306–7 (“stratified”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 225 (cigarettes and soap); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 71 (underwear); Taylor and Taylor, eds., The War Diaries, 525 (“all over the world?”).
For many soldiers, of course, culture: Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 41 (“going to get laid”); report, Seine Section, COMZ, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #599 (230 brothels); memo, “Venereal Disease,” Feb. 21, 1945, SHAEF G-5, public safety division, NARA RG 331, SHAEF, E-47, box 931 (more than a third); Neillands, The Battle for the Rhine, 75 (three packs of Chesterfields); memo to chief surgeon, COMZ, “Remarks on Attitudes and Behavior of Enlisted Men Related to VD,” n.d., NARA RG 330, E 94, attitude surveys, ETO B-24, 1 (intercourse at least once); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 233 (“Come along”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 182 (“Zig zig?”); Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 541 (“VD contact form”); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 207 (“aphrodisiac dreams”).
They were devastated by more than dreams: Cosmas and Cowdrey, Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations, 541 (two-thirds of all infections); “V.D.,” Army Talks 46, Dec. 2, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD (since 1830); memo, A. W. Kenner, chief medical officer, to R. W. Barker, Nov. 8, 1944, and memo, R. W. Barker to W. B. Smith, Nov. 10, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, entry 6, box 45 (rate in Europe); G-1 history, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #550, 12 (off-limits).
Twenty-nine prophylactic dispensaries: Steckel, “Morale Problems in Combat,” Army History (summer 1994): 1+; Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 98; “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” Col U OHRO, transcript in NHHC, 368 (“proof of chastity”); “V.D.,” Army Talks 46, Dec. 2, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD (“Don’t forget the Krauts”).
Still the VD rate climbed: Nickell, Red Devil, 139 (“whores de combat”); Rottman, FUBAR: American Soldier Slang of World War II, 80 (“No-Clap Medal”); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 182 (“Hershey bars”); Blunt, Foot Soldier, 49 (“horizontal refreshment”); corr, French Foreign Ministry to SHAEF, Feb. 24, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, entry 6, box 45 (“noteworthy recrudescence”); corr, GSP to DDE, Oct. 19, 1944 (“human nature”), and DDE to GSP, Oct. 21, 1944 (“do not agree”), NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, entry 6, box 45.
Paris soldiered on: corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Oct. 24 and 25, 1944, HIA, box 1 (stamp market) and Nov. 17, 1944 (surreptitious dancing); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After Liberation, 1944–1949, 68 (clenched-fist salutes); Mauldin, The Brass Ring, 250–51 (“jammed with French civilians”).
Among the liveliest tableaus: Beevor and Cooper, Paris After Liberation, 1944–1949, 73 (“American enclave”); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 189 (Suffering Bastard); TSC, 523–25 (100,000 words); “A History of Field Press Censorship in SHAEF,” n.d., MHI, 47–52 (“hot stops”); White, Conquerors’ Road, 110 (“nimble French youths”).
Sporadic privation would beset Paris: minutes, “Critical Supply Situation in Paris,” Jan. 18, 1945, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, Geog Corr, box 108; Beevor and Cooper, Paris After Liberation, 1944–1949, 101 (government stationery); ETO inspection report, cigarette shortage, Dec. 15, 1944, NARA RG 498, file #44, box 10; Robert M. Littlejohn, “Ports and Transportation,” chapter 27, PIR, MHI, 11–12, appendix B (blankets and sleeping bags); D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life, 620 (rolling his own).
Not least among the problems for Court House Lee: Ecker, “G.I. Racketeers in the Paris Black Market,” Yank, May 4, 1945, 2; Pogue, Pogue’s War, 231–32 (“black market bag”); Durnford-Slater, Commando, 205 (Danish butter); OH, Henry S. Aurand, 1974, William O. Morrison, SOOHP, MHI (entire train with three engines); “The Administrative History of the Operations of 21 Army Group on the Continent of Europe, 6 June [1944]–8 May, 1945,” Nov. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB 21-AG AH, 53 (captured German horses); White, Conquerors’ Road, 110 (“camouflaged horse steak”).
Eisenhower’s provost marshal estimated: Hastings, Armageddon, 185; Cawthon, Other Clay, 165 (hiding in the Parisian demimonde); “Subsistence in the ETO,” 1959, chapter 55, PIR, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA (peddle K rations); report, provost marshal, Seine Section, COMZ, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #599-G (hundreds of such vehicles); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 230–31 (selling the entire deuce-and-a-half and “Chicago-sur-Seine”); resume, n.d., Pleas B. Rogers papers, MHI (four thousand military policemen); “Report of Visit to Paris Detention Barracks,” March 9, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO inspection report, file #37 (trucked back to the front); Bykofsky and Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas, 351; Ecker, “G.I. Racketeers in the Paris Black Market,” Yank, May 4, 1945, 2 (fifty years).
Shortly before six P.M. on Tuesday, December 12: Chandler, vol. 5, chronology, 175; “The Tendons of an Army,” ETOUSA, n.d., RG 490, ETO HD, admin file #531, 2.
As his car sped southeast across Piccadilly: S. N. Behrman, “The Suspended Drawing Room,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 424 (“little points of blue light”); Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 309 (“Children’s amusement section”).
A national ban on making ice cream: Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 305; Stiles, Serenade to the Big Bird, 170 (“cave dwellers”); S. N. Behrman, “The Suspended Drawing Room,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, 429 (five deep); Ackroyd, London Under, e-book, chapter 12 (Elgin Marbles); Arthur, Forgotten Voices of World War II, 372 (“It’s death”).
As in Antwerp, death could also arrive: M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” OCMH, 1954, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 75; Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 298 (half in greater London); Germany VII, 454–55 (equivalent to that of producing 24,000 fighter planes).
Radar usually detected V-2 launches: “V-2 Countermeasures in the ETO,” July 4, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #506, 18–20, 40–41; Ackroyd, London Under, e-book, chapter 12 (floodgates); S. N. Behrman, “The Suspended Drawing Room,” in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces,
421 (“You just strolled along”); Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 417 (as high as a thousand to one); Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 181 (agents controlled by British counterintelligence); Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 182–83 (sparing an estimated 1,300 British lives).
That was cold comfort for the nearly three thousand: Official British figures listed 9,300 V-2 casualties, including 2,800 fatalities, a bit less than half the corresponding figures for the V-1 attacks (Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom, 527).
“Never have I seen buildings”: Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 296–97; Longmate, Hitler’s Rockets, 209 (Saturday sale on saucepans).
“A horse’s head was lying in the gutter”: Roberts, The Storm of War, 518; http://lewishamwarmemorials.wikidot.com/incident:world-war-ii-new-cross-woolworths-v2-rocket; Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945, 298; Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 836 (“quite a lot to take”).
No V-weapons fell on Whitehall: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 551.
Eisenhower now commanded sixty-nine divisions: GS VI, 18–19; author visit, Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, London, 2005 (pushpins and colored yarn).
“Ike explained his plan”: Danchev, 634–35.
Two years earlier, under similar circumstances: AAAD, 282–83 (retreating in disarray); “U.S. Military Government in Germany: Operations During the Rhineland Campaign,” 1950, CMH, 8-3.1 DA5, 28 (“capability of concentration”); Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 551; Chandler, 2341.
“Ike was good”: Crosswell, Beetle, 786.
The evening ended in stilted silences: Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 552 (“evening of my life”); Danchev, 634–35 (“utterly failed”); Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 361.
Eisenhower flew back to Versailles: Carver, ed., The War Lords, 533; Chandler, 2341 (“Brooke seemed disturbed”); Eisenhower, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, 550 (“let it be sunny”).
“I greatly fear the dwindling”: D’Este, Decision in Normandy, 265; Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 5, Strategic Deception, 199 (fourteen British divisions); memo, E. I. C. Jacob, Dec. 5, 1944. Also, BLM to A. Brooke, Oct. 26, 1944 (“acute problem in the next six months”), and A. Brooke to WSC, Nov. 3, 1944; WSC, “Personal Minute,” Dec. 3, 1944, and “Note on Reduction of 50 Div in 21 Army Group,” Dec. 8, 1944, and memo, WSC, Dec. 12, 1944: all in UK NA, WO 215/101; VW, vol. 2, 142–43 (Wastage in infantry riflemen); Hastings, Armageddon, 77 (20 percent).
“All of us are now faced with an unanticipated shortage”: FDR to WSC, Oct. 16, 1944, in NARA RG 165, E 422, WD, OPD, history unit, box 55.
The American dearth was even more problematic: GS VI, 19; Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944, 409 (new B-29 bomber); Eiler, Mobilizing America, 400 (300,000 workers already building), 397 (occupational deferments), 417n (hard-pressed critical industries); Bland, ed., George C. Marshall Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, 390 (Marshall felt pressure).
To swell the ranks, Selective Service exemptions: Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 635; Eiler, Mobilizing America, 635 (many new privates); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 207, 224 (ban on shipping eighteen-year-olds); LSA, vol. 2, 506 (“physically imperfect men”); Wiltse, ed., Physical Standards in World War II, 194 (“such terms as ‘imbecile’”), 42, 199–200 (“put their hands under cars”).
The need for more soldiers: LSA, vol. 2, 316–17 (two thousand a day and trench foot epidemic); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 217 (figure hit three thousand); “Reinforcement System and Reinforcement Procedures in the European Theater,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF-0.3.0, study no. 3 (three hundred thousand individual replacement troops); Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 94 (below its authorized strength); Bradley Commentaries, Chester B. Hansen collection, MHI, box 42 (“life expectancy of a junior officer”); diary, Dec. 3, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 9 (“Our situation is bad”).
All combat arms felt pinched: “Report of Observers, ETO,” Apr. 27, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR no. 371 (“delivery of armored replacements”); Rush, Hell in Hürtgen Forest, 65 (“black line on a map”); LSA, vol. 2, 506 (obsolete data); Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 75 (actual figure was 83 percent); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 216 (a need for 300,000).
Of more than eight million soldiers in the Army: Weigley, History of the United States Army, 440; Palmer, “Procurement of Enlisted Personnel for the AGF: The Problem of Quality,” 1946, AGF, historical section S #4, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 150, 40 (disproportionate share); Eric Klinek, “The Army’s Orphans: The United States Army Replacement System During World War II and Its Impact on Combat Effectiveness,” paper, SMH, Ogden, Utah, Apr. 19, 2008.
The severest shortage was of that priceless creature: Crosswell, Beetle, 797; Weigley, History of the United States Army, 464 (27 rifle companies); “Reinforcement System and Reinforcement Procedures in the European Theater,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF-0.3.0, study no. 3 (“We find ourselves totally out”); Fussell, The Boys’ Crusade, 96 (“Nobody gets out”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 122 (“no infantryman can survive”).
Frantic efforts were made: Crosswell, Beetle, 788 (Seventeen of those divisions); Palmer et al., The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, 472–74 (sixteen platoon leaders); Report No. ETO-5, n.d., Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers Fighting in the ETO, NARA RG 330, E 94, 6 (“show them how to load their rifles”).
Crash programs to convert quartermaster soldiers: Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 84–85; Report No. ETO-5, n.d., Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers Fighting in the ETO, NARA RG 330, E 94, 13 (“miracle men”); Steckel, “Morale Problems in Combat,” Army History (summer 1994): 1+ (“retreads”); Edward J. Drea, “Unit Reconstitution: A Historical Perspective,” Dec. 1983, CSI, 19 (refused to accept hundreds); inspection report, 16th Reinforcement Depot, Dec. 29–31, 1944, NARA RG 498, 290/57/30/4, box 2, file 3 (“State of mind of men”); Crosswell, Beetle, 789 (“aren’t good for anything else”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 108 (“You are expendable”).
Even the deployment of intact divisions: “History of the Red List,” 1946, CMH, 3-5.1 A BA, 1-4, 55f, 60–66, 75.
The Red List was a paragon of efficiency: memo, DDE to GCM, Feb. 17, 1945, NARA RG 498, SGS IG, 333.5 (“feeling of being a lost soul”); Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 34 (adhesive tape); “History of the Ground Force Replacement System, ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD file #571A (World War I–vintage rifles); OH, Andre Beaumont, n.d., ROHA, http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu (“We left Fort Meade”).
Replacements traveled for days: Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 16–17, 21; corr, DDE to GCM, Feb. 25, 1945, NARA RG 498, SGS IG, 333.5 (“We have reduced the figure”); inspection report, 16th Reinforcement Depot, Dec. 29–31, 1944, NARA RG 498, 290/57/30/4, box 2, file 3 (“stockage depots”); Eric Klinek, “The Army’s Orphans: The United States Army Replacement System During World War II and Its Impact on Combat Effectiveness,” paper, SMH conference, Apr. 19, 2008, Ogden, Utah (combat skills deteriorated); “History of the Ground Force Replacement System, ETO,” n.d., chapter 4, “Major Problems Encountered by Ground Force Reinforcement Command,
” NARA RG 498, ETO HD file #571F, 346 (“had not bathed in thirty days”).
“We want to feel that we are a part of something”: Report No. ETO-5, n.d., Surveys of Attitudes of Soldiers Fighting in the ETO, NARA RG 330, E 94, 14; Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, A Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 34–36 (“scared the pants off”).
Court House Lee proposed on December 1: Robert J. Greenwald, “Human Logistics: The Supplying of Men, a Study of the Reinforcement System,” Jan. 31, 1945, ETOUSA, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571-K, 34–35, 65, 36 (almost half a million replacements); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 446–47 (“cannon fodder implication”); memo, “Replacement System,” July 29, 1944, 9th ID IG, NARA RG 498, box 9, file 34 (“morale of our officers”).
Now the Army’s ability to replenish its ranks: Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, 688–89 (shortage of 23,000); LSA, vol. 2, 321–28 (truncated to two weeks).
No one was more fretful than Omar Bradley: The tank figure includes those in Ninth Army, temporarily seconded to 21st AG (Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, E 97, LSA vol. 1, background files, box 7).
mustered less than 80 percent: “Report of Operations,” n.d., 12th AG, vol. 2, G-1 section, CARL, 30; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 446–47 (“Don’t they realize”).
“Go Easy, Boys. There’s Danger Ahead”
Allied intelligence first recognized in September: Hinsley, 550–55; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 189–99; “Estimate No. 37,” First Army, G-2, Dec. 10, 1944, USAREUR staff ride, Dec. 2001 (Skorzeny); memo, K. W. D. Strong, SHAEF, to army groups, Oct. 19, 1944, NARA RG 331, SHAEF SGS, 383.6/4, box 86.
The U.S. First Army had flown: Hinsley, 558–59 (361 reconnaissance sorties); AAFinWWII, 679 (canvas-covered flatcars); Bennett, Ultra in the West, 196 (two hundred troop trains).
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