The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

by Rick Atkinson

  Eisenhower then spoke: “Record of Meeting,” Dec. 19, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (“positive concerted action”); “Counter-offensive Measures,” SHAEF, Dec. 22, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (“a supply desert”); Ardennes, 487; “The Intervention of the Third Army: III Corps in the Attack,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AR, I-1 (three corps facing the Saar).

  “George, how soon”: Verdun conference participants left varying accounts of this exchange, including one staff officer who recalled Patton saying he could attack in two days (OH, Reuben Jenkins, 6th AG G-3, Oct. 14, 1970, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, 39–40). Most recalled a claim of three days. “Notes on Bastogne Operation,” Third Army, Jan. 15, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, “The Siege of Bastogne,” folder #227.

  “On December 22”: PP, 599–600. John Nelson Rickard notes that some evidence suggests Patton may have proposed Dec. 21 (Advance and Destroy, 106).

  Leaning forward, Eisenhower quickly calculated: OH, Reuben Jenkins, 6th AG G-3, Oct. 14, 1970, Thomas E. Griess, YCHT, 39–40; TT, 421 (“Don’t be fatuous”).

  “We can do that”: Hirshson, General Patton: A Soldier’s Life, 577.

  Before leaving the barracks, Patton phoned: “Notes on Bastogne Operation,” Jan. 16, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 49, folder 13; Allen, Lucky Forward, 33 (“Everyone is a son-of-a-bitch”).

  “Yes, and every time you get attacked”: Codman, Drive, 233–34; diary, Dec. 19, 1944, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 9; diary, Dec. 19, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (“great expansive exuberance”).

  “There’s something about the guy”: diary, Nov. 8, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4.

  Eisenhower had urged his lieutenants: “Record of Meeting,” Dec. 19, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2 (“avoid any discouragement”).

  British intelligence on Tuesday evening: Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 247; msg, BLM to Brooke, Dec. 19, 1944, IWM, PP/MCR, C46, Ancillary Collections, micro R-1 (“Ike ought to place me”); Ardennes, 423–24 (best be managed by two commanders).

  Bradley’s subordinate generals to the north: Ardennes, 423–24; Merriam, Dark December, 123; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 248–49; notes, phone conversation, A. Coningham and James M. Robb, SHAEF, Dec. 22, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 98 (not a single staff officer); OH, ONB, Dec. 1974 to Oct. 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, VI, 34 (“That would startle the people of Luxembourg”).

  Rousted from his bed: Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 224–25.

  As Whiteley and Strong slunk away: Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, boxes 41–42; Ardennes, 423–24; TT, 422–23 (drew a line on the map).

  “Ike thinks it may be a good idea”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 476; Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 363–64 (“I’d question whether such a changeover”).

  By Wednesday morning, when Eisenhower called: Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952, vol. 1, 368; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 226 (“those are my orders”), 233; OH, BLM, March 29, 1949, R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot papers, LHC, LH 15/15/127 (“I think you’d better take charge”).

  At 12:52 P.M., a SHAEF log entry: corr, H. R. Bull to Hanson Baldwin, Sept. 12, 1946, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; OH, Arthur Coningham, Feb. 14, 1947, FCP, MHI (“absolutely livid”).

  Amid the dogs, goldfish, and singing canaries: Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 181; Hastings, Armageddon, 205–7 (“now have to pay the price”).

  “There is great confusion”: corr, BLM to A. Brooke, Dec. 19, 1944, IWM, PP/MCR, C-46, Ancillary Collections, micro R-1.

  Little of this was true: Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 505 (“energy and verve”); Sylvan, 223 (“bedside conference”); “Operations of 30 (Br) Corps During the German Attack in the Ardennes,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 247 (piled carts).

  The field marshal himself arrived: OH, BLM, Oct. 1, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 6; Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 246 (eight pullovers); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 215–16 (“Unwrapping the bearskin”); Wishnevsky, Courtney Hicks Hodges, 161 (“monkey on a stick”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 592 (“Christ come to cleanse”).

  Three hours later they had both a plan: Hogan, A Command Post at War, 219–20; Belchem, All in the Day’s March, 248–49 (Hodges feared that two First Army divisions); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 593; Ardennes, 426–27; war diary, Ninth Army, Dec. 20, 1944, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (assemble a strike force); “Operations of 30 (Br) Corps During the German Attack in the Ardennes,” and tally of British equipment transfers, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (“enemy’s hopes of bouncing” and British stocks); “Combat Engineering,” Aug. 1945, Historical Report No. 10, CEOH, box X-30, 89–90 (all Meuse bridges).

  “Hodges is not the man I would pick”: OH, W. B. Smith, May 8, 1947, FCP, MHI.

  “Hodges is the quiet reticent type”: Chandler, 2369.

  SHAEF ordered the new command arrangement: “The Old Army Game,” Time (Jan. 1, 1945): 45; Elstob, Hitler’s Last Offensive, 462 (“They seemed delighted”); Hamilton, Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976, 238 (“a 1st Class bloody nose”).

  As for Bradley: OH, James M. Robb, n.d., FCP, MHI (Bronze Star); Chandler, 2367–68 (“I retain all my former confidence”).

  War in the Raw

  Civilian refugees with woeful tales: “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., Battle Studies, CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 2; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 665 (“ancient town in the dreariest part”); “The Battle of the Bulge,” AB, no. 4 (1974): 1+ (“unattended vehicles”); TT, 506–7 (hundreds took refuge).

  The first paratroopers from the 101st Airborne: Ardennes, 305–9; Booth and Spencer, Paratrooper, 244 (“Get out of the sack”); Toland, Battle, 94 (interrupted a ballet performance).

  Since leaving Holland in November: memo, MBR to Maxwell D. Taylor, Nov. 12, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 21 (AWOL incidents); Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 171 (drunken brawls); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 209–10 (troopers held contests); Marshall, Bastogne, 10 (in England with seventeen officers); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 362, 513 (killed himself with a pistol).

  Anthony Clement McAuliffee: MMB, 351. McAuliffe was born in Washington, D.C., and attended West Virginia University before West Point (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/amcauli.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe#cite_note-2; “Gale Encyclopedia of Biography,” http://www.answers.com/topic/anthony-mcauliffe; Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 221, 336–37).

  Several thousand replacement troopers: OH, A. C. McAuliffe, Jan. 2, 1945, Paris, in Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, 378–82; Bowen, Fighting with the Screaming Eagles, 161 (“olives in a jar”); “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (without helmets or rifles); “Battle of the Bulge,” 101st Airborne miscellany, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #229 (emergency convoy); OH, William L. Roberts, CCB, 10th AD, Jan. 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder #305 (“fluid and obscure”); “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., Battle Studies, CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 2 (first wounded); Ardennes, 315; Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 248 (in his Packard).

  Bearing down on Bastogne: Ardennes, 449, 229 (Foot soldiers slouching westward); Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 26; Ritgen, Die Geschischte der Panzer-Lehr Division im Westen, no pagination; “The Battle of the Bulge,” AB, no. 4 (1974): 1+; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Diary of Thuisko von Metzch,” Army Group B, May 1952, and OH with von Metzch, n.d., NARA RG 319, R-series, #10, 25–26 (Model now privately doubted).

  “an abscess on our line”: Toland, Battle, 119.

  Two straggling artillery battalions at Longvilly: Ardennes, 449, 303–4 (“We’re not driven out”), 319–20.

  No less vital in delaying the enemy: Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 230; OH, William R. Desobry, 1978, Ted S. Chesney, SOOHP, M
HI (“by guess and by God”); Marshall, Bastogne, 57–59 (ripped into nine panzers).

  All morning and through the afternoon: OH, William R. Desobry, 1978, Ted S. Chesney, SOOHP, MHI; AAR, 506th PIR, Jan. 8, 1945, in “Battle of the Bulge,” NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 229 (pounded Noville to rubble).

  At midday on Wednesday, December 20: Ardennes, 454–55 (“Situation critical”); OH, R. Harwick, 506th PIR, n.d., HI (four remaining Shermans); TT, 500; McManus, Alamo in the Ardennes, 252; author visit, Noville, Bastogne, June 3, 2009, tourist pamphlet (Gestapo agents).

  Strongpoints east of Bastogne, now reinforced: OH, J. Ewell, “Action of 501st Regiment at Bastogne,” Jan. 6, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #230 (“mantrap”); OH, Stanfield Stach, 501st PIR, n.d., HI (“We took no prisoners”); Marshall, Bastogne, 76 (“dam of fire”); Ardennes, 456–58.

  Little profit had been found in frontal assaults: Ardennes, 321; Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 405–6.

  Among the few heartening reports: AAR, Albert J. Crandall, First Airborne Surgical Team, June 8, 1945, “Medical Department Activities in ETO,” NARA; Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 468 (“bullets were so close”); “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (division surgeon).

  “Above all,” Middleton had instructed: “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; “Report on Allied Air Forces Operations,” SHAEF, May 21, 1945, CARL, N-9371 (twenty-nine sorties in Europe); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 407–9 (Resurgent optimism).

  At 11:30 on Friday morning: Rapport and Northwood, Rendezvous with Destiny, 510–11.

  “The fortune of war is changing”: Devlin, Paratrooper!, 529–30.

  At 12:25 P.M. the ultimatum reached McAuliffe: “The Battle of Bastogne, 19–28 Dec. 44,” n.d., Battle Studies, CMH, Geog Belgium 370.2, 3; “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; corr, Eugene A. Watts to CBM, Feb. 28, 1985, CBM, MHI, box 1; Ardennes, 459 (only five battalions among the four regiments); OH, William L. Roberts, CCB, 10th AD, Jan. 12, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder #305 (mimeographed useful tips and two meals a day); Marshall, Bastogne, 133–34 (“whites of their eyes”); Ardennes, 460–61 (flapjacks).

  Perhaps inspired by the legendary epithet: John Glendower Westover, “Selected Memories,” vol. 3, MHI, 56, 89–90; OH, Harry W. O. Kinnard, May 2004, author, Arlington, Va.

  “We will kill many Americans”: “Bastogne,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584.

  “This is crazy”: OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 21.

  The town had been named for Saint Vitus: http://saintvitus.com/SaintVitus/Catholic_Encyclopedia.html; http://www.catholic-saints.info/patron-saints/saint-vitus.htm; author visit, St.-Vith, June 2, 2009, signage (Various unpleasantries); http://st.vith.be/touristinfo/?Geschichtliches; Manteuffel assessment, 1964, in terrain study, Northern Army Group, June 1976, MHI, 11 (German plan to occupy St.-Vith).

  Gunfights had erupted around the town: AAR, 106th ID, Jan. 6, 1945, Alan W. Jones papers, MHI, box 1; Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 306–7 (easternmost U.S. redoubt); Ardennes, 292–93 (“German tide”).

  With supply lines cut: Ardennes, 399 (seven rounds); AAR, 442nd FA Group, March 18, 1946, Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1 (“old propaganda shells”); Donald P. Boyer, Jr., “Narrative Account of Action of 38th Armored Infantry Battalion,” n.d., Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1 (“for every round fired”); Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 169–70 (burning slaughterhouse); “Engineer Memoirs: General William M. Hoge,” 1993, CEOH, 134 (gobbled amphetamines); Lauer, Battle Babies, 83 (greasy smoke); Ellis, On the Front Lines, 97 (“cold, plodding, unwilling”); memoir, Archie Ross, n.d., 424th Inf, NWWIIM (“grow into an old man”).

  Manteuffel on December 20: “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 25; Ardennes, 404–6 (flat-trajectory flares); Donald P. Boyer, Jr., “Narrative Account of Action of 38th Armored Infantry Battalion,” n.d., Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1 (“They’re blasting my men”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., Ft. K, AS, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 29 (ordered his troops to fall back); Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 385; TT, 481 (twenty thousand others).

  General Hodges had given XVIII Airborne Corps: war diary, XVIII Airborne Corps, Dec. 19, 1944, MBR papers, MHI, box 59; Ardennes, 401 (twenty-five miles to eighty-five), 410–13 (battalion staff at Neubrück); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 308–10, 326 (lost half its strength).

  “This terrain is not worth a nickel”: Bruce C. Clarke, “The Battle of St. Vith: A Concept in Defensive Tactics,” n.d., CARL, N-8467.297; msg, R. Hasbrouck to MBR, Dec. 22, 1944, Robert W. Hasbrouck papers, MHI, box 1; corr, MBR to JMG, Oct. 6, 1978, Maurice Delaval papers, MHI, box 9; Ridgway, Soldier, 120 (“We’re not going to leave you”).

  Reluctantly, Ridgway in midafternoon: Ardennes, 412–13; corr, MBR to JMG, Oct. 6, 1978, Maurice Delaval papers, MHI, box 9; Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 308–10 (“They can come back”).

  Fourteen hours of December darkness: Goolrick and Tanner, The Battle of the Bulge, 124 (“Go west”); memoir, Roger W. Cresswell, 7th AD, Sept. 23, 1979, Maurice Delaval collection, MHI, box 7 (each man gripping the belt and “only their eyes showing” and “Stay right where you are”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 36 (prodigal counterfire); TT, 481, 487 (Hasbrouck stood on a road).

  Ridgway estimated that fifteen thousand troops: Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, 389; Ardennes, 422 (casualties east of the Salm); TT, 487 (would long resent Ridgway); Soffer, General Matthew B. Ridgway, 71 (“Nobody is worried”).

  German troops ransacked St.-Vith: Ardennes, 412–13.

  “Model himself directs traffic”: Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 338.

  Looting was best done quickly: “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (seventeen hundred tons); author visit, June 2, 2009, signage, tourist brochure; Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 183–84; Hastings, Armageddon, 211 (“big-mouthed apes”).

  A GI shivering in an Ardennes foxhole: Blunt, Foot Soldier, 119 (“How come we don’t”); Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 222 (“most remarkable scientific achievement”).

  The new weapon’s origin dated to 1940: “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 3–6 (2,500 antiaircraft artillery shells); Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 223–24 (ice cream cone).

  The resulting device, eventually known: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 223–24, 235; Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 363–66 (used only over open water); Appleman et al., Okinawa: The Last Battle, 257; “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 3–6, 17; Morton, “The VT Fuze,” Army Ordnance (Jan.–Feb. 1946): 43+ (five times more effective); Baldwin, The Deadly Fuze, 275–76 (Lancaster bombers had flown).

  Pozit variants had been developed: Cooper, Death Traps, 206; corr, Ben Lear to GCM, n.d. (fall 1944), Henry B. Sayler papers, DDE Lib, box 9 (“most important new development”); Morton, “The VT Fuze,” Army Ordnance (Jan.–Feb. 1946): 43+.

  With approval from the Charlie-Charlies: “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n.d., CMH, 9–11, 21–24 (“slaughter of enemy concentrations” and “terror weapon”); Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 39 (“piles of shells”); “Operational Use of VT Artillery Fuzes,” OPD Information Bulletin, Feb. 23, 1945, vol. 4, #2, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 1164; Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 363–66 (“severely upset”).

  Three hundred American companies: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 233, 236 (“The other night we caught”); Ardennes, 655–56; “VT Fuzes,” March 29, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #282 (exaggerations); “Employment of VT Fuzes in the Ardennes Campaign,” n
.d., CMH, 3 (the Army’s heaviest shells); Green et al., The Ordnance Department, 366; Chester C. Hough, “Effectiveness of VT Fuze,” Apr. 18, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #305.

  Yet the pozit would prove as demoralizing: Baldwin, The Deadly Fuze, 284; Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 232 (“It hangs in the air”); memo, “Results of Use of Pozit Fuses,” Jan. 10, 1945, V Corps to First Army, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 1 (single 155mm airburst); “Effect of Pozit Fuze,” Jan. 6, 1945, XV Corps, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 10 (“The devil himself”).

  But what of the devil’s henchmen?: Guns of the 30th ID first used pozit shells on December 19, and gunners estimated that one-quarter of all rounds fired around La Gleize were so fuzed (“VT Fuzes,” March 29, 1945, NARA RG 337, AGF OR #282).

  Peiper’s drive toward the Meuse: corr, J. Peiper to John S. D. Eisenhower, Apr. 4, 1967, CBM, MHI, box 6; TT, 239–40 (blew all three bridges); “An Interview with Obst Joachim Peiper,” ETHINT 10, Sept. 7, 1945, MHI, 21 (Peiper swung north); Reynolds, Men of Steel, 95; Ardennes, 337–39 (cans of water).

  More spans were demolished: Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH; Toland, Battle, 176 (fuel cans into the Amblève); Weingartner, Crossroads of Death, 58–60; Ardennes, 349–50, 364–65; Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 54–56 (priest gave general absolution); TT, 445.

  Peiper had traveled some sixty miles: Royce L. Thompson, “The ETO Ardennes Campaign: Operations of the Combat Group Peiper,” July 24, 1952, CMH; Reynolds, Men of Steel, 125 (fifteen hundred survivors); “Kampfgruppe Peiper,” n.d., FMS, #C-004, MHI, 12–13 (a hundred American prisoners); Hal D. McCown, CO, 2nd Bn, 119th Inf, “Observations of an American Field Officer,” n.d., MHI; TT, 459 (“communist menace”); Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 42–48; Moriss, “The Defense of Stavelot,” Yank, Feb. 9, 1945, 8+; Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 84–85; “Malmédy Massacre Investigation,” Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 1949, 2.