by Jeff Shaara
ALSO BY JEFF SHAARA
Gods and Generals
The Last Full Measure
Gone for Soldiers
Rise to Rebellion
The Glorious Cause
To the Last Man
Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields
The Rising Tide
The Steel Wave
TO
MY COUSIN
EDDIE SHAARA
This is the third volume of a trilogy that tells the story of the Second World War in Europe, through the eyes of a select few of the key participants. As in every story I’ve written, I feel I should mention that this is not a comprehensive historical account of the entire war. There are lengthy shelves in every library and every bookstore packed with volumes that have tackled the subject in far more detail. My primary goal is to take you back to this time, allowing these characters to tell their story as they lived it. There is no history in hindsight. In World War Two, the men and women who took part were facing the greatest crisis of their lives, a crisis that shaped the future of mankind. Though the historian may analyze that crisis, examine it with the comfortable knowledge of what followed, to the men who fought this war and those who made the great command decisions, there was very little comfort at all. Every day brought new challenges and new decisions for the commanders or a new urgency for the men who carried the rifle. The story here is true, the history accurate, and every event is real.
My research focuses solely on the accounts of the participants, their voices: memoirs and collections of letters, diaries and photographs, and, in wonderfully poignant instances, interviews with living veterans. This book has to be described as a novel, because there is dialogue, the everyday conversations that are not always recorded for posterity. And, much of the story is told from the points of view of these characters themselves, taking you into their thoughts. Even the veterans aren’t able to fill in all the blanks.
I understand the risks of telling this kind of story. Many people have their own definite images of these iconic figures. Some of those images have been shaped by Hollywood, which is usually unfortunate. (To a great many Americans, the name George Patton conjures up the face of George C. Scott.) In the past, I have had people confront me with a certain level of outrage, one man specifically saying to me: “How dare you put words in the mouth of Robert E. Lee!” Fair enough. I accept the challenge. If I dare to put words into the mouths of any of the historical figures in my books, I had better feel comfortable that those words (and thoughts and emotions) are authentic. Otherwise, the characters will be counterfeit, and you, the reader, will know that immediately. Before I write a word, I dig as deeply as I can to find those voices, and the most gratifying success for me is when the writing begins and the story flows freely. It is a wonderful feeling to become that cliché, the fly on the wall, feeling as though I’m just the conduit, telling you what I’m seeing and hearing and feeling. You may certainly disagree with my portrayal of some of these men, and most assuredly, I cannot include every detail of every character’s life. But by the end of this book, I hope you have a sense of who these people are, what they accomplished, and why we must not forget or dismiss their accomplishments. And I hope you find this to be a good story. That is, after all, the point.
There is one aspect of this book that is different from the first two volumes of the trilogy. Though I have included German voices before (most notably, Erwin Rommel), by the end of the war in Europe, many in the German hierarchy are dealing with a significant crisis that goes beyond what the war has done to their country. The reality of Hitler’s reign can no longer be denied, and each man must confront his own conscience about what Hitler’s Germany has become. To portray the Germans as one-dimensional goose-stepping cartoons would do a disservice not only to them, but to you. It is easy to cast judgment on these men today (as, at the Nuremberg trials, it was fairly easy then). But they are important to this story, and I feel that portraying them simply as “the bad guys,” while politically correct, would not be authentic.
In a strange twist of coincidence, as I am writing this, I just returned from a brief trip to Washington, DC, where I happened to be when the shooting incident occurred at the Holocaust Museum. That horrifying act was committed by an eighty-eight-year-old Holocaust denier. Toward the war’s end, American GIs (and then, the generals) discovered the worst of the Nazi concentration camps. Literally thousands of American and British soldiers witnessed firsthand the grotesque aftermath of the atrocities committed by the Germans. I am appalled by those who deny that the Holocaust took place. The accounts of the Allied soldiers and reporters who were there at the liberations of these camps, the sheer volume of evidence is so completely overwhelming that to deny it took place is both comically and tragically absurd. My fear is that the deniers have an agenda, political or social, and that by denying or even excusing what was done to those millions of human beings, their purpose could be to justify it happening again.
If this book is emotional for you, or if, after reading it, you feel you understand a bit more about the war itself, or know a little more about those men who were so responsible for the history of this extraordinary event, then you and I share something. It has been my privilege to tell this story.
JEFF SHAARA
June 2009
TO THE READER
LIST OF MAPS
RESEARCH SOURCES
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
AFTERWORD
SITUATION ON DECEMBER 15, 1944
HITLER’S PLAN: “WATCH ON THE RHINE”
SITUATION ON DECEMBER 18, 1944
SITUATION ON DECEMBER 19, 1944
ESCAPE FROM ST. VITH
ALLIED COUNTERATTACK ON STAVELOT
PATTON PUSHES TO BASTOGNE
THE GERMAN HIGH-WATER MARK—CELLES
HITLER’S ALSACE OFFENSIVE
SITUATION ON MARCH 6, 1945
THE ALLIES CROSS THE RHINE RIVER
SITUATION ON APRIL 10, 1945
FINAL TROOP POSITION—MAY 8, 1945
In response to the many requests I have received, the following is a partial list of the first-person accounts that document the events in this book.
THE AMERICANS
Colonel Robert S. Allen, HQ Third Army
First Sergeant Jack Alley, Forty-second Infantry Division
General Omar Bradley, Twelfth Army Group
Private First Class Robert Burns, Eleventh Armored Division
Commander Harry Butcher, HQ SHAEF
Private Dick Davison, Eightieth Infantry Division
Lieutenant Al Doherty, 102nd Infantry Division
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, SHAEF
General James Gavin, Eighty-second Airborne Division
Private First Class Irving Grossman, 106th Infantry Division
Major W. M. Hudson, Engineer, Third Army
Brigadier General Oscar Koch, Third Army G-2
Colonel Fred Kohler, 299th Combat Engineering Battalion
Captain Victor Leiker, Ninth Armored Division
Captain Charles B. MacDonald, Second Infantry Division
Major Charles W. Major, Eighty-second Airborne Division
Private George W. Neill, Ninety-ninth Infantry Division
Major Amelio Palluconi, Eighty-second Airborne Division
General George Patton, HQ Third Army
Colonel D. A. Watt, Fourth Armored Division
Private George Wilson, Fourth Infantry Division
The men of the 106th Infantry Division
THE BRITISH
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Historian (Captain) Sir Basil Liddell Hart
Field Marshal Bernard Law
Montgomery
Chief Air Marshal Arthur Tedder
THE GERMANS
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring
Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt
Albert Speer
General Siegfried Westphal
The following have generously contributed research materials, including memoirs and unpublished private papers and photographs. I am enormously grateful to all.
Paul Adams, Frederick, Maryland
Norma Alley, Norfolk, Virginia
Tom Batchelor, Bradenton, Florida
Tony Collins, Washington, DC
Jim Comer, Denver, Colorado
Courtland Crocker, Austin, Texas
Brooks Davison, Dallas, Texas
Julia Reagan Harmon
Karen Harris, Solvang, California
Joseph W. Hudson, Zirconia, North Carolina
Phoebe Hunter, Missoula, Montana
Jim Kohler, Seattle, Washington
Alan Major, Sarasota, Florida, and the Major/Nicholas family
James McClellan, Magnolia, Arkansas
Terry Misfeldt, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Bruce Novak, Needham, Massachusetts
James G. Ormsby, Leesburg, Georgia
David Palluconi, Fairfield, Ohio
James Pobog, Santa Ana, California
Kevin Shea, Washington, DC
John Smith, Indianapolis, Indiana
Jeff Stoker, Ogden, Utah
John Tiley, Half Moon Bay, California
Robert C. Weikel, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Kay Whitlock, Missoula, Montana
Lieutenant Colonel Pete Zielinski
With the success of the Normandy campaign, which concludes in August 1944, the Allied armies embrace their success with a euphoric confidence that Germany is on its last legs. The English, Canadian, and American armies that have punched their way across France have every right to feel that the victory they have gained is monumental. But that victory does not come without mistakes. The most critical error is the failure to close what is now known as the Argentan–Falaise gap, an eighteen-mile opening in a tightening ring that allows tens of thousands of German troops to escape toward their own borders. Blame for not closing the gap falls primarily on British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, but the British reciprocate by tossing responsibility toward the Allied supreme commander, Dwight Eisenhower. It is a controversy with no simple answer, but the results of the failure are soon made clear. Those German troops will fight again.
As autumn comes to Europe, the Allies rely as much on arrogance as they do on wise tactics. To reward the accomplishments (and placate the egos) of his generals, Eisenhower pushes through changes in the command of his army. Montgomery, who had commanded the combined Allied ground forces at Normandy, is now limited to command of an army group that consists of his own British troops as well as the Canadian First Army. American general Omar Bradley is elevated to equal status with Montgomery and now commands all those American forces that have driven inland from Normandy, whose numbers continue to increase. To soothe Montgomery for the perceived slight to his authority, and to blunt the howls of outrage in the British newspapers, he is promoted to the rank of field marshal. The Americans recognize the gesture for what it is, yet Montgomery continues to press Eisenhower with his own specific agenda for winning the war. To the dismay of the Americans under his command, Eisenhower accepts Montgomery’s plan for a massive parachute drop along the northern flanks of the Allied front, an attempt to sweep around the strongest German defensive positions, opening a clear pathway toward Berlin. The attack will punch through the waterways and swampy plains that spread out along the boundaries separating Belgium, Holland, and northern Germany. Critical to the success of this operation is the capture of bridges across five separate rivers, including the bridge at Arnhem, which crosses the Rhine. With the bridges in Allied hands, British infantry and armor will then drive through the doorway held open by the paratroopers. Montgomery is confident that this assault not only will surprise the German defenders, but could also bring a rapid end to the war.
On September 17, 1944, Operation Market-Garden begins. Three divisions of paratroopers, two American and one British, descend from the skies in broad daylight, in the largest airdrop in history. For reasons Montgomery does not explain, the drop zone for the British First Airborne Division is forty miles from their intended target of Arnhem. The delays and difficulties the British paratroopers encounter in reaching the bridge allow German defenses to respond—defenses that are far stronger than Montgomery has anticipated. Worse for the Allies, Montgomery’s entire operational plans for the battle fall into German hands when an American officer who carries them in his pocket is captured. Within hours, German field marshal Walther Model knows exactly what Montgomery is trying to do.
Instead of a quick grab of their intended targets, the Allied paratroopers are bogged down in a slugfest they cannot win. Despite Montgomery’s efforts to support them with armor and infantry, it becomes apparent that the operation cannot succeed. On September 25, eight days after the operation begins, Montgomery orders a withdrawal. The Allies suffer nearly seventeen thousand casualties, twice as many as their enemy.
Montgomery insists that the operation has been “ninety percent successful” and blames most of the failure on the dismal weather conditions. No one on the American side agrees with him, especially the commanders of the two paratroop divisions. It is one more rift in the fragile command structure Eisenhower must struggle to maintain.
To support Montgomery’s operation, Eisenhower pushes forward the American forces all along the broad Western Front. American general Courtney Hodges presses toward the German city of Aachen, which he captures in mid-October. To the south of Hodges, George Patton’s Third Army drives toward the critical industrial region of the Saar Valley. But with the change in the calendar comes a change in the weather, and rain and mud act as effectively to slow the Allied drives as anything the Germans can put in their way.
At a meeting of his generals on October 18, Eisenhower expresses his frustration and begins to understand that their jubilant optimism has dissolved into what might become a bloody stalemate. To the north, Montgomery insists his army can offer no major offensive drive until the first of the new year. In the south, Patton has stretched his supply lines to their breaking point, and his troops are exhausted by the enemy’s stubbornness, as well as the difficult conditions offered by the miserable weather.
In the center, as the Americans secure their hold on Aachen, they plan for a continuing advance eastward. But south and east of the city, the Germans have established a defensive position in a stretch of woodlands called the Hürtgen Forest. Before the Allies can safely push farther into Germany, the enemy positions in the Hürtgen must be eliminated. In mid-November, Hodges drives his forces into the forest, anticipating a sweep through the subpar German units that hold the ground. What the Americans find instead is a German defense that has all the geographic advantages, fighting in a morass of thick timber and miserable terrain that completely favors any defender. For two weeks, the Americans slog forward, suffering a staggering casualty count. Hodges responds by ordering reinforcements into the fray, which only adds to the meat grinder the Americans troops are enduring. The “Hell in the Hürtgen” eventually costs the Americans more than thirty thousand casualties and becomes their bloodiest engagement of the war. Though the Americans eventually accomplish their goal, the cost is far worse than anyone could have expected. The euphoria of three months earlier has been replaced by frustration and a hard dose of reality. Despite what many have believed, the Germans are far from a demoralized and disheartened army of misfits and old men. Though Eisenhower continues to urge his generals to maintain some kind of offense, the weather worsens. All across the Western Front, those generals who are veterans of the First World War are drawn back to the memories of a land where winter smothers the armies, where rain becomes snow, where the terrain favors only those who sit low in their trench
es and wait for a target.
Still reeling from the cost of the fight in the Hürtgen, Courtney Hodges shifts his various divisions according to their needs, resting the weary veterans, placing the new and inexperienced units out of harm’s way. Winter begins to settle down across the front, yet no one is allowed to forget that the Germans are still dangerous, more so now that their backs are up against their own homes. Though no one expects the Germans to launch any major offensive in winter, Hodges strengthens the area north of the Ardennes, where any German attack would most likely appear. Hodges knows, as does Eisenhower, that the loss of the city of Aachen has to be a sore point to Hitler and his generals. Throughout the fall, Hodges’s men suffer the worst of the fighting, and so it is reasonable for Hodges to shift those most bloodied units to a quieter sector and allow them to recoup and rebuild. Thus, he sends them south, to the area around Bastogne, along the Southern Front of the Ardennes Forest. Across the greatest span of that miserable terrain, he has placed the new arrivals—the least experienced units in his command, the 106th and 99th divisions—closer to the key intersections at the small Belgian town of St. Vith. With armor support nearby, added protection in the event of some German intrusion through the Ardennes, Hodges has been ordered to keep his primary attention on a renewed drive eastward, toward the all-important Roer River dams. Once the weather improves and the levels of the river drop, Hodges expects to resume a hard offensive alongside Montgomery, while south of the Ardennes, Patton will be turned loose as well, to cross into Germany and seize the industrial Saar Valley. It will be the final drive that will crush Hitler’s armies against the Rhine River and then, beyond. With the Russians planning their own major offensive for January, intending to crush Germany from the east, Eisenhower and all of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) are supremely confident that the end is near.
On the other side, the surprising spirit of the German soldiers results from several factors the Allies do not understand. In July 1944, an attempt is made to assassinate Hitler, but through an astonishing stroke of fortune, the Führer is spared. The consequences for anyone who opposes Hitler are quick and severe, and anyone suspected of disloyalty becomes a target of Hitler’s Gestapo. Thousands of men and women are executed, many more jailed, and thus, any significant energy to oppose Hitler or remove him from power is silenced. Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, makes the most of Hitler’s survival, trumpeting to the German people that their Führer is indeed invincible. It is a campaign that inspires the German people more than ever to acceptance of Hitler’s leadership.