The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945

by Rick Atkinson

  No less innovative were new “electro” U-boats: Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 613–16; Spector, At War at Sea, 253; Brower, ed., World War II in Europe: The Final Year, 128; Hinsley, 600–603; Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. 2, The Hunted, 1942–1945, 627, 657–59.

  Well into 1945, German submarines continued: U-boats during the war were credited with sinking three thousand Allied and neutral vessels (Roskill, White Ensign, 413–15, 422–23). Clay Blair calculates that in 1944–45, a total of 188 ships were sunk by U-boats (Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. 2, The Hunted, 1943–1945, 820).

  But scarcely any vessels would be sunk by the new U-boats: Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. 2, The Hunted, 1942–1945, 659, 820; Weinberg, A World at Arms, 771–72.

  Dusk enfolded the Taunus Hills: Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 8–10 (Many believed they had been summoned); Spayd, Bayerlein, 179–80 (each man surrender his sidearm); Kappes, “Hitler’s Ultra-Secret Adlerhorst,” 2003, http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/adlerhorst.aspx.

  A double row of armed SS guards: Spayd, Bayerlein, 179–80; TT, 47 (“handkerchief”).

  Ten minutes later Hitler hobbled in: Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 1; OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 15–17; Spayd, Bayerlein, 180 (Nick-Esel); Hasso von Manteuffel, “The 5. Pz Army and the Offensive in the Ardennes,” Apr. 1946, FMS, #B-151, MHI, 78–79 (“a broken man”); Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 121–22 (“stared vacantly”).

  Then he spoke: Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 4.

  “Never in history”: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 578.

  As the Allies approached each other: GS VI, 65; Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 401–2 (Canada).

  “Rome would not be thinkable”: Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 4–8 (“most daring”); Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command, 218.

  Toward that end he had a plan: The name was changed shortly before the attack for security reasons. HERBSTNEBEL had been the army group code-name (TT, 36–38).

  It had come to him as in a fever dream: Alfred Jodl, ETHINT 50, July 26, 1945, K. W. Hechler, CBM, MHI, box 12; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 732; Ardennes, 1–10, 13; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Ardennes Offensive: Planning and Preparations,” Aug. 1953, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #12, 11–13, 31–33 (“Antwerp”); MEB, “The Idea for the German Ardennes Offensive in 1944,” May 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #9, 22–23 (“sealed in the West”).

  The naysayers promptly said nay: MEB, “The Idea for the German Ardennes Offensive in 1944,” May 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #9, 109 (“great surprise”); Parker, ed., Hitler’s Ardennes Offensive, 248 (“no offensive”); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “The Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Situation in the Fall of 1944,” 1953, OCMH, CMH, 2-3.7, 39; Ardennes, 72 (invasion of the Soviet Union); British interrogation report, Gerd von Rundstedt, July 9, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2126, box 24231 (“much too weak”); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97.

  “The soldier can do nothing”: Günther Blumentritt, “Battle of the Bulge,” part 1, n.d., PIR, MHI, 6; Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt, 268–70 (“I am a better judge”).

  Even Model, who claimed to love: Lewin, Montgomery as Military Commander, 312 (“moldy”); Westphal, The German Army in the West, 180–81 (“small solution”); “The Ardennes Offensive,” British monograph, Aug. 1, 1945, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2, 7–8; OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 15–16; Hasso von Manteuffel, “The 5. Pz Army and the Offensive in the Ardennes,” Apr. 1946, FMS, #B-151, MHI, 78-38-45, 71; Fritz Krämer, ETHINT 21, Aug. 14–15, 1945, MHI, 3 (Wehrmacht soldiers would fight).

  The Führer was unmoved: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 482–85; Ardennes, 34–35 (promised thirty-eight divisions), 30–32 (virtually unchanged); Hasso von Manteuffel, “The 5. Pz Army and the Offensive in the Ardennes,” Apr. 1946, FMS, #B-151, MHI, 73 (two thousand planes); GS VI, 66–67 (“Not to Be Altered”).

  And thus was the plan fixed: Ardennes, 71–72; Germany VII, 681; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 3, 10.

  With the possible exception of the Vosges: MacDonald, “The Neglected Ardennes,” Military Review (Apr. 1963): 74+ (“impenetrable massif”); Ardennes, 43 (ten all-weather roads).

  Hitler had been consumed for weeks: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 482–85 (Alsatian troops); “Germany’s War Effort and Its Failure,” Oct. 8, 1945, UK Chiefs of Staff Committee, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB JIC (46) 33, 153 (vehicles built in November); Merriam, Dark December, 105 (“hold the reins loose”); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97 (German forces on the Meuse within forty-eight hours); Hasso von Manteuffel, ETHINT 46, Oct. 29, 1945, MHI, 9 (four to six days). Westphal quoted Jodl as claiming that six days to the Meuse would be “quite permissible for this phase” (The German Army in the West, 182).

  No significant interference was expected: Germany VII, 682 (Brussels); Herbert Büchs, Jodl aide, ETHINT 34, Aug. 31, 1945, MHI, 12–13 (Vague plans).

  Two tank armies would form the point: Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 411–13, 419; MMB, 133 (hippopotamus whips); Belfield and Essame, The Battle for Normandy, 166–67 (of his original 23,000 men); TT, 160–61 (“decent but stupid”), 26, 29 (Losheim Gap); Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97 (nine divisions); Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 11; Ardennes, 77 (wheeling northwest toward Antwerp).

  On the left, the Fifth Panzer Army: Jacobsen and Rohwer, eds., Decisive Battles of World War II: The German View, 396–97; “Battlebook,” USAREUR staff ride, Ardennes, Dec. 2001 (“a daredevil”); SLC, 396 (a thousand artillery tubes); Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 450 (fretted more about fuel); “The Ardennes Offensive,” British monograph, Aug. 1, 1945, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2, 11; Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 136–37 (only three million gallons), 133 (two thousand horses); Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 327 (“take it from the Americans”).

  A thousand trains beginning in early December: München-Gladbach’s name was changed to Mönchengladbach after the war. “The German Counter-Offensive in the Bulge,” Sept. 1945, U.K. War Office, Directorate of Tactical Investigation, CARL, N-13205, 3.

  Security remained paramount: Ardennes, 48–51; Hasso von Manteuffel, ETHINT 46, Oct. 29, 1945, MHI, 1–2 (started a rumor).

  Maps remained sealed: “The Ardennes Offensive,” British monograph, Aug. 1, 1945, CMH, Geog Belgium, 370.2, 12–16, 23; Ardennes, 69–70 (delayed again for nearly a week).

  “The army must gain a victory”: Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, ETHINT 16, July 10, 1945, MHI, 2–3; Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 9–10 (“both sides are equal”).

  The central weather office in Berlin: Royce L. Thompson, “Weather of the Ardennes Campaign,” Oct. 2, 1953, CMH, 10–12.

  “Troops must act with brutality”: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 2–6.

  “War is of course a test of endurance”: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 486–87; Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 762.

  Finally spent, Hitler ended: Spayd, Bayerlein, 180 (would not disappoint); Ardennes, 28–32 (“grave doubts”).

  The Light Line

  For three months after her glorious liberation: Moorehead, Eclipse, 186 (“without light”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 212 (leg sores); Gellhorn, The Face of War, 183 (“bath in champaigne”); Moorehead, Gellhorn, 224 (“platform soles”).

  The small fuel ration: corr, Pleas B. Rogers to family, Jan. 17, 1945, and Nov. 14, 1944 (“cold as charity”), and Oct. 14, 1944 (crematorium), Rogers papers, MHI; Richler, ed., Writers on World War II, 542–43 (sawdust by the ton); memoir, William Henry Baum
er, n.d., HIA, box 1, 170 (“we opened the windows”); memoir, Raymond H. Croll, 1974, Croll papers, MHI, 300 (“refrigerator door”).

  By late November conditions began to brighten: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 212; pamphlet, “Red Ball SOP,” Oct. 1, 1944, Ewart G. Plank papers, HIA (“light line”); Whipple, “Logistical Bottleneck,” IJ (March 1948): 6+ (seven thousand tons a day); minutes, meeting of chief administrative officers, Dec. 22, 1944, Versailles, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 55 (“electricity consumption in Paris”).

  For liberators behind the light line: diary, Jan. 22, 1945, Kingsley Andersson, HIA, box 1 (PX open only to general officers); corr, E. S. Hughes to wife, Dec. 8, 1944, Everett S. Hughes papers, LOC MS Div, box II:3, folder 4 (hunting partridge); diary, CBH, Dec. 27, 1944, MHI, box 4 (Chesapeake oysters); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 336 (“chair-borne infantry”); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 334 (“COMZ set-up”), 213 (French waitresses).

  The Majestic was hardly unique: OH, J. C. H. Lee, Mar. 21, 1947, FCP, MHI (Fifty-one generals); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 203 (frock coats); Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, 126 (Wehrmacht boot leather).

  “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”).