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

by Rick Atkinson

  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).

  None of this suggested an enemy offensive: Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 1, Nov. 1949, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-1 (counterattack force); Hinsley, 558–59 (“true counter-offensive”); Sibert, G-2, 12th AG, “Military Intelligence Aspects of the Period Prior to the Ardennes Counter Offensive,” sent to Hanson Baldwin, Jan. 2, 1947, CBM, MHI, box 6, 8–9 (reconnaissance of the Meuse bridges); VW, vol. 2, 175 (“bruited drive on Antwerp”).

  Those nearest the front: “Estimate of Enemy Capabilities Prior to the Counter-Offensive,” n.d., in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1, 4 (officers interviewing German prisoners); TSC, 365 (assumed to be green units); Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 2, “Division Level,” March 1949, CARL, N-16829.2 (“German army [is] disintegrating”); Ardennes, 59–61.

  Several factors fed this disregard: TSC, 372 (Hitler rather than the prudent Rundstedt); VW, vol. 2, 171 (“in the hands of soldiers”); 21st AG intelligence review, Dec. 3, 1944, Oscar W. Koch papers, MHI, box 12 (No sensible field marshal); Pogue, “The Ardennes Campaign: The Impact of Intelligence,” lecture, Dec. 16, 1980, NSA Communications Analysis Association, a.p. (“we would not attack”); Sibert, G-2, 12th AG, “Military Intelligence Aspects of the Period Prior to the Ardennes Counter Offensive,” sent to Hanson Baldwin, Jan. 2, 1947, CBM, MHI, box 6, 3 (“intentions of a maniac”).

  Top Allied officers also had become overly enchanted: Bennett, Ultra in the West, 191; “Synthesis of Experiences in the Use of Ultra Intelligence by U.S. Army Field Command in the ETO,” n.d., NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-006, 12–16.

  “They had become so dependent”: OH, Richard Collins, 1976, Donald Bowman, SOOHP, MHI, 8; OH, Ralph Hauenstein, Jan. and Feb. 2102, author, Palm Beach and Naples, Fla. The list of Ultra recipients grew to about six hundred by March 1945 (“List of Recipients,” March 25, 1945, Richard Collins papers, MHI, box 1).

  “Instead of being the best”: E. T. Williams, “Reports Received by U.S. War Department on Use of Ultra in the European Theater,” Oct. 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-037, 1, 13; Bennett, Ultra in the West, 202–3; Lewin, Ultra Goes to War, 428–33.

  Some would later claim clairvoyance: “Estimate No. 37,” First Army, G-2, Dec. 10, 1944, USAREUR staff ride, Dec. 2001; TSC, 366–68 (a windy alarmist); OH, E. T. Williams, May 30–31, 1947, FCP, MHI; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 242–43; TT, 76–77 (departure from Spa); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 460.

  A suggestion in early December: OH, W. B. Smith, Apr. 1949, SLAM, OCMH WWII General Miscellany, MHI; TSC, 365n (ample reinforcements had been positioned); corr, K. W. D. Strong to FCP, Aug. 31, 1951, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (chose not to trouble Eisenhower); OH, Edwin L. Sibert, May 11, 1951, FCP, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (“I don’t think they will come”). Bradley grew sufficiently concerned that he told Sibert he wanted Eisenhower to reinforce him with the 12th Armored Division.

  Perhaps the only true prescience: TT, 52 (“has not been a rout”); Third Army intel summaries, Dec. 7 and 14, 1944, Oscar W. Koch papers, MHI, box 12 (“large panzer concentration” and persistent mystery); Blumenson, Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945, 245 (vulnerability of VIII Corps); TSC, 366–67; PP, 582 (“The First Army is making a terrible mistake”).

  Yet in other Allied high councils a confident swagger: “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET, General Board study no. 1, 69; Hinsley, 563 (“sudden attack in the West”); OH, Edwin L. Sibert, May 11, 1951, FCP, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (punch up the prose); TSC, 369n; intel summary no. 18, 12th AG, Dec. 12, 1944, Oscar W. Koch papers, MHI, box 11 (“Attrition is steadily sapping”); Royce L. Thompson, “American Intelligence on the German Counteroffensive,” vol. 1, Nov. 1949, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-1 (“given time and fair weather”).

  Montgomery needed no ghostwriter: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 587n (“cannot stage major offensive operations”).

  “I still have nine days”: TSC, 370n.

  Marlene Dietrich cut a wide swath: Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 28–30; Atkinson, “Ghost of a Chanteuse,” WP, May 7, 1996; Joseph Edgar Martin, “From Casblanca to Berchtesgaden: A Memoir of World War II,” 2003, a.p., 53 (sequined gown); Goolrick and Tanner, The Battle of the Bulge, 41 (lipstick autographs); Kennett, G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II, 202 (eleven pistols); Codman, Drive, 200–201 (“the first girl laughed”); Spoto, Blue Angel, 196–200 (“how could it have been Eisenhower?”).

  On a rainy Thursday evening, December 14: corr, Malcolm Richard Wilkey, March 7, 1983, CBM, MHI, box 1, 3; TT, 96–97; McManus, Alamo in the Ardennes, 33.

  The U.S. Army’s Guide to the Cities of Belgium: Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin, 31, 213; Ardennes, 238 (“quiet paradise”); Babcock, Taught to Kill, 63 (“crisp and sunny day”); Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 22–23 (“I’ll be getting fat”); Toland, Battle, 18 (sang while eating crackers); Blunt, Foot Soldier, 108; OH, Albert Handaly, ROHA, http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/handaly_albert.html* (death notifications).

  Among visitors to the First Army headquarters: Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 180–83; Sylvan, 211; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 207, 212 (worn down by fatigue); Holt, The Deceivers, 657 (“The retreat we beat”).

  Ten thousand Belgian civilians: Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 12 (“connected with Germany”); corr, Ralph G. Hill, Jr., Nov. 10, 1973, Maurice Delaval collection, MHI, box 9 (Army trucks then hauled the beef); TT, 127–28 (Another roundup); corr, John I. Hungerford, June 26, 1957, JT, LOC MS Div, box 36 (“cornfield forest”); Marshall, A Ramble Through My War, 170 (“Go easy, boys”).

  Of the 341,000 soldiers in the U.S. First Army: Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, E 97, LSA vol. 1, background files, box 7; Ardennes, 56; corr, Troy H. Middleton to theater historians, July 30, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584; TSC, 371; Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 212–13 (phony shoulder flashes); John C. Hollinger, “The Operations of the 422nd Infantry Regiment,” 1949, Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Ga. (frontages); Lauer, Battle Babies, 6–7.

  For much of the fall, four veteran U.S. divisions: SLC, 612–15; Beck, 461 (eighteen-year-old draftees); Alan W. Jones, Jr., “The Operations of the 423rd Infantry,” 1949, IS, 6 (across the Losheim Gap).

  As with so many newer divisions: John C. Hollinger, “The Operations of the 422nd Infantry Regiment,” 1949, IS (seven thousand men had been transferred); OH, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,” 106th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A (arriving at Le Havre); Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 15–16 (“numb, soaked, and frozen”).

  Few soldiers of the 106th had ever heard: corr, John I. Hungerford, June 26, 1957, JT, LOC MS Div, box 36; Alan W. Jones, Jr., “The Operations of the 423rd Infantry,” 1949, IS, 8 (calibration of new sets); OH, “German Breakthrough in the Ardennes,”
106th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A (shortages of winter clothing); Rosser L. Hunter, IG report, “Action of 106th Infantry Division,” Jan. 26, 1945, NARA RG 338, FUSA AG, 333.9, 1 (“aggressive defense”); report, M. C. Shattuck, VIII Corps, Dec. 13, 1944, NARA RG 498, G-3 OR, box 9 (German war dogs).

  “The woods are of tall pines”: Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 14; “The Losheim Gap,” n.d., ETO HD, NARA RG 498, UD 584, box 4; OH, Mark Devine, 14th Cavalry Group, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #329 (“sugar bowls”).

  “It has been very quiet”: Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 15–16.

  Straw and rags muffled gun wheels: Ardennes, 70; OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 21–22 (authorized to shoot out tires); Parker, ed., The Battle of the Bulge: The German View, 139–40 (portaged ammunition); memo, Walter Model, “Maximum Performance Without Sleep,” Dec. 17, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584 (“strengthening foods”); Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 582 (“Some believe in living”).

  Two hundred thousand assault troops: Ardennes, 72–73, 650.

  “Tomorrow brings the beginning”: ibid., 74.

  In the red-roofed Belgian army barracks: TT, 189; Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 215–16 (champagne corks); Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 121 (“outstanding infantry regimental commander”).

  A few miles to the east, the faint clop: Ardennes, 194, 63 (“Nothing to report”); Royce L. Thompson, “Weather of the Ardennes Campaign,” Oct. 2, 1953, CMH, 22.

  CHAPTER 9: THE BULGE

  A Rendezvous in Some Flaming Town

  Sheets of flame leaped: Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p., 26; OH video, I&R platoon, 394th Inf, 99th ID, compiled by NWWIIM, 2008 (“the end of the world”).

  For some, yes: OH, 14th Cavalry Group, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 329; Dupuy, St. Vith: Lion in the Way, 3; OH video, I&R platoon, 394th Inf, 99th ID, compiled by NWWIIM, 2008 (“The whole German army”).