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

by Rick Atkinson

  “Bayonets aren’t much good”: Carroll, Behind the Lines, 318–20.

  “Success—complete success”: TT, 193.

  “Why Are You Not Packing?”

  A leaden overcast in Luxembourg City: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 449 (Coca-Cola and “lifeless chimneys”); war diaries, Dec. 16, 1944, ONB papers, MHI; “Destroy the Enemy,” Time, Dec. 4, 1944; Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 54–55 (“There’s been a complete breakthrough”).

  Shortly before three P.M., a SHAEF colonel: memo, “Conference in War Room,” Dec. 16, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; “Excerpts from Diary, D/SAC,” Dec. 16, 1944, NARA RG 319, SC background files, 2-3.7 CB 8; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 449; Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 212–17 (“it would be wrong to underrate”).

  Eisenhower and Bradley dined that night: http://www.ibiblio.org/lia/president/EisenhowerLibrary/_General_Materials/DDE_Biography.html (ascended from lieutenant colonel to general); Miller, Ike the Soldier, 723 (Piper Scotch); diary, Dec. 17, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (five rubbers of bridge).

  Eisenhower in a subsequent cable to Marshall: TSC, 375, 376n; TT, 186 (“Tell him that Ike”).

  Other moves quickly followed: DDE, “The Battle of the Ardennes Salient,” Dec. 23, 1944, Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI; Ardennes, 334 (Army tactical doctrine); TSC, 380 (“By rushing out”); Strong, Intelligence at the Top, 219 (“Why are you not packing?”).

  In a message to Marshall: Chandler, 2368; war diaries, Dec. 17, 1944, ONB papers, MHI (at least fourteen German divisions); diary, Dec. 17, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (sedatives); memoir, H. Wentworth Eldredge, n.d., Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI (buried secret documents).

  Still Bradley affected nonchalance: diary, Dec. 17, 1944, Raymond G. Moses papers, MHI, box 1 (“Rhine crossing plan”); diary, Dec. 18, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4 (“I don’t take too serious”). Gen. Sibert, the army group G-2, continued to see the offensive as a “diversionary attack” that “cannot be regarded as a major long term threat” (TT, 190).

  Among those who no longer agreed: Ardennes, 332 (engineer company); memoir, H. Wentworth Eldredge, n.d., Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI (“Oh, what a beautiful mornin’”); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 209 (“briskly up, over, and across”).

  Fourteen First Army divisions: Ardennes, 259; “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG Records, #2280, 5–6 (165-mile front); Knickerbocker et al., Danger Forward, 338 (Church bells); “Defense of Spa,” 518th M.P. Bn, n.d., in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (civilian curfew); Middleton, Our Share of Night, 341 (tin pans and crockery); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 205–6 (perimeter strongpoints); Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,” Military Affairs (Oct. 1978): 127+ (German paratroopers); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 296–97 (lawyers and accountants).

  Soldiers in muddy boots tromped through the Britannique: “Defense of Spa,” 518th M.P. Bn, n.d., in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (twenty-one jailed collaborators); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 294 (“Thermite grenades”); Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords, 312 (among those building bonfires); OH, Robert A. Hewitt, 1981, Earl D. Bevan, SOOHP, MHI, 175; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 183 (Kasserine Pass).

  Perhaps the prospect of a similar debacle: The most comprehensive account of this episode is to be found in Hogan, A Command Post at War, 212.

  “probably the most shaken man I have ever seen”: corr, E. N. Harmon to G. F. Howe, Oct. 21, 1952, OCMH, NARA RG 319, Howe papers, background files to Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, USAWWII; Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, boxes 41–42 (“almost went to pieces”); Bolger, “Zero Defects: Command Climate in First U.S. Army, 1944–1945,” Military Review (May 1991): 61+; OH, Adolph Rosengarten, Jr., Dec. 22, 1947, FCP, MHI (considered relieving Hodges).

  Officers fussed over how to pack: Pogue, Pogue’s War, 296–97 (“I imagine that the Germans”); Sylvan, 225 (photos of President Roosevelt); Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 212 (“take my child”); memo, IG, March 21, 1945, NARA RG 338, First Army AG General Corr, box 223 (bolting for Huy); Royce L. Thompson, “Military Impact of the German V-Weapons, 1943–1945,” July 31, 1953, CMH, 2-3.7 AE-P-4, 38 (V-1s hit two fleeing convoys).

  When Hodges tarried at the Britannique: Carpenter, No Woman’s World, 213 (“Save yourself”); OH, JLC, 1972, Charles C. Sperow, SOOHP, MHI, 229–30; Sylvan, 221 (opened at midnight); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 150 (food simmering).

  A British liasion officer: Hastings, Armageddon, 205–7; Hogan, A Command Post at War, 217 (flagged down passing truck drivers), 223 (not until a week into the German offensive); Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 150 (uncertain where the First Army command post); corr, Weldon Hogie to family, Dec. 30, 1944, “Letters Back Home,” a.p., 82–83 (“We can’t lose three months’ gains”).

  Evacuation of the vast supply dumps: “Operational History of the Advance Section, COMZ,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #583F, 109; Robert M. Littlejohn, ed., “Battle of the Bulge,” 1955, chapter 21, PIR, MHI, 3–4 (stocks could be found in the rear); Fest, “The German Ardennes Offensive: A Study in Retrograde Logistics,” Ordnance (Feb. 1983): 51+; Wendt, “Logistics in Retrograde Movements,” Military Review (July 1948): 34+.

  Three miles of primacord: “Ardennes, Supply Installations, Withdraw of,” FUSA, Apr. 29, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2; Cooper, Death Traps, 183 (fuel dump covered several square miles); “The Quartermaster in the Bulge,” in “History of the Ardennes Campaign,” NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2 (ignited in a roadblock); Wendt, “Logistics in Retrograde Movements,” Military Review (July 1948): 34+.

  Crows or starlings might have been mistaken: “Kampfgruppe von der Heydte,” FMS, #B-823, JT, LOC MS Div, box 38; interrogation, F. von der Heydte, Oct. 31, 1945, London, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #1068; Ardennes, 271.

  Operation GREIF, or “condor”: DOB, 244 (flamboyant Viennese commando); Ardennes, 270 (150th Armored Brigade); Skorzeny, Skorzeny’s Special Missions, 156–58; interrogation, Otto Skorzeny, n.d., ETHINT 12, CBM, box 12; Weingartner, “Otto Skorzeny and the Laws of War,” JMH (Apr. 1991): 207+ (Casablanca).

  found to be wearing swastika brassards: “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 2–3, 10–12, 19; memo, Richard F. Shappell to Hugh M. Cole, May 14, 1945, FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994 (sixteen infiltrators); Ardennes, 559 (without effecting a single act), 360–63; Weingartner, “Otto Skorzeny and the Laws of War,” JMH (Apr. 1991): 207+.

  The sole accomplishment of GREIF: memo, C. Hodges to SHAEF, Dec. 20, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, “Assassins,” box 8; “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 12; memo, FUSA to SHAEF, Dec. 22, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS, “Assassins,” box 8 (“dueling scars”); Toland, Battle, 158–59 (brawling over a ballerina and nuns); CI News Sheet No. 12, Dec. 26, 1944, 21st AG, in FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994 (sulfuric acid); Paul E. Kohli, “Stavelot, Belgium, 16–18 December 1944,” 1985, Columbus WWII Round Table collection, MHI, box 1, 5 (spoke English better); “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 18 (top button of a uniform); Ardennes, 559 (“Belgian or French café keepers”).

  MPs at checkpoints sought to distinguish: FUSA G-2, Operation GREIF, NARA RG 407, E 429, ML #994; “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 18 (Sinatra’s first name?); Elstob, Hitler’s Last Offensive, 189 (Where is Little Rock?); Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 208 (capital of Nebraska); Pogue, Pogue’s War, 302–3 (“The capital is Frankfort”); Weintraub, 11 Days in December, 59 (“Who won the World Series”). Niven was attached to 12th Army Group as a liaison officer.

  Cooks, bakers, and clerks were tutored: Price, Troy H. Middleton: A Biography, 223; memo to W. B. Smith, Dec. 21, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SGS
, “Assassins,” box 8 (gunned down four French civilians); war diary, Dec. 22, 1944, Ninth Army, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“get out of my way”); Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 239 (“We deployed into the garden”).

  a perfect body double: “The History of the CIC,” n.d., Intelligence Center, Ft. Holabird, CBM, box 6, 14; TT, 226.

  The real Eisenhower, traveling with Tedder: diary, Dec. 19–20, 1944, CBH, MHI, box 4; Baldwin, Battles Lost and Won, 335 (“What the hell is this?”).

  “The present situation is to be regarded”: Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 371.

  Two staff officers reviewed the battlefront: “Record of Meeting,” Dec. 19, 1944, Harold R. Bull papers, DDE Lib, box 2; TT, 419–20 (seventeen German divisions), 417 (180,000 troops); “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (Daily Luftwaffe sorties); “Task Force Thrasher: History of the Defense of the Meuse River,” 1945, NARA RG 407, ML #945, box 24198 (Seven French infantry battalions).

  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, MHI (“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.