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

by Rick Atkinson

  A final German lunge at Bastogne: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 607–8; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 45 (increased from three to nine); “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (Dreadful weather); Ardennes, 628–29 (blowtorches and pinch bars); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 216, 314 (barely a mile a day); LO, 26–33 (five thousand casualties), 39–42 (must halt at the West Wall).

  At 11:40 A.M. on Tuesday, January 16: LO, 42–43; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 561; author visit, Houffalize, June 4, 2009, signage; “Allied Air Power and the Ardennes Offensive,” n.d., director of intelligence, USSAFE, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 1 (One thousand tons); PP, 632 (“I have never seen anything like it”). Of the nearly two hundred civilians killed in Houffalize, almost all died “at the hands of their liberators” (Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 87).

  “Little town of Houffalize”: D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War, 696–97.

  A day later, Eisenhower returned First Army: Sylvan, 262; Benjamin A. Dickson, “G-2 Journal: Algiers to the Elbe,” MHI, 203 (Hôtel Britannique); Hogan, A Command Post at War, 239 (“tilting drunkenly”); war diary, Ninth Army, Jan. 30, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, “Personal Calendar,” MHI, box 11; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 502 (“Whore’s Camp”).

  Village by village, croft by croft: Fussell, Wartime, 122 (“Kraut disinfected”); “The Defense of St. Vith, Belgium,” n.d., AS, Ft., K, NARA RG 407, E 427, Miscl AG records, #2280, 42 (“The battle noises”); LO, 51.

  Hitler had already decamped: Raiber, “The Führerhauptquartiere,” AB, no. 19 (1977): 1+; Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis, 747 (“I know the war is lost”); Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 290–92 (five bridges thrown over the Our); Chandler, 2439 (“probably manage to withdraw”). A U.S. Army history estimated that “perhaps one-third” of German armor committed to the Bulge escaped (Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 52).

  The Red Army had massed more than 180 divisions: GS, vol. 4, 80; Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 499; LO, 51; MEB, “The German Withdrawal from the Ardennes,” May 1955, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #59, 1–2, 20; Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, Aug. 8–9, 1945, ETHINT 15, MHI, 22; Percy E. Schramm, “The Course of Events in the German Offensive in the Ardennes,” n.d., FMS, #A-858, MHI, 18–21 (“suction pump”).

  In the west the war receded: Lewis, The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II, 444 (Thunderbolt cannons); Moorehead, Eclipse, 228 (“Are you sure?”).

  The dead “lay thick”: Gellhorn, The Face of War, 194; Bagnulo, ed., Nothing But Praise, 48 (precluded burials); Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead, 27 (blankets), 359. The National Museum of Military History in Diekirch put total civilian dead and wounded in Belgium and Luxembourg at 3,800 (Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, 385n).

  At the American cemetery in Henri-Chapelle: Joseph T. Layne and Glenn D. Barquest, “Margraten: U.S. Ninth Army Military Cemetery,” 1994, NWWIIM, 7–13; Joseph James Shomon, Crosses in the Wind, 91–98, 109; “Third U.S. Army After Action Report,” chapter 21, CMH (morgue tent for photographs).

  Among the dead gathered by Graves Registration teams: Bauserman, The Malmédy Massacre, 100–101.

  An Army tally long after the war: The figures included losses from 6th Army Group. TSC, 402. Corr, D. G. Gilbert, chief, Army historical services division, to JT, Jan. 28, 1959, JT, LOC MS Div, box 38. About three-quarters of U.S. casualties were suffered by 12th Army Group; a 1952 monograph put the figure at 71,000 through January 19, 1945 (Royce L. Thompson, “Ardennes Campaign Statistics,” Apr. 28, 1952, CMH, 2-3.7 AE P-15).

  Thousands more suffered from trench foot, frostbite: Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes, 20.

  More than 23,000 were taken prisoner: OH, William R. Desobry, 1978, Ted S. Chesney, SOOHP, MHI (“so foul we used to bathe”).

  organized the “Agony Grapevine”: Frank, “The Glorious Collapse of the 106th,” Saturday Evening Post (Nov. 9, 1946).

  Of more than sixty thousand wounded and injured: Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 263 (“ledge of a skyscraper”); Fussell, Doing Battle, 146 (“Battle of Atlanta”); Carroll, ed., War Letters, 267–68 (“I looked down”).

  German losses would be difficult to count: AAAD, 484; Sylvan, 262; Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 316 (120,000 enemy losses); Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 492 (more than a quarter-million); Percy E. Schramm, “The Course of Events in the German Offensive in the Ardennes,” FMS, #A-851, MHI, 20; Germany VII, 694 (official German history). Other German historians put total casualties at approximately 68,000, plus the 23,000 in Alsace (Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 316; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 53).

  Model’s success: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 322 (289 divisions); OH, Hasso von Manteuffel, Oct. 12, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 7 (“He bent the bow”); Greenfield, ed., Command Decisions, 356 (virtually no fuel); MEB, “Effects of the Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Remaining War Potential,” May 1955, OCMH, Foreign Studies Branch, NARA RG 338, R-series, #61, 28 (“rabbit hunt”); Zaloga, Armored Thunderbolt, 258 (seven hundred armored vehicles); Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 537 (freight shipments were banned); LO, 8 (four million German soldiers). A 1950 study put total German military losses through January 31, 1945, at 8.3 million (MEB, “Overall View of Germany’s Economic, Political, and Military Situation at the Beginning of 1945,” May 1950, CMH, 2-3.7 EC, 12).

  “When you catch a carp”: transcript, GSP press conference, Jan. 1, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 12, folder 18.

  “a corporal’s war”: Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, 464.

  Few U.S. generals had enhanced their reputations: Millett and Murray, Military Effectiveness, vol. 3, The Second World War, 80; Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 193, 291, 320 (Patton proved the most distinguished); ONB, 1945 efficiency report on GSP, DDE Lib, PP pres, box 91.

  Churchill sought to repair: TSC, 389; Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 488; Colville, The Fringes of Power, 583 (“no greater exhibition of power”); TSC, 395 (“What a great honor”); diary, Jan. 24, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 9 (“Why isn’t Ike a man?”).

  “had in no sense achieved anything decisive”: “Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the Army,” Oct. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 584, box 2; Franz Kurowski in Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals, 432 (“godsend for the Red Army”); Ehlers, Targeting the Reich, 292, 311–14 (lack of gasoline); Erickson, The Road to Berlin, 447–48, 460–62; Cooper, The German Army, 1933–1945, 525–26; Gerhard L. Weinberg, “D-Day: Analysis of Costs and Benefits,” in Wilson, ed., D-Day 1944, 336 (within fifty miles of Berlin).

  With the German tide receding: Rickard, Advance and Destroy, 314 (timetable had been disrupted).

  his basic scheme for ending the war remained unaltered: Chandler, 2450–54; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 547. One SHAEF study, dated December 23, put the number of divisions that could be supported in the north at just twenty-five until rail bridges were built, a figure Montgomery himself considered plausible (ALH, 155–56; TSC, 410).

  At present the Western Allies mustered 3.7 million: LO, 5–7; LSA, vol. 2, 288; MEB, “Effects of the Ardennes Offensive: Germany’s Remaining War Potential,” May 1955, OCMH, Foreign Studies Branch, NARA RG 338, R-series, #61, 46 (729-mile front); TSC, 392–93 (“plenty of fat meat”).

  So desperate was the need for rifle platoon leaders: “History, 1945,” Ground Forces Training Center, n.d., Harold E. Potter papers, MHI, box 1; corr, Congressional Research Service to Rep. Adam Benjamin, Jan. 1981, a.p. (thirty thousand U.S. enlisted); D. M. Giangreco, “Spinning the Casualties: Media Strategies During the Roosevelt Administration,” Passport, newsletter, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Dec. 2004, 22+ (ninety thousand men a month); Chandler, 2453 (85 divisions).

  That would have to suffice: “Major Problems Encountered by Ground Force Reinforcement Command,” chapter 6, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #571F, 291–95 (“almost dep
leted”); TSC, 392–93 (a hundred thousand Marines); corr, David T. Griggs to Edward L. Bowles, adviser to secretary of war, Feb. 22, 1945, AFHRA, 519.161-7 (“twenty more divisions”); Kirkpatrick, An Unknown Future and a Doubtful Present: Writing the Victory Plan of 1941, CMH, 1990, 113–14

  “Everybody shares the same universals”: Carroll, ed., War Letters, 266; Ardennes, 99; Cirillo, “Ardennes-Alsace,” 20 (thirty-two recognizing).

  Affixed to a wall: “Monty’s Wartime Caravans,” AB, no. 20 (1978): 32+; VW, vol. 2, 357.

  CHAPTER 10: ARGONAUTS

  Citizens of the World

  Morning sun and a tranquil breeze: Dilks, ed., The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 700–701; Eden, The Reckoning, 592 (“Star-Spangled Banner”); DOB, 46–51 (invasion of Sicily).

  Sixteen thousand tons: “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172 (“rumors and gossip”); “Operation Argonaut,” n.d., Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 95, folder 14 (Lascaris Bastion); Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 69 (“cold-storage vaults”); King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587 (wrapped in a dressing gown); Norwich, The Middle Sea, 303 (“astonishing natural anchorage”); Cherpak, ed., The Memoirs of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, 213–14 (floating garage).

  To compensate for any discomfort: Kuter, Airman at Yalta, 70–71, 72–73 (local librarian); John E. Hull, “Unpublished Autobiography,” n.d., MHI, 14-3 (“shine he put on my shoes”); Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 706–10 (bars opened punctually); Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 540 (twenty-piece orchestra); Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden, 357 (marble scrolls); Norwich, The Middle Sea, 302–7; “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172.

  At 9:30 A.M. on Friday: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 68; notes, Feb. 2, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (“entrance to the harbor”).

  As the cruiser crept at four knots: “Trips of the President,” FDR Lib, container 21, file 6-1; Churchill, Closing the Ring, 642 (ADMIRAL Q); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 292 (slow salute).

  “The sun was glistening”: Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 171.

  Across the harbor, on the quarterdeck: Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 234; Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 292 (“Through with engines”); Eden, The Reckoning, 592 (“one of those moments”); William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 14 (Berth 9).

  Since leaving Washington: Guy H. Spaman, “President’s Trip,” July 5, 1945, Secret Service records, FDR Lib, container 4, file 103-1; Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 22. The physician with Roosevelt aboard Quincy reported that he rested well and slept late on the voyage (Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Annals of Internal Medicine 72, no. 4 (Apr. 1, 1970): 579+).

  He devoted little time: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 1–3 (Laura and sixty-one degrees); book list, official files, Yalta trip, FDR Lib, box 3 (Death Defies the Doctor); Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, 271–72 (agent stood near); notes, Jan. 27, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (half a penny a point); Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, 481; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 264 (thirteen of his grandchildren).

  To celebrate the president’s sixty-third birthday: corr, E. J. Flynn to Helen, Feb. 2, 1945, Edward J. Flynn papers, FDR Lib, box 25; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 574–75 (brass ashtray).

  With Quincy made fast: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 14–18; King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587 (violet circles); Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969, 172–73 (“I was shocked”).

  Time magazine had catalogued: “The Presidency,” Time (May 8, 1944): 8; Altman, “For F.D.R. Sleuths, New Focus on an Old Spot,” NYT, Jan. 5, 2010, D1; Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Annals of Internal Medicine 72, no. 4 (Apr. 1, 1970): 579+ (260 over 150 and “Can’t eat”); Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 494, 496–97 (digitalis); Burns, “FDR: The Untold Story of His Last Year,” Saturday Evening Post (Apr. 11, 1970): 12+; Kimball, Forged in War, 341 (“abdominal distress”); Tully, F.D.R. My Boss, 351–53 (“Lots of sleep”); Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 265 (official photographs).

  Yet if the body was frail: Burns, “FDR: The Untold Story of His Last Year,” Saturday Evening Post (Apr. 11, 1970): 12+; King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587 (SHAEF plan).

  Another trill of the bosun’s pipe: Argonaut files, UK NA, PREM 4/77/1B; “Trips of the President,” FDR Lib, container 21, file 6-1 (TUNGSTEN); Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran, 232 (“very wordy”); Eden, The Reckoning, 590–91 (bezique); Leahy, I Was There, 294–95 (Declaration of Independence); Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1031 (“pushing Winston uphill”); Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 70–72 (defeat of Japan).

  Churchill retrieved an eight-inch cigar: Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 70–72.

  Off he went for thirty miles: William M. Rigdon, log, “The President’s Trip to the Crimea Conference and Great Bitter Lake, Egypt,” Averill Harriman papers, LOC MS Div, 16–18; notes, Feb. 2, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (half an hour late); Coffey, Hap, 349 (fourth heart attack).

  “complete agreement”: FRUS, 542–43; Kimball, ed., Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 3, 523 (impede Soviet expansion).

  Roosevelt nodded: FRUS, 542–43, 548 (eight o’clock); King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, 587.

  This amiable gathering concealed: Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, 666; Charles H. Donnelly, “Autobiography,” May 1979, MHI, 711 (bundled in their overcoats); FRUS, 464–66, 471 (“heart of Germany”); LO, 55–56. SHAEF on January 28 calculated that thirty-three Allied divisions could defend the Rhine line, compared to the forty-two needed if German forces continued to occupy the Colmar Pocket and other salients west of the river (ALH, 178).

  Again Field Marshal Brooke: DOB, 281–82; Danchev, xv (“Men admired, feared”); Kennedy, The Business of War, 329 (Monograph of the Pigeons); “Notes About Alan’s Childhood and Boyhood,” 1943, LHC, Alanbrooke papers, 1/1 (hoped to become a physician); Fraser, Alanbrooke, 24–29 (“gunner of genius”), 215, 448, 514; Keegan, Six Armies in Normandy, 47 (“searching back”).

  The tactic befitted the man: Danchev, 649.

  The British chiefs, Brooke said: FRUS, 472; Weigley, Eisenhower’s Lieutenants, 578 (Bulge had revealed the folly); minutes, CCS, Jan. 30, 1945, FDR Lib, Map Room conferences, box 29 (“Closing up the Rhine”).

  This argument had dragged on: FRUS, 473 (“every single division”); minutes, CCS, Jan. 30, 1945, FDR Lib, Map Room conferences, box 29 (barely two dozen divisions); GS VI, 91; John E. Hull, “Unpublished Autobiography,” n.d., MHI, 14-2.

  Marshall concurred: FRUS, 473; Chandler, 2463–64 (“You may assure”).

  “I am feeling very tired”: Danchev, 652.

  Worse was to come: OH, Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke, Jan. 28, 1947, FCP, MHI (“hands too full”); Ambrose, The Supreme Commander, 586–87 (“Let’s have it out”); Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63; Danchev, 652 (“talk did both of us good”).

  That was unlikely: SC, 409; GS VI, 90; Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63 (“Please leave this to me”).

  As the chiefs convened again: Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63; Cray, General of the Army, 502–3 (“practically never sees General Eisenhower”); Pogue, George C. Marshall, 516–17 (“wrong foot”).

  He had not finished: Chandler, 2461; Cray, General of the Army, 500–501; SC, 413; Bland, ed., George C. Marshall Interviews and Reminiscences for Forrest C. Pogue, 400–402 (“everything he asked for”); Crosswell, Beetle, 862–63 (“over-cautious commander”).

  “Marshall clearly understood no
thing”: Danchev, 653.

  “Marshall’s complaint was not unjustified”: Cunningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey, 626–27; Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 577.

  For another month, the British conspired: corr, F. L. Anderson to C. A. Spaatz, Feb. 2, 1945, “Operation Argonaut,” HIA, Frederick L. Anderson papers, box 95, folder 14; Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 297; Hastings, Armageddon, 195 (“a very, very small man”); Chandler, 2480–82 (“no question whatsoever”).

  “The P.M. was sore”: Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, 297.

  Light rain spattered Luqa airdrome: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 519; Stettinius, Roosevelt and the Russians, 28–29 (Mission No. 17); “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172 (black bands and yellow tags).

  Roosevelt in recent months had proposed: Olsen, “Full House at Yalta,” American Heritage (Jan. 1972): 1+. Stalin initially proposed Odessa, but that port city remained within range of German bombers (Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 447–48).

  “I emphasized the difficulties”: memo, A. Harriman to FDR, Dec. 27, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, box 31; cable file, ARGONAUT, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, box 31 (“toilet facilities”); Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 844–45 (“his adventurous spirit”).

  Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed to limit: memo, William Leahy to GCM, E. King, Dec. 28, 1944, NARA RG 165, E 422, OPD, box 31; Clemens, Yalta, 111; Mason, ed., The Atlantic War Remembered, 447–48 (Americans numbered 330); “Argonaut,” No. AR/2, n.d., UK NA, CAB 120/172; admin papers, UK NA, CAB 104/177 (“plausible cover story”).

  In view of the rustic conditions: admin papers, UK NA, CAB 104/177; memo, M. Moritz, Malta Command, to E. A. Armstrong, War Cabinet Offices, Feb. 23, 1945; admin papers, UK NA, CAB 104/177 (“Yalta Voyage 208”); Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946, 390 (“good for typhus”).