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

by Rick Atkinson

  The encouragement and generous support of the Association of the United States Army has been important from the beginning of this enterprise. I particularly thank Gen. (ret.) Gordon R. Sullivan, the association president and former Army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Theodore G. Stroup, Jr., and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas G. Rhame.

  At the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, I am grateful to the former director, Cynthia M. Koch, and to supervisory archivist Robert Clark. Likewise, at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, I appreciate the assistance of archivist Christopher Abrahamson.

  My appreciation again goes to the George C. Marshall Research Library at the Virginia Military Academy in Lexington, Virginia: to Joanne D. Hartog, director of research and scholarly programs; Paul B. Barron, director of the library and archives; Peggy L. Dillard, assistant librarian and archivist; Brian D. Shaw, president of the George C. Marshall Foundation; and, at VMI, Gen. (ret.) J. H. Binford Peay III, the superintendent; Prof. Malcolm “Kip” Muir, Jr.; and Brig. Gen. (ret.) Charles F. Brower IV.

  For a third time I thank the Colonel Robert R. McCormick Research Center at the First Division Museum in Wheaton, Illinois, a division archive without peer. I especially appreciate help from Col. (ret.) Paul H. Herbert, executive director of the Cantigny First Division Foundation, and from Eric Gillespie, director of the research center, and Andrew E. Woods, research historian. I made very good use of the D-Day Archival Collection and other 29th Infantry Division material held by the Maryland Military Historical Society at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore, Maryland. Thanks to Wayde Minami and especially Joe Balkoski.

  The flourishing National World War II Museum in New Orleans has been a source of encouragement and assistance. Thanks to Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, the president and CEO, Stephen Watson, Jeremy Collins, Lindsey Barnes, Cindy McCurdy, Tom Czekanski, Stacy Peckham, and Sam Wegner.

  The Combined Arms Research Library at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, provided an exceptionally diverse array of materials. Thank you to Edwin B. Burgess, Rusty P. Rafferty, Kathleen M. Buker, and Elizabeth J. Merrifield.

  In the Office of History for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, I thank Michael J. Brodhead, John Lonnquest, and Matthew T. Pearcy. In the Special Collections and Archives at the U.S. Military Academy Library, West Point, New York, I thank Suzanne M. Christoff, Susan M. Lintelman, Alicia M. Mauldin-Ware, and Valerie Dutdut. Thanks too to Janis Jorgensen, the Heritage Collection manager at the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, and to John W. Greco at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C.

  In the United Kingdom, I appreciate help from the staff of the National Archives in Kew. At the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College in London, I thank Kate O’Brien, Frances Pattman, Lianne Smith, and Patricia J. Methven, the director of archive services. Grateful thanks once again to Roderick Suddaby and his staff in the Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum. In Germany, thanks to Michael Epkenhans and Markus Pöhlmann at the Militärgeschictliches Forschungsamt in Potsdam.

  Thanks to Doug McCabe, in the department of archives and special collections at Ohio University Library in Athens, Ohio, home to the remarkable Cornelius Ryan Collection. I also appreciate the help of Julian M. Pleasants and Diane Fischler in using the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, in the University of Florida history department. Likewise, I appreciate the help of Cynthia L. Tinker, project coordinator at the Center for the Study of War and Society, University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

  At the York County Heritage Trust in York, Pennsylvania, Lila Fourhman-Shaull, the library and archives director, was especially generous in helping me research the papers of Jacob L. Devers. Thanks to Brig. Gen. (ret.) John W. Nicholson and Martha Sell of the American Battle Monuments Commission, and to Rena Church, director-curator of the Aurora Public Art Commission/ Grand Army of the Republic Museum in Aurora, Illinois.

  Walking the ground is vital for any military historian, and I have visited most of the European battlefields described in this volume, beginning in the mid-1990s, when I served as the Berlin bureau chief of The Washington Post. On several occasions I had the good fortune to study the terrain, at places like the Bulge, the Hürtgen Forest, and Colmar, with professional soldiers. For this I particularly thank Gen. (ret.) Montgomery C. Meigs and Gen. Carter F. Ham, both of whom commanded the U.S. Army in Europe, as well as two former chiefs of Army history, Maj. Gen. (ret.) William A. Stofft and Brig. Gen. (ret.) Harold Nelson, and a team of fine historians: Scott Wheeler, Andrew N. Morris, and Layne Van Arsdale.

  This is the sixth book I have written with the remarkable John Sterling as my editor and close friend; collectively those books total more than 3,700 pages, and John has improved every page. At Henry Holt, and at the publisher’s parent company, Macmillan, I also thank John Sargent, Steve Rubin, Maggie Richards, Pat Eisemann, Katie Kurtzman, Kenn Russell, Meryl Levavi, Emi Ikkanda, Chuck Thompson, Jason Liebman, and Muriel Jorgensen. Jolanta Benal has copyedited all three volumes of the Liberation Trilogy, making each better in ways large and small.

  All sixty-eight maps in the Liberation Trilogy are the work of master cartographer Gene Thorp, who has been a delightful, innovative partner throughout this project. My friend and agent for twenty-seven years, Rafe Sagalyn, helped see me through it all.

  My thanks also goes to Antony Beevor, Ben Bradlee, Tom Brokaw, Steve Coll, Leonard Downie, Jr., Glenn Frankel, Donald E. Graham, Ken Heckler, Fred Hiatt, Robert G. Kaiser, Lewis Libby, David H. Petraeus, Catherine B. Reynolds, Wayne R. Reynolds, Thomas E. Ricks, William B. Schultz, David Von Drehle, Geoffrey Wawro, Gerhard L. Weinberg, Bob Woodward, and fellow scribbler David Maraniss. Particular thanks to Sir Max Hastings and his wife, Penny, for their generous hospitality and friendship.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made of permission to quote various materials: Viscount Montgomery of Alamein for extracts from the writings of his father, Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery; Roger Kirk for an oral history with Adm. Alan Goodrich Kirk; Virginia P. Montgomery, for extracts from an unpublished memoir by her father, Robert P. Patterson; Linda Gilmore, for extracts from a memoir by her brother, Richard Henry Byers; George Patton “Pat” Waters, for extracts from prisoner-of-war journals kept by his father, John K. Waters, and for a photograph of Lt. Col. Waters; Margot Taylor for extracts from “And Came Safe Home,” a diary by her father, William Steel Brownlie; Annette Conway for an extract from the “The Man Who Worked on Sunday,” by her father, L. F. Skinner; Mavis Jones for extracts from the papers of her husband, Lt. Col. E. Jones; and Dani Smith for extracts from the diary of her father, J. H. Patterson.

  Also: the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London, for material from the collections of Capt. B. H. Liddell Hart, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Maj. Gen. J. B. Churcher, Maj. Gen. Francis de Guingand, Brigadier Sir Geoffrey Hardy-Roberts, Gen. H. L. Ismay, Col. T. G. Lindsay, Brig. J. S. W. Stone, and R. W. W. “Chester” Wilmot. And thanks to the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London, for material from the collection of Major E. M. Elliott.

  In instances where current copyright holders could not be located, or where permissions arrived too late to be noted in this edition, I will gladly include acknowledgments in future editions.

  Beyond all others, and far beyond this writer’s powers of expression, I thank my gorgeous wife of thirty-four years, Jane.

  INDEX

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Aachen

  capture of

  Cathedral treasures

  QUEEN and

  Abbaye-aux-Hommes

  Abbaye Blanche

  Abbaye d’Ardenne

  Abrams, Lt. Col. Creighton W.,
Jr.

  “Act of Military Surrender”

  Adair, Maj. Gen. Allan H.S.

  Adams, John

  Adlerhorst (Hitler HQ)

  African Americans

  Agincourt, Battle of (1415)

  Agony Grapevine

  AIRMAIL program

  ALBANY, Operation

  Alençon

  Alexander, Field Marshal Sir Harold

  Alexandra, Czarina of Russia

  Allen, Maj. Gen. Terry de la Mesa

  Allied Control Council

  Allied intelligence. See also Ultra

  Allies. See also Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force; and specific countries and individuals

  Anglo-American forces meet Red Army in Germany

  British-American relationship and

  conflicts over Bulge

  conflicts over Strasbourg

  conflicts over strategy

  cost of war in Europe for

  Eisenhower’s leadership style and

  plan for postwar Europe and

  postwar tensions among, and Yalta

  strategic symbiosis of

  Alsace

  NORDWIND and

  ALSOS intelligence unit

  Alvarez, Luis W.

  Ambrose, Stephen E.

  American Legion

  Amiens

  Andrus, Maj. Gen. Clift

  Antonov, Gen. Aleksei I.

  Antwerp

  Bulge and

  Eisenhower vs. Montgomery and campaign for

  ports and

  V-1 and V-2 attacks

  Antwerp X unit

  ANVIL (later DRAGOON)

  Anzio

  Apollo, H.M.S.

  Ardennes

  Bulge and

  German retreat from

  HERBSTNEBEL and

  Argentan

  ARGONAUT. See Yalta Conference

  Arkansas, U.S.S.

  Armed Forces Network

  Army Talks

  Arnhem

  Battle of

  Arnold, Gen. Henry H. “Hap”

  Aron, Robert

  Arthur, Jean

  Article of War No. 64

  Ascension Day Commandos

  Associated Press

  As You Like It (Shakespeare)

  Atlantic Wall

  atomic bomb

  Augusta, U.S.S.

  Auschwitz concentration camp

  Austerlitz, Battle of (1805)

  Austria

  Authie

  Avranches

  Axis

  disintegration of

  Axis Sally

  B-17 Flying Fortresses

  B-24 Liberators

  B-26 Marauders

  B-29 Superfortress

  Babcock, John B.

  Baby Blitz (January–May 1944)

  Baccarat

  Base 901

  Baedeker, Karl

  Balck, Gen. Hermann

  Balkans

  Balkoski, Joseph

  Baltic

  Barnett, U.S.S.

  Barton, Maj. Gen. Raymond O. “Tubby”

  Bastogne

  Battle of

  Baugnez massacre. See also Malmédy massacre

  Baum, Capt. Abraham J. (Task Force Baum)

  Bayerlein, Gen. Fritz

  Bayeux

  fall of

  Bayeux Tapestry

  Bayfield, U.S.S.

  BBC

  Beauvoir, Simone de

  Beckett, Samuel

  Beethoven, Ludwig van

  Belfort Gap

  Belgian resistance

  Belgium

  Bulge and

  civilians in

  liberation of

  Bell for Adano, A (Hersey)

  Belorussia

  Bennett, Ralph

  Bénouville bridge

  Berchtesgaden

  Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

  Berghof (Hitler home)

  Bergman, Ingrid

  Beria, Lavrenty P.

  Berlin

  bombing of

  Eisenhower on

  Eisenhower shifts from, as main objective

  Eisenhower vs. Montgomery and single- vs. multipronged thrust toward

  fall of

  final days of war and

  postwar plan for

  Soviet advance on

  V-E Day and

  Yalta and

  Berlin, Isaiah

  BERLIN plan. See MARKET GARDEN, Operation

  Bernhard, Prince of the Netherlands

  Bernières

  Besançon

  Best

  Béthouart, Gen. Antoine

  Beveland Peninsula

  biological weapons

  Bitburg

  Bittrich, Gen. Wilhelm

  Bizerte

  Black Forest (Schwarzwald)

  black market

  Blake, William

  Blaskowitz, Gen. Johannes

  Blithe Spirit (Coward)

  Blumentritt, Gen. Günther

  BODENPLATTE, Operation (Hangover Raid)

  Bogart, Humphrey

  Boggess, Lt. Charles

  Bohlen, Charles E.

  bombing

  Bulge and

  Caen and

  COBRA and

  CROSSBOW vs. V-1 sites

  D-Day and

  DRAGOON and

  Falaise and

  fratricidal

  of Germany

  MARKET GARDEN and

  OVERLORD and

  “precision”

  Roer and

  St.-Vith and

  Bormann, Martin

  BOSTON, Operation

  Boulogne

  Bourg-Léopold

  Bourguébus Ridge

  Bradley, Gen. Omar N.

  Antwerp and

  awarded fourth star

  Berlin and

  Brereton and

  Brittany and

  Bulge and

  Churchill and

  COBRA and

  concentration camps and

  D-Day and

  Devers and

  Eisenhower and

  Eisenhower shifts main attack to

  Eisenhower vs. Montgomery and

  Falaise Pocket and

  final days of war and

  First Army returned to command of

  Frankfurt advance and

  fuel shortages and

  German surrender and

  heads new 12th Army Group

  Hodges and

  Hürtgen and

  January 1945 position of

  Le Mans and

  liberation of Paris and

  logistics and

  Luxemburg HQ of

  manpower shortages and

  MARKET GARDEN and

  Merkers treasure and

  Metz and

  Montgomery and

  Namur HQ and

  Ninth Army and

  Normandy and

  OVERLORD plan and

  Patch and

  Patton and

  propaganda and

  Pyle and

  QUEEN and

  Rhine crossing and

  Ruhr and

  Ted Roosevelt and

  Victory position of

  winter supplies and

  Brandenberger, Gen. Erich

  Braque, Georges

  Bratge, Capt. Willi

  Braun, Eva

  Braun, Wernher von

  Breedonck prison

  Brenner Pass, Allied forces meet at

  Brereton, Lt. Gen. Lewis H.

  Breskens Pocket

  Brest

  Bridge Too Far, A (Ryan)

  Bright, Sgt. Alton C.

  Britain. See also specific battles, individuals and military units

  Alliance formed by

  Eisenhower honored in

  impact of war on

  manpower shortages

  Britain, Battle of

  “Britain is Now Occupied Territory” (Orwell)

 
British I Airborne Corps

  British 1st Airborne Division

  British I Corps

  British Second Army

  British 3rd Parachute Brigade

  British 3rd Infantry Division

  British 4th Queen’s Own Hussars

  British 6th Airborne Division

  British 7th Armored Division (Desert Rats)

  British VII Corps

  British Eighth Army

  British VIII Corps

  British 11th Armored Division

  British XII Corps

  British 21st Army Group

  advance to Belgium

  advance to Germany

  Antwerp and

  Berlin and

  Bulge and

  casualties and

  German surrender and

  January 1945 position of

  MARKET GARDEN and

  OVERLORD and

  Rhine crossing and

  Ruhr and

  victory position of

  British XXX Corps

  British 43rd Infantry Division

  British 50th Infantry Division

  British 51st Highland Division

  British Air Ministry

  British Bomber Command

  British Coldstream Guards Regiment

  British Commandos

  British Dorsetshire Regiment

  British Empire

  British Foreign Office

  British Grenadier Guards Regiment

  British Guards Armored Division

  British Home Guard

  British Irish Guards Regiment

  British King’s Liverpool Regiment

  British Liberation Army

  British Ministry of Transport

  British Royal Air Force (RAF)

  British Royal Army Pay Corps

  British Royal Artillery

  British Royal Engineers

  British Royal Hampshire Regiment

  British Royal Marine Commandos

  British Royal Marines

  British Royal Navy

  British Royal Signal Corps

  British Royal Warwickshire Regiment

  British Scots Guards Regiment

  British War Office

  British Welsh Guards Regiment

  Brittany

  Brolo landing

  Brooke, Field Marshal Sir Alan

  dwindling of army and

  Eisenhower and

  German surrender and

  Malta and

  Montgomery vs. Eisenhower and

  personality of

  VARSITY PLUNDER and

  on WW II

  Yalta and

  Brooks, Maj. Gen. Edward H.

  Browning, Lt. Gen. Frederick A.M. “Boy”

  Bruce, David K.E.