by Alex Kershaw
12 Well over a hundred thousand men: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 184.
13 Officially, eighteen thousand American deserters: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 185.
14 That way, they got: Guy Prestia, interview with author.
15 “He’s not to come”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
16 “You get pounded enough”: Adam Przychocki, interview with author.
17 until he too was: Adam Przychocki, Colorado National Guard interview.
18 How long would his: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
19 Few believed they would: Rex Raney, interview with author.
20 Only the letters and: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
21 Many communities had both: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 119.
22 When he looked up: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
23 A small French flag: Buechner, Sparks, pp. 103–4.
24 He pointed out where: Ibid.
25 “Apparently, they had no”: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, December 31, 1989.
26 It had taken them: After Action Report, National Archives.
27 They had been in: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, pp. 105–10.
28 It felt as if: Ellis, The Sharp End, pp. 101–2.
29 That October 25: “157th Combat Casualties” list, courtesy of Dave Kerr.
30 Then came the crack: After Action Report, National Archives.
31 By dusk, Sparks’s I Company: Buechner, Sparks, p. 104.
32 The Thunderbirds had now: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 205.
33 At Anzio, he had: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 106.
34 It was uncanny that: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, September 1, 1989.
35 According to Otis: Denver Post, August 21, 2001.
36 “Who the hell do”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 120.
37 Sparks and his fellow: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
PART FIVE—GERMANY
1 “It was a glorious bloodbath”: 101 U.S. Airborne Division, G-2 Report, January 1945, National Archives.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN—BLACK DECEMBER
1 The Germans had also: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 228.
2 “It will take these”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 168.
3 “He’s the greatest fighting”: Adleman and Walton, The Champagne Campaign, p. 32.
4 “What are you waiting”: After Action Report, National Archives. See also Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 98.
5 The tired soldier waited: Stars and Stripes, The Story of 45th Infantry Division, p. 3.
6 The Stars and Stripes trumpeted: Ibid., p. 130.
7 “The meeting was crowded”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 103.
8 “There will be only”: Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, p. 208.
9 “Then we’ll really cut”: D’Este, Patton, p. 679.
10 To pull off his: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 105.
11 “But through the room”: Ibid.
12 “You will start on”: Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods, p. 368.
13 “And this time”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 106.
14 “And every time you”: D’Este, Patton, p. 681.
15 Indeed, the Seventh would: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 109.
16 Until they appeared: Antelme, The Human Race, pp. 102–4.
17 “We exchanged Christmas greetings”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 106.
18 “Maybe my luck will”: Sergeant John W. Kendall Jr., private correspondence, January 14, 1945.
19 “I don’t owe my”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. x.
20 Sparks himself would fire: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
21 The German First and Nineteenth: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, pp. 112–13.
22 “We will yet be”: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, p. 493.
23 “I remember us singing”: “I remember that we fired a few machine-gun bursts of tracer ammo in the air—a breach of discipline, no doubt, and a bit childish.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
24 “We switched off the”: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 179.
25 Voss was one of: “We weren’t liberated by the Allies, not by the Russians, nor by the British or by the Americans,” added Voss. “This is my view not only as a former soldier of the German Army but is also based on a lifelong reading of history. Nor was there an intent to ‘liberate’ us. Consider General Eisenhower’s non-fraternization order: ‘We come as victors, not as liberators, and I want you to behave as such towards the German people, who are defeated once and for all.’ Not to speak of what the Russians did to the Germans when they entered Germany. Or were the Eastern Germans liberated by the Soviet politruk Ulbricht? But it is true of the persecuted; they were no doubt liberated by the Allied Powers. It was only later on that German politicians who were not persecuted by the Nazis, but were more or less involved in the dark schemes of the National Socialist leadership, felt it would be a good idea to say the German people as a whole was liberated by the Western Powers. This caught on in politics as well as in historiography, and is now a common view in Germany.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
26 He and his comrades: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
27 All were supplied with: Voss recalled: “We got the MG42 during our short stay in Denmark, along with new rifles, uniforms and boots. Prior to that we were equipped with the MG34. The main feature of the new weapon was its simplicity and its stunning fire rate. Hugh can tell you much more about it than I could ever do.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
28 But that did not: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. ix. “Hitler’s leadership was still undisputed in my environment,” recalled Voss. “I remember wondering why Joseph Goebbels spoke on New Year’s Eve instead of Hitler, who always had inspired the nation with his vision of victory. Goebbels was no substitute. I think I had a faint idea that Hitler himself didn’t believe in victory any more.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
29 In fact 62 percent: Frederick Taylor, “The Road to Ruin,” Financial Times, August 20/21, 2011.
30 “I immediately thought of”: Guardian, April 16, 2011.
31 BRITISH LAND IN GREECE: May, Witness to War, p. 72.
32 As it did so: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 690.
33 Twenty-one-year-old Jack Goldman was: Ibid., p. 691.
34 His father had in: Jack Hallowell, The President’s Column, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, 2009.
35 Then they were ordered: Rothchild, Voices from the Holocaust, pp. 163–64.
36 Fifteen thousand of his: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 691.
37 Soon after, Goldman fell: Jack Goldman, interview with author.
38 One day, the SS: Ibid.
39 “Do what you want”: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
40 Those who couldn’t were: Rothchild, Voices from the Holocaust, p. 164.
41 “The women who are”: Leonid Rabichev, “Voina vse spishet,” Znamya 2 (2005): 163.
42 “Fire for fire, blood”: Merridale, Ivan’s War, p. 311. See also Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, RH2-2688, 13.
43 No wonder that at: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 711.
44 He and his fellow: “I was Sturmmann and NCO candidate as you’d say,” recalled Voss. “Up front I was leader of a heavy machine-gun squad.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
45 The last of Hitler’s: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. ix.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN—THE BREAKING POINT
1 “Every man has a”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
2 The sun pierced the: After Action Report, National Archives.
3 Having to turn their: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 129.
4 “Ike or the Krauts”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General
, p. 176.
5 In Sparks’s regiment: After Action Report, National Archives.
6 Medina had since tended: Joe Medina, interview with Nate Matlock, Regis University.
7 The rate of fire: After Action Report, National Archives.
8 He knew that without: Felix Sparks, report to Inspector General 45th Division, January 27, 1945. Before the day was out, sixty-one men in the regiment would be wounded, mostly by flying hot splinters from artillery shells and mortars in hills near the Alsace village of Reipertswiller. Source: After Action Report, National Archives.
9 He was with three: The jeep’s windshield had been either removed or folded down and covered with canvas, not only to avoid flying glass, but also to prevent glint from the sun giving away its presence, and so Sparks was able to spread out maps on the hood should they lose their way among the winding lanes and muddy tracks of the most rugged and least populated area of the Vosges.
10 Sparks and Turk were: Karl Mann, interview with author.
11 Mann had first seen: Ibid.
12 With the often curt: Ibid.
13 The jeep sped down: Ibid.
14 All of a sudden: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
15 He lay sprawled in: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
16 He climbed out of: Karl Mann, interview with author.
17 One of the jeep’s: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
18 It was vital that: Ray Merriam, Waffen SS (Bennington, Vermont: Merriam Press, 1999), p. 29.
19 Soon I Company also arrived: Louis Cody Wims, oral history, www.45thdivision.org/Veterans/Wims.
20 “We were sitting up”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
21 Meanwhile other German units: Ibid.
22 At his forward command: Ibid.
23 The G-3 then conferred: After Action Report, National Archives.
24 Frederick’s orders were to: Bishop et al., Fighting Forty-Fifth, 1946, p. 142.
25 The response to O’Brien’s: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
26 When Sparks learned of: Ibid.
27 From crackling radio messages: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
28 The conversation ended abruptly: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, pp. 1–2.
29 The trees that had: Buechner, Sparks, p. 114.
30 The surrounding ridges controlled: Hugh Foster, interview with author.
31 Casualties had mounted through: After Action Report, National Archives.
32 Whenever a Thunderbird showed: Bishop et al., Fighting Forty-Fifth, pp. 140–42.
33 To his relief, around: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, pp. 1–2.
34 The SS were, remembered: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 255. 197 Their primary target was: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, pp. 1–2.
35 Dawn was breaking as: Ibid., p. 7.
36 Soon the white-helmeted SS: MacDonald, Battle of the Huertgen Forest, p. 20.
37 Flares soared and cruelly: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 8.
38 It was still working: “We had lost our regimental commander when the Finns succeeded in attacking our regimental HQ,” recalled Johann Voss. “Raithel took over the 11th Rgt. in Pirmasens, the German town right at the border to Alsace, in January 1945. At that time we heard he was an old Lapland hand, and had come from the German Heer. That was OK with us. In the fighting at Reipertswiller we learned that he could lead. There, he changed the situation from reluctant defense to vigorous attack, which won him our complete respect. I saw him only once, and I remember him as very good looking with his sporty bearing and his faded mountain cap. I got to know him much better after the war, when he had returned from South Africa, where he was a plantation manager, and was studying history at the Munich University. Before the war, he was officer in a Mountain Division in southern Germany, and had won championships in skiing and mountain guiding. Two of his brothers were also colonels of German Mountain Regiments. Even when he was around seventy, he practiced mountaineering in the US and South America. He died when he crashed into a road barrier one night on his way from Bad Reichenhall to his home in Icking, south of Munich. His eyesight was impaired by the loss of his right eye during the last battle of the ‘Nord.’ After he was taken prisoner, severely wounded, he was interrogated, of which a record must exist. Raithel was very much interested in digging up that record.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
39 The SS now knew: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 9.
40 “G Company is captured!”: Ibid.
41 More shells landed in: After Action Report, National Archives.
42 “When hit, men sank”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 133.
43 An astonishing three: Ibid., pp. 134–35.
44 Waiting in ambush up: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 186.
45 Several men fell in: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
46 Sergeant Bernard Fleming looked: The armored car platoon leader, Lt. Baze, had been shot in the head and later died.
47 “Give me a lot of”: Bernard Fleming, written account of January 18, 1945, rescue by Sparks, Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
48 “They’re going to watch”: Ibid.
49 “I’m going to get”: Ibid.
50 Now there were more: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 170.
51 “Help on the way”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
52 Soon, one was landing: After Action Report, National Archives.
53 One SS machine gunner: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 187.
54 Around 9 A.M., two Sherman: Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 13.
55 They were nicknamed “Ronson”: Ellis, The Sharp End, p. 154.
56 The tank crews went: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
57 “Help is fighting to”: Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 15.
58 The Sherman tanks trundled: 158th Artillery report for January 18, 1945, Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
59 Several men from Bernard: Eisenhower Presidential Library, Box 1392, Folder #1, pp. 5–6.
60 It was ever more: Ibid.
61 Just as often: Ellis, The Sharp End, p. 154.
62 Some fifty yards away: “When we clashed with the American Army it had already stormed through France and reached the borders of the Reich within seven months,” recalled Voss. “So, we had no doubt that we faced a serious and tough adversary. I don’t remember that we were told any disparaging or agitating things about the American soldiers in the field. We knew their resources were unlimited while ours were sparse. While in Denmark, after our endless march through the Arctic winter, our thoughts were focused on an extended leave. But that didn’t happen. Instead we found ourselves face to face with the Americans immediately upon our return to Germany. We had to learn from our own experience with them. From the beginning, we endured seemingly unlimited artillery fire that cost us unusually heavy casualties. Then, at Reipertswiller, the American soldiers won our respect.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
63 He watched as Sparks: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
64 “If [he] could pass”: Ibid.
65 The tank slid sideways: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
66 Several Thunderbirds lay bleeding: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
> 67 “Make a break for”: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
68 He looked around at: Eisenhower Presidential Library, Box 1392, Folder #1, pp. 5–6.
69 He had lost his: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 170.
70 Sparks climbed out of: Ibid.
71 There was no honor: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
72 Killing him would be: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
73 Incredibly, the SS still: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
74 Voss could still see: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
75 Never had he witnessed: Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
76 There was no way: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
77 He watched as Sparks: Buechner, Sparks, p. 118. See Joseph Crowley statement.
78 The tanks’ treads were: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
79 One had a broken: Ibid.
80 There was a hollow: Bull, World War II Infantry Tactics, p. 21.
81 Then the SS opened: Felix Sparks, Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
82 Bullets pinged and ricocheted: Buechner, Sparks, p. 117.
83 But neither tank was: Ibid., p. 118. Crowley added: “Enclosed is a letter Sparks sent on my behalf dated 5 July, 1985, recommending me for the Bronze Star Medal (for the second time). In the citation it is to be noted that he deliberately left himself out of this action. Since Sparks was the major player in this effort, the only conclusion that I can draw from this is that he wanted to lend more credence to the actions of the tank crews.… There must have been a lot of animosity existing between the Division Commanders and Sparks. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons why he was cheated and possibly why his recommendations were not honored. If anyone deserves this award, Sparks does. He was a courageous man if ever I saw one.” According to Crowley: “It was Col. Felix Sparks who initiated the breakthrough attempt. He was the first to get out of the tank not knowing if anyone would follow. I think that he deserved more than he got (a higher award). All this leads to another question. To my knowledge Hanson, who did the same thing as Zeek, got no award and other recommendations were shelved. Quite arbitrary I would say.”
84 The front of his: Certificate, 45th Cav Rcn TRP Mec Z 45th Inf Div, AFO 45, US ARMY, February 1, 1945, pp. 1–2, Carl O Winters, National Archives.