Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings (63 page)

36.
Morgan,
Overture to Overlord
, 71, 161 ff.

37.
Ibid., 161–62.

38.
Arthur Bryant,
The Turn of the Tide: A History of the War Years Based on the Diaries of Field-Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957), 577–80; William D. Leahy,
I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman Based on His Notes and Diaries
(New York: Whittlesey House, 1950), 17 (entry of August 14, 1943).

39.
Brooke Diary (August 15, 1943, and subsequent commentary), 441–42.

40.
Ibid. (August 19, 1943), 444.

41.
Ibid. (August 19, 1943, and subsequent commentary), 444–46. This story is told with particular vividness by Michael Harrington in
Mulberry: The Return in Triumph
(London: W. H. Allen, 1965), 143–45.

42.
Winston S. Churchill,
Closing the Ring
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951), 84; Morgan,
Overture to Overlord
, 165.

Chapter 6: Brits and Yanks

1.
Norman Longmate,
The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945
(London: Hutchinson, 1975), xiii.

2.
David Reynolds,
Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942–1945
(New York: Random House, 1995), 242–43; Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 42–52; Donald O. Good Oral History, NMPW, 3.

3.
John L. Horton, “Getting the Troops ‘Over There,’” in Paul Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on
Normandy: First Person Accounts from the Sea Services
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994), 131–32; Gene Jaeger,
Flat-Bottom Odyssey: From North Africa to D-Day
(Henry, IL: Prairie Ocean Press, 2010), 64.

4.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 48.

5.
Carleton F. Bryant, “Battleship Commander,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 182; Kenneth Newberg Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 3.

6.
Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 174–75; Norman Longmate,
The Home Front: An Anthology of Personal Experience, 1938–1945
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1981), 171.

7.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 1–2.

8.
Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 49.

9.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 57; Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 49; Walter Martini Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 4–5.

10.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 70, 242–46.

11.
A particularly devastating portrait of Lee is in Duncan Anderson, “‘Remember This Is an Invasion’: Planning and Buildup,” in Jane Penrose, ed.,
The D-Day Companion
(New Orleans: D-Day Museum, 2003), 40–42. Eisenhower’s letter of caution is DDE to J. C. H. Lee, March 22, 1944, PDDE, 3:1788. See also Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 105.

12.
Anderson, “Remember This Is an Invasion,” in Penrose,
D-Day Companion
, 45; Frederick Morgan,
Overture to Overlord
(Garden City, NY, 1950), 75.

13.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 39, 60.

14.
Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 278–79.

15.
Ibid., 197; Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 38–39. The story of billeting “Jones and Smith” is from Sidney Salomon, in D. M. Giangreco with Kathryn Moore,
Eyewitness D-Day
(New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2004), 39. “A great treat” is from Robert H. Miller Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 2.

16.
Angus Calder,
The People’s War: Britain, 1939–45
(London: Jonathan Cape, 1969), 308.

17.
Stark to U.S. Naval Forces Europe, September 16, 1943, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 18, NA; Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 148–49; Roy Carter Oral History, USNA, 21.

18.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 218–24.

19.
The quotation is from A. V. Dicey, British constitutional scholar, quoted in Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 145–46.

20.
DDE to R. L. Hartle, August 15, 1942, PDDE, 1:497; Calder,
The People’s War
, 309–10; Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 62; Frederick Morgan,
Overture to Overlord
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950), 125.

21.
Calder,
The People’s War
, 321–22; Brenda Devereux is quoted in Longmate,
The Home Front
, 172; Cornelius A. Burke, “Liberty Ship Signalman,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 143.

22.
Eden and Adams are both quoted in Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 187, 167. American authorities, including Generals Jacob Devers and Ira Eaker, protested that none of this was true. They made every effort, they insisted, to encourage fraternization. Nevertheless, in the wake of Eden’s letter, they established a Special Committee on “Anglo-American Relations.”

23.
DDE to J. C. H. Lee, September 5, 1942, PDDE, 1:544. Later in the war, when Ike returned as SHAEF, he issued another even more pointed notice: “Equal opportunities of service and of recreation are the right of every American soldier regardless of branch, race, color, or creed.” Eisenhower ordered this to be read aloud to all enlisted men. DDE to J. C. H. Lee, February 26, 1944, PDDE, 3:1750.

24.
Quoted in Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 303, 322. This story appears in a number of sources, but significantly, a Devon resident told it to me when I was a visiting professor at the British Naval Academy at Dartmouth in 1994.

25.
Graham Smith,
When Jim Crow Met John Bull: Black American Soldiers in World War II Britain
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987).

26.
First quotation: COMNAVEU (Stark) to COMINCH (King), June 18, 1943; second quotation: “Naval Assault Forces for Operation OVERLORD,” June 15, 1943, both in ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 16 and box 20, NA.

27.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 290; Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 125, 135.

28.
Paul S. Fauks, “My Only Job Was to Stay Alive,” in Stillwell, ed,
Assault on Normandy
, 79; LT Howard Vander Beek, in Edward F. Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex: Naval Stories of the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944
(Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998), 130.

29.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 292.

30.
Nigel Lewis,
Exercise Tiger: The Dramatic True Story of a Hidden Tragedy of World War II
(New York: Prentice Hall, 1990), 14–15; Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 295.

31.
Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 290; Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 112.

32.
Morgan and Churchill are quoted in Gordon A. Harrison,
The European Theater of
Operations: Cross-Channel Attack
(Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1951), 111, 109.

33.
The “very senior” British officer was Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who will be introduced in Chapter 8. See W. S. Chalmers,
Full Cycle: The Biography of Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1959), 137.

34.
Morgan,
Overture to Overlord
, 75.

35.
James E. Arnold, “NOIC Utah,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 86.

36.
Stimson to FDR, August 10, 1943, FRUS (Special Conferences Series), 3:496–97; Note by the British Chiefs of Staff, November 25, 1943, FRUS (Special Conferences Series), 2:409.

Chapter 7: “Some God-Dammed Things Called LSTs”

1.
Brooke’s statement is in Cabinet Meeting Minutes, January 7, 1943, FRUS (Special Conferences Series), 1:509. See also Frederic C. Lane,
Ships for Victory: A History of Shipbuilding Under the U.S. Maritime Commission in World War II
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1951), 12–13.

2.
Knox to Stimson, February 8, 1943, PGCM, 3:535n; Minutes of White House Conference, June 23, 1943, FRUS (Special Conferences Series), 1:441.

3.
Lewis W. Douglas in Minutes, White House Conference, June 23, 1942, FRUS (Special Conferences Series), 3:441; Knox to Stark, August 29, 1942, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 24, NA.

4.
CCS Minutes, September 18, 1942, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 9, NA.

5.
Lane,
Ships for Victory
, 650.

6.
The various landing craft types and their acronyms are listed in
ONI 226—Allied Landing Craft and Ships
(Washington, DC: Office of Naval Intelligence, 1944).

7.
U.S. Navy,
“Skill in the Surf”: A Landing Boat Manual
(February 1945), 9–10. Available at
www.history.navy.mil/library/online/surfskill.htm
.

8.
Ibid., 13.

9.
William T. O’Neill Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 10–11.

10.
The authority is Gordon L. Rottman in
Landing Ship Tank (LST), 1942–2002
(Westminster, MD: Osprey, 2005), 18.

11.
Ralph A. Crenshaw Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 3; Walter Trombold, “Civilians in Uniform,” in Paul Stilwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy: First-Person Accounts from the Sea Services
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994), 154–57; Vernon L. Paul Oral History, NWWIIM-EC, 6.

12.
Clendell Williams,
Echoes of Freedom: Builders of LST’s, 1942–1945
(Kearney, NE: Morris, 2011), 19; Edward F. Prados,
Neptunus Rex: Naval Stories of the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944
(Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998), 79; Roy Carter Oral History, USNA, 6–8.

13.
VCNO to Com 8th Naval District, September 29, 1943, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 18, NA; George T. Foy Oral History, NMPW, 13–15; Roy Carter Oral History, USNA, 6–8.

14.
Gene Jaeger,
Flat-Bottom Odyssey: From North Africa to D-Day
(Henry, IL: Prairie Ocean Press, 2010), 16; Reed Dunn, “War Stories,” in LCI(L) 335 file, LCI Association Collection, NMPW, series A, box 2, 21–22.

15.
Phil Goulding, “Address to LCI Association,” April 13, 1996, LCI(L) 506 file, LCI Association Collection, NMPW, series B, box 11, 25.

16.
Don Wolfe,
USS LST 655: A Ship’s History, 1944–1946
(Sonora, CA: Don Wolfe, 2002), 41; Jaeger,
Flat-Bottom Odyssey
, 54.

17.
Wolfe,
USS LST 655: A Ship’s History, 1944–1946
; Trombold, “Civilians in Uniform,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 161.

18.
Gordon Rottman,
Landing Ship Tank (LST), 1942–2002
(Oxford: Osprey, 2005), 10.

19.
Jaeger,
Flat-Bottom Odyssey
, 73. For details about the operation of LSTs, I am grateful to Otis Bingemer, former crewmember of LST-235 and a veteran of Operation Neptune, who gave me a tour of his ship at Evansville, Indiana, where it was built.

20.
Stimson to FDR, March 27, 1942, in Henry L. Stimson with McGeorge Bundy,
On
Active Service in Peace and War
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947), 417–18; CCS Minutes, April 28, 1942, and June 2, 1942, both in ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 9, NA.

21.
Lane,
Ships for Victory
, 610; George Elsey, “Strategy and Security,” in Stillwell, ed.,
Assault on Normandy
, 14; CCS Minutes, September 18, October 2, and November 6, 1942, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, folder 9, NA; George E. Mowry,
Landing Craft and the War Production Board, April 1942 to May 1944
(Washington, DC: War Production Board, 1946), 11–13, 21–22, 34. See also the list of “Shipyards Participating in LST and Destroyer Escort Production,” in Mowry,
Landing Craft
, 75.

22.
CCS Minutes, June 16, 1942, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 9, NA; Knox to FDR, October 19, 1942, ibid., box 24; Mowry,
Landing Craft and the War Production Board
, 34.

23.
Mowry,
Landing Craft and the War Production Board
, 27–29, 34, 40, 58; Frederick C. Morgan,
Overture to Overlord
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950), 170. Morgan does not name the person with whom he had this conversation, only that it
was one who “should know,” but internal and circumstantial evidence suggests it was Nelson.

24.
Lane,
Ships for Victory
, 183–84, 311.

25.
Ibid., 144, 149; Mowry,
Landing Craft and the War Production Board
, 14–15, 17.

26.
Williams,
Echoes of Freedom
, 24.

27.
Ibid., 37.

28.
Lane,
Ships for Victory
, 183–94.

29.
Prados, ed.,
Neptunus Rex
, 79; Mowry,
Landing Craft and the War Production Board
, 30.

30.
DDE to CCS, October 31 and November 4, 1943, PDDE, 3:1545, 1549. See also DDE to GCM, December 25, 1943, PDDE, 3:1614.

31.
McCarthy to Thackery, October 29, 1943, ANCXF Papers, Subject File, box 6, folder 4, NA; WSC to COS, December 25, 1943, in Winston S. Churchill,
Closing the Ring
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951), 431–32.

32.
King to Stark, May 9, 1944, and Sextant to Agwar, December 1, 1943, both in ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 16, NA; Churchill to Brooke, December 19, 1943, in Churchill,
Closing the Ring
, 429.

33.
Brynes to FDR, November 24 and November 27, 1943, FRUS (Special Conferences Series), 2:395–97, 444; Knox to Stark, April 14, 1944, ComUSNavEu, Subject File, RG 313, box 24, NA. Italics added.

34.
Moses D. Manning Jr. Oral History (p. 2), and Ralph A. Crenshaw Oral History (p. 3), both in NWWIIM-EC.

35.
Gordon A. Harrison,
The United States Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations, Cross-Channel Attack
(Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1951), 64.