The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (125 page)

Half a dozen flak battalions
: Carell,
Invasion—They’re Coming!
, 114–15; Zetterling,
Normandy 1944
, 48 (
sixty trains
); Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 156 (Das Reich
matériel and troops
).

“
My friends, you are going to appear
”: Hastings,
Das Reich
, 116–26, 170–82; Foot,
SOE in France
, 399 (“
book of iniquity
”).

Evil also shadowed
: Cooper,
The German Army, 1933–1945
, 503; Milner, “Stopping the Panzers,”
JMH
(Apr. 2010): 491
+
; Isby, ed.,
Fighting the Invasion
, 241; Zetterling,
Normandy 1944
, 46 (
too low on fuel
); Chandler and Collins, eds.,
The D-Day Encyclopedia
, 361 (
former miner and policeman
); Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 72–73 (
broken nineteen bones
); Murray and Millett,
A War to Be Won
, 423 (
tossing live hand grenades
).

Like hornets the grenadiers swarmed
: Milner, “Stopping the Panzers,”
JMH
(Apr. 2010): 491
+
; Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 147 (
chocolate, peanuts
).

Belated salvos from the warships
:
VC
, 132–33; C. P. Stacey, “Operation Overlord and Its Sequel,” Canadian Military HQ, report no. 131, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML, #640, 13–14 (
more than two miles
); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, 1981, Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 4–5 (“
couple days
”).

Yet Panzermeyer lacked the strength
: Margolian,
Conduct Unbecoming
, 58–64.

“
Why do you bring prisoners
”: Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 181–82; C. P. Stacey, “Canadian Participation in the Operations of North-West Europe,” Canadian Military HQ, report no. 147, Oct. 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML (
Murder Division
); “Report on the Court of Inquiry,” SHAEF, July 1944, NARA RG 331, 290/715/2, E-56, box 2; Margolian,
Conduct Unbecoming
, 102; Hart,
Clash of Arms
, 383–85 (
cycle of atrocity
); McKee,
Caen: Anvil of Victory
, 201 (“
We just shoot them
”); Beevor,
The Second World War
, 594 (“
NPT below rank major
”). War crimes courts later found the 12th SS Panzer Division culpable for sixty-two cold-blooded murders; many scholars and soldiers believe the number of victims was at least double that. Reynolds,
Steel Inferno
, 94.

Canadian battle casualties approached three thousand
:
VC
, 140; Granatstein,
The Generals
, 132 (“
fuck and frontal
”); English,
The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign
, 310 (
expanded to more than fiftyfold
).

“
They went at it like hockey players
”: Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 125;
CCA
, 373–74 (
Authie impossible to replicate
); Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 175 (“
screamed from rage
”); Milner, “Stopping the Panzers,”
JMH
(Apr. 2010): 491
+
(“
stupid things
”).

Among the bastards watching
: Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 42–43; MMB, 181; Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 170 (“
My dear Meyer
”);
CCA
, 373–74.

Trailers, tents, and four large radio trucks
: Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 303; Bennett,
Ultra in the West
, 58–59 (
rely increasingly on the radio
), 68–69; George F. Howe, “American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe,” n.d., SRH 391, NSA, NARA RG 457, E 9002, 134 (
seventeen thousand messages a day
); Hinsley, 486–90.

Geyr now cocked an ear
: Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 179–80.

Geyr escaped with minor wounds
: Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 303; Bennett,
Ultra in the West
, 68–69 (
fled to Paris
).

Similar decapitations further impaired
: Geyr, “Reflections on the Invasion,”
Military Review
(Jan. 1961): 2
+
; Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 195; Günther Keil, “919th Grenadier Regiment,” n.d., FMS, #C-018, MHI, 36–38 (“
little piece of life
”); Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 173–74 (
wooden leg
); McLean,
Quiet Flows the Rhine
, 2, 130 (
675 World War II German generals
).

“
The Seventh Army is everywhere
”:
VW
, vol. 1, 258; “Special Messages,” June 11, 1944, UK NA, HW 1/2927 (
intercepted by Ultra
); Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, ETHINT 13, Dec. 11, 1947, MHI, 6 (
antiaircraft gun carriers
);
BP
, 33 (
borrow fifteen machine guns
).

Rommel too was unnerved
: Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers
, 477–78; Ruge,
Rommel in Normandy
, 183 (“
territory for bargaining
”); Cooper,
The German Army, 1933–1945
, 504–5 (“
every man shall fight
”).

“
The battle is not going
”: Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers
, 491–93.

Rommel’s lament would have delighted
: “Monty’s Wartime Caravans,”
AB
, no. 20 (1978): 32
+
; Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 336. John Colville, who was Churchill’s private secretary, reported that Montgomery had even signed some of his own photographs. Colville,
Footprints in Time
, 184–87 (“
three of Rommel
”).

On D
+
2 he had come home to Normandy
: Montgomery,
A Field-Marshal in the Family
, 7–8; author visit, Creullet, May 29, 2009; Eisenhower,
General Ike
, 115 (“
keep left
”); Kennedy,
The Business of War
, 343 (“
betting book
”); Hamilton,
Master of the Battlefield
, 718 (“
beaten when necessary
”); Hamilton,
Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976
, 419 (
menagerie
); Kingston McCloughry,
Direction of War
, 158 (“
slender, hard, hawk-like
”); J. S. W. Stone, memoir, n.d., LHC, folder 5, 22 (
reading scripture
).

“
The way to fame
”: D’Este,
Decision in Normandy
, 504; Moorehead,
Montgomery
, 188–89 (
275 guineas
); Howarth, ed.,
Monty at Close Quarters
, 22 (“
Master
”), 79 (“
interesting personage
”); Lewin,
Montgomery as Military Commander
, 349 (“
Cromwellian figure
”); Granatstein,
The Generals
, 113 (“
God Almonty
”);
PP
, 472 (“
little monkey
”); Hastings,
Armageddon
, 26 (“
little shit
”); Moran,
Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran
, 174 (“
Monty wants to be a king
”); OH, Charles Miles Dempsey, March 12–13, 1947, FCP, MHI (“
Monty is a good man
”).

He had arrived for the second time
: Carver, ed.,
The War Lords
, 501; Raymond Callahan, “Two Armies in Normandy,” in Wilson, ed.,
D-Day 1944
, 261 (“
last great field army
”); Belfield and Essame,
The Battle for Normandy
, 47 (
British Liberation Army
).

“
the power of commanding affection
”: Carver, ed.,
The War Lords
, 503; Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 319–20 (“
tolerant and judicious
”); Moorehead,
Montgomery
, 36 (“
mousetrap
”); Howarth, ed.,
Monty at Close Quarters
, 11 (“
a burning glass
”).

“
I keep clear of all details
”: Richardson,
Send for Freddie
, 146; Leasor,
The Clock with Four Hands
, 7 (“
Do you agree
”); Howarth, ed.,
Monty at Close Quarters
, 28 (“
One was impressed
”); OH, Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, Oct. 1, 1966, John S. D. Eisenhower, CBM, MHI, box 6, 9 (
usual bedtime
).

“
too many of his best qualities
”: Lewin,
Montgomery as Military Commander
, 342; Carver, ed.,
The War Lords
, 501–3 (“
Like Bottom
”); Howarth, ed.,
Monty at Close Quarters
, 37 (“
only rude intentionally
”).

“
very small-boyish
”: Hamilton,
Master of the Battlefield
, 537, 546 (“
As long as 51 percent
”); Miller,
Ike the Soldier
, 660 (
refuse to attend her funeral
); Irving,
The War Between the Generals
, 170; Moorehead,
Montgomery
, 36; Howarth, ed.,
Monty at Close Quarters
, 23 (“
Alone I done it
”).

“
Enjoying life greatly
”: Hamilton,
Master of the Battlefield
, 652.

The
OVERLORD
plan
was
largely his
: Ellis,
Brute Force
, 374; OH, David Belchem, 21st AG, Feb. 20, 1947, FCP, MHI (
American right to capture Cherbourg
); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 311–12 (“
My general policy
”); memo, B. L. Montgomery, Apr. 14, 1944, IWM, Christopher “Kit” Dawnay collection, PP/MCR, C46, Ancillary Collections, micro R-1 (“
armored force thrusts
”).

Thirty-four Allied armored battalions
: Zetterling,
Normandy 1944
, 107; Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 457 (“
gutless bugger
”).

A flanking attack from west of Caen
: D’Este,
Decision in Normandy
, 176–89;
VW
, vol. 1, 254–56.

“
The whole show on land
”: Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Daily Reflections on the Course of the Battle,” UK NA, AIR 37/784; Moorehead,
Montgomery
, 217 (“
a gunman’s world
”); Hastings,
Inferno
, 524 (“
Bloody murder
”); Lewis, ed.,
The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II
, 405–6 (“
Day of Hell
”).

For the Americans in the west
: Friedrich Freiherr von der Heydte, “A German Parachute Regiment in Normandy,” 1954, FMS, #B-839, MHI, 16–19;
CCA
, 366–67; Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 93 (“
Lousy & undersized
”), 125 (“
I thought of Carthage
”); “FUSA Weekly Report, 6–14 June 1944,” in “Memorandum to Harrison,” May 27, 1948, CMH.

Bradley late on June 13
: corr, Clarence R. Huebner to G. A. Harrison, Oct. 17, 1947, NARA RG 319,
CCA
historical files, box 164.

“
I’m sitting in a little gray stone
”: TR to Eleanor, June 11, 1944, LOC MS, box 10.

No one took a greater proprietary interest
: “General de Gaulle Visit to Normandy, 14 June 1944,” UK NA, ADM 1/16018; Aron,
France Reborn
, 45–47 (“
not altogether in accordance
”).

“
I wrote to Mr. Churchill
”: Kersaudy,
Churchill and De Gaulle
, 357; Beevor and Cooper
, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949
, 29 (“
Has it occurred to you
”); Fenby,
The General
, 142-44.

“
We have not come to France
”: Beevor and Cooper,
Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949
, 109; “General de Gaulle Visit to Normandy, 14 June 1944,” UK NA, ADM 1/16018 (“
dislike of smoking
”); Aron,
France Reborn
, 45–47 (“
I missed him in Africa
”).

“
a stiff, lugubrious figure
”: Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 122; Beevor and Cooper,
Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949
, 30 (
saluting gendarmes
); Whitehead, “
Beachhead Don
,” 130–31 (“Vive De Gaulle”); Donnison,
Civil Affairs and Military Government in North-West Europe
, 78–79 (
Several thousand people awaited
); De Gaulle,
The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle
, 563–64 (“
women smiled and sobbed
”); author visit, Bayeux, May 27, 2009, historical signage, Place de Gaulle (“
glorious and mutilated
”); Aron,
France Reborn
, 45–47 (“
The path of war
”).

After belting out
“
La Marseillaise
”: “General de Gaulle Visit to Normandy, 14 June 1944,” UK NA, ADM 1/16018 (
fourteen hotel rooms
); Hamilton,
Master of the Battlefield
, 666; De Gaulle,
The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle
, 638 (“
France would live
”); Robb,
The Discovery of France
, 29 (“
cheese
”).