The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (126 page)

Montgomery wrote Churchill
: BLM to WSC, June 15, 1944, UK NA, CAB 120/867; Guérard,
France: A Short History
, 239 (“
Blessed be he
”).

Terror Is Broken by Terror

In happier days, when the Reich
:
Germany IX
, 415 (
a force of 28,000 workers
);
World War II Diary of Jean Gordon Peltier
, MRC FDM, 181–82 (
new maple furniture
); Mark Watson, “As I Saw It,” in Knickerbocker et al.,
Danger Forward
, 269–70 (
bootjack
); Stenbuck, ed.,
Typewriter Battalion
, 222–24 (
Potemkin farmhouses
); Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 105 (
Soissons Cathedral
).

“
the most forbidden place in France
”: Stenbuck, ed.,
Typewriter Battalion
, 222–24; Beevor,
D-Day
, 172 (“
meat flies
”);
http://www.hitlerpages.com/pagina33.html
.

This was Hitler’s first return to France
:
CCA
, 140; Fest,
Hitler
, 695–98 (“
tipping to the right
”); Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 111 (
personal command
).

Hitler sat hunched on a wooden stool
: Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 106–7; Bertram H. Ramsay, dispatch,
London Gazette
, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109
+
. Twenty Allied divisions had landed by D
+
9, but Rommel put the number at twenty-six. James Hodgson, “The German Defense of Normandy,” Sept. 1953, R-24, NARA RG 319, 270/19/30/4-7, box 6, 8–9.

The German Seventh Army opposed them
: Cooper,
The German Army, 1933–1945
, 503; Edward J. Drea, “Unit Reconstitution: A Historical Perspective,” Dec. 1983, CSI, 16 (
averaged under eleven thousand
);
VW
, vol. 1, 262 (
casualties had reached 26,000
);
WaS
, 62; James Hodgson, “The German Defense of Normandy,” Sept. 1953, R-24, NARA RG 319, 270/19/30/4-7, box 6, 8–9 (
superiority in matériel
).

Anglo-American warplanes harried
: G. Rundstedt, “Experiences from the Invasion Battles of Normandy,” June 20, 1944, in
Naval Intelligence Weekly
, Nov. 15, 1944, Sidney Negretto Papers, MHI, box 4; Biddle,
Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare
, 280 (
three hundred trains
);
Germany VII
, 328–30 (
German aircraft reinforcements
); F. Ruge, “Coast Defense and Invasion,” June 9, 1947, ONI IR 243, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 642; Buffetaut,
D-Day Ships
, 147 (
Le Havre
).

American tanks had crossed the Cherbourg–Coutances road
: Isby, ed.,
Fighting the Invasion
, 30.

“
Don’t call it a beachhead
”: Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 165; Blumentritt,
Von Rundstedt
, 235; Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 106–7 (“
Cherbourg is to be held
”).

Rundstedt said little
: Barnett, ed.,
Hitler’s Generals
, 175–76, 191–98; Roberts,
The Storm of War
, 501 (Der alte Herr); Holt,
The Deceivers
, 570–71 (Der schwarze Ritter); Blumentritt,
Von Rundstedt
, 13–15 (
Junker gentry
); MMB, 477–78.

Beset by rheumatism
: Liddell Hart,
The Other Side of the Hill
, 390 (“
psychic resignation
”); Holt,
The Deceivers
, 570–71 (
slept late
); Isby, ed.,
Fighting the Invasion
, 47 (
disdained both the telephone
), 50 (“
just as before 1866
”); Liddell Hart,
The German Generals Talk
, 71–72 (“
brown dirt
”); Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 89–90 (“
Bohemian corporal
”); “Battle of the Bulge,” PIR, MHI, 12 (“Quatsch!”); G. Rundstedt, British interrogation, July 9, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML #2126, box 24231 (“
cheap bluff
”); Barnett, ed.,
Hitler’s Generals
, 185; Günther Blumentritt, ETHINT 73, Jan. 1946, MHI, 2–4 (
deepened his gloom
).

Now Rundstedt stepped forward
: James Hodgson, “The German Defense of Normandy,” Sept. 1953, R-24, NARA RG 319, 270/19/30/4-7, box 6, 8–9; Irving,
The Trail of the Fox
, 387 (“
The fortress is to hold out
”); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 326 (“
They must hold here
”).

Rundstedt thought another invasion was likely
: G. Rundstedt, British interrogation, July 9, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427, ETO ML #2126, box 24231; Holt,
The Deceivers
, 580–81 (
diverted but a single division
); Howard,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 5,
Strategic Deception
, 189 (
twenty-one others
); Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 86 (
Rundstedt agreed with Marshal Rommel
); Liddell Hart,
The Other Side of the Hill
, 401; Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 98–99;
CCA
, 412–13.

“
You must stay where you are
”: Liddell Hart,
The Other Side of the Hill
, 410.

Great things were afoot
:
IFG
, 46–47; Hinsley, 483–84;
WaS
, 69.

“
imagination run wild
”:
Germany VII
, 420; Hinsley, 424 (
Volkswagen factory
);
AAFinWWII
, 105 (
thirty-six thousand tons
); “The V-Weapons,”
AB
, no. 6 (1974): 2
+
(
simple mobile equipment
); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 85 (
weapon was a flying torpedo
); Irving,
The Mare’s Nest
, 299 (“
cherry stones
”).

The first salvo, launched from western France
: Hinsley, 428–29;
Germany VII
, 375 (“
Terror is broken by terror
”).

Rundstedt suggested that the V-1
: Liddell Hart, ed.
The Rommel Papers
, 454n; Goerlitz,
History of the German General Staff, 1657–1945
, 460–61;
Germany VII
, 426–29 (
margin of error
); Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 109 (“
easier for peace
”).

They broke for lunch
: Blumentritt,
Von Rundstedt
, 235; Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 110; Irving,
The Trail of the Fox
, 386–88 (
three liqueur glasses
).

“
What do you really think of our chances
”: Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 333; Goerlitz,
History of the German General Staff, 1657–1945
, 460–61 (“
Attend to your invasion front
”).

“
The discussion had no success
”:
VW
, vol. 1, 269; Bodo Zimmermann, 1946, FMS, #B-308, MHI, 112 (
V-1 flew east rather than west
);
Germany VII
, 432 (
court-martial investigators
); Kershaw,
Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis
, 643 (“
Only optimists
”).

“
cannot escape the Führer’s influence
”: Irving,
The Trail of the Fox
, 387; Ruge,
Rommel in Normandy
, 190–97, 234 (“
endless parallels
”).

Rommel retired to his chambers
: author visit, La Roche–Guyon, May 30, 2009; Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers
, 492 (“
The long-range action
”).

Even on the Sabbath morn
:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/homefront/arp/arp4a.html
(
crowed in jubilaton
).

In the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks
: “Services Tomorrow,”
Times
(London), June 17, 1944, 8; Ziegler,
London at War, 1939–1945
, 290 (“
Te Deum
”); Baker,
Ernest Hemingway
, 501–3 (“
white-hot bunghole
”); Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
, 39–40.

Then they heard nothing
: King and Kutta,
Impact
, 198–99;
www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V1
*
; War Damage Report No. 1861, Royal Military Guards Chapel, Aug. 3, 1944, UK NA, IR 37/59 (
blew out walls
); author visit, Guards Chapel and Museum, Apr. 5, 2010; McKee,
Caen: Anvil of Victory
, 133–34 (“
Be thou faithful
”).

Clementine Churchill hastened home
: Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
, 39–40; reminiscence, George Laity, Aug. 15, 2005,
www.bbc.co.uk/print/ww2peopleswar/stories/66
*
(
wax tableau
); McKee,
Caen: Anvil of Victory
, 133–34 (
Churchill wept
).

That afternoon he motored to Bushy Park
: Chandler, 1933;
AAFinWWII
, 526–32;
CCA
, 215–17 (
thirty thousand attack sorties
);
www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Monuments-Paris/Eiffel.shtml
(four Eiffel Towers
); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 33–34 (
forty or more times
); Lyall, ed.,
The War in the Air
, 374 (
harpoons
).

CROSSBOW
countermeasures in the coming weeks
: Hillson, “Barrage Balloons for Low-Level Air Defense,”
Airpower Journal
(summer 1989): 37
+
;
Germany VII
, 430; Lyall, ed.,
The War in the Air
, 378 (
learned to use their wings
); Baldwin,
The Deadly Fuze
, 257–58 (
eight times more difficult
); Collier,
The Defence of the United Kingdom
, 383–84 (
guns were shifted from greater London
); Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
, 40 (
Bomb Alley
).

Eisenhower’s
“
first priority
”
edict
:
AAFinWWII
, 532, 528 (
one hundred V-1s were still fired at Target 42 each day
); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, 100 (
one-quarter of all combat sorties
); Collier,
The Defence of the United Kingdom
, 387 (
73,000 tons
); Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 432 (
bombers had little impact
); diary, July 4, 1944, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 2 (“
give the enemy full credit
”).

A British study calculated
: “CROSSBOW Probable Scale and Effect of Attack on London by Pilotless Aircraft,” Jan. 10, 1944, British COS, NARA RG 331, E 3, SHAEF SGS, 290/7/4/4-5, box 132; corr, Bernard Lipford, 115th Inf, NARA RG 407, E 427, HI (“
pushed through the walls
”).

Soon not a pane of glass remained
: King and Kutta,
Impact
, 202, 211; Fussell,
Wartime
, 215 (“
little devilish laughs
”); Eisenhower,
Letters to Mamie
, 197 (
nineteen times
); Ziegler,
London at War, 1939–1945
, 306 (“
How squalid
”).

Fewer and fewer were willing
: King and Kutta,
Impact
, 211; Collier,
The Defence of the United Kingdom
, 395 (“
an ordeal perhaps as trying
”).

How Easy It Is to Make a Ghost

West of Bayeux, the Norman uplands
: Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 152–53; Davies, “Geographical Factors in the Invasion and Battle of Normandy,”
Geographical Review
(Oct. 1946): 613
+
(
pre-Cambrian schist
); memo, Cleave A. Jones, July 17, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (
sunken lanes
);
Nouveau Petit Larousse
, 1934,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocage
(“
agreeable shady
”); Wellard,
The Man in a Helmet
, 126 (“
Gethsemane
”); Doubler,
Busting the Bocage
, 21 (
Guadalcanal
).

“
I couldn’t imagine the bocage
”: OH, ONB, 1974–75, Charles Hanson, MHI, IX-4; “Neptune Monograph,” TF 122, Apr. 21, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 23, SHAEF G-3 Plans, 290/7/10/6, box 43 (
amply forewarned
);
The 35th Infantry Division in World War II
(“
fortification like a wall
”); terrain study, Charles H. Bonesteel III, FUSA, Apr. 18, 1944, Arthur S. Nevins papers, MHI (“
Norman bocage
”); OH, Charles H. Bonesteel III, 1973, Robert St. Louis, SOOHP, MHI, 164; “Appreciation of Possible Development of Operations to Secure a Lodgment Area,” May 7, 1944, 21st AG, UK NA, WO 205/118, 2;
St.-Lô
, 4 (
four thousand hedged enclosures
); Cawthon,
Other Clay
, 76 (“
We were rehearsed endlessly
”).