The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (128 page)

Now Cherbourg was nearly his
: Ruppenthal,
Utah Beach to Cherbourg
, 193; Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 150–52 (
GIs fought to the docks
); Johnson,
History of the Twelfth Infantry Regiment in World War II
, 112.

General von Schlieben had by now retreated
: Carell,
Invasion—They’re Coming!
, 177 (“
swing a cat
”);
CCA
, 438 (“
Documents burned
”); memo, Cleave A. Jones, June 26, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (“
It was good
”).

Within minutes a German soldier
: Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 158–59; Breuer,
Hitler’s Fortress Cherbourg
, 232; Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 313 (
a printed menu
); Mittelman, ed.,
Hold Fast!
, 17 (“
I too am tired
”).

a
“
looter’s heaven
”: corr, Thor M. Smith to family, July 5, 1944, Smith papers, HIA; Whitehead, “
Beachhead Don
,” 159–60 (“
shaving cream
”); OH, Albert Mumma, July 22, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 11 (
Hôtel Atlantique
); memo, Cleave A. Jones, June 26, 1944, SHAEF, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, UD 603, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (
canned octopus
); “Cherbourg, Gateway to France: Rehabilitation and Operation of the First Major Port,” 1945, NARA RG 319, ETO HD, 8-3.1 AE; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities of II Corps,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 136 (
two bottles of wine and three of liquor
); Mason, ed.,
The Atlantic War Remembered
, 411–15 (“
one big drunk
”); Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 162–63. Capture of the oil tanks “ranked with the seizure of the Remagen bridge” across the Rhine nine months later, in one logistian’s analysis.
LSA
, vol. 1, 500.

Those who had inspected the port
: Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI;
CCA
, 441–42 (“
a masterful job
”); “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492 (“
completely wrecked
”); “Port Plans, Pre-Invasion,” n.d., NARA RG 319,
LSA
background files, 2-3.7 CB 6 (
Trainloads of explosives
); F. K. Newcomer, Jr., “Analytical Study of the Rehabilitation of the Port of Cherbourg,” n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC, ANSCOL, box 234, 14–18; Beck, 352.

Countless booby traps seeded the ruins
: “Cherbourg Port Reconstruction,” Office of the Chief Engineer, ETO, March 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC, ANSCOL, USA ETO Z-2, box 1128, 30–32; Mason, ed.,
The Atlantic War Remembered
, 410 (
four hundred mines
);
IFG
, 217 (
eight magnetic and eight acoustical sweeps
); Harlan D. Bynell, “Logistical Planning and Operations—Europe,” lecture, Oct. 31, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, NWC, ANSCOL, L-7-44, box 199, 9 (
tedious, dangerous reconstruction
);
LSA
, vol. 2, 71–75; “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492 (
not until mid-July
); Beck, 355 (
deepwater basins
); “Port Plans, Pre-Invasion,” n.d., NARA RG 319,
LSA
background files, 2-3.7 CB 6 (“
One cannot avoid noticing
”).

“
this most pregnant victory
”: WSC to J. Stalin, June 29, 1944, “Strategy and Operations, vol. 2,” UK NA, CAB 120/421.

22,000 VII Corps casualties
: Ruppenthal,
Utah Beach to Cherbourg
, 199; Coles and Weinberg,
Civil Affairs
, 731 (
sewn from American parachutes
), 735 (
firearms and pigeons
); Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 162–63 (“
the fucking generals
”).

Prisoners by the acre
: Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 153; Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 138 (“
lines of invective
”); OH, Albert Mumma, July 22, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 7 (
floatable conveyance
); memo, W. H. S. Wright, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF Top Secret Gen’l Corr, box 2, folder 319.1 (
ballads from the Seven Years’ War
); Blumentritt,
Von Rundstedt
, 238–39; MMB, 138; Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 160–61.

“
To Alton C. Bright
”: Babcock,
War Stories
, 213–16.

In a nearby nineteenth-century French naval hospital
: Cosmas and Cowdrey,
Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations
, 261–63; Joseph R. Darnall, “Powdered Eggs and Purple Hearts,” 1946, MHUC, Professional Papers, Group 1, box 24, 133 (“
stinking in their blood-soaked dressings
”); Sforza,
A Nurse Remembers
, no pagination (“
dirty instruments everywhere
”); Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 164 (“
Perhaps more men should know
”), 159.

Two bordellos promptly opened
: “Official Study of Port of Cherbourg,” 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #492; Hitchcock,
The Bitter Road to Freedom
, 49 (“
Collaborators’ Wagon
”), 382n; Beevor,
D-Day
, 449 (
smelled for miles
), 516.

“
cosmoline gun-metal preservative
”: Babcock,
Taught to Kill
, 84.

C
HAPTER
3: L
IBERATION

A Monstrous Blood-Mill

One million Allied soldiers
: The millionth soldier landed on July 5. Dispatch, Bertram H. Ramsay,
London Gazette
, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109
+
.

the invasion increasingly resembled the deadlock at Anzio
: OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, 270/19/5/4, box 184; Sylvan, 31 (
labyrinthine burrows
); Faubus,
In This Faraway Land
, 157 (“
They keep lobbing mortars
”); Thompson,
The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe
, 137 (
daily casualties in Normandy
); msg, Dietrich von Choltitz, July 15, 1944, in James Hodgson, “The Battle of the Hedgerows,” Aug. 1954, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-54, box 8, IV-27 (“
a monstrous blood-mill
”); Zuckerman,
From Apes to Warlords
, 280 (“
I can’t afford to stay here
”).

“
concentrate all available air
”: ALH, vol. 2, 104.

The supreme commander’s jitters
: Crosswell,
Beetle
, 657 (
Chesterfields
); Miller,
Ike the Soldier
, 662 (“
slow-up medicine
”);
Three Years
, 584, 602 (
sucking panes
); diary, June 30 and July 8, 1944, Barbara Wyden papers, DDE Lib, box 1 (“
How I suffer!
”); Eisenhower,
Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945
, 348 (
back of a P-51 Mustang
); Davis,
Soldier of Democracy
, 501 (“
Marshall would raise hell
”); diary, CBH, July 2, 1944, MHI, box 4 (“
Shoot the bastard
”).

“
the Dogfight
”: Jackson,
Overlord
, 174.

“
I am familiar with your plan
”: DDE to BLM, July 7, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, 381.

Montgomery’s reply a day later
: Copp and McAndrew,
Battle Exhaustion
, 116–17 (
Canadian 3rd Division
); BLM to DDE, July 8, 1944, DDE Lib, PP-pres, box 83 (“
I am, myself, quite happy
”); BLM to DDE, July 8, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, 381 (“
the battle is going very well
”).

“
I like him very much
”: D’Este,
Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life
, 564; Hamilton,
Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976
, 273 (“
making sure I’m not sacked
”).

“
Chief Big Wind
”: Crosswell,
Beetle
, 659; Kingston McCloughry,
Direction of War
, 144 (“
something of a dictator
”); Tedder,
With Prejudice
, 556 (
told Churchill in late June
); “Excerpts from Diary, D/SAC,” kept by Wing Commander Leslie Scarman, July 8, 1944, NARA RG 319,
Supreme Command
background files, 2-3.7 CB 8 (“
The problem is Monty
”); Trafford Leigh-Mallory, “Daily Reflections on the Course of the Battle,” June 15, 19, 27, July 17, 1944, UK NA, AIR 37/784 (“
egg-bound
”).

Churchill too grew waspish
: WSC to A. Brooke, June 18, 1944, and WSC to H. Ismay, July 16, 1944, “Strategy and Operations, vol. II,” UK NA, CAB 120/421; Parkinson,
A Day’s March Nearer Home
, 334–41 (
anthrax looked promising
); Addison,
Churchill, the Unexpected Hero
, 194–95 (“
one by one by bombing attack
”).

“
a cold-blooded calculation
”: Addison,
Churchill, the Unexpected Hero
, 194–95.

whether Allied poison gas would shorten
: Eisenhower had reiterated SHAEF’s no-first-use policy in late June 1944. ALH, vol. 2, 116.

“
It would be absurd
”: Addison,
Churchill, the Unexpected Hero
, 194–95; Parkinson,
A Day’s March Nearer Home
, 334–41 (“
harassing effect
”); margin note, SHAEF chief of staff meeting minutes, July 5, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 3, SGS, 290/7/4/4-5, box 128 (“
I will
not
be party
”).

Montgomery’s battle plan required
: Hogan,
A Command Post at War
, 91–95 (
little imagination
); Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 113 (
three corps abreast
);
BP
, 125–27 (“
more or less confused
”).

Beyond Omaha Beach, on the left flank
:
BP
, 109–14 (
congestion, fratricide
), 82–84 (“
That is exactly what I
don’t
want
”); Baker,
Ernest Hemingway
, 511 (“
the deads
”); Hogan,
A Command Post at War
, 100 (
nine generals
); Belfield and Essame,
The Battle for Normandy
, 187 (“
the sadness of it
”).

“
too softhearted to take a division
”: Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 333.

Roosevelt had been frantically busy
: Jeffers,
In the Rough Rider’s Shadow
, 261;
BP
, 86, 131; corr, TR to Eleanor, June 17, 24, July 3, 7, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 10; Renehan,
The Lion’s Pride
, 239 (“
a desperate weariness
”); Michael David Pearlman, “To Make Democracy Safe for the World,” Ph.D. diss, University of Illinois, 1978, 603 (“
Maybe my feet hurt
”).

After a conference with Collins
: “Official Statement of the Military Service and Death of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,” Aug. 29, 1958, TR, LOC MS Div, box 39; corr, R. O. Barton to Eleanor Roosevelt, July 13, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 32 (“
The show goes on
”).

An Army half-track bore Roosevelt
: Liebling,
Mollie & Other War Pieces
, 220 (“Libérateurs”).

Roosevelt never knew
: Medal of Honor recommendation, R. O. Barton, June 27, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 39; Wheeler,
The Big Red One
, 300–301 (
Marshall made certain
); corr, Elizabeth Beston Henry to Eleanor Roosevelt, July 25, 1944, TR, LOC MS Div, box 26 (“
Elizabethan quality
”).

“
a very ancient place
”: Baedeker,
Northern France
, 162–63.

Although sacked by Vikings
: Balkoski,
Beyond the Beachhead
, 268; Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, 138 (
Calvinist apostates
);
BP
, 146 (
bombers returned every day
); Aron,
France Reborn
, 104 (
ten living inhabitants
).

Eight roads and a rail line
: Mansoor,
The GI Offensive in Europe
, 153; Doubler,
Busting the Bocage
, 15; Whitehead, “
Beachhead Don
,” 190 (
fifty-mile front
);
Reporting World War II
, vol. 2, 541 (“
big-stuff bombs”
);
BP
, 150–51 (“
moth-eaten
”), 140 (“
on their last legs
”); Mayo,
The Ordnance Department
, 250 (
Civil War battlefields
); Daglish,
Operation Goodwood
, 27 (
five hundred yards a day
);
St.-Lô
, 51 (
29th Infantry Division
).

“
Everything about him was explosive
”: Cawthon,
Other Clay
, 27–28, 34 (“
Twenty-nine, let’s go!
”); Cawthon, “Pursuit: Normandy, 1944,”
American Heritage
(Feb. 1978): 80
+
(“
eradicator of lethargy
”); “Memoirs of Charles Hunter Gerhardt,” July 1964, MHI; Gerhardt biographical material, MMD; Miller,
Division Commander
, 71 (“
Loose Reins
”); e-mail, Roy Livengood to author, Nov. 8, 2008 (“
General Chickenshit
”); OH, Charles L. Bolte, Maclyn Burg, Jan. 29, 1975, MHI, 172–77 (“
describe the resuscitation
” and “
dashing Indian fighter
”); Ewing,
29 Let’s Go!
, 283 (“
hard, exacting, aggressive
”); Balkoski,
Beyond the Beachhead
, 253–54 (
a corps of three divisions
).