The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (132 page)

Each night more slain soldiers on Hill 314
: Ralph A. Kerley, “Operations of the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry at Mortain,” 1949, IS, 19 (
bolster morale
); OH, 120th Inf, Aug. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 96; AAR, “Battle of Mortain,” n.d., NARA RG 165, 330 (Inf), 120-0.3, 24 (
turnips, cabbages
); Weiss,
Fire Mission
, 124 (
surgical tape
); Hewitt,
Workhorse of the Western Front
, 67 (
half the bundles drifted
); Reardon,
Victory at Mortain
, 267 (“
I want Mortain demolished
”).

“
The attack failed
”: Warlimont,
Inside Hitler’s Headquarters
, 449; Liddell Hart,
The Other Side of the Hill
, 416–17 (“
where I lose my reputation
”).

French civilians returning to wrecked Mortain
: Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 200 (“
crying and rocking
”); corr, Thor M. Smith to family, Aug. 28, 1944, HIA, box 1 (“
ob-liberated
”); Weiss, “Normandy: Recollections of the ‘Lost Battalion’ at the Battle of Mortain,”
Prologue
(spring 1996): 44
+
(“
Not much to write home about
”).

Ultra’s big ears had given the Allied high command
: Lewin,
Ultra Goes to War
, 405–9; Sunset 647-649, Aug. 7–9, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869; Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 3, part 2, 246; Prados,
Normandy Crucible
, 181; Bennett,
Ultra in the West
, 118–19; Sunset 650, Aug. 10, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869 (“
decisive thrust
must
lead
”).

Encouraged by Eisenhower, Bradley kept
: Chandler, 2060; Reardon,
Victory at Mortain
, 152; memoir, John W. Castles, Jr., n.d., USMA Arch (“
I am General Patton’s commanding officer
”).

Certainly they were thinking of it
: Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 251 (
one-tenth of France’s landmass
);
Three Years
, 789 (“
obstinated
”); Greenfield, ed.,
Command Decisions
, 308;
VC
, 216–24; Liddell Hart,
The Tanks
, vol. 2, 383–86 (“
blind leading the blind
”); Copp and Vogel,
Maple Leaf Route: Falaise
, 94–99 (
stalling in confusion
); BP, 479; “Battlefield Tour: Operation Totalize,” Sept. 1947, HQ, British Army of the Rhine and Canadian Army Historical Section, CMH, 65 (“
Push on, you dogs!
”).

As this unspooled, Bradley was once again poring
: Featherston,
Saving the Breakout
, 144–45; Bradley and Blair,
A General’s Life
, 294–95 (
roadside K-ration lunch
); diary, Aug. 8, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 446 (
sharp turn at Le Mans
).

An exuberant Eisenhower followed Bradley
: Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 190–91;
PP
, 505 (“
If I were on my own
”).

“
This is a first priority
”:
VC
, 236; Hills,
Phantom Was There
, 211 (“
ministers of Thy chastisement
”).

“
greatest tactical blunder
”: McManus,
The Americans at Normandy
, 391; Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 375 (“
This is an opportunity
”).

Leclerc instead fanned out on all available roads
: Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 204–5; Essame,
Patton: A Study in Command
, 166–67 (
giving the Germans six hours
).

Patton was peeved but undeterred
: Essame,
Patton: A Study in Command
, 166–67; D’Este,
Decision in Normandy
, 429 (“
push on slowly
”); diary, CBH, Aug. 12, 1944, MHI, 1944, box 4 (“
Shall we continue
”).

“
Nothing doing
”: Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 206–7; Blumenson,
Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885–1945
, 223 (
Bradley wrongly believed
); Greenfield, ed.,
Command Decisions
, 313 (
nineteen German divisions
); Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 376–77 (“
I did not consult
”);
PP
, 509 (“
a great mistake
”); Codman,
Drive
, 163 (“
beside himself
”).

Canadian difficulties further unstitched
: Granatstein,
The Generals
, 114; English,
Patton’s Peers
, 32–33; BLM to Brooke, July 26, 1944, Alanbrooke papers, LHC, 6/2/27 (“
I fear he thinks
”).

Worse yet, the Germans on August 13
: “Operations of the First Canadian Army in North-west Europe,” Oct. 1945, Historical Section, Canadian Military HQ, report no. 146, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML; Stacey,
The Canadian Army, 1939–1945
, 202; Copp and Vogel,
Maple Leaf Route: Falaise
, 117 (“
molten fire bath
”);
VW
, vol. 1, 430–31 (“
troops burnt yellow flares
”);
VC
, 240–44 (“
dust like I’ve never seen
”).

Bradley now made another momentous decision
:
BP
, 523–27; ONB, Aug. 15, 1944, “Twelfth U.S. Army Group Directives,” CMH (“
Due to the delay
”).

“
For the first and only time
”: Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 379; OH, ONB, June 7, 1956, CBM, NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7, 270/19/5/4, box 184; Prados,
Normandy Crucible
, 216–21, 251.

The two most senior Allied field commanders
: Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket,”
Military Review
(Sept. 1990): 45
+
; Belchem,
All in the Day’s March
, 208; Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 301; Beevor,
D-Day
, 455; Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 217–18 (
little effort to confirm
); Kennedy,
The Business of War
, 344 (“
squeaking and scuffling
”); D’Este,
Decision in Normandy
, 449 (“
These are great days
”).

Bradley was quick to fault Montgomery
: Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 376–79; Wertenbaker,
Invasion!
, 91 (“
quality all the great generals had
”); Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket,”
Military Review
(Sept. 1990): 45
+
(“
operational forethought
”).

Nor was Eisenhower much help
: Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, 216; diary, CBH, Aug 12, 1944, MHI, 1944, box 4 (“
garbed in suntans
”); Essame,
Patton: A Study in Command
, 171 (“
never really got the feel
”).

Whatever shortcomings vexed the Allied high command
: memos, Seventh Army, Aug. 12, 15, 19, 1944, NARA RG 407, M.L. #483, box 24154; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 20 (“
strength of a company
”); Lucas and Barker,
The Killing Ground
, 122 (“
Such tiredness
”);
BP
, 516–19 (“
five minutes before midnight
”).

Then Kluge vanished
: Mitcham,
Retreat to the Reich
, 138–39; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 24 (“
Ascertain whereabouts
”); Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 142 (
might have defected
).

Shortly before midnight he appeared
: Reardon, ed.,
Defending Fortress Europe
, mss, 378–79; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 24 (“
live in another world
”);
VC
, 254; Reardon,
Victory at Mortain
, 277 (
in a borrowed car
); Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 227–28 (
Hitler affirmed the decision
).

The order would be Kluge’s last
: Reardon, ed.,
Defending Fortress Europe
, mss, 382–83;
MMB
, 369 (
Prussian music director
); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 436 (“
Hitler’s fireman
”); Kershaw, “
It Never Snows in September
,” 76 (
stabilize the field after defeats
); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Diary of Thuisko von Metzch,” May 1952, NARA RG 319, R-10, 32 (
firing squads
); Barnett, ed.,
Hitler’s Generals
, 320–26 (“
a good sergeant
”); Kessler,
The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket
, 4 (“
Did you see those eyes?
”).

“Den lieb’ ich”: Lewin,
Montgomery as Military Commander
, 312; Hans Eberbach, “Panzer Group Eberbach and the Falaise Encirclement,” Feb. 1946, FMS, #A-922, MHI, 26 (“
My intention is to withdraw
”).

Legend had it
: author visit, Falaise, May 29, 2009; Abram et al.,
The Rough Guide to France
, 398;
The Green Guide to Normandy
, 74, 237; Baedeker,
Northern France
, 185–86.

Bullet holes dinged the hoary castle keep
:
VC
, 250–51; Lucas and Barker,
The Killing Ground
, 124 (
last Tigers had rumbled
); Carell,
Invasion—They’re Coming!
, 260–61 (
two teenagers
).

Ultra had decrypted Kluge’s withdrawal order
: Sunset 657, Aug. 16, 1944, NARA RG 457, E 9026, SRS-1869; Hinsley, 508.

Bradley now confessed
: Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 379; Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, 211 (
three jeeps, nine officers
);
BP
, 515, 529–30; diary, Aug. 16–17, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 446 (
poised to attack in an hour
).

Napoleonic it was not
: Blumenson,
The Battle of the Generals
, 239–42;
VC
, 257–59; “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,”
AB
, no. 8 (1975): 1
+
(“
comparatively easy business
”);
VW
, vol. 1, 442–43 (“
damage was immense
”).

“
inferno of incandescent ruins
”: author visit, Trun, May 29, 2009, signage; Kennedy,
The Business of War
, 344 (“
Shoot
everything”); Saunders,
Royal Air Force, 1939–1945
, vol. 3, 135 (
Shambles
); “Closing of the Chambois Gap,” n.d., CMH, 8-3.1 AK, part 1, 22–23 (“
streams in the gutters
”); Colby,
War from the Ground Up
, 230–41 (“
vertebrae
”); Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 275 (“
lifted me in the air
”); Maczek,
Od Podwody do Czolga, Wspomnienia Wojenne 1918–1945
, 167–68 (
toasts drunk
).

With eastbound roads now cut
: Zuckerman,
From Apes to Warlords
, 282;
VW
, vol. 1, 446–47 (
by compass course
); Horrocks,
Corps Commander
, 46–50 (
Three thousand Allied guns
); diary, D. K. Reimers, “My War,” Aug. 19, 1944, MHI, 151 (“
The pocket surrounding the Germans
”).

“
We always hit something
”: Raines,
Eyes of Artillery
, 220; Saunders,
Royal Air Force, 1939–1945
, vol. 3, 133 (“
Many go barefoot
”), 136–37 (
telltale glint
); Copp, ed.,
Montgomery’s Scientists
, 189 (“
Heavy firing into the sunken road
”); McKee,
Caen: Anvil of Victory
, 350 (“
I saw a truck crew
”); Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 271–73 (“
surrounded by fire
”).

Two death struggles
: Copp and Vogel,
Maple Leaf Route: Falaise
, 121 (“
grey-clad men
”); Freiherr von Lüttwitz, Oct. 1945, FMS, #A-904, MHI, 21–22 (“
awful heap
”); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, n.d., Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 7–8 (“
gun boiled away
”); Reynolds,
Steel Inferno
, 264 (“
like burrs
”); Stacey,
The Canadian Army, 1939–1945
, 205–6.

Three miles northeast, eighteen hundred men
: Maczek,
Od Podwody do Czolga, Wspomnienia Wojenne 1918–1945
, 167; Mieczkowski, ed.,
The Soldiers of General Maczek in World War II
, 50–52 (
Poles caught the brunt
); “The Battle of the Falaise Pocket,”
AB
, no. 8 (1975): 1
+
(
escaping Germans streamed past
); Whitaker et al.,
Victory at Falaise
, 277–87 (
SS bodies roasted
).

“Merde pour la guerre”: Saunders,
Royal Air Force, 1939–1945
, vol. 3, 136–37; Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 305 (“
more of an execution
”); OH, Dixon M. Raymond, n.d., Craig W. H. Luther papers, HIA, box 1, 7–8 (“
shot them down in droves
”); Carpenter,
No Woman’s World
, 75 (
urinated on the body
).