The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (137 page)

In truth, Dahlquist was overmatched
: photos, biographical notes, John E. Dahlquist papers, MHI; Steidl,
Lost Battalions
, 24, 57, 142–46 (
given to brooding
); corr, John E. Dahlquist to Ruth, Oct. 29, 1944, Dahlquist papers, MHI (“
I get winded
”); corr, John E. Dahlquist to Homer Case, June 5, 1945, Dahlquist papers, MHI (
Half his transport had yet to be unloaded
); Yeide and Stout,
First to the Rhine
, 76 (
Spanish consul’s car
); LKT Jr., “Comments on ‘Dragoon Secondary Attack Against Fortress Europe,’” n.d., NARA RG 319, OCMH, 2-3.7 CC2, Hamilton mss, 3 (
carrying three dozen men
); “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 237 (“
Your primary mission
”).

The battalion withdrew
“
at night from a hill
”: Yeide and Stout,
First to the Rhine
, 85.

The German capture of a 36th Division battle plan
: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, appendix B, v–xii; Yeide and Stout,
First to the Rhine
, 92 (“
Come on, you bastards
”).

“
John, I have come here
”: Truscott,
Command Missions
, 430–31.

More than eight battalions—some one hundred guns
: “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 243; Holt,
The Deceivers
, 621 (
asphalt caught fire
); OH, 3rd Bn, 143rd Inf, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 117 (
2,500 mortar rounds
); Lucian Heichler, “German Defense of the Gateway to Antwerp,” Dec. 1953, NARA RG 319, R-series #23, 21–27; Turner and Jackson,
Destination Berchtesgaden
, 62; Giziowski,
The Enigma of General Blaskowitz
, 330–31 (
splashed across the Drôme
).

In a confused mêlée
:
RR
, 166.

Task Force Butler, reduced to hardly more than a battalion
: OH, 3rd Bn, 36th ID, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder 117.

“
That’s the first time I ever saw a Texan
”: Murphy,
To Hell and Back
, 188–89.

The battle of Montélimar was over
: Conway, “Operation Anvil,” lecture, n.d., Norfolk, Theodore J. Conway papers, MHI, box 2, 22–24 (“
concept was daring
”); “Invasion of Southern France,” n.d., WD HD, CMH, 8-3 SF, 245 (
sixty thousand U.S. artillery shells
); Wilt,
The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944
, 141 (“
I fumbled it badly
”);
RR
, 167–68 (
Blaskowitz’s losses exceeded ten thousand
); Lucian Heichler, “German Defense of the Gateway to Antwerp,” Dec. 1953, NARA RG 319, R-series #23, 31–32; Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Breakout and Withdrawal to the Dijon Salient,” Sept. 1958, OCMH, NARA RG 319, R-series #106, 16–17 (
338th Division mustered barely one thousand
); Ludewig,
Rückzug
, 178–79 (“
almost a miracle
”).

“
carnage compounded
”: Truscott,
Command Missions
, 432–33; Taggart, ed.,
History of the Third Infantry Division
, 222 (
Avenue of Stenches
); Simpson,
Audie Murphy, American Soldier
, 125 (
gas masks
).

“
some degree of satisfaction
”: Truscott,
Command Missions
, 432–33; OH, “The Invasion of Southern France,” Seventh Army, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folder #368, 176–77 (
ten thousand square miles
);
RR
, 167 (
captured 23,000 Germans
).

Two field-gray torrents streamed
: Dean H. Krasomil, “German Operations in Southern France: The Withdrawal of the LXIV Corps,” March 1954, NARA RG 319, R-series #47, 4–18;
Germany VII
, 650–61 (“
improper remarks
”); Ludewig,
Rückzug
, 80 (
kidnapped whenever possible
).

Allied air strikes and FFI marauders
: Steidl,
Lost Battalions
, 20 (
8 million francs
); “German Surrenders,”
AB
, no. 48 (1985): 1
+
(
making bonfires
).

The other retreating gaggle
: Wilhelm Heinrich Scheidt, “German Operations in the West,” Sept. 1945, OKW Historical Section, NARA RG 407, ML #874, VI, 13–15 (“
trekking Wehrmacht
”);
Germany VII
, 657–61 (
138,000 men
); Marshall,
A Ramble Through My War
, 131 (“
moving bushes
”);
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 1, 220–21 (
Field Order No. 4
); OH, Viscount Portal, Feb. 7, 1947, FCP (“
swine
”); Wilt,
The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944
, 157 (
shot up a train
). Stalin renewed his suggestion in October 1944.
TSC
, 406.

By early September, almost 200,000 Allied soldiers
:
IFG
, 276; Garland,
Unknown Soldiers
, 282 (“
liberation, libation
”); Collier,
Fighting Words
, 177 (“
festooned with humanity
”); Marshall,
A Ramble Through My War
, 151 (“
hand out British flags
”); Pallud, “The Riviera Landings,”
AB
, no. 110 (2000): 2
+
(
cakes of butter
).

“
Sometimes the sheets on the hotel beds
”: Gray,
The Warriors
, 155; Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream
, 457–59 (
painted by Picasso
); corr, Gertrude Stein to A. M. Patch, Jr., n.d. and Nov. 15, 1944, Alexander M. Patch, Jr., papers, USMA Arch, box 1; Wyant,
Sandy Patch
, 141 (“
a lot of repetitions
”).

In Grenoble the fleeing Germans
: Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream
, 454; Mauldin,
The Brass Ring
, 227–28 (
pistol shot in the ear
).

A 36th Division patrol entered Lyon
: Truscott,
Command Missions
, 434; Higgins,
Soft Underbelly
, 220 (“
British opposed to the end
”).

“
In the shops one could buy
”: Garland,
Unknown Soldiers
, 312; Aron,
France Reborn
, 354 (“
capital of repression
”); diary, Sept. 19, 1944, Kingsley Andersson papers, HIA, box 1 (“
Too much gunfire
”).

Tracers fired into a city hospital
: Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream
, 462; Coles and Weinberg,
Civil Affairs
, 768–69 (
spans over the Rhône
). One recent German account asserts that all thirty-three bridges around Lyon were blown (Ludewig,
Rückzug
, 192).

Precisely where those convoys should go
: A. M. Patch, Jr., to Julia, Sept. 14, 1944, Patch papers, USMA Arch, box 1 (“
temporary notoriety
”).

Sandy Patch was tall, gangly
: Truscott,
Command Missions
, 383 (“
expressing himself
”); Colley,
Decision at Strasbourg
, 27 (“
mystic turn of mind
”); “Patch of Provence,”
Time
(Aug. 28, 1944), 22
+
(“
devil before dawn
”); Strobridge and Nalty, “From the South Pacific to the Brenner Pass: General Alexander M. Patch,”
Military Review
(June 1981): 41
+
(
Apache country
); memo, J. N. Wenger, June 17, 1943; memo, E. J. King “for Gen. Marshall only,” June 21, 1943; memo, A. M. Patch, Jr., June 29, 1943; “eyes only,” GCM to A. M. Patch, Jr., June 29, 1943; memo, GCM to E. J. King, July 28, 1943, GCM Lib, box 78, folder 49 (“
I am puzzled
”).

“
It feels as though it was three months ago
”: A. M. Patch, Jr., to Julia, Sept. 14, 1944, Patch papers, USMA Arch, box 1; Giziowski,
The Enigma of General Blaskowitz
, 355 (
Blaskowitz halted the Nineteenth Army
); Yeide and Stout,
First to the Rhine
, 168–70 (
scaling ladders
);
RR
, 189; Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream
, 466 (
stolen bicycles
); Wilt,
The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944
, 154 (“
never saw such confusion
”).

The captured booty included
: Wilt,
The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944
, 150–51 (“
fleeting opportunity
”);
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 2, 399; Salisbury-Jones,
So Full a Glory
, 161 (
irked De Lattre
);
RR
, 182–83, 223 (
Patch agreed to permit
); Truscott,
Command Missions
, 443 (“
gateway to Germany
”).

Then the ground shifted
:
RR
, 228–29; Chandler, 2146–47 (
supreme commander in mid-September
); Mansoor,
The GI Offensive in Europe
, 207 (
making the U.S. armies contiguous
).

“
surprised and disappointed
”: diary, VI Corps, Sept. 14–15, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1.

“
The assault on the Belfort Gap
”: LKT Jr. to A. M. Patch, Jr., Sept. 15, 1955, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 12, folder 6; Truscott,
Command Missions
, 443–44; Wyant,
Sandy Patch
, 138 (
Lons-le-Saunier
).

Patch phoned at 6:30
P.M.
: “Telephone Conversation Between Gen. Patch and Gen. Truscott,” 1830 hrs, Sept 16, 1944, NARA RG 319, OCMH 2-3.7 CC2, Hamilton mss.

So ended
DRAGOON
:
RR
, 563 (“
just one day’s supplies
”), 237 (
barely two dozen tanks left
); John W. Mosenthal, “The Establishment of a Continuous Defensive Front by Army Group G,” Nov. 1955, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series, #68, 3–11 (“
still able to fight
”), 13–15 (
Blaskowitz was sacked
); Ludewig,
Rückzug
, 180 (
His greatest
fear); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Army Group G Operations in Southern France,” Aug. 1956, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #87, 36 (
130,000 had escaped
); Charles V. von Lüttichau, “Breakout and Withdrawal to the Dijon Salient,” Sept 1958, NARA RG 319, OCMH, R-series #112, 28 (
only 165 of 1,600 artillery pieces
); Giziowski,
The Enigma of General Blaskowitz
, 361 (“
planting cabbage
”). Ludewig estimates that at least 160,000 Germans from southern and southwestern France reached Dijon (
Rückzug
, 267–68).

On the same Tuesday that Blaskowitz was relieved
: Pogue,
George C. Marshall
, 415. The official Army history acknowledges that “it is impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy” the casualties in Army Group G for late summer 1944.
RR
, 197.

But ahead lay the granite and gneiss uplands
: author visit, May 24–28, 2009; Taggart, ed.,
History of the Third Infantry Division
, 237–38; Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream
, 473 (“
long again for home
”); diary, VI Corps, Sept. 28, 1944, Don E. Carleton papers, HIA, box 1 (“
Looking for skis
”); LKT Jr. to Sarah, Sept. 16, Oct. 18, 1944, LKT Jr. papers, GCM Lib, box 1.

“Harden the Heart and Let Fly”

A world away
: Robb,
The Discovery of France
, 42; Roach,
The 8.15 to War
, 170 (
waved with one hand
).

By the end of August the front stretched
:
BP
, 667; Gilmore, ed.,
U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II
, 65;
LC
, 2–3 (
more than two million Allied soldiers
);
AAFinWWII
, 596 (
7,500 bombers and 4,300 fighters
); “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 1, 50 (
Montgomery’s fifteen divisions
); King and Kutta,
Impact
, 221–23; Hinsley, 570 (
Luftwaffe aircraft
); Howard,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 5,
Strategic Deception
, 177;
Germany VII
, 434; Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
, 48 (“
battle of London is won
”); corr, WSC to A. Eden, Sept. 2, 1944, “Strategy and Operations, vol. II,” UK NA, CAB 120/421 (“
fall out of temper
”).

In 12th Army Group, Bradley commanded
:
LC
, 4–5; Balkoski,
From Beachhead to Brittany
, 316–17; Mitcham,
Retreat to the Reich
, 214 (
fishing tackle
).

Under this onslaught the Wehrmacht
: Alfred Jodl, ETHINT 52, Aug. 2, 1945, MHI, 6 (“
planless flight
”); Mitcham,
Retreat to the Reich
, 222 (
OB West listed eighteen divisions
); Ludewig,
Rückzug
, 191 (“
We have lost a battle
”); “Penetration of Siegfried Line,” 4th ID, n.d., CARL, N-12159.1 (“
Americans will be here
”); Germany
VII
, 624 (“
ignominious rout
”); Boesch,
Road to Huertgen
, 110 (
waving chickens
).