The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (150 page)

Doolittle’s air fleets on Thursday
: Robert W. Ackerman, “The Employment of Strategic Bombers in a Tactical Role,” 1954, AFHRA, study no. 88, 86–88; “The Effectiveness of Third Phase Tactical Air Operations in the European Theater,” AAF Evaluation Board, Aug. 1945, 4, 162–65;
LC
, 425.

The infantry soldiered on, resupplied
: AAR, 95th ID, Nov. 1944, AGF OR, CARL, N-6741; Raines,
Eyes of
Artillery, 227; AAR, 1st Bn, 358th Inf, Nov. 1944,
http://www.worldhistorycompass.com/peragimus/358journal.html
(
scampered across the roof
); Colby,
War from the Ground Up
, 308 (“
This fort is ours
”); Braim,
The Will to Win
, 108–11.

Almost half a mile wide, the Moselle
: Rickard,
Patton at Bay
, 177–79; Nickell,
Red Devil
, 91 (“
The air seemed filled
”).

“
Groans, suffering, and pain
”: Knight,
Would You Remember This?
, 128–29.

“
bolts, washers,
[and]
bushings
”: Cowdrey,
Fighting for Life
, 262–63.

“
getting up where the dead were still warm
”:
PP
, 573–74.

On November 14, nearly a week
:
LC
, 408–9, 417 (“Halb-soldaten”); Codman,
Drive
, 213–14 (“
very jolly
”).

“
If we win now
”:
PP
, 575.

Hitler had twice rebuffed Rundstedt’s suggestion
:
LC
, 418–32.

At 10:30
A.M.
on November 19
: Rickard,
Patton at Bay
, 193;
LC
, 447.

Patton drove into Metz
: Farago,
Patton: Ordeal and Triumph
, 643;
PP
, 581 (“
I will be hard to live with
”), 577–78 (“
When I am dealing with vipers
”); Wellard,
The Man in a Helmet
, 181–82 (
personally interrogated
).

An honor guard played
: diary, Nov. 23, 1944, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 580; Mansoor,
The GI Offensive in Europe
, 206 (“
one of the epic river crossings
”); Nickell,
Red Devil
, 111 (
French soldiers
).

Little mention was made of the outlying forts
: John P. Ludwikosky et al., “735th Tank Battalion in the Reduction of Metz,” May 1950, AS, Ft. K, NARA RG 337, 54–55 (
French white phosphorus
);
LC
, 448–49.

“
Patton’s bloodiest and least successful campaign
”: D’Este,
Patton: A Genius for War
, 666–69; “Mobility, Unused: Study Based on the Lorraine Campaign,” Oct. 1952, OCMH WWII Europe Interviews, MHI, 5–7 (
forfeited the single greatest advantage
).

“
this nasty country where it rains
”:
PP
, 588–89.

“
Chaplain, how much praying
”: James H. O’Neill, “The True Story of the Patton Prayer,” n.d., chap. 25, PIR, MHI;
PP
, 591 (“
certainly rained less
”).

To the Land of Doom

Far above the killing fields
:
AAFinWWII
, 280; Miller,
Masters of the Air
, 278 (“
murder business
”); Westermann,
Flak
, 1 (
well over one million tons
);
DOB
, 495–97.

Terrible aircraft losses in the first three months
: Jean H. Dubuque and Robert F. Gleckner, “The Development of the Heavy Bomber, 1918–1944,” 1951, AFHRA, historical study no. 6, 114–20 (
eight hundred U.S. heavies shot down
); Bernard Boyland, “Development of the Long-Range Escort Fighter,” 1955, AFHRA, historical study no. 136, 242–45, 147–61; Kennedy, “History from the Middle: The Case of the Second World War,”
JMH
(Jan. 2010): 35
+
;
AAFinWWII
, 287–88, 303 (
another nine hundred bombers went down
); Hastings,
Armageddon
, 301 (
Luftwaffe now was in a death spiral
), 310 (“
Each time I close the canopy
”); Muller, “Losing Air Superiority: A Case Study from the Second World War,”
Air & Space Power Journal
(winter 2003): 55
+
; Ehlers,
Targeting the Reich
, 319 (
less than thirty flying hours
).

Of necessity, antiaircraft flak
: Westermann,
Flak
, 278, 295 (
1.2 million Germans
); Friedrich,
The Fire
, 40 (
any plane within two hundred meters
); Davis,
Bombing the European Axis Powers
, 594 (
sixteen thousand 88mm shells
); Ferguson,
All’s Fair
, 162 (“
evil, hypnotic fascination
”); Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 439 (
Heavier German guns
).

British bombers, flying mostly at night
: Sebald,
On the Natural History of Destruction
, 21 (“
wall of light
”); Friedrich,
The Fire,
42 (“
moving vertex
”); “An Evaluation of German Capabilities in 1945,” USSAFE, Jan. 19, 1945, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 80, folder 7 (
electronic jammers
); “Signal Service in ETOUSA,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #299, 24 (
effective jamming meant that 25 percent
).

“
Six miles from earth
”: Randall Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” in Stallworthy, ed.,
The Oxford Book of War Poetry
, 277.

Air supremacy provided an invaluable advantage
: Millett and Murray,
Military Effectiveness
, vol. 3,
The Second World War
, 64 (
eighty thousand lives
); Crane,
Bombs, Cities & Civilians
, 51 (
battle casualty rates for every 1,000 bomber crewmen
); Linderman,
The World Within War
, 39 (
barely one in four
); “Study of AGF Battle Casualties,” HQ, AGF G-3, Sept. 25, 1946, NARA RG 337, E 16A, admin div subject file, box 48, 4; Cowdrey,
Fighting for Life
, 233, 237. Some crews permitted to go home after fulfilling the lower quota were ordered back to Europe when the number increased (Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 439, 446).

Perhaps less lethal, but hardly less stressful
: Tripp,
The Eighth Passenger
, 4–5; Davis,
Bombing the European Axis Powers
, 583–88 (
two of every five fliers did not live
).

The simplest missions could be fatal
: memo, “Bomber Crash at Freckleton,” Office of the Chaplain, USSAFE, Aug. 29, 1944, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, diary, box 18; Russell Brown and Nick Wotherspoon, “The Freckleton Disaster,” 2007,
http://web.ukonline.col.uk/lait/site/B-24%2042-50291.htm
*
; “Freckleton Air Disaster of 1944,” BBC News, Aug. 7, 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8189000/8189386.stm
; “Plane Kills 35 Infants in School,”
Daily Telegraph
, Aug. 24, 1944, 3; “Crashing Bomber Wipes Out Nearly All a Village’s 4 to 6 Children,”
Daily Express
, Aug. 24, 1944, 3.

High though the war’s cost in men and machines
: Arnold,
Global Missions
, 530 (
cut by over 70 percent
); corr, H. H. Arnold to C. A. Spaatz, Aug. 14, 1944, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, personal diaries, box 15 (“
incipient weaknesses
”);
AAFinWWII
, 306 (
rest-and-recuperation program
); corr, 319th Bombardment Group, 438th Bombardment Squadron, n.d., NARA RG 492, MTOUSA, office of the surgeon, 1944, 290/54/33/2 (“
he spills food at the table
”); Brendan Gill, “Young Man Behind Plexiglass,”
New Yorker
, Aug. 12, 1944, in
Reporting World War II
, vol. 2, 474–84 (“
God, you gotta
”).

In the airman’s world, those afflicted
: Crane,
Bombs, Cities & Civilians
, 54 (“
clanks
”); Tripp,
The Eighth Passenger
, 70, 34, 197 (“
dead men flying
”); Stiles,
Serenade to the Big Bird
, 159 (“
giving birth
”); Andrus et al., eds.,
Advances in Military Medicine
, vol. 2, 502–3; Jean H. Dubuque and Robert F. Gleckner, “The Development of the Heavy Bomber, 1918–1944,” 1951, AFHRA, historical study no. 6, 111–13; Fisher,
Legacy of Heroes
, 16 (
tattooed them red
).

a B-17 pilot sat in the five-foot cube
: Stiles,
Serenade to the Big Bird
, 133 (“
oxygen mask
” and “
dead things
”); Miller,
Masters of the Air
, 316 (“
Land of Doom
”); Crane,
Bombs, Cities & Civilians
, 54 (“
I would not grieve
”).

How best to destroy the Land of Doom
: “Target Priorities of the Eighth Air Force,” May 15, 1945, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 326, folder VIII A.F., 20 (“
progressive destruction
”); Earle, “Selection of Strategic Bombing Targets,” lecture, Apr. 23, 1946, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 235, 4–12 (“
instructive hints
”).

But Germany did have an Achilles heel
: Overy,
Why the Allies Won
, 228–31 (
whereas the Axis share was 3 percent
); “German Petroleum Situation,” OSS, R&A no. 2340, July 13, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 919, 3 (
Soviet oil fields
and “
rapid and drastic effects
”); Rostow,
Concept and Controversy
, 45–47 (
wood-burning engines
); Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 3, part 2, 57–58 (
British intelligence by late May
); Hinsley, 580 (“
Germany’s problem
”).

No one believed that more
: Carver, ed.,
The War Lords
, 568–69 (
Taciturn and unpretentious
); Middleton, “Boss of the Heavyweights,”
Saturday Evening Post
(May 20, 1944), 18
+
(
fishing and cribbage
); James,
A Time for Giants
, 98–100 (
aviation pioneer
); MMB, 518; “The Man Who Paved the Way,”
Time
(June 12, 1944): 23
+
(“
finest poker table
”); Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 552 (
inside straight
);
Three Years
, 629 (
played with a kitten
); Miller,
Masters of the Air
, 290 (
mid-May attack by nine hundred bombers
).

No sooner had
OVERLORD
forces come ashore
: “Target Priorities of the Eighth Air Force,” May 15, 1945, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 326, folder VIII A.F., 22; Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 3, part 2, 58.

That estimate was too rosy
:
TSC
, 308;
AAFinWWII
(
only three were at full production
).

Not everyone subscribed to the oil strategy
:
VW
, vol. 2, 150–51 (
But Bomber Command resisted the edict
);
Germany VII
, 367 (
Lübeck and Rostock
);
Germany IX
, 385 (
firestorm that incinerated Hamburg
); Friedrich,
The Fire
, 9 (“
fire-raising
”), 16–17 (
eighty million incendiary sticks
), 167 (“
the atmosphere of another planet
”).

Air Chief Marshal Arthur T. Harris, the Bomber Command chief
: Biddle,
Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare
, 229–32 (“
between 40 percent and 50 percent
”); Davies,
No Simple Victory
, 69 (“
like pulling teeth
”);
Germany IX
, 387 (
lime pits
).

“
no grounds for supposing
”: Hinsley, 582–83.

“
internal collapse certainly will not be brought about
”: Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 3, part 2, 304.

Harris believed otherwise
: Tripp,
The Eighth Passenger
, 18; Hastings,
Armageddon
, 304–5 (“
a certain coarseness
”); Grayling,
Among the Dead Cities
, 192 (“
tiger with no mercy
”); Zuckerman,
From Apes to Warlords
, 218; Hastings,
Bomber Command
, 278–79 (
ulcers
), 282–83 (“
I’m sick of these raids
”); Probert,
Bomber Harris
, 154–58 (
black Bentley
).

“
He had a tendency to confuse advice
”: Webster and Frankland,
The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany
, vol. 3, part 5, 80.

Harris believed that bombers
: Biddle,
Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare
, 249 (“
If the Germans were asked
”); Davis,
Bombing the European Axis Powers
, 566 (
more than half of Bomber Command’s payloads
); Hastings,
Bomber Command
, 282–84 (
The Hole
), 386–87 (“
If I knew you
”); Webster and Frankland,
The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany
, vol. 3, 44 (“
in order to destroy anything
”), 82 (“
virtually destroyed
”); Probert,
Bomber Harris
, 309 (“
city programme
”).