Armageddon (108 page)
CHAPTER SEVEN: HELL IN THE HÜRTGEN
“It was a relief to see”: Alanbrooke, op. cit., p. 668, 3.3.45.
“Near Hürtgen, the U.S. 30th”: AI Werner Kleeman.
“It is a mistake to try to”: Personal minutes, 1.4.45, quoted Gilbert, op. cit., p. 1140.
“One advantage of being in Germany”: Fennema MS, op. cit.
“Most NCOs were hill-billies”: AI Werner Kleeman.
“The stagnation of the war”: Klemperer, op. cit., p. 456.
“I do not like the layout”: Alanbrooke, op. cit., p. 619, 11.8.44.
“[who] is detached and by”: Ibid., p. 628, 11.24.44.
“[Eisenhower]
quite
incapable”: Ibid., pp. 634–5, 12.12.44.
“The most likely way to make”: Russell F. Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
(Sidgwick & Jackson: 1981), p. 365.
“We’re still a first-class”: NA, RG492–322 box 3.
“We are taking three trees”: Pogue, op. cit., p. 289.
“The trees were so dense”: Devitt, op. cit., p. 75.
“Until that time”: Ibid., p. 71.
“They looked like a collection”: Ibid., p. 75.
“Look, Haney, that’s”: Ibid., pp. 76–84.
“It was a beautiful sight”: Ibid.
“Private Robert McCall”: Unpublished MS, IWM, 81/15/1.
“Attacking forces were interfered with”: Pogue, op. cit., p. 273.
“It was very cold and very wet”: AI Tony Moody.
“Telephone wiremen were”: AI Karl Godau.
“It was so dark that”: Ralph Gordon,
Infantryman
(privately published: 2000), p. 79.
“We were thankful we were still”: Ibid., p. 86.
“Battle exhaustion cases occurred”: PRO, WO218/3111, 5.23.45.
“Comparable American ETO”: U.S. Army Medical Department,
Medical Statistics in World War II
(Washington, D.C.: 1975), p. 43.
“enormous number of psychiatric”: Van Crefeld study for the U.S. Department of Defense,
Fighting Power,
1980, p. 114.
“Combat fatigue was one”: “Combat Fatigue,” USAMHI, D769AZ no. 91 c.4.
“The strain of battle”: Chesarek Papers, box 3, USAMHI.
“There were increasing signs”: d’Este,
Eisenhower,
op. cit., p. 629.
“several hundred thousand”: Van Crefeld, op. cit., p. 116.
“Available statistics show that”: R. A. Gabriel and P. L. Savage,
Crisis in Command: Mismanagement in the Army
(New York: 1978), table 1.
“On 1 January 1945”: Donald Thomas,
An Underworld at War
(John Murray: 2003), p. 220.
“A further 10,000 British”: S. F. Crozier,
History of the Royal Corps of Military Police
(Gale & Polden: 1951), p. 121.
“A sample of British offenders”: John Ellis,
The Sharp End
(Pimlico: 1993), p. 244.
“In Brussels in December 1944”: Quoted ibid., p. 233.
“In the British Army, concern”: W. J. F. Eassic Papers, IWM, 75/55/1.
“Eisenhower was driven”: d’Este,
Eisenhower,
op. cit., p. 629.
“The U.S. Army suffered”: This issue has been exhaustively discussed by several writers, including the author in
Overlord.
“We are about to invade”: K. R. Greenfield, V. D. Wiley, and Palmer,
The Organization of Ground Combat Troops
(Department of the Army: 1947), p. 323.
“Only 27.4 per cent of American”: R. R. Palmer,
The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Forces
(Department of the Army, 1948), p. 17.
“Charles Felix’s unit was”: Felix, op. cit., p. 157.
“Replacements . . . are not”: NA, RG492–322 box 3.
“saw in the emergency retraining”: Ruppenthal, op. cit., p. 468.
“as a legitimate dumping ground”: Major-General J. E. Utterson-Kelson, PRO, WO199/725.
“Yet the root cause of Eisenhower’s”: For a wider discussion of the fascinating statistical issues of combat availability see, for instance, Ellis, op. cit., passim.
“It’s Sunday, my God”: U.S. 4th Division Intelligence Report, in possession Werner Kleeman.
“The forest was a very brutal”: AI Willi Pusch.
“The soldiers of the regiment”: Rush, op. cit., p. 284.
“The German Army almost”: Weigley, op. cit., p. 372.
“Do you have a good prayer”: d’Este,
Patton,
op. cit., p. 685.
“There he sat, big as life”: Bill Mauldin,
The Brass Ring
(W. W. Norton: 1971), chapter 15.
“I always admired Patton”: Quoted d’Este,
Patton,
op. cit., p. 694.
“would surrender not to fighting”: General Hobart Gay Diary, USAMHI.
“The combat efficiency of the troops”: Ibid.
“Staff-Sergeant Bill Getman”: Unpublished Bill Getman MS, SA.
“Many people here are resigned”: Hansen Diary, op. cit.
“The average infantryman was nearly”: Pogue, op. cit., pp. 221, 266.
“A Company of the 4th Division’s”: Quoted Rush, op. cit., pp. 41, 328.
“the most ineptly fought”: d’Este,
Eisenhower,
op. cit., p. 627.
“We never do anything bold”: D. K. R. Crosswell,
The Chief of Staff
(Greenwood Press: 1991), p. 135.
“If we were fighting”: Hansen Diary, op. cit.
“a very, very, small man”: Alanbrooke, op. cit., p. 473, 11.18.43.
“Yet, ‘to put it candidly’ ”: Omar Bradley,
A General’s Life
(Simon & Schuster: 1983), p. 343.
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE BULGE: AN AMERICAN EPIC
“He [Hitler] was incapable of”:
The Fatal Decisions,
ed. William Richardson and Seymour Friedlin (Michael Joseph: 1956), p. 225.
“Once, in a battle on the Eastern”: AI Tony Saurma.
“some were very inexperienced”: AI Rolf-Helmut Schröder.
“a stooped figure with a pale”: Richardson and Friedlin, op. cit., pp. 231–2.
“Our soldiers still believed”: Ibid., p. 228.
“My comrades and I entered”: Lemcke quoted
The Battle of the Bulge,
compiled by Hans J. Wijers (Brunnen: 2001), p. 54.
“how long Sixth [SS] Panzer Army”: Second Army MD.
“Hobart Gay, Patton’s Chief”: Gay Diary, op. cit.
“ ‘Madness,’ wrote Winston Churchill”: Churchill,
The Grand Alliance,
op. cit., p. 536.
“Neither the 99th nor 106th”: Pogue, op. cit.
“A buddy of Private Eugene Gagliardi”: Quoted Wijers, op. cit., p. 65.
“Private ‘Red’ Thompson desperately”: AI “Red” Thompson.
“a feast for us”: Quoted Wijers, op. cit., p. 58.
“I never took part in an attack”: Ibid., p. 93.
“Watch for every opportunity”: Sixth SS Panzer, 11.30.44, Second Army MD.
“Private Donald Doubek’s platoon”: Donald Doubek MS, SA.
“Private Murray Mendelsohn, a combat”: AI Murray Mendelsohn.
“On 28th Division’s battlefield”: Charles B. MacDonald,
The Battle of the Bulge
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1984), p. 151.
“I had the disgusted impression”: Quoted Wijers, op. cit., p. 169.
“An officer who called on his”: Tom Bigland,
Bigland’s War
(privately published: 1990), p. 81.
“it was evident that the”: Carol Mather,
When the Grass Stops Growing
(Leo Cooper: 1997), p. 287.
“Until more is known of this new”: Second Army MD.
“Well, Brad, you’ve been”: Hansen Papers, box 42a, USAMHI.
“Big issues are involved”: Second Army MD.
“It looks as if we may now”: PRO, CAB106/1071, BLM to AB, 12.17.44 and 12.19.44.
“General, there’s some rumor”: William K. Harrison oral history interview, USAMHI.
“What shall I do?”: Ibid.
“the most frightening thing”: James Woolnough oral history interview, USAMHI.
“The enemy was in total confusion”: AI Werner Sternebecke.
“They seemed as protective about”: MacDonald, op. cit., p. 369.
“I hated to give up like that”: Wijers, op. cit., p. 190.
“lots of equipment and matériel”: NA, RG492–322 box 12.
“a quivering hulk”: Major Ben Legare quoted MacDonald, op. cit., p. 387.
“The 90th Division had a joke”: Reimers Papers, USAMHI.
“We needed a few samples”: Hansen Diary, op. cit.
“If you try to take them back”: Interview Morris L. Harvey quoted Rush, op. cit., p. 317.
“Private Bill True of the 101st”: Bill True unpublished MS, “The Cow Spoke French,” SA.
“The whole matter of killing”: Pogue, op. cit., p. 297.
“This was the only time”: Donald Shoo MS, SA.
“We were in a state of confusion”: Quoted Wijers, op. cit., p. 38.
“We had no idea what was going on”: AI Murray Mendelsohn.
“If this is the way it is”: Melvin Zais MS, USAMHI.
“remarkable how little we know”: Pogue, op. cit., p. 295.
“Very stupid”: Tedder, op. cit., p. 648.
“Enemy morale was higher”: Report of General Board of U.S. Forces, “Strategy in North-West Europe,” USAMHI.
“For once, we find ourselves”: Second Army MD.
“For English soldiers”: Ibid.
“The roads are littered with”: U.S. 7th Armored Division Intelligence Report quoted ibid.
“A belief would long persist”: MacDonald, op. cit., p. 618.
“a very grave disappointment”: Richardson and Friedlin, op. cit., p. 241.
“incapable of carrying out”: Ibid., p. 236.
“Whenever you attack the enemy”: AI “Pip” Roberts, 1983.
“If U.S. forces had not held”: Rush, op. cit., p. 345.
“I spotted our battalion commander”: Hubert Meyer,
History of the 12th SS Division Hitlerjugend
(J. J. Fedorwicz Publishing: 1994), p. 252.
“When I reached the vicinity”: Ibid.
“Everywhere there is a feeling of”: Hansen Diary, op. cit., 1.1.45.
“The whole action was an example”: Pogue, op. cit., p. 322.
“Headquarters continues to be a madhouse”: Hansen Diary, op. cit.
“My eyes were red, swollen”: William B. Folkestad,
The View from the Turret
(Burd Street Press: 2000), p. 69.
“Major William Desobry”: William Desobry oral history interview, USAMHI.
“absolute chaos”: Charles Skelnar, unpublished MS, “My Days of Honor in World War II,” SA.
“As soon as you lifted up”: Henry Hills MS, SA.
“Here is a guy who really”: Harrison oral history interview, op. cit.
“Von Manteuffel asserted afterwards”: Richardson and Friedlin, op. cit., p. 249.
“What’s the form?”: Mather, op. cit., p. 288.
“He humiliated the shyest”: Hamilton, op. cit., p. 250.
“I would like to give you a word of warning”: PRO, CAB106/1069.
“There was ferocious U.S. criticism”: H. G. Nicholas ed.,
Washington Dispatches 1941–45
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1981), p. 481.
“I think I see daylight now”: PRO, CAB106/1071.
“I said he would probably find it”: Ibid.
“Our outfit broke”: AI John Capano.
“My first reaction was fear”: Devitt, op. cit., p. 181.
“The Germans’ morale”: AI Hal McCown.
“There was an other-worldly”: Alan Moorehead,
Eclipse
(Granta: 2000), p. 217.
“This is not going to be easy”: AI Rolf-Helmut Schröder.
“The fact that the Hun”: Quoted Tedder, op. cit., p. 629.
“The situation is normal”: Ridgway Papers, box 5A, USAMHI.
“I want every man imbued”: Ibid.
“At least one man of the 75th”: Harold Lindstrom MS, SA.
“When the U.S. 743rd Tank”: Folkestad, op. cit., p. 75.
“Felix had been relieved to see”: Felix, op. cit.
“I don’t represent any general”: Hansen Diary, op. cit.
“As the sun came out”: AI Iolo Lewis.
“Since 24 December Guderian”: Heinz Guderian,
Panzer Leader
(Michael Joseph: 1952), p. 383.