Schwerpunkt: From D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich (33 page)

The maps I saw and the reports I read showed that not only were we not pushing the enemy westward towards Avranches, they were pushing us eastward towards Falaise and it very soon became apparent that if we did not get our troops out through a small eighteen kilometer gap left for us by the incompetent enemy forces, we would be trapped and encircled around that city. We had only one hope and that was for some inexperienced American general to become too daring so that in his excitement of going for the prize, he would foolishly string out his troops. We were hoping they would have put one of their more aggressive generals in charge because if the enemy stretched their forces too thinly in order to close this gap, we were prepared to punch our way out. We could have counter-attacked both the northern and the southern shoulders and destroyed them on both ends if there weren’t too many of them. Unfortunately, they moved great numbers of their troops slowly and a successful counter-attack was never feasible.

I’m not sure how or what General von Kluge said to der Führer on this matter, but der Führer finally divined that enemy troops were moving to encircle us and he brilliantly called for an end of the Mortain action on 13. August. And then, after another day of frantic yet subdued persuasion, we eventually received Hitler’s order allowing those remaining troops around Mortain to leave and move eastward to Argentan. Clearly this wasn’t a retreat but I am not sure what the difference between leaving and retreating is. Also, orders from der Führer now allow us to bring our westward facing Panzers to the east so they could be used against the encircling enemy forces.

On 16. August. 1944, it became apparent that the troops of the numerically superior enemy were going to encircle the Panzer divisions, along with a large number of all our other troops, in a pocket or a gap which we started calling “The Falaise Cauldron.” General von Kluge immediately began advising der Führer that Falaise could not be held and once again was forced to ask for permission to withdraw. This time, his arguments must have been masterful because we were allowed to remove as many troops as possible from this noose we had around our necks at Falaise.

I’m relieved to know our troops didn’t violate der Führer’s orders when they were forced to retreat, I mean leave, Mortain. The speed with which our Panzers moved to avoid the noose gave new meaning to the word “Blitzkrieg.” They were all admonished that if they delayed even a little bit as the encirclement was closing, they would be trapped in a cauldron of trouble. As our surviving army immediately attempted to stream eastwards towards Falaise, they found themselves virtually trapped around Argentan. The only route open to us was a thin one between the Americans on our south and the British on our north and this route was getting narrower and narrower by the day. The funnel was closing quickly. Reports from the field told us that as General von Kluge was arguing for orders, the enemy was tightening the noose and by 18. August. 44, the gap that two days earlier had been 18 km wide is now down to a width of about 10 km and it continues to narrow.

Kampfgruppe Krause of the 12
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SS Hitler Jugend Panzer Division was ordered to defend Falaise against two enemy tank squadrons and an entire brigade of approaching Canadian infantrymen in an effort to keep the escape gap open. General Krause reported he had about 200 soldiers available to halt the enemy advance and in response, he was told to make them count as he’d have no reinforcements and no relief available to him. They positioned themselves along the town wall and in houses which they used as strongpoints. They waited before letting loose their anti tank artillery until the enemy tanks were so close, they could see the whites of the drivers’ eyes, to paraphrase an American saying. Thereafter, the fighting became so intense that we later heard that some Panzer Grenadiers fought off the enemy with their entrenching tools. We also heard that while fighting in the town park, at least one of the Hitler Jugend climbed a tree and became a sniper which effectively cut off the Canadians for a little while.

The report of the heroism of the young soldiers of this superior unit is awe-inspiring but unfortunately, none of this dedication to duty and fearless fighting was enough. The 200 young men of Kampfgruppe Krause couldn’t halt the enemy advance let alone secure the town of Falaise. They fought for two days though, which allowed many of our troops further west to escape through the narrowing gap around Trun. After completing a fighting withdrawal themselves, the surviving Hitler Jugend heroes were so weak and depleted that I will be surprised if their division ever reaches fighting strength again.

While the two hundred soldiers of the Hitler Jugend Panzer Division were fighting, the 2
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SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” narrowly avoided being trapped in the encirclement around Falaise and actually held open the gap as long as possible with the help of the 9
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SS Panzer Division, the “Hohenstaufen.” We tried getting as much out through that narrow gap as we could in the time remaining to us, all the while being bombed and strafed by enemy air craft. The enemy was bombing all the bridges they could find but still we managed to escape through this narrowest of openings. A relatively significant number of our trapped forces were able to flee the pocket and retreat to the east but tragically, too many could not and as our broad column of men, equipment and vehicles tried to fit through the narrow funnel of space left open to us at Falaise, thousands of our troops were either killed or captured. The battles around this gap were devastating since only bitter fighting allowed this escape route to stay open.

The reports of who and what were still in the pocket when the gap closed was dreadful news for us. The only news worth even calling good is that Herr General Hausser escaped before the gap was closed, though we heard he was seriously injured and lost an eye. Falaise fell on 17. August. 44 and the enemy succeeded in closing this gap on 20. August when their soldiers occupied the hill at Mont Ormel directly above our funnel and fired at each and every German soldier they saw moving through the narrow pathway.

Though this was a confidential report, we are expecting to receive notice that there were about 100,000 troops caught in the so called “Falaise Cauldron.” It appears that approximately 10,000 of those soldiers have been killed while 40,000 have been taken prisoner. That would mean that just about half of our troops are now casualties. I also saw that the combined number of tanks from the eight Panzer divisions now totaled 70 and that again is all tanks combined. It seems to me that all we can do now is build a defensive front along our border assuming we have the time to do so. We can try to delay the enemy advance but sooner or later they will be at our border and then across it. I think everybody but Hitler sees the end is coming but he is the only one who can issue orders so we do as we are told and fight some more.

A few days ago, on the morning of 15. August, I was with General von Kluge when we left to meet with General Sepp Dietrich. General Von Kluge’s vehicle was strafed by enemy aircraft and no one back at headquarters knew immediately if we were dead or alive. We reached the command post of General Dietrich who said his front was ready to collapse. We then went to see our two other generals, Hausser and Eberbach, but as we were driving, we were again targeted and hit by enemy aircraft. Our radio truck was bombed and all four men driving in it were killed. I just escaped by jumping into a ditch on the other side of where our general jumped. He too narrowly escaped with his life.

As we continued on for the remaining 25km of our trip, we had to make these dives out of our vehicle several more times. We didn’t get to General Hausser’s headquarters until late that night. Our arrival caused much consternation as apparently someone thought General von Kluge might be leading all of 7
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Army to surrender to the enemy! I heard der Führer thought this was a real possibility and that he wanted updated reports of General von Kluge’s potential whereabouts hourly. Since General von Kluge had not returned to headquarters that day and we no longer had our radio truck, when we finally reached General Hausser’s headquarters that night, we were told that der Führer had promoted General Hausser as temporary Commander of what remained of Army Group B, “at least until the fate of General von Kluge could be determined.” I also see that General von Rundstedt’s convalescence must have proved effective because he has been called back from wherever he went for the last several weeks. I now know that General von Kluge’s days as our commander are probably numbered. If not his hours.

General von Kluge was called back to Germany once he returned to our La Roche Guyon headquarters. I heard der Führer had said that he knows his Army Group could have successfully done what it was ordered to do but it simply chose not to. Unbelievably, it was General von Kluge who was the object of der Führer’s rage and anger. I heard that he made a personal attack on the general by saying that von Kluge could have succeeded in this operation to defeat the enemy at Mortain, but he just didn’t want to. Hitler said Mortain failed because General von Kluge didn’t believe in it enough to make it succeed. It’s amazing that der Führer, who had devised the brilliant battle plan, considered its failure as the fault of General von Kluge.

I have not known General von Kluge very long and immediately disliked him when he came to take over General Rommel’s command by saying that General Rommel was a defeatist and, ironically enough, that if General Rommel really wanted to win, he would find the means to do so. But being here and seeing what the enemy is capable of, I think General von Kluge has done all that he could have done to avoid the annihilation of our troops and tanks while he acted as General of Army Group B. Nevertheless, Hitler revoked General Hausser as acting commander and replaced General von Kluge with the famous Field Marshal Walter Model. And just now, shortly after our narrow escape from the narrower gap around Falaise, we received a new order from der Führer. He orders that we defend the West Wall at all costs. General Model demanded that der Führer provide him with more men and many more tanks if that order to protect our border is to have any chance of success. I know we received several thousand replacement troops but only 45 tank replacements have arrived and neither are sufficient for any counter-attack against this enemy whose aircraft bomb and shoot us at will.

Now, by the end of August, as we received further reports about the progress of the Americans, all here see that we might be able to delay their ultimate advance on to Germany, but we will never stop it unless far more resources and perhaps a miracle are put at our disposal. The enemy is stopped around our border, unable to go any farther, at least until their supply lines catch up to the tremendous progress they’ve made in advancing so far in so short a period of time. I’m sure they don’t realize how under defended we are and how we have nothing really to protect ourselves with at this point or they would have breached our West Wall defenses and walked over our border instead of waiting for fuel and more reinforcements. Had they been able to continue their advance, they would have been in Germany and surely then der Führer would have sought to make peace with them. I know that the American President has called for an unconditional surrender which Hitler will never agree to but I’m sure something could be worked out because clearly Hitler will not allow our beloved Fatherland to be bombed and ruined when it could be avoided. I guess that since the Americans are still outside our Fatherland, the urgency apparently isn’t there for der Führer to sue for peace yet. I am confident he will soon do what is best for the country and will end the war shortly. It has gone on for five years and now, without the ability to win, I’m sure he’ll bring it to an end soon.

The Battle in Normandy effectively ended after the rout at Falaise. The Germans were backed up to the Seine River and Paris was liberated within the week now bringing the fighting out of Normandy and into lower France and the Low Countries bordering Germany: The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Allieds had covered 450 miles since DDay yet Hitler saw no need to capitulate and the fighting continued as the Allied troops moved ever closer to Germany.

With supplies arriving only in western France, Allied troops far to the east were stalling. Montgomery was ordered to capture the port city of Antwerp. Still wanting to lead the way into Germany with his British Army but compelled to follow orders, he devised an aggressive plan to make a “knife-like thrust” over the Rhine River and into the heart of Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley. His plan anticipated capturing Antwerp and trapping a substantial number of German troops in the process. His plan had the added bonus of allowing him to be the general who invaded Germany first. He argued his plan would end the war by Christmas. Code named “Operation Market Garden,” the plan failed with significant casualties to both sides. The war would continue for just short of another eight months.

Spirits are high in our new headquarters just north of Avranches. We moved from Portsmouth, England to be on the continent as the war winds down. With so many German losses after their defeat at Falaise, we are all thinking the war will soon be over but we found that although the Krauts were beat-up, they still weren’t soundly beaten. We’re all confident that they won’t be able to stop us but they must not know it yet because they sure aren’t making our advance an easy one. They continue to fight to hold virtually every square inch of territory and the battles continue to rage all across our front which, despite their best efforts, continues to expand. Patton reached Verdun on August 31
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and Monty reached Brussels on September 3
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. There can’t be that many more robust German troops and we should be able to dispose of those that are left fairly easily it would seem. Monty, that old fart, was promoted to Field Marshal on September 1
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, 1944 which just chapped my ass to no end, the pompous old goat. The funny thing about Monty’s promotion, though, is that once he became a Field Marshal, he technically outranked Eisenhower, who is still the Supreme Commander. I hear that the United States Congress is about to create a new rank of general and that Ike will soon be the first ever Five Star General in the United States Army. What would we ever do with a Montgomery who outranks Ike? In any event, he’s now in rare form thinking that the only thing left for him to aspire to is King.