The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (169 page)

“
Having gained surprise
”: diary, JLD, Jan. 24–26, 1945, and Feb. 1, 1945 (“
he would be shot
”), MHI;
RR
, 537 (“
willingness to go all out
”); OH, Henry Cabot Lodge, Aug. 16, 1973, Thomas E. Griess, JLD, YCHT, box 94, 11–12 (“
Goddamn it!
”); Tedder,
With Prejudice
, 657 (“
let down by the French
”).

American units had their own difficulties
:
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 2, 629 (“
exhausted and depleted
”); William A. Sutton, “Operation Grandslam, 30th Regiment,” 3rd ID, June 2, 1945, Seventh Army Combat Narratives, MHI, 5 (
improvised nightshirts
), 38 (“
Civil War days
”); Taggart, ed.,
History of the Third Infantry Division
, 305–9 (
350 men
); Even,
The Tenth Engineers
, 45 (
Maison Rouge
); Melvin J. Lasky, “La Maison Rouge,” March 3, 1945, Seventh Army Combat Narratives, MHI, 2–28 (“
flight and panic
”);
RR
, 544–47; memoir, James T. Cooper, 30th Inf, ts, n.d., Audie Murphy papers, USMA Arch (“
rattled like paper
”).

Audie Murphy helped redeem
: Simpson,
Audie Murphy, American Soldier
, 130–37, 153–60; Taggart, ed.,
History of the Third Infantry Division
, 310–11; Murphy,
To Hell and Back
, 240–43 (“
huddled like partridges
”); Graham,
No Name on the Bullet
, 90 (“
Things seemed to slow down
”); De Lattre de Tassigny,
The History of the French First Army
, 361 (“
bravest thing
”).

At last an Allied preponderance
: MEB, “The Colmar Pockets, 20 Jan–9 Feb 45,” Oct. 1954, NARA RG 319, R-56, 18–19; De Lattre de Tassigny,
The History of the French First Army
, 375 (“
God be praised!
”);
RR
, 551.

By February 5, columns from north and south
: Statements collected from GIs by Army historians shortly after the battle included, “We shot the wounded Germans because we only had twenty men and couldn’t fool with them.” OH, 3rd ID, Colmar Pocket, RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 270/65/5/1, folder 26.

A French patriot showed GIs
: Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, 598–99.

“
My dear French comrades
”: Seaman, “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,”
Military Review
(Oct. 1951): 37
+
(“
national event
”); De Lattre de Tassigny,
The History of the French First Army
, 397;
LO
, 238 (
corner of northeastern Alsace
); memo, Reuben E. Jenkins to JLD, Feb. 24, 1947, Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1 (
three times longer
); Graham,
No Name on the Bullet
, 94 (“
frozen, dead chickens
”).

Colmar had cost
: De Lattre de Tassigny,
The History of the French First Army
, 398–99. U.S. casualties were put at eight thousand, although only five hundred killed in action (
RR
, 556–57).

“
sacrificed for no appreciable gain
”:
RR
, 558. Russell F. Weigley asserts that one Volksgrenadier unit, the first evacuated across the Rhine, escaped reasonably intact (
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, 598–99).

Pulverizing the Reich from above
: Willmott,
The Great Crusade
, 414; Webster and Frankland,
The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany
, vol. 3,
Victory
, part 5, 204 (“
earthquake bomb
”); Green et al.,
The Ordnance Department
, 470–71 (
only by the atomic bomb
); “Tactical Air Operations in Europe,” XIX TAC, May 1945, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 83, folder 1, 8–9 (“
antipersonnel incendiary
”); Miller,
Masters of the Air
, 4 (“
horrible as possible
”); “Preservation of Historical Monuments, Art Objects, etc.,” Sept. 1944; memo, DDE, June 1, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 1 (“
symbolizing to the world
”); Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 201 (“
Stonehenge
”); Sebald,
On the Natural History of Destruction
, 47 (“
lifeless life
”).

British air strategists considered
: memo, L. S. Kuter to H. H. Arnold, Aug. 9, 1944, Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 96; corr, F. L. Anderson to C. A. Spaatz, Feb. 2, 1945, in “Operation ARGONAUT,” n.d., Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 95, folder 14;
AAFinWWII
, 724–26; Webster and Noble Frankland,
The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany
, vol. 3,
Victory
, part 5, 116 (“
ceases to beat
”); Davis,
Bombing the European Axis Powers
, 490–95 (“
already shaky morale
”).

Skeptics objected
:
THUNDERCLAP
originally was planned in Aug. 1944 only to be postponed six months and revived in truncated form (Transcript, phone conversation, J. Doolittle and F. L. Anderson, Aug. 21, 1944, in “Operation Thunderclap: Attack on German Civilian Morale,” Frederick L. Anderson papers, HIA, box 96, folder 2); Ehlers,
Targeting the Reich
, 335 (“
extremely remote
”).

“
Big B is no good
”: “Survey of Combat Crews in Heavy Bombardment Groups in ETO,” June 1944, Research Branch, Eighth AF, Carl A. Spaatz papers, LOC MS Div, box 18.

“
I agree the project
”: DDE, marginalia on “Air Attack on German Civilian Morale,” U.K. Chief of Staff Brief and Action Report, Aug. 7, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 3, SGS conferences and briefings, box 129.

THUNDERCLAP
, as the
“
project
”: Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 552–53; Davis,
Bombing the European Axis Powers
, 496–500, 515n;
AAFinWWII
, 724–26; Miller,
Masters of the Air
, 265 (
sixth largest city
).

Even so, bombs smashed
:
AAFinWWII
, 724–26. Among those killed was Roland Freisler, the notorious state secretary in the Reich Justice Ministry and a Wannsee Conference participant (Author visit, Wannsee Conference villa, Berlin, Sept. 30, 2009).

“
It was a sunny, beautiful morning
”: “
Vor Fünfzig Jahren: Ein Tagebuch,
”
Frankfurter Allgemeine
, 1994, a.p.; Friedrich,
The Fire
, 352 (“
people literally ripped clothes
”); Miller,
Masters of the Air
, 478 (“
deer in a storm
”); Whiting,
The Home Front: Germany
, 144–45 (“
flaming rivers
”), 422–26 (
120,000 Germans homeless
); Anonymous,
A Woman in Berlin
, 5, 10 (“
Only our eyes
”).

Other elaborate air missions
: Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 571; Schaffer, “American Miltary Ethics in World War II: The Bombing of German Civilians,”
Journal of American History
(Sept. 1980): 318
+
(“
virgin areas
”); Juliette Hennessy, “Tactical Operations of the Eighth Air Force,” 1952, AFHRA, historical study no. 70, 119–21, 126 (
civilian will
);
AAFinWWII
, 735 (“
no morale
”).

Most infamous of the winter raids
: Webster and Frankland,
The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany
, vol. 3,
Victory
, part 5, 108–9; Biddle, “Dresden 1945: Reality, History, and Memory,”
JMH
(Apr. 2008): 413
+
(
uprooting trees
); Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of World War II
, 404 (“
Chimney stacks fell
”); Colville,
The Fringes of Power
, 562–63 (“
Dresden?
”); “Death Toll in Second World War Dresden Bombing,”
Daily Mail
(U.K.), Oct. 3, 2008,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1067489/Death-toll-Second-World-War-Dresden-bombing-25-000-commission-finds.html
;
Germany IX
, 390; Sebald,
On the Natural History of Destruction
, 98 (
Treblinka
).

“
We were put to work
”: Carroll,
Behind the Lines
, 318–20.

Each night and each day, bombing
: Davis,
Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe
, 588. The German fatality number of 406,000, calculated in 1990, included Austrians, forced laborers, and prisoners of war (
Germany IX
, 475–76). Max Hastings and W. G. Sebald put the number closer to 600,000. See, respectively,
Armageddon
, 299, and
On the Natural History of Destruction
, 3–4.

Devastation scorched seventy cities
: Hitchcock,
The Bitter Road to Freedom
, 183, 191 (“
burned like torches
”); Collier,
Fighting Words
, 180 (“
a hairpin
”).

Yet still the lifeless life
: Crane,
Bombs, Cities & Civilians
, 105 (“
chimera
”).

Field Marshal Montgomery had a conqueror’s glint
: The Canadian First Army offensive also became known as the Battle of the Reichswald (
VW
, vol. 2, 253–57;
LO
, 136–37).

But no crossing could be made on the Roer
: OH, 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149.

The Urft fell easily
: Hogan,
A Command Post at War
, 243; OH, 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149 (
booby-trapped corpses
); Gavin,
On to Berlin
, 262–63; Sylvan, 293 (
forty battalions
);
Lightning: The History of the 78th Infantry Division
, 110.

At eight
P.M.
on Friday, February 9
: OH, 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149; Sylvan, 296–97 (
forty thousand U.S. shells
); Mittelman,
Eight Stars to Victory
, 309–12;
Lightning: The History of the 78th Infantry Division
, 118–20; Miller,
A Dark and Bloody Ground
, 201 (
ominous rumble
); OH, 303rd Engineer Bn and 78th ID, 1945, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders 145–149 (“
tunnel under the sea
”).

But mortal wounds had already
:
LO
, 81–82;
VW
, vol. 2, 264 (
100 million tons
).

Snowmelt and rain
: “Combat Engineering,” Aug. 1945, Historical Report No. 10, ETO, CEOH, box X-30, 129; Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, 603.

With Montgomery’s concurrence
: Ninth Army war diary, Feb. 8–10, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11;
LO
, 143; OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI.

For nearly a fortnight, fifteen American divisions
: OH, William H. Simpson, 1971, Thomas R. Stone, SOOHP, MHI;
SLC
, 379; Bradley and Blair,
A General’s Life
, 340; Stone, “General William Hood Simpson: Unsung Commander of U.S. Ninth Army,”
Parameters
9, no. 2 (June 1981): 44
+
; Bradley,
Soldier’s Story
, 437 (“
uncommonly normal
”); memoir, Richard D. Hughes, n.d., AFHRA, 520.056-234, 60 (“
He displayed no anxiety
”).

While Simpson bided his time
: The Anglo-Canadian operation was known as
VERITABLE
(
VW
, vol. 2, 264–71;
LO
, 145).

“
Machine guns are crackling now
”: Thompson,
Men Under Fire
, 80, 83;
LO
, 141–42.

At length Ninth Army was ready
: Ninth Army war diary, Feb. 22, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11; OH, George I. Forsythe, 1974, Frank L. Henry, SOOHP, MHI, 180 (“
you could read a document
”).

Forty-five minutes later three corps plunged
:
LO
, 145–55 (“
indescribable confusion
”), 160–62; “Combat Engineering,” CE, ETOUSA, report #10, Dec. 1945, RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 129–33 (
six hundred storm boats
); Hubert S. Miller, XIX Corps engineer, “Roer River Crossing,” 1947, CARL, N-9924.2, part I, 17 (
knocked out eight times
). VII Corps was still part of First Army (
LO
).

But within hours brute force won
: Hubert S. Miller, XIX Corps engineer, “Roer River Crossing,” 1947, CARL, N-9924.2, part I, 12–13; “Combat Engineering,” CE, ETOUSA, report #10, Dec. 1945, RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 129–33; Ninth Army war diary, Feb. 23, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“
cities captured
”); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 673 (
nineteen bridges
);
LO
, 167 (
“things are beginning to break”
).

On Tuesday, Simpson committed his armor
:
LO
, 172; Ninth Army war diary, March 12, 1945, William H. Simpson papers, MHI, box 11 (“
dead, lifeless giant
”).

Eight bridges spanned the great river
:
LO
, 174.