The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys : The Men of World War II (48 page)

These men were natural leaders. They died one by one. Of each of them, I wonder, What life was cut off here? A genius? It is impossible to imagine what he might have invented; we do know that his loss was our loss. A budding politician?  Where might he have led us? A builder? A teacher? A scholar? A novelist? A musician? I sometimes think the biggest price we pay for war is what might have been.

Lt. Waverly Wray comes to mind. So do Capt. Anthony Stefanich and Lt. Col.  Robert Cole and so many others, gone long before their time, their deaths depriving us of the gift of their lives. When they tolled the bell for Wray, Stefanich, Cole, and the hundreds of their buddies who went down, that bell tolled for all of us.

What I think of the GIs more than a half century after their victory was best said by Sgt. Mike Ranney of the 101st: “In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I’m treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’

“ ‘No,’ I answered, ‘but I served in a company of heroes.’ “ So far as I am concerned, so did they all.

Sources

In this volume I’ve woven a narrative of the war based on the books I’ve done with my editor, Alice Mayhew, and Simon & Schuster over the past fifteen years.  They are Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890-1952 (1983);Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944 (1985);Band of Brothers: E Company, 506thRegiment, 101stAirborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest (1992);D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II(1994);

And Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the

Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945(1997). Where necessary and appropriate I’ve provided bridges between sections taken from the different books. To help the flow of the narrative, and to avoid repetition, I’ve eliminated notes from the text. Interested readers can go to the original works for specific citations. In this list of sources, I’ve included the names of the men and women I’ve interviewed over the past two decades, and those of men who have given written memoirs to the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. The bibliography of books and articles is not intended to be a comprehensive list of the major works on World War II; rather it is a list of the publications I’ve consulted and cited for the books listed above.

Bibliography

Air Ministry.By Air to Battle: The Official Account of the British First and Sixth Airborne Divisions. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1945.  Allen, Max. Medicine Under Canvas: A War Journal of the 77th Evacuation Hospital.

Kansas City, Mo.: The Sosland Press, 1949.

Ambrose, Stephen E.Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne:

From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

.Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945 . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

.D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

.Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890-1952. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.

.Eisenhower: Soldier and President. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

.Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe. New York: W.

W. Norton, 1967.

.Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment. Garden City, N.Y.:

Doubleday, 1981.

.Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944.New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.

.Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938. New York: Penguin, 1972.

.The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971.

Ambrose, Stephen E., and James A. Barber, editors.The Military and American Society: Essays and Readings. New York: The Free Press, 1972.  Astor, Gerald.The Mighty Eighth: The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It. New York: Donald Fine Books, 1997.

Baldridge, Robert C.Victory Road. Bennington, Vt.: Merriam Press, 1995.

Balkoski, Joseph.Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy.

Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1989.

“B” Battery.The “B” Battery Story: The 116th AAA Gun Battalion with the First U.S. Army. Passaic, N.J.: The B Battery Association, 1990.  Bischof, Gunter, and Stephen Ambrose, eds.Eisenhower and the German POWs: Facts Against Falsehood. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.  Blair, Clay.Ridgway’s Paratroopers: The American Airborne in World War II.

Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985.

Blumenson, Martin.Breakout and Pursuit. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Army, 1961.

Booth, Michael T., and Spencer Duncan.Paratrooper: The Life of Gen. James M.

Gavin. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Boritt, Gabor, ed.War Comes Again: Comparative Vistas on the Civil War and World War II. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.  Bradley, Omar.A General’s Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.

.A Soldier’s Story. New York: Henry Holt, 1951.

Bradley, Robert.Aid Man! New York: Praeger, 1970.

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Bryant, Sir Arthur.Triumph in the West. London: Collins, 1959.

.The Turn of the Tide. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1957.

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16, No. 2 (winter 1990).

Capa, Robert.Robert Capa. New York: Grossman, 1974.  Carell, Paul.Invasion-They’re Coming: The German Account of the Allied Landings and the 80 Days’ Battle for France. New York: Dutton, 1963.  Center for Military History.The Army Nurse Corps. Washington, D.C.: GPO, CMH Publication 72-14, 1993.

Chandler, David, ed.The D-Day Encyclopedia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Chernitsky, Dorothy.Voices from the Foxholes, by the Men of the 110th Infantry.  Published by Dorothy Chernitsky, 18 Country Club Blvd., Uniontown, PA 15401, 1991.

Churchill, Winston S.The Second World War (especiallyThe Hinge of Fate, Closing the Ring, and Triumph and Tragedy ). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1948-1953.  Clark, Mark Wayne.Calculated Risk. New York: Harper & Bros., 1950.

Colby, John.War from the Ground Up: The 90th Division in WWII. Austin, Tex.:

Nortex Press, 1991.

Cole, Hugh M.The Ardennes: The Battle of the Bulge. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1965.

.The Lorraine Campaign. A volume in theUnited States Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations series. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1950.

Colley, David. “Operation Northwind: Greatest Defensive Battle.”VFW Magazine, January 1995.

Cosby, Harry.A Wing and a Prayer. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.  Cosmas, Graham, and Albert Cowdrey.The Medical Department: Medical Services in the European Theater of Operations. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1992.

Cowdrey, Albert.Fighting for Life: American Military Medicine in World War II.

New York: The Free Press, 1994.

Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate, eds.Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to V-E Day. (Vol. 3 ofThe Army Air Forces in World War II. ) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Crookenden, Sir Napier.Drop Zone Normandy: The Story of the American and British Airborne Assault on D-Day 1944. New York: Macmillan, 1976.  Dank, Milton.The Glider Gang: An Eyewitness History of World War II Glider Combat. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1977.

Davis, Kenneth S.Soldier of Democracy. A Biography of Dwight Eisenhower. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1945.  de Gaulle, Charles.The War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, Vol. II,Unity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959.  de Guingand, Sir Francis.Operation Victory. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947.

D’Este, Carol.Decision in Normandy. London: Collins, 1983.  Doubler, Michael D.Closing with the Enemy: How GIs Fought the War in Europe, 1944-1945. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1994.  Durand, Arthur.Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.

Durnford-Slater, John.Commando: Memoirs of a Fighting Commando in World War Two.

Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1991.

Egger, Bruce E., and Lee M. Otts.G Company’s War: Two Personal Accounts of the Campaigns in Europe, 1944-1945. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends. Garden City, N.Y.:

Doubleday & Co., 1967.

.Crusade in Europe. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1948.

.Letters to Mamie. Edited by John S. D. Eisenhower. Garden City, N.Y.:

Doubleday & Co., 1978.

.Mandate for Change. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1963.

.The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (Vols. I through V edited by Alfred D.

Chandler, Jr., et al.; Vols. VI through IX edited by Louis Galambos, et al.).

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970, 1978.

.Waging Peace. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1974.

Eisenhower, John.The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge. New York: G. P.

Putnam’s Sons, 1969.

Ellis, John.On the Front Lines: The Experience of War Through the Eyes of the Allied Soldiers in World War II. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1980.  Ellis, L. F.Victory in the West, Vol. 1,The Battle of Normandy. London: H. M.

Stationery Office, 1962.

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Gilbert, Martin.The Day the War Ended: May 8, 1945-Victory in Europe. New York:

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Havener, J. K.The Martin B-26 Marauder. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1988.  Hawkins, Ian L., ed.B-17s Over Berlin: Personal Stories from the 95th Bomb Group. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1990.

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. “Voyage to Victory.”Collier’s, July 22, 1944.

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Hinsley, F. H.British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.  Historical Section European Theater of Operations Staff, eds.Utah Beach to Cherbourg. Nashville, Tenn.: Battery Press, 1984.  History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,4 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1982.  Hoegh, Leo, and Howard Doyle.Timberwolf Tracks: The History of the 104th Infantry Division. Washington, D.C.: Infantry Journal Press, 1946.  Howarth, David.Dawn of D-Day. London: Collins, 1959.  Huie, William Bradford.The Execution of Private Slovik. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1954.

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