Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings (75 page)

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The United States fielded a total of 94 divisions during the war, including Marine Corps divisions in the Pacific. For purposes of comparison, Nazi Germany fielded 375 divisions, and the Soviet Union 491. Though German and Russian divisions were significantly smaller than a full-strength U.S. Army division, especially by 1944, the overall level of American mobilization was far less than that of either its British and Russian allies or its European foe.

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Late in 1944 a Belgian troopship, the
Leopoldville
, carrying American soldiers from England to Cherbourg and escorted by Royal Navy warships, was sunk by the Germans with the loss of 802 American soldiers.

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The scarcity of vegetables extended to the upper ranks. When a member of Ike’s staff had a chance to include a private package on an airplane coming from the States, he begged an American supply officer to ship him a crate of fresh vegetables. When it arrived, the entire staff gathered around to see what wonderful comestibles it contained, though when the lid was pried off, it revealed an entire crate of fresh Brussels sprouts.

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The U.S. Navy also had a lengthy tradition of racial segregation and a policy of restricting black recruits to service positions, in particular as “mess boys”—essentially servants for officers. In 1942, Roosevelt had insisted that the Navy begin to open more specialties to blacks, including those of gunner, signalman, yeoman, and quartermaster.

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In general, any vessel over two hundred tons was called a “ship,” and those under two hundred tons were called “craft,” though this was not universally true. Both the LCI (landing craft, infantry) and LCT (landing craft, tank) displaced more than two hundred tons but were nevertheless labeled as craft.

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Both of the sample LST hull numbers cited here are for ships that participated in the Normandy invasion and which are preserved today as historic artifacts. LST-235, at Evansville, Indiana, is the only LST in the world that is still operational; LST-393 is not operational but is open to visitors as a museum in Muskegon, Michigan.

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Montgomery’s intolerance of smoking led to some awkward moments when he and Eisenhower worked together. At one early meeting, Ike lit up a Camel, and Monty looked up and asked accusingly: “Who’s smoking?” Eisenhower stubbed out the cigarette, and for the sake of Allied harmony he never did it again, but he quietly resented it.

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Fans of naval literature who are familiar with C. S. Forester’s classic novel
The Ship
may be aware that it is based on the Second Battle of Sirte, fought on March 22, 1942, in which Vian fought off several attacks from a superior Italian surface force and German air forces.

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When Ramsay issued the official Neptune operational order on April 10, it was eleven hundred pages long and nearly four inches thick. All orders connected with Neptune and Overlord were stamped “BIGOT” in large red letters, which was the equivalent of “Top Secret.” It derived from the fact that back in 1942, the secret orders for the Torch invasion had been stamped “To Gibraltar” or simply “To Gib.” “BIGOT” was “To Gib” spelled backward. Those privy to top-secret information were said to be “bigoted.”

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When Hall suited up for the baseball game against Army in 1913, the left fielder on the opposing team was Omar Bradley. (Army won the game 2–1.) Because of that shared history, the two-star admiral felt no qualms calling the three-star general “Brad” when they met thirty years later to plan the rehearsals for D-Day. The 1914 Army baseball team, on which Bradley also played, subsequently became famous for the fact that every member of the starting nine became a general.

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DUKW” was not an acronym. Instead, the letters indicated its model type.
D
indicated that it had been built in 1942;
U
stood for “utility”;
K
meant that it had front-wheel drive; and
W
indicated that it had two rear axles. Since the DUKWs were considered trucks that could float rather than boats with wheels, they were assigned to motor transport and operated, for the most part, by African American drivers.

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Eisenhower also worried about the security of the D-Day plans because he knew that at least one of the officers reported as missing after Exercise Tiger had been thoroughly briefed about Neptune-Overlord. If that officer had been pulled from the water by one of the E-boats and interrogated, it could jeopardize the entire operation. In the end, however, the Allies recovered the bodies of all those who had access to the invasion plans.

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With hindsight, it is evident that a postponement until June 19 would have been catastrophic. Though Eisenhower could not have known it, June 19 was the date a massive summer storm came churning up the English Channel. (See
Chapter 14
.) That would have made any invasion during the June 19–21 window impossible and might have scuttled the invasion entirely.

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Deyo used the same cabin on the
Tuscaloosa
that President Roosevelt had used during a vacation trip to the Caribbean in December 1940. It was in that cabin that Roosevelt came up with the idea for Lend-Lease.

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The American
Gleaves
class destroyers, which carried five 5-inch guns, were modified during the war to carry one fewer 5-inch gun in order to accommodate additional anti-aircraft batteries. These wartime versions were dubbed
Bristol
class destroyers. A total of ninety-six vessels variously dubbed
Gleaves
or
Bristol
class were commissioned during the war. To avoid confusion, all these vessels will be referred to here as
Gleaves
class.

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Among the American, British, and Canadian forces was a battalion of Inter-Allied Commandos that included Dutch, Belgian, Norwegian, Polish, and of course French troops. There were even a few expatriate Germans.

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Like “Tokyo Rose” in the Pacific, “Lord Haw Haw” was a generic term applied to a number of English-speaking radio broadcasters used by the Axis in an attempt to undermine the morale of Allied soldiers and sailors. Many if not most of the broadcasts of Lord Haw Haw were the work of an American-born British citizen named William Joyce. After the war, Joyce was arrested, tried for treason, and hanged.

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That shell remains on board the USS
Texas
to this day and can be seen by visitors to the battleship, which is anchored off Houston as a museum ship.

Roosevelt and Churchill get acquainted prior to a joint religious service on board HMS
Prince of Wales
on August 10, 1941. Behind them are many of the men who would play central roles in the development of Anglo-American strategy during the war. At left, Harry Hopkins chats with Averell Harriman; in the center, Ernest King talks with George Marshall; Sir John Dill is behind Churchill’s left shoulder; and at right Harold “Betty” Stark stands with Dudley Pound. (FDR Library)

George Marshall, seen here in a January 1945 photo wearing five stars, was the U.S. Army Chief of Staff and a principal architect of Allied strategy. Despite a calm and reserved temperament, he was a fierce advocate of an early invasion of occupied Europe, and in pursuit of that goal, he fought a lengthy verbal war with his British counterpart, Alan Brooke. (U.S. Army Photo)

As Chief of the Imperial General Staff, British General Alan Brooke fought two battles: on the one hand he sought to dampen or deflect American enthusiasm for an early invasion of occupied France, and, at the same time, he attempted to control, or at least to moderate, Churchill’s penchant for peripheral and even bizarre operational gambits. (U.S. Army Photo)

George Patton (left) and Kent Hewitt share a laugh on board Hewitt’s flagship the heavy cruiser
Augusta
during Operation TORCH in November 1942. Despite Patton’s cheerful demeanor here, he was unsure that the easy-going and unpretentious Hewitt was sufficiently ferocious. Patton’s controversial behavior and statements kept him out of the D-Day operation, but he assumed command of the American Third Army in in August 1944 and participated in the Allied breakout. (U.S. Naval Institute)

A portion of the trans-Atlantic convoy for Operation TORCH photographed from the air. (U.S. Naval Institute)