The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (148 page)

Come nightfall, American artillery smothered
: MacDonald and Mathews,
Three Battles
, 380; OH, G. M. Nelson, CO, 112th Inf, Nov. 13, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77 (
walking into a lake
).

“
Like blind cattle the men thrashed
”:
SLC
, 371.

The dead accumulated in stiff piles
: Babcock,
War Stories
, 275.

Eisenhower and Bradley had driven to Rott
: Sylvan, 167–68; Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,”
Army History
(spring 2010): 18
+
(“
bloody nose
”).

“
I’ve condemned a whole regiment
”: Carpenter,
No Woman’s World
, 181.

Survivors from the Kall
: AAR, Albert L. Berndt, 112th Inf surgeon, Nov. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77; Miller,
A Dark and Bloody Ground
, 89 (
soldierly airs
); Carpenter,
No Woman’s World
, 232 (“
Chow all right, son?
”).

On Thursday, November 9
: Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,”
Army History
(spring 2010): 18
+
.

The weeklong battle had been among the costiliest
: Losses included those in units attached to the 28th Division (
SLC
, 374). Division casualties included 750 cases of trench foot (OH, “Hürtgen Forest,” 28th ID, Nov. 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, CI, folders #74–77).

The Bloody Bucket was bloodier than ever
:
SLC
, 372 (
reduced to 57 men
); Bradbeer, “General Cota and the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest,”
Army History
(spring 2010): 18
+
(
from 2,200 to 300
); Ent, ed.,
The First Century
, 172 (“
accomplished very little
”); memo, N. Cota, Nov. 29, 1944, in AAR, 28th ID, n.d., a.p., from David Zabecki (“
Salute, March, Shoot, Obey
”).

German losses for the week
: MacDonald,
The Battle of the Huertgen Forest
, 120 (
about three thousand
); corr, Hans-Helmut Jansen to parents, Dec. 5, 1944, trans. David Zabecki, a.p. (“
We squat in an airless cellar
”); Ivan “Cy” H. Peterman, “As I Saw It,” in Knickerbocker et al.,
Danger Forward
, 304 (“
South of the Border
”); Miller,
A Dark and Bloody Ground
, 60 (“
days were so terrible
”).

In less than three months, six U.S. Army infantry divisions
:
SLC
, 437–38, 492; Charles B. MacDonald, introduction to Boesch,
Road to Huertgen.

All told, 120,000 soldiers
: MacDonald,
The Battle of the Huertgen Forest
, 195.

“
the most ineptly fought series of battles
”: quoted in Hastings,
Armageddon
, 193; 183rd Volksgrenadier Div, n.d., in “Tactical Lessons,” First Army, Aug. 1944–Feb. 1945, 5A, USAREUR staff ride, Hürtgen Forest, Dec. 5–8, 2001 (“
completely unfit
”).

“
He went on and on
”: Hogan,
A Command Post at War
, 186; Sylvan, 184 (
individual cake
).

“
We thought woods were wise
”: Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 6.

“
not so much an area
”: Henry P. Halsell, “Hürtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams,” n.d., CMH, 314.7, I-32.

Fighter-bombers incinerated recalcitrant towns
: Sylvan, 189; Boesch,
Road to Huertgen
, 142 (“C’est la
bloody goddam
guerre”); Towne,
Doctor Danger Forward
, 150 (
cache of ears
); Baker,
Ernest Hemingway
, 555 (
seared by white phosphorus
); McManus,
The Deadly Brotherhood
, 253 (“
my personal Valley
”).

From his fieldstone house near Vicht
: Heinz,
When We Were One
, 243–46 (“
bulk bigger
”); Baker,
Ernest Hemingway
, 556; Reynolds,
Hemingway: The Final Years
, 113–25; Carpenter,
No Woman’s World
, 240 (“
fornicatin’ beasts
”); William P. Shaw, “Fellowship of Dust: The WWII Journey of Sgt. Frank Shaw,” n.d., NWWIIM, 70 (King Lear).

“
I see you everywhere
”: Frank Maddalena was declared killed in action a year later (Litoff and Smith, eds.,
Since You Went Away
, 247–48).

C
HAPTER
7: T
HE
F
LUTTER
O
F
W
INGS

A Town Too Small for the Tragedy

A stately procession of nineteen cargo ships
: British Pathé newsreel, 1944,
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=23525
.

Seamen and anxious war correspondents
: Correspondents sailed with the port headquarters on the U.S.S.
James B. Weaver
(
LSA
, vol. 2, 110).

Three small coasters had made the run
:
VW
, vol. 2, 127; Rawling,
Cinderella Operation
, 147–48;
VC
, 422–24.

COMZ three days earlier had warned
: “Shipping Situation and Supply Requirements,” COM Z, G-4, Nov. 25, 1944, CARL, N-6726.

A protocol oversight had excluded
:
VC
, 422–24 (
snub
). Roughly half of those Canadian First Army casualties were Canadian nationals, with the balance divided among British, Polish, Czech, French, and American units (
SLC
, 229;
VW
, vol. 2, 127–28).

The protracted “struggle in the polders
”:
VC
, vol. 3, 386;
SLC
, 221 (
flamethrowers
); Thompson,
Men Under Fire
, 17 (
windmill to windmill
); Reed, “Assault on Walcheren,” AB, no. 36 (1982): 1
+
(
bombardment of ancient Dutch dikes
); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 545–46; Chalmers,
Full Cycle
, 256 (“
Good morning!
”); Woodward,
Ramsay at War
, 192–93 (
rousted from his bed
); Roskill,
White Ensign
, 397;
VW
, vol. 2, 115–23 (
last two thousand
); Rawling,
Cinderella Operation
, 147–48 (
at noon
).

With enemy shore guns finally silenced
: Rawling,
Cinderella Operation
, 147–48; Moulton,
Battle for Antwerp
, 181–82 (
white chevron
and
nine explosions
); Thompson,
Men Under Fire
, 21 (
feeling their way
); Roskill,
White Ensign
, 153 (
Two hundred and sixty-seven mines
).

Twenty more ships arrived
:
LSA
, vol. 2, 110; “G-4 History,” ETOUSA, n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #553A-C, 99. (
23,000 tons
); Edwin T. Bowden, “Quartermaster Operations at the Port of Antwerp,” n.d., chapter 22, PIR, MHI, 9; “American Port Plans, August to November 1944,” n.d., NARA RG 319,
LSA
background papers, 2-3.7 CB 7, 65–66 (
Six thousand civilian stevedores
); Eudora Ramsay Richardson and Sherman Allan, “Quartermaster Supply in the ETO in WWII,” vol. 1, QM School, Ft. Lee, Va., 1947 (
densest rail network
);
LSA
, vol. 2, 111 (
85,000 tons of matériel
); “Clothing and Footwear,” chapter 56, PIR, 1959, Robert M. Littlejohn papers, HIA (
depots in Lille, Mons
); “Development of Antwerp,” ETOUSA, 1944, NARA RG 498 ETO HD, admin file #244, 15–16 (
ammunition ships
).

Explosions had already become all too commonplace
: King and Kutta,
Impact
, 274. Various accounts give different dates for the initial V-weapon attacks in Antwerp. See
VW
, vol. 2, 149.

Both V-1s and V-2s struck on October 13
:
SLC
, 229 (“
Something beastly
”); Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’”
AB
, no. 57 (1987) 43
+
(
women’s handbags
).

Barely above sea level
: King and Kutta,
Impact
, 279–81 (“
city of sudden death
”); “Development of Antwerp,” ETOUSA, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #244, 17 (
tent encampments
); Antrobus, “V-2 in Antwerp,”
Yank
, May 4, 1945, 6
+
(“
unwanted smell
”); Thompson,
The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe
, 195 (“
cast continued singing
”).

Hitler had long recognized
: M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” OCMH, 1954, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, box 28, 75; Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’”
AB
, no. 57 (1987): 43
+
(
over the course of six months
). The German official history states that of 3,170 V-2s launched, 1,610 were aimed at Antwerp (
Germany VII
, 444).

Sixty-seven thousand buildings in greater Antwerp
: “5th Major Port: A Story of Three Years Overseas,” U.S. Army Transportation Corps, 1945, MHI, 68–71;
TSC
, 332 (
two-thirds of all houses
);
VW
, vol. 2, 149–50, 235 (
port operations to remain largely unimpaired
); “The Story of Antwerp,” 50th AAA Bde, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #244A (
22,000 antiaircraft artillerymen
); film, “Defense of Antwerp Against the V-1,” 1947,
http://www.archive.org/details/gov.dod.dimoc.20375
; Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’”
AB
, no. 57 (1987): 43
+
(
new gun barrels and ammunition
).

German V-1 crews in December
: “The Story of Antwerp,” 50th AAA Bde, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #244A; “Tactical Employment of Antiaircraft Artillery Units,” USFET General Board study no. 38, n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, AGWWII Operations Reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 40–41 (“
characteristic roar
”); M. C. Helfers, “The Employment of V-Weapons by the Germans During World War II,” 1954, OCMH, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 AW, box 28, 131 (
within eight miles of central Antwerp
).

“
The angel of death
”: Roberts,
Masters and Commanders
, 537.

Nearly all twelve hundred seats were filled
: “Ciné Rex: 1935–1993,”
http://users.telenet.be/rudolf.bosschaerts/rex1e.html
(
only German films were screened
); Huntington, “Lights. Camera. War!”
America in World War II
(June 2008): 34
+
(
thirteen hundred films
).

At 3:20
P.M.
, just after Gary Cooper
: Rely, “Antwerp ‘City of Sudden Death,’”
AB
, no. 57 (1987): 43
+
.

Recovery teams ultimately retrieved
: “The Antwerp Story,” in “Stories of Transportation,” vol. 1, Frank S. Ross papers, HIA, box 20, 407;
SLC
, 230 (
two hundred servicemen
); “Antwerp, ‘City of Sudden Death,’”
http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html
(
city zoo became a morgue
); Antrobus, “V-2 in Antwerp,”
Yank
, May 4, 1945, 6
+
(
decontamination squads
).

“Faith in a Friendly Universe”

Despite the travails of the Hürtgen Forest
: Sylvan, 175 (“
last big offensive
”); Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 438–41; Bradley and Blair,
A General’s Life
, 342–43.

Just past the meridian on November 16
: AAR, “Operation Q,” IX Tactical Air Command, n.d., Courtney H. Hodges papers, DDE Lib, box 7 (“
I feel very good
”); Heinz,
When We Were One
, 58 (“
yellow blossoms
”), 59 (“
no expression at all
”); Harmon,
Combat Commander
, 219 (
orange sheets
); memo, William L. Blanton, XIII Corps, n.d., NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR (
800 million candlepower
).

The entrenched enemy quickly stiffened
:
SLC
, 420–24, 492, 505 (
hot food and burning candles
), 416–18 (“
house-by-house killing match
”); “Further Technical Notes on German Minefields,” March 7, 1945, UK War Office, NARA RG 407, ML #225, appendix J (
dozen types of mine
). First Division casualties included those of the attached 47th Infantry.

Thirty days hath November
:
SLC
, 518; “Weather Conditions in the ETO on D-Day and in Nov. 1944,” HQ, Air Weather Service, Sept. 1946, NARA RG 319,
CCA
background historical files, box 164 (
triple the monthly average
).

“
Men were forced to discard their overcoats
”:
SLC
, 446, 457, 518; Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 16 (
condoms
);
LSA
, vol. 2, 492 (“
duck bills
”).

This was
“
thee or me
”
combat
: Rosengarten, “With Ultra from Omaha Beach to Weimar, Germany,”
Military Affairs
(Oct. 1978): 127
+
; Nickell,
Red Devil
, 79 (“
They say cleanliness
”), 84–85 (“
With every heartbeat
”); Capa,
Slightly Out of Focus
, 203 (“‘
You ain’t goin’ back
’”); Babcock,
Taught to Kill
, 123 (“
pissing your pants
”); Linderman,
The World Within War
, 306 (“
One forgets so much
”), 311 (Snow White).