The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (168 page)

Recriminations followed
: I am particularly grateful to Prof. Mark A. Stoler for his insights on Malta and Yalta. His essay “World War II” provides a fine survey of the subsequent historiography after Yalta, in Schulzinger, ed.,
A Companion to American Foreign Relations
, 188
+
(“
connotation of shameful failure
”).

For decades the Western delegates would be blamed
: Miller,
F.D.R.: An Intimate History
, 506.

Roosevelt’s frailty came to be seen
: Moran,
Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran
, 239–41 (“
The shrewdness has gone
”); Feis,
Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin
, 557; Gallagher,
FDR’s Splendid Deception
, 169–70 (“
extraordinary effort
”); Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time
, 585; Plokhy,
Yalta
, 400 (“
trademark ability
”); Eden,
The Reckoning
, 592–93 (“
impression of failing powers
”); U.S. Navy movie footage, FDR Lib, 71-8: 65–67; transcript, 992nd press conference,
Quincy
, Feb. 23, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84.

Two generations later, Yalta can be seen
: Dallek,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945
, 519, 533 (“
military and political
glacis”); Forrest C. Pogue, “Yalta in Retrospect,” in Snell, ed.,
The Meaning of Yalta
, 191; Plokhy,
Yalta
, 228, 287, 401 (“
saved two million Americans
”). James MacGregor Burns later wrote that Roosevelt had “reached the limit of his bargaining power” (“FDR: The Untold Story of His Last Year,”
Saturday Review
[Apr. 11, 1970]: 12
+)
.

War had held the Big Three together
: Addison,
Churchill, the Unexpected Hero
, 200 (
met on nine occasions
); transcript, 992nd press conference,
Quincy
, Feb. 23, 1945, Anna Roosevelt Halsted papers, FDR Lib, box 84 (“
mid-Victorian
”); Moran,
Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran
, 245 (“
seems to upset him
”); Eden,
The Reckoning
, 593 (“
dependent upon the United States
”).

“
We have moved a long way
”: Hastings,
Winston’s War
, 459; Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
, 401 (“
a world of imponderables
”).

“
The Americans pitch their song
”: Moran,
Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran
, 249.

“Only Our Eyes Are Alive”

From the Swiss border
: Bonn,
When the Odds Were Even
, 177–78 (“
Stay Alive
”); L. D. Docken, “My Recollections of the Battle of Phillipsburg in Jan. 1945,” 1981, NARA RG 319,
RR
background files, FRC 5 (“
My mind is absolutely stripped
”).

The harshest winter in decades
: Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 21 (“
tuning forks
”); Blunt,
Foot Soldier
, 122 (“
block of ice
”); Fussell,
Doing Battle
, 130 (“
hands in the crotch
”); Murphy,
To Hell and Back
, 233 (
patches of hair
); Blair,
Ridgway’s Paratroopers
, 424 (
igloos
);
Blue Spaders
, 117 (
quarter-pound TNT block
); Fussell,
The Boys’ Crusade
, 41 (“
Austin White, Chicago, Ill.
”).

A SHAEF plan to cut one million cords
:
LSA
, vol. 2, 213; Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, Osmanski papers, MHI; OH, Philip Carlquist, 1978, Emory University,
http://sage.library.emory.edu/collection-0608.html
; Cowdrey,
Fighting for Life
, 278 (
Sled dogs
).

“
To date, I’ve slept
”: Richard Henry Byers, “Battle of the Bulge,” 1983, a.p.

“
I tried to knock him out
”: McManus,
The Deadly Brotherhood
, 141.

“
Everywhere we searched
”: Blunt,
Foot Soldier
, 156.

“
Tell ’em it’s rough
”: CBM,
Company Commander
, quoted in Ellis,
On the Front Lines
, 332; Wandrey,
Bedpan Commando
, 163 (“
nice cowboy boots
”); Hauser, “Shock Nurse,”
Saturday Evening Post
(March 10, 1945): 12
+
(“
their mothers can’t see them
”).

Prison-camp guards opened
: memo, Theater IG to CG, Advance COMZ, Apr. 1, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO IG, box 19; DDE to GCM, March 18, 1945, memos, NARA RG 498, ETO SGS classified gen’l corr, 383.6, box 51 (“
I certainly loathe
”).

“
Will you tell me what the hell
”: Heinz,
When We Were One
, 231; memoir, Ralph M. Morales, 254th Inf, 1964, NARA RG 319,
RR
background files, FRC 4 (“
a thousand deaths
”); L. D. Docken, “My Recollections of a Raiding Party into Lixing, Feb. 1945,” n.d., NARA RG 319,
RR
background files, FRC 5 (“
Things didn’t go exactly as planned
”); Fussell,
Doing Battle
, 140 (“
accident and contingency
”).

“
How hard I have become
”: Vining, ed.,
American Diaries of World War II
, 106; Blunt,
Foot Soldier
, 138, 86 (“
I sat and ate
”); Gray,
The Warriors
, 233–34 (“‘
Tis bitter cold
’”).

A survey of four thousand GIs
: “Attitudes of Soldiers in the European Theater,” Apr.–May 1945, report no. ETO 85, NARA RG 330, E 94, 6; Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 76 (“
A hatred such as I have never seen
”); Ellis,
On the Front Lines
, 286 (“
The question of killing
”).

“
Slowly it is beginning to dawn
”: Peckham and Snyder, eds.,
Letters from Fighting Hoosiers
, vol. 2, 165; Christen T. Jonassen, “Living Conditions in the E.T.O.,” 1987, Columbus WWII Round Table, MHI, box 1, 4 (“
Screw the bastards
”); Ellis,
On the Front Lines
, 286 (“
When the Jerries come in
”); Toole,
Battle Diary
, 57 (“
Some of our best men
”).

“
Their visible wish to surrender
”: Fussell,
Doing Battle
, 124.

“
Killing is an obsession
”: corr, Waldo Heinrichs, Jr., to parents, Apr. 30, 1945, MHI, box 1.

At 7:30
A.M.
on Wednesday
: Huie,
The Execution of Private Slovik
, 22–25, 34, 60; “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,”
AB
, no. 32 (1981): 28
+
.

Indiscipline had become a nagging worry
: “Military Justice Administration in Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 83, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 1–2 (
11,000 general courts-martial
); desk calendar, Nov. 5, 1944, DDE Lib, Barbara Wyden papers, box 1 (“
Disciplinary conditions
”); memo, DDE, Dec. 13, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 11 (“
The large incidence of crimes
”); Wieviorka,
Normandy
, 328 (“
liberators have turned into looters
”); “Alleged Lawlessness of American Troops in Normandy Area,” Nov. 18, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO inspection file #40 (“
fear of being accosted
”); Ellis,
On the Front Lines
, 200 (
less than one-half of one percent
); memo, SHAEF G-2 to SHAEF G-1, Jan. 24, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 11 (“
a considerable percentage
”). Beetle Smith subsequently complained to commanders on March 20, 1945, that “large scale looting is being practiced by both U.S. and British troops in Holland and Germany.”

Severe punishment had a fitful deterrent effect
: “The Military Offender in the Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 84, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 1–2 (“
mental ages
” and
dishonorable discharge
); “Military Justice Administration in Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 83, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 7–9.

Four hundred and forty-three death penalties
: “Normandy Executions,”
AB
, no. 85 (1994). At least one author subsequently claimed that fourteen thousand European women were raped by U.S. soldiers. John H. Morrow, Jr., review of J. Robert Lilly,
Taken by Force
,
JMH
(Oct. 2008): 1324. See also Davies,
No Simple Victory
, 339. SHAEF and Army figures suggest that the numbers, though appalling, were far lower. See AAR, 12th AG, vol. 10, NARA RG 331, E 200A, SHAEF, box 267; Ziemke,
The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946
, 220; and Wieviorka,
Normandy
, 328.

Seventy executions took place in Europe
: corr, Theodore Wyman, Jr., to OCMH, May 5, 1954, NARA RG 319, E 97,
LSA
, vol. 1, background files, box 4,14; Lilly, “U.S. Military Executions,”
AB
, no. 90 (1995): 50
+
; “Normandy Executions,”
AB
, no. 85 (1994) (“
manila hemp
”).

Desertion, defined by the U.S. military
: “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,”
AB
, no. 32 (1981): 28
+
; Laffin,
Combat Surgeons
, 197–98 (
more than three thousand death sentences
).

The German military issued
: Geoffrey P. Megargee, World War II panel, SMH conference, May 22, 2004, Bethesda, Md.; Rush,
Hell in Hürtgen Forest
, 336; Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed.,
World War II in Europe: The Final Year
, 129. Boog estimates that “somewhat less than half” of the fifty thousand condemned were executed.

Twenty-one thousand soldiers would desert
:
DOB
, 508; Fussell,
The Boys’ Crusade
, 108 (
less than half had been caught
).

Of nearly two thousand deserters convicted in Europe
: “Military Justice Administration in Theater of Operations,” n.d., USFET General Board study no. 83, NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII operations reports, 97-USF5-0.30, 4. Several dozen others were condemned for mutiny, sedition, or misbehavior before the enemy, i.e., fleeing from battle.

since 1864
: Huie,
The Execution of Private Slovik
, 146.

Slovik was arrested in October
: ibid., 121–22, 150–51 (“
in a little trouble
”), 174, 179–80; Carroll, “A Deserter Begs Eisenhower to Spare His Life,”
World War II
(Jan.–Feb. 2012): 21
+
(“
How can I tell you
”); Morgan,
Eisenhower Was My Boss
, 134 (“
Hanging Hour
”); “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,”
AB
, no. 32 (1981): 28
+
.

The MP guards had lost the handcuff key
: Huie,
The Execution of Private Slovik
, 203–11, 217–21, 227.

Gray overcast roofed the garden
: “The Execution of Eddie Slovik,”
AB
, no. 32 (1981): 28
+
; Miller,
Division Commander
, 160–62. In a letter to author William Bradford Huie in 1953, General Cota said, “I regret that Private Slovik had to be a product of our replacement system. This was a cruel system … and I never liked it.” Corr, Dec. 13, 1953, Norman D. Cota papers, DDE Lib, 201 file, box 1.

A priest anointed the body
: L. R. Talbot, “Graves Registration in the European Theater of Operations,” 1955, chapter 26 PIR, MHI; Lilly, “U.S. Military Executions,”
AB
, no. 90 (1995): 50
+
.

“
the one sore on the whole front
”: diary, JLD, Jan. 27, 1945, MHI; Tedder,
With Prejudice
, 657 (“
we must get cleaned up
”).

In this he would be further frustrated
:
RR
, 533, 538 (
Iron Cross
); OH, 3rd ID, Colmar Pocket, RG 407, E 427-A, CI, 270/65/5/1, folder 26 (
converted into fortresses
); MEB, “The Colmar Pockets, 20 Jan–9 Feb 45,” Oct. 1954, NARA RG 319, R-56, 11 (
ten ferry sites
); “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,” Sixth AG, n.d., CARL, N-11980.3, 5 (
floating contact mines
).

General Devers’s initial effort
: Seaman, “Reduction of the Colmar Pocket,”
Military Review
(Oct. 1951): 37
+
;
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 2, 627; “History of Ordnance Service in the Mediterranean Theater,” vol. 2, n.d., CMH, 8-4 JA, 196–97; Turner and Jackson,
Destination Berchtesgaden
, 120–21; De Lattre de Tassigny,
The History of the French First Army
, 345–48 (“
polished ice terrain
”); memo, Reuben E. Jenkins to JLD, Feb. 24, 1947, Jenkins papers, MHI, box 1 (
French II Corps
); Yeide and Stout,
First to the Rhine
, 307 (“Elsass bleibt deutsch”).