The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (175 page)

The correspondent William L. Shirer
: Miller,
Ike the Soldier
, 761 (“
mystery writers
”); memo, “Study of the German National Redoubt,” March 25, 1945, HQ, Seventh Army, G-2, NARA RG 226, M 1642, R-52, frames 253–59 (“
Vast stores
” and “
Messerschmitt
” and “
imbued with the Nazi spirit
”); Ryan,
The Last Battle
, 213 (
long freight trains
); AAR,
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 3, 808–10; Minott,
The Fortress That Never Was
, 54 (
hydro-powered
).

The truth was less flamboyant
: Hinsley, 613; Hans [
sic
] Hofer, Lower Alps gauleiter, n.d., FMS #B-458, ETHINT, vol. 24, MHI, 9–11, 23 (
wall map
); Georg Ritter von Hengl, Apr. 25, 1946, FMS #B-459, 3–11, and #B-461, n.d., 1–3, ETHINT, vol. 24, MHI (
not until spring
); Kesselring,
The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring
, 277 (“
make-believe
”).

Werewolf movement
: Timothy Naftali, “Creating the Myth of the
Alpenfestung
,” in Bischof and Pelinka, eds.,
Austrian Memory & National Identity
, 203–46; Beevor,
Berlin: The Downfall, 1945
, 175 (“
Werewolf is watching
”); Whiting,
The Home Front: Germany
, 179–80 (
mayor of Aachen
); Brown,
The Last Hero
, 738–40 (
Basque assassins
).

Yet at SHAEF the myth
: press conference, W. B. Smith, Apr. 21, 1945, in “Operations of the Approach to the Rhine and Across the Rhine,” n.d., Sidney H. Negrotto papers, MHI; D’Este,
Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life
, 696–98; Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 536 (“
We may be fighting
”); Crosswell,
Beetle
, 90 (“
possibly 100 to 125
”); memo, “Location of Caves in Germany,” SHAEF G-2, Apr. 16, 1945, and memo, “Photographic Cover of National Redoubt,” SHAEF G-2, Apr. 14, 1945, NARA RG 331, E 240B, 6th Army Group, files 452.2 and “National Redoubt,” boxes 3 and 5 (
two hundred caves
); Jenkins, “The Battle of the National Redoubt,”
Military Review
(Dec. 1946): 3
+
(
ordered Devers’s army group
); Hinsley, 613 (
First Allied Airborne Army
);
LO
, 422.

“
no less than 70 examples
”: SHAEF weekly intelligence summary no. 57, Apr. 22, 1945, Robert D. Burhans papers, HIA, box 14; “Strategy of the Campaign in Western Europe, 1944–1945,” USFET General Board study no. 1, n.d., 102 (
one hundred divisions
);
VW
, vol. 2, 429–31 (“
fanatical resistance
”); Georg Ritter von Hengl, Apr. 25, 1946, FMS #B-459, ETHINT, vol. 24, MHI, 11 (“
run its course
”).

Shortly after midnight on Friday
: Ayer,
Before the Colors Fade
, 210 (“
hot air
”);
PP
, 694 (“
a figment
”); diary, Apr. 11, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 3, folder 11 (
carbine by his cot
); corr, GSP to Beatrice, Apr. 17, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13 (“
end of this life
”); corr, March 16, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 74, folder 5 (“
hot furnace
”).

“
War for me
”: corr, GSP to Robert Howe Fletcher, Apr. 25, 1945, GSP, LOC MS Div, box 13.

Glancing at his wristwatch
: diary, Third Army chief of staff, Feb. 9, 1945, Hobart Gay papers, MHI, box 2, 866–69. International News Service broke the story at 5:47
P.M.
Washington time in a terse flash: “FDR DEAD.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man who
: Goodman, ed.,
While You Were Gone
, 116; Larrabee,
Commander in Chief
, 627 (
transcendent cause
); Taylor and Taylor, eds.,
The War Diaries
, 159 (
sob like a child
); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 716–17 (“
altered decisively
”); Leahy,
I Was There
, 346 (“
How could a man
”).

His passing came
: Kennedy,
Freedom from Fear
, 808; Tully,
F.D.R. My Boss
, 359 (
stamp collection
); Hassett,
Off the Record with F.D.R.
, 332–35 (
signed into law
); Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
72, no. 4 (Apr. 1, 1970): 579
+
; Altman, “For F.D.R. Sleuths, New Focus on an Old Spot,”
NYT
, Jan. 5, 2010, D1 (
blood pressure
); Dallek,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945
, 527–33; Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time
, 603, 611–12 (“
that was it
”); Reilly,
Reilly of the White House
, 234 (
poison
). The portrait artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff denied measuring Roosevelt’s nose and later wrote that the president said nothing before he collapsed (Shoumatoff,
FDR’s Unfinished Portrait
, 115–18; Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center,
http://www.fdrheritage.org/shoumatoff.htm
).

J. Austin Dillon
: memo, J. Austin Dillon, n.d., Small Collections: FDRL Miscellaneous Documents: Roosevelt, Franklin D.—Health, FDR Lib.

On Friday, the daily casualty list
: MacDonald,
The Mighty Endeavor
, 484; Seventh Army war diary, Apr. 13, 1945, MHI, 653 (“
mourning badges
”); Toole,
Battle Diary
, 132 (“
This is a shock
”).

Dragon Country

To an American pilot
: Ryan,
The Last Battle
, 127 (“
very crust
”);
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 3, 820 (“
molten mass
”); corr, Waldo Heinrichs, Jr., May 8, 1945, Heinrichs papers, MHI, box 1 (“
running to the rear
”).

This was Dragon Country
: Thompson,
Men Under Fire
, 132–33;
LO
, 410 (“
Sixty-one Roadblocks
”), 386 (
Hanover’s defenses
), 404–5 (“
a conglomeration
”);
The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany
, vol. 3, 822 (
wooden sticks
); Marshall,
A Ramble Through My War
, 220; Holt,
The Deceivers
, 662 (
geraniums
); Ziemke,
The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946
, 244–47.

“
The shame of German defeat
”: Carpenter,
No Woman’s World
, 261.

“
What right had they
”: Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 146.

Alfried Krupp, an industrialist
: Bourke-White,
Portrait of Myself
, 265–70 (
said to have wept
); Manchester,
The Arms of Krupp, 1587–1966
, 521, 674–81. Arrested in April, Krupp would be formally charged in August; Manchester writes that he was dry-eyed upon being detained.

“
Brilliant spring sunshine
”: Thompson,
Men Under Fire
, 132–33.

“
old men leaning on sticks
”: White,
Conquerors’ Road
, 17.

And yet dragons lurked
: Murray and Millett,
A War to Be Won
, 480 (
10,677 U.S. soldiers
); Lubrich, ed.,
Travels in the Reich, 1933–1945
, 328 (“
plague bacteria
”); Howarth, ed.,
Men of War
, 205–6; Read and Fisher,
The Fall of Berlin
, 334;
Germany IX
, 459 (“
If we lose the war
”); Friedrich,
The Fire
, 306 (“
Negro brothels
”).

Some Luftwaffe pilots
: Rudolf Lusar, “The German Weapons and Secret Weapons of World War II and Their Subsequent Development,” 1956, CMH, 78; Ninth AF, intelligence summary no. 130, Apr. 30, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 116 (
political indoctrination
); “History of U.S. Strategic Air Force Europe vs. German Air Force,” Sept. 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, SRH-013, 342 (“
staking your lives
”); Muller, “Losing Air Superiority: A Case Study from the Second World War,”
Air & Space Power Journal
(winter 2003): 55
+
(“
total commitment missions
”); Seventh Army, G-2 bulletin no. 63, May 22, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO G-3, Col. C. Hilldebrand, VI Corps, OR, box 1458 (
several young boys
); Lubrich, ed.,
Travels in the Reich, 1933–1945
, 320 (“
heartbreaking sight
”).

“
women and children lined the rooftops
”: Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 530;
LO
, 410.

In Heilbronn, on the Neckar
:
LO
, 417–18; “Attack on Heilbronn,” 100th ID, July 1945, Seventh Army narratives, MHI, 4, 33; Turner and Jackson,
Destination Berchtesgaden
, 160–61; Yeide and Stout,
First to the Rhine
, 357–59; Ziemke,
The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944–1946
, 247 (“
noticeable stench
”).

“
Why don’t the silly bastards
”: Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of World War II
, 414; Horst Boog, “Invasion to Surrender: The Defense of Germany,” in Brower, ed.,
World War II in Europe: The Final Year
, 131.

“
Mother, you asked me
”: “Jack’s Letters,” March 22, March 24, and April 3, 1945, a.p., courtesy of Rick Perry.

“
Half the nationalities of Europe
”: Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 254–55; Gilbert,
The Day the War Ended
, 64 (“
moving frieze
”); “Civil Affairs and Military Government Organizations and Operations,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 32, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (
4.2 million
); Abraham J. Peck, “A Continent in Chaos,” in
Liberation 1945
, 101 (
eleven million unmoored
).

Some were on forced marches
: diary, Darrell William Coates, Apr. 1945, HIA;
http://www.b24.net/pow/stalag17.htm
.

“
Everyone is yelling
”: Vining, ed.,
American Diaries of World War II
, 417–18.

“
Smaller wounds were covered
”: Wandrey,
Bedpan Commando
, 181–82; Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 256 (“
jeep looks like
”); “After WWII, Economist Devoted Life,” obit,
WP
, July 8, 2009, B4 (
cheered wildly
).

Of the shambling millions
: “Activities and Organization of COMZ,” June 11, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #89, 11; Foreign Workers Programs, Apr. 25, 1945, Radio Luxembourg collection, HIA, box 1 (
SHAEF broadcasts
).

“
tractable, grateful, and powerless
”: “Displaced Persons, Refugees, and Recovered Allied Military Personnel,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 35, 97-USF5-0.3.0.

Freed laborers plundered houses
: Zumbro,
Battle for the Ruhr
, 329–30; “Concentration Camp Train,” G-2 Periodic Report No. 304, 30th ID, Apr. 17, 1945, NARA RG 407, ETO G-3 OR (
licked flour
); Urquhart,
A Life in Peace and War
, 79, 86 (“
rampageous
” and
Hanover cellar
); Botting,
From the Ruins of the Reich
, 26.

Thousands of refugees carried
: “History of Medical Service in the European Theater,” tape transcript, Oct. 1962, MHI, II-69; OH, Philip Carlquist, Sept. 1, 1978, Emory University; “The Disease Potential in Germany,” in OH, Albert W. Kenner, SHAEF chief medical officer, May 27, 1948, FCP, MHI; “Displaced Persons, Refugees, and Recovered Allied Military Personnel,” n.d., NARA RG 407, E 427, USFET General Board study no. 35, 97-USF5-0.3.0 (
roadblocks
); Botting,
From the Ruins of the Reich
, 29 (“
Alleluia!
).

Some went barefoot
: White,
Conquerors’ Road
, 100–103.

“
One died taking a drink
”: Leonard C. Barney, 315th Medical Bn, 90th ID, “Inmates of Concentration Camps,” 1985, Columbus WWII Round Table Collection, MHI, 3–4.

“
It’s too big
”: Leh, “World War II from One Enlisted Man’s Point of View,”
Proceedings of the Lehigh County Historical Society
39 (1990): 89
+
.

“
a kind of dull satisfaction
”: Sevareid,
Not So Wild a Dream
, 504–6.

“
If the heavens were paper
”: Collier,
Fighting Words
, 188.

Nordhausen was overrun
: OH, Col. D. B. Hardin, VII Corps, “Concentration Camp at Nordhausen,” Apr. 14, 1944, NARA RG 407, ETO ML #1028, box 19152, 1–4;
LO
, 391–92 (“
Men lay
”); Kessler,
The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket
, 156–57 (
beat up a captured German scientist
); Collins,
Lightning Joe
, 324; Carpenter,
No Woman’s World
, 293–95 (“
no greater shame
”).

“
There was no fat
”: Ingersoll,
Top Secret
, 333.