Read Overlord (Pan Military Classics) Online
Authors: Max Hastings
A
IRMEN
1
Harris quoted in Hastings,
Bomber Command
, p. 2572
Craven & Cate,
The US Army Air Forces in World War II
, vol. ii, p. 7353
Hastings (op. cit.), p. 2754
Carl F. Spaatz, diary, 21.i.44, in Spaatz papers, Box 15, Library of Congress5
Spaatz papers, Box 14 (loc. cit.)6
Quesada, interview with the author, 5.vii.837
Ibid
.8
Gavin, interview with the author, 8.vii.839
Vandenberg, diary, 24.iii.83, MS Division, Library of Congress10
PRO WO216/139
I
NVADERS
1
Wilson, interview with the author, 20.vi.832
Ibid
.3
Gosling, interview with the author, 21.vi.834
Richardson, interview with the author, 21.vii.835
Priest, interview with the author (pseudonym at subject’s request), 14.vi.836
Portway, interview with the author, 13.vii.837
Heal, interview with the author, 27.vi.838
Bramall, interview with the author, 28.vi.839
PRO WO216/10110
Bach, interview with the author, 30.vi.8311
Weigley,
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants
, p. 3112
Patton,
War as I Knew it
, p. 33613
Butcher, diary, unexpurgated MS, Eisenhower Library14
et seq
. Higgins, interview with the author, 3.vii.8315
et seq
. Herman, interview with the author, 3.vii.8316
Pre-war American tactical doctrine dictated that forces advance with the weight of their fighting power centred in valleys, their flanks on hilltops. This proved absurd in the face of German defenders who invariably concentrated their strength on available high ground.17
Colacicco, interview with the author, 6.vii.8318
Bradley (op. cit.), pp. 226–719
Marshall, on sacking corps commanders20
Colacicco, interview with the author (loc. cit.)21
Herman, interview with the author (loc. cit.)22
Walsh, interview with the author, 1.vii.8323
et seq
. Raymond, interview with the author, 2.vii.8324
Svboda, interview with the author, 3.vii.8325
Papers of Admiral Allen G. Kirk, US Navy Archives, Washington DC26
Original letter in possession of Herman27
Quoted in Hamilton (op. cit.), p. 57028
Bradley (op. cit.), p. 22329
inter alia
Gavin, interview with the author (loc. cit.)30
Bradley (op. cit.), p. 20931
et seq
. Reisler, interview with the author, 5.vii.83
D
EFENDERS
1
Warlimont,
Inside Hitler’s Headquarters
, p. 4032
Ehrman (op. cit.), p. 1083
Ibid
., pp. 406–74
Ibid
.5
To the Dominions Secretary;
Churchill
, vol. v (op. cit.), p. 6026
Cruickshank,
Deception in World War II
, p. 1867
German forecasting was drastically impeded by the loss of their outlying weather stations. Their blindness in meteorology, as in military intelligence, contributed directly to the German high command’s unpreparedness on D-Day. Where Group-Captain Stagg and his colleagues had predicted the ‘window’ of reasonable weather which would follow the poor conditions prevailing in the Channel on 5 June, their German counterparts had not.8
In the British press, drawing entirely unwarranted conclusions from material contained in West,
MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–459
To the author, 25.ix.8310
Most sensationally, Irving,
The Trail of the Fox
; Cave-Brown,
Bodyguard of Lies11
Cruickshank (op. cit.), p. 21312
To the author, 14.vi.8313
Irving,
Trail of the Fox
, p. 32014
Interview with the author, 3.v.8315
Schaaf, interview with the author, 4.v.8316
Ibid
.17
Interview with the author, 2.v.8318
Guderian,
Panzer Leader
, p. 33219
Interview with the author, 6.v.83
3. To the Far Shore
O
VERTURE
1
Quoted in Harrison,
Cross Channel Attack
, p. 2742
Combat narrative from Cota papers in Eisenhower Library3
Letter to the author, 16.iii.824
This, and all subsequent F. O. Richardson quotations, from unpublished narrative loaned to the author, or interview of 2.vii.835
Quoted in Hamilton,
Montgomery: Master of the Battlefield
, p. 5616
See note 7 to Chapter 2,
DEFENDERS7
For instance, Cooper,
The German Army: Its Political and Military Failure 1933–45
, p. 5028
Interview with the author, 6.viii.839
Gosset & Lecomte,
Caen pendant la Bataille
, p. 2610
Extract loaned to the author11
Barrett, privately printed narrative on
The First Ship Sunk on D-Day
, loaned to the author12
Ibid
.13
Diary loaned to the author14
Williams, interview with the author (loc. cit.)15
Fraser,
Alanbrooke
, p. 42316
Interview with the author, 4.vii.83
T
HE
A
MERICAN BEACHES
1
Quoted in Carell,
Invasion – They’re Coming
, pp. 49
et seq
.2
Ibid
., pp. 80
et seq
.3
Bradley (op. cit.), p. 2704
Ibid
.5
Interview with the author, 3.vii.836
Interview with the author, 1.vii.837
Letter to the author8
Rehm, interview with the author, 3.vii.839
Cota papers, combat narrative (op. cit.)10
Ibid
.11
For example, see Wilmot,
Struggle for Europe
; Howarth,
Dawn of D-Day12
Wilmot,
Struggle for Europe
, pp. 253
et seq
.
T
HE
B
RITISH BEACHES
I
NLAND
1
Warlimont,
Inside Hitler’s Headquarters
, p. 4312
Narrative published in the regimental magazine of the King’s Own Shropshire Light Infantry3
I Corps operational order in PRO W0171/2584
Carell (op. cit.), p. 1065
Diary loaned to the author6
Bradley,
A General’s Life
, p. 2537
Craven & Cate,
The US Army Air Forces in World War II
, vol. iii, p. 181
4. The British Before Caen
C
LOSING THE LINES
1
Quoted in Brett-Smith,
Hitler’s Generals
, p. 1622
Schaaf, interview with the author (loc. cit.)3
Stacey,
The Victory Campaign
, vol. iii, p. 1334
Ibid
., p. 1375
Raymond, interview with the author, 30.vi.836
Hamilton,
Montgomery: Master of the Battlefield
, p. 6317
Ibid
., p. 5968
Williams, interview with the author (loc. cit.)9
Wilson,
Flamethrower
, pp. 74–5
V
ILLERS
-B
OCAGE
1
Author’s interview with 7th Armoured eye-witness2
Fergusson,
The Black Watch and the King’s Enemies
, p. 2063
Salmud,
History of the 51st Highland Division
(Edinburgh, 1953), p. 1444
Kortenhaus, interview with the author, 6.iv.835
Hamilton (op. cit.), p. 6496
Carell (op. cit.), p. 1697
Peter Roach,
The 8.15 To War
(London, 1982), pp. 138–98
Lockwood, interview with the author, 9.xi.829
Carver, interview with the author, 22.vi.8310
Dempsey, interview with Chester Wilmot, Liddell Hart papers, King’s College, London
EPSOM
1
Woollcombe,
Lion Rampant
, p. 492
Bramall, interview with the author, 28.vi.833
Woollcombe (op. cit.), p. 604
Baker, unpublished narrative loaned to the author5
Richardson, interview with the author, 21.vii.836
Dyson, interview with the author, 28.i.837
Wilson, interview with the author, 14.ii.838
Priest, interview with the author (loc. cit.)9
Montgomery, interview with Wilmot, Liddell Hart papers, King’s College, London10
For instance, Hamilton (op. cit.)11
Ibid
., p. 59012
Quoted in Ellis,
Normandy
, p. 26113
Leigh-Mallory, diary, PRO AIR 3714
Brooke, diary, 31.iii.43; Bryant (op. cit.), p. 29715
PRO CAB106/1092, 15.vii.4416
Quoted in Hamilton (op. cit.), pp. 714–1517
War Office,
Current Reports From Overseas
, 8.vii.44, Staff College Library18
Ibid
., no. 4419
Interview with the author, 24.vi.8320
PRO WO205/11821
C-in-C’s order quoted in
Current Reports from Overseas
(op. cit.)22
Ibid
., no. 5423
PRO WO208/319324
Current Reports
(op. cit.), no. 5825
PRO WO208/393. For a further fascinating, damning but unbiased view of British tactics and of the British army’s general performance in Normandy, see the notes of Brigadier James Hargest, New Zealand observer with XXX Corps, in PRO CAB 106/106026
Richardson, interview with the author (loc. cit.)27
Grigg papers, Churchill College, Cambridge. The name of the commanding officer concerned is given in the document, but is omitted here to spare personal embarrassment.28
Ibid
.29
Lessons of Normandy
, Liddell Hart papers, King’s College, London30
Williams, interview with the author (loc. cit.)