The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (118 page)

Nearly 400,000 prefabricated huts
: Botting,
The Second Front
, 66; “Construction in the United Kingdom,” Oct. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #506 (
20 million square feet
);
LSA
, vol. 1, 255 (“
Spamland
”); “Marshalling [
sic
] for OVERLORD,” Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 14 (
School of Hygiene
); Amy, lecture, Apr. 8, 1944, NY Port of Embarkation, HIA, Henry J. Amy papers, box 2; Robert W. Coakley, “The Administrative and Logistical History of the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 8-3.1 AA2, vol. 2, 189 (
GLUE
); H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH 4-13.1 AA 29, 160–61 (“
exposure to weather
”); “A Yank in Britain,” ts, n.d., Thor M. Smith papers, MHI, 32 (
red tape
).

No alliance in the war
: “Britain,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #23 (“
Redcoats
”); Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 49; Wieviorka,
Normandy
, 111 (
twice a month
); Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, 298 (
Goatland
); Ross, 313 (
shoe sizes
);
A Short Guide to Great Britain
, 29; “Quartermaster Procurement in the United Kingdom, 1942–1944,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #154 (
tent pegs
); Thomas V. Barber, “Quartermaster Procurement,” n.d., chap 41, PIR, MHI, 4–5 (
beer
).

The British displayed forbearance
: Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Library, MO, FR 2454, provided author by Prof. Donald L. Miller (“
irritate me
”);
Meet the Americans
, 1; Margaret Mead, “Army Talks: The Yank in Britain,” Mar. 15, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #23; Reynolds,
Rich Relations
, ix (
Orwell
).

Occasional bad beheavior
: Schrijvers,
The Crash of Ruin
, 159 (
royal swans
); Francis L. Sampson,
Look Out Below!
, 1958, in CJR, box 97, folder 21 (
grenades
); Kennedy,
Freedom from Fear
, 709 (
haystacks
); “Army Life,” WD, pamphlet 21-13, Aug. 10, 1944, NARA RG 407, AGO Cent File 1940–45, box 3638 (“
men who refrain
”); “Legal Questions Arising in the Theater of Operations,” NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII Operations Reports, no. 87, 31–32 (“
bastardy proceedings
”); Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 285 (“
drive carefully
”).

Both on the battlefield and in the rear
: Lewis,
Exercise Tiger
, 48 (“
delicate hothouse
”); Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 293 (“
the chaps that mattered
”).

The loading of invasion vessels
: Bykofsky and Larson,
The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas
, 259; ONB, OH, 1975, Charles Hanson, MHI, IV-19 (
Seven thousand kinds of combat necessities
). This oral history with Bradley, conducted in fourteen sessions over ten months, had been closed to the public until made available to the author in January 2010.

evocative of the Marx Brothers
: Van Creveld,
Supplying War
, 210; William E. Depuy, SOOHP, 1979; Romie L. Brownlee and William J. Mullen III, MHI, 18 (
Selfridges
); Marshall, ed.,
Proud Americans
, 138.

In twenty-two British ports
: Gilbert,
D-Day
, 108; H. H. Dunham, “U.S. Army Transportation in the ETO,” 1946, CMH, 4-13.1 AA 29, 120–23 (
301,000 vehicles
); “Ordnance Diary,” Dec. 1, 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 602, box 1 (
2,700 artillery pieces
); “Historical Report, Office of the Chief Signal Officers,” vol. 1, Jan. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETOUSA HD, UD 602, box 1 (
telephone poles
); Waddell,
United States Army Logistics
, 41 (
7 million tons
); Frank A. Osmanski, “Critical Analysis of the Planning and Execution of the Logistic Support of the Normandy Invasion,” Dec. 1949, Armed Forces Staff College, MHI, 99 (
41.298 pounds
);
LSA
, vol. 1, 441 (
500-ton bales
); “Ports: How an Army Is Supplied,” Oct. 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #521, 1-3 (
war flats
); “The Reminiscences of Alan Goodrich Kirk,” 1962, John Mason, Col U OHRO, 302 (
ferries
); Capa,
Slightly Out of Focus
, 136.

Armed guards from ten cartography depots
: “Supply and Maintenance on the European Continent,” NARA RG 407, E 427, AG WWII Operations Reports, 97-USF5-0.3, #130, 26; Beck, 565 (
210 million maps
);
IFG
, 68 (
charts
); Wieviorka,
Normandy
, 178 (
aerial photos
); “Reconnaissance in a Tactical Air Command,” 10th Photo Group, Ninth AF, 1945, CARL, N-9395, 3–4; Allen, “Untold Stories of D-Day,”
National Geographic
(June 2002): 2
+
(
watercolors
); Coles and Weinberg,
Civil Affairs
, 864–65 (“
restraint and discipline
”); Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 224 (
Gone with the Wind
); Field Order No. 35, 1st ID, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 301-3.9 (
Field Order No. 35
); memo, XXX Corps, May 18, 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #753, box 19123 (
Pink List
).

Day after night after day
: Leppert, “Communication Plans and Lessons, Europe and Africa,” lecture, Oct. 30, 1944, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 199, L-7-44, 14 (
radio crystals
); Field Order No. 35, 1st ID, Apr. 16, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, 301-3.9; Perret,
There’s a War to Be Won
, 475 (“
marksmanship medal”
); Beck, 308 (“
Hagensen packs
”); “The Administrative History of the Operations of the 21 Army Group,” Nov. 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 458, GB 21-AG AH, 29 (
metal crosses
); Ross, 683 (
mattress covers
).

Four hospital ships made ready
: Martha Gellhorn, “The First Hospital Ship,” in
Reporting World War II
, vol. 2, 151; Dowling, lecture, Feb. 28, 1945, NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, box 207; Cosmas and Cowdrey,
Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations
, 167, 245 (“
dirty trap
”); Frank Davis, OH, Nov. 24, 1944, 68th General Hospital, NARA RG 112, E 302, interview #109 (
steam tables
); Ambrose,
The Supreme Commander
, 413; MacKensie,
Men Without Guns
, 97; Nalty,
Strength for the Fight
, 181 (
black and white donors
); Robert R. Kelley, OH, Jan. 27, 1945, Office of the Chief Surgeon, NARA RG 112, E 302, interview #130; Paul R. Hawley, OH, John Boyd Coates, Jr., et al., 1962, MHUC, 56 (
pallets
).

A new
Manual of Therapy: memo, Office of the Chief Surgeon, Mar. 28, 1944, James B. Mason papers, HIA, folder 1 (
morphine poisoning
and
whole blood
); Cosmas and Cowdrey,
Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations
, 182; Paul R. Hawley, OH, John Boyd Coates, Jr., et al., 1962, MHUC, 54 (
carbon dioxide tanks
).

But whole blood would keep
: Cowdrey,
Fighting for Life
, 245; “The Evolution of the Use of Whole Blood in Combat Casualties,” U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History,
http://143.84.107.69/booksdocs/wwii/blood/chapter3.htm
; Cosmas and Cowdrey,
Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations
, 175–76, 193; Gellhorn, “The First Hospital Ship,” in
Reporting World War II
, vol. 2, 151.

On Tuesday, May 23
: “Stories of Transportation,” vol. 1, Frank S. Ross Papers, HIA, box 20, 203; memo, W. H. S. Wright to Henry Stimson, July 25, 1944, NARA RG 337, E 54, AGF top secret general corr, folder 319.1 (“
One Way
”); A. C. Doyle’s
Sir Nigel
, chapter 13, in Wilson, ed.,
D-Day 1944
, 197 (“
We sat on a hilltop
”).

Mothers held their children
: Watney,
The Enemy Within
, 20, 49 (“
boomerang
” and “
girl-saint
”); Ziegler,
London at War, 1939–1945
, 278–79 (“
half empty
”); Fussell,
Wartime
, 109 (
Whore’s Lament
).

By late in the week
: Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 100 (“
Civilians must not talk
”); Burgett,
Currahee!
, 69–70 (
German uniforms
); Watney,
The Enemy Within
, 63 (
Cherbourg
); Scannell,
Argument of Kings
, 121 (
diversionary attack
); Ziegler,
London at War, 1939–1945
, 282 (
death beam
);
AAFinWWII
, 92 (
icebergs
); Wilson, ed.,
D-Day 1944
, 198 (“
shock kept the wounded
”); Longmate,
The G.I.’s
, 316 (“
Don’t be surprised
”).

Security remained paramount
: Hinsley and Simkins,
British Intelligence in the Second World
War, vol. 4, 250–54 (“
certain defeat
” and
600,000 monthly visitors
); Stafford,
Ten Days to D-Day
, 15 (“
handsome
”); “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, 14–19; Gilbert,
D-Day
, 67;
CCA
, 270 (
counterintelligence agents
).

Camouflage inspectors roamed
: “Chief Engineer’s Report on Camouflage Activities in the ETO,” Nov. 15, 1945, Howard V. Canan papers, HIA, box 3; “Concealment and Display of Camps,” Plan FORTITUDE, section II, “Implementation,” n.d., Thaddeus Holt papers, MHI, box 8 (
Garnished nets
); “Camouflage,” historical report #18, Aug. 1945, CEOX, box X-32, folder 18, 38 (“
tone-down paint
”); “The Concealment Aspect of Beach Group Work,” Camouflage Development and Training Center, Farnham, U.K., Sept. 22, 1944, CARL, N-5122, 4–5 (
Standard Camouflage Color 1A
); “Marshalling [
sic
] for OVERLORD,” CE, Dec. 1945, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #547, 28 (“
contours
”).

Deception complemented the camouflage
: “History of SHAEF, Feb. 13–June 6, 1944,” July 1944, NARA RG 319, 2-3.7 CB 8, chapter 3 (“
strategic dispositions
”); Howard,
Strategic Deception in the Second World War
, 110–11 (
Pas de Calais
);
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.mod.uk/aboutus/dday60/fortitude.htm
*
(“
Bigbobs
”).

The British genius for cozenage
: Hinsley and Simkins,
British Intelligence in the Second World
War, vol. 4, 239; Penrose, ed.,
The D-Day Companion
, 58–59; Hesketh,
Fortitude
, xi–xiii, 46–52; Howard,
Strategic Deception in the Second World War
, 114, 131 (
German hallucination
); Hinsley, 118–19, 450; Holt,
The Deceivers
, 561–62; James,
The Counterfeit General Montgomery
, 53–66 (
strutted about
).

As May slid toward June
:
LSA
, vol. 1, 369 (
waterproofing
); Beck, 317 (
fifty-four inches
); Thompson,
The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe
, 10 (“
wren’s tail
”);
VW
, vol. 1, 137 (
Sherman tank
); Gilbert,
D-Day
, 104 (
white stripes
); Howarth,
Dawn of D-Day
, 126; Drez, ed.,
Voices of D-Day
, 64 (
push brooms
).

Soldiers drew seasickness pills
: Royce L. Thompson, “D-Day Personal Loads,” OCMH, Dec. 4, 1951, CMH 2-3.7 AE P-11; Cawthon,
Other Clay
, 42 (“
braying
”); memo, Cleave A. Jones to G. S. Eyster, SHAEF, July 17, 1944, NARA RG 498, UD 603, ETO HD, SLAM 201 file, box 1 (“
skunk suits
”).

“
We’re ready now
”: TR to Eleanor, May 30, 1944, TR, box 10; Ross, 695 (
quartermaster box
).

“I am a free man”
: John M. Thorpe, “A Soldier’s Tale, to Normandy and Beyond,” Nov. 1982, IWM, 84/50/1, 80; Airborne Museum, Ste-Mère-Église, V-mail shown to author by curator Phil Jutras, May 1994 (“
If I don’t come out
”); corr, May 30, 1944, Joseph T. Dawson collection, MRC FDM, 1991.65, box 3 (“
destiny of life
”).

Eisenhower left Bushy Park
: Chandler, vol. 5, 155; corr, T. Smith to family, June 17, 1944, Thor M. Smith Papers, HIA; Williams, “Supreme Headquarters for D-Day,”
AB
, no. 84 (1994): 1
+
; Stafford,
Ten Days to D-Day
, 178 (
three telephones
); “Normandy, 1944–1973,”
AB
, no. 1 (1973): 2 (
Georgian mansion
); Kingston McCloughry,
Direction of War
, 138 (
nautical almanacs
).

“
The intensity of the burdens
”: Overy,
Why the Allies Won
, 158;
Three Years
, 558 (“
jitters
”); Richard Collins, SOOHP, 1976, Donald Bowman, MHI, II, 16; R. H. Winecke, CI, NARA RG 407, E 427-A, folder 170; E. T. Williams, “Reports Received by U.S. War Department on Use of Ultra in the European Theater,” SRH-037, Oct. 1945, NARA RG 457, E 9002, NSA, box 18, 2; memo, H. R. Bull to W. B. Smith, May 26, 1944, NARA RG 331, E 1, SHAEF SGS, box 76.