The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (124 page)

“Der Führer vertraut mir”: Fraser,
Knight’s Cross
, 476–78; Isby, ed.,
Fighting the Invasion
, 48 (“
the Führer’s marshal
”); Young,
Rommel, the Desert Fox
, 151 (
stamp collector
); Margry, “The Death of Rommel,”
AB
, no. 80 (1993): 38
+
(
confiscated from Jews
); Liddell Hart, ed.,
The Rommel Papers
, 485 (“
come round to the idea
”), 468, (“
fate of the German people
”).

The struggle in Normandy would depend
:
VW
, vol. 1, 201–4: Lefèvre,
Panzers in Normandy Then and Now
, 65 (
oddments
), 106–8 (
pulverized by naval gunfire
); OH, Hans von Luck to author, Hamburg, Mar. 3 and Apr. 7, 1994; Luck,
Panzer Commander
, 139–44; Reynolds,
Steel Inferno
, 57–58; Daglish,
Operation Goodwood
, 67 (
Parisian fleshpot
); Isby, ed.,
Fighting the Invasion
, 241;
VW
, vol. 1, 204–5; Saunders,
Royal Air Force, 1939–1945
, vol. 3, 113 (
almost 250 more British gliders
).

At 10:40
P.M.
, General Friedrich Dollmann
: war diary, Seventh Army, June 6, 1944, NARA RG 407, E 427, ML #2201. The 21st Panzer commander put his tank losses for June 6 at 25 percent, while official British sources calculate the loss at 40 to 44 percent. The official German history states that 80 of 125 deployed panzers were destroyed.
Germany VII
, 593; Hinsley, 474;
VW
, vol. 1, 204; Reynolds,
Steel Inferno
, 57–58.

Swarming enemy aircraft impeded movement
: Luther,
Blood and Honor
, 70–73; Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 117 (
Grenadiers skulked back
).

“
We cannot hold everything
”: Speidel,
We Defended Normandy
, 98–99; Ryan,
The Longest Day
, 237–38 (“
I’ve nearly always succeeded
”).

A monstrous full moon
:
VW
, vol. 1, 222;
AAFinWWII
, 562–63 (
first of 241 airdromes
);
Omaha Beachhead
, 108 (
only a hundred tons
); Balkoski,
Utah Beach
, 317 (
nineteen airborne battalions
); Astor,
June 6, 1944
, 239 (“
to kill each other
”).

“
I must have Caen
”: notes, Miles Dempsey, May 15, 1944, UK NA, WO 285/1; Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 3, part 2, 841–42; Beevor,
D-Day
, 142; Hastings,
OVERLORD
, 115 (“
not unpleased
”).

“
My wife, my children!
”: Beevor,
D-Day
, 146; Harris G. Warren, “Special Operations: AAF Aid to European Resistance Movements,” 1947, AFHRA, study no. 121, 149 (
seventeen Norman towns
); “Historical Record, A.E.A.F.,” n.d., UK NA, AIR 37/1057 (
bomber fleets would follow
); Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 183 (
eleven days
), 185 (
Westminster Abbey
); Hitchcock,
The Bitter Road to Freedom
, 29–33; Gilbert,
D-Day
, 158–59 (
five hundred coffins
); Arthur Layton Funk, “Caught in the Middle: The French Population in Normandy,” in Wilson, ed.,
D-Day 1944
, 252.

three thousand Normans would be killed
: Hitchcock,
The Bitter Road to Freedom
, 27; Beevor,
D-Day
, 49 (
fifteen thousand French civilians
), 123 (
calvados
); Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 120 (“
excessive hardship
”).

As for the liberators
: casualty estimates vary substantially.
VW
, vol. 1, 222–23; Buffetaut,
D-Day Ships
, 122.

The 8,230 U.S. casualties
: historian Joseph Balkoski tabulates 4,720 casualties at Omaha, plus 3,510 at Utah and on the Cotentin Peninsula.
Omaha Beach
and
Utah Beach
, each appendix 1; Reister, ed.,
Medical Statistics in World War II
, 13–20 (
first of almost 400,000 men
).

Many were felled by 9.6-gram bullets
: Andrus et al., eds.,
Advances in Military Medicine
, vol. 1, 192–201; Capa,
Slightly Out of Focus
, 149 (
corpses into burial sacks
); J. H. Patterson, No. 4 Commando, ts, n.d., IWM, 05/491, 1/7, 13 (“
nothing was being done
”); George E. McIntyre, “As Mac Saw It,” ts, n.d., MHI, 159 (
handkerchiefs draped the faces
); OH, Richard Oliphant, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories, 2–3 (“
They do not seem to matter
”).

Omaha was the worst
: “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 328–29; “Activities of Medical Detachment,” 16th Inf, D-Day, n.d., NARA RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG; diary, Jack Shea, ts, Nov. 1, 1944, NARA RG 407, CI, 29th ID, box 24034, 37 (
cat’s-eye headlights
); Fisher,
Legacy of Heroes
, 33, 38, 64 (
gas gangrene
); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Beach Battalion 1998 Reunion,” 1998, MRC FDM (
bullet in the brain
); “Vierville-sur-Mer,” ts, n.d., MMD (“
There were men crying
”).

“
swollen grayish sacks
”: Moorehead,
Gellhorn
, 219.

“
I walked along slowly
”: Gaskill, “Bloody Beach,”
American Magazine
(Sept. 1944): 26
+
; Andrew T. McNamara, “QM Activities,” 1955, PIR, MHI, 128 (
More than double that number
); Pyle,
Brave Men
, 246 (
toes sticking up
); Richard H. Oliphant, “Eleventh Amphibious Force,” n.d., NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217 (“
staring was rude
”).

Graves Registration teams
: Perret,
There’s a War to Be Won
, 485 (
safety pins
); “Operation Report Neptune,” Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, Sept. 1944, NARA RG 407, ML #951, box 24198, 341 (
Two inland sites
); Kenneth C. Davey, “Navy Medicine on Bloody Omaha,” in “Sixth Naval Beach Battalion 1998 Reunion,” 1998, MRC FDM (
fortified with brandy
).

“
since Alexander set out from Macedon
”: Saunders,
Royal Air Force, 1939–1945
, vol. 3, 114; Gellhorn,
The Face of War
, 134–36 (“
small shabby men
”);
Reporting World War II
, vol. 2, 155 (“
I’d kill him
”).

“
We will never again have to land
”: Balkoski,
Omaha Beach
, 261.

“
We have come to the hour
”: Stephen E. Ambrose, “Battle Scars Remain But Little Has Changed in Normandy,”
International Herald Tribune
, Apr. 22, 1994, 12; Wacker, “The Voices of D-Day,”
Retired Officer
(June 1994): 26
+
(
scribbling
“
deceased
”); Crosswell,
Beetle
, 795 (“
dead stock
”); Tapert, ed.,
Lines of Battle
, 162–64 (“
I wonder about him
”).

C
HAPTER
2: L
ODGEMENT

“This Long Thin Line of Personal Anguish”

Light rain fell in Portsmouth
:
www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-474304-18-gun-battery-and-flanking-battery-king
;
Three Years
, 571 (
four white stars
).

“
A scene of great confusion
”: Love and Major, eds.,
The Year of D-Day
, 84–85.

Mines continued to bedevil
: AR,
Tide
, July 6, 1944, NARA RG 38, CNO, 370/45/3/1, 2–3; OH, George Crane, XO,
Tide
, Sept. 30, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories; AR,
Susan B. Anthony
, June 7, 1944, NARA RG 498, ETO HD, admin file #217; “The United States Medical Department at War, 1941–1945,” vol. 1, part 3, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, 1946, NHHC, 732–33 (“
ship lifted and hogged
”); OH, Byron S. Huie, salvage officer, Aug. 18, 1944, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories (
frightened men off the prow
); Liebling,
Mollie & Other War Pieces
, 191 (“
put her nose in the air
”).

“
Why in the devil didn’t you
”: Bradley,
A Soldier’s Story
, 280–81.

“
firmly rooted in France
”: Bradley and Blair,
A General’s Life
, 256–57; Bradley Commentaries, CBH, MHI, box 41 (
truck’s running board
); “The Administrative History of the Operations of 21 Army Group,” n.d., NARA RG 334, E 315, ANSCOL, GB 21-AG AH, box 458, 25 (
build their own cages
); memo, F-48 to “Secret Mail Room,” Aug. 12, 1944, U.S. Fleet, OPD Information Bulletin, amphibious supplement no. 8, June 9, 1945, GCM Lib, box 1, file 34 (
More than one-third of all shore obstacles
); Bertram H. Ramsay, dispatch,
London Gazette
, Oct. 30, 1947, CMH, 5109
+
(
Straits of Dover
); memo, B. B. Talley, Feb. 1948, RG 407, AFIA, 2-3.7 BG (
pinpointed not only enemy gun batteries
); corr, John H. Lauten, 16th Inf, to WD, July 22, 1947, “1st U.S. Infantry Division, G-2 report intelligence activities, MMD (
now being pummeled
).

Yet First Army still had not reached
:
CCA
, 341, 351 (
Only a quarter
); “A Narrative History of the Second Ranger Infantry Battalion,” ts, n.d., Robert W. Black papers, MHI, box 3; OH, Charles M. Bulap, Co E, 2nd Ranger Bn, HI (
Pointe du Hoc
).

Beyond Utah Beach, confusion remained
: “Continuation of Command Narrative,” n.d., JMG, MHI, box 12; Blair,
Ridgway’s Paratroopers
, 257 (
Benzedrine)
, 259–60 (“
where’s the picnic?
”).

The 82nd now occupied
: Gavin,
On to Berlin
, 111;
CCA
, 291 (
no real bridgehead existed west
); Ruppenthal,
Utah Beach to Cherbourg
, 74–75.

“
Bridgehead still very shallow
”: Love and Major, eds.,
The Year of D-Day
, 84–85; Bradley and Blair,
A General’s Life
, 257 (“
pointless interruption
”).

“
With the mast swaying
”:
Three Years
, 572–73; Love and Major, eds.,
The Year of D-Day
, xvi (“
aura of vinegar
”).

“
We’ve started
”: Eisenhower,
Letters to Mamie
, 190.

Even war could not dim the radiance
:
VW
, vol. 1, 265;
CCA
, 339; Aron,
France Reborn
, 30 (
cadging cigarettes
), 24 (
forty thousand
); OH, Lt. Richard Oliphant, NARA RG 38, E 11, U.S. Navy WWII Oral Histories (
White blossoms rioted
); Liddle,
D-Day by Those Who Were There
, 145 (
cows lowed
); Watney,
The Enemy Within
, 108 (
blue smocks
); CBH, July 2, 1944, MHI, box 4 (
fascist salutes
); Lankford, ed.,
OSS Against the Reich
, 88 (
shops offered goods
); author visit, Bayeux, May 26–27, 2009; Osmont,
The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont
, 45, 49 (“
without overcoats
”).

“
belted with gigantic floats
”: Aron,
France Reborn
, 30 and foreword (
Thirty-six thousand French communes
); Drez, ed.,
Voices of D-Day
, 293; Donnison,
Civil Affairs and Military Government in North-West Europe
, 74–77 (“
impossible to differentiate
” and “
Looting by troops
”); Middleton,
Our Share of Night
, 315 (
set up a press camp
); Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 113 (“
a dry Sauterne
”).

“
only shells with their insides blown out
”: Moorehead,
Eclipse
, 109; Thompson,
The Imperial War Museum Book of Victory in Europe
, 90–91 (“
please stop the shells
”); Scannell,
Argument of Kings
, 157, 165–66 (“
What I can never understand
”); Osmont,
The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont
, 41, 46–47 (“
Overhead the hisses
”).

“
looking helpless and insignificant
”: CBH, June 8, 1944, MHI, box 4; Pyle,
Brave Men
, 251–52; Tobin,
Ernie Pyle’s War
, 173–79.

A Gunman’s World

Enemy soldiers by the tens of thousands
: Keegan,
Six Armies in Normandy
, 157; Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 305 (
French buses upholstered
).

Traveling by five dusty routes
: Lefèvre,
Panzers in Normandy Then and Now
, 81;
VW
, vol. 1, 23; Carell,
Invasion—They’re Coming!
, 107–8 (“
bombers hovering
”); Mark,
Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars
, 246 (
six miles per hour
); Wilmot,
The Struggle for Europe
, 300; Cooper,
The German Army, 1933–1945
, 503 (
Not until June 9
). Historian Niklas Zetterling asserts that Panzer Lehr march losses were exaggerated, although delays were significant.
Normandy 1944
, 47, 384–89.