HMS Nelson
HMS Ramillies
HMS Roberts
HMS Rodney
HMS Warspite
Royal Navy, Cruisers
HMS Ajax
HMS Arethusa
HMS Argonaut
HMS Belfast
HMS Black Prince
HMS Danae
HMS Diadem
HMS Enterprise
HMS Glasgow
Royal Navy, Destroyers
HMS Eglinton
HMS Kelvin
HMS Swift
HMS Talybont
Royal Navy, Command and Transport Ships
HMS Empire Broadsword
HMS Empire Javelin
HMS Largs
HMS Prince Baudouin
HMS Prince Henry
HMS Princess Ingrid
Royal Navy, Royal Marines
41 RM Commando
47 RM Commando
48 RM Commando
Rudder, Lt Col James E.
Rundstedt, GFM Gerd v.
Saint-Aignan
Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer
Saint-Barthélemy
Saint-Côme-du-Mont
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives
Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer
Saint-Lô
attack on (map)
battle for begins, 7 July
bombing of
casualties
fall of
‘the Major of’
Saint-Malo
Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives
Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte
Saint-Sever, Fôret de
Saint-Sever-Calvados
Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
Sainte-Mère-Eglise
Sainteny
Schimpf, GenLt Richard
Schlieben, GenLt Karl-Wilhelm Graf v.
Schmundt, GenLt Rudolf
Schwerin, GenLt Gerhard Graf v.
Scott, Wg Cdr Desmond
Scott-Bowden, Cpt
Sée, river
Sées
Seine, river
German retreat across
Self-inflicted wounds
Sélune, river
Seulles, river
Sèves, river
SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force)
Shanley, Lt Col Thomas J. B.
Shaving heads
collaborators
Shaw, Irwin
Sicherheitsdienst (SS Security Service); see also Gestapo
Sicily, invasion of
Simonds, Lt Gen Guy
SIS (Secret Intelligence Service)
Skinner, Padre Leslie
Slapton Sands
Smith, Lt Sandy
Smuts, FM Jan
Snipers
Snyder, Lt Col Max
SOE (Special Operations Executive)
Sourdeval
Southwick House
Souvenir hunting
Spaatz, Gen Carl A. (‘Tooey’)
Speidel, GenLt Hans
SS
Einsatzgruppe B
Stagg, Gp Cpt Dr James
Stalin, Josef.
Stalingrad
Stauffenberg, Oberst Claus Graf Schenk.
Stülpnagel, Gen. Inf Carl-Heinrich v.
Sword beach(map)
Talley, Col Benjamin B.
Tangermann, ObLt
Tank troops, fear of fire
Taute, river
Taylor, Col George A.
Taylor, Maj Gen Maxwell D.
Teague, Lt Col
Tedder, ACM Sir Arthur
Teheran conference
Tessel
Tessy-sur-Vire
Thomas, Maj Gen G. I.
Thury-Harcourt
Tilly-la-Campagne
Tilly-sur-Seulles
Touques, river
Tracy-Bocage
Tresckow, GenMaj Henning v.
Troarn
Trun
Tulle
Turqueville
U-boats
Ultra intercepts
Unger, Oberst v.
US Army
Central Base Section
combat exhaustion
discipline
Fourth of July celebrations
Graves Registration
losses in Normandy
mechanization.
replacement system
sacking of officers
supply trains
training
US Army, Armies
12th US Army Group
First US Army (map)
Third US Army
US Army, Corps
V Corps
VII Corps
VIII Corps
XIX Corps
XX Corps
US Army, Divisions
1st Inf
2nd Armd
2nd Inf
3rd Armd
4th Armd
4th Inf
5th Armd
5th Inf
6th Armd
7th Armd
8th Inf
9th Inf
28th Inf
29th Inf
30th Inf
35th Inf
79th Inf
80th Inf
82nd Airborne
83rd Inf
90th Inf
101st Airborne
US Army, Brigades and Regiments
6th Engineer Special Bde
8th Inf
12th Inf
16th Inf
18th Inf
22nd Inf
23rd Inf
36th Armd Inf
39th Inf
115th Inf
116th Inf
117th Inf
119th Inf
120th Inf
137th Inf
175th Inf
314th Inf
315th Inf
325th Glider Inf Rgt
358th Inf
501st Parachute Inf Rgt
502nd Parachute Inf Rgt
505th Parachute Inf Rgt
508th Parachute Inf Rgt
US Army, Rangers
2nd Battalion
5th Battalion
US Army, Counter Intelligence Corps
USAAF
Eighth Air Force
Ninth Air Force
bombing accuracy
fighter-bomber attacks on German troops
and Operation Cobra bombing
USAAF, Groups
363rd Fighter Group
388th Bomber Group
405th Fighter Group
US Coast Guard
US Navy
US Navy, Battleships
USS Arkansas
USS Nevada
USS Texas
US Navy, Cruisers
USS Augusta
USS Quincy
USS Tuscaloosa
US Navy, Destroyers
USS Corry
USS Harding
USS Satterlee
US Navy, Command and Transport Ships
USS Ancon
USS Bayfield
USS Samuel Chase
USS Shubrick
Utah beach(map)
V-1 flying bomb (‘Diver’)
‘anti-Diver’ operations
Valognes
Vannes
Varaville
Vaucelles
Vercors, FFI battle
Verrières ridge
Vichy regime (Etat français)
Viénot, Pierre
Vierville (Cotentin)
Vierville-sur-Mer (Omaha)
Villebaudon
Villedieu-les-Poêles
Villers-Bocage (map)
Vimoutiers
Vire, town
Vire, river and valley
Volksdeutsche
Waffen-SS
advance to the front
discipline
and Hitler
indoctrination
&nb
sp; morale
rivalry with German Army
Waffen-SS, Corps
I SS Panzer
II SS Panzer
Waffen-SS, Divisions
1st SS Pz-Div Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
2nd SS Pz-Div Das Reich
9th SS Pz-Div Hohenstaufen
10th SS Pz-Div Frundsberg
12th SS Pz-Div Hitler Jugend
17th SS Pzgr-Div Götz von Berlichingen
Waffen-SS, Regiments etc.
1st SS Pzgr-Rgt
2nd SS Pz-Rgt
Deutschland-Pzgr-Rgt
Führer-Pzgr-Rgt
19th SS Pzgr-Rgt
20th SS Pzgr-Rgt
21st SS Pzgr-Rgt
25th SS Pzgr-Rgt
26th SS Pzgr-Rgt
37th SS Pzgr-Rgt
38th SS Pzgr-Rgt
101st SS Heavy Pz Bn
102nd SS Heavy Pz Bn
Wagner, Gen Eduard
War damage
Warlimont, Gen d. Art Walter
Warsaw uprising
Weintrob, Maj David
Weiss, Lt Robert
Westover, Lt John
Weyman, Brig Gen
Whistler, Lt Rex
Whitehead, Don
Williams, Brig E. T.
Wilmot, Chester
Witt, Brigadeführer Fritz
Wittmann, Obersturmführer Michael
Witzleben, GFM.
Wolfsschanze, Rastenburg
Wood, Maj Gen John S.
Ziegelmann, ObLt
Zimmermannn, GenLt Bodo
College Park, Maryland; Dr Conrad Crane, director of the US Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and his staff; the staff of the National Archives at Kew; the Trustees and staff of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives; Alain Talon at the Archives Départementales de la Manche; Frau Jana Brabant at the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg-im-Breisgau; and Frau Irina Renz of the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in Stuttgart. As well as Sebastian Cox, I am also grateful to Clive Richards, the senior researcher at the Air Force Historical Branch, for his assistance.
At the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Dr Gordon H. Mueller, Jeremy Collins and Seth Paridon could not have been more welcoming while I worked on the Eisenhower Center archive. I was also deeply touched by the kindness of everyone at the Mémorial de Caen: Stéphane Grimaldi, Stéphane Simonnet, Christophe Prime and Marie-Claude Berthelot, who put up with me for so long and so often.
I also owe a great deal to those who so kindly lent me their own diaries and letters or those of their parents. I am most grateful to David Christopherson, who sent me the diary of his father, Colonel Stanley Christopherson; Professor J. L. Cloudsley-Thompson; James Donald; L. B. Fiévet (the great-nephew of Raoul Nordling); Brigadier P. T. F. Gowans, OAM; Toby and Sarah Helm for the diary of their father, Dr Bill Helm; the late Myles Hildyard; and Charles Quest-Ritson for the collected letters of his father, Lieutenant T. T. Ritson, RHA. Others, such as Morten Malmø, Miles d’Arcy-Irvine and Philip Windsor-Aubrey, have offered leads and supplementary material, and William Mortimer Moore sent me his unpublished biography of General Leclerc. Dr Lyubov Vinogradova and Michelle Miles have helped with research and Angelica von Hase has again checked my translation and provided many useful details.
Once more, this whole project has been immeasurably assisted by Andrew Nurnberg, my literary agent for the last quarter of a century, by my editor Eleo Gordon at Penguin and by Lesley Levene, the copy-editor. But as always, my greatest thanks go to my wife, Artemis Cooper, who has edited, corrected and improved the text from start to finish.
Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
ADdC Archives départementales du Calvados, Caen
AdM Archives de la Manche, Saint-Lô
AFRHA Air Force Research Historical Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
AHB Air Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, Northwood
AN Archives Nationales, Paris
AVP Archives de la Ville de Paris
AVPRF Arkhiv Vneshnoi Politiki Rossiiskii Federatsii (Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation), Moscow
BA-MA Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg-im-Breisgau
BD Bruce Diary, Papers of David Bruce, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia
BfZ-SS Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte, Sammlung Sterz, Stuttgart
CAC Churchill Archive Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge
CMH Center of Military History, Washington, DC
CRHQ Centre de Recherche d’Histoire Quantitative, University of Caen
CWM/MCG Canadian War Memorial/ Mémorial Canadien de la Guerre
DDEL Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas
DTbA Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, Emmendingen
DWS Department of War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
ETHINT European Theater Historical Interrogations, 1945, USAMHI
FMS Foreign Military Studies, USAMHI
HP Harris Papers, RAF Museum, Hendon
IfZ Archiv des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte, Munich
IHTP-CNRS Reports from the German Military Commander in France and the synthesis of the reports from the French prefects 1940-44, edited by the German Historical Institute Paris and the Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent, revised by Regina Delacor, Jürgen Finger, Peter Lieb, Vincent Viet and Florent Brayard
IMT International Military Tribunal
IWM Imperial War Museum archives, London
LHCMA Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, London
LofC Library of Congress, The Veterans’ History Project, Washington, DC
MdC Mémorial de Caen archives, Normandy
MHSA Montana Historical Society Archives
NA II National Archives II, College Park, Maryland
NAC/ANC National Archives of Canada/Archives Nationales du Canada
NWWIIM-EC National World War II Museum, Eisenhower Center archive, New Orleans
OCMH-FPP Office of the Chief of Military History, Forrest Pogue Papers, Forrest C. Pogue’s interview notes for Supreme Command, Washington, 1954, now with USAMHI
PDDE The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Vol. III, The War Years, edited by Alfred D. Chandler, Baltimore, MD, 1970
PP Portal Papers, Christ Church Library, Oxford
ROHA Rutgers Oral History Archive
SHD-DAT Service Historique de la Défense, Département de l’Armée de Terre, Vincennes
SODP Senior Officers’ Debriefing Program, US Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
SWWEC Second World War Experience Centre archive, Horsforth, Leeds
TNA The National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office), Kew
USAMHI United States Army Military History Institute, US Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
WLHUM Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, London
WWII VS World War II Veterans’ Survey, USAMHI
In addition the private diaries of the following people have been used:
Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Christopherson, Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
Lieutenant William Helm, 210 Field Ambulance, 177th Brigade, 59th Infantry Division
Captain Myles Hildyard, intelligence officer with 7th Armoured Division
Lieutenant T. T. Ritson, RHA
1
THE DECISION
p. 2 ‘For heaven’s sake, Stagg’, J. M. Stagg, Forecast for Overlord, London, 1971, p. 69
‘pre-D-Day jitters’, Harry C. Butcher, Three Years with Eisenhower, London, 1946,
p. 479
p. 3 Plan Fortitude, TNA WO 219/5187
p. 4 ‘Garbo’, TNA KV 2/39-2/42 and 2/63-2/71
Ironside, TNA KV 2/2098
‘Bronx’, TNA KV 2/2098
destruction of airfields, Luftgau West France, TNA HW 1/2927
Bletchley watch system, TNA HW 8/86 p. 5 ‘Latest evidence suggests . . .’, TNA HW 40/6
‘my circus wagon’, Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower , New York, 2002, p. 518
‘to establish a belt . . .’, TNA WO 205/ 12
‘There is no doubt . . .’, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries 1939-1945, London, 2001, p. 575
p. 6 ‘Nice chap, no soldier’, Cornelius Ryan interview, Ohio University Library Department of Archives and Special Collections
‘national spectacles pervert . . .’, Alanbrooke, p. 575
‘My hat is worth ...’, Duff Hart-Davis (ed.), King’s Counsellor, London, 2006, p. 196-7
‘Monty is perhaps . . .’, LHCMA Liddell Hart 11/1944/11
‘The bloody Durhams . . .’, Harry Moses, The Faithful Sixth, Durham, 1995, p. 270. I am most grateful to Miles d’Arcy-Irvine, Major Philip Windsor-Aubrey, Major C. Lawton, Harry Moses and Richard Atkinson for their help on this incident
p. 7 ‘unsatisfactory’, NA II 407/427/24132
‘hayseed expression ... pragmatic ...’, Martin Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals, New York, 1993, p. 35
p. 8 ‘made everyone angry’, Major General Kenner, chief medical officer, SHAEF, OCMH-FPP
‘The landings in . . .’, quoted in Butcher, p. 525
Omaha reconnaissance, Major General L. Scott-Bowden, SWWEC T2236
p. 9 ‘When we left . . .’, Robert A. Wilkins, 149th Combat Engineers, NWWIIM-EC
‘As we passed through . . .’, Arthur Reddish, A Tank Soldier’s Story, privately published, undated, p. 21
p. 10 ‘I’ve been fattened up . . .’, quoted in Stuart Hills, By Tank into Normandy, London, 2002, p. 64
‘All are tense . . .’, LofC
‘The women who have come . . .’, Mollie Panter-Downes, London War Notes, London, 1971, p. 324
‘One night . . .,’ Ernest A. Hilberg, 18th Infantry, 1st Division, NWWIIM-EC
p. 11 ‘Had it not been fraught . . .’, Stagg, p. 86
‘If I answered that . . .’, ibid., p. 88
p. 12 ‘Good luck, Stagg . . .’, ibid., p. 91
‘Gentlemen . . . The fears . . .’, ibid., pp. 97-8
‘Eisenhower’s forces are landing . . .’, Butcher, p. 481
‘the sky was almost clear . . .’, Stagg, p. 99
2
BEARING THE CROSS OF LORRAINE
p. 14 ‘an empty feeling . . .’, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries 1939-1945, London, 2001, pp. 553-4 (5 June)
‘The British had a much . . .’, Colonel C. H. Bonesteel III, G-3 Plans, 12th Army Group, OCMH-FPP
p. 15 ‘display some form of “reverse Dunkirk” . . .’, TNA HW 1/12309
‘My dear Winston . . .’, CAC CHAR 20/ 136/004
‘peevish’, Butcher quoting Commander Thompson, Harry C. Butcher, Three Years with Eisenhower, London, 1946, p. 480
‘Winston meanwhile . . .’, Alanbrooke, p. 553