Hitler's Last Days (29 page)

The General Patton Memorial Museum at Chiriaco Summit in California's Mojave Desert contains a vast and diverse amount of Patton memorabilia, including several tanks displayed in the desert surrounding the museum.

The town of Bastogne pays homage to its American defenders and the Battle of the Bulge each year in December. The 101st Airborne's former barracks and the site of General McAuliffe's headquarters are an operational Belgian military facility now, but visitors can take a guided tour of the Bastogne Barracks interpretation center, featuring a recreation of General McAuliffe's basement office.

World War II has been written about extensively, but Cornelius Ryan's
The Last Battle
and Rick Atkinson's
The Guns at Last Light
are loaded with detail and action.
The Victors
, by Stephen E. Ambrose, takes the reader onto the battlefield through the eyes of ordinary soldiers, and in vivid fashion. For a look at the war from a command point of view, Omar Bradley's
A Soldier's Story
is self-effacing and an easy read. While there are too many books detailing the war to list in this space, some that were very helpful in providing background nuance include
Darkness Visible: Memoir of a World War II Combat Photographer
, by Charles Eugene Sumners;
World War II in Numbers
, by Peter Doyle;
Patton, Montgomery, Rommel: Masters of War
, by Terry Brighton;
The Nuremberg Trials: The Nazis and Their Crimes Against Humanity
, by Paul Roland; and
The Battle for Western Europe, Fall 1944: An Operational Assessment
, by John A. Adams.

The Battle of the Bulge, milestone of the war, has been covered at great length, but the books we relied on were Robert E. Merriam's
The Battle of the Bulge; Troy H. Middleton: A Biography
, by Frank James Price;
Battle: The Story of the Bulge
, by John Toland;
11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944
, by Stanley Weintraub;
Alamo in the Ardennes
, by John C. McManus;
Against the Panzers: United States Infantry Versus German Tanks, 1944–1945
, by Allyn R. Vannoy and Jay Karamales;
The Ardennes on Fire: The First Day of the German Assault
, by Timothy J. Thompson;
Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malm
é
dy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge
, by Danny S. Parker;
The Ghost in General Patton's Third Army: The Memoirs of Eugene G. Schulz During His Service in the United States Army in World War II,
by Eugene G. Schulz;
Battle of the Bulge 1944 (2): Bastogne
, by Steven J. Zaloga; and the underrated
Once Upon a Time in War: The 99th Division in World War II
, by Robert E. Humphrey.

To step inside Adolf Hitler's world is frightening, to say the least. It helped to follow the research of other writers who had gone there already, including firsthand accounts by Otto Skorzeny (
Skorzeny's Special Missions: The Memoirs of Hitler's Most Daring Commando
) and Traudl Junge (
Hitler's Last Secretary: A Firsthand Account of Life with Hitler
). In addition,
Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich
, by Joachim Fest;
Hitler
, by Joachim Fest;
Hitler
:
An Illustrated Life
, by Robin Cross; and
Hitler: A Biography
, by Ian Kershaw were all spectacular.

A great amount of archival detail is available about the big three Allied leaders. Books of note were
The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953
, by Michael Parrish;
Joseph Stalin: A Biographical Companion
, by Helen Rappaport;
My Dear Mr. Stalin
:
The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin
, edited by Susan Butler;
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
, by Doris Kearns Goodwin;
Defending the West: The Truman-Churchill Correspondence, 1945–1960
, edited by G.W. Sand;
The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire
, by Peter Clarke; and
The Road to Berlin
, volume two of
Stalin's War with Germany
, by John Erickson.

Thanks to these authors, and to those whose books are not mentioned but whose research aided in building this narrative.

INDEX

The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Abrams, Creighton

Adlerhorst

African Americans

antiaircraft guns

Ardennes Forest

artillery

at Bastogne

at Battle of the Bulge

Berlin and

at Operation Watch on the Rhine

artwork, stolen

Aryans

assassination attempt

on Eisenhower

on Hitler

Assenois, Belgium

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Krema V at

Russia and

Austria, occupation of

B-17 Flying Fortresses

B-24 Liberators

Bad Hersfeld, Germany

Bastogne, Belgium

Abrams at

December 19, 1944

December 22, 1944

M4 General Sherman tank at

McAuliffe and

Patton, G., and

surrender demand at

Battle of the Bulge.
See also
Operation Watch on the Rhine

Eisenhower and

Montgomery and

Patton, G., and

Red Ball Express at

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Berlin

artillery and

battle of

bombing of

bunker in

casualties in

Hitler in

Patton, G., and

Reich Chancellery in

Russia and

Wenck and

black Americans

Blondi

“Blood Red Roses Speak of Happiness to You”

Blowtorch Brigade.
See
First SS Panzer Division

Boggess, Charles

Bormann, Martin

Bradley, Omar

in Bastogne

Operation Watch on the Rhine and

with stolen artwork

Braun, Eva

final partying by

marriage of

suicide of

Buchenwald concentration camp

bunker

in Berlin

Reich Chancellery and

C-47 cargo planes

Carlyle, Thomas

Castle Kransberg

Chaplin, Charlie

Christianity, Hitler and

Churchill, Winston

Clochimont, Belgium

Cobra King (tank name)

cocaine

Codman, Charles

concentration camps.
See also
Auschwitz-Birkenau

at Bergen-Belsen

at Buchenwald

cyanide in

Dachau

Ohrdruf

SS at

at W
ö
bbelin

cyanide

in concentration camps

Himmler and

Hitler and

Rommel and

Czechoslovakia

Dachau concentration camp

Desert Fox.
See
Rommel, Erwin

Devers, Jacob

Dickerman, Milton

Dickson, Benjamin

Dietrich, Marlene

Dietrich, Sepp

disabled people

diversionary attack

dog.
See
Blondi

dragon's teeth

Eagle's Nest

Edsel, Robert M.

Eighty-Seventh Infantry (American)

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

in Bastogne

at Buchenwald concentration camp

Montgomery and

Operation Watch on the Rhine and

Patton, G., and

as president

with stolen treasures

Eleventh Armored Division (American)

Elsenborn Ridge

Enabling Act

English-speaking German soldiers.
See
Operation Greif

extermination camps

First SS Panzer Division (German)

food tasters, for Hitler

forced labor

in concentration camps

at munitions factories

Fourth Armored Division (American)

Frank, Annelies “Anne”

Frank, Edith

Frank, Margot

Frank, Otto

Frederick the Great

F
ü
hrer.
See
Hitler, Adolf

F
ü
hrerbunker

Gaffey, Hugh

Geneva Convention

German soldiers

in American uniforms

as POW

German Workers' Party

Germania (proposed name for Berlin)

Gestapo

Goebbels, Joseph

gold, stolen

Grable, Betty

Grad, Jules

Guardian

gypsies.
See
Roma

Haase, Werner

handicapped

Harkins, Paul

Harper, Joseph

Hess, Rudolf

Himmler, Heinrich

Hitler, Adolf

at Adlerhorst

assassination attempt on

Auschwitz-Birkenau and

Bastogne and

in Berlin

Braun and

in bunker

burning of body

as chancellor

as child

cocaine and

cyanide and

diet of

food tasters for

F
ü
hrerbunker for

in German Workers' Party

Goebbels and

health issues with

Himmler and

Hitler Youth and

in jail

Jews and

last will of

marriage of

methamphetamine and

mustache of

in Nazi Party

Operation Watch on the Rhine and

Peiper and

religion and

Rhine River and

rise of

Russia and

Siegfried Line and

Skorzeny and

suicide of

von Hindenburg and

with Blondi

with Braun

with Christmas tree

at Wolf's Lair

in World War I

Hitler Youth

Hodges, Courtney

homosexuals

Hungary

Inside the Third Reich
(Speer)

International Military Tribunal.
See
Nuremberg trials

Jews

Aryans or

at Auschwitz-Birkenau

in concentration camps

extermination of

Himmler and

Hitler and

Kristallnacht
and

Peiper and

SS and

Johnson, Lyndon

Junge, Traudl

Kahn, Gabrielle

kapos

Keitel, Wilhelm

Kinnard, Harry

Koblenz, Germany

Koch, Oscar

Krema V

Kristallnacht

La Gleize

Lehrter Strasse prison

Lincoln, Abraham

Long Jumper.
See
Skorzeny, Otto

Losheim Gap

Luftwaffe

L
ü
ttwitz, Heinrich

M4 General Sherman tank

Marshall, George

Marshall Plan

Max Mensing Orchestra

McAuliffe, Anthony

Luftwaffe and

Middleton and

Patton, G., and

McFarland, Earl E.

Mein Kampf
(Hitler)

Merkers, Germany, stolen treasures in

methamphetamine

Meuse River

Middleton, Troy

Mims, John

Montgomery, Bernard

Eisenhower and

Patton, G., and

Rhine River and

The Monuments Men
(Edsel)

Moore, Ned

Morell, Theodor

Mozes, Eva

Mozes, Miriam

Murphy, James G.

Mussolini, Benito

mustache, of Hitler

Nazi Party (National German Workers' Party)

Aryans in

in Berlin

Himmler and

Hitler in

Netherlands and

racial purity in

religion and

rise of

as second-largest political party

swastika in

unemployment and

Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund

Netherlands

Nicholas, Lynn H.

Ninety-Ninth Division (American)

9th Armored Division (American)

Niven, David

Normandy

nuclear bomb

Nuremberg trials

Bormann and

Keitel at

Speer at

Ohrdruf concentration camp

101st Airborne Division (American)

Operation Greif

Operation Plunder

Operation Tink

Operation Watch on the Rhine

Adlerhorst and

American forces in

artillery at

Bradley and

Eisenhower and

German front lines in

massacre of American soldiers in

McAuliffe and

Meuse River in

101st Airborne Division and

Patton, G., and

Peiper and

radio silence for

Skorzeny and

tanks in

Third Army and

Twelfth Army Group and

P-47 Thunderbolts

Palatinate

Parkinson's disease, of Hitler

Patton, Beatrice

Patton, George S.

Bad Hersfeld and

Bastogne and

Berlin and

Bradley and

at Buchenwald concentration camp

death of

Eisenhower and

Fourth Armored Division and

German praise of

Koch and

Montgomery and

101st Airborne Division and

Operation Watch on the Rhine and

Palatinate and

prayer by

Red Ball Express and

religion and

Rhine River and

Roosevelt and

Third Army and

von Rundstedt and

in Waldenburg

with stolen artwork

Pearl Harbor

Peiper, Joachim

Himmler and

Hitler and

Jews and