Schwerpunkt: From D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich (15 page)

When Der Führer was finally awakened about five hours after the first wave of sea landings, he was briefed with the available reports and information. The generals around him mentioned the parachutist drops, the ships, the invading soldiers from the sea and whatever else they told him about. Der Führer did not immediately order the reserve Panzer divisions moved to engage the enemy, probably because by now, all of the generals at his Alpine headquarters agreed with him that what we had been seeing was nothing more than a diversion calculated to draw our attention from the Pas de Calais where der Führer was convinced the real landing would take place. For heaven’s sake, der Führer even knows it will be led by the American Cowboy General Patton. How foolish did the British and the Americans think we were?

General Jodl talked with his deputy, General Warlimont and I guess together they still thought the landings were a diversion but because of the large number and massive scale of the enemy invaders, der Führer demanded to know whether this was or was not the real invasion. Of course, no one could answer him with certainty so he left his generals to discuss it, presumably so he could attend to something more important. He apparently needed time to determine the true parameters of the situation and whether this invasion did or did not warrant release of the reserve Panzer divisions. At 4:00 pm on 6. June. 1944, it was der Führer who finally decided that the best military strategy would be to order these two divisions to be moved to the Normandy area. By that time, however, whatever storm clouds which could have afforded coverage to this move had dissipated causing the Panzers to be harassed by enemy aircraft as they moved to the beaches. Major General Witt, a well regarded tank Commander and the direct officer in charge of the 12
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SS Hitler Jugend Panzer tank Division, reported to us that his tanks, once released by der Führer, would have arrived at their destination around Caen sooner but he was forced to spend hours taking cover in ditches from the air attacks coming from what he said were thousands of airplanes. As it was, his 12
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SS Panzer unit did not arrive in Normandy until a full day after the landings.

It might have been a different story I would think, if either General Rommel’s strategic plan had been listened to or he had been here to coordinate the defenses himself. If the tanks of General Witt’s Hitler Jugend Division and General Bayerlein’s Panzer Lehr would have either been in place or been moved immediately to the coastal area as General Rommel wanted, they could have annihilated some of the invading armies while they were landing or trying to make it off the beaches. If General Rommel had been here himself and could have directed the battle for the beaches, I know he would not have stood for the dithering that went on during the first critical hours of 6. June. The 12
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SS Hitler Jugend Panzer Division would have arrived at Caen far sooner than they did, especially since the skies were still cloudy all day, as the American cowboy song goes. General Rommel’s Afrika Corps Panzer Division would have been committed immediately and I can guarantee you that General Feuchtinger would not have needed to make a phone call to our headquarters to ask for permission to attack. If anything, he would have been chastised if he so much as waited extra minutes, never mind hours, to attack the invaders. Our troops fought with whatever we had command of and with whatever force they could muster but it wasn’t enough and General Rommel says that it is clear now that the enemy will not be thrown back into the sea.

Within a week of the initial DDay landings, the Allieds had brought 16 divisions ashore through the Normandy beaches. Close to three tank divisions had been landed and fighting continued for the key objectives of Operation Overlord. By June 18
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, less than two weeks after DDay, the Allieds had close to twenty divisions ashore. They fought just about the same number of German divisions but the German divisions were generally well below strength. But understrength or not, the Germans defended each inch of ground ferociously. The British fought from the landing beaches for Caen in the east and the Americans fought for the Cotentin Peninsula in the west. When these objectives had been met, the plan was to then wheel towards the Seine River.

Once the initial landings proved successful, the next phase of General Montgomery’s master plan began but it began with less than stellar results. The plan for the British army to capture the crucial city of Caen by June 7, 1944 met with great resistance and Caen remained in German hands until July 20
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after four distinct operations were launched throughout June and July.
The plan for the American Army to capture the major port city of Cherbourg in the Cotentin Peninsula by June 13
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was delayed by heavy resistance and it wasn’t until June 26
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that the German General von Schlieben surrendered the city. The Americans then moved to take St. Lo in order to close off the Cotentin Peninsula. Cherbourg was won at a cost of 2,811 Allied soldiers killed, 13,564 wounded and 5,665 missing. St. Lo was not taken until July and the cost was higher. Clearing Northern France of German defenders proved far more difficult than anticipated and the Allieds made slow progress as they found themselves stalling in the bocage (the “hedgerows”) during June in Normandy.

I’m sweating thinking about Harold. I know mom and pop feel the same way. So I tracked the progress of my brother’s infantry division and found that a day or two after they cleared Utah Beach, they were to head south and west through Pouppeville into Ste. Mere Eglise to hook up with the Paratroopers. Harold’s division fought to take out two coastal gun batteries which were still shelling incoming troops on Utah and from what I heard, they fought like hell against a bunch of well dug in Germans. They’re on the move now, liberating small town after small town which is good because we can use each newly secured town as a base to launch further attacks. And I just got a letter from him.

June 14, 1944

Dear Frank,

I met up with Paul when our guys linked up with the paratroopers! Early on the night of June 5
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, thousands of paratroopers (and I found out that Paul was one of them) dropped around a small town behind and to the west of where I landed. He dropped around Ste. Mere Eglise of all the gosh darn places! Paul said the drops were way off course and so widely dispersed, that most guys couldn’t even hook up with someone they knew, let alone with their assigned squad. He said that some of the guys who never saw a real live Kraut in their life would wander into them and had to fight their way out without anyone leading them or telling them what to do. That had to be scarier than heck! It’s bad enough when you got a CO telling you what to do but I guess I’d prefer that than having to decide what to do on my own. I mean, when you’re given orders, you get at least a sense of someone knowing what’s going on! I don’t know, Frank, but what I do know, is that I’m pretty darn glad I’m not a paratrooper.

So on the night before we got to our beach, the paratroopers were already landing. Pauly told me there was a fire in a big house just across from the town square. What he heard was that the Mayor of the town had to get permission from the German Commandant to lift the nightly curfew in order to let the hundreds of people from the town work a bucket brigade to douse the fire. (Was this fire caused by our bombing runs, I wonder?) Anyway, it was just about this exact time when his planes started flying overhead. Of course these planes were being shot at by not only the Germans guarding the people on the bucket brigade but also by the gun batteries of the nearby towns. He said the anti aircraft fire was constant. At first the gunfire and flak aimed for the planes themselves, but as soon as men started jumping out of these planes, the gunfire zeroed in on them as well. Paul said that because the winds were high and the clouds were low that night, virtually all of the drop zones were missed and men landed all over the place. He told me that some of the paratroopers, who were obviously loaded with ammunition and explosives, had to fight to maneuver their chutes to avoid landing in trees and stuff. He said a couple of guys landed right into the building that was burning and that there were small explosions as they went in. Frank, I can’t stop thinking about those guys. I can’t imagine jumping out of a plane on a nice sunny day over a park let alone jumping out when guns are firing at you. Suppose you got hung up on a tree or something and couldn’t get down while the Krauts were shooting at nothing but you? Paul said that one paratrooper landed on the church steeple right in the middle of the town square and he hung there because he couldn’t get himself down. Talk about nerves of steel!! I would have messed my shorts, Frank, but I guess he played possum until the Krauts cut him down and then found out he was still alive! I hope the guy makes it Frank. Balls like that don’t show themselves all that often, know what I mean?

All those marshes and swamps I had to trudge through? Pauly said that the Jerries made lakes out of the fields so that our guys would drown when they landed. I mean, they got what? 100 extra pounds of equipment on them? Plus they got their parachute dragging them under?? If they couldn’t get to their knives fast enough… it had to be torture to go like that! I don’t know how Pauly can stand it. Don’t never tell him I told you this but I used to think those guys acted like they were such big shots and maybe some were a big pain in my kiester, but I got to tell you now, whatever extra pay they make, it isn’t enough to make me want to do that job. God bless them, Frank.

And besides meeting up with Pauly the day we landed, we later linked up with the guys from Omaha Beach. I heard the landing on that beach was worse than awful. I guess it took them hours and hours of sheer hell to get their guys on and off that beach but they succeeded and once we met up with them, that meant that both the Utah and Omaha beachheads are now connected. And we did it in less than a week. I’ve lost track of days and nights, sleeping when and wherever I can, but I think it was about 5 or 6 days after DDay that we met up.

Good for us, huh? Well, take it easy and write if you get the chance. I love you, Bro.

Harold

By DDay + 10, we had more than 250,000 Americans and 35,000 vehicles on shore from that bloody Omaha beach. The Brits brought over two artificial harbors called Mulberries and one of them was being installed at Omaha. We needed these Mulberries so we could get our supplies over from England until we took control of some of France’s port cities like Cherbourg in the Cotentin Peninsula and Brest and Lorient in the Brittany peninsula. What those wacky Brits don’t think of! But in this case, these harbors are a Godsend. I’ve seen Supply Reports showing that ship after ship is bringing over not only equipment and ammunition, but food rations and medical supplies as well. All stuff we badly need.

After the initial landings were made and we had time to review the German response, we determined that only individual, separate defensive attacks were launched against our troops. We found out that while we were pouring everything we had into landing on the five DDay beaches, several German Panzer divisions, including a couple of SS divisions, were held back presumably as reserve units waiting for the real invasion around the Pas de Calais. We also found out that many of the troops that were defending the German positions were not even real Krauts. They were from Asian countries like Turkmenistan or the Caucasus. I heard that some were even from Poland. Drafting former enemies into your army. Now that takes chutzpah.

At a cost less than anticipated but still far greater than desired, the individual beachheads are now decisively in our hands but only Utah and Omaha are linked up. Our next step is to link up the rest of these isolated holdings in order to consolidate our gain and prevent the Krauts from attacking between our beachheads and picking us off one by one. There are also critical roadways and railways as well as important towns that have to be taken and taken fast. Some of those towns that we need to get in the earliest stages of the invasion are Bayeux, Caen, Pouppeville, Ste. Mere Eglise, Carentan, and Countances. We are running into enemy defenses stronger than we hoped for and terrain more impenetrable than we expected. Of the two, some say it’s the goddamn hedgerows that’s giving us the most trouble. I got a letter from my cousin who says the same thing.

June 14, 1944

Dear Frank.

Just wanted to write and let you know that I just saw Harold! What’s the chance of that, I keep thinking to myself, but there he was, marching up the road to where our unit was holding a town called Ste. Mere Eglise. Kind of a miracle if you ask me! It was good seeing Harold. He looked good. In control and good. He left to go to some small but apparently important town and my company left to take another town, further away. Still, it was great to talk to him if even for a few minutes. He says he misses home but Christ! Don’t we all?

On our way out of Ste. Mere Eglise, we had to walk almost single file down this short dirt and grass lane and there were these trees on both sides of us. But these things weren’t just trees. They were thick old things. It looked like each farmer fenced off his land, not with fences but with these trees and it looks like they planted them about 500 years ago. Remember those trees in that movie, The Wizard of Oz that came out a couple of years ago? The ones that reached out to that girl and slapped her? This is what these looked like only you couldn’t see through to the other side of them because they were so thick and close together. It gave me the willies to have to walk past them, especially since it was still dark out and it was so quiet. We walked and I know I sort of held my breath and I think most of the other guys did too. All of a sudden, it started raining machine gun fire from out of these trees. Those of us who could, punched our way out of that fix and holed up in some houses in the town down the road until we were relieved a couple of days later. I lost a friend of mine and now I hate these trees even more. So here I am in another little village whose name I can’t pronounce just wanting to stay in touch with you. Tell Ike I said to hurry up and finish this damn war, will you? Guess we’re heading back to jolly old England for a bit of R and R and to regroup. We lost a lot of good men, Cuz. Have you heard from Harold? Tell him Pauly says to kick some ass for me and I’ll do the same for him.