Schwerpunkt: From D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich (30 page)

It was during the last couple of days of July that Patton’s 4
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Armored Division was ordered to take the town of Avranches and open the door out of the hedgerows for us. Since this was Patton’s first mission in Normandy, he wanted to achieve it spectacularly. His march to Avranches was grueling but he made remarkable progress and hit the town on July 30
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. Those poor bastards covered 25 miles in 36 hours and took the town in impressive fashion. Reports came in that Kraut casualties were over 10 to 1 and that the Fourth Armored wiped out four or five enemy divisions. With the capture of Avranches, we controlled the whole Cotentin Peninsula and all its roadways.

And if my mood weren’t elevated enough by having old Blood and Guts over here, we’ve been receiving reports that our guys are now starting to make excellent progress. Ike had promised General Patton that he would commence command of Third Army (which was then under the command of General Bradley) at the beginning of August. Patton had been held back, ostensibly to insure the success of Operation Fortitude but the real reason he wasn’t let loose earlier was because he actually slapped not just one but two soldiers who were in the hospital for nervous breakdowns. Apparently, Dr. Patton diagnosed them to be cowards and thought a couple of slaps would shake them out of their disorder and settle their nerves. When the papers got a hold of this, they went crazy and Patton was treated as if he were manifesting the first signs of leprosy. Ike had no choice but to keep him out of the war until it seemed his apologies (ordered as they were from on high) had time to take effect and the public hew and cry died down. I know Ike agonized over what to do with Patton since he was too good of a general to sideline but his mouth kept going off, never really bothering to run anything past his brain. Privately, Ike told General Patton that he would take command of the Third Army on August 1, 1944, then many months away. Since Patton was just itching to take command of some troops, Ike was hoping this delay in taking over a command position would be punishment and incentive enough. It wasn’t, of course, since whenever Patton talked, his foot levitated and found its way directly into his mouth. But those were the orders and Patton was goddamned relieved he’d at least get to run into the Germans eventually.

According to earlier plans, it’s now time to restructure the chain of Allied command. The plan called for General Omar Bradley’s First U.S. Army to combine with Patton’s Third U.S. Army when our Allied troops controlled enough of northern France to make this restructure feasible. We now control most of Northern France so the transfer is more than feasible. The First and Third Armies will henceforth be known as the U.S. Twelfth Army Group and it’s to be under the command of General Bradley. General Courtney Hodges is being given command of the First Army. And now that the U.S. Army change has been made, Monty is to take over command of the 1
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Canadian Army which is to combine with the 2
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British Army. General Eisenhower now takes over as ground commander of both the American and the British forces.

Monty started Overlord as commander of all ground troops. As overall land commander during the initial stages of the Normandy invasion, he commanded not only his British 21
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Army but also commanded Bradley, as we were continually reminded. Officially, he answered only to Eisenhower though we all have our doubts that Monty can follow anyone’s orders. To hear him tell it, not making him Supreme Commander of the Allied troops was the biggest mistake of the war. With this new division of labor and responsibilities which reduced Monty’s sphere of influence, he wasn’t going to be happy and we all anticipated that he’d be throwing even more tantrums trying to get his own way. It was not going to be an easy thing for Monty to give up any command duties and to be blunt, Monty was always trying to order Ike to do what he wanted anyway. (Rumor has it that Patton even said that Ike is the best damn General the British have.) I don’t know if I agree with that but he has agreed with Monty’s “suggestions” far more that I think I would have. But then he’s a four star general and I’m a no star desk jockey so what do I know?

Anyway, prior to losing command over the American land forces, Monty had to have his final say so. He ordered us to clear out the Cotentin Peninsula of all remaining Krauts who hadn’t yet received the message to surrender. Once that area was cleared, we could move towards the Seine River for the drive towards Paris but until then, General Patton was ordered to clean up the west part of northern France and boy, was he not happy with that. From what I could tell, Patton wanted to drive straight through to Paris but General Bradley said he and Ike (and Monty) were worried that any Jerry troops left in Brittany would counter-attack Patton’s flank as well as his rear. Actually, besides cleaning out Brittany, we really do need its ports. Supplying our troops is becoming a big fat pain in the ass. We had previously estimated that by the time we planned on being out of Normandy heading towards the eastern French border, we would have about two million men here, about a half million vehicles, and only about three million tons of supplies. Since we still hadn’t repaired or replaced the damaged Mulberry Harbors or the port of Cherbourg, we were faced with supplies which were stacking up in England with no way to reach the troops in France.

Although I saw General Patton fuming at his assignment, he did what he was ordered to do since he was in hot water with just about everyone. He sent one corps to the Brittany Peninsula to smoke out the last of the Germans. To get the job done, General Patton moved his men in record time. He sent a report to us saying he issued every commander a Michelin map and he himself directed traffic, telling specific units to utilize specific roads to get to their objectives. I got to hand it to that old bastard. He got seven divisions into Brittany in 72 hours. He captured the high ground of Mortain by August 3
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and was in Rennes by August 4
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. I think he got it done so fast because he knew when he was done with that, he’d finally be given the green light to move toward the war, as he said, and not away from it. What I guess no one considered though, was that there weren’t a whole lot more Krauts to speak of in Brittany so this whole operation was pretty much a big waste of his time and talents. Patton told that to Brad but I guess we had to be sure our ass end was covered before moving east to where we were sure the Krauts were still waiting for us.

With Avranches in our hands, we could see all the roads the goddamn Krauts would have to use if they were even considering a counterattack. Since no general, not even a Kraut one if he were in his right mind, would throw his troops against a position like ours, General Patton made pretty short work of the Brittany excursion and Brad finally ordered Patton’s Third Army to skip any more of the Westward Ho Cleanup. He was ordered to head east to go for the gold.

I think I will name my first born child, “Ultra.” We just found out that those lousy Krauts were not retreating from Hedgerow Hell. Instead, they are moving not one but several tank divisions to greet us around Mortain. Armed with that juicy gossip, General Bradley rearranged his tank formations in order to welcome the Krauts with one solid line of opposition. If we could swing east towards Falaise and encircle the Jerry troops remaining around Avranches and Mortain, we’d have quite a little collection of Krauts in our bag. So Brad had Patton head south and then east to start us on our way. Goddamn if Patton’s guys didn’t reach LeMans which was about a hundred miles away within a week. The Germans were obviously trying to reconnect their shattered front so they attacked Avranches first, on August 6
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, 1944. They launched this offensive with about 150 tanks which we soon put out of commission and by the next day, Avranches stayed in friendly hands. Even as the Krauts began their attack, we were still receiving Ultra decoded information about what those bastards were intending to do which was to launch a counter-offensive around Mortain on August 7
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.

Besides knowing their plans which I have to say, made targeting the enemy like shooting fish in a barrel, the sky dawned clear on August 7
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and our planes took care of the enemy concentrations. As the battle was raging for Mortain and the encirclement of the Krauts, Allied troops were landing in southern France according to the plans of Operation Anvil much to the irritation of the British, Churchill especially, who had wanted troops landed in the Mediterranean and not southern France. But these troops held down a bunch of the Boche, as Monty calls them, and troops who would have been far more dangerous had they been moved to Caen or Mortain or the Falaise areas, were stuck defending another invasion in Southern France. This worked out exquisitely because what we did not need was more Krauts causing us more problems up here. I’m guessing that Churchill finally came to appreciate the end result of that operation even though he was pretty damn irritated by it when it was first conceived. The Krauts were able to engage us around Mortain for a few extra days but on August 12
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, we finally beat them and watched as they headed east. Whatever offensive the Krauts thought they could launch at Mortain died on the vine in light of our superior air cover, tactical advantage and troop concentrations. As we had the Krauts on the run from Mortain, Brad came up with an idea for an aggressive move as a new and improved postscript to Operation Cobra. Far from scoring any victory there, the Boche eventually found themselves in a pocket of potential problems.

To leave Mortain, the only routes for escaping Krauts lay either along the road to Argentan or Falaise. Both lead to the area between Trun and Chambois. Brad saw an opportunity to take the Krauts, specifically their 7
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Army and their Panzer Group West, as they withdrew after their doomed offensive. Brad figured he could take them from their flank and rear sides. Brad said that since we kicked the shit out of the Krauts at Mortain yesterday (well he didn’t put it exactly that way but it’s still true), that if we hustled our bustle, we might be able to trap the enemy in a pocket around Falaise, especially now that we’re in clear tank country and we can maneuver at will. The decision was whether to make the push east towards Paris and Germany now that we were out of the hedgerows or delay it so as to encircle and capture two German Armies. General Bradley suggested, and General Montgomery agreed, that these German troops could be encircled even though this would mean a small delay in our push to the Seine. We all went for destroying the most Krauts now.

After fighting for so long in the goddamn boxes of hedgerows, Ike was almost shitting pennies he was so enthused about this plan. Monty agreed that his initial plan of enveloping the Hun around the Seine could be modified to accommodate this plan and oh, by the way, he then told us that he came up with the idea first. You know, I’ve become so used to his boasting and bragging but I still had to hold my hands at my sides to keep from busting him right across his kisser. He is the cockiest son of a bitch I’ve ever met. But enough about him. It was Brad’s plan and it was a good one.

My friends the Canucks were on the northern plane of a southern advance towards Falaise while Patton’s army was on the southern plane of a northern advance towards Argentan. If the Canadians swung south and Patton could swing north with the Allied troops heading east from Mortain to hold the middle, about 100,000 of Germany’s Normandy force would be trapped at Falaise in a cauldron surrounded by an extremely unfriendly foe. Obviously, though, to make a cauldron, the circle has to be unbroken when the north and south armies meet. They were to meet at Argentan.

Patton, of course, took off like a bat out of hell and had to be ordered to stop at Argentan. We knew the Krauts had begun their exodus and I for one was getting antsy about how many were getting away even though our aircraft were pummeling as many of the vehicles as they could. It was reported that over a thousand of their transports were destroyed. But even with this air cover, the Canadians were making slow progress.

By August 12
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, the gap between the two armies was 18 miles wide. As movement was being made to close the trap by the Canadians on the north and Americans on the south, we had the Krauts on the run. We brought aircraft in to bomb whatever Krauts they could get in their sights and then used artillery to catch whatever Krauts our planes might have missed. We pounded them and pounded them, forcing them the whole time into a gap that we hoped was getting smaller and smaller by the minute. We watched the execution of the plan unfold and if the northern salient could just make quicker progress, I could be home by Christmas.

The next day turned into the next night which turned into another day and still the Canadians were not in position. By August 14
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the Germans were escaping by the thousands. We then received another Ultra decrypt which showed the German General von Kluge asking Hitler’s permission to allow a withdrawal to the east. That meant, of course, that there were a whole lotta Krauts just waiting around to be captured and believe me, we all wanted to accommodate them. Bradley ordered half of Patton’s army further east towards the German Army’s anticipated final escape route while the “Falaise Pocket” was still open. He wanted those units to trap any escaping Krauts at the Seine River. He kept the remainder of Patton’s men sitting at Argentan waiting for the Canadians to close the gap. Patton took a page out of the Blitzkrieg Handbook and by August 16
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, he had reached Orleans and Chartres, just outside Paris where he reported that the area south of the Seine was now in our hands. Patton wrote that when our armor can keep the enemy on the roads and when our bombers are in the air, the enemy is then faced with a deadly combo. To make it work, however, there has to be “ruthless” driving of the armor by the ground commander. “A pint of sweat is worth a gallon of blood” I heard him say.

On August 17
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, with the Canadians still moving towards, but not yet at, their ordered position, Monty now ordered the gap closed. Monty ordered the newly arrived (and might I add unseasoned) 1
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Polish Army to close the gap at Chambois, France just east of Argentan. I had been in France back in ’36 and I’ve seen where these troops were ordered to go. That valley is the most scenic place I think I’ve ever seen. I hated to think of it being all bombed and cratered and hoped whatever damage it suffered could be undone eventually. Goddamn Krauts.