D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

10. SWORD

p. 136 ‘Widgeon and teal…’, Tony Hugill diary, CAC HUGL 1

‘Floater, 5,000!’, Major Julius Neave, 13th/18th Hussars, SWWEC T501

p. 137 ‘Some were scared…’, N. G. Marshall, H Troop Armoured Support Group with 41st RM Commando, SWWEC 2000.407

‘like a Napoleonic dragoon’, Lieutenant Ken Baxter, 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, MdC TE 164

John and Jacqueline Thornton, NWWIIM-EC

‘Every now and then…’, Tony Hugill diary, CAC HUGL 1

p. 138 ‘Well, dig yourself…’, Lieutenant Cyril Rand, 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles, MdC TE 499

‘with misjudged enthusiasm’ and ‘he relented a little’, Lionel Roebuck, 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, MdCTE 199

Piper Bill Millin piping on the beach, SWWEC T654/666 and K. G. Oakley, IWM 96/22/1

p. 139 ‘Right, Piper…’, Piper Bill Millin, SWWEC T654/666

3 Troop of 6 Commando, TNA DEFE 2/43; and Philip Biggerton Pritchard, Soldiering in the British Forces in World War II, privately published, undated

X Troop, Harry Nomburg, NWWIIM-EC, and Peter Masters, NWWIIM-EC

Kieffer, MdC TE 131

p. 140 ‘Gentlemen, this is the invasion…’, letter from Otto Gunsche, 2 October 1981, quoted in Hubert Meyer, The 12th SS, Vol. I, Mechanicsburg, Pa., 2005, p. 97

‘a tall wiry…’, Milton Shulman, Defeat in the West, London, 1988, pp. 118-19

p. 141 Chateau de Benouville, Louise Moulin, MdC TE 350

Oppeln-Bronikowski’s change of orders, Generalmajor Wilhelm Richter, 716th Infantry Division, FMS B- 621

Marcks, Seventh Army telephone records captured in August by 1st Polish Armored Division, NA II 407/427/6431

‘in no position to judge’ and ‘The main landing…’, Generalleutnant Bodo Zimmermann, OB West, FMS B- 308

p. 142 ‘fill a crater…’, NA II 407/427/ 24170

p. 143 ‘deep concrete pillboxes…’, ‘fought with determination…’ and ‘blown out of their emplacements…’, Current Reports from Overseas, No. 56, NA II 407/427/ 24170

p. 144 Andre Heintz, diary, MdC, TE 32 (1- 4); and Dr Robert Chaperon, MdC TE 42

p. 145 destruction in Caen, MdC TE 283

‘One could see…’, Felix Drougard, MdC TE 3

‘If only I was a little less fat’, MdC TE 149

looter, MdC TE 149 p. 146 Defense Passive etc., MdC TE 193

‘magnificent attitude…’, SIPEG (Service interministeriel de protection contres les evenements de guerre) report of 10 June, AN AJ/41/56

executions in Caen prison, Jean-Baptiste Pierre (Surveillant-Chef Adjoint de la Maison d’Arret de Caen), MdC TE 521

‘Oh, no!…’, ‘pale and evidently terrified’ and ‘The German army is honest’, Madame Blanche Neel, MdC TE 201

p. 147 ‘With a bestial frenzy…’, Nadine Speck MdC TE 2

‘useless as well as criminal’, Max Maurin, MdC TE 77 (2)

800 deaths in Caen, 600 on 6 June and 200 on 7 June, CRHQ

‘The town is in flames…’, ‘almost destroyed’ and ‘all the gendarmes…’, SIPEG report of 10 June, AN AJ/41/56

p. 148 ‘In Westminster Abbey…’, Mollie Panter-Downes, London War Notes, London, 1971, p. 328

‘It has been very hard…’, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries 1939-1945, London, 2001, p. 555 (6 June)

p. 149 Eadie and ‘Fireflies’, see Carlo D’Este, Decision in Normandy, New York, 1983

‘I suppose that’s what…’, Lieutenant Cyril Rand, 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles, MdC TE 499

‘It equally impressed…’, NA II 407/ 427/24170

p. 150 ‘the enemy annihilated…’, Seventh Army telephone records, NA II 407/427/ 6431

‘He was still convinced…’, Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, 1937-1945, Mainz, 1980, p. 374

Panzer Lehr Division, Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein, Panzer Lehr Division, ETHINT 66

‘What’s happened to…’, BA-MA MSg2/5025

p. 151 4,649 US seaborne casualties, Omar Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, New York, 1951, p. 242

11. SECURING THE BEACHHEADS

p. 152 29th Division headquarters, NA II 407/427/24034

farmhands and Pennsylvania coal miners, 29th Division, WWII VS

‘The sea was like…’, Oberstleutnant Ziegelmann, 352nd Infanterie-Division, FMS B-489

p. 153 MP Sergeant, Melvin Asche, 1006th Seabea Detachment, MdC TE 126

‘looked at us…’, Madame Huet-Patry, Vierville-sur-Mer, MdC TE 22

‘I guess they didn’t know…’, Barnett Hoffner, 6th Engineer Special Brigade, NWWIIM-EC

p. 154 ‘deloused’ areas, Forrest C. Pogue, Pogue’sWar,Lexington,Kentucky, 2001,p. 63

USS Harding, Walter Vollrath Jr, USN, NWWIIM-EC

p. 155 ‘Again Colonel Rudder…’, Elmer H. Vermeer, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, with 2nd Ranger Battalion, NWWIIM-EC; also Lieutenant Francis W. Dawson, 5th Ranger Battalion, NWWIIM-EC; and Lieutenant Rex F. Gibson, Headquarters Company, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, NA II 407/427/ 24242

‘stumble-footed action’, NA II 407/427/ 24034

bartering, Brugger, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, NWWIIM-EC

‘Hey, I need a hedgerow…’, Oscar Rich, 5th Field Artillery Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, NWWIIM-EC

A-1 landing strip, W. G. Schuler, 382nd Air Service Squadron, 84th Group, NWWIIM-EC evacuation of wounded by air, Louise Anthony de Flon, 816th Medical Air Evacuation, MdC TE 177

p. 156 Gerhardt, see Joseph Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead, Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1999, pp. 44-50

‘Sergeant, I want you…’, John Hooper, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, NWWIIM-EC

V Corps plan, Oberst Ziegelmann, 352nd Infanterie-Division, FMS B-489 and B-636

p. 157 ‘the Fuhrer personally…’, General Gunther Blumentritt, OB West, FMS B-637, p. 263

‘a tough learning period…’, Lieutenant Cameron K. Brooks, 115th Infantry, 29th Division, NA II 407/427/24242

‘Lieutenant Kermit Miller…’, NA II 407/427/24240; and Captain S. S. Suntag, 115th Infantry, NA II 407/427/24242

‘It was nearly midnight…’, NA II 407/ 427/24240

‘trouble from those…’, Captain Otto Graas, Headquarters Company, 29th Division, NA II 407/427/24241

p. 158 Gerhardt and ‘Vixen Tor’, Staff Sergeant Lester Zick, Anti-tank Company, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, NWWIIM-EC