The Steel Wave Read online

  * * *

  CONTENTS

  * * *

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  TO THE READER

  LIST OF MAPS

  RESEARCH SOURCES

  INTRODUCTION

  PART ONE

  1. THE COMMANDO

  2. ROMMEL

  3. EISENHOWER

  4. EISENHOWER

  5. ROMMEL

  PART TWO

  6. ADAMS

  7. ADAMS

  8. ROMMEL

  9. PATTON

  10. EISENHOWER

  11. EISENHOWER

  12. ADAMS

  13. EISENHOWER

  14. EISENHOWER

  15. ROMMEL

  16. ADAMS

  17. ADAMS

  PART THREE

  18. THORNE

  19. THE GRENADIER

  20. THORNE

  21. ADAMS

  22. ADAMS

  23. ROMMEL

  24. ADAMS

  25. EISENHOWER

  26. ADAMS

  27. EISENHOWER

  28. ADAMS

  29. ROMMEL

  30. ADAMS

  31. EISENHOWER

  32. ROMMEL

  33. ADAMS

  PART FOUR

  34. EISENHOWER

  35. ADAMS

  36. ROMMEL

  37. EISENHOWER

  38. ROMMEL

  39. ADAMS

  40. EISENHOWER

  41. PATTON

  42. PATTON

  43. ROMMEL

  AFTERWORD

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY JEFF SHAARA

  COPYRIGHT

  FOR LISA

  * * *

  TO THE READER

  * * *

  This book is the second volume of a trilogy, focusing primarily on America’s involvement in World War Two in Europe. In each book I’ve written, I’ve felt I should add the disclaimer that, no, this is not a blow-by-blow history, it is not a comprehensive collection of facts and figures. That kind of book certainly has its appeal, and professional historians are far better qualified to tackle that task than I am. This is a novel, and though I am careful to “get it right,” by definition the dialogue and inner thoughts of the characters have to be described as fiction. My research relies almost exclusively on original histories, memoirs, diaries, collections of letters, and photographs, as well as interviews with living veterans. This choice of sources reflects my attempt to get into the minds of these characters, to tell their story as they would tell it themselves. The events are true, the history accurate.

  Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Stalingrad, Hiroshima. Those names are familiar even if, often, the real story is not. But no event in the history of the Second World War has inspired more popular attention than what we call D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. Hollywood alone has offered dozens of films and countless documentaries that explore the events that we know by the date every schoolchild is taught: June 6, 1944. As I began the research for this book, I was deeply concerned that I would be telling you a story you already knew too well, but as my research progressed and I dug more deeply, my fears abated. I was surprised to find a story that spreads out with a far greater scope than what Hollywood (or your high school history textbook) typically offers us. As the characters became more familiar to me, I realized that the greatest drama here is not the event but the raw and frightening uncertainty for everyone involved. It is easy to view history in hindsight, as though it were a foregone conclusion how the war, or this particular piece of it, would turn out. But for those men whose deeds and accomplishments created this history, there were no foregone conclusions at all.

  I also discovered that the story of D-Day is not merely the story of what happens on June 6. For most of us, our familiarity with the Normandy invasion comes from the few existing film clips of that one horrific day, used countless times in documentaries, dramas, and various historical features. Memoirs abound and accounts have been written from every perspective imaginable, many focusing on one awful place called Omaha Beach. Some of these accounts are familiar to any fan of John Wayne or Tom Hanks or Stephen Ambrose. But there is more to this story than one amphibious invasion across one stretch of sand. (Most Americans have heard of Omaha, and with good reason, but how many can name the other four beaches?)

  Every war has its share of both glory and horror. I try not to succumb to the temptation to embellish history, to offer morality tales or lessons in hindsight. I make no snide winks toward the reader, subtle scolding that we should compare lessons learned then to lessons we should be learning today. That might make for a fine civics lecture or play into someone’s political agenda, but it has no place here.

  My goal is to tell you a good story by taking you into the minds of several of the key participants, the men who made this history, to show you the events as they saw them, to hear their words and their thoughts as this extraordinary drama unfolds. From conflicts and strategy sessions between the men at the top to the grinding endurance of the young soldiers who face the enemy, this book is based on the accounts of the men who were there. The most gratifying parts of my research were the surprises I found, the voices I hadn’t heard before. I hope, by the end of this book, you are surprised as well.

  My trilogy on the Second World War (of which this is the centerpiece) is the first time I have had the privilege of speaking to living veterans. Those soldiers are fewer in number every day, and in every instance, when I interviewed a veteran, he mentioned that fact. I feel strongly that this story has to be told with respect and accuracy. Tribute must be paid. To those soldiers, this is my respectful offering.

  JEFF SHAARA,

  May 2008

  * * *

  LIST OF MAPS

  * * *

  THE PLAN FOR OPERATION OVERLORD

  DROP ZONES FOR THE AMERICAN AIRBORNE ASSAULT

  D-DAY: THE LANDINGS

  82ND AIRBORNE DROPS: THE BRIDGES OF LA FIÈRE AND CHEF-DU-PONT

  BRITISH AND CANADIAN LANDINGS

  THE AMERICAN ADVANCES TO ST. SAUVEUR-LE-VICOMTE/THE COTENTIN PENINSULA

  AMERICAN ASSAULT ON LA HAYE-DU-PUITS

  MONTGOMERY’S OPERATIONGOODWOOD

  BRADLEY’S OPERATION COBRA

  BRADLEY’S BREAKTHROUGH: PATTON’S SURGE INTO BRITTANY

  VON KLUGE’S LAST-GASP ATTACK

  PATTON DRIVES EAST: THE MANEUVER TOWARD BRADLEY’S “RIGHT HOOK”

  THE GERMAN ESCAPE THROUGH THE ARGENTAN/FALAISE GAP

  * * *

  RESEARCH SOURCES

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  I am frequently asked for the sources I have relied upon. The following is a partial list of those whose firsthand accounts and overall historical perspectives proved invaluable to me in writing this book.

  THE AMERICANS

  General Omar Bradley

  Captain Harry Butcher

  Lieutenant William H. Callaway

  General Joseph Lawton Collins

  Historian (Lieutenant Colonel) Carlo D’Este

  President Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Lieutenant General James Gavin

  Chaplain Raymond S. Hall (101st Airborne)

  Historian Robert Leckie

  Secretary of State George C. Marshall Private John Nowak (First Infantry Division)

  Lieutenant General George S. Patton

  Journalist Ernie Pyle

  General Matthew Ridgway

  Private Douglas C. Saum

  THE BRITISH

  Prime Minister Winston Churchill

  Historian (General) David Fraser

  Historian (Captain) Sir Basil Liddell Hart

  Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

  General Sir Frederick Morgan

  Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder

  Brigadier
General Desmond Young

  THE GERMANS

  Corporal Paul Carell

  Colonel Hans von Luck

  Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

  Admiral Friedrich Ruge

  Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt

  Major Heinz Schmidt

  Lieutenant General (Dr.) Hans Speidel

  General Siegfried Westphal

  The following have generously provided me with an astounding variety of research materials. I am enormously grateful to them all.

  Fred Alexander, Franklin, North Carolina

  Bruce Breeding, Lexington, Kentucky

  Curtis Callaway, Danville, Virginia

  Andrew Carroll, Washington, D.C.

  Tony Collins, Washington, D.C.

  Bert Conroy, Prospect, Kentucky

  Colonel Keith Gibson, Lexington, Virginia

  Major Daniel Hall, U.S.A.

  W. D. Hardy, Hardin, Montana

  V. F. Henderson, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland

  Rocky Hoagland, Marysville, Washington

  Phoebe Hunter, Missoula, Montana

  Jack Ingram, Columbia, Maryland

  Ira Jacobson, New York, New York

  Bruce Ladd, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

  Bruce Novak, Needham, Massachusetts

  John Tiley, Half Moon Bay, California

  Kay Whitlock, Missoula, Montana

  Michael Wicklein, Baltimore, Maryland

  * * *

  INTRODUCTION

  * * *

  In December 1941, only days after the Japanese launch their devastating surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Japan’s ally Germany declares war on the United States. Americans quickly unite behind President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call for action against the infamy inflicted upon our forces, and to most Americans the primary enemy is clearly the Japanese. But Roosevelt and most of his military strategists, including Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, recognize that America’s interests are threatened from two directions. Despite the outrage many Americans direct toward the Japanese, the military’s first priority must be to confront Adolf Hitler. Though the navy and the Marines will focus most of their energy in the Pacific, Roosevelt and Marshall plan at the same time for America’s ground forces to make their first strike across the Atlantic.

  Well before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt had taken a stand against German aggressiveness in Europe by not-so-discreetly backing the British war effort. The Lend-Lease Act opened a floodgate of equipment and raw materials, food, and basic necessities that flowed in a continuous stream to the British. Despite some support for Hitler in the States, including angry opposition to Roosevelt from celebrities like Charles Lindbergh, the president unabashedly has referred to England as our most important ally.

  Germany’s diplomatic outrage is entirely predictable, but even before war is declared, the German navy launches a devastating undersea campaign to destroy Allied shipping. Throughout the first three years of the war, German U-boats are nearly unstoppable. Hundreds of Allied merchant ships are sunk, including some within sight of the American coastline, spectacular displays of destruction that shock Americans from New York to Miami. It is a poignant reminder that Hitler’s ambitious claw does indeed reach the borders of the United States.

  By 1941, Hitler’s war machine has washed over most of Europe. The armies of Poland, France, the Low Countries, Denmark, and Norway have been crushed. The British have been driven completely off the European mainland, their army nearly destroyed in the process. The British military and their American counterparts fully expect the Germans to invade the British Isles, a logical and strategically sound move. If the British are conquered, Hitler will control all he has sought in western Europe. His next step will very likely be a strike across the Atlantic, and Roosevelt knows that America’s armed forces are woefully ill-prepared for confrontation.

  As the German military commanders prepare for their powerful surge across the English Channel, Hitler suddenly vacillates. To the enormous frustration of his key generals, nearly all of whom believe an invasion of England will succeed, Hitler’s order never comes. Instead, he orders his Luftwaffe to bomb British cities, killing civilians at random. Hitler believes this assault on civilian morale will bring the British to their knees. His generals can only watch as thousands of German bombers are confronted by a thin defensive line of British fighter planes. In 1940, in what becomes known as the Battle of Britain, British pilots engage the Luftwaffe with extraordinary gallantry and effectiveness. Hundreds of German aircraft are shot from the sky, and Hitler’s dreams for an easy conquest of England go down with them. Strategically and militarily, it is Hitler’s first catastrophic mistake.

  In June 1941, Hitler makes his second huge miscalculation. Though he has signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union, Hitler surprises the Russians by launching a massive invasion that nearly succeeds in conquering that enormous land and its vast resources. But like Napoleon before him, Hitler finds his army cannot maintain an offensive through the brutal Russian winter, which proves as challenging an adversary as the enormous Russian army. Though German troops close on Stalingrad and reach the gates of Moscow, they cannot finish the job. For the remainder of the war, the Russian campaign will become an enormously costly drain on German manpower and resources. Hitler’s most capable field generals begin to wonder whether their Führer’s fanatical ambitions can succeed.

  While German forces obliterate their opposition on the European mainland, in the Pacific, Hitler’s ally the Japanese share similar success, wiping American defenders from the Philippines and occupying nearly every chain of islands in the South Pacific. Though Pearl Harbor is a devastating strike at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, an enormous rebuilding effort begins, with some of the damaged ships from Pearl Harbor made seaworthy in a matter of months. The nation is now energized for war. American forces under General Douglas MacArthur swell in number and effectiveness and begin to push back at the Japanese. With fierce determination, American naval and air defenses hold the line in the central Pacific at the island of Midway, and American and British forces stem the Japanese tide that threatens to wash over Australia and India. As the war progresses, the Japanese military leaders learn that they are not quite as invincible as their emperor has told them. In Europe, that is a lesson Hitler’s generals learn as well. But like Emperor Hirohito, Hitler sees neither his own flaws nor the flaws of those sycophantic military planners around him who shelter him from reality.

  Despite the increasing irrationality of their Führer, the German generals are for the most part the finest military minds of the war, and German commanders in the field understand what they must do to win their campaigns. But Hitler makes another monumental mistake, one he repeats often; he thwarts his most talented commanders by appointing himself Germany’s chief strategist. Yet Hitler never visits frontline positions, never sees for himself what his decisions and his meddling are costing his army.

  In 1941, in North Africa, a German campaign to support Hitler’s ally Italian dictator Benito Mussolini becomes a theater of war all its own. The British, based in Egypt, engage in furious battles to prevent conquest of the Suez Canal and the oil fields of the Middle East. Their adversary is Erwin Rommel, a German commander whose energy and audacity have made him a legend. But Rommel’s reputation alone cannot bring a German victory. After enormous success against variously inept British commanders, Rommel is finally stopped. Early in November 1942, his army suffers a major defeat in western Egypt at a village called El Alamein. His British adversary, newly in command, is Bernard Law Montgomery. Monty is a brash and disagreeable man who is no one’s first choice for the job. But when his predeccesor is killed unexpectedly in a plane crash, Winston Churchill reluctantly approves Montgomery for the command. Montgomery’s stunning defeat of Rommel gives the British a much-needed hero and launches Montgomery into the spotlight as England’s most accomplished field commander. Rommel is unimpressed with Montgomery, b
elieving him too slow and methodical. As Rommel retreats westward across Libya, land he had once taken from the British, he is painfully aware that had Hitler responded to his general’s repeated cries for supplies and manpower, guns and gasoline, the Germans would never have been turned back. It is a bitter pill for Rommel, who continues to plague the German High Command with incessant calls for support. As the British bolster Montgomery with a steady flow of crucial supplies, Rommel’s army is increasingly ill fed and ill equipped. Instead of opening Hitler’s eyes to the importance of the North Africa campaign, Rommel has become a pariah, seen by Hitler’s henchmen as a bothersome defeatist.

  During most of 1942, as the British wage their seesaw war back and forth against the tanks of Rommel’s formidable Afrika Korps, the American military pours into Britain with the energy and resources to launch their own ground campaign against Hitler’s Fortress Europe. George Marshall vigorously insists that the British agree to an American plan to attack straight across the English Channel, an invasion onto the coast of France. But the British are skeptical. They have already suffered humiliating and costly defeats and have endured far more casualties than the British people can accept. Memories of the First World War are too vivid, and Winston Churchill and his chief of staff, Sir Alan Brooke, are in no hurry to repeat that kind of disaster. The British insist that Hitler’s fortifications on the French coast are far too formidable to breach and the cost of such an invasion is far too high. Marshall and the Americans, helpless against British intransigence, know they cannot wage war against Hitler alone. Churchill convinces the Americans instead to join the British in a new strike into North Africa, finally to destroy Rommel’s army and begin a campaign to clear the Germans out of the Mediterranean. After much rancor and debate, the Americans agree to put off their plans for an invasion of France. With the British supplying most of the sea and air power for the North African assault, the Americans will provide the vast majority of the ground forces. After much political wrangling, the decision is made to place an American in overall command. The man chosen for the job is General Dwight David Eisenhower.