Chapter 4 Endnotes
1. The XV Corps After Action Report for the period covered in this chapter is unusually accurate and complete. The records of the 79th Infantry Division are in good condition, although the formal After Action Report is very inaccurate. The After Action Report prepared by the 2d French Armored Division (according to U.S. Army regulations) has been used, as well as the original unit journals, of which the Historical Division has photostatic copies. See also a semiofficial history, edited by Lt. Col. Repidon (G-2 of the 2d French Armored Division), entitled La 2ème DB (Paris, 1945). Historical Division Combat Interviews are available for the 2d French Armored Division, but there are none to cover the operations of the 79th Infantry Division, during this period. Maj. Gen. Ira T. Wyche, commander of the 79th infantry Division, has permitted the Historical Division to use his personal diary. German sources for this chapter are particularly fine, both in the form of the KTB and in the personal reminiscences prepared for the Historical Division by the enemy commanders who directed the German operations.
2. Interv with Gen Eddy, 6 Aug 47.
3. Smith to Bradley, 3 Sep 44, SHAEF Message File. Earlier
General de Gaulle had insisted that General Leclerc's division be retained
in Paris. Eisenhower to Bradley, 29 Aug 44, SHAEF Message File.
4. This name had been adopted to protect Leclerc's
family from retaliation by the enemy. After the war the French government
accorded Leclerc the legal use of his nom de guerre and he became Vicomte
Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque.
5. Ltr, Gen Haislip to Hist Div, 17 Jul 47.
6. On 16 August 1944 the 158th Reserve Division and 16th Luftwaffe Field Division had been reorganized as the 16th Division. However, the division was not given the weapons of an infantry division and continued to appear on some German situation maps as a reserve division. The 16th Division had very few heavy weapons and had lost two infantry battalions in fighting with French partisans during the retreat. OKH/Org. Abt. Karteiblaetter.
7. The story of this retreat and regrouping
is found in Army Group G KTB, Nr. 2; MS #A-000 (Mellenthin); MS #B-558
(Gyldenfeldt).
8. During the Mortain counterattack Hitler sent General der
Infanterie Walter Buhle to the front as his personal plenipotentiary, where
Buhle had much the same status as that of Lt. Col. Hentsch at the Marne in
1914.
9. Army Group B KTB Anlagen, 28 Aug and 3 Sep 44.
10. In August, however, Hitler had allocated most of the German tank production to the Western Front.
11. Knobelsdorff replaced Chevallerie as First Army commander on 6 September 1944.
12. Details of the German plan for a counteroffensive are found in the Army Group G KTB, in the Panzer Armeeoberkommando 5 KTB (hereafter cited as Fifth Panzer Army KTB) and Anlagen, and in the XLVII Panzer Corps KTB for the period.
14. Kampfgruppe Luck consisted of about 240 riflemen and a few assault guns from the 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment (21st Panzer Division).
15. XV Corps G-3 Jnl, 14 Sep 44. La 2ème DB, 81. The 406th Group claimed 13 tanks destroyed and 15 damaged. A German report dated 16 September verifies the French claims. Some tanks had already been lost by the 112th before it reached the battlefield, as a result either of air attack or of mechanical difficulties. The losses reported on 13 September totaled 34 Panthers and 26 Mark IV's. See OB WEST KTB. Anlage 63. Army Group G KTB Nr 2 twice refers to these tank losses as "unbelievably high."
16. On 13 September 1st Lt. Jonathan Hutchinson, F Company, 313th Infantry, took an enemy machine gun position and silenced two antitank guns with hand grenades in singlehanded attacks. He was awarded the DSC.
17. History of the 313th Infantry in World
War II (Washington, 1947), pp. 112-15.
18. XV Corps AAR, 14 Sep 44. The original order to hold
at the Moselle had been issued at General Patton's headquarters at 0045 on
13 September. See TUSA Diary.
19. XV Corps G-2 Jnl, 16 Sep 44, estimates
that the 16th Division had an original strength of about 7,000 men,
of whom 4,000 were captured and 2,000 were casualties. See also Army Group
G KTB Nr. 2 (Anlage).
20. The division cavalry consisted of four squadrons of
the 1er Régiment de Marche des Spahis Marocains.
21. Information on this operation was slow
in reaching the War Department. On 22 September General Handy cabled SHAEF
on behalf of General Marshall expressing concern about the "deep [German]
salient" west of Chaumont. Handy to Eisenhower, W-34664, 22 Sep 44, SHAEF
Message File.
22. Ltr, Gen Haislip to Hist Div, 17 Jul 47; Ltr, Gen Wyche
to Hist Div, 2 Jan 47.
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Last updated 12 October 2004 |