Cover:  The Ardennes:  Battle of the Bulge by Hugh M. Cole


UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II

 

The European Theater of Operations

THE ARDENNES:
BATTLE OF THE BULGE

by
Hugh M. Cole

 

 

CMH Logo

 

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
WASHINGTON, D.C., 1965


This volume, one of the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, is the eighth to be published in the subseries, THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS. The volumes in the overall series will be closely related and will present a comprehensive account of the activities of the Military Establishment during World War II.

 

 

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 65-60001

(For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC, 20402)


UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II

Stetson Conn, General Editor

Advisory Committee
(As of 1 July 1964)

 

Fred C. Cole
 Washington and Lee University

 

 

Lt. Gen. August Schomburg
Industrial College of the Armed Forces

 

James A. Field, Jr.
Swarthmore College

 

Maj. Gen. Hugh M. Exton
US Continental Army Command

 

Earl Pomeroy
University of Oregon

 

Brig. Gen. Ward S. Ryan
US Army War College

 

Theodore Ropp
Duke University

 

Brig. Gen. Elias C. Townsend
US Army Command and General Staff College

 

Lt. Col. Thomas E. Griess
United States Military Academy

 

Office of the Chief of Military History
Brig. Gen. Hal. C. Pattison, Chief of Military History

Chief Historian Stetson Conn
Chief, Histories Division Col. Albert W. Jones
Chief, Editorial and Graphics Division Col. Walter B. McKenzie
Editor in Chief Joseph R. Friedman

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...to Those Who Served

 

 

 


Table of Contents

vii
THE AUTHOR
ix
PREFACE
xi

Chapter
Page
I. THE ORIGINS
1
.......Hitler's Perspective, September 1944
3
.......How the Plan Was Born
9
 
II. PLANNING THE COUNTEROFFENSIVE
19
.......Details of the Plan
19
.......The Big Solution
27
.......A Double Envelopment?
29
 
III. TROOPS AND TERRAIN
33
.......The Order of Battle
33
.......The Allies Return to the Attack
36
.......The Terrain
39
 
IV. PREPARATIONS
48
.......Deception and Camouflage
48
.......The Western Front in Early December
51
.......The Intelligence Failure
56
.......The German Concentration
63
 
V. THE SIXTH PANZER ARMY ATTACK
75
.......The 99th Division Sector
77
.......The Initial Attack, 16 December
80
.......The First Attacks in the Monschau-Höfen Sector Are Repulsed, 16 December
86
.......The German Effort Continues, 17-18 December
90
.......Losheimergraben Is Lost
92
.......The German Attack Toward Rocherath and Krinkelt, 16-17 December
95
.......The 395th Infantry Conforms to the Withdrawal
101
.......The 2d Division Gives Up the Wahlerscheid Attack
103
.......The 394th Infantry Abandons the Mürringen Position
105
 
VI. THE GERMAN NORTHERN SHOULDER IS JAMMED
107
.......The 2d Division Withdraws
107
.......The 1st Infantry Division Sends Reinforcements to Butgenbach
112
.......The Defense of the Twin Villages, 18 December
113
.......The Last Attack at Höfen Fails, 18 December
119
.......The 2d Division Withdraws to the Elsenborn Line, 19 December
120
.......The Enemy Tries the Western Flank, 19-23 December
128
 
VII. BREAKTHROUGH AT THE SCHNEE EIFEL
136
.......Introductory Note
136
.......Dispositions of the 106th Infantry Division
137
.......Enemy Preparations for Another Cannae
142
.......The Attack in the Losheim Gap
145
.......The Attack Hits the 106th Division
151
.......The 424th Infantry and CCB, 9th Armored
158
.......Cannae in the Schnee Eifel
161
.......The Question of Air Resupply
171
 
VIII. THE FIFTH PANZER ARMY ATTACKS THE 28TH INFANTRY DIVISION
173
.......The 110th Infantry Sector, 16-18 December
176
.......The 112th Infantry Sector, 16-20 December
193
.......The Fall of Wiltz
205
 
IX. THE ATTACK BY THE GERMAN LEFT WING: 16-20 DECEMBER
212
.......The 109th Infantry Defense on the Sauer and Our Rivers, 16-20 December
214
.......Elements of the 9th Armored Division Battle at the Sauer, 16-20 December
227
   
X. THE GERMAN SOUTHERN SHOULDER IS JAMMED
238
.......The German Thrust Begins
240
.......Southern Flank-A Summing Up
258
 
XI. THE 1ST SS PANZER DIVISION'S DASH WESTWARD, AND OPERATION GREIF
259
.......Kampfgruppe Peiper on the Move
260
.......Operation Greif
269
 
XII. THE FIRST ATTACKS AT ST. VITH
272
.......The 7th Armored Division Move to St. Vith
273
.......The Enemy Strikes at the St. Vith Perimeter
280
 
XIII. VIII CORPS ATTEMPTS TO DELAY THE ENEMY
294
.......CCR, 9th Armored Division, and the Road to Bastogne
294
.......The Advance of the XLVII Panzer Corps
298
.......Team Cherry on the Longvilly Road
300
.......The 101st Airborne Division Moves Into Bastogne
305
 
XIV. THE VII CORPS BARRIER LINES
310
.......Middleton's First Moves
311
.......The Gap North of Bastogne
316
.......Defense Southwest of Bastogne
322
.......Renewed Drive Around Bastogne
323
 
XV. THE GERMAN SALIENT EXPANDS TO THE WEST
330
.......The 30th Division Meets Peiper
334
.......The West Flank of the XVIII Airborne Corps, 20 December
352
.......Action in Front of the XVIII Airborne Corps Right Wing, 20 December
354
.......The Net Closes on Peiper
359
 
XVI. ONE THREAT SUBSIDES; ANOTHER EMERGES
368
.......The Attempt To Relieve Peiper's Kampfgruppe
368
.......The 3d Armored Division Is Checked, 21-23 December
377
.......The Fight at the Baraque de Fraiture Crossroads, 23 December
388
 
XVII. ST. VITH IS LOST
393
.......The Defenders of St. Vith Pass to the XVIII Airborne Corps
393
.......The Enemy Closes on the St. Vith Salient
401
.......The Final Withdrawal From the St. Vith Sector
407
 
XVIII. THE VII CORPS MOVES TO BLUNT THE SALIENT
423
.......Division of the Battlefield
423
.......The VII Corps Assembles
427
.......German Armor Advances on the VII Corps
435
.......The Main Battle is Joined, 24 and 25 December
438
 
XIX. THE BATTLE OF BASTOGNE
445
.......The Initial Deployment East of Bastogne
445
.......Bastogne is Encircled
459
.......The Enemy Begins a Concentric Attack
464
.......The Battle on Christmas Day
478
 
XX. THE XII CORPS ATTACKS THE SOUTHERN SHOULDER
482
.......The End of the Defensive Battle, 22 December
482
.......The XII Corps Moves to Luxembourg
485
.......The XII Corps' Counterattack
489
 
XXI. THE III CORPS' COUNTERATTACK TOWARD BASTOGNE
509
.......Preparations for the Attack
509
.......The Ezell Task Force
513
......."Drive Like Hell"
515
.......The 80th Division Advance
515
.......The 26th Infantry Division Attack
520
.......The 4th Armored Division Attack
523
.......The 80th Division Battle in the Woods, 25-26 December
532
.......The 26th Division Fight for a Bridgehead on the Sure, 24-27 December
540
.......The 4th Armored Division Reaches Bastogne
547
 
XXII. THE BATTLE BEFORE THE MEUSE
556
.......The Meuse River Line
556
.......The Meuse Seems Within Reach
562
.......The Celles Pocket
565
.......The Fight at Humain
570
.......The Fight at Verdenne
574
 
XXIII. THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE SALM AND THE OURTHE: 24 DECEMBER-2 JANUARY
578
.......The Battle at the Manhay Crossroads
583
.......The Fight in the Aisne Valley
593
.......The 2d SS Panzer is Halted
595
.......The 82d Airborne Withdraws From the Salm River Line
598
......."The Sad Sack Affair"
601
.......The Elsenborn Shoulder
603
 
XXIV. THE THIRD ARMY OFFENSIVE
606
.......Widening the Bastogne Corridor
606
.......The Opposing Grand Tactics
610
.......The Sibret-Villeroux Actions
615
.......The Two Attacks Collide
617
.......The Forces and the Plans
617
.......The Contact
619
.......The III Corps Joins the Attack
627
.......The Lone Battle of the 26th Division
637
.......The VIII Corps' Attack Continues
643
 
XXV. EPILOGUE
649
.......The Weather
649
.......The Opposing Troops Strengths
650
.......The Opposing Weapons
651
.......The Artillery Arm in the Ardennes
656
.......The Air Weapon
660
.......Logistics
663
.......The Turning Point in the Ardennes
668
.......The Place of the Ardennes Offensive in World War II
673

 
Appendix
Page
A. TABLE OF EQUIVALENT RANKS
677
B. RECIPIENTS OF THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS
678

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
680
GLOSSARY
682
BASIC MILITARY MAP SYMBOLS
685

Maps

1. The Western Front, 15 December 1944
52
2. The XVII Airborne Corps Meets Kampfgruppe Peiper, 20-25 December 1944
347
3. The XVIII Airborne Corps West Flank, 20 December 1944
355
4. Bastogne, 25-26 December 1944
473
I. The Ardennes Counteroffensive: The German Plan, December 1944
II. The Sixth Panzer Army Attack, 16-19 December 1944
III. The LXVI Corps Attacks the 106th Infantry Division, 16-19 December 1944
IV. The Fifth Panzer Army Attacks the 28th Infantry Division, 16-19 December 1944
V. The Seventh Army Attack, 16-19 December 1944
VI. Bastogne, 19-23 December 1944
VII. The XVIII Airborne Corps Sector, 21-23 December 1944
VIII. Between the Salm and the Meuse, 24-27 December 1944
IX. The Southern Shoulder, 22-26 December 1944
X. Widening the Bastogne Corridor, 24 December 1944-2 January 1945

Illustrations

Adolf Hitler
2
Generaloberst Alfred Jodl
16
Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt
23
Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model
24
Noville and Stolzemberg
41
Lt. Gen. Bradley, Air Chief Marshall Tedder, General Eisenhower, and Field Marshal Montgomery
54
Maj. Gen. Troy H. Middleton
55
Panther Tanks on the Way to the Front
60
Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Joseph Dietrich
76
Snow Scene Near Krinkelt
79
Losheimergraben
84
Constructing a Winterized Squad Hut
88
Camouflaged Pillbox Serving as Command Post
100
Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow
103
2d Division Infantrymen on the March
108
26th Infantry Area Near Butgenbach
114
Captured German Tank Crewman
118
99th Infantry Division Vehicles Moving Through Wirtzfeld
121
Gun Positions on Elsenborn Ridge
124
Wrecked German Tank Showing "Bazooka Pants"
127
American Prisoners
169
General der Panzertruppen Hasso von Manteuffel
174
General der Panzertruppen Heinrich F. Leuttwitz
174
German Troops Passing Abandoned American Equipment
183
Clerf
189
Ouren, Showing Bridges
200
Wiltz
210
Ettelbruck
224
Cave Refuge for Civilians
227
Wallendorf
228
Belgian Woman Salvaging Burned Grain
233
Breitweiler
246
Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges
259
Kampfgruppe Peiper
262
Massacred American Soldiers Near Malmédy
263
Traffic Jam in St. Vith Area
276
Railroad Yards at Gouvy
287
Antitank Gunners Guarding a Crossing, Vielsalm
288
Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe
306
Paratroopers of 101st Airborne Near Bastogne
308
La Roche and the Ourthe River
314
Combat Engineer Setting a Charge
326
Amblève River Bridge at Stavelot
338
Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway and Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin
344

Troops of 325th Glider Infantry Moving Through Fog

346
Stoumont
350
Mined Bridge at Malmédy
360
German Tank Disguised as an American Tank
362
105-mm. Howitzers M7 in Action Near La Gleize
375
Baraque de Fraiture
388
St. Vith
394
Chérain
399
Tanks of the 7th Armored Division Near St. Vith
408
Car Bearing General Bradley Fords a Belgian River
425
Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Field Marshal Montgomery, and General Ridgway
426
Hotton
430
MP's Checking Vehicles Near Marche
432
Captured German 88-mm. Gun
439
Bastogne
446
Casualties in an Improvised Emergency Ward
467
Supply by Air
469
A Bastogne Street After Luftwaffe Bombardment
476
Maj. Gen. Manton S. Eddy
485
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
487
5th Infantry Division Troops Moving Toward the Front
491
A White Phosphorus Burst
496
Scheidgen
498
White-Clad 11th Infantry Troops Attack Toward Haller
500
Müllerthal
502
Berdorf
505
Maj. Gen. John Millikin
510
Heiderscheidergrund Bridge
519
Watching a Dogfight Between American and Luftwaffe Planes
527
4th Armored Division Rolling Toward Chaumont
528
Esch-sur-Sure
547
American Troops in Tintange
549
German Prisoners Carrying Wounded
550
British Tank Patrolling the Meuse at Namur
558
Civilian Refugees at Dinant Bridge
562
Marche
563
2d Armored Division Infantrymen Moving to New Positions
573
Prime Mover Towing 8-Inch Howitzer
582
Manhay Crossroads
584
Elements of 3d Armored Division Advancing Near Manhay
586
Troops of the 84th Infantry Division Digging In
588
Destruction of Grandménil
597
Supplies Moving Through Bastogne
608
Massed Half-Tracks
618
35th Infantry Division Machine Gunners
624
Bed Sheets Used as Camouflage
631
6th Armored Division Tanks in Snowstorm
634
Medics Removing Casualties, Lutrebois
636
A Town En Route to Kaundorf
639

All illustrations are from Department of Defense files, with the exception of the photograph on page 76 (General Dietrich) reproduced through the courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency, and the one on page 174 (General von Luettwitz), taken from captured German records in the National Archives.


Foreword

During most of the eleven months between D-day and V-E day in Europe, the U S Army was carrying on highly successful offensive operations As a consequence, the American soldier was buoyed with success, imbued with the idea that his enemy could not strike him a really heavy counterblow, and sustained by the conviction that the war was nearly won. Then, unbelievably, and under the goad of Hitler's fanaticism, the German Army launched its powerful counteroffensive in the Ardennes in December 1944 with the design of knifing through the Allied armies and forcing a negotiated peace The mettle of the American soldier was tested in the fires of adversity and the quality of his response earned for him the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with his forebears of Valley Forge, Fredericksburg, and the Marne.

This is the story of how the Germans planned and executed their offensive. It is the story of how the high command, American and British, reacted to defeat the German plan once the reality of a German offensive was accepted. But most of all it is the story of the American fighting man and the manner in which he fought a myriad of small defensive battles until the torrent of the German attack was slowed and diverted, its force dissipated and finally spent. It is the story of squads, platoons, companies, and even conglomerate scratch groups that fought with courage, with fortitude, with sheer obstinacy, often without information or communications or the knowledge of the whereabouts of friends. In less than a fortnight the enemy was stopped and the Americans were preparing to resume the offensive. While Bastogne has become the symbol of this obstinate, gallant, and successful defense, this work appropriately emphasizes the crucial significance of early American success in containing the attack by holding firmly on its northern and southern shoulders and by upsetting the enemy timetable at St. Vith and a dozen lesser known but important and decisive battlefields

The hard fighting that preceded the Battle of the Bulge has been recounted in two volumes, The Siegfried Line Campaign, and Dr. Cole's own earlier work, The Lorraine Campaign. Events after it will be related in The Last Offensive, now in preparation. Two other volumes in this subseries, The Supreme Command and Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II, are useful supplements to the Ardennes volume.

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In re-creating the Ardennes battle, the author has penetrated "the fog of war" as well as any historian can hope to do. No other volume of this series treats as thoroughly or as well the teamwork of the combined arms-infantry and armor, artillery and air, combat engineer and tank destroyer-or portrays as vividly the starkness of small unit combat. Every thoughtful student of military history, but most especially the student of small unit tactics, should find the reading of Dr. Cole's work a rewarding experience.

Washington, DC
15 June 1964
HAL C. PATTISON
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

viii


The Author

Hugh M. Cole received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1937 in the field of European military history. He taught military history at the University of Chicago until 1942, when he joined the Army as an intelligence officer. After graduating from the Command and General Staff School he was assigned to the staff of the Third Army during its operations in Europe. At the close of hostilities he became Deputy Theater Historian, European Theater of Operations. From 1946 to 1952 Dr. Cole directed the work of the European Theater Section, Office of the Chief of Military History, wrote The Lorraine Campaign, a volume that appeared in this series in 1950, and undertook much of the work that has culminated in this volume on the Ardennes Campaign. He joined the Operations Research Office of The Johns Hopkins University in 1952 and has continued his active interest in military history and his service to the Army both as a scholar and as colonel in the US Army Reserve.

 

 

 

Table of Contents

ix


Preface

This volume deals with the crucial period of the campaign conducted in the Belgian Ardennes and Luxembourg, generally known as the Battle of the Bulge. Although the German planning described herein antedates the opening gun by several weeks, the story of the combat operations begins on 16 December 1944. By 3 January 1945 the German counteroffensive was at an end, and on that date the Allies commenced an attack that would take them across the Rhine and into Germany. The last phase of operations in the Ardennes, therefore, is properly part and parcel of the final Allied offensive in Europe, and so the course of battle beginning on 3 January 1945 is described in another and final volume of this subseries.

The problem of the level of treatment is always difficult in the organization and writing of the general staff type of history, which is the design of this volume. In describing a war of movement, the solution usually has been to concentrate on tactical units smaller than those normally treated when the war of position obtains. Thus the French General Staff history of the summer offensive in 1918 abruptly descends from the army corps to the regiment as the appropriate tactical unit to be traced through this period of mobile operations. The story of the Ardennes Campaign is even more difficult to organize because of the disappearance, in the first hours, of a homogeneous front. Churchill's dictum that the historian's task is "to allot proportion to human events" applies in this instance, although there are limits to the amount of expansion or contraction permissible. Thus the reader is introduced on 16 December 1944 to battles fought by companies and platoons because they are meaningful and because the relative importance of these actions is as great as operations conducted by regiments or even divisions later in the story. As the American front congeals and a larger measure of tactical control is regained, the narrative follows battalions, then regiments, and then divisions. The building blocks, however, are the battalion and the regiment. In US Army practice during the war in western Europe, the battalion was in organization and doctrine the basic unit, with both tactical and administrative functions. The regiment, in turn when organized as a regimental combat team was the basic maneuver element combining the arms and having staying power. Also, the regiment was the lowest infantry unit to have a name and a history with which the soldier could, and did, identify himself.

xi


The Ardennes battle normally was "fought," in the sense of exercising decisive command and directing operations, by the corps commander. The span of tactical control in these widely dispersed actions simply was beyond the physical grasp of higher commanders. These higher commanders could "influence" the battle only by outlining (in very general terms) the scheme of maneuver, allocating reserves, and exercising whatever moral suasion they personally could bring to bear. In other words, "tactics came before strategy," as Ludendorff wrote of the March offensive in 1918.

For the early days of the Ardennes Campaign the narrative opens each successive stage of the account by a look at the enemy side of the hill. This, in fact, is mandatory if the story is to have cohesion and meaning because the Germans possessed the initiative and because the American forces were simply reacting to the enemy maneuvers. The account in later chapters shifts to the American camp in accordance with the measure to which the American forces had regained operational freedom.

This volume represents the most exhaustive collection of personal memoirs by leading participants ever attempted for a general staff history of a major campaign. The memoirs take two forms: interviews with American participants shortly after the action described, and written accounts prepared immediately after the end of World War II by the German officers who took part in the Ardennes Campaign. The use of the combat interview in the European Theater of Operations was organized by Col. William A. Ganoe, theater historian, but the specific initiation of an intensive effort to cover the Ardennes story while the battle itself was in progress must be credited to Col. S. L. A. Marshall. The enlistment of the German participants in the Ardennes, first as involuntary then as voluntary historians, was begun by Colonel Marshall and Capt. Kenneth Hechler, then developed into a fully organized research program by Col. Harold Potter, who was assisted by a very able group of young officers, notably Captains Howard Hudson, Frank Mahin, and James Scoggins.

The story of the logistics involved in the American operations is treated at length and in perceptive fashion by Roland G. Ruppenthal, Logistical Support of the Armies, in two volumes of this subseries. In the main, therefore, the present volume confines itself to the logistical problems of the German armies. Readers interested in following the course of Allied relationships at high levels of command, and particularly the operations of Allied intelligence on the eve of the German offensive, are referred to Forrest C. Pogue's The Supreme Command, another volume in this series. Unfortunately the interest of the United States Air Forces in tactical support of ground operations was on the wane in the period after World War II and, as a result, a detailed air force history of air-ground cooperation during the battle of the Ardennes remains to be written. To introduce in full the effects of the tactical role played by Allied air power during the ground operations here described would require a volume twice the size of this

xii


one. I have tried, however, to keep the role of the air constantly before the reader, even though the specific actor often is anonymous.

As in my previous volume in the European subseries an attempt is made to include all awards of the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross. The reader will recognize that deeds of valor do not necessarily coincide with the focal point of a particular action, as this is selectively seen and described by the historian; so it has been necessary to relegate to the footnotes and cover in very cursory fashion many of these individual acts of gallantry.

The reader will find no reference to "lessons learned." This is not because the history of the Ardennes Campaign is so antique as to lack a useful application to modern military thought or planning for the future. On the contrary, the operations in the Ardennes show in real life tactical forms and formations which (in such things as dispersal, gaps between units, counterattack doctrine, widths of front, and fluidity of movement) are comparable to those taught by current Army doctrine and envisaged for the future. Nonetheless, the most valuable lessons which might be derived from the study of this campaign would lead inevitably to a consideration of special weapons effects and their impact on military operations, which in turn would result in a restrictive security classification for the volume. I hope, however that the Army service schools will find it fruitful to make the extrapolation that cannot be made here.

The maps consulted by the author were those in use at the end of 1944 They include the US Army reproductions of the maps prepared by the British Geographical Section, General Staff, in the 1: 25,000 series (G.S., G.S. 4041), the 1:50,000 series (G.S., G.S. 4040), and the 1:100,000 series (G.S., G.S. 4336 and 4416). The most useful German map proved to be the 1:200,000 Strassenkarte von Belgien, a copy of the French Michelin road map, issued to German troops as early as 1940 and, in an English version, used by American armored units. Some of the terrain in question is familiar to me, but this personal knowledge has been augmented by an extensive use of photographs. Shortly after World War II pilots of the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, USAF, under the supervision of Maj. John C. Hatlem, flew photographic missions designated by the author, over terrain in Luxembourg and Belgium. In addition some special ground photographs were made. The total collection numbers two hundred and sixteen photographs and has proved invaluable in writing this story.

References to clock time are on the twenty-four hour system. Fortunately for the reader (and the writer), the Allies converted to British summer time on 17 September 1944 and the Germans vent back to middle European time on 2 October 1944; as a result both forces used the same clock; time in the Ardennes. Sunrise on 16 December 1944 came at 0829 and sunset occurred at 1635 (using Bastogne, Belgium, as a reference point). The brevity of daylight is an important tactical feature of this

xiii


history, and the reader should note that dawn and dusk (morning and evening twilight) each added only thirty-eight minutes to the hours of light.

A host of participants in the Ardennes battle have answered questions posed by the author, provided personal papers, and read a part or the whole of the draft manuscript. Their assistance has been invaluable.

Although this volume took an unconscionably long while to write, my task was made much easier by the initial efforts of Captains Blair Clark, Howard Hudson, Robert Merriam, and George Tuttle, who spent several months at the close of the war in gathering the sources and preparing first drafts for a history of the Ardennes Campaign. In the Office of the Chief of Military History, Mrs. Magna Bauer, Charles V. P. von Luttichau, and Royce L. Thompson worked over a period of years in gathering data and writing research papers for use in the volume. The reader of the footnotes will obtain some slight measure of my obligation to these three.

In preparation for publication, Mr. Joseph R. Friedman, Editor in Chief, OCMH, has given this volume devoted attention, and Mrs. Loretto C. Stevens of the Editorial Branch has shepherded it through the final steps of editing. Mr. Billy C. Mossman prepared the maps, Miss Ruth A. Phillips selected the photographs, and Miss Margaret L. Emerson compiled the index.

Finally, I am indebted to my secretary, Mrs. Muriel Southwick, without whose exhortations and reminders this book might never have been completed.

For any errors of fact or flaws of interpretation that may occur in this work, the author alone is responsible.

Washington, DC
15 June 1964

HUGH M. COLE

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