Atkinson’s, The Guns at Last Light....
With Skorzney and his cutthroats presumed to be still at large, Eisenhower reluctantly agreed to move from the St.-Germain villa to smaller quarters near his office. Each day his black limousine continued to follow the same route to and from SHAEF headquarters, but with the rear seat occupied by a lieutenant colonel named Baldwin B. Smith, whose broad shoulders, prominent pate, and impatient mien made him a perfect body double for the supreme commander.
The real Eisenhower, traveling with Tedder in a bulletproof Cadillac first used in Africa, arrived in Verdun for a war council on Tuesday morning, December 19. At an ancient French Army barracks within a muddy quadrangle, he was joined by Bradley, Jack Devers, and Patton, who drove up smoking a cigar in a jeep with plexiglass doors and a .30-caliber machine gun mounted on a swivel. At 11:30 a.m. they climbed upstairs to a dank stone squad room with a single potbellied stove, a large table, and a map unfurled across a wall. Bradley, already in a testy mood, pointed to a red arrow labeled “20 German tanks” approaching Namur on the Meuse, farther west than previously reported. “What the hell is this?” he demanded. An intelligence officer hurried to the map, snatched off the errant marker, and appoligized for the error.
“The present situation is to be regarded as one of opportunity for us and not of disaster,” Eisenhower said, setting into his chair. From the other end, Patton chimed in, “Let’s have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to Paris. Then we’ll cut ‘em off and chew ‘em up.”
Two staff officers reviewed the battlefront in detail. At least seventeen German divisions had joined the attack already; the identities of most were known. The heaviest pressure could be felt at St.-Vith and Bastogne, two vital road centers. Atrocities had been documented. Daily Luftwaffe sorties over St.-Vith had declined sharply from six hundred on Sunday, although a persistent overcast also had grounded Allied planes. Seven French infantry battalions would help defend the Meuse, along with half a dozen COMZ engineer regiments. American strength had doubled since Saturday, to about 180,000 troops in ten infantry and three armored divisions. More would soon follow.
Eisenhower then spoke. “Devers 6th Army group would assume the defensive in Alsace,” he said, “and contribute reserves for the Ardennes.” Scattered forces must be pulled together for a ‘positive concerted action.” Holding the high ground south of Liege would keep supply depots outside enemy artillery range. By squeezing the shoulders of the German salient, shoring up the Meuse, blunting the enemy advance, and creating “a supply desert,” they could smash Rundstedt’s bulge - as it was now called - with an American counterblow again aimed at the Rhine. Third Army, which currently held an eighty-mile front with three corps facing the Saar, would pivot north to knife into the exposed German left flank.
Peering down the long table at Patton, Eisenhower asked in his booming voice, “George, how soon can you get an attack off?”
“On December 22,” Patton replied, “with three divisons - the 4th Armored, the 26th, and the 80th.”
Leaning forward, Eisenhower quickly calculated space, time, and divisions on his fingers. The maneuver required making a sharp left turn with a full corp, then moving nearly a hundred miles over winter roads. “Don’t be fatuous George. If you try to go that early, you won’t have all three divisions ready and you’ll go piecemeal,” he said. “I’d even settle for the 23rd if it takes that long to get three full divisions.”
“I’ll make a meeting engagement in three days,” Patton said, “and I’ll give you a six-division coordinated attack in six days.” Someone chuckled. The uneasy shuffle of boots could be heard on the bare floor. Glancing at a staff officer for confirmation, Patton added, “We can do that.”
Before leaving the barracks, Patton phoned his headquarters to issue various movement orders: XII Corps was to wheel toward Luxembourg in tandem with III Corps drive to Belgium. “Everyone is a son-of-a-bitch to someone,” he told his staff by was of encouragement. “Be better sons-of-bitches than they are.”
Eisenhower declined Bradley’s invitation to stay for lunch; he would eat a sandwich in the Cadillac on the way back to Versailles. Turning to Patton before getting into the car, Eisenhower said, “George, every time I get promoted, I get attacked.”
Patton chuckled, “Yes, and every time you get attacked, I bail you out.”
Great post.
reading it now ... an EXCELLENT account of the Bulge ...
I just watched the depiction of the Verdun meeting on “Patton.” For some reason Ike was not at the meeting in the movie version, though it would seem to have added dramatic weight if he had. For some reason he never appeared as a character in the film. Maybe they thought it would detract from Patton’s role.