The Greatest War: Americans in Combat 1941-1945

1055 Pages·1999·6.43 MB·English

by  Gerald Astor

The Greatest War
THE GREATEST WAR

Americans in Combat
1941–1945

Gerald Astor

PRESIDIO
For the late Donald I. Fine

Copyright © 1999 by Gerald Astor

Published by Presidio Press Inc.
505 B San Marin Drive, Suite 300
Novato, CA 94945-1340

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
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copying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems,
without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquiries should be
addressed to Presidio Press Inc., 505 B San Marin Drive, Suite 300,
Novato, CA 94945-1340.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Astor, Gerald, 1926-
The greatest war : Americans in combat, 1941-1945 / Gerald Astor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89141-695-1
1. World War, 1939-1945—United States. 2. World War,
1939-1945—Personal narratives, American. 3. United States—Armed
Forces Biography. I. Title.
D769.A85 1999
940.54'1273—dc21 99-43632
CIP

Printed in the United States of America
Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
1. "This Is Not a Drill" 1
2. Preattack Maneuvers 18
3. The Philippine Defenses 27
4. Still Asleep 45
5. Early Engagements 64
6. Retreat 78
7. The East Indies 97
8. The Fall of Bataan 118
9. The Death March and Morale Missions 142

10. Final Defeat in the Philippines 164
11. At Sea and In the Air 176
12. American Airpower Concepts 199
13. Opening Offensives 210
14. Paratroopers, Raiders, Rangers, Marauders, Alamo Scouts 230
15. Torch 244
16. Grim Glimmers 264
17. Defeat 281
18. Tunisia 304
19. Husky 318
20. Island Ventures 338
21. Point Blank, Blitz Week, and Ploesti 353
22. Avalanche, Shingle, and Defeats 379
23. Solomon Finales, Galvanic, and Flintlock 401
24. Burmese Days and Skip Bombing 415
25. Big Week, Batterings and Assaults in Italy 429
26. Galahad's Joust, New Ventures, Minor Gains, and Overlord 450
27. Overlord Overtures 466
28. Daylight at Omaha Beach 494
29. Getting Off Omaha 518
30. Utah Beach 534
31. Hanging On 551
32. The Normandy Campaign Begins 569
33. Superforts and the Marianas 593
34. Breakout 612
35. Dragoon 633
36. Silent Service, Peleliu, Mars 650
37. Paris, Brest, Market Garden 668
38. Winter Comes to Europe 690
39. "I Have Returned." 707
40. The Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Kamikazes 724
41. The Ardennes 748
42. Chaos 767
43. End of Siege 789
44. Casualties and POWs 803
45. The Battle for Manila 819
46. Firestorms 835
47. Over the Rhine 849
48. Operation Iceberg 866
49. Tennozan 879
50. Ie Shima and Beyond 894
51. Liberations and Victory 907
52. Penultimate Actions 923
53. Endgame in the Philippines 943
54. The Bomb and the End 956
55. After-Action Reports 972
Roll Call 991
Bibliography 1007
Index 1015
Preface

When I told Gen. George Ruhlen that I intended to write a book covering
the battles fought by Americans during World War II, he wrote to me, "How
many pages are you projecting, 5,000 or squeeze it into 3,000?" His comment
was well taken, for an encyclopedic account of what happened to Americans
in World War II would require many volumes and in fact the historian
Samuel Eliot Morison produced something on the nature of twenty books
covering just the engagements of the Navy and the Marines.
However, my intention was not to cover the war from objective to objec-
tive nor was it to describe the details of strategy and tactics. I freely confess
that, even in an oversize manuscript, I have omitted many hard-fought bat-
tles, units, and individuals who underwent the same hardships, terror, and
sorrow, and who, in spite of their ordeals, overcame. Instead I hope to pre-
sent a sense of what the American fighting man (women in World War II
were restricted to clerical and service positions although as the book indi-
cates, some nurses underwent much of what the men did) experienced in
terms of what he thought, felt, saw, heard, and tried to do. Words on a page
cannot match those moments under fire but by their own voices the soldiers,
sailors, and airmen reveal the nature of that war well beyond anything shown
in films or TV, except perhaps for Saving Private Ryan. (Even here one might
quibble about the premise upon which the story unfolds.)
Having written six books on World War II, I am well aware that eye-wit-
ness accounts or oral histories have their weaknesses due to faulty memo-
ries, skewed perspectives, and the common human resort to self service. On
the other hand, these same deficiencies also afflict official reports. In his
letter to me, George Ruhlen remarked that a friend of his named Brewster
commanded a task force whose mission was to regain possession of a cross-
roads during the Battle of the Bulge. "Some 20 accounts were written by
'historians' who were never there, most inaccurate, but only one writer ever
contacted Colonel Brewster for his recollection of that action."
I expect there will be some who will dispute an individual's version of
some events in this book, but I believe that by relying on as many sources
and veterans as I have the essential truth of the experiences is correct. Al-
though many of the sensations and the reactions of those on the scenes
seem similar—the most replicated comment was "Suddenly, all hell broke
loose—" there were significant differences from year to year, from cam-
paign to campaign from area to area.
It was the biggest of all wars and those who fought the battles deserve to
be heard.
Acknowledgments

So many people have shared their memories and experiences with me that
I cannot cite them individually. Their words are credited to them in the text
and to some extent through Roll Call.
I received special help from Paul Stillwell of the United States Naval In-
stitute in Annapolis; Joseph Caver of the United States Air Force Historical
Research Center at Maxwell Field, Alabama; Dr. David Keough at the United
States Army History Library at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; the United
States Naval Historical Center; Debbie Pogue at the United States Military
Academy Library; Jim Altieri; William Cain; Tracy Derks; Len Lomell; Ben-
jamin Mabry; Jason Poston.
Small portions of this book appeared in some of my previous writings on
World War II.