Chapter XXIII
Opportunities and Intentions

Footnotes

1. PS SHAEF (44) 13 (Final), Post-NEPTUNE Plng Forecast No. 1, 27 May, and Map "MA" attached, SGS SHAEF Post-OVERLORD Plng File, 381; SHAEF/17100/35/Ops, NEPTUNE, Summary of Revised Jt Opns Plan--US Forces for Phase II of Opn OVERLORD, 20 May, EUCOM Files, Box 3.

2. See 21 AGp Ltr, M-512, Montgomery to Bradley, Dempsey, Patton, and Crerar, 21 Jul; see above, 3. 12th AGp Dir for Current Opns, 2 Aug.

4. Bradley, Soldier's Story, pp. 226, 358-59; Sylvan Diary, 30 Jul.

5. 12th AGp Ltr of Instrs 1, 29 Jul; see Msg, Eisenhower to Montgomery, FWD-12505, 31 Jul, SGS SHAEF File 381, OVERLORD, I (a).

6. FUSA FO 3, 1 Aug.

7. FUSA G-2 Est 13, 1 Aug.

8. MS # B-179 (Hausser)

9. MS # B-179 (Hausser); MS # B-725 (Gersdorff).

10. On how the movement of the 363d Division was consistently harassed by air attack, see Leigh-Mallory, "Despatch," Fourth Supplement to the London Gazette of December 31, 1946, p. 63.

11. MS # B-346 (Blauensteiner); MS # B-725 (Gersdorff); MS # B-179 (Hausser).

12. MS # B-725 (Gersdorff); MS # B-179 (Hausser); MS # B-722 (Gersdorff).

13. First U.S. Army,Report of Operations, 1 August 1944-22 February 1943, 4 Vols. (Washington, 1946), I, 3. (In footnotes throughout the remainder of the volume, all references cited as First U.S. Army, Report of Operations, are to the 1 August 1944-22 February 1945 report. See also footnote 15, Chapter I.); VII Corps Tactical Study of the Terrain, 17 Jul.

14. VII Corps FO 7, 1 Aug; see 4th Div Spec Opn Rpt, St. Pois.

15. MS # B-725 (Gersdorff); Jules et Gilles Buisson, Mortain et sa Bataille (Rennes, 1947), pp. 47ff. A representative action in this advance was one in which 2d Lt. Harold B. Selleck of the 26th Infantry, who had been reconnoitering an approach route for his battalion, encountered a hostile tank-infantry force, which opened fire. Selleck deployed his few troops, engaged the enemy, and captured more than a hundred prisoners, a Mark IV tank, and considerable amounts of equipment and supplies. He was awarded the DSC.

16. 1st Div AAR, Aug.

17. VII Corps Opns Memo 57, 4 Aug.

18. 4th Div Spec Opn Rpt, St. Pois.

19. VII Corps FO 7, 1 Aug.

20. VII Corps Opns Memo 55, 3 Aug (confirming oral orders, 2 Aug).

21. MS # B-725 (Gersdorff); Hosp Intervs, GL-93 (316), IV.

22. 4th Div Spec Opn Rpt, St. Pois; 4th Div G-3 Jnl, 4-5 Aug. Pvt. Joseph J. Giordano of the 8th Infantry was awarded the DSC for heroic action on 5 August.

23. VII Corps Notes for CofS, 4 Aug, VII Corps G-3 Jnl and File; Col. Gerden F. Johnson, History of the Twelfth Infantry Regiment in World War II (Boston, 1947), p. 168.

24. VII Corps FO 7, 1 Aug; 9th Div FO 15, 2 Aug, and AAR, Aug.

25. MS # B-725 (Gersdorff); FUSA G-2 Per Rpt 49- 29 Jul.

26. VII Corps Opns Memo 57, 4 Aug, and Notes for CofS, 4 Aug.

27. 9th Div and 39th Inf AAR's, Aug; MS # B-725 (Gersdorff).

28. VII Corps Opns Memo 59, 7 Aug (confirming oral orders 6 Aug).

29. FUSA Daily G-1 Rpts, Aug.

30. FUSA FO 2, 28 Jul.

31. Sgt. Harold B. Cordes of the 22d Infantry, which was still attached to the 2d Armored Division, was awarded the DSC for heroic action on 2 August.

32. 28th and 29th Div AAR's Aug; [Ferriss], Notes.

33. FUSA FO 3, 1 Aug; V Corps FO 17, 1 Aug. Capt. William C. Miller of the 35th Division was awarded the DSC for heroic action on 2 August.

34. V Corps Operations in the ETO, p. 158; Conf Notes, Gerow and Irwin, 31 Jul, 5th Div G-3 Jnl and File.

35. FUSA Daily G-1 Rpts, Aug. Pfc. Joseph A. Elwell of the 2d Engineer Combat Battalion, who volunteered to remove mines blocking the advance, and Pfc. Lawrence Georgeatos of the 38th Infantry posthumously received the DSC.

36. FUSA FO's 4 and 5, 4 and 5 Aug; V Corps Operations in the ETO, map on p. 162.

37. Andre Letondot, "La Double Agonie de Vire," in Herval, Bataille de Normandie, I, 288.

38. MS # B-725 (Gersdorff); MS # B-346 (Blauensteiner).

39. FUSA Daily G-1 Rpts, Aug.

40. FUSA Daily G-1 Rpts, Aug.

41. See V Corps G-2 Tactical Study of the Terrain, 30 Jul, V Corps G-3 Jnl and File.

42. FUSA Rpt of Opns, p. 4; Sylvan Diary, 4 Aug.

43. MS # B-346 (Blauensteiner); MS # B-840 (Eberbach); Answers by the CG, 11th Armd Div, to Questions by Hist Sec USFET, 6 Nov 45, ML-2251.

44. Montgomery, Normandy to the Baltic, pp. 140-50; Stacey, Canadian Army, p. 195.

45. Ltr, Eisenhower to Montgomery, FWD-12505, 31 Jul, SGS SHAEF File 381, OVERLORD, I (a).

46. 21 AGp Gen Operational Situation and Dir, M-516, 4 Aug; Montgomery, Normandy to the Baltic, pp. 150-51.

47. 21 AGp Gen Operational Situation and Dir, M-517, 6 Aug.

48. See Eisenhower to Marshall, FWD-12674, 7 Aug, Pogue Files.

49. 12th AGp Ltr of Instrs 3, 6 Aug. Bradley later made no claim to anticipating a German counterattack. Bradley, Soldier's Story, p. 371.

50. FUSA FO 4, 4 Aug.

51. XV Corps Plan for XV Corps Defense Between Fougères and La Sée River, 4 Aug, XV Corps G-3 Jnl and File.



Transcribed and formatted for HTML by Larry Jewell & Patrick Clancey, HyperWar Foundation