NOTES
1 They lay beneath perfect: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter, September 1, 1989.
2 They had died near: Buechner, Sparks: The Combat Diary of a Battalion Commander (Rifle) WWII, p. 81.
3 Seventy-two thousand men: Ibid., p. 94.
4 It was hard to: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
5 Every time, they had: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
6 It was this spirit: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories from Wartime.”
7 The American soldiers under: Ibid.
8 His great grandfather had: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
9 On the German border: Ibid.
10 His men’s foxholes were: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
11 He had never gotten: Ibid.
12 Thirty platoon leaders: Karl Mann, written report on World War II provided to the author, p. 14.
13 Why hadn’t it been: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
14 Events that day: Felix Sparks, interviewed by James Strong, The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
15 The rumors festered still: David Israel, interview with author.
16 The cost had been: Buechner, Sparks, p. 94.
1 He pulled on his: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
2 But none of it: Earl Sparks, interview with author.
3 His mother was a: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
4 His passion was military: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
5 He hoped someday: Earl Sparks, interview with author.
6 The hobo warned Sparks: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
7 “If they catch you”: Ibid.
8 “Yeah, I do”: Ibid.
9 “No, I’m not kidding”: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
10 He put it all: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
11 He was going somewhere: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
12 Local bars posted: Joe Medina, interview with Nate Matlock.
13 In September 1940: Allen Beckett, interview with author.
14 On the killing fields: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
1 “Let’s get married”: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
2 Annoyed she had not: Ibid.
3 But then, in November: Mike Gonzales, A Brief History of the 45th Infantry Division in the Second World War, 45th Infantry Division Museum.
4 Sparks and his fellow: Buechner, Sparks, p. 63.
5 What would happen to: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
6 He would be back: Felix Sparks, letter to his parents, May 19, 1943. Quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
7 Some felt strangely empty: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 17.
8 “It’s ‘The Last Roundup’ ”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 65.
9 After two weeks: Felix Sparks, Shoah Foundation interview.
10 Dolphins played in the: Franklin, Medic, p. 5.
11 Sparks was among: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
12 You can stick: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 But if they didn’t: Ibid.
14 Among the fifteen hundred Apache: Paul Hollister, “Thunderbirds of E.T.O.,” in Eye-Witness World War II Battles, compiled by Major Howard Oleck, Belmont Books, New York, 1963, p. 133. “In the American southwest, the Indians had long venerated the Thunderbird. It was the mythical giver of rain to parched lands—bringer of freedom and hope to the perishing. And it brought its gifts with crashing thunder and bolts of lightning. Vast and powerful, the Thunderbird was awesome to evil men, and a potent friend to good men.”
15 But it was also: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 121.
1 Operation Husky was: Orange, Tedder, p. 225.
2 The answer is in: Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, pp. 134–35.
3 “I think I’ll signal”: Shapiro, They Left the Back Door Open, p. 118.
4 “I’m positive, sir”: Farago, Patton, Dell, New York, 1963, p. 282.
5 Aboard a blacked-out ship: Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, p. 64.
6 An inch of vomit: Buechner, Sparks, p. 65.
7 The convoy nearing Sicily: James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, p. 105.
8 “After all, the original”: Lieutenant N. L. A Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine (Ziff-Davis Publishing, London 1944), pp. 114–15.
9 “So many brave young”: Gilbert, Churchill, pp. 748–49.
10 “I’m sure,” recalled Pamela: Ibid.
11 The question that troubled: D’Este, Bitter Victory, p. 313.
12 “No matter what happens”: Whicker, Whicker’s War, p. 89.
13 According to one bystander: Farago, Patton, p. 283.
14 The commodore didn’t say: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
15 He belonged to: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
16 It made one hell: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 21.
17 Wisecarver promptly hit the: Franklin, Medic, p. 6.
18 Several were injured: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 21.
19 “Go! Good luck!”: Franklin, Medic, p. 6.
20 Although the wind: Anse Speairs, interview with author.
21 In bad weather: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 Once it had secured: Ibid.
23 the regiment’s first objective: After Action Report, National Archives.
1 Ramps dropped and the: Franklin, Medic, p. 9.
2 Twenty-seven men from: 157th Infantry Regiment, After Action Narrative Report, June–August 1943, p. 2, National Archives.
3 Cowboys in the regiment: Franklin, Medic, pp. 5–11.
4 “Hits on buildings near”: Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, p. 144.
5 Five hundred Italian soldiers: 157th Infantry Regiment, After Action Narrative Report, p. 2.
6 “Those goddamn Italians came”: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
7 He pressed on that: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 23.
8 “Now we were men”: Edward Pepper, H Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, Colorado National Guard interview. 39 By late on: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 23.
9 Men would soon call: Ibid.
10 From now on: Edward Pepper, Colorado National Guard interview.
11 “Colonel,” he told Ankcorn: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
12 “I don’t care how”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 66.
13 He gathered them together: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
14 Some had been stripped: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter, 2009.
15 He also found the: Ibid.
16 Finally, they gathered wood: Ibid.
17 Caked in a dust: Buechner, Sparks, p. 65.
18 They have been in: Felix Sparks, letter to his parents, August 4, 1943. Quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
19 Patton was being driven: Cave Brown, The Last Hero, p. 352.
20 “We’ve got a hard”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
21 Eighth Army’s General Montgomery: After Action Report, National Archives.
22 “My God,” US II Corps: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, p. 189.
23 As far as Bradley: Ibid., p. 188.
24 “Tell Montgomery to stay”: Geoffrey Keyes, diary, July 13, 1943.
25 It was a humiliating: Ed Speairs, interview with author.
26 as the Thunderbirds pulled: Graham, No Name on the Bullet, p. 38.
27 The ancient home: The World at War, Thames Television.
28 “We must take Messina”: Blumenson, Patton, p. 202.
29 Facing the 45th was: Fort Benning Report, “Infantry Combat Part Five: Sicily,” 12-30-43, p. 5.
30 So steep was the: After Action Report, National Archives.
31 A machine-gun squad: Ibid.
32 None would be alive: Bernie Kaczorowski, Colorado National Guard interview, 2007.
33 Fighting on Bloody Ridge: Oliver R. Birkner, letter to editor, 45th Division News, February 1995.
34 At the epicenter: Vinnie Stigliani, interview with author.
35 “Maybe that’s why I’m”: Bernie Kaczorowski, Colorado National Guard interview, 2007.
36 Men sat in the shade: Guy Prestia, interview with author.
37 “It’s reassuring to know”: Felix Sparks, letter to his parents, August 4, 1943. Quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
38 “It’s plenty hot over”: Ibid.
39 Two days later: After Action Report, National Archives.
40 The same officer recommended: Fort Benning Report, “Infantry Combat Part Five: Sicily,” 12-30-43, p. 10.
41 A davit failure caused: Buechner, Sparks, p. 66.
42 But these were: After Action Report, National Archives.
43 Men from Sparks’s regiment: Ibid.
44 “Hello, you bloody bastards!”: Biddle, Artist at War, p. 113.
45 Messina had endured earthquake: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, p. 345.
46 He was the American: Blumenson, Patton, p. 206.
47 The Battle for Sicily: The total regimental casualties for the 157th Infantry Regiment in the Sicilian campaign: killed in action, 58; wounded in action, 205; missing in action, 16. Source: Buechner, Sparks, p. 68.
48 Crucially, Axis forces were: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 30.
49 “It would have saved”: Anse Speairs, interview with author.
50 He’d spent the whole: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
51 “We’re going to go”: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
52 Through his “gentle persuasion”: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, June 30, 1993.
53 “I don’t think”: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
54 A reinvigorated E Company passed: Ibid.
55 Combat was what he: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
56 He loved being: Ibid.
57 With these men: Ibid.
58 “Do not go to”: Fisher, Story of the 180th, p. 55.
59 “I know,” replied: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, p. 227.
60 Patton was forced to: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, pp. 40–42.
61 A humiliated Patton sank: Brighton, Patton, Montgomery, Rommel, p. 229.
62 “I know I can”: Ibid.
63 But would he ever: D’Este, Patton, p. 536.
64 A long column of: Paul Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 55.
1 Known as Wayne: Whicker, Whicker’s War, pp. 86–87.
2 “None”: Hickey and Smith, Operation Avalanche, pp. 52–53.
3 The same could not: Ibid.
4 Montgomery also believed Clark’s: Buechner, Sparks, p. 70.
5 The news of the: Ibid., p. 71.
6 In propaganda leaflets dropped: Bishop et al., The Fighting Forty-Fifth, p. 41.
7 Men vainly tried to: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 60.
8 More than two hundred men: Bishop et al., The Fighting Forty-Fifth, p. 41.
9 The Germans were lying: Hickey and Smith, Operation Avalanche, p. 126.
10 Kesselring sent a message to: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 56.
11 In the Temple of: Hickey and Smith, Operation Avalanche, p. 34.
12 The Allies were ashore: Whicker, Whicker’s War, p. 84.
13 The Germans commanded all: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 58.
14 “The Germans actually needed”: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, p. 319.
15 What Churchill feared most: Gilbert, Churchill, A Life, p. 753.
16 It was all chillingly: Ibid.
17 “I have no reserves”: Clark, Calculated Risk, p. 165.
18 “We are going to”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 72.
19 Crucially, Allied artillery was: Allen Beckett, interview with author.
20 This “fire on time” coordination: Mike Gonzales, interview with author.
21 “We have made mistakes”: Clark, Calculated Risk, p. 171.
22 Kesselring ordered his divisions: After Action Report, National Archives.
23 “It has just begun”: Reynolds, The Curtain Rises, pp. 342–43.
24 “Just do it, get”: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 153.
25 Before them lay the: Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, p. 254.
26 Evidence of fierce and: After Action Report, National Archives.
27 “Don’t let that bother”: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
28 Early on September 24: After Action Report, National Archives.
29 At first, it was: Rex Raney, interview with author.
30 Ankcorn’s leg was so: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 42.
31 His war was over: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter.
32 Colonel John Church: Ibid.
33 On October 1, the Fifth: After Action Report, National Archives.
34 Its strongpoint was the: Clayton D. Laurie, “Rapido River Disaster,” www.military.com.
35 Dead Germans lay by: Franklin, Medic, p. 56.
36 A cold mist clung: After Action Report, National Archives.
37 “Machine gun bullets passed”: Vinnie Stigliani, interview with author.
38 He and his men: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
39 Mortarman Jack Hallowell: Ibid.
40 He knew the next: Ibid.
41 Medics were busy tending: Buechner, Sparks, p. 77.
42 “You’re going to be”: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
43 He was wearing an: Vinnie Stigliani, Colorado National Guard interview.
44 Among them was a: After Action Report, National Archives.
45 The medics had done: Buechner, Sparks, p. 77.
46 He had lost more than: After Action Report, National Archives.
47 Thankfully he had been: Buechner, Sparks, p. 77.
48 He had been able to think: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
49 But like all the: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories from Wartime.”
50 The German had wanted: Vinnie Stigliani, Colorado National Guard interview.
51 Sparks set up his: After Action Report, National Archives.
52 He had reached the: Grossman, On Killing, p. 44.
53 Enemy planes came in: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
54 So great was the: After Action Report, National Archives.
55 “It is essential for us”: Chandler, Papers of Dwight Eisenhower, vol. 3, p. 1529.
56 Tying down German forces: Gervasi, The Violent Decade, p. 518.
57 “Ford a river—and”: Whicker, Whicker’s War, p. 109.
58 The Thunderbirds succeeded in: Wallace, The Italian Campaign, p. 101.
59 “The country was shockingly”: Pyle, Brave Men, p. 68.
60 When they looked back: Franklin, Medic, p. 69.
61 It was destined to: Buechner, Sparks, p. 78.
62 The Germans had been: Ibid.
63 He had received the: Warren Wall, Colorado National Guard interview.
64 “Dry feet were something”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 49.
65 “We’ve caught the torch”: Tregaskis, Invasion Diary, p. 193.
66 Ankcorn had heard that: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
67 His mood improved further: Buechner, Sparks, p. 77.
68 One day that fall: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
69 So long as the: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
70 “You can’t go back”: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
71 “Can I get on”: Ibid.
72 “I’ve a war to”: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 158.
73 Later that morning, Sparks: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
74 To his amazement: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
75 Sparks told him to: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
76 “You’re still here!”: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
77 Every one of his: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
78 Orders had come from: After Action Report, National Archives.
79 He knew he could: Bishop et al., The Fighting Forty-Fifth, p. 67.
80 Later that morning, after: After Action Report, National Archives.
81 “I want to go”: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
82 “No, Jack, you can’t”: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
83 Under cover of darkness: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
84 They had even placed: Ibid.
85 “I’ll take care of”: Felix Sparks, Colorado Army National Guard oral history.
86 Instead of returning to: Buechner, Sparks, p. 78.
87 “That’s a habit they’ll”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 78.
88 In some areas: Lewis, Naples 44, p. 131.
1 “The problem is staying”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories of Wartime.”
1 The divisions at Anzio: Buechner, Sparks, p. 80.
2 “Either it was a”: Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, p. 336.
3 Early on January 22, 1944: Lucas also wrote in his diary before the landings: “Army has gone nuts again. The general idea seems to be that the Germans are licked and fleeing in disorder and nothing remains but the mop up. They will end up by putting me ashore with inadequate forces and get me into a serious jam. Then who will take the blame?” Source: Buechner, Sparks, p. 95.
4 By midnight, more than thirty-six: Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, p. 343.
5 “This whole affair has”: Whicker, Whicker’s War, p. 125.
6 The sun shone brightly: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 51.
7 Men scanned the shoreline: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard oral history.
8 Men had to step: Franklin, Medic, p. 83.
9 “Buck up, we got”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 51.
10 He would soon be: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter, March 31, 1989.
11 “Easy, boys, there’s danger”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 141.
12 Once a man was: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
13 Dead bodies lay strewn: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
14 Sparks began to suspect: Buechner, Sparks, p. 83.
15 Because the Allies had: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 53.
16 They soon started to: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
17 Here his regiment’s Second: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
18 The Germans were on: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
19 “The Führer expects the”: Whicker, Whickers War, p. 123.
1 All across the beachhead: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
2 The horizon filled with: Ellis, The Sharp End, pp. 70–71.
3 Sparks had already seen: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 196.
4 After an hour: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
5 “Then those are Krauts”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 186.
6 As far as the: Morris, Circles of Hell, p. 288.
7 They were confident of: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter, March 31, 1989.
8 With their machine guns blinking: Ibid.
9 Sparks called to two: Buechner, Sparks, p. 84.
10 “Get them!”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 186.
11 “Hell, no—they’re German”: Ibid.
12 “Shoot them”: Felix Sparks, interview with Chris Miskimon, March 11, 2005. Quoted courtesy of interviewer.
13 Two German tanks exploded: Buechner, Sparks, p. 84.
14 The third tank pulled: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 31, 1989.
15 An M10 moved thirty: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 186
16 Sparks saw dust fly: Ibid.
17 “Medics!” cried wounded men: Bishop et al., The Fighting Forty-Fifth, p. 74.
18 Heart rates soared and some men’s: Dave Grossman, On Killing, pp. 44–57.
19 Finally, the German tanks: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 187.
20 Sparks and his company: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 58.
21 “Would you agree to”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 85.
22 “Yes, that would be”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 196.
23 The Germans now threatened: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, February 1, 1985.
24 It would have taken: After Action Report, National Archives.
25 “You can’t do us”: Felix Sparks, interview with Chris Miskimon, quoted courtesy of interviewer.
26 He radioed his Second: After Action Report, National Archives.
27 Seven enemy divisions were: Allen, Anzio, p. 3.
28 “My name is Müller”: Ibid., p. 1.
29 “What’s your name now”: Ibid.
30 There were some five: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves”, 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 4.
31 Sparks now had just: D’Este, Fatal Decision, p. 246.
32 “To hell with takin’ ”: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 4.
33 McDermott ran off: 157th Infantry Regiment, After Action Report, February 1944, National Archives.
34 McDermott was never seen: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 66.
35 “The enemy prevented”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 87.
36 More German planes wreaked: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 65.
1 “If we ever get”: Buechner, Sparks, pp. 99–100.
2 Men shouldered their machine guns: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 60.
3 “So they gave our”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 202.
4 “It looks like a”: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 4.
5 Brown responded: “Withdraw and”: Ibid.
6 He was blubbering, mumbling: D’Este, Fatal Decision, p. 234.
7 Utterly exhausted, Sparks: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 65.
8 Sparks knew every one: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
9 The Germans kept coming: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 131.
10 “Yeah,” said the machine gunner: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, pp. 4–9.
1 At noon on February 18: Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, p. 190.
2 In some of the: Fifth Army History, privately published, 1946, Part 4, Chapter 8, p. 138.
3 Back in America: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 7.
4 An incredible six hundred: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 146.
5 Three men were killed: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 6.
6 He constantly swigged a lemonade: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 46.
7 One Thunderbird sniper finally: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 70.
8 By the following morning: Allen, Anzio, p. 5.
9 In one sector, German: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 138.
10 “They [also] told of”: Ibid., p. 139.
11 “I’ve been lying under”: D’Este, Fatal Decision, p. 237.
12 And if his useless: Clark, Anzio, Italy and the Battle for Rome, p. 195.
13 At 2:55 A.M. on February 20: 157th S-2 Journal, February 20, 1944, National Archives.
14 Once the British arrived: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 242.
15 They made a hideous: Franklin, Medic, p. 87.
16 Dozens of men from: Lloyd Wells, Anzio (University of Missouri Press, 2004), p. 69.
17 By the time the: Ibid.
18 “His wounds were not life threatening”: Vincent P. Cookingham, “The Battle of the Caves, Results of Personal Research,” pp. 3–4. Quoted with permission. Personal correspondence with the author.
19 The next thing he: Ibid.
20 Men with terrible wounds: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 211.
21 The Germans opened fire: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 65.
22 Though the water was: Ibid.
23 “They need me out”: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 7.
24 O’Neill and his Psalm-reciting: Bill O’Neill, interview with author.
25 Others made a thin: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
1 It was time to: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 246.
2 As Sparks prepared to: Ibid.
3 The position had been: Ibid.
4 Empty-handed and “spooked” by: Ibid.
5 Terrified Thunderbirds followed him: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
6 Others lagged behind, slowed: Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, p. 188.
7 He had not eaten: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 246.
8 He stuffed his mouth: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
9 He did not return: Jack Hallowell, “The Battle of the Caves,” 45th Infantry Division Museum, p. 12.
10 Every one of them: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 “We’re Americans!” shouted Sparks: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 247.
12 He had gone without: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
13 Sparks was barely able: Ibid.
14 Sparks was still carrying: Ibid.
15 It was, in Sparks’s: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
16 Several could not walk: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 148.
17 The Thunderbirds had saved: D’Este, Fatal Decision, p. 250.
18 “First at Stalingrad, now”: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 139.
19 “Our enemy was of”: Brooks, With Utmost Spirit, p. 378
20 Sparks and his fellow: graffagnino.com/doctorslounge/anzio1944.htm.
21 “In the annals of”: John S. D. Eisenhower, They Fought at Anzio, p. 194.
22 Their cries and groans: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 31, 1989.
1 The streets of Naples: DePastino, Bill Mauldin, p. 147.
2 Even the hundreds of: Lewis, Naples 44, p. 86.
3 “Only five hundred”: Moorehead, Eclipse, p. 67.
4 Naples was a vast: Mauldin, Up Front, p. 117.
5 “Beautiful signorina”: Moorehead, Eclipse, p. 67.
6 For those with real: By December 1944, more men were casualties of VD than of combat, according to some reports.
7 No matter the rank: John Piazza, interview with author.
8 “A red rag was”: Franklin, Medic, p. 79.
9 Of the tens of: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 448.
10 “We were taking more”: Moorehead, Eclipse, p. 70.
11 Sparks would soon receive: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
12 The gorgeous San Carlo: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 447.
13 The cheap vermouth and: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 154.
14 He was said to: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
15 Otherwise, every night before: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
16 The photographs of her: Felix Sparks, letter to parents, April 29, 1944, quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
17 “Instead we have stranded”: Vaughan-Thomas, Anzio, p. 189.
18 At Monte Cassino, where: Allanbrook, See Naples, p. 175.
19 The Soviets outnumbered the: Keegan, The Second World War, p. 477.
20 “If we old fools”: Westphal, The German Army, p. 160.
21 One did not know: Franklin, Medic, p. 101.
22 “The one he used”: Guy Prestia, interview with author.
23 But before they had: Felix Sparks, Regis University Interview.
24 Across the “Bitch-Head,” what: Hastings, Winston’s War, pp. 33–35.
25 Thunderbirds likened themselves to: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 73.
26 The taller men like: John Piazza, interview with author.
27 Neither the propaganda leaflets: Bill Lyford, interview with author.
28 “A person would hold”: Pyle, Brave Men, p. 302.
29 One day, Sparks received: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
30 “Won’t you please tell”: Buechner, Sparks, pp. 97–98.
31 It ended with the: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
32 It was not knowing: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 165.
1 Sparks wondered if he: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
2 To confuse the enemy: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 81.
3 Lyford at first enjoyed: Bill Lyford, interview with author.
4 He rolled back into: Bill Lyford, Colorado National Guard interview.
5 For two days, Sparks: Winston Churchill, correspondence with George C. Marshall, April 16, 1944.
6 Losing a limb might: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 82.
7 Just like their forefathers: Ibid., p. 83.
8 Would inexperienced squad and: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
9 Dawn cracked on the: After Action Report, National Archives.
10 Squads filed into gullies: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 83.
11 “And after that I”: Ibid., p. 84.
12 At 5:45 A.M., the horizon: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 “A wall of fire”: Truscott, Command Decisions, p. 371.
14 To Sparks, it sounded: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 288.
15 Men climbed out of: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
16 They were soon passing: Bill Lyford, interview with author.
17 Sparks ordered tank destroyers: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 294.
18 “I was yelling at”: Ibid., p. 297.
19 Thanks to several tank: After Action Report, National Archives, G-3 report.
20 I Company took the hill: Franklin, Medic, p. 113.
21 A rampaging Barfoot: Captain Van T. Barfoot, The Operation of 3rd Platoon, Company L, 157th Infantry, 22–24 May, Fort Benning Infantry Officers Course monograph, 1948.
22 “Boy, you’ve made it”: Clark, Anzio, Italy and the Battle of Rome, p. 295.
23 It had taken four: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
24 Among the fatalities was: Ibid.
25 “Men looked down on”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 94.
1 “He wore a somewhat”: Truscott, Command Missions, p. 548.
2 Frederick would receive eight: Clark, Anzio, Italy and the Battle, p. 316.
3 Lithe and fit as: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 282.
4 At Anzio, his men: Kemp, Commemorative History, p. 31.
5 “What’s holding you up”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, p. 411.
6 In opting for a Roman: Whicker, Whicker’s War, p. 179.
7 Clark’s yearning to be: Molony, The Mediterranean and Middle East, vol. VI, p. 234.
8 “We Americans had slogged”: D’Este, Fatal Decision, pp. 370–71.
9 “I’m holding off the”: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 210.
10 “We can’t be held”: Ibid.
11 Flashbulbs popped as Clark: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, p. 411.
12 “That’s what’s holding up”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 140.
13 “I don’t have time”: Ibid, p. 141.
14 Ecstatic locals showered him: Buechner, Sparks, p. 101.
15 “On this historic occasion”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, p. 414.
16 It was a great victory: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 574.
17 The Italian campaign: Langworth, Churchill by Himself, p. 43.
18 “How grateful they should”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 95.
19 “As for the nectarines”: Ibid.
20 “They didn’t even let”: Walters, Silent Missions, p. 97.
21 According to the journalist: Whicker, Whicker’s War, p. 182.
22 As the Allies stormed: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 95.
23 “We are all completely”: Felix Sparks, letter to parents, June 12, 1944, quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
24 “With that beachhead in”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 96.
25 On June 19, the: After Action Report, National Archives, June 1944.
26 “Everyone fell in love”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 97.
27 None other than Mark: Rex Raney, interview with author.
28 “I’m not crazy about”: Felix Sparks, letter to parents, June 12, 1944, quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
29 “And I’ve heard a”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 97.
30 “Given their choices, they”: Ibid.
31 On terraces along the: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, pp. 182–83.
32 “They had been more”: Ibid., p. 184.
33 “We speak about half”: “Report of William Russell Criss,” 45th Infantry Division Museum.
34 A nearby beach resembled: Clarence Schmitt, interview with author.
35 They had paid not: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 223.
36 In early August, the: After Action Report, National Archives.
37 Aged just twenty-six: Felix Sparks, interview with Chris Miskimon.
1 “There were several times”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
1 He crept behind: Adleman and Walton, The Champagne Campaign, pp. 107–8.
2 “Jesus Christ!” blurted: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 155.
3 “Your helmet in this”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 58.
4 Sparks and his men: Munsell, Story of a Regiment, p. 71.
5 Will I be alive: Bill Lyford, letter to author, November 5, 2011.
6 “How do you like”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 100.
7 “Hell,” said one grizzled: Stars and Stripes, The Story of the 45th Infantry Division, Kessinger Publishing, LaVergne, Tennessee, 2007, p. 24.
8 He had fiercely opposed: Churchill had threatened to resign. Clark was also vehemently opposed: “Stalin … was one of the strongest boosters of the invasion of southern France. He knew exactly what he wanted and one of the things he wanted most was to keep us out of the Balkans, which Stalin had staked out for the Red Army.” Source: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 59.
9 “The best invasion”: Graham, No Name on the Bullet, p. 67.
10 “We been waiting years”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, pp. 100–2.
11 On they marched beneath: Adam Przychocki, Colorado National Guard interview.
12 Perfumed with mimosa and: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, pp. 100–3.
13 Sparks’s command post that: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
14 The casualty rate had: Buechner, Sparks, p. 102.
15 No wonder Hitler called: Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, New York, p. 721.
1 They pushed farther inland: Adam Przychocki, Colorado National Guard interview.
2 “And damn toot sweet!”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 105.
3 Before the startled Germans: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
4 Sparks joked that he: Ibid.
5 It wasn’t long before: Denver Post, April 30, 1995.
6 In one village: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
7 Sparks set a photograph: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
8 There were battered Dodge: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 197.
9 The Coloradans in the: Ibid., p. 199.
10 There were fears it: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 73.
11 Survive its thirty days: After Action Report, National Archives.
12 “The thrust of the”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 322.
13 It was a macabre: After Action Report, National Archives, September 1944.
14 Sparks moved from the: Felix Sparks, army personnel file.
15 As the battle to: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
16 Generals like George Patton: Buechner, Sparks, p. 102.
17 One of the greatest problems: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
18 After five years of: Had planners correctly predicted the far greater numbers of men that were actually required in the infantry, the war in Europe would probably already have ended, and fewer of Sparks’s dogfaces would have died. Instead, they had placed their faith in airpower, and now the shortfall was showing.
19 The answer was sobering: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 380.
1 But they suffered heavy: After Action Report, National Archives.
2 One company lost: A. H. Speairs, An Anzio Experience, monograph, 45th Infantry Division Museum.
3 A signpost was placed: Stars and Stripes, The Story of the 45th Infantry Division, p. 27.
4 “You soon realized your”: George Courlas, interview with author.
5 “It was sometimes a relief”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 117.
6 Others became so tightly: Ibid.
7 “We took more small”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
8 One day, a patrol: After Action Report, National Archives.
9 Shell fragments and jagged: Franklin, Medic, p. 128.
10 “My men are going”: Clarence Schmitt, interview with author.
11 “The strongest personality, subjected”: Bruce C. Clarke, Study of AGF Casualties, September 1946, National Archives.
12 Well over a hundred thousand men: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 184.
13 Officially, eighteen thousand American deserters: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 185.
14 That way, they got: Guy Prestia, interview with author.
15 “He’s not to come”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
16 “You get pounded enough”: Adam Przychocki, interview with author.
17 until he too was: Adam Przychocki, Colorado National Guard interview.
18 How long would his: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
19 Few believed they would: Rex Raney, interview with author.
20 Only the letters and: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
21 Many communities had both: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 119.
22 When he looked up: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
23 A small French flag: Buechner, Sparks, pp. 103–4.
24 He pointed out where: Ibid.
25 “Apparently, they had no”: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, December 31, 1989.
26 It had taken them: After Action Report, National Archives.
27 They had been in: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, pp. 105–10.
28 It felt as if: Ellis, The Sharp End, pp. 101–2.
29 That October 25: “157th Combat Casualties” list, courtesy of Dave Kerr.
30 Then came the crack: After Action Report, National Archives.
31 By dusk, Sparks’s I Company: Buechner, Sparks, p. 104.
32 The Thunderbirds had now: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 205.
33 At Anzio, he had: Sheehan, Anzio, p. 106.
34 It was uncanny that: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, September 1, 1989.
35 According to Otis: Denver Post, August 21, 2001.
36 “Who the hell do”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 120.
37 Sparks and his fellow: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
1 “It was a glorious bloodbath”: 101 U.S. Airborne Division, G-2 Report, January 1945, National Archives.
1 The Germans had also: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 228.
2 “It will take these”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 168.
3 “He’s the greatest fighting”: Adleman and Walton, The Champagne Campaign, p. 32.
4 “What are you waiting”: After Action Report, National Archives. See also Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 98.
5 The tired soldier waited: Stars and Stripes, The Story of 45th Infantry Division, p. 3.
6 The Stars and Stripes trumpeted: Ibid., p. 130.
7 “The meeting was crowded”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 103.
8 “There will be only”: Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, p. 208.
9 “Then we’ll really cut”: D’Este, Patton, p. 679.
10 To pull off his: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 105.
11 “But through the room”: Ibid.
12 “You will start on”: Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods, p. 368.
13 “And this time”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 106.
14 “And every time you”: D’Este, Patton, p. 681.
15 Indeed, the Seventh would: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 109.
16 Until they appeared: Antelme, The Human Race, pp. 102–4.
17 “We exchanged Christmas greetings”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 106.
18 “Maybe my luck will”: Sergeant John W. Kendall Jr., private correspondence, January 14, 1945.
19 “I don’t owe my”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. x.
20 Sparks himself would fire: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
21 The German First and Nineteenth: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, pp. 112–13.
22 “We will yet be”: Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, p. 493.
23 “I remember us singing”: “I remember that we fired a few machine-gun bursts of tracer ammo in the air—a breach of discipline, no doubt, and a bit childish.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
24 “We switched off the”: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 179.
25 Voss was one of: “We weren’t liberated by the Allies, not by the Russians, nor by the British or by the Americans,” added Voss. “This is my view not only as a former soldier of the German Army but is also based on a lifelong reading of history. Nor was there an intent to ‘liberate’ us. Consider General Eisenhower’s non-fraternization order: ‘We come as victors, not as liberators, and I want you to behave as such towards the German people, who are defeated once and for all.’ Not to speak of what the Russians did to the Germans when they entered Germany. Or were the Eastern Germans liberated by the Soviet politruk Ulbricht? But it is true of the persecuted; they were no doubt liberated by the Allied Powers. It was only later on that German politicians who were not persecuted by the Nazis, but were more or less involved in the dark schemes of the National Socialist leadership, felt it would be a good idea to say the German people as a whole was liberated by the Western Powers. This caught on in politics as well as in historiography, and is now a common view in Germany.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
26 He and his comrades: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
27 All were supplied with: Voss recalled: “We got the MG42 during our short stay in Denmark, along with new rifles, uniforms and boots. Prior to that we were equipped with the MG34. The main feature of the new weapon was its simplicity and its stunning fire rate. Hugh can tell you much more about it than I could ever do.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
28 But that did not: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. ix. “Hitler’s leadership was still undisputed in my environment,” recalled Voss. “I remember wondering why Joseph Goebbels spoke on New Year’s Eve instead of Hitler, who always had inspired the nation with his vision of victory. Goebbels was no substitute. I think I had a faint idea that Hitler himself didn’t believe in victory any more.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
29 In fact 62 percent: Frederick Taylor, “The Road to Ruin,” Financial Times, August 20/21, 2011.
30 “I immediately thought of”: Guardian, April 16, 2011.
31 BRITISH LAND IN GREECE: May, Witness to War, p. 72.
32 As it did so: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 690.
33 Twenty-one-year-old Jack Goldman was: Ibid., p. 691.
34 His father had in: Jack Hallowell, The President’s Column, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, 2009.
35 Then they were ordered: Rothchild, Voices from the Holocaust, pp. 163–64.
36 Fifteen thousand of his: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 691.
37 Soon after, Goldman fell: Jack Goldman, interview with author.
38 One day, the SS: Ibid.
39 “Do what you want”: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
40 Those who couldn’t were: Rothchild, Voices from the Holocaust, p. 164.
41 “The women who are”: Leonid Rabichev, “Voina vse spishet,” Znamya 2 (2005): 163.
42 “Fire for fire, blood”: Merridale, Ivan’s War, p. 311. See also Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, RH2-2688, 13.
43 No wonder that at: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 711.
44 He and his fellow: “I was Sturmmann and NCO candidate as you’d say,” recalled Voss. “Up front I was leader of a heavy machine-gun squad.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
45 The last of Hitler’s: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. ix.
1 “Every man has a”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
2 The sun pierced the: After Action Report, National Archives.
3 Having to turn their: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 129.
4 “Ike or the Krauts”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 176.
5 In Sparks’s regiment: After Action Report, National Archives.
6 Medina had since tended: Joe Medina, interview with Nate Matlock, Regis University.
7 The rate of fire: After Action Report, National Archives.
8 He knew that without: Felix Sparks, report to Inspector General 45th Division, January 27, 1945. Before the day was out, sixty-one men in the regiment would be wounded, mostly by flying hot splinters from artillery shells and mortars in hills near the Alsace village of Reipertswiller. Source: After Action Report, National Archives.
9 He was with three: The jeep’s windshield had been either removed or folded down and covered with canvas, not only to avoid flying glass, but also to prevent glint from the sun giving away its presence, and so Sparks was able to spread out maps on the hood should they lose their way among the winding lanes and muddy tracks of the most rugged and least populated area of the Vosges.
10 Sparks and Turk were: Karl Mann, interview with author.
11 Mann had first seen: Ibid.
12 With the often curt: Ibid.
13 The jeep sped down: Ibid.
14 All of a sudden: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
15 He lay sprawled in: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
16 He climbed out of: Karl Mann, interview with author.
17 One of the jeep’s: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
18 It was vital that: Ray Merriam, Waffen SS (Bennington, Vermont: Merriam Press, 1999), p. 29.
19 Soon I Company also arrived: Louis Cody Wims, oral history, www.45thdivision.org/Veterans/Wims.
20 “We were sitting up”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
21 Meanwhile other German units: Ibid.
22 At his forward command: Ibid.
23 The G-3 then conferred: After Action Report, National Archives.
24 Frederick’s orders were to: Bishop et al., Fighting Forty-Fifth, 1946, p. 142.
25 The response to O’Brien’s: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
26 When Sparks learned of: Ibid.
27 From crackling radio messages: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
28 The conversation ended abruptly: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, pp. 1–2.
29 The trees that had: Buechner, Sparks, p. 114.
30 The surrounding ridges controlled: Hugh Foster, interview with author.
31 Casualties had mounted through: After Action Report, National Archives.
32 Whenever a Thunderbird showed: Bishop et al., Fighting Forty-Fifth, pp. 140–42.
33 To his relief, around: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, pp. 1–2.
34 The SS were, remembered: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 255. 197 Their primary target was: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, pp. 1–2.
35 Dawn was breaking as: Ibid., p. 7.
36 Soon the white-helmeted SS: MacDonald, Battle of the Huertgen Forest, p. 20.
37 Flares soared and cruelly: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 8.
38 It was still working: “We had lost our regimental commander when the Finns succeeded in attacking our regimental HQ,” recalled Johann Voss. “Raithel took over the 11th Rgt. in Pirmasens, the German town right at the border to Alsace, in January 1945. At that time we heard he was an old Lapland hand, and had come from the German Heer. That was OK with us. In the fighting at Reipertswiller we learned that he could lead. There, he changed the situation from reluctant defense to vigorous attack, which won him our complete respect. I saw him only once, and I remember him as very good looking with his sporty bearing and his faded mountain cap. I got to know him much better after the war, when he had returned from South Africa, where he was a plantation manager, and was studying history at the Munich University. Before the war, he was officer in a Mountain Division in southern Germany, and had won championships in skiing and mountain guiding. Two of his brothers were also colonels of German Mountain Regiments. Even when he was around seventy, he practiced mountaineering in the US and South America. He died when he crashed into a road barrier one night on his way from Bad Reichenhall to his home in Icking, south of Munich. His eyesight was impaired by the loss of his right eye during the last battle of the ‘Nord.’ After he was taken prisoner, severely wounded, he was interrogated, of which a record must exist. Raithel was very much interested in digging up that record.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
39 The SS now knew: Hugh Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 9.
40 “G Company is captured!”: Ibid.
41 More shells landed in: After Action Report, National Archives.
42 “When hit, men sank”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 133.
43 An astonishing three: Ibid., pp. 134–35.
44 Waiting in ambush up: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 186.
45 Several men fell in: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
46 Sergeant Bernard Fleming looked: The armored car platoon leader, Lt. Baze, had been shot in the head and later died.
47 “Give me a lot of”: Bernard Fleming, written account of January 18, 1945, rescue by Sparks, Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
48 “They’re going to watch”: Ibid.
49 “I’m going to get”: Ibid.
50 Now there were more: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 170.
51 “Help on the way”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
52 Soon, one was landing: After Action Report, National Archives.
53 One SS machine gunner: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 187.
54 Around 9 A.M., two Sherman: Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 13.
55 They were nicknamed “Ronson”: Ellis, The Sharp End, p. 154.
56 The tank crews went: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
57 “Help is fighting to”: Foster, Something Has to Be Done Quick, manuscript on the Battle of Reipertswiller, October 1995, Chapter 10, p. 15.
58 The Sherman tanks trundled: 158th Artillery report for January 18, 1945, Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
59 Several men from Bernard: Eisenhower Presidential Library, Box 1392, Folder #1, pp. 5–6.
60 It was ever more: Ibid.
61 Just as often: Ellis, The Sharp End, p. 154.
62 Some fifty yards away: “When we clashed with the American Army it had already stormed through France and reached the borders of the Reich within seven months,” recalled Voss. “So, we had no doubt that we faced a serious and tough adversary. I don’t remember that we were told any disparaging or agitating things about the American soldiers in the field. We knew their resources were unlimited while ours were sparse. While in Denmark, after our endless march through the Arctic winter, our thoughts were focused on an extended leave. But that didn’t happen. Instead we found ourselves face to face with the Americans immediately upon our return to Germany. We had to learn from our own experience with them. From the beginning, we endured seemingly unlimited artillery fire that cost us unusually heavy casualties. Then, at Reipertswiller, the American soldiers won our respect.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
63 He watched as Sparks: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
64 “If [he] could pass”: Ibid.
65 The tank slid sideways: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
66 Several Thunderbirds lay bleeding: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
67 “Make a break for”: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
68 He looked around at: Eisenhower Presidential Library, Box 1392, Folder #1, pp. 5–6.
69 He had lost his: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 170.
70 Sparks climbed out of: Ibid.
71 There was no honor: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
72 Killing him would be: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
73 Incredibly, the SS still: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
74 Voss could still see: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 188.
75 Never had he witnessed: Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
76 There was no way: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
77 He watched as Sparks: Buechner, Sparks, p. 118. See Joseph Crowley statement.
78 The tanks’ treads were: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
79 One had a broken: Ibid.
80 There was a hollow: Bull, World War II Infantry Tactics, p. 21.
81 Then the SS opened: Felix Sparks, Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
82 Bullets pinged and ricocheted: Buechner, Sparks, p. 117.
83 But neither tank was: Ibid., p. 118. Crowley added: “Enclosed is a letter Sparks sent on my behalf dated 5 July, 1985, recommending me for the Bronze Star Medal (for the second time). In the citation it is to be noted that he deliberately left himself out of this action. Since Sparks was the major player in this effort, the only conclusion that I can draw from this is that he wanted to lend more credence to the actions of the tank crews.… There must have been a lot of animosity existing between the Division Commanders and Sparks. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons why he was cheated and possibly why his recommendations were not honored. If anyone deserves this award, Sparks does. He was a courageous man if ever I saw one.” According to Crowley: “It was Col. Felix Sparks who initiated the breakthrough attempt. He was the first to get out of the tank not knowing if anyone would follow. I think that he deserved more than he got (a higher award). All this leads to another question. To my knowledge Hanson, who did the same thing as Zeek, got no award and other recommendations were shelved. Quite arbitrary I would say.”
84 The front of his: Certificate, 45th Cav Rcn TRP Mec Z 45th Inf Div, AFO 45, US ARMY, February 1, 1945, pp. 1–2, Carl O Winters, National Archives.
85 “Our commander had proved”: Felix Sparks DSC Recommendation file.
86 Why didn’t they shoot: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
1 Two companies from the: Certificate, 45th Cav Rcn TRP Mec Z 45th Inf Div, AFO 45, US ARMY, February 1, 1945, pp. 1–2, Carl O Winters, National Archives.
2 “We had no medical”: After Action Report, National Archives.
3 The SS noose closed: Merriam, Waffen SS, p. 29.
4 It was announced in: Ibid.
5 “Impossible to get there”: National Archives, radio reports 18 January, 45th Div. 157th CP, p. 12.
6 “We are being attacked”: Unit Journal, 158th Artillery Battalion, January 19, 1945, After Action Report, National Archives.
7 German tanks were moving: Richard Baron, Major Abe Baum, and Richard Goldhurst, Raid! (New York: Dell, 1981), p. 67.
8 The SS promised Curtis: Louis Cody Wims, oral history, 45th Infantry Division, www.45thdivision.org/Veterans/Wims.
9 They were shivering, drenched: 158th Artillery Battalion, After Action Report, National Archives.
10 Two senior German officers: According to Voss: “Degen was a paragon of the young Waffen-SS officer. By ‘young’ I mean that they differed to a great extent from the older officers who came from the Allgemeine-SS and took their civilian ranks with them, without having passed through the tough training in the officer candidate school of the Waffen-SS. He had a strong leadership style and demonstrated great personal bravery in several serious combat situations. There was unanimous agreement about his authority among the troops. One can say that we admired him and were proud to have such a leader among us, especially after he rescued the 11th Regiment from Russian encirclement at Tuchkalla, near Kuusamo, when we were on our march toward the Finnish border. He was killed in the last battle of the Regiment at Pfaffenheck, where he was laid to rest in the military cemetery, together with ninety of his comrades.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
11 The snow provided cover: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 135.
12 At 1:30 P.M., Colonel O’Brien: After Action Report, National Archives.
13 “We are following thru”: 158th Unit Journal, January 20, 1945, AAR 158th Field Artilley Battalion, National Archives.
14 Now poor visibility and: Baron et al., Raid!, p. 67.
15 Forward artillery observers were: Merriam, Waffen SS, p. 29.
16 I Company’s Private Benjamin Melton: After Action Report, National Archives.
17 “I fortunately got back”: Joe Early, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th Regiment’s reunion, Colorado Springs, 2007.
18 Finally, as dusk fell: Fighting Forty-Fifth, p. 146
19 Some attached white handkerchiefs: After Action Report, National Archives.
20 “You can imagine how”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 136.
21 Everyone else, as far: Ibid., p. 135.
22 Twenty-five officers were taken: “All I heard at that time was that the officers were honorably received by Raithel personally,” recalled Voss, “and that their soldiers received the precious Scho-Ka-Kola, a piece of chocolate in a round tin box—the ration we used to be issued in the North before departure on some important mission. There was some grumbling among us that WE didn’t receive them, too.” Source: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
23 “Rumor had it that”: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 190.
24 The SS were duly: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
25 Franz stood in his: Baron et al., Raid!, pp. 67–68. And Louis Cody Wims, oral history, 45th Infantry Division, www.45thdivision.org/Veterans/Wims.
26 There was a bucket: Joe Early, Colorado National Guard interview.
27 All that mattered was: Buechner, Sparks, p. 109.
28 According to SS records: Whiting, The Other Battle of the Bulge, p. 127.
29 Even though he held: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
30 First at Anzio: Buechner, Sparks, p. 115.
31 “It is still difficult”: Ibid.
32 It was as if: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011. Voss also recalled: “Bodies still lying about in the devastated woodland, most of them separately, some already laid in rows by their comrades; they made peculiar bundles, easily recognized even under the snow.” Source: Voss, Black Edelweiss, p. 190.
33 Roads were soon strips: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 137.
34 They were moving back: Ibid.
35 Over three days, more: National Archives, Box 1392, folder 1, 157th Inf. Regiment Narrative History, After Action Report.
36 They were full of questions: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 137.
37 He was “hurt badly”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
38 It was quickly evident: Buechner, Sparks, p. 115.
39 “If I had it”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 239.
40 Harsh words were exchanged: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
41 After a few minutes: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
42 Generals didn’t appreciate being: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
43 As far as Sparks: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
44 Sparks also had a: Buechner, Sparks, p. 116.
45 In late January he: Felix Sparks’s Distinguished Service Cross recommendation file.
46 Having finally passed the: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
47 There was no excuse: Ibid.
48 “Frederick didn’t see the”: Anse Speairs, interview with author. “I deserted my men,” added Speairs in 2010 when asked how he felt about returning to the States on leave.
49 Frederick must have deeply: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 232.
50 “The actions for which”: National Archives, HQ records 45th Infantry Division, January 29, 1945, letter from Robert T. Frederick.
1 “I do not suppose”: Gilbert, Churchill, p. 1182.
2 Now they went on: Earl Sparks, interview with author.
3 In the American Officers’: Wilson, If You Survive, p. 229.
4 “Any American city has”: Felix Sparks, letter to parents, February 12, 1945. Quoted courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
5 He had not been: Hugh Foster, e-mail to author, November 23, 2011. The commendation was never made.
6 Green officers came in: Felix Sparks, Regis University, “Stories from Wartime.”
7 Because men with at: Dan Dougherty, Colorado National Guard interview.
8 Private Dan Dougherty was: Dan Dougherty, interview with author.
9 There was a jeep: Dan Dougherty, Colorado National Guard interview.
10 In Berlin, Hitler was: Musmanno, Ten Days to Die, p. 94. The Gauleiters were regional leaders. “They occupied party appointed positions and were responsible for government of one of 43 Party Regions with theoretical direct access to Hitler.” Source: Major Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg: An Example of Late World War II Urban Combat in Europe, (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989), p. 170.
11 “That would be the”: Musmanno, Ten Days to Die, p. 94.
12 “In any case only”: Speer, Inside The Third Reich, p. 440.
13 “Get going, you guys”: Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, pp. 115–21.
14 “Hold on to it, Brad”: Hastings, Armageddon, p. 366.
15 The Allied demand for: Winston Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 4: The Hinge of Fate (London, 1951), pp. 616–18.
16 “There are enough of”: Fritz, Endkampf, p. 203.
17 Some ten thousand Germans would: Ibid., p. 686.
18 “That’s why the Germans”: Rex Raney, interview with author.
19 “Not the ordinary soldier”: Bundesarchiv, diary of Lieutenant Julius Dufner, April 7, 1945.
20 Fear of the truly: Tony Judt, Postwar, p. 20.
21 But not even terror: Ibid.
1 They illuminated the dragon’s: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 141.
2 Heading back into combat: Based on analysis of Hugh Foster’s Combat Days of the 157th Infantry Regiment in World War II.
3 Now he would have: MacDonald, Battle of the Huertgen Forest, p. 16.
4 In briefings, he had: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 144.
5 Flushed from their concrete: Charles Whiting, West Wall (Staplehurst, UK: Spellmount, 1999), p. 130.
6 Two platoon leaders out: After Action Report, National Archives.
7 It was the only: Witness affidavit, Cranston R. Rogers, April 25, 2006.
8 Three hundred surrendered to: After Action Report, National Archives. 227 It had taken the: Ibid.
9 Unlike in France, where: Ibid.
10 “Every time you killed”: Anse Speairs, interview with author.
11 “Straggling Germans, still wearing”: After Action Report, National Archives.
12 In some homes that: Ryan, The Last Battle, p. 17.
13 “For an extra bar of chocolate”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 177.
14 “This is the scorched”: Ibid.
15 He turned toward his: Toland, The Last 100 Days, p. 285.
16 “Thus, William the Conqueror!”: D’Este, Patton, p. 712.
17 Men were greeted by: MacDonald, The Last Offensive, p. 287.
18 But there was now: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 183.
19 Sparks’s Third Battalion crossed: Rawson, In Pursuit of Hitler, p. 26.
20 “Nonetheless it”: Vincent Presutti, Colorado National Guard interview.
21 “Call that thing a river?”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 147.
22 The worst was surely: Ibid.
23 Nazi flags were popular: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 242.
24 One day, he found: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
25 On March 27, as: AAR Narrative Form, March 1945, p. 8, L -1029, After Action Report, National Archives.
26 He was to take: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
27 It would be a simple: Buechner, Sparks, p. 124.
28 They had become indifferent: History—Narrative Form, 157th Infantry Regiment, March 1945, p. 9, National Archives, L-1029.
29 Soldiers, Men of the Wehrmacht: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
30 It instructed him and: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 99.
31 He had fought in: Cranston Rogers, interview with author.
32 Concrete bunkers and pillboxes: Michael Gonzales, Brief History of the 45th.
33 But it had been: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 99.
34 To ensure loyalty and: Jack Hallowell, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, 2008.
35 He was quickly tried: Ibid.
36 DEATH TO ALL TRAITORS: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 105.
1 Icy-eyed GI’s darted through: Oleck, ed., Eye Witness, p. 137.
2 Through his field glasses: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 17.
3 If the Third Army: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
4 Again the area was: Ibid.
5 Then Sparks heard the: Harry Eisner, letter to Michael E. Gonzales, containing memoir “Poor Child,” May 10, 1989. 45th Division Museum archives.
6 His men scattered, looking: Buechner, Sparks, p. 125.
7 What the goddamn hell?: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
8 They were dug in: Ibid.
9 “Colonel,” said the captain: Felix Sparks, interview with Chris Miskimon.
10 Indeed, they had assumed: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 “There’s no way I”: Ibid.
12 Yet again, they had: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 92.
13 It would certainly have: Abe Baum, interview with author.
14 There was, however, some: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
15 Captain Anse Speairs: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
16 “Let’s get rid of”: Anse Speairs, interview with author.
17 One battalion issued twenty-six: After Action Report, National Archives.
18 It would be several: Ibid.
19 If it was Dutch: Ainse Speairs, interview with author.
20 The uneasy silence was: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 151.
21 Some Thunderbirds got blind: Ibid.
22 According to his company: Cranston Rogers, Colorado National Guard interview.
23 After a sleepless night: Ibid.
24 Having come so far: Cranston Rogers, interview with author.
25 That morning, under a: After Action Report, National Archives.
26 By lunchtime, the advance: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
27 Not since Anzio had: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 103.
28 He ordered his men: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
29 That evening, unsettling rumors: After Action Report, National Archives
30 According to one report: 45th Infantry Division News, April 1945.
31 “Whoever remains in the”: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 97.
32 “Now the people stand”: Ibid., p. 66.
33 In some rooms, they: After Action Report, National Archives.
34 They did so, but: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
35 joining fifty-nine other men: After Action Report, National Archives.
36 Later that afternoon, Sparks: He would be cut down by men of Chan Rogers’s platoon of G company. “A US newspaper photographer arrived after Heymann had been cut down, and expressed extreme anger that the GIs had ruined a great photograph!” Source: Chris Miskimon.
37 In their absence: Karl Mann, interview with author.
38 Mann wondered what might: Ibid.
39 “There was a good”: A. H. “Ed” Speairs, “Two Ultimatums at Aschaffenburg,” Second Platoon Newsletter, C Company, 157th Regiment, no. 10 (April 1999), courtesy of Dan Dougherty.
40 Mortars opened up and: Christopher Miskimon, “A City Destroyed,” pp. 16–17.
41 By daylight, the entire: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
42 Yet casualties continued to: After Action Report, National Archives. 240 Every mobile piece available: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
43 Then Thunderbirds stormed the: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 104.
44 The Germans answered round: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 152.
45 Speairs finally managed to: Ed Speairs, interview with author.
46 Speairs opened a window: A. H. “Ed” Speairs, “Two Ultimatums at Aschaffenburg,” Second Platoon Newsletter, C Company, 157th Regiment, no. 10 (April 1999), courtesy of Dan Dougherty.
47 “Should you refuse to”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 154.
48 Lamberth ignored the offer: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
49 Snipers would crawl through: After Action Report, National Archives.
50 If nobody answered: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 191.
51 In some streets: Cranston Rogers, interview with author.
52 he had to fight: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
53 It was the utter: Cranston Rogers, interview with author.
54 Ordered by his company: Ibid.
55 They were both cut: Cranston Rogers, Colorado National Guard interview.
56 In the Bois-Brule Barracks: Miskimon, “A City Destroyed,” p. 18.
57 Unprecedented quantities of white: After Action Report, National Archives.
58 Nothing was sacred: Oleck, ed., Eye Witness, p. 137.
59 But the strafing runs: After Action Report, National Archives.
60 The napalm, essentially jellied: Ibid.
61 The air strikes seemed: Ibid.
62 So stubborn in fact: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 191.
63 Aschaffenburg was indeed what: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
64 “Revenge is our battle”: Lucas, Experiences of War, pp. 168–69.
65 Lamberth and his men: Speer, Spandau, p. 39.
66 Finally, that evening, facing: After Action Report, National Archives.
67 That March of 1945: Evans, The Third Reich at War, p. 682.
68 Two German soldiers, executed: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
69 As the Thunderbirds closed: Quentin W. Schillare, The Battle of Aschaffenburg, master’s thesis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1989, p. 105.
70 She kept looking at: Harry Eisner, letter to Michael E. Gonzales, containing memoir “Poor Child,” May 10, 1989. 45th Division Museum archives. Eisner would later write that he saw the same child on a ferry in New York Harbor. He did not say anything to the girl.
71 Colonel O’Brien was: After Action Report, National Archives.
72 There would be unconditional: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, pp. 192–93.
73 Sparks was the most: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
74 Sparks, his interpreter Karl: Karl Mann, interview with author.
75 Then he ordered all: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
76 Soon, they had all: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview. Sparks would keep the gun and later give it to his son.
77 To the end of: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
78 “Tell the major he’s”: Karl Mann, interview with author.
79 Lamberth rode on the: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 88.
80 He had executed honorable: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,”
81th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
82 When the last Germans: Ibid.
83 The German looked humiliated: Franklin, Medic, p. 138.
84 “Had I known it”: Ibid.
85 It was a heavy: Rüdiger Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste (Munich, 1999), pp. 238–39.
86 The regiment had lost: After Action Report, National Archives.
87 Such behavior meant he: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 193.
88 Thankfully, the counterattack: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 272.
89 “Sixty minutes to build”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 206.
90 “I left the old”: Rex Raney, interview with author. “I can with luck smell something for a few seconds each month,” said Raney in 2011. “I can be around some pretty ripe odors and I don’t know it.” Source: Rex Raney, interview with author.
91 So Sparks and others: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
1 “Yeah,” replied one veteran: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 158.
2 “Roosevelt died!”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 185.
3 An editorial in the: “Person of the Century Runner-Up: Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Time, March 1, 2000.
4 “It is a miracle”: Toland, The Last 100 Days, p. 377.
5 “Here, read it!” exclaimed: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 463.
6 The Germans tried to: After Action Report, National Archives.
7 Sparks could stand in: Ibid.
8 The raid had in: www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/diary/jan45.html.
9 The airborne destruction, which: Johnson, Churchill, pp. 137–38.
10 Hidden in the skeletons: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 159.
11 Himmler, although desperately trying: Bundesarchiv Berlin, NS19/3118, fo.3. Himmler’s order was on January 21, 1945. Hitler’s had been on November 25, 1944 (fo.2), a couple of weeks before the start of the Ardennes campaign.
12 They were told to: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 The Seventh Army, to: After Action Report, National Archives.
14 Sparks was able: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 159.
15 Sparks consulted his map: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
16 That morning, Sparks’s Third: After Action Report, National Archives.
17 Sparks had deployed two: Karl Mann, interview with author.
18 Yet again, he wanted: Cranston R. Rogers, affidavit, April 25, 2006, Felix Sparks DSC Recommendation file.
19 “Uh, oh. I think”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
20 Turk pulled up: Karl Mann, interview with author.
21 Sparks realized that he: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 The burst had gone: Ibid.
23 “Goddamn it”: Ibid.
24 Now his only mementos: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
25 “The ruined city was”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 135.
26 The regiment had lost: After Action Report, National Archives.
27 Many men treated themselves: Cranston Rogers, Colorado National Guard interview.
28 It had not been: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 473.
29 Speer himself had been: Ibid., p. 472.
30 “Probably he sensed that”: Ibid., p. 474.
31 The Slavic hordes Hitler: Duffy, Red Storm, p. 297.
32 A Soviet force of: Bessel, Germany 1945, p. 104.
33 Selected men from the: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, pp. 196–97.
34 For newsreel cameras: Die Letzen Tage von Nurnberg (Nuremberg: 8 Uhr Blatt, 1952).
35 Fittingly, the men given: Allen Bennett, interview with author.
36 Sparks thought the whole: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
37 The sniper died not: Buechner, Sparks, p. 135.
38 “Clouds of lilac perfume”: Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin, pp. 1–5.
39 Among the most morally: Bessel, Germany 1945, pp. 108–9.
40 “I’m staying here,” said: Ryan, The Last Battle, pp. 434–36.
41 As the war progressed: Hugh Foster, e-mail to author, November 23, 2011.
42 He was to seize: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
43 The race was on: Ibid.
44 “Move as rapidly”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
45 Finally, he was on the last straight: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 162.
46 No one wanted to: Cranston Rogers, Colorado National Guard interview.
47 Occasionally, what remained of: After Action Report, National Archives.
48 “Men or parts of men”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, pp. 242–43.
49 Sparks was within striking: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 162.
50 But his task force: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
51 After refueling, Sparks ordered: After Action Report, National Archives.
52 The following day, April 27: Buechner, Sparks, p. 136.
53 There followed a short: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
54 In disgust, Sparks moved: Buechner, Sparks, p. 136.
55 If he managed to: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
1 “Above all I charge”: Bullock, Hitler, p. 795.
1 “S-3 to all battalions”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
2 If either group ran: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
3 Sparks set out: Antelme, The Human Race, p. 286.
4 Did they know something: Ibid.
5 Everything is ripe: Ibid.
6 Determined to get the first report: Denver Post, August 26, 2001.
7 Since its opening as Nazi Germany’s: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment newsletter, June 15, 1989.
8 More than thirteen thousand in: Denver Post, August 26, 2001.
9 Soon after, twenty-five-year-old Walsh: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
10 “I don’t know what”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 On the outskirts of the town: After Action Report, National Archives.
12 There were fresh beds: Smith, The Harrowing of Hell, p. 79.
13 His interpreter, Karl Mann: Karl Mann, interview with author.
14 Several shots were fired: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author, p. 16.
15 Sparks then caught sight: Karl Mann, interview with author.
16 It resembled some kind: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
17 He did not know: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter, June 15, 1989.
18 Sparks could see a: www.scrapbookpages.com, “Who entered Dachau first on April 29 1945.” This is the most authoritative Internet source on all aspects of Dachau.
19 If the SS were: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 “We got all kinds”: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, a documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
21 “Okay,” said Walsh: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 Walsh and his men: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
23 “What’s a freight train”: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 133.
24 Degro was in fact: Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 6, 2005.
25 He had been in: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
26 Human excrement was all: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 259.
27 Corpses riddled with bullets: John Lee, “Action at the Coal Yard Wall,” Second Platoon newsletter, April 2001, issue 20.
28 It was as if: Ibid.
29 The stump was covered: Dachau and the Nazi Terror, 1933–1945 (Comite International de Dachau, Brussels, 2002), p.142
30 The train had left: Dan Dougherty, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th Infantry Regiment reunion, Colorado Springs, 2007.
31 It had first stopped: Pierre C. T. Verheye, The Train Ride into Hell, unpublished manuscript.
32 On April 21, when: IfZ-Archiv, Nurnberger Dokumente, NO 2192, testimony Hans Mehrbach, “The Death Train from Buchenwald.”
33 Six days later: Eye Witness Report of Johann Bergmann, Buchenwald, in Mahnung und Verpflichtung, Dokumente und Berichte (Berlin: Forth, 1983), pp. 503–5.
34 What the hell is: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
35 Sparks was next on: Felix Sparks, interview with the author.
36 His only weapon now was: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
37 The sights and smells: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
38 Then Sparks saw a: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
39 He would never forget: Ibid.
40 “Why?”: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 133. According to Israel, another GI “who came across the little girl would see her face in his mind every night for the next 60 years until he was mercifully able to fall asleep. Even as an old man he was unable to answer her innocent question.”
41 They had been killed: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
42 All he could do: Ibid.
43 How could human beings: Denver Post, April 30, 1995.
44 Disbelief and shock turned: Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 6, 2005.
45 “Let’s kill every one”: I.G. Report.
46 “Don’t take any SS”: Ibid.
47 “Okay, move!” Sparks ordered: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10, p. 51.
48 I Company scout Private: John Lee, “Action at the Coal Yard Wall,” Second Platoon newsletter, April 2001, Issue 20.
49 “Let’s get these Nazi dogs”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
50 Lieutenant Walsh set the: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
51 He and others had been: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
52 It had not prepared: Times Picayune, May 27, 2001.
53 “Every man in the”: IG Report.
54 Sparks snapped commands: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
55 “We’re going in the”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
56 He struggled for a: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
57 KZ Dachau had been guarded: For an excellent and exhaustive description of the American actions at Dachau on April 29, 1945, see Klaus-Dietmar Henke’s Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands, München, 1995, pp. 862–931.
58 Before he could be brought: Barbara Distel, Die Befreiung des KZ Dachau [The Liberation of the Concentration Camp Dachau], in Dachauer Hefte 1, 1985, p. 7.
59 Then he changed his: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
60 “I never like to”: Ibid.
1 “The effect of it”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
2 He and his men: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 362.
3 Poplar trees in spring: Ibid.
4 “You sons of bitches”: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
5 Walsh began to beat: Felix Sparks, interview with the author.
6 “Bastards. Bastards. Bastards”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
7 So Sparks pulled out: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
8 Stunning him and knocking: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
9 Walsh lay there, crying: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
10 “I’m taking over command”: Ibid.
11 “He really lost it”: Sidney Horn, interview with Flint Whitlock, 1996.
12 Walsh had gone “crazy”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 “This was the culmination”: William Walsh, interview with James Kent Strong, in The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
14 His barrack: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories of Wartime.”
15 “They’re here!” someone cried: Antelme, The Human Race, p. 286.
16 “We’re free!”: Ibid.
17 “We kicked all the”: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 259. Degro would never forget the scenes that greeted him that morning. “Those scenes at Dachau are impressed on my mind,” he would say more than sixty years later. “Sometimes I get up at night and try to erase them, but I can’t forget.” Source: Ibid.
18 One of the men: T. Pauli, Berkenkruis, newsletter for volunteers of Flemish SS, October 1988. The account in the magazine is based on Linberger’s alleged testimony to the German Red Cross.
19 The men rounded up: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 34.
20 They had massacred defenseless: At a later trial for those accused of the Malmédy massacre, all mention of the killing of SS POWs by Americans was ordered stricken from the record.
21 He and the platoon: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
22 Then he discovered the: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels, 2002), pp. 142–44.
23 Other than Alsatians: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 116. “On special amusement days, Zill would have a table of food placed in front of starving prisoners who stood at attention. Should a prisoner relax his body, the dogs would react automatically.” Source: Ibid. Zill, according to Israel, would die in 1974 in Dachau, having had a life sentence reduced to fifteen years. He in fact died within “walking distance” of the “horror camp” he had once commanded. Source: Ibid.
24 The SS had made: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 34.
25 When the victims had been: Stars and Stripes, May 3, 1945.
26 The dogs died quickly: In the cages, a single survivor was later found. Source: “A Survivor of Dachau Named Tell,” personal communication from a soldier of the 72nd Signal Company, with Howard Buechner, June 6, 1986. “Lt. Lorin E. Fickle found a wounded dog at Dachau, the only known survivor of the ‘Hounds of Hell.’ The animal was a magnificent, black shepherd. Lt. Fickle nursed the dog back to health and named him ‘Tell.’ Somehow, permission was obtained to ship ‘Tell’ to the United States where he was a splendid pet for many years.” Source: Ibid.
27 A soldier apparently used: Buechner, Dachau, pp. 149–50.
28 Just one of the: According to Gun, The Day of the Americans, p. 64: “A week later a GI pilfering in one of the abandoned SS barracks, heard a growling coming from behind some cases in a dark corner. He approached cautiously and was startled to see a German Shepherd dog—his head was bloody from a bullet wound. The animal had apparently been hiding there without food and water for several days, licking his wound. The GI ran away and no one knows what happened to the wretched animal.”
29 So blue- and green-tinged: Buechner, Sparks, p. 142.
30 Hundreds had died in: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
31 “One hears yelling and”: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 152.
32 Inmates began to shout: Buechner, Sparks, p. 142.
33 A spine-chilling roar: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
34 “It was truly our”: Whitaker, I.G. Report, Walenty Lenarczyk testimony, p. 51, National Archives.
35 It was as if: After Action Report, National Archives.
36 The German, it was: New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 27, 2001.
37 In another incident, Russian: 45th Infantry Division News, May 13, 1945.
38 It is assumed that: www.scrapbookpages.com, Dr. Juergen Zarusky, “Dachauer Hefte Nr. 13.”
39 The first to reach: New York Herald Tribune, May 1, 1945.
40 “My God! My God!”: May, Witness to War, p. 90.
1 Sparks did not know: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association, March 20, 1984.
2 Lieutenant Bill Walsh was: Felix Sparks, private correspondence, February 2, 1982.
3 To Sparks, the situation: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001
4 “Colonel, you should see”: Felix Sparks, interview with Flint Whitlock, 1996.
5 Once Sparks had departed: IG Report, National Archives. See also Buechner, Dachau, pp. 78–79.
6 Lieutenant Walsh ordered a: Ibid.
7 Others muttered in German: John Lee, “Action at the Coal Yard Wall,” Second Platoon newsletter, April 2001, no. 20.
8 “Keep your goddamn hands”: Ibid.
9 Lieutenant Walsh then lined: Whitaker IG report, National Archives.
10 Curtin fired three bursts: Ibid.
11 Most of the SS did: Karl Mann, interview with author.
12 Thunderbird wouldn’t let go: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 365.
13 Lieutenant Busheyhead also opened: Whitaker I.G. Report, National Archives.
14 The Thunderbirds fired from left: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001
15 “Stay calm, we die”: Kern, Verbrechen am deutschen Volk, pp. 314–16.
16 It took him perhaps: Karl Mann, interview with author. Also see Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
17 A film cameraman, Henry Gerzen: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
18 The firing got: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
19 “There will be no”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 Curtin began to cry: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
21 “Colonel,” he blurted: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
22 There were a few: New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 27, 2001.
23 “Lieutenant,” said Sparks: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 365.
24 At least seventeen had: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
25 As many as seventy-five: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
26 A private standing in: Ibid.
27 Twenty-two-year-old Mills had not: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
28 We came over here: Ibid.
29 It was not the: IG Report, National Archives.
30 Sparks ordered his men: IG Report, National Archives.
31 They included medic Peter: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 365.
32 Colonel Howard Buechner: IG Report, National Archives.
33 Among the SS: Kern, Verbrechen am deutschen Volk, pp. 314–16.
34 Then a Thunderbird medic: IG Report, National Archives. See also the excellent account of the shooting: “That Is Not the American Way of Fighting,” in Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel, eds., Dachau and Nazi Terror II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels, 2002), pp. 132–60.
35 Jager took a blade: Kern, Verbrechen am deutschen Volk, pp. 314–16.
36 Beyond it, thousands of: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to author. Also Karl Mann, interview with author.
37 In a nearby barrack: Jack Goldman, interview with author. Goldman’s Auschwitz camp number was 69970—he would never forget it because it was tattooed on his arm. More than four hundred thousand numbers were assigned at Auschwitz. The tattoos were introduced so that the authorities could identify the corpses of registered prisoners who had died.
38 He saw a young: Rothchild, Voices from the Holocaust, p. 164.
39 That felt a lot: Ibid.
40 Sparks’s men asked him: Jack Goldman, interview with author.
41 He was a human: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
42 “Okay, I’ll go in”: Bill Walsh, interview with James Kent Strong, in The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
43 “That’s his everything”: Ibid.
44 A few were utterly dazed: Smith, The Harrowing of Hell, p. 285.
45 Bodies flew through the: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
46 “They’re killing the informers”: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
47 “We’re bringing food, water”: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories of Wartime.”
48 “Don’t throw them”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
49 There were more than: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 167.
50 Hundreds of their fellow: Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel, eds., Dachau and Nazi Terror II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 31.
51 Some of these corpses: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
52 They all claimed they: Ibid.
53 Young children cycled past: Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1945.
1 message on a sign: Brome, The Way Back, p. 226.
2 In the second was: Ibid., p. 240.
3 Her blond hair was: May, Witness to War, p. 90.
4 “It was the first”: Ibid., p. 91.
5 To avoid embarrassment: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
6 He walked over to: Karl Mann, interview with author.
7 “She can’t open that”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
8 “You’re not in your area”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
9 She named the Lutheran: Niemöller was a controversial figure. He had served on a U-Boat in World War I and initially supported the Nazis, making what some have claimed were anti-Semitic remarks before his arrest by the Gestapo in 1937 for opposing Hitler’s attempt to Nazify Protestant churches.
10 She had a list: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 379. They had in fact been taken out of the camp days earlier.
11 “Lady, I don’t give”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
12 Sparks was dead tired: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 “You can’t go in”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
14 He began to argue: Buechner, Dachau, p. 75.
15 To Sparks, it seemed: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
16 He had never lost: Karl Mann, interview with author.
17 Linden and Sparks started: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 380
18 “There was a brigadier”: San Marcos, California, Today’s Local News, November 10, 2008.
19 “Shoot over their heads!”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 “Charge the gate and”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
21 “No, you’re not”: Felix Sparks, interview with Chris Miskimon.
22 “I’m in my territory”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
23 “Escort the general”: Ibid.
24 The blow was more: Ibid.
25 “I’ll kill you right”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 380.
26 Sparks aimed at Linden’s: Karl Mann, interview with author.
27 “I’m going to blow”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 380.
28 “I’ll leave, but I’ll”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
29 “Go ahead”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
30 Linden left with Higgins: Karl Mann, interview with author.
31 Fellenz backed off, returned: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
32 Then he walked with: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
33 “We need food and medicine”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
34 At 4:35 P.M., Sparks also: 157th S-3 Journal, April 29, 1945, Box 11072, National Archives.
35 “I don’t have time”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
36 A Polish inmate explained: After Action Report, National Archives.
37 “Their blood drained into”: Ibid.
38 Some of the victims: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
39 They had been dispatched: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
40 “I’ll take care of”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
1 Michael DiPaulo, French consulate: Cape Cod Times, September 7, 2001.
2 That was all that: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 188.
3 “We knew we had”: Dan Dougherty, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th reunion 2007, Colorado Springs.
4 One of the sergeants: Jewish Weekly News of Northern California, April 2001.
5 “He wanted an SS”: Dan Dougherty, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th reunion 2007, Colorado Springs.
6 “I don’t think there”: John Lee, interviewed by James Kent Strong, The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
7 THIS is WHY WE: 45th Infantry Division News, May 1945.
8 “I’d gladly go through”: After Action Report, National Archives.
9 “Combat-hardened soldiers, Gentile”: Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Distel, eds., Dachau and Nazi Terror II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 53.
10 “Turned out they were”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
11 It was just as: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 169.
12 “The chief is dead!”: Hugh Trevor Roper, The Last Days of Hitler (New York: Macmillan, 1965), p. 261.
13 Sparks commandeered an apartment: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 388. Also see “Liberating Dachau,” World War II, March 2000.
14 Soon, a three-inch blanket: Joseph R. Bosa, Monograph 15, June 1990, The 171st Field Artillery Battalion, 1942–1945, 45th Infantry Division Museum, Oklahoma City.
15 With an eye to: Jack Hallowell, interview with author.
16 the “Beer Hall Putsch”: Anse Speairs, interview with author.
17 A white sign was: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter.
1 “Trying to keep warm”: Smith, The Harrowing of Hell, p. 101
2 “A love letter.… Goodbye”: Adler, Marguerite Duras, p. 142.
3 Mitterrand told Duras that: Ibid., p. 141.
4 Other Thunderbirds, by contrast: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 189.
5 “Then someone said there”: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 171. There were remarkably few cases of rape among the occupiers. The Soviets, by contrast, raped more than fifty thousand German women in Berlin alone in one week that May. Source: Judt, Postwar, p. 20.
6 “Things are heating up”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
7 Two Signal Corps men: Colonel John H. Linden, letter to Historian of 45th Infantry Division Association, Oklahoma City, April 10, 1996, 45th Infantry Division Museum archives.
8 “I’m going to send”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
9 “[Sparks] feels badly”: 3rd Battalion, 157th Journal, May 1, 1945, Box 11075, National Archives.
10 Three men left Munich: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 By two o’clock: 3rd Battalion, 157th Journal, May 1, 1945, Box 11075, National Archives.
12 “As we passed the SS huts”: Adler, Marguerite Duras, pp. 141–44. 311 A call was put: Ibid.
13 It would be many: Ibid.
14 Now he weighed just: Edgar Morin, “Homage to Robert Antelme,” Le Monde, November 2, 1990.
15 Duras dared not tell: Duras, The War, pp. 56–59
16 He ordered Mann and: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, p. 19.
17 “We went by Paris”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
18 “I have orders to”: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
19 “I’ll call my commander”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 “Sorry, Colonel”: Ibid.
21 “Okay”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 In Bavaria, a Lieutenant Colonel: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 175.
23 “Rumor had it that”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
24 Whitaker also went to: This happened on May 8, 1945.
25 “I was scared to”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
26 “I didn’t see any”: Ibid.
27 “At about the same”: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
28 Under further questioning: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
29 He concluded that seventeen: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
30 After navigating the appalling: Whiting, ’44, p. 107.
31 “Well, Colonel”: This disappearance of the Seventh was a shame. It was later described as America’s “forgotten army”—one that never received any great recognition yet had done perhaps more than any other given its time in combat, to secure victory.
32 Sparks set off once: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
33 He was tired after: Blumeson, The Patton Papers, p. 706.
34 He was hopeful, however: Blumeson, The Patton Papers, p. 718.
35 He reported to the: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
36 He told Sparks that: Felix Sparks, private correspondence, February 2, 1982.
37 The charges were so: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
38 “General Patton’s out now”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
39 “Colonel, sit here”: Six million copies of Mein Kampf had sold by 1940 in Germany, making Hitler a wealthy man.
40 Behind the desk sat: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
41 “I have some serious”: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
42 Sparks looked over at: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
43 “Didn’t you serve under”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
44 “I would like to”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
45 “I’m going to tear”: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
46 Sparks would later remember: Felix Sparks, private correspondence, February 2, 1982.
47 “Now go home”: Ibid. and Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
48 Sparks saluted and left: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
49 George Patton was happy: Atkinson, The Day of Battle, p. 116.
50 “Unless their crimes were”: D’Este, Patton, p. 742.
51 Besides, no one wanted: Johann Voss, letter to author, December 4, 2011.
52 “He was just kind”: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 390.
53 “But in the light”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
54 A proud Thunderbird to: Ibid.
55 “I think they all”: William Walsh, interview with James Kent Strong, in The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.