Oral History of William P. Chapman
Correspondence:
William P. Chapman to Mrs. William P. Chapman, 1943–5.
Family Documents:
Separation Qualification Record, WD AGO Form 100. Chapman, William P. 12 Dec 45.
Military Record and Report of Separation – Certificate of Service, WD AFO Form 53–98. Chapman, William P. 12 Dec 45.
Remembrances of D-Day—June 6, 1944, William P. Chapman, May 30, 1994.
Silver Star Citation, handwritten transcription.
Government Documents:
70th Tank Battalion. After Action Reports, 1 Aug–30 Nov 44, 1–31 Mar and 1–31 May 45. Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
70th Tank Battalion. Soixante-Dix, A History of the 70th Tank Battalion. Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
746th Tank Battalion. After Action Report 1 – 30 Jun 44. Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Adair, L. R. Captain, U. S. Army, et al. The Battle of Mortain. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 1983.
Bailey, Claude E. Captain, U. S. Army. Operations of Company “I” 8th Infantry (4th Infantry Division) East of Olzheim, Germany 28 February–1 March 1945. Fort Benning, GA: General Subjects Section, Academic Department, The Infantry School, 1949.
Campbell, William R. Major, U. S. Army. Tanks with Infantry. Fort Knox, KY: Military Monograph, The Armored School, 1947.
Doubler, Michael D. Captain, U. S. Army. Busting the Bocage: American Combined Arms Operations in France, 6 June–31 July 1944. Fort Leavenworth, KS: U. S, Army Command and General Staff College, 1988.
Folsom, Charles D. Captain, U. S. Army. Hedgerow Fighting Near Carentan. Fort Know, KY: Military Monograph, The Armored School, 1948.
German Order of Battle, Normandy—13 June 1944. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combined Arms Research Library.
Graduation Program, Twenty-Fifth Company, Second Student Training Regiment, Fort Benning, Georgia, June 1943. (Courtesy of Pat Gunning)
Miles, Otha G. Major, U. S. Army, et al. The Battle of Schnee Eifel. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 1984.
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. Office of the Adjutant General. Record Group 407: File 304-INF, records of the 4th Infantry Division, including File 304-INF(12), records of the 12th Infantry Regiment; File 330-INF, records of the 30th Infantry Division.
National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri. Morning Reports, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.
Order of Battle of the German Army–1 Mar 45. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combined Arms Research Library.
OSS Section, 7th Army. Dachau. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combined Arms Research Library.
US Army, Table of Organization & Equipment 7–15, Infantry Battalion, February 26, 1944.
US Army, Table of Organization & Equipment 7–16, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Infantry Battalion, February 26, 1944.
US Army, Table of Organization & Equipment 7–18, Infantry Heavy Weapons Company, February 26, 1944.
War Department, Infantry Field Manual 7–5, Organization and Tactics of Infantry: The Rifle Battalion, October 1940.
War Department, Infantry Field Manual 7–10, Rifle Company, Rifle Regiment, June 1942.
War Department, Infantry Field Manual 7–15, Heavy Weapons Company, Rifle Regiment, May 1942.
War Department, Infantry Field Manual 7–20, Infantry Battalion, October 1944.
War Department, Infantry Field Manual 7–40, Rifle Regiment, February 1942.
War Department, Field Manual 23–55, Browning Machine Guns, Caliber .30, M1917A1, M1919A4 and M1919A6, July 1945.
War Department, Field Manual 23–90, 81mm Mortar M1, April 1943.
War Department, Field Manual 100–5, Operations, June 1944.
War Department, Field Manual 101–5, Staff Officers’ Field Manual: The Staff and Combat Orders, August 1940.
Zarger, Glenn W. Major, Defense of Little Switzerland. Carlisle Barracks, PA: Military Monograph US Army Military History Institute, 1948.
Pamphlets:
The Beachhead, The Official Journal of the U. S. Committee for the Battle of Normandy Museum. Washington, DC, Summer 1990.
Periodicals:
Blakeley, Harold W. Maj. Gen., U. S. Army. “Artillery in Normandy.” The Field Artillery Journal 39, no. 2 (Mar–Apr 1949): 52–54.
Hemingway, Ernest. “The G. I. and the General.” Collier’s. (Nov. 4, 1944): 11 and 46.
———. “War in the Siegfried Line.” Collier’s. (Nov. 18, 1944): 18 and 70.
Segel, Robert G. “The Model 1917 Browning Water-Cooled Machine Gun.” Small Arms Defense Journal (Fall 2009): 60–69.
Newspapers:
Taylor, Michael. “Liberating France Hemingway’s Way/Following Author’s 1944 Reclaiming of the Ritz Hotel.” San Francisco Chronicle, August 22, 2004. Available online at www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Liberating-France-Hemingway-s-way-Following-2731590.php.
Unpublished Works:
McGrann, Roy T. Captain, U. S. Army. “The 610th Tank Destroyer Battalion: Apr. 10, 1942–Dec. 7, 1945”. N. P., N. D.
Rousek, Charles E. Major, U. S. Army. A Short History of the 38th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized). N. P., N. D.
Slaymaker, William H. 1st Lt. U. S. Army, “Invasion: Personal Notes of 1st Lt. W. H. Slaymaker.” N.P., N. D.
Interviews:
Chapman, William P. Video interview by Mike Kearney. Leadership Recall. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), June 13, 1990. Available online at www.ashrae.org/society-groups/leadership-recall/william-p-chapman.
Foreign Military Studies: Manuscript Department, William R. Perkins Library. Duke University. Durham, NC. Interviews identified by name and MS#. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. Interviews identified by name and MS#. World War II German Military Studies, vols. 1–24. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. Interviews identified by name and MS#.
Port, Jack. Phone interview by Craig S. Chapman. February 27, 2014.
Reeder, Russell P. Jr. Colonel, U. S. Army. Interview by Forrest C. Pogue. October 18, 1960. Transcript. George C. Marshall Foundation. Lexington, VA.
Welch, J. Morgan. Phone interview by Craig S. Chapman, March 21, 2014.
Books:
Administrative History of U. S. Naval Forces Europe 1940–46. vol V. London: Historical Section, COMNAVEU, 1946. Available online at www.history.navy.mil/library/online/comnaveu.htm.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany June 7, 1944–May 7, 1945. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Atkinson, Rick. The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945. New York: Henry Holt, 2013.
Babcock, Robert O. War Stories: Utah Beach to Pleiku. Baton Rouge: St John’s Publishing, 2001.
Balkoski, Joseph. Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landings and Airborne Operations on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005.
Beevor, Antony. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Bessel, Richard. Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
Blumenson, Martin. Breakout and Pursuit. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1961.
Blumenson, Martin. Liberation. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1978.
Bradley, Omar N. General of the Army, U. S. Army and Clay Blair. A General’s Life: An Autobiography by General of the Army Omar N. Bradley. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.
Bull, Stephen, Ph.D. World War II Infantry Tactics: Company and Battalion. Oxford, England: Osprey Publishing, 2005.
Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1965.
Desch, John. “The 1941 German Army/The 1944-45 U.S. Army: A Comparative Analysis of Two Forces in Their Primes.” In Hitler’s Army: The Evolution and Structure of German Forces. Conshohocken, PA: Command Magazine, 1996.
Dow, James R. and Hannjost Lixfeld. The Nazification of an Academic Discipline: Folklore in the Third Reich. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Dwyer, William M. So Long for Now: A World War II Memoir. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2009.
Eisenhower, David. Eisenhower at War 1943–1945. New York: Vintage Books, 1986.
Featherston, Alwyn. Saving the Breakout: The 30th Division’s Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 7–12, 1944. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1993.
Fritz, Stephen G. Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians and the Death of the Third Reich. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
4th Infantry Division, 12th Infantry Regiment. Baton Rouge: Army & Navy Publishing Company, 1946.
Harrison, Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1951.
Hastings, Max. Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
Hastings, Max. Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984; New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
Howe, G. B. Lieutenant, U. S. Navy. Skill in the Surf: A Landing Boat Manual. Coronado, CA: Department of the Navy, 1945. Available online at www.history.navy.mil/library/surfskill.htm.
Hutton, Christopher. Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother-tongue Facism, Racism and the Science of Language. London: Routledge, 1999.
Jensen, Marvin G. Strike Swiftly: The 70th Tank Battalion: From North Africa to Normandy to Germany. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1997.
Johnson, Gerden F. Colonel, U. S. Army. History of the Twelfth Infantry Regiment in World War II. Boston: National Fourth (Ivy) Division Association, 1947.
Knapp, George W. Rev. A Chaplain’s Duty: Letters Home from a WWII Chaplain. Edited by Gayle E. Knapp. Marietta, GA: Deeds Publishing, 2011.
Liddell Hart, B. H. History of the Second World War. New York: Putnam, 1971.
MacDonald, Charles B. The Last Offensive. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1973.
MacDonald, Charles B. The Siegfried Line Campaign. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1963.
Marshall, S. L. A. Colonel, U. S. Army. Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in Future War. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1978.
McManus, John C. The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944—The American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2004.
Pyle, Ernie. Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches. Edited by David Nichols. New York: Random House, 1986.
Reardon, Mark J. Victory at Mortain: Stopping Hitler’s Panzer Counteroffensive. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
Roberts, Charles C., Jr. Armored Strike Force: The Photo History of the American 70th Tank Battalion in World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2016.
Ruppenthal, Roland G. Major, U. S. Army. Utah Beach to Cherbourg (6 June–27 June 1944). Washington, DC: Historical Division, Department of the Army, 1947.
Ryan, Cornelius. The Longest Day, June 6, 1944. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959.
Shields, David and Shane Salerno. Salinger. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer. New York: MacMillan, 1970.
Stafford, David. Endgame 1945: The Missing Final Chapter of World War II. New York: Little Brown, 2007.
Stodghill, Dick. Normandy 1944: A Young Rifleman’s War. Baltimore: PublishAmerica, 2006.
Thornton, Willis. The Liberation of Paris. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962.
Vannoy, Allyn R. and Jay Karamales. Against the Panzers: United States Infantry versus German Tanks, 1944–1945. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1996.
Weidinger, Otto. Comrades to the End: The 4th Panzer-Grenadier Regiment “Der Fuhrer” 1938–1945. Translated by David Johnston. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1998.
Wilson, George. If You Survive. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
Winton, Harold R. Corps Commanders of the Bulge: Six American Generals and Victory in the Ardennes. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2007.
Websites:
“Geschichte,” Schloss Schillingsfurst, December 17, 2103, schloss-schillingsfuerst.de.
“Battalion Organisation during the Second World War,” March 17, 2015, bayonetstrength.150m.com.
“Discours de l’Hotel de Ville de Paris, 25 Aout 1944,” June 16, 2016, charles-de-gaulle.org.
“Glider Landings” and “talliecrocker_utah,” June 2014, normandy. secondworldwar.nl.
“Gorn_J,” September 10, 2015, Memorial.thetasigmatau.org.
“Units,” June 6, 2015, tankdestroyer.net.
“World War II Topographic Maps,” June 6, 2015, digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca. This website is a gem. Viewers can search through contemporary 1:100,000 scale maps of the European Theater.