Churchill’s War Diary of General H H ‘Hap’ Arnold in the Library of Congress, Washington DC We invite comments, corrections, and expansions. This material has been optically scanned and may contain characteristic OCR transcription errors.
Please give date of entry referred to. [ comment ] Diary of General H H ‘Hap’ Arnold [ diary 1944 | diary 1945 | diary 1946 ] 1945 TRIP TO EUROPE AND RIO March 31, 1945 — May 8, 1945 March 31, 1945 Washington to Bermuda. Arnold, Beebe, Peterson, Proctor, Lindsay, Marquardt, Darby and Sheffield 1st Pilot — Major Dice Co-Pilot — Major Conde Navigator — Captain Wagner Radio Operator — M/Sgt.
Babington Engineer — M/Sgt. Ranger Engineer — M/Sgt. Lueck Took-off 2:35 P.M. Arrived Bermuda 6:30. Distance — 830 miles Good trip — no bad weather. Dinner 8:15. Bed 9:00. Bermuda looked wonderful in P.M. Rich colors — vivid contrasts. April 1, 1945 Good breakfast. Rode over island — very interesting. Lots of Easter lilies, bananas, coral rocks, coral houses, white and clean. Many different color flowers. Whites and blacks. Took the bunch to church — very high Episcopal.
They didn’t like it. Received invitation to lunch with Lord Burghley. No soap. Wanted us to sit in his pew, but was afraid I might have to read the text as George Marshall did last year. Rode out to end of point — beautiful view. Guide was Burghley’s Naval Aide Then to Government House and awaited Governor’s return from other church. He has to visit all of them it seems on Church Days, Lord and Lady Burghley arrived after about 3/4 hour.
He was Olympic hurdler 1924-’28 and ’32 and Los Angeles. Finalist all 3 competitions. Winner in 1928. Government Home grounds very beautiful Took movies of everything from flowers to rare animals and birds. Water scarce — no rain and below normal for winter. Orve Anderson here With B-17 awaiting hop-off to England. We all took-off about 6:30. April 2, 1945 2060 miles to Lagens Field, Azores. Dinner aboard at 7:00, after winning 4 bits from Gene Beebe. Bed at 8:00 which is 10:00 Azores time.
Rather bumpy during night but slept well. Awoke at 6:15 — shaved, washed and ready to land at 6:45 A.M. Azores time. Took-off 8:05 Azores time. Distance to Paris 1,730 statute miles. Regulations require we go via Lands End. A.D. Smith not on Lagena — over on Santa Maria. Overcast weather. Left Azores with not much to see — except miles of sea. Weather good until French coast at Brest. Overcast solid. Went through and over. First saw Versailles.
Evidences of bombing around all factories — railroad yards — airfields — many buildings knocked flat. Eiffel Tower stood out like a sore thumb. Paris as a whole looked good. French refugees streaming back in all kinds of funny clothes. — Spaatz, Anderson, Hoag, and Hank Pool met us at airdrome. Went to Ritz with Tuey [‘Tooey’ Spaatz] and Hank Pool. Talked with bunch until dinner at 8:15 French time.
Dinner with Hank, Tuey [Spaatz] and Patton was asked by Tuey [Spaatz], “Don’t you worry about getting so far out?
What about your flanks?” Patton: “No worry. The AAF takes care of my flanks.” Tuey [Spaatz]: “But how about your supplies — your logistics?
Don’t you worry about that?” Patton: “Not a bit, I have my G-4. He worries about my logistics. He has fainted 3 times today so far.” This during the big push beyond the Rhine. To bed at 9:10 in a wonderful suite at the Ritz on the Place Vendôme. April 3, 1945 The Doc must have given me a slug for I didn’t awaken until 8:15. Have a war room right next to me in hotel for daily presentation. Weather today — good. Tuey [Spaatz] arrived at 10,30.
At 11:00 we — Tuey [Spaatz], Hank, Marquardt, and I — left for D-12 airport. Took B-25 and went to Rheims. Paris is a sorry city. Stores closed up mostly. Scars from street battles — factories bombed out and scars in neighborhood off other bombs. People not badly dressed and look well fed — trying to make a lot out of a little. De Gaulle trying to make a victorious nation out of one whose divisions have not won a fight.
Calling on the wide world for representation at the peace table, when, after we have given him equipment and supplies by the 100 millions, only one French Division has crossed the Rhine and that was a Moroccan. There is no apparent shortage of food anywhere. The cattle and horses are fat and well kept. The fields are all tilled and there should be a bumper crop. The Germans did not destroy fruit trees or farmhouses. and yet we — Americans — will be called upon to feed the starving French.
Rheims airport shows the results of our war efforts. We surely bombed it to death, destroying all buildings and many German planes. Had lunch with Eisenhower, Tuey [Spaatz] and Ike’s British Aide [Kay Summersby?]. After lunch Ike, Tuey [Spaatz] and I talked Ike’s views. A Department of National Defense with 3 equal parts — ground, sea and air.
Common supply for all articles used by all three. Must have to cut down expenses Air, ground and naval forces of size required to do job — not a size based upon money. Universal military service of l year. British ownership of island bases to prevent our altruistic Americans from giving the people freedom or returning them to Japan or Germany. Support aviation must be part of ground force . Naval air limited to carrier and seaborne.
Saw Beadle [Bedell] Smith for a few moments. Hank and Gil went thrugh the gigantic 3,000,000 bottle champagne cellar of what used to be Mumrus. He was a German — is now in Germany. Left Tuey [Spaatz] at his headquarters at Rheims and returned to Paris. Met my crowd for drinks in my room before dinner. Tomorrow they split up and go on their various trips. Dinner with Hank and Gil. Played gin rummy for 1/2 hour.
Bed at 9:30 after being in bed resting for 2 hours before dinner and sleeping for 3/4 hour. April 4, 1945 Awakened at 8:15. Temperature 44 degrees. Clear sky — most of flags down from around the Place de Vendôme. None on Napoleon’s statue. Ike very certain as to War’s end. Only fly in ointment is the unthinkable, impossible Russians holding back. Ike has no ideas as to what more air can do. It is doing everything possible. He is most enthusiastic about air support.
Ike wants to go to his 30th reunion in June. I told him that he could have as many C-54s as necessary to take members of his class. He will go — arrive unannounced. I have just been told that the suite I am occupying was used by Goering on his visits to town. I have looked around but have found no evidence . Had conference with Fred Anderson, Bob Harper, P. L. Williams and Louis Brereton. Very satisfactory information from all.
Our Troop Carriers took 250,000 gallons of gas to troops last Friday, and over 500,000 last Saturday.. Talked over our redeployment and the part Airborne and T.C. would play in Pacific and Post War. Cable to Marshall. After lunch with Brereton, P. L. Williams and Hank Pool, took rest for 2+ hours. German prisoner of war — Fay — then was brought in by General McDonald. He has landed a brand new ME at Frankfurt — was a test pilot for Messerschmidt — was tired of war. 262 to go to Dayton.
Fay gave some information re: interior Germany — railroads gone — factories destroyed — no oil — best pilots killed — no experience in squadrons — bomber pilots flying jets without sufficient training — war can’t continue for more than 2 or 3 weeks — all organized resistance will be gone then. Took auto ride through Paris to St. Cloud — Versailles. Paris was not hit hard by our bombs — factories, airports, railroad yards destroyed — but very little else.
Germans did no destruction. French in Paris are not starving — no evidence of malnutrition in any part of Paris. Horses well fed and fat — goats grazing — which would not be if people were hungry. Lines at bakeries and butcher shops — about 24 maximum. A lot of bunk re helping starving French. Had Woolly for dinner. Versailles very unkempt — water gone from pools — grass end trees need attention. French people apathetic. Bed at 9:20. April 5, 1945 Up at 7:30.
Breakfast at 8:00 with [journalist] Lowell Thomas — 8 other commentators here. Left hotel for airport at 9:15 — took-off for Frankfurt at 10:00 via Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Koblentz. Aachen almost completely destroyed — bombs. Düren a mass of wreckage — bombs. Cologne — terrible — 2 bridges over Rhine down — thousands of houses a mass of rubble. Bomb craters everywhere. Abandoned trucks, tanks, and trenches. By passes for destroyed bridges .
Bonn — not destroyed as much but bridge down — 2 pontoon bridges being used. Balloons to protect pontoon bridges. Bridges down all along Rhine — barges and tugs all sunk. A few hundred feet away from Rhine all peaceful and quiet — no sign of war Coblenz not so badly hurt, but quite badly at that. Frankfurt — a big city — railroad yards and airports a shambles — runways pock-marked and unusable. The balance of the field filled with craters.
Such was the field S.W. of town we were told to land on. 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 men — trucks — bulldozers working on it. It was impossible. We went to one S.E. of town. There we saw a good runway — several of our 46s and 47s and a B-17 but radio told us to go to the airport 66 miles S. of the first one we saw — so away it went.
Our flight had taken us over the front where ground troops were slugging it out to capture the encircled Germans — from Cologne to S. of Coblenz — and yet not a single German plane. The impotent G.A.F., made so by our air power. On the airport where we landed was a runway marked by flags — 15 or more transports lined up nose to tail. Had delivered their supplies and were now taking on wounded — but of all things as many German wounded as our own.
No nation in the world, probably would have done such a thing. Leave the Huns there to die — get our boys back, but we must clean out the Huns to make room for ours. So it goes — 6 Americans — 4 Huns. Transports — puddle jumpers — fighters and our B-25 landing on a strip that was so short that in spite of excellent piloting, we stopped just 30 feet from the end. Met by B. G. Barcus — cars awaiting but I had to go over to see the wounded being put in the transports.
The airport was but 15 miles from the front, but the transports came and went unmolested by German aircraft. The Autobahn is a wonderful road. There is a perfect net of them extending in almost all directions, connecting all important centers. We set out for the one we wanted. German A.F. barracks scarred — damaged — destroyed by our bombing. Machine shops a mass of debris — but in the woods — almost miles away from the airport were airplanes, bombs, gasoline and repair hangars.
Concealed from above — all accessible to the airport. Some of the planes undamaged — others destroyed by the Germans — still others hit by our own bombers. Bridges over Autobahn blown up — but we ran along to Patch’s Headquarters at 60. There we met Patch, Hank Arnold, and who should come in but Eisenhower, Spaatz, Webster. All had lunch in Darmstadt as guests of Barcus. Ike said he was feeling war.
It had taken a lot out of him but he forced himself to go on and would until whole mess was cleaned up. Gave Hank his two boxes but we don’t need to worry about liquor for him. He captured a German warehouse with case after case of scotch, brandy, benedictine and Cointreau. He is set for the balance of war — also has a German radio. Eisenhower and Spaatz took off for Reims after lunch. I went with Hank Arnold and Marquardt to Frankfurt to see Patton.
Darmstadt — Frankfurt a mass of rubble, Germans look well fed and fairly well clothed Autobahn made trip very easy — passed many convoys — German parks for planes near airports. Bombs and gasoline in woods. Patton unchanged. His headquarters in old German barracks.
Says there is nothing in front of him — could go right on Through and join up with Russians tomorrow, but headquarters is holding him in present position until the First Army on his left and the Seventh Army on his right catches up. German sniper shot at one of his staff right in his headquarters even yesterday. Completely destroyed a town in his front yesterday because guerrillas refused to surrender. Burned it down. Back over Autobahn to airport near Darmstadt. Took off in rain for Paris.
Note attached — Order of Patton’s typical. Brought Hank