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Show Gathering Historical Data In the European Theater 105 radio stations could be supplied with notices of every promotion in the Fifteenth Army, the historical teams covered the action around Lorient and St. Nazaire, the part that the Fifteenth Army played in the double envelopment of the Rose pocket, and the first steps in the occupation and de-Nazification of Germany. The historical unit, besides carrying out the directions of the Historical Section ETOUSA, was ordered by G- 3 to perform two added duties: It was to prepare an "official" history of Fifteenth Army Headquarters, and it was to process all After Action Reports submitted to the Army by units under its command. Cut in half in this manner and burdened with work which the War Depart ment never expected it to do, the 5 th I {1 H was under a severe handicap from the start. This handicap was increased by the atti tude of the personnel in the operations and training section who were, apparently, more interested in seeing that everything written about the Fifteenth Army would reflect credit upon that army were in collecting and preserving data desired by the than they Historical Section ETOUSA and the War Department. Two examples may make this situation clear. Approximately eighteen or twenty Letters of' Instruction were issued by the Fif teenth Army to units under its command. The instructions dealt with activities around Lorient and St. Nazaire and with the stra tegical phases of taking over a portion of the Rhineland for pur As is natural in any military situation, poses of occupation. certain contingencies arose which made it impossible for units to follow instructions exact! y as issued, and forces had to change plans to meet new problems. Just what had to be done when such maneuvering was necessary was faithfull v recorded by the his torical section and described in the headquarters history, but G-3, Fif going under the assumption that whatever was ordered by censored that the out to was carried letter, portion teenth Army of the history. As finally written, the history described the units in the Fifteenth Army as following all letters of instruction with deviation from directions, a manifest untruth. out a single Again, as the occupation forces moved into Germany, they sometimes preceded by or closely followed by Military Gov ernment units which had been pin-pointed for the territory taken were These unit often came into conflict with field troops over policy. For instance, a Military Government unit might make the curfew hour 8 P.· M. only to find the next day that it had been changed to seven or nine by a divisional commander. over. matters 'Of This conflict, sometimes on minor matters, sometimes on matters of more importance, was also faithfully recorded by the historical section. And when problems were solved, the method of arriving But this material, too, was at the solution was always told. quickly removed by G-3, who illogically insisted that such mate- |
