Cost

I was driving home from the supermarket the other day, and noticed a guy mowing his lawn. Nothing unusual for a SAT. After I’d passed by, I realized the man had a partial prosthetic arm, too. I noted later in the week the same man getting out of his car after work, in fatigues, likely coming back from his job at the local US Army post.

I’m reminded of cost.

It’s easy to think of of WW2 (and other conflicts) in a removed “academic” way, to think in broad terms about units/actions/leadership choices/materiel. Recently, I read this over at http://www.wildbillguarnere.com and it was posted not long after Band of Brothers first aired on HBO. It’s by Peter Toye, son of Joe Toye, and it is a moving tribute to a father, and the sentiment is also very uniquely _American_ .

One of my most vivid childhood memories was when he’d take my brothers and me camping and put on some trunks to dive in the lake. On his crutches, heading for the beach, I’d walk sightly behind him staring at his scar-covered body — it seemed front to back, head to toe — scars everywhere. Wrist from Normandy; back courtesy Holland; arm, leg, stomach a result of refusing to bend at Bastogne. I’d notice others staring at him as well because he made a formidable sight. But I never thanked him for leaving all that he left of himself in Europe so that we could take vacations like this whenever and wherever we wished. In his own hard and quiet way, he taught us all that it’s never OK to stay down on the mat no matter how much we may feel beaten. You always get back up and you never quit on yourself, NEVER! I can only hope that I have instilled this same 101st Airborne attitude on my children because my old man’s guts and pride courses our veins as well and there is no greater gift.

This quote was researched in the wildbillguarnere.com forums here and there is additional info in the post, specifically a eulogy offered by Richard Winters.

The web site is as advertised: “one of the largest repositories of data regarding World War 2.” There is much to learn there.

ww2db.com Featured Image, #2

As I was browsing the ww2db.com image archive late one night, I came across this gem of a 101st Airborne trooper…in color. There are more than a few 101st A/B ww2 images floating around in B/W…so this image caught my eye.

The caption (click on the image) reveals this is Corporal Louis E. Laird, though I couldn’t find much on the web about him beyond the caption here (as his name isn’t listed in the archives via the National WW2 Memorial Registry).

An nara.gov search shows young Laird hailed from Florida and joined the Army on March, 6, 1943, and that his occupation was “MOTORCYCLE MECHANIC or PACKER, HIGH EXPLOSIVES (Munitions worker, ammunition.) or TOOLROOM KEEPER or STOCK CLERK or STOCK CONTROL CLERK.” Caps belong to the web page. So here’s to you, Louis Laird, in that brown M42 jumpsuit and jump (not combat) boots.

Men like Laird would face some tough times, as illustrated by the story of trooper Doug Garrett in the War Stories section of Mark Bando’s excellent 101st A/B Trigger time web site (visit the site and buy his books).

“Finding out in jig time that war was kill or be killed, it took me less than five minutes to find that out. A bullet had hit my reserve chute and felt like being hit in the stomach with a sledge hammer. I then hit the ground and pulled a .45 cal. pistol given to me by my supply sgt cousin in the Air Corps.

While I lay there, gasping, a German came out of the bushes in a dive for my throat with a razor sharp knife. It was his last dive at anybody. That .45 roared like a cannon and he was dead when he landed on top of me. I cussed him out for getting his blood on me, but then thought ‘better his than mine’. I then waded into a flooded area and washed his blood off.

Then I saw 3 gliders come in, with machineguns and artillery following them to the ground. Then mortars took over. Then, I started up a road and a machinegun opened fire at me and I learned how to do the jitterbug faster than any man had ever learned it before or since. How it missed me, I’ll never know. I’m just glad it did.

I only spent five days in Normandy before being seriously wounded, but it was five days of my life that I can never forget.”

This has been another entry in the ww2db.com Featured Image partnership. The idea behind this post (and the weekly posts to come) is to highlight ww2db.com’s collection of 3500 plus photos, many culled from the National Archives, Library of Congress, the US Naval Historical Center, and other research institutions.

Carentan O Carentan (1949)

For those who recall Episode 3 of Band of Brothers…

Louis Simpson gives us a glimpse of fighting that pairs the pastoral with a death scene. It’s an unusual pairing, with a reserved tone all through the poem, even when the action shifts. Think about any war movie you’ve ever seen and there is always that sudden, jarring moment when innocence is lost and that new reality sets in. That shift is seamless here, especially toward the end.

Trees in the old days used to stand
And shape a shady lane
Where lovers wandered hand in hand
Who came from Carentan.

This was the shining green canal
Where we came two by two
Walking at combat-interval.
Such trees we never knew.

Here at the start, we see a connection to the known (romance) and new experience, and in the following stanza, we get our first inkling of trouble with this:

The day was early June, the ground
Was soft and bright with dew.
Far away the guns did sound,
But here the sky was blue.

Guns in the distance…blue sky. Sounds decidedly more like a walk in the park. The poem continues with some additional background concerning the invasion: “ships together spoke / to towns we could not see.” This, it seems, is a metaphor I didn’t catch initially, where “speaking” might stand of shell fire.

But Simpson is building toward something. The action then shifts…

The watchers in their leopard suits
Waited till it was time,
And aimed between the belt and boot
And let the barrel climb.

I must lie down at once, there is
A hammer at my knee.
And call it death or cowardice,
Don’t count again on me.

So then we have gun fire and the speaker is down. And then this part…it’s the even handed tone, the same as in previous stanzas that really stands out for me. It’s nothing but calm.

Tell me, Master-Sergeant,
The way to turn and shoot.
But the Sergeant’s silent
That taught me how to do it.

O Captain, show us quickly
Our place upon the map.
But the Captain’s sickly
And taking a long nap.

Lieutenant, what’s my duty,
My place in the platoon?
He too’s a sleeping beauty,
Charmed by that strange tune.

Two other metaphors here: death as a “tune” and death as a “nap.” And the last stanza, where this pastoral becomes a lament…Also, stanza breaks at “O Captain” and “Lieutenant” (some wordpress formatting issues I can’t fix…)

Carentan O Carentan
Before we met with you
We never yet had lost a man
Or known what death could do.

I’ve read this a few times over the years, but never really considered it a coming of age poem, but it is. In other poems, the subject might be about sex or driving a car, or some other kind of youthful epiphany. But here that epiphany is _the moment_ that changes everything, where the speaker finally understand the nature of it all.

More about the author here. The complete text of the poem is here.

Don Burgett mp3

Many years ago, I read my first Burgett memoir. That was Currahee! A Screaming Eagle of Normandy. I wrote about that here at the ww2db. He is the author of three other books that document his experiences in the war, all of which are must reads for 101st Airborne students/researchers.

Just doing some surfing today and came across this mp3 of a Don Burgett speech hosted by the the World War II Veterans Committee, a group whose mission it is to “preserve the legacy of the ‘Greatest Generation.’” The audio of the speech is here. There are many highlights, including Burgett’s thoughts on Saving Private Ryan and Fritz Nyland. You mean SPR wasn’t a true story? I’m shocked.

Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers…loved it.

To me, the series represents a high point in pop culture consciousness concerning World War II. It was wildly popular, and has brought much new blood to the ww2 themed forums around the net. I visit a few of those, and I’ve stopped being surprised at the newbies who refer to BoB as if it is definitive history of the 101st A/B in WWII. In those forums, I’ve seen one particular user gently (and others times not) correcting people over and over on various disputed historial points in the series. His motivation is the difference between what movie makers will do for expediency sake that ends up sacrificing the truth of circumstances in small, yet important ways.

Mark Bando (not the user listed above), author of several 101 A/B themed books, maintains a section on his web site devoted to the series. It’s worth considering. You can read his extensive and interesting comments here.

Brothers in Arms

Love the BIA, with its control-able squad feature. It’s a game that is about positioning and flanking. The preview for the new BIA is here, and it has been out for some time. I will say this: it rots being an xbox guy with no hope of upgrading to a new system anytime soon. You know…bills and all. But the game looks so _lush_.

Forensic History by Dave Berry

David Berry of Pathfinder Historical Consultants posted this set of articles at the Triggertime forum about a circumstance that became quite famous, detailed in books by Ambrose in D-Day and Michel De Trez in Voices.

* Finding Private Hersh (1)
* Finding Private Hersh (2)

In the articles, Berry challenges a set of assumptions about time and place, and comes up with answers of his own. Both pieces are long, but worth the read.

Airborne Demonstration team

This is a pretty cool vid via youtube of the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team. That’s Don Burgett, 101st A/B veteran and noted author, climbing into the plane early in the piece for a little inspection. At 4:38, the camera man exits the plane. Notice the slack time before the shute opens, and which point I’d be pissing myself, the tugging of the risers a little later (the 5 minute mark), and of course, the safe landing.