Whether you are looking for some new reading material, or frantically searching for a last minute gift for a person in your life who is interested in World War II, here are my top ten recommendations (plus some extras).  

The list below is focused on the American perspective because that is my area of interest, and prioritizes titles that are currently in print or have multiple editions so that they can be easily found and, more importantly, cheaply purchased.

For the young adult or college student

• Up Front by Bill Mauldin, ISBN: 978-0393050318.  Mauldin is best known for his wartime cartoons and their iconic characters, "Willie and Joe," but his memoir Up Front is simply one of the best for understanding the average American soldier, especially the infantryman. Concisely written and packed full of Mauldin's artwork, Up Front is a short but good read. Mauldin's book on the immediate postwar era, Back Home (ISBN: 978-0891908562) is also excellent.
• Currahee: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald R. Burgett, ISBN: 978-0440236306.  Currahee was my gateway into World War II memoirs, I remember being completely immersed in Burgett's book over one weekend in 2002. The descriptions of the rigors of paratroop training and the choatic days of combat in Normandy are spellbinding. Burgett's other wartime experiences in Holland (The Road to Arnhem), the Battle of the Bulge (Seven Roads to Hell), and the close of the war (Beyond the Rhine) have also been widely published.
• With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge, ISBN: 978-0891419068. With the Old Breed is rightfully considered one the best accounts by a World War II infantryman, and was featured in HBO's miniseries "The Pacific".  For further reading, check out Sledge's memoirs of his postwar duties in China and return to the United States in China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II (ISBN: 978-0195167764).
• Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles, ISBN: 978-0764313967. Serenade to the Big Bird is a great account of a B-17 bomber pilot in the Eighth Air Force. Originally published by Stiles' mother in 1947, it has enjoyed wide readership and was featured in the History Channel series "World War II in HD."
• Bedpan Commando: The Story of a Combat Nurse During World War II by June Wandrey, ISBN: 978-0962555503. Written using Wandrey's wartime diary and letters to her family, Bedpan Commando gives insight into the long hours and emotionally draining work of the Army Nurse Corps. Like Bert Stiles, June Wandrey was also profiled in the History Channel series "World War II in HD."

For the "Armchair General"

• World War II by James Jones, ISBN: 978-0448118963. James Jones is best known for his fictional works, From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line, but World War II is a personal and compelling overview of the Second World War by a talented writer and infantry veteran.
• The G.I. Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-1945 by Peter R. Mansoor, ISBN: 978-0700609581.  The G.I. Offensive, along with books like Closing with the Enemy by Michael Doubler (ISBN: 978-0700607440), take on the responsibility of refuting the notion put forward by some historians that the American Army only bested their German counterparts due to materiel and numerical superiority. The G.I. Offensive argues compellingly that the American Army, and the individual American soldier, was not just as good as their enemy but better.
• Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany by Donald L. Miller, ISBN: 978-0743235457. Masters of the Air is likely the best book on the American air campaign in Europe. Well written and thoroughly researched, it is extremely compelling despite its page count. It is also the subject of an upcoming Apple TV+ miniseries.

For the Baby Boomer

• Soldier From The War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II by Thomas Childers, ISBN: 978-0547336923. Soldier From the War Returning is without a doubt the book I have recommended the most, especially to my parents' friends and other children of World War II veterans. Childers skillfully examines the postwar lives of several veterans and confronts the "Greatest Generation" myth. In my opinion, Soldier From the War Returning is the most important book on the Second World War to be published in last several decades. For further reading on the subject, check out My Father's War by Julia Collins (ISBN: 978-1568582603) and for more general knowledge on understanding the structure of the American Army, see Finding Your Father's War: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II U.S. Army by Jonathan Gawne (ISBN: 978-1932033144).

For a more global perspective

• Quartered Safe Out Here: A Harrowing Tale of World War II by George MacDonald Fraser, ISBN: 978-1602391901. Quarteered Safe Out Here recalls the experience of George MacDonald Fraser in the British Army during the campaign to retake Burma from the Japanese. MacDonald Fraser was a very successful novelist and screenwriter, and not surprisingly, Quartered Safe Out Here is one of the best written memoirs I have ever read. Further, his defense on the use of the Atomic bombs is one of the best perspectives on the subject. Another excellent account by a British soldier is With the Jocks: A Soldier's Struggle for Europe 1944-45 by Peter White (ISBN: 978-0750927215), who fought in Northwest Europe as an infantry officer.

Enjoy!

We’re just Joe College in khaki. More Boy Scouts than soldiers are we. So take down your service flag Mother, your son’s in the ASTP!

*A version of this article appeared in the Fall 2022 edition of Drexel Magazine  

America’s entry into the Second World War led to the rapid expansion of its Armed Forces. The rush of young men into the military emptied the nation’s universities and colleges. In the first year of the war college enrollments dropped from 1,000,000 to 600,000.^[1]  College administrators worried that they would have to close their doors for the duration of the war, and senior government officials began to fear that if the war lasted more than four or five years the military would find itself in need of soldiers with technical training that the Army could not adequately provide.

The creation of the Army Specialized Training Program (“ASTP”) was intended to take the most intellectually capable soldiers from the Army and train them at the nation’s colleges in subjects with military applications like engineering, medicine, and foreign languages. The program would serve the dual purposes of creating thousands of highly trained specialists for the Army and providing a boon to struggling institutions of higher education, like the Drexel Institute of Technology.

The Army, however, was never very committed to the idea of providing higher education to soldiers, regardless of their academic abilities, when it was fighting an unrelenting global war. While there may have been a benefit in training specialized training, the real need was for combat troops – and there was already a shortage of those. On the eve of the ASTP’s introduction, the commander of the Army’s Ground Forces, General Lesley McNair bemoaned that “with 300,000 men short . . . we are asked to send men to college!”^[2] The ground forces also felt the manpower shortage most acutely because its share of quality recruits was constantly whittled away by the demands of the Army Air Forces and Army Service Forces, who siphoned off many of those who had the highest scores on the Army General Classification Test (AGCT).^[3]  McNair’s protests were overruled, in part because the War Department had already approved the establishment of the program, but his concerns proved to be prophetic.

The 3318th A.S.T.U.

On July 13, 1943, the 3318th A.S.T.U. (Army Specialized Training Unit) was established at the Drexel Institute of Technology.^[4]  By the end of the month there were approximately 400 cadets on campus, and that number would swell to 727 by October.^[5]  They were warmly greeted by school president George P. Rea who hoped that they would  “have a full share in our college life and make their own valuable contribution to it”, but Rea’s sentiments were counterbalanced by those of the unit’s commander, Colonel Ernest C. Goding, who reminded the cadets of their primary purpose: “Your main mission is to study and to study long and hard” and that “[t]he standards of Drexel are very high. . . I urge you to exert your utmost energy so that you will get the most out of the course both for yourself and your government.”^[6]

All the cadets assigned to Drexel were in training programs for engineering. Under the ASTP, the engineering curriculum was broken into basic and advanced phases. The basic phase, meant to be equivalent to the first one and a half years of college, consisted of three twelve-week terms of “general engineering” that were composed of classes in English, history, geography, geology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering drawing. The advanced phase was intended to provide coursework normally found in the second half of the college sophomore year and develop the skills of the trainee to a point “commensurate with the Army’s needs.” The duration of the advanced phase was dependent on the specialty selected by (or assigned to) the cadet: mechanical (four terms), civil (three terms), and chemical (four terms).^[7]

The necessity of teaching such vast amounts of material in such little time meant that the daily routine for the cadets at Drexel was intense. According to James F. Sterner, a cadet from Wilmington who had completed his freshman year at the University of Delaware before joining the Army, the program at Drexel was excellent, but “100% business.”^[8]

There was a grueling 59-hour weekly schedule made up of 24 hours of class and laboratory, 24 hours of study, 6 hours of physical education, and 5 hours of military training and drill.^[9]  The cadets were billeted on the second and third floors of the Hotel Philadelphian at 39^th and Chestnut Streets (now the Chestnut Hall Apartments) and ate their meals in the hotel’s ballroom turned mess hall.^[10] York native Philip E. Rohrbach detailed the daily routine of the Drexel cadets:

We would get up at 0600 hours and go down for breakfast by 0630 hours[.] We would always be dressed in our class A uniforms. At 0730 hours we would form in a column of threes outside the hotel and march down Chestnut Street to Drexel. . . It made no difference what the weather was like, we would march down to the school in the morning for 0800 hour classes. At 1130 hours we would march back for lunch at 1200 hours and march back to school for 1330 hours class. At 1630 hours we would march back to the hotel for dinner at 1730 hours. After dinner we would hit the books until whatever time we got finished our homework assignments.^[11]

Each weeknight there were strictly enforced study hours from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and bed check was 11:00 p.m.^[12]

Given the hectic pace of study, it is hardly surprising that many cadets struggled to keep up. Only weeks after Drexel welcomed its first cadets to campus, dozens had flunked out of the program.^[13]  Cadets voiced their frustration in The Triangle, criticizing the ASTP program and the seemingly unattainable standards that Drexel appeared to be setting. One cadet joked, “When someone invents a machine in which you put a man, with a year and a half of high school math, in a chair, turn on a switch, and bring forth a young Einstein, then, and only then, will Drexel be able to uphold the standards it has set.”^[14]  The Drexel cadets may have had a point. Programs at other schools, and in other subjects, were not as rigorous. Alexander Hadden, an ASTP cadet studying French at University of Illinois described his program as a joke, with rampant cheating that contributed to an atmosphere “so ridiculous that almost no one took it seriously.”^[15] If the Drexel cadets expected sympathy, they certainly did not receive it from other Drexel engineering students. An anonymous student responded to the cadets’ gripes in The Triangle by reminding them of Drexel’s reputation, and pointing out that it was common for all engineering students to struggle:

Drexel’s standards are high! This is an engineering school, not a “country club.” . . . At Drexel an average of one-third of the original entering class of engineers graduates. . . We who have studied to pass in the face of these high standards, who have been in many cases worked hard to pay for what you get for free, who pride ourselves that some day we will be graduates of a school producing good engineers don’t want the standards lowered. . . Drexel has an obligation to its thousands of graduates—past, present, and future—to maintain its standards and reputation.^[16]

While there were efforts to meld the ASTP cadets with the student body by hosting dances and concerts, wartime issues of The Triangle abound with examples of sparring between the civilian students and the ASTP-ers. While there were some romances, the simple fact was that the cadets had very little time to socialize, and the brutal cadence of the program led to more and more of them flunking out.^[17]

Rumors and Reality

As 1944 began, persistent rumors circulated about the future of the ASTP program.^[18] With American forces committed to battlefronts all over the globe, the withholding of intelligent and fit soldiers on college campuses became even less tenable.

The cadets themselves were keenly aware of how little they appeared to be contributing to the war. Cadets joked that ASTP stood for “All Safe ‘Til Peace” and the unofficial “ASTP Anthem” included the following stanzas:

Take down your service flag Mother,
Your son’s in the ASTP
He won’t get hurt by a slide rule
So gold star never need be.

We’re just Joe College in khaki
More Boy Scouts than soldiers are we
So take down your service flag Mother,
Your son’s in the ASTP. ^[19]

Even the daily march to campus could be a reminder of how war seemed to be passing the cadets by. Cadet James Nichols recalled they were sometimes heckled as they marched down Chestnut Street with “My son is in the South Pacific. How come you get to live in a hotel and go [to] school?” or “My boy was shot in Africa. He’s in the hospital. Why aren’t you fighting?”^[20]

American units fighting in Italy were suffering tremendous casualties, the invasion of France looming, and even though Congress approved the drafting of fathers, the Army was short some 200,000 men. Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall wrote to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson on February 10, 1944, laying out in stark terms the challenge and its potential remedy:

I am aware of your strong feeling regarding the [ASTP]. However, I wish you to know that in my opinion we are no longer justified in holding 140,000 men in this training when it represents the only source from which we can obtain the required personnel, especially with a certain degree or intelligence and training, except by disbanding already organized combat units. . . our need for these basically trained men is immediate and imperative. [emphasis original] ^[21]

Stimson had no choice but to drastically reduce the ASTP or risk seriously inhibiting the Army’s ability to effectively fight the war. On February 18, 1944, the Army announced that the ASTP would be reduced from 145,000 to only 35,000 men.^[22]

“The dear days at college are over”

Even before the reduction of the ASTP was announced there were attempts to assuage the concerns of the cadets. An article in the Army’s Infantry Journal reminded them, “You can be certain that you would never have been picked out of several million men and sent to school for the better part of a year unless there was a coming need of trained and educated men of your caliber” and that at the end of their training “every soldier in the ASTP will be ready for greater war responsibilities.”^[23]  Indeed some ASTP-ers considered themselves as a “substantial cut above the average G.I.”^[24]  However they would soon learn those “greater war responsibilities” would require neither their above average intelligence nor specialized training.

The announcement that the ASTP would be shut down at Drexel was met with mixed emotions. In the preceding months Philip Rohrbach had watched as half of his class washed out and he believed “I would have flunked out at the end of term if it had lasted.”^[25]  Allan Howerton, was less apathetic, “That we were full of resentment was an understatement. We were mad as hell and powerless to do anything about it.”^[26]  The consensus was that the ASTP-ers had gotten a “raw deal.”^[27]   One former cadet put the feelings of many to verse:

Say good-bye to the slide rules and textbooks,
Say good-bye to the coeds and class.
And take one last spree
As you finish term III,
For you’re going right out on your – ear!

It will make little difference to study,
You’re just like the rest of the dupes,
For win, lose or draw,
You’ll be eating it raw,
And you’re heading right back for the troops!

The dear days at college are over,
The profs and the T-squares are gone,
So cry in your beers,

You poor engineers,
You’ll be digging a ditch from here on! ^[28]

“You’re here for the duration. . .”

The Drexel cadets left Philadelphia on March 29, 1944 and began a 60-hour train ride South. On April 1, 1944, the train pulled into Camp Claiborne, and was welcomed by a military band.  The gesture fell flat with the former ASTP-ers, “to a man, the collegiate GI’s did not believe this to be a happy occasion.”^[29]  One cadet quipped, “better if they played a funeral march as far as I’m concerned.”^[30]

James Sterner was optimistic, at first. Camp Claiborne was an engineer training center and he thought the Drexel cadets would be transferred to engineering units.^[31]  When an officer announced “‘You are now members of the 84th Infantry Division’ we couldn’t believe it. We were the bottom of the food chain.” Sterner turned to his Drexel buddy Donald Stauffer, “Surely, the Army is playing an April Fool’s joke on us.”^[32]  To make matters worse, the 396 cadets were mainly assigned to the companies in the division’s infantry regiments, very few were assigned to more prestigious and safer duties in its supporting units.^[33]

Louis E. Keefer, a former ASTP-er turned infantryman who wrote the definitive history of the program, summarized the fate of the cadets, “The bottom line was that the program had been curtailed so abruptly that classification specialists had little opportunity to match trainee records against receiving unit vacancies to determine logical assignments. . . [E]very smart trainee knew the Army was treating him as just another warm body.” ^[34]  During the war serving as a rifleman in an American infantry division was exceptionally dangerous.  It was the riflemen, more than any other group, that assumed the greatest responsibility for taking the fight to the enemy. Riflemen suffered the greatest number of casualties although they made up a proportionally small part of the Army.  For example, in an infantry division of approximately 15,000 men, only 11% were riflemen, but according to a survey of units fighting in Italy they accounted for 38% of those killed and wounded.^[35]

To Allan Howerton, his new home and comrades were a marked contrast from the ASTP at Drexel:

Meek-faced young men gazed across the chow table into the sunburned faces of men hardened by months of tough training in the sand hills of Texas and the scruffy woods of Central Louisiana. Most of them felt green, out of place at first, believing themselves misfits. Barracks and pup tents were a great contrast to hotels or college dormitories. M-1 rifles were heavy compared to slide rules, and twenty-five mile marches were not like strolls around the campus with a pretty co-ed.^[36]

The anger felt by the former ASTP-ers was likely matched by the resentment of the sometimes older, and usually less-educated, soldiers in the units they joined.^[37]  The sergeants and corporals delighted in assigning the “wise-ass college boys” to menial duties and generally making them aware of their lowly station.  The welcome Howerton and his Drexel comrades received from the first sergeant of his new company was likely typical and in Howerton’s words, “summarized our condition succinctly”:

‘Men. . . you may have noticed that the ASTP boys we’ve been hearing about have come. They’re the new guys you see here. The ones who look like they haven’t seen the sun this year. . . You ASTP boys will have five weeks of special training. No books. You’ll learn to crawl in the mud under fuckin’ bullets, scale goddamn walls, and kill fuckin’ Germans and Japs. . . Them [sic] that don’t get a round up their h’ass during training will be assigned to K Company.  You’re here for the duration . . .’^[38]

The infusion of the ASTP-ers had the immediate effect of not only bringing them up to numerical strength, but also increasing their overall combat effectiveness. In some units, ex-ASTP-ers even held impromptu classes in “readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmatic” for their sometimes barely literate, comrades.^[39]

Through the accelerated training program and necessity, the friction between the “whiz kids” and the “old men” was overcome.^[40] Now a full-fledged infantryman, Allan Howerton reflected as the 84th Infantry Division prepared to ship to Europe in September 1944:

It had not been a happy time and was as close to hell as most of us had ever been. Yet amid all the grousing and the frustrations, large and small, a transformation had occurred. We had come to Claiborne as students. We were leaving as soldiers. . . although we were loath to admit it, our forced merger with the old guys had made us better men.^[41]

“You college guys piss and bleed just like everybody else”

As confident as the Drexel cadets may have been after their crash course in infantry tactics, no amount of training or intellectual prowess could guarantee their safety or survival. Allan Howerton’s platoon sergeant warned him before the 84th Division left Camp Claiborne “you college guys piss and bleed just like everybody else, don’t forget it.”^[42]

The 84th Division entered combat on the German frontier near Geilenkirchen in late November and suffered heavy casualties, with killed and wounded including former Drexel cadets. Only days after arriving on the frontlines, Private First Class Charles Randall Jr. of Waterloo, Iowa, who had joined the division from Drexel, was killed. Just three days after his 20^th birthday.^[43]  Around the same time another Drexel cadet, Private First Class Philip Rohrbach, was wounded in the head by a German grenade and taken prisoner. When he was released after five months of captivity, he only weighed 99 pounds.^[44]

As the 84th Division fought across Europe, the Drexel ASTP-ers demonstrated that they could be excellent combat soldiers. Harold L. Howdieshell, a Drexel ASTP alum, was awarded the Bronze Star medal for capturing 17 Germans in February 1945 and earned an officer’s commission.^[45]  On March 1, 1945, Lieutenant Howdieshell’s company was pinned down as it attacked enemy positions near Berg, Germany. In front of the rest of his unit, Howdieshell spotted a German machine gun, and after pushing two of his men to safer positions, began throwing grenades at the enemy. While preparing to throw his fifth grenade Howdieshell was shot and killed instantly.^[46]

Although there are no statistics on the overall performance of former ASTP cadets in combat, Allan Howerton, himself having earned a promotion to sergeant, reviewed his own company’s records after the war and found that when compared to the soldiers who they joined at Camp Claiborne fewer of the ASTP men had been killed, they were less likely to have been evacuated for minor medical ailments, and they were better disciplined.^[47]  There is additional evidence that the former ASTP cadets made excellent soldiers in their new units. For example, the 102nd Infantry Division received approximately 2,700 ASTP cadets, and almost 100 of them earned officer commissions due to their exemplary performance in battle.^[48]

Retrospective

From a military perspective, the ASTP failed to produce its desired results. It deprived the Army of a source of valuable manpower at a time when it desperately needed to expand and maintain its fighting units, and then unceremoniously dumped tens of thousands of its best and brightest soldiers into the most dangerous positions possible.

The Army was a victim of not just its own poor planning, but the demands imposed on it by the developments on the battlefields. Ultimately, any responsibilities owed to the ASTP-ers were secondary to those of the Army, and the nation, if victory was to be achieved.

However, the legacy of the ASTP is not purely one of failure. The ASTP is credited with some post-war changes to college education, namely, a general speeding up of course instruction, a greater emphasis on technological and mechanical training, and the “all conversational” technique of teaching foreign languages.^[49] Many former ASTP-ers returned to college after the war and used the G.I. Bill to fund their education. James Sterner believed that the ASTP had made him a much better student and credited his time at Drexel as the reason he was able to gain admission to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after the war.^[50]

For historians of the Second World War perhaps the greatest benefit has been the number of memoirs written by former ASTP-ers. Veterans of the ASTP program appear to have written proportionally more than maybe any other demographically identifiable group. Whether due to their higher IQs or some other factor, former ASTP-ers have provided a wealth of well-written perspectives of frontline combat in the final year of the Second World War that are invaluable to historians.

Footnotes

[1] R. R. Palmer, Bell Irvin Wiley, and William R. Keast, The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 2003), 28-29; Louis E. Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes: The Story of the Army Specialized Training Program in World War II, (Reston, VA: COTU Publishing, 1999), 8.

[2] Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes, 14.

[3] Ibid., 29-31.

[4] "Service Unit Revised," The Drexel Triangle, July 17, 1943.

[5] “Army Students at Drexel,” The Drexel Tech Alumnus, September 1943; “New Cadet Term Begun After Leave," The Drexel Triangle, October 15, 1943. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1943-10-15.pdf.

[6] “Greetings," The Drexel Triangle, The Drexel Triangle, July 17, 1943.

[7] Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes, 21-22.

[8] James F. Sterner, interview by author, Philadelphia, PA, December 17, 2021.

[9] “Army Students at Drexel,” The Drexel Tech Alumnus, September 1943.

[10] James Nichols, An Amateur Soldier, (Columbia, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014), 46; "News of Local Service Men," Seymour Citizen, July 1, 1943, Newspapers.com.

[11] Philip E. Rohrbach, World War II as Experienced by PFC Philip Eugene Rohrbach, (N.p.: n.p.), 21.

[12] Rohrbach, World War II, 20.

[13] “A Change for the Better," The Drexel Triangle, August 27, 1943. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1943-08-27.pdf.

[14] “Drexel’s Standards Too High?” The Drexel Triangle, August 13, 1943. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1943-08-13.pdf.

[15] Alexander H. Hadden, Not Me!: The World War II Memoir of a Reluctant Rifleman, (Bennington, Vt: Merriam Press, 2012), 26.

[16] “A Change for the Better," The Drexel Triangle, January 14, 1944. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1944-01-14.pdf.

[17] James F. Sterner interview; Rohrbach, World War II, 26.

[18]  “The Goldbrick in the ASTP," The Drexel Triangle, January 14, 1944. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1944-01-14.pdf.

[19] Lloyd Kornblatt, interview by Sandra Stewart Holyoak and Shaun Illingworth (Rutgers Oral History Archives), New Brunswick, NJ, July 31, 2003;  “Out Your Barracks Bag," The Drexel Triangle, October 15, 1943. October 15, 1943. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1943-10-15.pdf.

[20] Nichols, An Amateur Soldier, 47.

[21] Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes, 127-28.

[22] Ibid., 129-30.

[23] “ASTP,” Infantry Journal, January 1944.

[24] Hadden, Not Me, 46.

[25] Rohrbach, World War II, 27.

[26] Allan Wilford Howerton, Dear Captain, et al.: The Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory, (Philadelphia, Pa.: Xlibris Corp, 2000), 31.

[27] "Business as Usual - - Yet." The Drexel Triangle, March 3, 1944. Accessed January 1, 2022. https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1944-03-03.pdf.

[28] Pvt. George Hart, "FROM AST TO APO." Yank: The Army Weekly, March 31, 1944. Accessed January 1, 2022. https://www.unz.com/print/Yank-1944mar31-00021/.

[29] “ASTP Ended Recall Troops” The Drexel Triangle, April 14, 1944. Accessed March 31, 2022. https://services.library.drexel.edu/static_files/triangle/Drexel-Triangle_1944-04-14.pdf; Donald A. Edwards, A Private's Diary, (Big Rapids, MI: D.A. Edwards, 1994), 2.

[30] Ibid.

[31] The National World War II Museum, “Louisiana Spotlight: Camp Claiborne," The National World War II Museum, June 9, 2020. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/louisiana-camp-claiborne; James F. Sterner interview.

[32] James F. Sterner interview.

[33] Edwards, A Private’s Diary, 3.

[34] Louis E. Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes, 172.

[35] John Ellis, The Sharp End: The Fighting Man in World War II, (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980), 161.

[36] Howerton, Dear Captain, 29.

[37] Richard P. Matthews, Good Soldiers: The History of the 353rd Infantry Regiment, 89th Infantry Division, 1942-1945, (Portland, Ore.: 353rd Regimental History Project, 2004), 105.

[38] Howerton, Dear Captain, 30-31.

[39] Charles L. Fulton, My Draftee Life, (Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica, 2005), 21-22.

[40] Matthews, Good Soldiers, 105.

[41] Howerton, Dear Captain, 57.

[42] Howerton, Dear Captain, 328.

[43] “Pfc. Charles Randall, Jr., Died Nov. 20.” The Courier, December 7, 1944, Newspapers.com

[44] Rohrbach, World War II, 173.

[45] “Stars in Stripes” The Journal Herald, March 5, 1945, Newspapers.com; “Bulldogs FHS WWII Veterans,” Fairview ’66. Accessed March 31, 2022, https://fairview66.org/3/miscellaneous14.htm.

[46] Perry S. Wolff, A History of the 334th Infantry, 84th Division, (Mannheim, Ger.: Mannheimer grossdruckerei, 1945), 154-55.

[47] Howerton, Dear Captain, 483-84.

[48] Peter Mansoor, The GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-1945, (Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas, 1999), 43.

[49] Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes, 241.

[50] James F. Sterner interview.

When Keith Wheeler landed on Iwo Jima he was already familiar with the experience of combat. For years he had been covering the Pacific war as a correspondent for the Chicago Times, but the savagery of the fighting on Iwo Jima appalled him. Moving off the beach he recalled, "There were many dead. I thought I had never seen so many dead at the edge of a beach except possibly at Tarawa." ^[1]

On the second day of the battle he was shot in the neck while observing Marines advancing:

A violence nothing had ever taught me to believe possible smashed against the right side of my face. I was falling and as I fell a hot red freshet sprouted before my eyes.

I was hit. That unbelievably savage but painless blow that couldn't have been anything else. . . It was a bad hit. I knew that, knew where it was. All that blood. . . So that was it. I was killed. ^[2]

Saved by quick-acting corpsmen and evacuated for further treatment, Wheeler's survival was almost miraculous.

It would take Wheeler months to recover from his wounds. The majority of his treatment occurred in the sprawling Naval hospital in Aiea Heights, Hawaii, near Pearl Harbor. At Aiea, Wheeler was at first uncomfortable and embarrassed to be in the same hospital with men who had lost limbs, "I felt I had no right to confront them with my sound body" but that quickly dissipated when he spoke to some of them and noted that "they were swelled with such a bounteous load of gratitude at being alive at all that no room remained in them to harbor envy or resentment". ^[3] He could not believe how cheerful many of the wounded men were, joking and laughing about their injuries:

The capacity of wounded men to accept the loss of useful parts and functions of the body instantly, and without regret or recrimination, never failed to amaze and humble me, no matter how often it was demonstrated. I simply couldn't place myself in those shattered bodies and see how I could accept the future to which they were condemned. ^[4]

But We are the Wounded is not a superficial or propagandized story of American servicemen who thoughtlessly and without complaint offered their bodies to their country. Wheeler's writing reveals the men recovering at Aiea as individuals, each with their own feelings, fears, and aspirations in ways that few other writers have ever been able.  In We are the Wounded, Wheeler presents the casualties, typically marginalized in the telling of military history beyond their statistical relevance, not as an impersonal entity but dynamic individuals.

The following, from the chapter titled "The Faceless" is particularly poignant:

Most of the time he lay with a sheet over what was left of his head. There was another kid in the quiet room with him. They'd been buddies a long time and were together on Iwo when they were hit. The second kid had drawn a minor flesh wound. By luck they had been evacuated together and had been assigned together at a forward hospital.

It was there the surgeons noticed that the slightly hurt youngster cared for the other one constantly, fed him, washed him, and helped him to the head, waited on him like a mother.

The slightly hurt one was so good for the other that the doctors had sent them to Aiea together. And here the slightly hurt one still served his fierce and tender guardianship over the other. The one was nearly well and ready to return to duty but the doctors kept him because, it was obvious, the badly hurt one needed him.

For six weeks already the whole one had defeated the other's restless, unremitting effort to find a mirror, or failing that, any shiny surface in which he might see his face. So watchful was the other that he had not succeeded, and we thought it was well he had not.

For, from the tip of his nose down, his face was entirely gone. Beneath the eyes he was only a great flaring red hole and his tongue lay back against his neck. ^[5]

Wheeler closes We are the Wounded with prophetic admonishment to the American people.  Wounded veterans would need help, many for the reminder of their lives, "Don't forget – they earned it."^[6] Unfortunately, Wheeler's jaundiced view of the nation's appreciation for wounded veterans is as accurate now as in 1945:

After the last war the shiny plating of prestige quickly rubbed off the status of the veteran, and the glamor of a wound honorably received on a far-off field of battle proved to have little staying power. I doubt if human nature has changed much in a quarter of a century. ^[7]

We are the Wounded is available for free through Archive.org here, and in paperback here.

Further Reading

One Soldier's Story, by Bob Dole (2005). The United States Senator and Presidential candidate's memoir of his service in the 10th Mountain Division, his wounding in Italy, and lengthy recovery. It is an incredibly moving and inspiring book.

The Purple Testament, edited by Don M. Wolfe (1945). A collection of essays written by fifty-three disabled veterans that cover a wide range of subjects and give insight into the feelings of wounded veterans in the immediate post-war era.

Soldier From the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II, by Thomas Childers (2009). One of the most important books on the American experience in the Second World War, and how as a nation we understand the war's legacy. Childers weaves the histories of several veterans, including a double amputee, into a thought provoking look into how the war effected each.

The Pacific Is My Beat, by Keith Wheeler (1944). Wheeler's first book that covers his experiences in the earlier campaigns of the Pacific war, including the invasion of Attu, and is available for free on Archive.org here.

Footnotes

[1] Keith Wheeler, and A. Kendall Hall, ed. We Are the Wounded [The Illustrated Edition], (N.p.: W.K. Hawthorne, 2017), 21.

[2] Ibid., 27.

[3] Ibid., 150.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., 283-84.

[6] Ibid., 315.

[7] Ibid.

Allen R. Matthews was not a typical Marine, and his book The Assault is not a typical World War II memoir. At 32 years old, the college graduate and former newspaper reporter was the oldest man in his company, a distinction that earned him the nickname "Pop". ^[2] He  volunteered for the Marines in the spring of 1944 and was assigned as a rifleman to C Company, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division. ^[3]  Matthews only fought in one battle, and was only in combat for twelve days, but his memoir The Assault is one of the best accounts of combat in the Second World War.

"My mind could not conceive the horrors of such a campaign"

Matthews's first and only combat was on the island of Iwo Jima in February 1945 (for more on the battle see my post here).  In his naivety before the battle Matthews tried to mentally prepare himself for the worst, but his experience taught him that "my mind could not conceive the horrors of such a campaign."^[4]  

Landing on the first day of the battle, Matthews's unit was immediately in the thick of the fighting. Matthews was jarred by the experience of being under enemy fire for the first time, and the unexpected ferocity of the Japanese resistance. Battle was a foreign and frightening world:

Those noise was part of our existence as much as were the foul air and the dirty water and the obscene words and the no-food. These were everything and nothing; they were a part of time, but that meant nothing also. For time was now two-dimensional. It had its past which somehow trespassed into the now to become present but there was nothing of the future in our existence. . . Time, the basis of understanding, was a lifetime wrapped in a few days. The years which had gone before were meaningless except for their contribution to sensation: the sudden sharp memory of hot food or the exquisite realization of the meaning of warm water. The future simply was not there, either in our living or our planning.^[5]

Shortly after landing Matthews's unit was engaged in securing Hill 382, the second highest point of elevation on Iwo Jima and a Japanese strong point. Hill 382 and the area around it became known as the "Meat Grinder".^[6]  Repeated attacks against the Meat Grinder were repulsed, and Matthews and his comrades suffered tremendously. The loss of friends, the incessant noise, lack of sleep and sufficient food took its toll:

. . . we were gripped by exhaustion, a terrible exhaustion which turned our muscles to jelly and buckled our knees. And because the fatigue was nervous as well as physical, we were seized by an apathy which obliterated everything but the harrowing necessity of picking our feet up and putting them forward.^[7]  

By the twelfth day of the battle Matthews was suffering from several superficial injuries as well as mental and physical exhaustion.^[8] The last man left from his squad, Matthews was ordered to the rear, his battle over:  

So first squad of the second platoon was gone. It was gone, by ones and twos, but irrevocably, and in leaving, each member had removed not only himself but a piece of those who remained behind him. It was a truth never more apparent than in battle. The last of the twelve had been exhausted two days ago and some were dead and some were wounded and some sick and some injured. But they were gone and now I was gone also.^[9]

Almost immediately Matthews began writing down his recollections of the battle. While hospitalized he borrowed a typewriter and finished the manuscript for The Assault in just eighteen days.^[10]

"Every page rings true"

When The Assault was first published in 1947, it included a forward by Bill Mauldin, the acclaimed war cartoonist and author of the widely successful ode to the common foot soldier Up Front. Mauldin praised Matthews's work as an antidote to the rapid onset of public apathy towards books about the war. Direct and vivid, The Assault was just the book Mauldin believed the American public needed to read:

Books which undertake to prove things about war, or  to explain big-scale causes and effects, are very important reading for those who take an interest in occurrences outside their own back yards. But just as important are books like this which use plain language and fill in the unwashed, stark, and bitter part of war, in which men kill other men – not for ideals, because men in holes haven't time to think up reasons for being there; and not for military glory, because men in holes seldom know what the strategic plan is even on the other side of the hill; but simply because the men have been put there and in order to keep alive they must kill first.^[11]

Matthews's style, in particular his nearly pedantic obsession with the details of his personal battle for survival, also resonated with reviewers. The New York Times described Matthews's writing "as if he were watching himself through some impregnable window in the middle of the battlefield."^[12] The Chicago Tribune believed that The Assault was "one of the best answers we have had thus far to the question, 'What was it like?'. . . In fear-frightened prose [Matthews] takes you to the beachhead and then half carries, half drags you from foxhole to foxhole".^[13] One reviewer recognized that the literary value of The Assault transcended its subject matter and advised readers, "Don't pick up a copy of 'The Assault' with the attitude it looks like 'just another war book. It's just another war book the way 'The Red Badge of Courage' is just another war book."^[14] The Assault even received praise from renowned novelist Ernest Hemingway who called it a "first rate" book.^[15]

One reviewer who did know what combat was like, Major Orville C. Shirey, a former intelligence officer with the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy, confirmed what civilians suspected. ^[16] In his review of The Assault in the Army's Infantry Journal Shirey concluded that "every page rings true", and praised Matthews's work for its accurate telling the combat soldier's story:

While the shooting war was still going on, a lot of us wished we could make the people back home understand what a combat infantryman's life was like: noise, confusion, terrible fear, heroism, brief flashes of action, dragging exhaustion, boredom, and a great many other things that were all mixed up in our minds as combat. The Assault comes as close to telling the combat soldier's story, stripped of heroics and causes, as any book yet published.^[17]

"It is still one of the very best"  

The Assault was a commercial success, and was one of the ten best selling books in the year it was released. For the second edition, printed in paperback in 1953, Bill Mauldin included a minor but unequivocal addendum to his earlier forward, "It is still one of the very best."^[18]  Matthews passed away suddenly on July 26, 1957, but The Assault maintained its popularity.^[19] Additional reprints followed, the last occurring in 1980, and copies of later editions can usually be purchased for less than $15.

Still, because it has been out of print for several decades and perhaps because it only covers one individual's small part in a single battle, The Assault has gotten less attention from historians and readers than more recently published memoirs, especially those featured in the HBO miniseries The Pacific.  That is regrettable because when compared to other Second World War memoirs, like E.B. Sledge's With the Old Breed and Robert Leckie's Helmet for My Pillow, The Assault better conveys the chaos of battle and the visceral fear of the combatants by omitting references to strategies and tactics that are often included in more recently published memoirs to augment gaps in a writer's memory.  

As the Second World War recedes further into history, and witnesses to the major events of the conflict disappear, books like The Assault become more important because they speak for thousands of infantrymen who could not or did not leave us records of their experiences. Moreover, The Assault warrants relevance because it so perfectly succeeds in answering the question "What was it like?" by presenting combat as the "foul business full of fear and loneliness and misery" that Matthews and countless others knew it to be.

Footnotes

[1]  Allen R. Matthews, The Assault, (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead, 1980), 40.

[2] “Allen Matthews, Writer, 43, Dead; Author of 'Assault,' Novel of Marines in War, Managed Jamestown Corporation.” The New York Times. The New York Times, July 27, 1957. https://www.nytimes.com/1957/07/27/archives/allen-matthews-writer-43-dead-author-of-assault-novel-of-marines-in.html.

[3] “Allen Rabun Matthews in US Marine Corps Casualty Indexes.” Fold3. Accessed January 26, 2022. https://www.fold3.com/record/643097176/allen-rabun-matthews-us-marine-corps-casualty-indexes.

[4] Matthews, The Assault, 17.

[5] Ibid., 5-6.

[6] Joseph B. Ruth, A Brief History of the 25th Marines, (Washington, D.C.: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1981), 35-36.

[7] Matthews, The Assault, 211.

[8] “Allen Rabun Matthews in US Marine Corps Casualty Indexes.” Fold3.

[9] Matthews, The Assault, 3.

[10] “Allen R. Matthews Dies: Rites in Georgia Sunday.” Daily Press. July 27, 1957. https://www.newspapers.com/image/231113292.

[11] Allen R. Matthews, The Assault. (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1947), vii.

[12] Charles Poore, “Books of the Times.” New York Times. July 26, 1947, Saturday edition, sec. Sports. https://nyti.ms/3qZXHkb.

[13] Victor P. Hass, “Rough, Tough, Real Story of Pacific War.” Chicago Tribune. June 29, 1947, sec. Part 4. https://www.newspapers.com/image/370934070/.

[14] W.L. Maner, “War's Brutual Realism: Marine Veteran Tells Vivid Story.” Richmond Times-Dispatch . June 22, 1947, Sunday edition. https://www.newspapers.com/image/616084257/.

[15] Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Ernest Hemingway, Conversations with Ernest Hemingway, (Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1986), 50.

[16] Shirey Memorial Scholarship: a JAVA Memorial Scholarship for High School Seniors. Japanese American Veterans Association. Accessed January 26, 2022. https://java-us.org/resources/EmailTemplates/Shirey%20Scholarship%20Profile/index_preview.html.

[17] Maj. Orville C. Shirey, “Unimpeachable Account of Battle.” The Infantry Journal, August 1947, 57. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Infantry_Journal/K4HpAAAAMAAJ

[18] Allen R. Matthews, The Assault, (Garden City, N.Y.: Permabooks, 1953), 7.

[19] “Allen R. Matthews Dies: Rites in Georgia Sunday.”

Following the invasion of Southern France in August 1944 the Allied armies raced northward in pursuit of Axis forces retreating towards Germany. By October 1944 the American Sixth Army Group, commanded by General Jacob Devers, began converting Nice into the premier rest area for G.I.s.^[1]  The resulting United States Riviera Recreational Area (U.S.R.R.A.) took full advantage of the renowned hotels, entertainment, and sea front, but also relaxed traditional rules of Army discipline in order to make each soldier's visit to the U.S.R.R.A. as enjoyable as possible.

At the U.S.R.R.A. soldiers were billeted for a nominal fee of 100 francs (i.e. $2) in some of the finest hotels in the world and could visit bars and nightclubs or take excursions to nearby towns.^[2]  Rules were minimal, curfew was at 1:00 a.m. and saluting was banned. By June 1945 over 6,000 American soldiers a week were enjoying everything the U.S.R.R.A. had to offer and a general sentiment was that it was "the best thing the U.S. Army ever did."^[3]

One soldier who visited the U.S.R.R.A. around this time was Private First Class George L. Johnson, who served Cannon Company, 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division. A letter Johnson wrote during his visit gives some perspective on how soldiers enjoyed their time at the U.S.R.R.A.:

Nice, France - 2 May 1945
Time - 2040

Dear Edna,

I am now a guest of the U.S.R.R.A. (United States Riviera Recreation Area) for 7 days. It's a kind of furlough. I am living at the Queen's Hotel and I have a private bath. The first thing I did when I got here was take a nice hot bath. The trip is [one] of several that the Army has to let us get some rest and fun. I like this Riviera deal the best though. There are lots of things to do here. Take today for instance. I went on a tour by bus and I visited Grasse. There is a perfume factory there so with you people at home in mind I purchased perfume. I got Ella some liquid perfume and I got you solid perfume. I hope you like it, because I don't know much about such things, I only buy it.

I am writing this letter from the Red Cross Club here in Nice. It is the most beautiful A.R.C. club in the E.T.O.U.S.A. In fact I bet it's the finest in the world. Before the war it was the finest gambling casino in Nice and it is really something to see. There is a complete theater within the building, several ballrooms, a snack bar, a huge lounge, and many other rooms for the A.P.O., barber shop, package wrapping room, Coke bar and other things. I had my first "Coke" in about 7 months here yesterday. It was pretty good too.

A few nights ago 3 of us went out and got tight on champagne. It cost us 400 francs a bottle and it took 6 bottles to do the job but it was worth it. The trouble with wines is when you get up in the morning and take a drink of water you are lit all over again. The champagne is not the best I have tasted though, in Germany there is better stuff. The Germans also have beaucoup schnapps, vermouth, and other wines. I was drinking some 1929 Tokay just before I went to Heilbronn.

Nothing more to write so I will sign off.

Love,
George

P.S. Hitler is dead. Hot dog.  ^[4]

Further Reading

The Army provided a variety of guides to soldiers visiting the U.S.R.R.A.  Several are available for free as pdfs. (click the bolded wording to view each document).

Don't SNAFU Your Leave! (courtesy of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center).

Welcome to the Riviera (courtesy of the 284th Engineer Combat Battalion).

The Thérèse Bonney collection at the Online Archive of California has a series of photographs taken at the U.S.R.R.A.

Footnotes

[1] “U.S. at War: G.I. Heaven.” Time. Time Inc., June 18, 1945. http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,775896,00.html.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] George L. Johnson, letter dated May 2, 1945. Author’s collection, 1-4.

I recently sat down with Joseph Ricci and Riley "Bo" Trisler at Home Brew History to discuss my article on Frank Irgang's Etched in Purple (available here), and why it is important for historians to critically examine veteran memoirs.

You can listen to the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/etched-in-lies/id1511666233?i=1000532345209

In the Saturday, February 2, 1945 issue of the London edition of the Army's newspaper "The Stars and Stripes", an article was published in its supplemental "Warweek" section titled "These are the Frosty Lessons of Winter Warfare."

Although printed after the worst of the Winter storms had passed, the article provides incredible examples of how American soldiers, particularly those of the veteran 8th Infantry Division (the "Golden Arrow") adapted their weapons, equipment, and themselves, to the conditions of one of the worst European winters in history.

The article is accessible (with paid subscription) from the Stars and Stripes Archive, and is reproduced here.

These are the Frosty Lessons of Winter Warfare

INSIDE GERMANY, Feb. 2 [, 1945]

War-wise and weather-toughened doughboys of the Golden Arrow, 8th Infantry Division are too busy fighting to boast. Wiry foot-sloggers of this outfit could puff out their chests like pouter pigeons, in well earned pride, at punching two enemies at the same time. The hard winter warfare to which they are committed is a two fisted job. With one hand they beat back savage, fanatical Nazi attacks. With the other frosted hand they give winter the works. Both enemies are on the ropes from a combination of hunter-trader-trapper methods.

They are proud of their score against the Germans. They are a pale shade less proud of the way they have figured ways and means to make front-line living bearable under cruel conditions. In snow, rain, sleet, numbing cold, ice, mud or a mixture of these weather whims, they have fought efficiently and kept reasonably comfortable.

Automatic weapons men of the Eighth were quick to pick up the old hunter's trick of using lubricant slightly, or not at all, when the temperature skids below freezing. The very first day the mercury took a nose-dive below 32 degrees they learned that light oil freezes. The action locked tight. Spare the oil and keep the works working became a down-the-line slogan. And manually operating the arms a few times each day to keep the action loose became a commandment. When doctor's orders are: "Give 'em a dose of lead poisoning," the weapons fill the prescription automatically.

Their medics learned quickly, too. The nervy kids with the brassards found that by tucking morphine syrettes under the armpits—body hotboxes— they could keep them from freezing. Plasma is another critical item that froze. One bright medic, figured that by putting jars of plasma under the hood of a jeep the heat from the motor would I prevent freezing. The trick is now a medic SOP [Standard Operation Procedure].

It's in clothing that the widest use of dodges known to guides, hunters and trappers of the North Woods find the most fertile field. The gun-toters discovered after one day's use in bitter weather that the knit or leather-covered issue gloves must have been designed for use at Palm Beach. By cutting four oversize mitten patterns from discarded blankets and sewing them together they keep their fingers from becoming numbed, useless blue crabs. Some cut slits in the right palm. This makes a handy exit for the trigger-finger when the Kraut asks for quick fire-power his way. By tying the mittens on a long cord and draping them around the neck, like dog sled drivers do, the mittens don't go AWOL [Absent Without Leave].

Using the same principle, they have made muffs for their feet from old blankets. At night they take off soggy combat boots and socks, massage their feet, then pull these tootsie warmers on the bare feet. By pulling overshoes over the muffs they get extra protection to keep feet dry and warm while taking on some shuteye. Meanwhile, shoes and socks dry out. This kink, old stuff to outdoorsmen has cut trench foot considerably.

Pvt. John W. Pugh, Youngstown, O., a frontliner with the 121st Infantry Regiment of the Eighth, uses an old guide's trick to dry his shoes and socks.

When I find, a cellar to sleep in I get a can, fill it with pebbles and heat the can and pebbles over a fire. Just before I turn in for the night I dump the hot pebbles into the socks. Then I stuff the socks into my shoes. When I get up shoes and socks are dry and warm. This trick means more frequent dubbing, but offsetting that is the fact you'll not get laid up with trench foot.

Two Wool Shirts

Pugh offered another tip to wallop the weather.

I lined my field jacket with a piece of old blanket. Here's how to do it. Spread the blanket flat, open the jacket and lay it on the blanket. Cut a pattern around the outside of the jacket. Don't bother with sleeves. The lining can be pinned or sewed to the inside of the blouse.

Most of the hard-fighting, weather-bitten doughs of this crack outfit follow the old guide's theory that two wool shirts are the equal, less the weight and bulk, of one shirt and an overcoat. They switch shirts daily. When sleeping in a cellar for the night they take off the shirt next to the body. Perspiration oozes from the body even on the coldest day—makes the shirt next to the body cold and clammy.

Paper, they agree readily, is a good insulator. A few sheets of paper wrapped around the upper part of the body, between the shirts, is a buffer to keep the raw, biting wind from gnawing at the chest. A few sheets of paper slipped between blankets makes sack time sessions a lot warmer.

Paper stuffed between shoes and oversize arctics [overshoes], wiser lads knew from hunting experience, insulates the feet, keeping the body heat in and the numbing cold out, and anchors the misfit footgear together.

Heating and Cooking

Pvt. Donald E. Colt on, Coxsackie, N.Y.. a buddy of Pugh's, does some tricks with a flambeau worth passing along. For the benefit of reinforcements he explains how to make this lamp, which may also serve as a stove for heating food.

Take a bottle with a narrow neck. Fill it with gasoline to within three inches of the top. Make a wick from twisted rags and stick it in the bottle. It makes a good light for a cellar. In a pinch it can be used to heat rations. Make a grate by stacking rocks on cans alongside the flambeau. On this grate you can warm your rations. Even coffee made from the powder can be heated over a flambeau. I've heated the water in my canteen over a flambeau and tucked it in the blankets at my feet. It's surprising how quickly the rest of the body heats up when your feet are warm.

It didn't take an Act of Congress to make the doughs OK the woodsman's theory about oversize shoes or combat boots. They ask for footgear a size or two larger than they ordinarily wear. This gives enough room to wear two pairs of socks. They get a cushion effect that keeps the feet from getting sore, and the dead air space between the socks keeps the lads from getting a dose of purple foot.

Foxhole life is the toughest condition under which the doughs have had to lick Herr Jerry and Mr. Winter.

An Allentown, Pa., Joe, Pvt. Joe F. Ettl, of the 266th Field Artillery, advises newcomers to dig two-man foxholes. Here's his sound reason.

Me and my buddy dig a trench wide enough for two men to sleep in. By using a two-man hole we have ten blankets to keep us warm instead of five, which is the case if you sleep alone. We sleep on four and have six for covering up. Our shelter halves go on the bottom. Over straw, when we can get it, or over a mattress of fir boughs. We had no trouble getting boughs for back-to-nature mattresses in the Hurtgen Forest. This tip is for men who prefer blankets to the sleeping bag, which is hard to get out of when line is important.

Nothing new in that dodge. Every camper who has slept under a leanto has used balsam fir or pine boughs as mattress material. The tips of the boughs should point to the head end and the butts of the boughs toward the feet for maximum comfort.

Sgt. Gus Seftas, Charleroi, Pa., steelworker turned artilleryman, passes along these important do's and don'ts to newcomers to foxhole life.

When digging your foxhole, stay away from trees that have been riddled with tree bursts. We thought two of our guys were AWOL when they didn't show up for chow one morning. Later we found them—crushed by a shell-ripped tree that fell across their shallow foxhole during a high wind in the night.

His sound logic is:

A tree hit by shrapnel may look good on the outside. Inside, especially if it's a gummy evergreen, slivers alone may be holding the tree upright. A good puff of wind may blow it down.

Dig Holes Deep

Pfc Alvin MacKenzie, Brunswick, Maine, cut in with more advice.

"Dig the foxhole until you get dry earth—deep enough so that anything falling across it won't hurt you. On the inside border of the hole dig a shallow trench for drainage. Brace the sides with timber, if you are in a forest area, and put logs over the top for overhead cover. Remember to camouflage. It's easy to cover with snow. When there's no snow use anything that blends with the area."

There are many elaborate foxhole stoves in use among the foxhole citizens of the 8th. The one made by two privates, Stanley F. Horel, Bayside, N.Y., and Anthony Cappello, Lansdowne, Par, is a good pattern to follow.

They took a 155 howitzer case, punched a hole in the primer end for a stove pipe made from tin cans flanged in at each end so they could be nested together, and by battering the flange on the case cover had a good opening for draft.

Foxhole stoves should be set at the head end, they said. There the heat dries the ground and most of it is retained in the foxhole. The entrance end has more of a chance to dry by air.

They are help to the modern treatment of frostbite . . . rub the frozen feet, toes, or ears gently, to start circulation. The old way of rubbing frozen parts briskly with hands or snow damages tissue and opens the road to gangrene.

Medic Tips Off!

These Do's and Don'ts were suggested by Col. J. E. Gordon, of the Surgeon General's office:

DO wear loose clothing. One pair of loose gloves is warmer than two pairs of tight gloves.
DO eat. Anything will do—even a small piece of candy might make the difference between your being warm or cold.
DO sleep with as much insulation below your body as above.
DO wear your field jacket above your sweater. Cotton should always be worn on top of wool.
DON'T wear shoepacs or combat shoes for more than 24 solid hours. Remove them occasionally to massage your feet.
DON'T wear ski socks in combat boots. When wet they shrink and become too tight.
DON'T wear less than two pairs of socks in your shoepacs.
DON'T wear so much clothing that you perspire easily.

Keeping Hands Warm

Their method of keeping the hands warm that get cold in spite of mittens is worth passing on to others. Men of the Eighth poke their bare hands under the armpits, right next to the skin, where the heat of the body soon unlimbers cold-stiffened fingers.

When pinned in a foxhole by enemy artillery the men use the northwoods guide's trick of gripping the soles of the shoes with the toes, relaxing the toes and repeating about a dozen times. Done about every ten minutes this method keeps the blood circulating in the feet.

Lt. Gerald S. Parker, an artillery officer, offered a parting suggestion to reinforcements about sleeping warm.

Take a blanket, about eight feet of strong cord and a needle whittled from a piece of wood. Fold the blanket in the middle, sew along the open edge and bottom and you have an effective sleeping bag. Two such sacks, one inside the other, are nearly as warm as four blankets which are just rolled.

From the rawest replacement to top drawer brass, men of the Golden Arrow Eighth are walloping the Wehrmacht and the weather by using hunter-trader-trapper methods up at the front.

Footnotes

[1]  Michael Seaman, “These are the Frosty Lessons of Winter Warfare,” The Stars and Stripes, February 3, 1945, London edition, Warweek, iii, accessed February 2, 2021, https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/london-stars-and-stripes/1945-02-03/page-7

*This article appeared in Army Lawyer, Issue 5, 2020.

In February 1945, United Press International (UPI) war correspondent Robert Vermillion visited the positions of the 100th Infantry Division in Alsace—near Bitché, France. His intent was to interview a sniper—from Wagoner, Oklahoma, in L Company, 399th Infantry Regiment—who was credited with killing more than 130 German troops. That Soldier, Sergeant Horace Theodore West, was a thirty-five year-old Oklahoma native with thinning gray hair and skin “tanned the color of smoked ham.” During the interview, West told Vermillion (the UPI reporter) that his beloved Springfield rifle, equipped with a telescopic sight, was named after his wife Mabel.^[1]  In his story, West described the prayer he shared with Mabel and his two children before he shipped out: he asked God to “take care of all the boys on the battlefields.”^[2]  On the subject of killing, West meekly posited, “[a] man shouldn’t be too proud of killing another man.”^[3]  But, he added, “the Germans started it.”^[4]

What Vermillion did not know, and could not have known, was that the seemingly pious West had only recently returned to combat after being imprisoned for over a year. His crime? He murdered thirty-seven Italian and German prisoners of war (POWs) in an incident now known as The Biscari Massacre. New scholarship ^[5] shows that a convicted war criminal sentenced to life, paroled, and returned to combat, continued to kill; and, in the process, he became a minor celebrity in his new unit.^[6]  This new chapter of the Biscari Massacre reveals innominate dimensions of the case and unknown applications of military justice during World War II.

The Biscari Massacre

Sergeant West was a cook in A Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division when it landed near Gela, Sicily, as part of Operation Husky.^[7]  On 14 July 1943, several days after the initial landings, West’s company was engaged near the airport at Biscari. The battalion’s executive officer, Major Roger Denman, ordered West and several other American Soldiers to escort forty-eight German and Italian POWs to the rear for questioning. After marching the POWs a mile, West halted the group and selected eight or nine to report to the regimental intelligence officer. He then borrowed a Thompson sub-machine gun from his company’s first sergeant, and told him he was going to kill the “sons of bitches.”^[8]  He instructed his comrades to “turn around if you don’t want to see it.”^[9]  West murdered the disarmed POWs at close range, then reloaded and began firing single shots into the hearts of the POWs still moving.^[10]  The bodies of the executed POWs were quickly discovered and brought to the attention of II Corps Commander, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley.^[11]  The same day, West’s company commander, Captain John T. Compton, had also been involved in the killing of thirty-six POWs near Biscari. Both incidents deeply troubled Bradley, who reported them to Seventh Army Commander Lieutenant General George S. Patton.^[12]  Patton initially dismissed the accounts and told Bradley that the incidents would “make a stink in the press." ^[13] Patton told Bradley to advise the officer responsible for the shooting to say either that the dead men were snip­ers, or they were shot during an escape attempt; regardless, nothing could be done about it. However, Bradley ignored Patton and pressed for charges to be brought against both Compton and West. Patton belatedly agreed.^[14]

West was tried first.^[15] He was found guilty of the murder of thirty-seven POWs and sentenced to life.^[16] Captain Compton, whose trial took place after West, was acquit­ted of the charges against him.^[17]  Compton was then reassigned and, on 8 November 1943—roughly four months after the inci­dents around Biscari, was killed in action.^[18]

James J. Weingartner, the historian who first examined the incidents, argued that the Biscari Massacre “made the U.S. Army and the War Department acutely uncom­fortable. Both feared the impact on U.S. public opinion and the possibility of reprisals should the details of the incidents become common knowledge.”^[19] With Compton dead, the chance that his involvement would be revealed was removed. West, however, sat in an Army prison in North Africa. His brother sought information from the War Department on details of his brother’s confinement. Eventually the matter was brought to the attention of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and he recommended that West be given another chance.^[20]

In February 1944, the War Department recommended that West be granted clemency, but that no publicity be given to his case because “to do so would give aid and comfort to the enemy, and would arouse a segment of our own citizens who are so distant from combat that they would not understand the savagery that is war.”^[21] On 23 November 1944, after serving fourteen months of his life sentence, West was paroled and restored to active duty at the rank of Private.^[22]  West’s court-martial records were kept under lock and key at the Pentagon until the 1950s.^[23]

Previous scholarship traced West’s service to his parole and subsequent hon­orable discharge, but it skipped an entire chapter of his story. Following his release, West was far from inconspicuous. After his parole, the Army did not assign West to a rear echelon unit. ^[24] Instead, he progressed through the Army Ground Forces replace­ment system, joined an infantry division fighting in France, and unexpectedly found himself appearing in his unit’s newspaper, the Army’s newspaper—titled The Stars and Stripes—and newspapers across America.^[25]

Squaring Things for “The Kid”

On 24 January 1945, Private West—along with twenty-nine other replacement Soldiers—was assigned to the depleted L Company, 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division.^[26] Official records, post­war memoirs, and histories of the company give no indication that anyone there knew about his involvement with the Biscari Massacre, or his imprisonment; this is hardly surprising given the secrecy sur­rounding both events. Nonetheless, West quickly made a name for himself in his new unit as a sniper.

According to West, his sniping ex­ploits were motivated by a desire to avenge the death of “The Kid”—a young Soldier he had met in a replacement depot on the way to the front and who was assigned to L Company the day before West arrived.^[27]   As the story goes, West took The Kid under his wing, shared what he learned from his earlier combat experiences, and “warned him not to move aroun’ too much” on the frontlines, “particularly when you figure there might be a sniper around”^[28]  Unfortunately, The Kid became the victim of a German sniper almost immediately.^[29] When West arrived at the front and learned The Kid had been picked off by a sniper, he lamented it “went plumb against my liver.”^[30]  West said that “the guys in the outfit were burned up…I went to the [commanding officer] and told him I could get that sniper if he’d give me a chance. [He] said ‘Fine, go git him!’”^[31] West said he went “lookin’ for the bugger,” and his vengeance was swift:

First thing I did was to find the hole where the kid was. I asked a lot of questions, naturally, like: “where he was sitting when he got it?. . . There was no wind that day, so after figurin’ the trajectory of the bullet, I picked a spot where the lousy sniper had to be when he fired at the kid. There was a fork in the tree about five feet above the ground which made a swell spot for his gun. I thought I saw movement there and put my telescopic sight on it. Sure enough, there was his head and part of his shoulder. I drew a bead with old “Mabel” and let go. The Kraut’s head snapped up and I saw him tum­ble over backward.^[32]

In the following days, West claimed to have killed two more German soldiers as they attempted to sneak up a trail opposite his company’s positions.^[33]

On 15 February 1945, West’s com­pany moved to new positions near an observation post overlooking Reyersviller, France—dubbed “The Panama Canal.”^[34] Assigned to screen the work of Soldiers expanding the Canal, West allegedly spotted six Germans and directed 60mm mortar fire that killed them all.^[35] He then claimed to have eliminated an additional five Germans with his sniper rifle.^[36]  On another day, West was credited with the dispatch of fourteen German soldiers and a possible wounding or killing of six more while sniping and acting as a forward ob­server for his company’s mortars.^[37]

West’s reputation grew apace with his body count. He received a promotion directly from private to sergeant within three weeks of joining L Company, and was featured on the front page of the 100th Infantry Division newspaper, the Century Sentinel.^[38] In an article titled “Sniper Picks Off 17 Krauts to Square Things for ‘Kid,” his battalion commander—Lieutenant Colonel Bernard V. Lentz—praised West as “a better shot than any Nazi sniper we’ve ever encountered….I’d say he personally has pushed their line back at least 150 yards.”^[39] It was shortly after that article’s publication that Vermillion, the UPI reporter, interviewed West. The resulting story, “They Started it, Says Oklahoma Sniper with 130 Nazis to Credit,” began appearing in newspapers across the country.^[40]  A report of West’s ex­ploits also appeared in the London edition of The Stars and Stripes.^[41]

“150 Germans and a Legend”

A fascinating element of West’s story is how many of the sources refer to his earlier service with the 45th Infantry Division and his combat experiences in Sicily, but fail to adequately explain why West left the 45th Infantry Division and why he was assigned to the 100th Infantry Division almost eigh­teen months later.

The first mention of West’s earlier ser­vice appears in the Century Sentinel, which merely states that West had “been through the mill” with A Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.^[42]  The 399th Infantry’s regimental history offers what is, at best, an oversimplification: “West had fought in Sicily with the 45th. He wanted to fight in Germany, so African authorities gave him a Springfield sniper rifle and shipped him off to the [European Theater of Operations].”^[43]

The UPI story describes how West had “been shooting Germans, running, sitting, and standing since his old division, the 45th, landed in Sicily [on] July 10, 1943,” but missed combat in Italy because “he was assigned to the 100th division as a rifle company headquarters handyman.”^[44] But, the 100th Infantry Division had not even arrived in the European Theater of Operations until 20 October 1944; and, West’s assignment to the division did not occur until late January 1945.^[45]

The UPI story is also the origin of West’s unsubstantiated claims that he killed over one hundred German soldiers.^[46]  West was quoted as saying “I reckon I must have killed around 120 [Germans] in Sicily. . . . But that was close fighting. The killing in Sicily didn’t take skill as much as fire power and, most of the time, I was using a tommy gun.”^[47]  This was a particularly shocking statement from a Soldier previ­ously convicted by general court-martial of murdering thirty-seven unarmed POWs with a submachine gun.^[48]

West’s claims are disturbing and dubious. His boast of killing 120 Germans in Sicily is particularly suspicious given his assignment as a cook in the company headquarters, and not as a member of a rifle squad.^[49]  The 399th Infantry Regiment history contains a photograph of West with the caption, “Legend says West killed 150 Germans. The legend is fact,” repeating West’s likely embellishment and giving it additional authority.^[50] Furthermore, according to Roy Sees—who served with West in L Company, 399th Infantry—there were no witnesses to many of his “kills”:

He was kind of a loner, as far as the company concerned. . . . He would get up in the morning early and start out with that rifle he had and we would probably see him then later again in the evening. He would stay overnight and then get up in the morning and go sniper [sic] some more. . . . He’d come out in the morning and he’d get ready to go with his rifle on his shoulder. . . and say, “Well, I’m going to go out and kill some more Krauts” and that’s the last you’d see of him during the day.^[51]

With regard to the claim that West was responsible for the deaths of 150 German soldiers, Sees was not convinced. “It don’t sound right to me, but he was a braggart,” Sees said.^[52] “He was always brag­ging about killing Germans, whether he killed any or not was kind of a joke around the company because there was no way of proving whether he shot anybody, because there was nobody there but him….He was by himself, alone.”^[53]

“All the Good Men I Served With”^[54]

On 1 April 1945, West was evacuated to a rear hospital due to an illness—possibly hepatitis—which prevented his return to his company before the end of the war in Europe.^[55] Despite the 448 days he spent in confinement, he had enough “points” under the Army’s discharge system to be returned to the United States in October 1945, and was honorably discharged in January of the following year.^[56] There is no indication that he received any official reprimand, or otherwise ran afoul of the military justice system, after his parole in November 1944.^[57]

While it is unclear whether West—a pre-war member of the 45th Infantry Division—maintained any connection to that unit, he was a paying member of the 100th Infantry Division veterans’ association as late as 1985; he wrote in its newsletter that he would not be able to make the division’s annual reunion, but that he “would like to be there and meet all the good men [he] served with.”^[58] Horace Theodore West died in Mayer, Arizona on 24 September 1994.^[59]

The Legacy of the Biscari Massacre

This new research^[60] adds a new dimension to the narrative of the Biscari Massacre and how its legacy must be interpreted. It may be argued that one of its perpetrators, Captain Compton, received his due when he was killed in action shortly after his trial. Despite its verdict, West’s case is not sim­ple. He survived the war, escaped serious punishment, and wrought havoc upon the enemy after his early release. It appears that West’s desire to kill never waned, but was reformed and made acceptable in the mores of conventional warfare. And, in the process, West was elevated from murderer to cause célèbre.

West’s story after his parole is not one of redemption. It is a continuation of the same narrative of violence that began in Biscari. It may only serve as an example of the imperfect application of military justice in the American Army during World War II; however, it also illustrates, in the words of War Department officials, the “savagery that is war.”^[61]

Footnotes

[1] United Press Int’l, Wagoner Fighter Has 130 Notches On Garand Rifle, RECORD-DEMOCRAT (Mar. 1, 1945), https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39339365/the-record-democrat/.

[2]  Id.

[3]  Id.

[4] Id.

[5] In this case, the new scholarship is based on the author’s personal research.

[6] Sniper Picks off 17 Krauts to Square Things for Kid, CENTURY SENTINEL, Feb. 24, 1945, at 1 [hereinafter CENTURY SENTINEL]. Robert Vermillion, Missus Never Misses, Mabel Takes Care of the Sergeant, STARS & STRIPES (London), Mar. 1, 1945.

[7] Fred L. Borch, War Crimes in Sicily: Sergeant West, Captain Compton and the Murder of Prisoners of War in 1943, ARMY LAW., Mar. 2013, at 1.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id. at 2.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Id. at 3–5.

[19] James J. Weingartner, Massacre at Biscari: Patton and an American War Crime, HISTORIAN, Nov. 1989, at 38.

[20] Id.

[21] Borch, supra note 7, at 5.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] A rear echelon unit would have allowed West to avoid publicity. He also would have been safe from capture and the opportunity to divulge the events of the Biscari Massacre. RICK ATKINSON, THE DAY OF BATTLE: THE WAR IN SICILY AND ITALY, 1943–1944 at 120 (2007); Weingartner, supra note 19, at 39; Borch, supra note 7, at 5.

[25] ATKINSON, supra note 24.

[26] L COMPANY, 399TH INFANTRY REGIMENT, MORNING REPORT (Jan. 24, 1945) (on file with author).

[27] West was the one who nicknamed the young Soldier “The Kid.” CENTURY SENTINEL, supra note 6.

[28] Id.

[29] Id.

[30] Vermillion, supra note 6, at 2.

[31] Id.

[32] CENTURY SENTINEL, supra note 6, at 1, 4. It is important to note that West’s version of events differs from the memories of other L Company Soldiers. For example, John Khoury in his book, Love Company, approximates the death of the replacement as late February–not January. JOHN M. KHOURY, LOVE COMPANY (2003). Another L Company veteran, George Tyson, who wrote the definitive history of the Company, Company L Goes to War, recalls the death of a replacement that shares some similarities with West’s description of “The Kid.” GEORGE TYSON, COMPANY L GOES TO WAR 103–04 (2004). However, Tyson believes the replacement’s death was because of West’s sniping, and not the reason for it. Id. According to Tyson, West was already with L Company and actively engaged in sniping when the replacement arrived in late January 1945, and in Tyson’s opinion, the replacement’s death was likely attributable to it. Id. Also, it is possible that West referred to the replacement only as “The Kid” because neither he, nor anyone else in the company, knew the Soldier’s name. According to Tyson, when the replacement’s body was searched he was found not to be wearing any dog tags and ultimately was identified through a process of elimination by regimental staff. Id. To the Soldiers in L Company who never had the chance to meet or even see him, he “was like a ghost. An enigma. A rumor.” Id.

[33]  CENTURY SENTINEL, supra note 6 at 4.

[34] Id.

[35] Id.

[36] Id.

[37] Id.

[38] KHOURY, supra note 32, app. D; CENTURY SENTINEL,
supra note 6, at 1.

[39] CENTURY SENTINEL, supra note 6, at 4.

[40] Robert Vermillion, They Started it, Says Oklahoma Sniper With 130 Nazis to Credit, LINCOLN J. STAR, Feb. 27, 1945, at 1.

[41] Id.; Vermillion, supra note 6, at 2.

[42] CENTURY SENTINEL, supra note 6.

[43] FRANKLIN GURLEY, 399TH IN ACTION: WITH THE 100TH INFANTRY DIVISION  (1945).

[44] Vermillion, supra note 40.

[45] Id.

[46] United Press Int’l, supra note 1.

[47] Vermillion, supra note 40.

[48] Id.

[49] While West was assigned to the company headquarters as a cook, for most of the previous year he had been detached from the company on special duty—including as the acting Provost Sergeant in charge of the division stockade at Fort Devens. Second Lieutenant David T. Duncan—an officer in A Company—testified
that, on the day of the massacre, “Sergeant West was in Company ‘A’, but had been more or less in an individual capacity you might say. He was on special duty for a number of months in the [United States] before coming across, and consequently had been replaced in his squad with another Sergeant...for that reason, West was attached to Company Headquarters and was not controlling a squad.” United States v. West, No. 250833 (45th Inf. Div., 2–3 Sept. 1943), at 90; Off. of the Staff Judge Advoc., Headquarters, 45th Infantry Div., Proceedings of Board of Med. Officers 5 (26 Aug. 1943).

[50] GURLEY, supra note 43.

[51] Id.

[52] Id.

[53] Interview with Roy Sees (May 8, 2015).

[54] 100TH DIVISION ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER, HOLIDAY
ISSUE 1985, at 9.

[55] Viral hepatitis was a problem in the European Theater of Operations during the winter of 1945. The 325th Medical Battalion’s March unit journal (the 325th was the 100th Infantry Division’s organic medical unit) states that it was a major problem in the division, and the report of the following month notes that while the number of hepatitis cases had decreased considerably, it still warranted mention. 4
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE IN WORLD WAR II: COMMUNICABLE DISEASES TRANSMITTED CHIEFLY THROUGH RESPIRATORY AND ALIMENTARY TRACTS 35 (John Boyd Coates & Ebbe Curtis Hoff, eds., 1958); U.S. DEP’T OF ARMY, MONTHLY SANITARY REPORT FOR THE 325TH MEDICAL BATTALION 4 (24 Jan. 1945) (NARA RG 407, Entry 427); U.S. DEP’T OF ARMY, MONTHLY SANITARY REPORT FOR THE 325TH MEDICAL BATTALION 4 (1 Apr. 1945) (NARA RG 407, Entry 427); KHOURY, supra note 32, app. D.

[56] Certificate of Discharge, Sergeant Horace T. West (U.S. Army, Jan. 1946).

[57] Id.

[58] 100TH DIVISION ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER, supra note 54.

[59] HORACE T. WEST IN THE U.S., SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX, 1935-2014, ANCESTRY.COM, https://search.ancestry.
com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&db=ssdi&h=66536236 (search results available after signing in).

[60] The “new research” listed here was conducted by the author.

[61] Borch, supra note 7, at 5.

Infantry replacement Alexander H. Hadden arrived on the frontlines near Weiswampach, Luxembourg in November 1944 carrying a field pack containing two wool blankets, a complete change of winter clothing, a few days' worth of rations, mess kit, and his personal belongings. Hadden estimated that he was carrying approximately forty-five pounds of equipment. When ordered forward with his new company Hadden noticed the spontaneous shedding of gear, an anathema to Hadden who had been thoroughly schooled by the Army in "the sanctity of this equipment, and in the need to care for and preserve it." As the march progressed:

I became aware of items of gear underfoot and along the wayside. I was preoccupied by the anguish of my own aching muscles, however, and gave them little mind. . . Gasps and moans of distress were soon heard on all sides. Beads of sweat poured down my face. Before long there was a veritable cascade of equipment falling to the roadside, no mention soldiers who —  to the tune of muffled curses from the non-coms —  simply sat down to rest. For a time I shrank from discarding any gear. I could not imagine that our officers would condone this wholesale abandonment of government property. But eventually it became clear that they were unconcerned (indeed none of them was in any kind of "uniform"), and so I began to unload. . .

Along the route of march Hadden abandoned his gas mask, field pack, overcoat and "anything that weighed a little and that I could conceivably do without." Never again would Hadden or his comrades be required to carry every piece of equipment prescribed by Army directives, instead "with the exception of his rifle, helmet and entrenching tool[,] each man was left to his own devices when it came to deciding what clothing and equipment he would keep and what he would do without." ^[1]

"We try to go as Light as Possible"

Throughout the war the Army tried to give American soldiers the best equipment in sufficient quantities for them to be successful in every battle and, ultimately, win the war. However, the men responsible for literally carrying the fight to the enemy often disagreed with what Army planners deemed essential equipment. A YANK magazine correspondent with GIs assaulting the Pacific atoll of Makin observed:

One of the soldiers aboard was muttering to himself.
"So get the hell across the beach fast," he mimicked the captain. "Just look at me. I'm carrying a pack, a gun, a load of ammunition, two canteens, a radio set, a shovel, grenades and I don't know what all, and 'move fast,' he tells me.
"Scientific war, hell. Every time somebody invents something, they give it to the goddamn infantryman to carry." ^[2]

The culling of equipment was a universal experience of infantry combat.  Colonel James C. Fry noticed that the troops in his regiment fighting in Italy adopted a similar disregard for certain pieces of their issue-equipment after only a few days of combat:

Our first introduction to combat had accomplished a complete change in my soldiers. . . They had discarded items of equipment that, for the moment, were unnecessary. Gas masks and haversacks were nowhere in evidence. . . Pockets sagged from the oblong shaped packages of K-rations, and an extra bandoleer of ammunition swung from each rifleman's shoulder. With a keen memory for the chilly nights they had endured, most men carried a raincoat or blanket tied into a bundle by a pup-tent rope. ^[3]

To the infantryman, who depended on his mobility for survival and largely operated without the benefit of motorized transport, bulky and unnecessary items like haversacks, gas marks, and mess kits "were simply an impediment and a bore." ^[4] All infantrymen quickly learned an inarguable rule of modern combat: "Travel light. You've got to carry everything on your back." ^[5]

Even food and personal items were subject to abandonment. Veteran 4th Infantry Division rifleman Carlton Stouffer wrote to his parents from France thanking them for several packages of food but advised them not to send any more because, "we try to go as light as possible because we often march great distances and often we must move fast so we don't want extra weight." ^[6]

"Anything you couldn't carry in a pocket you shouldn't be carrying"

While many infantrymen utilized blanket rolls (a blanket and/or half of a canvas pup-tent) and gas mask bags (while the mask was of questionable utility, the canvas carrier was popular as a light pack) to carry sundries, their field jackets, shirts, and trousers provided ample pocket space.

Private and rifleman Lester Atwell catalogued the some of the contents of his pockets as his unit prepared to enter the frontlines around Metz in the autumn of 1944:

Before getting into the narrow sleeping bag, I'd dump anything hard or breakable out of my pockets: crammed wallet; cigarettes in one of those wonderful plastic cases – mine was red –; heavy, dull-bladed scout knife that some day I was going to sharpen; three pairs of glasses, all practically worthless; toothbrush; fountain pen; lumps of sugar; combination tool for the rifle; clips of ammunition; prayerbook [sic]; slips of Nescafe, bouillon, orange and lemon powder; K-ration crackers– everything went into my helmet. ^[7]

Atwell's pockets, like those of other soldiers, contained items reflective of his military occupation, ammunition and a combination tool for cleaning his rifle, but also more intimate items like a prayer book and several pairs of eyeglasses. Rifleman and 26th Infantry Division soldier Bruce E. Egger, stuffed his pockets similarly, "billfold, paybook, notebook, two boxes of lead*, two tooth brushes, bottle of halazone [water purification] tablets, sometimes as high as eight D-bars [chocolate], three bags of cococa, string, Bible, matches, knife, can opener, and a number of other pieces of equipment, can't hardly call it junk." ^[8]

Platoon leader Lieutenant Paul Fussell recalled that veteran soldiers "got rid of all but the essentials in our personal kits" and that as a rule, "anything you couldn't carry in a pocket you shouldn't be carrying." Fussell stuffed his pockets with "extra socks and gloves and cigarettes and matches and K ration and toilet paper and letters from home and V-mail forms for writing back and a pen to write with." His pockets also carried his company's mail censoring stamp, because as an officer Fussell was responsible for censoring the outgoing mail of his soldiers, a small New Testament, spoon (his only eating utensil), and food items mailed by his parents (candy, cookies, and jarred Mexican tamales and olives). ^[9]

Private First Class Thomas B. Harper III, a soldier in the Communications Platoon of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division, wrote to his parents from the frontline in France in November 1944 about the items he carried in his field jacket pockets:

"Boy do I travel heavy- listen to what I carry in my field jacket. In one pocket I have toilet articles (toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, blades, scissors, tooth brush, and water tablets!). In the other I carry matches, pipe, cigarettes, in another I carry paper, and in the last [,] two pocket knives, pencils and pen- and that's just one garment! ^[10]

As a member of his infantry battalion's Headquarters Company, Harper may have had more use for toilet articles than the average rifleman closer to the frontlines. In training and combat Harper wrote almost daily to his parents, and so the presence of writing paper is not surprising. The pen and pencils are also indicative of Harper's writing habits, but could also be used to write out radio communications. Pocket knives are utilitarian, but were also necessary for communications personnel like Harper who were issued pocket knives to strip and splice field phone wires (the smaller T-29 knife was issued to all of the members of Harper's platoon).

104th Infantry Division sniper Charles Davis carried a remarkably impressive and diverse amount of items in his pockets. In a letter to his wife he mentioned only a portion of the forty-seven separate items he was carrying while fighting Germans around Merken, Germany:

Wallet, D ration bar of chocolate, gun part, scissors, key ring, map of Germany, pay book, Red Cross coupons, letters, radio book, mirror, your picture (Jean), photo folder, pipe, Testament, fountain pen, stamps, toilet paper, German and Belgian currency, handkerchief, newspaper ["The Stars and Stripes"], needles, German coins, Belgian coins, English half crown, Religious coin, matches, rifle cleaning patches, string, three pocket knives, safety pins, nails, cigarette lighter, thimble, tweezers, salt shaker, [halazone] tablets, screw driver, pencil, Christmas card, pipe tobacco. ^[11]

The items Davis carried were fairly eclectic, but he considered the most important items, many directly related to his role as a sniper, as: matches, pocket knife, cleaning patches for his rifle, the salt shaker (Davis hated the taste of Army rations), screw driver (useful for disassembling his rifle), scissors, map, mirror, and toilet paper.

Davis admitted "that was an awful bunch of stuff for a man that was trying to travel light," but it shows how much a soldier could conveniently carry in his pockets. ^[12]

While field jackets and other outer layers were typically the garments with the most pocket space, Captain David Willis, a company commander in the 89th Infantry Division, catalogued over two dozen separate items he carried just in his trouser and shirt pockets in a April 1945 letter to his wife:

In my pockets? Left trouser pocket: blue kerchief, key case with silver dollar, pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit's [sic]; right trouser pocket: box of safety matches, two combs (don't ask me why), one pocket knife (good) and one knife with corkscrew (picked that off a German POW), nail file (with out case, BUM) and nail clippers; watch pocket: one round .38 caliber ammo, two paper clips; left shirt pocket: New Testament, rosary, tweezers; right shirt pocket: Sunday missal, small reading glass, three celluloid folders of pictures of you and Mary Lynn; hip pocket, right: billfold plus two letters from you; hip pocket, left: notebook and toilet paper. That's traveling light cuz [sic] I usually have a candle stub, Lifesaver mints, more [toilet paper], C-ration caramels or candy, your bullion cubes, my toothbrush, etc. Walking one-man general store, that's me. ^[13]

Willis's pocket contents are an interesting mixture of religious items, useful articles, and personal items, all reflective of an average soldier's wants and desires.

Another source of information on the personal items soldiers carried are "Individual Deceased Personnel Files" (IDPFs). These files, all held at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, include the burial details of soldiers killed in action during the Second World War. Most files contain a "Inventory of Effects," that details the personal (i.e. non-government issue) items found on a soldier's body at the time of burial. While the contents and details in these documents can vary greatly, they can provide an incredible amount of information on what a particular soldier carried in combat.

Below is the Inventory of Effects of Staff Sergeant Robert A. Escoube who was killed in action in the area of Bitche, France, while serving in the 100th Infantry Division in December 1944. It lists fifteen different items found on his body, including many of those mentioned in the sources examined above: photographs, religious medals, a knife, wallet, and souvenir (foreign) coins.  

Left to Their Own Devices

While pocket contents were as varied as the soldiers themselves, even in the small sample of primary sources quoted above there are a striking number of commonalties. For example, writing instruments and stationery, food, cigarettes and matches, pocket knives, and religious items are mentioned in nearly every account. Yet, each also includes specific items that are particular to each soldier, a salt shaker, nail file and clippers, toothpaste, and a plastic cigarette case.

Combat troops learned very quickly to discard equipment they determined to be unnecessary. This reduced their loads to only essential items and allowed them to move quickly on foot, a critical aspect of infantry combat. Memoirs, letters, and IDPFs provide specific details on what average soldiers considered worthy. Those items include Army-issue items, captured enemy equipment, looted civilian items, and mementos, all reflecting particular soldier's military occupations or personal needs.

Footnotes

[1] Alexander H. Hadden, Not Me: The World War II Memoir of a Reluctant Rifleman, (Bennington, VT: Merriam Press, 2012), 96-98. Other memoirs of infantrymen echo Hadden's observations and note that discarded equipment was at times salvaged by their own units and reissued, "the average infantryman had the pockets of his combat jacket crammed with K or C rations, shaving articles, pictures, cigarettes, candy, dry socks, writing paper and pens, and mess kit with spoon and fork. He would have his raincoat folded over the back of his belt or wear it to help keep warm. Also, if we were doubtful as to wherher the trucks would be able to bring up blankets at night, he would carry two to four blankets and a shelter half slung over his shoulder. Any time we had to make a foot march of more than just a few miles the roadside would be strewn with blankets, overcoats, overshoes, and gas masks. A truck would follow along behind us the next day, collect the equipment, and reissue it to us." Bruce E. Egger, et al., G Company's War Two Personal Accounts of the Campaigns in Europe, 1944-1945, (University of Alabama Press, 1992), 119.

[2] "Random Notes on the Makin Operation, From a Reporter's Invasion Diary." YANK The Army Weekly, January 7, 1944, 7-8. Accessed January 10, 2021, https://www.unz.com/print/Yank-1944jan07-00008/

[3] James C. Fry, Combat Soldier, (Washington, D.C.: National Press, Inc., 1968), 43.

[4] Paul Fussell, Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic, (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1998), 136.

[5] Bill Mauldin, Combat Tips for Fifth Army Infantry Replacements, (N.p., 1945), 8.

[6] Carlton H. Stauffer, Rifleman : Pfc. Carlton H. Stauffer, 13128357, Pennsylvania State Archives, Manuscript Group 7, Military Manuscripts Collection #365, Miscellaneous Papers of Carlton Stauffer(Accession #2526), 187.

[7] Lester Atwell, Private, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958), 40.

[8] Egger, G Company's War, 155. *It is unclear if Egger's reference is to boxes of pencil lead, for example for a mechincal pencil, or using the slang meaning of "lead" to refer to ammunition. In the author's opinion, Egger is referring to ammunition.

[9] Fussell, Doing Battle, 136.

[10] Thomas B. Harper III, letter dated November 24, 1944. Author’s collection, 2.

[11] Charles Davis, The Letters of a Combat Rifleman, (Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Pub., 2001), 104.

[12] Ibid.

[13]  Richard P. Matthews, Good Soldiers: The History of the 353rd Infantry Regiment, 89th Infantry Division, 1942-1945, (Portland, Ore.: 353rd Regimental History Project, 2004), 336.

Albert S. Brown was a Sergeant in a machine gun section of H Company, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division during the Second World War. Brown joined the division shortly before its landing at Anzio in Italy in January 1944, and by December his unit had fought through Southern France and was in positions near Sigolsheim, in Alsace. At the age of 20, having been in combat for nearly a year and experiencing his first Christmas under fire, Brown reflected on the scene surrounding him on Christmas Eve.

[O]n December 24, 1944, my machine guns were in the basement of a farmhouse on the outskirts of Sigolsheim, France. . .

It was brutally cold and a time to be indoors whenever possible. The temperature outside was below zero with more than a foot of snow. . . Our machine guns, being water cooled, required the use of antifreeze to keep the water from freezing. We were out of antifreeze, so we had filled our guns with schnapps. . .

Above us, on the second floor, leaning against the sill of an open window, was a German soldier, frozen stiff. He was still holding his rifle pointing in the direction from which we had attacked earlier that day. He was older than the average frontline soldier. I guessed him to be forty-five to fifty years old. He was wearing military-issue, wire frame glasses with circular lenses. On his finger was a wedding band. He was obviously a husband and, in all probability, a father. He would never see another Christmas with his family. How sad. . .

Then suddenly, at around 10:00 p.m., there was an intense incoming artillery barrage in front of our position. It lasted only a minute or two, and then it was over. A reconnaissance patrol from one of our rife companies had been detected as it was returning from its mission, and the enemy was really giving it to them.  

A couple minutes later, the patrol entered our basement carrying a badly wounded soldier and left him with us. There was nothing anyone could do for him. His brains were protruding through a shrapnel hole in the center of his forehead. . . the man just lay there motionless, except for light breathing. . .

So this was my Christmas Eve 1944 - a dead enemy above me and a dying fellow soldier at my feet. While my men slept around me, I had no desire to sleep. I just sat in a chair, wondering if there was something I could and should do for this man. But nothing came to mind. It must have been about 2:00 a.m. when I could no longer see signs of breathing. He had made it to his last Christmas. One thing for certain, I knew that I would never have another Christmas Eve without this night coming back to me. I was so right. ^[1]

Brown would be wounded in action a month later as his company fought against German units in the "Colmar Pocket," but would return and fight through the final months of the war in Europe.

Reflecting on his wartime experiences, Brown recalled "I was jubilant when the war was over, then hit bottom again when I thought how many we left along the way." ^[2] In his memoirs, Brown often reflects on the "human slaughter" he witnessed, and in a poem titled "Why Not Me?" pondered his own survival:

Why Not Me? . . .

Again and again we charged the enemy lines.
We moved against bullets, shells, and mines.

We moved together, my comrades and I.
How was it determined who should live and who should die?

For years I have pondered this mystery.
Why was it them? Why not me? ^[3]

Brown passed away on December 8, 2018 at the age of 94. ^[4] His memoirs, My Comrades and Me: Staff Sergeant Al Brown's WWII Memoirs, are available from Xlibris.com and several interviews with Brown have been posted on the Witness to War website.

Footnotes

[1] Albert S. Brown, My Comrades and Me: Staff Sergeant Al Brown's WWII Memoirs, (TX: Xlibris Corporation, 2011), 234-35.

[2] "Al Brown: H Company, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division - Army." Witness to War: Preserving The Oral Histories of Combat Veterans. Accessed December 12, 2020. https://www.witnesstowar.org/combat_stories/WWII/4833.

[3] Brown, My Comrades, 288, 312.

[4] "Albert S. Brown MARCH 20, 1924 – DECEMBER 8, 2018." Accessed December 12, 2020. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/tampa-fl/albert-brown-8082155.

The Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library (CARL), is the digital repository of U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. It contains a diverse collection of student papers, issues of the Military Review (the professional journal of the U.S. Army), and World War II operational documents. All are available for free through the CARL database.

Combat Lessons

Some of the most interesting documents available on CARL are "Combat Lessons - Rank and File in Combat: What They're Doing and How They Do It." First published in 1944, "Combat Lessons" was intended to quickly disseminate information on combat experiences of officers and enlisted men in all overseas theaters of operations. Each issue of "Combat Lessons" covers a wide array of topics, from leadership to the training of replacements, and frequent discussions of how to best employ weapons and equipment based on experiences at the front.

While offering a general view of how trends may have developed across the Army, "Combat Lessons," typically identifies the individual soldier quoted or their organization.

All nine issues of "Combat Lessons" are available on the CARL database and below (click each title below to view a pdf. of the issues).

Combat Lessons No. 1

Combat Lessons No. 2

Combat Lessons No. 3

Combat Lessons No. 4

Combat Lessons No. 5

Combat Lessons No. 6

Combat Lessons No. 7

Combat Lessons No. 8

Combat Lessons No. 9

Battle Experiences

Similar to "Combat Lessons," Army leadership in the European Theater of Operations collected their own information from units in the field. The resultant document, "Battle Experiences," contains the cumulative lessons-learned while fighting the German Army in Northwestern Europe. Like "Combat Lessons," the topics are varied, but "Battle Experiences" usually contains much more detailed information, however, earlier reports often do not identify the particular organizations that are the source of information.

The European Theater also prepared a complimentary document on information learned from fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. Dated May 1, 1945, "Battle Experiences Against the Japanese" was published as the European war was winding down and Army leadership was already planning the redeployment of certain combat units to the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Both "Battle Experience" volumes are available on the CARL database and below (click each title below to view a pdf. of each document).

Headquarters European Theater of Operations United States Army : Battle Experiences

Headquarters European Theater of Operations United States Army : Battle Experiences Against the Japanese

The CARL Digital Library

"Combat Lessons" and "Battle Experiences" are just two examples of the types of documents available on the CARL Digital Library. With a little patience and creative keyword searching, it can be an invaluable research tool.

* This article appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of WWII Quarterly.

On the third anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, men of the Powder Horn Regiment, the 100th Infantry Division’s 399th Infantry Regiment, were poised on the outskirts of the small Alsatian town of Lemberg in northeastern France. The 100th Division, part of General Alexander Patch’s 7th Army, was advancing through the Low Vosges Mountains towards German positions around the Maginot Line fortifications at Bitché. ^[1]

The soldiers of the 399th were the first of the 100th Infantry Division’s units to enter combat, and relieved elements of the battle weary 45th Infantry Division in the Vosges Mountains near St. Remy, France, a month earlier. In their first month of action, the 399th along with the rest of the 100th Division, successfully breached the German winter line near Raon l’Etape and the Meurthe River. The 1st battalion of the 399th would ultimately be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its part in the assault.  The 1st battalion’s commander, class of 1937 West Point graduate Major Elery Zehner, had a reputation for aggressiveness and leading from the front. When the leading companies in the battalion’s first offensive action at St. Remy stalled under German artillery and machine gun fire, Zehner marched over 400 yards of open ground to personally lead the advance into the town. His actions that day would earn him the Distinguished Service Cross. ^[2]  Zehner is also credited with originating a unique fashion trend in his battalion. Zehner wore a red scarf, a style that dozens if not hundreds of men his battalion would later emulate, and under Zehner’s leadership the 1st battalion became known as the “Red Raiders.” ^[3]

In early December the 399th doggedly pursued retreating German units its drive towards the fortress city of Bitché, ringed by Maginot Line fortifications and dominated by a citadel that was built by Louis XIV. ^[4]  100th Division G-2 records show that as Major General Burress, the 100th Division’s commanding general, and Colonel Andrew Tychsen the commander of the 399th Infantry, discussed plans for attacking Lemberg, Burress remarked that while he did not want to be optimistic he thought the town was “pretty well cleared out.” ^[5]  Tychsen’s reconnaissance told him of several German positions in the hills to the east of the town and when he informed Burress that the enemy was in Lemberg the night before the planned assault, Burress responded “We will shoot the hell out of them tonight and see if they are still there in the morning.” ^[6]

What Burress and Tychsen did not know was that their adversary, Major General Alfred Philippi the commander of the 361st Volks-Grenadier Division, a veteran of the Russian Front and recipient of the Knight’s Cross, correctly surmised that the American advance would proceed along the main road leading through Lemberg to Bitché and concentrated his forces there. ^[7]  Philippi’s infantry units had been badly mauled in the preceding two months, and on the eve of the American attack on Lemberg he was forced to “comb out” his rear echelon in order to provide replacements for the 953rd Grenadier Regiment defending Lemberg. Still his units were  grossly undermanned. For example, the 2nd battalion of the 953rd was only around 200 soldiers, not even a third of its table of organization strength. ^[8]  Philippi’s preparations were extensive. He blew a road bridge in the path of the American advance, mined roads and the forests around them, and assembled five anti-tank guns and four anti-aircraft 20mm cannons. Philippi’s defense also included an anti-aircraft Flak battalion, equipped with mobile flakwagens mounting 20mm cannons. ^[9]

Tychsen’s plan was to use his 1st battalion to attack on his left flank, cutting the Enchenberg-Lemberg road before proceeding over railway tracks and into the wooded high ground to the north and west of the town while the 3rd battalion advanced on the right flank cutting the Lemberg-Mouterhouse road before seizing several hills which bordered the town to the east. ^[10] The attack was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. December 7, 1944 and would begin after a twenty-minute artillery barrage. ^[11]

The 1st battalion had drawn the tougher assignment. Its route of advance was largely over open ground and its attack would in broad daylight. ^[12] The 3rd battalion’s orders contained their own dangers. Tychsen had received reports that there was at least one pillbox and armor protecting the road and hills in the path of the 3rd battalion’s advance, and the steeply wooded hills would minimize or completely negate the amount of support the attached armored units could give to the attacking riflemen. ^[13] Also, intermittent rain and snow nullified any impact American air power could lend to the American troops. If the Germans in Lemberg were determined to defend the town, it would be largely on their terms.

Disaster

Major Zehner, leading the 1st battalion commenced his attack at 9:00 a.m., thirty minutes before the planned start time. ^[14] For troops in the 1st battalion, disaster struck immediately. Instead of the roaring artillery barrage that the soldiers had been expecting Raymond Howarth, a mortarman in B Company recalled that the “rolling barrage, to me, seemed to consist of just a few artillery rounds placed haphazardly.” ^[15] The soldiers in Howarth’s B Company, which would be advancing over barren farm fields questioned the intelligence of their orders. Automatic Rifleman Manson Donaghey recalled that the enlisted men around him thought the idea of crossing open fields in daylight was crazy, and that “before we stepped into that field the guys were all looking at each other thinking ‘We can’t go out there across that open field’ the dumbest Private there knew that was a stupid plan.” ^[16] Rifleman Carl Fleck told his sergeant that “the whole deal of advancing in skirmish lines over open ground sounded as foolhardy as Pickett’s charge in Gettysburg.” ^[17] Even the company commander, West Point graduate Captain Altus E. Prince may have been critical of the proposed plan of attack. He is alleged to have told his First Sergeant that “nothing in training would justify sending our company across that open ground.” ^[18] When B Company began its attack, leaving the protective cover of a tree line, the Germans waited until the leading platoons advanced approximately 200 yards and crossed the Enchenberg-Lemberg road before unleashing a fusillade of small arms and artillery fire. The soldiers already across the road were helplessly exposed to German fire, and casualties began to mount. Ray Howarth saw a man decapitated by a 20mm cannon shell and “could see men being hit all around me, and everyone seemed to be screaming”. ^[19] Those who could desperately tried to escape the maelstrom by running back over the road and taking cover in a shallow drainage ditch that provided some protection from small arms fire. Even there safety was not guaranteed. As Manson Donaghey laid in ditch beside the Enchenberg-Lemberg road the two soldiers on one side of him were wounded, and Private First Class Daniel Hale, Donaghey’s ammunition bearer, who was laying on the other side a mere six feet away was struck by fragments from a tree burst that killed him instantly. ^[20]  While most soldiers did their best to dig into the frozen ground for protection, others aggressively engaged German gunners. Sergeant Charles Adamcek’s squad set up their light machine gun in the open and, despite being seriously wounded, Adamcek directed their fire which knocked out a German flakwagen. ^[21] Ray Howarth ordered his squad to set up their 60mm mortar with the sight upside down, so they could manipulate it from the prone position, and to use the crack of his ass as an ad hoc aiming stake. His squad immediately placed a 20mm cannon under fire and destroyed it on their second round, and then Howarth systematically aligned himself with other targets as his squad rapidly fired their mortar. He believed that their continued firing knocked out a flak wagon, two German machine gun positions, and reduced the amount of fire direct at his company. ^[22] Another B Company soldier, Private First Class Dick Jones, ran “with bullets whizzing by like a swarm of hornets” back across the Enchenberg-Lemberg road where his platoon and the company commander, Captain Prince were pinned down and strung field phone wire that allowed Prince to regain contact with battalion headquarters and arrange for supporting artillery fire. ^[23]

C Company, which had been advancing on the right flank of B Company was hit with the same barrage of fire as it moved into the open fields around Lemberg. Walter Bauer recalled that “you couldn’t do anything. You just had to lie there and take it and try to shrivel up and crawl into the earth when each shell whistled in.” ^[24]  Charlie Company also hit back. Private First Class Richard Jackson displayed incredible bravery by leaving his sheltered position in the woods near the line of departure, and without orders led his squad into the open fields where it could fire its 60mm mortar at German positions. Despite the unrelenting German artillery and mortar fire, Jackson coolly operated his weapon and dropped mortar shells onto a German position firing at B Company. ^[25] Jackson’s fire also allowed two of C Company’s platoons to advance, and GIs led by Sergeant Frank Rubino and Private First Class Donald Taylor managed to capture two 20mm guns that were battering their sister companies before being forced to retreat. ^[26]

Meanwhile on the battalion’s left flank A Company, which was largely shielded from German observation by trees nevertheless began to suffer casualties. They had walked into the minefields set by Philippi’s Volksgrenadiers in the days preceding the attack. Frank Gurley, a rifleman in A Company, remarked “the ones who didn’t step on a mine got shrapnel” because the Germans had “laid traps and zeroed in with artillery and took a worse toll than a stubborn line of defense ever could have.” ^[27] David Parr, a radio operator who had been loaned to A Company from the 1st battalion Headquarters confessed that “I was never more scared in my life.” Under constant shellfire Parr recalled that the noise was so great that “you could shriek your prayers and no one would hear you” and that “it was impossible to find a place to hide. The forest floor was all roots and stones. No place to dig in." ^[28]  Gurley and his buddy tried to dig a foxhole but it quickly flooded, he concluded that “the joint was a reservoir covered with dirt and trees.” Instead he built his foxhole vertically, using logs to assemble a rickety log cabin and philosophized that “its value against incoming stuff was dubious but a sense of security is more important than security.” ^[29]

By noon it was clear that the 1st battalion’s attack had failed. Major General Burress spoke by radio with Colonel Tychsen early in the afternoon and told him that he was concerned by the 399th’s the lack of progress. Tychsen, either because he was unaware of how badly the attack was floundering, or to downplay the situation, told him that there were not “too many casualties” and that he already was formulating a plan for a renewed assault in the morning. ^[30]

In the fields around Lemberg, and in the town of St. Louis les Bitché casualties were being collected, the outlook was not as optimistic. The wounded were not only exposed to German fire, but also a steady freezing rain. There was a shortage of stretcher bearers, and the wounded were sometimes left unattended for hours. ^[31]  Leon Wiskup, a machine gunner in A Company was wounded by a landmine that almost severed his foot shortly after the attack began. After being treated by one of his company’s medics he was left wedged against a tree on the side of a hill and drifted in and out of consciousness for hours. As night fell, “I was freezing and the morphine was wearing off. I said ‘Nobody’s going to hear me. I’m not going to cry or anything like that. I’m just going to die silently. Nobody’s going to hear me complain.’” Then he heard footsteps in the snow, and an American voice swearing, fortunately a stretcher party had been nearby as Wiskup regained consciousness. He cried out “I’m over here! I’m over here!” and the stretcher bearers carried him to their jeep. ^[32] Because of their exposed position, most of the soldiers in B Company could not withdrawal until after dark. When they tried to get up and run back to the protection of the woods they struggled to stand because their legs were numb from cold.  Roy Gray made his way to safety by “half crawling and stumbling, ramming my M-1 [rifle] in the mud, all I saw was [sic] dead bodies”. ^[33] The B Company history states that the company’s retreat was “a sorry spectacle, the living carrying the half dead, the lesser wounded struggling back with their more sorely wounded comrades, others dragging themselves out by sheer willpower, the dazed and half crazed stumbling ahead of them leaving this hellish place. Prayers of thanks mingled with curses of hate.” ^[34] B Company’s total casualties for the day were 17 dead and 34 wounded, but in testament to the horrors these men witnessed 12 men were evacuated for exposure, shell shock, or nervous conditions.  In C Company Walter Bauer had been sent to the battalion aid station after watching men blown apart by cannon shells and retreating to the wood line, but when Bauer got to the aid station and saw “all the guys from Charlie Company torn up and bloody, I figured there was nothing the matter with me” and returned to the line to find his platoon was down to only eight men, the equivalent of an under-strength squad. ^[35]

As units tried to reorganize and assess their losses more than one soldier believed that their companies had been annihilated and one company suffered a profoundly tragic loss. ^[36]  Chester Fraley of A Company, who had transferred from the 398th Infantry Regiment shortly before the division embarked for France to serve alongside his twin brother Lester in combat, searched the battlefield for Lester from whom he had become separated during the day. ^[37] Their comrade Robert Hogberg, heard Chester Fraley “calling for his brother Lester who had been killed in the area. His plaintive call was chilling and very sad, I’ll never forget it.” ^[38] All night the Germans continued to fire on the 1st battalion’s positions, the regimental operations report notes “there was precious little rest for the 1st battallionites that night." ^[39]

The Battle for the Hills

On the right flank of the American attack, the 3rd battalion of the 399th was also running into stiff German resistance and was unable to relieve pressure on the 1st battalion by outflanking Lemberg from the east. The attacking American companies were repeatedly pinned down in the ravines and on the hills that lay in the path of their advance. Even after calling in several tremendous artillery barrages they were only able to make minimal advances. One of the attacking companies had 70 casualties. ^[40]

As darkness fell it was clear to Colonel Tychsen and the rest of the 399th regimental staff that the attacking companies had lost contact with their adjacent units and were in danger if firing on each other in the darkness. Also, Tychsen’s headquarters building was being targeted by German artillery observers. The German fire was so accurate that one shell, mercifully a dud, landed just outside the front door. ^[41]

During the night of December 7th Colonel Tychsen retooled his original plan to capture Lemberg, and called upon his 2nd battalion, which had been in reserve, to move astride the 3rd battalion and attempt a wider flanking assault of the hills stalling their advance and hopefully force the Germans to retreat out of the town. ^[42] In the midst of the planning, Major Zehner strode over the unexploded German artillery shell outside and into Tychsen’s headquarters, and offered to continue his attack straight into Lemberg itself with some armor from the 781st Tank Battalion he had located. Tychsen, aware that Zehner’s rifle companies had been hit hard that day, and with tears in his eyes, replied gratefully, “Would you?” ^[43]

Finale

As dawn broke on December 8th it became apparent that the 1st battalion was unable to immediately renew its attack. Frank Gurley remembered that as men from A Company streamed back into St. Louis les Bitché that morning that “everyone looked like they had just gone thru [sic] a ringer.” ^[44] During the day the 1st battalion remained in positions in and around St. Louis les Bitché. To one B Company survivor it looked as though the company had lost a third of its men. ^[45]  C Company which had only lost one man killed in action had 27 men wounded. ^[46] In A Company one platoon was down to 14 men, less than a quarter of its strength, and the prevailing opinion was that their company would not be committed again for another few days. ^[47] As they dried their clothes and gorged themselves on C rations the order came to “Get your stuff on, we’ve got to take Lemberg.” ^[48]  The attack launched by the 2nd battalion had succeeded in capturing a number of hills outside of the town and elements of the 3rd battalion were able to enter the outskirts of Lemberg. ^[49]  The weary 1st battalion was needed to help secure the southern reaches of the town.

Around 5:00 p.m. Sherman medium tanks from the untested 781st Tank Battalion were rushed forward under a protective smoke screen, and despite having two tanks immediately disabled by mines, pushed into town supported by the remnants of A and C Companies and fired point blank into at any house German soldiers fired from. ^[50] As night fell on December 8th the 1st battalion had a foothold in the town, but cohesion between its weakened companies had all but disintegrated. In the dark, with the only light provided from burning houses, the companies could not coordinate their positions. Frank Gurley from A Company heard someone approaching, and assumed it was a soldier from C Company that was supposed to be nearby, “I helpfully yelled ‘Who is it? The only answer I got was one word – ‘Vas?’ and even I know enough Deutsch to know that to be Kraut lyrics. I shut up.” ^[51] C Company mortarman Richard Jackson, experiencing urban combat for the first time recalled that “to move into the blackness of cellars was scary, on top of that the Lemberg residents were happy to hear GI voices and they grabbed us in thanks” as the soldiers tried to search their homes for Germans. ^[52] After clearing a few houses the men bedded down for the night, exhausted from their two-day ordeal.

Outside of town, the 2nd battalion was bearing the brunt of a fierce counterattack spearheaded by Philippi’s flakwagens. In the pre-dawn hours of December 9th German troops attacked F Company’s positions near a railroad cut east of the town. Screaming “Pigs give up or die!” German soldiers rushed the company’s positions. ^[53]  F Company soldier Hal Bingham recalled that “those that could, ran from the deadly fire . . . we had been exposed to the intense cold most of the night in our holes. Our limbs were numb, but we made them work like they had never worked before.” When F Company returned to their original positions on December 10th they found the bodies of some of their men lying side by side, all with bullet holes in their heads and their arms tied behind them. ^[54]  One of the executed was a close friend of Hal Bingham, and after seeing his dead buddy Bingham “cried like a baby between hurling profanity at the Krauts. . . I learned to ‘hate’ from that experience.” ^[55]

By the morning of December 9th Colonel Tychsen was fully aware of how badly his troops had suffered in taking Lemberg. Major General Burress was ready to move fresh troops from the 398th Infantry into the town if necessary, but although Tychsen confessed that A, B, and I companies were each “down to the size of a good-sized platoon” he was confident that “we will have this place today." ^[56]  He pushed his weakened 1st battalion, supported by Sherman tanks from the 781st Tank Battalion who continued to fire point blank into enemy-held houses, to push through the remainder of the town. As the American soldiers reached the outskirts of Lemberg the enthusiastic tankers charged on and annihilated a German column that included three flakwagens, two 75mm field pieces, and two howitzers. ^[57]  Tychsen’s predication was correct, by 11:45 p.m. on December 9th Major Zehner radioed that Lemberg was completely occupied, except for snipers “here and there.” ^[58]

Conclusion

As the 1st battalion was withdrawn from Lemberg and placed in reserve at St. Louis de Bitché the soldiers marched over the first day’s battlefield. Frank Gurley recalled that “we saw the vast field of craters we had crossed two days before and couldn’t believe we had actually done it.” ^[59]  The attack on Lemberg had been a success, but at a terrible and unsustainable cost. The first day of the attack on Lemberg was the bloodiest day of the war for the Red Raiders and the brutality of the fighting overshadowed either side’s strategy. The Germans defending the town had shown that when possible they could check the American advance for days at a time with relative ease, and to an American survivor of the attack on Lemberg the battle showed that not even the 1st battalion’s courageous leader Major Zehner could “turn a clever enemy ambush into a glorious 1st [battalion] victory.” ^[60]

Footnotes

[1] Keith E. Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, (New York: Presidio Press, 1994), 146.

[2] Robert Stegmaier and Franklin Gurley. "The 100’s Most Decorated: Elery M. Zehner." The George C. Marshall Foundation. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://www.marshallfoundation.org/100th-infantry/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2014/06/Stegmaier_The_100s_Most_Decorated.pdf

[3] Ibid.

[4] The Story of the Century, (Orientation Section, Information and Education Division, ETOUSA, 1945), 23.

[5] 100^th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 6 December 1944, 2045h.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Bonn, When the Odds Were Even, 152; Alfred Philippi, 361st Volksgrenadier Division (31 August – 16 December 1944), MS. B-626, USAREUR Series, 1947, P. 61

[8] Ibid.; Under the Volks-Grenadier table of organization, a standard battalion (of which there were two in each infantry regiment) would be 708 men. TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces, March 15, 1945. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Germany/HB/HB-2.html.

[9] Ibid.; Operations Reports, 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Division, 1 November 1944 – 30 April 1945.

[10] 399th Regimental Combat Team Operations Instructions No. 17, 6 December 1944; Carl Fleck, Carl Fleck’s Diary, 2nd Platoon, Company B, 399th Infantry, 100th Division, (N.p. : N.p.), 24;  Donald A. Waxman, George R. Widmaier, and Wallace E. Balliet. A History of Company C 399th Infantry, (N.p. : 1945), 13; Operations Reports, 399^th Infantry Regiment, 100th Division, 1 November 1944 – 30 April 1945.

[11] 399^th Regimental Combat Team Operations Instructions No. 17, 6 December 1944.

[12] Even Maj. Gen. Burress was worried about the 1st battalion’s route of attack. Shortly after the attack began he confided to Assistant Division Commander, Brigadier General Maurice Miller, that he was “worried about [Maj.] Zehner crossing open ground.” 100th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 7 December 1944, 0945h.

[13] 100^th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 6 December 1944, 1700h.

[14] 100th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 7 December 1944, 0845h; Fleck, Carl Fleck’s Diary, 24; Waxman, A History of Company C, 14.

[15] Raymond S. Howarth, Memoirs, (N.p. : N.p.), 15.

[16] Interview of Manson Donaghey, September 21, 2015; Interview of Manson Donaghey, November 8, 2014.

[17] Fleck, Carl Fleck’s Diary, 24.

[18] Stegmaier, "The 100’s Most Decorated: Elery M. Zehner."

[19] Howarth, Memoir, 15.

[20] Manson Donaghey Letter. May 25, 1945. 5; Interview of Manson Donaghey, September 21, 2015.

[21] Franklin Gurley, ed. 399th in Action: With the 100th Infantry Division, (Stuttgart: Stuttgarter Vereinsbuchdruckerei, 1945), 59; General Orders of the 100th Infantry Division No. 95, May 5, 1945.

[22] Howarth, Memoir, 15.

[23] Fleck, Carl Fleck’s Diary, 26.

[24] Waxman, A History of Company C, 14.

[25] General Orders of the 100th Infantry Division No. 95, May 5, 1945.

[26]  Gurley, 399th in Action, 59; General Orders of the 100th Infantry Division No. 226.

[27] Franklin Gurley. A Company Scout, (N.p. : N.p.), 124.

[28] David Parr, Memoirs, (N.p. : N.p.), 3-4.

[29] Gurley, A Company Scout, 122.

[30] 100th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 7 December 1944, 1340h.

[31] Gurley, A Company Scout, 123; Gurley, 399th in Action, 60.

[32] Interview of Leon A. Wiskup by Nancy Dahl, June 24, 2011. P.43-45.

[33] B Company, 399th Infantry Newsletter, Issue 24, 3.

[34] Mark Megna, B Co, 399th Inf. France and Germany. N.p. : N.p., 1945), 17.

[35] Waxman, A History of Company C, 16.

[36] Roy Gray, The War as I Remember It, (Gray’s Printing House, 1996), 11; Waxman, A History of Company C, 14-16.

[37] Gurley, Franklin L. Into the Mountains Dark: A WWII Odyssey from Harvard Crimson to Infantry Blue. Bedford, PA: Aberjona Press, 2000. P. 237.

[38] Robert A. Hogberg, Military Service Memories of Robert A. Hogberg ASN 16175039, (N.p. : N.p.), 23.

[39] Operations Reports, 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Division, 1 November 1944 – 30 April 1945.

[40] Gurley, In Action with the 399th, 60.

[41] Edward Abramson, "Interesting Letter." 100th Infantry Division Assoc. News, Holiday Issue 1986, 9.

[42] Michael A. Bass, ed. The Story of the Century. The Story of the 100th Infantry Division, (New York: Century Association, 1946), 77.

[43] Stegmaier, "The 100’s Most Decorated: Elery M. Zehner."

[44] Gurley, A Company Scout, 125.

[45] Howarth, Memoir, 16.

[46] Waxman, A History of Company C, 16.

[47] Gurley, A Company Scout, 125; The Morning Reports, typically used to determine a unit’s strength, may not be reliable sources for determining how many soldiers were present for the attack on December 8, 1944. It is possible that in all companies there were soldiers who intentionally or unintentionally were not present when the companies began their renewed assault on Lemberg. Even on December 7th there appears to have been concern among some officers that soldiers were malingering. Adam Breuer of L Company was stopped by a pistol wielding officer at 3rd Battalion Headquarters who accused Breuer and the other wounded soldiers with him of desertion. Eventually the officer was subdued and the soldiers allowed to proceed to the battalion aid station, but the episode shows that desertion may have played a part in why the attacking first battalion companies apparently particularly small on December 8.  George F. Tyson and Robert V. Hamer. Company L Goes to War, (Bedford, PA: Aegis Consulting Group, 2004), 36-37.

[48] Gurley, A Company Scout, 125.

[49] Bass, Story of the Century, 77-78.

[50] John T. Mitzel, Duty before Self: The Story of the 781st Tank Battalion in World War II, (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013), 81; Gurley, 399th in Action, 61.

[51] Gurley, A Company Scout, 126.

[52] Phone Interview of Richard Jackson, October 25, 2018.

[53] Hal Bingham, Son of Bitche, (N.p. : N.p., 1998), 79.

[54] Ibid.

[55] Ibid., 80; It is possible that the execution of the American prisoners was done as retribution. F Company had ambushed two German soldiers the day before, one had been wounded and was pleading “comrade, comrade” but was silenced by Bingham’s platoon leader Lt. Emery. That incident may not have been isolated. Another F Company soldier, Frank Branco, recalled that “the urge to ‘get even’ was running high” and that he questioned whether the German prisoners he saw being escorted to the rear were not killed. When a captured German Captain was questioned about the executed American soldiers Col. Tychsen reported that he said simply “We have good soldiers and bad.” Bingham, Son of Bitche, 78; Frank Branco, G.I., (N.p. : N.p.), 17; and 100th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 10 December 1944, 1120h.

[56] 100th Infantry Division G-2 & G-3 Journal, 9 December 1944, 0825h.

[57] Mitzel, Duty before Self, 82.

[58] 100th Infantry Division G-3 Telephone Message from Major Zehner to Major Aber. 9 December 1944, 2345h.

[59] Gurley, A Company Scout, 130.

[60] Letter of Franklin Gurley to Robert Stegmaier, dated August 17, 1989.

YANK was one of the most popular publications of the Second World War and is an invaluable source of research

YANK, the Army Weekly, as one former member of the editorial staff put it, was "the authentic voice of the World War II enlisted man." ^[1] Written by soldiers, for soldiers, YANK provides an almost bottomless well of perspectives from average American servicemen of the Second World War. ^[2]

From its first issue, published on June 17, 1942, more than 21 editions in 17 different countries were printed. ^[3] Initially YANK was only distributed outside of the United States, although that policy was rescinded by the fifth issue overseas consumption made up the majority of its circulation, by June 1945 three out of every four issues was purchased overseas. ^[4] Also, since YANK was forbidden to be sold to the public it remained a unique part of the serviceman's life. ^[5]

"YANK enjoys tremendous popularity with GI's everywhere"

Each issue of YANK included news from the home front and sports, cartoons like Sgt. George Baker's "The Sad Sack", stories on battles or combat, "Mail Call" where soldiers could write in with their questions and complaints, and a full page pin-up (usually a popular movie starlet). In 1945 the Army surveyed soldiers in all  theaters and asked them what parts of YANK they liked best. The results showed not only what features the soldiers liked the most ("The Sad Sack" being the clear favorite), but also concluded:

YANK enjoys tremendous popularity with GI's everywhere. This conclusion is supported not merely by the fact that the men say they like the magazine. It is supported by the nickels, francs, liras and rupees they plunk down to buy it. ^[6]

While YANK was sold for 5 cents per issue, half the price of other major weekly publications at the time and enough to net the War Department more than $1,000,000 in profit, issues of YANK were distributed directly to combat units free of charge along with other vital supplies. ^[7] An example of how YANK was sent up to the front lines in the U.S. Fifth Army area in Italy is illustrative:

Trucks carried copies to the Fifth Army headquarters, where they were broken down into bundles for divisions, then regiments, then battalions, and, finally, shipped to the front lines, along with rations and ammunition. As in the case of all combat areas, the usual five-cent charge was waived . . . ^[8]

At it's peak more than 2,000,000 copies of YANK were published each week. ^[9] By the time the last issue was published on December 28, 1945, YANK could rightly be described as the first global periodical. ^[10]

Available for Free and for Purchase

The entire catalog of YANK editions, organized by issue and text searchable is available here, while legible, admittedly the overall quality of the scans leaves a bit to be desired. ^[11]  For a small price, a CD-ROM of every issue of YANK in pdf. format can be purchased from sellers on Amazon and eBay.

Footnotes

[1] Barrett McGurn, Reporting the Greatest Generation, (Golden, CO : Fulcrum Publishing, 2004), 79.

[2] Although some officers were involved with the management and overseeing of YANK, all of its staff members, including editors, writers, illustrators, and photographers were enlisted men, and the publication maintained a bias towards the lower ranks. Combat medic William Shinji Tsuchida told his parents that he and his buddies thought that YANK was "tops," and he enjoyed how the writers "even tell the officers to go to hell sometimes." Foster, Renita. “'Yank' Magazine Energized Soldiers, Reminding Them of the Reasons for Fighting.” www.army.mil, August 20, 2009. https://www.army.mil/article/26343/yank_magazine_energized_soldiers_reminding_them_of_the_reasons_for_fighting; William Shinji Tsuchida, Wear It Proudly: Letters by William Shinji Tsuchida (Berkeley, CA : Univ. of California Press, 1947), 9.

[3] McGurn, Reporting the Greatest Generation, viii.

[4] Ibid., 83; War Department, What the Soldier Thinks. Number 14, Washington, D.C. : War Department, June 4, 1945, https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/soldier-thinks-vol-14/ (accessed May 6, 2020).

[5] McGurn, Reporting the Greatest Generation, 83.

[6] What the Soldier Thinks, 4.

[7] McGurn, Reporting the Greatest Generation, 73-74.

[8] Ibid., 163-64.

[9] Ibid., 162.

[10] Ibid., 250.

[11] The YANK catalog is hosted for free by the UNZ Review, a website founded by Ron Unz. Unz and the UNZ Review have been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for supporting anti-Semitic rhetoric.  “Ron Unz: Controversial Writer and Funder of Anti-Israel Activists.” Anti-Defamation League, January 20, 2014. https://www.adl.org/news/article/ron-unz-controversial-writer-and-funder-of-anti-israel-activists?_ga=2.58258152.391319979.1588760411-2100231086.1588760411.

The author does not endorse or condone any content on the UNZ Review, merely identifies it as a source for the YANK catalog online.

The Controvich Library

Finding memoirs written by veterans of particular units, even when searching at division-level and using creative keyword strings on web browsers, Amazon, eBay, or used book search engines, can be exhausting and fruitless. Few postwar veteran associations maintain complete lists of all books written by their members, and unless a product description includes details of the author's military service there is rarely an ability to identify particular sources a researcher may be looking for, especially if the books were not published in the last two decades.

Recently, while searching for memoirs written by veterans of the 29th and 45th Infantry Divisions I stumbled upon the Controvich Library, a searchable database of a collection of military histories that identifies the unit of each author and sometimes a link directly to the Amazon product page for the book. While by no means complete, this database has helped me find dozens of obscure memoirs that I would likely never have found by keyword searching.

Note: After the post was made, the Controvich Library migrated platforms. The database is still available, but the presentation of the bibliographic information for each book is different than as shown above.

Who is Jim Controvich?

Impressed by the number of titles found in the Controvich Library holdings, I reached out to the library to learn more about it.

The Controvich Library is the private collection of Jim Controvich, a retired city and emergency planner with a background in data management. The son of a soldier, Jim grew up on Army posts collecting insignia, baseball cards, and coins, but in college he began collecting military histories, first focusing on Naval histories but eventually gravitating towards histories of Army units in the Pacific and European Theaters of Operations. By 1974 he was well on his way to creating his collection, which continues to grow as Jim works towards his goal of collecting at least one copy of every World War II published unit history. Currently, his collection contains approximately 20,300 books.

Jim is the author-compiler of several bibliographies concerning the United States Army and Air Force, World War I, African-Americans in the defense of the United States, the World War II Central Pacific Campaign, and numerous specially produced bibliographies. He also recently compiled bibliographies of World War I and World War II Army ground unit memoirs and histories, the World War II bibliography is available here.  He is currently working on similar bibliographies for units that served in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq-Afghanistan.  These bibliographies are substantially more comprehensive than his personal library holdings posted online, and they are updated on almost daily basis. In addition to his online library, Jim also maintains a database of all known published and printed Army unit histories from the Colonial era to the present day.  The pre-Spanish American War histories are mostly related to state militias because Federal units were fewer in number.

Jim was kind enough to answer some questions for me, and discuss the purpose behind his database. Excerpts of my interview are below:

Q: What is your favorite book in the collection?

A: "I have to admit I really don’t have a favorite book per se. That said, as odd as it may seem, one of my favorite books is Silverstone’s U.S. Warships of World War II. I also especially like the campaign volumes of the U.S. Army Official histories of World War II, the so-called 'green books'."

Q: Approximately how many books are in your collection? How many of those are memoirs?

A: "The collection is approximately 21,000 volumes still growing, not including route of battle maps or academic or historic society journals with articles on army units, organizations, or installations.  The memoir holdings comprise approximately 840 volumes, I probably have more as I didn’t have 'memoirs' as a subject heading when I first started adding books in the LIBRARYTHING software."

Q: What made you decide to start cataloging your library online?

A: "Two factors.  I thought putting the collection online would better connect me with the current collectors.  It really hasn’t happened to any great degree, yet.  The second reason was the LIBRARYTHING software was extremely easy to use, and very inexpensive. The software allows one to categorized ones titles with as many subject as one wants.  I really never had an idea of how many artillery, cavalry, infantry, World War I, World War II books, or memoirs, etc. I had.  LIBRARYTHING makes categorizing them extremely easy and provides a count by subject.  I hope to soon take advantage of its smart phone application which save me from carrying my paper copy of the collection listing."

Q: How often do you update the database?

A: "I maintain my bibliographic database on a daily basis.  It is a comprehensive bibliographic listing of army unit and organization histories from the Colonial era forward.  The period up to the Civil War is primarily state militia units.  Everyday I search various sources using a variety of word or subject searches to look for titles I do not have listed or have in the collection.  The on-demand publishing market has made it extremely easy for veterans or their families to publish.  I also scan a variety of academic and history journals to look for titles.  Many collectors and dealers have also been a big help in sending titles not listed to add to the bibliographies and correcting typos.

My collection listing which is on LIBRARYTHING and in a COREL WORDPERFECT file is updated as I add titles to my library which is every couple of days.  My library is focused for the most part on the post-Civil War army with an assortment of subjects of personal interest."

Q: I find your library database very helpful in finding harder to find books, especially memoirs published in the 1940s-1960s and that have out of print for decades. Did you expect this to be one of the more valuable uses of the database?

A: "I didn’t really expect the online library listing to get as much use other than from book collectors.  As it turns out I am constantly getting more requests from individuals for titles that their family members were in.  I also get requests from associations, historians, researchers, and genealogists from time to time looking for specific bibliographic info.  As for memoirs, I made (and still do) an effort to pick them up and to catalog them if I don’t manage to get them.  I have to admit I am way behind in picking up the on-demand histories. I like the memoirs as they often provide a much more human narrative of the unit activities.  One also must careful as they for the most part were never vetted for accuracy. I enjoy tracking down info for families and providing listings of titles for specific units."

Q: What would you like researchers to know about your library? Or, how would you like your library database to be used?

A: "Basically I see my bibliographic files and library as a research source for those looking for published information on U.S. Army unit and organizational histories. My bibliographic files can provide a researcher with what has been already written saving a lot of research time.  For researchers interested in a particular unit the best thing to do is to send me an email with the unit(s) and I will forward a listing of titles I am aware of.  For titles I have I can provide information on the contents and scope of the title."

Q: Where do you buy books?

A: "Over the years my buying has shifted. In the early years before the internet brick and mortar stores, gun shows, and book shows. Later on, Manion’s Auction was a great source while it lasted.  Currently, eBay, Amazon, ABEBooks are the primary sources I find material. I still really enjoy hunting in brick and mortar stores."

Q: Can researchers and collectors help expand the database?

A: "ABSOLUTELY!!  I encourage anyone with a title unlisted in my database or bibliographies that they think should be in to contact me.  I generally try to obtain the following information for any title I list–

Unit(s) title pertains to;

Author(s) and editor(s), if listed;

Title from title page or cover title if no title page;

Place of publication, if listed;

Publisher or printer, if listed;

Date of publication, if listed; and

Number of pages, if numbered.

I am constantly adding unlisted vintage titles and newly published material into it. Researchers needing an up-to-date listing should contact me."

Tips for Researchers

The best way to search for a particular unit on the Controvich Library is to filter by battalion (for field artillery or engineer units, for example) or regiment, in addition to searching by division or parent organization. For example, when searching for 45th Infantry Division memoirs, searching "45th Infantry Division" will identify some works, especially if the author includes keywords like "45th",  "Infantry", or "Division" in their title, but the most effective way to gather all of the relevant entries would be to also search by each regiment (for example, "157th Infantry Regiment", "179th Infantry Regiment", "180th Infantry Regiment" and "45th Infantry Division").

Anyone interested in obtaining a current listing of all titles for a particular unit and conflict can also contact Jim by e-mail. Jim also offers copying services if the book is no longer protected by copyright and copying will not damage it.

However, the primary purpose of the Controvich Library from a research standpoint is to merely identify sources that can be purchased or obtained elsewhere because the website is a database of Jim's personal collection, and not a public or lending library. While certain hard-to-find titles can demand exorbitant prices on Amazon, eBay, or used book websites, you can use the WorldCat library database to see if any libraries in your area have a copy, and if they do not, anyone with a library card can ask their local librarian to source a copy of any title, for free, using the Interlibrary Loan program. If you are unfamiliar with the Interlibrary Loan process, please visit the Library of Congress page here to learn more. It is a fantastic program and one that I use on a monthly basis. In some cases the Library of Congress lends out copies of rare memoirs from its own holdings, and I have also received copies of books from the library of United States Military Academy West Point. While some libraries are unwilling to share certain rarer titles, in many cases, if the work is no longer protected by copyright libraries will make copies for a fee.

T. Grady Gallant, a Marine who landed on Iwo Jima with the 4th Marine Division, remembered its conquest as "a terrible battle: awful in its intensity, its concentration, and its suffering."^[1]  

The fighting on Iwo Jima was some of the most ferocious of the entire Second World War. It was also an anomaly of the Pacific Campaign because it was the only battle in which American casualties exceeded those of the Japanese.^[2]  In fact twice as many Marines were killed on Iwo Jima than in all of World War I.^[3]

The iconic flag raising most associate with the battle, far from being a signal of ultimate victory, occurred on the fourth day of the Marines' attack and was eclipsed by fighting that would continue for another month.  Rather than squander manpower in fruitless counterattacks, the Japanese defenders conducted "an intelligent, passive defense from successive highly organized positions . . . and fought to the bitter end."^[4]  The extent of that defense was incredible. An official Marine Corps report of the battle notes that in one 800 yard area, as many as one thousand mutually supporting underground blockhouses, bunkers, pillboxes, and caves were destroyed by attacking Marines.^[5]  So brutal was the 36-day conquest of the island that it cost approximately 695 American lives per square mile, and that figure more than quadruples when Japanese casualties are included.^[6]  

Navy corpsman Richard E. Overton served as a medic in D Company, 26th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima. It was his first and last combat and the experience had a profound impact on him. While garrisoned in Japan after the war Overton began to record his memories of the battle, in part to better understand what he had endured.^[7]  Those notes became the basis of his memoir, God Isn't Here: A Young American's Entry into World War II and His Participation in the Battle for Iwo Jima.

In God Isn't Here, Overton captures the intensity of the battle and mental strain it placed on him and his comrades:

The constant explosions from shell fire had a terrible psychological effect upon us. There was always the present expectation that the next shell would wound and dismember us.

Under the constant and sustained exposure to this threat the mind seems to disengage itself from relationship with the physical body. At first there is excitement as the adrenaline enters the bloodstream and then comes the terror. As the exposure continues and the senses begin to dull. The mind will eventually not perform, and the body cannot act.

There were times during which I could not control or organize my thoughts. My stomach felt like jelly was rolling around inside of it. I could touch my hands to my face and could not feel the contact. I watched my foxhole companions go through the same experience. Their jaws would slacken allowing their mouths to open while saliva ran out of the sides and down their chins. Their eyes would lose all sign of emotion and apparently what they were seeing was not registering in their brains. ^[8]

Overton served in D Company throughout the Iwo Jima campaign but succumbed to mental exhaustion or "combat fatigue" when his unit was finally placed in reserve a week before the island was declared secure.^[9]

I tried to eat cheese and crackers from a K ration and found it tasteless and discovered I couldn't swallow the food as it just kept falling out of my mouth and spilling down the front of my blouse. Even the water I tried to down refused to enter my through and merely ran out either sides of my mouth. I lay back on the sand and tried to shut my eyes. They wouldn't close and I felt frightened as I couldn't understand what was happening to me.^[10]

Unable to eat, drink, or speak, Overton was ordered off of the island by a Navy doctor to recuperate. He was one of over 2,600 Americans treated for combat fatigue during the battle. ^[11]

Overton returned to Iwo Jima in 2000 and reflected on the scars he and the island shared:

Its surface is covered at present with a dark green cover of brush that reaches eight feet in height. Close scrutiny of the ground beneath the bush reveals that its surface is still marred by the action of battle. Still visible are the outlines of fox holes, tank traps, shell craters and the broken remnants of concrete bunkers. Time, helped by wind and rain has worn down the jagged edges of such things, but then they are only the scars of what once was. . . As I viewed the island it came to my mind the similarity between what I viewed there and the state of my own mind. The damage to both is still there, but is now hidden by scars or by a facade which only give the impression of being healed. ^[12]

Ultimately the return to his old battlefield was able to give Overton some solace. In closing his memoirs he wrote, "I am allowing the ghosts still present there, to occupy the island for themselves, to the end of time." ^[13]

Further Reading and Watching

For those interested in how servicemen suffering from combat fatigue received medical treatment, the U.S. National Archives has restored and posted the 1946 film, "Let There Be Light" on YouTube.

Additionally, both volumes of the Army's official history on the subject, Neuropsychiatry in World War II, are available for free on the U.S. National Library of Medicine digital library here and here.

Footnotes

[1] T. Grady Gallant, The Friendly Dead, (Garden City, NY : Doubleday & Co., 1964), ix.

[2] Robert S. Burrell, Ghost of Iwo Jima, (College Station, TX : Texas A&M, 2006), 82-83.

[3] Gallant, The Friendly Dead, ix.

[4]  Special Action Report, Iwo Jima Campaign. Headquarters, V Amphibious Corps. May 13, 1945, 5. http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll8/id/1153/rec/14

[5] G-3 Report of Planning, Operations: Iwo Jima Operation, Enclosure E. May 1, 1945, 2. http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p4013coll8/id/2150/rec/3

[6] Gallant, The Friendly Dead, ix.

[7] Richard E. Overton, God Isn't Here: A Young American's Entry into World War II and His Participation in the Battle for Iwo Jima, (Clearfield, UT : American Legacy Media, 2006), 7.

[8] Ibid., 243-44.

[9] Ibid., 300.

[10] Ibid., 277-78.

[11] Burrell, Ghosts of Iwo Jima, 83.

[12] Overton, God Isn't Here, 326-27.

[13] Ibid., 327

[14] The cover painting is The 2000 Yard Stare by Tom Lea, depicting a United States Marine during the battle of Peleliu. "Thousand Yard Stare," Wikipedia, accessed February 13, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand-yard_stare.