TANKED!
HISTORYNET.COM
E S E N A P A J WHY FELL FLAT ARMOR
THE FILM THE ARMY DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE TAKING ON NAZI DEATH SQUADS FDR’S MODEL SHIP FLEET MARCH/APRIL 2017
Field Dress For Success
The hunt for the perfect outdoorsman knife is over. There’s only one tool you need: the Whitetail™ Hunting Knife—now ONLY $49!
T
he consummate outdoorsman never goes on deep woods hunting trips without the essentials. Not just the basics for every hunting trip, but the items he’s come to depend on over the years. Our new Whitetail™ Hunting Knife will quickly become your go-to blade for every expedition. The Whitetail™ is a premium fixed-blade hunting knife that’s perfect for skinning. With the Whitetail at hand, you’ll be ready for field dressing in only seconds, and you’ll never need a separate gut hook tool ever again. The Whitetail™ boasts a mighty 420 high carbon, full tang stainless steel blade, meaning the blade doesn’t stop at the handle, it runs the full length of the knife. According to Gear Patrol, a full tang blade is key, saying “A full tang lends structural strength to the knife, allowing for better leverage ...think one long steel beam versus two.” The comfortable handle is made from pakkawood—moisture-resistant and more durable than hardwood. If hunting is your life, then the Whitetail™ Knife was designed to make your life easier. With our limited edition Whitetail™ Hunting Knife you’re getting the best in 21st-century construction with a classic look inspired by legendary American pioneers. What you won’t get is the trumped up price tag. We know a thing or two about the hunt–– like how to seek BONUS! Call today and out and capture an outstanding, collector’s-quality knife that won’t cut you’ll also receive this heavy duty sheath! into your bank account. This knife can be yours to use out in the field or to display as the art EXCLUSIVE piece it truly is. But don’t wait. A knife of this caliber typically cost hundreds. Priced at an amazing $49, we can’t guarantee this knife will stick around for long. So call today! Stauer® 8x21 Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Feel the knife in your Compact hands, wear it on your hip, inspect the craftsmanship. If you don’t Binoculars feel like we cut you a fair deal, send it back within 60 days for a -a $99 valuecomplete refund of the What customers are saying with purchase of Whitetail™ Hunting item sale price. But we about Stauer knives... Knife believe that once you wrap your fingers around the Whitetail’s handle, you’ll “Good value. Great looking. be ready to carve your own Sufficiently sharp. Overall niche into the wild frontier. an "A" purchase and I ordered three.” — B. of Maryland Whitetail™ Hunting Knife $79*
FREE
Offer Code Price Only $49 + S&P Save $30 PLUS Free Stauer Compact Binoculars
18003332045
TAKE 38 % OFF INST ANTLY! When you use
Your Insider Offer Code: WHK15901
You must use the insider offer code to get our special price.
Stauer
your
INSIDER OFFER CO DE
Drive W., Dept. WHK159-01 ® 14101 Southcross Burnsville, Minnesota 55337
www.stauer.com
*Discount is only for customers who use the offer code versus the listed original Stauer.com price.
Not shown actual size. Rating of A+
• 5 ¼" 420HC stainless steel blade • Fulltang design with gut hook • Pakkawood handle with brass pins • Bonus heavy duty nylon sheath
Stauer…Afford the Extraordinary.™
“It is hard to put into words
T R AV E L
M AY 5-19 , 2017
on our
O R IG IN AL B AN D OF B R O TH ER S TO U R
just how great a trip it was if you loved the Band of Brothers mini-series and WWII history it’s a must do.” – Mark and Julie from Minnesota
BOOK YOUR DREAM
TOUR NOW! 2017 TOUR DATES Iwo Jima: War in the Pacific - SOLD OUT!
March 15-27 The Original Band of Brothers Tour
May 5-19, June 9-23, July 21-August 4 and September 12-26 The Hallowed Ground: Civil War in Virginia and Gettysburg
May 20-28, June 17-25 and September 23-October 1 D-Day to the Rhine Tour
June 1-13, July 28-August 9 and September 8-20
Y
T HE O RI GIN A L B A ND O F B R O T HE R S T OUR! Y
Operation Overlord Tour
BAND OF BROTHERS TOUR
In Patton’s Footsteps
Travel on the first and only Band of Brothers Tour, created by Stephen E. Ambrose, who immortalized the men of Easy Company in his best-selling book Band of Brothers. The only Band of Brothers tour based on Dr. Ambrose’s personal interviews with the men of Easy Company and his extensive research. The only Band of Brothers tour that has a full-time Historian who is an expert on Easy Company. The only Band of Brothers tour that ofers our exclusive experiences.
STEPHENAMBROSETOURS.COM | 1.888.903.3329
June 1-9, July 28-August 5 and September 8-16 June 13-24 Lewis and Clark
July 12-23 Baseball Goes to War
Summer WWII in Poland & Germany
August 30-September 14 WWI: War to End All Wars
September 30-October 13 The Italian Campaign
October 13-22 Civil War Double Feature: Eastern and Western Theatre
October 14 - 30 Civil War: Mississippi River Campaign
October 28-November 5
M A R C H /A P R I L 2 017 E N D O R S E D B Y T H E N AT I O N A L WO R L D WA R I I M U S E U M , I NC. F E AT U R E S COVER STORY
PORTFOLIO
WEAPONS MANUAL
Before the war, the Japanese army was a trailblazer in the use of armored forces. So what changed? JIAXIN “JESSE” DU
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vast collection of more than 400 model ships arose from his deep reverance for the navy, the sea, and sailing
America’s Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer answered the navy’s call for a long-range, multi-role aircraft in the Pacific Theater ILLUSTRATION BY JIM LAURIER
28 EASTERN LIGHTNING
36 LET THERE BE LIGHT
A groundbreaking film sought to illuminate an invisible combat injury—PTSD—but instead became a casualty itself JOSEPH CONNOR
2
WORLD WAR II
46 FDR’S PRIVATE FLEET
52 MEASURE OF A MAN
A young, untried American prosecutor took on Nazi death squads at Nuremberg—and found his life’s work ANDREW NAGORSKI
60 PACIFIC PATROLLER
62 THE CROP CORPS
When the war caused a widespread labor shortage on American farms, millions of game city folk came to the rescue DANIEL B. MOSKOWITZ
A destroyed Japanese Type 97 tank rusts away on present-day Shumshu Island. YURI PASHOLOK; COVER: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN WALKER
D E PA RT M E N T S
10 WORLD WAR II TODAY
22 FIRE FOR EFFECT
18 CONVERSATION
24 TIME TRAVEL
A young man’s single-minded mission; vanishing shipwrecks; return of a PT boat
George Clay Henry flew 50 combat missions with the Fifteenth Air Force PARAAG SHUKLA
20 FROM THE FOOTLOCKER Curators at The National World War II Museum solve readers’ artifact mysteries
Zero degrees of separation ROBERT M. CITINO
Retracing the steps of American servicemen and women in Cambridge JAMES M. FENELON
68 REVIEWS
74 BATTLE FILMS
A Japanese elegy for the lost in Grave of the Fireflies MARK GRIMSLEY
IN EVERY ISSUE
8 MAIL 79 CHALLENGE 80 PINUP
Trailblazing Pappy Gunn; reassessing Kimmel’s legacy; Escape from Colditz game
MARCH/APRIL 2017
3
WWII Online
Visit us at WorldWarII.com
Michael A. Reinstein CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER David Steinhafel ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Alex Neill EDITOR IN CHIEF
VOL. 31, NO. 6 MARCH/APRIL 2017
EDITOR
KAREN JENSEN Paraag Shukla SENIOR EDITOR Rasheeda Smith ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon Guttman, Jerry Morelock HISTORIANS David Zabecki CHIEF MILITARY HISTORIAN Paul Wiseman NEWS EDITOR Stephen Kamifuji CREATIVE DIRECTOR Brian Walker GROUP ART DIRECTOR Paul Fisher ART DIRECTOR Guy Aceto PHOTO EDITOR
Fans of tank stories, like this issue’s “Pride Before the Fall,” will enjoy these features:
Clash of the Tanks
The Battle of Kursk exacerbated Germany’s shortages of men and materials, leaving it vulnerable to the pressure exerted by its enemy By Lloyd Clark
Blueprint for Blitzkrieg
General Heinz Guderian was instrumental in developing the tactics and strategy that would propel Nazi Germany to its early successes during World War II By Stephen G. Hyslop
ADVISORY BOARD
Ed Drea, David Glantz, Jeffery Grey, Keith Huxen, John McManus, Williamson Murray, Dennis Showalter CORPORATE
Rob Wilkins DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP MARKETING Roxanna Sassanian FINANCE Tom Griffiths CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Graydon Sheinberg CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT
ADVERTISING
Courtney Fortune ADVERTISING SERVICES
[email protected]
Rick Gower REGIONAL SALES MANAGER
[email protected]
Terry Jenkins REGIONAL SALES MANAGER
[email protected]
Richard E. Vincent REGIONAL SALES MANAGER
[email protected] DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING
Russell Johns Associates 800-649-9800
Let’s connect
World War II magazine
Follow us
@WWIImag
Go digital
World War II is available on Zinio, Kindle, and Nook.
©2017 HISTORYNET, LLC Subscription Information 800-435-0715 or shop.historynet.com Yearly subscriptions in U.S.: $39.95 List Rental Inquiries: Belkys Reyes, Lake Group Media, Inc. 914-925-2406;
[email protected] World War II (ISSN 0898-4204) is published bimonthly by HistoryNet, LLC. 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038, 703-771-9400 Periodical postage paid at Vienna, VA and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to World War II, P.O. Box 422224, Palm Coast, FL 32142-2224 Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 41342519 Canadian GST No. 821371408RT0001 The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of HistoryNet, LLC. PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA
4
WORLD WAR II
BPK/ART RESOURCE, NY
[email protected]
TICK ETS ON SA LE NOW!
THE 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WORLD WAR II NOVEMBER 16–18, 2017 PRESENTED BY:
FEATURED CONFERENCE SPEAKERS Rick Atkinson Robert Citino, PhD Conrad Crane, PhD
Richard Frank Donald L. Miller, PhD Gerhard Weinberg, PhD
EXCLUSIVE PRE-CONFERENCE SYMPOSIUM: HITLER IN HISTORY LIMITED SEATING AVAILABLE!
CONFERENCE TOPICS INCLUDE
SYMPOSIUM THEMES
• MacArthur: Love Him or Hate Him • Clash of Commanders • Turning Points in the Pacific • A Conversation with Rick Atkinson • The Best & Worst of WWII
• Hitler’s Rise • Hitler in Power: 1933–1945 • Hitler’s Reich: Ruler of Germany and Europe • Leading to Defeat: Hitler as Warlord
MAKE YOUR PLANS TO ATTEND NOW! Call 1.877.813.3329 x 511 or Visit ww2conference.com!
Blinding Saddam Athens vs. Sparta Cortés’ Conquest The Other Sun-tzu Shooting Vietnam Fall of Singapore HistoryNet.com
CONTR I BUTORS NAGORSKI with Ferencz
Ayatollah Khomeini was initially against the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran —until he was all for it
HELD HOSTAGE HOW IRAN GOT THE BEST OF AMERICA
MIHP-170300-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1
MARCH 2017
DU
11/21/16 2:52 PM
FENELON
Yank in the SS Maori Warriors Revolution Prequel War on the Great Wall Over by Christmas? Rangel on Vets HistoryNet.com
THE FACE OF EVIL?
9/29/16 11:04 AM
Beirut Bombing Yankee Hotspur Frigate Fight Men vs. Tanks L.A. Attacked? WWI Centennial
GEORGE’S
JOSEPH CONNOR (“Let There Be Light”) is a Fairleigh Dickinson University graduate. After seven years as a reporter and editor in New Jersey, Connor worked as an assistant county prosecutor. He became interested in combat fatigue after reading veterans’ accounts of their service and their sometimesdifficult readjustment into civilian life. JIAXIN “JESSE” DU (“Pride Before the Fall”) is a freelance writer from Beijing currently residing in Seattle. His fascination with military history began at age six when his father introduced him to the film Saving Private Ryan. He has written for China’s NAAS & Inertial Technology and Weapon magazines, and American publications WWII History and Military History. He would like to thank Han Mengqi for her fantastic translation of Japanese resources, without which his story would not have been possible.
versity of Texas graduate. He became interested in World War II history during his military service, which has led him to explore historical sites such as airfields in the United Kingdom and battlefields of North Africa, France, Italy, and Germany.
JANUARY 2017
HistoryNet.com
CONNOR
JAMES M. FENELON (“Time Travel”) is a former U.S. Army paratrooper and Uni-
MASSACRE AT BATAK EXPOSES OTTOMAN BARBARISM
MIHP-170100-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1
MOSKOWITZ
DANIEL B. MOSKOWITZ (“The Crop Corps”) is an award-winning Washington journalist whose most recent World War II article was “In a Tight Spot” (November/December 2016), about Jeanette Rankin. His professional connections with farming include reporting on the U.S. Department of Agriculture for BusinessWeek and, earlier in his career, covering cattle judging at the Illinois State Fair. ANDREW NAGORSKI (“Measure of a Man”) is an author and former awardwinning foreign correspondent and editor for Newsweek. While working on his latest book, The Nazi Hunters, published last May, he interviewed Benjamin Ferencz, whom he profiles in this issue. They met again last December, sharing the stage at an event organized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Their subject: “A Relentless Pursuit: Bringing Holocaust Perpetrators to Justice.”
1 (503) 997-TOUR
worldwar2tours.com
MAIL
FROZEN FRONTIER
J
ust finished reading the November/December 2016 issue and liked it all—especially Jessica Brown’s piece about the fortifications at Seward, Alaska (“Time Travel”). My father, George O. Perry, was a sergeant in the Army National Guard and his unit served with the coastal artillery force at Seward from 1941-43. I recall him saying they never fired a shot in anger but they did have a recon plane fly over one day in 1942—later presumed to have been Japanese. But lack of enemy action did not mean a lack of casualties. Along with about half of his company, Dad contracted tuberculosis while wintering in Seward. He was shipped home for treatment in army medical facilities at Fort Lewis. By 1944, his TB was in remission and he was honorably discharged. He returned home, married, and started a family. Then, in 1956 his TB returned and Dad spent six months at a hospital in Portland. I remember waving at him from the parking lot and him waving back from the sixth floor window of the TB ward. Eventually, his TB subsided and he lived out the rest of his life with no more flare-ups. He passed away in 2002 at age 87. John L. Perry Brownsville, Ore.
8
WORLD WAR II
HELP FROM THE MASSES I have a question about the cover of the November/ December 2016 issue showing four men loading a torpedo onto their sub. The two in the foreground are obviously U.S. sailors, but the other two men look like civilians or maybe hired hands because of their clothing and hats. Were civilians hired to help with work like this or were these just couple of sailors out of uniform? I love the cigarettes hanging out of their mouths while they worked. So forties! Henry Wetter Memphis Tenn. Editor’s note: The navy did hire civilian workers to help build, repair, and supply navy ships and bases. The workforce at numerous navy yards in major port cities—such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Pearl Harbor—was largely a civilian workforce (the Brooklyn Navy Yard alone employed 70,000 civilian workers during the war). Some were even involved in combat: about 1,200 civilian contractors were working on Wake Island in December 1941 when the Japanese invaded; and in June 1942, after the USS Yorktown was damaged in the Solomons, it sailed out to take part in the Battle of Midway with civilian workers still on board frantically making repairs.
PATCH THINGS UP For the November/December 2016 “What the ...?!?,” the patch is attributed to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops of the 12th Army Group. However, while the patch was created by a member of the 23rd, the design was never manufactured. Some may have been privately produced but none were ofcially made during the war. The 23rd, known today as the Ghost Army, remained classified as “Top Secret” until 1995. My father, Allison M. Severe, was a member of the 603rd Camouflage Engineer Battalion when it was formed in 1942. He served with both the 603rd and the 23rd through January 1945, when he was wounded and invalided out and discharged in June 1945. He also played the bugle at two special ceremonies in Luxembourg to present decorations to members of the 23rd. I still have his bugle. Dad was “called home” in December 1985 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Ted Severe Baltimore, MD
SONAR, SO GOOD I went aboard the oiler USS Elokomin in January 1953 with Commander Richard Latham as captain. One of my duties was to show nightly movies. One
COURTESY OF THE PERRY FAMILY
While wintering in Seward, Alaska, Sergeant George O. Perry suffered from tuberculosis.
FROM THE EDITOR
Number three gun, USS Ward
night, Latham handed me a film and asked me to show it. It was taken while he was captain of the sub USS Tinosa on a war patrol. Latham narrated the film which showed him rescuing downed airmen and a Japanese lifeboat filled with sailors. Whether this film was taken during the war patrol mentioned in your November/December 2016 article “Vengeance is Mine,” I don’t know. Later, I heard about Latham’s involvement with FM sonar and “Hell’s Bells.” One story was that there were a few crewmembers who had no confidence in the sonar. As a result, Latham interviewed each crewmember and those who did not want to go were replaced when they arrived in Hawaii. The photo of Admiral Lockwood in your story shows Captain Latham on the left. Thank you for a great story. Arthur Stock Gloversville, N.Y.
TOP: COURTESY OF ARTHUR STOCK; INSET: NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND
GUNNING FOR VICTORY I was pleased to see a story on the USS Ward (“First Shots,” November/December 2016). This photo (top) shows the gun that fired the first shots in the Pacific. It is by the mall at the state capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The crew of the Ward on that fateful day was made up of reservists from the nearby Saint Paul Naval Station. It’s odd to think sailors from the middle of the country played such an important part in the war. As a young boy I found out my friend’s father was one of the gun crew that fired the shot. I did not quite realize what that meant as a youngster, but I have certainly grown to appreciate those who fought in the war. We are quite proud of our men who played such an important role at Pearl Harbor on that day of infamy! Greg Kroiss Woodbury, Minn.
Shortly after our March/ April 2016 issue reached readers, queries began arriving about a row of aircraft in the background of a photo. They looked like B-24s, but something was off. What were they? Other readers correctly identified them as PB4Y-2 Privateers and followed up with a host of questions. We took the hint, promised a “Weapons Manual” on the Privateer, and deliver it on page 60 of this issue. Also check out page 79 for a fun, new “Challenge.” Is there something you would like to see in a future issue? We’d like to hear from you. —Karen Jensen
MYSTERY NUMBER Very interesting article—as all are—in the November/December 2016 issue titled “First Shots.” The picture on page 43 shows the USS Ward displaying number 139. Then another picture, after a Japanese attack, shows the vessel with the number 16. Did the navy change numbers on combat vessels during the war? Thanks for a truly informative periodical. Chuck Shoemaker Merriam, Kans. I enjoy reading the articles in World War II. “First Shots” was well written. However, I am puzzled about the picture on page 43 of the USS Ward (DD136). Another image identified a destroyer on fire as the Ward, but the vessel has the number 16; 136 is not 16. I know your articles have a high standard for accuracy. Ken Beaton Carson City, Nev. Editor’s note: The navy converted the USS Ward, a destroyer, into a high-speed transport, redesignating it APD-16 in February 1943. The ship was sent to the Solomon Islands, where it spent most of the year performing escort and transport service. The Ward later took part in several Southwest Pacific amphibious landings and was scuttled after a Japanese kamikaze attack damaged it in 1944.
PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO:
World War II 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038
OR E-MAIL:
[email protected] Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number. MARCH/APRIL 2017
9
W W I I T ODAY R E PORTE D A N D W R I TTE N BY PAU L W I S E M A N
Rishi Sharma, 19, estimates it will take at least 10 years to record one-on-one conversations with the war’s surviving combat veterans.
10
WORLD WAR II
THEY WERE ABOUT HIS AGE when they went to war in the hedgerows of France, the beaches at Tarawa, and the skies over the Ruhr Valley and Tokyo Bay. Now Rishi Sharma, a recent high school graduate, has made it his mission to collect their stories before it is too late. “Five hundred war veterans die every day, and with them go the stories of bloodshed and sacrifice,” he says. “What good is what they had to go through if we don’t learn from it?” Every day, the ponytailed 19-year-old son of Indian immigrants interviews at least one American combat veteran of the war; he has already reached 210. “I am doing this until the last one passes away,” he says. “Each interview helps me get closer to understanding what combat was like in the worst war the world has ever seen.” Sharma estimates it will take about 10 years to complete his task. He has put of college, a career, and even dating to track down veterans and record their stories on his Canon 70D digital camera. He gives the vets a DVD of the interviews, along with rights to the material—all free of charge. Some donate the interviews to museums. His parents are not thrilled. “I don’t think they are jumping for joy,” Sharma says. But since his undertaking has drawn widespread media attention, they believe he is making a diference. Sharma has set up a nonprofit (heroesofthesecondworldwar.org) and, as of January, has already exceeded his $105,000
AP PHOTO/NICK UT
A YOUNG MAN’S SINGLE-MINDED MISSION
TOP: OSS SOCIETY; BOTTOM: RUSSIA ARCTIC NATIONAL PARK
goal by raising more than $130,000 in travel funding on the online site GoFundMe (gofundme.com/ww2heroes). Sharma has long been fascinated by World War II, but his interest piqued during his junior year in high school. While reading about Lyle Bouck, a hero of the Battle of the Bulge, in Stephen E. Ambrose’s Citizen Soldiers, something dawned on him: maybe he could actually talk to Bouck. He found the vet’s phone number and called him. An obsession was born. Sharma soon began riding his bike to nearby retirement homes to interview vets. Last summer, he borrowed his parents’ car for a road trip to Oregon and California, talking to aging GIs and scrimping on meals to save cash. When World War II contacted him in December, he was in Hawaii for the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. “Mainstream folks don’t understand how special these guys are and what they actually had to go through—sitting in a foxhole and seeing your buddy put his head up and get shot right between the eyes, fighting the enemy hand-to-hand,” he says. “It’s such a horrible thing that people don’t like to think about it.” The stories stick with him. There was the Big Red One vet whose unit was decimated during the invasion of Sicily. While badly wounded, the soldier looked over and saw his best friend, bloodied and singing Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You” to his girlfriend far away. The friend stopped mid-song and died. And the Tarawa veteran, then 17 years old, who could not shake the memory of a Japanese soldier who kept charging after being shot by three Marines, his face melting after a flamethrower attack. Sharma doubts there will ever be another generation like that that fought in World War II. “They grew up real tough” during the Great Depression, he says. “They had it bad when they were seven or eight. They were going hungry.” They took jobs as kids to bring money home to their families. And when war came, they were clear-sighted. “It was good versus evil,” he says. By contrast, Sharma says his own generation is self-absorbed and ignorant of the past. When he asked his high school classmates when World War II was fought, no one knew. “Kids my age have absolutely no idea what it was like for these men,” he says. “They are more concerned about what the Kardashians are wearing.” Members of the “Greatest Generation” are known for their reluctance to talk about their experiences during the war. But Sharma says many of them are opening up as they face death, wanting to unburden themselves of painful memories. “You talk to them and take that load of,” he says. “They no longer need to worry about the war. They can die in peace.”
D I S PAT C H E S On November 30, Congress passed a bill bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal on veterans of the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the OSS in 1942, appointing General William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan—who proudly referred to his team as “glorious amateurs” in the world of spy craft—as its director. A recent congressional rule requiring a waiver to honor groups rather than individuals delayed the legislation; the waiver was granted in the fall. Other previously awarded veterans groups include the Tuskegee Airmen, the Doolittle Raiders, and Navajo code talkers.
Last fall, Russian researchers explored and cataloged hundreds of wartime relics from a long-abandoned German military base in the Arctic, on Alexandra Land island, 620 miles from the North Pole. Codenamed “Schatzgrabber” (“Treasure Hunter”), the base was used as a weather station until 1944, when German scientists had to be pulled out by U-boat after being poisoned by bad polar bear meat. Munitions, personal effects, even paper documents survived. MARCH/APRIL 2017
11
The HMS Exeter, here in 1939, is one of at least seven sunken vessels near Indonesia that have largely disappeared—likely having been picked apart by scavengers and sold as valuable scrap metal.
IN 2002, AMATEUR DIVERS FOUND the wreckage of Allied ships sunk by the Japanese of the coast of present-day Indonesia. But when another expedition returned to the site late last year, preparing to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Java Sea, they made a shocking discovery: most of the shipwrecks had suddenly vanished. British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and destroyer HMS Encounter were almost completely gone, as was the wreck of an American submarine, the USS Perch. Also vanished were big chunks of the destroyer HMS Electra. The Dutch government reported that two Dutch ships had disappeared and a third was mostly gone. Suspicion immediately focused on scavengers who loot shipwrecks of valuable metal. The phosphor bronze in ship propellers can fetch some $3,000 a ton. “It’s like a cottage industry,” maritime researcher Andy Brockman told Britain’s Guardian newspaper. Some experts expressed doubt that scavengers could have reached the ships—which are 230 feet underwater and 60 miles of the Indonesian coast—but have not put forth any other explanation. The British government expressed “serious concern” to Indonesian authorities about the apparent grave-robbing, requesting an investigation and stepped-up eforts to protect the sites. Reports of the disappearance, which emerged in November, also caused outrage in the Netherlands. “The desecration of war graves is a serious ofense,” the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement. The February 27, 1942, Battle of the Java Sea was a humiliating defeat for Allied forces. Seeking to flee Japanese forces invading the Dutch East Indies, American, British, Australian, and Dutch ships ran into a powerful Japanese task force, which destroyed them. More than 2,000 Allied seamen perished. Among them was the Allied commander, Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman. Theo Doorman, 82, the admiral’s son, was with the expedition that hoped to film the sites for the upcoming anniversary. “I was sad,” he told the BBC. “Not angry. That doesn’t get you anywhere. But sad. For centuries, it was a custom not to disturb sailors’ graves. But it did happen here.”
12
WORLD WAR II
WO R D F O R WO R D
“The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.”
—Navy Secretary James Forrestal on February 23, 1945, after seeing the American flag flying over Iwo Jima.
TOP: MIRRORPIX/GETTY IMAGES; LEFT: NSW; RIGHT: GETTY IMAGES
CASE OF THE VANISHING SHIPS
Perfect Choice HD Ultra™ is simple to use, hard to see and easy to afford…
Invention of the Year PERSONAL SOUND AMPLIFICATION PRODUCT (PSAP)
IT’S NOT A HEARING AID Understand what people are saying... the frst time
Now you don’t
The designers of the Perfect Choice HD UltraTM equipped it with a tiny but powerful amplifier for maximum volume and clarity. Its microphone uses advanced digital processing to amplify the frequency ranges found in human speech, so sounds and conversations are easier to hear and understand.
Try it for yourself with our exclusive home trial. Thanks to the efforts of a doctor who leads a renowned hearing institute, this remarkable product has been designed using the finest micro-digital components on the market. It is manufactured efficiently by our company without any “middle-men” so we can make it available at an affordable price. Call now, and you’ll find out why so many satisfied seniors are now enjoying their Perfect Choice HD Ultra, hearing their grandchildren and what the world has to say. Call today, and be sure to ask about our special discounts for Seniors and Military personnel.
The unit is small and lightweight enough to hide behind your ear... only you’ll know you have it on. It’s comfortable and
It’s Better COMFORT SOUND QUALITY
won’t make you feel like you have something stuck in your ear.
Less than 1 ounce Excellent: Optimized for speech
FITTING REQUIRED?
No
ONE-ON-ONE SETUP
Free
SENIOR AND MILITARY DISCOUNTS
Yes
Call now toll free for our lowest price ever. Please mention promotional code
105241.
1-877-725-6450 1998 Ruffin Mill Road, Colonial Heights, VA 23834 Perfect Choice HD Ultra is not a hearing aid. If you believe you need a hearing aid, please consult a physician.
81161
Now you see it...
Perfect Choice HD UltraTM is NOT a hearing aid. It is a Personal Sound Amplification Product (PSAP). Hearing aids can only be sold by an audiologist or a licensed hearing instrument specialist following hearing tests and fitting appointments. Once the audiologist had you tested and fitted, you would have to pay as much as $5000 for the product.
New a nd Impro ved fo r more power and cl arity
A S K WW I I Q: By 1944, Germany was retreating on all fronts, and the Allies were bombing its cities, factories, and railroads almost daily. Yet the Germans’ war production of aircraft, rockets, tanks, and other equipment increased. From where did all the raw materials come? Was Germany self-sufficient in raw materials? Weren’t its ports blockaded? How did the country acquire enough material to increase its production? —Wes Chan, Westminster, Md. A: Although the Allied blockade did limit Germany’s access to some raw material, the Nazis supplemented domestic stocks with ore obtained from its allies or plundered from occupied countries. Additionally, they received imported material from neutral countries such as Portugal, Turkey, and Sweden—which supplied 4.5 million tons of iron ore in 1944 alone. Consequently, the Luftwaffe had more fighter aircraft than ever that year. But by then, only half were operational due to fuel shortages and a lack of trained pilots. —Jon Guttman SEND QUERIES TO: Ask World War II, 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182, OR EMAIL:
[email protected]
D I S PAT C H E S Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, was officially declared dead in October by the Swedish government—a ruling his family sought to provide closure. As a Swedish attaché in Budapest, Wallenberg provided papers to an estimated 20,000 Jews, enabling their safe passage to Sweden. When Soviet forces entered Budapest in January 1945, they detained Wallenberg. He was not seen again.
14
WORLD WAR II
BUMPY ROAD FOR VW HISTORY PROJECT
DID VOLKSWAGEN GET MORE historical truth than it bargained for? The question flared up amidst revelations that the German auto manufacturer’s historian, Manfred Grieger (above), had left the company after writing a searing review of Volkswagen subsidiary Audi’s wartime behavior. Although Grieger and Volkswagen did not explain the circumstances of his departure, they noted the decision to end his contract was mutual, the New York Times reported in November. The Times called Grieger’s critique “the apparent catalyst” for his split with Volkswagen. In 1996, Volkswagen had hired Grieger to cowrite a book describing the company’s use of coerced labor during World War II to produce weaponry for the Nazi regime at a factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen won praise for facing up to its history. However, in 2015, Grieger wrote a critical review of a lengthy, internal study on Audi’s wartime record. Grieger suggested that the report, completed the previous year, whitewashed Audi’s links to the Third Reich. Neither the report nor Grieger’s review received much attention until the German financial weekly Wirtschaftswoche reported on it last August. After Grieger’s departure from the company, 75 prominent German academics wrote an open letter of protest, charging that Volkswagen had put Grieger “on a short leash” and limited his freedom to investigate its past, forcing him to leave. In a statement, Volkswagen praised Grieger and vowed to continue studying its history “consistently, honestly and strongly.” It also announced it was hiring another historian—Christopher Kopper of Germany’s Bielefeld University—to look into its business practices in Brazil during the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship.
TOP LEFT: THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT: PETER STEFFEN/DPA/AP IMAGES; BOTTOM: LASKI DIFFUSION/GETTY IMAGES
An American soldier examines the exposed engine of a V-2 rocket in one of Germany’s many underground factories.
O EV ur ER Low D o es re n t P ss a C r W l ice at ass ch ic !
Wear it today for only
$29
TAKE 85% OFF INSTANTLY! When you use your INSIDER OFFER CODE
Back Again for the First Time
Our modern take on a 1929 classic, yours for the unbelievably nostalgic price of ONLY $29!
Y
ou have a secret hidden up your sleeve. Strapped to your wrist is a miniature masterpiece, composed of hundreds of tiny moving parts that measure the steady heartbeat of the universe. You love this watch. And you still smile every time you check it, because you remember that you almost didn’t buy it. You almost turned the page without a second thought, figuring that the Stauer Metropolitan Watch for only $29 was just too good to be true. But now you know how right it feels to be wrong. Our lowest price EVER for a classic men’s dress watch. How can we offer the Metropolitan for less than $30? The answer is simple. Stauer has sold over one million watches in the last decade and many of our clients buy more than one. Our goal isn’t to sell you a single watch, our goal is to help you fall in love with Stauer’s entire line of vintage-inspired luxury timepieces and jewelry. And every great relationship has to start somewhere... Tells today’s time with yesterday’s style. The Metropolitan is exactly the kind of elegant, must-have accessory that belongs in every gentleman’s collection next to his British cufflinks and Italian neckties. Inspired by a rare 1929 Swiss classic found at auction, the Metropolitan Watch revives a distinctive and debonair retro design for 21st-century men of exceptional taste. The Stauer Metropolitan retains all the hallmarks of a well-bred wristwatch including a gold-finished case, antique ivory guilloche
face, blued Breguet-style hands, an easy-to-read date window at the 3 o’clock position, and a crown of sapphire blue. It secures with a crocodile-patterned, genuine black leather strap and is water resistant to 3 ATM. Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. We are so sure that you will be stunned by the magnificent Stauer Metropolitan Watch that we offer a 60-day money back guarantee. If you’re not impressed after wearing it for a few weeks, return it for a full refund of the purchase price. But once the first compliments roll in, we’re sure that you’ll see the value of time well spent!
Stauer Metropolitan Timepiece— $199 Offer Code Price
$29
+ S&P Save $170
You must use the insider offer code to get our special price.
1-800-333-2045 Your Offer Code: MTW-02
Please use this code when you order to receive your discount.
Stauer
14101 Southcross Drive W.,
® Dept. MTW-02
Burnsville, Minnesota 55337
www.stauer.com
Rating of A+
Smar t Luxuries—Surprising Prices ™
Luxurious gold-finished case with sapphire-colored crown - Crocodile-embossed leather strap - Band fits wrists 6 ¼"–8 ¾" - Water-resistant to 3 ATM
The National World War II Museum’s PT-305 (seen here outside its restoration facility) is currently in a boat house on Lake Pontchartrain. Later this year, visitors will be able to buy tickets for a ride on the lake.
IT HAS BEEN A LONG, STRANGE TRIP, but a vintage Patrol Torpedo boat is finally back home. After a restoration that required nearly $3 million in materials and 10 years of work by 200 volunteers, PT-305 is scheduled to return to where its voyages began: Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain. In November, the PT boat was removed from the National World War II Museum’s John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion—an operation that required removing the building’s large glass front. It was then loaded onto an unmanned “crawler” and guided three miles through the streets of New Orleans by an operator walking alongside using a remote control. Next, a crane deposited PT-305 into a barge that carried it down the Mississippi River to the Seabrook Marine & Harbor, just of Lake Pontchartrain. There, PT-305 will be tested for seaworthiness and made available for public tours in April. Tickets for a walking deck tour are already on sale for $15; a 90-minute boat ride will cost $350. PT-305’s return to Lake Pontchartrain will be a homecoming. Manufacturer Higgins Industries originally tested the boat there in 1943. It saw action in the Mediterranean, sinking a German barge during the invasion of Elba in June 1944 and an Italian torpedo boat in April 1945. After the war, it did duty as a tour boat, fishing charter, and oyster boat, picking up nicknames along the way— the Sudden Jerk, the Bar Fly, the Half Hitch. The Texas Defenders of America Naval Museum acquired PT-305 in 2001 and, in 2007, turned it over to the National World War II Museum for restoration.
16
WORLD WAR II
TOP: JEFF JOHNSTON; LEFT: © JACKSON HILL; INSET: NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM/CATHY KAMINSKI
PT BOAT RETURNING TO DUTY
This Necklace is NOT for Sale… It’s yours for FREE*
No kidding. Only Stauer can give you 200 carats of genuine amethyst for NOTHING.
Lim FR ite EE d t Am ot h eth to e fir yst thi st “This necklace is s a 250 Nec beautiful. I could d o 0 kla not believe my nly res ce ! pon eyes...GREAT!” de —Bonnie rs Longs, S. C.
Y
ou may think you understood the concept of “priceless” jewelry. For years, “priceless” meant “astronomically expensive.” Owning “priceless” treasures was a rare privilege reserved for celebrities, billionaires, and royalty. The best most of us could do was dream. Until now... Stauer smashes the luxury status quo with the release of our FREE* 200-Carat Lusso Amethyst Necklace. That’s right, we said FREE... as in “priceless.” No charge.* ZERO dollars.* Call now and we’ll send you this impressive helping of genuine amethyst (independently appraised at $295) for FREE. We cut the price 100% and you pay only $24.95, our regular charge for shipping, processing and insurance...we’ll even pay you back with a $25 Discount Certificate––that’s Better Than Free shipping!
There are no tricks or gimmicks. You aren’t obligated to spend another dime or dollar with us... although we make it VERY hard to resist. Why give away jewelry? We want your attention. Once you get a closer look at our rare gemstone treasures and vintage-inspired watches, and once you discover the guilt-free fun of getting luxury for less, we’re betting that you’ll fall in love with Stauer. If not? Keep your FREE Lusso Amethyst Necklace anyway. No hard feelings.
Buy NOW pay NEV , ER.
A collection of purple perfection. Your Lusso Amethyst Necklace is a 200-carat symphony of smooth purple genuine gemstones. Each gemstone’s shape and translucence ignites the velvety, violet hues. The polished amethysts are hand-strung on double-knotted jeweler’s thread, and the stunning 18" necklace (with 2" extender) secures with a gold-finished lobster clasp. Once you wear it, you’ll see that it hangs with the same weight and elegance as similar strands that sell for hundreds more.
An Exclusi ve FREE Jewelry O ffer from Stau ® er
Too good to pass up. Too good to last long. Amethyst is one of the world’s most coveted gemstones and our supply is extremely limited. We can only offer such an outrageous deal for a short time every few years. Over 30,000 thrilled customers were lucky enough to get this promotion last time. We only have about 2500 left in stock. Call to reserve your FREE Lusso Amethyst Necklace today and treat yourself (or someone you love) to a brilliant new definition of priceless luxury!
Lusso Amethyst Necklace (200 ctw) $249** Your Cost With Offer Code— FREE*
*pay only shipping & processing of $24.95. You must use the offer code below to receive this special free necklace.
1-800-333-2045 Offer Code LAN312-02
Mention this code for the free necklace.
Stauer
Rating of A+
® 14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. LAN312-02, Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.stauer.com
Necklace enlarged to show luxurious detail.
200 carats of pure luxury independently appraised at $295†...yours FREE!* 200 ctw of genuine amethyst • Gold-finished spacers • 18"+2" length necklace * This offer is valid in the United States (and Puerto Rico) except in TX, FL, CO, OK, RI, NH, WV, OR, SC, VA and ID. These state residents will be charged one Necklace cent ($.01) + shipenlarged to show luxurious detail. ping & processing for the item. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Offer subject to state and local regulations. Not valid with any other offers and only while supplies last. This offer is limited to one item per shipping address. ** Free is only for customers using the offer code versus the price on Stauer.com without your offer code. † For more information concerning the appraisal, visit http://www.stauer.com/appraisedvalues.asp.
Smar t Luxuries—Surprising Prices™
WWII
FIFTY WITH THE FIFTEENTH C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H G E O R G E C L AY H E N R Y B Y PA R A AG S H U K L A
AFTER GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL IN 1940, George Clay Henry worked in the cotton fields of northern Louisiana. But the sight of training aircraft from nearby Barksdale Field wheeling overhead drew him to the U.S. Army Air Forces. Henry enlisted, eventually flying out of Grottaglie, Italy, with the 449th Bombardment Group of the Fifteenth Air Force. Technical Sergeant Henry went on to fly 50 combat missions as a flight engineer and top turret gunner in a B-24 Liberator, Devil’s Henchmen.
Describe your first mission. On January 8, 1944, we bombed an enemy airfield near Mostar, Yugoslavia. During the mission, we saw a few bursts of flak but none of our B-24s sufered any real damage. “This is a piece of cake,” we naïvely thought. “Nothing to it!” Of course that didn’t last long. But we had a great crew; 10 men from 10 states—very unusual!
How was the view from the top turret? What was it like to be able to look upon the entire formation of hundreds of aircraft? It was exciting. We were usually near the front of the formation, so I could see airplanes all over the sky. Not only our four squadrons, but many, many others as well.
How about firing the .50-caliber machine guns, inches from your head? It was noisy...but so was the airplane! My top turret was located right between four large engines. We had cut-ofs to keep us from firing into parts of our own airplane,
18
WORLD WAR II
but I remember this one wire antennae, strung from just behind my turret to the top of one of the vertical stabilizers; I would keep shooting that thing of. Our ball turret gunner, Donald Peterson, was a crack shot and destroyed at least five German fighters. But the confirmation process for crediting kills was so very complicated that after the first couple of times, he didn’t even bother putting in claims.
Your bomb group received the Presidential Unit Citation for raids on Ploesti. The Ploesti oil fields in Romania were huge, with fields and factories, and provided about 40 percent of the fuel for the Nazi war machine. The Germans were masterful at using smoke screens to obscure the terrain and the site was very well protected. We lost so many aircraft over that one target. I was over Ploesti on two occasions and can still remember the flak bursting all around us, and the thick smoke rising from the burning oil fields.
COURTESY OF GEORGE CLAY HENRY; OPPOSITE: JAMES KEGLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
Tell me about the flak.
Did you observe that?
On February 17, we were sent to bomb German troop concentrations near Anzio to help take pressure of Allied army units struggling to push inland. On that day, the Germans moved their tanks into the hills, swung up their 88mm guns, and used them against our aerial formations. They put up the heaviest flak I ever saw in my 50 missions. It was really bad. Every airplane in our squadron was damaged to some extent, but by some miracle none were shot down. However, our left waist gunner—Donald J. Ames—was killed. Our B-24’s hydraulic reservoir was shot by a direct hit and we lost all of the fluid. So when we got back to base, we couldn’t lower our wing flaps and I had to hand-crank the landing gear down. Our pilot had one shot to land with functioning brakes, and he did a beautiful job. And our amazing ground crew had the B-24 ready to fly the very next day.
Yes. During one mission our bombardier accidentally knocked my intercom loose. So I didn’t get any fighter warnings. I was looking toward the tail when the Germans attacked from the front, out of the sun. They went right through and shot down the B-24s on either side of us. Boy, I really screwed up there.
Your flight engineer role put you in some dicey situations.
Oh, yes. Before the B-24 really got into the war, the Eighth Air Force’s B-17 squadrons were based in England, some not far from London. They got a lot of press attention. I understand how all that got started, but I would say the B-24 was the better airplane. It had a longer range and a heavier load.
At some point headquarters put out an edict saying that if a B-24 carrying concussion bombs couldn’t get its bomb doors open over the target, the bombardier was to drop the bombs through the doors. Well, that happened. One time our bomb doors opened only partway and got stuck—so we dropped our bombs right through them. Of course that caused the bomb doors to flop around and the B-24 started bufeting. That forced us out of formation, which we hated—there was safety in numbers and German fighters pounced on stragglers. As flight engineer I used a four-foot-long stick to measure gasoline before we took of, and each of our bomb arming wires had a loop on the end of it. I rigged up one of those wires to the end of my gas stick and cautiously walked out onto the catwalk. I had an oxygen bottle but no parachute— there wasn’t enough room. Other than the narrow metal beam, there was nothing but open sky beneath my feet. Fortunately, I was able to loop those bomb doors, pull them up, and secure them. So we were able to get back in formation. That was one of the hairiest missions.
German fighters often made head-on attacks against bombers.
How were your fighter escorts? Initially our “little friends” could escort us only partway, mainly for fuel reasons. Fortunately, they began using drop tanks to extend their range. Eventually the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group arrived in our area. Boy, were they good! They escorted us often, and we loved to have them on our side.
delayed my getting home. That upset me. When I was home, my mother noticed me having trouble holding a cup of cofee with both hands. She began to cry—and that made me a nervous wreck! I was eager to get back to the routine of military life. I got an engineering degree and was in the Air Force Reserve. After a combat tour, coming back to an ofce job felt boring! I had wanted to go to pilot school, and after the war I became a private pilot. When I was recalled for Korea, they told me I was two years too old to become a pilot. I was 28!
Did you and your Fifteenth Air Force comrades feel overshadowed by the Eighth Air Force?
Tell me about your last mission. My 50th bombing mission was on June 11, 1944, just days after the Allied landings at Normandy. We flew all the way to the Black Sea to bomb oil facilities in Bulgaria. Our course required us to fly right by areas known for heavy German fighter activity. A lot of praying that day! We made it to the target, accurately dropped our bombs, and were not attacked by fighters. We lost one B-24 on the mission. After I made it back, my squadron commander recommended I rotate home for a year.
What was it like to be back? The army first sent me to Mississippi to teach airmen about aircraft instruments. I was expecting to retrain on the B-32 bomber and go to the Pacific for another combat tour. But in the spring of 1945, the army began using a point system to relieve some of us to go home; I qualified. I was at a separation center when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; it
I can still remember the flak bursting all around us, and thick smoke rising from the burning fields. When did you meet your wife, Lois? Oh, I remember that very distinctly. In college, I was rooming with her brother. I was downtown one day, near the bank building’s clock, when Lois and my roommate came around the corner. That’s when I met her. They invited me out to their house, and things just took of from there.
And here you are. And here we are. +
MARCH/APRIL 2017
19
The anchor insignia on this helmet represents Japan’s Special Naval Landing Forces, which saw extensive action in China and the Pacific Theater.
CLASH OF THE ELITES Curators at The National World War II Museum solve readers’ artifact mysteries
20
WORLD WAR II
About 20 years ago, I acquired a Japanese helmet in exceptionally fine condition from a Pacific War vet. Unfortunately, he passed away before I could learn about it. Instead of the star insignia typically found on Japanese helmets, this one has a sort of anchor insignia on the front. Painted on the side is an inscription in English: “CEBU, P.I. Spring ’45, Americal Div.” Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. —J. D. G. Hummel, Leavenworth, Kansas As American forces relentlessly advanced across the Pacific Theater, beginning with victory at Guadal-
Have a World War II artifact you can’t identify? Write to
[email protected] with the following: — Your connection to the object and what you know about it. — The object’s dimensions, in inches. — Several high-resolution digital photos taken close up and from varying angles. — Pictures should be in color, and at least 300 dpi. Unfortunately, we can’t respond to every query, nor can we appraise value.
TOP LEFT: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES
F RO M T H E F OO T L O C K E R
canal in 1942-43, they continually confronted the fighting ability and tenacity of the Japanese Tokubetsu Rikusentai, or Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF). The SNLF was the product, in part, of an intense rivalry between the Japanese army and navy. In an attempt to lessen its reliance on the army for troops, the Japanese navy had experimented with the SNLF, formalizing it by 1932 to give it a fighting force of its own. However, by 1944-45, during the American campaign to liberate the Philippines, the SNLF’s fighting strength had greatly diminished. Judging by the inscription, a member of the Americal Division captured this Navy Type 2 steel SNLF helmet during the fighting to retake Cebu City on the Philippine island of Cebu in March-April 1945. Also known as the 23rd Infantry Division, the Americal had the distinction of being the only American division formed overseas during the war, and had seen fighting since Guadalcanal. The SNLF force the division faced consisted of the 36th Naval Guard Unit and the 33rd Naval Special Base Force, under the command of Japanese Rear Admiral Kaku Harada. The Japanese lost 5,500 servicemen during the campaign; American loses included 410 men killed, 1,700 wounded, and 8,000 non-combat casualties from disease. —James M. Linn IV, Curator
B O U L D E R C R E S T R E T R E AT F O R M I L I TA R Y & V E T E R A N W E L L N E S S
HEALING HEROES. ONE FAMILY AT A TIME. As a nation, we make a special covenant with the men and women we send into harm’s way. In exchange for their service and sacrifice, we commit to bringing them all the way home. Unfortunately, far too many post-9/11 combat veterans — 700,000 according to most estimates — are still struggling with the visible and invisible wounds of war. Boulder Crest Retreat, located in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, is built to honor that commitment — and ensure that combat veterans can be just as productive and serviceoriented at home as they were on the battlefield. Through innovative, free, world-class combat stress recovery programs, we enable combat veterans to make peace with their past, live in the present, and plan for a great life here at home.
The generosity of supporters across Virginia and the country allow us to ofer these programs at no cost to veterans. Your continued support, as individuals, organizations and foundations, ensures that we can bring these remarkable heroes all the way home.
Together, we can heal our nation’s heroes. One warrior and one family at a time. To donate or for more info, please call 540.554.2727 or visit www.bouldercrestretreat.org. The Boulder Crest Retreat Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
R U S
★
HONOLULU H AWA I I A N
I S L
F I R E FO R E F F E C T B Y RO B E RT M. C I T I NO
DEGREES OF SEPARATION EMINENT WORLD WAR II HISTORIAN Gerhard Weinberg often begins his lectures with a seemingly unnecessary prompt: “the earth is round.” He uses this bit of commonplace wisdom to remind the audience that the events on any one front of the war inevitably had an impact on all the others. If you ever need reminding of the “roundness” of the globe, just look to the first week of December 1941. Two great events took place: the massive Soviet counterattack on December 5 that stopped cold the German advance just outside Moscow, and the Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor on the 7th that wrenched the United States into the war. Just a coincidence, you say? After all, it’s a long way from Moscow to Pearl—some 7,000 miles—and that’s about as far away as you can get on planet Earth. How could one of these events possibly have fed into the other? Simple. The earth is round. Many factors led to the German defeat in front of the Soviet capital, but above all, it was the result of a serious German logistical overstretch, with losses outstepping replacements and an utter lack of reinforcements. The German drive on Moscow petered out in late October, with the arrival of the autumn rains. It restarted briefly when the mud froze, but then got stuck altogether with the hard freeze and snow of mid-November. The Soviets even liked to brag about two of their most heroic commanders: General Mud and General Winter. By any reasonable standard, the time had come for the Wehrmacht to take stock, consolidate a good defensive position, and use it
22
WORLD WAR II
as a jumping-of point for a 1942 ofensive. But that didn’t happen—quite the opposite, in fact. The Germans kept pressing forward, sufering soaring casualties for decreased gain, and we now know one of the reasons: Hitler kept pushing onward to impel the Japanese to enter the war. The Führer knew the Japanese were considering a strike on the United States. Back in March, Hitler had promised Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka that Germany would support the Rising Sun in any war it launched on the United States. But the Japanese had refused to engage, deciding instead to spend the year in seemingly endless negotiations with Washington. They stalled again in July, when the Wehrmacht was carving up the Red Army like a roast, but Hitler feared the Japanese were less likely to make a move if the Germans suddenly looked like losers at the gates of Moscow. He desperately wanted Japan in the war. He was impressed with Japan’s military tradition, its never-say-die soldiers, and, of course, its big blue-water navy—the wartime Reich’s most serious strategic deficiency. A Japanese attack would keep the United States distracted and reduce the amount of American materiel flowing to the Allies: all good things for Berlin. And so the Wehrmacht kept going, long past the point of diminishing returns, inching forward until German formations were ridiculously close to Moscow, just 10 to 12 miles. In getting there, however, the Germans had fought themselves down to the last man and tank: divisions were the size of battalions and companies the size of squads. Frostbite was rampant and winter clothing scarce, a result of a deliberate decision to prioritize ammunition and fuel for the final push. This ghost army was easy prey for the vast Soviet counterofensive that opened on December 5. The Japanese did, of course, finally take that long-awaited plunge, two days later. They did so on their own schedule, for motives that had little to do with Hitler’s operational decisions. But in doing so, they were one of the reasons the Germans kept grinding forward, and the lateness of their strike on Pearl Harbor was a key driver in the German disaster before Moscow. Like the man says—“the earth is round.”+
ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN TOMAC
★ MOSCOW
B Bu ig tt ge on r s
s o N act r nt
Co
“My friends all hate their cell phones… I love mine!” FR EE Car Charg er Here’s why.
Say good-bye to everything you hate about cell phones. Say hello to the Jitterbug Flip.
“Cell phones have gotten so small, I can barely dial mine.” Not the Jitterbug ® Flip. It features a large keypad for easier dialing. It even has a larger display and a powerful, hearing aid-compatible speaker, so it’s easy to see and conversations are clear. “I had to get my son to program it.” Your Jitterbug Flip set-up process is simple. We’ll even program it with your favorite numbers. “What if I don’t remember a number?” Friendly, helpful Personal Operators are available 24 hours a day and will even greet you by name when you call. “I’d like a cell phone to use in an emergency.” Now you can turn your phone into a personal safety device when you select a Health & Safety Package. With 5Star ® Service, in any uncertain or unsafe situation, simply press the 5Star button to speak immediately with a highly-trained Urgent Response Agent who will confirm your location, evaluate your situation and get you the help you need, 24/7.
Monthly Plan
$19.99/mo*
$14.99/mo*
Monthly Minutes
200
600
Operator Assistance
24/7
24/7
Long Distance Calls
No add’l charge
No add’l charge
Voice Dial
FREE
FREE
Nationwide Coverage
YES
YES
30 days
30 days
Friendly Return Policy
1
Health & Safety Packages available as low as $19.99/month*. More minute plans available. Ask your Jitterbug expert for details.
“My cell phone company wants to lock me in a two-year contract!” Not with the Jitterbug Flip. There are no contracts to sign and no cancellation fees. “Many phones have features that are rarely needed and hard to use!” The Jitterbug Flip contains easy-to-use features that are meaningful to you. A built-in camera makes it easy and fun for you to capture and share your favorite memories. And a flashlight with a built-in magnifier helps you see in 5Star Enabled dimly lit areas, the Jitterbug Flip has 12:45P all the features you need. Mon Feb 06
Enough talk. Isn’t it time you found out more about the cell phone that’s changing all the rules? Call now, Jitterbug product experts are standing by.
Available in Red and Graphite.
Order now and receive a FREE Car Charger – a $25 value for your Jitterbug Flip. Call now!
Call toll-free to get your
Jitterbug Flip Cell Phone Please mention promotional code 105242.
1-888-698-9884 www.JitterbugDirect.com 47666
We proudly accept the following credit cards:
IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Jitterbug is owned by GreatCall, Inc. Your invoices will come from GreatCall. Plans and Services require purchase of a Jitterbug phone and a one-time setup fee of $35. *Monthly fees do not include government taxes or assessment surcharges and are subject to change. Coverage is not available everywhere. 5Star or 9-1-1 calls can only be made when cellular service is available. 5Star Service will be able to track an approximate location when your device is turned on, but we cannot guarantee an exact location. 1We will refund the full price of the Jitterbug phone and the activation fee (or setup fee) if it is returned within 30 days of purchase in like-new condition. We will also refund your first monthly service charge if you have less than 30 minutes of usage. If you have more than 30 minutes of usage, a per minute charge of 35 cents will be deducted from your refund for each minute over 30 minutes. You will be charged a $10 restocking fee. The shipping charges are not refundable. There are no additional fees to call GreatCall’s U.S.-based customer service. However, for calls to a GreatCall Operator in which a service is completed, you will be charged 99 cents per call, and minutes will be deducted from your monthly rate plan balance equal to the length of the call and any call connected by the Operator. Jitterbug, GreatCall, and 5Star are registered trademarks of GreatCall, Inc. ©2016 GreatCall, Inc. ©2016 firstSTREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc.
T I M E T R AV E L ST O R Y A N D P H O T O S B Y JA M E S M . F E N E L O N
YANKS IN CAMBRIDGE KNOWN FOR ITS UNIVERSITY AND SOARING GOTHIC MASTERPIECES, Cambridge, England, has much to ofer visitors seeking antiquity and spectacle. Established in 1209, the campus occupies the center of town, where a maze of narrow streets winds its way through centuries of history. Humble in comparison to King’s College Chapel— a Gothic tour de force built in phases from 1446 to 1515—is Saint Bene’t’s Church, whose simple rectangular Anglo-Saxon tower dates back to the eleventh century. In its shadow is The Eagle, a pub originally opened in 1667. Its mismatched chairs, burnished wood, aged brass, and worn ale pull-handles radiate an appealing warmth. I navigate to a small back room to begin my exploration of more recent history: American servicemen and women who passed through Cambridgeshire during World War II. At the height of the war, the local countryside contained, on average, an airfield every eight miles. The Eagle’s back room, known as the RAF Bar, is a tribute to the World War II British and American airmen who, looking for fun, mischief, alcohol—or a combination of all three—migrated in from surrounding airfields. Memorabilia crowd the pub’s walls: service caps, flying goggles, photographs, and dozens of squadron insignia. The most unique artifact, however, is the mottled amber ceiling, completely covered with grafti. It is believed a British airman, Flight Sergeant P. E. Turner, was the first to ascend a table and burn his squadron’s number into the
24
WORLD WAR II
plaster. He soon was followed by scores more airmen who, using lighters, candles, and, in one case, a girlfriend’s lipstick, immortalized their squadron, plane, or initials onto the ceiling. Grabbing a pint, I crane my neck and box the room. At capacity, the dimly lit pub is noisy and, though you are likely to be surrounded by debating academics, it is easy to imagine the room filled with clouds of cigarette smoke and boisterous airmen. With the help of research displayed on a nearby wall—gathered by local World War II Royal Air Force veteran James Chainey, who, in the early nineties, identified references to more than 60 RAF squadrons and 37 units of the U.S. Army Air Forces—I discover a few of the stories encoded in soot. A prominent mark near the bar reading “THE WILD HARE” was most likely burned into the ceiling by the Zippo of an American airman stationed at Bassingbourn. A B-17G, The Wild Hare, went down over Altenbeken, Germany, in November 1944, killing six of the crew. The surviving crewmen spent the rest of the war as POWs. In the corner is “PRESSURE BOYS,” no doubt emblazed by a member of the 448th Bombardment Group, which had gained a reputation for accurate high-altitude bombing while fighting both the Luft-
TOP RIGHT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
wafe and sub-zero temperatures in arduous flying conditions. Leaving the pub, I make the eight-minute walk to Drummer Street where, during the war, canvas-covered “Liberty” cargo trucks from nearby Duxford airfield picked up American airmen before curfew. I follow their route south. Constructed in 1917, Duxford became an RAF fighter base in 1925. During the Battle of Britain, several Duxford-based Hawker Hurricane fighter squadrons were often routed to support the combat taking place further south. In March 1943, with the arrival of the U.S. 78th Fighter Group, RAF colors gave way to an American flag. The sight of P-47 Thunderbolts, painted with the unit’s distinct black-and-white checkerboard nose design, became common as the 78th’s three squadrons soared out of Duxford to conduct bomber escorts, fighter sweeps, and ground-attack missions. In late 1944, P-51s replaced the P-47s; the pilots protested the unwanted change by posing for photos while being dragged away from their beloved “Jugs.” In December 1945, the airfield was returned to the RAF. And on August 1, 1961, the last military aircraft took of from Duxford. Now a branch of the Imperial War Museum, Duxford is Britain’s largest aviation museum. I walk down the flight line to the original control tower. Little has
changed since the 1940s when crash vehicles were parked at its base, ready with medics and firefighting equipment. In July 1944, a B-17 buzzed the squat tower; the pilot failed to pull up in time and most of its port wing was sheared of, sending the Fortress into the ground, killing all 14 onboard, including extra crew and one man on the ground. Three of the airfield’s original four immense hangars are still present. The 78th assigned three hangars to its squadrons and turned the fourth into a grand theater where Bob Hope, Frances Langford, and Bing Crosby performed during USO tours. Despite a Luftwafe attack in 1940, all four hangars survived—until 1968, when United Artists blew one up while filming a bombing sequence for The Battle of Britain. The remaining hangars now house the museum’s extensive aircraft collection. In so sprawling a complex it is easy to feel you are overlooking something. I ask a docent, “Is there anything I missed?” He escorts me to a small building. “The course of the war changed in there,” he says. It was here British test pilot Ronald Harker convinced the Air Ministry to install a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine into a P-51 Mustang. In 1941, the RAF had received several Mustangs, but its Allison engine underperformed above 15,000 feet, limiting the plane’s utility to ground
Solemn statues stand guard over a wall bearing names of missing servicemen at the Cambridge American Cemetery (opposite). Nearby is The Eagle pub (left), where airmen—like these American pilots of the 78th Fighter Group in Duxford (above)—traveled to blow off steam. Many made their mark by burning their names onto the bar’s ceiling.
attacks and tactical reconnaissance. The Merlin’s superior horsepower and twospeed supercharger raised the Mustang’s service ceiling to 42,000 feet. The U.S. Assistant Air Attaché in London, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Hitchcock Jr., championed Harker’s conversions. Soon, American production lines were placing Merlins into the Mustang, giving the USAAF the fighter escort it desperately needed to mitigate the unsustainable losses of daylight bomber crews. Just past the hangars, a conspicuously modern building houses the museum’s collection of 19 American-flown aircraft, ranging from a World War I SPAD XIII biplane to the more modern A-10 Thunderbolt II. Aviation enthusiasts will enjoy the breadth of U.S. military aviation history on display, including a B-17, B-24, B-25, and a C-47 that dropped troops in all three of the ETO’s airborne operations: Overlord, Market Garden, and Varsity. Ten miles north of the museum is a tribute of a diferent type: the Cambridge MARCH/APRIL 2017
25
WHEN YOU GO Fifty miles north of London, Cambridge is an easy 90-minute drive by car or an hour by train. Visiting during the summer has the dual advantage of school being out and reliable weather. Narrow streets provide limited parking, so be patient. Admission to the Duxford Museum is $20. If possible, visit one of its amazing airshows (iwm.org.uk/events/ iwm-duxford/airshows).
WHERE TO STAY AND EAT Cambridge American Cemetery
Scotland Northern Ireland Ireland
N
ENLARGED AREA
WORLD WAR II
10
20
Duxford
NORTH SEA
London
American Cemetery and Memorial. Dating back to 1943, the burial grounds would become the final resting place for many Americans who died in the Battle of the Atlantic, the air campaigns over northwest Europe, in accidents, or in the invasion of France. I stand by the large flagpole, where the ground slopes down toward the English countryside, making all 3,812 headstones visible. The grounds are immaculate, and each white marble cross or Star of David headstone gleams in the afternoon sun. Fifty feet away, near the cemetery’s southern edge, is a reflecting pool. It runs parallel to a 400-foot wall engraved with 5,127 names of missing servicemen and women. Among the names are most of the sailors of the USS Reuben James, the first American warship sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic; John F. Kennedy’s older brother, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr., who died in August 1944 when his bomber exploded; and musician Alton Miller—better known as Glenn Miller—whose plane disappeared over the Channel that December.
26
M I L E S
0
Cambridge
Imperial War Museum
England Wales
The Eagle
I step down to explore the headstones. At ground level they surround me and the sadness of the place presses in. Here is 25-yearold Captain Wilbur P. Woford, a Texan who, along with most of his platoon, was killed in a glider crash during training. Not far from him lies Sergeant George B. Tullidge, an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper who was wounded yet refused to leave his machine-gun position on a road outside Sainte-Mère-Église. He died at age 20. There’s Emily Harper Rae, a 32-year-old Red Cross volunteer killed in a B-17 crash just 19 days before the end of the war. And here lies Lieutenant Colonel Hitchcock, the man instrumental to the P-51’s success. The decorated World War I pilot died in 1944 during a test flight gone wrong. There are thousands of other stories to be discovered—a humbling reminder that there are no clichés when it comes to the cost of freedom. In this small corner of the English countryside, I’m thankful for the opportunity to pay my respects to those who gave up their lives to stop the Third Reich. +
Lodging choices in Cambridge range from boutique hot spots such as the Hotel du Vin (hotelduvin.com) to the economical Gonville Hotel (gonvillehotel.co.uk), with free parking and wi-fi. Charming B&Bs are also available. For dining, The Eagle offers traditional English fare, including steak-and-ale pie and fish and chips (eagle-cambridge.co.uk). For lighter cuisine, seek out The Three Horseshoes, a converted thatched-roof inn with outdoor seating, minutes from the American Cemetery, in Madingley (threehorseshoesmadingley.co.uk).
WHAT ELSE TO SEE
In addition to aircraft, Imperial War Museum Duxford has many hidden gems that can easily take more than a day to explore. Behind the main hangars is the 1940 Operations Room, where RAF fighters were scrambled during the Battle of Britain. In the back of the AirSpace building is the Airborne Assault Museum, honoring British parachute units from World War II to the present. Check out the memorial behind the American wing; “Counting the Cost” is a series of 52 glass panels etched with the silhouette of every American aircraft that took off from England and never returned—all 7,062 of them.
MAP BY BRIAN WALKER
Cambridge, England
The Duxford control tower (above) encountered a close-call in 1944 after a B-17 failed to pull up in time. The plane grazed the tower, which sheared off its wing and sent the aircraft spiraling into the ground, killing all onboard.
PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL Japan was a leading nation in armored warfare before the war. What changed? By Jiaxin “Jesse” Du
28
WORLD WAR II
Japanese infantrymen advance on Nanjing in 1937 behind a Type 89B I-Go medium tank. The performance of Japan’s armored forces had largely peaked by that time.
ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES
MARCH/APRIL 2017
29
A
C
W
hen people think of the Japanese military in World War II, they often picture fearsome Zero fighters or soldiers battling to the death—not tanks and armored cars wreaking havoc on unsuspecting enemies. That impression tends to be reserved for the Germans. Japan’s World War II armored force was never an important component of the Imperial war machine and its performance throughout the war was mediocre at best. But why? Japan was among the first world powers to experiment with armored vehicles. It even put into practice combined-arms warfare years before the Germans did. Then, through a mix of officer corps infighting, strong personalities, and shifting battlefield priorities, Japan squandered all that accomplishment. WHEN HEINZ GUDERIAN—Germany’s legendary Blitzkrieg architect and author of the pioneering 1937 armored warfare book Achtung-Panzer!— searched the world for examples of tank development after World War I, he neglected to look eastward at Japan, one of the interwar period’s leading nations in armored warfare. Although not a direct participant in the World War I meat grinder, Japan, like many other nations at the time, had dispatched military observers to the Western Front. When the British Mk I, the world’s first tank to serve in battle, cumbersomely rolled across no-man’s land at the Somme, observers telegraphed news of the contraption back to Tokyo. The Imperial Japanese Army quickly recognized the tank’s revolutionary potential and, as early as 1917, began discussions about purchasing foreign reference models. On October 24, 1918, less than a month before fighting ended with the Armistice, a British Mk IV “female” tank (a variant armed with five machine guns but no cannon) arrived at the Japanese port of Yokohama, destined for the infantry school in Chiba Prefecture. Serious study of the tank began late the next year, when the school received its second shipment: six British Mk A Whippets and 13 French Renault FT-17s.
30
WORLD WAR II
Aside from the new weapon’s technical aspects, the Japanese took note of the potential significance of the new doctrine it represented: armored warfare. The Army Technical Headquarters, created as a part of a 1919 reform to oversee weapons research and development, stressed the importance of employing “mechanical power in addition to existing human and animal powers for the operation and transportation of weapons.” This idea generated serious interest among more open-minded infantry officers. By 1921, Japan’s Army War College in Tokyo began hosting extracurricular lectures on armored warfare during the Great War, and the Japanese word for tank—sensha, literally “battle car”—was coined. The tank was not the only new weapon generating interest. While the Great War was a tragic tribulation for Europe, for Japan it was an infinite treasure chest of technologies, doctrines, and lessons. Dozens of investigation committees and technology boards emerged to research submachine guns, radio communications, air power, national mobilization—anything to benefit Japan’s military ambitions. But compared to other topics, tank development did not receive the highest priority. In 1925 that changed. Minister of War Kazushige Ugaki implemented a major disarmament program for the army aimed at reduction and modernization, or quality over quantity. The army disbanded four infantry divisions and several army schools and hospitals, reallocating the freed resources to
A: © IVY CLOSE IMAGES/ALAMY; B AND C: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; D: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
B
D Japan ordered its last batch of foreignmade tanks in 1929; from then on, everything would be Japanesemade.
E F
E: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; F: ASAHI SHIMBUN VIA GETTY IMAGES
A. International observers watched in fascination as the world’s first tank in combat, the British Mk I, churned onto the battlefield—here near Thiepval, France, in 1916. B. Following World War I, German armored-warfare pioneer Heinz Guderian researched and wrote his groundbreaking book, Achtung-Panzer! (“Danger-Tank!”). It appeared in 1937. C. Ignored by Guderian, Japan was an early adopter of tanks, in 1925 assigning Captain Tomio Hara to produce a domestic tank. D. Twenty months later he delivered, with Experimental Tank No. 1. E. Until the late 1920s, the majority of tanks in Japan were still imports, mostly French, like these Renault NC-27s of the 2nd Tank Company, still in use in Shanghai in 1932. F. In 1929, Japan completed the prototype for the mass-produced Type 89 I-Go medium tank.
resources to expand the army’s air corps and anti-aircraft corps and establish a professional tank corps. On May 1, 1925, the Japanese armored force came into being with the formation of the 1st Tank Battalion in Kurume and the Infantry School Tank Battalion in Chiba. But the two battalions—each consisting of five now-outdated Mk A Whippets and Renault FT-17s—were experimental units not capable of actual combat. In addition, the fledgling tank corps faced heavy skepticism from army traditionalists, who questioned the potential of this preposterous invention. Still, Japan’s first group of tank commanders and engineers remained undaunted, and its young officers were determined to build a modern armored force—from scratch if necessary. Knowing war with China, and possibly the Soviet Union, was only a matter of time, they were dismayed at Japan’s dependency on foreign imports, mostly from France. Calls for domestically produced tanks gained support from the head of the Army Technical Headquarters, who assigned Japan’s domestic tank project to 30-year-old artillery engineer Captain Tomio Hara from the Technical Headquarter’s Motor Vehicle Department; by June 1925, a design was in the works. There was doubt in Captain Hara and his team’s chances for success; Japan’s previous experience producing military motor vehicles was limited to a four-ton truck and a three-ton tractor. Twenty months later, however, Hara proved skeptics wrong. Experimental Tank No. 1 (designated the Type 87 Chi-I medium tank) had its flaws—at 20 tons, it was heavy and greatly underpowered—but since it passed
field trials, the army gave its domestic tank program the go-ahead. Hara and his team immediately began to improve the design for mass production and, in 1929, completed the prototype for the Type 89 I-Go medium tank—the world’s first mass-produced diesel-powered tank and an army armored workhorse until 1942. In 1929, Japan also ordered its last batch of foreign-made tanks: 10 Renault NC-27s. From then on, everything would be Japanese-made. ALTHOUGH JAPAN STARTED OUT with less experience in armored warfare than its Western counterparts, that changed during its invasion of China. On December 17, 1931, the Japanese formed the 1st Tank Company—a temporary unit comprised of Renault FT-17s and NC-27s from the two existing tank battalions—and sent it to the battlefields of Manchuria. Their baptism by fire turned out to be anticlimactic. Led by one of Japan’s most promising tank commanders, 34-year-old Captain Shunkichi Hyakutake, the tanks encountered almost no resistance as they slowly rumbled behind the infantrymen. The company’s biggest action in MARCH/APRIL 2017
31
J G
I
H
the campaign, the Battle of Harbin, lasted only 17 hours before the ill-trained and unmotivated Chinese warlord troops abandoned the city. Less than a month later, when anti-Japanese riots escalated into full-scale military confrontation in Shanghai, the Japanese army dispatched a second tank company—this time with five of the domestically produced Type 89 I-Gos alongside old Renaults—to reinforce the Imperial Japanese Navy’s besieged landing forces there. The 2nd Tank Company, commanded by Hyakutake’s colleague, Captain Isao Shigemi, 37, fared poorly in the dense city of Shanghai, where the Chinese infantry could easily check the tanks on the city’s narrow streets. THESE UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCES stemmed not from technical ineptitude but theoretical flaws. The interwar period had seen myriad hypotheses on how the tank should be used on the modern battlefield—but provided few opportunities to test them. Military theorists proposed drastically different doctrines and by the early 1930s, the philosophy of armored warfare largely fell into two schools of thought—British and French. Many British military theorists, including Major General J. F. C. Fuller and Captain B. H. Liddell
32
WORLD WAR II
Hart, advocated for armored forces as an independent arm, with a mechanized combined-arms force as the backbone of a small, mobile army centered around the tank. On the opposite extreme, most French generals (future general Charles de Gaulle excepted) insisted on keeping the World War I-style infantry-based army, using the tank primarily as a subordinate support arm. Instead of being concentrated, armored vehicles would be dispersed among frontline infantry formations. With Japan a major importer of French tanks, it was only natural for the Japanese to adopt the French infantry-support doctrine. During the interwar years European powers could not determine which theory was correct, but when Heinz Guderian’s British-modeled, combined-arms Panzerwaffe finally clashed with the French army in 1940, the answer became clear. Had Europeans looked eastward to Japan, they could have gotten their answer sooner. On February 21, 1933—as Japan secured its gains in Manchuria and continued slowly encroaching into China proper—it unleashed a major offensive, the Battle of Rehe, aimed at capturing the Inner Mongolian province just north of Beijing. Japan had the unprepared Chinese warlord army on the run, but Lieutenant General Yoshikazu Nishi, commander of the army’s 8th Division, realized his traditional infantry would not be able to chase down and rout the Chinese before they established a new line of defense. At his disposal, however, was the now-experienced 1st Tank Company, consisting of 11 Type 89 tanks and two Type 92 heavy armored cars, along with 100 or so trucks and armored cars from the Kwantung Army Automobile Group. Nishi knew how to improvise. On March 1, he ordered Major General Tadashi Kawahara and his Battle Group Kawahara—an ad-hoc formation consisting of the 1st Tank Company, a mountain artillery company, an engineer
G AND I: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES; H AND J: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
G. In March 1933, Lieutenant General Yoshikazu Nishi used tanks to great effect during the Inner Mongolian Battle of Rehe. H. Just one year later, Lieutenant General Hideki Tojo, a staunch infantry traditionalist best known as Japan’s Prime Minister during World War II, dissolved that progress by breaking up tank battalions. I. Frustrated, 1st Independent Mixed Brigade commander Major General Koji Sakai called Tojo a “stupid moron.” J. Seven years later, Germany showed the world the power of tank-centered, combined-arms doctrine in its invasion of France in 1940. K. Type 89 medium tanks and Type 94 tankettes advance through a village in northern China in 1942; by then, most tank units in Japan were under the command of traditional infantry divisions.
On the bumpy roads of northern China, General Nishi achieved a brilliant mechanized victory.
K: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
company, a radio communications squad, and two infantry battalions—to exploit the initial breakthrough and advance ahead of the main Japanese force toward Chengde, the provincial capital, to disrupt Chinese defenses. Battle Group Kawahara’s tanks and trucks pushed ahead on the JinzhouChaoyang highway. The Chinese forces, still slowly retreating to the second defensive line, were caught completely off-guard. Their defenses collapsed, and the 1st Tank Company rode into an abandoned Chengde on March 4, covering a stunning 200 miles—roughly the distance from the Belgian border to Paris—within four days. Whether General Nishi had read Liddell Hart’s combined-arms theory beforehand will probably never be known, but what he did impromptu on the bumpy roads of northern China put into action British military theorists’ dreams of tank-centered, combined-arms warfare doctrine. The result was a brilliant mechanized victory against traditional infantry and, significantly, one employed well before the Germans did. THE VICTORY IN REHE finally gave pro-tank officers the leverage to push for concentrated armored formations and combined-arms mechanization. In March 1934, their calls were finally answered with the formation of the army’s 1st Independent Mixed Brigade. Consisting of two tank battalions, an infantry regiment, an artillery battalion, and an engineer company, the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade was Japan’s first operational combined-arms formation—and, for that matter, an early operational example of what Western powers had been testing mostly in peacetime war games. When the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937, Japan immediately dispatched the brigade to Chahar Province in northern China as part of Lieutenant General Hideki Tojo’s Expeditionary Force. The subsequent operation, however, was a disaster. Unlike Yoshikazu Nishi, Tojo—who would go on to serve as Japanese Prime Minister during most of World War II—was a staunch infantry traditionalist, with no intention of experimenting with tank-centered doctrines. Ignoring repeated protests from 1st Independent Mixed Brigade commander Major General Koji Sakai, Tojo broke up the brigade’s tank and infantry battalions to reinforce other infantry units— nullifying the very purpose of a concentrated armored formation. Sakai repeat-
K
edly found his brigade stripped bare, with just a single engineer company at his command. That Sakai dared to curse his Imperial Japanese Army Academy senpai as a “stupid moron”—an astonishing act given Japan’s strict culture of politeness and respect—was understandable. Exacerbating the situation, most infantry commanders of armored units did not know how to effectively employ their vehicles. Even in an infantry-support role, the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade performed poorly. A post-battle analysis by the Chiba Army Tank School pointed out that during Operation Chahar and the subsequent westward offensive further inland into Shanxi Province, armored units were often “committed with insufficient preparation, in wet and muddy conditions, without artillery support or coordination.” Chinese opposition forces, including those from the elite Central Army, possessed much better anti-tank capabilities than the local warlord armies the Japanese army had previously faced. During the Battle of Xinkou in October 1937, the 5th Division commander ordered his 4th Tank Battalion to frontally assault entrenched Chinese anti-tank positions at Yuanping. In that fateful charge, Chinese troops firing German-made 37mm Pak 35/36 anti-tank guns massacred the battalion’s thinly armored light tanks, killing three of the five company commanders—among them, rising star Shunkichi Hyakutake. (His colleague Isao Shigemi fared slightly better, living through the war and rising to the rank of major general, until he drove his tank on a suicide charge against the Americans MARCH/APRIL 2017
33
L
General Tojo and his fellow infantry officers were mainly to blame for the brigade’s awful performance.
L. Soviet troops advance behind a BT-7 at 1939’s Battle of Khalkhin Gol. The Japanese defeat there, along with the German invasion of France, inspired another Japanese thrust into combined-arms mechanization—one never truly effective. M. Tanks were not well suited for Pacific island use; this partially buried Type 95 Ha-Go on Tarawa was used as a revetment. N. Japan’s final tank battle of the war was an August 18, 1945, skirmish with Soviet troops on Shumshu Island in the Kurils chain; the grins on the faces of these Russian soldiers, posing before a destroyed Japanese tank, reveal the outcome. O. On the Japanese home islands, tanks—here, captured 4th Tank Division Type 3 Chi-Nus and Type 3 Ho-Nis on Kyushu—lay in wait for a battle that never came.
WERE THE JAPANESE TERRIBLE TANK BUILDERS?
An American M4 Sherman tank dwarfs the Japanese Type 94 tankette somehow resting atop it.
34
WORLD WAR II
armored force as a dispersed and subordinate support arm was sealed—a result many infantry generals welcomed. As with most Western nations, Japan’s greatest obstacle to raising an armored force was not a lack of resources or foreign sanctions, but skepticism and opposition from traditionalists within its own army who neither understood innovation nor wanted to see a new branch of arms competing against their own. In the West, however, armored forces eventually managed to redeem themselves as the major component of modern tank-infantry-artillery combined arms. In Japan, that redemption occurred much too late. FROM 1938-1942, most Japanese tank units operated under the command of traditional infantry divisions. Occasionally the army loosely organized multiple While small, lightly armored, and undergunned Japanese tanks fared poorly against leading Allied tanks, this disparity did not reflect a lack of Japanese know-how. Most tanks Japan produced during the prewar 1930s were on par in quality with contemporary Western designs. The majority of Japanese tanks were lightly armored because throughout the first half of World War II, Japan’s primary enemy was poorly equipped China—where the anti-tank capabilities of its infantry troops often amounted to suicide attacks with bundled stick grenades. Aside from a few rare cases, tank-versus-tank combat was also nonexistent, so Japan had no need for thick armor and big guns. Indeed, tanks needed to be light to traverse the mountainous terrain and limited infrastructure of southern China. The Japanese did produce limited numbers of heavier tanks designed to counter the new Allied threats—for example, the Type 3 Chi-Nu, with a 75mm gun. But the army held back that precious equipment in mainland Japan, along with the elite 4th Tank Division raised in 1944, for Hondo-Kessen—the “final battle for the home islands” that never came. —Jiaxin “Jesse” Du
L: RIA/SOVFOTO; BOTTOM: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
during the Battle of Luzon in 1945.) Although Tojo and his fellow infantry officers were mainly to blame for the brigade’s awful performance in northern China, the army considered its combined-arms warfare experiment a failure. In August 1938, the army withdrew most of the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade’s tanks, effectively disbanding the unit. Still, Japan’s armored force continued to expand, with Tomio Hara and his team designing newer and heavier tanks. But there was no more serious talk of concentrated tank formations; the fate of the
O
M
M AND O: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; N: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES
P
N
tank regiments and a limited number of infantry and artillery units into sensha dan, or tank groups, but they were neither permanent nor independent. Instead they functioned more like operational reserve pools, with units dispatched to the front whenever the infantry required a large mobile force. Only after suffering a humiliating May-September 1939 defeat by General Georgy Zhukov’s Red Army at Nomonhan—known to the Soviets as the Battle of Khalkhin Gol—and then witnessing the destructive power of the German Blitzkrieg in Western Europe in May-June 1940 did the Japanese again contemplate combined-arms mechanization. In April 1941, the army set up its Mechanization Headquarters, dedicated to the study and implementation of such warfare. On June 24, 1942, it formed three tank divisions in northern China. On July 4, the 1st and 2nd Tank divisions combined with the elite Demonstration Tank Brigade to form the Mechanized Army in Manchuria. It seemed Japan was finally ready for armored warfare. Reality, however, did not bear that out. Each tank division was to have four tank regiments, one infantry regiment, and one artillery regiment, with various specialized units (all mechanized) added on. But the divisions never received enough armored carriers or trucks; some regiments were forced to rely on horses for transport. At best, they could be considered only semi-motorized. With the signing of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact on April 13, 1941, and the attack on Pearl Harbor just under eight months after that, the Japanese army had lost production priorities to its archrival, the Japanese navy. Nor could Japanese tanks hold their own against their Allied counterparts. The Type 97-Kai Shinhoto Chi-Ha, the heaviest tank available for the divisions, weighed 15.8 tons, had a high-velocity 47mm gun, and only about an inch of armor at its thickest. By comparison, an American M4A3 Sherman medium tank weighed 33 tons, had a 75mm main gun, and at least 2.5 inches of frontal armor (see “Were the Japanese Terrible Tank Builders?,” opposite). With a land war against the Soviet Union temporarily out of the question and the Sino-Japanese conflict bogging down into a stalemate, there was no longer the demand for large armored formations in mainland Asia that there had been in the 1930s. Before long, the army pulled regiment after regiment from the tank divisions to reinforce the southern theaters, eventually disbanding the Mechanized Army altogether on October 30, 1943. Furthermore, Indochinese jungles and Pacific islands were naturally unsuitable for large-scale armored operations, and the relative small number of tanks made Japan’s
armored force once again an infantry support arm. The Japanese did have two operationally successful uses of concentrated armored vehicles during the war: in the December 1941-January 1942 Malayan Campaign and April-December 1944’s Operation Ichi-Go in eastern and southern China. Although the army also deployed tanks in the Philippines, their performance there was far from successful. As Japan’s military situation deteriorated and fuel supply dwindled, many infantry commanders eventually resorted to using tanks as static artillery pieces and pillboxes. Japanese tanks in Manchuria fared no better. When three Red Army fronts spearheaded by T-34/85 tanks and Ilyushin Il-10 Sturmovik attack planes crossed the Mongolian-USSR-Manchukuo border on August 9, 1945, the hollowed-out Japanese tank divisions essentially evaporated in the face of the Red Army’s massive armored pincer maneuvers. ON THE FOGGY MORNING of August 18, three days after Japan’s surrender announcement, Colonel Sueo Ikeda led his 11th Tank Regiment’s 40 or so Type 97 and Type 95 tanks on a mad countercharge against the Soviet occupation forces landing on the Japanese island of Shumshu, in the Kuril Islands chain. Little official records are available and it is unclear if Soviet aggression, Japanese desperation, or simply a mutual misunderstanding triggered the battle. The outcome, however, is unambiguous: While the Japanese killed or wounded more than 1,500 Soviet troops, Soviet anti-tank weapons demolished half of the Japanese regiment’s tanks, massacring Ikeda and his men— and the story of Imperial Japan’s armored force came to an unceremonious end. + MARCH/APRIL 2017
35
36
WORLD WAR II
LET THERE BE LIGHT
U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS/NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Aiming to illuminate an invisible combat injury, a groundbreaking film became a casualty itself By Joseph Connor
After commissioning a documentary about the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder on combat veterans, the U.S. Army backtracked and sought to keep the finished film from public view.
MARCH/APRIL 2017
37
The film portrayed the raw, genuine emotions of real combat veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
Acclaimed film director John Huston put his Hollywood career on hold to enlist and make documentaries for the army. After the war, he returned to his old trade: he directed 37 feature films and received 15 Academy Award nominations, winning twice.
38
WORLD WAR II
life in the Aleutian Islands, the other about the fighting near San Pietro, Italy. Now, he had a new assignment. As the war in Europe wound down and American forces approached the Japanese home islands, the army wanted to document the medical treatment of battle fatigue casualties evacuated back to the United States. Because the condition—an acute nervous reaction to the stresses of combat—had received little publicity during the war, the army
LEFT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; RIGHT: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
J
ohn Huston entered the U.S. Army in 1942 with distinctive credentials. In the previous two years, he had directed three hit films, including The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart, which garnered an Academy Award nomination for Huston’s adapted screenplay. The army put his cinematic talents to good use. Major Huston filmed two ambitious documentaries for the Army Signal Corps in the next three years—one on army
TOP: U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS/NATIONAL ARCHIVES
feared that those affected would be “misunderstood, mistreated, and looked upon with suspicion” when they were discharged into the civilian workforce. It wanted to reassure the public, especially employers, that those former servicemen were not dangerous and could function as well as the next man. Huston had filmed the bitter fighting in Italy at perilously close range and understood what battle-fatigued soldiers were going through. “For months I had been living in a dead man’s world,” he said. This was true even after he returned home on leave: “Emotionally I was still in Italy in a combat zone.” In spring 1945, Huston and a crew of six cameramen, six electricians, and two soundmen began filming at Mason General Hospital, an army psychiatric facility near Brentwood, New York, following a group of 75 combat veterans, all suffering from battle fatigue, as they went through an eight-week treatment program. Huston kept the cameras running continuously throughout treatment sessions to ensure he captured “the extraordinary and completely unpredictable exchanges that sometimes occurred,” he said. He shot more than 375,000 feet of film—nearly 70 hours—for a documentary that would run less than an hour. The soldiers took the filming in good spirits, posting a sign in their ward that read: “Hollywood and Vine.” When the men first entered the program, many showed obvious signs of distress. Some had nervous tics; others had amnesia. Some were immobile; others stuttered so badly they could not communicate. The images Huston captured were jarring. He explained that “to see a psyche torn asunder is more frightening than to see people who have physical wounds.” The film’s message was that these were normal men who had cracked under the abnormal stress of combat. “Every man has his breaking point,” explained narrator Walter Huston, John’s father. “And these, in the fulfillment of their duties as soldiers, were forced beyond the limit of human endurance.” As an army psychiatrist told the men, “If a civilian, the average civilian, were sub-
jected to similar stresses, he undoubtedly would have developed the same type of nervous conditions that most of you fellows developed.” They had nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of, he assured them. John Huston was impressed with the treatment the men received. “To me it was an extraordinary experience, almost a religious experience,” he said, “to see men who couldn’t speak, or remember anything at the beginning of their treatment, emerge at the end, not completely cured, it is true, but restored to the shape that they were in when they entered the army.” Huston spent several months editing the film, which had the working title Returning Soldier—The Psychoneurotic and was eventually renamed Let There Be Light, and hand-delivered the finished product to Washington, D.C., in February 1946. He was proud of the result, later calling it “the most hopeful and optimistic and even joyous thing I ever had a hand in.” Army brass were set to preview the film next, with a public premiere to follow in April at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. But the premiere never happened—for reasons that remain murky and may have had as much to do with stigma surrounding battle fatigue as with the revealing nature of Huston’s film. MARCH/APRIL 2017
39
Our evolving understanding of the condition now called posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is reflected in the changing labels given to it over the years. Accounts of war’s psychological impact date back to ancient times, and have been recorded in every major conflict in history—but not until 1980, in the wake of the Vietnam War, did the American Psychiatric Association (APA) officially recognize PTSD as a medical diagnosis. The terminology will likely continue to evolve: in 2012, some veterans’ advocates began urging the APA to replace “disorder” with “injury”—a term they see as less stigmatizing. FRENCH REVOLUTION Cardiorespiratory neurosis 1800s EUROPE Traumatic neurosis Combat hysteria Combat neurasthenia AMERICAN CIVIL WAR Nostalgia Irritable heart Soldier’s heart WORLD WAR I Shell shock Battle hypnosis War neuroses WORLD WAR II Battle fatigue Combat exhaustion Blast concussion Psychoneurosis POST-1945 Gross stress reaction Posttraumatic stress disorder
40
WORLD WAR II
BATTLE FATIGUE—now called posttraumatic stress disorder—emerged as the most unexpected and difficult medical problem of the war. It blindsided the military and threatened to become an epidemic that drained desperately needed manpower by immobilizing physically healthy soldiers, sailors, and Marines. Doctors quickly came to understand that battle fatigue was as much an injury as a gunshot wound, but old-school officers wrote it off as cowardice. Caught in the middle were the millions of servicemen—all potential victims who feared the condition as a reflection on their strength, dedication, and courage. Let There Be Light illuminated that troubling issue. Battle fatigue, then called “shell shock,” had been a major problem for the Allies in World War I. It was widely reported among British and French troops who had been in combat for four years. And although American doughboys saw hard fighting for less than a year, nearly 12,000 of them were hospitalized for psychiatric reasons. In 1940-41, as the United States mobilized for another war, military psychiatrists believed that men with preexisting mental illness were the ones who would later break down. Hoping to remove men they considered vulnerable to battle fatigue, psychiatrists rejected recruits at a rate 15 times greater than they had in World War I. Despite those efforts, the tough fighting in early American campaigns produced an unexpectedly high incidence of battle fatigue among the troops. Navy doctor Lieutenant Commander Edwin R. Smith, who treated Marines evacuated from Guadalcanal, told Time magazine that conditions on the island had produced a “disturbance of the whole organism, a disorder of thinking and living, of even wanting to live.” Common symptoms were headaches, sensitivity to sharp noises, amnesia, panic, tense muscles, tremors, uncontrollably shaking hands, and weepiness. As the fighting intensified, the number of battle fatigue casualties increased dramatically. Psychiatric admissions to army hospitals jumped from 114,055 in 1942 to 341,087 in 1943 and to 367,815 in 1944. Army discharges for mental health reasons went from 27,086 in 1942 to 140,723 in 1943 and 100,789 in 1944. Battle fatigue was not limited to those new to combat. Author William Manchester, a Marine who served in the Okinawa campaign, recalled a combat-hardened sergeant major breaking down and ordering Manchester and his comrades to launch a suicidal bayonet charge through an artillery barrage. “This was trouble,” Manchester later wrote. “I had seen combat fatigue, and recognized
the signs, but couldn’t believe they were coming from an Old Corps sergeant major.” When the barrage lifted, Manchester found the sergeant major spread-eagled outside his fighting hole, “shaking uncontrollably, first shrieking as I once heard a horse shriek, then blubbering and uttering incomprehensible elementary animal sounds.” What Manchester described became known as “Old Sergeant Syndrome.” Old-timers, even those with enviable combat records, could eventually crack under the accumulated strain of long-term fighting. At first, military doctors and line officers were shocked to see good soldiers, often decorated ones, felled by battle fatigue. They came to realize, however, that even the strongest could crack under combat of sufficient intensity or duration. Army psychiatrist William C. Menninger said those men reacted as “anybody might have if exposed long enough to combat.” The implications were staggering, as psychiatrist John W. Appel observed: every soldier, sailor, or Marine—no matter how tough— was a potential battle fatigue casualty. Nevertheless, some old-school officers clung to their belief that the condition was a sign of cowardice or malingering. The most notorious examples occurred in Sicily in 1943. On August 3, Lieutenant General George S. Patton encountered a battlefatigue casualty, Private Charles H. Kuhl, at an evacuation hospital. Patton cursed Kuhl, called him a coward, slapped him across the face with his glove, and threw him out of the hospital tent. On August 10, Patton encountered another such casualty, Private Paul G. Bennett. Patton cursed him, called him a coward, slapped him, and threatened to shoot him. These incidents reflected Patton’s firmly held belief that battle fatigue casualties were “cowards [who] bring discredit on the army and disgrace to their comrades” by using “the hospital as a means to escape.” There may, however, have been more to the story. Private Kuhl later said Patton’s conduct that day was so extreme, he thought Patton himself “was suffering a little battle fatigue.” Historian Charles M. Wiltse, author of the army medical service history of the Mediterranean campaigns, agreed with Kuhl, noting that Patton was likely experiencing “the accumulated tensions of the preceding weeks of intensive combat.” Perhaps, as one editorial writer noted, “the difference between the slapper and the slappee was only a matter of rank.” Doubts about the legitimacy of battle fatigue reached the highest levels of the military. In a memo dated December 30, 1943, U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall equated the condition with malingering and cited discredited claims from World War I that 80 percent of shell-
TOP AND BOTTOM, LEFT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; BOTTOM, RIGHT: 20TH CENTURY FOX/PHOTOFEST
TRAUMA TERMS
Military doctors soon discovered no one was immune from the extremes of combat. Those with physical wounds (bottom, left) were treatable, but some officers—George S. Patton among them (in a dramatization, bottom, right)— scoffed at the invisible effects of posttraumatic stress disorder, accusing soldiers of cowardice. Historians have since speculated that Patton himself suffered from the condition at the time of the infamous slapping incidents.
MARCH/APRIL 2017
41
A man who had served 200 to 240 days in combat was susceptible to breaking down and no longer an effective soldier.
a war going on, and the services needed every man. Battle fatigue was considered a temporary condition and soldiers were treated as near to the front as possible, with an emphasis on relief of symptoms. Wise commanders learned to intervene when they saw the warning signs. Soldiers were first sent to the battalion aid station, where they got hot food, a shower, new clothing, and a chance to rest. “Hot food, hot drink, a chance to warm up—that’s what [a soldier] needed to keep going,” said Major Richard Winters of the 101st Airborne Division. For mild cases, that was sufficient. More serious cases went further back to division clearing stations, also known as exhaustion centers. If that did not work, they went to general hospitals. The most serious cases, like the men shown in Let There Be Light, were evacuated to the United States. Even old-school officers came to grudgingly admit the reality of battle fatigue. Army psychiatrist Edwin A. Weinstein remembered a colonel who encountered such a casualty late in the war. Channeling his inner Patton, the commander drew his .45 pistol, called the trembling soldier a coward, and threatened to shoot him if he did not return to his unit. “Well, Colonel, sir,” the trembling soldier stammered, “I guess you’ll have to shoot me.” The colonel turned to the nearest doctor and ordered: “Evacuate him, he’s crazy.” As doctors treated more and more battle fatigue cases, they began to understand the impact of precipitating events. The more intense the fight, the greater the number of battle fatigue casualties. A leading cause was artillery fire, since it forced a
LIFE MAGAZINE
Although the army cited concerns about the soldiers’ privacy in its last-minute refusal to release Huston’s film, it approved stills— clearly showing the men’s faces—for the October 29, 1945, issue of Life magazine.
shock victims had experienced an instantaneous cure the moment the armistice was signed. Marshall blamed America’s parents and teachers, accusing them of coddling the men, many of whom had grown up during the Great Depression. “While our enemies were teaching their youths to endure hardships, contribute to the national welfare, and to prepare for war,” Marshall wrote, “our young people were led to expect luxuries, to depend upon a paternal government for assistance in making a livelihood and to look upon soldiers and war as unnecessary and hateful.” Of course, malingering may have occurred. Gunshot or shrapnel wounds are visible and diseases can be diagnosed with objective tests, but there was no definitive test for battle fatigue. Its diagnosis depended on a soldier’s honesty and the skill of the examining physician. In the entire war, only 47 American soldiers were court-martialed for malingering; it is unknown if any faked their symptoms. Combat troops themselves accepted the reality of the condition as an unfortunate but unavoidable fact of wartime life. “A man who is taken out of combat for battle fatigue,” explained Marine veteran Fred Balester, “is usually no more to blame for his condition than a man who has contracted malaria or been wounded.” As one frontline commander wrote on a soldier’s evacuation tag, “This man now freezes on the trigger and freezes under artillery fire. He is in no way a goldbrick or a coward, but is of no further use as a combat soldier.” Doctors worked to return battle fatigue casualties to their units as quickly as possible. There was
42
WORLD WAR II
U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS/NATIONAL ARCHIVES (BOTH)
Let There Be Light follows soldiers through various forms of therapy, including both individual and group exercises (top, right), culminating in a sort of graduation ceremony (top, left).
soldier to sit and take it; other triggers included the death of a buddy or bad news from home, like a “Dear John” breakup letter. But the most significant factor, doctors learned, was the number of days in combat. A man who had served 200 to 240 days in combat was no longer an effective soldier. If he had not yet broken, he was often too jittery or overly cautious. Men with fewer than 200 days were the most likely to respond to short-term treatment and to return to their units. These findings presented a dilemma because the army had no formal rotation policy for transferring combat veterans home. Most soldiers were overseas “for the duration”—until they were killed, wounded, or the war ended. Despite a better understanding of the issue and better treatment of afflicted servicemen, battle fatigue remained a problem until the end of the war. In 1945, 280,110 soldiers were hospitalized for battle fatigue, with 120,561 discharged for psychiatric reasons. In the navy, battle fatigue casualties increased late in the war as sailors endured the terror of kamikaze attacks. After V-J Day, the military refocused on treating the affected men and preparing them to re-enter civilian life. That is where it hoped to get a boost from Let There Be Light. IN APRIL 1946, critics and filmgoers eagerly anticipated the film’s premiere at the Museum of Modern Art. But at the last minute, the army pulled the film. Huston later claimed army MPs showed up and physically seized the film and classified it restricted, making it unavailable to civilian audiences. Critics who had already seen previews of Let
There Be Light were livid. James Agee, writing in The Nation, called the suppressed film an “intelligent, noble, fiercely moving short film” and lamented that it “will probably never be seen by the civilian public for whose need, and on whose money, it was made.” He urged public pressure to get the army to change its mind. “If dynamite is required,” he wrote, “then dynamite is indicated.” New York Post critic Archer Winsten took solace in his belief that the film would eventually be released. “Some future audience is guaranteed not only a beautiful film experience,” he wrote, “but also the certainty that their generation has better sense than ours.” The army’s stated reason for suppressing the film was privacy. It did not want to stigmatize any identifiable ex-soldier as a psychiatric casualty. Indeed, an army directive from 1944 prohibited the release of the “names or identifiable photographs of neuropsychiatric cases.” Huston had anticipated this objection and obtained privacy waivers from those in the film, but officials questioned the ability of psychiatric patients to truly give informed consent. When Huston later went to retrieve the releases from an army file cabinet, he said, they had disappeared. Some believed privacy was not the army’s real objection. Agee suggested it was concerned that the film was so powerful that any man who saw it would think twice before enlisting. Huston felt the army wanted to maintain “the ‘warrior’ myth, which said that our soldiers went to war and came back all the stronger for the experience, standing tall and proud for having served their country well.” The army’s own actions seemed to undermine its stated concern for the soldiers’ privacy: it had supplied nearly a dozen still photos from Let There Be MARCH/APRIL 2017
43
America’s most decorated soldier of the war, Audie Murphy suffered from PTSD. Filming battle scenes in John Huston’s 1951 Civil War film, The Red Badge of Courage, left him trembling.
MEANWHILE, American servicemen returned home with very real struggles. One such “new civilian” was William S. Freeman Jr. For many Thanksgivings after the war, Freeman stood in his yard and
44
WORLD WAR II
wept while his family enjoyed turkey dinner. He was haunted by memories of Thanksgiving 1944, when his men, lined up for a turkey meal served in canisters, were decimated by German artillery. Freeman’s enduring memory, he wrote, was “men torn to shreds around busted up turkey canisters.” Ira Hayes, one of the famed flag raisers of Iwo Jima, died from overexposure to the cold and alcohol poisoning in January 1955, at age 32. In the decade since the war, he had accumulated more than 50 alcohol-related arrests. Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of World War II, suffered from battle fatigue for the rest of his life. He endured chronic insomnia and recurring nightmares, and kept a loaded pistol under his pillow. He eventually took to sleeping alone in his garage with the lights on. Murphy recalled being terrified while acting in 1951’s The Red Badge of Courage, as the film’s Civil War battle scenes reminded him of his wartime experiences and left him trembling. The director of the film? John Huston. Of the soldiers who appeared in Let There Be Light, nothing is known of their postwar lives. As for the men Patton slapped in Sicily, both survived the war. Charles Kuhl worked as a janitor for the Bendix Corporation and died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 55. Paul Bennett later served in the Korean War and died in Georgia in 1973 at age 51. YEARS AFTER THE WAR, Let There Be Light was largely forgotten except by a small group of film aficionados. An unofficial copy circulated among them, reportedly “liberated” by a sharp-eyed film-buff soldier who had seen it in an army film library at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. In 1980, film historian and reporter Joseph McBride began a campaign for the film’s release and filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act. He soon gained important allies, including Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Vice President Walter F. Mondale, and film producer Ray Stark. While the army continued to voice misgivings about the privacy of the soldiers, army secretary Clifford Alexander Jr. ordered its release in late 1980. The film premiered on January 16, 1981, at the Thalia Theater in Manhattan, nearly 35 years after the army blocked its original premiere. Critics were impressed with the film’s raw power. Michael Blowen of the Boston Globe called it “single-minded in its riveting portrayal of the mental fallout of war,” and Michael Kernan of the Washington Post thought it showed “just how deli-
TOP, LEFT: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; TOP, RIGHT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Light to illustrate an October 29, 1945, Life magazine article on the stateside treatment of battlefatigue casualties. The photos clearly showed the faces of two men in the film and identified them as psychiatric patients. The army never explained why these photos were acceptable for Life’s civilian readers while the film was not. Instead, the army commissioned Joseph Henabery—a director and actor who, in 1915, had played Abraham Lincoln in D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation—to produce a new film. Henabery’s film, Shades of Gray, was scripted, not spontaneous, and used professional actors instead of actual veterans. The result was what film historian Scott Simmon called “less a remake of Let There Be Light than an argument against it.” Shades of Gray suggested that preexisting mental illness was the cause of battle fatigue—a far different message than delivered in Let There Be Light, and not what military doctors had learned during the war. The narrator contended that one out of every 18 Americans would eventually be treated at a mental hospital—and that an army is no stronger than the population from which it is drawn. Even the title follows this theme, with shades of gray symbolizing the varying degrees of mental illness that, the narrator claims, all civilians and soldiers carry with them. When the army released Shades of Gray to the public in 1948, an army spokesman emphasized that the film was “definitely not connected in any way with Let There Be Light.”
cate and yet how resilient the human mind can be.” The men’s faces haunted David Denby of New York magazine. “Seeing them break down is almost unbearable,” he wrote. But critics also noted shortcomings that may have escaped notice 35 years earlier. To Vincent Canby of the New York Times, “the impression given and even encouraged by the film is of a series of miraculous cures.” Indeed, said Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice, the film attributed to army psychiatrists “the combined talents and powers of Mandrake the Magician and Bernadette of Lourdes.” What was omitted, noted Stanley Kauffmann of the New Republic, was any mention of “the possibility of recurrence in these men; and, worse, it says nothing about the sufferers with combat psycho-
neurosis who took longer to leave or who never got out of hospitals.” Perhaps, he suggested, suppression had given the film a better reputation than it deserved. What had been shocking and groundbreaking in 1946 was neither to current audiences who had “grown up seeing riots, wars and assassinations live-and-in-color” on TV, Canby asserted. Interest in Let There Be Light was revived in 2012, when the National Archives and Records Administration fully restored the film. It is now available online for all to see. While its cinematic techniques seem dated and the treatment methods quaint, the film stands the test of time as a stark reminder of the thousands of soldiers, sailors, and Marines whose wounds were not visible or physical—the men who were the hidden casualties of the war. +
The film is a stark reminder of the thousands whose wounds were not visible or physical.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Paratroopers disembark in New York City at war’s end. Countless servicemen returned home to continue fighting the invisible, often debilitating effects of posttraumatic stress disorder.
MARCH/APRIL 2017
45
SHIPSHAPE FDR’s enormous model ship collection arose out of two deeply held passions
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT had a fathomless reverence for the navy, the sea, and sailing—one long preceding his 1913-1920 term as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and continuing throughout his life. His mother’s family, the Delanos, were ship owners and merchants; Franklin, always comfortable in water, learned to sail at a young age. He loved traveling by ship (he is aboard the USS Houston, above, in 1938), strongly preferring that to air travel. An inveterate collector, he combined his passions in a vast maritime and naval collection that includes more than 400 model ships. As president, he filled White House rooms with the models; many others were on display in the Naval Exhibition Room at the presidential library he created on the grounds of his home at Hyde Park, New York. Visitors to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum may see them there today, behind glass in a collections storage room evoking his Naval Room. —Karen Jensen
46
WORLD WAR II
MOSQUITO FLEET
In 1941, the Milton Bradley Company manufactured this diminutive wooden PT boat (top) as a toy; the company’s vice president, Roy Davy, presented it to President Roosevelt. The original PT-9 was the U.S. Navy’s first PT boat: a British vessel American manufacturer Elco imported that became the prototype for the 80-foot craft Elco subsequently built. While a dozen manufacturers ultimately supplied the U.S. Navy with the small, fast vessels, the majority of them, 399, came from Elco.
CLASS OF ITS OWN
In January 1941, when model maker Frederic A. Craven gave this 1/16” scale replica of the USS Wichita to FDR, the heavy cruiser had just begun its long wartime service. After convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic, the single member of the Wichita-class served in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific, ending up in Nagasaki Harbor shortly after Japan’s surrender. The Wichita was sold for scrap in August 1959.
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, HYDE PARK, NEW YORK, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED OPPOSITE, LEFT: © EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL/ALAMY
MARCH/APRIL 2017
47
A private study (here in 1933) next to FDR’s bedroom was his favorite spot in the White House. He chose to fill it with naval memorabilia—paintings and models included. On the mantel is a model of the USS Bainbridge (see below).
MODEL PRISONER
An inmate at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility crafted this 40-inch-long wooden model of the destroyer USS Bainbridge and sent it by express mail to the White House in November 1933. “I made each and every part of this model by hand during recreation periods at the prison,” he wrote. “I know you are keenly interested in ship models and I hope you will accept my humble gift which I am most happy to present to you for your collection.”
48
WORLD WAR II
DIVE, DIVE, DIVE
CENTER: HISTORYNET ARCHIVES
The Free French submarine Surcouf (photo, below) loosely inspired this working aluminum model—able to dive, fire guns, and launch torpedoes—made by a French petty officer in occupied Tunisia. On July 9, 1944, General Charles de Gaulle presented the 42.5-inch vessel to Roosevelt; he and his grandson, Curtis, promptly took it for a successful swim at a Maryland shipbuilding test facility, the David Taylor Model Basin.
SHIP TO SHORE
In 1964, Dwight D. Eisenhower famously called Andrew Jackson Higgins, builder of the Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP)—better known as the Higgins boat— the “man who won the war for us.” Higgins gave this model to FDR on October 1, 1943; the LCVP went on to prove crucial to all major American amphibious landings. MARCH/APRIL 2017
49
SHIPSHAPE Sailors gave the relatively small and light escort carriers an ill-deserved nickname: “Kaiser’s Coffins.”
GONE SOUTH
Eugene M. Wheeler, president of Wheeler Shipyard Inc. in Brooklyn, New York, presented this 41.5-inch model of an 83-foot U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat to the president in June 1943. The vessel depicted, CGC-83385, had been transferred to Cuba three months earlier, along with nine other Coast Guard patrol boats under the Lend-Lease program, to aid Cuba’s anti-U-boat operations.
50
WORLD WAR II
BABY FLATTOP
Henry J. Kaiser, namesake of the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company (at center, inset), presented a model of the escort carrier USS Casablanca to the president on March 18, 1943. The next month, Eleanor Roosevelt traveled to Vancouver, Washington, to christen the vessel, the first of 50 Casablanca-class carriers built during the war. “The ship went safely down the ways at the appointed time and was duly christened,” the First Lady wrote in the April 7, 1943, entry of her “My Day” newspaper column. “It was interesting and impressive to see all the workers and their families gathered together for the occasion and I felt there was a spirit of good workmanship in this yard.”
DOUBLE TROUBLE
George H. Maynor, 17, of Tampa, Florida, built this 49.5-inch model of the destroyer USS Benham, mounted in front of a mirror. His grandfather sent it to FDR in March 1941. But when the president invited George to the opening of the presidential library at Hyde Park that June, George had to decline; he had joined the navy the previous month. Aviation Mechanist First Class Maynor was on the flight deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, when the Doolittle Raiders departed for their legendary attack on Tokyo, and survived the sinking of the Hornet that October. MARCH/APRIL 2017
51
MEASURE OF A MAN An untried American prosecutor took on Nazi death squads— and found his life’s work By Andrew Nagorski
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Benjamin B. Ferencz, 27, presents his case in Nuremberg in 1947 at what the Associated Press called “the biggest murder trial in history.”
MARCH/APRIL 2017
53
BORN INTO A HUNGARIAN JEWISH FAMILY in Transylvania, Romania, Ben Ferencz immigrated to the United States with his family when he was an infant. Ferencz was always a scrapper, not intimidated by any challenge. Living in the basement of one of the apartment buildings where his father worked as a janitor, he was initially rejected by the local public school because, at six, he spoke only
54
WORLD WAR II
Yiddish and looked too small. (As an adult, he stood just over five feet tall.) But after attending schools in other parts of the city, Ferencz was singled out as one of the “gifted boys.” He became the first person in his family to go to college, and went on to Harvard Law School, tuition-free. While at Harvard, Ferencz served as a research assistant to Professor Sheldon Glueck, a noted criminologist working on a book about war crimes. In 1943, Ferencz graduated from law school and joined the U.S. Army, where he was assigned to an anti-aircraft artillery unit taking part in the invasion of France. Getting off his landing craft at Omaha Beach, the private found himself in water that came up to his waist while for most of the others it came up to their knees. Said Ferencz of the army: “It took a while before it began to dawn upon them that perhaps I might be useful for something else.” By late 1944, he was promoted to corporal and transferred to the Judge Advocate Section of General George S. Patton’s Third Army. He was thrilled, particularly when he was told that he would be part of a new war crimes team. As American troops fought their way into Germany, they heard numerous reports of Allied fliers who had parachuted into German territory only to be murdered by local residents. Ferencz’s first job was to investigate and carry out arrests as needed. “The only authority I had was the .45 caliber gun around my waist and the fact that the U.S. Army was swarming all over town,” he noted. Despite his size and low rank, Ferencz brought to his assignments more than his share of New Yorkstyle chutzpah. He was on latrine duty at Patton’s headquarters on the outskirts of Munich when Marlene Dietrich showed up for a performance for the troops. Told to make sure she was not disturbed as she took a bath, he stood outside her door. “After waiting a reasonable time—to be sure that she was at least in the tub—and eager to do my duty, I simply walked into the room where she sat calmly immersed only in her splendor,” Ferencz recalled. He must have been rattled a bit by his own audacity, since, while retreating, he said: “Oh, pardon me, Sir.” He apologized, but Dietrich was merely amused— laughing particularly at his use of “Sir.” After learning he was a lawyer, she invited Ferencz to join her for lunch with the brass, claiming he was an old friend. As a result, latrine duty segued into lunch with a superstar. WITH THE DISCOVERY and liberation of the concentration camps, Ferencz’s priority became gathering evidence for the upcoming trials: records left in camp offices, including death registries, which
“The only authority I had was the .45 caliber gun around my waist and the fact that the U.S. Army was swarming all over town.”
OPPOSITE TOP: COURTESY OF BEN FERENCZ; BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
I
n spring 1947, Benjamin B. Ferencz, a lawyer who had established a U.S. Army war crimes unit in Berlin the previous year, sat down with a small adding machine. One of his investigators had discovered a trove of secret reports while rummaging through an annex of the German Foreign Ministry near Tempelhof Airport. The typed pages, bound in loose-leaf folders, had been sent daily by the Gestapo to top Nazi officials. They provided full details of mass shootings of Jews, Gypsies, and other civilian “enemies” on the Eastern Front by Einsatzgruppen—SS extermination squads that followed the German army into the Soviet Union. Ferencz had already gathered plenty of evidence about the horrors of the Third Reich. Still, as he tallied up the numbers of victims listed in the reports, he was stunned. “When I passed the figure of one million, I stopped adding,” he recalled. “That was quite enough for me.” Ferencz rushed back to Nuremberg to tell his boss, General Telford Taylor—a Harvard Law school graduate, like Ferencz, with a distinguished career in public service. Taylor was in charge of the prosecution teams preparing a series of 12 trials that would follow the International Military Tribunal’s sentencing of top Nazi leaders. Ferencz insisted to Taylor that they add a trial for at least some of the Einsatzgruppen commanders who had presided over mass executions, but Taylor was cool to the idea. The general explained that the Pentagon was unlikely to appropriate more funds and personnel for trials beyond the ones already planned. Besides, the public did not seem eager for more trials. None of this, however, discouraged Ferencz. He argued that if no one else would take on the case, he would do so, on top of his other duties. “Okay, you’ve got it,” Taylor told him. As a result, Ferencz became the chief prosecutor in what the Associated Press called “the biggest murder trial in history.” He was 27 years old and it was his first trial. For Ferencz, who turns 97 this March, it was also the defining moment in his extraordinary life—one that influenced the decades that followed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
In 1944 Ferencz (far left) joined a Third Army war crimes unit—here on leave in Belgium in 1945. With the discovery of the concentration camps, he focused on gathering evidence, which was stored in the records room at Nuremberg (below, left). After the war, Ferencz returned to Germany as part of a war crimes prosecution team under General Telford Taylor (below, right).
MARCH/APRIL 2017
55
Ferencz’s biggest challenge was how to handle the huge body of evidence against the 3,000-some men who had methodically committed mass murder. A soldier from the Einsatzgruppe D mobile death squad takes aim at a Jew kneeling before a mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942.
routinely included bogus causes of death like “shot while trying to escape”; correspondence that provided information on how many prisoners had arrived in transports; even grisly souvenirs like two shrunken heads of prisoners that he found at Buchenwald. What he saw in camp after camp—bodies strewn everywhere, skeletal survivors—prompted near disbelief. “My mind would not accept what my eyes saw,” he later wrote. “I had peered into Hell.” Ferencz felt a mounting fury that drove in him a burning desire to take swift action, or, when he witnessed the victims turning against their tormenters, no action at all. Arriving at the Ebensee concentration camp in Austria, he ordered a passing group of civilians to collect and bury the bodies. When some enraged inmates captured an SS officer, presumably the camp commandant, Ferencz saw them beat the man and tie him to one of the metal trays used for sliding bodies into the crematorium. They slid him back and forth over the flames until he was roasted alive. “I watched it happen and did nothing,” Ferencz recalled. “I was not inclined to try.” After the war, Ferencz was eager to find a job back home and marry his longtime girlfriend, Gertrude. Yet despite his law degree, he felt unpre-
56
WORLD WAR II
THAT WAS THE BEGINNING of Ferencz’s second German odyssey. Gertrude accompanied him to Berlin. After Taylor agreed to allow him to prosecute the Einsatzgruppen commanders, Ferencz and his wife moved to Nuremberg so he could prepare his case. Ferencz’s biggest challenge was how to handle the huge body of evidence against the approximately 3,000 Einsatzgruppen members, who had methodically committed mass murder in the days before the death camps industrialized killing. He chose the most senior and best-educated SS officers to put on trial since it was impossible to prosecute all the members. For starters, the Nuremberg courtroom had only 24 seats in the defendants’ dock; noted Ferencz, “justice is always imperfect.” Of the original 24 he selected to prosecute, one committed suicide before the trial and another died shortly later due to poor health. That left 22. The trial ran from September 29, 1947, to February 12, 1948, but Ferencz presented the prosecution’s case in a mere two days. Looking boyish as he stood behind a lectern that came midway up his chest, he called no witnesses, convinced that the documents provided more damning evidence than any testimony could. In his opening statement, he charged the defendants with “the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women, and children…dictated, not by military necessity, but by that supreme perversion of thought, the Nazi theory of the master race.” Then he showed how this was possible. The four Einsatzgruppen operational groups, each composed of about 500 to 800 men, “averaged some 1,350 murders per day during a two-year-period; 1,350 human beings slaughtered on the average day, seven days a week for more than 100 weeks.” Ferencz used a new term to describe the defendants’ crimes: genocide—originally coined by a Polish-Jewish refugee lawyer, Raphael Lemkin,
UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES (ALL)
pared for a civilian career and acutely conscious that the country was flooded with millions of other returning veterans seeking new positions. One day, while walking down New York’s Fifth Avenue, he ran into a fellow Harvard Law School friend who was working for Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. Jackson was taking a leave of absence to serve as the Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. The chance encounter resulted in an offer for Ferencz to return to Germany to work for General Taylor, who was taking charge of the prosecution team handling the subsequent U.S. Army tribunals there.
Limited to procecuting only 24 Einsatzgruppen members, Ferencz chose the highest-ranked. He considered lawyer and economist Otto Ohlendorf (red) one of the best-educated mass murderers in history.
who, as early as 1933, had tried to warn the world of Hitler’s threat to exterminate an entire race. Ferencz met Lemkin—“the somewhat lost and bedraggled fellow with the wild and pained look in his eyes,” as he put it—during the Nuremburg trials, where Lemkin was lobbying to win recognition of genocide as a new category of international crime. The presiding judge was the flamboyant Michael Musmanno, a judge in Pennsylvania before the war. Musmanno described Ferencz as “David taking Goliath’s measure” as the diminutive prosecutor demolished the defendants’ attempts to shift the blame for their killing sprees to anyone but themselves, or maintained that they had tried to be as “humane” as possible as they carried out their murderous tasks. The defendants’ testimony fascinated the judge, particularly that of Otto Ohlendorf, a father of five who had studied economics and boasted a doctorate in jurisprudence. Ohlendorf had commanded Einsatzgruppe D —probably the most notorious of the killing squads. Ferencz had included Ohlendorf precisely because he was one of the best-educated mass murderers in history. Ohlendorf’s testimony led to one of the trial’s most revealing exchanges. Musmanno questioned Ohlendorf directly on his willingness to shoot defenseless civilians. “Now, didn’t the question of the morality of that order enter your mind?” Musmanno asked. “Let us suppose that the order had been—and I don’t mean any offense in this question—suppose the order had been that you kill your sister. Would you not have instinctively morally appraised that order as to whether it was right or wrong—morally, not politically or militarily—but as a matter of humanity, conscience, and justice?” Ohlendorf looked shaken. As Musmanno recalled later, “He was aware that a man who would kill his own sister made of himself something less than human.” But if Ohlendorf had said he would not have killed his sister, he would have admitted that he was capable of making a choice. All he could do was avoid answering the question. Ohlendorf insisted that he had no right to question his orders and tried to portray the executions he conducted as self-defense. As Ferencz summed up this twisted logic later, Ohlendorf’s argument was that “Germany was threatened by Communism, Jews were known to be bearers of Bolshevism, and Gypsies could not be trusted.” MARCH/APRIL 2017
57
The trial’s presiding judge called Ferencz (seated at left, top) “David taking Goliath’s measure.” The prosecutor secured 22 convictions—with Ohlendorf (above) and 13 others sentenced to death. Eventually hung in June 1951, Ohlendorf died, Ferencz says, “convinced he was right and I was wrong.”
58
WORLD WAR II
Such reasoning certainly did little to help Ohlendorf’s case, or those of other defendants—all the more so because they were individuals who had the wherewithall to know better. General Taylor, who stepped in to make the closing statement for the prosecution, emphasized that the defendants were the leaders of “the trigger men in this gigantic program of slaughter,” and that the record clearly demonstrated “the crimes of genocide and the other war crimes and crimes against humanity charged in the indictment.” When the judge emerged to pronounce his judgment, Ferencz was startled by what he heard. “Musmanno was much more severe than what I expected,” the prosecutor recalled. “Each time he said ‘death by hanging’ it was like a hammer blow that shocked my brain.” The judge issued 14 such verdicts, and sentenced the remaining eight defendants to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life.
WITH THE COLD WAR STARTING just as the last of the Nuremberg trials drew to a close, Washington quickly lost interest in holding further trials. There were other priorities: in the political and ideological struggle against the Soviet Union, American officials wanted to line up popular support in West Germany, where most people were eager to put the horrors of the Third Reich behind them. A clemency board recommended drastically reducing many of the sentences. Looking back, Ferencz offered the final figures: “I had 3,000 Einsatzgruppen members who every day went out and shot as many Jews as they could and Gypsies as well. I tried 22, I convicted 22, 14 were sentenced to death, four of them were actually executed, the rest of them got out after a few years.” By 1958, the last of the surviving defendants were free men. Ferencz added somberly: “The other 3,000—nothing ever happened to them. Every day they had committed mass murder.” While Ferencz was proud of his record, he was also frustrated by some of his experiences in Nuremberg—particularly the attitudes of the accused and their accomplices. He avoided talking to any of the defendants outside the courtroom, except in a single case—that of Ohlendorf. Ferencz exchanged a few words with him after he was sentenced to death. “The Jews in America will suffer for this,” said the condemned man, who would be among the four who were hung. Ferencz added: “He died convinced that he was right and I was wrong.” Few Germans expressed themselves quite so bluntly to the victors, but contrition was extremely rare. “I never had a German come up to me and say ‘I’m sorry’ all the time I was in Germany,” Ferencz pointed out. “That was my biggest disappointment: nobody, including my mass murderers, ever said I’m sorry. That was the mentality.” “Where is justice?” he continued. “It was only symbolic, it’s only a beginning, that’s all you can do.” But over time, Ferencz became increasingly convinced that the trials, no matter how symbolic
NATIONAL ARCHIVES (BOTH)
Musmanno had never previously sentenced anyone to death. A devout Catholic, he had been troubled enough about the prospect of handing down such verdicts as to retreat to a nearby monastery for several days before the trial’s end. Ferencz had not explicitly asked for death sentences; as he explained later, he was not against the death penalty but “could never figure out a sentence that would fit the crime.” How, he asked, could you balance “the lives of a million people butchered in cold blood with the lives of 22 defendants, even if you chopped them in pieces?”
“Nobody, including my mass murderers, ever said I’m sorry,” Ferencz recalls. “That was the mentality.”
Ferencz in November 2016: at nearly 97, the prosecutor remains passionate about his causes.
© DAMON HIGGINS/THE PALM BEACH POST/ZUMA WIRE/ ALAMY LIVE NEWS
in terms of punishing only a fraction of those responsible for the Third Reich’s crimes, contributed to “a gradual awakening of the human conscience.” WHEN I FIRST MET FERENCZ in Delray Beach, Florida, in early 2013, he looked like a typical retiree. His home there is a sparsely furnished one-bedroom bungalow he purchased 40 years ago for less than $23,000. He wore a sailor cap, a short-sleeve blue shirt, and navy pants held up by black suspenders. But he made it immediately clear that he did not feel like a retiree—in fact, he remains as passionate about his causes as ever. To prove that point, he told me he had just returned from his regular workout at the gym and rolled up his sleeve to flex his bicep. Ferencz quickly pivoted from the Einsatzgruppen cases to pursuing justice in other forms. With support from American authorities in Germany, he launched the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization to seek material assistance and restitution of property for the survivors. Next, he helped set up the United Restitution Organization with offices in 19 countries, and participated in complex negotiations with West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s government, other countries, and numerous victims—not only Jews. Ferencz stayed with his family in Germany until 1956 to continue this work; all
four of his children were born in Nuremberg. While Ferencz stressed that it took a long time for many Germans to acknowledge their victims, he was impressed by the willingness of the new German authorities to begin what would be an unprecedented effort to compensate them. “It never happened in history that a country paid its victims individually—inspired by Adenauer who said terrible crimes were committed in the name of the German people,” he said. But the cause that has continued to consume him into his tenth decade is a direct product of his role as a Nuremberg prosecutor. At every opportunity he has argued that conflicts must be resolved through “law not war,” and his pleas have been picked up by others. In 1997, Professor Antonio Cassese, the head of the United Nations special tribunal for crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia, quoted Ferencz’s eloquent conclusion to his presentation in the Nuremberg trial: “If these men be immune, then law has lost its meaning, and man must live in fear.” For Ferencz, it was a poignant moment. “I must admit that I was deeply touched that the words I had uttered as a young man of 27 had not been completely lost in the wind,” he later wrote. An avid supporter of the International Criminal Court, Ferencz delivered the closing argument in the court’s first trial in The Hague on August 25, 2011; he was 91 at the time. The defendant, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese rebel leader accused of recruiting child soldiers, was in the dock as Ferencz invoked the lessons of Nuremberg. In July 2012, Dyilo was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Last August, Ferencz donated one million dollars to the Center for the Prevention of Genocide at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This gift, made possible by a lifetime of frugal living, is renewable annually for up to 10 years. “I have witnessed holocausts and I cannot stop trying to deter future genocides,” he declared. The new project is the Ben Ferencz International Justice Initiative. When I emailed Ferencz to congratulate him on his generosity, he quickly responded: “I continue my efforts to deter illegal killings everywhere…. ‘Never give up’ is my plea.” Benjamin Ferencz never does. + MARCH/APRIL 2017
59
PACIFIC PATROLLER America’s PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol bomber
TALL TAIL
A single vertical stabilizer, along with a lengthened fuselage, offered better handling than the B-24’s twintail configuration.
CONSOLIDATED PB4Y-2
Range: 2,820 mi. / Top speed: 300 mph / Ceiling: 21,000 ft. / Armament: 12 machine guns / Production: 739 / The Privateer’s long range and stability helped it excel in its patrol-plane role.
THE COMPETITION MITSUBISHI G4M
Range: 3,542 mi. / Top speed: 265 mph / Ceiling: 27,890 ft. / Armament: 1 cannon, 4 machine guns / Production: 2,435 / The G4M’s light structure gave it excellent performance—but made it especially vulnerable in combat.
OBLIQUES
VICKERS WARWICK
Range: 2,300 mi. / Top speed: 224 mph / Ceiling: 21,500 ft. / Armament: 8 machine guns / Production: 842 / Initially designed as a bomber, the Warwick instead served in transport and air-sea rescue duties.
FOCKE-WULF FW-200C
Range: 2,212 mi. / Top speed: 224 mph / Ceiling: 19,700 ft. / Armament: 1 cannon, 4 machine guns / Production: 276 / The Fw-200C was used as a anti-shipping patrol bomber, but its light airframe often broke under the strain of the added equipment.
60
WORLD WAR II
A PB4Y-2 and crewman from VPB-119 at Clark Field (opposite); the Privateer featured new and improved electronics equipment that enabled aircrew to locate enemy ships, search for downed fliers’ radio direction finders, track weather patterns, and even jam enemy radar.
Low-level flights meant less risk of enemy fighter attacks from below, so the belly turret was omitted in favor of “blister” waist positions to cover downward on either side.
PHOTO: FRANK HOULE, VIA WILLIAM H. WOODRUFF
W E A P O N S M A N U A L I L L U ST R AT I O N B Y J I M L AU R I E R
By September 1942, the U.S. Navy began using the army B-24 Liberator bomber—which it designated the PB4Y-1—to conduct patrols against Japanese shipping and submarines in the Pacific Theater. To meet the navy’s requirements for a dedicated land-based, long-range patrol plane, Consolidated Aircraft built upon its successful B-24 and PBY Catalina designs to develop the PB4Y-2 Privateer. Although it bore a clear family resemblance to the B-24, the PB4Y-2 had a longer fuselage, a single vertical tail, greater armament, and engines optimized for low-altitude patrols over the ocean. Patrol Bombing Squadrons 118 and 119 received their Privateers by late 1944, and began overseas operations early the following year. In addition to their anti-shipping role, Privateers also flew air-sea rescue missions, searching for downed airmen in the vast Pacific Ocean. —Paraag Shukla
UPGUNNED
The addition of a second top turret helped make the PB4Y-2 one of the most heavily armed bombers of the war.
TAKING THE OFFENSIVE
With the streamlined Erco ball turret, the nose gunner had an extensive field of fire and could even strafe enemy shipping.
POWER PLANTS
For patrolling below 10,000 feet, the Pratt & Whitney R-1830-94 radial engines did not need super or turbo chargers and produced 1,350 hp each.
GOING THE DISTANCE
The PB4Y-2 depicted here was part of VPB-119, which patrolled near the Chinese coast and as far north as the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. MARCH/APRIL 2017
61
THE CROP CORPS D
uring World War II, U.S. government propagandists leaned heavily on Hollywood motion pictures to convey messages they wanted the populace to hear. In 1944, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pulled off a notable coup by creating a frothy musical titled Song of the Open Road, which glorified farm work and wrapped it in the flag of wartime patriotism. With sons drafted and hired hands lured by highpaying jobs in defense factories, American farmers were having trouble getting their crops planted, cultivated, harvested, and transported to market. According to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, between April 1940 and July 1942 more than 2 million men left farm work; by war’s end that
62
WORLD WAR II
number had risen to 6 million. The impact of their exit was so dramatic that in 1942 some crops withered in fields with no one to pick them—this just as the nation’s food needs were peaking, with demands to feed not only America’s fighting men but also help European allies devastated by war. The U.S. government tapped every resource it could to help. It allowed in workers from Mexico, Jamaica, Barbados, and the Bahamas, offered German and Italian POWs a chance to earn spending money, and furloughed Japanese Americans from internment camps—all to labor on farms. It also gave leave to some soldiers from farms so they could return home at planting and harvest times. But the most important answer to the farm labor shortage was the creation of USDA’s Crop Corps—
Women’s Land Army (WLA) volunteer Shirley Armstrong was one of millions of farming newcomers to help bring in crops during the war years. After her image appeared on the September 27, 1943, Life magazine cover, she received fan mail from soldiers and sailors overseas.
GORDON COSTER/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
When the war created a labor shortage on America’s farms, millions of game city folk came to the rescue By Daniel B. Moskowitz
MARCH/APRIL 2017
63
SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD begins with a Hollywood studio screening for its young cast the final cut of a short film intended to recruit youngsters to help out on farms. The movie-within-a-movie depicts a flock of happy teens singing as they ride their bikes to “Pyramid Date Gardens” to pick the crop; it ends with a title card importuning viewers to “Make a Date with Uncle Sam/Join the Crop Corps.” As the story unfolds, one of the studio’s top stars does just that, signing on for what is portrayed as a joyous experience in camaraderie. The film was a vehicle for 14-year-old coloratura Suzanne Burce, who was under contract with Metro-GoldwynMayer but had been lent to United Artists for what would be her debut movie. She played a character named Jane Powell; studio brass liked the name so much they decided henceforward that was the way Suzanne Burce would be billed. Adorned with a mop of corkscrew curls, the film’s Jane Powell is a young movie star who runs away from studio life and a dominating mother. She finds new meaning by joining other kids at a camp from which they fan out each day to help neighboring farmers. In between singing and dancing, they pick lima beans and tomatoes. When a windstorm threatens to damage 1,000 acres of oranges, our heroine calls on friends from the studio—W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Sammy Kaye and his orchestra—to come entertain. The chance to see a starstudded show attracts hundreds from nearby towns who are inveigled into picking the vulnerable crop. Allowing for Hollywood gloss, the happy camp site where the young actress ends up resembles those scattered around the country under the aegis of Victory Farm Volunteers—a component of the Crop Corps made up of kids ages 11 to 17. Measured by manpower, VFV was the larger wing of the Crop Corps, tapping a total of 2.5 million urban teens for farm work throughout the war years. Almost 80 percent of teen farm workers lived at home and rode a bus or truck each day to work. For the rest of the volunteers it was total immersion: moving in with a farmer’s family or to a camp nearby. Government employees supervised the camps. Regulations called for youths to get “the same wages as those paid to other workers in the community doing the same kind and amount of work.” Those picking strawberries in Connecticut were paid $8.50 a week; those picking tomatoes in New Mexico got $17.50 a week. But VFV members who lived at camps had to fork over part of that pay for
64
WORLD WAR II
food and other living expenses. They were not issued uniforms, but received a VFV patch to wear on their school sweaters in the fall. The camp where runaway movie star Jane Powell made new friends bore a passing resemblance to the real VFV camp at Superior Fruit Ranch, a 360-acre San Joaquin Valley peach orchard not far from Modesto, California. Superior had long used Japanese American workers to harvest crops and had housed them in fairly shabby two-story, on-site dormitories. Condemning those workers to internment camps left the dormitories and cookhouse vacant. Under pressure from student representatives at high schools in Burlingame and Redwood City, Superior agreed to upgrade the dorms—painting, repairing, adding screens, and bringing shower and toilet facilities up to state health norms. In return, students at the two high schools signed onto VFV. Midday on July 19, 1943, buses carrying 120 of them rolled into the ranch. Over the next week, the teens picked 1,000 tons of peaches. They also had a busy social schedule, with swimming in the ranch’s canal four nights a week, dances every Friday evening, and picnics Sunday afternoon. The overriding theme of stays at VFV camps, however, was work. While the youth camp in Song of the Open Road physically resembled reality, the daily chores of merry harvesters in the film did not. Campers joyously sang of “fun in the sun,” and it seemed that at least half the kids were providing music while the other half did chores. That was not the experience of hardworking VFV kids. Marietta Decker was 14 years old when she and two friends joined the VFV and were assigned to a camp at Anne Arundel, Maryland. “Despite wearing long-sleeved men’s work shirts, our arms and backs were burned to a crisp when we arrived back at the camp in the evenings, and our muscles ached from the day’s work in the fields,” she recalled decades later. “We did not know which ointment we needed most, Ben-Gay for our aching muscles or Noxzema for our sun-parched bodies. So we ended up using both.” Similarly, 15-year-old Baltimore high school student Elaine Langerman was one of the workers housed at Mil-Bur VFV camp near Pasadena, Maryland. “It wasn’t easy getting up at 5:15,” she said. “It took a long time to get used to the hot sun beating down on us the whole day. Our backs felt as if they would never be the same after that first day in the bean field.” But she proudly noted that on their best week the girls at Mil-Bur picked 35,700 pounds of beans. In some towns, school schedules were changed to accommodate farmers’ needs. In Portales, New
Campers in the film Song of the Open Road joyously sang of “fun in the sun”; that was not the experience of hardworking VFV kids.
Kids aged 11 to 17 could become “Victory Farm Volunteers,” like those (opposite, top) registering in Lane County, Oregon. While helping farmers, the youths gained new skills. A wartime caption explains that 16-yearold Harry Fitch (bottom), “learned a great deal about turkeys.” The volunteers received a patch (inset) to sew on their sweaters.
©EVERETTE COLLECTION INC./ALAMY; OPPOSITE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES (BOTH)
an undertaking that enlisted city-dwelling women and teenagers to help out in the fields, painting it as a patriotic duty to do so.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mexico, summer vacation ended August 1; school then ran for two months and shut down in October so the kids could help harvest crops. In 1942, the Kansas Board of Education sent all state public schools a request to temporarily excuse students for farm work; schools in Doniphan County immediately responded by freeing kids to pick apples in danger of rotting. For many of the urban youths—especially those living with farm families—the work detail took a fair bit of cultural adjustment. A list of “suggestions to town boys who will work on the farm” from the Kansas State Board of Vocational Education warned “your personal habits may have to be adjusted to circumstances as they exist on the farm,” where, for instance, hot showers might be an unavailable luxury. Moreover, they were advised, “don’t tell the farmer’s wife how your mother does things” and “don’t remind the farmer or his wife of it if your home in the city is nicer than that of the farmer.” The main attraction for subjecting young bodies to such strain was patriotism. Sixteen-year-old Lucille Hawley Dent was one of the teens picking cherries in Antrim County, Michigan. “We had the feeling that we really were in the army now, helping to win the war,” she said years later. And that was just the message the government wanted to convey. In an article for the New York Times, USDA official Meredith C. Wilson wrote that “manpower for agriculture is of equal importance with manpower to produce combat weapons for our fighting men.” Farm worker recruitment materials from the Office of War Information insisted that “bread is ammunition as vital as bullets.” And just in case the audience did not get that message, Song of the Open Road’s script made it explicit. In the film’s climax, W. C. Fields, exhorting reluctant city dwellers to roll up their sleeves and pitch in on the harvest, says: “I wish to remind you all that this is a country at war. This crop of oranges is threatened with destruction by a vicious wind storm, which is expected hourly. Our army, our navy, your boys overseas, need these oranges and must have them!” THE VFV WAS JUST ONE PART of the Crop Corps; the program also enlisted adult city females in its more publicized arm, the Women’s Land Army. It was all part of the revolution during World War II that led to married women outnumbering single women in the workforce for the first time in American history. Factories and shipyards recruited Rosie the Riveters, arguing that in wartime women had to step into nontraditional roles. To recruit farm workers, MARCH/APRIL 2017
65
“Tired? Of course I get tired,” a WLA volunteer wrote. “But so does that boy in the foxhole.” 66
WORLD WAR II
ALMOST NEEDLESS TO SAY, in a program as diverse and decentralized as the Crop Corps—one depending on greenhorns at that—not everything was rosy. Not all farmers were delighted with the idea of city folks trying their inexperienced hand at farming. In the Midwest, it was an especially tough sell persuading farmers to turn to amateurs to stand in for their tried and true hired hands. Helen Nelson, a USDA extension agent in Nebraska, shared that skepticism; in a 1943 report to her superiors she wrote: “The program of enrolling town women and girls for farm work is not satisfactory, for the lights of the city and the higher wages obtainable have much more appeal than nature’s great out of doors.” This reluctance had to do with more than lack of farming skills. Stephanie Ann Carpenter, head of the history department at Andrews University, wrote her doctoral dissertation on the World War II WLA. She discovered stereotypes were
NATIONAL ARCHIVES (BOTH); OPPOSITE TOP: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; BOTTOM: GORDON COSTER/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
however, the pitch was a bit different: joining was promoted not as shedding tradition but as continuing in an honored feminine role. As a 1943 WLA recruitment brochure from the Kansas Farm Labor Program put it: “Feeding the men of their families—their husbands, sons, and brothers—has always been a natural and happy function of American women. Now many of their men are facing death in Europe and the Solomons. But women can still serve heroically in the greatest arsenal of food the world has ever known—American agriculture.” The United States had mounted a Women’s Land Army in World War I (when participants were called “farmerettes”), as did Britain; by the time the United States entered World War II, WLAs were at work in Britain and Australia. The program had maximum support and political clout: weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Eleanor Roosevelt, then assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense, told the agency to begin recruiting women to work the fields in the summer of 1942. Most WLA members had no agricultural skills before signing up. Some were put through crash courses in farming, but those were sparse; only nine states offered such training in 1943. The bulk of volunteers simply learned on the job. Representative was a group of women from New York City who, on an early summer morning in 1943, boarded a dayliner of the Hudson River Line headed for work on Columbia County, New York, farms. The youngest was 17, the oldest 33. In the bunch were a number of college students on summer break— an art major from Sarah Lawrence, a political science major from Swarthmore, a philosophy major from Vassar, a doctor-in-training from Long Island Medical College—as well as some older women, including one who had ditched her job behind the jewelry counter of a department store to do something more meaningful and another who was married to a Marine wounded on Guadalcanal and felt a need to match his contribution to victory in some way. The women were housed in cabins at Lake Taghkanic State Park not far from the riverside town of Hudson; the mess hall was a mile walk away at a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp. The morning after their arrival, they were awakened at 4:45 a.m. and were groomed, dressed, and fed by the time a local farmer came by to pick them up at 7 a.m. He drove them to his 550-acre farm where he kept a herd of 86 dairy cows and raised crops to feed the cattle. In 1942, he had been so shorthanded the corn had gone unharvested; now the women’s first task was husking the 1943 crop. Like the teens in the VFV, most of the women in the WLA had similar things to say about their experiences: it was the hardest they had ever worked, they were sorer than they had ever been, and they got a real rush of joy knowing they were making a visible and meaningful contribution to the war effort. In a wartime essay, Lottie Tresham of Hornick, Iowa, expressed her determination after hauling 10,000 bushels of corn from the picker on a farm to the closest grain elevator: “Tired? Of course I get tired,” she wrote, “but so does that boy in the foxhole.”
Women’s Land Army volunteers could buy denim uniforms (above) for $10.05; few did. Most dressed like these proud Duluth, Minnesota, members (below).
rampant, and: “in the Midwest, farmers and their families viewed [city] women as corrupt and immoral, thus not an appropriate influence or presence on their property.” (As the war wore on, farmers heard glowing reports from the few willing to try out these women and most began to welcome the WLA volunteers.) Moreover, WLA camps frequently fell short of required standards, garnering numerous complaints from women in the program. As noted in Prologue, the National Archives’ magazine, Frances Valentine, an employee of the U.S. Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, inspected WLA camps in eight Midwestern states in 1944 and reported that “few had adequate facilities for bathing or for washing clothes, and some had an inadequate number of toilets.” The cost of room and board fees for Crop Corps members also proved to be a problem. Eighty high school girls housed at New Jersey’s Glassboro State Teacher’s College found that the four cents a pint they earned picking raspberries at Gloucester County farms would not cover the weekly $8 fee, and the whole project was abruptly cancelled. More serious were racial tensions. As Carpenter tells it: “Southern WLA organizations encountered racial problems, and many states did not officially organize WLA programs due to racial discord. Other states excluded African American women, a main labor force in the region.” A 1943 annual report from the South Carolina WLA noted that “it was thought best to start the Women’s Land Army with white women only this year, as, if it becomes known first as a Negro program, it would have been impossible later on to interest white women in participating.” So strong was that regional antipathy that WLA recruits from the border state West Virginia were sent north to Ohio farms. Despite these problems, the program was a success. Aproximately 1.5 million women came from cities to work on farms. And in many towns, men well past draft age signed up to toil on nearby farms on one of their weekend days off from their regular jobs, just like the Californians from all walks of life who pitched in to pick those oranges in Song of the Open Road. During the war years, the United States produced record harvests of key crops. In 1944, the corn crop totaled 3.2 billion bushels and wheat harvest rose to 1.1 billion bushels, up some 800 million and 3 million bushels respectively from the prewar average. Records were also set for sorghum, potatoes, sugar cane, peaches, and pears—none of which would have been possible without the labor of the 4 million urban amateurs in the Crop Corps. + MARCH/APRIL 2017
67
Legendary innovator Pappy Gunn transformed the B-25 into a low-level bomber (below), helping to ensure Allied victory in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. While Gunn (center) served in Australia, his family was captured and interned in Manila until the war’s end. They reunited in 1945 (bottom).
R E V I E W S BOO K S
GUNNS AND GADGETS INDESTRUCTIBLE One Man’s Rescue Mission that Changed the Course of WWII By John R. Bruning. 523 pp. Hachette Books, 2016. $28.
68
WORLD WAR II
U.S. AIR FORCE (ALL)
GENERAL GEORGE C. KENNEY’S Fifth Air Force in the Southwest Pacific was an unconventional outfit. Operating in a backwater theater far from higher headquarters oversight, the Fifth disdained rules, red tape, and paperwork. Getting the job done was what mattered, and if converting A-20 and B-25 medium bombers into powerful “gunships” for attacking ground and sea targets violated regulations, so be it. Historians have given Kenney credit for this innovative spirit—credit Kenney was glad to accept. Yet months before Kenney took over his command, one of the war’s larger-than-life characters, Paul Irvin “Pappy” Gunn, was already blazing the trail as an innovative force, creating experimental weaponry to help boost defenses. After a long career as an enlisted naval aviator, Gunn retired in 1939 and eventually moved with his family to the Philippines, where he helped establish the startup Philippine Air Lines (PAL). The outbreak of war in December 1941 and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines turned his family’s world upside down. The U.S. Army Air Forces pressed PAL’s small fleet into military service and commissioned Gunn a captain. He began flying transport and evacuation missions in the airline’s unarmed Beechcraft. While Gunn was in Australia, Manila was declared an open city in an effort to prevent its destruction by advancing Japanese forces. His family was interned at Santo Tomas University. In Indestructible, Bruning does a fine job of recounting two parallel story lines, alternating between Gunn’s unconventional brilliance in cobbling together aircraft for the defense of Australia and the campaign in New Guinea, and his family’s battle against starvation, the Japanese, and—not least—their fellow internees in the notorious Santo Tomas camp. Despite the book’s misleading subtitle, there was no “rescue mission.” Gunn suffered with the knowledge that he was powerless to help his family, who endured three years of brutal internment. Only Allied victory in 1945 reunited the family. In paying tribute to Gunn’s ability as a “super-experimental gadgeteer and allaround fixer,” Kenney noted that Gunn “never took a chance on ruining a good story by worrying about the exactness of its details.” Despite Bruning’s commendable efforts to sort it all out, it remains difficult to extract the real man from the mists of legend. The author admits as much; after recounting one especially improbable tale of Gunn bucking the system, pistols in hand, Bruning concludes, “It makes for a great story, if not great history.” Pappy Gunn would have probably wanted it that way. —Richard R. Muller is a professor of military history at USAF’s School of Advanced Air & Space Studies.
R E V I E W S BOO K S
QUEST FOR REDEMPTION A MATTER OF HONOR IS a passionately and thoughtfully developed defense of Admiral Husband S. Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Although other ofcers were technically responsible for fleet defense in port, blame from Washington cascaded overwhelmingly on Kimmel due to the devastating loss of Pacific Fleet ships and men. Within days of the attack, the U.S. Navy relieved Kimmel, reduced him in rank, and made him a scapegoat. Building on decades of work by Kimmel and his descendants, this book itemizes numerous instances, some egregious, where Washington failed to forward important information to Kimmel. This was despite the solemn pledge by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold Stark that Kimmel would receive all relevant information. The authors emphasize previously known decrypted Japanese messages to illuminate the failure of U.S.-Japan negotiations in 1941, special Japanese interest in Pearl Harbor, and last-minute cables containing signals that war was likely to erupt the morning of December 7—though not where. A MATTER OF HONOR But the authors also adduce new evidence that Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Washington failed to forward a report revealing Blame, and a Family’s that British planes in November 1940 had sucQuest for Justice cessfully employed aerial torpedoes in shallow By Anthony Summers water like that of Pearl Harbor—a feat previand Robbyn Swan. ously regarded as technically impossible. It is 896 pp. HarperCollins, not so clear, however, that Kimmel necessarily 2016. $35. would have taken note of the reported torpedo launch points or the chart’s depth notations. A Matter of Honor is persuasive that Kimmel sufered gross injustice in multiple ways, but the authors’ analysis falters on one critical point. Washington had sent “war warnings” to Hawaii, though these specified other locations as likely Japanese targets. The destroyer USS Ward reported that it had sunk a submarine (undoubtedly Japanese) about an hour before the Japanese air armada arrived. Kimmel’s headquarters squandered this tactical warning. The authors further reduce the problem of detection of the incoming Japanese aerial onslaught to issues involving radar sets. The real failure, however, was not the want of radar warnings, but the absence of an efective air information center that could properly analyze the messages and muster defenses before the attack arrived. Even after assigning the very damning responsibility due ofcials in Washington, the failures of the local Hawaiian commanders, including Kimmel, to react to these tactical warnings cannot be wholly exonerated under the stern U.S. code of command responsibility. Thus, scapegoating was inexcusable; accountability was not. —Richard B. Frank is a historian of the Asia-Pacific War and a member of the Board of Presidential Counselors of The National World War II Museum. MARCH/APRIL 2017
69
R E V I E W S BOO K S
HONOR AND SACRIFICE UNCOMMON VALOR ON IWO JIMA The Stories of the Medal of Honor Recipients in the Marine Corps’ Bloodiest Battle of World War II By James H. Hallas. 424 pp. Stackpole, 2016. $29.95.
70
WORLD WAR II
DECEMBER 7, 2016, MARKED the first in a string of 75-year anniversaries for America’s Pacific War with Japan. Among the most unforgettable—certainly for the U.S. Marine Corps—will fall on February 19, 2020: the 75th anniversary of the assault on Iwo Jima. Uncommon Valor on Iwo Jima focuses on Iwo’s 22 Marine and five navy Medal of Honor (MOH) recipients. The struggle for “Sulphur Island” proved the most highly decorated single engagement in U.S. history. Small wonder: it was the only major Pacific battle where a U.S. landing force sufered more casualties than it inflicted. More surprising, 16 of the 27 MOH recipients lived to bask in plaudits. For readers unfamiliar with the details of the month-long struggle for Iwo, Uncommon Valor is
not the account to begin with. Although Hallas provides narrative transitions between individual accounts, these are cursory. Each of the 27 stories—which combine backstory with action—are clear, compact, and compelling. One good way to page through Uncommon Valor might be to consider one or two heroes per sitting. I wished that Hallas had paused at certain junctures, not only to recap battle flow, but also to reflect on heroes’ backgrounds and the collective impact of what they achieved. Instead, each man’s biography stands mostly alone. I found myself looking for patterns among the heroics, but was hard-pressed to discern them. As anticipated, most recipients were either in their late teens or early 20s (the youngest was a 17-year-old private first class; the oldest a 37-year-old lieutenant colonel). Some, but by no means most, displayed special urgency to get into combat—Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, for instance, who during the first days of the struggle for Guadalcanal manned machine-gun positions that repelled eight separate Japanese attacks. His daring heroics, for which he received a Medal of Honor in October 1942, could easily have exempted him from subsequent combat. Instead, Basilone braved his way onto Iwo, where he directed the destruction of two concrete blockhouses before being killed by enemy mortar fire; he posthumously received the Navy Cross. In some cases, battle heroism ofered no guarantee of postwar achievement or contentment. Consider for example, Marine Private Wilson D. Watson, who single-handedly dispatched dozens of Japanese, allowing his platoon to seize a vital hill. Eighteen years later, after enlisting in the army, he was charged and jailed for desertion. Then there was Marine Sergeant William Harrell, whose bravery cost him both hands while defending his command post against grenade-hurling Japanese. He lived an exemplary postwar life only to die violently in 1964, killing two neighbors with his M1 carbine before turning the weapon on himself. It is a shame there is no thoroughly documented way to recognize the outsized valor of the Japanese on Iwo. As usual, the Iwo garrison died nearly to a man. Many of the Japanese soldiers’ sacrifices were last-ditch and mindless, leaving winners, losers, and posterity with little accounting of those who gave all for their nearby homeland. —New Jersey-based writer David Sears is a historian and frequent contributor to World War II.
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on Guadalcanal and a posthumous Navy Cross for his sacrifice on Iwo.
REV I EWS COM ICS
GRAPHIC VIOLENCE WORLD OF TANKS: ROLLOUT! By Garth Ennis and Carlos Ezquerra. 24 pp. Dark Horse, 2016. $3.99.
DARK HORSE
MAKING ITS illustrated debut, World of Tanks: Rollout! is Dark Horse’s latest war comic book series. For gamers, World of Tanks is a familiar name. Spun of Wargaming’s popular massive multiplayer online games, these brightly illustrated issues feature accurately rendered tanks engaged in an actual World War II battle—along with lots of comic-book style sneering Germans and raging explosions. Opening in post-D-Day Normandy, the story follows a British tank crew through war-torn France. The men soon encounter a formidable German panzer force, which leads to explosive battles, bloodied fighting, and, of course, tons of tanks. Readers unfamiliar with the games will still enjoy the action-packed series; four issues are out with a fifth on the way. World of Tanks: Rollout! blends history, action, and fun; a winning combination for the tank, gaming, or World War II fan. —Rasheeda Smith is the associate editor of World War II.
TANK RIDER Into the Reich with the Red Army
By Evgeni Bessonov. 256 pp. Skyhorse Publishing, 2017. $24.99. Published for the first time in the United States, this memoir of a Red Army tanker recounts his war from Kursk to his wounding on April 24, 1945, as his unit closed in on Berlin. An affecting insider narrative.
BREAKOUT FUN ESCAPE FROM COLDITZ Osprey Games, $65. WOR L D WA R I I R AT I NG
+++++
THE BASICS
Escape from Colditz is the Osprey reissue of a popular game originally released in 1973, designed with help from Major Pat Reid, a British Army officer who escaped the real Colditz Castle. One player plays the German Security Officer, while the others control Allied Escape Officers—prisoners of war. The game returns with clearer rules and nicer components, but keeps its original format.
THE OBJECTIVE Players in the Escape Officer role draw cards that contain items, such as fake passes and disguises, or provide opportunities, such as finding tunnels, to get as many British, Dutch, or French officers safely out of Colditz as possible. Naturally, as the German Security Officer, players use guards and various card-driven search tactics to prevent the prisoners’ escape. HISTORICAL ACCURACY Hard to determine. Given the map board and cards, there is not much room for creative out-of-the-box thinking. However, with input from Reid, the game captures—in his opinion— the sport of escape and the realistic options at hand. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
The game is visually gorgeous, simple in execution, and exciting in its competitive tension. Contents include a recreated Red Cross package, a detailed board, and a historical reference book. One criticism is players are limited to preset options. For example, players cannot dig new tunnels, only use preexisting ones. But enterprising players can modify rules if desired.
A beautifully written account of how a daring Filipino woman, Josefina Guerrero, used her affliction with leprosy to Allied advantage during the war, aiding the resistance and spying on the Japanese who, repulsed by her illness, refused to search her.
UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE RISING SUN Japan and the Jews During the Holocaust Era By Meron Medzini. 236 pp. Academic Studies Press, 2016. $79. Some 40,000 Jews found themselves under Japanese occupation during the war. This book traces the evolution of Japanese policy toward the Jews during the twentieth century, the existence of anti-Semitism in Japan, and why Japan ignored repeated Nazi demands to become involved in the “Final Solution.”
PLAYABILITY
PANIC ON THE PACIFIC How America Prepared for a West Coast Invasion
THE BOTTOM LINE Escape from Colditz is enjoyable and atmospheric. Few games can boast having a designer involved in its subject, which gives it a unique quality. Unlike other war games that attract mainly military historians, Colditz has the ability to attract wider crowds, including families and kids. —Chris Ketcherside, a former Marine, is working on a PhD in military history.
A fresh and detailed look at how the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor disrupted life on the American West Coast. Believing an invasion was imminent, residents there lived in fear, their lives a dizzying mix of battle preparations and rampant paranoia.
Colditz is a real “beer and pretzels” type of game—fun for gatherings. Certain cards can be omitted and game length can be altered to change it up for repeated play. To add intrigue, the game sets a certain amount of turns counting down to 1. Experienced players can increase difficulty by reducing the number of turns.
72
By Ben Montgomery. 288 pp. Chicago Review Press, 2016. $26.99.
WORLD WAR II
By Bill Yenne. 294 pp. Regnery, 2016. $29.99.
OSPREY GAMES
R E V I E W S GA M E S
THE LEPER SPY The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II
BATTLE FOR BELORUSSIA The Red Army’s Forgotten Campaign of October 1943-April 1944
81/,.(<2856800(5%($&+9$&$7,21 7+(6(%($&+(6:(5(1277+(,5&+2,&(
By David M. Glantz, with Mary Elizabeth Glantz. 936 pp. University Press of Kansas, 2016. $39.95. The West’s leading expert on war on the Eastern Front is back with another colossal and authoritative tome, built around the little-remembered Red Army failure to liberate Belorussia that predated by eight months its successful Operation Bagration.
THE GESTAPO The Myth and Reality of Hitler’s Secret Police By Frank McDonough. 320 pp. Skyhorse Publishing, 2017. $24.95.
Using previously unpublished records, this full and detailed account describes how the Gestapo manipulated and colluded with the general public during the war, making ordinary German citizens complicit in the rendition of their associates, friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
THE WHITE SNIPER Simo Häyhä
By Tapio A. M. Saarelainen. 192 pp. Casemate, 2016. $32.95.
A biography of the legendary Finnish sniper, who had 542 confirmed kills in the Winter War with the Soviets before nearly dying himself following a serious head wound on March 6, 1940.
DEFENSELESS UNDER THE NIGHT
By Matthew Dallek. 360 pp. Oxford University Press, 2016. $29.95. A close look at America’s first federal office of homeland security. During the war years, civilian defense would ultimately become the largest volunteer program on the homefront, but the fierce debate about national preparedness and a militarized populace remains relevant seven decades later.
US Army Landings and Operations in World War II ETO with sand from the Torch, Husky, Avalanche, Shingle, Overlord and Dragoon Invasion Beaches Price $119.99 + shipping
Final Overlord Plan with sand from the D-Day Invasion Beaches in Normandy - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword Price $99.99 + shipping
These are the ONLY collectibles with sand from all five Normandy D-Day landing beaches and from all the United States Army European Theater of Operation landing beaches. These are certain to become an honored part of your World War II Collection and an heirloom for your family. Don’t miss out on your chance to honor our heroes and own a piece of For more information or to order online: history today. Each plaque will include a Certificate of www.dayofdaysproductions.com Authenticity. A portion of your purchase will be donated to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation.
803-663-7854 Or mail a money order for your plaque(s) + $10.00 shipping to: Day of Days Productions 09 <"$33(/7,--(
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. World War II 2. (ISSN: 0898-4204) 3. Filing date: 10/1/16. 4. Issue frequency: Bi Monthly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 6. 6. The annual subscription price is $39.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. Contact person: Kolin Rankin. Telephone: 305-441-7155 ext. 225 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Michael A. Reinstein, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182, Editor, Karen Jensen, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182 , Editor in Chief, Alex Neill, HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 10. Owner: HistoryNet, 1919 Gallows Rd. Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182. 11. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent of more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Tax status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publisher title: World War II. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: September/October 2016. 15. The extent and nature of circulation: A. Total number of copies printed (Net press run). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 92,950. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 88,384. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 54,173. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 52,211. 2. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 10,463. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 10,581. 4. Paid distribution through other classes mailed through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. C. Total paid distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 64,636. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date; 62,792. D. Free or nominal rate distribution (by mail and outside mail). 1. Free or nominal Outside-County. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 2. Free or nominal rate in-county copies. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other Classes through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 942. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 648. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 942. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 648. F. Total free distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 65,578. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 63,440. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 27,372. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 24,944. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 92,950. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing: 88,384. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 98.6% Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 99.0% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation: A. Paid Electronic Copies. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. B. Total Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 64,636. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 62,792. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 65,578. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 63,440. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 98.6%. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 99.0%. I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (electronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. Report circulation on PS Form 3526-X worksheet 17. Publication of statement of ownership will be printed in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: David Steinhafel, Associate Publisher. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanction and civil actions.
B AT T L E F I L M S B Y M A R K G R I M S L E Y
ELEGY FOR THE LOST “SEPTEMBER 21, 1945. That was the night I died.” So says the spirit of 14-year-old Seita as he gazes upon his own wasted body, clad in ragged clothes and propped against the pillar of a railway station, ignored by the bustle of people around him as he takes his final shallow breaths. “Setsuko,” he murmurs, and dies. A railroad employee prepares to carry away his body, but not before noticing Seita’s only possession: a small tin can that once held fruit drops. The employee takes the can to the edge of the station
74
WORLD WAR II
and pitches it into a field. The employee turns away. Then something remarkable happens: the lid of the can falls of and several fireflies emerge, as well as the image of a little girl about four years old. It is the spirit of Seita’s lost sister Setsuko. Grave of the Fireflies tells, through flashback, the story of how Seita (voiced by Tsutomu Tatsumi) and Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi) lived and died in the final months of World War II. It is done in the distinctive Japanese animation style of anime, with its heightened depiction of characters’ facial expressions—an artistic choice that imbues the film with stunning emotional power. The flashback begins with waves of B-29 Superfortresses flying over the children’s hometown of Kobe, Japan, raining incendiary bombs upon terrified inhabitants as they scramble to reach the relative safety of air raid shelters. After the raid, most of the city lies in ruins, the children’s mother has been fatally burned, and their home immolated. Seita and Setsuko go to live with an aunt, but she resents their presence. She trades their mother’s valuable kimonos for rice, then appropriates most of the rice for herself and her family, justifying the choice by sneering that Seita does nothing to help the war efort. Seita soon leaves with Setsuko and they make a home for themselves in a small, unused shelter dug into a hillside. Setsuko brings along a treasured tin of fruit drops that also contains a few marbles, coins, and a ring once worn by their mother. Like any four-year-old, Setsuko sometimes cries and plaintively complains, but Seita is a good protector who works hard to make her happy. For a time, they are both content, playing together on the beach, finding enough food to get by, and marveling at the dozens of fireflies that illuminate their cave at night. But soon they are reduced to eating frogs and thin rice gruel. Setsuko begins to weaken, and Seita desperately tries to find enough food to keep them going; the adults around them—preoccupied with their own desperate straits—ofer no help. Finally Seita carries Setsuko to a doctor, who diagnoses her condition as malnutrition from diarrhea. Seita asks for some medicine. “All she needs is some food,” the doctor replies impassively. The response enrages Seita. He asks, “How am I supposed to get food?” Eventually Seita makes it to a bank and is able to withdraw 3,000 yen from his mother’s account, enough to buy plenty of food for himself and his sister. In the process, he learns to his astonishment
TOHO INC.
Based on novelist Akiyuki Nosaka’s wartime experience as a youth, the 1988 film reflects feelings of trauma, guilt, and loss felt across Japanese society.
35TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WALL
) 2 8 1 ' ( 5 6 2 ) 7 + ( :$ / /
that Japan has surrendered. But by the time he returns to the cave Setsuko is near death, too weak to eat anything but a morsel of watermelon. “It’s good,” she says, and falls asleep. “She never woke up,” Seita’s spirit tells us. Seita holds Setsuko’s lifeless body, then goes of to buy some charcoal for her cremation. Along
Raiding forces series Historical World War II Fiction Book One
Book Nine
PHIL WARD Available on Amazon and wherever books are sold
TOHO INC.
Grave of the Fireflies is neither an antiwar film nor a statement about war—it is an elegy.
the way he sees other children, well-clad and happy, returning to their homes. The camera cuts to the abandoned shelter as the image of Setsuko appears and disappears, delightedly at play like any four-year-old. Then Seita places Setsuko in a straw cofn and cremates her body on a hilltop over the city. Night comes, and with it hundreds of fireflies. “The next morning I put some of Setsuko’s ashes in the candy tin and climbed down the hill,” mourns Seita. “I never went back to the shelter again.” As Seita sits near his sister’s funeral pyre, the scene fades into the present, with Seita and Setsuko both in the afterlife. Seita’s spirit is sitting on a park bench. As Setsuko’s spirit calls out her brother’s name, she emerges from the night and runs to join him. He hands her a cherished rag doll and the beloved tin of fruit drops. “Time for bed,” he says, and she snuggles close to him and falls asleep. For a moment, Seita’s spirit stares straight at the viewer. We see the spirits of brother and sister together on the bench, forever reunited, surrounded by fireflies, and looking down upon the modern city of Kobe. It would be easy to read Grave of the Fireflies as an antiwar film—but that interpretation is firmly denied by director Isao Takahata, and Akiyuki Nosaka, who wrote the story on which it is based. In 1945, Nosaka was, like Seita, 14 years old and charged with the care of his 16-month-old sister, who, like Setsuko, died of malnutrition. Nosaka blamed himself for his sister’s death. He conceived the story as a personal apology to her and, in some measure, a catharsis of his guilt. Nor is the film a statement about war. That would imply a generalization, and Grave of the Fireflies is firmly specific. Seita is the brother Nosaka wishes he could have been. And his story is an elegy for a specific infant sister, lost long ago. +
“To you, it’s the perfect lift chair. To me, it’s the best sleep chair I’ve ever had.”
— J. Fitzgerald, VA
It’s a “Chair”– for crafting, eating, visiting with friends and family It’s a “Sit Back Chair”– for reading, watching TV and resting
It’s a “Lift Chair”– that puts your feet safely on the floor – you’re ready to go!
HISTORICAL MILITARY PRODUCTS This is a small collection of our stock, please visit us on-line for more details.
The Perfect Sleep Chair
®
Call now toll free for our lowest price.
1-888-802-0594 Please mention code 105243.
LITTLE FRIENDS
46417
It’s a “Sleep Chair”– for a comfortable and relaxing night’s sleep
Volumes 1-4
CollectRussia.com
Well researched, fun and informative reading of WWII aircraft, the people, and the times
Atlantic Crossroads, Inc. P.O. Box 144 7HQDÁ\1- 3KRQH Email:
[email protected]
Tom Mullen
***
Satisfaction Guaranteed!
German WWII Concrete Anti-Personnel Mine
Thompson SMG Original WWII US Five Cell 20 Round Mag Pouch
American 29th Infantry Division Patch (Original)
German Faithful Service Cross, 2nd Class
British WWII Gas Mask and Bag
German ZZ 35 Fuse Zunder Zugzuender
Over 2,000 items on-line supplying the WWII re-enactor and collector
www.MilitaryTour.com email:
[email protected] Tel: 800-785-8644
Ron Wolin Collector-Dealer Military Curios BUY SELL TRADE Q
Q
Q
Specializing in Original WWII American and Third Reich Military Souvenirs of all types.
Available on Amazon.com
Contact us to put your advertisement in front of thousands of history enthusiasts!
437 Bartell Drive, Chesapeake, VA 23322 757-547-2764 www.ronwolin.com
[email protected] Q
KEN ALLEY
10% Off Coupon Code WW812
WORLD WAR 2 BOOKS USED AND OUT OF PRINT
T. CADMAN
Send $1.00 for Catalog to: T. CADMAN DEPT.-A 5150 Fair Oaks Blvd., #101 Carmichael, CA 95608 Visit us on the web at: http://www.cadmanbooks.com
F. Patt Anthony Militaria MILITARY RELICS WANTED U.S. | German | Italian | Japanese World War I & II Items Korean War and Vietnamese War Items
BUY • SELL • TRADE PO Box 13384 Greensboro, NC 27415 • (336) 282-3414
Civil War • WWI • WWII Korea • Vietnam & beyond Real War Photos, P.O. Box 414, Somerset Center, MI 49282
800.649.9800
[email protected] For information on placing a Direct Response or Marketplace ad in Print and Online contact us today: World War II 800.649.9800 / Fax: 800.649.6712 /
[email protected] / www.russelljohns.com
WILD WEST APRIL 2017 VOL. 29, NO. 6
THE AMERICAN FRONTIER RAIN-IN-THE-FACE
Lakota warrior Rain-in-the-Face
JEFFORDS AND COCHISE TEXAS RANGER RIP FORD
HARD
FEMALE ENTERTAINERS
RAIN
FENIAN INVASION
DOUBLE MURDER ON A GIRL’S DARE
FLORA QUICK
JEFFORDS AND COCHISE work toward PEACE FEMALE ENTERTAINERS a FENIAN INVASION
APRIL 2017 HISTORYNET.COM
WWIP-RAINFACE-COVER.indd 3
12/20/16 11:45 AM
...the latest issue of Wild West features warriors Rain-in-the-Face and Cochise, Texas Ranger Rip Ford and more! Now available at SHOP.HISTORYNET.COM and your local newsstand
HistoryNet.com
Answers to the November/ December Challenge
N E W! C H A L L E NG E
DEVIL DOGS
We altered this 1944 photograph of a Marine whistling at his four-legged friend on Guam—to create one inaccuracy. What is it?
What the…?!? German firefighters train blindfolded to locate sound in the dark.
RIGHT: GETTY IMAGES/W. EUGENE SMITH/LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION; ANSWERS, FROM TOP: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES, WARNER BROS., GUY ACETO COLLECTION
Hollywood Howlers In Vichy France, de Gaulle was considered a criminal; the film’s letters of transit were fictional.
Name That Patch USS Sea Dog
Congratulations to the winners: Edward Nowicki, Joseph Cappola, and Rich Hower PLEASE SEND YOUR ANSWER and mailing address to: March/April Challenge, World War II 1919 Gallows Road Suite 400 Vienna, VA 22182 or e-mail:
[email protected] Three winners, chosen at random from all correct entries submitted by April 15, will receive Indestructible by John R. Bruning. Answers will appear in the July/August 2017 issue. MARCH/APRIL 2017
79
PEACHES AND CREAM
DR. MACRO
Like many a glamorous actress, Virginia Mayo—born Virginia Clara Jones in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1920— found her beauty both a blessing and a curse. “I was a better actress than I was given credit for,” she once said. “I know that for a fact. But you get stamped… categorized as pretty, a beauty, shapely… and you’re just stamped for life.” Although she often played roles that took advantage of her Technicolor-friendly appeal, her most acclaimed parts came when she was cast against type—like the unfaithful wife she played in the 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives, about the difcult adjustments veterans faced after returning home from the war. Praised the New York Times: “Virginia Mayo is brassy and brutal.”
80
WORLD WAR II
NORMANDY & THE SEINE RIVER From the D-Day Beaches to the Liberation of Paris OCTOBER 28 TO NOVEMBER 5, 2017 SAVE $1,000 PER COUPLE WHEN YOU BOOK BEFORE APRIL 3, 2017* This memorable, new tour ofers a unique opportunity to delve into D-Day and the Battle of Normandy along the French coast, explore the rich culture of the Normandy countryside, and cruise the Seine River into the heart of France. Designed by a team of expert historians and travel specialists, the Museum Travel Program allows you to experience these journeys in first-class comfort as you go behind the scenes to the beachfronts, bridges, cities, and villages where crucial battles took place and history-making decisions were made. After an emotional journey of the Normandy beaches, the river itself will be our guide as we call upon well-preserved villages, travel to less-visited historic sites, and relive the joys of the long-awaited Liberation of Paris, the “City of Lights”. *Terms and conditions apply. For a full list of terms and conditions, contact The National WWII Museum Travel at 877.813.3329 ext 257.
STAY IN CHARMING CHÂTEAUX
EXPERIENCE THE NORMANDY COAST
CRUISE THE LUXURIOUS JOIE DE VIVRE
call 1.877.813.3329 ext. 257 to reserve or visit ww2museumtours.org T H E N AT I O N A L W W I I M U S E U M • 9 4 5 M AG A Z I N E S T R E E T • N E W O R L E A N S , L A 7 0 1 3 0
Proudly Serving the Military since 1936. GEICO salutes our Military members. We’ve made it our mission to not only provide you and your family with great coverage, but also to offer flexible payment options, numerous discounts, and overseas coverage to suit the demands of your unique lifestyle.
We stand ready to serve you. Get a free quote today.
geico.com | 1-800-MILITARY | local office Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary.© 2016 GEICO
