Filed under: Korea, Marines, Weekend Wanderings, WWII | Tags: Chosin Reservoir, Dieppe, Philippines, Royal Marines
With VCU going against Butler on Saturday, we were assured of at least one “Cinderella” team in the final, but being a Virginian, I was pulling for VCU all the way. Well, Monday night, I will be a Butler fan.
- A Canadian visiting Dieppe had some interesting thoughts and photos in a blog entry.
- XBradTC directed me to a moving tribute to a soldier from Ohio who lost his life in the Philippines during World War II.
- 41st Independent Commando Royal Marines at the Chosin Reservoir inspired one man to quote Yeats “And thinking where most men’s glory begins and ends, I say my glory was: I had such friends” in the Marine Corps Gazette.
Filed under: Band of Brothers, Bizory monument | Tags: Band of Brothers, Bizory, Monument
Well, I was able to get my good friend Brian to drive over from Luxembourg to Bizory this week and take new photos. The bad news is that the damage is still there and no likely to go away on its own.
I’d seen the photo that showed the monument in July of last year (the damage had been done in May) and been told that it worn away by September. Sadly, nearly a year after the monument was damaged, the vandalism is still apparent.
Here it is from July of 2010:
And now, the current photo:
The lighting is a little different, so that may have something to do with the visibility of the markings, but they are still evident. One person told me that, if you know where to look you can find them, but if not, you wouldn’t notice. When Brian first got to the monument, he couldn’t figure out where the damage was, but when he re-read my email and went back, was able to find it and provide the photo.
Filed under: 327th, 401st, Books, Operation Dragoon, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: Battle of the Bulge, Operation Dragoon
Ah, the joys of the NCAA tournament continue. My own university bowed out in the first round, but I always enjoy watching the underdogs have a shot. Richmond and VCU were both underdogs and both from nearby Richmond, Virginia, so I was hoping for them to both win and face each other for a chance at the Final Four. Fortunately, VCU won their game, so I’m watching them push Kansas right now.
- I checked for links on Dragoon the other day and found that Mitch Williamson over at War and Game had a blog entry on Operation Dragoon. There was also an entry on the 65th anniversary in Today’s History Lesson.
- I’ve always believed in the power of books. Glennor Shirley is the head librarian for Maryland prisons and there was a nice profile of her work in the Washington Post. I know where I want to send my next batch of books I clear from my personal library!
- I also heartily recommend a review of Battleground, part of The Best Picture Project. It follows members of I Company, 3/327th Glider Infantry Regiment (aka C/1/401).
Filed under: Marines, Veterans, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: Afghanistan, Causes of the Civil War, Detroit Catholic Central
I don’t watch much basketball, but you can’t help but dive into the NCAA tournament with gusto. I absolutely love it because you see the raw emotions and the stunning extra effort put forth by young men striving together for a goal. What makes it both sad and joyous is that at the end of March Madness, we have only one team on top. So, I’ll spend a lot of my free time over the next few weeks watching a bunch of boys run up and down a court with a ball. I’ll scream and shout. I’ll laugh and I’ll cry. I always told my Boy Scouts that what is interesting about sports is one of the main thing that is interesting about studying war – it exposes the struggles of men and allows you to see them triumph or fail.
- In a completely different vector, Eric Wittenburg posted a letter from Bud Hall, great-grandson of a Mississippi Confederate in Barksdale’s brigade and a Viet Nam veteran himself, on the true cause of the Civil War. Hall quotes Longstreet and Mosby.
- 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines is coming home. My high school classmate, LT Bill Hlavin, serves as the Chaplain for 3/25. Bill had previously served as a Naval officer on a destroyer and as an NROTC instructor before entering the ministry. He offered a prayer before their deployment, and again, as they finished their tour, he published another, “3rd Battalion, 25th Marines has been officially relieved of all duties in Afghanistan. We’ll be on our way home soon. Thanks be to God!”
Filed under: 101st, Band of Brothers, Normandy, Officers, Veterans | Tags: Band of Brothers, Dick Winters, Easy Company, Monument, Veterans
As this posts, the memorial service for Major Winters is starting in Hershey, Pennsylvania. While the accolades that have been bestowed upon him reflect things we should have noticed in many more officers during World War II and many conflicts since, I think it fitting and proper that we commemorate the service and the example of Dick Winters. He was a skilled and caring leader of men. There were others like him, but he’s the one we know the best.
There is a good slideshow of photos in tribute to the Major. You can also check a report on the ceremony held in late January for Major Winters in Carentan.
There is movement to erect a monument in Normandy, using his likeness and
identified as 1st Lt. Richard Winters, E-Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, but will also be representative of ALL U.S. Army junior officers of all the divisions who were responsible for leading soldiers into combat in Normandy on June 6, 1944 and will showcase all the division names and corps of those who fought in Normandy in the very early stages of D-Day. The monument will prominently feature the words Leadership 6-6-1944 and a quote from Major Winters below his likeness which will read: “Wars do not make men great, but they do bring out the greatness in good men.” The monument will also have the words inscribed: Dedicated to all U.S. Army junior officers who led the way on June 6, 1944.
I do support this, because it is dedicated to all those junior officers, without whom failure of the whole enterprise would have been certain.
I’d never heard of Oradour-sur-Glane before, but it was apparently an idyllic little town in the Limousin region of France, roughly in betwen the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. There is another similarly named town, Oradour-sur-Vayres, about 36km away. Just as I sometimes have trouble finding the right town in France, it seems that the Germans occupying France in 1944 had the same trouble. Unfortunately, the consequences of this confusion were disastrous for the townspeople.
On the 10th of June, 1944, the first battalion of the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Das Reich was moving to the fighting in Normandy. They received a report from the Milice that Helmut Kampfe, who commanded the 3rd battalion and who had been captured by the Maquis, was being held in Oradour-sur-Vayres and would be executed.
Sturmbahnfuhrer Adolf Diekmann ordered his men to round up all the people in Oradour-sur-Glane. The women and children were moved into the church, while the men were taken to barns and sheds around town. Then, the SS troops set off an explosion in the church, killing the women and children. The men were apparently machine-gunned mostly in the legs so that they couldn’t move, then the entire town was put to the torch, burning them alive.
Diekmann didn’t survive the war (Kampfe was executed by the Resistance on the 10th), but a number of his men were tried for the war crime. Some of the men were in East Germany or the British zone in West Germany at the time and not extradited. A number were Alsatians, who were French citizens before and after the war, but not while Alsace was “reunited” with Germany during the war. Those Alsatians received an amnesty shortly after their conviction.
The town has been kept as it was after the massacre, as a monument to man’s inhumanity to man.
This was first blogged by baworldtraveler and I am grateful for the eye-opener.
I remember when I was a teenager, going to the library and they would have various activities to keep kids busy. One time, we were sitting, listening to someone give a talk when suddenly someone burst into the room, ran to the front, shot a squirt gun at the speaker and ran out. Then, they had us recount what we thought happened. Of course, everyone saw something slightly different, remembering different details, or even inventing new ones. As more people contributed, people’s stories also changed somewhat, to meet the group consensus. It was a great lesson in understanding perspectives.
History is no different than that crime scene witness exercise. Every witness has a different story and it’s by reviewing all of the perspectives that you have an opportunity to understand what really happened.
When I was last in Normandy, I was thinking about this. Touring with Allan, Dale and Paul, especially when visiting the German cemetery at La Cambe, you definitely realize that the common perspective we have doesn’t usually include anything about the German soldier’s experience.
I had never realized that when studying the American Civil War just how blessed we are to be able to see many perspectives. When you stand on Little Round Top near General Warren’s statue, you can look out and see where the Confederates were spotted advancing toward the high ground. If you’re lucky, Tom Desjardin, who wrote Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine: The 20th Maine and the Gettysburg Campaign
If you read Eric Wittenburg’s or David Powell’s blogs, you get to see a lot of evaluations of sources. Recently, Eric wrote about the four cannons firing at Brinkerhoff’s Ridge at the start of Stuart’s visit to the East Cavalry Field that provides a good example of this kind of evaluation. Dave performs a similar task at Chickamauga in this post.
In much of my reading and touring of the Normandy battlefields, while we sometimes are able to discuss a variety of Allied accounts of the action, the Germans often have no voice. So, I picked up a few new books written from the German perspective. When I’m back in Normandy in the fall, I might see if any of our three intrepid guides has been able to put together a “German Highlights Tour” or maybe I’ll ask if they have a day where we could get together and discuss that, to add it to their separate repertoires.
- There’s a great article on Louis Flores (HQ/2/506 and E/2/506) in La Prensa San Diego by his nephew. I always smile when I watch Battleground
and see Ricardo Montalban dancing in the snow at Bastogne. Louis Flores and thousands of other Hispanic Americans answered the call to service then, just as they do today.
Filed under: Bizory monument | Tags: Band of Brothers, Battle of the Bulge, Bizory, Monument
I’ve had a small breakthrough in my quest to learn more of what happened at Bizory and what the status is, but it has mostly prompted more questions for me and created a list of people I need to reach out for more information. I’m also going to be tasking a friend who lives in Luxembourg but isn’t involved in historical research or tours to visit the monument to get a photo, as there is no clarity yet on whether the damage persists or not.
Filed under: Band of Brothers, Normandy, Tours | Tags: Allan Bryson, Battlebus, Dale Booth, Normandy, Paul Woodadge, Tours
For all those of you who’ve been searching and hitting my blog looking for Allan Bryson’s tours, there’s good news. Allan’s website is up now! I heartily recommend Allan’s tours, as well as those by the other two Battlebus alumni that I’ve had tours with Dale Booth and Paul Woodadge.
In regards to evaluations, I’d say that Dale is probably the best speaker of the three, having spent some time in sales management for Ford Motor Company. He was also Paul’s first hire, so has long experience giving tours and covers all sectors well. He also trained some of the other Battlebus guides (whom I don’t know) in how to give tours. Allan may have more depth of knowledge on the American airborne and has been working on a book on it with Paul. As to Paul, he’s probably more knowledgeable than anyone you’ll meet. He’s been giving tours the longest and provided the structure for Battlebus and the set of tours each of them gives.
I expect that in five years, each of them will have evolved their style and selection of tours, but currently they are similar. Paul has come up with a schedule he’ll use – offering the two-day American Experience Tour every Monday & Tuesday, then the Band of Brothers Tour on Wednesdays – so that it should ease the hassle of scheduling, while still allowing him to offer British and Canadian tours as well as other specific, private tours, on a more limited basis. Paul and Myriam already had extensive experience with more free-form scheduling, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Dale and Allan find some schedule that suits their rythms as well.
Melissa and I will likely be back in Normandy again in September. I think all three are terrific guides, but Dale is Melissa’s favorite, so our guests will have a tour with Dale as the guide. I might also spend a day or half a day with Paul, since he’s written a good monograph on the fight at La Fiere and can give a day-long of just that site.
We're not lost, Sergeant, We're in ... France 