HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS FROM WWII

I’m full of historical reflections because I read sources from history, also called history books.

Those were the main readings for graduating with a history degree.

It also helps to have spent two decades in historical agency work.

The lasting lesson for me was seeing both sides of a story and how close things came to going the other way.

Then there was this:

I’m a fan of WWII historical documentaries because I usually see something new, or passed over.

Based on my experience I also look for historical accuracy.

The big stories always get lots of attention.

From Dunkirk to D-Day, from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, every story has been sorted with a fine toothed comb.

From the sickening behavior of civilized nations de-humanizing people in death camps, to roaming death squads spreading their horror, there’s another group who don’t get enough attention.

 

Regular Army

I didn’t know it before I went into the Army, but I’d be sharing time with three distinct groups in boot camp.

There was Regular Army guys like me, enlistees ready for the long haul.

 

Army Recruiter: Two years.

Me: Yes sir.

AR: Don’t call me sir. I’m not an officer, I work for a living.

Me: Yes sir.

 

So I was off to a good start.

The other two groups were National Guard and Army Reserves.

Once things got settled the hazing started between Regular Army and the other two.

It was brutal and made me glad I was on the regular side of things.

 

Hey Reservie, couldn’t you get your momma to sign so you could be with the men?

Did your girlfriend dump you when she found out? She should have.

Hey National Guard, this isn’t scout camp, you don’t need your neckerchief.

You guys are getting ready to go home and play army after you finish here while the real guys leave and do real Army.

Get some more Brasso from the PX and shine up. Don’t forget to polish your nose, the Captain likes that.

 

Look, this wasn’t the Best and the Brightest.

Some of us were nineteen year olds heckling older guys who joined for a change of pace.

We were the first wave of the all-Volunteer Army ready to be all we could be.

We all did the same stuff, but the reserve guys and guard couldn’t do enough to shut the regulars up.

I raced through the ranks to Pfc before getting discharged two years to the date I joined.

After that I needed to get off Ft. Dix and out of New Jersey.

 

Like a good writer I get into the details of things.

I wasn’t in ‘the military.’ I was in the Army.

My time in service is included in the Vietnam Era, so I’m technically a Vietnam Vet though it never comes up.

All of this is to say that a group of guys with no intentions of doing war crimes could be swayed with the right leadership.

Call it peer pressure or teamwork or loyalty when a group of guys get ordered to do bad things, then do them.

Just following orders, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Following Research

My wife doesn’t share my interest in WWII.

She asks me about it:

 

Wife: Haven’t you seen enough?

Me: Research honey. History stuff. You’re the one who said I had to finish college and get a degree. Well, here we are.

 

I was watching a documentary about Reserve Police Battalion 101.

From Facing History And Ourselves:

 

Trapp then summoned the company commanders and gave them their respective assignments. Two platoons of 3rd company were to surround the village; the men were explicitly ordered to shoot anyone trying to escape.

The remaining men were to round up the Jews and take them to the market place. Those too sick or frail to walk to the market place, as well as infants and anyone offering resistance or attempting to hide, were to be shot on the spot.

 

Witnesses who saw him at various times during the day described him as bitterly complaining about the orders he had been given and “weeping like a child.”

He nevertheless affirmed that “orders were orders” and had to be carried out. Not a single witness recalled seeing him at the shooting site, a fact that was not lost on the men, who felt some anger about it.

Trapp’s driver remembers him saying later, “If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans.”

 

This writer explains how the group dynamic worked.

 

Explained Like I’m In Kindergarten

 

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?

I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number

And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall