HISTORYNET.

COM

DEATH
OF A
HATED
MAN
Submariners load
a Mark 18 torpedo
aboard their vessel
in July 1945.

A broken Japanese
code allowed the U.S.
to target Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto.

WAS KILLING
YAMAMOTO
A MISTAKE?

MACARTHURS WALK
INTO PHOTO FAME
TRUE FICTION ON
GUADALCANAL
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

JA N U A R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 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

30 DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

44 THE THIN RED TRUTH

60 THREE-WHEEL RUMBLER

Killing Admiral Yamamoto threatened to

expose Americas key strategic advantage
in the Pacific JOSEPH CONNOR

Each man fought his own waron

Guadalcanal and in James Joness novel
PAUL MAGGIONI

Germanys BMW R75 motorcycle and

sidecar deftly handled rough conditions
ILLUSTRATION BY JIM LAURIER

40 SHORE PARTY
During his famed return to the Philippines,
Douglas MacArthur quickly recognized the
power of a photograph JOSEPH CONNOR

WEAPONS MANUAL

PORTFOLIO

54 THE VIEW
For this German-born GI, guarding
German POWs in the United States
was a surreal experience

62 UNSTOPPABLE FORCE
Allied commanders in occupied Germany
tried in vain to restrict troops interactions
with civilianswomen in particular
SUSAN L. CARRUTHERS

D E PA RT M E N T S

10 WORLD WAR II TODAY

24 FIRE FOR EFFECT

74 BATTLE FILMS

The homesick wife who threatened the D-Day

invasion; how long should secrets last?

The price of warin vivid color

ROBERT M. CITINO

A unusual brand of hero

in Hell is for Heroes
MARK GRIMSLEY

20 CONVERSATION

26 TIME TRAVEL

Bob Balkams job as an army air traffic

controller took him from Omaha Beach to
Belgium to Germany MICHAEL DOLAN

Looking back 75 years to the fierce

Battle of Crete
HEIDI FULLER-LOVE

22 FROM THE FOOTLOCKER

70 REVIEWS

Curators at The National World War II

Museum solve readers artifact mysteries

Hitlers Soldiers; reassessing Germanys

lightning war; Hearts of Iron IV game

IN EVERY ISSUE

8 MAIL
79 CHALLENGE
80 PINUP

An American soldier chats with a

German woman in Berlin, August 1945.
By that time, anti-fraternization rules
had been relaxed in post-war Germany.
MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY
IMAGES; COVER: WORLD HISTORY GROUP ARCHIVE/ALAMY

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

WWII Online
Visit us at WorldWarII.com

Michael A. Reinstein CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER

David Steinhafel ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Alex Neill EDITOR IN CHIEF

VOL. 31, NO. 5 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 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
ADVISORY BOARD

Readers who enjoyed this issues

The View, about German POWs
held in the United States, will want to
check out these features:

Coming to a Town Near You

Americans on the home front had to
cope with an unprecedented enemy
invasion, as thousands of German
POWs moved in for the duration
By Ronald H. Bailey

Ed Drea, David Glantz, Jeffery Grey, Keith Huxen,

John McManus, Williamson Murray, Dennis Showalter
DIGITAL

Josh Sciortino ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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The Not-So-Great Escape

This time, it was German POWs
digging their way out of an Arizona
prison camp, in a plot that was
brilliant, daring, and farcical
By Ronald H. Bailey

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Submariners load
a Mark 18 torpedo
aboard their vessel
in July 1945.

S EE
PA G E 17

SPECIAL
OFFER!

MAGGIONI

FULLER-LOVE

SUSAN L. CARRUTHERS (Unstoppable Force) is a professor of history at Rutgers

University in Newark. She has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University, the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and at
Princeton University. She is the author of The Media at War (2011) and Cold War
Captives (2009). Her story is drawn from her recent book, The Good Occupation:
American Soldiers and the Hazards of Peace, published this past November.
JOSEPH CONNOR (Have You Heard? and Shore Party) has been fascinated by
the World War II era since childhood. He graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelors degree in history and from Rutgers Law School with a
juris doctor degree. After a seven-year stint as a newspaper reporter and editor in
New Jersey, Connor worked for 27 years as an assistant county prosecutor. He
retired in 2010, and lives with his wife, Carole, and three sons in New Jersey.
HEIDI FULLER-LOVE (Time Travel) is a writer, photographer, and a radio personality for the iconic BBC series, From Our Own Correspondent. Her twin passions
are history and travel. While based in Greece earlier this year, she visited Crete
and found herself fascinated by the courage and tenacity of the natives and the
Allied forces who fought by their side in the Battle of Crete.

USS ARIZONA UP CLOSE

FIRST SHOTS AT PEARL
JAPANS INFAMOUS TORPEDO

8/31/16 6:23 PM

JIM LAURIER (Weapons Manual) has been illustrating World War IIs Weapons
Manual since 2011. As a pilot as well as a painter and author, he uses his experiences flying civil and military aircraft to bring realism to his aviation paintings.
His artwork is displayed in both private and public collections, including those of
the Pentagon, the U.S. Air Force, the History Channel, Columbia Pictures, Lockheed Martin, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

PAUL MAGGIONI (The Thin Red Line between Fact and Fiction) has spent 15
years as a contracted archaeologist and historian for the U.S. Army. Since reading
The Thin Red Line as a teen, he has retained a fascination for both James Jones
and the battle of Guadalcanal, which recently inspired him to work on the combat
history of the 27th Infantry Regiment in World War II. He lives in Savannah,
Georgia, as a senior project manager for LG2 Environmental Solutions.

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It reminds me of a man I met in the early 60s

who ew his own small private plane. He was on a
bomber crew during the war and said the trainers
were cranking out pilots as fast as they could. The
trainers were also convincing every pilot that
they were one of the best in the air forceand the
crews that their pilot was one of the best. He said
that if he knew then what he knew now about
piloting, he would have almost been afraid to y
with them.
John Joines
Las Vegas, Nev.

THE FEW, THE WHO?

After surgery,
McConnell
served with
the armys
1111th Signal
Company in
Assam, India.

September/October was yet another great issue,

but must say I am a bit disappointed about one
thing. In your piece about correcting the Iwo Jima
ag raisers identities, I really wish the photo on
page 10 had named and pointed out all of the six
ag raisers. Perhaps you could do this in a future
issue. I think it would interest a lot of folks!
Keep up the great work and thanks much.
Bryan Moseley
Albuquerque, N. Mex.

MEMORY LANE

SICK BAY
SHENANIGANS

enjoyed the piece on the nurses of World War II (Drafting Women,

September/October 2016).
Before boarding a troopship for India as an 18-year-old draftee in
1943, I developed a hernia and was surgically repaired in an army
hospital in New Orleans. At that time this meant 16 days in bed
before setting a foot on the oor, providing more than enough time
for me to develop plans for relieving boredom. Accordingly, one day,
when our nurse, Lieutenant Walker, routinely inserted our daily
oral thermometers, I stealthily removed mine and briskly rubbed it
against the sheets until it registered about 104 degrees. I returned it to my
mouth and attempted to assume a pathetic, semiconscious appearance.
To my amusement, upon reading my thermometer, Nurse Walker exhibited appropriate dismay then hastily took a glass from my bedside table,
half-lled it with rubbing alcohol, and slowly poured it over my head!
Ellicott McConnell
Easton, Md.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS
I read your reply in Ask WWII (September/October 2016) regarding the
number of air force personnel in training during World War II.

WORLD WAR II

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT

I found your Conversation with Simon Goodman
(September/October 2016) very interesting. Having seen the movie The Monuments Menwhich is
about a group of men trying to recover personal
and historical art pieces from the Nazis during
World War IIand seeing Mr. Goodman have his
own personal quest for his familys heritage, it
reveals to me how the effects of the war are still
very much active today, and how it has forever
shaped our daily livesfor better or for worse. I
wish Mr. Goodman the best of luck and that his
family wont be erased from my memory.
Jack Nelson
Tulsa, Okla.

COURTESY OF ELLICOTT MCCONNELL

MAIL

Your Portfolio, Laugh Your Axis Off (September/

October 2016), did just that for me. Back in 194950, I was eight or nine years old and my father
worked in a factory around the corner from our
apartment building. In nice weather when my dad
was on lunch or a break, the men would sit on the
sidewalk along the building in the shade to get
some fresh air. Many times I would go there and
sit with him.
One of his coworkers gave me the folding
puzzle of Hitler and I carried that in the pocket of
my dungarees until it was worn out. My dad passed
away only a year later. The instant that I turned
the page and saw the puzzle, I had to laugh. It
brought back so many good memories and it was
nice remembering him and the old neighborhood.
Thanks to Rasheeda Smith and the staff.
Scott Jenkins
Gallatin, Tenn.

EDITORS NOTE
World War II readers
never fail to amaze me.
Collectively deeply
knowledgable and
passionate about the war,
they are quick to call us
out on factual missteps
and to enlighten us,
often drawing on their
own experiences. The
letters in this issue are a
good example. Not only
did we hear from a man
who could identify the
gas cape in our What
the...?!? photo (below)
but he lled us in on
working at the plant that
made them. Thank you,
Robert W. Ouimetteand
everyone else. Please
keep it coming!
Karen Jensen

INTEGRATING THE NAVY

In the September/October issue of Mail, you
give the impression that before 1948 the only positions African Americans could hold in the navy
were steward mates and cooks. In 1943 at the
Casco Bay, Maine, recruiting station I met an
African American man whose last name was Cobb.
His rank was watertender rst class. Cobb told me
that he started out as a stoker on an old coal-burning ship. Also during World War II, there were two
ships, the destroyer escort USS Mason (DE-529)

and the sub chaser USS PC-1264, both of which

had predominantly black crews.
George L. Rumble
Moon Township, Pa.
Editors Note: It is true there were only two U.S.
Navy warships with mostly African American
crewmembers, created after President Franklin D.
Roosevelt received a letter from the NAACP
requesting that African Americans be accepted into
the navy for roles other than messman duties.
The navy initially balked at the suggestion, but
Roosevelt insisted on proceeding. Both the USS
Mason (pictured above at its March 1944 commissioning, with commanding officer Lieutenant
Commander William M. Blackford at center) and
the USS PC-1264 served in the Atlantic in 1944-45.

TOP: U.S. NAVY; BOTTOM: POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES

GOT IT COVERED
In September/Octobers Challenge, the picture
shown is a plastic gas cape manufactured at a plant
called Arvey Corp. in Chicago. I was working there
in the assembly department during 1944 and 1945
when I went into the navy. The company was located on Kimball Avenue, just south of Addison,
Illinois. It employed mostly elderly women in that
department. The capes lower portion was made of
green plastic material and the top portion out of
clear exible material. Then the entire assembly
was folded into a small package about four-by-eight
inches and three-fourths of an inch thick. The
department was temperature controlled to prevent
the materials from sticking together. I never saw any
of these in surplus stores after the war. Hope that
helps identify the mystery image.
Robert W. Ouimette
Bradenton, Fla.

PLEASE SEND
LETTERS TO:
World War II
1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400,
Vienna, VA 22182-4038

OR E-MAIL:
worldwar2@historynet.com
Please include your name,
address, and daytime
telephone number.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

LIFTING
THE VEIL OF
SECRECY...
75 YEARS ON
10

WORLD WAR II

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS. But do they still pose

a threat more than seven decades after the eet
has sailed? Not necessarily, a federal judge ruled
in September.
On June 7, 1942, the Chicago Tribune delivered a front-page scoop by war correspondent
Stanley Johnston: the U.S. Navy knew in advance
the Japanese eets plans at the ongoing Battle
of Midway, including which enemy ships were
involved and that the Japanese assault on the
Aleutians was just a feint. The subsequent overwhelming American victory proved to be a turning point in the Pacic War.
The newspapers revelation outraged President Franklin D. Rooseveltpolitical enemy of
Tribune publisher Robert McCormick. After all,
discerning readers could have realized some-

TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY

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

TOP, LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; TOP, RIGHT: COURTESY OF CLAUDETTE GILBERT BAYKO; CENTER: COURTESY OF AIMEE FOGG

In 1942, the Justice Department accused

Chicago Tribune staff, including reporter Stanley
Johnston (left, with managing editor J. Loy
Maloney), of publishing classified information.

thing the Tribune had not explicitly stated: that

the United States had cracked Japanese codes.
So Roosevelts Justice Department began to
assemble a legal case against Johnston and fellow Tribune reporters for violating the Espionage
Act of 1917apparently the only such prosecution brought against reporters. (For more on the
difficulties of keeping Americas code-breaking a
secret, see Have You Heard?, page 30.)
Although Assistant Attorney General Wendell
Berge thought the governments case was tenuous, a special prosecutor nevertheless presented evidence to a grand jury, which ultimately
decided against an indictment. Newsmen considered the decision a victory for free speech, but
the proceedings stayed secret.
Historian Elliot Carlson, currently working on
a book about the Tribune case, has sought to have
those papers unsealed. Lawyers for the Justice
Department fought back, arguing not that the
details of the decades-old case were still sensitive, but that grand jury proceedings must
remain secret to protect witnesses and the privacy of those who came under investigation.
On September 15, a three-judge panel of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit handed
Carlsonand historiansa victory. By upholding a lower court decision, Judge Diane Wood
ruled that historical signicance can be a sufficient reason for lifting the veil when there is
little countervailing need for secrecy.
Writing for the Bloomberg View, Harvard
University law professor Noah Feldman called
the ruling a win for democracy and a free press.
The government can still take the case to the full
appeals court or the Supreme Court.
As it turns out, the Japanese apparently never
read the Chicago Tribune. Carlson notes that
they continued to use the same old, compromised codes for the rest of the war.

After visiting her great

uncles grave in Belgium,
Aimee Fogg (below, in
pink) began researching
the stories of other GIs
buried there, including
David Gilbert (above).

BRINGING
MEMORIES
HOME
AIMEE FOGG WAS THE FIRST MEMBER OF HER FAMILY to travel to the
Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium, to visit the
grave of her great uncle. During the trip, she was struck by the realization
that most of the cemeterys 8,000 American war dead were not memorialized
in their hometowns.
So Fogg, a 37-year-old resident of Gilford, New Hampshire, set out to salvage their stories. She started with the 38 New Hampshire men buried at
Henri-Chapelle, including her great uncle, Paul Lavoie, a 21-year-old soldier
killed in the assault on the Schwammenauel Dam in February 1945. Fogg compiled those stories in a book, The Granite Men of Henri-Chapelle (2013).
After telling the stories of those New Hampshire casualties, Fogg
researched 25 Vermont casualties and is now writing about the 54 Maine
men interred at Henri-Chapelle. These men had families, Fogg told the
Bangor Daily News. They had lives. They had children they probably never
had the opportunity to meetThey sacriced their lives for complete strangers. I call this project a celebration of life. Its a chance for us, and my generation, to honor these men.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

11

The RAF intended to use the new

Avro Lincoln to bomb Japan.

APPRAISING AN
UNEXPECTED
DISCOVERY
WHAT COULD THE HOT DOG KING OF CHICAGO possibly have in common with Japans greatest wartime admiral? Just possibly, a gold tooth.
Dick Portillo, 76, the hot dog and Italian beef magnate who two years ago
sold his fast-food empire for nearly $1 billion, owns a tooth that might have
belonged to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Ill do whatever it takes to nd
out, Portillo told the Chicago Tribune.
Yamamoto commanded the Japanese eet and
masterminded the attack on Pearl Harbor. After
American code-breakers decrypted Japanese messages revealing Yamamotos travel plans, a group of
American P-38 ghters intercepted his Mitsubishi
G4M Betty bomber and shot it down, killing him
on April 18, 1943.
Portillo, a former Marine, has traveled repeatedly to Pacic battleelds. In July 2015, he visited
the Yamamoto crash site in present-day Papua
New Guinea. One of Portillos fellow adventurers, retired professor
Anderson Giles, was crawling through the wreckage of Yamamotos aircraft
when he spotted what he described as this little glint that oozed up. It
turned out to be a tooth. Giles, who recalled that Yamamoto reportedly had
been shot in the jaw by an American .50-caliber bullet, thought the tooth
might have belonged to the admiral.
A local clan chief demanded the tooth, forcing Portillo to nance a second trip to retrieve itfor $14,000.
Portillo has sought the expertise of several historians and three dentists,
who conrmed it is a human tooth and was removed by a violent act or trauma. Yamamoto biographer Yukoh Watanabe, in Yokohama City, Japan, cautioned the Tribune that since 11 men were aboard the bomber, it is unlikely
that the tooth was Yamamotos. But as a lover of history, he says, he hopes it is.
Portillo is trying to arrange a DNA test and says he would like to eventually return the tooth to the Japanese governmentafter making a documentary about the discovery.

12

WORLD WAR II

A S K WW I I
Q: Besides the United States, were
aircraft from other Allied nations
involved in bombing mainland Japan?
Walter Chesshir, Jourdanton, Texas
A: The U.S. Twentieth Air Force conducted the
only strategic bombing of the Japanese home
islands. Soviet activity in the region was limited
to tactical air support for its army in Manchuria
and Korea. In 1944, Britains RAF Bomber
Command began assembling Tiger Force,
a group of 22 squadrons of Avro Lancasters,
Avro Lincolns, and B-24 Liberators to strike
Japan. The war ended before the unit was
ready, and it was disbanded in October 1945.
The only British aircraft to strike targets in
Japan came from Task Force 57, a British component attached to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. On one
such raid, an F4U Corsair piloted by Canadian
Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray flew low
through heavy anti-aircraft fire and, although
in flames, dropped a bomb onto the enemy
ship Amakusa and sank it. Gray crashed and
was killed; he posthumously received the last
Victoria Cross of the war. Jon Guttman
SEND QUERIES TO: Ask World War II, 1919
Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182,
OR EMAIL: worldwar2@historynet.com

D I S PAT C H E S
On September 3, Google devoted its daily
Doodle to Malay resister and nurse Sybil
Kathigasu, recognizing what would have been
her 117th birthday. Kathigasu and her husband aided guerillas resisting the Japanese
occupation. In 1943, she was arrested and tortured, but survived the war. She died in 1948.
The Doodle, a modified Google logo celebrating events and people, depicts Kathigasu
outside her home in Papan, Perak, Malaysia.

TOP, LEFT AND INSET: TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/VIA AP;

TOP, RIGHT: INTERPHOTO/ALAMY; BOTTOM, RIGHT: GOOGLE

Dick Portillo is trying to

determine if a gold
tooth discovered on a
South Pacific expedition
is that of Japanese
Admiral Yamamoto.

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IN 1946, a group of Jewish resistance

ghters and Holocaust survivors
calling themselves the Avengers
hatched a wildly ambitious act of
vengeance against the Nazis. They
gathered enough arsenic to kill
60,000 people and spread it on 3,000
loaves of bread being served to
German POWs in an American-run
camp outside Nuremberg.
The details of the plot, revealed in a
1947 U.S. military report obtained by
the Associated Press through the
Freedom of Information Act, included its puzzling result: despite being
poisoned, not a single German died,
Joseph Harmatz (above) is one
although 2,200 of them fell ill.
of the Jewish Avengers who
The idea started with resistance
poisoned bread from a bakery
ghter
Abba Kovner, who wanted to
(top) supplying a camp of
poison the water supply at NuremGerman POWs. None died, but
burg. But the plotters worried about
2,200 prisoners fell ill.
killing innocent people and narrowed
their focus. They found work at a bakery that supplied the nearby POW
camp. On April 13, 1946, three Avengers spent two hours coating the bread
with arsenic.
Plotter and former resistance ghter Joseph Harmatz told the Guardian
newspaper that their goal was simple: to kill Germans.
Investigators found four water bottles lled with a mix of enough arsenic,
glue, and water to kill approximately 60,000 persons. Why the plot failed
so completely remains a mystery. The plotters may have spread the poison
too thinly. Or perhaps the Nazis sensed there was something wrong with
the bread and did not eat enough of it.

14

WORLD WAR II

WO R D F O R WO R D

In the course of the

practical implementation
of the Final Solution,
Europe will be combed
through from west to east.
SS General Reinhard Heydrich,
one of the architects of the
Holocaust, at the Wannsee
Conference, January 20, 1942.

D I S PAT C H E S
The U.S. Navy will name a new Arleigh
Burke -class destroyer for Gunnery Sergeant
John Basilone, who received the Medal of
Honor for heroism at Guadalcanal and was
posthumously awarded the Navy Cross after
he was killed at Iwo Jima. The destroyer is
being built at Maines Bath Iron Works and is
expected to join the fleet in 2022.

TOP, LEFT: AP PHOTO; CENTER, LEFT: AP PHOTO/TSAFRIR ABAYOV; TOP, RIGHT: BUNDESARCHIVBILD 146-1969-054-16; BOTTOM, RIGHT: USMC PHOTO

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Frustrated by her dreary life in England, Araceli

Gonzalez (left, with her husband in sunnier times)
threatened to reveal the Allies invasion secrets.

U P DAT E H I T L E R H OU S E
The Austrian house where Adolf Hitler was
born will be either torn down or renovated
to the extent that it will no longer be
recognizable. In October, Austrian Interior
Minister Wolfgang Sobotka initially said the
site in Braunau would be demolished, but
then later said it might just undergo a
thorough redesign. Either way, the idea is
the same: to discourage neo-Nazis from
turning the three-story Renaissance-era
home into a shrine.

16

WORLD WAR II

TOP (BOTH): NATIONAL ARCHIVES, LONDON; BOTTOM, LEFT: AP PHOTO/

KERSTIN JOENSSON; BOTTOM, RIGHT: PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY

AN UNEXPECTED
THREAT TO THE
NORMANDY
INVASION

A HOMESICK SPANISH HOUSEWIFE, depressed by

Englands weather and disgusted by its food, nearly
exposed Allied plans for invading Nazi-occupied France,
according to newly declassified British intelligence.
Araceli Gonzalez de Pujol was the wife of double agent
Juan Pujol Garcia (codename Garbo), who managed to
convince the Germans that he was running a spy network
on their behalf in Britainand that the Allied invasion of
France would target Pas de Calais instead of Normandy.
British MI5 files recently transferred to the UKs National
Archives tell the story: Gonzalez was unhappy living with
her husband and infant son in an MI5 safe house in the
London suburbs. She missed her mother back in Spain,
hated the dreary weather, and complained that English
cuisine was overloaded with macaroni and potatoes and
did not offer enough fish.
Finally, she threatened to expose the Allies D-Day deception unless she
could visit home. I dont want to live five minutes longer with my husband, she shouted to MI5 officer Tomas Harris in June 1943, a year before
the invasion. Even if they kill me, I am going to the Spanish embassy.
The resourceful Pujol devised a scheme: to have MI5 tell his wife that he
had been arrested because of her threats. MI5 even took her, blindfolded,
to his purported cell in the Camp 020 interrogation center. As a result, she
backed off and Pujol was released from his bogus incarceration.
The Allies D-Day ruse succeeded, too, but the marriage did not last.
Juan Pujol remarried and wound up running a book shop in Venezuela. He
died in 1988.

L I M I T E D

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Flying Over
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THE PIANIST
Wladyslaw Szpilman (1946)
With the same title as the award-winning lm,
Szpilmans book gives a personal and uncensored
view of the conditions and challenges he faced in
Warsaw throughout the war. This memoir on
what its like to hide and survive in an abandoned
city is excellent and invaluable. Szpilman almost
becomes a part of the city, noting every detail that
occurs from the start of the war and beyond.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

J.G. Ballard (1984)
Loosely based on the authors experiences, this
harrowing book follows Jamie, a British boy whose
family is living in Shanghai when the war breaks
out. He is separated from his parents and interned
by the Japanese. Seen through the eyes of an
unusual eyewitness, this book is a poignant
reminder of wars impact on a person.

THE HERO OF BUDAPEST

The Triumph and Tragedy of Raoul Wallenberg
Bengt Jangfeldt (2013)
Jangfeldt publicizes previously unknown facts
about Wallenberg and sheds new light on what
happened after the Soviets captured him. The
use of never-before-seen photos of Wallenbergs
private life gives us a glimpse at the personal side
of the humanitarians enduring legacy of rescue.

CHRISTOPHER
HUH
HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR Christopher Huh wants everyone to heed historys lessons. After learning about the Holocaust in the seventh grade, he
decided to do something to engage his peers and spark their interest in
history beyond the pages of their textbooks. So he researched, wrote, and
illustrated a graphic novel about the Holocaust, called Keeping My Hope.
Huh received praise for his book and is already at work on his next project:
a graphic novel about Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish businessman and
diplomat who saved 100,000 Hungarian Jewsthe most rescued by a single person during the war.

LETTERS AND DISPATCHES 1924-1944

Raoul Wallenberg (1995)
Written by the man himself, Wallenbergs inner thoughts are revealed
in this collection of correspondence between him and his grandfather,
who played a major role in Wallenbergs life. The extensive exchange
of thoughts, occurrences, and advice that helped to shape Wallenbergs
personalityand his eventual mission in Budapestmakes this a
priceless archive of letters.

18

WORLD WAR II

HIROSHIMA
John Hersey (1946)
Hersey shows the magnitude of destruction that
befell Hiroshima through rst-hand accounts of
survivors. His use of testimony serves to reveal
the depth behind the countless stories and lives
affected by the bomb, and how the fates of
survivors became intertwined.

RAOUL WALLENBERG
The Heroic Life of the Man Who Saved
Thousands of Hungarian Jews from
the Holocaust
Ingrid Carlberg (2016)
Probably the most extensively researched
material on Wallenbergs life before and during
the war, with a detailed account of the events
surrounding him. The amount of time and effort
put into her research is evident with the inclusion
of all aspects of Wallenbergs life. His triumphs
and troubles have never been highlighted so well.
Christopher Huh is a 2016 Davidson Fellowone
of only 20 students nationwide recognized by the
Davidson Institute for Talent Development. His
graphic novel, Keeping My Hope, was nominated
for the Sophie Brody Award and has been translated and published in South Korea.

ILLUSTRATION BY PABLO (INCORPORATING A DRAWING BY CHRISTOPHER HUH)

W W I I T ODAY T H E R E A D I NG L I ST

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WWII
C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H RO B E RT B A L K A M
BY M ICH A E L DOL A N

CONTROL
AMID CHAOS
Bob Balkam, 95, grew up on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Between graduating
from high school in 1938 and enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1942, he delivered newspapers, worked at a theater on Cape Cod, and drove for a salesman whose route
included New Orleans, where Balkam met Laurin Cooper; they married just after
he joined the army. After boot camp Balkam sailed aboard the Queen Mary to
Britain where, as a private, he tested into Officer Candidate School and trained as
an air traffic controller. Laurin enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, made lieutenant,
and was assigned to the Commandants office in Washington, DC. On June 16, 1944
D+10Balkams unit landed at Omaha Beach to take over landing eld A-1, carved
from an orchard overlooking the English Channel.

What was going on at A-1 when you arrived?

C-47s were ying in small-arms ammunition. A C-47 could land in 1,500 feethalf
the length of our runway, which was made of wire mesh. We would tell pilots to go
to the end and turn around. They never did. They would get halfwaynear where
our control truck satand lock a wheel and turn. Those locked wheels broke the
mesh every time, which meant we would have to stop ying and bring in the engineers to repair the runway mesh.
You arrived on D+10, but traces of D-Day remained.
Men who had drowned that rst day had sunk, then surfaced. Along the shore below
the eld, bodies were oating. Pilots with the 366th Fighter Group, which we supported, collected scrap wood and got aviation gas and burned the bodies. They did
that a couple of times.
Describe your control tower.
We had one-ton trucks with a box behind the cab where we worked. Our unit was
given this beat-up one-ton truck; an enlisted man built the box. He scrounged a Plexiglas dome from a B-26 bomber so we could see out. It was a two-man operation. One
man was at the desk with telephones; I was looking through the dome for planes and
manning ve radio channelsat the squadron and group levels and theater-wide.
American bombs were a big problem.
The P-47 carried two 500-lb. bombs. A little propeller at the nose triggered the detonator by spinning. To use the bombs, pilots would y about 15 miles east to the front
at Saint-L. Often dust from the runway would clog the release and cause a bomb to
hang. Before landing, pilots with hung bombs were supposed to go out over the Channel and shake them loose. That didnt always happen. Every time someone landed
with a hung bomb, it would come loose and skid into the dirt. The bomb squad would
disarm the bomb and the tech sergeant would come back and say, Well, Lieutenant,

20

WORLD WAR II

two more revolutions and that one would

have gone off. Three to six times a day
bombs would go off near our truck. Fortunately that blast goes up at an angle,
and we were under it.

Did you have to worry about mines?

Yes, the Germans had mined the whole
area. Engineers took out enough of them
to lay the airstrip, but left the rest of the
mines in place. We knew where they
were. Once, a P-38 Lightning came in
damaged and ended up in a mineeld.
We told the pilot about that. He walked
out without triggering an explosion.
Did the top brass ever make an
appearance?
On June 29, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower was making his rst trip to the
beachhead, and General Omar Bradley
had come by road to meet him. He and I
were in the truck for a couple of hours,
making small talk. When General Eisenhowers plane landed, I followed General
Bradley and heard him tell Eisenhower
that Cherbourg had just fallen.
You listened in on the tragedy at
Saint-L.
The day of the breakout I was on the
radio overhearing ground controllers
scream to bomber pilots that they were
dropping too close and killing our own
troops. That was the incident that killed
General Lesley McNair.
How much of a strain was the job?
On an afternoon shift, 1 to 5 p.m., I would
smoke a pack of cigarettes and not
remember smoking one.
As the war moved east, you did too.
Some positions were better than others.
At Laon-Couvron, our place looked like
a quartermasters champagne depot. I
was chasing champagne with cognac or
cognac with champagne. The only thing
that stopped it was when a cork would
break off before you got the bottle open.
There was another plus.
Pilots there did not have to land on mesh;
there was a German-built concrete runway
with taxiways and primitive buildings.

Every time someone

landed with a hung
bomb, it came loose and
skidded into the dirt.

LEFT: JAMES KEGLEY PHOTOGRAPHY; RIGHT: COURTESY OF THE BALKAM FAMILY

Wartime air traffic controller Bob Balkam at

home recently (above), and in Washington, DC,
in January 1946 with his wife Laurin (right).

Then there was Asch, Belgium.

We were at aireld Y-29 at Asch during
the Battle of the Bulge. If the Germans
took Antwerp, we would be cut off. My
brother, Gil, was a civilian accountant
attached to the armed forces in Paris. It
was going to be my third Christmas overseas, and I was missing my family. I got
informal permission to go to Maastricht,
Holland, and catch a ride to Paris. At
Maastricht, wearing my dress uniform, I
went to headquarters, where every GI
was in battle dress. The Germans were
taking GI uniforms off corpses and posing
as Americans, so any variation in appearance was suspect; I stood out like a sore
thumb. Pardon me, Lieutenant, where
are you from? a second lieutenant asked.

Massachusetts, I told him. He asked if

so-and-so hadnt just been elected to the
Senate from there. No, I said, that was in
Tennessee; we elected so-and-so. He was
very embarrassed.

But you made it to Paris.

The vehicle I was in, a command car,
almost immediately ran off the road, but
the driver got it free and we reached Paris
around 7:45 p.m. My brothers landlady
let me in. A few minutes later Gil arrived.
What the hell are you doing here? he
yelled. I said, I came to spend Christmas
with you. Dont you know theres a
curfew? he says. Anyone on the streets
after 8 p.m. is presumed to be a German.
I had just made it.

Where were you when the

Germans surrendered?
In Mnster. Not long after, an investigator came to our base asking about a certain P-47; our records showed a ferry
pilot had taken it. Once the plainclothesman decided I was telling the truth, he
told me the plane been seen ying under
the Eiffel Tower. Every time I was in Paris
after that, I would look at the tower and
wonder why a damned fool would try
such a thing.
How did you and Laurin reunite?
I mustered out at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. We agreed to meet at Union Station
in Washington the day after Thanksgiving. We werent sure wed recognize one
another; when we parted she was a civilian and I was a buck private, and now we
were both lieutenants. Through Marine
headquarters she had booked us a room
at the Statler Hotel and had gotten tickets
for the Army-Navy game, which was that
Saturday. We met on the platform at the
train station, and we had no trouble nding one another. +
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

21

This stickpin was issued

to members of a German
civil defense grouptwo
of whom (left) participate
in an air-raid drill.

A LEAGUE OF
THEIR OWN
Curators at
The National
World War
II Museum
solve readers
artifact
mysteries

22

WORLD WAR II

I hope World War II historians can

identify this Nazi-era stickpin. The
front, which is about the size of a
nickel, has three letters or symbols,
along with a swastika. The back has
words or abbreviations arranged in
circular fashion reading: G. BREHMER
MARKNEUKIRCHEN and GES. GESCH.
I acquired the pin by trading with a
schoolmate as an elementary school
student, circa 1950. Robert A. Jones,
Brandon, Mississippi
This stickpin would have been issued to a member
of the Reichsluftschutzbund (RLB), or National Air
Raid Protection Leaguea program established

Have a World War II artifact you cant identify?

Write to Footlocker@historynet.com with the following:
Your connection to the object and what you know about it.
The objects 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 cant respond to every query, nor can we
appraise value.

HEINZ FREMKE/ULLSTEIN BILD/GETTY IMAGES

F RO M T H E F OO T L O C K E R

on April 29, 1933, by the Reichs Ministry for Air

Defense. The markings on the back indicate the
manufacturer and place of origin; the term Ges.
Gesch. is essentially a copyright mark.
The RLB was a civil defense outt charged with
preparing for and responding to air raids. Initially
a volunteer association under the German air
ministry, the RLB had about 15 million members
(out of a population of some 80 million) by 1939.
By 1944, with the Allied bombing campaign operating with a vengeance, the RLB was incorporated
into the Nazi Party and participation in the organization became compulsory. The League was
divided into groups responsible for specic blocks
and neighborhoods, with air raid wardens overseeing response teams.
The National WWII Museums collection contains a related itema ag from the RLBs Frankfurt am Main zone, the western regional group.
As with much of our material, an American servicemanEdward F. Boots Booth, who served
in Europe with the 69th Armored Regiment and
was wounded during the Battle of the Bulgecollected and kept the item as a souvenir. Kimberly
Guise, Assistant Director for Curatorial Services +

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THE PRICE

THEY SAY THAT THE PELELIU LANDING in September 1944 was pointless: they
being military historians, armchair strategists, and buffs of every stripe. The operation cost thousands of lives, offered no real strategic benet, and contributed nothing
to the nal victory. As a result, a lot of people think the American decision to invade
Peleliu was one of the worst calls of the war. Count me among them.
I had to rethink that position recently, however, when I visited an exhibition of
works by wartime artist Tom Lea. A talented guy from El Paso, Texas, Lea signed on
with Life magazine during the war to paint far-ung battlefronts for a fascinated
audience back home. And he was good! Whether depicting convoy battles in the
North Atlantic or South Pacic carrier warfare, Lea could meticuolously render a
scene. He painted a group of destroyers huddled around their tender in foggy Argentia Bay, Newfoundland, that look for all the world like cubs huddling around their
momma bear. And his portrait of Claire Chennault captures this rm-jawed tough
guy better than any photograph Ive ever seen. I felt like snapping to and saluting it.
Tom Lea didnt just paint, though. Unlike many of us who talk about Peleliu, he

24

WORLD WAR II

U.S. ARMY CENTER FOR MILITARY HISTORY, WASHINGTON, DC JAMES D. LEA

F I R E FO R E F F E C T B Y RO B E RT M. C I T I NO

actually took part in the landing. Up

until then, we cant say that he had truly
experienced combat. Oh, he had seen
it, to be sure, but from a relatively safe
distance. Even his most violent painting, depicting the tremendous explosion onboard the USS Wasp as it takes
three Japanese torpedoes in the gut, was
a long-range one.
On Peleliu, Lea closed that range with
all the nality of a prison gate slamming
shut. He felt the fear, heard the screams,
and saw the different ways combat can
shatter a man: physically by re, or emotionally by the inhuman stress of the
ght. Lea was pretty modest about his
role. My work [on Peleliu] consisted of
trying to keep from getting killed, he
later wrote. His short stay on the island
changed him, however, and resulted in
two of the wars most harrowing images.
That 2,000-Yard Stare is Leas iconic
look at a Marine who has had enough:
too much danger, too much surging
adrenaline, and one too many synaptic
jolts. The poor guy has checked out, perhaps for an hour or a day, perhaps for a
lot longer than that. His eyes give him
away; they are wide, out of phase, unfocused. Lea described them as two black
empty holes. The Marine is here in the
moment, but he is also a long way away.
You want to reach into the painting and
comfort him, tell him that he is going
to be all right, but you know he wont
be listening. He is looking into some
empty space where few of us would ever
wish to go.
The second is an action shot. The Peleliu landing is in progress, and a Marine
is hitting the beach. Lea paints the precise moment when the beach hits back.
A Japanese mortar shell has wounded
our hero. Nowounded doesnt really
do justice to what is happening here. Its
more like shredded. His left eye is gone,
his arm looks like hamburger, he is leaching bright red blood all over the place.
What struck Lea was the look of abject
patience in the dying Marines eye, as if
he had all the time in the world. Or as if
time no longer mattered. He called this
horrible creation The Price.
Peleliu was the place where Tom Lea,
artist, gazed into the face of war. Peleliu was where he learned the truth, and
where he showed America the price its
sons were paying every day.
Was Peleliu pointless? Im no longer
sure. It might have been the most important battle of the war. +

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BACK TO THE
BATTLE FOR
CRETE
IM STANDING ON A SMALL HILL COVERED IN WILD THYME regularly
pruned by feral goats that wander down from nearby mountains. Spread below, the
scrubby olive-green expanse of Cretes Maleme aireld stretches to the distant sea.
I drove to this rural hillside from Chania, a seaside town on the northwest hem
of the largest of the Greek islands. Its harbor is home to a jumble of lively cafs
that serve dishes cooked in local virgin olive oil. I am here to attend a three-day
commemoration of the Battle of Crete, which began 75 years earlier on this very
dayMay 20. This is Hill 107; from here our Allied troops shot down many planes,
says native-born Giorgos Milonakis, whose father was 10 years old when the battle
started. Milonakiss eyes glint in the midday sun as he squints down at the German
War Cemetery, where the graves of thousands of enemy soldiers stud the surface.
Far below us, elds and olive groves slumber in the hot sun, much as they did that
May morning in 1941 when the Nazis launched Operation Mercury, a massive airborne assault that dropped some 7,000 German paratroopers around Maleme and
Chania. The success of the mission was vital to the Germans; whoever controlled
Crete had easy access to the Suez Canalthe shortest route for conveying supplies
to North Africa. German occupation of Crete would also prevent British bomb-

26

WORLD WAR II

ers from ying from there to attack the

Romanian oil elds that fueled the Nazi
war machine.
The Battle of Crete had a number of
signicant rsts. It was the rst largescale German airborne offensive. It was
also the rst time the Allies had, thanks
to intercepted Enigma transmissions,
advance notice of a major German offensiveone the Allies failed to adequately
exploit, but recognized as a heads-up
for the future. And it was the rst time a
civilian population massively resisted a
German advance.
The German chief of military intelligence, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, had
believed that the Cretansrenowned
for their republican and anti-monarchist
stancewould welcome their German
liberators with open arms. Instead they
met the paratroopers with erce opposition. Armed with antique ries, daggers,
and even pitchforks, they took up arms
alongside Allied troops from Greece,
Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. As
a result, the invasion of Crete took longer
than Germany had expected. Though
Allied troops began to retreat just a week
later, Cretan resistance ghters continued their assault on enemy troops, forcing Hitler to send reinforcements.
The next day, I arrive at a ag-raising

JOANA KRUSE/ALAMY

T I M E T R AV E L B Y H E I D I F U L L E R - L OV E

TOP: ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: BUNDESARCHIV BILD 101I-166-0525-27 PHOTO WEIXLER

ceremony at Chanias Firkas Fortress, a

seventeenth-century stronghold located
at the entrance of the citys harbor. A
handful of veterans, some in wheelchairs,
watch as the ensigns of the four countries that helped defend Crete are slowly
raised above the fortress walls.
To further preserve the memory of this
event, the locals have created a Battle of
Crete exhibit housed within the fortress.
Amid ancient amphorae and remnants
from 400 years ago, when the Republic of
Venice colonized Crete, there are rooms
full of battle memorabilia, including
German parachutes, newspaper headlines, cigarette packets, and photos of
resistance ghters. One of them shows
a group of local men waiting to be executed. The Germans murdered them
for helping the Allies, someone behind
me murmurs.
Despite Cretes strong resistance,
Maleme aireld fell to the Germans
on May 21 and, after failed attempts to
retake it, Allied troops began retreating
to the south coast for evacuation on May
27. The exhausted men withdrew over
rocky ground while members of the New
Zealand 28th (Maori) Battalion, along
with Australian 2/7th Battalions C and D
Companies, established a defensive line
to buy time for the retreating soldiers.

Later in the day, I meet Marshall Cook,

a Maori and member of the New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF), a military
unit made up of settlers and Maoris
the indigenous people of New Zealand.
Cook is here to pay his respects to a relative who, along with other troops in the
defensive line, lost his life charging the
Germans. The 28th (Maori) Battalion
stepped up and ripped into our traditional
Haka war cry. Cook tells me. They used
it to psych themselves up for the charge.
They were up against some horrendous
odds tearing off into the olive groves in
face of the oncoming German attack.
Following the ceremony, a drive

Clusters of shops line the scenic harbor of

Chania (opposite), a seaside town German
paratroopers infiltrated on May 20, 1941, as
part of Operation Mercurythe invasion of
Crete (above). Following Cretes defeat,
German soldiers lined up Cretan resistance
fighters (below) and swiftly executed them.

through the warren of Chanias backstreets takes me out to Souda Bay, a natural harbor just outside town and home
to the British Commonwealth War Cemetery, where 1,500 servicemen who lost
their lives in the battle are buried. Many
of them are Maoris. There, Jack Rudolpf,
a Maori cultural adviser to the NZDF,
tells me that the warlike Maori feltand

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

27

WHEN
YOU GO
Apart from winter months, Crete
can be very hot. Be sure to take
water and plenty of sunscreen.
Some battle sites lack signage
and are difcult to nd, but most
Cretans speak some English and
are eager to help, if asked. Strata
Tours leads full-day tours to battle
sites and war cemeteries. Englishspeaking guides are available. For
tour information, contact Stelios
Milonakis, Strata Tours; (info@
stratatours.com; stratatours.com).

A visitor at the British and

Commonwealth War Cemetery
pays her respects to a Maori
relative who fought in the battle.

WHERE TO STAY
AND EAT
SOUDA
BAY

German
Invasion

GREECE

Allied
retreat

CRETE

Souda

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Rethymno
Sfakia
Allied
retreat

Heraklion

L I B YA

C R E T E

still feelat ease with the locals. We owe

them a lot of thanks, he says, because
some of our soldiers who were left behind
wouldnt have made it home without them.
Approximately 16,000 evacuated Allied
troops eventually reached Egypt by ship.
The majority of these embarked between
May 28 and June 1 from the southern
harbor of Sfakia, where I arrive after a twohour drive the next day. Coasting along the
curvy roads, I imagine how hard it must
have been for the retreating men to hide
from gunre on these rocky hillsides.
More than 5,000 Allied troops and thousands of Greeks remained behind in Sfakia
hiding in caves, but surviving for a time
thanks to the help of Cretan villagers and
resistance ghtersmany of whom German
troops later massacred.
Although German forces fought against
a deant populace during the entire Greek
campaign of April to June 1941, resistance
was strongest in Crete, where Germany
took the most casualties. Out of about
WORLD WAR II

EGY P T

M I L E S

28

TURKEY

10

20

22,000 German troops who fought to capture Cretethose in the initial paratroop
assault and the several thousand mountain
troops who later landed by seamore than
4,500 Germans were killed. Nazi leadership
deeply felt those losses and, for the remainder of the war, never attempted another
large airborne operation.
Luftwaffe general Kurt Student, who
headed the invasion, later wrote that Crete
conjures up bitter memories. I miscalculated when I proposed the operation and
my mistakes caused not only the loss of
very many paratroopers, whom I looked
upon as my sons, but in the long run led to
the demise of the German airborne arm I
had created.
The tiny shing port of Sfakia looks much
the same as it did in photos from 75 years
ago. Seated in a caf on the waterfront
where I am surrounded by Cretes starkly
beautiful landscapes and proud people, it
is easy to understand why they had fought
so ercely. +

Most battle sites are within short

distance of Rethymno and
Chania. The Caramel Boutique
Hotel in Rethymno has superb
beachside facilities, plenty of
dining options, and a helpful
concierge service; (caramel.
grecotel.com). A good low-cost
option close to Maleme is
Chanias Mike Hotel, which
has apartments and a small
restaurant; (hotel-mike.com).
Chania has a cluster of restaurants
along the seafront catering to all
tastes, but to sample authentic
Cretan food head for Mesogiako
located in the Splanzia Quarter.
Try raki liquor served with small
meze dishes ranging from tender
octopus chunks to dakoscrispy
bread made with barley, topped
with grated tomatoes and olive oil;
(mesogiako.com).

WHAT ELSE
TO SEE
The War Museum of Askifou is a
family-owned museum in Kares,
about 30 miles south of Chania.
Created by Giorgos A. Hatzidakis,
a Cretan born in 1931 who lost his
home and family members during
the war, it houses a personal
collection of some 2,000 historical
objects collected until his death in
2007. These include World War II
rearms, military uniforms, and
even the propeller of a plane shot
down during the Battle of Crete;
(warmuseumaskifou.com).

HEIDI FULLER-LOVE; MAP BY BRIAN WALKER

Maleme

Chania

SEA OF CRETE

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HAVE YOU
HEARD?
The greatest threat to Americas key
strategic advantage in the Pacific
was Americans themselves
By Joseph Connor

Talkative Americans
including the fighter
pilots (pictured) who
shot down and killed
Admiral Isoroku
Yamamotorisked
revealing that the
United States could
read the Japanese
naval code.

30

WORLD WAR II

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS, EUGENE MCDERMOTT LIBRARY

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

31

hey did it. On April 18, 1943, 16 U.S. Army

Air Forces fighter pilots from Guadalcanal
flew more than 400 miles to ambush
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as he flew to
Balalae airfield in the Solomon Islands.
They sent the Japanese Combined Fleets
commander in chief to a fiery grave in the
jungles of Bougainville. The United States had
exacted revenge against the architect of the Pearl
Harbor attack and one of the Imperial Navys
highest-ranking officersbut at what cost?
Behind the scenes, President Franklin D. Roosevelt reacted with glee, writing a mock letter of condolence to Yamamotos widow that circulated
around the White House but was never sent:
Dear Widow Yamamoto:
Time is a great leveler and somehow I never
expected to see the old boy at the White House
anyway. Sorry I cant attend the funeral because
I approve of it.
Hoping he is where we know he aint.
Very sincerely yours,
/s/ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Ironically, the success of the mission, aptly
named Operation Vengeance, threatened to expose
the most important secret of the Pacific War: the
U.S. Navys ability to read the Japanese navys topsecret JN-25 operational code. If the Japanese suspected a broken code had led to Yamamotos death,
they would drastically overhaul all their military
codes and the United States would lose its priceless
strategic advantage. As nervous commanders
waited to see if there would be a day of reckoning,
Americas own servicemen would prove to be the
gravest threat to this crucial secret.
YAMAMOTO, then 59, was one of the most hated
men in America. Not only had he planned the attack
on Pearl Harbor; almost as galling, he had reportedly bragged that he was looking forward to dictating peace to the United States in the White House.
In reality, he had never made this boast. It was a
product of Japanese propaganda, but Americans
took it as the gospel truth.
The Japanese navy, widely deployed throughout

32

WORLD WAR II

the Pacific, heavily relied on coded radio transmissions to send many of its most secret messages
and the U.S. Navy was listening. American
cryptanalysts had broken the latest version of the
JN-25 code just in time for the Battle of Midway in
June 1942. With advance knowledge of Japanese
plans, the outgunned U.S. Navy inflicted a stunning
defeat on a superior enemy force.
The cryptanalysts were about to score again.
In early April 1943, Yamamoto planned a one-day
inspection trip from Rabaul to bases around the
southern tip of Bougainville. In preparation, his
staff sent the itinerary to local commanders.
Although the staff wanted Yamamotos schedule
hand-delivered to Bougainville, Japans Eighth
Fleet naval headquarters was so confident in the
security of the JN-25 code that it sent the message
by radio.
The Japanese had modified parts of their JN-25
code on April 1, as they periodically did, but for U.S.
Navy code-breakers it was only a temporary setbackthe basic code system remained unchanged.
Therefore, American cryptanalysts could soon read
large parts of new messages. On April 14, they intercepted and decoded Yamamotos travel schedule. It
was a code-breakers dream. As he read it, Marine
Lieutenant Colonel Alva Lasswell, one of the top
cryptanalysts, exclaimed, Weve hit the jackpot.
The decoded itinerary not only included the date
and precise times for Yamamotos upcoming visits
to the bases on Bougainville, but also revealed that
he would be flying in a twin-engine bomber
escorted by only six fighter planes. Ironically, his
inspection tour was set for April 18, 1943, exactly
one year after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the
U.S. Pacific Fleet, conferred with Commander
Edwin T. Layton, his chief intelligence officer. They
understood that this could be their only chance to
get Yamamoto because it might be the closest he
would ever venture to the front. They calculated
that American P-38 Lightning fighters based on
Guadalcanal could fly the more than 800-mile
round trip distance to Balalae airfield and back.
Nimitz knew that if the Japanese thought Yamamoto had been ambushed, they could suspect their
code had been broken and change it. He decided the
risk was worth it, because the Japanese had no one

TOP AND BOTTOM-LEFT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; BOTTOM-RIGHT: WORLD HISTORY ARCHIVE / ALAMY

Admiral
Isoroku
Yamamoto,
architect of
the Pearl
Harbor
attack, was
one of the
most hated
men in
America.

Code-breaking efforts helped American

SBD Dauntless dive-bombers (above)
sink Japanese ships in the Battle of
Midwayincluding the cruiser Mikuma
(below)inflicting a stunning defeat on
Admiral Yamamoto (right), who had
planned the Pearl Harbor attack.

of comparable stature to replace Yamamoto. To be

safe, he and Layton concocted a cover story: that
Australian coastwatchers hiding in the jungles of
Rabaul had tipped them off.
Nimitz ordered Admiral William F. Halsey, commanding the area of operations that included Guadalcanal, to get Yamamoto. Like Nimitz, Halsey was
concerned the mission would endanger their codebreaking secrets. Nimitz said he would assume
responsibility for the risk and suggested that every
effort be made to make the operation appear
fortuitous. Best of luck and good hunting. Halseys
headquarters transmitted the order: Talleyho.
Lets get the bastard.
On April 18 at 7:10 a.m., 18 P-38s took off from the
Fighter II airstrip on Guadalcanal. Each twin-boom
fighter was fitted with external fuel tanks to extend
its range to over 1,000 miles for the missionmade
longer by the need to take a circuitous route to avoid
Japanese radar. A flat tire on takeoff and a mechanical failure reduced the flight to 16 planes.
Shortly before 10 a.m. near Empress Augusta Bay
on Bougainville, the American pilots spotted two
Japanese G4M Betty bombers and their escorting
A6M Zero fighters. The P-38s bullets and cannon
shells quickly downed both bombers, and the one
carrying Yamamoto crashed into the jungles of
Bougainville. One American pilot, Lieutenant Raymond K. Hine, was lost in the ensuing fight. The
U.S. Army Air Forces later credited two other
pilotsLieutenant Rex T. Barber and Captain
Thomas G. Lanphier Jr.with the kill.
At every stage, planners had stressed the need for
secrecy. But even before the P-38s had landed,
security was compromised.
AS THE RETURNING PLANES neared Guadalcanal, Lanphier radioed to the control tower: That
son of a bitch will not be dictating any peace terms
in the White House. Lanphiers announcement
was shocking to others on the mission. Air-toground messages were broadcast in the clear, and
the Japanese monitored American aviation frequencies. Lanphiers message left little to the imagination. Bystanders on Guadalcanal, including a
young navy officer named John F. Kennedy,
watched as Lanphier executed a victory roll over
the field before landing. I got him! Lanphier
announced to the crowd after climbing out of his
cockpit. I got that son of a bitch. I got Yamamoto.
Halsey and Nimitz heard of the success from a
secure message, which concluded with: April 18
seems to be our day. Halsey jokingly expressed
regret, saying he had hoped to give Yamamoto a trip
to the White House up Pennsylvania Avenue in

34

WORLD WAR II

chains. He passed along his congratulations to the

hunters, saying it sounded as though one of the
ducks in their bag was a peacock. When General
Douglas MacArthur heard the news, he later wrote,
One could almost hear the rising crescendo of
sound from the thousands of glistening white skeletons at the bottom of Pearl Harbor.
MEANWHILE, U.S. OFFICIALS were trying to
make it appear as if the attack on Yamamoto had
been sheer happenstance. Over the next few weeks,
they repeatedly sent P-38s to Balalae to give the
impression that the long journey was a regular mission for American fighter patrols. Additionally,
American officials made no public statements to
suggest they knew that Yamamoto had been killed.
Despite their best-laid plans, officials had forgotten
to factor in human nature: people talk.
The secret spread quickly on Guadalcanal, a
bustling base humming with activity. Servicemen
openly discussed the missions details, which soon
became common knowledge on the island. With
men arriving and leaving every day, the truth was
impossible to contain. Eventually, the story spread
so widely that it became the subject of cocktail
party gossip in Washington, leading at least one
citizen, concerned at hearing the loose talk about
sensitive operational details, to directly call U.S.
Army chief of staff General George C. Marshall.
Chatty pilots became the most serious threat to
the code-breaking secret. After the successful mission, the two fliers credited with downing YamamotoLanphier and Barberenjoyed 10 days of
leave in New Zealand. The two were golfing with
Brigadier General Dean Strother when an Associated Press correspondent, J. Norman Lodge,
approached them. The reporter seemed to know a
lot about the Yamamoto mission and, using an old
reporters trick, asked the pilots to just clarify some
details. Amazingly, Lanphier and Barber talked
candidly and freely about the mission. Although
Strother told Lodge to forget about a story because
it would never clear the military censors, the
reporter was not easily deterred.
On May 11, 1943, Lodge filed his story with the
censors for transmission back home. Although he
did not mention the breaking of Japanese codes, he
wrote that American intelligence had trailed
Yamamoto for five days and that American pilots
had specifically targeted him. The story included
Lanphiers description of the mission and quoted
Strother as saying that the U.S. military had known
Yamamotos itinerary.
If Lodges story had seen the light of day, the
JN-25 code might have quickly become a thing of

NATIONAL ARCHIVES (BOTH)

The secret
spread
quickly on
Guadalcanal
and, with
men arriving
and leaving
each day, the
truth was
impossible
to contain.

The mission to
intercept Yamamoto fell
to the 339th Fighter
Squadron and its P-38G
aircraft (like those
above). Although it was
successful, bitter
disputes arose from
claims by (left to right)
Thomas G. Lanphier Jr.,
Besby F. Holmes, and
Rex T. Barber over who
actually shot down the
enemy bombers. The
U.S. Army Air Forces
officially credited both
Lanphier and Barber
with downing
Yamamotos aircraft,
but disputes continue
to this day.

35

He started in on a tirade of profanity the like of

which I had never heard before. He accused us of
everything he could think of from being traitors to
our country to being so stupid that we had no right
to wear the American uniform. He said we were
horrible examples of pilots of the Army Air Force,
that we should be court-martialed, reduced to privates, and jailed for talking to Lodge about the
Yamamoto mission.

FROM SWORN
ENEMY TO
UNLIKELY ALLY?

36

WORLD WAR II

Halseys bark was worse than his bite; he simply reduced their Medal of
Honor recommendations to the second-highest valor award, Navy Crosses.
ON MAY 21, 1943, just over a month after the mission, Japan announced that
Yamamoto had met a gallant death on a war plane while engaged in combat
with the enemy. It was front-page news in the United States.
American officials kept up their faade about not knowing what had happened. The U.S. Office of War Information told reporters it thought Yamamoto
had been killed in a passenger plane crash between Bangkok and Singapore on
April 7, 1943. Other news accounts claimed he might have taken his own life
because of recent Japanese setbacks. Reporters flocked to the White House,
and the presidents reaction suggested the news was anything but a surprise.
Is he dead? Roosevelt asked, Gosh! The president joined in the ensuing
laughter, and all that was missing was a wink and a nod.
Then, two magazine articles poked holes in the American cover story.
The May 31, 1943, issue of Time magazine included a story on Yamamotos
death. It ended with: When the name of the man who killed Admiral Yamamoto is released, the U.S. will have a new hero. That was incompatible with an
accidental plane crash or suicide. In that same issue, another story described a
mission in the South Pacific that mirrored Operation Vengeance. Although the
story did not explicitly name Yamamoto, it described Lanphier shooting down
a bomber and, on the way home, wondering if he had nailed some Jap bigwig.
The implication was clear: the United States knew its fliers killed Yamamoto.
Loose talk about the mission continued and was so prevalent that General
Marshall wanted to make an example of any officer caught talking about it. That
officer happened to be Major General Alexander M. Patch, who had recently
returned from Guadalcanal and subsequently discussed the mission at the
Washington Press Club. Patch told Marshall that he was unaware or uncon-

Isoroku Yamamoto (left,

in 1926) was quickly
vilified as a symbol
of Japanese treachery,
as evidenced by the
December 22, 1941,
cover of Time (above).

To wartime America,
Isoroku Yamamoto
personified Japanese
treachery and arrogance because of the
attack on Pearl Harbor
and his alleged boast
that he would dictate
peace terms at the
White House. He was,
however, a man of
many dimensions.
With his death, the
United States lost an
enemy who, had he
lived, might have
become a valuable
ally in helping to bring
the Pacific War to a
quicker resolution.
Yamamoto knew the
United States well. He
had studied economics at Harvard and had
served as a naval attach in Washington,
where he became an
avid poker player and
socialized with some

of the U.S. Navy officers he would later

fight against. He was
fluent in English and
an admirer of Abraham Lincoln. He had
traveled in the United
States more widely
than most Americans.
He appreciated Americas potential might,
having seen Detroits
automobile factories,
Pittsburghs steel
mills, the wheat fields
of the Midwest, and
the Texas oil fields. He
had been outspoken
in opposing war with
the United States and
Japans alliance with
Germany and Italy,
earning death threats
and the enmity of Japanese nationalists,
who called him a traitor and pro-American.
Above all, he was a
realist who knew that

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (BOTH)

the past. Not only did his story show that the United
States knew of Yamamotos death, which Japan had
not announced, but also that the Americans had
known Yamamotos location. No Australian coastwatcher would have known his precise schedule; a
compromised JN-25 code was the only explanation.
The censors could not believe what they read.
They quickly passed the story up the chain of command. Nimitz immediately ordered Halsey to
secure and seal in safe Lodges notes and story. He
told Halsey to initiate immediate corrective measures and take disciplinary action as warranted.
Lanphier, Barber, and Strother returned from
leave to find a summons to meet Halsey on his flagship. When they arrived, an irate Halsey refused to
return their salutes and simply stared at them.
When he finally erupted, the bombastic Halsey
outdid himself. As Barber recalled:

scious that there was any further need for absolute secrecy regarding an enterprise which had occurred many weeks previously. Marshall was amazed and
angry that a secret so dangerous to our interests should be publicly discussed.
Marshall was powerless, however, because disciplining an officer of Patchs rank
would have attracted more attention to the story and made matters worse.
The publicity endangered not only the code-breaking secret but also
Lanphiers family. In late August 1943, Lanphiers younger brother, Charles,
was captured when his F4U-1 Corsair went down near Bougainville. As Halsey
later wrote, if the Japanese learned who had shot down Yamamoto, what they
might have done to the brother is something I prefer not to think about.
Charles Lanphier died in captivitywithout the Japanese realizing what his
brother had done.

COURTESY OF J. NORMAN LODGE

After interviewing loose-lipped pilots Lanphier

and Barber, Associated Press correspondent J.
Norman Lodge (above) filed a story that would
have inadvertently revealed to the Japanese the
extent of Americas ability to read their codes.

Japan, with its limited

resources, could not
stand toe-to-toe with
the United States in a
prolonged war. Three
months before Pearl
Harbor, he predicted
that if war came, I will
run wild, and I will
show you an uninterrupted succession of
victories for the first
six to 12 months. After
that, he admitted, I
have no confidence in
our ultimate victory.
Instead of war, he
urged continued diplomatic negotiations
with the United States.
Some American
intelligence officials
thought that killing
Yamamoto was a serious blunder since the
Japanese war cabinet
would never admit
that the war was lost.
With his realistic out-

look, his status as a

national hero, and his
high standing with
Emperor Hirohito, they
felt that Yamamoto
might have been the
one man who could
have persuaded the
emperor to end the
war before it became
the to-the-death struggle it eventually was.
That would have saved
the thousands of lives
that were lost after
Japans defeat had
become a fait accompli, but any chance
for achieving earlier
peace died along
with Yamamoto.
Yamamotos boast
about dictating peace
terms at the White
House was in fact the
work of Japanese propagandists seeking to
rub salt in Americas

DESPITE ALL THESE MISSTEPS and close calls, the United States codebreaking secret held until the end of the war, and decoded messages continued
to supply targets for American submarines, planes, and ships. Despite temporary setbacks as a result of the Japanese introducing new additives or code
books, wrote Commander Layton, Nimitzs chief intelligence officer, there
was never a sustained period when we were not able to read communications
in the principal JN-25 operational system.
The story behind Operation Vengeance became public less than two weeks
after Japans formal surrender. Yamamoto Death In Air Ambush Result of
Breaking Foes Code, blared a headline in the New York Times on September
10, 1945. The story, written by an Associated Press reporter, credited fellow
reporter Lodge as the source for stating that Yamamoto had met flaming
deathbecause this country broke a Japanese code. American fliers, the
Associated Press reported, knew in advance the course his aerial convoy was
to follow and ambushed him. Two years after he initially filed his story with

wounds. In a letter to
a friend, Yamamoto
had written that a war
against the United
States would not be
easy because that
country would fight
long and hard:
It is not enough that
we should take Guam
and the Philippines
or even Hawaii and
San Francisco. We
would have to march
into Washington and
sign the treaty in the
White House.
In the afterglow
of the Pearl Harbor
attack, the Japanese
media broadcast an
inaccurate and selfserving version:
I shall not be content merely to capture Guam and the

Philippines and
occupy Hawaii and
San Francisco. I am
looking forward to
dictating peace to
the United States in
the White House
at Washington.
From that point on,
news stories about
Yamamoto seldom
failed to mention this
boast, and stories
about his death
mocked it. The Jap
who looked forward
to dictating peace to
the U.S. in the White
House is dead, Time
magazine announced.
And the New York
Times called him the
man who bragged of
dictating peace terms
from a seat in the
White House.
As for Pearl Harbor,
Yamamoto understood

Americas capable
strength and knew that
Japans only chance of
success was the military equivalent of a
first-round knockout.
He therefore planned
a surprise attack on
the U.S. Pacific Fleet at
Pearl Harborimmediately following a
Japanese declaration
of warthat would
immobilize the U.S.
Navy while Japan
seized the territory
and resources it
desired. Then Yamamoto would lure the
remnants of the Pacific
Fleet into a decisive
battle, which would
force a defeated
United States to the
peace table.
The admiral was so
convinced that his
continued on page 38

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

37

the censors, Lodge finally had his scoop.

Even though the war was over, the navy was still
upset by the story. Its officers were debriefing a
high-level Japanese intelligence officer who had
provided them with valuable information. The
naval officers planned to interview other captured
officers, too, but feared the code-breaking revelation might shame the Japanese officer into drastic
action. [W]e do not want him or any of our other
promising prospects to commit suicide until after
next week when we expect to have milked them
dry, radioed a navy officer based in Yokohama.
An exasperated navy department sent back a
memorable reply:

continued from page 37

Gordon W. Prange,
it was strictly a formalistic bow toward
the conventions.
Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura was
told to deliver to Secretary of State Cordell
Hull a message breaking off negotiations
promptly at 1 p.m. on
December 7, 1941 (8
a.m. Hawaiian time).
Because of delays in
decoding and typing
the message, however, Nomura did not
arrive at the State
Department until 2:05
p.m. (9:05 a.m. Hawaiian time). By then, the
Pearl Harbor attack
was under way.
Even if delivered on
time, Nomuras message would not have
given the United
States fair notice of

plan was correct that

he threatened to
resign if his superiors
did not approve it.
Yamamoto saw the
irony in an anti-war
admiral planning the
attack that would start
the war. I find my
present position
extremely odd, he
wrote, obliged to
make up my mind and
pursue unswervingly
a course that is precisely the opposite of
my personal views.
The Japanese government planned to
break off all negotiations with the United
States beforebut
only minutes before
the first bomb fell on
Pearl Harbor. According to historian

38

WORLD WAR II

Your lineal position on the list of those who are

embarrassed by the Yamamoto story is five thousand six hundred ninety two. All of the people over
whose dead bodies the story was going to be published have been buried. All possible schemes to
localize the damage have been considered but
none appears workable. Suggest that only course
for you is to deny knowledge of the story and say
you do not understand how such a fantastic tale
could have been invented. This might keep your
friend happy until suicide time next week, which is
about all that can be expected.

war. The message did

not declare war or
even break off diplomatic relations. It
simply ended negotiations. Japan did not
formally declare war
until hours after the
attack. The Japanese
Foreign Ministry had
prepared a clearly
worded declaration of
war before the attack
but chose not to have
it delivered to Secretary Hull.
The inescapable
conclusion is gamesmanship. The Japanese government
wanted to orchestrate
the attack so that it
could receive the
tactical benefits of a
sneak attack but still
be able to later deny
that it was, in fact, a
sneak attack.

The question remains: why didnt the Japanese

follow the clues and realize that their JN-25 code
had been compromised? In retrospect, it is incomprehensible. Otis Cary, an American navy officer
who debriefed Japanese naval officers after the
war, wrote that while the Japanese suspected
Yamamoto had been ambushed, they never
seemed to have considered seriously that we might
be breaking their secret codes. It is almost impossible to believe that if the shoe was on the other
foot, American or British intelligence would not
have figured out what had happened. It remains
one of the great and enduring puzzles of the
Pacific War.
Historian Donald A. Davis, author of Lightning
Strikean absorbing account of the Yamamoto
missionsuggests the reason was hubris. The flaw,
he wrote, was not in the code itself, but in the
arrogant and incredibly nave Japanese belief that
Western minds could not possibly understand the
intricacies of their complex language, particularly
when it was wrapped in dense codes. Despite all of
the clues, hubris had overtaken them, and they
were unwilling to accept the logical truth that their
code was worthless.
It was a flaw that cost Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto his life and hastened Japans defeat. +

How much Yamamoto knew of this

gamesmanship still
remains an open
question. Cary, the
navy officer who
debriefed high-level
Japanese naval officers shortly after the
war, believed that the
Japanese government
had kept Yamamoto
and the Japanese navy
in the dark:
It had never occurred
to the men I talked
with that the plan
was laid around the
fact that the attack
was going to take
place before war had
been declared. Certainly Admiral Yamamoto had not
conceived of it as
that, although he had
made the decision

that Hawaii would

have to be attacked.
Yamamotos actions
support this viewpoint. The weak resistance to the Pearl
Harbor attack led him
to suspect that the
attack had come
before a declaration
of war. He asked an
aide to investigate
because, he said,
thered be trouble if
someone slipped up
and people said it was
a sneak attack.
Yamamoto knew
how the United States
would react, and he
was right. It was a
sneak attack, and it
did lead to trouble
trouble that ended in
his death in the skies
over Bougainville.
Joseph Connor

TOP: ASAHI SHIMBUN VIA GETTY IMAGES; LEFT: THE NEW YORK TIMES; RIGHT (BOTH): AIR FORCE MAGAZINE/AIR FORCE ASSOC.

Why did the

Japanese
not follow
the clues?
It remains
one of the
great and
enduring
puzzles of
the Pacic
War.

Two weeks after announcing Yamamotos death, the Japanese government

held a state funeral for the revered leader in Tokyo (above). It was not until
the end of the war that the New York Times revealed the essential role that
code-breaking had played in shooting down Yamamotos G4M Betty
bomberwhich remains in the jungles of Bougainville (below, right).

40

WORLD WAR II

SHORE
PARTY

During his famed return to the

Philippines, General Douglas
MacArthur quickly recognized
the power of a photograph
By Joseph Connor

conic photos often have their own storiessome real, some myth.
For more than 70 years, questions have swirled around the famous
photos of General Douglas MacArthurs beach landingsfirst on Leyte,
then on Luzonas American troops returned to liberate the Philippines.
Stories persist that MacArthur, no stranger to controversy or drama,
staged the photos by coming ashore several times until the cameraman
got the perfect shot, or that the photos were posed days after the actual
landings. Those who were present say neither of these oft-repeated stories is
true. But what really happened is even stranger than these misguided rumors.

Douglas MacArthurs anger at being

forced to wade ashore at Leyte in
October 1944 (above) faded when he
saw the powerful photo that resulted.
GETTY IMAGES

MACARTHURS RETURN was the high point of his war. In July 1941 he had
been named commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, including all
American and Filipino troops in the Philippines. In March 1942, with Japanese forces tightening their grip around the Philippines, MacArthur was
ordered out of the islands for Australia. After reaching his destination, he
vowed to liberate the Philippines, famously proclaiming, I shall return.
By April 1942, Japanese units advancing across the Philippines forced
beleaguered Allied troops there to surrender. From then on, the Philippines
constituted the main object of my planning, MacArthur said. By late 1944
he was poised to fulfill his promiseuntil an interservice battle threatened
to derail his plans.
The U.S. Navy wanted American forces to bypass the Philippines and invade
Formosa (now Taiwan) instead. MacArthur objected strenuously, both on
strategic grounds and upon his belief that the United States had a moral duty
to the people of the Philippines. The dispute went all the way up to President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ultimately sided with MacArthur.
Finally, on October 20, 1944, MacArthur made his long-anticipated return.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

41

The navy
beachmaster
was too busy
to bother with
a four-star
general.
Walk in,
he growled.
The waters
ne.
42

WORLD WAR II

At 10 a.m., his troops stormed ashore on Leyte,

an island in the central Philippines. The heaviest fighting took place on Red Beach, but by early
afternoon, MacArthurs men had secured the area.
Secured, however, did not mean safe. Japanese
snipers remained active while small-arms and
mortar fire continued throughout the day. Hundreds of small landing craft clogged the beaches,
but the water was too shallow for larger landing
craft to reach dry land.
Aboard the USS Nashville two miles offshore, a
restless MacArthur could not wait to put his feet
back on Philippine soil. At 1 p.m., he and his staff
left the cruiser to take the two-mile landing craft
ride to Red Beach. MacArthur intended to step out
onto dry land, but soon realized their vessel was
too large to advance through the shallow depths
near the coastline. An aide radioed the navy beach-

master and asked that a smaller craft be sent to

bring them in. The beachmaster, whose word was
law on the invasion beach, was too busy with the
chaos of the overall invasion to be bothered with a
general, no matter how many stars he wore. Walk
inthe waters fine, he growled.
The bow of the landing craft dropped and
MacArthur and his entourage waded 50 yards
through knee-deep water to reach land.
Major Gaetano Faillace, an army photographer
assigned to MacArthur, took photos of the general wading ashore. The result was an image of a
scowling MacArthur, jaw set firmly, with a steeleyed look as he approached the beach. But what
may have appeared as determination was, in reality, anger. MacArthur was fuming. As he sloshed
through the water, he stared daggers at the impudent beachmaster, who had treated the general as

TOP, BOTTOM, AND OPPOSITE: CARL MYDANS/ THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/
GETTY IMAGES; CENTER: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

he probably had not been treated since his days as a plebe at West Point. However, when MacArthur saw the photo, his anger quickly dissipated. A master
at public relations, he knew a good photo when he saw one.
Still, rumors persisted that MacArthur had staged the Leyte photo. CBS
radio correspondent William J. Dunn, who was on Red Beach that day, hotly
disputed these rumors, calling them one of the most ludicrous misconceptions to come out of the war. The photo was a one-time shot taken within
hours of the initial landing, Dunn said, not something repeated sometime
later for the perfect picture. MacArthur biographer D. Clayton James agreed,
noting that MacArthurs plans for the drama at Red Beach certainly did not
include stepping off in knee-deep water.

Hoping to replicate the effective walk ashore

at Leyte (another view, center), MacArthur
arranged for his landing craft to stop offshore at
Luzon. After an awkward start (top), he assumed
a confident gait, which photographer Carl
Mydans captured in a famous image (opposite).
When leaving the beach, MacArthur made sure
to again wade through knee-deep water, this
time back out to the landing craft (above).

THE NEXT LANDING, however, was a different story.

On January 9, 1945, American troops arrived at Luzon, the main island
in the Philippines, catching the Japanese by surprise. Opposition was light.
MacArthur watched the landings from the cruiser USS Boise and at 2 p.m.
about four hours after the initial landingshe headed for shore.
Navy Seabees had quickly built a small pier with pontoons so that MacArthur and his staff could exit their vessel without getting wet. On seeing this,
MacArthur ordered his boat to swerve away from the pier so that he could
wade ashore through knee-deep water as he had done at Leyte. He knew that
Life magazine photographer Carl Mydans was on the beach. As he strode
toward shore, MacArthur struck the same pose and steadfast facial expression as at Leyte. Mydans snapped the famous photo that soon appeared on the
front pages of newspapers across the United States and became what Time
magazine called an icon of its era. No one, Mydans said later, appreciated
the value of a picture more than MacArthur.
There is little doubt that MacArthur chose to avoid the pierand dry feet
for dramatic effect. Having spent a lot of time with MacArthur, Mydans said,
it flashed on me what was happening. He was avoiding the pontoons. Biographer D. Clayton James wrote that the Luzon landing seems to have been a
deliberate act of showmanship. With the worldwide attention that his Leyte
walk through the water received, apparently the Barrymore side of MacArthurs personality could not resist another big splash of publicity and surf.
MacArthur, on the other hand, blamed fate. As was getting to be a habit
with me, he wrote, perhaps with tongue in cheek, I picked a boat that took
too much draft to reach the beach, and I had to wade in.
Other circumstances conspired to make it appear that MacArthur had
waded in at Luzon more than once. Although Mydans worked for Life, on that
day he was the pool photographer, which gave any news organization free
license to use the image. On January 20, 1945, a tightly cropped version of the
photo, making MacArthur the focal point, appeared in newspapers throughout the United States. When Life ran the photo a month later, editors used the
uncropped version, which included other vessels and figures on the periphery and even another photographer in the foreground. Only a sharp-eyed
viewer would realize that it was the photo they had already seen in newspapers weeks earlier, giving rise to the impression of repeat photo sessions. Life
had also surrounded the iconic photo with other images Mydans had snapped
moments before and after that one, including an unflattering shot of MacArthur being helped down the ramp of the landing craft. All of this may have
been a ploy by the magazinehaving been scooped by its own photographer
to make readers think they were seeing something new and different.
In the end, controversies about MacArthurs landings will likely continue.
These are stories that once created will keep being told, Mydans said, and each
new generation will findsome reason for telling it. Usually its with delight. +
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

43

THE THIN
RED LINE
BETWEEN
FACT AND
FICTION
Each man fought his own war
on Guadalcanal and in James
Joness acclaimed novel
By Paul Maggioni

44

WORLD WAR II

ames Joness The Thin Red Line is considered one of the finest combat novels to
emerge from World War II. The second
work in a trilogy alongside From Here to
Eternity and Whistle, The Thin Red Lines
hard-hitting depiction of exhausted
American soldiers battling the Japanese
across Guadalcanal received glowing critical
responses upon its publication in 1962. The Christian Science Monitor compared the book to Stephen
Cranes The Red Badge of Courage; Newsweek called
it a rare and splendid accomplishmentas honest
as any novel ever written.
At the beginning of the novel, Jones wrote:
Anyone who has studied or served in the Guadalcanal campaign will immediately recognize that no
such terrain as that described here exists on the
island. The Dancing Elephant, The Giant Boiled
Shrimp, the hills around Boola Boola Village, as
well as the village itself, are figments of fictional

46

WORLD WAR II

imagination, and so are the battles herein described

as taking place on this terrain. The characters who
take part in the actions of this book are also imaginary. [A]ny resemblance to anything anywhere is
certainly not intended.
However, this is not completely true. Jones
served on Guadalcanal as a corporal in Fox Company, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, and found fault with the official U.S. Army
histories of the war. You can read the history of a
campaign in which you served, and find the history
doesnt at all tally with the campaign you remember, he wrote. While working on The Thin Red Line,
Jones told his editor, No book has ever really been
written about combat in wartime with real honesty. So, like his literary hero, Thomas Wolfe, Jones
used only those things I have experienced myself,
and those told me by men in my old company.
Indeed, the actual experience of Fox Company so
closely corresponds with The Thin Red Line that it

HOWARD BRODIE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; OPPOSITE: JAMES JONES LITERARY SOCIETY

is often difficult to determine where the novel

leaves off and history begins.

Corporal James Jones

(right) was 21 when he
first saw combat on
Guadalcanal; it deeply
affected his writing.
The fighting likewise
influenced army artist
Howard Brodie.
Jones greatly admired
Brodies sketches (like
the one above), later
writing that the artist
permanently captured
on paper the filth and
misery and fatigue we
had lived through.

ON DECEMBER 19, 1942, Fox Companys commanding officer, Captain William Blatt, gathered
his command group on B Deck of the U.S. Army
transport Hunter Liggett. Blatt looked around at
the menincluding executive officer Lieutenant
William Burn and Lieutenant Champ Jones, and
noncommissioned officers like tough First Sergeant Frank Wendson, Sergeant William Chubby
Curran, and Blatts temperamental clerk, Corporal
James Jones. It had been 13 days since the company
had shipped out of Schofield Barracks in Hawaii
and rumors swirled about their destination. Now
Blatt dropped a bombshell: they were going to fight
on Guadalcanal, where American troops had been
battling the Japanese since August.
Blatt, a Chicago lawyer in peacetime, had been in
command of the company since before Pearl Harbor.
He was generally unpopular; Jones recounted how
the men felt that both Blatt and Lieutenant Burn
took pains to keep the companys enlisted men in
their proper place. At times they showed open contempt for the captain. Just before the men shipped
out from Hawaii, regimental headquarters had canceled their leave passes, but they angrily blamed Blatt
and 15 of them went AWOL.
Jones, however, had a more compassionate view;
Blatt had approved Joness requests to take English
Literature classes at the University of Hawaii. The
prospect of going into combat further softened
Joness feelings for his commanding officer. The
more I think of Blatt, the more I am inclined to
sympathize with him, Jones wrote while aboard
the Hunter Liggett. Trying to keep 180 men satisfied, healthy & useful is impossible. Jones closely
based The Thin Red Lines company commander,
Captain James Stein, on Blatt.
But Blattalong with everything elseseemed to
disgust First Sergeant Wendson. A seasoned soldier
with 10 years service, Wendson was a great athlete,
the best shot in the company, and something of a
legend in the regiment. He hid his genuine concern
for the men behind a sarcastic and bitter outer shell,
and often waxed cynical about the country he
served: Balls to a democracy like this! Its politics
and nothing else. Dog eat dog.... I just wish the
Goddam Jap would win this war, just to see how
these millionaire bastards would cringe on their
bellies. Jones adapted Wendson into central character First Sergeant Edward Welsh in his novel.
Instead of remaining on deck with the others after
Blatts briefing, Jones returned to his bunk to record
it in his journal. He had one grand ambition: I hope,

someday, to be a great author, he wrote in 1942. In

The Thin Red Line, Jones would base the intelligent
but emotionally fragile character of Corporal Fife,
the company clerk, on himself. Jones had been with
Fox Company for two years. After failing to make the
boxing or football teamsand badly injuring his
ankleJones kept mostly to himself. His closest
friend, a Kentuckian bugler and boxer named Robert
Lee Stewart, had been promoted, busted, and sent to
the stockade multiple times before being reassigned
out of the company. Jones fell back on his solitary
literary aspirations, and later adapted Stewart into
The Thin Red Lines Private Robert Witt.
BY DECEMBER 30, the Hunter Liggett was
anchored off Guadalcanal and Fox Company prepared to disembark. Word circulated that Japanese
planes had been seen approaching Guadalcanal.
Jones prepared by securing a dog tag to each wrist
and ankle, so that if he was blown up someone
could still identify a piece of his body. The soldiers
swung over the transports sides and clambered
down the cargo netting to the waiting landing craft.
Fortunately for Jones and his comrades, the
company made it ashore before the Japanese aircraft reached the area. The men watched in horror
and fascination as the enemy bombed the American transports. Jones remembered that a loaded
barge coming in took a hit and seemed simply
to disappear. After the Japanese planes buzzed
away, men fished out their wounded and dying
comrades. Jones drew from the incident in The
Thin Red Line, describing its effect on the men
pulled from the water:

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

47

They had crossed a strange line; they had become

wounded men; and everybody realized, including
themselves, dimly, that they were now different. Of
itself, the shocking physical experience of the
explosion, which had damaged them and killed
those others, had been almost identically the same
for them as for those other ones who had gone on
with it and died. The only difference was that now
these, unexpectedly and illogically, found themselves alive again.
The regiment spent two weeks acclimating to
Guadalcanals terrain and climateas well as to
nightly bombing raidsbefore division headquarters ordered them into action. They were tasked
with capturing a hill complex dubbed the Galloping Horse for its shape in aerial photographs. In
The Thin Red Line, the corresponding fictional terrain became the Dancing Elephant.
Second Battalioncomprised of Easy, Fox, and
George companieswould play a crucial part of
American forces January 1943 offensive, which
aimed to gain ground west of the Matanikau River
and launch a final campaign to drive the Japanese
off the island.
The battalion was initially placed in reserve;
Jones and his comrades had ringside seats to the
first two days of combat, as 3rd Battalion attacked
westward along the Galloping Horse. After capturing Hill 52 at the center of the hill mass, the
men continued pushing west until enemy fire stymied their advance.
Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Mitchell, 2nd Battalions commanding officer, prepared to take over
the assault. He assigned Fox Company the toughest
job: pushing forward into the teeth of Japanese
defenses. Their attack would be aimed at capturing
two features: a left-hand ridge to their southwest,
then a distant ridge further west. Fox Company was
to next press on to take Hill 53.
AT DAWN ON JANUARY 12, a thin line of soldiers
in olive drab herringbone twill fatigues, their eyes
wide and mouths open against the concussion of
their artillery bombardment, clutched their rifles
and hugged the dirt as shells whistled overhead and
exploded. Fox Company waited for the attack order.
The terrain ahead of them consisted of open, rolling hills, clearly visible from elevated observation
points behind. From one such point, division commander Major General J. Lawton Collins and corps
commander Major General Alexander M. Patch
waited to observe the attack; word spread that U.S.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Admiral Chester
Nimitz, and Admiral Bill Halsey were on the island

48

WORLD WAR II

and could be watching, too.

At 6:30 a.m., the pre-assault bombardment
ceased and Blatt sent Lieutenant Champ M. Joness
platoon forward. I was able to move down a hill
about 100 yards and I stopped in some tall grass,
Champ Jones later recalled. I stayed in place for a
while and looked for members of my platoon since
I was in charge. In looking for my platoonI stood
up enough to be wounded in the arm, chest, and
shoulder by Japanese machine-gun fire.
As Champ Jones fell, Japanese small-arms and
mortar fire tore into Fox Company from the surrounding hills. Despite a flurry of casualties, the
company captured the forward ridges. James Jones
admitted being scared shitless during the assault.
He worked to keep up with Blatt, who had begun to
earn his mens respect by staying forward, seemingly unafraid of exposing himself to danger.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, no
doubt feeling pressure from the brass observing his
battalions attack, telephoned Blatt and complained
that Fox Company had veered too far right, exposing their flank. Mitchell committed Easy Company
to plug the gap and ordered Blatt to continue
attacking across the wide, open ground. But Japanese fire from the distant western ridge kept Fox
and Easy Companies pinned down; the men desperately sought shelter in shell holes or behind
folds in the ground.
Mitchell demanded that Blatt continue to attack
westward. Instead of going straight into the buzz
saw and losing more men, Blatt wanted to pull Fox
Company back, move through the jungle, and concentrate an assault on Hill 53 from the north. A
furious Mitchell demurred, instead ordering Blatt
to continue the frontal attack. With Japanese fire
tearing into his men, Blatt made a critical decision.
He flatly refused Mitchells order.
Jones later dramatized the exchange in a pivotal
scene of the novel, when Captain Stein refuses the
same direct order from the novels Lieutenant
Colonel Gordon Tall.
Colonel, I refuse to take my men up there in a
frontal attack. Its...suicide! Ive lived with these
men two and a half years. I wont order them all
to their deaths. Thats final. Over.Tall was
stupid, ambitious, without imagination, and
vicious as well. He was desperate to succeed
before his superiors. Otherwise he could never
have given such an order.
Meanwhile, Blatts company command post,
located behind a low ridge, came under Japanese
mortar fire. One of the shells exploded near Jones,

Japanese
re tore
into them
from the
surrounding
hills,
causing a
urry of
casualties.

56

ENLARGED
AREA

The Galloping Horse

GUADALCANAL

54

In January 1943, Joness

27th Infantry Regiment
attacked a hill complex
(left, named for its shape
when viewed from north
to south). Japanese
resistance was fierce, and
evacuating casualties
proved to be a dangerous
task, as depicted in
Brodies sketch (above).

TOP: HOWARD BRODIE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; MAP BY BRIAN WALKER

57
50

FRONT LINES
JAN. 11

F Company
advance

Hill 53

E Company
advance

51

44

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

49

50

WORLD WAR II

throwing him through the air and wounding him in

the head. Jones mirrored the incident in The Thin
Red Line, with his alter ego, Corporal Fife:
He heard the soft shu-u-u of the mortarshell for
perhaps half a second. There was not even time to
connect it with himself and frighten him, before
there was a huge sunburst roaring of an explosion
almost on top of him, then black blank darkness.
He had a vague impression that someone screamed
but did not know it was himself.
I came to...several yards down the slope, bleeding like a stuck pig and blood running all over my
face, Jones later recalled. As soon as I found I
wasnt dead or dying, I was pleased to get out of
there as fast as I could. He cautiously walked back
to the hospital, where medics treated him with morphine and sulfa powder. In the novel, Fife again
channels Joness feelings:

Fifesuddenly realized that he was free. He did

not have to stay here any more. He was released.
He could simply get up and walk awayprovided
he was ablewith honor, without anyone being
able to say he was a coward or courtmartialing
him or putting him to jail. His relief was so great
he suddenly felt joyous despite the wound.
UNDER THE RELENTLESS TROPICAL SUN,
afternoon bled into early evening as the companies
tried again in vain to capture Japanese positions on
the ridges. Captain Charles W. Davis, a strapping,
athletic Alabamian, was the battalion executive
officer and volunteered to assist the men. Davis,
who became the model for The Thin Red Lines Captain John Gaff, braved over 300 yards of exposed
ground in his dash from the battalion command
post to the frontline.
Heavy fire from a hidden Japanese strongpoint
on the reverse slope of the distant ridge brought the

HOWARD BRODIE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

They were
exhausted,
dehydrated,
and on the
verge of
collapsing.
Mitchell
ordered
another
attack.

American assault to a standstill. Davis realized they

had to locate that enemy position and led two
others in a crawl along the east side of the ridge
toward it. The Japanese spotted the trio, killing one
of them with a burst of machine-gun fire. But Davis
found the strongpoint.
After making several attacks, men in the assault
companies were exhausted and, in Guadalcanals
extreme heat and humidity, dehydrated, too; no
water had been sent to the frontline since the early
morning and the men were on the verge of collapsing. Nevertheless, Mitchell ordered another attack;
it failed. With darkness falling, the troops established a defensive perimeter for the night.
At daybreak, Mitchell walked from his command
post to the frontline, where Fox Company awaited his
orders. Rather than sending them forward yet again,
Mitchell ordered them north through the jungle to
take the Horses Head, as Blatt had repeatedly
urged the previous day. A small team from Fox Company, including Sergeant Chubby Curran, volunteered to eliminate the Japanese strongpoint. Jones
later novelized Curran as Skinny Culn, a round,
red-faced, Irishmanan easygoing sortbut a careful, well-grounded soldier.
After we had gone over the crest of the hill a
machine gun opened up, Curran remembered.
We were in the high grass on the saddle. Snipers
hidden in spider holes then opened up and got
three of my men right through their helmets. Two
were dead and [another] wounded. The GIs managed to crawl within 25 yards of the enemy strongpoint, but ran out of grenades. When one of his men
was wounded, Curran took him back down and

asked for volunteers to get more grenades and

finish the job.
Davis volunteered to lead Currans survivors
back up the hill for the second attempt on the
strongpoint. The next 20 minutes proved decisive.
The assault party crawled forward on their bellies; when they were within 10 yards of their objective, the Japanese showered them with grenades.
By a stroke of luck, the explosives were defective.
One grenade landed between Curran and Davis; It
didnt go off; however, we did! Davis recalled. The
GIs threw their own grenades and charged the Japanese positions. Davis remembered bolting from
the prone to a running position, following our grenadeswe made a charge much like those pictured
during the Civil War. Davis stood up, his rifle at hip
level, and squeezed the trigger. Jammed. He threw
the rifle aside and drew his .45-caliber pistol. Jones
later described the assault in the novel:
Go in! Go in! Gaff cried, and in a moment all of
them were on their feet running. No longer did they
have to fret and stew, or worry about being brave
or being cowardly. Their systems pumped full of
adrenaline to constrict the peripheral blood vessels, elevate the blood pressure, make the heart
beat more rapidly, and aid coagulation, they were
about as near to automatons without courage or
cowardice as flesh and blood can get. Numbly, they
did the necessary.
The storming party wiped out the Japanese in
vicious close-quarter fighting. Division commander Major General J. Lawton Collins witnessed

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

After capturing the

Galloping Horse
complex, the regiment
advanced westward
toward Kokumbona
(above, in another
Brodie sketch),
aggressively wiping
out pockets of
Japanese resistance.
For his bold leadership
in eliminating a
Japanese strongpoint,
Captain Charles W.
Davis received the
Medal of Honor (right).

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

51

the attack: As he led this charge, Davis was silhouetted against the sky in clear view of the bulk of the
battalion, as well as the Japs. His action had an electrifying effect on the battalion. Inspired, Easy
Company advanced up the hill to help wipe out any
remaining Japanese resistance.
At about the same time, Fox Company assaulted
the enemy positions on the ridge to the north. Joness
comrades later described to the still-recovering corporal their frenzied and chaotic attack: as the Americans overran the Japanese defenders, they went
kill-crazy, Jones recalled. They bayoneted sick &
wounded Japs. They shot them when they came out
naked, hands in air. Fox Company successfully captured the ridges, and division headquarters pulled
the regiment off the line for a well-deserved respite.
TEN DAYS AFTER HE WAS WOUNDED, Jones
returned to a Fox Company that felt different from
the unit he had known. Blatt was gone; Mitchell had

52

WORLD WAR II

relieved him of command for his refusal to obey the

attack order. Casualties had also changed the
rankssergeants had assumed command of two of
the platoons, and more than a quarter of Fox Company had been killed or wounded. And in what felt
like a personal betrayal by First Sergeant Wendson,
Jones discovered that another soldier had replaced
him as company clerk. Jones was assigned to a rifle
platoon in time for the second offensive toward the
Poha River and the Japanese base at Kokumbona.
Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Japanese
had decided to evacuate Guadalcanal. Consequently, the regiments offensive on January 22 was
stunningly successfulthey encountered only desperate enemy rear guards or disorganized units in
flight. After another battalion captured KokumbonaBoola Boola Village in Joness novelFox
Company carried on in a blur of rapid advances. At
night, the men bivouacked on grassy hillsides.
The unexpected swiftness of the advance

THE MARSHALL FOUNDATION/25TH INFANTRY DIVISION ASOCIATION COLLECTION

Fox Company at
Schofield Barracks in
Hawaii a month before
the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Corporal James
Jones is standing in the
second row, fourth from
right. The soldier who
annotated the photo
remains a mystery.

stretched the regiments supply lines, and Jones

remembered three days and nights without supplies,
drinking water from shell holes, with only two
four-ounce D-ration chocolate bars per platoon. He
also notedwith disgustthat Lieutenant Burn had
a 12-ounce C-ration can at his command post.
The unit reached the Poha River in two days. For
Fox Company, that marked the end of their combat
on Guadalcanal. They spent months recuperating
and training before they traveled up the Solomon
Islands to fight in the New Georgia campaign. But
Corporal James Jones was not among them.
Joness right ankle had troubled him since
Hawaii, and he took to firmly taping it for marches
or maneuvers. But in late March, while walking with
Wendson, Jones reinjured the ankle. Wendson
ordered him to have it examined, adding in his usual
style: If its as bad as what I saw, you got no business
in the infantry. The medics agreed, and Jones left
Fox Company forever. But he carried in his mind the

events, the men, and the drama, and would immortalize his outfit in The Thin Red Line.
The novel as an art form often reveals fundamental human truths through fiction. Conversely,
Jones knew history sometimes obscures truth,
writing that the whole history ofWorld War II
has been written, not wrongly so much, but in a way
that gave precedence to the viewpoints of strategists, tacticians and theorists, but gave little more
than lip service to the viewpoint of thefighting
lower class soldier. Aside from its literary merits,
The Thin Red Line places the frontline soldiers
viewpoint front-and-center in its vision of a world
gone mad. Jones himself acknowledges the subjective nature of interpreting the human experience in
the last line of his novel:
One day one of their number would write a book
about all this, but none of them would believe it,
because none of them would remember it that way. +

Jones carried
in his mind
the events,
the men, and
the drama,
and would
immortalize
his outt
in The Thin
Red Line.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

53

THE VIEW
A German-born artist and GI looks back on
the strange months spent guarding his former
countrymen in American POW camps

PRAIRIE COWBOY

In a painting begun in 1945 and completed in 1993,

Naegele depicted himself astride a horse. Soldiers rode
the camps horses to keep an eye on prisoners working
on local farms and, in one instance, to search for
escapees. We found they were missing at roll call, he
says. So everybody had to be compared to photo IDs
I had to call off 1,000 names in subfreezing weather
under an ice-blue sky in a snow-covered field. I lost my
voice. A local farmer found the escapees several days
later, not far from camp. In this painting, I put myself on
the colonels horse, Naegele says. And I did ride that
horseonce. It ran away from me. I never got back on.

54

WORLD WAR II

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THOMAS F. NAEGELE, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

IN 1944, THOMAS F. NAEGELE was 19 and training to be a telephone repairman

at Camp Crowder, Missouri, when he first saw German prisoners of war. Like the
PWs, as they were then called, Naegele was German-born and new to the
Midwest; unlike them, he was a soldier in the U.S. Army, observing them doing
the camps dirty work. When a complicated task arose, Naegeles camp commander asked, Anyone here speak German? Naegele raised his hand and the
assignment changed the course of his short army careerleading to posts as a
guard and interpreter at a series of camps housing some of the 378,000 German
prisoners in the United States during the war. Shortly after arriving at the camp
at Indianola, Nebraska, Naegele received a present from home for his 20th birthday: a box of paints from his parents, with a suggestion from his father to portray
camp life. He didand the paintings grew into a collection. Fifty years later, with
some of the works still half-finished, he filled out the series and published them
in a small volume titled Love Thine Enemies. Now on permanent exhibit at the
Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege, Nebraska, Naegeles paintings depict the
characters and comic nature of camp life, far removed from the brutal war overseas. The prisoners and guards came to know and even like one another. This
was not Abu Ghraib or even Hogans Heroes. It was closer to Andy Griffiths
Mayberry. On the following pages the artist, now 92, recalls these colorful stories.

THE VIEW

56

WORLD WAR II

HOME SWEET HOME

When Naegele first arrived at the camp at Indianola

(top) there were no prisoners and just a small
complement of American troops. The PWs arrived
days later by train, in passenger cars fitted with
barred windows, Naegele recalls. Then they were
marched along the road to the camp. This was
September; it was still warm. And I saw this long
column of German soldiers in gray winter uniforms
with overcoatsthe same clothes they had as they
were taken prisoner and as they made their Atlantic
crossing. They were totally stunned.

POINTING THE WAY

After learning Naegele spoke German, his company

commander assigned him to work with a PW labor
detail, which arrived by a truck (above). This was
my first encounter with them, and my first contact
again with my countrymen, Naegele says. The job
at hand: dismantling a wooden building and then
moving it. At the urging of a German master
sergeant, 50 American troops instead joined the PWs
in hand-carrying the nearly intact structure to its new
location. I worked out the commands for heaving
and starting to walk, Naegele says.

CLOTHES ENCOUNTER

How can I get a uniform like yours, comrade?a prisoner

asks Naegele. The prisoner was from Murrhardt, a small
village east of Stuttgart where Naegeles parents had a
summer home, and, remarkably, knew members of
Naegeles family.He didnt fully understand why I was
over here in an American uniform, Naegele recalls.
A decade later I saw him again. It was my fathers 70th
birthday. We were visitng Murrhardt, and he was singing
in a choir. And as the choir was filing out, he says to me,
And how are things in Nebraska?

The artist in his

New York City
apartment,
October 2016.

58

WORLD WAR II

THE HOSTESS WILL SEAT YOU

Most German prisoners were peacefulbut not all.

In late spring, right before V-E Day, somebody
reported that a group of PWs was planning a last stand
of some sort, Naegele says. Interrogators identified a
group of about 50 active Nazis and loaded them on a
train with barred windows, destined for a camp for
troublemakers. En route, though, they needed a meal;
hence the surreal, all-American dinner at a USO hall in
Kansas City (top). Says Naegele: Some of them asked
me, What is the meaning of this? They wondered if it
was some mean trick.

WELL-LIT ROOM

One young PW, an architect, took offense to the

camps open bay toilets, 18 in a row, Naegele recalls
(above, left). Calling them indecent, the prisoner saw
them as a sign of American contempt. But the set-up
was identical to the one the GIs had. The artist adds:
Almost everything the soldiers had, the PWs had as
well. When they worked, they were paid, according to
the Geneva Conventions, 80 cents a day for being
willing and able to perform assigned duties. They had
their own PX inside the stockade. They had access to
the same newspaper and radio reports that we did.

PHOTO: TOBIAS NAEGELE

THE VIEW

SHOPPING SPREE

In November 1944, Naegele took two prisoners into

McCook, Nebraska, to shop for props for a Christmas
show the Germans were planning. They werent
wearing their PW uniforms, Naegele says. They
went in their original German uniforms. A store
manager greeted the three: Sears, Roebuck is proud
to serve our boys in the armed forces. Naegele
recalls: I said we need to buy blankets and stockings.
He sends us to ladies underwear, where theres a
women in a black dress spreading out nylon stockings
to show how sheer they were. It was bizarre.

W E A PONS M A N UA L
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y J I M L AU R I E R

THREEWHEEL
RUMBLER
Germanys BMW R75
motorcycle and sidecar
BMW R75
Displacement: 745cc / Production:
16,510 / The sidecars design initially
allowed it to tow a light artillery gun, but crews increased the R75s
mobility and versatility by instead mounting a machine gun.

THE COMPETITION
BSA M20
Displacement: 496cc / Production:
126,335 / Although initially criticized for
being slow and heavy, the M20 was reliable and easy to maintain. It
served in various roles in nearly every theater of the war.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON WLA
Displacement: 740cc / Production:
90,000 / After a modest introduction in
1940, production signicantly increased after the U.S. entered the war,
with the WLA serving in escort, courier, police, and transport roles.

DNEPR M-72

Soldiers regularly
appropriated
equipment from
other theaters, like
this Soviet 12L eld
kitchen thermos.

PHOTOS, FROM FAR LEFT: GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY IMAGES; EVERETT

COLLECTION HISTORICAL/ALAMY; DPA PICTURE ALLIANCE/ALAMY

Displacement: 750cc / Production:

6,000 / After the poor performance of
its motorcycles during the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finland war, the USSR
adapted a BMW design to create the rugged M-72.

MEALS TO GO

60

WORLD WAR II

STINGER
The swivel-mounted
MG 34 offered frontfacing repower;
its versatility and
reliability made it
a favorite among
R75 crews.

KEEPING IT
HANDY
Most soldiers used
their gas mask
canisters to keep
more useful items
within reach and
stowed their masks.

DIRT BIKERS
JERRYS CANS
In the desert, water and
gasoline were treasured
commodities, and crews
strapped on 20-liter
jerrycans when possible.

The BMW R75s success

stemmed in large part from
its ability to operate in
extreme environments.
Whether the machine was
crossing hot desert sands
(like the Afrika Korps crew,
opposite, far left), the frigid
mud of the Eastern Front
(with a properly garbed
soldier, center), or Pariss
paved Champs-lyses (near
left), the R75 proved to be a
reliable mount that served
in multiple roles.

The insignia
represents the Afrika
Korps, which fought
on the continent
from March 1941
until surrendering in
May 1943.

WHILE ADVANCING ACROSS EUROPE, THE WEHRMACHT recognized the need for a
small and quick vehicle capable of negotiating various terrain. In response, Bavarian
Motor Works (BMW) introduced the R75, a three-wheel motorcycle and sidecar
combination that was fast, maneuverable, and capable of handling rough conditions. The
Germans widely deployed the R75 across multiple theaters of war, from the North African
desert to the vast Eastern Front. Although the R75 had a hefty starting weight of more
than 900 pounds, its 750cc engine drove its rear and sidecar wheel to a top speed of 60
miles per hour. To ensure the vehicle had sufficient stopping power, BMW fitted brakes on
all three wheelshydraulic brakes on the rear wheels and mechanical brakes on the front.
Its two-stage transmission offered one gear ratio for rough terrain and another for paved
roads. By August 1942, the Germans sought to simplify their manufacturing process and
urged BMW and its rival, Zndapp, to standardize their parts and create a hybrid machine.
They agreed to do so once BMWs production reached 20,200 R75s, but Allied bombing
knocked out its Eisenach factory after it had built 16,510 R75s. Paraag Shukla
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

61

In occupied Germany, there was

one battle the Allies couldnt win
By Susan L. Carruthers

62

WORLD WAR II

RALPH MORSE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

UNSTOPPABLE
FORCE

A ban on fraternization
between American GIs
and civilians in occupied
Germany did little to thwart
interactions of all kinds.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

63

64

WORLD WAR II

ingenious players in occupied Germanys game of

cat and mouse were the fruleins who set out to
tease and ensnare guileless GIs. German women, in
effect, were doing the real pinioning. Wearing
flimsy summer dressesor even less at Germanys beaches and poolsthey paraded their
untouchable assets. Girls flaunt themselves partly
to taunt the Americans, Life explained, but
chiefly in order to get frau bait of candy, gum and
cigarets [sic]. Stars and Stripes published similar
photographs of solidly constructed young women
in two-piece bathing suits that both reminded GIs
about what was off-limits and encouraged them to
disregard the prohibition. Verbotenbut not too
bad from this angle, ran one caption.
The claim that women solicited their occupiers
attentionfor both amusement and profitquickly
became a dominant explanation for the breakdown
of soldiers sexual restraint in occupied Germany. No
less an authority than Field Marshal Bernard L.
Montgomery endorsed this thesis; the British general accused the countrys female population of practicing a new form of German sabotage by wearing
fewer and fewer clothes, thereby undermining nonfraternization policy. Time reported that this treacherous striptease had disarmed both Tommies and
GIs: German girls in brief shorts and halters systematically sunned themselves in full view of U.S. engineers. Military policemenhad their patience tried
by a girl who patted her backside and whispered verboten every time she passed. The effect on [troops]
was exactly what the Field Marshal feared.
This story encapsulated the contradictions that
characterized the presss take on sex and the occupation soldier. On the one hand, nothing seemingly sullied the good name of the American occupation
government more than illicit intimate contact
between American personnel and German women.
As war correspondent Percy Knauth pointed out in
Life, they were girls who used to go out with the
guys who killed your buddies. That German women
were preoccupiedthe former lovers of Nazi Party
bigwigs or Wehrmacht small frymade them all the
more dangerous, or, worse yet, all the more alluring.
Yet, however lamentable this sordid state of affairs,
GIs were not wholly, or even primarily, to blame.
The unspeakable was also highly marketable.
Rarely did magazine editors pass up an easy double
entendre. When Colliers magazine published a
story in October 1946 entitled Heels among the
Heroes, it illustrated Edward Morgans essay about
low morale and lax morality among American occupation forces with a photograph of three comely
German Fruleins in bikinis protesting an offlimits sign planted at a beach. The GI they peti-

Wearing
imsy
summer
dresses,
German
women
paraded
their
untouchable
assets.

From The Good Occupation:

American Soldiers and the
Hazards of Peace by Susan L.
Carruthers. Published by
Harvard University Press.
$29.95. Copyright 2016 by
the President and Fellows of
Harvard College. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.

RALPH MORSE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

rom the moment Allied occupation troops

entered Germany, two things became apparent: first, that GIs would waste little time in
finding new sexual partners and, second,
that with just as much gusto, American
reporters and photographers would alert
stateside audiences to these liaisons. No
occupied territory excited greater or more prurient
interest than the female body. Nor did anything
more speedily tarnish the image of Americas postwar occupation than the avidity with which American servicemen of all ranks engaged in what was
euphemistically termed fraternization with
defeated former foes.
Military leaders had expressly forbidden American service personnel from fraternizing with Germans, of all ages and both sexes, in any way
whatsoever. GIs were reminded about this prohibition at every turn, from the Pocket Guide to Germany to orientation films, radio spots, posters, and
large billboards that lined the routes along which
Allied soldiers poured into the Third Reich in the
wars closing months.
At first, Germanyand German women
appeared suitably hostile or simply absent from the
visual record of Allied conquest. Life magazines
March 19, 1945, issue carried a striking, full-page
image of an amused American corporal cinching a
female figure with a passing facial resemblance to
Marlene Dietrich. On closer inspection, her extravagantly arched eyebrows turned out to be the least
improbable feature of this GIs inamorataa mannequin wearing almost nothing other than a long
wig and a Wehrmacht officers cap. American soldiers are forbidden to fraternize with real German
girls, the caption explained. Although the text went
on to remark that fraternization was hard to prevent, Life offered no further illumination. That
would soon change.
Four months later, the magazine devoted several
pages to a photo story illuminating the No. 1 gripe of
American GIs in Germany, the official policy of nonfraternization: a rule that meant soldiers are forbidden marriage, visits, drinking, shaking hands,
playing games, hobnobbing, exchanging gifts, walking, sitting, dancing or talking to the Germans. To
show how egregiously American soldiers were violating the ban, Life devoted an entire page to a photograph showing a GI pinioning a young woman against
the wall of a dreary apartment building, his body
angled toward hers, their faces just inches apart. In a
back yard near Wiesbaden, U.S. soldier corners a
pretty, laughing German girl, the caption read.
But the other photographs in the story served a
rather different purpose: to show that the truly

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The press accused

German women of
taunting occupying
soldiers. British Field
Marshal Bernard L.
Montgomery called
it a new form of
German sabotage.

65

AS THAT CHIMERICAL recommendation suggests, the antifraternization rule was not exclusively, or even primarily, a military device contrived
to starve soldiers of sex. Dwight D. Eisenhowers
order prohibiting all social contactissued on September 12, 1944, the day after the first American
troops occupied a small pocket of southwestern
Germany around Aachenreflected the tightening
of Washington policy on the so-called German
Question. As such, the ban sought to impress on
citizens of the Third Reich their collective guilt
by force of complete ostracism.
To help Germans see the error of their ways they
would be held at arms length, as General John H.
Hilldring, commander of the War Departments Civil
Affairs Division, put it. The terms of Eisenhowers
prohibition made his figurative expression literal.
Germans wouldnt just be held at arms length; they
wouldnt be held at all. Even handshaking was
banned. The prohibition of more intimate physical
contact was left unspoken but implied.
Washingtons line on fraternization toughened
under popular pressure. Soon after American troops
occupied Aachen, photographs appeared in stateside
newspapers showing soldiers enjoying the hospital-

66

WORLD WAR II

ity of German familiestaking convivial meals

together, with GIs arms familiarly draped over childrens shoulders. Within days, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt cabled Eisenhower about photographs
considered objectionable by a number of our
people. The president asked that SHAEF both
stamp out fraternization and ensure that publication of such photos be effectively prohibited. Eisenhower responded that he had already insisted that
fraternization be suppressed completely, but the
ban would henceforth be more total in its remit.
Military commanders found themselves in the
uncomfortable position of imposing a prohibition
they believed unenforceable. They employed every
conceivable argument to urge men away from contact with Germansplaying, in particular, on fears
of contamination. Antifraternization propaganda
construed German women as doubly dangerous:
carriers of noxious ideological strains as well as
sexually transmitted diseases. Posters presented a
lurid image of female siren-saboteurs poised to
infect American boys minds with the bacillus of
Nazism and their bodies with syphilis and gonorrhea. In the spring of 1945, after the Allies had liberated the concentration and extermination
camps, antifraternization warnings also incorporated photographs of Germanys victims to underscore the message that Americans must shun the
perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes.
But the terms of the ban were extraordinarily difficult to respect. Military personnel whose work
required them to interact with German civilians on
a day-to-day basis found it especially awkward. On
occasion, drivers, translators, and other subordinates rebuked military officers for unthinkingly
offering their hands to German civilians or returning salutes before they had had time to curb reflexes
of military courtesy.
Some checked their instincts but wondered
whether they had been correct to do so. On May 22,
1945, Major John Maginnis recounted in his diary
that he had gone to pick up some photographs from
a small shop in Berlebeck: In the normal European fashion, [the elderly proprietor] courteously
preceded me to the door and extended his hand as I
departed. I did not take it and somehow it bothered
me that I did not. Had I given him the customary
brief handshake, would I have been fraternizing?
Probably. Maginnis did not pursue the logic of his
unease further. But others certainly wondered
whether the ban was not calculated to engender
more hostility than remorse, particularly among
Germans who had not been party members and
bristled at the undifferentiated guilt Americans
attached to the entire population.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; PICTORAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY; RALPH MORSE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; 123RF; THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

To help
Germans
see the
error of
their ways,
policy
decreed
they were
to be held
at arms
length.

tioned was dressed only in bathing trunks. It takes

a strong man to remain firm, the caption nudged.
One troublesome word, occupation, thus found
itself inextricably entangled with another: fraternization. It was an awful big word for most GIs,
an army field surgeon wrote to his wife from Germany in July 1945, but it usually just means one
thing to them. A much simpler, four-letter word
could readily be substituted for this cumbersome
termor it could be abbreviated to frattin, with
no truncation of meaning.
Neither before nor during World War II had
American military commanders hit on a reliable
formula for constraining soldiers sexual activity in
all its unruliness. A ban on fraternization had been
tried in Germany before, when American troops
occupied the Rhineland after World War I. The prohibition failed and was quickly rescinded. During
World War II, soldiers overseas had become accustomed to having sex with or without the military
establishments direct facilitation. It was inconceivable that troops would cease and desist from all
sexual activity upon entry into Germany, no matter
what stern injunctions SHAEFAllied supreme
headquartersmight issue. Recognizing this, one
senior officer proposed that if superiors insisted on
a fraternization ban, we should import into Germany at the earliest possible moment our own
women in as large numbers as may be.

One nettlesome question was whether children

deserved to be stigmatized in exactly the same way
as their parents and other adults. Sidney Eisenberg
told his family in the Bronx about a fleeting
encounter, two days before Germanys final capitulation, that had rattled him: As you know I take
this non-fraternization business very seriously
far more than most. I slipped up once. I walk home
from work every day3 12 milesfor the exercise
and completely ignore the Herrenvolk en route. But
the other day a sweet little girlabout 7 years old
dragging a tiny kid brother, smiled at me faintly
hopefully. I grinned at her efforts and she
immediately broke into the loveliest smile imaginableone I shall never forget tho I felt guilt about
even this afterward.

A photographer used the German word for bath or spabadto

playful advantage (top) in documenting the ban on fraternization; a
costumed corporal (center, left) had his own fun with it, posing with
a mannequin. Despite omnipresent warningson a road to Berlin
(center, right) and on a guide for GIs (above, left)enlisted men and
officers alike widely violated the ban, with few punished. A courtroom
scene (above, right) shows a rare exception. The fine was $65.

BAN OR NO BAN, American soldiers found Germany alive with sexual activity in the spring and
summer of 1945. One particularly galling phenomenon to many GIs was the fact that German POWs
were being released and returning home by the
early summer. Darling it sure does burn the boys
over here to see all the German soldiers walking
down the road going home and then we have to stay
here and watch them, infantryman Aubrey Ivey
wrote to his wife from Landa on May 26, 1945.
Worse yet, these demobilized veterans were publicly resuming their romantic lives, and seemingly
flaunting their freedom to do so, under the disgusted gaze of the occupiers. On June 6, Leo Bogart,
a sergeant in the Army Signal Corps, wrote his parents in Brooklyn on the subject: To the GI who is
faithful to a woman back in the States, or who just
wants to keep his nose clean and sticks to the nonfraternization rule, there is something extremely
irritating in the sight of a Nazi soldier, in his uniform, walking slowly down the street of an evening
in the embrace of a good-looking Frulein.
Former Wehrmacht soldiers were not the only
ones enjoying an instant peace dividend. Some
female Displaced Personsmany of them former
forced laborers from Eastern Europewere also running miniature houses of joy, as one military government officer put it. I broke that up fast for the
two were Polish and therefore had to be shipped to a
repatriation center if they werent doing useful
work, Second Lieutenant Maurice Kurtz informed
his spouse, quipping that useful was all a matter of
perspective. Predictably enough, the Poles clientele
was not limited to other DPs. Since the fraternization
ban did not extend to other nationalities, American
soldiers quickly entered into liaisons with DPs.
Life also alerted its readers to the way in which
GIs would spuriously renationalize women to
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

67

68

WORLD WAR II

recorded his vexation that a general, Frank Howley,

failed to take a serious view of two field-grade officers openly having social parties with German
women, letting the men off with nothing more than
a good dressing down. Meanwhile in the Bavarian
Alps, Colonel Clifton Lisle, commander of the 2nd
European Civil Affairs Regiment, tried to hold the
line by court-martialing an officer who had consorted with a woman Lisle described as a notorious
Nazi whore. (His diary noted his incomprehension
over such things, but not the verdict.)
DESPITE SOME OFFICERS BEST EFFORTS, the
line was not to be held. As army historian Earl
Ziemke writes, nonfraternization policy did not
end, it disintegrated.
The first substantial retreat came on June 4,
1945, when SHAEF quietly released word that contraction of VD would no longer be used directly or
indirectly as evidence of fraternizationan indication the ban had done nothing to curb escalating
rates of infection. In fact, halfhearted attempts to
respect nonfraternization had just the opposite
effect. One army medic noted that after Eisenhowers initial order was decreed, the bowl of condoms
that had formerly sat at the end of the chow line
was removedwith predictable consequences for
the sexual health of soldiers and their partners.
However, these pragmatic rationales for rescinding the ban hardly made for the best PR. The public
narrative, as spun for the home front, attempted to
turn a negative into a positive by first authorizing
friendly relations between military personnel and
children. Eisenhower made this announcement on
June 11, conjuring a heartwarming image of the
generous GI to whom youngsters everywhere were
irresistibly drawn. This surely elicited knowing
chuckles from men only too well aware that it was
hardly the dispensing of Hershey bars to infants
that had preoccupied the high command. The new
amendment also seemed almost to encourage GIs
to set their sights ever lower, since interaction with
young girls could now, however disingenuously, be
justified by the official sanction given to friendly
dealings with children. In this vein, Life tellingly
captioned a photograph of a GI greeting a young
German woman, Goodday, child.
What was left of the ban lasted only another
month before Eisenhower announced that soldiers
could henceforth engage German adults in conversation. Gamely, but misleadingly, he asserted that
this move reflected the great strides that had been
made with denazification. By permitting verbal
exchanges, the ameliorated policy would encourage
yet more progress since, Eisenhower suggested, GIs

HISTORYNET ARCHIVES (ALL)

If military rule was not

persuasive enough,
perhaps fear of
contamination would
behence the myriad
posters alerting GIs
to the dangers of
venereal disease.

circumvent the ban against fraternization, pretending that German girlfriends were not, in fact,
German. The boys never admit fraternizing, and
its always a French girl, or a Belgian, or a Russian,
or a Pole involved. Theyre very cagey, Dr. Felix
Vann, a major in the 863rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery
Battalion, informed his wife in late May.
In an attempt to stamp out this ruse, Twelfth
Army Group headquarters began issuing colored
cloth armbands to DPs that would identify them by
nationality: a practice uncomfortably redolent of
the Nazi insistence that persecuted populations literally wear their identity on their sleeves. Another
unit tried something similar with lapel buttons. Predictably, these readily discarded markers of identity
did not prove an effective impediment to GI ingenuity. Indeed, enlisted mens can-do entrepreneurialism simply ensured that a brisk black market
developed for DP armbands and buttons.
Officers were just as quick to circumvent the fraternization ban as enlisted men. But where the latter
often required deviousness to maneuver around
rules, officers simply bent them on a grander scale.
Officers, after all, both devised and enforced the
rulesor ignored them.
Felix Vann expanded on his observations about
enlisted mens associations with DPs, or Germans
they passed off as such, with equally scathing diatribes about officers. Many of them, he noted in
July 1945, were going off the deep end. Married
and single officers alike routinely maintained relationships with women they had met earlier in
France and Belgium, issuing themselves passes so
they could return west at whim to visit their girlfriends. Unlike enlisted men, officers enjoyed the
self-assigned leisure and mobility required to sustain long-distance romances. Others, Vann noted,
were shacked up with WACs [Womens Army
Corps] and nurses, leading to another common
complaint of enlisted men: that their superiors
monopolized all the available American women.
With some officers openly pursuing affairs in
Germany and beyond, enlisted men inclined to
break the rules no doubt felt all the more vindicated in pursuing their own amorous adventures.
In this permissive environment, punishment for
violations of the fraternization ban was rarely
severe, especially after V-E Day. Enlisted men faced
fines of $65 for fraternization, a sum equivalent to
two or three months net pay for most, but few
offenders were actually docked.
Officers tended to be especially lenient in excusing one anothers indiscretions. Major Maginnis,
who in his diary had expressed misgivings about his
interaction with a German shop owner, also

AP PHOTO

The ban lasted only until summer 1945, when American

servicemen could at last begin fraternizing openlylike
these soldiers and their dates in Berlin on July 27.

would now be able to express their outrage to Germans about the

horrors of the extermination camps. Few, one suspects, had either
the language skills or the inclination to take up this opportunity.
Rather than reflecting the success of denazification, the retreat
from nonfraternization actually demonstrated how unworkable
the hard-line policy had proven in practice.
Reporters greeted the end of the ban as tantamount to an
order from Ike to copulate; at any rate, they announced that GIs
had gleefully taken his fraternization order that way. Some
officers agreed, infuriated that enlisted men were now quite
openly consorting with German women in public. Indeed,
according to Brigadier General Jack Whitelaw, it was impossible
to go outdoors in Berlin without tripping over fraternizing couples: Yesterday being Sunday, I took the afternoon off and went
for a walk around the lake, he wrote to his wife on September 17,
1945. The thing called fraternization is still going on there full
blast; in fact, its increasing and Ive about decided that I must
find some other form of exercise.

Whitelaw did not give up his perambulations around Berlins

Grunewald, but his attitude toward German civilians soon softened. By winter 1945, he and many other officers were more
alarmed by the possibility of Germans starving or freezing to death
than by no-longer illicit liaisons. Over time, American recollections
of the occupation would also soften as Germans transformed from
bitter foes to firm Cold War allies. Hollywood, meanwhile, turned
postwar Germany into safe territory for squeaky-clean teens. In
1960, Americas best-known soldier serving overseas, Elvis Presley,
rued the unavailability of German girlfriends for lonesome American boys in GI Blues. Without any need for a formal ban on fraternization, chaste fruleins apparently kept GIs at arms length,
issuing their own stern injunctions against inappropriate trespass.
They all wear signs saying Keepen Sie Off The Grass, Presley
crooned regretfully in the title number. The wholesome Germany
of GI Blues was a far cry from the days just after the war when
American journalists decried the unbearable availability of
German fruleins, lamenting how swiftly VD had followed V-E. +
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

69

THE MORAL
QUESTION
HITLERS SOLDIERS
The German Army in the
Third Reich
By Ben H. Shepherd.
639 pp. Yale University
Press, 2016. $35.

70

WORLD WAR II

THE GERMAN ARMY had its ups and

downs during World War II, winning a
series of dramatic early victories and
then suffering a parade of catastrophic
defeats until the final collapse of 1945.
Its historical reputation has followed the
same pattern. Most military writers loved
it in the immediate postwar years. They
admired its innovative adoption of mechanized warfare, its intricate interplay
between tank formations and air power,
and its daring operational maneuvers.
Starting in the 1990s, however, that reputation began to tarnish. As new records
became available, especially from the
now-defunct Soviet Union, the focus shifted away from the German armys operational excellence and toward the criminal
nature of the war it waged. The army used
to get a pass on Hitlers horrors, while the
more fanatical Waffen-SS got the blame.
But no serious person can still believe
that the German army had clean hands
in World War II. The evidence against it is
simply overwhelming.
These two schoolsoperational excellence and criminalityoften talk past
one another, however, and that is the very
reason why Hitlers Soldiers is such a rich
and satisfying book. Ben H. Shepherd is
an exponent of both trends. He spends
much of the book describing the armys

HISTORYNET ARCHIVES

R E V I E W S BOO K S

Troops of the Waffen-SS (left) took most of

the blame for atrocities during the war yet
collectively the German army was culpable.
astounding record of military success.
Before we ask why the German army lost,
he notes, we need to ask how it won, so
repeatedly and spectacularly, in the early
years of the war, and then remained in
the field later, under blows that would
have crumpled many other armies.
However, Shepherd also narrates the
nastier aspects of the German war. His
previous books have dealt with antipartisan warfare and he is an expert on all
facets: the armys brutal occupation policies, its smash-and-grab economic practices, and the plastic nature of the term
anti-partisan, which gave the men in
the field carte blanche to kill anyone they
wished, as long as the dead showed up
in the official reports as bandits or terrorists. When we think of the Holocaust,
our minds usually turn to Auschwitz, but
millions of Jews perished in the German
armys aggressive anti-partisan campaigns, even though the victims never
grabbed a gun or lifted a finger against
their German occupiers.
The key to understanding both viewpoints of the German army at war,
Shepherd argues, is Nazi ideology and
propaganda. From the high commanders
down to the typical ground-pounder,
German soldiers really did believe in
the Fhrers world-historical mission to
redeem Germany. They believed in Nazi
racial theories, crackpot notions that saw
some races as born to rule and others as
innately inferior or lazy or evil. They really did believe that Germany stood under
attack by an international Jewish conspiracy and that the stakes were nothing
less than victory or death. The men might
not have all been ideological fanatics,
but they were permeated with Nazi
ideology, Shepherd argues, and these
attitudes help to explain why the army
stayed in the field so tenaciously, and why
it killed civilians so viciously.
Shepherd notes the paradox, however.
The more fanatically the German army
foughtwhether holding on senselessly
in a war long lost or carrying out ever
more mind-numbing atrocitiesthe
more determined its enemies became
to destroy it utterly, along with Germany
itself. Thus did the German armys moral
failure and military failure reinforce one
another, he writes in conclusion. Of all
the guides that modern armies use in war,
the maps and charts and aerial reconnaissance photos, the moral compass remains
the most indispensable. Robert M.
Citino is the Senior Historian at the
National WWII Museums Institute for the
Study of War and Democracy.

R E V I E W S BOO K S

BLITZKRIEG is a particularly successful synergy of correspondence

and interviews, archival material
from four countries, and the massive body of published literature
addressing one of warmakings
greatest surprises: the German
conquest of France and its Low
Countries in fewer than six weeks
during May and June 1940. This
phenomenon has been commonly
explained as the result of a new form
of warfare based on speed and shock:
Blitzkrieglightning war. But building on recent scholarship, especially
Karl-Heinz Friesers, The Blitzkrieg
Legend, Lloyd Clarka prolific
military historian and a master of
sourcesmakes a strong case for an
alternative perspective.
Blitzkrieg emphasizes operational and tactical evidence to persuasively argue that the 1940 campaign was decided not by tanks and
dive-bombers alone, but through an
BLITZKRIEG
updating of German military experiMyth, Reality, and Hitlers
ence infused, but not dominated, by
Lightning War: France 1940
technology. Leadership, initiative,
By Lloyd Clark. 480 pp. Atlantic
training, ghting spirit: Clark presMonthly Press, 2016. $27.
ents these features of the German
way of war as the taproots of a victory that was anything but inevitable. They were applied in the contexts of a
country unprepared for war and a High Command riven by doubts and frictionsnot all of the latter attributable to Adolf Hitler. These same worries
and internal frictions were ones that had deed and broken the Second Reich
between 1914 and 1918, and that offered every prospect of disaster in 1940.
A desperate situation called for desperate measures, for thinking outside
the box. The result was Germanys revised strategic decision to focus the
main attack through the Ardennes instead of Belgium, the consistent readiness at all levels of command to take high risks for the prospect of high gains,
and the unfailing willingness of German soldiers to endure the physical and
emotional stress of continuous operations.
As Clark demonstrates, Germany overpowered its enemy so effectively
that the adversarys plans and orders might well have been drawn up by the
Germans themselves. Mistakenly, France had prepared for an alternate form
of war, defensively oriented, based on attrition and position, featuring a
managerial approach to command that discouraged initiative and relied on
masses of routine correspondence. Consequently, the Germans consistently
set the campaigns pace by observing, acting, and adjusting while the French
and their allies were trying to determine what was happeninglargely without success. Fighting on an enemys terms is like playing cards with the other
mans deckit seldom ends well. In 1940, Germanys strategic combination
of technology, doctrine, and execution generated a level of effectiveness that
resulted in a victory that was as much psychological as it was operational and
material. Ever since, armies across the world have sought to replicate it
usually in vain. Dennis Showalter is professor of history at Colorado College
and former president of the Society for Military History.

BROKEN
LEGEND

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

71

R E V I E W S BOO K S

HIGH-TIDE
VICTORY
THE FLEET AT
FLOOD TIDE
America at Total War
in the Pacic,
1944-1945
By James D.
Hornscher. 640 pp.
Bantam, 2016. $35.

72

WORLD WAR II

IN JUNE 1944, on the eve of the invasion of Saipan,

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of joint
forces in the Pacic Ocean Areas, had estimated
that the Pacic War had passed through three
phases. In the rst, Japan expanded while America
recovered from Pearl Harbor, secured lines of communication, and stopped the Japanese at Midway.
The second phase ended in mid-1943 with the capture of the southern Solomons. As a consequence
of the third, the February 1944 conquest of the
Marshalls, American forces cracked the outer barrier of Japans defenses.
Each phase brought the United States closer to
Japans home islands. But Operation Forager, the

American offensive to neutralize Japanese bases

in the Mariana Islands and Palau, heightened the
stakes of winningand the consequences for losing. Japanese warlords considered the perimeter
connecting the Marianas, the western Carolines,
and western New Guinea as a tripwire to nish the
ght in the Pacic. Meanwhile, Americans were
intent on leveraging a powerful triad of naval
power, amphibious assault, and strategic aviation
to force unconditional surrender.
In the process, author James D. Hornscher
argues persuasively in The Fleet at Flood Tide
that both sides passed a threshold
into total war. Yet it was Japanese
leaders adherence to a policy of
bloody status quo that dictated
the endgame. After Saipan, two
truths emerged: A great victory was
in handand far worse lay ahead.
In contrast to his earlier work, The
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
(2004), Hornschers new book
paints a bigger canvas, one exploring
the conquests of the Marianas (and
to a lesser extent, Leyte, Iwo Jima,
and Okinawa), the Great Marianas
Turkey Shoot, the B-29 raids on
Japan, and the use of atomic bombs.
Throughout, Hornscher adheres to a narrative
he describes as at the level of How Things Work,
illustrating how the actions of soldiers, sailors,
and airmen combined to achieve victory. In doing
so, he deploys a ne cast of strategic and tactical
characters. Strategically, Fifth Fleet Commander
Raymond A. Spruance represents high seas naval
might; Amphibious Forces Commander Richmond
Kelly Turner, the projection of that might ashore;
and U.S. Army Air Forces Colonel Paul Tibbets,
the advent of a new aerial strategic weaponthe
atomic bomb. There is also plenty of battle action
involving submariners, B-29 crews, UDT frogmen,
Marines and GIs, even Amtrak drivers. With a
more panoramic narrative, the drama in The Fleet
at Flood Tide is more episodic and less visceral
but by no means less propulsive.
In a very real sense the book is also a Spruance
testimonial. He, in Hornschers words, emerges
as the indispensable man. During the Battle of
the Philippine Sea, Spruance hewed to the strategy
of capturing Saipan while his aviation admirals
agitated to chase after Japanese carriers. In short,
Spruance saw his mission as larger than sinking enemy ships. Perhaps most signicantly, the
admiral stood in sharp contrast to the frenetic
desperate death cult that was imperial Japan.
New Jersey-based writer David Sears is a historian and frequent contributor to World War II.

U.S. NAVY; OPPOSITE: PARADOX INTERACTIVE

Chester W. Nimitz (left) gets the lions share of

attention in Pacific War histories, but Hornfischer
casts Raymond Spruance (right) as indispensable.

DAWN OF INFAMY
A Sunken Ship, a
Vanished Crew, and
the Final Mystery
of Pearl Harbor
By Stephen Harding. 249
pp. DaCapo, 2016. $25.
Originally an article in World
War II (Prelude to Pearl,
January 2009), Stephen
Hardings story of an
American cargo ship sunk
by a Japanese sub some
1,000 miles northeast of
Pearl Harbor hours before
the Japanese attack is
thought-provoking and
artfully told.

THE WAR WITHIN

Diaries from the Siege
of Leningrad
By Alexis Peri. 370 pp.
Harvard University Press,
2017. $29.95.
The battle for Leningrad
claimed as many as two
million Soviet livesnearly
half of them civilian.
Drawing from 125 previously unpublished diaries,
author Alexis Peri heartbreakingly personalizes
their stories.

ADOLFO KAMINSKY,
A FORGERS LIFE
By Sarah Kaminsky. 232
pp. DoppelHouse Press,
2016. $18.95.
As a teenager, Adolfo
Kaminsky forged documents to help people
escape the Nazis, eventually
becoming the Resistances
primary forger in Paris.
Written by his daughter,
this edition includes images
of Kaminskys expertly
forged documents.

THE PLOTS AGAINST

HITLER
By Danny Orbach. 432
pp. Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2016. $28.00.
An in-depth look at the
anti-Nazi underground in
Germany and the conspirators efforts to end Hitlers
reign. The book covers the
birth of a close-knit group of
resisters, its expansion into
a broader conspiracy network, and its culmination in
the well-known July 1944
operation led by Colonel
Claus von Stauffenberg.

R E V I E W S GA M E S

IRONCLAD FUN
HEARTS OF IRON IV Paradox Interactive, $39.99.
WOR L D WA R I I R AT I NG

+++++

Hearts of Iron IV allows players to control a combatant

nation in World War II at the highest strategic level. Players decide on
everything from structuring research to setting national conscription
laws, along with diplomacy, trade, military deployments, and more.

THE BASICS

THE OBJECTIVE To help win the war, or to be on the winning team. This
is done by making grand strategic decisions, utilizing resources, and
deploying forces more skillfully than the enemy.
HISTORICAL ACCURACY Hearts of Iron IV equally blends historical
accuracy and historical fiction. For instance, countries are limited to the
weapons that existed in World War II, but any country may develop
them: Japan may create a powerful armored force, or Germany may
develop atomic weapons.
The game features optional
variations from history. One scenario starts in 1936 where the Soviet
Union allies with Britain before the war. This can be fun, especially for
players who loved the classic game Axis and Allies but wore out the
historically accurate yet limited possibilities. Like its predecessors,
Hearts of Iron IVs level of detail becomes difficult to manage. For
instance, trade, infrastructure, and production in the United States is
handled separately in each state, making it tedious.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

The game mechanics take practice. While fictional events

help expand game possibilities, the AI suffers, using default maneuvers
rather than employing counter-strategies to players moves. However,
online players may find themselves doing the same, initially playing
turn-to-turn instead of creating an overall game-winning strategy.

PLAYABILITY

THE BOTTOM LINE Hearts of Iron IV is not for players who want to
control units and fight an operational-level war. Players taking the
United States side in the game take on the roles of Roosevelt/Marshall,
not Eisenhower/Patton. In other words, players set the conditions for
victory rather than fighting for it. This is not a criticism; Hearts offers an
interesting and unusual take on a war game that requires a far different
set of skills and strategies.Chris Ketcherside, a former Marine, is
working on a PhD in military history.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

73

B AT T L E F I L M S B Y M A R K G R I M S L E Y

A NEW BRAND
OF HERO
A SMALL BAND OF MEN, led by a hero, going somewhere, to do something
dangerous. Thats the essence of the combat lm genre. But the genre has
other familiar features. The men, for example, are a polyglot of different religions, class backgrounds, and ethnicities. One functions as comic relief.
Another has a grudge against the leader from some previous encounter.
Internal tensions lead to a crisis that threatens to tear the group apart. The
climax centers on the achievement of victory.
The combat lm genre rst emerged in World War II. By the late 1940s it

74

WORLD WAR II

was well established, and

when audiences ocked
to such movies as Sands of
Iwo Jima and Battleground (both released in
1949), they knew what to
expect as surely as if they
were going to watch a
horror lm or a western. But, as happens with every
genre, over time lmmakers began to play with its
elements in an effort to keep the stories they told
fresh, and to interpret them in new ways. One of the
rst and best of this new wave of World War II
combat movies is Hell is for Heroes, released in 1962
and starring Steve McQueen, who was just then
emerging as one of Americas iconic movie stars.
In many ways Hell is for Heroes follows the conventions of the combat lm genre. It starts by introducing a squad of American infantrymen bivouacked
in a ravaged French village near the German border
in late 1944. The squad is the usual polyglot. The
crews leader, Sergeant Jim Larkin (Harry
Guardino), is bluff and by-the-rules. Corporal Frank
Henshaw (James Coburn) loves nothing better than
to tinker with automobile engines. Private Stan
Kolinsky (Mike Kellin) is a Polish American. Into
this mix comes a replacement, Private John Reese
(McQueen). Reese is a loner, terse, cold and remote,
a rst-rate soldier in combat, but reckless and selfdestructive when out of action. He was a senior noncommissioned officer before an off-duty escapade
cost him his stripes.
The GIs soon board trucks and travel to a defensive position opposite the German Siegfried Line. It
transpires that the understrength squad (six riemen) must hold a line that would require an entire
infantry company (120 riemen) to defend properly.
This desperate mission perfectly ts the combat
lm genre. Tension soon develops between Larkin
and Reese. While this conict between leader and
outsider is also a standard of the combat lm genre,
Hell is for Heroes gives it a crucial twist. The
audience is asked to identify not with Larkin, who
in earlier combat lms would have been the hero,
but with Reese, the outsider who in earlier lms
would have been the antagonist. Hell is for Heroes is
thus one of the rst in this genre to feature an antihero: a protagonist who lacks heroic attributes.
The quarrel between Larkin and Reese centers on
a violent disagreement about tactics. Larkin, who
believes in following orders literally, wants the
squad to hunker in its foxholes. But Reese argues
that a static defense would be fatal. The Germans
would expect a company-strength unit to probe
their defenses as a matter of course. The absence of

PHOTOS12/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

The 1962 war drama

redefined the
combat film genre,
becoming one of the
first to feature an
antihero rather than
a traditional ruleabiding protagonist.

THE FIRST U.S.

GOVERNMENTFUNDED
FALLOUT
SHELTER IS
LOCATED IN
THIS CITY

- Washington, DC
- Sacramento, Calif.
- Boise, Idaho
- Honolulu, Hawaii
For more, search
DAILY QUIZ at
HistoryNet.com.

PHIL WARD
COMING SOON!
Book NINE in the
Raiding forces series

AFRICA
1941
There are many books on war but
few on fighting. Men who know
anything about fighting were
either killed or (were) inarticulate
-General George S Patton

World War II Fiction Wherever books are sold

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BOISE, IDAHO. COMPLETED IN 1961, THE FALLOUT SHELTER

WAS FINANCED BY THE FEDERAL CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY AND
FAMILY-SHARE STOCK SOLD FOR $100 A SHARE. IN 1972, A
SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUGHT THE SHELTER FOR ADMINISTRATIVE
OFFICES AND STORAGE.

THIS WAS
THE FIRST
MILLIONSELLING
JAZZ
ALBUM

Reese is a
lonera
rst-rate
soldier
in combat,
but reckless
and selfdestructive
when out
of action.

76

WORLD WAR II

PARAMOUNT/PHOTOFEST

For more, search

DAILY QUIZ at
HistoryNet.com.

HistoryNet.com
TIME OUT. THE 1959 ALBUM BY THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET
FEATURED THE SINGLES TAKE FIVE AND BLUE RONDO LA TURK.

a probe would telegraph weakness and therefore invite a German attack.

Consequently, the squad must convincingly simulate a patrol. Reeses judgment, the audience grasps, is correct. Eventually, Larkin grudgingly agrees.
The simulation works, but subsequently a German patrol comes at the
group from out of the darkness. In a brief sharp reght, most of the enemy
soldiers are killed or captured. But two or three, Reese gures, have been able
to get away with word of the weakness of the teams position. That augurs a
certain full-scale German attack. The only solution, Reese argues, is an
assault on the German pillbox in front. This strikes Larkin as crazy, particularly since the pillbox is surely protected by a mineeld. But a shell explosion
soon obliterates Larkin; command of the squad falls to Corporal Henshaw.
Henshaw, strictly a mechanic at heart, knows that Reese has the better head
for tactics. From then on, Reese calls the shots.
Taking a 40-pound satchel charge, Reese leads Henshaw and Kolinsky into
no-mans land and they crawl on their bellies, with Reese in the lead, feeling
for land mines and marking each one for the others. But it doesnt work.
Henshaw trips a mine and is killed. Now discovered, Reese drops the heavy
satchel charge. He and Kolinsky race back to their foxholes, but just short of
safety a machine gun rips open Kolinskys belly. Screaming in agony, he dies.
Reese has gambled and lost. And, it turns out, lost needlessly, for almost
immediately a company unexpectedly arrives to hold the position in strength,
and the embattled squad dissolves as its survivors are folded into another
unit. The next morning, the Americans launch an assault. Reese recovers
the satchel charge and knocks out the pillbox, but only by deliberately
sacricing his life.
Its an atonement, we realize. But the camera pulls back, taking in the
whole battleeld. Seen from a distance, the attacking Americans are like ants,
and the squad survivors we have come to know are somewhere anonymously
within the swarm. The only distinguishable feature is the burning pillbox
Reeses funeral pyre.
Thats the nal twist of Hell is for Heroes. It denies movie-goers the
triumphant ending they have come to expect. The audience assumes that if
Reese must die, then it will be like the death of John Waynes character in
Sands of Iwo Jima: an apotheosis. But seen from a distance, Reeses death is
just an incident. And he, like the squad he tried to save, is simply gone. +

- A Love Supreme
- Ellington at Newport
- Time Out
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THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL

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The Noose
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How Americas greatest
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Answers to the
September/
October
Challenge

C H A L L E NG E

WHAT THE ...?!?

What was the
purpose of this
inatable device?

What the?!?
Protective plastic cape
to shield against
chemical attacks

FROM TOP: NATIONAL ARCHIVES, WARNER BROS., GUY ACETO COLLECTION; ANSWERS, FROM TOP: POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES, WARNER BROS., GUY ACETO COLLECTION

Hollywood
Howlers
Scrambled eggs
refers to gold leaf
branches worn on the
dress hat, not the chest.

Name
That
Patch
43rd Bombardment Group

Congratulations
to the winners:
Karl Kaucher, Ron
Mathesis, and Douglas
Swim
PLEASE SEND
YOUR ANSWERS
to all three questions, and
your mailing address, to:
January/February
Challenge,
World War II
1919 Gallows Road
Suite 400
Vienna, VA 22182
or e-mail:
challenge@historynet.com
Three winners, chosen at
random from all correct
entries submitted by
February 15, will receive
Blitzkrieg by Lloyd Clark.
Answers will appear in the
May/June 2017 issue.

HOLLYWOOD HOWLERS
The 1965 lm Battle of the Bulge sought to depict the last major
German offensive of the warlaunched in the Ardennes region
of Belgium and Luxembourg. For the lms climax (above),
the production used American tanks to stage a battle between
the U.S. 2nd Armored Division and the German 2nd Panzer
Division. How did the lmmakers desert their common sense?

NAME
THAT
PATCH
Which unit wore
this patch?

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

79

NIGHT
MUST FALL

VOGEL COLLECTION

A model since childhood, Renee

Haal moved from New York City to
London in 1938 at age 19 looking for
work as a singer. She found that
and love. She and British actor,
director, and sometimes-magician
Peter Godfrey moved to the United
States in 1939 and married in
Beverly Hills in 1941. The pair
entertained troops on USO tours
with a magic show; she was the
leggy assistant. In 1945, as Renee
Godfrey, she appeared in the lm
Bedside Mannerfor which this
publicity photo was shot. But
family and illness intervened;
Renee remains known today
mainly for what a publicist
called her fateful face.

80

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