Front Lines (36 page)
Authors: Michael Grant
107TH EVAC HOSPITAL, WÃRZBURG, GERMANYâAPRIL
1945
Well, Gentle Reader, I had a bit of joy today. Sergeant RichlinâRioâcame by to check on me, see how I was doing. I think she scared some of the nurses; she has that effect on people now. She's hard and she's foul-mouthed and she's got that thousand-yard stare that I suppose I do as well. Or maybe it's just the fact that she came in straight from the front line, grenades hanging off her like ornaments on a Christmas tree, tommy gun on her shoulder, her prized souvenir, a German Luger, stuck in her webbing belt, and that big knife of hers strapped to her leg.
But if you looked hard, Gentle Reader, you'd still see something of that freckle-faced tomboy who grew up milking cows and thought “golly” was a curse word. Some part of the sweetness of her is still alive underneath it all, or at least I think so, hope so. Same as I hope there's still some part of a different me hidden away under the hard shell of cynicism.
I wonder how I look to her. I know I'm damaged in more than body. The fever that pushes me to write this is not the symptom of a mind at peace. Can she see the invisible damage inside me, as I see it in her?
Won't be long now, I think. The Russians are in Berlin, going street by street. The Krauts will have to fold up shop, though not until Hitler's dead, I guess. They are still in thrall to that mad bastard, even now with their cities burned down around their ears, what a goddamn waste. A lot of German units have surrendered, and what's left is mostly old men and kids. Kids. Like we were not long ago.
It's coming to an end, this war, but I still have a lot of story to tell. There's Sicily and Italy and France yet to write about. A whole lot of war there.
North Africa was where we were bloodied, where we became real soldiers, but in the grand scheme of the war it was small beer. The Krauts taught us a lesson we needed to learn, though; they knocked the cockiness right out of us, that they did, and we were better soldiers for it. One hell of a lot of Krauts died in the stony hills of Sicily and Italy because we had begun to learn our profession.
The battle of Kasserine Pass will not go down in history as the finest moment in the history of the US Army. Although what's funny is that when we were in it we didn't know that's what that debacle would be called.
We just knew it was FUBAR. It shook me, that's for sure, shook me all the way down to my bones. There's nothing like the feeling of running away to feed the beast of fear inside you. That took its toll. Still does.
But that's all down the road. We'll get there, Gentle Reader, we will.
If you're wondering what happened with Rio and Strand and Jack, or wondering whether Rainy ever met up with that nice Jewish boy again, or whether Jenou ever met her longed-for handsome officer, or whether Frangie and Sergeant Walter Green . . . Well, not now, that's all for later. Right now I have to go and cause a ruckus because they're talking about shipping me stateside. I won't have it. I'll go AWOL before I let that happen. I got this far with our little band, and I'll be damned if I miss the final act. I don't expect we'll celebrate, celebration doesn't feel right, but I would sure love to sit down and have a quiet beer with my pals.
Besides, like I said, there's a lot more for me to write.
“The weaknesses the Americans showed were those usually demonstrated by inexperienced troops committed to battle for the first time. Beforehand, they were overconfident . . . once committed, they were jittery . . . They lacked proficiency in newly developed weapons such as bazookas. They had difficulty identifying enemy weapons and equipment . . . They were handicapped by certain poor commanders . . . reactions were slow, cautious, and characteristic of World War I operations. Units were dispersed and employed in small parcels instead of being concentrated. Air-ground cooperation was defective. Replacement troops were often deficient in physical fitness and training. Some weapons were below par. . . . Higher commanders shirked the responsibility or lacked the knowledge to coordinate units in battle . . .”
âUS Army Center for Military History
“In Tunisia the Americans had to pay a stiff price for their experience, but it brought rich dividends.”
âGerman Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
NOTE
I write fiction. In writing this piece of fiction I have attempted to accurately capture the flavor and the feel and as much of the detail of actual historical events as is practical, but any conflicts between my version of events and the work of historians should unquestionably be resolved in favor of those worthy academics. In writing this book I have relied on dozens of histories, memoirs, newsreels, museum exhibits, and photographic archives, but all errors or deviations from fact are mine alone.
Operation Torch and the battle of Kasserine Pass? Real. Tulsa? Real. New York City? I'm pretty sure that exists. Gedwell Falls is my own invention, though I suspect it's located quite near Healdsburg, California. Similarly, Camps Maron and Szekely, while suspiciously close to Fort Benning, Georgia, are made up. Other things, things you might not expect, actually happened. A lot of American troops really did go to war on the luxury liner
Queen
Mary
. And the bit about a French soldier who erected a
barricade symbolique?
That scene is actually based on a true story. Nothing is more unexpected than reality.
In the course of portraying the attitudes and notions of social justice prevalent in the United States in those days, I have used language and portrayed attitudes that all good people now find abhorrent. But it was another time, and I can't whitewash history. In those days, racism and sexism and anti-Semitism were all right out there in the open. Some people had begun to see beyond those destructively irrational notions, but it was very much a work in progress. The generation that won World War II saved the worldâno, really,
saved the world
âbut they were not saints.
There's a bunch more to be found on our website, www.frontlinesbook.com, and our Facebook page, Facebook.com/frontlinesbook, including videos, photos, maps, music, additional stories, and more.
I'm to be found on Twitter @MichaelGrantBks.
Questions of legal rights and permissions should be directed to Steve Sheppard at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams and Sheppard, but please don't send him fan mailâhe's a lawyer, and he'll charge me to read it.
Thanks. Please consider checking for digital shorts wherever you buy ebooks and stay tuned for book two of Front Lines.
âMichael Grant
This is very much a
partial
bibliography.
A lot of my sources were online. I have only to wonder, “How do you fire a bazooka?” and ten seconds later I'll be watching the official World War IIâera army training film. How great is that?
A quick shout-out to some wonderful museums: the Imperial War Museums in London, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. You can understand intellectually how intimidating a tank is, but standing in front of the real thing, running your hands over the armor, that certainly drives the point home.
Pride of place goes to the series that inspired me to write this trilogy: the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson. It was reading that trilogy that first caused me to think I'd like to write about World War II.
I also want to mention
Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein. I'd already started writing
Front Lines
when I read
Verity
, but it certainly caused me to want to work harder to come up to that very high standard.
Okay, on to at least some of the books:
Berubé, Allan.
Coming Out Under Fire.
Washington, DC: The Free Press, 1990.
Blumenson, Martin.
Kasserine PassâRommel's Bloody, Climactic Battle for Tunisia.
New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000.
Calhoun, Mark T.
Defeat at KasserineâAmerican Armor Doctrine, Training and Battle Command in Northwest Africa, World War II.
Pickle Partners Publishing, 2014.
Cowdrey, Albert E.
Fighting for LifeâAmerican Military Medicine in World War II.
Washington, DC: The Free Press, 1994.
Franklin, Robert “Doc Joe.”
MedicâHow I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs
. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2006.
Hartstern, Carl J.
World War II: Memoirs of a Dogface Soldier
. Xlibris, 2011.
Hirsch, James S.
Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
Johnson, Hannibal B.
Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District.
Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014.
Kelly, Orr.
Meeting the Fox.
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2002.
Kerner, MD, John A.
Combat Medic: World War II.
Donald S. Ellis, 2002.
Kershaw, Alex.
The Liberator.
New York: Broadway Books, 2012.
Mauldin, Bill.
Up Front.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1945.
Muth, Jörg.
Command Culture.
Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2011.
Pyle, Ernie.
Brave Men.
Scripps Howard Newspaper Alliance, 1943.
ââââ.
Here Is Your War: Story of GI Joe.
New York: Henry Holt, 1943.
Reitan, Earl A.
RiflemenâOn the Cutting Edge of World War II.
Bennington, VT: Merriam Press, 2014.
Robinson, Sergeant Don.
News of the 45th.
Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.
Rottman, Gordon L.
SNAFUâSituation Normal All F***ed Up.
New York: Osprey Publishing, 2013.
Smith, Daniel D., and Frank T. Barber.
Memoirs of World War II in Europe.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
Tobin, James.
Ernie Pyle's WarâAmerica's Eyewitness to World War II.
Washington, DC: The Free Press, 1997.
Urban, Mark.
The Tank War.
New York: Abacus, 2013.
Watson, Edward.
A Rifleman in World War II.
Digital Unlimited, 2015.
Zaloga, Steven.
Kasserine Pass 1943âRommel's Last Victory.
New York: Osprey Publishing, 2005.
