The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II (56 page)

Courts-martial convicted
The General Board, European Theater, “Military Justice Administration in the Theater of Operations,” U.S. Army, Office of the Chief Clerk, Military History, General References Branch, File: R250/1, Study No. 83, 20 November 1945, pp. 3–4.

Most received sentences
Ibid., p. 69.

“All officers, particularly”
Major General J. A. Ulio, Adjutant General, U.S. Army, to Commanding Generals, Army Ground Forces, Army Air Services, Services of Supply, commanders of all ports of embarkation et al., 3 February 1943, NARA RG492, Box 2029 (NND 903654), Records of Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army, Records of the Special Staff, JAG Headquarters Records, Decimal Correspondence 250.401 to 251.

“had little stomach”
Ibid.

“The troops who”
The General Board, European Theater, “Combat Exhaustion,” U.S. Army, Office of the Chief Clerk, Military History, General References Branch, File: R704/11, Study No. 91, 1945, p. 7. On p. 2 of the same report, the authors wrote, “There was a total of 102,989 neuropsychiatric casualties in the European Theater of Operations and a vast majority of these were combat exhaustion cases. The majority of these casualties occurred in combat divisions. . . . The condition occurred among all types of individuals and was encountered in two widely separated periods of combat.”

“Colonel Paul D. Adams”
Ibid., p. 291.

“You give them”
Clarke and Smith,
Riviera to the Rhine, United States Army in World War II
, p. 292.

“one of the finest men”
Lockhart, op. cit., p. 115.

Sensitive to the depth
Ibid., p. 118.

The 36th established
The General Board, United States Forces, European Theater, “Report on the Army Chaplain in the European Theater,” Center of Military History, Department of the Army, Washington, DC, File: 322.01/4, Study No. 68, 1945, p. 88.

The 36th Division
Major Irvin F. Carpenter, “The Operations of the 3rd Infantry Division, VI Corps (Seventh United States Army), in the Crossing of the Meurthe River and the Breakout from the Vosges Mountains, 20–27 November 1944 (Rhineland Campaign),” Staff Department, The Infantry School, Fort Benning, GA, 1949–50, pp. 5–6. Major Carpenter included a military description of the Vosges: “The VOSGES MOUNTAINS begin in the forested hills around KAISERSLAUTERN and extend generally southward, dividing the plains of ALSACE and LORRAINE with SAVERNE GAP, being that point, which divides the mountains into the LOWER AND HIGHER VOSGES. South of SAVERNE, the HIGHER VOSGES rise steeply to heights of over 4,000 feet and continue southward to the 4,600 foot heights overlooking BELFORT GAP. From a military viewpoint, the LOWER VOSGES present a greater problem or obstacle than do their counterpart. To the North, the mountains have very steep western approaches and are densely forested, whereas, to the South, the western approaches rise more gradually and are less densely forested except for a sharp decline to the East onto the plains of ALSACE. There are four major passes through this mountain range. In order from North to South, they are as follows: SAVERNE GAP, which provides entrance to STRASBOURG; SAALES PASS, which provides entrance to SELESTAT and STRASBOURG; SCHLUCHT PASS, which provides entrance to COLMAR; and, BELFORT GAP, which provides entrance to MULHOUSE. These mountains, in their entirety, presented quite a formidable barrier to any proposed breakthrough and favored the enemy along the entire front.”

“clear approaches to”
G-2 History, Seventh Army Operations in Europe, Seventh United States Army, quoted in Carpenter, “The Operations of the 3rd Infantry Division,” p. 4.

While much of
Lieutenant John D. Porter, “The Operations of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the Vosges Mountains, 29 September–20 November 1944, Rhineland Campaign (Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader),” The Infantry School, General Section, Military History Committee, Fort Benning, GA, Advanced Officers Course, 1946–47, p. 7.

“Almost every adverse”
Lockhart, op. cit., p. 131.

Although there were
Samuel A. Stouffer et al
.
,
Studies in Social Psychology in World War II: The American Soldier
, Vol. II:
Combat and Its Aftermath
, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949, pp. 61–62. Stouffer wrote that it was “always surprising to the uninitiated how small a part of a modern army ever comes into contact with the enemy.”

The infantry, barely
Gerald Linderman,
The World Within War: America’s Combat Experience in World War II
, New York: Free Press, 1997, p. 1.

“The 36th was”
Lockhart, op. cit., p. 131.

On 8 October
Testimony of Private First Class Frank C. Turek, in Turek, Frank J., CM297854, Court Martial File, Office of the Clerk of the Court, U.S. Army Judiciary, 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA, 22203-1837.

“I remember it”
General David Frazior to Colonel Vincent M. Lockhart, quoted in a letter from Lockhart to Steve Weiss, 20 April 1991, Steve Weiss, personal papers. Lockhart added in his letter to Weiss, “Too bad that stupid bastard who was your company commander didn’t see it that way.”

“I was sure”
WD/Second Draft, p. 89.

No soldier, according
Information and Education Division, U.S. Army Service Forces, “What the Soldier Thinks: A Digest of War Department Studies on the Attitude of American Troops, December 1942–September 1945,” Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1945, p. 2.

“The good leader”
The General Board, European Theater, “Combat Exhaustion,” U.S. Army, Office of the Chief Clerk, Military History, General References Branch, File: R704/11, Study No. 91, 1945, p. 7.

“When Harry Shanklin”
Steve Weiss, interview with the author, the Vosges, France, 30 April 2011.

“I was just nineteen”
Steve Weiss, interview with the author, London, 7 October 2009.

“Poor supply of”
Lieutenant John D. Porter, “The Operations of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the Vosges Mountains, 29 September–20 November 1944, Rhineland Campaign (Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader),” The Infantry School, General Section, Military History Committee, Fort Benning, GA, Advanced Officers Course, 1946–47, p. 25.

“vulnerable and unprotected”
WD/Second Draft, p. 91.

“I ran into”
Ibid., p. 92.

“I didn’t want”
Steve Weiss, interview with the author, London, April 2009.

“The discovery of”
Lieutenant John D. Porter, “The Operations of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the Vosges Mountains, 29 September–20 November 1944, Rhineland Campaign (Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader),” The Infantry School, General Section, Military History Committee, Fort Benning, GA, Advanced Officers Course, 1946–47, p. 23.

The squad dug
WD/Second Draft, p. 95.

At 7:30 that morning
“Original Record of Trial of Weiss, Stephen J., 12228033, Private, Company C, 143rd Infantry, APO 36, U.S. Army, 7 November 1944,” official transcript, p. 12. Office of the Clerk of the Court, U.S. Army Judiciary, 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA, 22203-1837. (Hereafter referred to as “Weiss Court-Martial Transcript File.”)

BOOK III: MILITARY JUSTICE

TWENTY-FIVE

“that severe pressures”
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, Albert C. Homcy versus Stanley R. Resor, Secretary of the Army, 455 F.2d 1345, opinion by Circuit Judge George MacKinnon, http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/455/1345/168414/.

“He said that”
Ibid.

“After the Court-Martial”
Ibid.

Homcy, formerly a
Letter from Colonel Schultz, Headquarters, Eastern Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Green Haven, New York, 7 January 1946, Weiss Court-Martial Transcript File, p. 25. File, Homcy, Albert C., CM271489, p. 194, Office of the Clerk of the Court, U.S. Army Judiciary, 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA, 22203-1837, p. 194. Homcy served until 7 January 1946, the day on which he was both released from prison with a dishonorable discharge and reenlisted in the U.S. Army as a private. He received an honorable discharge from his 1946 enlistment on 24 August 1946. See Albert C. Homcy versus United States, 536 F.2d 360 (Fed. Cir. 1976).

“ended up in”
Darkes, “Twenty-five Years in the Military,” p. 23.

“I can’t take it”
Audie Murphy,
To Hell and Back
, New York: Picador, 2002 (originally published New York: Henry Holt, 1949), p. 236.

“No quarter was”
Lieutenant John D. Porter, “The Operations of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the Vosges Mountains, 29 September–20 November 1944, Rhineland Campaign (Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader),” The Infantry School, General Section, Military History Committee, Fort Benning, GA, Advanced Officers Course, 1946–47, p. 11.

The American forces
Clarke and Smith,
Riviera to the Rhine, United States Army in World War II
, p. 344.

A frontline stalemate
Lieutenant John D. Porter, “The Operations of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the Vosges Mountains, 29 September–20 November 1944 (Rhineland Campaign) (Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader),” The Infantry School, General Section, Military History Committee, Fort Benning, GA, 1947, pp. 6 and 12.

“I never confronted”
WD/Second Draft, p. 100.

“I was jumpy”
Testimony of Private First Class Frank C. Turek, in Turek, Frank J., CM297854, Court Martial File, Office of the Clerk of the Court, U.S. Army Judiciary, 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA, 22203-1837.

“I also remember”
Steve Weiss, interview with the author, the Vosges, 30 April 2011.

The Polish-American youngster
Weiss recalled that Turek deserted at this time, but Turek’s court-martial records show that he left the line on 28 October 1944. See Turek, Frank J., CM297854, Court Martial File, Office of the Clerk of the Court, U.S. Army Judiciary, 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA, 22203-1837.

“You could never”
Steve Weiss, interview with the author, the Vosges, 30 April 2011.

“The longer the”
Major Duncan Stewart et al
.
, “Anvil/Dragoon, Combat & Staff Lessons, Seventh Army, Invasion of Southern France,” CSI Battlebook 3-D (
A.D.
-A151 685), Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, KS, 1984, p. 65. See also Army Ground Forces Board, Report 639, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1945, p. 62.

Sixty-three infantrymen from
Branch Office of the Judge Advocate General, “History, Branch Office of the Judge Advocate General with the United States Forces European Theater, 18 July 1942–1 November 1945,” Washington, DC, 1946, p. 17, from the files of U.S. Army Legal Services Agency, U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, 901 North Stuart Street, Arlington, VA 22203-1837.

“The enemy fired”
Lieutenant John D. Porter, “The Operations of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the Vosges Mountains, 29 September–20 November 1944, Rhineland Campaign (Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader),” The Infantry School, General Section, Military History Committee, Fort Benning, GA, Advanced Officers Course, 1946–47, p. 20.