Dick Winters Memorial Dedication

[Frederick303]

Nothing I wrote was against Capt. Winter or any of the members of the 506 PIR. All the men of that generation I have a deep and abiding respect. My comments were reserved for the author of the book and his methods.

Now the Lt. you mention and the allegations against him that are not in the book but the HBO series. it was in the movie because the story seems to have had legs according to the Vets HBO contacted. As you say that story is doubtful as shown. The shooting of German prisoners by the 506 PIR in the first days at Normandy is not. In the book there is a brief reference to a Frenchmen shot in the back of the head (who survived) when surrendering to the paratroopers, the fate of the Germans who surrendered with him are left unknown. If Ambrose read the book "Currahee!" which has been around since at least the 1970s when I read it, he would have realized the shooting of German prisoners in Normandy was one of the aspects of the 506 PIR that was very much an undisputed fact (at least in company A). The discussions I hear as a young man between the Pathfinder American and the German Paratrooper were very enlightening (1988 to 1991). The very brutal training and desperate times the soldiers found themselves in that lead to those attitudes is not in dispute. Yet he glozed over it, a calculated act of omission, which I would alleged was to make a better story for the mid 1990s audience. That is my entire objection to his methods and he is by no means alone in that methodology of generating book sales.

If the book and the movie are simply the narrative of the unit, recollections of soldiers in their autumn years then I guess all is fine. But it is not objective history, and if there was an aspect to that narrative that perhaps exaggerated some things, left significant facts out, then the end result may be why the good Major thought about the monument the way he did. Good men who do valiant deeds may have second thoughts about the actions of their youth in old age when they have children that might have to go through similar times. Many of these vets do not want to glorify war or what they went through in any way.

I knew a US Army vet of the end of WWII, left the service as a staff sergeant in 1949, successful business man in my home town. Very ethical and honorable man. Spent most of his time with Army Air Corp units, never fired a shot in anger, no books will ever be written about him. As he related it, he hated all officers and the Army in general as a young soldier, he had reasons for it which I heard directly as a young man when considering entering the military. Other stuff he never related to me. On one occasion at the airfield he was at B29s were coming in and for some reason blowing up as they landed. He and the enlisted near him were cheering, as every time a plane blew up that meant 3 more dead officers. He and his fellow soldiers stopped when one of the tailgunners, minus one arm and burnt, staggered up. Then, because enlisted men were being killed they stopped cheering. In later years he felt really bad about that and was adamant that none of his kids would serve in the army if they could avoid it. At his funeral there were no military honors, though he qualified. His widow was the one who related the story as I offered that an honor guard could be arranged. He did not want it, even though he was a member of some veterans organization.

In my mind those men were heroes and I would have jumped at the chance to talk to any one that I could, it would be a distinct honor. But as I have aged, learned something of life and gotten to know some of the more distasteful aspects of having to go through that sort of thing, the kind of narrative Ambrose wrote just does not sit well with me. I enjoy reading such, I found a lot of it inspirational at times in my past but it is not honest history, such tales leave too much out. The price paid by men in war in not adequately covered. Ambrose was not an honest author, in my humble opinion.

One final time, no disrespect felt, implied or should be inferred towards any veteran of that period.