Post by connie on Apr 21, 2014 14:54:10 GMT -5
And So It Goes, Kurt Vonnegut, A Life by Charles J. Fields, Copyright 2011
www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805086935/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=command-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0805086935
Noted author of Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut was a soldier in the 423rd Infantry Regiment and a POW who lived through the bombings of Dresden.
This link to a biography on Vonnegut has a selection from the book that reads like a page out of 423rd Infantry Regiment history: www.commandposts.com/2011/11/pow-kurt-vonnegut-and-the-battle-to-slaughterhouse-five/
Here's an excerpt from the quote on this link:
Waiting for the division when it reached New York was the RMS Queen Elizabeth, then the largest passenger ship ever built, painted in war time colors of battleship gray. Its steel hull was a thousand feet long with a “great big wide entrance door, as big as a wall,” said one of the men, awed, “and we went in there.”
Vonnegut discovered that he had been assigned, ironically, to the bridal suite on the top deck, airier and more spacious than the decks down below. On the morning of October 17 the Queen shoved off into the Hudson. Thousands of men on deck crowded against the railing and even climbed the rigging, cheering the Statue of Liberty. As protection against German submarines patrolling the eastern coast, a blimp followed them out to sea for two days, and then they were alone. The Grey Ghost, as it was called, moved the troops at an impressive thirty knots (thirty- five miles per hour).
In Cheltenham, England, where the 106th reassembled two weeks later, camp life was routinized and unexciting. Then orders in late November to attend information sessions about the enemy— their uniform insignias, light weaponry, and language—made things more interesting. Like travelers who were about to meet the locals, Vonnegut and the others sat in rows repeating German phrases, most of which Kurt remembered from two years of German at Shortridge High School. The only other man in his squad who understood as many words was Robert Kelton, drafted during his sophomore year at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Finally, everyone received bundles of warmer clothes: long underwear, long wool socks, four- buckle overshoes, wool sweaters, and knit caps. Rumor had it the division was being sent to the Ardennes Forest, where it would be snowy and cold. The good news was that the Ardennes sector had been quiet for months.
When Vonnegut and the rest of the 423rd Regiment crossed the English Channel on December 6 and waded ashore at Le Havre at dawn, it began to rain. Some of the men laughed and made cracks about “Sunny France.” Surrounding him in the town was the first evidence of combat he had seen: bomb craters, burned-out buildings, and German antiaircraft guns pointed skyward. In a field nearby lay the remains of a crashed Allied bomber. Vonnegut hiked himself over the tailgate of a transport truck and found a spot on a bench inside. Studying the faces of the men as they climbed aboard, his rifle clutched upright between his knees, he felt proud. He had made a choice, one that showed commitment and responsibility. Bernard had once called him “an accident,” which unfortunately his recent failures seemed to bear out. But what he was doing now was honorable. It testified to his value, and he felt “utterly beyond reproach.” The muddy trucks, loaded up at last with human cargo, growled into gear and joined the swaying convoy headed toward Dieppe.
If you've read the book and would like to offer any reviews, please do!
PS. For more links to info on Vonnegut, see: 106thdivision.proboards.com/thread/829/vonnegut-kurt-423rd-pow?page=1&scrollTo=3433