by John E. Xavier
NOTE: This article should be considered a work in progress, especially for notes on sources, as of December, 2013.
AUTHOR'S SOLICITATION FOR MORE MATERIAL FROM SAAMI SOURCES:
This essay is not meant to be an exercise of exclusivity. Contributions will be accepted from any reader with knowledge of any other Saami Americans or Saami Canadians attached to General George S. Patton's Third Army or his earlier outfits, including service by US Navy or US Army Air Force personnel in support of Patton's campaigns.Subject only to fact-checking and editing for English usage, any submissions, such historic contributions will be included in this chapter, with full recognition of authors and sources.
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Preface:
This article is the offspring of many years of family conversations about my uncle Bjarne K. Xavier, who died young (34), as an Army 2nd Lieutenant in France during World War II. The conversations were often led by my father, Rev. Karl Astrup Xavier, although at family get-togethers or reunions, others would join in with various perceptions and reminiscences. Notably, the others family members were led by Bjarne's eldest half-sister and matriarchal figure, Magdalene X. Visovatti, with her wealth of family lore. Also offering the inevitable recitation of details both oddly irrelevant and highly informative would have been Bjarne's eldest sister, Valborg Henrietta (Xavier) Houghtelin.
It would be impossible to count the number of family conversations involving uncle Bjarne, for this was a man both loved and missed. Sometimes, his half-brother, Peter L. Xavier would be mentioned as well, as having been in European locations due to his Army service in World War II. Valdemar U. Xavier, brother of Bjarne, often contributed, drawing on both his own World War II Army experience and family history.
May I say all of these conversations over decades were a profoundly meaningful form of family bonding, and those with my father often ended as he would look out a window to the horizon. One time when I was in my thirties he said, "Bjarne could still be alive, you know." And that time the conversation ended right there, in quietude. As many of those father-son conversations took place in earlier years, I really did not have an appreciation for what it meant to lose a brother to the irrational calculus of war. My mother never met Bjarne, as she met my father only after Bjarne had volunteered for Army service; naturally she met Bjarne's wife, Violet, and their daughter Barbara.
The family conversations about Bjarne became woven into the fabric of my formal study of history at Concordia College-Moorhead and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It would be fully accurate to say that those conversations led to the launching of abundant reading, research, and travel.
It would be impossible to count the number of those conversations involving Bjarne K. Xavier, and his early death as a young officer in France during World War II. Other times, his half-brother, Peter L. Xavier would be mentioned as well, as having been in European locations. Valdemar U. Xavier, brother of Bjarne contributed numerous conversations to round out my search for more information.
Outside of the family, I am also grateful to Richard Culbert, insurance broker extraordinaire and principal in the eminent firm of Culbert-Davis in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Mr. Culbert, whom I knew through the Hartford Insurance Group connection, served in the 99th Infantry during World War II. Our business connection expanded as he found my interest in his service to be sincere; he generously shared his insights into Patton's campaign of autumn and winter of 1944.. He was a particularly valuable first-hand source of information on that campaign, culminating as it did during December as The Battle of the Bulge.
Moved by his description and a later visit to the sites mentioned by Mr. Culbert, I later composed and privately published a poem about the 99th Infantry, sent to Richard Culbert, which appears here as an appendix item. Beyond the conversations with Mr. Culbert, and given the size, and scope of operations, of The Third Army, it has been almost normal for years to encounter individuals having a connection to General Patton. There will be some brief references in this article to such acquaintances.
For this article, beyond those mentioned just above, I received large amount from too many individuals to mention them all. I wish to therefore single out, in alphabetical order, the American Battle Monuments Commission, Mssrs. Dellenger and Schoenacker of the Lorraine American Military Cemetery near St. Avold and Metz, France; L. Steven Jessen, publisher of the Forsyth, Montana, Independent, Barbara (Xavier / Farrell) Lilledahl, daughter of Bjarne K. Xavier; Rev. Karl Astrup Xavier, and Valdemar U. Xavier. my father and uncle respectively, who furnished documentation. On the archive side, I thank the Wilson Library of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Dr. Boyd Koehler of Augsburg College, Minneapolis.
Notes on information and sources for this article will follow immediately at the end of each of the parts. (As of December, 2013, notes remain in-progress.)
Introduction: Background on three Saami-American brothers in U.S. Army Service
This article at time of publication is an essay dealing mainly with the World War II roles of Xavier half-brothers, Sgt. Peter "Pete" Laurentius Xavier (1901-1981) and 2nd Lieutenant Bjarne Kamrud Xavier (1910-1944). Both served in various locations in what became known as the European Theater of Operations (ETO). These two soldiers had in fact been in uniform for some time, both beginning with the Minnesota Army National Guard, during the 1930s. Their Minnesota Army National Guard unit was an artillery outfit, and included a third brother of Bjarne, Valdemar Ulrik Xavier, who later served in World War II, but only as a stateside training officer and briefly in Japan in the Army of Occupation. Valdemar was in fact once under orders to report under Gen. Patton for the November 1942 invasion of North Africa, but was at the very last days re-posted to Texas to help develop methods and materials for an evolving anti-tank strategy.
At the beginning of the European phase of World War II, Valdemar was rapidly closing in on a college degree at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. After the U.S. declared war, Valemar left college and upgraded from Guard Sargent to commissioned officer status, to served as Lieutenant and Captain both stateside and briefly in the Army of Occupation in Japan. His stateside work, mostly in Texas, was that of specialized artillery training, in the highly challenging and ever-evolving field of anti-tank warfare. Valdemar, therefore, figures only peripherally in this narrative.
In the case of Pete, he went from the Guard to career enlisted status in the late 1930s, as a Sargent. An educated man with a University of Minnesota degree, Pete would soon be reputed in the Army as a man capable of teaching and training other soldiers. Much of this kind of work occupied his time as a small arms instructor at West Point military academy, where he was posted prior to the U.S. entry into World War II. He was also relied upon by the U.S. Army to make important appearances as a lecturer or panel participant in high-level conferences, as his articulate manner lent itself to forums of public debate.
In the untoward circumstances following the Dunkirk debacle of mid-1940, Pete was secretly posted to Britain as a small arms instructor for the armed forces of the UK, British Empire, and Free French. As the war evolved into its dominantly U.S. phase, Pete's language and training skills caused the Army to assign him to secret assignments with the underground forces in Nazi-occupied Europe. Following a number of hair-raising secret assignments, he would in 1944 join up with Patton's Third. He and Bjarne were unsuccessful in efforts to meet up while in Britain or on European soil.
Bjarne's military wanderings followed a very different route from those of Pete, for by 1941, he was out of the Minnesota National Guard. Bjarne responded to a call for former corporals and sargents to fill a shortage of officers by enlisting for officer rank. This shortage of officers might come as somewhat of a surprise, but in that regard it is helpful to remember that the United States did not even have 2 million college graduates in 1940. So, educated and possibly experienced leadership was in very short supply, as many educated citizens had to be kept in civilian roles to maintain economic activity.
Bjarne was in the very midst of that context of national jeopardy and shortage of military leaders. He chose to re-activate, and accordingly was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. Prior to posting to the United Kingdom, he visited half-brother Paul Nylander Xavier and his wife Maria Brucino in Long Island, where Paul held forth as a metallurgical and wing-gun engineer with Grumman Aircraft. Once in the UK, Bjarne entered the European conflict as a replacement officer in France, in Gen. Patton's Third Army in autumn of 1944. Was in the 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division, both of which were heavily involved in the very difficult ground-based operations of late 1944.
Part One: The Fall and Winter Campaign of 1944: The Lead-up to The Battle of The Bulge
In December of 1944, with the end-game in sight for the Allies, the final pressure-filled winter of World War II would soon feature one of Adolf Hitler's largest gambles for a major victory, or even a stalemated war. In mid-December, Hitler ordered the well-prepared launch of what we call the Battle of the Bulge, hurling vast forces of soldiers and machines of war against the Allies. For the Allies, after the initial surprise, death, destruction and near-disarray followed on. Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower had to reorganize and respond during an unfavorable weather pattern which excluded both Allied air force bombing and air force supply drops by parachute.
General George Patton's storied Third Army was in the middle of a stalled sweep across France, as petroleum was allocated elsewhere. The "petrol" priorities had previously gone for the most part to the British under Montgomery, who had promised to make short work of the Nazi forces. "Monty" had, in contrast to his promises, made a mess of his offensive.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army had been spread thin, and Patton and other generals began to relying on foot soldiers to do the dirty work of war. Thus, casualties for the Americans were disturbingly on the upswing, and an unusually cold winter added to the unfavorable circumstances. Patton, however, acted despite fuel shortages, and responded early on to Hitler's final challenge at "The Bulge." As has been told ofttimes in print, in film, or in person, Patton's Third rose to its war-making best, in action by both staff and ground soldiers alike.The Third Army was instrumental in first blunting and later destroying what would become the last great western front offensive of the Nazi's Third Reich. It took time, casualties, and near-legendary effort to defeat the Wehrmacht in The Bulge, The Third, along with many other Allied ground and air units finally succeeded in ending the threat posed by The Bulge, a battle that was truly Hitler's last hurrah. [1]
The Third Army, so familiar in the worlds of news and history, was home to the usual cross-section of America. So it had come to pass that Saami-Americans were in Army uniform, with the Third, in the case of half-brothers Sgt. Peter Laurentius Xavier and 2nd Lieutenant Bjarne Kamrud Xavier. They followed in the path of the World War I service of their Saami-American uncle, Gothard (Garth) Waldemar Xavier, who had served with the 20th Engineers.
In World War I, Garth was the youngest child of N.P. Xavier and Amanda (Norum) Xavier.) Garth, the youngest child of N.P. Xavier and Amanda (Norum) Xavier, had been off to Alaska mining for gold, in the tradition of the extended Xavier-Tornensis-Haettta networks, with older brothers Nils Paul Xavier ("Neal") and Heinrich Xavier ("Henry. Garth had sufficient experience in the forestry industry to be accepted for the 20th Engineers, a forestry and sawmill outfit specializing in producing finished wood for infrastructure and buildings. Garth was also a man of good fortune, surviving the early 1918 torpedoing of his troopship, the Tuscania.[2]
The World War II Saami-American servicemen in Patton's outfit in December of 1944 were half-brothers, Sgt. Peter Laurentius Xavier and 2nd Lt. Bjarne Kamrud Xavier. They were offspring from the two marriages of Rev. Karl Xavier (1869-1924). Pete was the third child of Karl's first wife, Henrietta Randine Neuberg (Larsen) Xavier (1865-1905), and Bjarne the second child of Karl's second wife, Bina (Kamrud) Xavier (1880-1931).
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[1] For this introductory essay, I have drawn on the following excellent sources:
1) Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948).
2) John Nelson Rickard, Patton At Bay: The Lorraine Campaign, September to December, 1944. In series, Praeger Series in War Studies (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999).
3) General Paul D. Harkins and Army Times Editors, When the Third cracked Europe: The Story of Patton's Incredible Army (No location: Army Times Publishing and Stackpole Books, c. 1969).
4) Steve Kluger, Yank: World War II from The Guys Who Brought You Victory (New York: St. Martin's Press, n.d.).
[2a] Johan Ulrik Xavier, List of Nils Paul Xavier's Descendents (Tacoma: J.U. Xavier, 1960), pp. 1-2.
[2b] John E. Xavier, "Nils Paul and Amanda: Technology Expands The Story of My Sami American Family," Arran (Sami Siida of North America) No. 46, Gidda/Spring, 2007, pp. 1, 4-6.
[2c] Gothard (Garth) Waldemar Xavier (1889-1961) was the youngest child of N.P. Xavier and Amanda (Norum) Xavier.). When war was declared in April of 1917, Garth, had been off to Alaska mining for gold with older brothers Nils Paul Xavier ("Neal") and Heinrich Xavier ("Henry). Garth had sufficient experience in the forestry industry to be accepted for the 20th Engineers, a forestry and sawmill outfit specializing in producing finished wood for infrastructure and buildings. Garth was also a man whose good fortune held up in wartime; he survived the early 1918 torpedoing of his troopship, the Tuscania.
Part Two: Military Background of Sgt. Peter L. Xavier and 2nd Lt. Bjarne K. Xavier
Both Peter and Bjarne had military backgrounds prior to World War II. Sgt. Peter L. Xavier, known to his family as Pete, was a career soldier who had been in the Minnesota National Guard In the 1930s, Pete enlisted in the regular army, as an experienced guardsman with a full-blown college degree (B.A. University of Minnesota, 1923). He was unmarried, and like all nine of his siblings and half-siblings, an orphan.
Bjarne also had a Minnesota National Guard background, as a non-commisioned officer, rank of Sargent, who had gone inactive following two enlistments. Unlike half-brother Pete, in 1944, Bjarne had a wife, Violet, and a little daughter, Barbara. He maintaineded close relations with his several siblings, residing with his family in the Monroe Street area of Northeast Minneapolis, where his wife had grown up and where many family and friends had attended nearby Edison High School ("The University of Edison") and Immanuel Lutheran Church.The ethnic and social connections of community ran deep in Northeast Minneapolis.
The closeness of social structures is evident from just two examples: heavy war casualties in the neighborhood and an active Norwegian Lutheran Church community. The large numbers of Edison High school graduatess who served together were in Guard outfits or enlisted, only to be killed in World War II. Also, a monument in the Monroe-Edison area was Immanuel Lutheran Church. Immanuel was a church in Minneapolis, with a long reach in the Norwegian Synod, and one with major Saami-American connections.
The head pastor at Immanuel for many years (1922-1935), Rev. Anders O. Aasen, was married to Marit Xavier, daughter of Saami-American pioneer pastor Nils Paul Xavier and his wife, Amanda. The Aasen children grew up on Monroe Street next to the orphan Saami-American children of Karl, Henrietta and Bina Xavier. Anders Aasen was particularly adept at organizing charitable projects, including the founding of what is now Lutheran Social Services. The Aasen and Xavier children, grandchildren all of Nils Paul and Amanda, grew up together, and in turn would take on leading roles in society, before and after World War II. Among the notable family members were Dagny (Aasen) Schiotz, whose husband Fred Schiotz rose to become President (Presiding Bishop) of the American Lutheran Church and who played a large and world-wide role in refugee and ecumenical work. Other Aasen daughters, Beata and Camilla, also married pastors.
On the Xavier sideof Karl, Henrietta and Bina, well known in their areas of endeavor were Paul Nylander Xavier, Peter Laurentius Xavier, Karl Astrup Xavier and Valdemar U. Xavier. These men were quite well-known in their respective professions of aeronautical engineer, career army soldier, Lutheran pastor and school principal (and Army Reserve Lt. Colonel). As part of the closely knit Northeast Minneapolis community ("Nordeast"), the Xavier family, like other entire families would be affected, and in fact, uprooted by the vast impact of World War II.
That war was declared by Congress in December of 1941, the U.S. having been in various ways on the road to war especially since the shocking defeat of the armies of Great Britain and France in June of 1940. In 1942 Bjarne responded to a government appeal for re-enlistments by inactive National Guard non-commissioned officers. He re-enlisted, and in line with Army recognition of an officer shortage, was trained and promoted to commissioned officer as a 2nd Lieutenant. Sgt. Peter L. Xavier had been, as mentioned, was already in uniform as a career soldier.
The Road to France for the Xavier Brothers: Patton's Army in Slow Motion
Peter L. Xavier's army career presents some unusual points of interest. For Peter L. Xavier and other enlisted men, slow promotions were the norm, as the regular army was small (as few as 60,000 or so) in the 1903s era of the Great Depression. Simply put, longer-term enlisted soldiers and West Point Academy graduates were at the head of the line for rising in the U.S. Army. Nonetheless, Pete carried on in his strong work ethic ways, polishing his linguistic skills and weapons knowlege and by 1941 was posted in New York as an instructor at West Point, in his role of small arms specialist. A University of Minnesota graduate, Pete also served the public relations purposes of the Army, as an articulate representative at high-profile conferences and seminars. Among these, were the prestigious Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science (Columbia University, New York), where in 1941 Pete served as a panelist in a discussion of government policy in the area of world trade.
Sgt. Peter L. Xavier was on a classified basis transferred to Great Britain in the summer of 1941, as a small-arms trainer and as a trainer of trainers. The transfer was a fact unknown to his family members, including half-brother Karl Astrup Xavier, who attempted to visit Peter at West Point, only to be shunted about, interrogated, given a quick tour and sent packing back to New York city by ferry.
It was open knowledge at that time, but usually "off the books" that the United States, often through Canadian channels, was furnishing huge amounts of small arms to the British. Thus, Pete, as a West Point staffer, was in reality in the thick of the earliest American programs to save and rebuild the British military. Pete's linguistic skills would later put him into underground resistance networks in Europe, notably in France and Belgium.
His Belgian missions would in later life, as a patient in the Minneapolis Veteran's Hospital, come to mind again, as Pete erratically recounted a select few of his exploits, and was specific about one particular restaurant in south Belgium. The restaurant, Le Martin-Pecheur (The Kingfisher) had served, according to Pete, as a meeting place for the local resistance. In 1984, I visited that restaurant, near Bodange, and found the rural setting to be at once enjoyable from the menu and yet disconcerting from a my sense of being of sorts in a haunted area.
Indeed, I was told by local residents that there had been substantial action of various kinds, conventional and underground, in 1944. I got added notions of haunting when I was informed that the restaurant was also headquarters of a local re-enactor group specializing in theWorld War II events of that area. U.S. surplus jeeps, uniforms and equipment were evident in the rear area of Le Martin-Pecheur where Belgians and non-resident members of the re-enactor group would on a regular basis carry on a living history program of World War II.
In a lead-up to his real ground action of World War II, Sgt. Peter L. Xavier's Belgian underground assignment gave way to posting in Patton's Third Army, apparently as liason with underground resistance fighters. Thus as The Third moved ever onward to the homeland of Nazi Germany, Pete was found in eastern France in December of 1944, as was his brother Bjarne. (No evidence exists that they ever met while serving under Patton.)
2nd Lt. Bjarne K. Xavier's path to eastern France in 1944 was quite different from that of his half-brother. Having left his domestic life by his re-enlistment and following his officer training, Bjarne was shipped to Great Britain in 1943 as a replacement officer. His officer training drew on his National Guard experience, and his officer's commission as a 2nd Lieutenant was available on the basis of experience rather than on that of a "paper" education, that is, a college degree. Bjarne had business college courses as well as extensive background in mechanics and boiler operation, but no four-year bachelor's degree. Then, as now, army foot (infantry) lieutentants have a short life-span, due to the frontline nature of their responsibilities.
Such frontline officers as Lieutenants and Captains often lead their fellow soldiers from the front, or cover them from closely behind, and are thus exposed to the same violence and high casualty rate of war as the common soldiers. The casualty rate meant an on-going need for replacement officers, and Bjarne soon was posted as a replacement officer for France. His assigned unit, the 80th Division, was attached to Patton's 3rd Army, in France, for the summer and fall campaign of 1944.
In the summer of 1944, prior to the fall campaign, Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had wisely designated Patton's men to be put into action in France. Once the D-Day Allied invasion forces were fully established in Normandy, Patton was to come in behind them and organize his own version of blitzkrieg and to smash and dash his way to Germany by 1945. And smash and dash were indeed two by-words of the Third Army until the fall.
In mid-Autumn, by November of 1944, Bjarne was sending what would be his last letters to his extended family in the U.S. Bjarne's letters were brief, but heartfelt, and expressed how deeply he missed his family. It was in that same month of November, that the previously mentioned fuel shortages ended the much-vaunted war of motion and manoeuver at which Patton's outfit excelled, and which had been characterized by low casualty figures for the Americans.
Those low casualty figures began to rise rapidly, with fuel shortages as mentioned. All the while in the rain and cold weather of a severe winter during the Battle of Metz, foot soldiers began constantly to hike and walk in mud and snow instead of riding along on tanks and in jeeps or trucks. Where once the infantry could routinely rely on air cover, tanks and other mobile artillery vehicles for the heavy firing, they now coped with altered battle plans.
These plans moved agonizingly slowly along, for now the infantry counted on their own shoe leather to do the nearly the whole job of transportation and mopping up. The foot soldiers of the infantry began to die in ever-increasing numbers. And thus it was that the soldiers and their ground officers incurred mounting casualties, slowly and deliberately rooting out and destroying the Nazi German army.
Such were the new and brutal realties of a possible reincarnation of World War I style infantry warfare, with machine guns, slow and soggy hiking, and mass death all around. In the Metz area, it was the mud-slogging ground-based infantry action that found Bjarne's unit under artillery fire, in early December. In the back and forth of the infantry action, it was the inability of the U.S. Army to in timely fashion reinforce (and occupy newly taken territory) that in turn caused Bjarne's outfit to abandon newly-won positions near Genweiler on December 11, 1944. Wounded by artillery fragments, Bjarne was initally reported as wounded in battle, and just a week later on December 17 he died in an Army field hospital.
War's End and Later Years
Bjarne's daughter, Barbara Lilledahl, recalled her mother's extreme grief at the telegram alerting her to the death of her husband. This was all the more troubling, as early communication from Army channels had been of a less urgent tone. A family memorial service was held in January of 1945, at Immanuel Lutheran Church, presided over by Rev. L. T. Larson. In yet another instance of community interconnection, Bjarne's older sister, Anna, was married to Rev. Larson's brother, Fridjof Larson.
Bjarne's brother, Rev. Karl Astrup Xavier and wife Edith were living in southwest North Dakota at the time of Bjarne's death. (Karl A. was only one of several extended Xavier family to be active in North Dakota.) Karl A. and Edith attended the memorial service, slowly bumping along from the North Dakota Badlands by local Milwaukee Road rail connedtions, often forced to sit on suitcases in the aisles due to crowed wartime travel conditions. About two years later, by family consensus, led and coordinated by Karl A. in a traditional Xavier "Round Robin" letter, 2nd Lt. Bjarne K. Xavier was permanently interred in the Lorraine American Military Cemetery in St. Avold, France, near Metz, in Plot G, Row 9, Grave 3. Bjarne and nearly 10,000 other soldiers (including several fellow Minnesotans) are buried there, for the most part casualties of war in that immediate region of France.
Bjarne and Violet's descendents continue to live in the Minneapolis area, where daughter Barbara (Xavier, Farrell) Lilledahl has retired from banking, and her husband Buddy Lilledahl has retired as an electrician at the University of Minnesota. Bjarne's grand-daughter Jenni Lillidahl is co-owner of Dudly Riggs Brave New Workshop, an improvisational theatre and school, along with husband John Sweeny. (John and Jenni have two children, great-grandchildren, then, of Bjarne.) Another of Bjarne's grandchildren, Terri (Lilledahl) Svare died in 1999.
Sgt. Peter L. Xavier, unlike 2nd Lt. Bjarne K. Xavier, survived the entire war, with no battlefield injuries. He continued as a career soldier, until the 1950s when, after the Korean conflict, he entered other classified work for the government. In theory, Peter was invited out of the army for radical right-wing activity. However, ambiguity surrounds Peter's records and activities during the 1950s and 1960s. He consistently showed rhetorical and office work support for right-wing rallies in Ohio and the southern states.
Yet, he aways seemed to evade arrest or was able to arrange dismissal of legal charges. For example, FBI Freedom of Information (FOIA) papers on the racist National States Rights Party oddly never show his name, despite his national leadership roles in the NSRP. This gives one reason to conclude his name has been blacked out (redacted) or omitted, due to some sort of informant role, a common practice in FOIA documents. in the 1950s up to the early 1970s, Peter also claimed to have personal and financial interest in a bakery enterprise in Dayton, Ohio. In his retirement years, he suffered declining health, and having never married, was transferred to the Veteran's Hospital in Minneapolis, where he died in 1981. Peter was buried at Ft. Snelling, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Notes and Sources
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948.
John Nelson Rickard, Patton At Bay: The Lorraine Campaign, September to December, 1944. Praeger Series in War Studies.Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
General Paul D. Harkins and Army Times Editors, When the Third cracked Europe: The Story of Patton's Incredible Army. No location: Army Times Publishing and Stackpole Books, c. 1969.
Steve Kluger, Yank: World War II from The Guys Who Brought You Victory. New York: St. Martin's Press, n.d.
Appendix I.
Author's Note:
This poem is rooted in my June 8, 1984 visit to the Luxemburg American Military Cemetery. I arose before dawn to make this hour-long stop, for a three-fold experience: to view a sunrise over such a cemetery, to pay respects to the 99th Infantry Division, and to see the modest grave site of General George S. Patton. Well into the 5am hour, as I was transfixed and without camera film, the morning mists remained, moving around and assertively present, resulting in a perfectly composed view.
The view included an overwhelming mysteriousness: the active mists contrasted with the stark reality of hundreds of solidly planted gravestones. Inscribed on many gravestones were the names of many soldiers who were known to my insurance colleague, Dick Culbert, from the 99th Infantry Division. The 99th, known to history as "Battle Babies," was made up of "green" troops inexperienced in combat, who had no reserves behind them. The 99th was instrumental in standing up to the Wehrmacht and severely blunting the Nazi advance, thus contributing to the ultimate Nazi defeat in the Battle of the Bulge. [1]
Ardennes
To Dick Culbert, one of the "Battle Babies"
I. The 99th in '44
The 99th fought here in bitter wintertime
to deliver Christmastime
miracles:
shooting, shelling, dispensing
steel-clad packages of death and blood
to gray-clad Wehrmacht armies --
once thought done, but resurrected, striking, lunging
stung
by Madman's whip and tongue,
the Final Act in Schickelgruber's Last Hurrah:
The Battle of the Bulge.
II. Reality and Summertime in '84
The 99th remains today,
its delegates of cemetery stone:
lined up
in rows
with green and
sun about,
and Old Man
Patton, here as well.
Reality and myth abound --
befittingly, to swirl around
(or perhaps surround!)
the delegates of cemetery stone --
mischievous mists, the honey-vapors of a summer's day,
mischievous mists, dispersed amidst the stones and flowers,
mischievous mists, of green and gray
refining,
bringing
clouds
where crystal clarity prevailed
in early May, in newborn light,
when red and orange stains had dawned,
while Europe gently, sweetly stirred
and prosperously yawned.
June 15, 1986
shooting, shelling, dispensing
steel-clad packages of death and blood
to gray-clad Wehrmacht armies --
once thought done, but resurrected, striking, lunging
stung
by Madman's whip and tongue,
the Final Act in Schickelgruber's Last Hurrah:
The Battle of the Bulge.
II. Reality and Summertime in '84
The 99th remains today,
its delegates of cemetery stone:
lined up
in rows
with green and
sun about,
and Old Man
Patton, here as well.
Reality and myth abound --
befittingly, to swirl around
(or perhaps surround!)
the delegates of cemetery stone --
mischievous mists, the honey-vapors of a summer's day,
mischievous mists, dispersed amidst the stones and flowers,
mischievous mists, of green and gray
refining,
bringing
clouds
where crystal clarity prevailed
in early May, in newborn light,
when red and orange stains had dawned,
while Europe gently, sweetly stirred
and prosperously yawned.
June 15, 1986
"Ardennes" appeared in John E. Xavier, Voices from Old Europe, (Minneapolis, MN: The Author, 1986), p.15.
