Morning Thoughts: War

My thoughts this morning begin with Pearl Harbor and shift to the Battle of the Bulge, particularly to a sad unit from Camp Robinson, AR, near where I live. Two memories stand out. The first is from a stranger whose statement appears in “The American Experience”:

“Our Infantry training regiment at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, was about halfway through its 17-week training cycle in late December, 1944, when we fell out for roll call one morning and half the men weren't there. We found out later that members of Companies A and B had been shipped to what became known as the Battle of the Bulge (presumably during the night). I was in D Company and we and C Company remained. We finished training and, because the European war was winding down by then, we all were sent to the Pacific theater, where I stayed for another 18 months, but fortunately missed combat.”

M.H.

Highland Park, IL

The second I heard many times from my father-in-law, the Late Robert Julius Cole, a rifleman in the 313^th Regiment of the 79^th Infantry Division. He told how his unit was pulled from the front lines a short time before the Germans launched their attack on December 16, 1944 during one of the coldest winters ever recorded in eastern France. His unit was replaced, he said, by “some boys from Camp Robinson,” who were ill-trained and had never seen battle. The unit was virtually destroyed on the first day of the offensive. “They never knew what hit them and what was left of the unit was sent back home.” He always maintained that the Germans knew, somehow, that a green unit had replaced a seasoned one at that precise spot.

This was a little over four years from the day Pearl Harbor suffered the surprise attack. Who knew on December 7, 1941 how many young men would be thrown into the meat grinder of war before it all ended?

"I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve," – is a line by the character playing Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto in the American film Tora! Tora! Tora!, based on the Pearl Harbor attack. There is no evidence that the admiral ever said it, but it was a great bit of screenplay. What Yamamoto did write, however, was, "This war will give us much trouble in the future. The fact that we have had a small success at Pearl Harbor is nothing. The fact that we have succeeded so easily has pleased people. I do not think it is a good thing to whip up propaganda to encourage the nation. People should think things over and realize how serious the situation is."

We should all, perhaps, memorize that line.

Awakening a giant?