The General and His Daughter: The War Time Letters of General James M. Gavin to his Daughter Barbara

Notes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ★ n o t e s ★ ........................................................... chapter 1: the call to war 1. Unable to repel the German invasion of May 1940, the government of France, then under Marshal Philippe Pétain, agreed to an armistice with Germany (and its ally, Italy). Seated in the town of Vichy (lending its name), Pétain’s government was more than a puppet of the Nazis—it was one of collaboration, with its support of Germany’s anti-Semitism and anti-communism. France’s colonies in Morocco followed the dictates of the Vichy government and resisted, with force, the Allied invasion of French North Africa in 1942 (Operation torch), surrendering after two days of fighting. 2. In War and Peace in the Space Age, Gavin wrote of West Point: ‘‘From the day I entered until I left, each minute there seemed to give me something. I left determined to repay her, my Spartan mother, for what she had given to me. I went forth to seek the challenge, to ‘move toward the sound of the guns,’ to go where danger was greatest, for there is where issues would be resolved and decisions made.’’ James M. Gavin, War and Peace in the Space Age (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), 35. 3. Paratroop officers were unofficially inducted into their unit with a ‘‘prop blast’’ ceremony. Part of the festivities included drinking from a ceremonial cup filled with a potent alcoholic punch (mimicking the strong blast of wind from the plane’s propellers as a paratrooper jumped out the door). Max, a boxer belonging to one of the 505’s officers, deserved his own special induction ceremony—with a big bowl of milk—because the dog, rigged with a special harness, actually made eight parachute jumps with the men. 4. While deployed, military personnel were encouraged to allot a portion of their pay for the support of their families. Automatically withdrawn and matched by a government allowance based on the number of dependents, the allotment, by arrangement with the recipient’s bank, was directly deposited to a family member’s bank account. chapter 2: operation husky — north africa 1. African flies hunted both the Allied and Axis troops; the quotes are from a German soldier, writing after the war about the North African campaign. Charles E. Pfannes and Victor A. Salamone, The Great Commanders of World War II, Volume I: The Germans (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 114–15. 2. V-mail was originated to conserve valuable cargo space and was purported to be faster than conventional mail. The small sheet, once mailed, was reduced to minute size onto microfilm within the military postal system and then enlarged to one-quarter of its original size (making the letter very difficult to read) at the recipient’s station prior to delivery. However, with V-mail opened and handled by everyone within the postal system, the contents of the letters were exposed to everyone and nothing could be enclosed with them. All packaged items, of course, had to be sent through the conventional mail system. 3. As the 505’s personnel officer, Al Ireland was tasked with assigning key regimental officers code names, and it was he who gave Gavin (and history) what would become Gavin’s well-known name of ‘‘Slim Jim,’’ naming him after a popular pretzel of the time—‘‘Slim Jim Pretzels.’’ Patrick K. O’Donnell, Beyond Valor: World War II’s Ranger and Airborne Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat (New York: Free Press, 2001), 43. 4. In his autobiography, On to Berlin, Gavin recalled Patton’s visit: ‘‘But the event that all of us remembered best was the send-off talk given us by General Patton. His talks on such occasions were usually quite good, earthy, and I was impressed. One thing he said always stuck with me, for it was contrary to what I had believed up to that moment, but when I had been in combat only a short while, I knew he was right. Speaking to all of us late one afternoon as we assembled in the North African sunset, he said, ‘Now I want you to remember that no sonuvabitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb sonuvabitch die for his country.’’’ James M. Gavin, On to Berlin: Battles of an American Commander, 1943–46 (New York: Viking Press, 1978), 9. 5. After purchasing two mules from the local natives, a team...