Exposing the Third Reich: Colonel Truman Smith in Hitler’s Germany

2. Over There

17 2 over There My head will be very high after the war, when I say, “I’ve been in the Infantry.” —Truman Smith, letter to Kay, 9 June 1918 The war years of 1917–1918 were a formative time for Truman. His marriage to Kay began a long and loving relationship that was also a professional partnership. Her charm, wit, and high intelligence enabled her to keep pace with her talented husband as he matured and became first a good soldier and later a skilled reporter and analyst . His personal qualities, sound education, social connctions, and diligence enabled him to perform well and brought him to the attention of superiors. The brutal combat of 1918 was life-altering. Recognition as a brave leader resulted in a staff job in Coblenz and later assignment to the American Embassy in Berlin that put him on the path to expertise in matters German. Kay adjusted to life in the army and matured rapidly. She accompanied him in frequent moves early in their marriage, did volunteer work for soldiers in transit to France, and rejoiced when she joined him in Germany after a long separation to remain at his side for over fifty years. Katharine Alling Hollister was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, on 1 January 1898, but living in the big city in her formative years and going to school there made her the quintessential New Yorker of a certain class—a type admired and envied by some and disliked, even despised, by others. Truman wrote that his wife had a first-rate education at Miss Spence’s school in New York City. She was gifted at languages and knew a great deal about art, music, literature, and botany. Her parents had been to Europe on at least two extended trips before the Great War and were cultivated people. Close reading of her writings and attention to her life reveal that Kay was certainly privileged, but she was also an intelligent observer and insightful On 14 July 1917, Katharine Alling Hollister married Truman at her father’s summer house in Greenport, New York. Truman was promoted to captain, after two years of service, on the same day. It had taken his father sixteen years to make captain. The married couple was whisked from Orient Point to New London, Connecticut, in a mahogany powerboat provided by the Fish family. (Courtesy of Katharine Smith Coley and family.) over There 19 reporter. She was a good listener, attentive to national and international issues, and adept at polite conversation even as a child. The Smiths’ was a marriage of equals. In addition to the affection they had for each other, Kay admired and respected Truman’s analytical skills and his ability to articulate complex arguments in speech and in writing. She supported him in his work, tended to his personal well-being, and protected his reputation. He found in her a loving wife and devoted mother of their treasured daughter as well as a reliable sounding board for his ideas and opinions. Kay’s father, George Trowbridge Hollister, moved to New York City from New Jersey and purchased a summer retreat at Greenport, on the northern fork of Long Island that ends at nearby Orient Point. Despite some setbacks in 1907 and 1914, Hollister had a successful career on Wall Street. Katharine and Truman were married at the Hollister retreat in Greenport on 14 July 1917. The Fishes, a distinguished New York family that produced, among others, Hamilton, the sixteenth governor of New York, a U.S. senator, and secretary of state under President Grant, provided a mahogany powerboat to whisk bride and groom away from Greenport, around Orient Point, and on to New London, Connecticut, to begin a honeymoon and life as an army couple. Smith observed, “It was a strange coincidence that I was promoted to captain on the very day I was married.” That was two years after his graduation from Yale, when he had been just about a year in uniform. In contrast, it had taken his father sixteen years from his graduation from West Point to his promotion to captain, the rank he held when he was killed in combat in 1900 with twentyone years of army service, not counting four years at the Military Academy as a cadet. The Great War saw a vast expansion of the U.S. Army in 1917 and 1918, as it was reconfigured...