I had always wanted, in theory, to go through these tiny books that I looked at briefly at my cousin John Gee’s house on the West Coast. But I didn’t have time to examine them further—you know, we never do.
But I was inspired after seeing my Clarksville friend Holly Stadtler’s PBS production of “The Green Box,” about the diaries of a war veteran discovered by his son.
So John and his wife Susan Rumsey agreed to send some of the diaries of Fred B. Gee to me just a few months ago.
When they arrived I was wondering how I was going to read them. The handwriting was clear, but it was very small, and my vision has been getting worse.
Well, I found an app for my iPad called “Pen to Print” that can take cursive handwriting and translate it into printed text. It is far from perfect, and a lot of the clearly written pages produce fairly garbled text. But it was good enough that I could get the point of his notes.
The diaries follow him from his entry into the Army in 1942 through his voyage across the ocean to his stationing in England, France, Belgium and Germany past V-E (Victory in Europe) Day in 1945.
My uncle appears to have worked mainly as a supply sergeant near the front, rather than out in the field through most of the war. But he frequently describes the bombings, the fireworks and the historic events going on around him as the war progressed.
But I have to admit I did not get many first-hand battle accounts I might have seen in a war movie. No hand-to-hand combat or life and death rescues from foxholes. No John Wayne.
In fact, most of the accounts are of daily barracks life and the men he went to war with.
And there are some references to love: “ Geneva Lee's letters are increasingly sweet and they now have priority over all except Dad's - in opening and answering. I've let all friends and relatives know how I feel toward her - and everyone heartily approves.
There is passage after passage of good times with our English relatives and tourist sites such as Stonehenge and Kaiser Wilhelm’s destroyed statue in Germany. You’d think the war was great fun.
But there is one entry in 1945 that stands out. He says that military censors had banned soldiers’ diaries and that he would face court martial if he wrote any more. Understandably, the brass were afraid the enemy would get ahold of the diaries and a soldier would give away positions and battle plans. Yet, he did continue writing in smaller books but with more innocuous messages.
So I may never know what really happened. John recounts his father telling him toward the end of the war in Germany that he had to step over many dead German soldiers, but I could find nothing in the diaries about that.
Here are some good examples though of memorable moments in the war:
--New York: “We march from our section to the depot, thousands of us, with a 130-pound load on our backs. The bands were all lined up, playing martial music.”
--On the Atlantic: “We are jammed everywhere on board like in the slave trade before Civil War days. We were in the lower level and nervous about torpedoes.”
--England: “Events are swinging toward the invasion day. Last night an estimated 150 German planes rained bombs around us and a German plane crashed near us and the pilot was apparently uninjured and hiding somewhere nearby.
--France: “We got hopelessly lost and found ourselves in the heart of Paris (before other Americans) with people mobbing us and kissing us and shaking hands.”
--Belgium: “A Canadian bomber crashed in flames into a house after the German night fighters hit a huge, allied formation. We saw tracers and heard the roar of a 2,000-odd formation and then suddenly the bombers fell, turning into flames, and four airmen and five civilians were killed.”
--Germany: “We crossed the river on a pontoon bridge and a buzz bomb hit right behind me and blew some apartments sky high. The shock was terrific.”
--Germany: “We saw hundreds of German soldiers being checked in as prisoners from the front. We saw a big airfield full of German planes, some wrecked but most in good flying condition but no gas.”
--May 8, 1945: “The greatest day in European history, meaning the end of six years of vicious warfare.”
My uncle was an extrovert and enjoyed others’ company. I don’t think he came out of it badly damaged. But I can’t believe the war was one big moving party as the diary seems to convey in parts I left out.
The biggest thing I got out of these diaries was the resumption of a close bond I had with this man over the years. As a toddler, I used to follow him around the house. Once he took me with him as he called on businesses as an insurance salesman.
He had always wanted to be a journalist, and when I went into that profession, he sent me letters several times a week along with local newspaper clippings before he died in 1981. His writing was superb, in the style of the famous San Francisco columnist Herb Caen. Man, if he was still alive I could have used him as a correspondent when I ran the Kiplinger California Letter.
Reading through these diaries brought back my memories of him. I was re-connecting with my favorite uncle all over again.
Then I thought: What was the purpose of these diaries? Was he writing just to let off steam? Was it a historic recording for posterity?
You know, I am even mentioned in them, first on my birth in 1942 and again on one of my birthdays.
Maybe he was writing these for me?
No comments:
Post a Comment