~ Peephole ~

by

Joel Galloway

The 34^th Infantry Division, which included the local reserve unit from Carrollton, was moving out also. No one knew where, but the letters from the local reservists, now stationed in England, all said the same thing: “We are packing up. I'll let you know something when I can.” After that, there was a long period of no letters from anyone; then in early November the newspaper and radio began to provide some possible clues. The Allied invasion of North Africa had begun on November 8^th. The military units involved were not mentioned at the time, but people in Iowa and Minnesota communities hung on to every bit of news they could receive regarding what was called “Operation Torch.”

In his early December‘42 Fireside Chat, FDR told America that at long last the United States had joined the war in Europe and that the Allies were taking the offensive and the war to North Africa, but still there was no news regarding the reserve units. At the end of his news broadcast, he confirmed that the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England had joined the Royal Air Force in bombing critical industrial targets in Germany.

What FDR did not include in his Fireside Chat to America that evening was the most profound event to take place in the development of science in the history of man.

At 3:25 p.m. December 2, 1942, atomic power, the energy of the sun, was produced, kept under control and then stopped. This feat took place in a squash court beneath the stands of an unused football stadium at the University of Chicago. The scientist who led the achievement was Enrico Fermi, and the course of world events would be altered forever. Ammann was one of the few to learn of this event and he reported it to Colonel Mueller before Christmas.

~ * ~

The first real clue as to how the invasion of North Africa was really going arrived in Jamie’s hometown on the 13^th of December. He and Bern saw a dark green car with a US Army decal on its door pull up and stop in front of the O’Brien home. Two army men along with Father O'Neal got out of the car and went up to the house to tell Mrs. O’Brien that two of her four sons were killed in action and a third, her oldest, was severely injured. He was on a hospital ship lying somewhere off the coast of Algiers.

Sitting in her living room sobbing and trying numerous times to speak, Mrs. O’Brien only after a few moments of silence was able to ask the two men in army uniforms, “W-would you please show me on a map where Algiers is located so I can tell Mr. O’Brien when he comes home?”

This kind of news became commonplace for the next few weeks as many men from the local reserve were reported dead, wounded or missing-in-action. This was the same old Guard unit everyone remembered; practicing drill on Monday evenings in the town square, they used shovel handles for guns and WW I helmets for uniforms. Each earned a dollar for two hours of drill, which included a flanking charge at the local Civil War monument and cannon. The most combat that any of them had seen before North Africa was flood duty on the Missouri River and strikebreaking guard duty at the Swift meatpacking plant in Sioux City.

The grieving families in this small Iowa community did not know it at the time, but the unit was never split apart and reassigned to different units within the 34^th Infantry. Almost all of them were killed at the same time and in the same area. They tried to go ashore carrying eighty-pound packs in rough surf from landing craft driven by inexperienced coxswains who got lost and missed their landing site on the Algerian coast. The Vichy French quickly killed those who did not drown in landing on the beaches during the early light of a dawn attack. The ones who lived through the initial landing would eventually face Field Marshal Irwin Rommel’s Africa Korps. Two and a half months later the 168^th Infantry, Iowa’s finest, would be obliterated in what would be called the Battle of Kasserine Pass. They had received no training in landing on the beaches and had had no preparation for desert warfare.

Carrollton and many other communities in the state, particularly Red Oak, Iowa, were devastated by the losses. A newspaperman from the Register was quoted as saying, “So many and all from just a handful of communities.” 

Eventually it would be reported that the 34^th did not have the training and the necessary combat preparation for the mission on which they had been sent. Because they were the first called up, they were the first sent to Europe and the first sent into combat. As the truth eventually came out during and after the war, the sorrow and grief, along with the pride, would change to anger. One father said it best, “These were just kids and young men who during the bad times of the Depression joined the Guard to make a buck. All they had to do was show up on a Monday night. Now they are all dead. Nazi Germany didn’t kill these kids, our government did.”

The months of November and December were so cold and bleak that year that it seemed the gods too were in mourning. Normally the ground was covered with snow by Thanksgiving or the first week of December at the latest; the weather would include a good number of sunny twenty and even thirty-degree days, with light snow every so often keeping things clean and white. You could always see children sledding during the daytime, and adult or family groups caroling in the evenings. Farmers would bring their horses and sleighs into town providing sleigh rides throughout the holiday season.

This year there was no snow and the skies were continually overcast with daytime temperatures always near or below zero. The low temperatures and strong winds kept almost everyone indoors. The Christmas season, which had always been a major part of community life for these people, even in the poorest of times, now left many at a loss for what to say or do.

Although Jamie was just thirteen, he understood what had happened to many of his friends and neighbors, but he grappled for the first time with the real concept of war and the pain and hatred it brought. Mrs. Zimmerman, seeing his sadness, took time to talk with him about how hard it had been for her when she was young and lived in Germany during World War I. “Jamie, when there is war, like right now, bad things happen that seem almost impossible to believe or understand. I was just twenty-four when they came and told my mother and me that my father had been killed on the Western Front. It was somewhere in France. Five days later, they came back and told us that my brother, Hans, had been killed also. He was there with my father. They did not want to join the Wehrmacht. Some men just came by one day and took both of them away. Hans was only sixteen, just a little younger than your brother. We have no idea where or how they were buried. I want to believe they were laid side-by-side.

“With no one to provide for my mother and me, we went hungry and without fuel many times until Mr.Zimmerman came along after the war. I was twenty-nine, he was forty-three. Life was very hard.” Jamie listened and watched what was happening around him, soaking up everything like a sponge.

What bothered Jamie the most was that Mrs. Buchight had invited Ammann for Thanksgiving dinner, and now she had done the same for Christmas. He knew something had to be done to make people see that he was a Nazi spy. But, what? He was sure that if he brought it up again at home he would be out of a job.

Christmas Eve midnight mass found Jamie, along with fourteen other altar boys, serving mass with Father O’Neal at St Joseph. The church was full as always, but Jamie could sense that everything was different this year. The choir sang beautifully and everything looked and sounded like Christmas, but the grief within the parish was so palpable; no one could ignore the sadness and tears during the mass.

Father O’Neal, knowing how difficult this time was for everyone and that he had to do something to help his parish work its way through its grief, kept the sermon to a minimum. He asked all of the Blue Star Mothers to stand and called on the parish to pray with him for the safety of their children. Jamie, standing up at the altar looking out at the congregation, counted thirty-seven mothers standing.

Father then solemnly asked the Gold Star Mothers to please rise and called on the parish to pray with him for the souls of these brave young people and their families. Slowly, one by one, mothers began to stand as a hush fell over the congregation. Jamie started to count the number in this group but when he got to number fourteen, he stopped and stared. He just looked at Mildred; he could not believe it. He did not want to believe it, and then he noticed that she was alone. Judy, who always went to church with her in-laws, was missing.

Father O’Neal, looking at the group starting to stand, saw her immediately. At first, he was too dumbfounded to think of what to do, but continuing to look at her, he said aloud, “Oh Mildred, I’m so sorry.” The last few days he had been in the homes of the other mothers, but this was a new blow to him and the entire congregation. Millie Lambert was standing, which meant that Dan was dead.

Jamie could see that his own mother was visibly shaken, for she had grown up with the Lamberts living next door, and Millie’s younger sister Frances had been his mom’s best friend and bridesmaid; his mom and Judy had become especially close. The congregation turned to see to whom the priest was talking, and upon seeing Millie Lambert on her feet, tears streaming silently down her cheeks, all voiced their own shock. Just how bad can things get? thought Jamie as he stood there crying, not knowing what else to do. Jamie’s mom was crying, too, and that made things even worse.

After mass, Jamie’s mom and dad hurried to meet Millie Lambert as she was coming out of the church and learned that they had gotten the news mid-morning on Christmas Eve.

Hugging Jamie’s mom and sobbing, Millie said, “Dan’s plane went down somewhere in Southern France. German Messerschmitts shot Dan’s and three other planes out of the air as they were returning from a bombing raid into Southern Germany. There were few parachutes reported and none from Dan’s plane. He’s officially listed as missing and presumed dead.” 

Millie told them that she just had to get out of the house, so she walked to church. She had made George stay with Judy, who was at their house with the baby. Crying, she grabbed Jamie’s mom's hand tightly and said, “I didn't know what to do when Father O'Neal asked the Gold Star Mothers to stand. I guessed that meant me, so I stood, because I'm so incredibly proud of Dan. Judy is being stoic, as expected. She and Dan had talked a lot about this possibility, and she knows what he expects of her. General Willis, Dan’s commanding officer and friend, called from England and talked with Judy for quite awhile.”

Jamie’s dad offered to give Millie a ride home, but she insisted on walking, even though it was three above zero and one o’clock in the morning. She said she needed to walk, but did agree to let Jamie’s brother Al walk with her. Jamie and his mom and dad stood there and watched her take Al’s arm and head down the sidewalk into the darkness and home.

The ride home from church was quiet as everyone was engrossed in his or her own thoughts. When they got home, Jamie went into his bedroom and looked at the picture, stuck into the corner edges of the mirror, of Lt. Colonel Dan Lambert with Al, Floyd and himself. He could hear his mother crying in the kitchen and saw his dad just sitting there with her, awkwardly patting her arm; he stayed in his room until Al got home. He did get the crystal radio kit he wanted, but somehow it did not seem that important anymore. He was glad when it was time to go to bed.