Mary Louise Roberts - Sheer Misery: Soldiers in Battle in WWII

Mary Louise Roberts

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO AND LONDON

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2021 Mary Louise Roberts

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN -13: 978-0-226-75314-0 (cloth)

ISBN -13: 978-0-226-75328-7 (e-book)

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226753287.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Roberts, Mary Louise, author.

Title: Sheer misery : soldiers in battle in WWII / Mary Louise Roberts.

Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020039055 | ISBN 9780226753140 (cloth) | ISBN 9780226753287 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH : United States. ArmyInfantryHealth and hygiene. | Great Britain. ArmyInfantryHealth and hygiene. | World War, 19391945Health aspectsEurope, Western. | SoldiersHealth and hygieneUnited States. | SoldiersHealth and hygieneGreat Britain. | World War, 19391945CampaignsItaly. | World War, 19391945CampaignsBelgium.

Classification: LCC D 810. H 4 R 63 2021 | DDC 940.54/7520973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039055

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z 39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

For Elizabeth

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Theodore Roethke

Marching victoriously across France with his infantry regiment in 1944, GI Leroy Stewart had neither death nor glory on his mind. Instead he was worried about his underwear. I ran into a new problem when we walked... the shorts and I didnt get along. They would crawl up on me all the time. Complaints like Stewarts pervade infantry memory of the European theater of operations during World War II, whether the soldier was British, American, German, or French. Wet, freezing misery with no end in sightthis was life for millions of infantrymen in Europe. Creeping underwear may have been a small price to pay for the liberation of millions of people. And yet, in the wretchedness of the moment, soldiers like Stewart lost sight of that end.

Like death, misery exercised perfect equality, taking no side. Officers planned the battles; foot soldiers suffered them. As a result, officers and infantrymen had different views of the soldiers body. Snow, ice and cold were more brutal enemies than the Germans, noted Major General Ernest Harmon of the cold in the Ardennes. By the end of the battle Jack Frost had put more than twice as many of my soldiers in the hospital as German guns.