John Gimlette - Panther Soup: Travels Through Europe in War and Peace

Deeply moving Panther Soup is an important book. It is at once raw and erudite. Its also rich in black humor and insight. We must never forget the debt we owe to men like Putnam Flint.

The Guardian (London)

Gimlette crafts ripe, rich, witty prose and is clearly a natural-born storyteller.

San Francisco Chronicle

A moving, often humorous, and thoroughly enjoyable account that works as both a wartime recollection and a travelogue. Gimlette strikes just the right notes in juxtaposing the past and present. He has provided a fine chronicle with broad appeal to general readers.

Booklist

Gimlette will become one of those writers you will search out. Youll wish you could read everything he writes, for he does so with wit, enthusiasm, empathy, an eye to historical accuracy and fairness.

The Decatur Daily

An original travel book, written in vigorous prose and exhaustively researched. It has at its heart a profound understanding of the soupthe chaos and madnessof war.

The Daily Telegraph (London)

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JOHN GIMLETTE
PANTHER SOUP

John Gimlette has won the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize and the Wanderlust Travel Writing Award, and he writes regularly for The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and Cond Nast Traveller. When not traveling, he practices law in London, where he lives with his family.

www.johngimlette.com

FIRST VINTAGE DEPARTURES EDITION, APRIL 2009

Copyright 2008 by John Gimlette

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain as Panther Soup: A European Journey in War and Peace by Hutchinson, an imprint of the Random House Group Ltd., London, and subsequently published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2008.

Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Departures and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows: Gimlette, John, 1963

Panther soup : travels through Europe in war and peace / John Gimlette. 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
1. Gimlette, John, 1963 TravelEurope, Western. 2. Flint, PutnamTravelEurope, Western. 3. United States. Army. Tank Destroyer Battalion, 824th. 4. World War, 19391945Europe, Western. 5. Europe, WesternDescription and travel. I. Title.
D967.G56 2008
2008921830

eISBN: 978-0-307-80636-9

Author photograph Michael Trevillion

www.vintagebooks.com

v3.1

To my father, Dr T.M.D. Gimlette

The Vieux Port, Marseille, 1943 (ECPA, DAT 571, L14; Photo: Gebauer)

Nancy Wake, 1934 (Courtesy of Nancy Wake)

Nancy at her 94th birthday

Marseille (Bundes Archiv, Bild 101 l, 27/1474, 27; Photo: Venneman)

Simon Sabiani (LAPI/Bibliotheque Nationale Paris)

Destruction of Le Panier district, Marseille, 1943 (ECPA, DAM 1414, L6; Photo: Weber)

Le Panier district, 2007

Liberation of Marseille, 1944 (NARA)

Charlie Kennedy

Charlie Kennedy with his medals

Putnam Flint with his brother (Courtesy of Putnam Flint)

Putnam Flint, 1942 (Courtesy of Putnam Flint)

The 824th Tank Destroyers (Courtesy of Putnam Flint)

Bunker on the plains of Lorraine

US half-track

Church at Guiderkirche

The church after bombardment

La Rue de la Huchette, Paris

German Army in front of Notre Dame

Liberation of Paris (NARA)

Winter in Lorraine

The Hellcat (NARA)

Putnam Flint on the citadel at Bitche

The Neckar Valley

Ruins of Heilbronn

War memorial, Heilbronn

Putnam Flint in Heilbronn

War memorials in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

German POWs

Josef Ratzinger, 1943 (PA Photos)

Manfred Rommel, aged 15 (Courtesy of Manfred Rommel)

Manfred Rommel, 2007

Olympic Stadium, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

US Army in the Alps (US Army Photograph)

The Leutasch Valley

Putnam Flints father, 1906 (Courtesy of Putnam Flint)

Putnam Flint and his grandson

Putnam Flint with a marksmans drillinger

The Main Street, Innsbruck

Tirolean Austrians

Bruno Grossman, 2007

Bruno Grossman, 1945

The beach at Oberhofen (inset: Putnam Flint)

The Oberhofen Schtzenfest (inset: WW2 rifles & Alfred Kirchmair and his niece)

The summit of Hohe Munde

The author on Hohe Munde

Putnam Flint as portrayed by a concentration camp survivor

Unless otherwise attributed, all photographs are from the authors collection. Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to make good in any future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

Badge of the Tank Destroyers (The Panthers)

Air Chief Marshall Sir Lewis Hodges

The Jeanne dArc, Marseille

North African chestnut-seller, Saint Michel, Paris

Beggar near Madeleine

The view from the Hogsback

Earthworks of the Maginot Line

Town Hall, Bitche

View from Bad Wimpfen

Bavarians

Schloss Bchenhausen

All sketches are by the author

The authors route through France, Germany and Austria

Marseille

Lorraine and Alsace

South-west Germany and Heilbronn

The Inn Valley, the Tyrol, Austria

I would like to thank the following for their help with this book.

In France Pascale Gautier-Keogh at the British Consulate, Marseille, Charles Allard, the Bentebackh brothers, Bernard Meyran (who now lives in the old Gestapo Headquarters, Marseille), Francine Huber of Lupstein, Mr Horace Thompson of the US Military Cemetery of St Avold, M. and Mme Ren Neu and Arsne Kirschner of Rohrbach-ls-Bitche, M. and Mme Arthur Steiner of Glasenberg, Alexandre Leininger, Mme Andre Cuisse, and Pierre and Chantal Mazoyer of Bitche.

In Germany Dr Manfred Rommel, Martin and Ester Keutner, Philipp Lepenies, Marc Rieppel, Dr Ann-Katrin Rupf, Dr and Mrs Johne, Linda Borchert (of the German National Tourist Office, London), York Beerman and Birgit Bliesener of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and Alexandra Kern of the Hotel Aschenbrenner in Partenkirchen.

In Austria Frau Gertl Schenk, Trude Harmer, Alfred Kirchmaier and Martha and Hermann Fger of Oberhofen, Veronika and Georg Haider of Gries im Sellrain, Heike Bruckner at the Oberhofen Alm, Wolfgang Kozk, Rudy Larcher, Johann Pfeifhofer, Rudolf Wille, Ulrich, Richard and Helmut Schlgl, and particularly Peter Schlgl for all his help and introductions in Innsbruck.