[Bananafish] Roots of the ever ...

[Kenneth]

Related or not, I'm going to tell you an agonizing story. It recounts events 
far less uplifting than bathroom diary entries and far blacker than the 
wings of seraphim. Personally, I believe that such accounts (if not this one 
in particular) may have everything to do with Salinger writing 
"Bananafish" - or at least lends a fascinating dimension to the 
possibilities involved.
Three days after D-Day, Salinger experienced his first true taste of combat. 
His Regiment had been lured into an intractable position by the Germans, 
wedged between an enemy strongpoint at the village of Émondeville and the 
guns of the fortress of Azeville. Here, the Germans bombarded them on two 
sides. Salinger found himself on his belly, his Company pinned down before 
Émondeville where they were outnumbered two-to-one (Salinger's estimate is 
actually higher). Under relentless machine gun and mortar fire, desperate 
and unable to withdraw, the soldiers were forced to rush the German defenses 
regardless of the odds. They were, of course, cut down each time. After 
scrambling to collect the dead and wounded, they would storm the position 
yet again, only to gain a few miserable feet at terrible cost. For over two 
days and nights, Salinger's Company repeatedly hurled themselves against the 
enemy until the Germans silently withdrew.
This is the battle that Salinger details in his story, "The Magic Foxhole." 
It welded the men of his Regiment and Company together as a brotherhood. It 
was baptism by fire. The daily regimental report reveals the magnitude of 
the slaughter. They had lost three hundred men. The Regiment had sacrificed 
one in ten of their own to take a village whose entire population numbered 
less than a hundred. Again Salinger's numbers for his Company are far 
higher.
All this is prelude to my point, which I offer here for the only time. I 
will never publish my findings and will deny its validity like hell if ever 
pressed.
After the carnage, Salinger proceeded noth toward Montebourg. But his 
Company was determined to track down the Germans who had fled Émondeville. 
Entering the village of .Joganville the following day, they captured a large 
number of German soldiers who they found in dissarray. Convinced that these 
were the same soldiers who had tortured them at Émondeville, the Company 
exacted a ferocious revenge. They executed the Germans to the last man.
A letter written by Salinger two days later shows him broken.