[Bananafish] Roots of the ever ...

[terry cordwell]

Kenneth - can I ask how you know all of this?

Terry


>From: "Kenneth" <kenny2 at verizon.net>
>Reply-To: bananafish list <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
>To: <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
>Subject: Re: [Bananafish] Roots of the ever ...
>Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:24:34 -0500
>
>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.
>
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