When I first worked in France in 1984 I and my future wife visited Hagenau one chilly Sunday afternoon in Winter. Hagenau is right in the top corner of Alsace and France with a German border both to the East and the North. This is a lovely part of the world with beautiful villages in forested countryside. All the same I wondered what on earth we were doing wandering around this town where everything seemed closed on such a cold day and felt rather sorry for ourselves. A plaque revealed that Hagenau was one of those remote bits of France which remained in German hands until late in the war.
Twenty years later I happen to be watching Band of Brothers with only casual interest when they mention that they are trying to find a way of breaking down German defenses around Hagenau. Suddenly my attention is riveted on the program, this is not just television this is real history. Those young American soldiers who fought in Hagenau are now old but they didn’t spend just one chilly afternoon in Hagenau but months in trenches and dugouts, they didn’t go back as we did to a nice dinner in a centrally heated flat in Strasbourg.
Something like this brings it home just what those Veterans did for us
Many years ago when I was young and innocent my family attended the family picnic hosted by my uncle Bob.Well as the day went on us kids would engage in our usual horseplay and games.It was either hide and seek or tag or something along those lines. I remember running down the halway and bursting into his and aunt Laticia’s bedroom looking around the bed and underneath.When I arouse I found myself staring across his bed at the wall above a small table.On one side was a picture of his brothers (armymen as i remember back then).On the other was a patch enclosed in a modest black and gold frame. 506 E and a parachute I remember it so boldly. Not until Seeing Band of Brothers did understand what that patch ment or the sacrifices given by so many. My uncle Bob died a few years ago. He never spoke a word of war.Or did any of by elder relatives.Uncle Tom (british navy WWII) My Father (US Navy WWII pacific fleet)
Left by James on December 27th, 2008