War Stories I Don't Believe
This is a story because they weren't there.
My hobby for years has been hearing war stories from friends and making notes about them.
Their remembrances are straightforward; ordinary men and women who did unordinary things in wartime. Sometimes their stories get a little exaggerated. Time enlarges memory.
There is one story I was told that went far beyond credulity. The man showed me a well-known photograph of General Eisenhower talking with the 101 Airborne Division just before D-Day in World War Two.
In the photo, he talks to First Lieutenant Wallace C. Stroble, in the charcoal blackened face and a tag with the number 23 on his chest.
The storyteller said, "The man General Eisenhower is talking with is Bill Mauldin, the cartoonist, and the man next to him with his face all black with charcoal and oil is me."
Two untruths were told in a row. Bill Mauldin served in the war but did not jump on D-Day, and our storyteller did not either.
The storyteller then showed me four charts marked "Top Secret." I asked how he got them. He said, "I wrapped them around my legs. The charts belonged to the southern invasion of France. The so-called "Soft Underbelly."
