When the cadets embarked on an evening crossing of the English Channel toward Normandy, they were each handed a copy of the letter that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower presented to the troops who made the same crossing to mount the D-Day invasion. In part, Eisenhower’s letter read: “In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. We will accept nothing less than full victory!” With Eisenhower’s words fresh in their minds, the cadets prepared to begin their battlefield tour.
A place among heroes Military historian John Keegan’s book “The Face of Battle” gave rise to the name for the ride and provided the conceptual framework for a semesterlong study of six major European battles that span more than 600 years, including the medieval battle of Agincourt, Waterloo, the Battle of Somme, the Battle of Britain, the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. “Keegan looks at battle through the experience of the individual — what the individual soldier faces in combat,” Wettemann says. “So we’re trying to take his framework and overlay it with everything we’re doing with the cadets.”
Each cadet presented graveside memorials for soldiers from his home state who are buried in either the American Cemetery in Normandy or the Luxembourg American Cemetery. C2C Charles Estep researched a paratrooper from the 101st Airborne, Warren Muck, who enlisted when he was only 17. Muck rose through the ranks to sergeant, fighting at Normandy, the Netherlands, and finally the Battle of the Bulge, where he died in a German artillery barrage near Foy. Standing beside Muck’s grave in the Luxemburg American Cemetery, Estep said, “His sacrifice will not be forgotten, while his position is surely earned in this place among heroes.” A band of brothers History department instructors Grotelueschen and Wettemann set the stage for the trip with assigned reading of scholarly works by Keegan, Philpott, Wells and other military historians. Additional pretrip preparation also included watching movies like “The Longest Day,” “Waterloo,” “Henry V,” “Band of Brothers” and “Saving Private Ryan.” When the group visited Sainte Marie du Mont, the first French village liberated by Allied troops following the Normandy invasion, they posed in front of the village war memorial, recreating a famous black-and-white photo taken in 1944 of the men of Easy Company from the 101st Airborne. The photo also inspired a scene from the TV miniseries, “Band of Brothers.” Following a fine thread through one of history’s endless footnotes, the “band of brothers” title harkens back to William Shakespeare in 1599 as he recounts the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, France, in his play “Henry V.” At Agincourt, King Henry V led a sick and diminished band of 6,000 British soldiers against an army of more than 20,000 French knights and infantrymen. Although King Henry and his men were outnumbered three to one, his archers unleashed deadly clouds of arrows that were said to have blotted out the sun, leading to the defeat of the French knights who were bogged down by heavy armor Checkpoints · September 2017 · 75