Introduction
After the outbreak of World War 2, America was neutral until it was attacked on December 7, 1941. Since then, up until his death on April 30, 1945, millions of Americans had joined the cause to battle Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany in the world's bloodiest war in human history. For three grueling years, the United States of America, fuelled by its powerful industries at home, had mobilized sixteen million American people of all genders and races to battle her enemies and make the world safe for democracy. This story depicts America's important role in World War 2 and the story of how a young American boy becomes a man in wartime and how much he can take in a violent and bloody war. The story also generally describes how brave and courageous average Americans can be in the military. While the protagonist, Alvin "Brooklyn" Bloomfield, is indeed fictional, he represents what these average Americans are like at the start of World War 2: young, green, innocent, enthusiastic, strong and tough. But as he progresses in the war, he soon realizes what war is really about: losing friends, killing, and being used to fight the government's wars for unknown reasons.
This story is dedicated to the millions of American men and women who took up arms in the industry and military who survived to tell the tale and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who ultimately lost their lives, or their minds, against a fascist nation who threatened the safety of the world and the freedom of individual people.
By Julian Wilson
God Bless America
Baptism by Fire
On November 8, 1942, as the green men of the legendary United States 1st Infantry Division wade ashore onto the beaches of Oran, North Africa from their Higgins boats, they are met with heavy machine-gun fire from Vichy French soldiers in the cliffs high above them. Among these young American soldiers on the beach is 22-year-old Private Alvin "Brooklyn" Bloomfield of the Bronx, New York. Bloomfield's unit, 16th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Fox Company, 1st Infantry Division, is made up of the toughest city boys and farm folk the Army could find for the "Big Red One".
On that morning in Oran, Bloomfield and his fellow soldiers got their first taste of combat against the Vichy French, while many other American soldiers lost their lives in this first engagement. They all fought very bravely under intense small arms fire. When Fox Company was pinned down by two French machine guns in the cliffs, Bloomfield quickly took them out, showing incredible marksmanship and allowing the U.S. Soldiers to move up. The stunned French soldiers were forced to withdraw into the town, allowing elements of the 1st Armored Division to arrive safely on the beaches.
Over the next three months, Bloomfield and the 1st Infantry Division captured the neighboring Morocco and Algeria to eventually force the Vichy French Government to surrender to the Allies. It was a major victory for the Allies, and the Americans were overjoyed with their first victory in the North Africa Campaign. Bloomfield was not so sure that it was all over so soon, however. Indeed, the no longer green men of the 1st Infantry Division and the other U.S. Army units were about to face a new nation with a strong battle-hardened army and an incredible and foremost strategist who threatened to turn the tide of the war against the untested U.S. Army and crush it.
The Desert Fox
February 19, 1943. The U.S. 1st Armored Division, under the command of the incompetent and careless General Lloyd Fredendall, engaged the infamous German Africa Korps commanded by the very experienced and intelligent Erwin Rommel nicknamed, "The Desert Fox", in Kasserine Pass. Rommel's expert Africa Korps crushes the 1st Armored Division when Fredendall separates his tanks and infantry from each other allowing Rommel to push them back fifty miles from the pass. This ultimately resulted in the first U.S. defeat on the Western Front and Fredendall's relief of command. Now it was the 1st Infantry Division's turn to fight Rommel and the Africa Korps. One month after Kasserine Pass, Private Alvin "Brooklyn" Bloomfield and the men of the 1st Infantry Division prepare to retake the lost ground at Kasserine. However, heavy fighting around the area shows the U.S. troops that the Germans would not give the ground back to them so quickly. Angry at the mounting casualties of U.S. troops, Bloomfield kills six German soldiers with his M1 Garand rifle. At that moment, a German swings his rifle at Bloomfield's head. He ducks and punches the German in the stomach then throws him down a small cliff onto some rocks. Suddenly, another German soldier wraps his arm around Bloomfield's neck, but he flips the German on his back and then repeatedly bashes his head with his rifle bringing his German kill ratio up to eight. Despite very heavy casualties, including some U.S. troops from the Big Red One's 26th regiment being taken prisoner, the 1st Infantry Division proved a match against The Desert Fox and the Africa Korps. General George S. Patton, who replaced Fredendall as the U.S. Commander, helped the 1st Infantry Division take the fight to the Germans, eventually forcing the Africa Korps to capitulate in May, 1943. Everywhere in Africa and the Unites States, Bloomfield and other Americans celebrated their first victory against the German war machine. But there was another goal that the Big Red One had to fight for that could turn the tide of the war on the Western Front: Italy.
Farewell to Friends
July 9, 1943. After their overwhelming victory over the German Army in North Africa, Private Alvin Bloomfield and the 1st Infantry Division prepares to invade the beaches of Western Italy. Instead of Germans, the Big Red One will be fighting the weak Italian Army commanded by ruthless dictator Benito Mussolini and Italian Army General Alfredo Guzoni. The following morning on July 10th, Bloomfield and the 1st Infantry Division landed on the beaches of Gela, smashing the Italian coastal defenses and securing a beachhead to move further inland. The next stop was Palermo, which fell on July 25. Messina was next, but the Germans arrived on the scene and made the Allies' time in Italy a living hell. Messina finally fell on August 17, 1943. Then the Italian Army officially capitulated on September 8 and the Germans ordered a fighting retreat to the Italian mainland. Now the Big Red One's last objective was to take the fortress city of Troina. During this battle and the entire campaign, Private Bloomfield constantly carried wounded soldiers back to the rear and fought very bravely among the rest of his brothers-in-arms, until he himself was shot and wounded in the stomach by a stray bullet after clearing out a German occupied house with a pineapple grenade at Troina. He also began suffering from severe cases of battle fatigue from seeing countless U.S. soldiers die in both Africa and Italy. He, as well as everyone else in the 1st Infantry Division, played an exceptional role in beating back the Italians and Germans far from the Italian coast and turning the tide of the war in favor of the Allies. But now, their part in Italy was over and the Big Red One was pulled out of Italy entirely. While other U.S. Army units continue the campaign in Italy, Bloomfield and the Big Red One were going to a country that could ultimately and fatefully decide the outcome of the entire war: France.
The Great Crusade
June 6, 1944. A massive allied naval fleet waits off the coast of Normandy, France to launch a full-scale invasion along five beaches in order to liberate all of France from Nazi Germany in this new campaign. The Americans' 1stInfantry Division and untested 29th Infantry Divisions will attack at Omaha beach, while the 4th Infantry Division attacks Utah beach down the line followed closely by the 4th Armored Division. Paratroopers of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions have already dropped behind enemy lines to support the landings at Utah beach. Alvin Bloomfield, now promoted to Corporal, will join the thousands of replacement soldiers at Omaha beach. On the morning of D-Day, Corporal Bloomfield lowers himself from a troop transport ship onto his Higgins boat with his comrades and notices the replacements praying and speaking Latin. Then at 6:00 a.m., the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions began the assault on Omaha beach. The landings were a terrible shock for all the soldiers as they came under murderous MG42 88mm and small arms fire from the German's Atlantic Wall. There were horrible casualties and morale was rapidly falling. Still, Bloomfield helped critically wounded soldiers to the rear of the beach to be treated by medics and then joined Fox Company further up the beach and planted Bangalore rods on a barbed wire obstacle to destroy it. Then the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions set up a beachhead and began pushing inland. After two months of heavy fighting, the Big Red One liberated Paris on August 25. Two months later, they moved into Germany and captured Aachen on October 21. Bloomfield and his friends were convinced the war would end very soon. But Bloomfield's battle fatigue had reached a breaking point and he often broke down sobbing uncontrollably. It seemed the war would draw to a close and everyone in the Big Red One believed they would go back home.
The Last Train
December 16, 1944. Three German Armies totaling 290,000 soldiers launched a massive counter-offensive against weak American lines in Belgium, Luxemburg and France. Now Corporal Alvin Bloomfield, the 1st Infantry Division and many other U.S. Army units were called to meet this attack. The Germans advanced all over the Ardennes forest capturing thousands of G.I.s including 7,000 men from the 106th Infantry Division defending St. Vith. Worse still, the entire 101st Airborne Division was surrounded at Bastogne and cut off. The Big Red One was thrown headlong against the Germans to drive them back from the Ardennes. The next day on December 17, SS guards mercilessly executed 84 out of 120 captured U.S. soldiers of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion at Malmedy. When U.S. military commanders learned of the massacre, they ordered all German soldiers to be shot on the spot even if they tried to surrender. Bloomfield was particularly distraught by the news, because his best friend, Harry Greene, was in the same unit and was among the dead at Malmedy. Bloomfield's battle fatigue seemed incurable after this incident. He and the Big Red One were ordered to hold an old train station from a Tiger tank attack. Bloomfield's unit held them off using Panzershreks and Panzerfausts lying around the station. By its end, Bloomfield's unit had lost half their men killed or wounded. Out of 5 trains at the station, only 1 was left heavily damaged. The last train was used to ferry supplies to other American units. 10 minutes later, Sherman Tanks from the 2nd Armored Division arrived to relieve the Big Red One. Now, Bloomfield and the 1st Infantry Division could rest for the moment. But the battle was far from over.
The Dragon's Teeth
January 19, 1945. American reserve units in France have arrived to take the fight back to the Germans. General George Patton's Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, relieved the exhausted 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne in late December. Since then, German tanks have been dangerously running out of fuel and beginning to surrender in mass numbers. The 1st Infantry Division was attached to the Third Army and moved up the line. Then the troops learned that U.S. soldiers had executed sixty German POWs at Chenogne on January 1 as revenge for the Malmedy massacre. Corporal Alvin Bloomfield and the 1st Infantry Division were now advancing on the much feared Siegfried Line connecting the borders of Belgium and Germany. The Siegfried Line had formidable defenses called "Dragon's Teeth" to prevent Allied armor from getting through. The men of the Big Red One came under tremendous MG42 and 88mm fire as they became bogged down in front of the Siegfried Line. Corporal Bloomfield had then volunteered to clear a barbed wire obstacle with wire cutters so the division could move up. Suddenly, he found himself under fire from German Artillery and tried to run back to his squad mates, but was knocked off his feet by a German shell landing right behind him. As he tried to get up and run again, another shell landed right underneath him, sending him 20 feet in the air and breaking his arms. By the time a medic frantically tried to revive him, it was too late. Alvin "Brooklyn" Bloomfield was dead. But he helped the 1st Infantry Division break through the seemingly invincible Siegfried Line and secure an open route into Germany itself. Alvin Bloomfield and the hundreds of thousands of U.S. Army G.I.s had bravely fought and sacrificed for their country in the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen.