Episode Five: "FUBAR" - September 1944-December 1944, The War, A Ken Burns Film (Experiencing War, Veterans History Project, Library of Congress)

Experiencing War (Companion to the PBS Series -- The War: A Ken Burns Film) Stories from the Veterans History Project

Episode Five: “FUBAR”
September 1944 - December 1944

In the heady days after the liberation of Paris, hopes for a speedy end to the war against Germany were dashed by Operation Market Garden, a disastrous attempt by the Allies to secure a bridge over the Rhine River between Holland and Germany. Peleliu, a tiny island east of the Philippines and deemed a strategic launching point for retaking the Philippines, was the site in September and October of intense fighting in tropical heat. The Liberation of the Philippines took another six months.

[General Douglas MacArthur and aides wading ashore on Leyte, Philippine Islands]. October 20, 1944. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Operation Market Garden
	"All these guys crying for help and dying up there in Aachen and these guys stop and make tea." Thomas Blakey's story	"I thought that I was the only GI to land on the coast of Normandy." Albert M. Hassenzahl's story
Peleliu
	And we made the landing on Peleliu, which in my opinion was the most ferocious thing I’ve ever been in." Henry W. Andrasovsky's story	"But at Peleliu you fought 24 hours a day. I mean, it didn’t let up." Fred E. Miller 's story
	"I felt as if I were finally doing what I should be doing for the war effort." John H. Sharda's story	"Peleliu was a mean, very mean situation." Hubert Watt's story
Liberation of the Philippines
	"It was a very noisy night. The loudest sound was my heart pounding." Richard J. Foss' story	"We started eating stray dogs, cats, monkeys, snakes, eels ... eventually we started eating sweet potatoes..." Severo K. Guerrero, Jr.'s story
	"We lost more to sickness than Japanese bullets on Leyte." Richard Wendell Johnson's story	"This was a very emotional moment for MacArthur and he wanted to let the Filipinos know he had set foot on their land." Charles Rosario Restifo's story

The War: Episode Five

The Library of Congress
September 19, 2007

Veterans History Project Home
Contact Us